144 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 



Hog Cholera. — The Illinois Farmer says: "We have 

 lever heard of a farmer losing his hogs by this disease 

 who kept them in good clover pasture during the 

 summer." 



Bran as a Manure. — A correspondent of the New Eng- 

 land Farmer used bran as a manure for potatoes. The 

 result satisfied him that the advice of his better-half was 

 correct, " that he had better give the bran to to the cows 

 and let them compost it before using it forrcanure." We 

 agree with his " better half." 



Squashes for Milch Cows. — A correspondent of the 

 Valley Farmer says summer squashes are excellent for 

 feeding cows in summer. They are easily raised, very 

 productive, and continue bearing till frost. They are nu- 

 tritious, and cows eat them with avidity. He thinks the 

 Yellow Bush Summer Crookneck the best variety. 



Don't be Afraid of Seed. — The Ohio Farmer says: 

 "As a rule, farmers in this country use too little seed ; 

 the ground must and will be occupied, and if the seed 

 you desire to grow be not there, weeds, etc., will take its 

 place. Some good farmers have learned this by experi- 

 ence. Put in plenty of seed, and that of the very best 

 kind." 



Bad Seed and the Mangel Wurzel Crop. — The Mark 

 Lane Express furnishes an interesting table of statistics 

 in regard to the crops of last year in England. Out of 

 380 returns, 237 report the crop of mangel wurzel as 

 poor. This is ascribed to the ungenial season of 1860, 

 which prevented the seed from properly ripening. A 

 large proportion of it rotted in the ground. The loss 

 sustained by farmers — and the country — from poor seed 

 is enormous. 



The Potato Disease.— J. B. Austine, of Warren, Mass., 

 writes to the Boston Cultivator, that five years close ob- 

 servation and experience in regard to the potato disease, 

 prove conclusively, to his mind, that the best remedy con- 

 sists in separating the tops from the tubers as soon as the 

 former show any evidence of disease or blight. This is 

 done by carefully pulling the tops, the workman placing 

 his feet around them so as to prevent the tubers from be- 

 ing drawn out. 



Effects of Vegetables upon Different Animals. — 

 The Scottish Farmer says : " Horses seldom eat crucifer- 

 ous plants (cabbages, turnips, etc.), but will feed on reed 

 grasses, amidst abundance of which goats have been 

 known to starve ; and these latter again will eat and 

 grow fat on the water hemlock, which is rank poison to 

 other cattle. In like manner, pigs will feed on henbane, 

 while they are destroyed by common pepper; and the 

 horse which avoids the bland turnip will grow fat on 

 rhubarb." 



Water-proof Boot Soles.— The New York Tribune 

 says: "If hot tar is applied to boot soles, it will make 

 them water-proof. Let it be as hot as the leather will 

 .bear without injury, applying it with a swab and drying 

 lit in by tire heat. The operation may be repeated two or 

 three times during winter, if necessary. It makes the 

 surface of the leather quite hard, so that it wears longer, 

 as well as keeps out the water. Oil or grease softens the 



sole and does not do much good in keeping the water out. 

 It is a good plan to provide boots for winter during sum- 

 mer, and prepare the soles by tarring, as they will then 

 become, before they are wanted to wear, almost as firm as- 

 horn, and will wear twice as long as those unprepared." 



Corn Cobs. — The New York Observer says truly, " cobs 

 are not worth the crushing." The cost of grinding them 

 with the grain is more than they are worth as food. 



Melons. — A correspondent of the Valley Farmer urges 

 every reader of that paper to plant at least melons enough 

 to save the boys from breaking the eighth commandment! 

 A dozen hills will be sufficient for an ordinary family. 



Fence Posts. — The Ohio' Farmer says: "Many years 

 ago, we were building a netv fence, and when setting* our 

 posts, we saturated that part which we placed in the 

 ground, and about one foot above, with coal tar, rosin 

 3nd lime. The proportions were about eight parts of tar 

 to one of lime ; and sixteen of tar to one of rosin. We 

 melted the rosin before mixing, but the lime we put in as 

 we bought it from the kiln. Those posts are novv nearly 

 all of them sound and good, although the timber was a 

 sorry mixture of basswood, beech, oak, chestnut and 

 maple." 



Why do we Pickle Seed Wheat to Prevent Smut ? — 

 A correspondent of the Iowa Homestead says : 



Smut is said to be prevented by soaking the wheat in a 

 solution of salt, or in a solution of nitre, or in a solution 

 of blue vitrol, each of which is undoubtedly good. Why ? 

 Because, acting as fertilizers, they give vigor to the growth 

 of the wheat — accelerating its growth, and thus enabling 

 it to resist the early and pernicious influences of too 

 much heat, or too much moisture. 



This is not the reason. These substances do not accel- 

 erate the growth of the wheat. They do not act as fertil- 

 izers. In fact, wheat that is " pickled " with salt or cham- 

 ber lye, and dried with lime — the most common mode of 

 treating seed wheat to prevent smut— seldom starts so 

 early or grows so vigorously at first as that which is not 

 pickled. 



The reason why these substances prevent smut is this : 

 The spores of the smut, or, more properly, " bunt," ad- 

 here to the seed wheat, and, if not destroyed, propagate 

 rapidly under favorable circumstances, and are in some 

 way carried into the circulation of the plant and injure 

 the crop. We pickle the wheat in order to destroy them. 



Galled Shoulders in Horses. — A correspondent of the 

 Germantown Telegraph writes: "Some say that if a col- 

 lar fits a horse as it should, he will never have sore shoul- 

 ders. Now, I do not think that this is the case, for I have 

 a pair of horses who could not be worked at plowing or 

 harrowing for a week, without having sore shoulders, yet 

 their collars fitted them well. It seemed that one hide 

 had to be rubbed, and as that of the collar was the hard- 

 est, the consequence was that the horses' hide got the rub- 

 bing. The galls I could soon cure, but if the horses were 

 worked I could not prevent them. Chancing one day to 

 take hold of an English agricultural journal, the first 

 thing which I noticed was an editorial proposing that a 

 piece of leather should be laid on the horse's neck under 

 and disconnected from the collar. I saw that the theory 

 was good, and concluded that as one hide had to take a 



