1866.] 
AMERICAN ACrRICULTUmST. 
::i83 
valued should the mold or mildew appear 
here. In England this disease causes a-thicken- 
ing of tlie parts atFected, the stems and leaves, 
and attacking the burs or immature hops, stops 
their development. To prevent this, they dust 
on sulphur with a machine for the purpose. 
The hop crop is the most paying crop, both in 
Europe and America, taking any ten years to- 
gether for 40 years past. In this country its 
culture is rapidly increasing. AVe have now 
about 16,000 acres devoted to hops; England has 
50,000, Au.stria 150,000. Our hops are nearly 
ZQ pel- cent, stronger tlian those grown in Eng- 
land, and fully equal to the Belgian hops. 
Peat and its Uses. * 
The great war from which this Nation reccnt- 
I3' emerged with all its woes and terrible suf- 
fering, financial crises, and political overturn- 
ing, not only worked great changes in the 
domain of State craft, but it also inaugurated 
equally startling movements in the economies 
and industries of the country. Among all the 
various subjects that liave claimed the atten- 
tion of the public, and appealed to capital for 
development, wliich we may regard as directly 
or indirectly the fruit of the war, the develop- 
ment of our peat resourcts is prominent. The 
rage for speculation in stocks and gold having 
most wickedly extended to the necessities of 
life, bread-stuffs, meats, coal, etc., the stores of 
fuel in our immense deposits of muck and peat, 
naturall}' attract the attention of enterprising 
men. They find a material, dilTering greatly in 
qualit}' and in accessibility, but existing almost 
everywhere in the country; but they find also 
many not unexpected difficultiesin tlie wa}' of its 
rapid or general introduction as fuei. Tliough 
many kinds burn well, simply cut and dried, 
yet the smoke is disagreeable and a strong pre- 
judice exists against it among those who have 
been accustomed to more convenient fuels — 
■wood, coal, coke, etc. In other countries much 
thought and labor have been expended upon 
peat to bring it into compact and convenient 
forms, but tlie American way is, not to follow, 
but rather to strike out new paths ; so the in- 
genuity of men has been taxed to dry and press 
peat into the driest and densest ma;ses possible, 
and of convenient size, so that it may be used 
like coal. The results, satisfactory as they are 
in many particulars, are not yet proved to be 
thoroughly economical. The condensed peat is 
excellent fuel, but the pressing machinery is ex- 
pensive, the manipulation and drying is costlj', 
and the new fuel must yet find a market. — The 
work of Professor Johnson, the title of which 
we use as a heading to this article, is very full 
upon the most successful methods of prepara- 
tion of peat fuel in use both in Europe and in 
this country, describing them, illustrating the 
machines, aud giving the economical results, in 
a way to enable us to compare the expenses 
of doing the work here with those abroad. 
It is not alone in the furnace that the uses of 
peat, etc., are discussed in this valuable work; 
for to the farmer the subject has an especial 
interest and value. Tliis we have often con- 
sidered in these columns, but it is a matter al- 
ways important, and upon which every new 
fact should be sought and applied. A consider- 
able portion of the book is devoted to the con- 
sideration of its employment in agriculture, em- 
bodying the results of a very thorough investi- 
gation of the peats and mucks of Connecticut, 
made b}' tlie author some years since, in which 
many of the best farmers of l..at State co- 
operated with him ic the investigation so far at 
least as to furnish many samples for analysi-J, 
and to describe minutely their ways of making 
composts, and tlie effects of the manures thus 
made, upon various crops. Whether therefore 
we regard the book from a purely scientific 
stand point, or with relation to its bearing upon 
mechanical and domestic economies, or upon 
the most important of all industries, agriculture, 
it is one of the most valuable works recently 
issued from the American press. 
Chicken Medicine.— Charcoal. 
* Peat and its Uses ; its origin, varieties, and ciiemi- 
cal characteiistics ; its applications in agiicnlture, and 
its prepaiMtion, value and use as fuel: by S. W, Johnson, 
M. A., Professor of Agricultural Clieinistry at the Shef- 
field Scientific School, Yale College.— Fully illustrated.— 
Orange Judd & Co., New York. 163 p. 12mo. Price $1.50. 
