1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
^09 
The Pure Brahma Fowl. — U R. K. 
P.," Detroit. A pnre Brahma cock is not up to the 
standard unless he has a pea-comb. Some single combs 
will be found occasionally amongst pure-bred fowls; 
but they should be weeded out if uniformity is desired. 
Wild Garlic — "D. H.," Bedford, Pa. 
Wild garlic can only be killed by clean cultivation. 
Meadows infested with it should be plowed up and put 
under hoed crops, and grain-fields should be summer- 
fallowed before they are sown down to grass again. 
With care, this pest may be extirpated. 
Plowing Under Clover.— " F. F.," 
Clarion Co., Pa. Red clover should be turned under 
when in blossom, as then it is in the best condition for 
xapid decomposition. If ripe, the stalks are woody, 
»nd remain Bome time in the soil before they decay. 
Veterinary Books. — U W. M.," York- 
ville. Stonehenge on the "Horse in the Stable and the 
Field," English edition, price $3.50, is one of the best of 
this class of books. 
Garget.— " H. E. L.," East St. Jolinsbury.Vt. 
A cow that has had the garget three years in succession 
may be expected to have it after every calving. She 
should be fattened and butchered. 
Clieesc-Factory in lown.— " A. W.," 
Saratoga Springs, N. T. A cheese -factory costing $5,000 
^vould not pay to work unless there were more than 200 
or even 400 cows. As a rule, small factories do not pay. 
There is no reason why a factory in Northern Iowa 
Should not be as profitable as one in the State of New 
York, if all other things were equal. 
Bad Taste in Well- Water.— "S. J.," 
Bowmanville, Ontario. Generally, the first effect of a 
wooden pump put into a well is to give an unpleasant 
taste and smell to the water. This may often be remedied 
Immediately by suspending a bushel of fresh charcoal 
tied up in a clean cotton cloth in the well ; but it will 
pass away in time of its own accord. It is the result of 
the decomposition of the soluble matter of the wood. 
Why do the Apple-trees Suffer?— 
"W. G. €■" says that the ends of the twigs of his apple- 
trees died last summer from some unexplained reason. 
The wine-saps suffered the most. Why was it f— We 
can not tell without seeing some of the twigs. It may 
be the work of an insect which bores the center of the 
twig. If it happens again, send us a few of the twigs in 
a letter that the cause may be ascertained. 
f>o Mules Breed?— "W. G. G." No. 
They are hybrids or crosses between two distinct races, 
and hybrids do not breed, although exceptions to the 
general rule have been reported. 
Chicken Troubles.- " W. G. G." We 
repeat what was said last month, that nearly all the trou- 
bles experienced by fowls result from cold, filth, poor 
feed, scarcity of water, and waBt of care generally. Lice 
affect only those fowls that are thus neglected ; and when 
fowls turn white M around the gills," droop, and die, it is 
certain that there are some of the above-mentioned 
causes at work. Remove the cause, and the effect will 
immediately cease. A good tonic for fowls is a small 
piece of copperas in their drinking water, and pills of 
ginger or pepper, or both, made up with bread-crumb 
and a little soap. 
Relative to Kansas. — "K. S. N.," 
Wakefield, Mass., inquires, "How many acres of land 
and how many head of cattle would be necessary to raise 
bay enough to clear $2,000 a year on good Kansas land ? 
Also, how much capital would be necessary to purchase 
sueh land?"— That depends much on the man. We 
have seen land in Kansas that raised four tons of tame 
hay per acre, and similar land could be purchased in a 
wild state in that section, Eastern Kansas, for $15 to $20 
per acre. The difference between the prices of prairie 
and tame hay in KansaB is not much, prairie selling at 
from $4 to $7 per ton. With these figures, one can make 
his own calculations. 
Pulling- Stumps -with Pulleys.— 
%1 J. T.," Springfield, Out. In the Agriculturist of May, 
1872, page 176, there will be found an engraving showing 
bow to pull stumps by means of pulleys. 
Botts.— " E. V. C.," Mills Co., Iowa. Whether 
botts kill horses, or whether the horses die of something 
else and the botts are unjustly blamed for it or not, may 
be a question for investigation, but it is certain that if 
the botts are excessively numerous in the stor. .ch the 
irritation is sufficient to cause death. But all risk of 
this may be prevented, together with much trouble to 
the horse from these pests, by covering the horse's neck, 
shoulders, and chest with a thin cotton covering, and 
carefully at noon or night scraping off all the botts 1 eggs 
which are deposited on the horse's legs or knees with a 
sharp knife, or by washing them off with warm water. 
