1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The Poultry Bulletin.— Our contem- 
porary and neighbor began its third year in April by ap- 
pearing in an entire new dress, now as an octavo maga- 
zine, with, cover, and embellished with many excellent 
engravings. We value the Bulletin highly as an exchange, 
and commend it to our readers. 
Vneren Pulling of Teams.- We have 
received several letters on this subject, to which wc reply 
generally, that it does not follow, because the double-tree 
is not even, that one horse is pulling more than another ; 
neither does it follow that both horses are pulling exactly 
alike. The question was originally made, whether one 
horse must necessarily be drawing more than an equal part 
of the load, and we replied, no, and still hold to that opin- 
ion, as a general principle. There are many contingen- 
cies, which might occur, in which the draft would become 
unequal, but they don't affect the question on principle. 
Hen - Houses. — " Subscriber," Alleghany 
City, Pa. In a series of articles entitled "The Egg- 
Farm," the whole subject of raising poultry for profit 
has been thoroughly discussed. The series began in 
May, 1871, and extend through twelve numbers. The 
questions you ask are fully answered there. We conld 
not reply to your inquiries without writing a long article. 
To Dissolve Bones. — "A Reader/' 
Stamford, Ct., asks us how to dissolve bones. A Boston 
paper (of which the editor is a chemist and therefore ought 
to know) says, "Bones may be dissolved in the following 
manner: take one barrel of finely-ground bone, mix it 
with a barrel of goodwood-ashes in a heap on the barn- 
floor, during the mixing add gradually three pails of 
water. It must not be made too moist, and will be ready 
for use in a week. It needs to be used in small quanti- 
ties, as the superphosphates." " Bones may also be dis- 
solved by using 50 pounds of sulphuric acid, mixed with 
Z% gallons of water to 150 pounds of ground bones, in a 
similar manner to the above." This is in the proportion of 
33 pounds of acid to 100 pounds of bone. If the ground 
bones are quite fresh, 23 to 25 pounds of acid have with 
us been found sufficient. 
Arkansas Moving;.— A farmers* club has 
been organized at Little Rock, of which H. Brady is 
Secretary. He writes us that the club would be glad to 
open correspondence with other clubs, and also to re- 
ceive from dealers in implements, stock-raisers, etc., 
their catalogues and circulars for the use of the club. 
Unfermented Grape - Juice. — " D. 
L.," Portsmouth, O. We know of no work upon this 
subject. We suppose grape-juice may be bottled, like 
other fruit juices, upon the same principle that fruits 
are canned and bottled. 
Iodine Ointment. — "M. Van D.," Mar- 
tindale, N. Y., asks how the iodine ointment mentioned 
In January Agriculturist* page 6, is made. Twenty 
grains of iodine, four grains of iodide of potassium, 
water six drops, lard one ounce troy. Rub the iodine 
and iodide of potassium together with the water and 
then with the lard until well mixed, and preserve closely 
from the air. It should be used soon after mixing. 
All about Colorado.— "Q. M desires to 
inform "G. E. S." that the colonies of Greeley, Long- 
mont, and at Evans are, in their own estimation, 
"cities" of no small importance; that "he can earn 
his bread with the sweat of his brow in Colorado with 
the greatest satisfaction ; " that the "average of crops 
gained there is double that of Pennsylvania or New 
York, except oats ; that the climate is fine, and that it 
must he a good farm in either of those States which 
will compete with them." But "all their crops must 
be irrigated." Wc have not space for the whole letter. 
Potato-Starch.— " D. M. H." wishes us to 
give him the process of making potato-starch and the 
amount of product of a bushel of potatoes. The process 
consists in rasping the potatoes to a fine pulp, and 
washing it on a strainer with cold water, which is per- 
mitted to pass through and carry the starch with it into 
Bhallow vats where it is deposited ; after which, the 
water is drawn off and the starch dried. One hundred 
pounds of potatoes will produce about seventeen pounds 
of starch, or more or less, according to the variety. 
Vegetable Gardening; iw June.— 
This most unusually backward season lias upset the 
calculations of most persons who have their garden 
"made" and out of the way before June. Do not be 
discouraged. It usually happens that what is lost atone 
end of a season is made up at the other, and it rarely 
fails that the average comes right. Many things usually 
sown earlier can yet he put in with a fair prospect of a 
good crop. We enumerate some things as a reminder. 
Beans of all kinds. BeetB, both early and late sorts. 