Under this general title we continue a subject 
discussed on page 353 (-luly,) and include here 
a statement of a Springfield, 111. correspondent, 
about the wonderful effects of charcoal upon 
a diseased and dying lot of turkeys, prefacing 
his letter, however, with a word or two about 
charcoal as a preventive of, and a remedy for 
disease in almost all our domestic animals, and 
not less in man. Tlie most convenient form in 
which to administer it, is as the " prepared 
charcoal" of the drug shops. This is simply 
soft wood charcoal, which, being thorouglilj' 
and carefully burnt, is finely pulverized. It is 
the best cure we know for bad breath, indiges- 
tion, ulcers, etc. It may be given internally 
mixed with food, or clear, as the bird or animal 
prefers, and we know of no need of caution 
against excessive doses. It is conveniently 
made by covering soft wood embers with ashes, 
and when the heap has done smoking, and is 
a mass of live coals, oijen it and sprinkle 
water upon the mass. The coals, and if some 
of the ashes are attached it is just as well, may 
then be powdered to fine dust. " J. S. D's" ex- 
perience is as follows ; — 
"I have thought tlitxt some of my 'dearly 
bought' experience, if communicated through 
your columns, would be instructive to many of 
your readers. In 1847 I took up my residence 
in a small county town in that portion of South- 
ern Illinois, named 'Egypt,' (probably by unsuc- 
cessful speculators — perhaps from its great fer- 
tility and mild climate, but more likely from 
the supposed ignorance and mental darkness of 
its population.) AVe were seventy-five miles 
from St. Louis, the roads to which city, although 
excellent in summer, were during the open, con- 
stantly freezing-and-thawing winters almost an- 
nually impassable to wagons. I kept a country 
store, and one day in Januarj', a customer 
drove up to my door, with about one hundred 
turkies. A sudden thaw, accompanied by rain, 
had set in, and any further traveling was im- 
ijossible. He wanted me to take the whole 
load for 31 cents each, and I finally reluctantly 
yielded. The turkies were turned into a good- 
sized lot, in which was a house for shelter, and 
abundance of gravel, sand, water, and corn, 
costing only 15 cents a bushel, to feed them. 
One would suppose this to be a very paradise 
for turkies, but it was soon found to be their 
grave-yard. Notwitlistanding our care and 
abundant food, tliej' drooped, sickened, and 
commenced dying. We changed their food, 
gave them oats, corn meal, fresh meat, procured 
fresh gravel, but all to no purpose, the sickness 
and mortality increased ;ind continued. It was 
clear that they had contracted some disease 
while cooped on the wagon, and that four or 
five weeks freedom, and abundant and pure food 
appeared to only aggravate it. Wliat was to be 
done? Everything had been tried within our 
knowledge. Old ladies, familiar with ' Turkey,' 
were solemnly consulted, Init their nostrums 
and opinions were as useless and valueless as 
our own experiments, when, accidentally, the 
remedy presented itself There was a smoke- 
house in the yard in whicli the turkies were 
confined ; the fire, made in a pit extending the 
the length of the house, was extinguished with 
water every night. A considertibls quanlit)' of 
charcoal was there made, which was cleaned 
out every morning. The first tlirown out Into 
the yard brought the turkies ; they eat every 
piece of it and continued to eat it daily for 
three weeks — the time consumed in smoking. 
Tlien an English jioultiy butcher, who was on 
the 'tramp,' butchered and dressed them, plac- 
ing the livers under one wing, and the gizzards 
under the other, ran two handsome skewers 
through each of them, and decorated them 
witli ornamental white and colored paper. 
They were pronounced the finest lot of turkies 
ever seen in St. Louis' market," 
Gas Tar for Posts. 
A correspondent says: "The complaint is 
sometimes made that gas tar does not prevent 
rot in posts. AVheuever it fails to do this, it is 
probably because the posts were green when it 
was applied. Of course, when tliey afterward 
became season-cracked, the moisture entered 
the cracks and decay went on rapidly. The 
only way is to use seasoned posts. The tar is 
generally applied with a coarse brush. Expe- 
rience is now showing that the best of all ways 
is to heat the tar in a deep vessel, and when it 
is boiling, set in the lower ends of a few posts 
at a time, keeping them in about half an hour, 
so that the tar will fairly boil into the pores of 
the post. This requires time and ptttience, but 
it is worth the while, because posts so treated 
will last half a century. The gas tar coating 
should extend up a few inches higher than the 
surface of the ground." It is settled also that 
if the freshly tarred posts be covered with sand 
or sandy soil, tlie highest good effect is secured. 
The experiments detailed in the March Agricul- 
iiirist, page 94, showed the best result from 
applying hot gas tar with sand twice, at inter- 
vals of three days. 
Horse Carts, or Wagons? 
Where the roads are smooth and level, and 
where but little field work is to be done, the 
horse cart is endurable, if made light and 
handy. But as a general rule, they are the most 
cruel machines ever made for horse-flesh. For 
farm-work, they must needs be made strong and 
heavy. Tlie requisite harness weighs from forty 
to fif\y pounds. AVhen the cart moves on level 
ground, it bears heavily on the horse's back; 
when on a descent, it is still worse; if toiling 
up hill, it pulls upward on the belly; if one 
wheel falls into a rut, it whirls the thills sudden- 
ly to one side, and tends to upset the horse, and 
at best strains him. The unwieldiness of a cart 
is seen in the fact that it is .almost impossible to 
make a horse trot in one. Not so, however, 
with a four-wheeled wagon. We advise our 
readers not to invest in hoise-carts, without 
thinking the matter over carefully. There arc 
many handy dumping wagons made now-a-days. 
