XXII. NO. 10. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



77 



MILK AND MILCH COWS. 



. writer in the Cincinnati Chronicle, ivlioseetns 

 e pi'rfi.'clly at home on all matters perlainini; 

 lilk and inilcli cows, ex])resse8 his or ber views 

 iillnws : 



1 selecting the best cows for milk, Ihey should 

 f the middle size, or upivardr", with a mixture 



tion is referable to its performance of this office. — 

 Jlmer. Far. 



PRSTRUCTION OP LNSECTS. 

 Various have been the recipes suggested for the 

 ("estrnction of the insects which destroy the culti- 

 vator's crops. Ants, it is said, may be easily de- 

 'urli;im, say oiie-half or three-fourths, and from f,,royed by toasting the flrshy side of the skin of a 

 'and healthy stock; and never allowed to pjgce of bacon, till it is crisp, and laying it at the 



e in under three years old, for they do nut ac 



e their fnll growth until that period. 



lost persons are in the habit of keeping too 



y cows ; one good cow, well taken care of, is 



h more profitable than three or four, kept in 



ordinary way. 



1 order to sustain my position, I will state a 



relative to my own method of keeping cows, 

 leave the public to judge of its utility ; I have 

 e large three-fourtli Durham cow, six years 



after supplying my family with an abundance 

 lilk mid cream, and giving the second day's 



to the calf, which I am raising, and is now 

 months old, my family made, the last week in 

 ember, (and a very cold week ion,) 7iine pounds 

 i sweet yellow butter, as ever I saw in June, 

 keep my cow in winter, in a warm dry stable, 

 under no circumstances allow her to be out in 

 :old rain, either night or day. I keep her well 

 led with straw; give her as much pure water 

 le will drink tliree times a day, at which time 

 ^d her with as much good fine hay as she needs, 

 no more than she will cat up from time to 



; night and morning, I give her a peck of su- 

 jects, well cut up. 1 find potatoes to answer 

 od purpose, when I have not the beets, but 

 not make so yellow and sweet butler. Corn 

 corn meal I find will not answer the purpose, 



is sure to dry up cows : they should have 

 two or three times a week. 



lESUSCITATION OF PEACH TREES, 

 n esteemed friend, one who owns a fine estate 

 n adjoining county, informs us that he has re- 

 ;d two peach trees to vigorous health, by dig- 

 ■ in around the roots of each tree, a peck of 

 t he terms /i/iq^((/. On the estate in ques- 

 there is a fishery, and it was to the captain 

 ne of the crafts resorting there for fish, that 

 informant was indebted for the knowledge of 

 remedy. The trees had shown evident signs 

 ecay, both in the yellowness of their leaves 

 general unthriftmess of appearance ; but in a 

 few wreks after the application of the oft'al, 

 assumed an entirely changed appearance — 

 leaves became of a dark, healthful green color, 

 shoots sjirung forth, and every vestige of their 

 asc has subsequently disappeared, 

 'he fish-offa! had, as all such refuse matter has, 

 rtion of salt in it, and it is possible that to that 

 ;ral the cure effected, is, in a great measure, 

 ibable. And we are the more inclined to this 

 ion, as we learned some months since, through 

 same g'-nlleman, that a peach tree on another 

 is faiins, had been restored to health by occa- 

 al watc!ring3 with human urine. It may, how. 

 , bo possible, that the ammonia generated by 

 Jeciiy of the fish may have contributed its 

 e to the good work. Tlie sickly hue of these 

 3 may have been superinduced by a want of 

 sh in the soil, and as salt, like lime and mag- 



root of any fruit tree that is infested by these in 

 sects, placing something over the bacon to keep it 

 dry — the ants will go under it ; after a time lift it 

 up quickly, and dip it into a pail of water. While 

 treating of insects, I may incidentally allude to 

 worms and slugs, or naked snails. For the de- 

 struction of slugs in gardens, warm in an oven or 

 before a fire, a riiiantity of cabbage leaves, until 

 they are soft ; then rub them with unsalted butter, 

 or any kind of fresh dripping, and lay them in 

 the place infested by slugs. In a few hours the 

 leaves will be found covered with snails and slugs. 

 For field operations, perhaps the best means of de- 

 stroying slugs and worms is common salt, an agent 

 too little known for this purpose, yet its powers are 

 undoubted. 



No person has employed common salt for the 

 purpose of destroying worms, to a greater extent 

 than Jacob Busk, Esq., of Hertfordshire. liis val- 

 uabte experiments have extended over some hund- 

 reds of acres of wheat. To use his own words: 

 " In every situation, and at every time, the eflect 

 appeared equally beneficial." The quantity per 

 acre — "about four or five Imshels sown out of a 

 common seed-shuttle." The period — "in the eve- 

 ning." The effect — '' In the morning each throw 

 may be distinguished by the quantity of sliine and 

 the number of dead slugs lying on the ground. In 

 some fields it has certainly been the means of pro- 

 venting the destruction of the whole crop." Six 

 bushels of salt per acre was applied by hand, in 

 April, 1828, to a field of oats attacked by the slugs 

 and worms, and the crop was cmnplotely saved, 

 although an adjoining field, not sailed, was entirely 

 destroyed by this sort of vermin. 



