1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



275 



on the ground, as there was not strength to hold 

 them up, liut when straightened up, some were 

 nearly as high as my head. Tlie potatoes were 

 very large. It took but a few hills for a bushel. 

 Where the salt was added they were not as large 

 in tops or liottoms. It was evident that there was 

 too much salt. 



No iiKinurc of any kind was used last spring; 

 the year before there was a little spread on the 

 laud. My little girl i)ut from ten lo thirty sunllow- 

 er seeds in a hill, but not one grew, except where 

 she scattered them outside the hills. I am of the 

 opinion tliat salt is a valuable manure for some 

 kinds of plants. I intend trying it on potatoes 

 more extensively this year. Would it not be as 

 well to put clear salt in the hill ? 



I have a piece of land that I raised potatoes on 

 last year, that is mellow, on which there was no 

 manure except 200 pouiuls of plaster per acre. I 

 wish to sow either to wheat or oats and seed dowTi. 

 Would salt be good for either of these crops, and 

 how much per acre ? 



I take the Fahmer, and read it, too, and I have 

 seen 1 lut little said about t alt as a manure. One of 

 my neighbors that saw the result of my trial, says 

 he shall try it on half an acre. 



I have two reasons for not using barn manure. I 

 have l)ut little, and the piece of land is more than 

 a mile off, all the way up hill. G. vv. c. 



Gioton, N. H., 1867. 



IlEMAiiKS. — We have no doubt but that a small 

 quantity of clear salt in the hill would be useful to 

 potatoes; but it should not come near the seed. 

 We should recommend a handful of plaster to the 

 hill, as far better than salt. 



A mixture of salt and lime would be excellent 

 for your wheat crop. It should be thoroughly 

 mingled and sown broadcast in a powdered condi- 

 tion. An English farmer found the salt and lime 

 very beneficial on the potato crop. One or two 

 parts of lime to four or live of salt. 



TO PREVENT A COW SUCKING HERSELF. 



Please print in your next number of the Farmer 

 the tlifferent remedies to prevent a cow from suck- 

 ing herself, and oblige E. C. Rowell. 



'Albany, Vt., March 31, 1867. 



Remarks. — We have nsefl, both for cows and 

 calves, a strip of stout leather — a piece of an old 

 tug, or sole leather — with a row of projecting nails 

 gi'ound sharp, hung by a head-stall around the 

 nose. We have seen a sort of straight jacket put 

 upon the neck to prevent the turning of the head — 

 sometimes a square ft-ame, at others it is made by 

 placing two ox bows on the neck and fastening 

 them about a foot apart, one behind the other, by 

 pieces of wood screwed on. M. C. Johnson, in 

 Countrtj Gentleman, says he puts an ordinary 

 leather halter upon the cow's head; slips an iron 

 ring on a surcingle and puts it around the body ; 

 then takes a round smooth stick of good timber, an 

 inch and a half in diameter, and drives a staple in 

 one end and ties the staple to the rmg in the halter, 

 and puts the other end of the stick between her 

 fore leg.-, and through the ring in the surcingle. 

 An Ohio correspondent of the same paper says 

 that a hickory rod, some two feet long, nicely ta- 

 pered to shavp points, and put through the carti- 

 lege of the nose in the same manner that rings are 



inserted, proves effectual. A light board, some 

 eight inches by five, with a suitable notch in one 

 edge, is sometimes hung upon the gristle of the 

 nose. 



But we believe that the nose strap, which should 

 be lined on the inside after driving the nails 

 through, will prove the simplest, least objectiona- 

 ble, and as efhcicnt as any other cure for this bad 

 habit, which we regard as a good reason for beef- 

 ing any animal which indulges it. 



USE OF PLASTER. 



I wish to inquire through the New England 

 Farmer, what kind of soil plaster or gypsum is 

 best adapted to, and what are its effects ? If it has 

 any permanent fertilizing qualities, or acts simply 

 as a stimulant, that exhausts the soil, making it 

 really poorer for the application ? 



Has it any value as a top-dressing on old, dry 

 pastures, or grass land of intervales ? 



Will hops do well on intervales subject to ft-esh- 

 ct once or twice a year ? Subscriber. 



Lunenburg , Vt., 1867. 



Remarks. — Plaster is supposed to act as a direct 

 food for some plants — but that it does enrich the 

 soil, acting directly and by virtue of its own ingre- 

 dients, we do not mean to assert. It must not bo 

 relied upon alone. It undoubtedly increases the 

 green portion of plants more than it does the grain, 

 and this adapts it to pastures. On some pastures 

 a dressing of plaster will bring out a luxuriant 

 growth of white clover, where scarcely a plant of 

 that kind had been seen for years. This does not 

 itnporerish the pasture, but enriches it in three 

 ways: 1, by tilling the soil with roots which will 

 eventually die there, and form a most valualile fer- 

 tilizer ; 2, it causes the surface to be covered with 

 valuable herbage, SLhowt nine-tenths of which come 

 from the air ; 3, the stock kept on the pasture are 

 fed abundantly, and consequently their droppings 

 will be liberal, and tend greatly to enrich the soil. 



Plaster is especially beneficial on the pea, bean, 

 turnip and clover crops, and is appropriate to such 

 lands as will best bring these plants. It acts well 

 on most grass lands, and ought to be SGwn in damp 

 or rainy weather, when it will adhere to the wet 

 leaves. 



We should think the hop would flourish on such 

 lands as you speak of, if the water thoroughly 

 passes off in April. 



EXPERIMENTING. 



I am exceedingly anxious that more farmers 

 shall try experiments, the coming season, believ- 

 ing that, aside from Divine revelation, experiments 

 are the source of much of our knowledge. 



What means can ha adopted to secure more ex- 

 periments and a more general knowledge of them 

 and their results ? I wish you would give us an 

 editorial upon the subject, and enlist your ablest 

 correspondents in its discussion. 



Would a system of premiums have a tendency to 

 secure the result ? If so, I will be one of 20 to pay 

 a $'100 premium to the town, or farmers' club, or 

 lyccum, that secures the gi"catest number of the 

 liiost accurate experiments in any agricultural de- 

 partment, the coming season, and especially in the 

 making and use of manure. 



