1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
407 
small tumors— which oil pressure in milking discharge 
pas and blood iuto the milk. No mechanical means can 
prevent this effect if such is the cause. An application 
of iodine ointment to the dutside of the udders in the 
neighborhood of the tumors twice a day might have the 
effect of producing Absorption of the offending matter, or 
bathing in cold water might be tried. Nothing definite, 
however, could be said about it without more information. 
Packing fox* Ice-IIoiise.— " F. 8. B.," 
Lexington, Ky. Some substance that will not easily fer- 
ment and mold and rot is to be selected for packing for 
the ice-house. Fresh sawdust, tan-bark, or charcoal dust 
are the best if they can be procured. The next in useful- 
ness are chaff from the thrashing-machine, finely cut 
straw or sawdust that has already been used for some 
seasons. Fine chips from a planing mill is very good 
packing. Buckwheat hulls or hemp heads are too easily 
rotted and fermented to be used for this purpose. 
Drains in I^erel Land.- u S. H.," 
Oberlin, Ohio. Drains in laud so nearly level that a fall 
of no more than two inches per 100 feet naturally exists 
may yet be made to do satisfactory work. The outlet 
should be deepened an extra foot, say4 to 5 feet. Then 
commencing at the upper end of the laterals these drains 
may be given a faM of one foot to the 100, or 6 inches 
even would suffice if they are very carefully laid. Water 
is discharged with greater velocity from deep drains than 
from shallow ones, other things being equal. 
Market-Garden Questions, — "I. C. 
G., M Basil, O. You cau not cany on market gardening, 
as we understand it, upon clay or any other land without 
a plenty of manure. Potatoes or other farm crops should 
be raised the first year in order to get the land in good 
condition. Wc can not answer the questions as to quan- 
tities that may be raised, as much depends upon manure, 
variety of plant, and the cultivation. 
The Western Poultry Association 
will, hold its annual exhibition next January, 14-18 in- 
clusive. The notice is dated Pittsburgh, Pa., and we 
assume that the show will be held there ; but it is not so 
stated. 
Grass for a Name.— A correspondent, 
whose address we have mislaid, sent a grass which he 
supposed to be V Quack," but it is one of the "Drop- 
seeds. " Botanically it is Muhlenbergia Meatica-na, out 
it does not seem to have acquired any common name. 
Its underground shoots make it, with us, almost as trou- 
blesome as "■Quack," and it is by some mistaken for that. 
Animals are said to be fond of it. but it has never to our 
knowledge been cultivated. 
Swivel Plows. — L. Mager, Hillsdale, Mich. 
The swivel plow may be employed very usefully upon 
level ground. By commencing at the center of the field 
and making there a back-furrow each half of the field is 
plowed in furrows all lying the same way. There are 
then no dead furrows, and the field is left in excellent 
shape for seeding to grass or crops in harvesting 
which machines are used. As the horses turn directly at 
the head of each furrow there is a great saving of time 
over plowing a field in laud. 
Improving Mossy Meadows. — 
*'N. G.," Middleborough. When a meadow the soil of 
which is clay resting upon a hard pan seventeen inches 
below it becomes mossy it can best be improved by 
drainage. When thoroughly underdrained, and the im- 
pervious hard-pan is broken up, the moss will no longer 
appear. If this can not be done, wood-ashes or lime ap- 
plied to the soil after it has been thoroughly plowed and 
Eubsoiled would tend to improve it. It should tben be 
reseeded. 
I,aie Chickens. — At this season of the 
year bens, unthoughtful of danger, will bring out from 
beneath some clump of neglected weeds, some stack, or 
the floor of some out-building a brood of shivering 
Chicks, which if not well cared for will inevitably die 
from cold and exposure. We have always succeeded in 
making such a hapless brood survive the winter and 
come out the earliest of Bpring chickens, by giving them 
a warm coop in a corner of ihe barn or the stable and 
feeding thcra the waste of the kitchen table. In this 
way a little cheap attention will save them, and bring 
them out in March plump broilers worth a dollar a pair. 
Beacon Belle, whose portrait appears upon 
our first page, is the property of Mr. William Crozier. 
She w.ia bred by Mr. James Finley, of Moukland, Glas- 
gow, Scotland, in 1S58. and took five first prizes as the 
best Ayrshire cow at the exhibitions of the Scotch Agri- 
cultural Society. Since her importation into America 
she has taken four first prizes, and her progeny have al- 
ways taken the highest prizes wherever they have been 
exhibited. Her progeny is scattered all over the country, 
having been sent to California, Georgia, Mississippi, and 
Tennessee; and their descendants have also similarly 
been scattered. In Scotland she gave 36 quarts beer meas- 
ure daily, as proved before a justice of the peace there. 
