498 
AMERIOAK AGRIOXJLTUBIST, 
[November, 
Among the Farmers. 
New Series.—No, 7. 
BT ONE op THEM. 
The markets, the haiuls we can hire, the crops 
the land will grow, the insects, and our own knowl¬ 
edge of these and other things, determine the sue- 
eess of our farming operations. There is such a 
multiplicity of tliinss to be eonsidered, that it is 
most natural farmers should settle down, and 
let the farms run themselves in “the good old 
way.” There is probably not a tilled field on the 
farms of most of the readers of the American AgH- 
cultunst, on which the established course cannot be 
followed out. This may be corn, potatoes, oats, or 
barley, and grass ; or corn, roots, wheat, and grass, 
or some other regular rotation by which the land 
gets a good manuring once in five to eight years, 
and top-dressings or manure in the drill more or 
less between times. Innovations come slowly, and 
usually take little hold of the people, because 
farmers are conservative and distrust new things. 
Tl»e Silo. 
The Silo is a wonderful innovation, which has 
gone steadily on, constantly adding to the num¬ 
bers of its firm adherents. The use of ensilage is 
becoming more and more general. I have now no 
means of estimating the number of tons of corn- 
fodder ensiloed this year, but it must be enormous. 
Experience has been a good teacher as usual, and 
the work has been better done, the corn loss frosted, 
and the quality of the ensilage will no doubt be 
proportionately better. Even if ensilage is really 
no more nutritious than well cured corn-fodder, the 
cattle like it so much better that it is a great satis¬ 
faction to feed it. They eat it clean ; the manure 
seems to be worth more, at any rate it is much bet¬ 
ter to handle. The time-honored custom of fod¬ 
dering the cattle on some convenient lot, over 
which the corn-fodder can be evenly distributed in 
the feeding, so that the stalks may be plowed in 
where the cattle stripped them of their leaves, has, 
I hope, received its death blow. 
Sweet Kiisilage. 
The sub.iect of sweet ensilage was well discussed 
last winter and spring. I know of a number of 
silos which have been filled with the view of test¬ 
ing Dr. Miles’ theory, and the value of the material. 
The experiments should be carefully wriiten down, 
so that the conditions may be known. Then when, 
the silo is opened, the experimenter will have all 
the facts before him. 1 have seen silos which were 
filled slowly when the heat rose quickly to one 
hundred and twenty-five degrees, and even higher, 
and in which it seemed to be uniform. The method 
of testing was very simple. Holes were made in 
the ensilage with a fork handle, and a common 
floating (all glass) thermometer was lowered into 
them by a string. After remaining there a few 
minutes it was drawn up and inspected. The ad¬ 
vantages of sweet ensilage must be kept in mind, 
notwithstanding that the law of the State of New 
York, in forbidding the feeding of fermented food 
of all kinds to milch cows, makes especial excep¬ 
tion in favor of “ ensilage from silos.” A great part 
of this material as usually preserved is utterly unfit 
food for cows. Its composition is of the most in¬ 
definite and uncertain character. It contains vari¬ 
ous acids, some comparatively innocent, like lactic 
acid, others most injurious, as acetic acid (vinegar). 
Some samples contain a notable quantity of alcohol, 
which rapidly changes to vinegar on exposure, 
while in others the fermentation has progressed so 
far that the ensilage has the odor of decay, or is 
rotten, and not fit for pigs. The object aimed at 
in making eweet ensilage, is to start an active fer¬ 
mentation at the very first, when more or less air 
is present, so that the heat thus raised shall destroy 
Ihe germs of that slower fermentation which takes 
place when air is excluded. The degree of heat 
which may bo generated in vegetable substances in 
the presence of the right quantities of air and 
moisture is something wonderful. The heat of 
boiling water is readily attained, and spontanocus 
combustion no doubt sometimes occurs from this 
cause. Hence when a heat sufficient to kill the 
germs of fermentation has been reached, say one 
hundred and twenty-five degrees to one hundred 
and thirty degrees, it is of course policy to check 
it at once by excluding the air, because fermenta¬ 
tion goes on at the expense of the material itself. 
The only difficulty, which, so far as I can learn, has 
presented itself, is that of securing a uniform heat 
thioughout the entire mass—in the corners, and 
along the side, as well as in the middle of the silo. 
According to Prof. Miles’ experiments, a heat of 
one hundred and twenty degrees proved uniformly 
fatal to the germs or ferment plants, so if we find 
a temperature of one hundred and twenty-five de¬ 
grees to one hundred and thirty degrees existing 
in the general mass, we may reasonably expect that 
one hundred and twenty degrees exists in the 
corners and against the walls. Those minute 
organisms which I have called germs of fermenta¬ 
tion, and ferment plants are known by sight only 
to microscopists, and by them are called 
“Bacteria.” There seems to be, so far, an un¬ 
limited number of different kinds, and investiga¬ 
tors are constantly finding new ones, very much as 
the astronomers used to “ pick up ” asteroids— 
and really a bacterium is about as hard a thing to 
pick up as an asteroid of the tenth magnitude. 
ISsicteria. 
