26 



some species always growing in liummocli 



With the Carices are some of the Cyperi, dis- 

 tinguished by the inflorescence being in branch- 

 ing heads and of greater beauty, but coarse and 

 wiry in structure. 

 Tlie Scirpi enter largely into fresh meadow 



Equisetum Arvense, L. — Horse-tail ; Mare's- 

 tail. 



Equisetum Hyeinale, L.— Scouring Rush. 



Equisetum Sylvaticum, L.— Wood Horse-tail. 



More or less common in moist meadows, and 

 sometimes increasing rapidly when the soil has 

 been ploughed and again laid down. Although 

 silicious in their structure, and very brittle when 

 dried, yet cattle are said to devour them greedily. 

 A fourth species, viz: Equisetum Uliginosum, 

 Mtihl.— Pipes; is considered valuable as hay. 



Aspidium, several species.— Polypodium, do. 

 (lo.—Osniunda Cinnamomea, L.— do. Rogalis, L. 

 do. Ipterrupta, iNIx.— Are usually known as Poly- 

 pod, Brake, Fern, Buckhorn, &c., and of little if 

 anv value. 



Pteris Aquilina.— Eagle Brake; a tall, tritidly 

 leaved fern in damp woods. 



The Mosses (Musci) are generally small plants, 

 scarcelv distinguishable as species by any but the 

 botanist. They in some species cover the ground 

 with a speedy growth, even wlien under cultiva- 

 tion. Several are imrasitic on trees, and injurious 

 to the orchard, as the refuge and hiding places for 

 insects, and should be removed by scraping the 

 bark. Several species of Sphngmm) are the 

 es|]ecial agents in the production of peat. Some 

 of these are used in packing boxes of butter and 

 tlie like, being retentive of water and very cool. 



The Lichens and Fungi, are also pajasites, on 

 timber and orchard trees, and oftentimes iiidiciite 

 decay. 



The Algce arc especially useful in manuring 

 land contiguous to the sea, and the most valuable 

 for this purpose is Laminaria Saccharina, Agardh. 

 Kelp, or Devil's Apron. Next to tliis, perhaps, 

 Fucus Nodosus, L., and F. Veaiculosus, L., Ulva 

 Lnctuca, &c. &.c. 



THE FARMER'S M QNT H L Y V I S I TO R. February, 184>2 



valuable lliat a 



1 to tliink tins gn 



or the mn 

 G. B. E. 



MuKRAi.N AMONG Cattlk.— Within the List 

 twelve niontha, cows and oxen have suffered very 

 severely in various parts of England, iisomnch 

 that manv small graziers and dairymen have lost 

 their whole stock. This disease was at first con- 

 sidered tn be only epidemic, but the veterinary 

 surgepns throughout the country have pronounc- 

 ed U to be highly infectious, and the consequence 

 has been thai cattle affected with the above ina- 

 liguaut disorder have been very properly kept 

 apart from those which were healthy and sound. 

 A gentleuiiin residing near Plmusted, by way of 

 experiment, caused tlie cows on his estate to be 

 inoculated with the raceme diVks (pus,) which ap- 

 peared to operate as a preventive to the malady, 

 lur althou;;li his neighbor's cattle were dying 

 around him in all directions, not one of his cows 

 (seven ill nuiiiber) evinced the slightest symptoms 

 of murrain.^ 



Fihe proof Wood. — Doctor Fnehs, member 

 of the .\cadeniv of Science ut Munich, has dis- 

 covered a coinposition by vvhicfi he renders 

 wood inconibustihle ; the composition is made of 

 aramilated earth and an alkali. To obtain it the 

 inventor says, vou must dissolve some moist 

 gravelly earth, which has been previously well 

 washed, and cleared from any heterogeneous mat- 

 ter, in a solution of caustic alkali. This mixture 

 has the property of not becoming Jccoiniiosed by 

 liro or water. When spread upon wood, it forms 

 n vitreous coat, and is jiroof against the two 

 tleineiils. The bniUliiig committee of the royal 

 theatre have tuice |iiihliclv tried the composition 

 on two sninll huildings of .six or eight feet in 



Icnith, 



iropor 



lite 



i'lhi 



the one ' 



wiih tlie composition, and the other 

 built in tln! nsiial manner. The fire was put 

 cqi ally i!i the two buildings ; the one which was 

 no! covered with the comiiositiou was consumed, 

 while the other leaiaiiied perfect and eiitire. 

