SOUTHEEN CULTIVATOR. 
119 
AET OF MILKING. 
The art of milking well is not taught in a hurry. It re- 
quires long practice to milk properly, and, therefore, all 
the young people on a farm ought to be shown how the 
labor should be done. It is quite important that this branch 
of the dairy should be particularly attended to, for a good 
milker obtains at least a quart more from the same cow 
than a poor milker. 
The first lesson to be taught to young people is gentle- 
ness and kindness to the cow. They never need be treat- 
ed harshly,'in case the business is properly commenced. 
Cows that have been caressed and uniformly well treated, 
are fond of having the milk drawn from the udder at the 
regular time of milking, for it gives them relief from the 
distensions of the milk ducts. 
Let young people be put to milking the farrow cows 
first, or such as are to be soon dried, and then the loss 
from bad milking will be less injurious. The hand should 
extend to the extremity of the teats, for the milk is then 
drawn easier. 
Young people should be taught to milk as fast as pos- 
sible. More milk is always obtained by a rapid milker 
than by a slow one. They shoultl, therefore, be taught to 
think of nothing else while milking, and no conversation 
must be permitted in the milk yard. They should sit up 
close to the cow and rest thelefr arm gently against her 
shank. Then if she raises her foot, as she sometimes will, 
merely to change position, she will not be likely to put it 
into the milk pail. 
In case of a disposition to kick, or rather to raise her 
foot on account of pain occasioned by soreness of the teats, 
the nearer the milker sits to her, and the harder he presses 
his left arm against her leg, the less risk will be run of be- 
ing injured. 
Cows may be taught to give down their milk at once — 
they may be taught to hold it a long while and to be 
stripped indefinitely. The best way is to milk quick and 
not use the cow to a long stripping, or an after stripping. 
Northern Farmer. 
CULTURE OF SWEET POTATOES. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I see in the March 
lumber of your paper, page 78, an article on the subject 
f Level Planting of Sweet Potatoes by Mr. J. M. Hatch- 
h, who refers to an article from the pen of Col. Wm, 
MKinley in the April (1855,) number of your paper, 
an recommending it to the attention of all sweet potato 
rai&rs. 
l ave Col. McKinley’s plan a fair trial in 1855 — it 
prov^ not only a failure but a bad one. I had rich bot- 
tom Itid ; I plowed and subsoiled it well and planted 
one-ha' of my crop agreeable to his directions, and the 
other hif I planted in the old way. F.'-om the latter I got 
a tolerab. crop ; but from the former, I had nothing but 
strings, ojitile stringy potatoes, unfit for use. 
I think here is some reasons why Col. McKinley’s 
plan will otdo: In the first place, I have been in the 
habit of rai&ig potatoes weighing from 8 to 1 5 pounds ; for 
the purpose f making room for themselves they always 
have to bur open the ground, which is easily done 
where the hil are elevated, but almost impossible where 
the ground is .yel ; the want of room in level planting 
for a large crc ;ven a large potato seems to me an 
unanswerable o^ction to to that plan. It would require 
the power of a oy horse engine to make room, deep down 
in the earth, for arop of fifteen pounders. 
J. Hair. 
Livingston, Ala.^arch, 1856. 
Cure for Bloody Murrain. — Messrs. Editors — I 
noticed, a few weeks since, an inquiry for a cure for the 
Bloody Murrain, and will tell you what has proved suc- 
cessful here. 
Take two pounds of epsom salts and six ounces of tal- 
low, and pour enough boiling water on to dissolve it — 
then let it cool sufficiently, and give one-third of it for a 
dose. If the animal is not better in six hours, give one- 
half the remainder, and if not better in six hours more 
give the rest. One of our neighbors, an Englishman, told 
me that the above would effect a cure if given before the 
blood turned black. I tried it by heating the water until it 
would melt the salts and tallow, and then give it, but lost 
two or three animals, when I saw a recipe in the Prairie 
given by him which said, pour boiling water'^ 
on, since which time I have not lost a case, and I think it 
a sure remedy when given soon after the attack. 
Asa Howes, in Country Gentleman. 
Oak Creek, Wis. 
Agricultural Division op the Patent Office. — Chi- 
nese Sugar Cane. — This new product, known by the 
French under the name of Sorgho sucre, {sorghum scchar- 
aUim,) noticed in our columns some months since, bids 
fair to become of immense national importance. It has 
succeeded admirably in various sections of the Union, in 
some instances growing to a height of twelve or fifteen 
feet, and yielding, by estimate, twenty-five tons to the acre 
of excellent green fodder, much relished by cattle, swine, 
and the like. We regret to see some of our contemporaries 
attempting to make this plant appear as identical with the 
common broom corn. Any one who would trouble him- 
self to call at the Patent Office, can see that samples of the 
two species are quite as different from ea'di other as they 
are from Indian corn. We understand that there will be 
an abundance of seed for distribution during the coming 
season. — Washington {D. C.) Union. 
The Vine in Alabama. — A correspondent, writing us 
from Camden, Ala., says: 
“I have a vineyai'd, one acre, in Catawba vines, now 
one year old from cuttings. They grew well during the 
past season. I look forward with hope to the time when 
the juice ot the Grape will supplant whiskey, and when 
our country will become, as all wine-producing countries 
are represented to be, characterized by temperance of its 
people.” 
Red Camomile to Destroy Insects. — The Journal 
d' Hortic^dULre de Belgium states that a powder made 
from the flowers of the red camomile {Pyrethrum roseuvi) 
emits “an odor so strong and penetrating that it kills all 
the insects and all the vermin of which until now no cer- 
tain agent of destruction has been found.” An Arme- 
nian merchant, travelling in the south of Asia, observed 
that the inhabitants sprinkled themselves with a powder, 
to prevent the sting of insects. He found that the powder 
was “nothing else than that made from the flowers of the 
red camomile.” The plant is quite hardy, and is now cul- 
tivated to a great extent in Southern Russia. In Trans- 
Caucassia alone. 88,000 lbs. of powder are annually made 
for consumption in the Russian Empire. Baron Folker- 
sham has published a paper on the cultivation of the red 
camomile. He says; “This powder preserves you from 
fleas and bugs ; it kills flies, gnats, maggots, lice, and 
even the worms which are psoduced in the wounds of our 
domestic animals.” He hopes it will be tried on insects 
injurious to horticulture, and adds that if experiments 
demonstrate the efficacy of the powder in this respect, 
each person could cultivate in the corner of his garden 
olants enough to kill the insects, &c., which ravage his 
field. 
