58 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



AUG. 23, IS43. 



HORSE BOTS, COW BOTS, AND SHEEP 

 BOTS. 



There is a ^eniis of flies known by the common 

 name of Bot flies, (Of*(riis,) which are very trouble- 

 some lo horses, sheep, &c. Many suppose tliat 

 there is but one kind of bot fly, and that confined 

 to the hor^e : but the fly which deposits its ej^s 

 in the tiostril of the sheep, is of the same penus. 

 We have also seen a species of bot in the stomach 

 of n cow which we once opened, that liad died of 

 wliat is called the " blind staw^ers," and have spe- 

 cimens of them preserved. These are smaller and 

 smoother than the larva^ of the bot which we find 

 in horses. We have never seen any of them in a 

 perfect state, and do not know how they get into 

 the stomach of the cow. One would suppose that 

 it would be difficult for them to find a lodirmcnt 

 there, as the animal throws up its food to be re- 

 rhewed, or ruminated, as some call it. They are 

 not ofien found in the cow, we presume. Every 

 one knows that the horse-fly deposits its egg on 

 the horse, but every one does not know that if he 

 should take some of those eggs at a proper time 

 and put them into his hand, moisten them with 

 warm spittle and then rub them gently with the 

 other hand, that a small worm cr grub would be 

 hatched. This we have often done. We infer 

 from this that the manner in whicft this species 

 get into the stomach of the horse, is this. The 

 horse bites or nibbles the spot where the eggs are 

 attached, and thus some of the eggs are taken into 

 the mouth, and are there hatched in a few minutes 

 by the warmth and moisture of the month, and they 

 cither take up their line of march down to the 

 'gtomach, or areswallowed with other food. When 

 they arrive at their head quarters, instinct teaches 

 them to attach themselves to a suitable spot, where 

 tlipy remain, puttiping food and increasing in size 

 until they are ready for their transformation into a 

 fly. When they let go they are thrown out in the 

 natural way, and in a few days spring up a winged 

 insect and go forth to enjoy their new state of ex- 

 istence, and to employ themselves in tormenting 

 horses. 



The sheep fly (Oestrus ovis,) is a smaller and 

 somewhat diff'erently formed insect, and is probably 

 the swiftest on the wing of any insect whatever. 

 The way he will dart into a sheep's nostril is as- 

 tonishing, not only to the one who looks on, but 

 to the poor sheep herself, who bacomes almost 

 frantic at the entrance of such an intruder, buzzing 

 and " kicking up a row" in the very inner regions 

 of her '' head and horns." Some fanners think 

 that a few of those insects in the animal are a 

 benefit. We must confess we do not know of 

 tclint use they can be, and, although we are igno- 

 rant of all the laws and economy of nature as it 

 regards the animal kingdom, we should neverthe- 

 less consider that the fewer such tenants in the 

 stomach of a horse or cow, or head of a sheep, the 

 better it would be. One thing is certain ; they 

 are not unfrerinently so abundant as to kill the 

 animal in which they lodge, and we deem it a duty 

 for every farmer to guard against them in every 

 possible way. It is a good thing to oil the legs 

 and other parts of horses, both before and after the 

 bot-nils are laid 0*1. It will prevent the fly, in a 

 great measure, from depositing them, and if they 

 have been deposited, covering them with oil will 

 effectually prevent their hatching. A furrow or 

 two should be plowed in a sheep pasture, for the 

 purpose of enabling the sheep to guard against the 



fly which troubles them. In the heat of the day 

 when the fly is abroad, you will find that the eheeP 

 repair to these fiirrow.s, or to some spot where the 

 earth is sandy and loose, and plunge their noses 

 into the sand, by way of shutting the door against 

 the enemy. Tar applied to the nose is thought to 

 be beneficial as a preventive. — Maine Far. 



BUSHES— THOROUGH CULTIVATION, &c. 



To persons having the bump of " order" tolera- 

 bly well developed, a farm overrun with bushes is 

 an object viewed with melancholy disgust. It 

 speaks of a rnind deficient in energy, and desti- 

 tute of tiinsB nobler attributes which ought ever to 

 characterize the owner of a New England farm. 



