1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



183 



deleterious poison tliat alTeets tlie cattle of 

 tlie States through wliieh they art! drivpu. 

 The disease may be, but is very rarely pnipa- 

 gated tlirougli tlif I'eediui; of liay. Tlie dis- 

 ease occurs mainly duriuj; tlie hot luoulhs 

 and autumn. The frost kills the wild grasses, 

 and conse(iuently the disease disappears ; and 

 in the spring, if there are no new lierds of 

 Texaus on the pasture, tiiere is no disease. 

 Heat was thought to aggravate the disease. 

 There is not tlie slightest foundation that 

 ticks disseminate all the disease. Siilenic 

 fever does not belong to that vast and deadly 

 group of pureh' contagious and infective dis- 

 ea.ses, of which the rinderpest, the lung 

 plague and eruiitive fevers are typical ; that 

 however warm tlic weather may be, nothing 

 like anthrax poison is developed in the sys- 

 tem, and the tlesh, blood and other tissues of 

 animals is incapable of inducing any disease 

 in man or animals. 



Splenic fever is not malignant typhus or 

 typhoid fever; it has no analogue among hu- 

 man diseases, but is, however, developed 

 under conditions, which prevail where the 

 so-called malaria injuriously allects the human 

 health. Splenic fever may be classed among 

 the incurable maladies, as w'e know of no 

 antidote to the mysterious poison inducing it. 

 (iood imrsing meets with very tritling success; 

 bleeding has been resorted to with some suc- 

 cess either in consequence or in spite of the 

 remedy. Purgatives have been tried with 

 good results in a few instances, and with de- 

 jiressiiig and killing effect in many more. 

 Ked water in cows of Scotland is often cured 

 by opiates which check the discharge of 

 blood, and with alcoholic stimulants in mod- 

 eration and free use of mucilaginous drinks, 

 the same has been tried in splenic fever with 

 little or no success. There is only one remedy, 

 that of keeping the cattle positively apart for 

 a season, which will sometimes necessitate the 

 fencing in of local stock, wliile at other times 

 the Texan must submit to some overcrowding. 

 Texan cattle should reach Western Kansas in 

 the summer or early autumn, keeping the 

 stock fresh on the abundant grasses, and ship 

 Kast when the packing season begins. Such 

 a course being rigidly adhered to, you will 

 have no more of splenic fever. Cmnpikd byll. 

 M. K. 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 

 GYPSUM. 



Gypsum has been used as a fertilizer for a 

 long time, but its first earnest advocate in 

 America seems to have bei^ii Benjamin Frank- 

 lin. A story runs that Franklin, to Impress 

 his neighbors with its value, caused the 

 " effects of gypsum" to be formed on a clover 

 field against a hillside with this article, and 

 the luxuriant growth induced made converts 

 of- all the farmers in the neighborliood. 



In order to be able to apply gypsum to the 

 best advantage, it is necessary to know of 

 what it is composed and the manner u\ which 

 it acts. Its compo.^ition is, when nearly pure, 

 suli>huric acid, 44 Itis. ; lime, 31 ths. ; water, 

 20 tt)s. ; and sand, &c., aliout 5 Itis. ; the two 

 former being, of course, the only valuable in- 

 gredients. As far as lime is concerned, its 

 application does not help an,\ in a calcareous 

 soil, or where lime is applied, as in every one 

 hundred pounds of the gyjisum there is only 

 about one-half bushel (I! 1 Itis. )of lime. In a 

 soil which is deficient of lime this small 

 amount may help some, and as there are parts 

 of the country where the soil is naturally de- 

 ficient in the latter and where it would be 

 very expensive to apjily it in anything like the 

 quantity applied in Lancaster county, a heavy 

 application of gypsum may have an effect to 

 which we are all strangers. In the time of 

 Dr. Franklin its use was, no douljt, much 

 more apparent than it is now, and in our own 

 neighborhood it was largely used by nearly 

 every farmer some twenty years ago or more, 

 when liming was not practiced so much yet ; 

 now it is seldom used. 



