164 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMEK. 



April 



ton and a half to two and a half tons per acre, of 

 good timothy and clover, well filled with the phos- 

 phate of lime, of which the bones of your animals 

 are composed. 



If what I have said appears reasonable, adopt 

 it ; if not, reject it. If it will set many to think- 

 ing, it is what the farmers ought to do — think — 

 and not only think, but speak out themselves. 



Bipton, Vt, 1859. Samuel Damon. 



EXTEACTS AND BEPLIES. 

 TOP-DRESSING — LEACHED ASHES — GUANO. 



Which will be the best for a spring top-dress- 

 ing for grass on a sandy loam, — well-rotted ma- 

 nure, leached ashes or guano — and which will be 

 the most economical — not in regard to first cost 

 — but as to the effect ? (a.) 



Would plaster sowed in the spring be benefi- 

 cial to a piece of lightish soil pasture, which was 

 seeded down last fall with a manure of bone-dust 

 and leached ashes ? (b.) Young Farmer. 



North Billerica, Jan. 30, 1859. 



Remarks. — (a.) Nothing compared with a well 

 rotted compost — not a compost that has been 

 greatly fermented, but one well-balanced in all 

 its parts, ripened, mellow, and just in that condi- 

 tion to become soluble, and afford abundant nu- 

 ti'ition to the plants as soon as sufficient heat and 

 moisture reach it after being mingled with the 

 soil. Such a compost will aS"ord all, or nearly 

 all, the elements that the plant needs. Leached 

 ashes will not, and guano is so volatile, and its 

 successful use depends so much upon circumstan- 

 ces, that we have no hesitation whatever in rec- 

 ommending the compost in preference to those or 

 anything else. 



(b.) On some soils the plaster would be decid- 

 edly beneficial, on others not. You can only tell 

 by an experiment. 



SPLINTS ON HORSES. 



"A Subscriber," who inquires about "Splints" 

 on horses, is referred to an article in the Ameri- 

 can Veterinary Journal for January, copied from 

 the London Field, for a full description, cause 

 and treatment, but lest that excellent journal be 

 not at hand, I will make a few extracts : — 



"Some animals have an hereditary predisposi- 

 tion to exostosis, (splints,) which appear before 

 they are subjected to work of any kind, but they 

 are generally produced by the animal being put 

 too early to work." 



"The best remedy is peristeotomy," ("Vets" 

 have some jaw-breakers as well as the doctors,) 

 "which consists in making an incision above and 

 below the bony tumor, then with a seton needle 

 raising the skin from the tumor, passing in a 

 knife with a guarded blade, cutting deeply into 

 the substance of the splint, and finally by pass- 

 ing a seton over it, i. e., between it and the 

 skin." 



This is an operation that belongs to the veter- 

 inarian, and should not be entrusted to the vil- 

 lage "blacksmith" or "butcher." It is a ques- 

 tion whether it is advisable to meddle with them 



at all, as they cause lameness but a short time, if 



at all, and may, and often do, disappear entirely. 



Nashua, N. II. v. C. G. 



A kicking cow. 

 I have a cow, five years old, that is apt to 

 kick in the stall. AVill you be so kind as to let 

 me know how I can break her of that habit ? 



A Subscriber. 

 South Weymouth, Mass., 1859. 



Remarks. — If she has always been kindly 

 treated, she certainly shows a great want of good 

 manners in kicking her friends. If our cow, we 

 should approach her gently, quit'^ often, and usu- 

 ally with a lock of hay, a nub of corn, or a pota- 

 to or an apple in our hand — speak kind words to 

 her, scratch her neck and back, and convince her, 

 if possible, that we desired to be on the most 

 friendly terms with her. If she was a valuable 

 cow for milk, and notwithstanding all these evi- 

 dences of kindness, persisted in kicking our 

 shins, we would, perhaps, try what virtue there 

 is in punishing — and as a last resort, send her 

 to the butcher. 



diseases in fowls. 



Of late there has been considerable said about 

 diseases of fowls, particularly the hen, but as yet 

 I have not seen anything about dropsy. If any 

 of your readers have had occasion to witness 

 anything similar to this disease, it would be in- 

 teresting to hear from them, and if they can 

 show its cause and a remedy, it will be very ac- 

 ceptably received by the breeders of fowls gener- 

 ally. I have lately among a flock of more than 

 two hundred lost several by this disease. The 

 body seems to be filled with a yellowish wa- 

 ter, in which the bowels are completely en- 

 veloped, besides which there are clusters of wa- 

 ter-sacks connected together, remote from and 

 independent of the ovaries. Some of these clus- 

 ters contain from half-a-dozen to twenty sacks, 

 from the size of a pea to that of large grapes. 

 These are also filled with a yellow water, and 

 connected by ligaments of unnatural growth. 

 Will some one who is acquainted with rearing 

 and doctoring fowls give us a remedy, if they 

 are acquainted with the like disease. 



Peter A. Foster. 



Shaker Village, N. II., 1859. 



nash's progressive farmer. 



Should not this liookbe taught in our common 

 schools ? It contains much useful knowledge that 

 will help the farmer in cultivatir g his farm. The 

 author has written it in so plain, easy and prac- 

 tical a way, that it is a pleasure to read it. 



Take the analysis of a tree, commencing at the 

 roots and tracing it up through the bark, sap, 

 heart and pith to the extremities of its branches. 

 How many are there that know the use of the 

 leaves in the vegetable world around them ? The 

 tiny leaf, that trembles in the breeze, is so 

 formed, that one side of it is constantly drawing 

 in the unhealthy and impure air which the ani- 

 mal world is throwing off, and giving vigor and 



