1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



437 



a week. For larger ones use a thread of strong 

 silk, wax it well, tie about and tighten as with the 

 hair. 



Another mode, and one which we never knew 

 to fail, is to pare the end of the wart with a very- 

 sharp knife, until there is a slight appearance of 

 blood, then touch it with a pencil of lunar caustic. 

 If the caustic is not at hand, a little nitric acid is 

 as well. Apply the acid by tying a bit of rag to a 

 stick about the size of a quill, and with that touch 

 the end of the wart, every day, until a change in 

 it is observed. The acid must not touch any place 

 but the end of the wart. 



BEST WHEAT FOR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. 



I would like to inquire of some of your readers 

 who may oe posted, as to the best wheat to b3 

 raised — fall or spring; also, the best vaiiety for 

 cultivation, in this latitude, tvventy-tive miles 

 south of Boston, and on light, but good corn soil. 



Franklin, Mass., 1869. F. 



Remarks. — We hope some wheat grower in the 

 latitude of our correspondent will favor him and 

 other readers of the Farmer with a reply. In the 

 Massachusetts Transactions for 1867-8, are the 

 statements of several farmers, who took premiums 

 on crops of wheat. Mr. Kilbnrn of Worcester 

 county raised 2040 pounds of the blue-stem winter 

 wheat, sowed August 27. He remarked that he 

 had sowed that variety yearly for twenty years, 

 and it had not deteriorated. 



feeb for a working horse. 



What is the best feed for a horse that is worked 

 on a farm to a greater or less ex enr, and is also 

 driven lour miles every day, and some days ten 

 or fifteen ? Have been feeding meal twice per day 

 and oats at noon. How many quai ts of oat^ equal 

 a quart of meal ? What is the relative proportion 

 between the two ? Phil^ter. 



Melrose, Mass., June 28, 1869. 



Remarks. — The amount of food to be given to 

 a horse each day, should depend upon two things ; 

 the size of the horse, and the kind and amount of 

 work required of him. 



A horse worked all day in the usual employ- 

 ments of the farm, changing from one work to 

 another, will not shrink so much, nor require so 

 much food, as a horse on the road travelling at 

 the rate of eight miles per hour, for two hours. 



For a road^ter we should prefer oats, and even 

 for heavy teaming, should rather have a mixture 

 of oats and corn meal, than an equivalent in meal 

 alone. 



Among farmers and livery stable people, oats 

 are usually considered to contain about one half 

 the nutritive power that corn meal has. Accord- 

 ing to the analysis which we have seen, however, 

 there is not so much difference in their nutritive 

 properties. In the items of starch, gum and su- 

 gar, the oat has three-fourths as much as the corn 

 meal. 



No other grain will impart so much spirit to the 

 horse as oats. They seem admirably adapted to 

 his nature, so that he will gain spirit, courage and 



strength from them when all other feed seems to 

 fail. 



As in the case of roots fed to milch cows, it is 

 evident that their value does not lie entirely in the 

 amount of the merely nutritive properties which 

 they possess and impart, but in assisting in a more 

 perfect digestion of other food taken, or sustain- 

 ing the body by some other process, which is as 

 yet to us mysterious or unknown. 



Horses are quite often over- fed. Six quarts of 

 crushed oats, with about fifteen pounds of good 

 hay, cut, moistened and mingled with the oats, 

 will sustain a horse, weighing between nine and 

 ten hundred pounds, in any ordinary labor, if he 

 is used judiciously. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



The close oDserver of nature will see by the 

 change of the growth of the forest the true system 

 for the cultivation of plants for the sustenance of 

 man and of our farm stock. When grow hs of hard 

 wood are removed they are succeeded by evergreens 

 or something quite different from the first growths, 

 for the harder woods have exhausted the potash 

 and other minerals that are required to build up 

 the structure of the perfect tree. Consequently 

 the next growth will be the pine or other softer 

 vaiieiies which can subsist on the minerals that 

 were left in the soil by the first growth. This 

 second growth by the annual shedding ( f its foli- 

 age and perhaps by some not well understood 

 elfects on the soil, will restore it to its origmal fer- 

 tility, when hard wood trees will again grow. 



Here is an important lesson for the farmer. All 

 crops should be succeeded by those of an opposite 

 character — a white by a green, or the reverse — with 

 the exception ofthj gra^^ses. By that means the 

 minerals will be more equally balanced in the soil. 

 From a long experience and careful ob-ervation, 

 1 have come to the conclusion that this system 

 must be adopted, in connection with the manufac- 

 ture and saving of manures, it we would cover our 

 New Dngiand hill sides and valleys with profitable 

 and paying crops. 



These rtmarks apply to all or nearly all crops 

 with the exception of the onion patch. And I 

 wish to impress the fact of the importance of a 

 judicious rotation on the minds of my brotht r far- 

 mers. It your plans are such that you cannot 

 adopt the system in full in one season, b.-gin it 

 at once, and as you work into it, you will find that 

 you will make lull as good crops with one-half the 

 manure and leave the soil in better condition. 



I could mention numerous experimi nts that 

 have come undei my ob-ervation in support of my 

 theory, as I have reduced it to practice on my 

 own larm for the last ten years, aud the result is 

 it ha* more than doubled my crops. h. 



Eppmg, N. H., 1869. 



BOTS IN HORSES. 



I cannot refrain from writing a few words about 

 bots, since readmg what was published in the 

 Farmer of the 17tb of July. 1 believe bots can 6e 

 removed from horses without harming them in 

 the least. First, give the horse two quarts of new 

 milk, sweetened with one quart of molasses; sec- 

 ond, fifteen minutes alter, give ttie horse two 

 quarts of strong sage tea; third, twenty minutes 

 after giving the sage tea, give the hcrse three pints 

 of curriir's oil. The bots fill themselves with the 

 milk and molasses and become lazy, the strong sage 

 tea shrivels them up, and the currier's oil, acting as 

 a cathartic, carries ihem from the stomach, when 

 they pass away from the horse. In givmg the 