"We now come to sulphuric acid, the only 

 remaining ingredient valuable for its fertili- 

 zing properties. This is found more or less 

 in all vegetat)le matter, and of course the soil 



I must Contain enough to supply all the needs 



of the plant in thisi-espect ; as the ingredients 



of any soil must necessarily be many limes 



greater than the amount taken up oy the 



j plant. As the surface of the roots come in con- 



' tact witli only a very small portion, it follows 



that if th<' soil is supposed to be destitute of 



sulphuric acid, which is not often, if, indeed, 



at all the ca.se, then the application must be 



many times the amount a crop is supposed to 



j remove. 



I The following table shows the amount of 

 , sulphuric acid removed by the crops named 

 and the amount of gypsum needed to replace 

 the same : 



CHOP. 



Rye- 



Wheut— Grain 



Straw 



■Oram 



Straw 



Oats — Qraiu 



Straw 



Corn — Grain 



Fodder 



Buckwlieut — Grain. 



Meadow buy 



Timothy hay 



Red Clover liay 



Total 008 



Turnips 



Sugar-beet root.... 

 Tobacco leaves 



0.6 

 10.0 



0.; 



7.6 



1.1 



« 9 

 1.3 

 1C.4 



0.7 

 21.8 

 16.4 

 15.4 



S.2 

 36.3 

 13 6 

 26.4 



From the above table it will be seen 

 that the amount of acid removed is quite 

 small in all the grains, but in their straws 

 and in hay, roots and tobacco it is considera- 

 ble. Tobacco and turnips especially remove 

 a notable quantity, and no doubt both of 

 these as well as grass clover and the straws 

 would be materially increased by a liberal ap- 

 plication. The ([uantity recommended is 

 generally from one to two hundred pounds 

 and it is said that a larger application does 

 not generally show more effect than the latter 

 would have done. 



Johnston (English) states that in this coun- 

 try the practice is to apply it at the time of 

 putting in the seed, and thinks that in a dry 

 climate it is better to be mixed with the soil. 

 In this section of the country gypsum is ap- 

 plied in nearly all cases as a top dressing, and 

 scattered over the plants. My impression is 

 that the above mentioned author made a mis- 

 take in both instances; he favors the mixing 

 with the soil in a dry climate because of its 

 insolubility, but with the exception of dry 

 spells this will not hold, for a gallon of water 

 dissolves about one-fourth jiound of the gyp- 

 sum, and to dissolve a dressing of two liun- 

 dred pounds would take but eight hundred 

 gallons of water, which would be a very 

 slight sprinkling when spread over an acre. 



If the sulphuric acid is the object, there is 

 no need of its application in the following 

 cases: 



Where sulphate of magnesia, (epsom salts) 

 sulphate of potash, sulphate of soda, or sul- 

 phate of ammonia are applied, as these will 

 furnish all the sulphuric acid needed. 



Where the sulphate of iron exists in the 

 soil, and lime is applied, the lime and sul- 

 jihuric acid having a stronger affinity for each 

 other than the latter and iron, they will unite 

 and form sulphate of lime (gypsum). 



Gypsum is also sometimes indirectly the 

 promoter of luxuriant vegetation. As in the 

 ca.se of iron and lime, the acid had a stronger 

 allinity for the lime, so it seems to be the case 

 in ammonia and lime, the acid leaviufj the 

 latter and uniting with the former (which is 

 usually called "fixing the ammonia,") and 

 forming sulphate of ammonia, which is one of 

 the highest priced and most powerful artificial 

 fertilizers known. The gieat effect Borac- 

 limcs resulting from the use of gypsum may 

 in many cases result from this fixing of the 

 volatile ammonia, and particularly so when 

 the soil has been receiving liberal coats of 

 manure rich in this ingredient. 



