VOt. XI. NO. SI. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



40.5 



THE FOOT ROT 



Has been very desti-uotive to our tlocUs. Tlie fol- 

 lowing mode of trealuieiM is from llic traiisaclioiis 

 ■of lliii Hiiililiind Society, and from a lengthy paper 

 on this sidiject hy the Rev. S. Riddle, who says il 

 can be " confidently recommended, having been 

 found by experienee to he perfectly eft'ectiial." 



"The sheep affected with foot-rot, sh(|uld be 

 assorted in the open field, if the weather be dry ; 

 in a house or shed perfectly clean anil spread with 

 straw, if it be wet. A dry day should bei chosen 

 for the purpose if possible, and the house should 

 be divided by a partition, one apartment beinj? for 

 the sheep that have undergone treatment, i There 

 :slionl<l be two sorters, a third person to hold the 

 medicine, and a fourth to take away the sorted 

 animal and bring another. The sheep is laid on 

 its back, either on a smearing stool or on the floor, 

 and examined ; the feet are carefully washed, par- 

 ed, cleaned and dressed with the following solution: 



Corrosive sublimate, three-fourths of an ounce. 



Sidphate of copper, two ounces. 



Verdigris, one ounce and a half 



Alum, two ounces. 



White copperas (sulphate of zinc) half an ounce. 



Muriatic acid, two ounces. 



Charcoal, three-foin-ths of an ounce. 



Pound as small as possible, mix in half a bottle 

 of the best vinegar, and apply externally. 



In all severe cases, and especially when the dis- 

 ease is the result of constitutional aftectioii, two 

 ounces of Glauber salts, dissolved in halfainut- 

 chen of water, should be given internally. 



The sheep ought to remain in the house jbout 

 four hours after having undergone medical treat- 

 ment, and they ought to be let out by as clean a 

 path as possible. After five days those which have 

 not been cured by the application should be taken 

 in again. Some cases may occur in which th? 

 remedy must be repeated several times ; but if the 

 cleaning and paring are judiciously performed, and 

 the solution properly applied, eight or twelve days 

 at most are snflieient fur the cure." — Gen. Fanner. 



From the Gt^iiesee Farmer, 

 CATERPIL.1.ARS. 



We leani from different parts of the country 

 that the tree cnterpiltar is making extensive rava- 

 ges among fruit and even forest trees. They are 

 a great scourge, and where they prevail become 

 one of the most troublesome insects that infest the 

 fields, requiring considerable manual labor to de- 

 stroy them, and at a period when the farmer is 

 the least able to spare the time ; but yet we hold 

 it an imperious necessity that the whole commu- 

 nity should commence a crusade against them, as 

 each individual worm, after changing to the wing- 

 ed shape, is capable of increasing their numbers 

 an hundred fold. In those places where they have 

 not become complete masters of the field, a little 

 attention properly directed will entirely eradicate 

 them. 



They should be taken in hand in the morning, 

 and while the nests or webs are small and in the 

 incipient stages. A swab of rags on the end of a 

 pole dipped in fish oil of any kind, is effectual ; 

 or a circular brush, or a bundle of snagged twiggs 

 may be made to twist and wind the whole con- 

 cern about it, and so be brought down and de- 

 stroyed ; or what we have foimd the most efl%ctual 

 is a strong decoction of tobacco, injected by any 

 process into the nests ; the other processes will 

 destroy them, but this is utter annihilation without 



hail or main [irize. One dollar's worth of the ;)oi- 

 sonous weed will clean a whole township ; even 

 the saliva of that " tobacco worm, man," who is a 

 regular built chewer, with a good squirt, will do 

 wonders, and slay his thousands like Samson of 

 old, and with the same tveapun. 



From the Nfiv York Farmer. 

 SAGACITY OP BIRDS. 

 It is well worth while to observe the provision 

 wliich birds make for their own wants, and to see 

 how, while reason sometimes falters, instinct al- 

 ways operates with the same certainty and suc- 

 cess. We have already mentioned the woodpeck- 

 er, who grasps the trunk of a tree with his claws, 

 and stands upon his tail, drawing out insects from 

 their burrows in the wood. It is said, that he 

 goes to an ant's nest and lies down pretending to 

 be dead, with his tongue out, drawing it in, liow- 

 ever, as often as it is covered with the ants, which 

 are a favorite article of his food. The nuthatch 

 opens nuts, or the stones of fruit, by rejjeated 

 blows of his sharp horny bill. The butcher-bird 

 which lives on insects and smaller birds, is said to 

 attract the latter by iitiitating their call, and has 

 also a habit of impaling upon thorns such insects 

 as he does not need at the moment. Some have 

 thought this a trap set for other birds; but this is 

 improbable, because unnecessary. It seems more 

 likely that this trick of gathering what he does not 

 want, and keeping it till it is of no use to him, is 

 one which he has learned in his intercourse with 

 man. The whippoorwill sits upon the fence, or 

 the step of a door, singing mournfully, as if he 

 had lost all his friends; but woe to the moth who 

 believes in the mourner's having lost his appetite 

 also ; the bird seizes and swallows him without any 

 suspension ofliissong. The raven and the gull, 

 who are fond of shell fish, but are not provi- 

 ded with the instruments to open them, carry them 

 high into the air, and let them fall on rocks, in 

 order to break the shell. In this way, it is said 

 (hat a philosopher's head was broken, in ancient 

 times, being accidentally mistaken for a stone ; 

