AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
3£Hcs on the Horse's Foot. — Good 
shoeing must "be systematic. The ililes system has stood 
the test of thousands of miles under the horse's foot, 
and that after all is the best test. It has the approval of 
The hest Veterinarians, and many a man who has given 
the hook to his blacksmith, and insisted on the horse- 
shoeing being done just right, has been rewarded in his 
own case, and thanked by his neighbors, and by the 
smith, again and again. Pee book list. Price, 75 cents. 
Single ILines anu JLcft - E£an<l 
Flows.— P. F. "Wislar, Bucks Co., says : It would be a 
rare sight to see double lines to drive a plow team in Lan- 
caster County, Pa. 3tIorc than three-fourths of a century 
ago, the left hand plow was introduced into that County-, 
and at the present time there are scarcely any right hand 
plows and dduble lines seen in that region. The fanners 
use the left hand plow and single line altogether: drive 
the leader, or near horse, in the furrow, and tie a jockey 
stick to the inside ring of his harness, and the other end 
of the stick tied to the outside ring in the blind halter of 
the off horse, and a tying strap to the inside ring of the 
same, fastened to the furrow horse, to keep the off horse 
from going too fast, and make him walk true to his work. 
This is the modern style of plowing, and quite an im- 
provement on the old plan of using a right hand plow, 
and double lines cast over the neck or " round the back of 
the phwman" with the horses' heads tied together, to 
harass and baffle them in fly time. "With a good leader in 
a left hand plow, I have set boys, twelve years old, in the 
middle of a square field to plow what is called L haw round,' 
after giving them a start. They would plow the whole 
field without using any lines. The horses turning at the 
corners like a perfect machine, and the horse on the land 
side, pressing against the jockey stick, would walk so 
true, that, in stiff sod without stones, the plow boy could 
leave the plow to rim alone for several feet on a stretch, 
which makes it a light task, compared to the old plan. 
■ Farm Proverbs. — "D. E." writes : 1. Use 
diligence, industiy, integrity, and proper improvement of 
time, to make farming pay. 2. Choose a farm with a soil 
either naturally dry or drained, not too level nor yet 
too steep, well fenced in proper sized fields, not too large, 
"d. Good, snug buildings, with dry, if not clean, yards 
and cellars, especially barn and stabling. 4. Economy in 
accumulating, saving, and properly using all manures and 
fertilizers possible, no matter how rich your laud may be 
naturally. 5. Agood and tolerably fast team, better smart 
than large. 6. Your farming implements well made, of 
good material, not too heavy. 7. Have work done in 
season. S. Always sow good clean seeds. 9. Do not 
harvest before your crop is fit to harvest. 10. Don't keep 
more live stock on your farm than you can keep well. 11. 
House all things as niHch as possible— animals, utensils, 
and crops. 13. Sell when you can get a fair price, and 
do not store for rats and speculators. 
Hints to ISorscltecpers. — There are 
few books which all who own or use the horse, peruse 
with greater satisfaction than this. "We may truly say 
that we know of no book better worth its price. It is 
full, yet very much condensed ; pleasant reading, yet ex- 
ceedingly pithy and terse. Price, $1.75. See Book List. 
Cotton Planters 9 Mannal- This lit- 
tle volume contains much that is valuable, especially to 
the novice in cotton culture. It is the collated experience 
of veteran planters. A single good hint from an ex- 
perienced cultivator might enable a farmer to make a 
crop by avoiding erroneous practice, or providing before- 
hand against difficulties or damages which might other- 
wise be nnthought of until too late. See our Book List. 
•Poultry Sools:. — The little work on Do- 
mestic Poultry, by Mr. Saunders, which Ave published 
more than a year ago, and which was subsequently thor- 
oughly revised, receiving important additions, has reached 
its seventh thousand. In the appendix is an account 
of Mr. Gcyelin's visit to the poultry yards of France, 
which, ia connection with the great interest now -a-days 
being taken in French fowls, has a peculiar importance. 
l&oss&e-JUade SSinuing-. — u TV. H. TV." 
3 have stitched three volumes ; taking an awl and prick- 
ing the holes, sewing with strong thread. Pasting a 
piece of strong cotton cloth over the back with a strong 
prist e, made by scalding a thin batter of flour, wet up cold, 
and adding a piece of glue about two inches square, dis- 
solved in hot water, to a half pint of paste. Take paste- 
I) ia; !, such as is tiEed by book-binders, of a suitable size, 
si :--.'. !o the papers already stitched, including fly leaves. 
