60 
AMEKlCA:Nr .\ GEIOULTUEIST. 
[February, 
- -- - . . * 
OUR 
iWl 
BASKET. 
]So;id —Mr. J. VV. Sanborn, Cen¬ 
tre Point, Iowa, writes us that the almost universal error 
in road making in iow land consists in raising the road¬ 
bed with eartli taken from the adjoining sides, thus 
making a reservoir for water to keep the road wet. The 
eartli should be hauled from higher ground. 
Es'S’ 15«‘4i*issei-s»t)n*. — Mr. H. J. Meixell, 
Ephrata, Pa. — The cost of a cold house, holding a thou 
sand to fifteen hundred barrels'of eggs, will vary great¬ 
ly, according to the quality of material and the manner 
of construction. The cold rooms iu New York and 
other cities, are mostly arranged inside of other 
buildings, and the cost can not be well estimated. 
Iledg-e Plants.—The thorn, or quick-set 
hedge, so much used in England, is not suited to this 
country. Our long hot summers are unfavorable, and it 
drops its foliage early ; besides, it is attacked by numer¬ 
ous insects. The best hedge plant is the Osage Orange, 
for all localities in which it will flourish, for other and 
colder places, the Threo-tliorned Acacia and Buckthorn. 
Xlie OUio Ag'ricttltnral Experi¬ 
ment Station.—The director, W. R. Lazenby, evi¬ 
dently comes to his work with enthusiasm, and. iu the 
phrase of the day, “means business.” He has taken 
up Injurious Insects and Weeds, subjects of the highest 
importance to every farmer. With a view to acquire full 
information, circulars are sent out, asking farmers to 
give the names of the principal insects and weeds that in¬ 
terfere with the cultivation of the leading crops. We hope 
that our many friends in Ohio will promptly respond to 
these questions, and thus lend a helping hand to the 
proposed useful work. Those Ohio farmers who have 
not received the circulars referred to, can procure them 
by applying to Director Lazenby, at Columbus, O. 
]Sra.ligiiii, Eowls.—J. J. Read, 
Iowa, asks us if by “ Light Brahmas, we mean the buff, 
or is it the large silver-gray Brahma, or Cochin? “—Our 
correspondent has evidently mixed the breeds. The 
Cochins all have a flat or erect comb, wliile that of the 
Braiimas is a very low “ pea-comb.” In the dark Brahma, 
black and gray predominate, wbile the light Brahma is 
nearly white, handsomely varied with a black tail ; the 
neck tiackles have a black stripe down the middle of 
each feather, and some other black markings. The 
breeder of either claims that his is the best variety, and 
there is probably little difference between them. You 
will find that several dealers advertise Light Brahma 
eggs iu our columns at the proper season. Believing 
that all our advertisers will do as they propose, we 
can not recommend one in preference to the others. 
Pine Xrees and. Eiglitning'.—“ W. E. 
K.,” Ionia Co., Mich., writes us: In the September num¬ 
ber of the American Agriculturist, you speak of the no¬ 
tion prevalent in some localities that the pine tree is 
lightning-proof. This superstition can hardly exist 
where both pine trees and liglituing are as common as 
iu Michigan. A pine tree one hundred feet high is too 
plain a target to be missed by lightning, and scarred 
veterans are frequently to be met with iu all pine forests. 
Isolated trees seem to be more severely injured than 
those in a forest, for obvious reasons. A large pine, 
thirty inches iu diameter, and eighty feet high, standing 
in a door-yard near here, was struck by lightning, and 
shattered into fragments. The largest splinter left 
would hardly do for a fence rail. A broken pine a few 
feet from my own residence, is a witness that it is not 
lightning proof, and also disproves the old saying that, 
“lightning never strikes twice iu the same place.” To 
my knowledge it has been struck four times by light¬ 
ning. Its bight has been reduced from one hundred to 
fifty feet by the repeated strokes.—[Yes, and \\e this 
moment see on a hill before the window' where we write, 
a lone pine a foot or so iu diameter, perhaps fifty feet 
high, of which nearly half of the trunk has been struck 
off by lightning, and the near residents say that, “that 
tree gets a lightning w'hack almost every year” ; and the 
wonder is that it stands it so long.—En.] 
Aboiii illulleiii.— J. W. M. Appleton, Salt 
Sulphur Springs, West Va,, writes us that in clearing 
bushy land he finds that mullein comes up so thickly 
that he fears it will choke out the grass, and asks how 
to eradicate it. The manner of growth of a weed often 
suggests the method of warfare against it. The mulleiu 
is a biennial. The first year it forms a tuft of broad 
leaves which lie close to the ground, and in this state it 
passes the winter. The next spring it throws up a tall 
stem which flowers, aud in autumn the plant dies. 
