1*710 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
4r7 
ISoiiffr or Swelled JIcad-CataiTh 
III Fo\vls.-"J. P.H.'s" liens have clearly the Roup. 
Tliey swell around the eye?, and after a while go blind in 
one eye, or in both, and it is catching. No common fowl 
is worlh bothering with after the eyes swell badly ; be- 
fore that they may be cured with tolerable case. The 
month, throat, eyes, and nostrils should be washed out 
clean, and sponged with strong chloride of lime-water, 
or what is better Labaraque's solution, chlorinated soda, 
and the whole flock, but the ailing ones particularly, 
should have the heartiest diet— iron in their water, bread 
and ale, soft feed well peppered, and meat of 6ome kind. 
A <*oo<l Jersey Grade Heifer. — M. 
Abraham Peckham, of Middletown, It. I., has a seven- 
eighths Jersey heifer that came in last spring at two 
years old. She gave, all through the season of good feed, 
fourteen quart* of milk a day. She is to calve again 
early in March, and when wo saw Mr. Peckham, about 
the middle of January, he told us she was giving four 
quarts a day. Thi* is the sort of animal that butter 
farmers must raise if they hope to have the best results, 
only the more nearly thorough-bred they are, the better. 
This heifer will not weigh more than GoO lbs., and sho 
ha? given, between her first and second calving, not less 
than 2,500 quarts of the richest milk. A big Shorthorn 
cow, weighing twice as much, and consuming twice as 
much, would have done well if she gave 4,000 quarts. 
She would have co*t more to raise, more to keep, and 
would not probably come in until a year later. The 
probability is, though this we cannot positively assert, 
that her 4,003 quarts of milk would hardly have mado 
more butter than the 2.500 quarts of the little Jersey, and 
its quality would certainly not have been so good. If 
every farmer who makes butter as a leading branch of 
his business would secure the services of a thorough-bred 
Jersey bull, of well-known butter-making stock, butter 
making would be much more profitable, and the country 
would be much better supplied ten years henco than is 
possible with the hap-hazard, scrub bull-breeding that 
now prevails. 
TBte Air-l^ine Railroad, from New 
York to Boston, will be one of the most important 
routes in the Eastern section of the country. The fact 
that five distinct railroad and steam-boat routes have for 
years past connected these two important cities, with a 
profitable patronage upon all of them, indicates the im- 
mense amount of daily travel. It needs little figuring to 
estimate the advautage of a direct, through railroad that 
shall save 20 to 25 miles of distance, and an hour's time 
to each one of vast multitudes that annually traverse this 
route. Reckoning a thousand for each week day, the an- 
nual saving in distance would be sis and a quarter mil- 
lion miles, or two hundred and fifty tjmes around the 
globe, and a hundred years in time, estimating the saving 
in distance at 20 miles and in time at one hour. Tho 
new route passes through many localities which will af- 
ford much local traffic. Wq are glad to learn that urder 
the energetic presidency of our old friend, David Lyman, 
the last link in this route (between Middletown and Wil- 
limantic, Conn.) is rapidly approaching completion. (This 
portion of the Air-line route is termed the New Haven, 
Middletown, and Willimantic Railroad. Messrs. Hatch 
and Footo offer some first mortgage bonds, which must 
certainly be a safe and profitable investment for any one 
having §600 or upwards to put out on interest. An ex- 
amination of the documents, which the advertisers 
furnish free to all applicants, will be interesting cvon to 
those not specially desiring to invest.) 
SBtarcs' vs. ^isUwitz Harrows. — 
A fanner atHorseheads, N. J., asks our opinion as to the 
relative merits of these two harrows. We have not used 
the Nishwitz harrow on our own farm, but from what 
we saw of it at the Trial at Utica and other places, deem 
it a useful implement. Shares' harrow we have used for 
somo years and can recommend it, especially when having 
steel teeth. We should think it less liable to get out of 
order, especially on stony land, than thcNishwitz. Nei- 
therof these implements, however, is properly a harrow. 
They arc a cross between a harrow, a cultivator, an old- 
fashioned English rib-roller, and a gang plow. They cut 
the ground and turn itoverin small, shallow furrows. We 
are inclined to think the Nishwitz would bo the most ef- 
fective in proportion to draft, and much the most durable. 
