Vol. X.-No. 51. 



AND HORTlCUl.TURAL JOURNAL. 



403 



mow it, will preserve it against heating, and 

 doubly repay you in tlie value it will give to your 

 bay. 



From Deano'a New England Farmer. 



MOWING. 



They who have not been in their youth accus- 

 tomed to do this work, are seldom found to be able 

 to do it with ease or expedition. But when the 

 art is once learnt, it will not be lost. 



As this is one of the most laborious parts of the 

 husbandman's calling, and the more fatiguing as 

 it must be performed in the hottest season of the 

 year, every precaution ought to be used which 

 tends to lighten the labor. To this it will conduce 

 not a little, for the mower to rise very early and 

 be at his work before the rising of the sun. He 

 may easily perform half the nsual day's Vk'ork be- 

 fore nine in the morning. His work will not only 

 be made easier by the coolness of the morning air, 

 but also by the dew on the grass which is cut 

 more easily for being wet. By this means, he 

 may lie still and rest himself during the hottest of 

 the day, while others who begun late are sweating 

 themselves excessively ; and hurting their health, 

 probably, by taking down large draughts of cold 

 drink to slake their raging thirst. The other 

 half of his work may be performed after three or 

 four o'clock ; and at night he will find himself 

 free from fatigue. 



If the mower would husband his strength to ad- 

 vantage, he should take tare to have his scythe 

 and all the apparatus for mowing, in the best or- 

 der. His scythe ought to be adapted to the sur- 

 face on which he mows. If the surface be level 

 and free from obstacles, the scythe may be long 

 and almost straight, and he will perforin his work 

 with less labor and greater expedition. But if the 

 surface be luievcn, cradley, or chequered with 

 stones or stumps of trees, his scythe must be short 

 and crooked. Otherwise he will he obliged to 

 leave much of the grass imcut, or use more labor 

 in cutting it. A long and straight scythe will on- 

 ly cut off the tops of the grass in hollows. 



A mower should not have a snrad that is too 

 slender ; for this will keep the scythe in a contin- 

 ual tremor and do much to hinder its cutting. He 

 must see that it keeps perf clly fast on the snead ; 

 for the least degree of looseness will oblige him to 

 use the more violence at every stroke ; many wor- 

 ry themselves needlessly by not attending to this 

 circumstance. 



Mowing with a company ought to be avoided by 

 those who are not very strong, or who are little 

 used to the business, or who have not their tools 

 in the best order. Young huls, who are ambitious 

 to be thought good mowers, often find themselve.i 

 much hurt by mowing in company. 



Mowers should not follow loo closely after each 

 other ; for this has been tlie occasion of fatal 

 wounds. And when the dangerous tool is carried 

 from place to place, it shoidd be bound up with a 

 rope of grass or otherwise equally secured. 



"Mr de Lisle," says the Complete Farmer, "in- 

 troduced in England the mowing of wheat. The 

 method is this : the scythe he uses is at least six 

 inches shorter in the blade than the common 

 Bcythe, and instead of a cradle, has two twigs of 

 osier put semi-circular wise into holes luade 

 in the handle of the scythe, near the blade, in such 

 a manner that one semi-circle intersects the other. 



" By this method of mowjug wheat, the stand- 



in" corn is always at the lefl hand. The mower 

 mows it inward, bearing the corn he cuts on his 

 scythe, till it comes to that which is standing, 

 against which it gently leans. After every mower 

 follows a gatherer, who, being provided with a 

 hook or stick about two feet long, gathers \i]) the 

 corn, makes it into a gavel, and lays it geiuly on 

 the ground. This must be done with spirit, as 

 another mower immediately follows." 



SNAKE BITES. 



The American Farmer has a long article under 

 this heail, written by a physician of the south, who 

 pretends to have had considerable experience on 

 the subject. Though his remarks relate to the bite 

 of the rattle-snake, they are equally applicable to 

 all others that are poisonous. He shows conclu- 

 sively the futility ot the many sovereign remedies 

 reconmicndedin such cases. The spirits of harts- 

 horn has been thought an infallible cure for the 

 bite of a rattle-snake ; the wonderful effic;^cy of 

 this ))rescriplion is founded entirely on the suppo- 

 sition, that the poison of the snake contains an 

 acid. He not only proves that this supposition is 

 unfounded, hut shows that the alkaline properties 

 of the hartshorn must be destroyed by the acidity 

 of the stomach, before it has time to undergo the 

 operation of digestion, and thus be fitted for mix- 

 ing with the blood in order to be carried to the 

 poison. He states, that in the beginning of his 

 practice fie believed hartshorn to he a certain 

 reinedy for snake bites, and administered it ac- 

 cordingly ; but careful observation and experience 

 convinces him to the contrary. He relates a num- 

 ber of cases in support of his position, among 

 which are the following : 



" Walking with a gentleman in his field, he trod 

 on a rattle-snake ; he was without shoes, and the 

 snake bit him in the hollow of his foot. He was 

 very much alarmed, appeared to be in pain, and 

 vomited much ; he was very faint, he could not 

 walk, yet would not agree that I should leave him 

 to go for help to get him home. As he begged 

 for a remedy and I seemed to think that I, as a 

 doctor, ought to do something, I brought my hat 

 full of water, washed the wound, and put a chew 

 of tobacco to it, tying it on with my handkerchief 

 We waited several hours, when he became easy 

 and we walked home. A chew of tobacco in this 

 case, was just as good as hartshorn." 



