1879.] 
345 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
horses in the stables at this season, may be pro¬ 
cured, by fumigation, or as backwoodsmen say, 
“a smudge.” A dense smoke may be made by 
various methods. Dried cow-dung burned upon 
a pan of live coals, produces a thick, pungent 
smoke, which will soon clear a stable of the 
pests. Common tar, burned by stirring it with 
an iron rod heated to a dull red, so as not to inflame 
it, will make a thick 
smoke, which is not 
only disagreeable to 
flies, but is regarded as 
a purifier of the atmos¬ 
phere, and deodorizer 
as well. To keep the 
stables clean and free 
from strong odors, it is 
well to use on the floors 
a plentiful sprinkling of 
ground gypsum, or a solution made by dissolving 
one pound of Copperas, in a pailful of water, and 
freely scattered around, will be a useful disinfectant. 
Fig. 1.— THE BOT-FLY. 
Fig. 2.— FEMALE. 
The Horse Bot-Fly, and Its Ways. 
Nearly ten years ago, we gave a history of the 
Bot-fly, with illustrations ; but ten years in the life 
of a journal like ours, brings an almost entirely 
new set of readers, and inquiries from recent comers 
occasionally make it necessary to treat subjects 
of such' general interest as the Bot-fly anew, 
as the new generation can not be, as a general 
thing, referred to back volumes. The Horse 
Bot-Fly, (Gastrophilm equi), belongs to the great 
family of Diptera — the two-winged insects. The 
most familliar examples of 
these, are the troublesome 
horse-flies and mosquitoes. 
The Bot-Fly, figure 1, is brown 
in color, and about the size of 
a honey bee, and when on the 
wing it might be mistaken for 
one. The body of the female is 
morp tapering than that of the male, figure 2 ; she 
deposites her many eggs singly upon the hairs of 
the lower jaw, ueck, and forward legs of the horse. 
The long and blunt ended eggs, figure 3, are so se¬ 
curely glued to the hairs, as to be removed with the 
greatest difficulty. The eggs hatch in a very short 
time, and the tickling sensation produced by the 
young maggot, induces the horse to bite and lick the 
places where they are, and they thus pass into his 
mouth and stomach. The 
Bots, as the maggots are 
called, are short and 
fleshy, of a whitish color, 
becoming brown by age. 
They are provided with 
hooks around the mouth, 
and rows of spines about 
the body,by both of which 
they fasten themselves to 
the lining of the stomach, 
and sometimes to the in¬ 
testines of the horse. Fig¬ 
ure 4 shows a number of these larvae partly buried 
in depressions which they have made. After re¬ 
maining for six weeks or two months, the Bots pass 
away from the horse, bury themselves in the dung, 
and assume the dormant pupa state (figure 5), in 
which they remain until “fly time” comes again. 
When the maggots are attached to the stomach 
in large numbers, they 
may impair digestion, 
and in the worst cases 
even produce death. 
The common belief 
that Bots eat through 
the coats of the stom¬ 
ach is not well sustain¬ 
ed. In general they do 
not eat the wall of the 
stomach but irritate it 
and cause a formation GRTJBS IN stomach- 
of pus and other excretions upon which they feed. 
It is difficult to distinguish Bots from other 
sources of stomach irritation. If the tongue is red, 
The horse keeps extending its head and raising its 
Fig. 3.— EGGS ON HAIRS. 
lip, and 
I 
Fig. 5, 
when it 
the maggots are found to pass out with the 
dung, it is a clear case of the Bots. So 
far as known, nothing can effectually re¬ 
move the troublesome parasite from its 
hold when once fastened in the stomach. 
The various worm medicines are of little 
avail. The animal must be well fed, and a 
dose of physic will help remove of the Bots 
is time for them to change their residence. 
The System of American Agriculture. 
We have been repeatedly taunted by foreign ag¬ 
ricultural journals about our low average produc¬ 
tion of grain and other crops, and the very large 
products of some English farmers have been held 
up as examples for us to follow. English farmers 
boast of 60 to 70 bushels of wheat to the acre, and 
yet American wheat, averaging a miserable 12 bush¬ 
els per acre, is sold in the English markets in suc¬ 
cessful competition with their much heavier crops. 
