484 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ctotloCiM), about eighteen inches long, which had 
for several weeks. The "O. d.” seemed to act as “ 
after that rat. and mice, when put In tho box, were disposed of In 
short order. But before strlUng hla prey he always rattled, and seemed 
to work himself into* ««e. His fangs were removed when I got him, 
but were renewed and in perfect condition six weeks afterward, how 
mrw'h earlier I don't know. 
I nulte agree with you In thinking the number of rattles no Indication 
of the age of the suate. 1 saw a splendid epeclmen last June, which 
measured lust six feettn length and nine inches la circumference, 
which had but seven rattles. But If this development Is governed by 
the vigor of the Individual, should not this one have Wn better pro- 
vided for In this respect ? 
Very truly yours, °* 0, H - 
Our correspondent’s observations on the CrotaUda, are ex 
tremely interesting, and’ we should be glad to hear from him 
again on this subject. Arizona is a pretty good country for 
snakes, and we have no doubt that one so observant as Mr. 
Moran will accumulate many noteworthy facts. Ed. 
Animals received at Central Pare menagerie for Week End- 
ing Jolt 20.— One sun hear, Urtnu malayanut, presented by Com 
mander George W. Sumner. XT. 8. N.; one black-handed spider mon- 
key, A Met vulanochir, presented by Mr. Bernard A. Collins, NY. city; 
one flying squirrel, Seuiropterus volancclla, presented by Dr. James i>. 
Bailey Albany; three rmg doves, Tvrtur ritoria, presented by Mr. 
Reed Pitch, N. Y. city ; one green menkey, Chloroeebus $ab<eus, pre- 
sented by Mr. W. H. Francis, Newark; one wh.te-backed piping crow, 
Qvvxnorhina Uuconcta. presented by Captain Austin Jayne, Rockville, 
L. I.; one red-toroated Amazon, Chrysotis coUaria, one fallow deer, 
Csrvta i 'ama, bred In the menagerie. W. A. Conklin, Director. 
ARRIVALS AT THE PHILADELPHIA ZOOLOGICAL GARDENe FOR WEEK 
Ending Tcb.-dat, July lfl.-One little white egret. Ardea candidissi- 
ma, presented; one beaver, Castor fiber var. canadensis, presented; 
three common pea fowls, Pavo eristatus, born In garden ; one white- 
throated capncln, Cebus hypoUucus, presented; two land tortoises, 
Tsstada tabulata, presented. 
Woodland, ffartn wad §arden. 
THIS DEPARTMENT 18 EDITED BY W. J. DAVIDSON, 8EO. N. Y. 
HOBTIOtTLTURAL SOOIBTY. 
MULCHING FRUIT TREES. 
So much has been said and written about the practical ad- j 
vantages to be gained by mulchiDg the surface of the orchard j 
and fruit garden, and the subject being so seasonable, that we 
feel impelled to give a Bhort synopsis of Mr. P. T. Quinn’s 
remarks on the subject, from his address before the Horticul- 
tural Society in June last. He said “ that mulching should 
be more generally practiced in fruit producing districts, for it 
is the least expensive and most effective method of protecting 
the fruit trceB against the bad results often following the fre- 
quent and sudden chaDgeB of temperature during the summer 
and fall months, when the surface of the ground is left ex- 
posed to the direct rays of the sun. Again,’’ he said, “ when 
the mulch is put two or three inches in thickness, the surface 
soil is constantly moist and loose even when no rain falls for a 
term of several weeks, and the trees or fruit receive no check 
for want of moisture and food under such circumstances." 
His method is in the early part of the season to cultivate the 
spaces between the rows of trees in the orchard, using a small 
ODe-horse plow and cultivator, running not more than two 
inches deep. From the 1st to the 20th of July, according to 
the season, he puts on a heavy coatiDg of salt hay, covering 
the surface as far as the branches extend. After this the few 
weeds that make their appearance are easily destroyed, and as 
every fruit grower knows but too well that for two or three 
weeks before the time of gathering the main crop of fruit, 
many fine specimens are being constantly knocked off by high 
winds. When the ground is thus mulched the majority of 
them are not bruised or injured for sale. This saving alone he 
considered paid him for the trouble of mulchiDg the orchard. 
The only seriouB drawback he 6aw was the danger of hay or 
straw getlmg on fire in a continued hot, dry spell. 
Plenty of Honey.— “ More honey on them griddle cakes, 
waiter,” we heard a man in a restaurant say. Evidently he 
was from foreign parts where bees are plenty from the way 
he floated his cakes in a puddle of honey. The restaurant 
man did not seem to like it. He did not appreciate the over- 
lavish saccharine tendencies of his guest. “ Oh, you see, 
mister," said the honey eater, I'm from Ban Bernadino in 
8outh Californy. I come from a place where honey freshets 
is known. In my ranch — it’s a two-story adobe — the bees have 
kind of took possession of the whole upper story. Family 
obliged to vacate, so we live down below. Bees has got the 
whole shebang, from the first story landing to the eaves. All 
I have to do when I want honey is to bore a hole in the ceil- 
ing with a quarter-inch augur, jam in a ramrod, work her up 
and down two or three times, and out streams the honey. 