Cabbage, Cauliflower, and all of that tribe. Carrots, in 
garden or in field. Sweet Corn. Cucumbers, Melons, 
and Squashes. Early Peas may be put in for a late crop, 
planting them deep, so that they may resist drouth. 
New Zealand Spinach, Okra, Herbs of all kinds, and even 
potatoes, if they have not already been planted. At this 
late season weeds will be abundant, and the young 
plants require extra care to keep them clean. Wc have 
often found it the case that things sown the first of June 
did as well as those sown earlier, which had to contend 
with long cold storms in May. 
Blow to get a Farm for Nothing.— 
A young man, who is now teaching Bchool, would like to 
have a farm, worth $5,000, and writes to ask where he can 
borrow the money to buy it with. Now, a school teacher 
ought to have abetter idea of things than to dream of 
the possibility of doing such a thing as he desires, and 
lest there may be others who might have an equally fool- 
ish idea in their scanty brains, we just Bay to such young 
men, Go* West, go anywhere where a dollar can be earned, 
an'l spend only half of it, and lay by the rest until some- 
thing has been saved. If $100 only has been thus saved, 
it will go far to show that that man will be able to pay a 
debt he may contract, and he may risk doing it ; if he can 
not thus save $100, how can he ever hope to pay $5,000 
out of his own hard labor alone. 
Kidney- Worms in Hogrs.— " W. H. B. M 
Turpentine rubbed on the back or wood-ashes given in 
the feed is often used with good effect for this complaint. 
How to use Swamp-Mnck.-"J. W. 
S." had better use mnck in his stables, or compost it 
with stable manure, than to Epread it raw upon his field. 
Ilow to Feed Grain to Oxen.— T. 
Bell, Osage Co., Kansas, asks how he shall feed corn to 
his oxen otherwise than in the ear; when fed in the ear 
they won't eat hay. Probably the best way would be to 
get the corn ground and chop the hay with an ax into 
short lengths (if there is no hay-cutter), and wet it and 
sprinkle the meal on it. If this can not be done, feed bay 
first and give the corn afterwards, and sprinkle salt water 
on the hay as an inducement. 
Early Lambs. — Edwin Black, of New Jer- 
sey, writes ; " I raise early lambs for the New York mar- 
ket, and want to get them to weigh 50 pounds as soon as 
possible. Will the lambs from a Cotswold ram and a 
Merino ewe fatten as soon as from a South-Down ram?" 
Perhaps the quality of the meat from the South-Down may 
be better, but the lambs from the Cotswold will weigh 
the most at a given age. The great point is to get a, pure- 
bred ram, and one that has a tendency to mature early 
rather than to attain a great size. Feed the ewes liberally, 
and let the lambs have a plentiful supply of meal and 
sliced mangels in a trough, separate from the ewes. 
Compost-Heaps. — A Maryland farmerasks 
how to build a compost-heap. Pile all the materials, 
stable manure, sod, sea-weed, straw, stalks, etc., in layers, 
but do not put ashes or lime in at all ; when they have 
heated, commence at one end and turn all over, and mix, 
and let it heat again. It will soon rot under this treatment. 
Spread ashes and lime by themselves directly on the field. 
Burning' Stumps.— T. Greenwood, Miss., 
says it is a bad practice to bnrn stumps without wholly 
destroying them, as when charred they are preserved 
from rotting. 
Garget. — A "Subscriber" asks for a cure 
for garget or caked bag. The udder should be fomented 
with warm water, and rubbed with ammonia water (or 
common hartshorn) and sweet oil several times a day; 
the rubbing is probably of more effect than the lini- 
ment. A quart of sliced poks-root fed with some pota- 
toes has effected a cure. But it is generally the case 
that care previous to calving will prevent this trouble- 
some complaint. Let cows coming in be watched, and 
if the bag becomes too full it should be relieved by draw- 
ing off the milk at once. 
HoirT Many Eg^s in a Year?— "D. 
B. S.," Brooklyn, N. Y. Eight or nine dozen is a very 
good average yield, indeed, for hens, taking good, bad, 
and indifferent together. It is all very well to talk about 
150 to 200 eggs per head per annum, and about 25 to 30 
quarts of milk per day from a cow, but it is extremely 
foolish to expect such things to happen generally. There 
is a wonderful difference in the laying capacities of differ- 
ent breeds, and feeding and management affect proliflc- 
ness, so that no estimate can be made that will not fall 
very wide of the mark in many cases. It takes about 3<J 
quarts of corn to feed a fowl of average size and appetite, 
a year, with a considerable amountof other things, which 
It must cither forage for, or be furnished with, if shut up. 
