334 , 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
Among the Farmers.—No. 32. 
BY ONB or THEM. 
When the strawberries were in blossom, and rye 
not yet in the ear, and when men were getting out 
the manure for corn, and the shouts of the plowmen 
were heard all over the land, on a drizzly rainy day, 
with lucid intervals, and just chill enough to make 
us feel that grass was the only thing especially bene¬ 
fited, and with the good company of an old friend, 
Mr. Wells, of Wethersfield, the writer visited 
“ The Ranch ” of James B. Olcott. 
This is Wonderland to the readers of the Connec¬ 
ticut Courant —a land of mysterious production and 
of a peculiar charm, not well defined, but real. Mr. 
Oleott’s readers have learned all about the sand 
barren, and the yellow pines, and scrub-oak woods, 
and strawberry plantation. They know “Old Ring¬ 
bone ” and the “ Twenty-dollar horse,” and the Al¬ 
derney steers, by reputation at least, and so did I. 
Now, to understand both the man and his home, 
needs a long acquaintance, and the affection engen¬ 
dered of it, but I may be allowed to say to the readers 
of the American Agriculturist, that Mr. Olcott is a 
reformed Californian. That is, he has had the desire 
to wander and see the world, and the rough and sav¬ 
age, as well as the smooth and placid waters and 
ways of life, and then, ten years ago, settled down 
upon his native sands.. He believes that a man as 
is a man, can get a living, and a home, and home 
comforts—and that includes fruit from June to June 
—as well as everything else that a regenerate wan¬ 
derer is naturally heir to—home, joy, peace, meat 
and vegetables, especially if his heart is full of 
the milk of human kindness, and his stables of 
Jersey cows—provided he goes to work the right 
way, on almost any kind of soil. 
Well, we caught him at home, or he caught us. 
and no Tartar either way. He had big boots of 
rubber or well-grained leather, which furnished us 
fora tramp through the wet grass ; and we inspect¬ 
ed the strawberries, the grass land, the big patcb 
of sand-barren he was reclaiming with 40 or 50 
loads of beautiful leaf and stable-manure compost 
to the acre, the low woods which were annually 
robbed for the leaves, and many other interesting 
things. We inspected the house of his own plan¬ 
ning and building, with the dairy and stables adja¬ 
cent, which are quite too close for any but people 
who love neatness and hate ill odors ; and we par¬ 
took of a frugal lunch, served by the gentle house¬ 
mother and her daughters, and seasoned by kindly 
welcome and instructive talk. 
Mr. Olcott built his house with much of Donald 
Mitchell’s sentiment, for a combination of the use¬ 
ful and beautiful—that is, making beauty a thing of 
use, and useful things graceful and fair ; and so he 
carries on his work, a useful sentimentality pervad¬ 
ing both his composts and his letters. It is framed 
into his buildings and recognized in the width of 
his doorway and the breadth of the grass-plat, in 
the weedless garden, in the kindly whinny of Ring¬ 
bone, and the contagious laugh of the proprietor of 
the “Ranch.” 
One thing surprised us, there was less of what 
one may call sandy-land farming—that is, plowing 
in of green manure crops, agonizing after organic 
matter in the soil (which is always disappearing), 
and the use of crops known to flourish in light 
soils, like eow-peas, for instance. Manure from the 
barnyard, which was really one great compost-heap, 
is Mr. Oleott’s dependence for crops of all sorts. 
The supply of this is augmented in every possi¬ 
ble way, but chiefly by leaves from the woods. 
This robbing of the woods checks their growth in a 
great measure. Yet we may surely take our choice, 
when we have it, between promoting the growth of 
timber, and increasing the yield of corn and fruits. 
Treatment of Ailing' Animals. 
If there is any one thing which gives a real dis¬ 
tress to a humane man, it is sickness and pain in 
* dumb brute which he can not alleviate. If his 
children are sick, he or his wife, or the good grand¬ 
mother, has knowledge and nostrums which are 
administered with some confidence—“ simples ” 
which are useless and harmless, or possibly bene¬ 
ficial. If these fail, they usually have near at hand 
“ The Village Doctor , * * * * 
Whose ancient sulky, down the village lanes. 
Dragged like a war-car, captive, ills and pains.” 
If, however, the animals are sick, we have no one 
to turn to—cow-leaches and horse-doctors, black¬ 
smiths and stable-boys, whose tender mercies are 
cruelties, are aways ready to physic and purge, to 
sear and torture, with “ every thing and device they 
can think of,”—nauseous mixtures, the very enu¬ 
meration of whose ingredients would be hardly 
fitting matter for these pages, if no important good 
were to be gained by it. So the poor things suffer, 
and get well in spite of us, or they die in agony 
while we stand by helpless. This state of things is 
all wrong, and might and must be remedied. 
Veterinary Surgeons. 
The number of educated veterinarians in this 
country is very small; they all find employment in 
or about our large towns, and as a rule are a very 
respectable class of practitioners. To them, how¬ 
ever, whenever we can, we confide the treatment of 
our live stock; but not one farmer in 10,000 can do 
so. We have two or three veterinary schools which 
are struggling with poverty or lack of appreciation, 
and would do well if they each graduated a score 
of practitioners a year. Medical schools for train¬ 
ing human physicians abound, and their graduating 
classes number hundreds. Every hamlet, almost, at 
the East, and every village in the .Middle and South¬ 
ern States, has its educated physician ; while 
throughout the Western States they are numerous, 
and within reach everywhere in civilized regions. 