There will be no more trouble from that plant, but be¬ 
fore it “ expires by its own limitation,” it has ripened 
and dropped its multitudes of seeds ; the ground for 
several feet around is thickly stocked with them, and 
they will continue to produce fresh crops for years. It 
is evident that to keep the plant from continuing, the 
flower-stems should be cut off before the seeds are ripe. 
As the seeds are not provided witli wings or other ap¬ 
pendages by which’they may be scattered, if the stems 
are persistently cut oft’, the plant will disappear in a few 
years. But the ground in the present case is well- 
seeded to mullein. Earlier in the season it should 
have been plowed, sown with rye aud seeded to grass. 
It may be well to try the same thing next season with 
oats. By plowing under the mulleiu plants, the grain 
will cover the ground before a new crop of them can get 
established. If oats are not desirable, try cow peas or 
buckwheat as a cleansing crop, and sow grass next fall. 
Sensation in Hookertown. 
Two Sides to the Question. 
Mr. Editor. —As you wanted me to keep you posted 
on the news in these parts, I send you a few notes on 
the last sensation in our town. We have no newspaper 
printed here now, but there is about as much news cir¬ 
culating as if we had a dozen, and it is just about as im¬ 
portant. Tongues were made before types, and need no 
setting up. You see, last summer Polly Frink came 
over to our house one morning, looking as glum as 
could be, aud said she, “ Mrs. Bunker, what do you 
think happened over to our house last night ?”—“ I can’t 
tell,” said Sally ; “ maybe a weasel was around.” 
“ No, it weru't,” said Polly, “ but somethin’ ’miff sight 
wus, in the mischief he duz. A skunk got into my 
chicken coop and killed a hull brood of chickens jest 
come oft'. It made me heart-sick when I went out to 
feed ’em this mornin’. Ye see, old Bose tackled the 
skunk arter he had killed the chickens, but he got the 
wust of it, aud his eyes are all bunged up this morning, 
and I’m afraid we must bury the dog to git red of the 
smell. It’s jest orful.” 
“ Skunks are getting to be too plenty for comfort or 
profit,” Sally replied. “ Timothy found six hills of Mar- 
blelioad squashes dug up by the varmints. You see, he 
made a large border for each hill, and put in more’n half 
a bushel of manure, and worms bred iu the hills, and the 
skunks, in rooting for grubs, tore up the young plants, 
and ’twas too late to plautagaiu. I wouldn’t have had it 
done for five dollars, for I was ’lotting on the Marble- 
heads for Thanksgiving pies.” 
“ Well,” said Polly, “ I got off as well as some of my 
neighbors, I guess. Deacon Smith had all his young 
ducks killed one night last week, and Jotham Sparrow- 
grass lost twenty turkeys just off the nest. Uncle Jotham 
says he’s about ruined, for he was ’lotting on the turkey 
money to pay the hired man. Tirzah Twiggs said last night 
they had lost thirty-five young chickens this season, aud 
she was about discouraged. She guessed Seth Twiggs 
would have to go without his chicken pie at Thanksgiv¬ 
ing, unless something was done to head off the skunks.” 
This is a fair sample of the talk going on in Hooker- 
town, indoors and out, all the summer and fall. Skunks 
have kept the field several years, without iet or hindrance, 
except occasionally an old trapper caught one for his 
hide or for a little oil for medicinal use. Dogs of every 
breed fight shy of them after a first experience, and bark 
at a safe distance from the loaded muzzle. They invad¬ 
ed fields and gardens. Their snouts probed corn aud 
potato hills, rooted up young garden plants, robbed hen’s 
nests in exposed situations, devoured young poultry of 
all sorts, and were a general nuisance by night. Things 
reached fever heat before town meeting, aud Zeke Si¬ 
mons said “ somethin’ had got to be done, or Hooker- 
town would become a howlin’ wilderness agin. Polks 
and skunks could not live together much longer.” This 
was the prevailing opinion, and in the town meeting 
warning, one item of business was, “to determine 
whether the town would put a bounty upon foxes, 
skunks, and woodchucks.” The foxes had been doing a 
brisk business through the summer, and took a good part 
of the turkeys and geese that the skunks left when tiiey 
got big enough to make a square meal for the young fox 
family. Stealing poultry was not so generally charged to 
the woodchucks, but they tangled the clover fields bad¬ 
ly, and revelled among both field and garden beans and 
other crops. They dug up the ground in thousands of 
places, leaving heaps of soil everywliere, and many 
horses and cattle were "badly lamed by stepping into 
their lookout holes, which had no warning dirt piles. 
They helped the skunks to hiding places in their safe 
underground retreats, convenient at every point. They 
loo must vacate Hookertown. 
Town-meeting came, and the skunks drew more 
of a crowd aud excited more interest than politics. 
