202 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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tines, and making their passage throughout 
the muscles of the body, must cause great 
pain, and the presence of all these foreign 
bodies in the muscles produce serious illness. 
The disease caused by them is called Trichi¬ 
nosis, and sometimes Tricliiniasis, and is most 
frequently fatal. If the patient recovers, he 
carries the encysted trichines in his muscles 
through life. This parasite is brought into 
the human body only by the eating of infest¬ 
ed pork, and it will naturally be asked how 
it gets into the system of the pig. Of those 
Trichines which are liberated in the human 
stomach after eating infested pork, only a 
portion of them reproduce in the human 
body, but many pass out of the system with 
the evacuations. Those that are thus liber¬ 
ated wander about on the grass and other 
plants, and some of them are finally taken up 
by the swine. When once within the body 
of the pig, they multiply rapidly, and the 
animal’s flesh becomes filled with encysted 
trichines, which remain dormant until they 
find themselves in the human stomach. 
Practically there is little or no danger from 
trichines if pork be thoroughly cooked. The 
cases, in this country, at least, have all been 
traced to the European custom of eating un¬ 
cooked ham, sausage, etc. Thorough cook¬ 
ing, not merely heating the outside of the 
meat, but cooking it through and through, 
makes the pork safe to eat, even if it should 
contain trichines. In some of the reports 
from abroad, Hog Cholera and Trichines are 
spoken of as if they were one and the same. 
The two have no relation to one another. 
It is but taking proper precaution to ex¬ 
amine not only fresh, but every form of pork 
before cooking, as salting does not kill the 
worms. If any trichines are present, they 
will be in the lean portion ; an ordinary mag¬ 
nifier or hand-glass will show the cysts, 
and if present, the meat should be rejected. 
Mending a Fork Handle. 
A young reader, eleven years old. Amos J. 
Eaton, Orleans Co., Vt., sends a sketch and 
description of a method of mending a fork 
handle that may be of service to many older 
readers. The handle to a dung fork being 
broken, it was made whole again thus : The 
upper part of an old castaway shovel-handle 
was sawed off at the right length to fit the 
portion of the fork handle below the break. 
Two ferrules were put on the ends, and a 
hole bored down the center of each end, so 
that an iron rod, 6 inches long, with threads 
upon it, was screwed in. This bolt, with the 
ferrules, makes a perfect job of mending, and 
the fork works as well as would a new one, 
while the cost is almost nothing. 
Many similar accidents occur upon the 
farm, which a little tact in mending will 
MANNER OF MENDING A FORK HANDLE. 
remedy, and besides save the time and trouble 
of running off to a distant blacksmith shop, 
or the expense of buying of a new tool. 
mutton to Feed I>ogs. —A number 
of inquiries have come of late as to the 
adaptability of several of the older States 
to the raising of sheep. There is a question 
that takes precedence of those relating to 
soil, climate, etc., which is, the dog laws. 
Unless the State has a law that will protect 
the sheep-owner, and make the township or 
county responsible for the sheep killed by 
dogs, don’t go there. There is many a sheep- 
raiser’s paradise left unoccupied, because of 
the curs, of which the poorer a man is, the 
more he owns. No one can afford to raise 
mutton to feed worthless curs, and that is 
what sheep-raising amounts to where these 
brutes are abundant and left to run un¬ 
taxed, and the sheep owner has no redress. 
A Hay Binder. 
The engraving here given is of a Hay 
Binder made, and in use, by Dr. Wi lliam 
Armitage, Fort Atkinson, Wis. He writes: 
“The windlass is made of a round stick of 
hard-wood, about 5 inches in diameter, and 
works in two half rings, fastened in the rear 
ends of the bed pieces of the rack. The rope 
is fastened to the front end of the rack, then 
carried over the load and made fast to the 
center of the windlass. By the aid of stakes 
the windlass is turned until the rope is suffi¬ 
ciently tight, and is held so by the stakes 
pressing against the load of hay. The whole 
construction of the Hay Binder is easily 
understood from the engraving given above. 
A Canada Portable Fence. 
Mr. Leavitt Burnham, Douglas Co., Neb., 
describes a portable fence which he found in 
very frequent use in Canada. Its construction 
is plainly shown in the accompanying engrav¬ 
ing, made from a drawing sent by Mr. B. It 
is not so light and easily moved as some por¬ 
table fences that have been given in the 
American Agriculturist, but in localities like 
Canada, where timber is not scarce, this form 
is cheap, durable, convenient, and effective. 
The Improvement ofCorn. —This is, 
over most of the country, the month of corn 
planting, and now is the time to look to the 
improvement of this great cereal grain. No 
crop in the United States has greater possi¬ 
bilities, and none is grown at the present 
time with less care for the increase of its 
value. The average yield is not far from 40 
bushels per acre, while the best possible crop, 
with the best seed, under proper culture, is not 
far from 200 bushels. With the hills 3'/, feet 
apart, giving 3,555 hills to the acre, and four 
ears to each hill—the ears averaging 100 to a 
bushel of shelled corn—we should have about 
140 bushels per acre. Looked at in this way, 
this yield does not seem great for each hilL 
But how are these large crops to be obtained. 
Aside from the soil, which should be rich 
and free from weeds, the seed should be of 
the best kind. At present there are too many 
barren stalks in every com field. All such, 
stalks should be cut out before they have 
time to shed their pollen and reproduce their 
kind. “Like produces like,” and only the 
best should be allowed to reproduce; there¬ 
fore save seed from the most prolific stalks, 
those the most desirable in size, shape, etc. 
One great point in improving the corn crop 
is to carefully select the seed from prolific 
.stalks, that have through a series of years 
yielded more than one ear to' the plant. It is 
safe to say that a proper attention to the 
selection of seed will double this valuable 
crop on every corn-growing farm.. 
A Home-Made Ditcher. 
A single postal card sometimes brings us as 
valuable matter as a long letter. This is 
illustrated by a postal from Mr. Charles War¬ 
ren, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, which has a neat 
drawing of a home-made Ditcher on one end 
and a description filling the rest of the card. 
The sketch is reproduced in the engraving. 
Mr. W. writes : “ This is a handy ditch opener 
for wheat ground or any other crop, the 
A HOME-MADE DITCHER. 
ground of which needs to have open ditches 
made through it for the drawing off of an 
excess of surface water. The bed of the 
Ditcher is made of a slab about 4 feet long, 
16 inches wide, and 4 inches thick. The 
wings are made of l|-inch plank, 3 feet long, 
and 1 foot wide.” The point needs an iron 
plate to protect the wood. A hole is bored 
in the front of the wings through which the 
draft-chain passes, and is fastened to an iron 
spike driven in the top of the bed piece. 
The man driving the team can stand on the 
central portion of the bed piece, unless he is 
unusually heavy or the soil is very mellow. 
Reddening of Salted Cod-Fish.— 
A peculiar redness often makes its appear¬ 
ance on salted codfish during warm and 
damp weather in summer. Dealers and con¬ 
sumers sometimes suffer considerably from 
this, as it causes the fish to putrify and be¬ 
come worthless. The cause of the redden¬ 
ing has long been a subject of conjecture, 
but is now ascertained. Professor Farlow, of 
Harvard University, finds on microscopic 
examination that the redness is due to a 
minute sea plant (Alga), consisting of single 
cells—like the yeast plant—which are filled 
with red coloring matter, and encased in a 
mass of slime. It does not flourish when the 
temperature is below 65° F.; therefore stor¬ 
ing the fish in a cool place is a preventive.. 
