AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
under pressure, or between the leaves of a value¬ 
less book, they will reach us in a much more useful 
condition than if packed in a box with moss. 
Fatality Anion" Lambs. —J. F. Ferguson, 
Lapeer Co., Mich., writes in substance:—“I sep¬ 
arated my lambs from the ewes on September 28th. 
They have been salted weekly and were watered 
from a well, but would not always take water. I 
salted them on Saturday, and at 9 o’clock on Sun¬ 
day morning found five of them dead, with several 
others suffering greatly. They are taken with a 
severe chill, and fall down, straining, throwing the 
head far back; they breathe rapidly, froth at the 
mouth, and die in about an hour, a bloody slime 
coming from the nostrils after death. The same 
disease appeared about three years ago on another 
farm, where out of 100 I lost 20.”—This letter was 
referred to Prof. A. Liautard, of the American Vet¬ 
erinary College, from whose reply we extract the 
following :—“ The symptoms and all the conditions 
taken together point to a form of Anthrax , a blood 
poison, due to the presence of bacteria in that fluid. 
If post mortem examinations, which should be very 
carefully made, show the spleen to be much en¬ 
larged, there will remain no doubt as to the nature 
of the disease. The disease proceeds so rapidly 
that there is little to be hoped from medical treat¬ 
ment. The better way is to at once remove all the 
well animals to some other locality, allow' plenty of 
rich food and pure water. All dead animals should be 
buried deeply and covered with a layer of quick¬ 
lime. It would be better, if practicable, to burn 
the carcasses. The barns, sheds, or other buildiugs 
in which they have been kept, should be well dis¬ 
infected, first removing the bedding and manure, 
which should be burned or thoroughly mixed with 
quick-lime.”— Anthrax is described in au article by 
Prof. Liautard, in October last, p. 393. 
Feed for Laying Hens.—A correspondent 
asks: “ Can hens be made too fat to lay?”—Yes 
indeed. Fat hens rarely lay. If hens are fed so 
much or so often that they begin to fatten rapidly, 
they will soon stop laying. He asks again : “ Is 
there any thing better than corn to make hens 
lay ?”—No food is better than Indian corn or ground 
corn (Indian meal), to fatten hens, and of course 
it should be fed sparingly to laying hens. If hens 
do not lay and are fat, feed them but once a day— 
at evening just before they go to roost—giving 
wheat screenings, buckwheat, and oats, in such 
proportions as you judge best. Throw the feed 
upon clean ground only so fast as they pick it up. 
Stop just as soon as you see any of the flock begin 
to wander away. Let them forage all day for weed 
seeds, grass, insects, etc. They must have w'arm 
quarters, well ventilated at night, and a sunny run 
by day in winter. After a while begin to feed them 
sparingly a little meat scrap chopped fine, broken 
bones, oyster shells, etc., and they will probably 
soon begin to lay. 
Remedy for Side Hole in Cow’s Teat.— 
Mr. “ W. T. C.,” Monmouth Co., N. J., writes : “ I 
have a valuable young cow with a hole in the side 
of one of her teats. How can it be successfully 
treated ?”—Make the edges of the opening “ raw ” 
with a sharp knife, or cauterize with a pointed stick 
of nitrate of silver. The hole may then be closed 
with strips of adhesive plaster, or better yet by a 
coating of “ collodion,” which can be obtained of 
any photographer, if the nearest druggist does not 
keep it. In milking be careful not to displace the 
dressing—and it will perhaps be better to draw the 
milk with a tube for several days. If the opening 
in the teat is not quite small, it may be necessary 
to close it by a stitch just through the skin with a 
fine thread. In most cases the scratching of the 
edges of the opening with a knife and the applica¬ 
tion of collodion will, however, be sufflcient. 
Roots in a Drain.— Mr. G. W. Finley, Alle¬ 
gheny Co., Pa., finding a 3-inch terra cotta waste 
pipe obstructed, drove some nails crosswise in a 
long slat, and with it drew out a tuft of roots. 