It is curious, sometimes, to trace the progress 

 of those evils which, commencing in small inad- 

 vertencies, arc suflfered, by remissness and inatten- 

 tion, to expand until they involve the loss of happi- 

 ness, and finally the overthrow and ruin of those 

 by whom they are indulged. As in morals, one 

 false step is almost sure to be succeeded by anoth- 

 er, so in farming, a neglect of duties or the infrac- 

 tion of important principles, i-j an evil seldom 

 found to occur singly. What is neglected today, 

 will often be postponed tomorrow, and the bush 

 that has grown one year, will, in all probability, 

 be suftered to grow the next ; and so on till the 

 field has become a copse, fit only for the resort of 

 birds and beasts; destitute of all vegetable energy 

 and utterly unable to rernunerrite the owner for 

 the cost of " carrying it on." New England pre- 

 sents many examples at this day of farms run out 

 and families ruined, and it is a lamentable fact 

 that, while hundreds and thousands of our yeoman- 

 ry have been prostrated by the evils of intempe- 

 rance and other vices, others upon whom no such 

 charge could be fixed, and whose situation in life 

 was apparently all that the ambitious citizen of a 

 f'?e country rould reasonably desire, have svirdt ns 

 low, and experienced most if not all the miseries 

 incident to a life of indolence and crime. We 

 know of no country in which there exists more of 

 involuntary — we had almost said, idiotic suffering, 

 than in our own. Men with large farms, are with 

 difliculty enabled to procure a livelihood. All 

 their efforts are scarcely adequate to enable them 

 to live from year to year ; and this too in a coun- 

 try where all the products of industry meet with a 

 ready sale, and where the numerous evils which 

 so fatally paralyze the energies and deaden the 

 ambition of the laborer in monarchical States, are 

 unknown. Throughout New England, scarcely 

 one farm in twenty is free from incumbrances. 

 The product of the soil being insufficient for the 

 owner's support, or rather we sliould say, perhaps, 

 for the gratification of his tpants — the only re- 

 source is to mortgage his farm ; and this system 

 having been once adopted, lets in upon him all the 

 numerous qvils of accumulating interest, litigation 

 and final bankruptcy, with their invariable attend- 

 ants — loss of ambition and self-respect. Nothing 

 will sooner break down the energies, and prostrate 

 the ambition of a sensitive and proud spirit, than 

 a sense of indebtedness without ability to pay. 

 Place a man on a farm of ten acres in Ireland,' 

 with a large family hanging on him for support — 

 with nil the drawbacks of a high rental, church 

 taxes, and the like, amounting annually, in the 

 nggregate, to a sum exceeding the income of 

 the like quantity of land in this State, and he shall 

 wring from the soil the wherewithal to make him- 



self and those who depend upon his industry, more 

 comfortable than the farmer who here owns his 

 hundred acres, and to whom the evils of an exor- 

 bitant rental, and the other contingencies above 

 in"ntiimed, are unknown I It is true that the 

 Irish peasant is a stranger to those luxuries and 

 extravagancies of dress and education, which are 

 so common among all classes here. The proprie- 

 tor of the soil too, is vested in the hands of men, 

 who have found the advantages of an enlightened 

 and thorough cultivation, and to whom science has 

 imparted that most valuable of all human wisdom, 

 the knowledge of adapting means lo ends. A lax 

 tenant — remiss in his duties and intent only in 

 sapping the soil, would not be tolerated. In Chi- 

 na, also, as well as in England, Germany, Walea 

 and Holland, the same system of thorough ciiltiva- 

 tion prevails with the same success. In China, 

 not a rod of land cap.nble of cultivation, is permit 

 ted to remain unimproved. Even the hill-sides, 

 and steep acclivities are trellised with vines, so 

 that the entire surface of the country is represent- 

 ed by tourists, as presenting the appearance of a 

 well cultivated and flourishing garden, abounding 

 in all that can amuse the fancy or delight the eye. 

 Are we wrong in asserting that the great evil with 

 us is at present too much land ? We think not ? 

 We have now before our mind's eye, a farm of 

 fourteen acres from which more hay will be cut 

 this season than one in its vicinity — on the same 

 geological formation, and of precisely similar soil — 

 which contains upwards of forty. Nor are such 

 cases by any means rare. The mystery is this ; — 

 while the owner of the fourteen acre lot has pur- 

 sued a system of thorough cultivation, the proprie- 

 tor of the other has been careless and improvi. 

 dent — the other livoa only from "day lo day." — 

 Maine Cultivator. 



From (be Fermers' Manual. 



APPLICATION OF MANURES TO THE SOIL. 



The powerful effect of Bone-dust upon almost 

 every soil to which it has been applied admits of 

 an easy and satisfactory explanation, by the con- 

 sideration that it is, generally speaking, less abun- 

 dant in soils than any other of the mineral sub- 

 stances required as the food of plants, and is an- 

 nually carried away in great quantities in the shape 

 of corn, cattle, and wool; by which the most fer- 

 tile soils must, in time, become exhausted of that 

 indispensable substance. Less every year is re- 

 turned to the soil by the ordinary manure of a farm 

 than has been taken from it, and a corresponding 

 diminution or produce ensues ; thus the great in- 

 crease produced by the applicntion of this part of 

 the food of plants only, is the surest proof that it 

 had previously become deficient. 



Of the mineral suhslanccs potash is the next most 

 likely substance to be exhausted ; fur although it 

 is slowly yielded by the disintegration of the soil, 

 from exposure to the weather in the operation of 

 fallowing, yet in most cases it is carried off much 

 faster than it is thus supplied, and the deficiency 

 is made manifest by the often astonishing effect 

 produced by dressings of wood, fern, or other veg- 

 etable ashes. The continual drain of thesu two 

 precious materials, so indispensable to fertility, 

 claims the farmer's most serious attention. .Mu- 

 riate of soda (common salt), sulphate and carbonate 

 of lime and iron, though equally indispensable to 

 plants, are much more abundant, and, in many ca- 



