158 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



tween thciii and many cnnimon turkeys, only great 

 size. They are marked similar to the original stoek, 

 only Bome darker; in fact, the wild stoek has been 

 extensively used in brinfjinij' about this noted bird. 

 They are to common stock what Koucn ducks and 

 Toulouse geese are to their respective common ances- 

 tors. — Agrtcohi, X. Y. Ihrald. 



How Much Hens Will Eat. 



It is difficult to determine by general rule how 

 much corn or its equivalent should be fed to fowls ; 

 but the following record of an experiment made in 

 January, lSfi9, has a bearing on the subject : A flock 

 of forty-five grown chickens — a few of them full Brah- 

 mas, the others half-bloods — were allowed all the 

 corn daily, they could eat. They fed from a hopper 

 60 arranged that corn was within their reach all the 

 time, care being taken tliat none of it should be car- 

 ried off by rats, mice or otlier intruders. In eighteen 

 days the flock eat 1+4 pounds of shelled corn, or an 

 average of eight pounds per day for the -45 chickens. 

 At this rate one chicken would eat 1-78 of a pound 

 per day, and one hundred would therefore eat 17.8 

 pounds per day. During the eighteen days this flock 

 eat, besides the corn, nearly one peck of onions and 

 turnips mixed, about two pounds of meat scraps and 

 one head of cabbage. They were well supplied with 

 water, lime mortar, ashes and sand. The result of 

 this experiment was that the hens became too fat, 

 and toward the close of the term of eighteen days 

 they laid fewer eggs than at the commencement, al- 

 though as the season advanced the production of eggs 

 should have increased. It is evident that no invaria- 

 ble rule can be laid down. In the case here mention- 

 ed it is clear that a less quantity of fftod would have 

 kept the flock in better condition, even during a win- 

 ter month and in latitude 39.40 north. 



How to Tell a Goose from a Gander. 



In sorting out a flock of geese for home breeding, 

 or to make sales, it is often difflcult to distinguish the 

 males from the females. A correspondent of the 

 Farmen^ Home Jouniat, Ky., thus delineates the 

 difference : 



" The goose has always a feminine appearance and 

 the gander the opposite. Her head is smaller and 

 her beak shorter; knot on forehead smaller and not 

 so pointed; her neck shorter and more delicate; the 

 black streak on back of neck not so high; colored 

 ring around head not so bright; her neck comes out 

 of her body more abruptly (this is occasioned by her 

 having a larger breast than the gander,) giving a 

 square appearance to the body. The voice of the 

 gander is keener and louder; coloring about head 

 more brilliant; eyes keener and always on the look- 

 out. With such marks plain to view, any practical 

 gooseman can readily distinguishone from the other." 



BEES AND BEE CULTURE. 



Italian Bees. 



This variety of the honey-bee is found south of the 

 snow-covered Alps in northern Italy, and is of a 

 striped golden color. They were accidentally dis- 

 covered during the war of Napoleon III, by Captain 

 Balderstein, who carried the first colony across the 

 Alps in 184:5. In 18.53 they were introduced by Dzier- 

 zon into Germany, and into the United States in 1860. 

 There have been several importations. 



We were slow to believe all the good things said of 

 them by German apiarians, until convinced of their 

 superiority by the universal testimony of prominent 

 American bee keepers, coupled with our own experi- 

 ence. From the mass of testimony in favor of the 

 Italians, we condensed the following points of supe- 

 riority over the common bee: 



1st. The queens are more prolific than the common 

 kind, consequently the colonies have more brood, 

 swarm earlier and more frequently. 2d. They are 

 less sensitive to cold, working more hours in a day 

 and in cooler weather, hence, collecting a greater 

 amount of stores. 3d. Their strength being greater 

 and their wings larger, they are more active, fly more 

 swiftly, and are less liable to be robbed, but easily 

 master weak colonies of common bees and appropri- 

 ate their stores. 4ih. When bred in combs of their 

 own building, they are longer and their honey sacs 

 larger. .5th. Their proboscis being longer they are 

 able to work upon flowers that the black bees cannot 

 operate on. 0th. Their beauty of color and graceful 

 form render them an object of interest to every per- 

 son of taste. Hence they attract many visitors, 

 who admire their golden color, so beautifully shown 

 by the sun rays, as they pass swiftly to and from the 

 hive. — //. A. Kiiiff, in Practical Farmer. 



Bee Culture for Ladies. 



