194 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Fertilizers for Wheat.- “S. W. P.,” 
Marshfield, Vt. Nitrate of soda and potash salts should 
be used together, one will not replace the other. Gen¬ 
erally, the soil is more deficient in potash than in nitrogen, 
and it is scarcely ever that potash in some shape or other 
fails to have a favorable effect. 
Docking Blorscs.— “H. M. F.,” Hamilton, 
Pa. It is a very common practice in Europe, (England in¬ 
cluded), to dock the horse’s tails. This is done by cutting 
off a portion of the young colt’s tail. The operation is 
perfectly safe. The skin is first drawn forward towards 
the stump, and the tail is separated at a point of the ver- 
tabrse. The wound is then cauterized with a hot iron. 
An instrument made for the purpose is used for severing 
the tail, which operates instantaneously. The erect car¬ 
riage of the docked tail is secured by cauterizing the ends 
of the tendons which run along the upper part of the tail, 
while the tail is erected, by a pointed iron. This fixes 
the tendons in their shortened condition, and holds up 
the tail. It is to be hoped that this barbarous and cruel 
fashion will not become prevalent in this country. 
Caponizing.— “ J. A. C.,” New Castle, Pa. 
Directions for caponizing are given in Lewis’s “ People’s 
Poultry Keeper,” for sale at this office, price $1.50. 
The instruments are sold by H. H. Stoddard, Hartford, 
Cor.n. Capons sell very steadily at 25 to 30 cents a pound, 
when fowls sell from 8 to 20 cents, according to the supply. 
Chesip Farms.— “ P. A. B.,” Lock Haven, 
Pa. A low-priced farm may be a very dear one. There 
are hundreds of farms, valued at $15 to $20 an acre, that 
are really dearer than others at $100 to $200 an acre, be¬ 
cause the one requires a large outlay in manures, fences, 
or buildings, before it can be worked with profit, while 
the others will return a good profit for labor without any 
such outlay. It is more profitable to raise 100 bushels of 
grain at 25 cents a bushel with $10 worth of labor, than 
to raise 25 bushels at $1 a bushel with $20 worth of labor 
and fertilizers. This is precisely the difference between 
the low-priced rich lands of the West, and the low-priced 
pool lands of the East. But there are other consider¬ 
ations which influence persons in their choice of homes, 
and thereupon some go west and some stay or go east. 
On the whole, those who have homes might do better to 
stay upon them and improve them, than to leave them 
for a distant one in which they are no better off, and con¬ 
tinually regret th^ change. There is more comfort in 
contentment than is generally known. 
Export of Barley.— A very uncommon 
arrival recently took place at Queenstown, Ireland : this 
was a cargo ol American barley, shipped from New York. 
The sample was ol excellent quality, and was favorably 
received. Several other cargoes from New York are re¬ 
ported as being on their way to foreign parts. Up to the 
present time the trade has flowed the other way, and 
there have been large imports of barley every year. Bar¬ 
ley may now be considered as a staple article of export. 
To maintain the trade, farmers must take care to produce 
a good sample, perfect in color. 
An Infertile Bull.—“ M. C. H.,” Stuart, 
Iowa. Short-horn bulls are not so precocious as Jerseys, 
and should not be used at so early an age as the latter 
may be. A Short-horn bul' in his second year may serve 
a few cows, and six or seven in the next year, but if used 
severely in his second year, the probability is that he 
will be spoiled f oi future use This is probably what is 
the matter with your animal. It might be useful to keep 
him one year idle, and break him to the yoke, making 
him work occasionally. See article respecting this in 
American Agriculturist for August, 1875. 
How to Saw a Log True at tlie 
Ends —“'O. T. R.,” Independence, Ks. Experienced 
sawyers find no difficulty in sawing logs true at the ends. 
The saw must be set and filed even on both sides, and 
then, if the bandies are held upright, and a right start is 
made, the cut must be true. If the saw is badly filed 
and set. it will run to one side, in spite of a good sawyer. 
A guide for inexperienced sawyers may be made by 
fastening a cord around the log in the proper position, 
and sawing close to it without touching it. 
Fertility ofDairy Farms.-" W. W.,” 
Elgin, Ill. Much nonsense is circulated in regard to the 
rapid loss of fertility of dairy farms, by reason of the car¬ 
rying away of the phosphates in the milk. Now 1,000 lbs. 
of milk contain about 3 to 4 lbs. of phosphates, of which 
nearly the whole is phosphate of lime. Of this less than 
half is phosphoric acid; 5,000 lbs. of milk, therefore, con¬ 
tain but 7X lbs. of phosphoric acid, which may be taken 
as the yearly consumption, in this way, of each cow. As 
wheat bran contains 2.9 per cent of phosphoric acid, it 
Deeds only that about 350 lbs, of bran be fed to each cow, 
yearly, to replace the draft upon the soil. There are few 
dairy cows that are fed less than this quantity of either 
bran, or some food equivalent to it, and it is pretty cer¬ 
tain that very little, if any, phosphoric acid is really 
taken from the soil of dairy farms. On the contrary, to 
say nothing of the natural supply in the soil, which slow¬ 
ly becomes soluble, there is good reason to believe that 
every well kept dairy-farm becomes gradually richer in 
phosphates every year. 