Probably a better plan for applying the 

 gypsum to bring about this result would be to 



scatter it at short intervals over the manure 

 pile and thus prevent from the beginning the 

 escape of ammonia ; it .should be (Kinea-s often 

 as the stables are cleaned which is generally 

 about once a wi^ek. This plan was recom- 

 mended in the F.vioiicn about a year ago, and 

 the American Ayrindturisl for this month 

 has among its hints the following : 



"(Jround gypsum spread upon the floors 

 will prevent the pungent odor common to 

 stables. This vapor of ammonia is hurtful 

 to horses' eyes, and the fretiucnt cause of 

 oiihthalmia, and resulting blindness,* with 

 which so many horses are troubled. Throw a 

 few pailsfiil of water upon the fioor first, and 

 then scatter around a shovelful of the gyp- 

 sum." 



In consideration of all that has been said 

 above it would apjiear that in a limestone 

 country, or on land that is limed, the appli- 

 cation of the gypsum may not pay for the 

 labor of applying, and to fix the ammonia 

 would probably Ije better used on the manure 

 pile or even in the stable. 



If it is to be applied on the field the follow- 

 ing has been found to be tlie result of appli- 

 cation "to clover at different periods in the 

 spring," as quoted by Johnston : 



Undressed, 100 pounds ; top-dressed, on 

 the ;!Oth of March, 132 pounds ; top-dressed, 

 on the 13th of April, 140 pounds; top- 

 dressed, on the 27th of April, 150 pounds. 



The effect of a top-dressing of gypsum 

 seems, therefore, to be greatest when it is ap- 

 plied after the leaves have been pretty well 

 developed. — A. IS. K. 



[We, ourself, when a boy working on a 

 farm, suffered more or less from sore eyes, 

 sujiposed to have been contracted through 

 much contact with horscsf but, although a 

 long time ago, it occurs to us the cause was 

 assigned to a pungent dust that arose from 

 them, in our manipulations of the curry 

 comb, and not from the exhalations of vapor; 

 and yet, after all, that may have been the 

 cause, and we not know it, or both circum- 

 stances may liave combined to produce that 



effect. Ed.1 



^ 



OLEOMARGARINE— THE NEW 

 STITUTE FOR BUTTER. 



SUB- 



Interesting Letter to Prof. Baker, of Millers- 

 ville — The Mode of Making Artificial 

 Butter Explained by President 

 Deshler. 

 We have received from Prof. Baker, of the 

 Millersville State Normal School, a specimen 

 lump of oleomargarine, the new substitute 

 for butter. It looks like butter, its odor is 

 like that of butter, and it tastes like butter — 

 and pretty good butter at that. 

 Prof. Baker's Letter. 

 Millersville, Pa., Nov. 7, 1877. 

 To the Editor of The JVctc Era. 



Dear Sir : 1 send you a specimen of oleo- 

 margarine, or artificial butter, a portion of a 

 quantity sent me for examination by the 

 United "states Dairy Company of New Vork. 

 And the communication received from the 

 president of the company contains so much 

 that seems to me of general interest connected 

 with the history and manufacture of the new 

 product that I .send it also, thinking that you 

 might find something in it for the readers of 

 your paper. — TourK truly, Thos. li. Baker. 

 Tne ''Substitute" and How it is Made. 

 New Youk, Novcml>cr 1st, 1H77, 1 

 21 Courtland St., Room 53. ) 

 Prof. Tlmnas li. Baker, State A'on»ia2 School, 

 Millersville, Lancaster, Pcnn.: 

 Dear Sir: Yours of the 20th ult., asking 

 for a specimen of our artificial butter to ex- 

 amine and show to your class, has Ikjcu 

 received, and we shall take pleasure in com- 

 plying with your wi.shes. 

 It is proper to state that a great deal of this 



•I know of 1 young man who, whAD a boy. got sore eye* 

 from cleaning a hon«c stable, and they remained In a bad 

 condition for a long time. I think he cannot se« out of 

 one eye now, or it is very much weaker than the other, all 

 resulting from the vapor of ammonia. No doubt many 

 readers have had their eyes set a smarting when going into 

 a horse stable ; the use of gypsum will prevent all this. 



