PRACTICAL FARMER. 



always loses its natural heat, and a degree of 

 coldness is manifest to the hand by grasping it 

 firmly. When in one horn, as is often the ease, 

 there will be a very sensible difference in the 

 feeling. If upon examination the horn is cold, 

 we need not doubt the presence of the malady, 

 yet without an acquaintance with some of the pre- 

 ceding signs, W) might not be induced to examine 

 the horn, or suspect the evil. As soon as the dis- 

 covery is made, a hole with a ten-penny nail gim- 

 let should be immediately bored underside the 

 horn, three or four inches from the head. Jfthe 

 gimlet passes through the inside without resist- 

 ance, it may be bored as low as is judged the hol- 

 lowness extends ; this, generally, if done in sea- 

 son, is all that is necessary. These holes should, 

 however, be kept open, tiiat a free discharge may 

 be encouraged, and a communication be kept up 

 with the air. Bubbles are continually forming at 

 the orifice, through which a thin fluid oozes after 

 the horn is bored. This seems to indicate an in- 

 ternal fermentation. Putrid matter may be form- 

 ed on the periosteum, and entering into the inter- 

 stices of the hone, may dissolve the oily substance, 

 and form a fluid so putrid and corrosive as to dis- 

 solve even the bone itself. From the sensible 

 relief that an opening into tiie horn gives the beast,, 

 it is more than probable that the distress mani- 

 fested arises from compression, occasioned by the 

 exj)ansion of the putrid and confined air within, 

 rather than from an effect produced on the blood 

 and juices. In aggravated cases the inside of the 

 horn should be thoroughly syringed two or three 

 times a day with salt and water, soapsuds, pepper 

 and vinegar, or any simple cleansing material, 

 (never apply spirits of turpentine, as the manner of 

 some is.) If their ajjpears to be much inflamma- 

 tion about the head, a moderate bleeding in the 

 neck would be beneficial. But when the distem- 

 per has comn)unicated its effects to the brain so as 

 to produce a high degree of inflammation, it is 

 iruich to be doubted whether any mode of treat- 

 ment would afford effectual relief. 



Milch cows are more liable to attack than other 

 descriptions of horn cattle. It is not common 

 among oxen ; I never knew a bull to have it ; 

 steers and heifers are thought to be exempt from 

 it under three years of age. It cannot be consid- 

 ered as contagious. Neat cattle are subject to a 

 disorder commonly called Tail Sickness, which 

 is a wasting of the bony substance of the tail, 

 and if not cut off above where the defect reaches, 

 often proves fatal. Jt frequently accompanies 

 the horn distemper. — JV. Y. Farmer. 



treme of barrenness or fertility without being starved and 

 shrivelled in the one case or mildewed and blasted iu 

 the other better than wlieat. 



In the Memoirs of tlie Board of Agriculture, vol. I. 

 page 82, it i.s said " Rye should be .-^owed the last week 

 in August, or the first week in September, at the rale of 

 about thirty six quart.s per acre ; some say forty eight 

 quarts. But if not sowed at that time, it ought to be 

 delayed until late in November, so that it may not come 

 up until spring. A. VVorthington had a good crop, 

 which he sowed in a January snow storm. Rye raised 

 on upland make.s much better flour than that which is 

 raised on low or damp lands." 



Tlie quantity of seed to be sown to the acre should 

 vary according to the soil, the time of sowing, and the 

 purpose for which it is intended. Mr Adams Knight of 

 Newbury, Mass. received a premium of twenty dollars 

 from the Mass. Agr. Soc. for a crop of rye. In apply- 

 ing fur this he states that the acre, which produced the 

 premium crop, amounting to the great quantity of forty 

 five bushels and five eighths of a bushel, was sowed in 

 the month of August with three pecks of seed only. 

 He does not tell us at what time in August the seed was 

 sown, but that " there is standing on said acre of land 

 seventy' five apple-trees, from two to six inches tiirough 

 at the root." 



In the first volume of communications to the British 

 Board of Agriculture, page 341, in treating of the cul- 

 ture of rye in Russia, it is observed that the produce 

 from boggy lands drained and sowed with rye is upwards 

 of forty bushels to (me sowed ; and they generally use a 

 much smaller quantity of seed in sowing such lands. A 

 proof that rye will bear very plentifully manuring may 

 be adduced from a case reported by i\{r L' Hom- 

 midieu of Nevv York, who observed, in substance, that 

 a neighbor of his manured twenty square rods of poor, 

 gravelly, dry soil, with four thousand menhaden fish, and 

 sowed it with rye, at the rale of about oi.e bushel to the 

 acre. In the spring it was twice successively eaten off, 

 close to the ground, by sheep breaking in, after it had 

 acquired a height of nine inches the first time, and six 

 inches the latter. These croppings (miy served to make 

 it grow thicker and stronger than before; and when 

 harvested it produced sixteen bushels, or at llie rate of 

 one hundred and twenty-eight busiiels to the acre. 

 This account is given in Transactions of the JVr/w York 

 Jloricultural Society, part 111. p. 35 ; and though it may 

 appear incredible,;Mr L' Homtnidieu declared tliatit was 

 attested by many witnesses of good standing and reput- 

 ed for veracity. — JV.. E. Farmer. 



UYE. 



Soils of a sandy or gravelly nature are proper for rye. 

 Lands which are too rich or too poor for wheat are well 

 appropriated to this crop, wl ich will enduro either ex- 



Largest Fleece. — Little cry and great ivool. 

 — We are informed by Luther E. Stevens, of this 

 place, that he recently took 1130 lbs. of wool from 

 301 sheep, mostly Merino. This is allowed to be 

 remarkable by wool growers. A gentleman in 

 New York this spring, stated in one of the papers 

 that he had taken a fleece weighing 7 lbs. and 3 

 quarters from one sheep. Anothei farmer in Ver- 

 naont, mentioned through a paper that he had 

 taken a fleece weighing 9 lbs. 10 oz. — whether 

 washed and tagged he does not say — and calls 

 upon his brother farmers to beat it, if they can. 

 Mr Stevens took a fleece last week from a full 

 blood Merino buck, three years old, which, when 

 washed and tagged, ready for the market, weighed 

 9 lbs. and 12 oz. ! This is the largest ever known 

 in this country, and he challenges any farmer any 

 where to produce a larger one. — Claremont Eagle. 