On thv back, with your paste, put a strip of enamelled 
- lolh, cut to the properlength and width. Nowcoverthe 
whole sides, turning over the edges, with marbled paper ; 
finish by pasting the fly-leaf to inside of cover, and, if 
neatly done, you have a book handsome enough for any 
farmers library, at a cost of only a few cents. 
Always 'Too ILate. — Notices of the winter 
meetings of several of the "Western Horticultural Socie- 
ties, to be held in January, were received after our paper 
was printed and being mailed. Nothing of this kind is 
sure to be noticed that reaches us later than the 10th of 
the preceding month. Will Secretaries of Horticultural 
Societies please send notices in season ? 
" Cornea Restorers ' * and. " Eye 
Sharpeners." — Several have lately asked our opinion 
of these things, probably new subscribers, as we had an 
item upon the rnarter last year. An application was made 
to us to advertise a thing of this kind, and while our im- 
pressions were all adverse to it, we took the trouble, in 
justice to the advertisers as well as to our readers, to con- 
sult one of our most eminent oculists, who confirmed 
our impressions by his opinion that it "would do more 
harm than good/' If one wishes a watch repaired or a 
piano tuned, he goes to some one who understands their 
mechanism and does not tinker them himself. An eye is 
more valuable than all the watches and pianos that were 
ever made. Do not trifle with it. 
Cheated l>y the "doctors."— J. TV. 
Way. sends the names of two quacks, who warranted to 
cure him for certain sums, and who got his money but 
left him no better. He wishes us to publish the names 
of these as a warning to other sufferers. If we were to 
publish the names of all the quack doctors, of whom we 
have complaints, it would not do a particle of good, as 
these chaps don't remain long under one name. If any 
one who has read the Agriculturist for a year, will em- 
ploy a "Doctor, 11 who advertises that he can do this or 
that, or who will warrant a cure for a given sum, we can- 
not pity him very much, as he has already had abundant 
warning. Nor can we, as J. W. TV. requests, publish the 
names of reliable Doctors. TVc have no doubt that there 
are several in his own town who could give him good 
advice, and in his case he needs that rather than medicine. 
BlnfiYon "Wine Company. — A Com- 
pany for carrying on the culture of the grape and wine 
making on the large scale has been organized in Missouri. 
George Husmann is President, and Dr. L. D. Morse, Sec- 
retary. The lands of the Company are chiefly in Mont- 
gomery County, and have a front of about three miles on 
the Missouri Paver. Mr. Samuel Miller, of Avon. Pa., the 
originator of the Martha, Black Hawk, and other seedlings, 
is Superintendent of out-door propagation and cultivation. 
Teeth and Hair.— "A. A." asks if Zozo- 
dont is good for the teeth, and what kind of a hair re- 
storative we would recommend. As we do not know the 
composition of Zozodont, we can't say, and do not recom- 
mend any " hair restorative," believing them to be of no 
other use than to put money in the venders pockets. If 
there is any disease of the scalp, go to a physician, if not, 
keep it clean and healthy by washing and friction, and if 
the hair don't grow no fertilizer will make it grow. 
1/athing- Upon Adohe "Walls. — "West" 
writes " please tell us if an adobe wall, without studding, 
maybe furred for lathing by nailing strips directly on the 
sun-dried brick. Will not the bricks be cracked inevitably 
in the process? To avoid the cost of timber, such as stud- 
ding, would be a great reason for adopting the adobe. 1 ' It 
would be easy in laying up the adobe to put into the wall 
strips of board ; say, a foot or IS inches apart, for the pur- 
pose of holding the nails. This would be the safer course 
and less expensive than furring in the regular way.— Ed. 
Raising- Calves Without Mills.— 
" C. V. B.," of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Nov. 5, writes : 
In regard to bringing up calves without milk the plan I 
have always found to work well is to feed on "Bean 
Soup," prepared as for family use, and -with the same 
quantity of salt — say, two table spoonfuls in each mess 
(of two quarts.) I have always found the calves to thrive 
upon this as well as upon milk. I take them from the 
cow at one week old, and they are never troubled with 
scours, nor with the opposite tendency. 
Dry Earth. — Fine dry soil may be obtained 
by raking over a loamy spot, taking the stones off. and 
letting it dry in the sun until it may be dashed through a 
screen with eight holes to the inch ; then covering it at 
night, and exposing it another'day to the sun. Thus dried 
it may be barreled, and is as powerful a deodorizer as 
gypsum or plaster, an excellent disinfectant and drier for 
use in privies, hen-houses, or any foul places. The best 
we ever used was road dust, swept up and barreled on hot 
days. It was employed in the hen-house. There are laws 
against taking dirt from the roads, but if the dust were 
to be replaced by gravel, no objection could be urged. 
