1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



97 



Without alluding in specific terms to every 

 detail to be attended to, we desire to urge 

 farmers not to try to bake their bread with 

 the oven door open. — VL Record and Farmer. 



HOOVE IN" CATTLE. 



I lost two cows in one day by eating green 

 clover, and one at another time. I then 

 knew no remedy or cure. My cows having 

 been turned into the pasture one morning ear- 

 lier than usual, while the dew was yet on the 

 clover, I was notified that one of them was 

 sick. I went immediately to her — found her 

 much swollen — her breathing was quite diffi- 

 cult, and it was with much exertion I could 

 keep her on her feet ; she was disposed to lay 

 down. At a short distance, on the adjoining 

 farm, was a German, tying up grapes, having 

 under his arm a bundle of long rye-straw, 

 which he used for that purpose. Seeing me 

 trying to drive the cow, and suspecting what 

 was the matter, he came running over, say- 

 ing: "your cow eat too much clover — me 

 cure her for you." He then took a wisp of 

 straw, saturated the middle of the straw in 

 fresh cow manure, put it in the cow's mouth, 

 tying the ends together over her head, back 

 of her horns ; he then bid me take a position 

 60 that we might punch her in the flanks on 

 both sides at the same time. The cow made 

 an effort to get the straw out of her mouth, 

 by opening ic very wide, and running out her 

 tongue, as though it was not very palatable. 

 Her mouth being open and tongue in motion, 

 whilst we punched, the gas escaped at every 

 punch, and in less than thirty minutes she was 

 entirely relieved. I afterwaids had occasion 

 to resort to this remedy, and always found it 

 infallible. — Southern Cultivator. 



MILK UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. 



M. V. Essling, in a foreign medi«al journal, 

 reports some very curious facts which he has 

 ascertained as the result of microscopic expe- 

 riments with milk. He states that if the sur- 

 face of fresh cream be examined under the 

 lens, there will be found, amid myriads of 

 milky and fatty globules, a large number of 

 either round or oblong corpuscles, sometimes 

 accompanied with finely clotted matter, being 

 just what is seen in most substances in a state 

 of decay. He finds that these disagreeable 

 looking corpuscles make their appearance in 

 summer within fifteen or twenty hours after 

 milking, and in winter after the lapse of two 

 or three days. Continuing the observation 

 until coagulation took place, the corpuscles 

 were found to increase in number, bud, form 

 ramified chains, and at length to transform 

 themselves into regular mushrooms or fila- 

 ments composed of cells placed end to end in 

 simple series, and supported at their ends with 

 a, spherical knot filled with granulous matter. 

 M, Essling is of the opinion that these for- 



mations may be classified among the ascophora, 

 and to this state of the milk may often be at- 

 tributed the gastric difficulties which affect 

 children. The Journal adds : "All this must 

 be very unpleasant for people in the country 

 whose misfortune it is to get pure milk and 

 cream, but to city folks, whose milk is a more 

 artificial compobition, it does not so much mat- 

 ter." — Utica Herald. 



A Cheap Ice House. — "A year or two 

 ago I had my attention called to an ice house 

 built by a farmer near me, which was simply 

 a bin, made with rough boards, sixteen feet 

 square and roofed over, leaving a large open- 

 ing at the front and sides. He said his ice 

 kept perfectly until the next winter. He put 

 on a layer of sawdust, about a foot thick, on 

 the ground, and then stacked the ice snugly 

 in the center, eighteen or twenty inches from 

 the walls, and then filled in with sawdust, and 

 up over the top a foot or more thick. 



"Last winter, before filling my ice house, I 

 determined to try his* method. I accordingly 

 tore out all the inside wall, and shoveled out 

 the sawdust ; then filled by stacking It snugly 

 in the center, fifteen to twenty Inches from 

 the wall. This space I filled in with pine saw- 

 dust, and covered the whole over the top a 

 foot thick or more. I left out the window and 

 took down my door and left it all open, so 

 that the sun can shine In there every day. 

 Now for results. At the present time I have 

 an abundance of ice, and the cakes seem to 

 come out as square and perfect as when they 

 went In, seemingly nothing lacking except what 

 is used out. I am satisfied 'how to build an 

 ice house.' " — Cor. N. Y. Farmers'' Club. 



The Use of Salt. — The use cf salt as a 

 fertilizer is not nearly as much considered as 

 we think its value demands. It might be ap- 

 plied every third or fourth year. It is the 

 usual practice to scatter the salt broadcast, at 

 the rate of four or five bushels to the acre, 

 after the grain has been put in. Many farm- 

 ers who have used it in this manner, have 

 given their testimony that their crop of wheat 

 has been greatly increased, and the crop of 

 weeds, bugs and worms correspondingly di- 

 minished. If this is so, it is evident that salt 

 performs two important offices, while ordin- 

 ary manure performs but one. Many of our 

 readers, doubtless, have a small pasture in 

 which they keep a cow and occasionally turn a 

 horse. INIany of these pastures have coarse 

 grasses growing In them, while in other places 

 the grass dries up quickly on approach of 

 warm and dry weather. All such pastures 

 will be greatly Improved, and often the coarse 

 grasses will entirely disappear if a harrow 

 is passed freely over back and forth during 

 this month, and salt at the rate of eight or ten 

 bushels to the acre be spread over the ground. 

 — Germantown Telegraph. 



