354 CARE OF YOUNG STOCK.—REMEDY FOR ROT IN POTATOES.—THE HAND FLOWER.—HORSE-POWER. 
it will be recollected, are cash in advance , which 
is the only thing that enables the publishers to go 
on with this periodical at the very cheap rate they 
do. Single copies, $1; three copies, $2; eight 
copies, $5. This last is the trifling sum of only 
5 cents per month, for a highly useful work to the 
farmer and general reader, of 384 pages, beauti¬ 
fully illustrated. Who is so poor or so indifferent 
that he will not contribute so small a sum for his 
own benefit, and the cause of agriculture? The 
first three volumes handsomely and uniformly 
bound, constantly on hand for sale at $1 25 each. 
We think every library incomplete without a set 
of the American Agriculturist. 
CARE OF YOUNG STOCK. 
The first winter for young stock is the most 
trying one of their lives, and extra care should 
always be given to them, especially in their feed. 
In addition to what they will eat of the finest 
and best of the hay, lambs and calves should have 
a few roots daily, except in very cold weather. In 
feeding them be careful not to give so many as to 
scour them. It may be well also to feed the lambs 
a gill each per day of beans, peas, oats, or corn, 
which are preferred in the order mentioned. For 
calves, shorts or bran is preferable to grain. Colts 
ought to have 2 quarts of oats per day, except 
occasionally changing this feed to 3 quarts of bran. 
Oil meal is fnost excellent food in small quantities 
for all sorts of stock, especially calves and pigs. It 
keeps the bowels free and healthy, and makes 
them eat their other food with a greater relish. For 
shelter, we prefer open sheds for young stock to 
close stables, except in very snowy weather. A 
roomy yard, well protected from winds, should 
always be attached for exercise, of which they are 
more fond than older animals, and it is more ne¬ 
cessary for them. Another thing which is greatly 
disregarded; young stock ought always to be shel¬ 
tered by themselves; they thus escape injury from 
those more grown, and have a fair chance at their 
food. Colts must not stand upon a plank floor, or 
indeed a hard footing of any kind, the first winter; 
if they do, it is apt to give them the ring-bone. 
Their pastern joints are disproportionably weak 
during the first year, which makes an elastic foot¬ 
ing requisite for them. 
REMEDY FOR ROT IN POTATOES. 
A friend calling upon us a few days since, in 
the course of conversation gave us the following 
account of his method of saving his potatoes from 
the rot: During the last two years I have exam¬ 
ined numerous potato fields, and invariably found 
the vines early in the season completely covered 
with a species of flea ; at a late period the tops of 
the same vines appeared brown prematurely. On 
cutting them open I discovered a small insect, 
having numerous legs, and I think they sucked 
the sap which should have gone to the nourish¬ 
ment of the tubers, and the rot consequently 
ensued. 
In the year 1843 I planted a field of several 
acres in drills, harrowed the ground level, and top 
dressed it with lime and charcoal dust. The yield 
was 432 bushels per acre; at the same time the 
potatoes throughout the neighborhood were de¬ 
cayed. This year I planted the same seed in the 
following manner: The ground was thrown into . 
drills, and manured heavily ; the potatoes were 
cut into sets of single eyes fourteen days before 
required for planting, and covered with plaster and 
lime ; they were then placed in the drill, 9 inches 
apart, tops, centres, and ends separately, to mark 
the difference in growth ; and each alternate three 
rows then covered with different substances, such 
as lime, sulphate of ammonia, silicate of potash, 
&c. When dug, they were all sound except a few 
rows on which nothing had been used but the 
manure, and these were decayed, although received 
only three weeks before planting directly from 
France. The only reason that I can give why my 
potatoes have escaped the rot is, that the above 
substances used in dressing them were offensive to 
the insect. 
THE HAND FLOWER— Fig. 65. 
The hand flower (chiranthodendron pentadac - 
tylon ) is a native of Mexico. The trees which 
produce it are rare, and it is remarkable, says 
Mayer, principally for its brilliant tints, and the 
claw which protrudes from its thorny cup like that 
of a five-toed bird. 
CHEAP HORSE-POWER. 
We have been obligingly favored by one of the 
editors of the New York Central Farmer, with the 
cut below of a horse-power and thresher, and copy 
his description of the same from this work. Its 
cheapness and simplicity especially commend it to 
the south; we think where a light power only 
is wanted, that it would be as serviceable as any ; 
and there is this further advantage in the machine, 
it can be made by the planters on their own 
premises. 
