674 



NEW ENGLAND FAB^MER. 



Dec. 



and a few months before using, mix in a load or 

 two of barn manure by way of leaven, and you 

 will have some good manure. 



PORK TAINTED JUST AFTKR BEING DRESSED. 



Last fill! I had a hog butchered in the afternoon, 

 and the next morning the lean had begun to pu- 

 trefy, and by night the spare rib and the lean, clear 

 back to the kidneys, smelled so as to be offensive. 

 The hog had been perfectly well, never refused to 

 eat a meal and was butchered and dressed with 

 Others, and all hung up through the night. The 

 others were all right, and mine spoiled. If you or 

 any of the readers of the Farmer can tell me the 

 cause, I should be verv much obliged. 



Manchester, N. H., Oct., 1870. A Reader. 



Remarks. — We have known several similar 

 cases. They sometimes occur when the hog is 

 dressed in amoderatcly cold day ; just cold enough 

 to dj-y and contract the skin, but not sufficiently so 

 to cool the inner portions of the flesh. To prevent 

 the taint, as soon as the hog is dressed, split the 

 body down through the backbone, and unless the 

 animal is a very large and fat one, it will cool suf- 

 ficiently quick to prevent any injury. Even if a 

 hog is not a large one, it is always safer to split 

 the carcase down, although it may not be quite so 

 convenient sending it to market as when whole. 



Possibly the man who dressed the lot of hogs of 

 which yours was one, allowed yours to lie upon 

 the ground, after being stuck, while he was dress- 

 ing the others. Sometimes pork will be tainted 

 by lying in that condition only an hour or two. 



We are not certain but there may be some at- 

 mospheric influence which induces the taint, for 

 more case? occurred last fall than we have known 

 in a life time before. 



preparing a hollow for trees. 



I contemplate filling in a hollow for setting out 

 fruit trees. I have plenty of gravel, sand, loam 

 and swamp mud. Please inform me through your 

 paper the best way to do it. Subscriber. 



Fiskville, R. I; Oct., 1870. 



Remarks. — It is difficult to say what material 

 you had best use without seeing the spot itself 

 which is to be filled. 



If it is loose gravel, fill with loam ; if sand, fill 

 with loam and muck ; but if an adhesive clay soil, 

 fill with sand and loam, and plough deeply so as 

 to mingle them thoroughly before planting the 

 trees. 



A STUB IN THE HORSE. 



My brother has a nice five-year old horse which 

 was injured two years ago by having a stub jammed 

 in his side, back of the shoulder. The wound 

 matterated, the stub come out, the sore healed up 

 and left a scar. This summer a bunch has gath- 

 ered n"ar this scar about the size of a goose egg, 

 and is hard and loose. He has tried a number of 

 remedies but it still remams. Can you give us 

 any information of its cau-se, or any means of cuce ? 

 Elbridge Kingsbury. 



Roxbury, N. H , Oct., 1870. 



Remarks. — If the horse is a valuable animal, 

 and the bunch is loose, we should advise you to 

 employ the best surgical skill you can get, and 



have the bunch taken out. The bunch was prob- 

 ably caused by the stub. The operation need not 

 be a long nor painful one. 



apples and cider. 



Apples, cooked or raw, are to most people very 

 whc<!esome. Sweet apples contain considerable 

 nutriment and add some vitality. Why don't far- 

 mers raise more sweet apples ? This is being an 

 uncommon year for this fruit. Every family who 

 has a supply of apples should dry a pood stock, 

 and should prepare a goodly quantity of "cider 

 apple sauce," or "apple butter." Ic is very whole- 

 some, especially with meats; ten times more so 

 than tomatoes. Apples keep the best in cool, dry 

 cellars. As apples are a natural fruit of this lati- 

 tude, the expressed juice (cider) is the natural 

 spirit of this climate. It should never be made in 

 any but a wooden mill. Every one who has a suit- 

 able cellar to keep cider in should^ottle up a few 

 gallons for future use, as cider is of great medi- 

 cinal value and it can be kept for years. Boi^led 

 cider is of much medicinal worth. Take sweet 

 cider just from the press, boil four barrels down 

 to one, put it in kegs or jugs, cork tight, put it in 

 a cold place and it will keep good for years. No 

 family should be without boiled cider or a tub of 

 "cider apple butter." Dr. Boynton. 



Lawrence, Mass., Nov., 1870. 



SHARP STICKS UNDER MUCK. • 



If Mr. Call will view critically the surroundings 

 of his muck bed, he will see that running water 

 was there in the olden time, and that the beavers 

 constructed there a dam. If he will also exam- 

 ine closely the sharpened end of the sticks, when 

 freshly drawn from the mad, he will perceive 

 plainly the marks of the beaver's teeth. A 

 number of years ago a townsman brought to 

 me a bushel of just such sticks as are described in 

 the item in the FARMERof October 29, and which he 

 excavated while ditching a meadow. The sticks 

 were whole in form and apparently pretty sound 

 when I first saw tbem, but after a few days of ex- 

 posure to the atmosphere they cracked and crum- 

 bled away into dust. The print of the beaver's 

 teeth was as plainly to be seen where the stick had 

 been cut off, when they were first drawn from the 

 mud and for some hours thereafter, as the nails 

 on my fingers. The wood had been preserved in 

 form by its constant contact with wet earth, for 

 perhaps 200 years; but exposure to drying air in 

 the course of a few days resolved them back to 

 their original elements. There is not the least 

 doubt in my mind that Mr. Call struck an old 

 beaver dam, constructed perhaps centuries ago. 

 JosiAH D. Canning. 

 Gill, Mass., Oct. 29, 1870. 



Remarks. — We have also received from aMont- 

 pelier, Vt., correspondent, a similar explanation 

 of the "sharp stick" mystery, together with- some 

 interesting facts in relation to the habits of beavers 

 as observed by the writer while among the Rocky 

 Mountains, which we shall publish soon. 



CHALLENGE CROP OF APPLES. 



October 27tli, I gathered from a single tree forty 

 bushels of apples, barrel measure; thirty-seven 

 bushels of which were stored in my cellar, and 

 three classed as cider apples. The tree is a seed- 

 ling, and the fruit rather small, and in common 

 seasons will keep till May. 



provide bedding for STOCK. 



Now is the time to fill a large pen with leaves, 

 to which you can go for an armful to make a dry, 



