238 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jttke, 
Sale of Oracle ^oi-niau Horses.— 
Fifty head of ^Tiulo Norman horses, mostly balf to three- 
quarter blood, were recently sold at public auQtion at 
Summit. Cook County, HI. Colts of two to three years 
■were sold at low prices, ranging from $50 to $^"5, and 
brood mnres brought only from $100 to S2C0. 
To Kill "^Vild Oats.— "J. B.,'* Saint 
Paul, Oregijn. There is probably no plant thai a thor- 
ough summer fallow will not kill in time. By persever- 
ance the ground may be totally freed from vegetation of 
all kinds. But there are some plants the growth of 
which is actually encouraged by partial summer-fallows, 
badly couducted. A summer-fallow to be effective must 
kill every sprouting root or seed while it is in its early 
tender stages by constant plowing, harrowing, and cul- 
tivating. Perennial roots must be harrowed out, and 
those that possess great vitality must be picked off and 
removed from the land. Such a summer-fallow is costly, 
and it is almost equally effective to grow a saccesflion 
of hoed crops, such as corn, potatoes, or roots alter- 
nated with crops of quick and close growth, such as 
peas, buckwheat, fla:^, or clover. To grow fall wheat 
upon foal land is only to perpetuate the weeds. 
HoTV to I'se MucU.— "C. L. S." Aeiip- 
ply of swamp muck of good quality is a valuable acces- 
sory to a farm. There is no necessity to haul it to the 
bam-yard and back again. A certain quantity might 
be scrviceably brought to the barn and used when dry as 
bedding for the stock, leaving the straw to be fed. But 
it would be better to carry the barn-yard to the muck 
than all the muck to the barn-yard with a gi'eat cost of 
labor. The better plan in such a case is to draw the 
muck to the field wh-^r it is to be used, after it has been 
dried for some month-, and there mis it with the manure 
from the barn-yard, rind let the whole ferment together. 
Other portions drawn and mised with fresh dry-slacked 
lime in the heap a~ it is made ; the miick soon rots, and 
we have found it very useful as a dressing for grass. 
Intelligently used, muck is valuable, but otherwise will 
hardly pay for the digging and hailling. 
Calcareous Soils. — "L. L.," "Washington 
Co., Texas. A calcareous soil may be greatly improved 
by plowing in green crops, such as buckwheat, clover, 
or the southern cow peas. 
"Tills is Fooli!*lmess.'^— ' J. G. J.," 
Audrain, Mo., thus relieves his mind after reading a 
statement in the AgHcuUnrlst of January. 18T."), that 
three horses with a double furrow plow can do as much 
work as four horses with two single plows, and fre- 
quently the same team will do double the work with a 
double farrow plow that they can do with a single one. 
This mQ.y seem to be foolishness to some, but it is a 
fact. One great saving iu using double furrow plows is 
rarely thought of, there are only half as many turn- 
ings at the headlands, and all that loss of time is saved. 
Besides the horses in this case in plowing two acres on- 
ly walk as far as they would in the other, to plow but 
one acre, and the saving of labor in carrying their weight 
about is another great gain. Double furrow plows must 
soon come into use, especially upon mellow, easily 
worked lands, so that one man can do two men's work. 
Farming is behind all other mechanical industries in 
time-saving machinery, especially so far as regards 
plowing. 
Corn ibr Oreen Manure.— " J. A. T.'* 
We have not much faith in corn for plowing under as 
green manure. The land that will grow a crop of corn 
will grow buckwheat, poas, oats, or spring rye, any of 
which would be more easily turned uuder, and some of 
which would be better fertilizers than com. Two crops 
of buckwheat can be grown and turn-^d under while one 
crop of corn is growing. But if there is barn-yard ma- 
nure enough to cover the ground, it is waste of time and 
labor to grow green crops to plow under. It would be as 
well to let the eround lie until June or July, and then 
plow it and cross-plow again in August for a wheat crop, 
and next spring sow down to clover, plowing that under 
the second year. 
Sales of >^liort-Horn9. — A large number 
of Short-Horn cattle have been disposed of at recent 
sales. At Bloomington. 111., on April 28th, 140 animals, 
the property of Messrs. Smith, Nicolls, Franklin, Funk, 
and Duncan, sold for $43,399, an average of $345.70. The 
highest price being $-2,000 for a cow of the Princess blood. 
On April 2rtth, ai the same place, the herd of J. H. 
Spears & Son. consisting of 40 head, were sold for *4r),- 
370. an average of ?;1,1.'39."25; the highest price being 
$10.5^">0for the bull. 31st Duke of Airdrio, 4 years old. 
The herd of J. H. Pickerel], of Harristown, 111., number- 
ing 23 head, sold for $2'i,005. an average of S1.2';i.09. 