He relates another case of a man whom he 

 came across while travelling, who was bitten on 

 the aidde ; he says, " be was very sick, covered 

 with a cold sweat, appeared in the extreniest pain, 

 vomited much, and greatly alarmed ; grew worse 

 very fast, aiul in a little time I really thought the 

 nsan must die. The only thing we had like med- 

 icine, was a phial of the essence of lemon ; as he 

 was very faint, I directed him to smell of it, and 

 as he was gn atly alarmed and begged so much for 

 help, to pacify him and to quiet much as possible 

 his alarm, I told him to drink it all aiul it would 

 cure him. He did so. After several hoiu-s he be- 

 gan to mend, and when I left him I considered 

 him out of danger." 



He relates another case in which camphor was 

 applied and proved equally successful. Also thp 

 case of a liorse that was bitten anil given over to 

 inevilable death, but recovered without any spe- 

 cific treatment. From all of which he concludes, 

 " the rattle-snake bite runs through nearly the 

 same symptoms, under any treatmeot of specifics." 



He says, " when we shall properly ascertain the 

 true nature of snake bites, we will find they have 

 poison of sufficient strength to throw the functions 

 of a man in great, very great, disorder; to make 

 him very sick, cause great pain, to make him sick 

 almost unto death, but seldom to kill. When a 

 snake bite is fatal, death is immediate, and for the 

 most part before any remedy can be applied." — 

 The bite of an imprisoned snake is considered 

 even more dangerous, than the bite of one in a 

 natural state. 



The treatment which he recommends for a snake 

 bite, is to wash the wound well with warm soap- 

 suds ; and then apply a very large poultice made 

 of Indian meal, sufiicient to cover the whole limb, 

 to be renewed as often as they become cool ; nev- 

 er bind a ligature about the limb above the wound, 

 but if the swelling extends up the limb and great 

 tightness is produced, the part above the poultice 

 should be rubbed freely with laudanum and olive 

 oil. If the patient be very much alarmed, lauda- 

 num should be given freely; forty diops followed 

 in an hour with forty more, will not be too much. 

 When the i)ulse sinks and the patient becomes 

 covered with cold sweat, give brandy toddy or 

 wine freely, they will at such times bear large 

 quantities with satiety. Very few have actually 

 died from snake bites, and these, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, have died almost instantaneously. 



THE PALMER WORM. 



This is a small worm about half an inch in 

 length, with many legs and extretnely nindile. It 

 appears at different times in different parts of the 

 country. I have seen them only on apple and oak 

 trees, in any great abuiulance ; they give trees the 

 same appearance that the canker worm does. 

 They appeared in the county of Cumberland in 

 the year 1791, about the middle of June, eating ofT 

 the covering of the leaves on both sides and leav- 

 ing the mcndiraneous part entire. The following 

 year there was none to be seen ; and I have not 

 known them in any place two years in succession. 

 The seeds of them may be constant, wanting only 

 a particular state of the weather to produce them. 

 The spring which preceded their appearance had 

 been remarkably dry, both in April and May. 

 The history of this insect is so little known, that I 

 will not imdertake to say how they may be feuc- 

 cessfidly opposed. I made smokes under the fruit 

 trees, without any apparent effect. As they let 

 ihemselvcs down by threads, they may be thinned 

 by shaking the trees and striking off the threads. 

 Their ravages had not any lasting effect ; for the 

 orchards thai had been visited by them bore plen-, 

 tifully the following year. — Deane's Farmer. 



Vitality of Steds. — On boring for water, lately, 

 at a spot near Kingston-upon-Thames, some carlh 

 was brought up fiom a depth of three hundred 

 aiul sixty feet; this caith was carefully covered 

 over with a hand-glass, to prevent the |)0ssibilily 

 of any other seeds being dejiosited upon it : yet, in 

 a short time, plants vegetated from it. If quick 

 lime be put upon land, which from time immemo- 

 rial has produced nothing but heather, the heaih# 

 will be killed, and while clover spring up in its 

 place. 



To scare Birds from Cherries. — Fasten the ends 

 of long shreda of cotton to the branches and let 

 them blovtr about. 