Salt, loo, It a complete preventive of the rava- 

 ges of the weevil in grain. It has been success- 

 fully employed in the proportion of a pint of salt 

 to a barrel of wheat. I learn from an American 

 merchant, that wheat placed in old salt barrels is 

 never attacked by these destructive insects. Six 

 or eight pound.^ of salt sprinkled nvrr 100 sheaves 

 in stacking, produces exactly the same effect. 



Eiiiih IVorms. — The farmer while warmly en- 

 gaged in the destruction of the annoying insects 

 of the field, should not ornit to consider whether 

 many of these are not, in some way or other, pro- 

 ductive of benefit — whether tliey do not serve to 

 keep within reasonable limits other insects, or per- 

 form some other wise purpose in the works of crea- 

 tion. This has been proved to be the fact in the 

 case of the coiiimoii earth-worm, whose casts so 

 often annoy the gardener and the farmer. For 

 these not only assist in the continual admixture 

 of different strata of earths, liut, by boring the soil, 

 they promote in it the circulation of the atmos- 

 pheric gases, and even the drainage from it of its 

 superliuous moi<tiire. And as White, of Solborne, 

 remarks in his jY.Uural History, "The most insig- 

 nificant insects and reptiles are of much more con- 

 sequence, and have much more influence in the 

 economy of nature, than the in'iirii'Us are aware 



and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet if 



Inst, would make a lamentable chasm Johnson's 



Farmers' Encyclop. 



Horse Chestnut. — If, says a writer in the Amer- 

 ican Farmer, (vol. xiv.) the value of this nut was 

 more generally understood, it would nut be suffered 

 to rot and perish without being turned to any ac- 

 count, as at present. The horse-chestnut contains 

 a saponaceous juice, very useful, not only in bleach- 

 ing, but in washing linens and other stuffs. The 

 nuts must be peeled and ground, and the meal of 

 twenty of them is sufficient for ten quarts of wa- 

 ter ; and either linens or woollens may be washed 

 with the infusion, without any soap, as it effectual- 

 ly takes out spots of all kinds. The clothes 

 should, however, afterwards be rinsed in spring 

 water. The same meal, steeped in hot water and 

 mi.ved with an equal quantity of bran, makes a nu- 

 tritious food for pigs and poultry. — luid. 



Lady Birds, or Lady Bugs Familiar names 



applied to small liemisphcrical beetles, scientifi- 

 cally denominated coccinella. These little beetles 

 are generally yellow or red, with black spots, or 

 black, with white, red, or yellow spots. There 

 are many kinds of them, and they are generally 

 difli'used among plants. Tbey live, both in the per- 

 fect and young state, upon plant lice, and hence 

 their services are very considerable. There are 

 some of these lady-birds of a very small size, and 

 blackish color, sparingly clothed with short hairs, 

 and sometimes with a yellow spot at the end of 

 the wing-covers, whose young are clothed with 

 short tufts or flakes of the most delicate pure 

 white down. These insects belong to the genus 

 Srymmis, which means a lion's whelp, and they 

 well merit such a name, for their young, in propor- 

 tion to their size, are as sanguinary and ferocious 

 as the most savage beast of prey. I have often 

 seen one of these little tufted animals preying up- 

 on the plant-lice, catching and devouring with the 

 greatest ease, lice nearly as large as its own body, 

 one after another, in rapid succession, without ap- 

 parently satiating its hunger, or diminishing its ac- 

 tivity. — Harris. 



JVapoleon and the Doctors. — Although Napoleon 

 entertained a high opinion of surgeons, his noticns 

 in regard to physicians were not the most exalted. 

 He once said to Barry O'Meara, at St. Helena, 

 "You medical men will have more to answer for 

 than we generals. You kill as many as ive do ; 

 and when the physician has despatched a number 

 of l^unian beings, either through ignorance or mis- 

 take, he is just as cool and unconcerned about it 

 as a General with whom I was acquainted, who, 

 having lost 3,000 men in storming a hill, and hav- 

 ing succeeded after many desperate attempts, ob- 

 served, with great sang froid, ' Oh, it was not this 

 hill I wanted to take — it was another; this is of 

 no utility ' — and coolly returned to his former po- 

 sition." — Bost. Trans. 



a, will replace this in the soil, it is probable 

 the efficacy of the salt in the cases in ques- 1 of. Earth-worm.^, though in appearance a small J 



Mtd Dogs — Preventive. — An infallible preven- 

 tive of spontaneous hydrophobia in dogs, will be 

 found ill the flour of sulphur, a smill particle of 

 which should be mixed with their food or drink. 

 It has been known in Europe for centuries, and is 

 always used to prevent the dreadful disease from 

 breaking out among the pack of hounds upon tlio 

 estate of English noblemen. — Lxnh. pap. 