The specimen sent us is about 30 inches long, and 
like rather coarse auburn hair, so fine are the fibers. 
Mr. F. thinks it is the root of an Elm, or a Silver 
Poplar, both of which grow near by, and suggests 
carefully cementing the joints of such pipes to 
keep out roots. Such obstructions are far more 
frequent in tile drains than is generally supposed. 
In laying pipe drains near trees great care should 
be taken to so adjust the ends and the collars, that 
a small root can not enter. 
Irrigation. —Several who inquire as to the 
practicability of irrigation in their localities arein- 
formed that the work by Henry Stewart, “Irriga¬ 
tion for the Farm, Garden and Orchard,” (Price 
$1.50), discusses the subject in full. Where the 
natural conformation of the land will allow, storage 
reservoirs may be made to collect the rain-fall of a 
large area and preserve it for use. A correspon¬ 
dent in Indiana, who properly objects to the Hy¬ 
draulic Ram, on account of the waste, and wishes 
power for other purposes, should look at the 
various steam engines advertised. 
A Recipe lor Omelette.— “ Aunt Mary,” Car- 
linsville, Ill., sends her method of making an Om¬ 
elette, which she thinks is better than any she has 
seen in print. To six eggs, take one cup of milk ; 
put a slice of bread in the milk and mash fine. 
Cut fine some cold ham, and place it in the frying 
pan. Beat the eggs thoroughly, mix them with 
the milk and bread and turn upon the ham when 
that is hot. When brown on the underside, set for 
a while upon the upper slide of the oven, and when 
done turn out on a plate and serve. It will not 
fall but be light even when cold, while omelettes 
made with flour will fall, unless eaten very hot. 
Osage Orange from Cuttings. —“E. O.,” 
Billings, Mo., writes that he has been told that an 
Osage Orange shoot, if buried, will throw up a 
sprout from nearly every bud, and asks why this is 
not the quickest way to make a hedge. The Osage 
Orange grows readily from cuttings, both of the 
branches and the root, but experienced hedgers 
use only plants raised from seeds. The labor of 
making the cuttings is much greater, but the great 
objection is the lack of uniformity of the plants 
thus raised. In setting a hedge it is important to 
use plants as nearly alike as possible in size and 
vigor, else those that have a slight advantage at 
first, in size and strength, will keep it, crowding the 
weaker, and preventing that uniformity so desirable 
in a complete hedge. For this reason the first step 
with hedge plants, when they are taken up in the 
fall, is to carefully assort them and tie in bundles, 
so that in planting those in any part of the hedge 
will be as much alike as possible. If a dozen cut¬ 
tings were raised from a shoot they would be very 
much unlike; those from the terminal bud, and a 
few other buds nearest the top would be much 
more vigorous than those from buds lower down, 
and some of them would be of such slow growth 
as to be unfit for planting in a hedge. We comply 
with our correspondent’s request in asking that any 
one who has made a successful hedge from cut¬ 
tings will report it and his manner of procedure. 
Tobacco as a Window Plant, is recom¬ 
mended by a correspondent of an English journal. 
It certainly has much to commend it; its broad, 
green leaves, and stately habit, while, should it 
flower, its abundance of bloom would be showy, 
and continue long. The tobacco stores often have it 
as a sign, which shows that it will endure neglect. 
What is a “ Molly ? ’’—The English market 
measures are confusing enough to a stranger. 
They have sieves, and punnets, and pottles, and now 
we learn from “ Gardener’s Chronicle ” that peas 
are “scarcely ever sent in ‘mollies’—3 pecks.” 
A Change in Wheat. —Our correspondent, 
J. L. Mustard, Washington Co., Pa., who makes 
many experiments with grain, gives an account of 
one with wheat. He procured a peck of “ Russian 
Black-beard ” wheat, and twelve heads of the same 
showing black chaff and beards. Before sowing 
he shelled out these heads, and mixed the grain 
from them with the peck, and sowed the whole. 