 The cost of this process is very insignificant com- 

 I ared to its greit uiility, lieiiig about two francs 

 tliree centimes I'cr 100 square feet. The royal 

 theatre at Municli hr.s undergone this process, 

 laving about 400,000 square feet ; the expense of 

 ^^hich was about 4 or 5000 francs. 



A Valuable Table. — The following valuable 

 tabl«'wus calculated by James M. Garnett, Esq. 

 of Essex Co. Va., and first published in Mr. Ruf- 

 fin's Farmer's Register : 



Table. — A box 24 inches by 16 in. square and 

 28 in. deep, will contain a barrel, or 10,753 cubic 

 inches. 



A box 24 by 16 in. square and 14 in. deep, will 

 contain a half barrel, or 5,376 cubic inches. 



A box 16 in. by 16 8-10 in. square, and 8 in. 

 deep, will contain a bushel, or 2,1.50 4-10 cubic 

 inches. 



A box 12 by 11 2-10 in. square and 8 in. deep, 

 will contain half a bushel, or 1,075 2-10 cubic 

 inches. 



A box 8 in. by 8 4-10 in square and 8 in. 

 deep, will contain one peck, or 537 6-10 cubic 

 inches. 



A box 8 inches square and 4 2-10 in. deep, 

 will contain one-half peck, or 263 8-10 cubic 

 inches. 



A box 8 in. square and 4 8-10 inches deep, will 

 contain half a gallon, or 131 4-10 cubic inches. 



A box 4 in. square and 4 2-10 in. deep, will 

 contain one quart, or 07 2-10 cubic inches. 



These measures cnnie within a small fraction 

 of a cubic Inch of being perfectly accurate, as 

 near indeed as any measures of capacity h.ive ever 

 yet been made for common use ; the ditliculty of 

 milking them with absolute e.xactness has never 

 yet been overcome. 



METHOD or DETERMINI.\(i THE WEIOHT OF 

 CATTLE. 



The following rules are given in an English 

 agiiciiltural work of established reputation. I 

 cannot vouch for their exactness ; hut should they 

 -upon trial be found of use, the table, calculated 

 upon these principles, might be easily published 

 in a convenient form for general use, like an In- 

 terest Table. 



"The following method of asceitaining the 

 dead weight of cattle by measurement wlien 

 alive, has been adopted to a considerable extent. 

 It is (bund to be an expeditious mode ; and if not 

 to be implicitly depended upon, at least furnishes 

 a very im[)ortant assistance to the judgment of 

 the dealer. 



Rule. — Take the ffiiih of the beast by measur- 

 ing round with a string or tape close behind the 

 shoulder-blade, and the length by measuring from 

 the fore [.art of the shoulder-blade, along the 

 back, to that bone of the tail which is in a per- 

 pendicular line with the hind part of the buttock. 

 Midlijily the girth (iii feet) by itself, and that i)ro- 

 duct by the length, and then again by 42; the 

 last product, divided by 100, will give the weight 

 in Smithfield stones of 8 lbs. each. If stones 

 of 14 lbs. are n^quirad, the multiplier will be 24 

 instead of 42." — Baxlcr's Library of ^Agricultural 

 Knowledge, p. 364. 



EXTRACT FROM CHAP. 28, REVISED STATUTES OF 

 MASSACHUSETTS. 



All beef cattle, except bulls, sold in market by 

 weight, shall, when slaughtered, be prepared for 

 weighing, in the following manner ; the legs shall 

 be taken oil at the knee and g.'iiiibrel joint, the 

 skin shall be taken from all other parts of the 

 animal, the head shall be taken off" at the second 

 joint of the neck, the entrails taken out, and all 

 the lilt of the .same be taken off and weighed as 

 rough tallow: and every other part of the ani- 

 mal, including the hide and rough tallow, (the 

 udder of the cows excepted,) shall be weighed. 



All beef shall be weighed upon the first week- 

 day succeeding that on which it may be slaugh- 

 tered; and every person, who shall slaughter 

 beef, .so sold in market by weight, and prepare it 

 lor being weighed, in any fther manner than as 

 herein prescribed, r' 'I 1^ i ' ii a sum not exceed- 

 ing thirty dollars i. i : : provided, that 

 nothing herein ccni i ' ni> vent the buying 

 and selling of be; f . iti; un tiie foot, or the 

 slaughtering or weigliing i.f cattle in any mode or 

 at any time, which shall be agreed upon between 

 the buyer and seller. — .Mass. Revistd Statutes, 

 p. 260. 



