340 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 



To Prevent Horses Kicking in Harness. — A corre- 

 spondent of the Irish Farmers' Gazette says : — " Attach a 

 stout piece of ash stick to the collar at the breast ; fix it 

 under the horse's chin, so that he cannot bend his head 

 toward his breast, and he cannot kick high enough to in- 

 jure car, harness or himself; if a good horse, and worth 

 the trouble, a bit of bright steel may be fixed on his col- 

 lar, with a claw to catch him under the chin; this will 

 answer the purpose, and look well. If a mare, part her 

 and turn her to the stud; her foals if colts may not kick 

 if well brought up. In fillies, I fear no matter what ed- 

 ucation they get, they will have the 'kick in them.' 

 Sometimes mares kick from ticklishness ; it is a ticklish 

 thing to deal with them, and I fear their daughters will 

 be ticklish. Kicking, I am satisfied, is hereditary ' in 

 the female line.' I had a mare that was dangerous to 

 look at, she had such an ugly use of her hind legs, and 

 by buckling a stick under her chin, fastened to the collar 

 in the way I have described, I defied her, and I defy any 

 horse to kick so as to injure the vehicle or himself. This 

 is certainly better than tying up one fore leg, as a horse 

 could not trot upon tbree. I had two fillies out of this 

 mare, aud they were both kickers ; this is only one in- 

 stance; I know of many instances of kicking being 

 hereditary." 



Preserving Plants During "Winter. — Unless you 

 have a greenhouse plants in pots are a nuisance in winter. 

 A correspondent of the London Cottage Gardener says he 

 has kept them as follows for the last two winters, (and 

 the winter of 1860-61, in England, was almost as severe 

 as in this country) : 



" To avoid trouble, I made several boxes suitable for 

 the window; each box the depth of an ordinary flower- 

 pot, about eight inches or nine inches wide, and sixteen 

 inches or seventeen inches long, well supplied at the 

 bottom with holes, and nicely painted. A slight layer 

 of broken crocks was then placed at the bottom of each 

 box, and covered with coarse fibre torn from a cocoa-nut 

 husk to prevent the mould escaping. I then turned each 

 plaut out of its pot, squaring the ball of earth a little, 

 without disturbing the plants. They w«re then placed in 

 the boxes side by side, each box holding about eight 

 plants (eight troubles in one), aud the spaces between, if 

 any, were then rilled with the spare mould. Geraniums, 

 Calceolarias, Fuchsias, &c, were each in a box by them- 

 selves. I then kept them as quiet as I could ; they were 

 very rarely watered, did not grow lankv, aud were pre- 

 served healthy to the spring. They are now mostly 

 bedded-out, and are finer plants and more profuse in 

 flowers than any I have purchased this year. In tine 

 weather they had plenty of air in the daytime. They 

 were in a back kitchen during the greater part of the 

 winter, only being removed into a dwelling-room when 

 the weather was very severe, and then placed as far off 

 the fire as possible. 



" Be spariug with the water — comparative dryness is 

 essential. The Calceolarias will ask plainly when they 

 want moisture." 



Mixing Varieties op Corn. — A correspondent of the 

 Boston Cultivator says : " A few years ago I planted 

 some sweet corn — Stowell's evergreen, so called — near 

 some of the smallest variety of white parching corn. At 

 harvest, I found the two varieties, distinctly marked, 

 among tiie ears of both sorts. The next year, I selected 

 some of the most unmixed parching corn, and planted it. 

 At harvest it, was more than double the size of the parch- 

 ing corn originally planted, and had none of the shrivelled 

 character of the sweet corn. The third year's planting 

 produced a variety of whitish, middling-early corn, more 

 than double the size of the parching corn first planted." 



Fattening Swine. — The Boston Cultivator has a sensi- 

 ble and timely article on this subject, from which we 

 make a few extracts : 



" On every hand there are articles which may be made 

 useful in fattening swine, if taken in season, but which, 

 if not so taken, will be totally lost. Of these, we may 

 mention summer squashes, summer and autumn apples, 

 and "wind-falls" of late kinds. Later in the season, 

 pumpkins may be used to advantage. 



"Summer squashes, if cookedj will fatten hogs very 

 fast. Many people who have used them for this purpose 

 consider them, when cooked, as profitable a crop for 

 summer and early autumn feeding as can be grown. 



" In regard to apples, much has been said of their value 

 as food for animals, especially for fattening swine. Va- 

 rious experiments indicate that when cooked they are 

 worth nearly or quite as much as potatoes for this pur- 

 pose. Hogs will eat ripe, palatable apples raw, in con- 

 siderable quantities ; but they will not eat those which 

 are hard — especially acid ones — to much extent. It is 

 somewhat so with the human family. If we eat apples 

 or pears raw, we want them fully ripe and mellow ; but 

 for baking or cooking in other ways we frequently use 

 those which are not fully ripe. Hence, apples which are 

 too hard to be fed to swine raw, may be given to them in 

 a cooked state with advantage. It would probably be an 

 object to save in this way many of the winter apples 

 which are now falling from the trees. Most New Eng- 

 land farmers are in the practice of cooking potatoes for 

 hogs, and the same apparatus which is used for this pur- 

 pose will answer for apples and other articles." 



The Lessons of the War. — The Maine Farmer con- 

 cludes an article on this subject as follows: 



"When our farmers destroy one-half they raise — or 

 what amounts to the same thing — when they only grow 

 a poor crop with the same labor that would produce a 

 good one— and when they waste each year more than 

 they save, it is time that something brought them to see 

 the necessity of a better system of husbandry. And if 

 this war, which will eventually impose high taxes upon 

 our farms and estates — acting very much in the same 

 way as do the high rents of the English farms which 

 have contributed so much to the perfection aud present 

 condition of her agriculture — accomplishes the same re- 

 sults, its cloud may well be said to have had a silver 

 lining !" 



We do not think the perfection of English agriculture 

 is due to high rents, but all will admit that the war will 

 render a better system of American agriculture absolutely 

 essential to our national prosperity. 



To Remove Stumps. — A correspondent of the Rural 

 Register states that Mr. John Barnes, of Baltimore, re- 

 moved a troublesome stump from near his house in the 

 following manner : "Last fall, with an inch nugur, he 

 bored a hole in the centre of the stump, ten inches deep, 

 and into it put about half a pound of oil of vitro], and 

 corked the hole up tight. This spring, the whole stump 

 and roots, extending through all their ramifications, were 

 so rotten that they were easily eradicated." 



If true, the above would be a cheap method of remov- 

 ing stumps. The sulphuric acid can be bought for about 

 five cents per pound. 



Fattening Poultry. — The Irish Fanners' Gazette says 

 to fatten turkeys, teed with barley meal mixed with 

 water, adding a turnip with the leaves on, or fresh cab- 

 bage for them to pick at. Geese and ducks are well 

 fatted by giving them ground buckwheat or oats mixed 

 with well boiled potatoes, given warm, but not hot. 

 Indian corn, well-boiled and bruised, is also an excellent 

 food for the purpose. 



Salt for Wheat. — A correspondent of the German- 

 town Telegraph finds great benefit from the application 

 of a sack of salt ($1.25) per acre, sown broadcast before 

 drilling in the wheat. He thinks he gets 500 per cent, on 

 the investment. The quality, as well as the quantity of 

 the wheat is improved. 



