94 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



can get sufficient fall. This should be done even if 

 there were no cellar, because the foundation of the 

 bam would not be likely to stand firmly where the 

 soil is wet and liable to be heaved by the frost. 



Can you build your bam on a side hill, so as to 

 drive in at the gable end, and have all your pitch- 

 ing down, instead of up ? The barn floor, in such 

 case, would be high up, and all the stock below it. 

 This is worth thinking of. If you have a suit- 

 able place, would it not be good economy to 

 look at some barns constructed in that man- 

 ner ? The barn is a thing of every-day use for 

 the farmer as long as he is farming, and it is, 

 therefore, important that it be so constructed as to 

 keep the stock and fodder safely, and save as much 

 labor as possible. 



HOG MEASLES. 



I wish you would inform me through the Farm- 

 er, if there is any such thing as hog measles ? If 

 so, their appearance. I was jjrcsent at the opening 

 of a hog where the lean meat and a portion of the 

 fat was tilled with small globular specks of a whit- 

 ish color, about the size of a grain of wheat. They 

 were not attached to the meat. 



A Reader of the Farmer. 



North Littleton, N. H., Dec. 18, 1866. 



Remarks. — AVithin the last fifty years there 

 have been great additions made to our stock of 

 knowledge concerning the animal parasites kno;vn 

 as entozoa. In relation to their origin, transforma- 

 tion, and rc-production, we find so manj'^ "facts 

 that are stranger than fiction," that the foregoing 

 inquiry was submitted to the family physician of 

 one of the editors of the New England Farmer, 

 who has furnished the following reply : 



There certainly "is such a thing as hog measles," 

 and their appearance is well described as "small 

 globular specks of a whitish color, about the size 

 of gi-ains of wheat." They are dispersed through 

 the system, more particularly the muscular or 

 fleshy portion ; are of a soft, gelatinous structure, 

 but are not usuall.v so large as seen by "Reader of 

 the Farmer." They occur much more frequently 

 than is supposed, — not very often being noticed or 

 looked for. 



And now, docs any one wish to know what they 

 are ? For that is the most interesting and import- 

 ant information concerning them. So much has 

 been published of late, upon the subject, that it 

 may seem pedantic in the writer of this, to add 

 anything further. But as there appears to be a 

 necessity for line upon line, we will repeat that the 

 measles in hogs are the eggs or embryos of the tape 

 tcorm in man, and only need the requisite transfer 

 of position, to grow into hideous monsters. They 

 lie unchanged in their soft beds, till, like the eggs 

 of the curculio, and numerous other insects, they 

 are deposited in a situation favorable for their de- 

 velopment; and that situation is especially the 

 human stomach, where they speedily elongate into 

 worms, fasten themselves to the sides by small 

 tentacles, or hooks, ready grown for the purpose, 

 lu.xuriatc on the abundant food ready at hand, 



grow with marvellous rapidity, till they reach, some- 

 times, the length of sixty feet, and then become 

 uncomfortable tenants, which the landlord is anx- 

 ious to eject. Such meat is unfit to be eaten by 

 man or beast, and is unsafe until the measles have 

 been utterly destroyed, either by most thorough 

 cooking, salting or smoking. 



ARTIFICIAL manure FOR HOPS. 



What is the best artificial manure for hops ? 

 Will it do to put guano on hops after the vines hsive 

 started in the spring ? if so, how much to the hill ? 

 When guano is so\ra on grass land, how much 

 does it require to the acre ? Hop Grower. 



Alps, Rensselaer Co., N. Y. 



Remarks. — We have never grown hops on an ex- 

 tended saile, but have always found them to flour- 

 ish vigorously on land where we could obtain fifty 

 bushels of com to the acre. We have raised them 

 where various special fertilizers have been used, 

 such as bone-dust, guano, superphosphate of lime, 

 ashes, &c. They will bear high manuring, and 

 like best that of an oily nature. Guano may be 

 safely applied in the spring if scattered about the 

 hill and immediately hoed in ; so may any of the 

 fertilizers usually employed. A single handful 

 may be used to a hill. 



Three hundred pounds of guano is the amount 

 commonly applied to an acre of grass land. Twice 

 or three times that amount may be safely used if 

 applied just before or during a rain. 



BUILDING A BARN. 



Intending to build a barn next spring on level 

 ground, I would like to know if, in your opinion, 

 it would pa.y to dig a cellar under the staljle, some 

 sixty feet long, and wall it up on two sides and one 

 end, to put the droppings in ? The dirt is needed 

 to make the driveway, and there arc stones enough 

 on the farm, so the ovUy extra expense will be dig- 

 ging and splitting the stones, and laying the wall 

 on one end, one side, and about half of the other 

 side. 



There is on the farm, a few rods from the bam, 

 a large bed of excellent muck. Will it do to build 

 a barn tight that has a cellar, without having some 

 sort of ventilation ? If not, will two veurilators, 

 each six inches square, leading from the cellar and 

 passing out under the eaves, answer the purpose .' 



Bradford, Vt., 1867. g. 



Remarks. — "Pay," yes, and you will always re- 

 gret it if }'ou fail to do so. 



Build the biim just as tight as you please where 

 the stock is to be kept. In other parts, you only 

 want it tight enough to keep the fodder from the 

 weather. The ventilators would not be so much in 

 the way, perhaps, if they were 12 or 15 inches wide 

 and 4 to G inches thick. But if you manage your 

 manure heap right, you will have no unpleasant 

 odors in the barn. Haul in the muck plentifully, 

 when it is dry ; keep a good winrow of it in front 

 of the droppings from the stalls, and twice a week, 

 or more frequently if j'ou can, cover them over 

 with the muck, and in the spring you Avill find the 

 best manin-e heap that it is possible to make. 



Make the cellar by all means. A good bam, 