This is equal to 43J£ quarts wine measure, or that by 
which we measure milk, probably as large a yield as that 
of any -cow as well authenticated. She is now, iu her 
15th year, a month after dropping her 13th calf, milking 
23 quarts a day; but this is not done without abundance 
of the best food. 
early Eggs.— "I. A. W.," Orange, N. J. 
If a few light Brahma pullets are kept in a warm, roomy, 
clean coop, and are fed upon corn-meal wotted with warm 
water, with a change to boiled potatoes fed warm, some 
chopped cabbage, scraps of meat, bread, etc., with plenty 
of pure water to drink and occasionally some powdered 
oyster shells and crushed pepper given in their feed, they 
will lay continually throughout the winter. Haifa dozen 
fowls thus cared for will provide a family of moderate 
size with sufficient eggs. No cock is needed. 
Paper Stoclc.— Of late years many new 
materials have been introduced into the manufacture of 
paper, and various foreign fibers have been introduced 
into commerce for this purpose. The field of experiment 
in this direction is by no means exhausted, and there arc 
no doubt a number of nalive.plants waiting to be utilized 
in this manner. One of our associates who was recently 
in Colorado brought home some paper made at Denver 
from the leaves of the Narrow-leaved Yucca— Tvcca 
angustifolia. The paper was strong aud heavy, but much 
better than any we have seen made from straw. The 
Androscoggin Pulp Co., Brunswick, Me., send us a speci- 
men of board made of poplar wood, which will he useful 
for many purposes. 
Pure CJuano.-'J A. R.," Ellaville, Ga. 
Pure guano as imported may be purchased of the agents 
of the Peruvian Government in New York in quantities 
of not less than 10 tons. Iu this or lesser quantities Carr 
& HobsoJi, 5GBeekman Street, N. Y., may be relied upon 
to sell it without admixture. But, after all, the pure ar- 
ticle itself is subject to variation of quality. 
"Agricultural Children."— An "Act" 
has recently been enacted by the English Parliament 
called the " Agricultural Children's Act." It provides 
that young children under the age of eight years shall 
not be employed in agricultural labor except by their 
parents. Children above that age and under ten years 
shall not be employed unless they can produce a certifi- 
cate that they have attended school 250 times during the 
year, and if over ten 150 attendances are required for the 
year. There are exceptions made as to hay or other har- 
vests, or if no school exists within two miles of the 
child's dwelling. Happily we have very few or none 
such " agricultural children " that we need legislate for. 
How to get Farmers to Improye 
tlieir Stock.— One of our subscribers in Vermont 
writes us that he wants to improve his stock, but that he 
is poor and his neighbors take so little interest in the 
matter that he does not think they would pay any more 
for a thorough-bred than for a common animal. We will 
tell him what to do. Iu fact, his own letter suggests the 
remedy. He says : " I like to read ' Walks and Talks ' iu 
the Agriculturist. I have a neighbor, a deacon, that is 
very like the Deacon that 'Walks and Talks' writes 
about, only not as good a farmer. I read the composi- 
tion on weeds to him aud some of niy other neighbors, 
and told the rest about it." That is good so far as it 
goes. Tell your neighbors about the Agriculturist. Tell 
them you are going to get up a club for 1S74. and that you 
want every farmer to sign for it. Make a business of get- 
ting subscribers for a few days ; or if you can not do this 
yourself, get the postmaster or some one else to attend to 
the business, and help him all you can. If you can get a 
hundred subscribers to the Agriculturist in your town, 
and you certainly can if you try, there will be nodifficulty 
about introducing good stock. 
A Centennial Horticultural Society. 
During the late exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horti- 
cultural Society a meeting of horticulturists was held for 
the purpose of organizing a society to aid in the horti- 
cultural department of the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. 
A committee, of which Col. Marshall P. Wilder waa 
chairman, reported a constitution and nominated offlcens. 