It is a marvel that so many as 100 e^gs can be manufac- 
tured from the rations of one fowl, and the ordinary 
waste of the system be repaired at the same time. Indi- 
vidual birds that produce 150 eggs, or upwards, in a year, 
have the power of digesting and assimilating more than 
an ordinary quantity of food, without which Biich feats of 
laying conld not be performed. In many cases when ten 
or twelve dozens of eggs arc laid in a year, a part of the 
food and vital force of the last part of the year preceding 
Is employed, it having been stored up in the system, and 
also profuse laying sometimes reduces flesh and strength 
so that the fowl is obliged to feed heartily, without laying, 
for some months after, in order to recuperate. 
Steaming Feed.— "J. W. R.," Hardock, 
Pa., asks if a wrought-iron cylinder boiler, eight feet 
long and eighteen inches in diameter, will steam feed 
for fifty cows and thirty hogs. Such a boiler will be 
amply sufficient, with a chest made steam-tight to con- 
tain the feed. 
Navicular I>isease. — "L." writes, lie 
has treated his horses according to Prof. Coleman's 
method, and made them worse, as follows: pared the 
heels, leaving the frog and toe, expecting that the frog; 
would sustain the pressure, and kept the foot moist. 
Also, according to another authority, with benefit, as fol- 
lows : pared the toe as low as possible, trimmed the 
frog, cleaned out the inside of the hoof, and left the heels 
high, thus throwing the pressure on the rim of the hoof, 
and using liniment on the sole and around the coronet or 
upper edge of the hoof. 
Strawberries on BniheS.— H. San- 
ford. We have already given our opinion of that article 
which makes strawberries grow upon bushes, three and 
four feet high. Don't believe it. 
Test for Bone-Flour.— -Jacob Dnnton, 
Philadelphia, asks for an approximate test for the purity 
of bone-flour. Bones contain about 45 per cent of organic 
or combustible matter. If bone-flour is rendered dry, it 
should contain then about 55 per cent of incombustible 
matter, or ash. But this varies somewhat, according to 
the different kinds of bone ; nevertheless it will he 
sufficiently accurate for an approximate test to calcine 
the sample, and note the amount of matter left after 
burning; if much greater than 55 per cent, mineral mat- 
ter has probably been added ; if much less, fleBh or other 
animal matter. 
Carbolic Acid. — "Tours Respectfully." 
This is generally kept by druggists. We can not answer 
about the other. 
Double*Fnrrow Flows.— H. Symonds, 
St. Louis de Gonzaquc, uses a double-furrow plow on 
light soils, which is drawn by one pair of horses, doing 
the work of four horses with the ordinary plow. In the 
Western country these plows will doubtless come into 
extensive use, but on rongh or stony lands they are of 
too heavy draft for a common team. 
How to Xreat Manure. — "E. B.," 
Carlton, Wis., has more straw than he can use. How can 
he work it up into manure ? nis cows eat all the horse 
manure. By bedding his stock up to the knees, and re- 
moving the litter every two weeks, and sprinkling plaster 
on the stables when any smell is perceived, the straw 
will become saturated, and should then 1)2 piled in ft 
Bquare heap, and allowed to heat and ferment, and occa- 
sionally turned over. Thus much straw may be used up. 
The horse manure is much more valuable in this wiry than 
as food for cows. If salt is given the cows in the yard, 
they probably will not cat the manure. 
Feeding Bearded Straw.— "F, S. F." 
asks if feeding the straw of bearded wheat is injurious 
to cattle or horses. lie has lately lost a horse, which his 
neighbors think died in consequence of feeding on it. 
We have heard of sheep and horses suffering from this 
cause, and can easily believe that irritation in the coats 
of the stomach may arise from feeding bearded straw. 
However, we have known horses fed on cut rye straw or 
fodder, and have permitted our cattle and sheep access to 
bearded straw, without noticing any ill effects. Had the 
Btomach been opened, the doubt would have been solved 
• 
Cutting- Clover. — Geonre Burr, Ohio, 
asks if he can cut two crops of clover hay and get a crop 
of seed in the same season, on good, rich land, well ma- 
nured. We never knew this to be done and doubt its pos- 
sibility. A rich soil will give heavier crops, but can not 
hasten maturity so much as to ripen the seed after two 
cuttings. But three cuttings for hay may be made. 
