1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
229 
little things, though they may seem trivial, 
are often essential to success, and as they are 
not generally known, need to be repeated. 
Mr. S. finds the same method successful with 
tomato and cabbage plants. The point is, to 
place the plant in a hole which is to be filled 
with water ; the water carries the fine par¬ 
ticles of earth in among the root-fibres more 
thoroughly than can be done by pressing the 
earth around the roots. In light and sandy 
soil this is undoubtedly the case, but with a 
very stiff one it would not answer so well. 
Chicken Cholera. 
The last inquiry concerning Chicken Chol¬ 
era comes from “C. D.,” Dallas, Tex. There 
is nothing more unsatisfactory than a sick 
chicken, or more difficult to treat, and we 
find that the best winters upon poultry dis¬ 
eases insist much more upon prevention than 
upon cures. The term ‘ ‘ Cholera ” is applied 
to a disease, which, though it varies in differ¬ 
ent parts of the country, is everywhere ac¬ 
companied by a violent diarrhoea, and is 
rapidly fatal. In every such outbreak of dis¬ 
ease among fowls, the first thing to be done 
is, to separate the sick from the well, and at 
once give a change of food, which should be 
of the most nourishing character, and com¬ 
bined with some stimulant, such as Cayenne 
Pepper, or a tonic, like iron. Modem writers 
upon poultry diseases are greatly in favor of 
iron in some form as a tonic. The old method 
of putting rusty nails in the drinking water 
, had good sense at the bottom of it, but a 
more active form of iron is desirable. The 
English poultry-men are much in favor of 
“ Douglas’ Mixture.” This is made by putting 
eight ounces of .Sulphate of Iron (also called 
Copperas or Green Vitriol), into a jug (never 
: use a metallic vessel), with two gallons of 
water, and adding one ounce of Sulphuric 
Acid (Oil of Vitriol). This is to be put into 
the drinking water in the proportion of a 
j teaspoonful to a pint, and is found to be a 
most useful tonic whenever such is needed. 
! So soon as a disease breaks out among the 
poultry, this should be given to the well to 
j enable them to resist it, together with more 
nutritious and easily digestible food. As re¬ 
gards the cholera, it appears to rarely occur 
in a malignant form in the older States, most 
of the complaints of it coming from the 
West. One writer on the subject states that 
he made a saturated solution of Alum, and 
whenever a bird was attacked, gave it two 
or three teaspoonfuls, repeating the dose the 
next day. He mixed their feed, Indian meal, 
with Alum water for a week. Since adopt¬ 
ing this he has lost no fowls. Another 
writes, that in each day’s feed of cooked In¬ 
dian meal, for a dozen fowls, he added a 
■ tablespoonful each of Cayenne Pepper, Gun¬ 
powder, and Turpentine, feeding this every 
other day for a week. The most satisfactory 
recent writer upon the “ Diseases of Domestic 
Poultry,” (that being the title of his work), 
is Geo. P. Burnham, who says : “ And we do 
not doubt if those who had been so sorely 
1 troubled with what is denominated ‘ Fowl 
; Cholera,’ should adopt a strict regimen of 
cleanliness, thorough ventilation, and good 
care for their stock, that they would experi¬ 
ence a change for the better among their 
poultry at once, and have little cause to fear 
this bad -named disease among their flocks in 
the future.” We think, as the far south-west¬ 
ern phrase goes—“ That’s about the size of it.” 
A Self-Feeding 1 Cattle Rack. 
Mr. Wm. E. Bower, Clark Co., Ind., sends 
“ for the benefit of the farming community” 
a drawing of a straw shed which he has used 
for the past winter, and finds it to be very 
useful, convenient, and profitable in several 
ways. “ 1st.—The straw presses down of its 
own weight as the cattle eat it out of the 
rack ; 2d.—No straw is spoiled by exposure 
to the weather ; 3rd.—The cattle, while feed¬ 
ing, are sheltered from the weather ; 4th.— 
There is a great saving of manure, and being 
sheltered, its quality is vastly improved. The 
building is 20 by 20 feet, and 16 feet high to 
the top of the plates. The posts and cross¬ 
ties are 8 inches square, and the plates 6 by 8 
inches. The sills upon which the rack poles 
A SELF-FEEDING CATTLE BACK. 
