458 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



soils, manure composted with loam or clay will the scalding sun of a confined place, fresh as the 

 be appropriate, and these alone — as is the case day they came out. Now the whole energies of 

 with muck on upland — will be found a valuable the corn were put forth to produce suckers to 

 means of improvement. Bone manure, when it rectii'y the mistake, and it did work lively, for in 

 can be procured, is an extremely valuable fertil- the time mentioned above, it got them out and 

 izer for grass, and no farmer should neglect to dropped pollen on patient waiting beards, every 

 employ in a broken state, all the bones within fibril was fructified at about the same time, for 



his reach upon the farm. 



they were all out waiting, and the corn went on 



We have seen an account of an experiment] with its work, and it being a good season and a 

 where dry straw spread thinly over the surface of warm place, there was tolerable corn in spite of 

 a meadow, after haying, produced a large increase Paddy. Caleb Bates. 



^rass— acting, perhaps, as a sort of mulch to 

 the roots, preventing the effects of drouth, adding 

 also a light manuring as it decayed. Turf ashes 

 act very beneficially upon grass land, and some 

 farmers use them largely as a top-dressing for 

 meadows. — Country Gentleman. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CORN"-STA.IjKS---POIjIiBN"— SUCKEJES. 



Kingston, Mass., Aug., 1859. 



EXTRACTS A.ND REPLIES. 

 THE STAR-NOSED MOLE. 



Perhaps you, or some of the correspondents 

 of the Farmer, can give information in regard to 

 the name, habits, Ike, of the animal I shall men- 

 tion. A few mornings since I picked up in the 

 barn-yard, a little animal dead. It bore the ap- 

 ^ , ^ „ ^ , , . . pearance of being killed by a cat. At first sight 



In the Farmer of July 30, there is a communi- ^ supposed it to be the common mole, but fur- 

 .ion from Mr. J. M. Ives, on the practice of ^^er examination proved it to be diff-erent. Its 

 cutting corn stalks— it appears to me like good j.^j .^^^^ plump and round, about 5-i inches from 

 sense. I cut the tops from my corn. j^„,g ^^ ^^^ ^f t,^;i ^ail stout, U inches long, 



Every farmer ought to recognize one great ' ^^j ,.ggiy (,^^^^^^1 with coarse hairs or bris- 

 truth, that there is an economy, wise beyond ^i^^ . hind legs similar to those of a mouse, but 

 conception, in the Great Producer, that what ap- g^^^^gj. . foj-^ard organs of locomotion were two 

 pears to us superfluous in plants is not so m y^^.,,^ fl,,^ fg^j^ j„ .^ lij.^ a man's open hand; 

 fact. Ihe effort of everything is to produce its ^j^^I^^ were joined to the body without any arm 

 own kind with the least waste. There must be ^^ i^^,^ ^^^^^ .widely separated. Head and snout 

 a sufficient amount of leaves and stalks to re-ljij^g ^ j^^g, and around the circumference of the 

 ceive atmospheric influences before the great: s^^m ^^^e numerous cartilaginous joints, one- 

 work of producing seed is done; when this is eighth inch in length, pointing forward; could 

 finished, and the plant comes to maturity, all the iji^P„^.gr no ears ; eyes very small, small as a pin 

 seed-making elements leave the stalk and con-^ead, black and deeply sunken, teeth very small, 

 centrate m the seed. | one convex, one in front upon both upper and 



I have said to some of my neighbors that grass , 1^^^^ jaws. Body covered with fine, thick, glos- 

 did not grow, (in one sense,) for his horse or i^j^^ji^ f^^r_ Albert Wheeler. 



mine, but to produce seed and drop it— when SomervUle, Mass., 1859. 

 that is done, the stalk is straw, and the man that 



cuts it after the seeds have matured gets straw. Remarks.— The animal described above was, 

 I try to cut it when the seed-producing elements' undoubtedly, the "Star-Nosed Mole." It is not 

 are in the stalks, just before it can drop out. If ; uncommon in most parts of New England, but 

 we want the seed of corn in its greatest perfec-| j^ ^^^^ ^j- j^^ ^-^g underground. 



tion for planting, we must let the stalks, suckers i 



and all turn to straw. 



I love to contemplate the growing corn, "first | REMEDY FOR GARGET IN cows, 



the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in I In your August number, E. P. Chase, of 

 the ear." The main spindle runs up and drops' Ueerfield, N. IL, over date of June 18, says: — 

 its pollen, so that the slightest puff of air will "I have found horseradish, cut and fed in po- 

 shake it out to the beards below. If the earth tatoes the same as garget root, a good remedy 

 can produce more, the corn suckers and will have for gargety cows." I have found potatoes with- 

 one ready just in time with its golden dust to out the horseradish root a good remedy for the 

 fructify two inches more of ihe ear; if there isjgarget in cows, when fed liberally to them. The 

 greater fertility, another will be in time, and! disease known as the garget is but an inflamma- 

 beards will continue to push out for additional! tory action, more or less general in the system, 

 length, and so on until the ear is full of corn. If: and in cows the udder is usually more deeply in- 

 we see suckers starting freely from the young ivolved in the diiBculty than any other part of 

 corn, we may expect long ears — if without suck- the system, because it is more sensitive, and 

 ers, short ears and snouted. I more easily inflamed What is usually called 



A widow employed a faithful Irishman to do garget, when the udder is swollen, is !mt seated 

 the work on her place. He planted corn too close, inflammation in the suffering part, and any food 

 in a very rich and confined place — it ran up tall, calculated to produce a free discharge from the 

 Michael, to let in the sun, cut the stalks as they , intestines and reduce inflammation, ia servicea- 

 were on the point of dropping their pollen. Iible to the animal. In severe cases of inflamma- 

 passed it daily, and was much interested in watch- tion in cattle, whether general or local, I have 

 ing the result. The beards came out and piled used, with good success, the hydrate of pot- 



around the top of the ear like a bunch of curled 

 hair, and there remained for about fifteen days in 



ash, one ounce dissolved in three pints of water, 

 and given from one-third to one-half of a glass 



