1866. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
J13 
Uloody ffUlk. — S. P. Stronij, Jobnsou Co., 
Iowa. This comes from what iscommoiily called Garget, 
a name rather loosely applied to any inflammatory dis- 
ease of the udder. Sometimes the bag cakes, and be- 
comes hard and very sore. This generally yields to ex- 
ternal applications, as hot soap suds, hot brine, hot 
arnica water (tincture of Arnica in twice as much hot 
water), with all the rubbing and kneading of the bag the 
cow will bear. At otiier times llie udder is only a Utile 
tender, and there is internal bleeding coming from sores. 
The hot bath is good for this also, but it is well to accom- 
pany It by a dose of epsum salts (I lb.,) and ginger (Ji 
oz.,) given in a bran mash, well salted to disguise the 
taste. Where it can be obtained, the root of Pthytolacca 
decanitra, (Poke-weed or Garget-root,) is excellent for any 
form of Garget. Three or four ounces are cut up fine, 
and fed with oats or roots. 
For Feertin;^ Yoting: i^alves.— M. N. 
Russell writes : " I think a small trough is preferable to 
a pail, any way it can be fixed. M. Hester's plan. on page 
130, March number, is no doubt a good one. but by using 
troughs the milk can be poured in and the calf left to 
drink it at its leisure ; it also saves trouble of waiting for 
the pail until the calf is done." 
'%Vliat is the matter >vitli. tlie Ijittlc 
Pigs *— In some sections of this State there seems to 
be some trouble with the Utile pigs. Whole litters die a 
few hours after they are born. It would seem to be a 
kind of epidemic. Can any of the readers of the Agri- 
culturist throw light on the matter ? 
Xo Prevent Hens Catiug Their 
Eggs. — Give plenty of lime, old plastering, oyster 
shells, powdered bones, etc. ; supply a little animal food, 
such as bits of fresh meat from the table or any fresh meat 
chopped fine ; besides, provide good large nests well fill- 
ed with leaves or hay, and set in snug darkish corners, 
away from observation. Then your hens will not eat 
their eggs and will lay abundantly. 
Experience ^vitU Hens,—" P." writes : 
My experience with hens during several years has led me 
to the following conclusions: 1st, Hens, well fed and 
cared for, usually lay the first season, daily, small or 
medium sized eggs, until they take a notion to set, which 
Is generally w hen they have laid two or three dozen eggs. 
If not permitted to set, they will begin to lay again in 
two or three weeks. Some hens, however, do not incline 
to set very often— these, of course, will not lay so con- 
stantly as those which are more ambitious to realize the 
fruit of their labor.— 2d, The second season, hens lay 
large eggs, quite too large to sell by the dozen, but seldom 
or never oftener than every other day.— 3d, Pullets 
hatched from eggs laid by hens more tlian twelve or 
fifteen months old, are apt to be like their mothers— to 
lay large eggs, but not daily Therefore, I would 
never keep a hen through the second winter, and never 
set eggs of hens after they have moulted, or of those 
that are more than a year and a half old. 
'*Quit, qnit"— A Turkey Item.— Mrs. Sarah 
Fries, of Ontario Co., N. Y., is a very successful poultry 
raiser, having sold the past winter $400.00 worth 
of turkies alone, all the pioduct of one season. If any 
one can report a greater crtip, Mrs, Fries will continue to 
cry "quit, quit" till she tries again. 
I%o ^Vater in ILinie Stone,— The :\. Y, 
Farmers' Club.—" W. A. F." writes: "Mr. Quinn 
is reported in tire Tribune as saying, at the Am. Institute 
Farmers' Club, that 'theacUonof fire upon lime is to 
expel about one half its weight of water and carbonic 
acid,' and that the farmer who would adopt Mr. Wil- 
liams' views and apply ground limestone, 'would have 
to haul a large quantity of water combined with the 
lime.'— Is this so ?"— The reporter adds : '* Tiiese views 
of Mr. Quinn seemed to be unanimously sustained by the 
members present. "—No. It is not so. There is no water 
at all in limestone, the unanimous opinion of tlie Farm- 
ers' Club to the contrary notwithstanding. Limestone 
contai(p over 40 per cent of carbonic acid gas, and this is 
expelled by heat alone. The Farmers' Club of the 
American Institute is famous for bringing out good prac- 
tical ideas, as well as absurdly impracticable ones, for 
advocating sound theories as well as very unsound and 
absurd ones. It is entirely safe to weigh whatever is re- 
ported of its discussions in the scales of practical com- 
mon sense, and to refer scientific statements to the text 
books. For if all the ridiculous practical slalements 
and false science of the *' N. Y. Farmers' Club," from 
the doctrine of the Progression of Primaries, to the ex- 
pulsion of carbonic acid from soda by heat alone, and the 
great percentage of water in limestone, w^hich in their 
day have been implicitly believed, were to be brought up 
afresh, it would so disgust sensible people, that the reports 
of the proceedings of that venerable institution would 
lose many readers. When a man states things as facts, 
let him be sure of his facts, and when he guesses, say so. 