It’s mighty pretty and handy to put a plate of hot cakes under 
the hole and 6ee the honey spurt. Then we corks up the hole 
for future use. It’s always on tap. Mebbe there is fifty ton 
of wax in them rooms. Jess a little more honey on them 
cakes, waiter.” “I wish," said the restaurant keeper, “that 
those bees had stung that man to death before he reached 
New York.” 
This is a fitting introduction to a story, a perfectly true one, 
of the floating apiary devised by Mr. 0. O. Perrine. There 
was once a gourmand who existed only for strawberries. He 
would strike them m New Orleans about January and follow 
up the strawberries until he culled the last fragrant wild one 
in the pine woods of British Ameiica about the close of 
August. Well, Mr. Perrine has found out that bees can be 
kept at work, say ten months in the year, providing they can 
find the proper food. There is a spring bloom on a willow 
which bursts out early in the season in the Mississippi, which 
can be followed away up the river to its source. Mr. Per- 
rine’s plan was to take a small steamer with two or more 
barges in tow, to haul them to a convenient place where flowers 
were in abundance, to put his hives on shore, and when the 
stock of saccharine matter was exhausted to follow up the 
river to new bee pastures. Tho St. Louis Globe Democrat 
devotes a whole column to Captain Perrine and lus floating 
colony. When last interviewed the bee boss was at St. Louis. 
The trip he has made may be consider only as a tentative 
one. year Captain Perrine prop 0 ** to start from New 
Orleans about the first of April with a steamer and barges 
capable of holding some 2,000 bee hives. There is no reason 
why this venture should not prove successful and a new im- 
petus to bee culture given. We Americans are certainly a 
very ingenious people. 
The Century Plant.— This interesting plant is common in 
tropical America, where it attains colossal proportions, and 
flourishes under a hot sun that withers many other plants. 
Botanically it is the Agave, and there are a number of varieties 
to the family, all of which closely resemble each other in 
general features. The Agave is frequently met with in 
Florida, and in its development there it often equals its kind 
found in Mexico, where it is supposed to be most at home. 
There is at the present writing a magnificent specimen on the 
grounds of J. D. Mead, at Mandarin, Fla., which attracts 
much attention in the vicinity from its enormous size and 
rapid growth of flower spike. It is the Agave applanta, and 
measures about three feet in diameter. The leaves are long, 
narrow and tongue-like, and radiating from a centre spike or 
trank. These leaves are also thick, fleshy and fibrous, slightly 
serrated on the edge, and terminate in a sharp, thorny point. 
At the base of the plant the leaves radiate at right angles to 
the trunk ; higher up they grow at a slight angle of elevation, 
and this angle of elevation increases regularly to the top of 
the plant, where the leaves are smaller, owing to not being 
fully developed, and stand vertically about the flower spike ; 
the general outline of the whole plant is dome-like. The 
flower spike resembles an enormous stick ot asparagus more 
than anything I can think of. Three weeks from the time it 
was first discovered issuing from the plant it grew to a height 
of twenty-five feet, and we hope soon to see the flower. What 
is considered a sign of the latter’s appearance is the r ®£®°t at- 
tenuation of the bulbous head of the spike to about half its 
former size, and there is also the fact that we can’t reasonably 
expect it to grow much higher. I remember last summer 
having seen from a steamer's deck some Agaves a half mile 
t^way on the shore of the St. JohnB, where their great size at- 
tracted attention. C. D. D. 
Mandarin, Fla., Mag 21, 1878. 
A Remedy fob Poison Oak and Ivy.— Last summer we 
published a number of recipes for the cures of woodland poi- 
sons. Here is the specific employed by Dr. S. A. Brown U. 
S. N., Mare Island, Cal., as published in the New York Medi- 
cal Record: 
< * This specific is bromine. I have used it with the same 
unvarying success in at least forty cases. The eruption never 
extends after the first thorough application, and it promptly 
begins to diminish. Within twenty-four hours, if the appli- 
cation be persisted in, the patient is entirely cured. I used 
the bromine dissolved in olive oil, in cosmoline and in glycer- 
ine. The application with glycerine is painful, and, I think, 
possesses no advantage to compensate for irritation. The 
strength of the solution is ten to twenty drops of bromine to 
the ounce of oil, used by rubbing gently on the affected part 
three or four times a day, and especially on going to bed at 
night. The bromine is so volatile that the solution should be 
renewed within twenty-four hours of its preparation." 