When ready to cut, all the field had the whitest 
beards he ever 6aw upon wheat, not a single black 
beard could be found, though the grain itself was 
precisely like that which was sown. He knows 
that at least the grain from the twelve heads had 
black beards, and he is in doubt whether these 
grains all failed to grow, or whether the chaff and 
beards changed from black to white. We think 
the latter the probable explanation. A black color 
upon chaff and beards is unusual, and may be 
due to some peculiarity in the soil where the wheat 
grew. Being sown where this local influence did 
not exist, the chaff returned to its usual color. 
Rosa rugosa as a Standard.— Wehave now 
and then said a word in favor of the Japanese rose, 
called in Japan the Ramanas Rose, and known to 
botanistst as liosa rugosa. Its foliage is so rough 
and firm, that it repels the insects that attack or¬ 
dinary roses; its flowers appear through a long 
season, and though single have the purest and 
strongest rose fragrance, while its very large hips, 
of the most brilliant scarlet, make it nearly as bril¬ 
liant in fruit as in flower. We have grown this 
rose in the bush form, but the “Gardener’s Chron- 
nicle ” states that it has seen it trained to a single 
stem, as a standard, and very effective in fruit 
against a background of evergreens. We can readily 
understand the superior beauty of this, one of our 
favorite plants, in the form of a standard, and hope 
to try it next season. 
Rain-Gauge,— A number of our friends have 
asked us how they can make a rain-gauge that will 
not cost much, and will be fairly accurate. If any of 
our readers can help in this matter, we hope they 
will do so and describe any rain-guage that they 
may have found useful. In the meantime, we will 
work at “this end of the line,” and, out of all, we 
hope something useful may come. 
A Scraper and Mud-Mat should be at the 
back door, or that by which the men folks enter, of 
every farm house. Even if there is a rear porch, 
and those who enter find a place to change their 
boots for slippers, the boots that are now outside 
should be cleaned. A scraper is easily made of a 
piece of hoop iron, so fixed that its edge may be 
used to remove the most of the mud from the soles, 
leaving the finishing to the mud-mat. Strips of 
wood, in the form of a blunt triangle, may be strung 
together by a cord, using a knot if need be, to keep 
them sufficiently apart. Strips placed in this way 
will present a blunt edge uppermost, and help re¬ 
move what the scraper does not take off. A use¬ 
ful mud-mat may be made of a strip of plank, bored 
with inch auger holes, and corn husks (shucks) 
pulled into the holes and made fast with pins of 
wood driven in from below. A mat of this kind will 
greatly aid the housewife in keeping out that 
which is known by the comprehensive term, “ dirt.” 
“ Four Bovine Scourges,’’ is the title of an 
ample quarto, by Thomas Walley, M. R. C. V. S., 
of Scotland, which treats of the four leading, and 
most destructive cattle diseases. Pleuro- pneumo¬ 
nia, Foot and Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague, and 
Tubercle or Scrofula, are the diseases classed as 
scourges, and they are treated by one of the most 
eminent veterinarians of Great Britain. These 
diseases being discussed in full, and illustrated by 
colored plates showing their effects upon various 
parts, the work is one of great value to all prac¬ 
titioners of veterinary medicine and others inter¬ 
ested in these diseases. Price $9, post-paid. 
Tlie FropHet Without Honor. —In beer¬ 
drinking Germany, it is said that the favorite kind 
of this beverage in any given town, is always that 
which is made somewhere else. The use of the 
thermometer also illustrates the same fact, that the 
prophet is without honor in his own country. Iu 
England and America the scale in use is the inven¬ 
tion of the German, Fahrenheit. In Germany, on 
the other hand, the scale of Reaumur, a French¬ 
man, is used. In France, of all places, we should 
expect to find a French scale, but the Centigrade 
used there was invented by a Swede, one Celsius. 
