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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



"WARTS ON cows' TEATS." 

 In your issue of the pre.'-ent month, (Sept., 1857,) 

 a correspondent asks, "Can any of your subscribers 

 give me a remedy that will cure warts on the teats 

 of a valuable cow?" 



I have cured them on common cows by rubbing 

 on the Mustang Liniment. My impression is that 

 it will efi'ect the same thing on a valuable cow. 1 

 hope your correspondent will try it, and publish 

 the result. L. V. Bierce. 



Mra'n, O., Sept. 29, 1857. 



TO PICKLE TOMATOES. 



In reply to an inquiry as to the best method of 

 pickling tomatoes, I would recommend the follow- 

 ing receipt, as one which, so far as I am informed, 

 has given general satisfaction : 



Take 7 pounds tomatoes, 3 pounds sugar, 1 quart 

 vinegar, 1 ounce cloves, 1 ounce cinnamon. Put 

 in a layer of tomatoes and sugar alternately, then 

 scald the vinegar and spices together, and pour up- 

 on it. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then turn ofi' 

 the syrup and scald it again, pour it in and let it 

 stand another twenty-four hours. Lastly, boil the 

 whole together just long enough to cook them with- 

 out bursting. The tomatoes should be pickled be- 

 fore they ripen. M. c. K. 



East Bridgtwater. 



ERRATUM. 



In an article about "Guano," in your number 

 for September, there is an important error which 

 please permit lue to correct. 1 am made to say 

 I have seen corn and wheat grown side by side 

 with Baker's Island guano and the Peruvian, and 

 that from the latter was the best by one-third. 

 The word "latter" should have read "former." It 

 will then express my meaning. Plowboy. 



INQUIRIES ABOUT SHEEP. 



I would like to know if those large breeds of 

 sheep, such as the Southdown, will make any better 

 appearance as to flesh than the Merinos, if kept as 

 our large flocks are generally kept ? How would 

 a cross do between Southdown ewes and Merino 

 bucks ? What is (he best feed for ewes with lambs, 

 in winter, and the quantity to be given ? 



Farmer Boy. 



Cummington, Ms,, Sept., 1857. 



Remarks. — Will some of our Vermont friends, 

 who probably know all about the "cross" spoken of, 

 as well as the other matters of inquiry, reply to 

 this ? 



Sources of Fat. — Experiments have been 

 made during the past year in France on ducks, to 

 prove that the fat may exceed the quantity which 

 could be referred to the food they were supplied 

 with. Some were fed on rice, a substance which 

 contains only a few parts of fat in a thousand. Oth- 

 ers led on rice with a certain amount of butter ad- 

 ded. At the end of the experiment, the first were 

 as lean as when first placed upon the diet ; the lat- 

 ter, in a ft w days, became positively balls of fat. — 

 Other experiments were made on pigs. It was 

 found as the result of several trials that there was 

 sometimes more fat produced than was contained 

 in the food on which they were fed. Food which, 



given alone, has not the properties of fattening, 

 when mixed with a fatty matter, acquires it in an 

 astonishing degree ; and fattening articles of food, 

 which do not contain much fat, always abound with 

 its chemical constituents, the principal of which is 

 azote, and whence the fat acquired is derived. — Ex- 

 change. 



For (he New England Farmer, 



HAIR SNAKES-CHINESE SUGAR 

 CANE. 



Messrs. Editors : — I have noticed several arti- 

 cles in your paper relative to "hair snakes ;" if you 

 please, I will tell my experience ; it may throw 

 some light on the subject. Several weeks since, 

 while on a piscatory excursion, in bailing my hook, 

 I discovered a large hair snake coiled in the abdo- 

 men of a grasshopper. In the number of Septem- 

 ber 5th, the remarks of "J. W." called my atten- 

 tion to the subject again. I took a teacup into a 

 pasture where I have a watering trough, thinking I 

 might find one of the "varmints," and was fortu- 

 nate enough to procure one of medium size. I 

 took some water in my cup, and in it placed the 

 snake, then "squinted" at him through a micro- 

 scope from all quarters ; but was unable to see any 

 animalculaj adhering to it ; on the contrary, it ap- 

 peared very smooth. I then gently heated the 

 water, and when at about blood heat, he began to 

 squirm, and as the heat increased writhed about as 

 if in agony; then I dried it — which was done in a 

 few minutes on removing it from the water — then 

 burnt it, and its smell, when burning, was decided- 

 ly the smell of a hair burning, so I purloined a few 

 hairs from my cranium and carefully placed them 

 in the aforesaid trough where they have remained 

 since, with no more symptoms of becoming snakes 

 than those remaining on my head. On examina- 

 tion I found, numerous skeletons and fossils of 

 grasshoppers in the trough, and one nearly whole 

 which I supposed had deposited the snake that I 

 found. 



Now, I give this as my opinion in regard to hair 

 snakes ; I think they are deposited by grasshop- 

 pers and crickets, and, like the fabled phoenix, they 

 arise from the ashes of the depositor, and what be- 

 comes of the snakes or what they amount to is un- 

 known to me. I suppose they derive their name 

 from the fact that they resemble hairs, not because 

 they are in fact vivified hairs ; as well might we be- 

 lieve that the hair- spring of a watch was a spring- 

 tempered hair. Here is what Webster gives ; 

 "Hair-Worm, a genus of worms, {vermes,) called 

 Gordius, resembling a long hair; a filiform animal, 

 found in fresh water or in the earth. There are 

 several species." 



In answer to the correspondent's inquiry, some- 

 time since, "how came the hair snake in the man's 

 bladder ?" Why, the same way as it came in the 

 abdomen of the grasshopper ; and just as the milk 

 came in the cocoa-nut ; it was generated there. 



I have been experimenting with Chinese sugar 

 cane, among other strange things, and this is the 

 result : Of 20 parts sap, I procurtd 1 part molass- 

 es. Thinking this not very productive, I took some 

 Indian corn stalks and expressed the juice from 

 them, and they yielded of 20 parts sap, 3 parts mo- 

 lasses ; and that of a far better quahty. Mr. Good- 

 rich, of Burlington, Vt., as quoted in the number 

 of Sept 5th, says he believes "syrup equal to Porto 