To Correspondents.—' T hose deal ring us to prescribe lor their doge 
*U 1 please take note of and describe the following points In eaoh ani- 
mal: 
1. Age. 2. Pood and medicine given. 3. Appearance of the eye ; 
of the coat ; of the tongue and lips. 4. Any changes In the appearance 
of the body, ae bloating, drawing in of the flanks, etc. 6. Breathing, 
the number of respirations per minute, and whether labored or not. 
t). Condition of the bowels and secretions of the kidneys, color, et*. 7. 
Appetite ; regular, variable, etc. 8. Temperature of the body as lndl- 
cated by the bulb of the thermometer wheu placed between the body 
and the foreleg. 9. Give position of kennel and surroundings, outlook, 
oontlgulty to other buildings, and the uses of the latter. Also give any 
peculiarities of temperament, movements, etc., that may be noticed, 
sign of suffering, etc. 
Will Female Dogs Wobby Sheep ?— We are anxious to 
have this question fully investigated, and would like our 
readers throughout the country to give us the benefit of their 
experience. A correspondent differs from Dr. Hadden, as 
may be seen from the following letter from North Manchester, 
Conn., July 22 : 
In your issue of July 18 I notice Dr. Hadden’s letter in 
regard to female dogs not worrying sheep. In reply I would 
say that I have owned two pointer bitches who were notori- 
ous sheep-killers, and would go sheep hunting every time 
they were let loose. One of the bitches I owned several 
years ago and paid more for the sheep she killed than she 
was worth. 1 he other is now owned by a friend of mine in 
this town, and is one of the best partridge dogs I ever saw. 
Last fall one day while we were out shooting we missed the 
dogs, and heariDg a stampede of sheep, we ran out of the 
cover and found the bitch in question fastened to a fine 
wether, and so intent was she on Her mutton that two charges 
of No. 8 at seventy-five yards failed to make her let go. So 
here are two cases for Dr. Hadden that can be vouched for. 
W. E. Hudson. 
Dogs in Texas. — Galveston, Texas, July 17. — Editor 
Forest and Stream : I have had some severe cases of distem- 
per among my Gordon pups, and will not fail to tell you of a 
little instrument which has materially aided me in adminis- 
tering medicine, and thereby in effecting cures. To give pills 
to four pups several times a day (by hand) is not a pleasant 
job, and, as necessity is the mother of invention, this case set 
me to construct an instrument. The same consists of a wooden 
tube, about three-quarters of an inch outside and about three- 
sixteenths of an inch inside, in which fits a stick that Is a 
trifle longer than the tube (lOin.) I force the pill into one 
end of the tube, open the dog’s mouth, push the tube down 
the throat, aDd, by a Bimple pressure of the thumb, detach 
the pill from the tube, which is withdrawn forthwith, leaving 
the pill behind. Simple as rolling off a log. Now, take out 
a patent and be welcome. During the diarrhoea and colic at- 
tending the case of one of the pups when three months old, I 
have lound sweet almond oil very useful. Given in doses of 
one-quarter to one-half oz. three times a day, it arrested the 
disease and eased the pain without ether or laudanum, and in 
two days changed the stools from blood into something like 
their natural condition . I have used this oil for some years 
with the same result. This litter is very good stock, the dam 
being by Maj. Allison’s "Lome’’ (No. 1,602, Loudon K. C, 
S B ) out of a bitch of the Gordon kennels at Climey Castle, 
the genuine Duke of Gordon blood. The sire is Mr. W. F. 
Ladd’s “ Guy,” bought at the Centennial show, a very hand- 
some and good dog. One of the litter, now three and a half 
months old, which is being raised twelve miles from here in 
the country by Mr. Rudolph Hellwig, last week took the 
scent of a partridge, and found and set it in splendid style. 
Mr. Hellwig, who turned out some very well-trained dogs, 
says this one will make a rare one. I have reserved out of 
this litter one dog and two gyps for my use, and claim for 
them, respectively, the names: “Lome” for the dog, and 
“Silk" and “Beauty" for the bitches, the mother being 
registered in the F. &. S. K. B., No. 168. Pedigreed dogs 
are coming this way more than ever. Among late arrivals we 
number Mr. C. C. Petlit’s fine Laverack bitch “ Flora. The 
same is “ pedigreed ” stock sure enough, considering the cir- 
cumstance that she paid a visit to the great Laverack “Pedi- 
gree,” at Leavenworth, Kansas, recently. Prairie chickens 
are nearly full-grown, and sport will be plenty this fall. 
Lone plover are arriving in quantities, and are in fair condi- 
lion. As a matter of curiosity, I should like to mention that 
on the 8th of May Mr. Ostermayer killed in the bay a fine 
lot of large ducks, among them red-heads, bald-pates and 
canvas-backs, for which there are extensive feeding grounds 
of valisncria in our bay. Rather late, is it not? F. W. 
