256 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



'^mmrs to Jinquiries. 



TO RAISE WATER BY THE SYPHON. 



Eds. Gen. Fanmeb : — I have on my farm a well twenty- 

 seven feet deep, supplied by a large fountain of water, from 

 which I wish to take water m a lead pipe syphon to a point 

 about three feet below the bottom of the well, where I wish 

 a small stream to run ; to do which, I shall have to raise 

 the water in the syphon about twenty feet above the surface 

 of the water in the well. Can you tell me whether it will 

 continue to run as long as the syphon is in order and the 

 supply of water good, or will the syphon after a time fill 

 with gas and stop running ? If so, by what means can it bo 

 best prevented, and what size and how heavy pipe will it 

 require? Joseph Briggs.— H'i/to, N. Y., Sept., 1850. 



The quantity of water that may be drawn from a 

 well in a continuous stream, as whiskey is some- 

 times drawn from a barrel through the bung, depends 

 entirely on the size of the springs or streams flowing 

 into it. Only a small lead pipe should be employed, 

 unless you are certain that the fountain is abundant. 

 If this is the case, little apprehension need be felt 

 that gas will interfere willi the flow of water after it 

 once begins. Fill the pipe with water before it is 

 put in, having one end in the water of the well and 

 the other lower, for delivering the water where needed. 

 If from any cause the running should cease, an air 

 pump would start it again, or the pipe must be filled 

 with water. 



BEST MODE OF FEEDING BRAN. 



Mks3rs. Editors: — There are many persons, and some of 

 theni your patrons, who have been looking for an article in' 

 tlio Genesee Farmer, on the best plan (or one that you 

 would recommend,) for feeding wheat or rye bran—whether 

 it sliould be given to hogs, horses, cattle, &,c., dry, or wet 

 w ith water ju.st before being fed, or soured, &n. We hope 

 to hear from you in the September number of your paper. 

 Thomas F. Watts.— Russellville, III., Aug., 1850. 



We think it better to wet bran before feeding, than 

 to give it to hogs, horses, or cattle, dry. The addi- 

 tion of a little salt (as much as would suffice for bran 

 bread,) is an improvement. The souring of bread, 

 milk, meal, or bran, may possibly increase the nutri- 

 tive properties of these articles of food ; but we never 

 saw any satisfactory evidence of the fact. The dif- 

 ference, hovt-ever, between ten pounds of sweet bran, 

 meal, or milk, and same sour, can not be great in the 

 readiness with which the aliment is digested. Habit 

 has much to do in this matter — some preferring sour, 

 and others sweet food. 



TO DESTROY THE WmE-WOEM. 



Mkssks. Eiutors; — 1 have been a reader of your paper for 

 a few months past, anti have observed that inquires are fre- 

 quently made on various subjects, and answers solicited from 

 ytju or some of your numerous readers ; consequently I 

 thought it would not be improper to solicit information on a 

 point on which 1 have as yet seen nothing. It is, whether 

 Itiere is any practical way of destroying wire-worms, which 

 lijr two years past have very much troubled, and in some 

 cases entirely destroyed, our crops. Last season their rav- 

 ages were wholly confined to low, wet, black loam soils ; 

 but this season they are much more numerous, and many of 

 our dry hill lands have been filled with them, to the entire 

 destruction of all vegetation in some eases. If you can give 

 lis any practical method of destroying them, you will confi-r 

 a great favor ; not only on me, but ni;inv olliers in Clienango 

 county. J. S. }i.— Lmrlclemi, N. Y., Jidy, 1850. 



We respectfully ask for information on the above 

 interesting subject. Can the worm be killed by 

 freezing and late fall plowing 1 Some of our readers 

 are well satisfied with the efiects of salt. 



LAME HOGS. 



Messrs. Editors: — Can you or any of your correspondents 

 give me, through your Farmer, a remedy for lame hogs ? 

 Several times this summer my hogs have been so lame that 

 they could scarcely get up or walk. It is mostly in their 

 hind parts, and apparently much like rheumatism. They 

 have nothing to eat but sour milk and grass, and of that a 

 plenty. On washing days, however, there is a pail or two 

 of soap suds thrown into the svriU barrel, and now they 

 begin to get a few fallen apples. 



I am not alone in this difficulty, and a remedy would 

 much oblige my father, several neighbors, and your humble 

 patron. J. Dunham.— £/Ha, N. Y., Aug., 1850. 



At the south and southwest the affection above 

 briefly described is not very uncommon. It is gen- 

 erally attributed to inflammation in the kidneys, 

 which occasionally are found to contain worms, on a 

 post mortem dissection. E.xaminations of this kind 

 have been too few to enable one to speak with confi- 

 dence on the subject. Probably, diflferent causes 

 conspire to produce the lumbar weakness and affec- 

 tion of the nerves that extend to the hind legs, and 

 induced inability to walk, if not to stand on the feet. 

 The disease is most prevalent on low, rich bottoms. 



Wood ashes, salt, and pounded roll sulphur, using 

 only a little of the latter, are the most popular and 

 successful remedies. By placing salt and ashes in 

 troughs to which hogs have access, they will eat 

 enough to keep their blood in good order. To this 

 compound many large hog-raisers add sulphur, and 

 regard it as a decided improvement. Sulphur alone, 

 given in the salt eaten by cattle, is found by experi- 

 ence to free them of lice and ticks — the latter being 

 very troublesome in Georgia in the summer season. 

 Swine are subject to liver complaints, and need a 

 plenty of salt, either in their feed or as cattle and 

 sheep are salted. They are too often neglected in 

 this particular. . 



Poultry Stati.stics. — In the first chapter, or 

 Introduction, of his " Poultry Book," Dr. Be.nxett 

 makes the following statement: "From this table it 

 appears that the value of poultry in the single State 

 of New York, in 1840, was $2,373,029 ; which, on 

 comparison with other tables procured by the same 

 census, shows that this sum exceeds the value of the 

 sheep raised in the same State, the entire value of 

 her neat cattle, and is nearly Jive times the value of 

 horses and mules raised within her borders.'' This 

 monstrous absurdity was hatched at the big chicken 

 convention held in Boston something like a year ago; 

 and after traveling in newspapers and other prints 

 twelve months without exposure, is now bound in 

 cloth in a very fair duodecimo volume. 



The State of New York lias over a million of cow^s, 

 nearly as many more of young cattle and oxen, six 

 millions and over of sheep, and horses and mules to 

 match, and the whole are worth less than !ja,373,029 

 invested in poultry! A "rooster" must sell for more 

 than a horse, before w'hat Dr. B. calls " the gallina- 

 cious order of poultry" will be worth " five times the 

 value of the horses and mules" in the State. 



Fraud in Guano. — The London Gardener's Chron- 

 icle says that three times as much Peruvian guano 

 is sold in Englafid, as is imported ; and that the 

 names of ten firms in London alone are known, who 

 are engaged in preparing loam, and selling it for 

 Peruvian guano. One of these firms disposes of 

 thirty tons a week. 