Prevention is better and safer than the very best cure. 
Sugar irosu Sorg-hum.— E. P. Cook, 
White Cloud, Iowa. Sugar has been made from sorghum, 
but it is not crystalline. It is in a sticky or pasty condi- 
tion, and although a process is said to have been discov- 
ered by which ordinary crystalline sugar is produced 
from sorghum, yet we do not hear anything of its opera- 
tion. The inference is that it is not profitable. 
Making: Butter by Power,-" M. H.,'> 
Toledo, Ohio, sends us a slip cut from a paper which de- 
scribes a method of working butter by power as follows 
—viz. : " In place of the inefficient hand working of the 
butter, jaws worked by power, squeezing out the butter- 
milk, just as the melted slag is squeezed out of the soft- 
ened iron puddling." We have no doubt that a process 
something like this might be used in large dairies and 
by intelligent dairymen, but we never heard of any such in 
practice, and the paragraph is merely a piece of clap-trap. 
There is no similarity between the processes. Iron 
needs a great deal of squeezing and working to render it 
fibrous and tough, while butter is easily spoiled by over- 
working. The writer who wrote the paragraph probably 
knows very little about either process. 
Disposing of Patents.— "G. w\ N.," 
Hubbard, Ohio. The safest way for any party who has a 
patent to dispose of would be to do no business unless 
with known parties. There are sharpers always on the 
look-out for those who receive patents, and sometimes 
they get a deed of a patent without giving any con- 
sideration. It is better to see the parties you deal with. 
Churning the ^ew Mill*.— " M.*H.," 
Toledo, Ohio. The plan of churning the whole milk is 
very rarely followed. It is really more laborious, unless 
horse or steam power is used, than setting the milk for 
cream and churning the cream. The butter is of a whiter 
color, owing to its containing many small particles of 
caseine from which it can not be freed, and for this rea- 
son it does not keep well, and soon acquires a cheesy 
flavor and smell. We tried the plan miuiy years ayo, 
and do not approve of it— at least, for ourselves. 
Green Manuring-. — "S. K. R., 1 ' Adams 
Co., Wis. It is doubtful if land can be kept fertile by 
plowing in clover without applying other manure. Clover 
is not a universal panacea for all the troubles of the far- 
mer, 'nor does it furnish a universal pabulum for all crops. 
In some cases clover refuses to grow, as on clover-sick 
lands, which are restored by a dressing of lime and a sus- 
pension of the crop for a few years. Yet there is but 
little danger of that occurring at present; the difficulty is 
the other way, and few farmers in America ever saw a 
clover-sick field. Plowing under clover is one of the 
methods of manuring only, and is not able to supplant 
other methods in common use, but should be used along 
with them. 
Bucknvlieat Bran.— "J. S. McV.," Wal- 
handing, O. Buckwheat bran is excellent feed for sheep, 
and if sifted from the hulls make a good feed for horses 
given on cut hay in winter. It is excellent for young cat- 
tle and cows, but is too heating for hogs. Hogs when 
fed on it become scurfy and scabby. Its market value is 
generally half that of corn-meal, but it is hardly worth so 
much in comparison to use. 
Steaming Fodder.-"L. L.," Detroit, 
Mich. In the American Agriculturist of January, 1873, 
will be found an article, with illustrations, on cooking 
food for stock. The number will be sent for fifteen cents. 
Everlasting Fence-Post.—" L. A. N.," 
Hartford Co., Ct. The statement now widely published 
that a coating of linseed oil and pulverized charcoal ap- 
plied to fence-posts will render them imperishable is. cal- 
culated to mislead. As soon as the oil is absorbed by 
the wood, the powdered charcoal is left on the surface, 
where it has little or no effect at all. If the fence-post is 
green, it will rot very rapidly. If the fence-post is well- 
seasoned, and the surface of the part buried in the 
ground is charred slightly, it will last much longer than 
one not so treated. If the upper part of the post is 
peeled, and painted with crude petroleum or linseed oil 
it will be rendered more durable. 
Encouragement.— "J. H. E.," has tried it. 
