492 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
tlie horn into the side of the mouth, and 
empty its contents, the head being kept up 
until they ai - e swallowed. If the animal is vio¬ 
lent, place a twitch upon the nose, to be held 
by an assistant; or if he refuses to open the 
mouth, the tongue may be gently held to one 
side, the horn introduced, quickly emptied, 
and the tongue liberated at once. Under all 
circumstances, the greatest gentleness must 
be exercised. Nothing can be gained by im¬ 
patience or by harsh treatment. 
For the Ox or Cow, liquid medicine is pref¬ 
erable, given from the bottle rather than the 
horn. The bottle is more manageable, and one 
is less tempted to use it to pry open the jaws, 
and perhaps thus lacerate the tongue also. 
Elevate the head only enough to prevent the 
liquid running from the mouth. The bottle 
should not be pushed back far into the throat. 
The tongue should be left free. The follow¬ 
ing is a very neat and efficacious method : If 
standing, place the left side of the animal 
against a wall, and standing on the right 
side seize hold of the upper jaw by passing 
the left arm over the head, and bending the 
latter far round to the right, slightly eleva¬ 
ting it. With the right hand, pour the con¬ 
tents of the bottle into the mouth at its 
angle, using the least possible force. 
Medicinal substances can be readily given 
to the Cat, after properly securing the animal. 
An efficient method is as follows : Grasp the 
hind legs above the hocks, between the little 
and ring fingers of each hand, the fore ex¬ 
tremities above the elbow, between the other 
two fingers, and place the thumbs against 
the posterior-lateral parts of the head at the 
base of the ears. Being thus firmly held, 
the medicine, either solid or liquid, may be 
given from a common spoon. 
A Tree and Potato Planter. 
FREDERICK GRUNDY, CHRISTIAN CO., ILL. 
Many men are deterred from planting large 
groves because of the immense labor and 
time required to set out the trees. They plant 
only a few each spring as they can spare the 
time, and thus lose valuable years of growth. 
The ground can be prepared with plow and 
harrow, but the planting has to be done by 
hand labor alone. To obviate this difficulty 
and encourage planting large forests, I pre¬ 
sent herewith a tree planter, which will en¬ 
hard-wood. A strip of oak is bolted near the 
upper edge of the rear end of the runners. 
To this strip the entire working parts of the 
machine are bolted. A Y-shaped piece (e, fig. 
Yi S .3 Ni- 
1), built of hard boards, as in fig. 5, marks 
the furrow. It is made with a solid block in 
the center, and bolted to the cross piece d, fig. 
1, to hold the marker firm. Two wings, or 
scrapers, ( x , x, fig. 1), made of hard-wood and 
shaped as in fig. 4, are bolted to the cross 
piece d. These wings scrape the earth, thrown 
out by the marker, back over the roots of the 
trees. When planting potatoes the smoother 
is attached, as seen at n, fig. 1. This smooth¬ 
er is constructed of boards or plank, and 
loaded enough to crush all clods, and smooth 
the top of the row. When planting trees, 
the smoother is dispensed with. When the 
machine is moved from one field to another, 
Fig. 1.— A TREE PLANTER. 
able a man to set one to ten thousand or more 
young trees each year, almost as easily as 
planting so many hills of corn. The machine 
■can also be used to plant potatoes far better 
than is frequently done with plow and hoe. 
With this machine 20 acres of one and two- 
year-old trees can be planted as quickly as 
one acre with the spade ; and 10 acres of po¬ 
tatoes in less time than one acre with plow 
and hoe, and make a better job. The planter 
(fig. 1) is similar to a sled, and may be 3 to 4 
feet wide. The runners are of 2-inch plank, 
12 inches wide, shaped as in fig. 2. They 
may be shod with a strip of oak or other 
the bolts are taken out of the strips fig. 2 and 
3, and the working parts of the machine laid 
on the platform S. 
Plow the ground deep, and harrow it down 
fine and smooth before setting the trees. 
Set stakes to guide in driving as in planting 
corn. Lay a lot of trees on the platform S, and 
with two smart boys on their knees the work 
may begin. As the machine moves forward, 
one boy sets a tree in the furrow close behind 
the Y-shaped marker, and holds it straight 
until it has passed the ends of the wings, x, x. 