Windmills.— W. Haskell, Bucksport, Me., 
writes: "I see in the Agriculturist an allusion to a 
windmill for raising water. Perhaps others of your 
readers as well as myself would like a little information 
as to their cost, efficiency, and best mode of construc- 
tion ; and whether they could be used as a motive power 
for other purposes as well as for raising water." The 
writer has used a windmill for nearly three years to 
raise water up an elevation of nearly 50 feet, and over a 
horizontal distance of 800 feet. The original cost of the 
machine was $150, and it cost about $50 to 6ct it up. Its 
operation has been perfectly satisfactory. It ran for two 
years and a half without being injured in any way, al- 
though we had during that time the severest gale that has 
been known for fifty years. A few months ago one of 
the clamping irons having been so much worn away as to 
give too much play to the machine, it got roclring in a 
heavy wind and was badly broken, so that it cost about 
$40 to repair it. It now seems to be about as good as 
new. There are two or three requisites that seem to be 
very essential in the construction of windmills. The 
sails must be constructed on the principle of window 
blinds, so that there must be no single piece exposed to 
the wind that will offer niuch surface for its action ; there 
must be some system of governors that will cause it to 
feather its sails when running at too areata velooity ; and 
the sails must be held up to the wind by a weight or 
weighted lever, that will yield and allow them to feather 
before too great a strain comes upon them. A properly 
constructed windmill is perfectly adapted to the driving 
of any farm machinery, with the single exception that, it 
cannot be depended upon at all times, being available 
only when the wind blows. 
The American JToiiraial officieuce 
to be Published Monthly.— The scientific world 
will greet with pleasure the appearance of this ancient 
and honored journal as a monthly. It was begun by Pro- 
fessor Silliman in 1813, and is now continued in the pro- 
prietorship as well as editorship of Professor B. Silliman, 
his son, and Professor Jas. D. Dana, assisted by Prof. 
Gray, the botanist, Prof. Gibbs, the chemist, both of 
Harvard College, and by Prof. Newton, the astronomer, 
Prof. Johnson, the agriculturist, Prof. Brush, the miner- 
alogist, and Prof. Vwrrill, the naturalist, all of Yale Col- 
lege—a galaxy of scientific lights, such as no similar 
journal can boast. The publication forms two annual 
volumes, of course indexed, and a complete index is fur- 
nished every ten years besides, giving great additional 
value to the volumes. The subjects discussed bear upon 
pure natural science, not overlooking its applications. 
The Journal contains records of important discoveries 
and of new views, and is distinguished throughout the 
world for conscientious devotion to scientific truth. It 
is published by Silliman & Dana, at New Haven, Conn. 
To Plaice €otis <»ive Iflilfc In Win- 
ter.— "J. B.," Elizabeth, Pa., asks: "Will you please 
give me the best method of making cows give a liberal 
quantity of milk in the winter ?'"— Give them " a liberal 
quantity" of feed of the proper kind. Feed them 
enough to make them grow fat, and dry off when within 
5 or 6 weeks of calving. Send for the Agricultural An- 
nual for 1S70, and read 8. M. & D. Wells' article therein. 
Rye or wheat bran, linseed or cotton-seed oil-cake meal, 
carrots, beets, mangels, parsnips, and rnta-bagas, are ex- 
cellent milk-producing food. The last named, as well as 
soft turnips, will frequently give some taste to the milk. 
■ i ^» ^ i .-•. 
Cheap Money Money wanted at the 
"West, at a High Interest 
Constant inquiries for money, come from farmers and 
others in the Western States, especially from Illinois and 
the States and Territories west of the Mississippi. Here 
is a specimen : " I see money constantly, or often, 
quoted in Wall Street as ' abundant,' and ' easy' at 4, 5, or 
6 percent. Now, why can you not get some for me on 
land security worth five times the amount I wish to bor- 
row? I can afford to pay 10 per cent to the lender 
and pay you a good round commission to obtain it for 
me. My rich, virgin soil yields large returns for little 
labor, and it will bear this interest, and yield me a good 
profit. I only want means to stock it, and extend my 
area under cultivation " To which, and to many 
other similar letters, we answer: 
1st. We live In the country, come daily to the city to 
attend to our own business, and go home to work with 
pen, etc. So we have little to do with city money mat- 
ters, and can not undertake to act as financial agents. 
2d. If we could attend to it, it would be difficult 
to get money to invest at a distance, no matter how 
good the secnrity.or how high the rate of interest— though 
we should say it would pay many men having money 
to invest, to go West with it, personally examine the 
property, and loan it there. A brief advertisement would 
call out plenty of good applicants for the money. We be- 
lieve it would be a good thing for borrowers as well as 
lenders, and hope the hint will be acted upon, but we 
have not time to act as agents for either party. 
