116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



■mil 





most persons are not so careful, and sometimes 

 destroy the labor of many years by the rash use 

 of potash. We knew an orchard of a hundred 

 trees destroyed in less than one week by the use 

 of potash water, one pound to a gallon of wa- 

 ter ! Potash is an alkali in a very concentrated 

 form, and must always be used with care. Through 

 the indiscreet teachings uf some who have gone be- 

 fore us, we have no doubt but thousands of ap- 

 ple trees have been greatly injured or utterly 

 ruined by the use of potash in a too concentrated 

 form. The reader will observe how exact our cor- 

 respondent is in the quantities he employs. 



REMEDY FOB "GRUB IN THE HEAD" 

 OF SHEEP. 

 Mr. Editor:— Having noticed an article in 

 the Septeniliev number of the Farmer on worms 

 in the he:id of sheep, and their treatment, and as 

 I have had quite an experience for twenty or 

 thirty years in the E'lstern States upon said treat- 

 ment, I thought I might, perhaps, confer a favor 

 on wool growers by giving my mode to the pul)- 

 lic. It is natural for the sheep fly to propagate 

 its species by depositing its larvie in the nostrils 

 of sheep at what is called the "bridge of the 

 nose." As the weather begins to moderate to- 

 wards spring, they become a maggot, or grub, 

 and seek to crawl about. If the spring should 

 turn out to be late, so as to prevent their seeking 

 the open air, they will follow up the outside cavi- 

 t\ of the skull to the brain, and thus destroy the 

 sheep. 



About the first of March, make a mixture of 

 cne quart of tar, one pint of spirits of turpentine, 

 one pint of linseed oil : simmer well, and when 

 cool mix two ounces of black pepper ground fine. 

 Make a small swab by winding tow or flax on a 

 small, tough stick, dip it in the mixture and gen- 

 tly slip it up the nostril to the bridge of the nose. 

 Go through the flock in this manner. If on the 

 barn floor, you will find grubs there in a little 

 while. The turpentine kills, tlie oil loosens, the 

 pepper makes the sheep sneeze them out, tar is 

 healing. I never knew a sheep to die of grub in 

 the head after being treated as above, that sea- 

 son. 



Preventive. — Take the above mixture without 

 the pepper, and go through the flock as above in 

 October, or prior to putting them into winter 

 quarters, as it will destroy all the parasites, and 

 the sheep will do well through the winter. 



Truly yours, 

 —Wisconsin Farmer. Gilbert Allard. 



Coal Ashes on Grass.— I have experiment- 

 ed with coal ashes and find them well worth ap- 

 plying, although it is doubtful whether they will 

 pay for a long cariage. I slaked out a piece in 

 an old meadow and spread coal ashes on quite 

 thick, early in spring. The influence was quite 

 as apparent as a coat of manure or of plaster 

 would have been. It started clover, and the grass 

 was much higher and thicker. There is in most 

 coal ashes from stoves, a small quantity of wood 

 ashes, but not enough to account for the eflect 

 produced on my meadow. I agree with you that 

 It ?s lit-ttfi- to srire id c->al ashes on the soil than 



THE MCJSKRAT. 



When our river overflows its banks in the 

 spring, the wind from the meadows is laden with 

 a strong scent of musk, and by its freshness ad- 

 vertises me of an unexplored wildness. Those 

 backwoods are not far off then. I am affected by 

 the sight of the cabins of the muskrat, made of 

 mud and grass, and raised three or four feet along 

 the river, as when I read of the barrows of Asia. 

 The muskrat is the beaver of the settled States. 

 Their number has evenincreased,within a few years 

 in this vicinity. Among the rivers which empty 

 into the Merrimack, the Concord is known to the 

 boatmen as a dead stream. The Indians are said 

 to have called it Musketuquid, or Prairie river. Its 

 current being much more sluggish, and its water 

 more muddy than the rest, it abounds more in 

 fish and game of every kind. According to the 

 history of the town, " i'he fur trade was here once 

 very important. As early as 1641, a company was 

 formed in the colony, of which Major WilUird, of 

 Concord, was superintendent, and had the exclu- 

 sive right to trade with the Indians in furs and 

 other articles ; and for this right they were 

 obliged to pay into the public treasury one-twen- 

 tieth of all the furs they obtained." There are 

 trappers in our midst still, as well as on the 

 streams of the far West, who night and morning 

 go the rounds of their traps, without fear of the 

 Indian. One of these takes from one hundred 

 and fifty to two hundred muskrats in a year, 

 and even thirty-six have been shot by one man 

 in a day. Their fur, which is not nearly as valu- 

 able as formerly, is in good condition in the win- 

 ter and spring only ; and upon the breaking uj) of 

 the ice, when" they are driven out of their holes 

 by the water, the greatest number are shot from 

 boats, either swimming or resting on their stools, 

 or slight supports of grass and reeds, by the side 

 of the stream. Though they exhibit considerable 

 cunning at other times, they are easily taken in a 

 trap, which has only to be placed in their holes, 

 or wherever they frequent, without any bait be- 

 ing used, though it is sometimes rubbed with 

 their musk. In the winter the hunter cuts holes 

 in the ice, and shoots them when they come to the 

 surface. Their burrows are usually in the high 

 banks of the river, with the entrance under water, 

 and rising within to above the level of high wa- 

 ter. Sometimes their nests composed of dried 

 meadow grass and flags, may be discovered where 

 the bank is low and spongy, by the yielding of the 

 ground under the feet. They have from three to 

 seven or eight young in the spring. 



Frequently, in the morning or evening, a long 

 ripple is seen in the still water, where a mu.skrat 

 is crossing the stream, with only its nose above 

 the surface, and sometimes a green boiagh in its 

 mouth to build its house with. When it finds it- 

 self observed, it will dive and swim five or six 

 rods under water, and at length conceal itself in 

 its hole, or the weeds. It will remain under wa- 

 ter for ten minutes at a time, and on one occasion 

 has been seen, when undistured, to form an air- 

 bubble under the ice, which contracted and ex- 

 panded as it breathed at leisure. When it suspects 

 danger on shore, it will stand erect like asquiirel, 

 and survey its neighborhood for several minutes 

 without moving. 



In the fall, if a meadow intervene between their 