The bull Breastpbite sold for ?6.100. In Iowa two large 
terds. the "Wapsie" herd of S.W.Jacobs, of West 
Liberty, of 82 head, and the herd of ^Milton Briggs, of 
Kellogg. Jasper County, of 1:J9 head, have been disposed 
of. The first sale amounted to $49,215, an average of 
$727 for cows, and $274 for bulls. The second sale real- 
ized only $37,G;iO, an average of the small sum of $279 
for cows, and ;^2;35 for bulls. Mr. Briggs' herd was in 
poor condition, most of the bulls suffering from mange, 
which accounts for the low average. Several other less 
important sales have occurred which, with those men- 
tioned, have been the means of distributing a large num- 
ber of good animals at very reasonable prices, amongst 
farmers in whose herds these animals will undoubtedly 
work great improvement. 
IVoirTeetU in Horses.— " J. s!g. L.," 
Juniata County, Pa. Wolf teeth do not cause blindness 
in horses. They are in no way injurious to a horse, but 
the popular idea to the contrary arises from the fact that 
they appear at the time when the colt, then in its third 
year, is cutting its permanent teeth. These displacing 
the first teeth either appear in their place or by the side 
of them, in which latter case the displaced teeth are 
called wolf or wolf's teeth. They generally fall out, 
their roots being absorbed, but if they remain no harm 
occurs. Diseases of the eye have no relation to these 
teeth, but there are abundant causes in the usual ill- 
management of colts at this critical period, and after- 
wards, for those diseases to which horses are subject. 
Trapping- Mnskrats.— '* J. H. J. C." 
Directions for trapping mnskrata are given in the Agri- 
cyllurlst of March, 1872. 
I>eatU of a Horse from Hots.— *'D. 
C. S.," German Settlement, W. Ya., asks what killed his 
horse. It was taken with a sudden chill after feeding 
and watering, and then with a sweat, while its lege were 
cold. He administered medicine for the fiatulent colic 
but to no purpose. The horse lived in this state about 
sixteen hours, sometimes striking and kicking, but never 
tried to get up, and at last died very suddenly and ea?y. 
When opened there were found two small holes in his 
intestines, and just enough had passed out to stain the 
outside. He found the communication, between the 
stomach and first intestine filled with bots. It was closed 
up so light that nothing could pass through. The stom- 
ach was nearly full of liquid, caused by purgatives given 
him, and nothing was found in the colon or intestines, 
nor even iu the rectum. 2\ow the question is, what 
killed the horse ? was it the bots, or was it those holes 
iu the intestines. The bots had stuck themselves fast to 
tbat canal or small communication.— We should say the 
horse died of the obstruction of the pyloric orifice of 
the stomach. The rapture of the intestines was probably 
accidental in the postmortem examination. 
Tall Meadow Oat Orass.— " S. K." 
Arrhenatheruyn avenaco.im, or tall me:idow oat-grass 
may be sown exactly as timothy is sown. It is an excel- 
lent permanent grass for meadows or pastures, as U 
starts e-arly, and has a rapid late growth after mowing. 
The bushel weighs seven pounds, and three bushels of 
seed should be sown upon an acre. Clover may be sown 
with it as with timothy. 
Ho'w to Hecoiue a l^oooniotive C^n- 
gineer.— ■■ C. C. G." To become a locomotive or any 
other kind of engineer, the business should be learned 
by apprenticeship iu the shop. A thorough engineer 
must have learned his business in the mechanic's shop 
first, and know how to build an engine. There are many, 
however, who have learned their business by servingfirst 
as fireman on an engine, but they can never become as 
competent as those who know everything about the con- 
struction of their engines. To go on a train as a brake- 
man will never teach a young man to become an engineer. 
As:rienlt8iral Macliinery at tlie 
Ceiiteniiial,— The Centennial Commission is making 
thorough provision for the reception and display of agri- 
cultural implemenU. A section of the Agricultural Hall 
will be set aside for the exhibition of farm appliances. 
Within the Hall will be steam-power for driving ma- 
cliinery. It is contemplated to test implements in the 
field. Manufacturers, designing to compete in the field, 
will be required to use the same machines thc-y offer 
on exhibition. Inquiries may be addressed to the Chief 
of Bureau of Agriculture, Philadelphia. 
Pomology at tUe Centennial. — It is 
intended to have a continuous fruit show at Philadelphia 
next year, from May until November. Some of the so- 
cieties are already moving iu the matter. 
Stock-Raisins in tlie TTcst.- * W. 