A Cool Canine— Editor Forest and BVrtam : The weather 
here has been very warm of late — away up in the nineties. 
Was out the other day and had my cocker pup Don with me 
(seven months old). We passed into a side street, where 
there was no shade whatever. Ahead of us were two men 
carrying a long, wide sign. Don eyed the hind one sharply, 
then ran to the forward ODe and took a view of him, then ran 
back to me and looked up in my face to tell me something. 
I couldn't make out what he wanted, but told him I guessed 
it was O. K. He ran ahead again, took another good look at 
each man, then walked in under the sign in its shadow, and 
continued in that position until I turned out of the street. 
He did not care much about leaving it either, as he is not 
partial to the hot sun’s rays. J . B. H. 
Buffalo, N. T., July 16, 1878. 
“Fidelity.” — The old watch-dog Fidelity, of the Fidelity 
Safe Deposit Company of Chicago, has just died of old age 
in that city. On the night of the great lire, Oct. 9, 1871, old 
Fidelity was at his post in the Fidelity Safe Depository, and 
when the hurricane of the fire swept over the city he took 
refuge in an unoccupied vault in the basement and remained 
until the morning of the 11th of October, when the debris 
was cleared away and the faithful old fellow was rescued. 
He has ever since been an object of interest as the only liv- 
ing thiDg that passed through the great fire. 
Cooker Spaniels. — The following fine stock of cocker 
6panielsis owned by Mr. M. P. McKoon, of Franklin, Del. Oo. p 
N. Y. The dogs and bitches mentioned are the sources of the 
fine cockers for which Mr. McKoon’s kennels are so favorably 
known : Captain, liver and white, whelped June 16, 1874, out 
of Juliette by Romeo, liver and white pair of cockers, not akin 
imported by Mr. S. J. Bestor, of Hartford, Conn., in March, 
1873. Sam, dark liver with white star on breast, whelped 
May 19, 1876 ; Sam is out of |Nellie by Capt.; Nellie is dark 
liver with white star on breast, a most beautiful bitch, 
formerly owned by Mr. McKoon, and said to be from a pair 
of dark liver imported cockers. Flora, liver and white, 
whelped November 20, 1875 ; Flora is out of Juliette by Snip, 
a beautiful liver and white pair of cockers, not akin. Mollie, 
dark liver with white star on breast, whelped October 14, 
1875 ; Mollie is out of Topsy by Dash (Topsy was imported 
via steamer Idaho, September, 1874); Topsy is out of Flora by 
Wallace ; Wallace is by Rap (well known in England as the 
champion Scarbro dog) ; Flora is by Guess, the champion at 
the great Horton show, June, 1875 ; Dash is by Crossland's 
Duke out of Dora ; Duke is by Findley’s Dart, imported 
May, 1869 ; Dora was imported by Corney in 1866. Bees, 
liver and white English cocker spaniel, whelped November 
20, 1876 ; Bess is out of Juliette by Snip. Mr. McKoon has 
endless testimonials from purchasers attesting the excellence 
of his dogs. 
Broken Legs in Animals.— We have known of caseB 
where the legs of puppies or dogs having broken their 
lives were sacrificed. A little good judgment aDd some slight 
knowledge of anatomy and plastic surgery might save many 
a valuable dog. A gentleman in this office gives us the fol- 
lowing instance where prompt attention and a little ingenuity 
were employed with gratifying success : 
“A very choice Alderney yearling, at Greenwood Lake, 
broke its off-hind leg a few days since. A doctor set the leg. 
The process was as follows : Rolled bandages, five yards loDg, 
were thickly sprinkled with dry plaster of parts and rolled 
into cylinders. These were then wetted a few inches at a 
time, and applied layer over layer to the leg, plaster being 
liberally sprinkled over between each layer. This was re- 
peated until a solid wall of plaster of over an inch in thick- 
ness encased the leg, and the animal was securely confined 
until the plaster had thoroughly set and hardened, when she 
was released and allowed the freedom of a small pen. This 
was over a week ago, and to-day she is able to hobble about 
the yard, and seems in a fair way of recovery.” 
Crystal Palaok Doo Show.— There was an entry of 1,05 1 
dogs, and the classes were judged in the order given, and t>y 
the following gentlemen: Mastiffs, Newfoundlands, Sheep- 
dogs, Mr. E. Hanbury ; St. Bernards, Deerhounds, Foreign 
Dogs, Dachshunde, Dalmatians, Pomeranians, Rev. G. r 
Hodson and Mr. W. Lort ; Bloodhounds, Setters, Retrievers. 
Rev. T. Pearce; Greyhounds, Mr. "Warwick; Pointers, Mr- 