3d. To our distant country readers, we will explain that 
this cheap money is only loaned " strictly on call 11 — that 
is, the borrower must deposit as security, not mortgages, 
but U. S. Bonds, or Railroad or other Stocks or Bonds, 
t 1 ; i be sold at once for cash at the Stock Board, if 
the money is not returned on any day and on the day It is 
called for. A great deal of money used mainly for Stock 
speculations is loaned thus from day to day when not in 
actual use, and this is the cheap 4, 5, and G per cent 
money quoted. Commercial paper, "gilt edged/ 1 that 
is, notes of parties of the highest credit, and well en- 
dorsed at that, is seldom quoted as low as 7 per cent, 
unless having a very short time to run. and in a dull time 
of speculation. Ten to fifteen per cent are more frequent 
quotations for pretty good notes, having only 2 to 4 
months to run. Eight here, at the money center, there 
are usually good first mortgages that can be bought at 
rates that will yield 9 to 12 or more per cent per annum ; 
and second mortgages, almost as good as first ones, that 
will yield 15 to 20 per cent. There is a considerable class 
of persons whose sole basiness is to buy up such mort- 
gages. They thus make quite as large a percentage as 
men in regular business, with quite as little risk. 
Some of the city newspapers have constant advertise- 
ments such as this : " S 8 00,000 to Loan on City (or 
County) Property, etc." But go to one of these adver- 
tisers, and you will nsually have to pay a " commission 11 
and "searching title" espense*, that will onst a heavy 
percentage. The Savings Banks and Insurance Com- 
panies lend money at 7 per cent, but they are restricted 
by their charters, or by custom, or by bye-laws, to par- 
ticular kinds of property, and in specific locations, — 
nsually within the city, or county where they are located, 
or at least in the State. — We hope the hints above may 
prompt some capitalists among our readers, to look 
into the feasibility of taking their capital to the West, 
where they can make a legal interest, on safe invest- 
ments, much higher than East, and aid others also. 
The Scarcity of Water.— Look out for 
Mice on Fruit Trees Now. 
Mice breed rapidly, and it may not be generally known 
that an immense number of them are usually destroy- 
ed, in autumn, by the filling of the ground with water 
and its freezing. This is one of Nature's modes of 
of checking the multiplication of thesi: pests to a degree 
that would make them worse than the frog i in Egypt. 
But the past autumn and winter, thus far. have been in 
many parts of the country unprccedentedly dry. We 
hear from some sections of so great a lack of water in 
Cisterns and wells, thnt much anxiety is folt for the result. 
In some cities the fountains are so completely dried up 
that large extra fire patrols are organized to watch against 
conflagrations. With the above facts in mind, it will be 
well for all having fruit and other trees to look out that 
they are not girdled by the redundant mice that still bur- 
row in the dry soil. We well remember that, somo 
twelve or fifteen years ago, after such a dry autumn, 
there were hundreds of thousands of fruit trees girdled 
and destroyed soon after the first heavy fall of snow. In 
many cases large orchards were ruined. Mice seldom, if 
ever, gnaw a bare tree, or one around which the snow is 
firmly trampled. The simplest protection, therefore, 
against their ravages, is to either keep the snow cleared 
away from any tree or shrub in danger, or to trample it 
firmly down around the trunk as soon as it falls. To 
leave a light snow around a tree for a day or night will 
furnish a fine cover for the depredators to work under. 
Tarred paper put around a tree, and extending up 10 or 
more inches from the ground, and held by a string, is a 
further safeguard worth providing for all valuable fruit 
trees. The roofing felt, saturated with coal-tar, can bo 
bought 30 inches wide for 5 to 7 cents a yard, in large 
quantities, and each yard will cut so as to make six 
pieceB for trees not more than 5J4 inches in diameter, or 
twelve pieces for trees less than three inchee in diametor. 
Hungarian Grass and Corn Fod- 
der. — Geo. Burr, of Medina Co., O., writes: "I have 
just coine into possession of a large farm, and about 100 
acres of it have not been plowed for fifteen years. The 
old meadow is bottom land, needs draining, and is all 
run out Jo wild grass, and very light at that. There is no 
piece that I can mow for hay next summer. I have 6 
cows, 12 young cattle, and 3 horse3 that I wish to keep 
over. What do yon think of Hungarian grass for hay? 
The soil is light, sandy foam, and is nearly all pasture." 
An$.— You have a good many animals from which, with 
dilligence in the use of means, you can make a big heap 
of excellent compost wherewith to manure corn in drills 
for fodder. You will be able to make at least one good 
load of manure from each head of stock per month ; you 
will have four months, and will thus have 70 to SO loads 
of manure. Sow all the corn fodder you can, manure 
well, and make up with Hungarian grass any deficiency 
that mayoccur, sowing the latter so that it will not ripen 
faster than you can take care of it, for to be wholesome, 
it must be cut green. Ripe Hungarian hay injures stock. 
