1863. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEE. 



365 



once a week, as to ripeness, because the season of 

 their ripeness varies with the general season, or 

 the place where kept. Apples, for winter supply, 

 should be suffered to remain on the trees as long 

 as possible and not be injured bj' the frost ; they 

 should then be placed in an upper chamber for ten 

 or twenty days, to undergo the sweating process, 

 then assorted, and all the best packed in barrels 

 and headed up. Russets particularly should be 

 headed up, or else they will wilt. With most oth- 

 er varieties of apples the heading up may be a 

 matter of convenience. This year much of our 

 fruit being wormy, it should be examined as often 

 as once in two weeks, and assorted ; one rotten 

 apple will effect all near it, and in a very little 

 while the flavor of -all in the barrel. — Rockford 

 Register. 



Marking Trees. 



Every one has felt the need of some effective 

 plan for marking fruit trees in the orchard ; all 

 sorts of labels have been tried, and most persons 

 depend for strict accuracy on having a manuscript 

 list made of the trees as they are numerically ar- 

 ranged on the ground. This is very well, but as 

 one has to have the list always about, or some- 

 times likes to graft several kinds on one tree, the 

 plan is so far objectionable. 



Now, it is a well known flict, that the scratch of 

 a pin on the bark, leaves a scar that endures al- 

 most with the life of the tree. We were shown a 

 beech tree, recently, in Delaware county, by a 

 middle aged man, with the initials of his father 

 still plainly traceable, which were scratched on 

 the bark when his father was a boy. The same 

 can be done with fruit trees, as we believe we saw 

 suggested some years ago in an agricultural jour- 

 nal, but which, like a good many good ideas that 

 yearly float over the great sea of the agricultural 

 press, has nearly been forgotten. We saw some 

 trees a few days ago that had been marked in this 

 way, and it reminded us that the idea was worth 

 resuscitating. 



The letters of the name are scratched on the 

 under side of the branch and the letters one above 

 the other. In the case we saw, there were two 

 kinds on the two arms of the tree — the Baldwin 

 and Northern Spy — the main or central stem be- 

 ing of ansther kind, the name of which we do not 

 now remember. 



-9*- 



A Vineyard. 



Thomas Wiley, Esq., lately purchased ten acres 

 of ground in the neighborhood of Dr. Nance's res- 

 idence, seven acres of which (the remaining three 

 being orchard) he has been putting in the most 

 thorough state of preparation, by plowing, sub- 

 soiling and manuring, for grape settings next 

 spring. " We hail the enterprise as a good omen. 

 There is no danger ef growing too many grapes, 

 either for wine or the table. It will be a long time 

 before the latter will be as fully supplied as it 

 ought to be. We hope to have a small vimeyard 

 ouraelf one of these days. — Dialy Henry Co. 



■*%> 



Proverb. — Hear instruction, and be wise, and 

 refuse it not. 



Salt for Stock. 



We extract the following from a long article on 

 this subject, published in the Mark Lane Express. 

 It contains important facts : 



The use of salt in the food of cattle must not be 

 looked upon as a direct producer of flesh, so much 

 as a necessary element of the economy without 

 which animals are apt to perish from disease, but 

 with which the body is kept in a normal and heal- 

 thy state. Not many years ago a German agricul- 

 turist, Uberacker, brought forward an experiment 

 which is in direct accordance with this opinion. 

 Wishing to obtain some exact notion of the influ- 

 ence which salt exercised upon' his sheep, the 

 flocks ef which live J upon a low, damp pasture 

 latnd, and received habitually a certain dose of salt, 

 he fixed upon ten sheep, and struck off their usual 

 allowance of salt. This remarkable experimeat 

 was continued for three years, with the following 

 result : 



In the first year five of the ten died of rot and 

 worms ; in this year the remainder of the flock, 

 450 head, lost only four sheep. The second year 

 a new lot of ten sheep, deprived of salt, lost seven 

 individuals ; the remainder of the flock, 864 head, 

 lost five only ; a little later the other three died 

 also from diarrhoea. The third year was very 

 rainy. Sixteen sheep were selected and deprived 

 of salt. The whole of them died in the course of 

 the year of rot and vermicular pneumonia. 



In tlie Brazils and Columbia, flocks may be an- 

 nihilated by being deprived of salt ; here we have 

 an example of tlie same thing happening in our 

 own latitudes, 



M. Garriott, member of the Agricultural Society 

 of Lyonf, assures us that the milk of cows subject- 

 ed to a daily allowance of salt is richer in butter 

 and cheese than when these same cows are depriv- * 

 ed of salt. 



Sinclair, to whom agriculture owes much valua- 

 ble information, observes that the habitual use of 

 salt has a marked influence in improving the quan- 

 tity and quality of the wool of sheep. This is in 

 accordance with Boussingault's experiments on 

 bullocks. Sinclair goes still further as concerns 

 pigs. Some of the fattest pigs killed in Ireland, 

 according to this observer, are those to whom a 

 certain portion of salt is regularly given. 



Many other English agriculturists have proved 

 by direct experiments that a regular distributi»n 

 of salt to cattle is especially useful in preventing 

 hoove, (meteorisation,) caused by feeding cattle 

 with legumiaous and cruciferious vegetables. And 

 there exists, no doubt, among those who have tried 

 it, the idea that when employed in proper quanti- 

 ty, it increases their appetite, stimulates digestion, 

 improves the wool or hair of the cattle, prevents 

 disease, and, moreover, enables the agriculturist 

 to fatten cattle upon food which they would not 

 enjoy without it were previously mixed with salt. 

 Dr. Desaive, in his treatise on the Use of Salt for 

 Cattle, (to which the Academy of Medicine of 

 Brussels awarded a gold medal,) has arrived at the - 

 conclusion that "the seasonable use of salt in the 



1 alimentation of cattle may increase indefinitely 

 every branch of agricultural produce." It is on 



fc.. 