S.." Washington. The growth of grain in the west is 
not nearly so profitable nor ao safe as raising stock, but 
it requires less capital. The capital required to begin 
with stock would be somewhere about the following, say 
200 head of selected Texan baifers two years old. at $7 
per head, §1,400 ; 4 young, pnre-bred Short-horn bulls, 
purchased iu Kentucky, at $1.50 each. $ij00 ; G40 acres of 
land for winter pasture which may be bought well loca- 
ted for this purpose, for about $5 per acre, payable iu ten 
year's time, fencing, corralls, shelters and huts say :$1, 500, 
including payment on the land ; there will be inaddition 
the cost of attendance, cutting hay, and some com for 
winter feed, which can hardly be estimated, for three years 
before any sales can be made, which will doubtless use 
up the balance left out of $(i,000. Summer pasture on 
unoccupied prairie will cost nothing for many years. 
The first income would be in the fourth year, when 70 or 
80 three-year old steers, worth possibly .$:J0 ahead, would 
be ready for sale. 
Boole npon FisU Cnltnre.— " M. F.," 
Clarion Co., Pa. There is no book published upon fish 
culture that will teach any person how to make money 
by raising fish iu ponds at 15 cents a pound. Fish cul- 
ture will do for an amusement, but not for a business to 
make a living by except iu very rare cases. 
Cranfeerrie.s on Trees. — A correspon- 
dent at Albion, 111., writes : "'Do not cranberries grow 
on a vine, on or near the ground ? Is there a variety 
which grows on a bush or tree? The famous 'poplar 
peach tree ' agent has sold and delivered a good many 
cranberry bushes iu this county, which are four or five 
feet high, and resemble a snow-ball bush very much." — 
Cranberries grow on a weak, prostrate vine, and near the 
ground. '"'' High-bush Cranberries'" grow upou a shrub, 
but these are no more cranberries, than horse-chestnuts 
are chestnuts. No wonder the bushes look like Snow- 
ball bushes, as this High-bush Cranberry {Yiburmmi 
opulus) is the wild and, so to speak, single state of the 
ornamental Suow-ball. If the agent sold these shrubs as 
. cranberries, you can prosecute him— if you can catch him 
— for swindling. If he sold them as " Bush-Crauberries,''* 
and people bought them supposing they were regular 
cranberries, it is their own fault. Tree-peddlers are very 
excellent people to avoid. 
Hyacintlas. — "Reader." Bulbs that have 
dowered once, are worth nothing to force again. They 
will give an inferior bloom, if set in the garden, and may 
be kept dry in the pots until f^ll, when they may be 
planted. We did not reply by mail, as requested, as we 
could not make out your P. 0. address. 
Popnlar !^Iusic Ifioolfs. — W^e have 
received from Messrs Lee & Walker, music publishers of 
Philadelphia, The Young Organist's Album, The Music 
Teacher, The Musical Manual, The Gospel Singer, School 
for the Parlor Organ, Melodeon, and Harmonium, Musical 
Pastime, and Clarke's New Method for the Piano-Forte. 
Crossing' "Wlieat and Rye. — It would 
really seem as if Mr. Stephen Wilson had succeeded iu 
making this cross. He tried oats and barley, and Couch- 
grass as well, and got a good many seeds ; but, of those 
that grew, the wheat came up wheat, and the oats oats, 
excepting two plants, which came from grain of a wheat 
plant fertilized by rye pollen. These plants, which were 
exhibited at the Edinburgh Botanical Society, looked 
intermediate between wheat and rye, and so did the ear. 
But its flowers produced no good pollen, and set no seed. 
So that was the end of it. 
Xhe Oumniinn; of f rnit Xrees has 
been investigated by a distinguished French physiologist, 
Prillieux. It is a true disease, mostly of the cambium. 
It begins iu single cells, in which the starch is transform- 
ed into gum; and this sets up, by a sort of contagion, an 
unnatural action iu the surrounding cells, which become 
unduly filled with starch, and then this starch turns into 
gum. To cure this diseased action, strong incisions in 
the bark are recommended. These excite an active pro- 
duction of cells at the surface, and so divert the nutri- 
ment from this abnormal activity, to a difiorent and more 
healthful action. 
As to l>uyin^ a Farm.— "J. H./' New- 
York. $2,000 would go but very little way towards buy- 
ing a farm near the city of New York Many persona 
have gone into new western states and taken up home- 
steads, or bought cheap lands from railroad companies, 
with even less than this sum. and have succeeded in a 
few years in making themselves independent. Farming 
in the eastern states now requires a large amount of cap- 
ital to be invested, and to use that capital with profit, re- 
quires a large amount of skill and experience. In the 
west, small capital used with caiition. an aptitude to 
learn, and patience, perseverance, and sometimes long 
euff"ering with difficulties, all in the end accomplish the 
game results as money and practical skill in the east 
