306 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



new ally a stupendous feast on the bodies of 

 his slaughtered foes. Every day was this ma- 

 noeuvre repeated, and vviih the same success, 

 until nearly every crow about the plantation had 

 been killed. The fame of this affair soon spread 

 t^ll^he surrounding plantations, and every neighbor 

 borrowed the owl and put him to the same suc- 

 cessful and profitable purpose. As may be sup- 

 posed, good care was taken of the owl, and lor 

 two seasons he was the greatest benefactor of the 

 neighborhood, and had been the death of as many 

 of his Ibes as Ghengis-Khan or Napoleon. 

 Unluckily on one occasion he sallied forth alone 

 from his confinement, and not being able to fly, 

 he attempted to swim across the Elkhorn. This 

 was a new and untried element to him. and, like 

 other renowned warriors and statesmen, he Was 

 lost venturing upon an experiment. That he was 

 put to a great public use, there is no doubt, and 

 if ever a hill is again introduced into the Legis- 

 lature " Providing lor the killing of crows," it 

 would be but an act of justice to put in a section 

 directing a monument to be erected to Joe Davis's 

 owl. 



Whoever doubts the truth of the story has only 

 to try the experiment with an owl, and he will 

 soon find that there is no joke in the matter. 



ON GATHERING ASPARAGUS. 



From the Magazine of Horticulture. 

 In all the books of gardening which I have 

 seen, the direction for gathering asparagus has 

 always been to cut it several inches below the 

 surlaceof the ground, as soon as the stalk has 

 advanced a lew inches above it. The asparagus 

 generally brought to market is cut in this way, 

 the upper half *)eing green and tender when 

 cooked, the lower half white, tough, and un- 

 eatable. The experience of many years has 

 taught me that it is far better to let the asparagus 

 grow to the height of ten inches, or a loot, and 

 then to gather it by breaking with the fingers, 

 as low down as it is tender and breaks easily, 

 which, when the weather has been warm, is gene- 

 rally Irom six to ten inches. Asparagus, thus 

 gathered, will be Ibund to be much Ifiner, the 

 lohole being tender and eatable, the produce much 

 greater, and the process attended with no disad- 

 vantage whatever. Asparagus even two feet 

 high, will be Ibund fit to gather in this manner, 

 il at any time it has outgrown the consumption 

 or escaped attention, which indeed was (he occa- 

 sion on which this new method of gaiherino- oc- 

 curred tome. 1 have since always practis'ed it. 

 Let those who are fond of asparagus o-ive it but 

 one trial, and they will never again resort to the 

 old system. q 



TRANSFORMATION OF OATS INTO RYE. 



From the Year-Book of Facts. 

 Dr. Weissenborn represents a statement of this 

 phenomenon to have been corroborated in the la^t 

 annual report of the Agricultural Society of 

 Coburg, which asserts this translbrmation to take 

 place il the oats be sown very late (about Mid- 



summer-day,) and cut iivice as green fodder be- 

 fore shooting into flower-stalks, whereupon a con- 

 siderable number of the oat plants do not die in 

 the course of the winter, but are changed in the 

 following spring into rye, forming stalks which 

 cannot be known from those of the finest winter- 

 rye. " Let any one sow the oats during the latter 

 half of June, and the transformation in question 

 will certainly take place!" 



[This statement may be thought valuable con- 

 firmatory evidence by the advocates of the trans- 

 formation of wheat to cheat. On the other hand, 

 too much proof is sometimes as bad as too little ; 

 and when it is maintained (as above; that oats 

 are changed to rye — and in other cases it is as 

 firmly believed that wheat is changed to spelt, or* 

 darnel, and to cockle, and flax to cheat — the 

 stoutest advoca.te of the transmutation of any 

 one kind only may begin to be embarrassed by 

 the superabundance of evidence, for similar and 

 yet very different facts.— Ed. F. R.] 



THE MIT.K SICKNESS. 



From the Baltimore American. 



Besides many other articles in the April num- 

 ber of this Journal, [American Journal of the 

 Medical Sciences,] there is one of much import- 

 ance, by Geo, B. Graff, M. D., of Illinois, on 

 the milk sickness of the west. Our readers no 

 doubt remember seeing various notices of the 

 sufferings and mortality which this disease has 

 caused in the western stales. It attacks beef- 

 cattle, horses, sheep and goats. Catile may be 

 affected to such a degree as that their flesh and 

 milk will produce the disease in man, and yet the 

 cattle themselves manifest no unhealthy symp- 

 toms. In a severe degree, the disease in the 

 inferior animals is attended with formidable symp- 

 toms. 



Dr. Graff' has given a full despription of the 

 sufferings as ihey occur in man ; and he says, a 

 minute quantity of cream, butter, or cheese from 

 the milk of an infected cow, although without 

 any distinguishing appearance, odor, or taste, 

 will develope the disease. The most violent and 

 fatal form, it is generally thought,"is produced 

 by eating a few ounces of infected beef. The 

 cause of the disease in animals is not known ; it 

 appears to be limited to circumscribed localities 

 in all the western states, especially in Illinois. 

 The disease can be traced in one locality lor 

 nearly a hundred miles, in a vein of variable 

 breadth, parallel to the Wabash river, in Indiana. 

 Not the least important part of Dr. Graff's 

 essay is a paragraph in which he bears the fol- 

 lowing testimony to a criminal, and almost in- 

 credible, disregard of human life and happiness. 



" There is a murderous practice now carried 

 on in certain districts, in which the inhabitants 

 will not themselves consume the butter and 

 cheese v?hen manufactured ; but with little solici- 

 tude lor the lives or health of oiherB, they send it 

 in large quantities to be sold in cities of the west, 

 particularly Louisville, Ky., and St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri. Of the truth of this I am well apprised by 



