526 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



ture caused by a too exclusive barn-yard diet in 

 hot weather. He has been successful in its cure 

 by a mixture of a small teaspoonful of cayenne 

 pepper and a tablespoonful of charcoal with a quart 



of corn meal dough fed to the chickens. 



I 

 — Brother Boylston, of the Amherst, N. H., Far- ' 

 mers' Cabinet, is merry over his election to the ' 

 Bench of the "Bread, Butter and Honey" Circuit 

 of the State Agricultural Fair of New Hampshire, i 

 He is determined to do his whole duty, and hopes j 

 that his "Opinions" will be such as to honor the 

 State. We have no doubt that his most sanguine 

 anticipations will be more than realized. 



— B. McClure states in the Practical Farmer that 

 feeding rusty straw to cattle and horses has a very 

 injurious effect upon their health and efficiency. 

 The class of diseases induced by this aliment are 

 marasmus, glanders, farcy, shin diseases, catarrhal 

 affections and watery swellings of the body and 

 legs. He adds that during the last eight months, 

 out of 700 horses fed upon such straw, from 45 to 

 50 were on the sick list. 



— Having been cured of rheumatism by the fol- 

 lowing prescription, Mr. William Bassett of Bir- 

 mingham, Michigan, communicates it to the New 

 York Farmers' Club. Sarsaparilla root, sassafras 

 chips, and gentian root, of each one ounce ; gum 

 guacum, half ounce ; iodide of potassium, one- 

 fourth ounce. Simmer the first four articles in a 

 gallon of water to half a gallon.; when nearly cold 

 add the potassium; siir together, strain, bottle. 

 Dose, wine-glass full twice a day. 



— L. E. Petron, Highgate, Vt., thinks it unwise 

 to abandon the cultivation of corn and depend on 

 the West. He says, in a letter to the New York 

 Farmer's Club, that transportation costs so much 

 that we never get it retailed there short of $\ in 

 silver, while on good com land it can be raised for 

 from 50 to 75 cents, beside fitting the land for a 

 good crop of wheat, to be followed by grass. On 

 light, warm soils I spread the manure, and plow 

 or drag in. On heavier and colder soils put some 

 in the hills, to give an early start in the spring. 



—Mr. B. F. Cutter, of Pelham, N. H., tells a 

 story in the Mirror and Farmer of a hog, which, 

 though well fed and apparently healthy, "did not 

 grow one atom." Soon after feeding him one day, 

 the owner happened to look into his pen, and 

 found the trough completely filled with rats, which 

 at once accounted for the lean condition of his 

 starving hog. The moral of the story is put in the 

 interrogative form, — Is it more profitable to raise 

 weeds in the corn and potato field, or in the gar- 

 den, than to fatten rats in the pig's trough ? 



— Amos Steller, Cary, Ohio, advises the New 

 York Farmers' Club not to allow their sweet apple 

 pomace to go to waste after the sweet cider is ex- 

 pressed, but put them in some water-tight box ; 

 let them remain until they are well heated ; then 

 return them to the press, and add, say, to the pro- 



duction of thirty bushels of apples, six or eight 

 gallons of water, and you can press from one and 

 a half to two barrels of vinegar from the same, 

 and a good article at that. Vinegar made in this 

 way will sour much sooner than otherwise. 



— Agricultural writers occasionally recommend 

 the cultivation of sun-flowers for seed. It is said 

 to yield a gallon of oil to a bushel. A Mr. Spear 

 recently remarked at a discussion of the subject 

 by the New York Farmers' Club, that "When I 

 was farming in the West we all had the sun-flower 

 fever, and huge quantities were raised ; but there 

 were two difficulties, one was to get the seeds from 

 the hulls, and the other to find any market for the 

 seed after we got it out. We fed it to our poultry, 

 and in this way found it very useful, for they de- 

 cidedly preferred it to corn." 



— Industry is commendable, but there is danger, 

 especially on the farm, of working too hard. The 

 case of an Iowa farmer was mentioned at a late 

 meeting of the New York Farmers' Club, who 

 toiled and grubbed and broke down his constitu- 

 tion, and made himself decrepit, to secure a farm 

 for each of his boys, adjacent to his own, hoping 

 they would be all about him in his old age — chil- 

 dren and grand-children — to cheer and comfort 

 him. He succeeded in securing the farms. But 

 what then ? Why the boys live 2000 miles away, 

 and the bent up old man has strangers for neigh- 

 bors. 



— At a late meeting of the New York Farmers* 

 Club, Mr. Quinn gave the following directions for 

 managing currant cuttings. Currant wood can be 

 turned into a plant the year it is grown by setting 

 any time from August to November. I would 

 make a square, clean cut, have the ground mellow 

 that the young rootlets may meet with no obstruc- 

 tions, and then push the dirt closely around the 

 V>ottom of the cutting. The fall is decidedly the 

 best time to commence operations, because in so 

 doing one gets a two years' growth in one. If it 

 is very dry some mulching will be required, but 

 generally, at this season, the ground is warmer 

 than the atmosphere, and 98 per cent, should live. 



— A cori'espondent of the Country Gentleman at 

 Rock Island County, 111., who has taken pains to 

 look about the harvest fields of that section, and to 

 inquire carefully of others, says that eight, ten, 

 and all along to eighteen bushels per acre, is the 

 yield there. Two fields, of 160 acres each, yield 

 less than ten bushels per acre. He puts the aver- 

 age at about twelve bushels. Where the 200,000,- 

 000 bushels of wheat for this year's crop, that all 

 the papers tell of, are to come from, he don't see. 

 But he does complain that, before luirvcst, edito- 

 rial correspondents and travellers, who perhaps 

 didn't know in passing a field of grain whether it 

 was oats, wheat, rye or barley, reported that such 

 big crops never greto before. With much joy, we 

 were about to return to seventy-five cent wheat, 

 fifteen cent com, and two cent beef and pork. The 