Lizzie E. Cotton, writingto ttte Scientific American, 

 confidently recommends bee culture as well adopted 

 to the sphere of woman, both incity and country, and 

 says: "I speak from experience, having been engaged 

 in this pursuit for over twelve years. In my first at- 

 tempt at bee ctilture, I used the old fashioned box 

 hive. These hives were readily constructed with lit- 

 tle or no reference to giving a profit in surplus honey 

 obtained from them. The losses in such hives, from 



various causes, especially in winter, were very great, 

 and profits were small at the best; ten to twelve dol- 

 lars profit from the sale of surplus honey from such 

 hives in one season was considered an extraordinary 

 yield. I have for several years used a hive of my own 

 invention. It is constructed with special reference to 

 securing a good yield of surplus honey, in the most 

 convenient marketable form. My hive is so arranged 

 and constructed that I am able to prevent or contrive 

 the natural swarming of bees, and, when desired, to 

 turn their surplus honey in the parent stock instead 

 of swarming out, as they often do (to their great 

 damage) under ordinary management. It is sur])ris- 

 ing to note how much more honey will be stored by 

 a stoek that does not swarm (yet has the same in- 

 crease of bees) than by one that casts one or more 

 swarms. I often obtain from two hundred to three 

 hundred pounds honey in small glass boxes from a 

 hive in a season. 



There is, in my opinion, no pursuit which offers 

 greater inducements to women as bee culture. There 

 are very many whose occupation confines them in- 

 doors nearly the whole time, excluding them from 

 the air and sunshine, to the great injury of their 

 health; while, at the same time, after this great sac- 

 rifice, they barely succeed in obtaining a livelihood. 

 To such, bee culture otl'ers special inducements, such 

 as health and a greater recompense for labor per- 

 formed. I hope that ere long bee culture will receive 

 from my sex the attention it deserves. I am ac- 

 quainted with many who have lately commenced in 

 the business who are meeting with great success. 



LIVE STOCK MISCELLANY. 



The Horse Epidemic. 



As the horse disease is making its appearance 

 throughout the country, the following from a dis- 

 tinguished veterinary surgeon to the New York 

 Sportsman will be well worth a careful reading : 



" The appearance of the influenza among our 

 equine friends is now the subject of a great ileal of 

 anxiety and speculation as to its results among own- 

 ers of horses. 



" As it is an affection with which we have to deal 

 more or less every fall, and sometimes in the spring 

 of the year, and there being many popular errors re- 

 garding the cause and effect of the disase, I thought 

 it might be interesting to give your readers some 

 facts regarding it which have probably to a great ex- 

 tent been overlooked. 



" What is influenza? It is a poisoned condition of 

 the blood, the poison existing in the atmosphere, and 

 being inhaled in the inspired air. Influenza occurs in 

 several forms. Sometimes the part most affected is 

 the mucous membrane of the windpipe, as in the epi- 

 zootic three years ago; sometimes the mucous mem- 

 brane of the throat and nostrils are the point of at- 

 tack, as in the present epidemic. Occasionally the 

 entire air passages are affected. A severe type was 

 seen in the epidemic of cerebro-spinal-meningitis four 

 years ago. But in whichever form it exists, the cause 

 is essentially the same, the only difterence being, 

 probably, in the species of plant or spores inhaled. 



" When it is known that over 3,000 species of 

 fungi were observed by Fries, an eminent Swedish 

 naturalist, in a very small space, and that some of 

 these species, according to the same authority, are no 

 larger than the 1-10,000 of an inch in diameter, or 

 about one-third as large as the blood corpuscles, it is 

 not to be wondered at that a quantity large enough 

 to poison the system may be absorbed. Wet seasons 

 are also known to be favorable to the growth of all 

 vegetable matter, and especially fungi, audit is found 

 that epidemic attacks of influenza are more conmion 

 in wet seasons and climates than in dry atmospheres. 

 For instance, they have it to a much greater extent, 

 and more severe, in England, where there exists a 

 very much more humid atmosphere than in our own 

 climate. 



" But why does it not attack all horses alike ? The 

 answer to this question probably lies in the fact that 

 each animal has its own idiosyncracy, and in some 

 systems the soil would be more fit for the existence 

 and propagation of those organic living vegetables 

 than in others. 



" The effect of these iX)isonous fungi, when taken 

 into the system, according to Mitchel, is to produce 

 a narcotic effect, and is not a predominant symptom 

 in influenza. The sleepy, dull appearance is due to 

 this cause ; then there is more or less general fever, 

 etc. The symptoms need not be fully described, as 

 they are too well known already. 



" What is the best mode of treatment when looked 

 at from this standpoint ? As there is a great ten- 

 dency to congestion and stoppage of the circulation 

 in the small blood vessels, and a consequent coagula- 

 tion of the blood, partly from the diminished nerve 

 force produced by the eflect of the poison on the 

 brain, and partly from a febrile state of the whole 

 system, we can only give such agents as are known 

 to have a solvent effect on the blood, and also try to 

 excite the nervous system to a healthy degree. Am- 

 monia is such an agent, and it is w'ell known that sal- 

 ammoniac is one of the best agents we possess for the 

 treatment of this disease ; it also acts slightly on the 

 kidneys, thereby eliminating a portion of the poison- 



ous matter from the system. This agent, when given 

 in half-ounce doses, three times a day, dissolved in a 

 gallon of water, in which form the patient will drink 

 it, acts .almost as a specific in this disease. If there 

 is much cough, apply mustard to the throat, feed the 

 animal on bran mashes for a day or two, apply cloth- 

 ing to the surface of the body, and give them" plenty 

 of fresh air ; and in a few days your horses will be 

 working again, with no bad effect from the disease. 

