1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



171 



team than to feed a light fancy span, but the 

 advantage gained in the increase of grain 

 grown from thorough ploughing, and the time 

 saved in dispatching other work, will make up 

 the difference in feed many times over in 

 a single season. — Ohio Farmer, 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



FOOT ROT IN IHEEP. 



I notice in the Farmer of the 22d Inst., that a 

 brother wool grower, Mr. A.G. Noycs, of Lam-as- 

 ter, N. H., setms disposed to criticise the manner 

 of froatins? foot rot, as recommended bv myself in 

 a la'e c )mmunication to your paper. He thinks I 

 insi t upon "precision" and "eternal vigilance" to 

 a degree not practicable in flocks of 100 sheep or 

 mnrc — admlttinsr that it might do in a tmall lot of 

 a dozen "fancy" theep. 



Thit admi-.'-im isall Icouldask. If themethod 

 is practicable for a doz^n s-heep, why is it not for 

 anv larger number? I was driven to thit "prc- 

 cisioti" in treatment by a dozen failures, such as 

 all men have experienced who have attempted to 

 rid their flji.ks of tliis disease. I found I was con- 

 suming a great amount of time, and experiencing 

 no small amount of labor, in going over the flock 

 in a supertifial manner, many times, and still the 

 job was n >t done. I left vn-us enough for seed 

 each time, and a gooi crop of sore feet was sure 

 to follow in due season. We all know men, I 

 dou.>t n )t, who keep foot rot in their flocks from 

 year to year, and never get rid of it. The gen- 

 eral practice wiih such men is to "docor" ihe 

 sheep every rainy day, when it is convenient, "in 

 the o d-fashioned," 'di ibolical" way, and so the 

 trouble remains. Now I wish to assure mv friend 

 Noyes, that the method I have proposed is as 

 efF-.ctual for a large number as for a small one. 

 He a-k-^, — "Bat how is ic in flocks of one to five 

 hundred ? ' I cannot say how it would op.'ratc 

 with five hundred ; but I do know that with four 

 hundred ic will work I'ke a cbarm. I have per- 

 sonally applied that "eternal vigilance" to taat 

 number, but I never went any higner. 



And more ttian this, I can assure any man that 

 I found le-s "back achms" in this method of treat- 

 men', than in the olJ half-and-half way of going 

 about it. 



Let any man say whi 'h involves the most labor, 

 to go over one hundred theep as I have recom- 

 mended ttoice and cure them, or to go over them 

 eight or ten times carelet-sly and at uncertain in- 

 terval-, and leave them in the end no batter than 

 when tirst taken in hand. One word in regard to 

 thij method recommended by Mr. Noyes. I think 

 it a flood one. Tue greatest objection I see to it 

 is, that it, is not aJa jted to winter use, — when the 

 disease is apt to be the most persistent. 



I would like to inquire of Mr. Noyes, why, if 

 lie depended as mu h upon the "brine" as upon 

 the "t^olii ion of vitriol" — he did not depend alto- 

 gether upon iho brine? And once more, If he 

 has "filth in the curative qualities of tobacco," 

 will he tell us in what those curative qualities 

 consi-t? Henry BoY.NTON. 



Wooddock, Vt., Jan. 29, 1870. 



■WHEAT CVLTURE — COMPOST FOR "WHEAT. 



In my article of August 21, 18G9, on "Wheat Cul- 

 tuie, I promised to give your readers rny mode of 

 cuitivaii')n. It may be proper for me to remark, 

 In the tirst place, that I am but a small, or as some 

 say, a one-horse farmer, having only about 8o 

 acics of Ian i, all told. I have raised from live to 

 ten acres of wheat yearly. 1 sometimes sow winter 



wheat, after corn, if the corn pets ripe, so that I 

 can get in the wheat before the I5th of September; 

 and if the ground is in a good state of cultivation, 

 sufficient to raise 50 bushels cf shelled corn to the 

 acre, I will get 2-5 bushels of wheat on an average. 

 Still I have had the best success with turf ground, 

 or inverted sod. Say, take a piece of mowing 

 ground that will not cut more than 1500 pounds of 

 hay to the acre, turn it over as smooth aspossiblcj 

 during lowry weather, in haying and harvesting, 

 not ploughing over six or seven inches deep at 

 most; then roll it before putting on ihe harrow, 

 so as not to disturb the sods; then harrow until it is 

 mellow; letitlayuntilabout the 20th of August, and 

 spread five or six cords of fine manure to the acre, 

 if I have it. But if I have not the manure, I take 

 fifteen bushels of wood ashes, five bushels of 

 slaked lime, 300 pounds plaster, and three bushels 

 salt, put it all in a cart, and niix by shoveling 

 over. This makes the best compost or fertilizer 

 that I have ever used for wheat. The above quan- 

 tities are suffleient for an acre, and I think it is as 

 good for the wheat as the five or six cords of ma- 

 nure, on my land, and the grass is as good where 

 the compost is used as it is where I put the ma- 

 nure. Alter spreading on the manure, or compost, 

 and harrowing twice in a pi ice, I sow two bushels 

 of wheat, that has been soaked two hours in a 

 strong brine, and dried off, with half a bushel of 

 lime to the acre. I then harrow and cross harrow 

 twice in a place, each way ; alter which I sow my 

 grass seed and harrow once in a place lengthways 

 of the furrow, then bush with a light bu-h, and 

 finish by rolling smooth, and in nine years have 

 not had but one crop fjil. Abju'. one-half of my 

 land is a clay loam, and the other part a slate 

 gravel. 



I have ten acres of winter wheat in the ground 

 now, the most of it on tut f ground, sowed in Au- 

 gust. Ttie growh last fall was very heavy, but it 

 has been a bad, open winter, thus far, for winter 

 grain, in old Vermont. 



NORWAY OATS. 



I sowed in the spring of 1868 three bushels of 

 Norway oats on two acres of very rich ground, and 

 gor43^ bushels that weighed twenty seven pou-ids 

 to the bushel. I sold to Mr. Rainsdell at $1.25 

 per bushel. If I had sowed that same ground to 

 wheat 1 should have got more bushels, and could 

 have sold the wheat at ^2.50 per bushel. 



EARLY ROSE POTATOES. 



I planted May 14th twelve ounces of seed, mak- 

 ing: seventf en hills of three eyes ea h, and dug .Sep- 

 tember 14:h, ninety-tour pounds nic3 mealy hand- 

 some potatoes; but 1 think that I hey will improve by 

 planting, like all other seedlin:rs, until they have 

 been planted ten or twelve years, for it takes from 

 eight to twelve years for potatoes started from 

 seid hails to arrive to full matuii y. 



Hartford, Vt., Jan. 25, 1870. It. II. S1MOJID8. 



CASE OF ABOUTIOX WITH COW. 



Nearly five weeks since, I butchered three hogs 

 in my barn yard ; also, a beef in the barn. I had 

 one cow to calve next April. The following morn- 

 ing she lost a calf. On the third morning another 

 caTf, making two calves. Was the scent of blood 

 the cause? I have slaughtered hogs and cattle 

 many times in the presence of cows in calf, but 

 have never known any such results before. 



EARLY RISING HENS. 



I have ten hens, all in laying order. Six out of 

 the ten invaria oly go to their nests before day- 

 liuht in the mornine,— usually between half past 

 live and six o'clock,— leaving their nests as soon 



