222 



FARMERS' REGISTER— MILKING COWS. 



the maple bears seeds, the mouse, in ma'ple forests, 

 is sure to have a proportion of them for his food. 



S. H. 



Clarendon., Jan. 25th, 1834. 



It is well known that flies will deposite their eggs 

 on any surface which affords a suitable nidus lor 

 them. I remember a gentleman's son who suffer- 

 ed severely from the larvte (maggots) of a fly, 

 which proceeded from eggs that l>ad been laid in 

 the ear; but the most extraordinary case of this 

 sort which has come to my knowledge occurred in 

 a negro man at Kellitt's estate, in Jamaica. He 

 was a tradesman, and a very intelligent fellow. 

 When I first saw him, his nose and cheeks were 

 very much swollen, rendering liis face hideous; and 

 he suffered much severe pain. I immediately sus- 

 pected the cause, and soon succeeded in making 

 the residence of the maggots so uncomfortable to 

 them, by application of turpentine and olive oil, 

 with green tobacco juice, up the nostrils, that they 

 came away gradually; but it occupied at least a 

 fortnight before the whole were removed, so deeply 

 lodged were they in the usual passages. I desired 

 the man to keep a tally of the numbers of his tor- 

 mentors; and he did so, I have no doubt, fiiithfully, 

 afler which he handed it to me, audit is still in my 

 possession. It contains 23 crosses (X) for ten each, 

 and V for five, amounting to 235 larvcB of, I believe, 

 the bluebottle fly. Almost all of them were full 

 grown, and forming, perhaps, such a brood of 

 maggots as never proceeded from any man's head 

 before. Flies abound upon sugar estates; and, 

 when we recollect how often negroes go to sleeji 

 in the open air, the wonder is that similar incidents 

 do not occur more frequendy. — Magazine of Na- 

 tural History. 



KEW METHOD OF HARVESTING (5RATN. 



We have examined the drawing of a machine 

 to gather grain as it stands in the field without 

 cutling. It is called the Locomotive Thresher; 

 intended to be moved by horse power, and, with 

 the assistance of three men or boys of fifteen 

 years of age, is calculated to go over ten acres of 

 wheat or other grain per day, and gather say two 

 hundred bushels, leaving the straw standitig on 

 the ground thrashed as clean as is generally done 

 in the ordinary way, thereby saving all the ex- 

 pense of harvesting; and by ploughing in or burning 

 the straw, it is supposed the ground may be tilled 

 ud infinitum without diminishing its fertility. 

 Should this invention succeed, it will afford anotli- 

 er inducement for farmers to irdiabit and cultivate 

 those beautiful prairies which abound in the fiir 

 west. The ingenious inventor is Mr. John T. 

 Vail, of La Porte, Indiana, formerly of this toAvn. 

 — Jiahway Advertiser. 



THE AERIAL, PLANT. 



The burning sands of hot climates, even at 

 Karsfields of the Cape of Good Hope, which are 

 so arid and scorched that no water can be extract- 

 ed from them, are the media in which the most 

 succulent vegetables of which we have any 

 knowledge, flourish and evolve; so deleterious in- 

 deed, is a wet season to their growth, that they 

 are destro3ed by it. 



There are also various tribes of vegetables that 

 are destitute of roots, and which can only be sup- 

 ported and nomished by the air, and by the mois- 

 ture which the atmosphere contains. A large 

 portion of the class Fuci, have no root whatever; 

 and it is stated that the ^rial Epedendron, (the 

 Epinendron Flos ^ris, denominated aerial from 

 its extraordinaiy properties, and which is a native 

 of Java, on account of Ihe elegance ot its leaves, 

 the beauty of its power and the exquisite odor 

 wliich it diffuses, is plucked up by the inhabitants 

 and suspended by a silken cord from the ceiling of 

 their apartments, from whence it continues fi'om 

 year to j-ear to put forth new leaves, to display 

 new blossoms, and exhale new fragance, although 

 fed out of the bodies before stated. — London Mag. 



MILKING COWS. 



The operation of milking is performed different- 

 ly in various parts of the country. In some, the 

 dair3/-maid dips her hand into a little milk, and, by 

 successively strijiping the teat between her fingers 

 and thumb, unloads the udder. This plan, how- 

 ever, is attended with the disadvantage of irri- 

 tating more or less the teat, and rendering it liable 

 to cracks and chops, which are followed by inflam- 

 mation, extending to the rest of the quarter. This 

 accounts for the disease occurring more frequently 

 among the cows under the charge of one milker 

 than it does in those under the charge of another, 

 and as this practice is more common in some parts 

 of the country than in others, it also accounts for 

 the disease being more common in these parts. 

 This plan of milking where the irritation is not suf- 

 ficient to excite the extent of inflammation as above, 

 frequently produces a horny thickening of the teat, 

 a consequence of the cracks and cho{)s, which ren- 

 ders it more difficult to milk than when in its natu- 

 ral state, and at the same time predisposes to in- 

 flammation, when any cause occurs to set it up. 

 These eflects may be, and is almost entirely, avoid- 

 ed by the more scientific plan of milking adopted 

 in other parts of the country, where, instead of 

 drawing down or stripping the teat between the 

 thumb and fingers as has been stated, the dair}-- 

 maid follows more closely the principles which in- 

 stinct has taught the calf Slie first takes a slight 

 hold of the teat with her hand, by which she mere- 

 ly encircles it; then lifls her hand up, so as.to press 

 the body of the udder upwards, by which tlie milk 

 escapes into the teat, or if (as is generally the case 

 when some hours have elapsed between milking 

 times) the teat is full, she grasps the teat close to 

 its origin with her thumb and fore finger, so as to 

 prevent the milk which is in the teat from escaping 

 upwards; then making the rest of the fingers to 

 close from above downwards in succession, forces 

 out what milk may be contained in the teat through 

 the opening of it. The hand is again pressed up 

 and closed as before, and thus, by repeating this 

 action, the udder is completely emptied, without 

 that coarse tugging and tearing of the teat, which 

 is so" apt to produce disease. — Quarterly Journal 

 of Agr. 



CHIMNEY SOOT AS A MANURE. 



This article is said to be an excellent manure, if 

 properly applied. It is generally mixed up with 

 earth and dung as a compost; in this state it is 