The Society is called the " Centennial Horticultural Soci- 
ety," and its chief object is to aid the United States 
Centennial Commissioners in the preparation of plans 
for the Horticultural Department of the Centennial Ex- 
position, the planting of the garden, the construction 
and management of horticultural houses, and to provide 
for the proper representation of the great interests of 
pomology and horticulture in the exhibition. The 
American Pomological Society is to hold a session at the 
time of the Centennial celebration, and will co-operate in 
the matter of fruits. The officers of the new Society 
are: President, Patrick Barry, of Rochester, N. Y. ; 
Secretary, A. W. Ilarrrson, of Philadelphia; Treasurer, 
Wm. Hacker, of Philadelphia ; Vice Presidents, W. L. 
Shaffer, of Philadelphia ; P. J. Berckmans, of Georgia ; 
S, R. Warder, of Ohio; W. C. Flagg, of Illinois ; W. C. 
Strong, of Massachusetts ;.aod J. Strenzcl, of California. 
A large executive committee was appointed, which in- 
cludes many of the principal nurserymen and florists of 
the country. 
Horsetail, Equisetum— Mare's-tail, Hippuris. 
! Some time ago a correspondent of the N. E. Homestead 
published an article in which were set forth the gener- 
ally conceded injurious effects upon horses of the com- 
mon Horsetail, Equisetum arveiue. The writer added: 
j' There is another weed, own cousin to the Equisitaeae 
(!), which is poisonous to horses, and killing them, as I 
have heard in instances, that is, Hippuris (Mare's-tail). 
The plant resembles iu growth the Horse-tail, only it 
grows much larger, to the bights of two f^t or more, 
and of other proportions." In an item in September 
last we called attention to this singular assertion, 
and, to show its absurdity, stated that *' Hippuris 
ia one of the rarest of plants, and as it grows in 
ponds, usually entirely under water, horses must 
be very acute to find it. 1 " The correspondent of the 
Homestead does not like either the manner or the matter 
of our item, and in a long reply asserts that lie is not 
" college-bred," and a lot of other matter which is of not 
the slightest consequence, but he makes some statements 
which he expects us to accept as facts, which are of im- 
portance, lie quotes a description of Hippuris from 
Gray's Manual, and says : 
, " I think that neither Gray or the agriculturist professor 
lived iu the Connecticut river vallev. or they wmikl nave 
written somewbat differently, for Hippuris is Joutid in ' 
many towns lying contiguous to the Connecticut river 
from Hartford north up into Vermont, just how far I do 
not know, and it docs not all grow in ponds and tinder . 
water either, as almost any farmer there can t?ll you. I 
have myself seeu on the east side of the river, in several 
towns, quantities of it growing, and more on moist land, 
not ponds or springs, than I ever saw growing in water; 
and as for its growing in Vermont, and horses eating and 
being poisoned or dying after having eaten it, I have the 
authority of the farmers who have lost horses in that 
way, or of some of their friends who were knowing to 
the circumstances. 1 ' 
Here it is asserted that a plant, usually considered 
rare, is of very frequent occurrence in the valley of the 
Connecticut; Hiat it grows out of the water quite as 
much or more than it grows in it, and that it is poison- 
ous to animals. These three statements are of great in- 
terest, not only to botanists, but to fanners, and are 
widely nt variance with our own knowledge of the 
Mare's-tail ; so, as our first botanist had been quoted bj 
the writer in the Homestead, we addressed the following' 
note to Dr. Gray: 
"A discussion has arisen with respect to the Mare'8- 
tail, Bzppuris vulgaris. Yen will oblige me by replying 
to the following questions: 1. Are the localities for 
nippuris inNew England cumerouB? if few, please name 
those recorded. 2. Is Hippuris known to grow other- 
wise than iu water ? 8. Have yon ever known poisonous 
qualities to be attributed to Hippuris or its near 
botanical allies? " 
i To these questions Professor Gray replies as follows : 
'•In reply to your three questions I would say that, 
1. I have no evideuce before me that Hippuris grows in 
New England at all, as there is no specimen in my her- 
barium from further east tkan> Northern New York. 2. I 
never saw it growing out of water. I see it is described 
as having the tops sometimes rising out of he water. 
3. 1 never heard of its having any poisonous p operties." 
. The whole trouble with the correspondent of the 
Homestead probably arises from his calling a plant Hip- 
puris which is something else. When corrected, instead 
of consulting with the nearest botanist, he persists in bis 
assertion, gives an innocent and very rare plant a bad 
name, and states that it is common where it does not , 
occur at all. Under the circumstances we feel warranted 
in repeating with emphasis the sentence with which we 
concluded our note in September last, and one which 
seems to have troubled this correspondent of the Home- 
stead : " A knowledge of their subjects would help these 
professional writers for the press." 