Close Planting. — A Scotch farmer residing 

 in the town of Sodus. Wayne county, N. Y., in- 

 forms us that he raised, the past season, 400 hush 

 els of Indian-corn on four acres of land, not- 

 withstanding the dryness of the season. He ;tt- 

 tribufcB bis success iriainly to his manner of 



planting, and thinks farmers generally jilaut too 

 thinly. His mode is to plant in rows three feet 

 apart, and (hop two grains in ii place only 15 

 inelies apart in the rows. The variety used is the 

 Red Blazed Flint. The soil is sandy loam, and 

 100 loads of manure were put on the four ncies. 

 The corn was ripened and cut sufficiently early 

 to sow the ground with wheat. 



Shoeing Horses. 



Nothing engenders so liightlul a chain of dis- 

 eases in a horse, all tendingto disable him, as im- 

 proper treatment of the animal's loot. Naturo 

 bad never taken greater pains to form an exquis- 

 ite anatomical specimen of mechtmical power, 

 than when it formed the fool of a horse ; and to 

 this beautiful, delicate, and complicated forma- 

 tion, does he owe his power of speed over most 

 others of the brute creation. In a state of na- 

 ture, the horse's foot is seldom if ever diseased : 

 in a state of domesticity, it is more or less un- 

 sound in seven cases oi)t of ten. In a state of 

 nature, the foot, being unencumbered by a shoe, 

 is not prevented from assuming that position on 

 the ground which keeps it in a sound condition, 

 and enables each of its component parts to dis- 

 charge their several functions. In a state of 

 domesticity, the animal is obliged to wear a shoe, 

 for the purpose of ))rotecting its hoof from the 

 roughness of hard roads; and the shoe is gener- 

 ally so constructed, as to inflict considerable in- 

 jury upon the foot, by incapacitating its several 

 component parts from performing their functions, 

 thereby producing a slate of disease. Contract- 

 ed hoof, sand-cracks, thrush, grease, stiffness in 

 the flexor tendon of the leg, weakness in the 

 pastern and knee-joints, and a tendency to genu- 

 flexion, are some of the various disturbances pro- 

 duced by improperly shoeing a horse, so as to 

 impede any of the necessary actions of the foot. 

 ."Vnil yet, most farriers, totally ignorant of the 

 anatomy of the horse's foot, and of the various 

 uses of its several parts, apply the shoe so as 

 always to produce the eftects wc have just en- 

 deavored to describe. 



One of the most important organs of the foot 

 of a horse is that [lortion which every body 

 knows under the designation of the frog. Upon 

 the health of this organ depends that of the 

 whole feet ; and yet, the ignorant farrier seems to 

 have conceived so violent an antipathy to thia 

 frog; that be always endeavors to cut as much of 

 it away as he possibly can, without actually 

 wounding the animal ; and as, from the mode of 

 shoeing generally adopted, a great portion ot the 

 frog is olten <lried up and decayed, the black- 

 smith finds no great difficulty in jiaring it away 

 to almost nothing. The consequence of this we 

 shall endeavor to explain, by describing the use 

 of the frog. 



This organ is seated at the heel just beneath 

 tlie hoof and behind its bars. It forms a sort of 

 case for the end of the flexor tenden, which it 

 covers like a bulb. It likewise secretes an nnc- 

 tuous liquor, which serves to keep the horn of the 

 hoof moist and to prevent it from cracking. The 

 frog is also an elastic wedge, which contracts and 

 expands with the hoof, and when this wedge re- 

 ceives its due pressure as the aniuial walks, it 

 keeps the bars in their proper state of expansion, 

 and counteracts any tendency in the hoof to per- 

 mameiit contraction. Thus then, its functions 

 are indispensable to keep the foot sound ; for, 

 if it were destroyed, the bottom of the fle.xor 

 tendon of the leg would be exposed to disease ; 

 again, if it did not secrete oil to keep the hoof 

 moist, the latter would crack, as is oflen the case ; 

 lastly, if it were dried up and deprived of its 

 elastic power, the foot would become permanent- 

 ly contracted, and the horse lame, which is also a 

 matter of very common occurrence. 



Two things are evident from what wc have 

 just stated: — I. The secretion, elasticity, and 

 mechanical action of the liog, arc absolutely ne- 

 cessary to keep the foot of tlie horse in a sound 

 state; 2. If, from improperly placing the shoe, 

 or from any other cause, the frog should he de- 

 prived of the stimulus necessary to enable it to 

 carry on its natural action, the foot must fall into 

 a state of disea.se. With reference to this latter, 

 from the position of the foot and the resources 

 provided by nature, it can occur but very seldom 

 that any accidental cause deprives the frog of its 

 power of action : and, as it is an undoubted fact 

 that the shoe, when improperly put on («s it is in 



