266 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Preserved Eggs.— Several have asked about a 
method of preserving eggs other than the usual one with 
milk of lime. Upon inquiry among the large dealers, 
we find that eggs preserved in any other manner than 
with lime are not known in the market. Those who offer 
Flowers of Sulphur colored with lamp-black under the 
fraudulent name of “©zone,” claim that eggs can be 
preserved very cheaply by its use. We can only say 
that whatever this sulphur under the name of “ Ozone” 
will do, may be done by sulphur under its proper name. 
—That it will preserve eggs, we have no proof. 
“Living in llte Basement and Sleeping 
in the Attic.” —As a specimen of how many people 
—a great multitude of them in the aggregate—sacri¬ 
fice comfort and health to a false notion of maintain¬ 
ing “ respectability,” we quote the remark of a friend 
made just now : “They eat and live most of the time in 
a dark, damp basement, or in a back room, where the 
cheerful, health-giving sun-light has little entrance, and 
sleep in small attic, sun heated rooms, poorly ventilated, 
that they may keep the best part of the house in ‘ Par¬ 
lor ’ and ‘ Spare room ’ to be occupied by others only 
a few times during the whole year.” 
Feeding Whole Corn to Horses.— There is 
much talk about a cheap grist-mill, that will grind corn 
and other grain, and save farmers from paying toll to the 
miller. An admirable pattern for such a mill, which has 
come down to us from the ancients, is to be found in 
every horse’s mouth, if he is not too old. The jaw-teeth 
seem to have been made on purpose for this kind of 
work, and if we listen to the noise of the grinding, as 
the horse puts his nose into the pile of shelled corn, or 
does the shelling himself from the cob, he seems to have 
great satisfaction in doing his own milling. But the 
ground corn is finer, is quicker eaten, and digests bet¬ 
ter, you say. Is that proved? Fast eating is a vice in a 
human being. Is it any better in a horse ? If the horse 
does his own grinding, he must eat slower, the food is 
more thoroughly mixed with saliva, and probably digests 
better. The practice of feeding whole corn is more com¬ 
mon in the prairie regions than in the East, where grist¬ 
mills are plenty. Possibly the feeding of whole grain 
not only saves the toll, but goes farther pound forpouud. 
We need some experiments to test the comparative value 
of feeding grain whole or ground. It seem a pity to 
have so good a grist-mill, as stands in the stable, lie idle. 
Coats as Milk Producers.— We often have 
an inquiry as to where goats may be procured. We now 
have a letter from a friend in Thorntown, Ind., who 
asks this question, and also requests that we give an 
article on the goat as a milk producer. The goat in 
southern Europe is used not only to produce milk, but as 
a vehicle to convey it to the consumer—the flock being 
driven from house to house, and each customer supplied 
from the “original fount.”—In this country the keep¬ 
ing of goats is mainly conflned to our Irish citizens. In 
large cities, like New York, many have squatted upon 
unoccupied lands, such as belong to estates in litigation 
or are waiting for the heirs to become of age. They 
have numerous shanties, some quite large and comfort¬ 
able, and each family keeps one or more—usually more, 
goats. The neighbors of these settlements know a great 
deal about goats, and are obliged to provide self-closing 
gates to their premises, and to be always on the guard 
against invasion, as these animals will eat everything 
they can get a chance at, even the sheets and other ar¬ 
ticles hung out to dry. The goat uncontrolled can be a 
thorough nuisance. Many years ago the late Horace 
Greeley, having been advised to supply one of his chil¬ 
dren with goat’s milk, purchased an animal. He gave 
his experience with it in a most amusing letter to the 
American Agriculturist , and concluded the statement of 
his troubles with : “It has barked everything on the 
place except the crow-bar.”—Still, under proper care, 
the goat maybe made a very useful animal. In European 
towns they are tethered, and if accustomed to this from 
the first, may be kept from doing mischief. A goat will 
live upon food that a cow will reject—in the cities when 
at large they subsist mainly upon show-bills which are 
pasted upon fences and dead walls. The goat begins to 
breed when six to nine months old, and goes with kid 
for four months. In Europe, the custom is to allow the 
first kid to suckle and take all the milk, with the idea 
that this tends to increase the size of the udder, and in¬ 
sure a greater flow in the future. A good goat will give 
a quart of milk ateach meal, three times a day, it being 
the custom to milk thus often, the udder being so small 
that this is regarded as necessary. After three months 
the milk falls oil' to about two-thirds in quantity, and 
this yield continues until within three weeks of the 
time of coming in again. A larger supply .. milk is 
given by tethered goats than by those allowed to run at 
large. The milk is regarded as richer, but more easy of 
digestion than cow's milk. It has a peculiar flavor, to 
which one soon becomes accustomed, and this is less ' 
manifest in animals kept singly, than in those that are 
herded together in flocks. But little is known about 
•the breeds, or particular strains of these animals, but 
there is a general impression that the nearer the color 
approaches to black, the better milker the animal is 
likely to be. In Europe the kids are allowed to suckle for 
a week or two. and the males are killed for food. There 
is a general prejudice against the meat of the goat, but 
the writer has lived where this was the only readily ob¬ 
tainable fresh meat, and has on more than one occasion 
served a leg of a well fattened goat to those who assumed 
that, it was mutton, and were not undeceived. A young 
kid is quite as good as “ spring lamb,” and most accept¬ 
able. The boys in the shaDty settlements above referred 
to, early train the male kids to harness, and sell them at 
a good price. We answer many questions by saying 
that we know of no place where goats are on sale," but 
have no doubt that an advertisement in a city paper 
would bring abundant responses. 