Sea ^Vced as Manure.— J. Albce.— All 
the organic products of tiie sea, whether vegetable or 
animal, are of great value as manure. In the fresh state 
the bladder weeds, kelp.^, etc.. contain much water. A 
portion of this is rapidly evapo.rated, and in this condition 
these weeds are worth nearly or quite as much as com- 
mon yard manure. The eel grass is not worth so much, 
yet is valuable. All contain quite a large percentage of 
animal matter in the little polyps, shellfish, sponges, etc., 
which are attached to Ihenfl They are best employed, 
as a general thing, in a compost with muck or soil. 
]>on*t negleet to So^v JPlaster. — 
Red Clover is the great renovating crop of American 
agriculture, and plaster is the well tried manure for 
clover. The plaster, in most sections, costs but little, say 
from $3 to $J per ton, and from 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. is suffi- 
cient for an acre. We have now machines that will sow 
from fifteen to twenty acres a day, and the farmer who 
neglects to sow plaster on his young clover, omits one of 
the essential means of enriching his soil — for plaster in- 
creases the growth of the clover, and clover enriches the 
farm. Peas, like clover, are a leguminous plant, and on 
most soils [daster has a beneficial effect on ihis crop. It 
may be sown broadcast, say from one to two bushels per 
acre at the time of sowing the peas, or if they are al- 
ready up, sow the plaster broadcast over them. There 
are those who think this the belter way— that the plaster 
does most good on the foliage. Hence in sowing plaster 
on corn it is usual to wait until the planls are up a few 
inches high, and then scatter a tablespoonful or so on 
the hill and over the plants. We Iiave expeiimented a 
good deal with manures for corn, and while many artifi- 
cial manures greatly increased the crop, plaster is the 
only fertilizer that has given us an increase, sufficient at 
50 cents a bushel to cover the cost of the maimres em- 
ployed. When corn usually brings a dollar a bushel 
bone dust, superphosphate, and guano, if of good quality 
can be frequently used with profit. But plaster canal- 
most always be used on dry upland with advantage, even 
if the corn brings only 40 cents a bushel. 
^Voolcn Factory ^Vaste. — "S. K." 
Such waste as you can get. though full of seeds, is still 
valuable manure. If it contains a great deal of wool, it 
is a very slrong fertilizer. Used to litter animals in the 
stable, the weed seeds would probably be killed, but the 
manure would be so rich, that the most economical way 
to use it, would be to farther compost it with muck, or soil. 
BnclcTV'heat as a Oreen ]?Iannre 
Crop.— '*H." On very poor and light land, buckwheat 
is by far the best common green manure crop. Oats do 
very well on soils of a little better quality, and clover is 
best for clayey soils that need organic matter. The 
amount of the crop varies exceedingly, 150 to 200 lbs. of 
good Peruvian guano will almost uniformly ensure a 
croo of buckwheat, and two crops may be plowed in in 
one season. Gals need a little more guano, with the ad- 
dition of some ashes and plaster perhaps, and clover 
neeJs very thorough plowing. It rnay also have a dres- 
sing of lime plowed in, also lime iinrrowed in, and an 
application of guano and plaster at the time of sowing, 
which may be in September, or you may plow in a crop 
of buckwheat or oats, and sow clover in the fall. 
Bone l>nst in the CJarden.— E.Wheeler, 
Kalamazoo Co., Mich., has a quantity of bone dust an<l 
asks how to apply it. If used at planting, it will not hurt 
the seeds, but the best way is to spade it in abundantly — 
a peck to a square rod is a fair quantity, and its eflfects 
will, in some cases, be manifest for years. 
