52 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
nourish the most exhausting croj) on one acre of 
ground, and yet neither of these manures are 
applied to the soil — save what little of the former 
may be absorbed by the litter of the barnyard. 
The most convenient method of securing the li- 
quids of the barn yard, is by causing the yard 
to descend towards the centre, and absorb them 
with straw or other litter, a means of which 
most are acquainted. I would not neglect the 
solid manures, to preserve those that are liquid, 
but both can be saved and both should be. If 
all the manures which are in the power of every 
farmer, were properly husbanded and applied 
to' the soil, one great step would be taken to ad- 
vance the agricultural inte ests of this country 
— farmers Avould reap better crops, and that por- 
tion of our country which has been “worn out,” 
might again be made to yield plentiful harvests. 
The agricultural community, as a mass do 
not take sufficient interest in improving the mind, 
and as long as the most essential part is left un- 
cultivated, the science of agriculture will not 
move on with rapid strides towards perfection; 
neither will they apply the principles which 
have been brought to scientific men, in such a 
manner as to be beneficial, though if rightly un- 
derstood by men who had studied and seen the 
beauty of them, would greatly advance this 
valuable science. Every fhrmer ean at least do 
this, take at least one paper devoted to his inter- 
ests, and form a little library of agricultural 
books, to read at liesure hours; he can procure 
some choice volumes on this subject, and will 
therein find many valuable hints, doubly worth 
the price they cost , — Central N. Y. Farmer. 
PREPARATION OF SEED WHEAT TO PREVENT 
SMUT. 
As the season for the active operations of the 
farmer is now approaching, it is important that 
any hint that may be made serviceable in the 
production of our staple crops, should be placed 
before llie community in time to be made use of, 
if it is worthy of imitation. For this reason I 
sand you a note of my practice in preparing the 
seed of spring wheat, to prevent smut; I have 
not tested it on winter wheat, but I think it 
would be decidedly beneficial. 
For the last five years, I have been in the ha- 
bit of preparing my seed in the following man- 
ner; In the first place I make a brine of com- 
mon salt, as strong as it can be made by beating 
and stiring, in this way it can be made so strong 
that it will raise all the oats and imperfect grain. 
When the wheat is made perfectly clean, and 
separated from the brine, I mix slacked lime as 
long as it will stick to the wheat, and sow it im- 
mediately, if I am ready, but I have let it stand 
twenty-four hours before sowing, without injury 
to the wheat; I should think it prudent however, 
to sow it, for a general rule, within twelve hours. 
Since I have been in the practice of treating 
seed in this manner, I have not been able, or. 
any occasion, to detect a particle of smut in my 
wheat. When I consider, that in particular in- 
stances it has been detected in wheat, where the 
seed was not prepared with brine and lime, and 
also in the ca.se of my neighbors who have ne- 
glected it, and have generally had more or less 
smut, I can feel no he.sitation in stating my be- 
lief, that the treatment of the seed has been the 
cause of preventing smut. I am aware that we 
have multitudes of experiments, given by able 
and most excellent farmers, to test the cause and 
prevention of smut, and what is very strange, 
every writer seems to havm found out a new 
cause and means of prevention. 
I am very confident that many causes may 
produce smut, such as imperfect seed, and per- 
haps the effects of too wet or dry seasons, act- 
ing with reference to a peculiar condition of the 
soil, and all, I believe, agree that smut on the 
seed, has a strong tendency to produce smut 
again. I do not pretend to have made any new 
discovery, but I am certain that 1 have been be- 
nefited by it, and am anxious that others who 
perhaps have never had their attention called to 
the subject, may also test its value. Should 
this article meet the eye of any of our farming 
friends, who do not believe in “book farming,” 
and who have “always known that,” I would re- 
spectfully solicit, that they would let down their 
dignity and sell-complacency a little, and (or 
once try a book experiment, and see if they are 
not tenefited, and if they are, will they not try a 
“book !” — Central New York Farmer. 
PREP.4R.ATiON OF Seed Whe.vt. — By siftjng 
wheat in seives that will retain the large seed 
only, a selection of the best grain will be made. 
W ash seed wheat thoroughly in water several 
times, and skim off all the light seeds, .shr iveled 
kernels, oats, &c., that swims on the suiface. 
Then dissolve salt in water, as much salt as the 
water will take up, soak the gram in this brine. 
This will cause other berries to float, and some 
oats that may remain, which may be removed. 
Let the grain remain in the brine half a day, or 
a night, and longer if you please, if the water be 
fully saturated with salt, and the grain be kept in 
a cool place. Wheat has been kept in this man- 
ner, in good condition, two or three weeks, in 
cases of storm which prevented sowing it in 
season. 
Alter soaking in brine, lime the train with 
fresh slaked lime, mixing and stirring the grain 
and lime well together, so that every berr)'^ may 
be watered with lime. Let it remain hall a day 
or a day before sowing. This method has been 
well tried thousands of times, and almost inva- 
riably it has proved a preventive of smut. It is 
a very cheap preparation, and besides guarding 
against injury from smut, it will serve as a pro- 
tection, in .some mea.sure, against insects, as 
they dislike lime and salt. These substances, 
as far as they are used, are useful as a manure. 
Boston Oultivator. 
Prevention of Smut. — Putche’s (German) 
Encyclopedia of Agriculture gives the followr 
ing as the celebrated recipe of Mons, Sekruitz, 
of Duerer, in the province of Juliers, (Prussia) 
for preparing seed wheat so as to prevent smut 
in the crop. So confident was Mr. S. in the ef- 
ficacy of his method, that he offered a standing 
reward of a ducat for every head of smutted 
wheat found in his fields. 