Keeping Eggs—Also as to Onions.— Mrs. 
“S. J. L.,” Stamford, III., writes us, that she packs eggs 
in oats : putting in the bottom of a barrel a layer of 
oats, three inches deep; on this a layer of eggs, small 
end down, and so on alternating eggs and oats until the 
barrel is full. If fresh when put down, she keeps eggs 
packed thus through the hottest weather.—To the in¬ 
quirers about sowing onions broadcast, Mrs. L. repeats 
“Punch’s” advice to young people about to marry— 
“Dont.” One of her neighbors who tried it “ is now a 
sadder, and a wiser man.” 
Imported Fotatoes.— With our own potatoes at 
$3 per barrel, and the abundant crop last year in Great 
Britain, it has been found profitable to import potatoes. 
We have seen some of these “furriners ” as they were 
taken from the ship ; the bags so rotten that they could 
scarcely hold together, and rather small, and badly 
shapen potatoes, black with adhering soil, and with 
sprouts two inches or more long. There has been some 
talk in the daily papers about the superior quality of a 
Scotch variety, “ The Champion,” which has caused 
several to inquire about it. We can only reply that, a 
few years ago, when potatoes in Great Britain rotted 
badly, “The Champion” was generally healthy, aud in 
purchasing seed potatoes to distribute in Ireland, the 
British Government very properly bought only this va¬ 
riety. But as to planting “ The Champion,” or any other 
European variety, in this country, it would be a great 
mistake. No European variety of potato is worth cul¬ 
tivation with us, as has been shown by repeated trials. 
A few years ago we planted some 30 of the choicest 
English varieties, alongside of “ Early Rose ” and other 
American kinds, in the same soil, and with the same 
treatment. While we had full and satisfactory crops 
from our own varieties, the English was so light of very 
small potatoes, that we had very little more than we 
had planted, and those fit only for the pigs. This has 
been the result whenever the trial has been made. 
Tlie Abutilons. —As plants for window culture, 
the Abutilons have many admirable qualities. Their 
foliage is pleasing, and they are almost always in bloom. 
The old Abutilon striatum , often called “ Flowering 
Maple,” from the resemblance of its leaves to those of 
the Maple, is well known, but there are now many 
others with much handsomer flowers, as may be seen by 
reference to the catalogues. The now rather old Boule 
de Neige (Snow Ball), is one of the very best. Small 
plants only six inches high will bloom, and they will 
grow six feet and produce flowers in abundance. 
The Fuel Question, to the settler upon a prairie 
farm is—for the first few years, at least, an important 
one. The accounts of the use of corn for fuel, strike the 
farmer in the older States as something like a “wanton 
waste.” It is however, merely a question of dollars and 
cents, about which there should be no sentiment. If a 
farmer in a prairie locality can get more out of an acre 
of corn by feeding it to pigs than he can by selling it by 
the bushel, everyone will say, “feed it by all means.” 
So, again, if by burning the corn from an acre, he can 
get more effective work in running his steam engine, or 
in his kitchen, in cooking food, than he could from the 
fuel bought with the proceeds from the sale of that 
acre of corn, why should he not burn his corn ? In 
feeding corn to the farm animals, a large share of it i 
actually burned, and there is really no more wrong in the 
rapid burning under the boiler than there is in the slow 
burning in the bodies of his working-oxen. It is no 
more wrong for the farmer to keep himself and his 
family warm by burning corn in the stove, and thus "ap¬ 
ply externa, heat, than it is to burn the same corn in his 
ow .body and those of his family in the form or Johnny 
Cake, to keep up the internal heat. The burning is 
essentially the same, though differing in rapidity. We 
hold it to be the duty of every prairie farmer—and every 
other—to do what seems best under his circumstances. 