 "Tours, J. M. Heard, V. S." 



A New Cause of Trichinae in Pork. 



Some new cases of deaths, due to the eating of pork 

 infested with trichime, recently quoted in Western 

 journals, should be the means of directing public at- 

 tention anew to the horrible disease of swine called 

 trichinoxix, and to the fact that, when once the para- 

 site attacks a human being, the result is prolonged 

 suffering and, in a multiplicity of inslances, death. 

 The worm existing in the pork, literally bores its way 

 out of the stomach and into the muscles. It has 

 lately been found that swine may become infested 

 with trichinie through eating carron, or even de- 

 cayed vegetable substances. This is a point worth 

 consideration by farmers who incline to the belief 

 that dead chickens, putrid swill, or any other filth 

 about the place, is legitimate food for the pig. The 

 animal is not dainty in his tastes, and will lunch off 

 his dead relatives with infinite gusto ; but it is the 

 poorest economy to permit him to assume the role of 

 scavenger. No milk dealer will allow his cows to eat 

 garlic if he can help it, though the brutes are crazily 

 fond of the odoriferous weed ; and there is certainly 

 more reason for the farmer to see that his porkers 

 have no access to unclean food. In the one case, if 

 precaution be neglected, the taste of the milk is af- 

 fected ; in the other, the entire flesh is rendered 

 poisonous and dangerous food. 



Poland-China Pigs, 



This breed is very popular in the West. It was 

 illustrated in the .luue number of The Farmer (page 

 87.) The Western Bnral sa.y» : "Poland-China pigs 

 vary in price from ten to one himdred dollars each, 

 according to size, merit and the reputation of the 

 breeders. For -$35 very good representatives of the 

 breed can be bought. These pigs vary in color con- 

 siderably. They are spotted, black and white, some- 

 times showing a sandy color. Those with little white 

 are now generally preferred. We have seen a few 

 without any white and those ali white are occasion- 

 ally found. These are exceptional cases, however. 

 There are also considerable variations in size and 

 form,, as they are bred by different breeders. A 

 weight of 1,000 pounds is sometimes reached; while 

 those bred by others will not weigh over 400 pounds 

 at maturity. It is claimed for these pigs that they 

 process in unusual degree, an aptitude to fatten at 

 almost any age. They are frequently fattened when 

 from 7 to 10 months old; while others keep them un- 

 til they are 18 to SO months old. At the latter age 

 there ought to be no difficulty in having them aver- 

 age 400 pounds. It is doubtful whether any breed 

 of what are properly called large hogs is superior to 

 the Poland-China." 



Training Heifers to be Milked. 



Concerning this subject Dr. Orcut writes : Our po- 

 sition in regard to suckling calves upon young heif- 

 ers — their first one or two calves, say — is that this 

 natural action encourages the mothers in giving 

 milk. The idea may seem novel to some, and there 

 is a difference in heifers. Some are more " foolish " 

 and sentimental concerning their offspring than others. 

 In breaking in a heifer to milk, I am apt to mix in with 

 her calf a good deal, endeavoring to associate my- 

 self in the minds of both as a familiar object, so that 

 my little stripping passes as a matter of course among 

 the new and bewildering circumstances, as in times of 

 general excitement shrewd managers are very likely 

 to be found stripping the public purse. Barring 

 the opinions that may obtain with the selfish and 

 short-sighted against the policy of developing the 

 lacteal secretions in this natural manner — by allow- 

 ing a heifer to "fuss around with a young calf " — 

 the plan must look quite reasonable. It is certainly 

 a time-honored practice among careful farmers, and 

 a good deal of observation and some experience will 

 warrant me in asserting that early indulgence in the 

 cares of maternity is no detriment to the future pro- 

 ductiveness of the grown up cow. Shrewd cow buy- 

 ers — milkmen and others — go a-picking among the 

 stock that has been bred and fed in the plainest nor- 

 mal farm fashion, preferring to add the extras them- 

 selves. After three or four years of age, when the 

 milking habit is formed, calves may be " deaconed " 

 with less feeling on the part of the mother. She is 

 used to the hand of man, and becomes by habit 

 reconciled to her lot. Your old cow is not a roman- 

 tic or seutimenfal animal. I made a visit lately to 

 our eldest cow, Clover, sold last spring. She wouldn't 

 even look at me, or scarcely stop gathering grass 

 long enough to smell of my hand when I lifted her 

 head by the horn. This may not be precisely like 

 refusing to look at her calf, but if you knew the in- 

 timacy formerly existing between us, you'd allow it 

 was somewhat like. But this animal never showed 

 much affection for her calves at any time . 



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