This bacteria question seems to be getting seri¬ 
ous, and if we believe all the microscopists and 
pathologists tell us, we have now-a-days more to 
fear from these little plants than we would ever have 
imagined. The engraving shows the circular field 
of a microscope in which several specimens of bac¬ 
teria are seen greatly magnified. It is said that bac¬ 
teria cause all kinds of true putrefaction and most 
BACTERIA—HIGHLY MAGNIFIED, 
of those decompositions which are of a kindred 
character ; they regulate decay, are the direct cause 
of many diseases, and floating in the air they cause 
epidemics and epizootics. It is supposed that influ - 
enzas, scarlet fever, cholera, and other “ catching ” 
maladies are caused by them, also that contagious 
ailments among animals come from the same 
source. Foot and mouth disease, hog cholera, 
chicken cholera, roup, Texas fever, pleuro-pneu- 
rnonia, and many other diseases of animals are 
supposed to be caused by different kinds of 
bacteria. Consumption in man is of similar origin. 
I'leuro-Pneumonia at tine West. 
The occurrence of pleuro-pueumonia among cer¬ 
tain herds of cattle in Illinois, and the wholesome 
dread of this disease which seems to be universal at 
the West, leads me to allude to my experience with 
the disease in 1859 and ’60. It will be remembered 
that at the time of the breaking out of the con¬ 
tagion in Massachusetts, in 1859, the State Legisla¬ 
ture appropriated ten thousand dollars (to which 
private subscription added fifty thousand dollars, 
making sixty thousand dollars in all), and author¬ 
ized the slaughter of all infected herds. I was 
present two days in North Brookfield, when the 
commissioners were in the midst of their work of 
slaughter. The animals had all been inspected. 
All obviously diseased animals were killed without 
remuneration to the owners, and the . other ani¬ 
mals in the herd were appraised at a low market 
value. The farmers, who had been previously 
notified, had great pits dug, and the cattle were 
solemnly driven to them, knocked in the head, their 
lungs opened and examined, memoranda made, 
and every hoof buried five feet under ground. 
Think, for a moment, what sacrifices for the com¬ 
mon weal these good people were called upon to 
make. Are the Illinois farmers equal to the occa¬ 
sion ? It takes a man of some nerve to lead out a 
herd of thirty to fifty head of fine cattle—or if not 
fine, the best and all he has—to the deep trenches 
and proceed to bury them. It is no less hard for 
the good houswife to turn her cheeses, in sorrow, 
that no more for months can stand by them on the 
empty shelves, to pour away the last milk, and 
churn the last batch of cream, and scour the tins 
for the last time, and set them out to sun. I well 
remember how a word of sympathy spoken to a 
good woman in North Brookfield, caused her tears 
to flow like summer rain. Why it is that this 
disease has not proved as virulent in this country, 
as in parts of Europe, and especially in South 
Afiica, I do not know, and it remains still an open 
question what it will be in any section where it has 
not been. I have for twenty-five years dreaded the 
time when it should make its appearance at the 
West. It seems now that there can be no doubt 
about it. Dr. Loring, the Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture, knows the disease very well, and was, I be¬ 
lieve, one of the Commissioners who extirpated the 
disease in Massachusetts, associated with Dr. Dadd 
and Hon. Amasa Walker, who were the most active. 
Do not let us forget that this same disease made its 
appearance in South Africa, in the Dutch settle¬ 
ments, and quickly spread into the Zulu country, 
where it absolutely annihilated the cattle interest. 
An American missionary, Eev. Mr. Lindley, related 
to me that he was at the time stationed among 
an isolated agricultural tribe, whose chief wealth 
consisted of cattle. As the disease approached, he 
roused his people, and they established an armed 
cordon around their fertile valley, and absolutely 
prevented all cattle from entering. Thus for years 
they kept their herds free from disease, and saw the 
utter blotting out of the cattle of their neighbors. 
There is, however, great hope that the disease will 
not prove so fatal at the West. The spring and sum¬ 
mer of 1860 were hot and dry. At the beginning 
of the season there were isolated herds in which 
the disease had showed itself, in Connecticut, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, and New Jersey—at the 
end of the season it appeared to have been “ burnt 
out.” Whether the heat got up to one hundred 
and fifteen or one hundred and twenty degrees, 
I do not know, but the cattle that had it died, and 
no more appear to have taken it. They have ex¬ 
perienced quite a drouth at the West, and I have 
much hope that the disease may be “ burnt out ” 
there. The heat of the sun at my place sent the 
thermometer up to one hundred and forty de¬ 
grees for several days in September, though it was 
only eighty-six to ninety degrees in the shade. No 
doubt such heat seriously interferes with the spread 
of lung murrain and similar diseases in cattle. 
Wholesale Slaughter of Birds. —The bad 
fashion of wearing bird-skins as trimming for 
bonnets has caused such a slaughter of our feather¬ 
ed protectors that it may soon become a serious 
matter for fanners and fruit growers. The amaz¬ 
ing fecundity of some of the most destructive in¬ 
sects places birds in the list of necessities. No 
other agency can keep down these swarming de- 
vourers of vegetation. One dealer on Long Island 
is said to handle thirty thousand skins a year, ex¬ 
clusive of many that are so mutilated that they 
cannot be used. Hundreds of people there do 
nothing else from early in the spring through the 
season but kill birds for these middlemen, who 
supply the taxidermists. A woman is carrying 
out a contract to furnish a Paris millinery firm with 
forty thousand or more skins at forty cents each, 
she paying the bird butchers ten cents each for 
skins not too much torn. Only old birds furnis’.i 
suitable skins, and this of course means the cruel 
death by starvation of multitudes of young ones. 