It turned out an experience meeting, in which farmers 
told of their losses, amounting to a good many hun¬ 
dred dollars. Zeke Simons said: “ As near as I 
can calculate, it costs Hookertown about five thou¬ 
sand dollars a year to support its fox, skunk, and 
woodchuck population. We have over five hundred 
or more farms in town, many of them large and 
with plenty of range for turkeys. Some have good 
ponds and brooks for raising water-fowl. The average 
loss to farmers from these beasts is at least ten dollais, 
not only in eggs stolen, the sitting hens broken up, and 
the young and old ones killed, but the fear of these 
depredations lessens poultry raising. Men are afraid to 
breed turkeys mainly on this account, and large num¬ 
bers do not keep them. Many have only a trio or quar¬ 
tet, where they might just as well have a dozen. There 
is range enough and feed enough on many farms here, 
chestnuts, acorns, berries, insects, and grass, to keep 
two hundred young turkeys from June to October, with¬ 
out drawing on the corn-bin. These birds, well fattened, 
would bring four or five hundred dollars in our village 
and city markets. Raising poultry would be one of the 
most profitable branches of farming if the town was 
cleared of these vermin. He was for a war of extermina¬ 
tion, and hoped they would put a bounty on and keep it 
on until foxes, skunks, and woodchucks were as scarce 
as wolves and bears.” 
George Washington Tucker, who is fond of skunk 
hunting, and does quite a business in their oil and pells, 
said: “I don’t’zactly understand what all this fuss is 
abeput. The Almighty made skunks, and I guess they are 
abeout as useful as some other kritters that go abeout on 
tew legs. They kill insects that spile the farmers’ crops. 
Nobody could deny that. They get fat on bugs and 
worms, and the ile was worth a dollar a gallon. There’s 
nothin’ like it for reumatis. The skins bring a good 
price, and roast skunk, ef a man knows how to dress ’em, 
is not bad eatin’. This puttin’ a bounty on skunks, was 
takin’ bread out of the mouths of poor folks, I like to 
go skunk Imuting, aud am agin this bounty,” 
Tucker’s views had little weight with the meeting, 
A dollar bounty was put upon the fox, and a quarter of 
a dollar upon the skunk and woodchuck. A general 
slaughter of the skunks commenced soon after the 
meeting, aud they need no monument. The fox hunts 
will come off when the snow falls. The hounds are on 
hand, and the old hunters have their guns and ammuni¬ 
tions in readiness. We shall not need the Newport 
gentry and their ladies at the meet. Hookertown will 
do its own fox liunting, without dog-cart or saddle, 
broken bones, destroyed crops, or damaged fences. The 
woodchucks will take their chances iu the spring, when 
they come out of winter quarters. 
As for the skunk, the bounty on his head is by no 
means a sure test of his demerit. There is a good deal 
of human nature about him—not wholly good, not alto¬ 
gether bud. There is no denying he is very bad in spots. 
That odor is terrible, as all Hookertown will testify — 
since the town meeting. You cannot go out for an even¬ 
ing to call on your neighbors, without inhaling it, and 
you are fortunate if you do not run a foui of the pest. 
And if you fail under his batteries, your garments have 
a perfume that no oil of rose can smother, no burial in 
charcoal or peat can deodorize. It is as fast as if it had 
been dyed in the wool. They must be banished from 
civilized use. This is the strong point of the animal 
unquestionably, and the suffocating odor will always bo 
an effectual argument against him. But then he has his 
legitimate uses, and Hookertown has impeached its own 
wisdom in setting the same price on his head as upon 
the woodchuck. This marmot digs his den in your 
clover field, or on the border of your garden, and gloats 
over the prospect of high living on your clover blossoms, 
and beau pods. The skunk is one of the best scavengers 
among the insects which prey upon the farmer’s crops. 
He is always at it, doing his work mostly by night while 
you are asleep, aud does not intrude upon your labors 
by day. His scent-bag is his weapon of defence—only 
used when he is assailed. He is peaceable, and inodorous 
if you let him alone. “Ah I” you say; “but he eats 
eggs, and kills chickens.” But don’t you invite him to 
these repasts, by your careless poultry management? 
A poultry house with a door shut at night would make 
your eggs and chickens safe from his raids. “ Ah 1 but 
he kills many young turkeys just as they are hatching.” 
Then make your turkey-nests vermin-proof, and teach 
the turkey-hens to lay iu them. This is done on many a 
farm, and it can be done on yours, and it guards against 
foxes ns well. In any fair account kept with the skunk, 
tiie balance must be struck in his favor. Thus among the 
animals, we often find friends under the most unprom¬ 
ising appearances, and badly abused men are not unfre- 
quently the benefactors of society. 
Yours to command, Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Hookertown, Dec. 1, 1883. 