The second boy gets another tree ready, and 
at the proper distance duplicates the actions 
of the first. The driver moves his seat—or 
if he stands, moves himself—backward or for¬ 
ward to regulate the depth of the marker and 
scrapers. Have the roots of the trees prop¬ 
erly trimmed and in good order for planting. 
In planting potatoes, a man or boy sets a 
basketful on the platform, and drops them 
behind the marker, using both 
hands and planting as far apart 
as desired. When planting trees, 
four horses should be used to 
draw the planter, but with pota¬ 
toes, one boy to drive and an¬ 
other to drop are sufficient. 
The marker and the scrapers 
should be set to run about four 
inches deeper than the sled 
runners. (See fig. 2.) For long continued 
use these parts should he shod with iron. 
Kind Treatment of Animal**.— 
No animal appreciates kind treatment more 
than a heifer. Naturally gentle, it is only by 
neglect that she acquires habits harmful to 
herself and annoying to her owner. The 
writer has seen a calf six months old made 
the object of torment for sport by a group of 
“smart” boys. The heifer had a bundle of 
corn-stalks bound under her body by a stout 
cord and was then set at liberty in the barn¬ 
yard. She ran and kicked, and finally broke 
through a weak place in the fence and hur¬ 
ried away to the back of the field. The crea¬ 
ture was never afterwards the gentle animal 
she would otherwise have been. The fright 
made her afraid of all mankind, and especial¬ 
ly of the boys by whom she had suffered. 
In some such way as this, most of the 
“wildness” in farm animals has its origin. 
At this season, when the young stock are 
for the first time brought into closer relations 
with the owners or keepers, it is of great im¬ 
portance to employ kindness and gentleness. 
Wheat Ruined by Rain. 
PROF. N. S. TOXVN9HEND, COLUMBUS, OHIO. 
Under the above heading recently appeared 
the following item from Lansing, Mich.: 
“ Nine-tenths of the wheat in this and the 
surrounding counties has been ruined by a 
seven-days’ rain, the grain being sprouted in 
the shock, and the straw rotted. The farmers 
are greatly disheartened, as the yield was 
bountiful and very little had been secured.” 
From other localities have come similar ac¬ 
counts, differing only in degree. Such reports 
are not peculiar to the present season. In 
view of the frequency and extent of such 
losses, one may ask, “ Is it good farming, to 
leave wheat in shock after it is dry enough to 
be hauled into the barn, or put into a stack ?” 
It seems a waste of labor to stack grain 
for a short period, when by thrashing directly 
from the field one handling is sufficient. This 
saving of labor is important, and with some 
it is a controlling consideration. On the 
other hand, if grain is promptly secured in a 
barn or stack, as soon as it is dry, although 
some additional labor may be required, the 
practice has many advantages. To some, 
the occasional sprouting of a few grains of 
wheat may appear to be of little conse¬ 
quence, when, in fact, if one kernel in a hun¬ 
dred of a lot of wheat is grown, the bread 
made from it will be perceptibly affected. 
After harvest, both grain and straw throw 
off moisture : if this occurs in the stack, the 
grain does not become musty, which it always 
does if the sweating process, as it is called, 
takes place in the granary. Wheat in the 
granary, or elevator, is subject to injury from 
the Grain Weevil (Sitophilus granarius), 
which it escapes in the stack. Rats and mice 
are the pests of the granary, but into a stack 
built as hereafter described they very rarely 
obtain admission. Farmers frequently com¬ 
plain of middlemen and speculators who buy 
up grain while it is cheap, and by holding it 
for an advance make large profits. Does not 
the farmer who is in a hurry to thrash and at 
once put his crop upon the market, play 
directly into the hands of these speculators ? 
If the fanner wishes to hold his wheat for a 
satisfactory price, it will keep best in a stack, 
and need not be thrashed until it is wanted. 
Observation and experience have convinced 
many that the most prompt and careful secur¬ 
ing of grain is the preferable course; the 
extra cost of providing barn room or of stack¬ 
ing, if regarded as an insurance charge upon 
the crop, is money and labor well expended. 
There are two modes of stacking in use; the 
simplest and most common plan is, to begin 
by throwing down a little diy straw in cir¬ 
cular form for a bottom. Upon this the stack 
is built, commencing around the center, so 
that the middle will all the time be highest, 
