1884. J 
AMEEIOA^ AGRIOTJLTUEIST. 
361 
acre. Green bones mixed with unleached ashes, 
and kept moist, will soon become soft, and may be 
broken up with a spade and applied to the land. 
Weaning and Feeding Young Pigs. 
Pigs should gradually be weaned, and fed in a 
separate pen. If kept in a field, make a small en¬ 
closure for them. When managed in this way, 
pigs will continue growing when the sow fails to 
afford sufficient milk. Overfeeding at weaning 
time, is injurious. The pigs gorge themselves and 
become ill-shaped. They should be fed a little, six 
times a day. Pigs with disordered stomachs can 
not thrive. Inflammation of the bowels is a com¬ 
mon disorder, and is caused by over-eating, un- 
wholsome food, and exposure to cold. Food much 
fermented will induce inflammation of the stomach 
and bowels. This is the cause of much mortality 
among hogs fed with slops from hotels, asylums, 
etc., where there is a large amount of fermented 
material mixed together in the swill-vats. The 
same condition may follow the feeding of much 
corn, with but little exercise in the open air. When 
there is access to green food and the soil, young- 
pigs may be fed corn more largely. People now 
wish more lean pork, and the skilled swine gr-owers 
should recognize this desire and act accordingly. 
The more high-priced pork they can sell, the more 
profit they will realize. Fine wheat middlings 
make the best ground feed for young pigs. 
The form of the trough is important. It should 
be so constructed that the pigs cannot get into it 
with their dirty feet. Nail slats across the trough 
so that the pigs cannot crowd each other. Feeding 
on the ground is shiftless and wasteful, especially 
corn or small grain. Always place the dry food 
on a platform in a high, dry spot. The platform 
should be large enough to accommodate the pigs 
without crowding. The grain may be kept on the 
platform by a narrow siding. Such a platform us 
shown in the engraving will last for years, and save 
much grain from being wasted. The platform 
should be frequently swept clean. When not in 
use, it may be turned up edgewise to prevent de¬ 
cay. The bottom boards are nailed to stout scant¬ 
lings, which rest upon fiat stones. F. D. Cdktis. 
A Cheap Picket Fence. 
In localities where sawed lumber is expensive, 
and split timber is readily obtained, a very neat 
picket fence may be made with little outlay, by 
using round posts, split stringers, and rived 
pickets, as shown in the engraving. The stringers 
are eight to twelve feet in length, and usually one 
of the flat sides is sufficiently smooth for receiving 
the pickets. Let the stringers project a few inches 
beyond each post, adding strength to the fence, 
and should the posts decay, new ones may be driven 
in upon either side, and the stringers readily at¬ 
tached by heavy nails or spikes. With timber that 
splits freely, a man can rive out five or six hun¬ 
dred pickets in a day. The construction of the 
fence is plainly shown in the above engraving. 
Field and Sweet Corn. 
The varieties of Indian corn are without number, 
but they may be all placed in two classes as regards 
the chemical composition of the grain, viz., field 
and sweet corn. The average composition in one 
hundred parts of these two classes is as follows: 
1 1 
Carbohyd'te^. 
.Albuminoids. Fibre. 
\ 1 . 
Starch,Su^ar 
etc. 
Fat. 
Ash. 
Field.... 
...i 1-2. 1 1.9 
78.7 
5.7 
1.7 
Sweet... 
...' 13.2 1 2.3 
73.5 
8,9 
21 
It is seen that sweet corns contain more albumi¬ 
noids, fibre and ash, and much more fat than 
common or field corus. The additional amount 
of albuminoids and fat give the sweet 
corns their much desired superior richness. 
The flint and dent corns have practically 
the same composition, there being one-half 
per cent more water in the dents than in the 
flints. There is no marked difference in the 
composition of eastern corns, or northern 
and southern sorts. The southern grown 
varieties are considered superior, and more is 
paid for them by the starch factories. They 
are better ripened, sounder and dryer, yield 
more starch, and make better bread. The dif¬ 
ferences are more mechanical than chemical. 
Pop corn is any sort, the grains of which 
will burst open when they are heated. It is a 
popular error, that pop corn contains a larger 
per cent of oil, which decomposes and vola¬ 
tilizes with heat, and thus bursts the grain. 