are spiked are 8 by 12 inches in diameter. The 
rack poles are 5 inches in diameter at the butt, 
and are nailed at both ends with rafter 
spikes, at an inclination of 36 degrees. The 
building is set upon rock 10 inches above the 
surface of the earth. The four pairs of the 
middle rafters should be supported by collar 
beams to prevent the spreading of the build¬ 
ing by the pressure of the straw. A building 
of the above description, covered with shin¬ 
gles and weather boards down to the lower 
cross ties, can be built in any timbered coun¬ 
try for not far from sixty dollars.” The 
construction of Mr. Bower’s feeding rack 
is shown in the engraving given above. 
I.ilacs and. Snowballs in March. 
—Several years ago we described the French 
method with the Lilac. The shrubs, prepared 
the fall before, are submitted in winter to a 
strong heat and in perfect darkness. The 
flowers in due time appear, and of a pure 
white, no matter what the real color of the 
flowers may be. This lilac forcing, which is 
in France an important floral industry, is, 
we are glad to see, now practised to some 
extent here. In February and later, beauti¬ 
ful clusters of forced Lilacs have appeared in 
the windows of our City florists. We have 
already mentioned the forcing upon a large 
scale, of the Ox-eye Daisy; the common 
“White-weed” of the meadows. At the 
store of one florist we noticed the forced 
flowers of a shrub which is as yet far from 
common in the open air—the Japan Snow- 
Ball, Viburnum plicatum. Those familiar 
only with the common Snowball or Guelder 
Rose, can have no idea of the superior beauty 
of this. The balls of flowers of less than 
half the size, have a purity of whiteness, and 
a firmness of substance quite wanting in the 
common species. It was a surprise to us to 
see the forced flowers of this rare shrub in 
March. Though they did not quite equal 
those which bloom in the open air, they must 
be very useful for forming masses of pure 
white in florist’s work. 
The Farmer Boys in Rhode Island. 
Mr. J. Erastus Lester, of Johnston, R. I., 
offers to the boys of his State who will raise 
the largest and next largest crop of Indian 
Corn on one-eighth of an acre of land, pre¬ 
miums of $50 and $30. He makes the proviso 
that if the boy taking the first premium shall 
live in Johnston, a watch shall be added, “of 
a value proportioned to the results obtained.”’ 
The trials are to be made under the control 
of, and the details will be supervised by, a 
Committee of the R. I. Domestic Society. 
The boys must be under 
18 years of age, and each 
must do all the work of 
raising the corn, except 
he may have a driver to 
the team in plowing, 
etc. Mr. L. hasn’t for¬ 
gotten that he was once 
a boy himself, as he 
considerately provides 
among the conditions 
that: “At husking, all 
the boys and girls may 
assist, but not at any 
other time.” We regret 
that the offer did not 
reach us in time to 
publish it earlier, as it 
may have induced other liberal men to 
make similar offers. The form to be filled 
up in reporting the results is also sent us, 
and we are quite sure that the lessons each 
boy will receive in making and recording 
the observations necessary to properly fill up 
this report, will be worth quite as much to 
him as the premium. This is not one of 
those races in which those who do not win 
are losers; it is one in which each boy who 
enters his name as a contestant will win a 
prize, though it may not be paid in money. 
A Barrel Scarecrow. 
- 
Mr. Laman Wood, Bay Co., Mich., keeps 
the crows from pulling his young com by 
means of a “Barrel Scarecrow.” The barrel 
is suspended by a cord from a cross-bar, which 
rests upon the ends of two stakes driven in the 
ground. The length of the parts in Mr. W.’s 
Scarecrow are as follows: Upright stakes. 
A BARREL SCARECROW. 
6 feet high; cross-bar, 6 feet long; the barrel 
being hung so that it will be 2 feet from the 
ground. The heads of the barrel are both 
removed, and by being hung by the cord ex- 
