468 
AMERICAN AGRICrLTURIST. 
[December, 
lime are not apparent until the second year, it is 
best to apply it early in the fall; then, if the land 
is not rich enough, manure or other fertilizer put 
on the following spring will help produce a good 
crop, other conditions being equal. The amount 
used is from 10 to 50 bushels per acre, according 
to circumstances, the condition of the soil, etc. 
Chicken Pox, 
Many of the descriptions of diseases of poul¬ 
try, so nearly correspond with the symptoms of 
what is given as “Chicken Pox” in Felch’s 
book on “ Breeding and Management of Poul¬ 
try,” that we make an 
abstract of the chapter: 
Symptotns.—A raised and 
warty eruption of the 
comb, face, and wattles, 
yellowish white in color. 
When the scabs are re¬ 
moved, these warty sub¬ 
stances resemble a bunch 
of tiny spiles set into 
the flesh, and the wounds 
produced bleed profusely. 
Treatment.— Remove the 
scabs and bathe in hot 
water and Carbolic Acid. 
When the bleeding ceases 
apply Citrine Ointment, 
which will dry the warts to 
hard black scabs; let 
these remain for 60 to 70 
hours, when by removing 
them, they will take away 
the little white “roots” 
which are from one- 
sixteenth to one-fourth 
of an inch in length. 
Each morning for four 
days, give a pill made as 
follows: Table-spoonful 
common Flour; one of 
Flowers of Sulphur; tea¬ 
spoonful of Cayenne Pep¬ 
per ; 35 to 28 drops “Fow¬ 
ler’s Solution,” (Arsenite 
of Potash,) and milk 
enough to mould the 
compound into 20 pills. 
Dissolve four grains of 
Quinine in two-thirds of a 
pint of milk, giving one- 
half in the morning, and 
the balance at evening. 
Feed, while treating, on showing the 
boiled onions and rice mixed with oatmeal. If the 
disease attacks the eye and so prevents feeding, 
make the food into pellets, which, if dipped in 
milk, and the bird held, will slip down the throat 
readily. If the sulphur acts too powerfully upon 
the bowels, scald the milk given, which will cause 
it to act in the proper direction. Feed vegetables, 
sulphur, and iron, to the flock to check the spread 
of the disease, and cleanse the house in which it 
appears, as thoroughly as the “Board of Health ” 
would a house that had been visited by small pox. 
tossers, women frighteners, bar and gate openers, 
skin tearers and horse embowellers, on the other. 
As soon as these horns, however, attached to half 
as many valuable beef animals, are collected in a 
crowded cattle car, they at once become property 
destroyers, and fit subjects for the action of the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Auimals Society. In the 
long journey from theirWestern pastures to Eastern 
markets, the cattle are sorely worried and often 
purposely, or unintentionally, badly gored by their 
neighbor’s horns. Doubtless some of the falling 
off in condition during their travels is due to 
the rough handling of the numerous sharp and 
powerful weapons by ignorant heads; especially 
must this be the case with the half-tamed Texau 
even excelling the Shorthorns at many shows and 
in market, it must be admitted that these cattle de¬ 
serve the attention of our breeders and beef pro¬ 
ducers. The result of the animals getting to mar¬ 
ket in a better condition after a long railroad or 
ocean journey, would be larger prices for the better 
beef, and more of it to sell—usually a cogent argu¬ 
ment with men who are looking after the profits. 
Hornless Cattle for American Breeding 
and Foreign Markets. 
In several former numbers we have written of the 
Polled Cattle, which are now attracting considera¬ 
ble attention abroad. Mr. J. II. Wallace has been 
among them of late, and his investigations lead him 
to the belief that their general introduction among 
beef producers in this country, would be a de¬ 
sirable improvement. Horns were put upon cat¬ 
tle for self-defence, but in their domesticated 
state there is no good use for such weapons— 
indeed they are a positive detriment. In the 
freedom of prairie and farm life, horns occupy 
a neutral position, and are of small account, 
except as ornaments and handles to lead gentle 
cows by, on the one hand; and as boy and dog 
No. 1 sample weighed 
No. 2 '• 
No. 3 " 
Total weight. 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CULTIVATED WHEAT AND UNCULTIVATED. 
cattle, whose wildness renders their long horns 
unusually troublesome when crowded into rail-cars. 
