1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



125 



SEED CORN. 



Noticing some remarks by "O. K." in the Jan- 

 uary number of the Farmer about seed corn, I 

 thought I would tell what I have done. 



I have raised a small kind of yellow corn for 

 more than twenty years. When first raised I 

 could not find two ears on a stalk as often as I 

 can now find three or four, and, occasionally, five 

 to eight, good, sound ears, but some of them 

 small. 



I have taken pains to save as many good, sound 

 ears on early stalks as I could for seed, wliich I 

 think increases the number greatly. 



When first planted, I could get from forty to 

 sixty bushels per acre, now I get from seventy to 

 nearly one hundred bushels, by actual measure- 

 ment, on the same ground and with the same 

 treatment, shelling it in October. E. R. 



Hardwick, Jan. 16, 1862. 



WARTS — WOODCHUCKS — DOVES. 



One of your readers asks for a remedy to cure 

 warts on a colt. I cured one on my colt by wash- 

 ing the warts in saleratus water. I heard it re- 

 commended for warts on cattle. 



The best way I have tried to get rid of wood- 

 chucks is, to turn into the hole two or three pails 

 of boiling water, and take care of the animals 

 when they come out. 



I have known doves to be very destructive in 

 pulling corn, but do not tliink they are apt to, if 

 well fed. A Subscriber. 



Enfield, N. H., 1862. 



A ROUSING HOG. 



"While looking over your paper of Jan. 18th, I 

 saw an account of a fine hog killed by Mr. Eras- 

 tus Howard, being 18 months old, and weighing 

 536 lbs., and also the question — "Who can beat 

 this ?" I have this winter killed one 15 months 

 old, weighing 588 lbs. CuRTis Parker. 



Bichmond, N. H., Jan. 2, 1862. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MATCHLN-Q STEERS' HORNS. 



Mr. Editor : — I have noticed an inquiry re- 

 cently in the Farmer, how to match the horns of 

 steers, if one horn grows down. In reply to that 

 question I Avould say that five years since I had a 

 very fine pair of Devon steers, nicely matched, with 

 most beautiful horns, except one horn on one of 

 them inclined to turn down, so as to look very 

 badly, and the question was, how to remedy the 

 defect, and have the horns grow alike. As I had 

 previously tried scraping steers' horns to change 

 their shape, and without any benefit in a single in- 

 stance, I adopted the following plan : — I fastened 

 a pulley to the floor directly over the steer's head, 

 and another pulley at a point where a weight could 

 safely be suspended, then passed a cord over each 

 pulley, putting one end of the cord on the horn 

 that was down, and to the other end of the cord a 

 weight of two pounds, kept the cord on the horn 

 most of the time during the winter, when my 

 steers were in the stable. In that way I raised 

 the horn so that at the close of the next autumn 

 my steers' horns matched perfecthj rcell ! Since 

 that time it has been tried repeatedly by farmers 



in this vicinity, with the like success. The horns 

 of steers while growing, can be turned in any di- 

 rection, by the continued use of a weight over a 

 pulley, which is but very little trouble and no in- 

 jury to the steers. S. C. Parsons. 

 New Boston, Mass., Jan., 1862. 



Remarks. — We are greatly obliged to our cor- 

 respondent for tliis timely and interesting infor- 

 mation. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 RETROSPECTIVE NOTES. 



Water for Fattening Swine, pa^re 10. — A 

 good work has been done in this brief paragraph ; 

 for certainly it is a good work to expose and de- 

 stroy the infiuence of an absurd pi'actice or propo- 

 sal. Some one, it appears, took it into his wise 

 head that swine might fatten better without water 

 or drink of any kind than with it, and having 

 "proved it by experience" — alas ! that so much of 

 this foolish and false ^^ experience," which consists 

 in twisting facts to support a whim or a theory, 

 should find its way into print — gets his absurd no- 

 tion printed in the Pairal New-Yorker. This pro- 

 posal, and the one-sided experience proving it, 

 misled one reader, and so he tries the experiment 

 of feeding sixteen shoats on dry corn, for nearly 

 two months, without water. As might have been 

 expected by any sensible man, "they acted like 

 crazy creatures and a common rail fence would 

 not stop them. They ate but little corn, and I 

 think did not gain a pound." After water was 

 given them, they began to eat, and act as other 

 hogs. 



This experiment, it is to be hoped, will find its 

 way Avherever the proposal may have gone, and 

 utterly explode it, so that it may no longer have 

 power to mislead any one. But the bane may 

 travel farther than the antidote, and so others be 

 subjected to the cruel experiment ; for there are so 

 many papers now-a-days which have what is called 

 an agricultural department, and into which the 

 non-agricultural editor foists so many absurd pro- 

 posals and so many rion-practical items, that it is 

 to be feared the absurdity now exploded, may find 

 its way where the antidote may not be able to fol- 

 low it. For, in glancing at the agricultural de- 

 partment of some papers, I have seen more that 

 was absurd and likely to mislead its readers, than 

 of what was sensible and practically useful. I 

 have thought this absurdity worthy of notice, 

 c.hiefli/ because the admission of such into agricul- 

 tural papers, tends to lower their reputation, and 

 to strengthen the prejudices of many against them ; 

 and because every absurdity misleads some one 

 or more. 



Seed Corn. — In the issue of this journal of 

 December 7th, of last year, and in the January 

 number of the monthly edition, "0. K." states 

 some facts which will surprise many. It appears 

 that at a recent meeting of the Farmers' Club, 

 connected with the American Institute, in New 

 York city, there was a discussion upon the subject 

 of seed corn, and that so great a diversity of opin- 

 ion prevailed, as to prove that this subject was 

 still involved in great uncertainty. This must 

 cause no little surprise ; for here is the most im- 

 portant as well as the most common crop raised 