Agriculture in Hamilton College. 
— A correspondent informs us that the trustees of Ham- 
ilton College. Clinton, N. T., have received a bequest of 
$30,000 from the late Silas D. Childs, of Utica, N. T., for a 
Department of Agricultural Chemistry. A well-timed 
generosity. The immutable laws of Vegetation, Animal 
Physiology, and Agricultural Chemistry are better worth 
the study of young men than the shifting statutes 
that are made and unmade by human legislators. 
Peat and Much.— "L. F. H.," Ohio. The 
sample sent is apparently a very fair article of peat. Ton 
can test its value as fuel thus : Cut out 100 cakes, (like 
bricks, 24-4+5); dry them thoroughly ; weigh a bushel ; 
make a fire in a clean stove, or on a hearth, save and 
weigh the ashes. If the ashes are more than 10 per cent, 
of the peat, it will not be very good fuel. Composted 
with lime or ashes, or manure, after being exposed one 
winter, or after being treated with lime or ashes, it will 
make good manure. Three loads of fine mnck, with one 
load of good dung and litter, with a barrel or two of yard 
liquor pumped over the heap twice or thrice in four 
weeks, will be better than four loads of barn-yard manure. 
Temperature of Cream for Churn- 
ing.— John S. Larover, Union County, El. The tempera- 
ture is very important in churning, for it is hard work to 
bring butter if the cream is above 70 degrees, or below 58 
degrees F. The best temperature to begin churning is at 
about 62 degrees, for the friction of the agitation will 
raise it a little, and 65 is as high as it should ever be at 
the close. The richness of the milk and cream depends 
npon the feed and upon the cow ; salting the cows regu- 
larly, or having it always before them, makes the butter 
come well, other things being equal. Butter comes 
easiest when the cream is slightly sour. Then look to the 
temperature, and make it right by setting the vessel hold- 
ing cream in an outer vessel of hot or cold water, or lower 
a tin pail of water into the cream, stirring the cream un- 
til it is of a uniform and right temperature from top to 
bottom. Then, not filling the churn too full, churn stead- 
ily, giving thorough agitation until the butter comes. 
"Can the Ethiopian Change Slis 
Skin?"— " A. T.," of New York City (farm in New 
Jersey) asks: "Did you ever know of a Spanish cock 
changing his color ? I have one, a splendid fellow, which, 
came into the world raven black, and so remained for 
nearly a year, when he dropped that garb, and took on 
another, and is now as white as snow. It occurred about 
the time Mr. Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclama- 
tion.' 1 This change is not a very rare occurrence with 
Black Spanish fowls, and has given rise to the so-called 
'•White Spanish " breed, in which the white color is 
fixed. "We have heard of none changing back again. 
Experience YTith Ferrets. — Mr. Jacob 
Flanagan, after an experience of some years with these 
animals, falls hack upon the cat as the best rat catcher- 
He says: "A ferret can seldom climb to a hay mow, 
they are so clumsy. I do not think they can smell a rat, 
and are nearly blind. I have seen them within one foot" 
of a rat and not touch it ; but if the rat squeals, they will 
attack immediately. I thought it might be better if they 
were trained, and engaged a professional rat catcher to 
come with his ferrets and dogs ; but he did no permanent 
good. I kept ferrets for three or four years, but to no 
profit. They would dig out occasionally, and get over thu 
fence around their pen, and kill a good lot of chickens. 
So I killed the ferrets and bought a young black cat, and 
always feed her in the barn twice a day, and in no other 
place. Since the cat came I have hardly seen a rat or 
mouse about the barn, except in the cat's mouth."' [Wc 
attach more importance to the confinement to the barn 
than to the color, though dark colors are best. — Ed.] 
Chicory. — L. B. Tifft, Connecticut. Chicory 
is cured by cutting up into pieces an inch or two in 
length, and drying thoroughly in a kiln at a temperature 
below that of boiling water. After it is dry it may be 
marketed. For use it is roasted bike coffee, care being 
taken not to char it, and ground to a coarse meal, 
Osage Orange on Timothy Socl.— 
"J. B. R.," Gentry County, Mo. A good Timothy sod, 
plowed in the fall, the soil being naturally rich, would, we 
should think, make a very good seed bed for an Osage 
Orange nursery, if dry, worked deep, and kept clean. 