Analyses show that there is no excess of oil 
over that in common varieties of corn, and 
none of this is lost in the process of popping. 
Professor Brewer found 4.79 per cent of fat 
in one variety of pop corn before popping, 
and 4.94 after ; in another 5.59 before, and 
5.67 after. Both popped particularly well. 
A hard flint variety (Waushakum) contained 
4.67 per cent of fat; the same after roasting 
had 5.14 per cent. The oils instead of vola¬ 
tilizing and escaping, probably absorbed oxy¬ 
gen during the heating. Only hard, compact 
varieties of corn will pop ; this peculiarity is 
due to the bursting of the closely confined 
starch grains, caused by the expansion of 
the contained moisture, and the sudden 
rupture of the hard outerpart of the grain. 
Color has little or no influence upon the com¬ 
position of corn. It varies from milk-white to 
yellow, chestnut, indigo, and black. Soft varieties 
are best for feeding whole to farm stock. There is 
considerable waste in using old flint sorts un¬ 
ground. Corn on the average is not so rich as 
wheat in albuminoids; but the most noticeable 
difference is in the amount of oil. The fats in 
wheats range from 1.26 per cent to 2.G7 per cent, 
while in corn from 3.40 per cent to 9.31 per cent. 
It is easy to see that corn is a very fattening food. 
Green sweet corn is more nutritious than field 
varieties, and contains from fourteen to fifteen per 
cent of albuminoids. It is richer when suitable 
for boiling than when ripe. After the boiling 
period, the starch, fat, woody fibre, etc., increase 
rapidly, while the nitrogen compounds fall behind. 
Cocklebur.—Will it Poison Swine ? 
Many cases of sudden death in swine have been 
ascribed to the Cocklebur, and numerous inquiries 
have been made in recent correspondence as to its 
poisonous character. The probabilities are against 
Cocklebur being a poisonous plant; the family to 
which it belongs, the Composite, while the largest 
among flowering plants, is singularly free from del¬ 
eterious species, and when we consider their total 
number, about ten thousand, there are very few 
that possess any marked active qualities. But it is 
not necessary that a plant should be poisonous to 
be injurious to animals. We have an example in 
Hungarian grass, which has caused the death of 
horses. The seed-head bears numerous small, 
roughly barbed bristles. When the grass is cut at 
the imoper time, these bristles are harmless. When 
the seed is ripe the bristles are very hard and sharp. 
and in the stomach and intestines of the animal, 
mat or felt together by the aid of their barbs, 
forming large balls, which obstruct the intestines 
and prove fatal. In these cases, death is evidently 
not from any poisonous quality of the hay, but is 
due to mechanical causes. While Cocklebur may 
not be poisonous, it may in a similar manner kill 
swine by mechanical obstructions. That it is 
abundantly provided with means for forming these, 
will be seen from the description and engravings 
of the plant. Be.sides Cocklebur, Clotbur, and 
Bur-weed are other common names for the Xanthi- 
um strumarium of botanists. It is found all the 
way across the country from ocean to ocean, and 
1.— UPPER PORTION OF BRA-XCH OP COCKLEBUR. 
extends from Canada to Texas, and far southward 
into. Mexico. The plant is also a native of the 
warmer parts of Europe, and it extends to the 
southern parts of England. It is very frequent 
along road-sides in rich land, and is a rough,, 
branching annual, one to three feet high, with 
coarsely lobed leaves. Figure 1 shows the upper 
portion of a branch with its foliage. The stami- 
nate flowers are in small, globular heads at the top;, 
the pistillate or fertile flowers are below in tbp. 
Fig. 2.— THE noOK-BEARING BURS. 
axils of the leaves, enclosed by pairs in a strong,, 
prickly covering, called an involucre. As the 
seeds mature, the involucre enlarges, and when 
ripe, is about two-thirds of an inch long, hard, 
and armed with strong, hooked prickles. Figure 
2 gives at the right-hand an entire bur, at the left- 
hand is a bur cut cross-wise, to show the two seed¬ 
like fruits, above these is one of the hooked 
prickles. When the burs are ripe, they readily 
leave the plant, and attach tliemselves to the coat 
of any passing animal. The plant is especially an- 