On shipboard, the horns are a source of trouble, 
even more apparent than it is in railroad travel. 
Here the cattle are tied up in twos, in boxes just 
large enough for them to stand, but without room 
to lie down. In the animal’s efforts to rest, the 
horns and halters frequently become entangled, re¬ 
sulting in injury and worriment to each of the box- 
fellows ; and when one does lie down his frantic 
struggles to rise are sure to cause hooking and rip¬ 
ping, as his neighbor has no place to stand except 
partially over him. Every one knows that fretting 
and discomfort, and slight injuries even, invariably 
result in a falling oft' in flesh, and an unhealthy 
state of the body, and the horns of the cattle are 
very frequently an inciting cause of this condition. 
To remedy this defect we would not do as the 
Irish farmers did when it was first found that horn¬ 
less cattle brought a higher price in the English 
markets: they stripped back the skin over the 
heads of the young calves, and removed the just 
starting horns. Perhaps the remark of a farmer, 
that “ a horn was a mighty convenient handle to 
lead a cow by,” and that “a mooley cow would 
slip through a halter mighty slick,” are serious ob¬ 
jections to some, but why any more so than as ap¬ 
plied to a horse ? When to the quality of having no 
horns, is added that of being excellent beef ani¬ 
mals, as the Angus or Aberdeen Polled Cattle are, 
Experiments in “Cultivating” Wheat. 
It is as reasonable to believe that grain crops 
should be benefited by cultivation as that potatoes, 
com, cabbages, and other crops should be. Hoeing 
wheat is not an uncom¬ 
mon practice in Europe, 
and farmers in this coun¬ 
try have begun it with 
marked success. We are 
favored by Mr. Travis, of 
Michigan, with samples of 
wheat grown with and 
without cultivation, on 
adjoining plots, and cut 
from equal spaces of 
ground. We give an ac¬ 
curate engraving from 
drawings of the bunches 
themselves, which are cut 
in two to 6ave space. 
Reports are also at hand 
of a committee of neigh¬ 
boring farmers, under 
whose supervision the ex¬ 
periments were made. 68- 
ibs. of seed per acre were 
sown in drills 16 inches 
apart, and 90 lbs. per acre 
in drills 8 inches apart. 
Sept. 8, 1877, on 6od 
ground plowed Sept. 1st. 
That in 16-inch drills was 
cultivated with the Travis 
wheat-hoe, once in the 
fall, and twice the next 
spring; the other was not 
cultivated. The wheat 
was examined during 
growth, by the committee, 
and harvested in their 
presence. According to 
their report, the wheat in 
the 16-inch drills did not 
lodge or crinkle down, 
while that in the 8-in. drills 
did so badly, (probably to 
some extent the effect of 
the Hessian fly). The average yield was 691 per cent 
greater in the 16 -inch drills than in the 8-inch. Where 
in some of the 16-inch drills the quantity of seed 
was only 3 pecks per acre, the stand was as thick as 
where 64 lbs. per acre were sown. The weights of 
3 samples of each sowing, cut from equal spaces of 
ground, and with equal conditions in every respect 
except cultivation, quantity of 6eed and width ol 
drill, are given as follows : 
Cut from equal tpaces. 
16 inch drills, 
cultivated. 
8 inch drills, 
not cultivated. 
2 lb. 0 oz. 
1 lb. 9 oz. 
1 l b. 1 2 oz. 
6 lb. 5 oz. 
9 lb. 0 oz. 
The number of heads in the samples were 
Cut from, equal spaces. 
8 inch drills, 
not cultivated _ 
No. 1 sample had.. 
No. 2 ■ ■ 
No. 3 " • _ _ 
Total. 1,541 heads. 1,039 heads. 
The larger growth of straw in the samples from 
the 16-inch drills was also conspicuous. These re¬ 
sults are not especially wonderful when we consider- 
the already well known beneficial influence of cul¬ 
tivation upon grain crops. This long-needed im¬ 
provement in our agriculture has already made an 
impression upon farmers in widely separated part6 
of the country, and has resulted so favorably as to- 
indicate that the cultivation of wheat will ere long 
become a very general and profitable practice. 