Nine-tenths of them are making no more than a 
fair living, and many are failing to do that. Other 
professions and callings tempt them from their 
own that they may get better pay. Not that they 
do not love their profession, nor that they are not 
qualified to practice it, but it will not support them. 
Why Should Not Physicians Treat 
Animals as well as Men P 
If a physician has all he can do to treat ailing 
humanity, certainly the animals must be neglected; 
but when, as at present, the “ doctors ” are making 
a poor living, or none at all, what should prevent 
them from treating the animals ? Nothing hinders 
but a false pride. Study and experience will enable 
any physician to do it with success. Comparative 
anatomy is studied in all our medical schools ; com¬ 
parative pathology should be. The knowledge of 
animal diseases is of great service to a physician. In 
fact, man and animals are found to have so many 
diseases in common, that animal pathology is quite 
essential to reasoning upon,and treating many of the 
ills that man is heir to. Were it to become a gen¬ 
eral custom among physicians to treat animals, and 
to charge for it, we might confidently anticipate the 
Most Gratifying Results. 
These, or some of them, 1 venture to enumerate. 
First, the physicians would make a better living ; 
besides, they would at once become more important 
to their constituencies. Second, the country would 
have a corps of efficient observers, on the watch 
for infectious or contagious diseases among ani¬ 
mals, and quick to detect and report upon unusual 
animal diseases of any kind, whenever they might 
break out, thus providing an efficient safeguard 
against their spread, and against filling our city 
markets with diseased meat, or the killing of such 
for country consumption. Third, the wealth of the 
country would be increased at once by the saving 
of the lives of many animals, and ultimately by the 
better understanding and prevention of various 
murrains and maladies. Fourth, improvement in 
the sanitary surroundings of both animals and men, 
and a much higher degree of health and soundness. 
Effect of “Fertilizers” in Moist Seasons. 
The present season has been an exceptionally fa¬ 
vorable one for testing fertilizers. At least I have 
found that, so far as I can judge, they have pro¬ 
duced up to the time of writing, very nearly a max¬ 
imum effect. There is a danger, unless compara¬ 
tive trials arc made with different fertilizers, of 
overestimating the excellence of those we do try. 
I have one standard kind applied liberally to corn 
and to mangels, and its effects are so extraordinary 
that, had I not other rows of corn and roots which 
look now equally well, though manured with other 
articles—I should not say equally well, perhaps— 
and yet one patch looks as if it would produce just 
as much as the other. I observed one curious re¬ 
sult. In planting corn, 20 rows were manured with 
superphosphate in the hill; 20 upon the hill after 
planting; 20 rows upon the hill and hoed in after 
the corn was up, and 20 more after the corn was 
three to four inches high. The only notable result 
was that the second 20 rows had to be replanted ; 
not one quarter of the hills did more than sprout, 
and then the plantlets’ kernels softened, a very few 
making a struggling life. After replanting, the 
corn did well, and now makes a good stand. I get 
about half the result from superphosphate har¬ 
rowed in broadcast with corn, for fodder, as when 
applied to corn in drills—that is, when the fertilizer 
was scattered in the furrow, and corn sown in and 
covered. I am confident that although that in 
drills was put in a week later, there is now fully 
twice the burden of fodder upon the land that there 
is upon the broadcast piece. 
Usefulness of “Sludge Acid.” 
The readers of the American Agriculturist prob¬ 
ably know of the hue and cry that has been made 
in New York about the-use by the fertilizer makers 
of what is called sludge acid—that is, the sulphuric 
acid which has been employed in extracting the 
impurities from petroleum, and which by the pro¬ 
cess becomes highly charged with oily matters, and 
emits a nauseous odor. The superphosphate of 
lime made with this retains to a considerable ex¬ 
tent its peculiar, pungent, “aromatic,” and very 
disagreeable odor. Now, insects are sensitive to 
odors, and I fiud that wire-worms avoid potatoes 
where this fertilizer is used, and that my corn has 
not been troubled with cut-worms and white grubs 
where this was on or near the surface. 1 attribute 
the freedom to the presence of the sludge acid 
used in the manufacture of the superphosphate, 
and am confident that it does no harm to the plants. 
What Kind of Wheat. 
Important to Grain Farmers. 
For the benefit of our readers who are wheat- 
growers, we would like each one who has tried any 
one or more known varieties to write us what kind 
has done the best with him. If each will answer in 
order the following questions, the compared replies 
will doubtless be of value to each and all of them : 
(1.) What variety of Winter Wheat has succeeded 
best with you ? 
(2.) What variety of Spring Wheat has succeeded 
best with you ? 
(3.) What is your soil ? 
(4.) What manure and other fertilizer do you use ? 
^5.) What manure or fertilizer has given the most 
satisfactory results with you, and how much have 
you used per acre where such results were obtained? 
(6.) How much seed do you use per acre ? 
(7.) What is the yield of crop you obtain ? 
(8.) Does the Hessian Fly or Wheat Midge trouble 
your crop ? 
(9.) When do you sow winter wheat ? 
(10.) When do you sow spring wheat ? 
(11.) What price do you obtain per bushel ? 
Be sure to give your post-office, County, and State. 
Answers are desired from farmers on rich virgin 
soils, where no manure is used, as well as from the 
old sections. Please answer each question sepa¬ 
rately, and in the order as above put down, and 
write the number against the answer given to it. 
Grazing Pastures.— When a pasture is insuf¬ 
ficiently grazed, considerable of its product is 
wasted. The tufts of uneaten herbage which often 
cover a large portion of the surface, are not only 
left useless, but injure the next year’s grass. To 
keep a pasture in good condition, the droppings 
should be evenly scattered once a week, and the 