 whether this he true or not, we cannot say ; the 

 heads of sages are harder now. The bald eagle, 

 proud and disdainful as he seems, gets a great part 

 of his living in a manner that does more credit to 

 his ingenuity and strength, than to his morals. He 

 sits in gigantic repose, calmly watching the play of 

 the fishing birds over the blue reach of waters, with 

 his wings loosely raised, as if keeping time with the 

 heaving sea. Soon he sees the fish hawk dive 

 heavily into the ocean, and reappear with a scream 

 of triumph, bearing the sluggish fish. Then the 

 gaze of the eagle grov\s fiery and intense; his 

 wings are spread wide, and he gives chase to the 

 hawk till he compels him to let fall his prize ; but 

 it is not lost, for the eagle wheels in a broad circle, 

 sweeps down upon the edge of the wave, and se- 

 cures it before it touches the water. Nothing can 

 be more majestic than the flight of this noble bird ; 

 he seems to move by an eflbrt of will alone, with- 

 out the waving of his wings; pity it is, that he 

 should dishoimr himself by such unworthy robbery 

 as this, though it by no means destroys the resem- 

 blance between the king of birds and the kings of 

 men. 



Beat this who can. Raised in this town by Mr. 

 D. Felt, 100 heads of barley from one kernel, 80 

 of which were ripe, yielding 2250 kernels. — JVew- 

 Ipswich Register. 



From the (retiesee Farmer^ 

 SOWING PLASTER. 



Mr. Tucker: — A day or two since I fell upon 

 a method of sowing gypsum, which I deem worth 

 communicating to the public, through your col- 

 umns. I had procured from the njill, a box of 

 plaster, in a one horse wagon, which I sent to my 

 field by a boy, following myself to give instruc- 

 tions about st;reading it. lie filled a common 

 sized pail, and lil'tiug it u|)on his arm, commen- 

 ced his labor. Having some reminiscences upon 

 the subject, of, perhaps, six or eight years dura- 

 tion, I instantly perceived that the task was to 

 prove a heavy one. I directed him to take his 

 place in the wagon, and, whilst he drove the 

 horse slowly across the lot, I spread the plaster 

 from the box behind. The expedient succeeded 

 fully to my satisfaction. I thus went on, and, 

 having sowed five and a half bushels of plaster, 

 over four acres of meadow, 1 looked at my watch, 

 and found that we had been in the lot just an hour. 

 1 performed the work well — having applied the 

 drtssiiig as uniformly and equally as it could be 

 (lossihiy done on foot. In fact I sowed the ground 

 twice over, extending the cast each time, to the 

 tract the wheels last made, by which my driver 

 guided his course across the lot. A moderate east 

 wind blew duiing our labor, and we sowed north 

 and south. I couunenced also on the windward 

 side of the field. I should recommend a windy 

 day for this purpose, and perhaps a yoke of cattle 

 would he preferable to a horse. 



It will be readily perceived that while my mode 

 of sowing plaster, makes a great saving of man- 

 ual strength, the great advantage derived is ia 

 the expedition with which the ])rocess is perform- 

 ed. One man and boy, in a one horse cart, can 

 dress from forty to sixty acres i)er day, thus ma- 

 king a very important saving of time, at a season 

 when the farmer is obliged to husband closely. 

 The injury of driving a wagon over a field of 

 grain would be but little, and could not be consid-. 

 ered a moment when compared with the value of 

 the time gained. Let any farmer try it, and 1 am 

 satisfied that he will never sow plaster from a pail 

 on foot again. 



I would add here, that iu sowing from a wagon 

 it will be found necessary to stop occasionally, 

 to pick up or loosen the plaster, which becomes 

 compacted by its motion. The elevated position 

 of the sower enables him to make a very broad 

 cast, and if advantage is taken of the wind, he 

 will be able to avoid the respiration of any great 

 quantities of dust. V. W. S. 



A SINGULAR TREE. 



There is growing in the garden of Gen. Van 

 Schoonhoven, at Waterford, a butternut tree, wor- 

 thy of notice as a remarkable vegetable produc- 

 tion. At two feet from the surface of the ground 

 it throws ofi' seven branches of six to twelve inches 

 in diameter at the bifurcation, which extend twen- 

 ty five to thirty feet, in a direction nearly horizon- 

 tal. Some of these require bolstering to keep 

 them from the ground. At four feet from the 

 ground, another division takes |)lace equal to the 

 first, which fill the interval between the opposite 

 horizontal branches. The whole has the appear- 

 ance of half a globe, flattened at its pole, sixty feet 

 in diameter, and filled with branches and foliage 

 from the base to the apex. It produced fifteen 

 bushels of nuts in 1832, and promises a still larger 

 crop the coming autumn. — Gen. Farmer 