For every 500 lbs. seed wheat take one lb. of 
allum, one lb. copperas, f lb. saltpetre, f lb, ver- 
digris. Pulverise these ingredients and dissolve 
them in a sufficient quantity of boiling water, 
When the solution has become cold add as much 
more water as will be required to moisten the 
whole thoroughly. The heap .should then be 
turned several times within the ensuing hventy 
four hours, and well mixed; and it is ready for 
seeding. 
Industry. — Demosthenes, when asked the 
first requisite to eloquence replied, “action” — 
when asked the second, he replied, “action” — 
and the third, he still replied, “action.” Indus- 
try bears the same relation to agriculture, that 
action did to eloquence in the estimation of the 
Athenian orator. With industry the farmer 
may accomplish every thing, and without it he 
can do nothing. Let him then study the value 
of time. 
Time is his great capital and should be well 
invested. The wealth of the world, its high ci- 
vilization, and all its magnificent improvements, 
have been created and fashioned by the labor 
and industry of man. The poorest soil and most 
unfavorable climate are scarce impediments to 
an industrious and energetic people. Look at 
Holland, reclaimed from the ocean, fenced in by 
her embankments and mud walls, literally a 
smiling garden, where once there was nothing 
but bogs and ocean’s wave. Look at Switzer- 
land, where an industrious and hardy peasantry 
contending against the avalanches of .snow and 
ice and emboulment of mountain masses cf 
rock, falling and crushing for miles square every 
thing before them, have cut the hills and moun- 
tain in terraces and planted them with vines. — 
Lands which before were worse than nothing, 
by this improvement sell for ten thousand francs 
per acre. 
CURE FOR INFLAMED EYES OF THE HORSE. 
Notwithstanding my occupation requires my 
attention and exertions in attempting to cure or 
palliate the “ills that flesh is heir to” in the hu- 
man species, my sympathies have been occa- 
sionally enlisted in behalf of that noble animal 
upon which we are so much dependant for many 
of our pleasures and comforts, and derive so 
much important service — the horse, in conse- 
quence of the empyric and barbarous treatment 
frequently practised upon him. 
If the animal who claims for himself the im- 
age of his maker, is willing to indulge in Bran- 
dreth’s Pills, Lobelia, Magnetic Ether, and Jew 
David’s Plaster, and write for his epitaph, “I 
was well, look physic and died,” let his curiosi- 
ty be gratified; but while we assume to ourselves 
the guardianship of the fourfooted part of crea- 
tion, let us discharge the duty in that manner 
that .shall at least entitle us to the virtue of hu- 
manity. 
Not unfrequently w hen I have been giving my 
horses high feed and severe service in hot weath- 
er, over hard and dusty roads, I have observed 
them frightened and shy from objects to which 
they usually paid little or no attention; and upon 
examination of the e 3 '’es, have discovered the 
external membrane {himca conjunctiva) thicken- 
ed so much as to impair or obstruct the vision, 
presenting a whitish appearance occasionally in 
spots, but frequently involving the entire mem- 
brane covering the organ. At this discovery 
many kind friends, actuated by the best of mo- 
tives, w'ould volunteer their aid and advice, for 
the puiyose of removing the difficulty. Mr. A., 
exhibiting an air of great confidence in his skill 
in .such matters, would say; “You must pound 
glass until it is very fine, and blow" it into the 
eye through a quill, to cut the scum.' ^ A reme- 
dy, or rather an intended remedy, that would 
most assuredly render him blind, even though 
the disease should fail to accomplish that result. 
Then comes Mr, B,: “Sir, you must blow burnt 
alum in that eye,” Mr. C., quite as knowing as 
his neighbors in these afl’airs, makes the follow- 
ing prescription; “Blow powdered blue stone 
into it, and rub a little rabbit’s grease above the 
eye, and my word for it, to-morrow morning it 
will be as bright as a diamond. 
By just such treatment many a noble roadster 
has been prematurely consigned to the cart or 
tread-mill; whereas, had the matter been in- 
trusted solely to the operations of Dame Nature^ 
the result w"Ould have been widely different. 
The course that I invariably pursue in such 
instances, is to keep the animal in a dark stable, 
to be fed upon hay, or if practicable, fresh cut 
grass and coarse bran — bleed freely from the- 
mouth, and administer one and a half pounds 
of Glauber salts, twm drams of nitre, and fifteen 
grains of tartarized antimony in a bucket of 
water, and repeat the same daily until free pur- 
gative operation is produced. The animal will 
be invariably found in a feverish condition, and 
if kept from w'ater for a short time will drink 
the mixture freely. If these ifieans do. not soon 
produce a salutary impression, I hleqd fyom the 
large vein immediately below the eye. ^^y pla- 
cing the thumb of the left hand firmly upon the 
part, the vessel soon becomes distended, and the 
operation may be most conveniently performed 
with a common spring lancet. By this means I 
have frequently succeeded in extracting from 1.^ . 
to 20 ounces of blood, which has acted like a 
charm, by relieving the engorged vessels of the 
inflamed membrane. The whitish or sometimes 
yellowish appearance, depends upon the efl’usion 
of coagulated lymph deposited during the^ acute 
stage of the ’disease. When the absorption of 
this does not progress freely, and the eye fails to 
assume its accustomed lustre anddransparenc}’’, 
I blister a semicircle below the eye, one and a 
half inches in diameter, by applying daily with 
the point of the finger, a mixture of three parts 
of the common blistering preparation as obtain- 
ed from the druggists, and one part Venice tur- 
pentine. Sometimes the other membranes of 
the organ become diseased from similar causes, 
to remedy w'hich, the loregoing treatment as de- 