Tru’v, “ the race is not to the swift, nor the battle 
to the strong,” but the skillful adaptation of means 
tc ends, and doing the best with what we have, are 
more conducive to success than brilliant show. It 
is doubtful if any American farmer could profitably 
produce 50 bushels of wheat per acre. It is not a 
part of our system to do that. We can do some 
things, and having learned what we can do, we have 
gone to work and done it well. We have learned 
to work cheaply, and effectively, and the system 
under which we hove worked, wrought out by 
force of circumstances rather than by choice, has 
led us to success. The English agricultural journals 
now no longer slight our averages, but are free to 
confess that the defeat in agricultural enterprise of 
English farmers must be “ due to causes which are 
inherent in themselves and in their ways of con¬ 
ceiving and carrying out their work.” Probably 
the cause, or one of the causes, could be pointed 
out from this side. If American farmers employed 
laborers to do their work, while they rode out to 
supervise them and give orders, and twice a year 
were to pay out to the owners of their farms in 
rent a sum nearly equal to the average fee simple 
value of their farms, there might be as bitter com¬ 
plaints and great distress here, as there is just now 
with them. Our system of agriculture is a simple 
one. The American farmer is his own landlord, and 
is not above holding his own plow or driving his 
own reaper. He is obliged to do this whether he be 
willing or not; for if he has a good capable work¬ 
man to do it for him for a few years, this same 
workman will soon be the owner of a farm himself, 
and at work on his own account. In this country 
a farm laborer who remains a laborer, must be a 
poor inefficient workman, or he would soon be his 
own employer. The scarcity of labor forces the 
farmer to use labor-saving machinery, and that 
cheapens his products. This is our system, and it 
is one that has given us the control of the world’s 
markets, just now at least, and perhaps permanent¬ 
ly. There is nothing for us to complain of in this. 
On the contrary, it is cause for gratification that, 
by industry and skillful management, we have suc¬ 
ceeded in our business ; and it is a warning to us 
that we must hold what we have gained by renewed 
industry and economy in our management. We 
have probably before us a period of small profits, 
and one calling for close management. We have 
had our good time in some past years ; we must 
now take our turn of a few lean but still healthful 
years, which are before, and may soon be upon, us. 
A Farmers’ Club.— A correspondent informs 
us that a Farmers’ Club has been started at Fair- 
hill, Bucks Co., Pa, on July 10th last, and that it 
would not have been formed but for the advice 
given in the American Agriculturist. We have just 
one bit of advice to give now that the Club is 
formed. Have as few rules as possible, and dis¬ 
cuss them as little as possible. There will almost 
always be in such a body one or two who should be 
in the Legislature ; they are great on the Constitu¬ 
tion, and “parliamentary usage,” and manage to 
waste valuable time which should be devoted to 
agricultural topics. A body of earnest farmers 
need few if any rules to keep them in order. We 
wish the Fairhill Club much success, and hope it 
may not be troubled by these expounders of the 
Constitution and the law. W. H. Pounds is Presi¬ 
dent, and W. Curtis, Secretary, of this new Society. 
A Brace for a Kicking Horse. 
Those so unfortunate as to own a kicking horse 
know something of the patience that it requires to 
get along with it—and will welcome anything 
which will prevent the kicking and finally effect a 
cure. The writer knew a horse, which was so bad 
a kicker that after various trials, and after passing 
% 
Fig. 1.— horse’s head with brace attached. 
through many hands, and getting worse all the 
time, to be perfectly cured in the course of three 
months by the use of the device here given. This 
is a simple brace, which acts upon the fact that if 
the head be kept up, the horse can not kick. A 
kicking horse is like a balance, when one end goes 
up, the other must go down. The brace, shown in 
place in figure 1, and se¬ 
parate in figure 2, consists 
of a %-inch iron rod, 
which may be straight, or 
for the looks, bent into 
a graceful curve. It is 
forked at both ends; the 
two divisions of the up¬ 
per end are fastened to 
the two rings of the bit, 
while the lower ends fit 
upon the lower portion of 
theoollar and hames. The 
upper ends can best be 
fastened to the bit by 
winding with wire, which 
should be done smoothly, 
so as not wear upon the 
mouth. The lower end 
is secured by means of a 
strap fastened to the 
upper loop, and passing 
around the collar is buck¬ 
led through the hole in 
the lower part of the end of the brace. The brace 
need not be taken from the bit in unharnessing. 
Any blacksmith can make such a brace, taking care 
to have it of the proper length to fit the particular 
horse. Keep its head at about the bight as when 
“checked up,” and the horse will soon be cured. 
Fig. 2.— THE BRACE. 
A Talk About Strawberries. 
“Hudson’s Bay,” “Crimson Cone,” “Keene’s 
Seedling,” “Methven Scarlet,” “Baltimore Scar¬ 
let,” and a few others were the varieties with which 
our strawberry experience began. It would be dif¬ 
ficult to find either of these now. Then came 
“novey’s Seedling”—and what an improvement 
it was upon all others ! We had strawberries then 
with a strawberry flavor, and whoever had the 
“ Hovey ” knew what a strawberry should be. We 
do not often see or hear of this variety now, but 
where is its equal ?—Does the present generation, 
except those who now and then get a taste of a 
wild strawberry, know how a strawberry ought to 
taste ? Isn’t it about time to give up the musk- 
flavored berries of the “ Triomphe de Gaud ” order, 