The Barherry as a Hed^e Plant. — 
The Wallingford Circular says : " One of tlie wants 
of the agricultural community at the present lime it a 
good hedge-plant ; one that is reliable under all circum- 
stances and conditions. Nearly every one that has been 
tried thus far, has exhibited some radical defect that un- 
fits it for the purpose. A hedge-plant, to become popular, 
must be peifeclly hardy, and easy to propagate. It 
should also be vigorous enough to grow well in ordinary 
soils withoutjmanure. It should be thorny, to keep cattle 
from "hooking it, and strong enough to keep them from 
breaking through. Finally, it should be low enough to 
require little or no pruning. The common barberry 
(Berberis vulgaris) combines these qualities better than 
any other plant I am acquainted with. The barberry is 
a native of the northern part of Europe and Asia, 
but has become thoroughly naturalized, and is now 
found growing wild in the w-aste grounds of New 
England. It is a remarkably hardy plant, thriving well 
in a great variety of soils, and is said to live for centu* 
ries. It has a shrubbery habit (growing from six to ten 
feet in height), yellowish thorny wood, leaves in rosettes 
yellow flowers on drooping racemes, and scarlet oblong 
berries, very acid, but making delicious preserves. We 
have a barberry hedge on our grounds at Wallingford, 
Ct., 25 rods long, and 9 years old from the seed. Two 
rows of planls were set, the rows one foot apart, and the 
plants one foot apart in the rows : alternately, to break 
joints. This hedge has been clipped a little, two or three 
times, to keep it even, and is now .-^ix or seven feet high, 
with a firm, compact base, perfectly inipervious to the 
smaller animals, and stout enough to turn orilinary farm 
slock, except for a short distance at one end where the 
soil is quite thin. On our grounds at Oneida we have a 
barberry-hedge 50 rods long, and seven years old from 
the seed. In this case but one row was planted, and the 
plants were set one foot apart. II has been kept clean 
with the cultivator, and clipped a little, once or twice, 
and is now five feet high, thick and compact at the base, 
and already so strong that the fence was taken away last 
fall, leaving in its place only a slight railing of a single 
board, six or eight inches wide, as a temporary guard, 
until the hedge can gain another year's growth, it being 
situated on a highv\ay where cattle are passing daily. 
An important item in regard to this plant is, its habit 
of sending up suckers from the bottom, by which, in a 
few years, it comes to have a base from six to twelve 
inches in diameter." 
^Vhite ^Villo^v for Fences.— lu the 
fall of 1864 we described in the AgricuUurist]some White 
Willow hedges and fences, which we saw in Illinois, and 
before and since that time many have tried them— no 
doubt a good many on'^ccountof the favorable report 
which was made in this paper. We know that in Illinois, 
if good cuttings are planted and treated well, the willow 
will make a fair fence— in some cases an excellent one in 
a few years. On poor dry soils it will not do so well, if 
well at all, but with good care we know it will live and 
grow. If any body knows where the true White (Gray 
or Powder) Willow has been well planted, and where it 
lived and did well for two years, and then after several 
years more has proved not to be good as a live fence 
or hedge, we would like to know about it, how it was 
treated, and wherein it failed. 
A Screen for Ont-nuilclin^s.— J. B. 
Bowman, AUoona. Norway Spruce. Hemlock or Ar- 
bor vitre, will each of them make a screen close enough. 
The first mentioned is the most rapid in its growth. We 
do not know who has the seeds you ask for. 
Thorns trom the Seecl.— T. Braybrook, 
Allen Co., Ind- The seeds of the White, and all other 
Thorns, do not come up the first year after planting. 
Mix the seed with earth in a box or other vessel, and 
bury it for a year, and the next spring sow it without al- 
lowing it to become drv. 
Xhe Sunflo^ver for Fuel. — Hosea Barnes 
of Kenosha Co., Wis., writes, that seeing an article in the 
Country Gentleman on corn for fuel, he wishes to sug- 
gest an economical substitute. "There is perhaps no 
annual plant which will furnish so much woody fibre as 
the sunflower, yet I have never heard of the stalk and 
seed of this well known plant mentioned as fuel. It re- 
quires but little cuUivaUon ; a great quantity will grow 
on an acre, and the seed is valuable, if gathered when 
ripe, for feed, and much more valuable than coin for fuel, 
as it contains a great deal of oil. After the heads have 
been gathered in autumn, let the stalks remain until the 
frost kills tliem, and then gather, cut and dry, and in 
connection with the seed you have a stock of fuel. 
Sunflowers will do well planted as thickly as corn. Try 
it, and see if it is not cheaper and better than corn at 20 
cents per bushel, or wood at $12 per cord." It must be 
remembered, however, that there are few crops so ex- 
hausting to the soil as this, on account of the great 
amount of potash it takes up 
Orartin^ the 'Wild Grapes.— T. H. 
King, Tompkins Co., N. Y., is clearing land for a vine- 
yard, and asks if it would pay to graft the wild vines al- 
ready there. We should say not ; among other reasons, 
we do not see how ills possible to prepare the land proper- 
ly for a vineyard and leave the old roots undisturbed. 
I^nmher of Vines t<* an Acre. — J. 
Grable. If put 6 feet each way it will take 1210, and if 
set 6 by 8 feet, 905 plants to the acre 
Chickens in Cold CJraperies.— " A. 
S.," of Chester Co., Pa., writes: "After laying down 
the vines in autumn. I put about twenty hens into a small 
cold grapery, not more than 2b feet in length by 10 in 
width, and find they have plenty of room, and furnish a 
beautiful supply of fresh eggs during the whole winter. 