He is back again on the farm. And now, as a warning 
and an encouragement for others, he writes that after sel- 
ling off his farm stock and going into the provision trade 
with golden visions, cheering his sleeping and wakin«* 
hours he found, alas ! that they were but visions, and the 
realities were anything but golden. Harder work, men- 
tally if not physically, longer hours, disturbed slumbers, 
failing debtors,- small profits, active competition, and a 
lightened purse at the end, were the results of his expe- 
rience ; and now he rejoices over the one dollarthat stays 
in his pocket more than over the ninety and nine fleeting, 
deluding dollars that never reached that spot. He is a 
contented fanner now. 
Chronic Founder. — "F. S M " Lancaster 
Co., Pa. A good plan to follow in cases of chronic foun- 
der, for relief— there is no cure— is to procure a water- 
tight box, about four inches deep, and put the horse's 
feet into it. The shoes should be removed previously. 
Then ponr hot water into the box, and let the feet remain 
in the bath for fifteen minutes. Then place plenty of 
sawdust under the feet, and wet it well with water. Re- 
peat this treatment for a few evenings. The horse 
should have rest for some days afterwards. 
Flexible I>ou1>lc-trce.— " J. S. W.," 
Goshen, O. There is no advantage gained by attaching 
a spring to a double-tree. Exactly the same force must 
be applied in drawing the load; and if an obstacle is 
struck, although the jar may be eased at the moment, 
yet the reaction of the spring would exert on the whole 
exactly the same force on the horse's shoulders as though 
there were no spring. The principle is in use for other 
purposes, and therefore is not patentable. 
Inflammation of the Udder, — 
,l C. R. S.," Iewa City, Iowa. This disease— or garget, 
as it is often called — affects cows that have been long in 
milk as well as fresh cows. It is occasioned by cold, or 
by lying on wet litter, and in such cases is often an ac- 
companiment of rheumatic fever, which may be quickly 
fatal if relief is not given. The proper treatment is good 
nursing, warmth, cooling medicine— as, for instance, 
one pound Epsom salts, one ounce ginger, one piut mo- 
lasses, and one quart of warm water. The udder should 
have a large hot poultice of boiled carrots or scalded bran 
applied to it, and kept in position by means of a broad 
bandage around the loins. If possible, surgical assist- 
ance should be procured, and if not, the above treatment 
may be kept up for three days, when, if no improvement 
hue occurred, probably the patient will be past any cure. 
Wasting of tlie Frog.— " T. B. T. t " 
Washington Co., Me. When in consequence of continued 
paring away of the frog (as is too often the case in the 
common method of shoeing), it can no longer touch the 
ground, one of the natural processes by which the 
foot is kept in a healthy condition is prevented. The 
frog, when allowed to touch the ground at each step, ex- 
erts a pressure upon the bones of the foot which is 
necessary to stimulate certain needed secretions. When 
this pressure is not exerted, the secretions are stopped, 
and the play of the bones one upon another when the foot 
is in action induces inflammation, which results in what 
is known as navicular disease. Besides, the protection 
afforded by the frog in its natural condition prevents 
these bones from being jarred or bruised, but, the protec- 
tion being wanting, the bones are injured. In the case 
in question, after a year's delay, the injury is probably 
beyond repair. The slioes might be removed, however, 
and the mare turned into a moist pasture, in the hope 
that the frog might be stimulated into a new growth. 
Otherwise we know of no resource, but to employ a 
veterinary surgeon. 
Milking-machine.— " J. H.," Hastings 
Co., Ontario. In using a milking-machine which merely 
consists of tubes inserted into the teats, as does the one 
you describe, the milk flows only by means of gravity, 
possibly aided by contraction of the udder. Therefore, 
it is doubtful if the milk can be drawn completely from 
the udder, as is absolutely necessary, and as may be per- 
fectly well done by the hand of the milker, the action of 
which is very nearly like that of the calf a mouth in the 
natural process of sucking. 
Cneap Transportation. 
The delegates to the National Cheap Transportation 
Association met in Convention in the City of New York 
on the 8th day of May. A permanent organization was 
effected with the Hou. Joseph Quincy, of Massachusetts, 
President; R. II. Ferguson, of Troy, N. T., Secretary; 
and II. K. Thurbcr, of New YoVk, Treasurer. The fol- 
lowing resolutions were adopted : 
Whereas, The productive industries cf the United 