If the best use he can make of a bushel of corn or 100 
pounds of hay is to bum it, let it be burned. This fuel 
question is one to which we ask the attention or our 
western readers. Some one has been writing up the 
common Sunflower as a plant to grow for fuel. In a note 
in March (p. 127) we expressed our doubts as to the 
value of this plant, and now, before he could have seen 
the article referred to, we have an interesting letter 
from “J. A. O.,” Goodhue Co., Minn., who says that he 
has tried the Sunflower as a fuel plant and regards it, 
so far as his experience goes, as a failure. He gave the 
plants fair cultivation, but they rarely grew over seven 
feet high, or more than an inch through. He' says that 
unless they can bt‘ stored where rain or snow cannot 
reach them, they are utterly unfit for fuel, and in their 
best condition he regards them as a greatly inferior fuel 
to hay—meaning, of course, the wild growth of the 
prairies. In view of the importance of this matter, we 
ask our readers upon prairie farms to give us, for the 
benefit of others, their experience with fuel. Is there 
an annual plant that may be grown for fuel more profit¬ 
ably than Indian Corn ? In March we advised grow¬ 
ing the Ailanthus, and suggested Peach trees for fuel. 
Both of these require two years’ growth before they 
become profitable. Who will suggest something better? 
Terrible bosses of War.—An Italian Journal, 
the “ Secolo ,” of Milan, gives a summary of only twelve 
of the wars that have occurred in Europe during the 
present century, in which it reckons losses amounting 
to 11,611,000 men, and the expense to $30,754,400,000. 
This is equivalent to killing nearly every full grown man 
now in the United States ; and the cost equals nearly 
Six Hundred and Seventy-six Million Dollars more than 
the value of all the lands, buildings, and personal prop¬ 
erty of our entire country reported in the census of 1870, 
which was $30,068,518,507. 
About Insecticides and Fertilizers.—We 
never use, or advise others to use, any medicine, unless 
we know its exact composition, and on principle exclude 
a very large amount of advertising of this kind, (which 
would be very profitable, including advertisements of 
medicines for animals,) unless we know what the alleged 
remedies contain. Carrying this principle still fur¬ 
ther, we do not advise the use of, and do not advertise, 
fertilizers, unless we know from the makers their exact 
composition ; and the same rule holds good with com¬ 
pounds for killing insects. In short, we will not be ac¬ 
cessory to the use, on man, beast, plant, or soil, of any 
substance or compound whatever, unless convinced that 
it may he probably useful and positively not injurious. 
When circulars of “garden dust,” claimed to supply 
“all the necessary elements of plant food, and at the 
same time furnish a sure protection against the ravages 
of insects, worms, etc.,” we ask for the formula, and if 
this is not forthcoming, we decline the advertisement. 
“ Lawn Sand” is a most remarkable sand, which, spread 
upon the lawn, will not only kill the weeds, but pro¬ 
mote the growth of the grass I This very knowing kind 
of sand has nbt, so far as we are aware, crossed the 
Atlantic, but we are surprised to see English journals, 
the conductors of which know better, permit such trash 
to be set before their readers in their advertising pages. 
Silk Worms and Mulberries.— We are glad 
to note a renewed interest in silk culture; and trust that 
it may not run into an excitement. We gave in March 
(page 107) the views of those who have given most at¬ 
tention to the subject, and with which we heartily agree. 
Until silk culture becomes a home industry and carried 
on by those members of the family whose services can 
not be otherwise profitably employed, it will not be a 
success. Inquiries continue to come for eggs. The first 
step in silk culture is to secure a supply of food for the 
worms. This must be some kind of White Mulberry or 
the leaves of Osage Orange. In many States there are 
hedges of Osage Orange which can supply food. Prof. 
Riley, who has experimented with this food, says, if, 
when the worms get large, they are not fed the tender 
succulent leaves, but only the firmer ones, there will be 
no appreciable difference in the silk from this food as 
compared wit! that from Mulberry. Those who have 
no hedges of Osage Orange must turn their attention 
to establishing a plantation of some kind of White 
Mulberry. There is scarcely anything to add to what 
was said in March. In all the older States there are 
trees, mostly relics of V “Multicaulis mania,” from 
which cuttings'may be procured. We have before re¬ 
ferred to the “W' men’s Silk Cultural Association” 
of Philadelphia, which we understand is free from 
any speculative motives, but is to act as a medium 
between the widely scattered silk raisers and the buyers, 
their chief object being to advise and instruct. The 
Corresponding Secretary writes that in the first year of 
their operations they sent trees to 20 States and eggs into 
25 States, and that they received cocoons from 21 
States. We can not do better by our inquirers than to 
refer them to this Association. 