Another Good hut Nameless Cow. 
—“ Mrs. A.,” Passaic Co., N. J., sends an account of her 
four-year-old cow, which produced 108 lbs. of butter from 
23d Nov. to 2nd Feb. last, or 71 days ; besides 100 quarts 
of milk for table use.—The daily yield ranged from 18 to 
22 quarts. The cow’s pedigree is unnamed and unknown, 
although she bears a strong resemblance to the Jersey 
cows pictured in the American Agriculturist of February. 
Strength of Concrete. —A very valuable 
and interesting paper was recently read before the British 
Association of Gas Managers, upon the use of concrete 
in gas works. It was stated, as the result of very nu¬ 
merous experiments, that a concrete of pure cement, 
which had a strength represented by 1,200 lbs., when six 
months old, acquired a strength of 1,600 lbs. in three 
years ; and a concrete of one part cement and two of 
sand, which had a strength of only 246 lbs. when fresh, 
afVme end of three years resisted 1,174 lbs., and became 
equally strong as pure cement at six months. The abso¬ 
lute strength of Portland cement concrete, at nine months 
old, was equal to a pressure of three tons upon a square 
inch of surface, while good building sandstone resisted 
only one ton on the square inch. The cement is three 
times stronger than sandstone. These tests are im¬ 
portant to those who may use concrete for building. 
To Cfet Bid of Stumps.—“ T. R. M.,’> 
Flint, Ind. There have been many foolish things said 
and printed about saturating stumps with oil or saltpeter, 
to cause them to burn out, or to set a length of stovepipe 
on the stump to make a draft so as to consume it. All 
these plans are useless, and would fail. The practical 
methods are: to wait until they rot, to pull them out 
with a stump-puller, to dig them out, or to blast them 
out. This last method is the cheapest and quickest. 
The Berkshire Record.— “J. C. F.,” 
Sabula, Iowa. The Berkshire record can be procured of 
A. M. Garland, Secretary, Springfield, Ill., for $3. Entries 
in this record are not a guarantee that the stock is pure 
bred, as there is only the breeder’s word for it, and that 
is just as good without the record. So far as we know, 
there is nothing to prevent any person entering any pigs he 
may please under any name he chooses, as the progeny 
of sows which may never have had a pig, if he is suf¬ 
ficiently unprincipled. 
Sheep Gnawing; Fruit Trees. — 
“ G.,” Livingston Co., HI. Sheep will occasionally gnaw 
the bark of trees, when pastured in an orchard with a 
good bite of grass. The seem to need something bitter, 
which the bark supplies to them. If they are regularly 
provided with salt, they will seldom touch the bark of 
old trees, except in the winter. To prevent it, take cow 
dung and clay, and make a paste with which smear the 
trees as high as the sheep can reach. If some blood is 
smeared over the bark, it would be equally effective. 
Either of these will keep off rabbits also. . 
What is Tlioroiigkkred. ?—“ J. H. S.,” 
Logan, Ind. -Five crosses entitle an animal to entry into 
the Short-horn Herd-book. It is then called a thorough¬ 
bred, but it is not in reality. Many years of breeding in 
a distinct line, or with selected animals of like character, 
until the progeny reproduce themselves exactly and with 
certainty, are requisite to make a pure breed, and the di¬ 
rect descendants of such animals are thoroughbred. As 
the term is now used it is loose and only approximate. 
Alsike Clover.- 11 W. W.” Alsike clover 
is neglected as a fodder plant. It has not succeeded in 
competition with red clover. Its habit of growth is 
slender, and it does not yield a heavy burden of stems 
and leaves. It is not profitable as a hay crop, and its 
place seems to be chiefly as a help to make up. a pasture 
on low, moist places, where red clover may not succeed 
so well. Wherever red clover can be grown, we would 
not advise any one to abandon it for Alsike clover. 
The Foiled Breeds ol Cattle.— 
A wonderfully strange prejudice exists against cattle 
without horns. The absurd and contemptuous name 
“ mooley,” sticks to them, although they may belong to 
a breed as old and as high bred as the Short-horns. The 
Polled Angus Cattle are, equal to the best beef breeds liv¬ 
ing. That they are without horns, is an additional re¬ 
commendation that should make them very popular 
amongst graziers and crovers. Without the injurious 
weapons of attack, they are docile, easily controlled, and 
the stronger can not abuse or injure the weaker, as it is 
the nature of all animals to do. 
A Variety of Questions.— “ F. S.” Air- 
slacked lime is very suitable for liming land—the finer it 
is the better. There is no better process than air-slack¬ 
ing for preparing lime for land. Lime may be kept for a 
length of time in air-tight barrels, in a dry place_True 
molasses will not change into sugar; but if some crystaliz- 
able sugar remains in the molasses it will be slowly depos¬ 
ited at the bottom of the vessel. Before using the sugar it 
needs to be drained; hang it up in a coarse bag.. Sorghum 
of the common variety will ripen in Iowa and will yield 
molasses, but not sugar. No successful process of 
making sugar from it has been as yet discovered... Plas- 
ter (gypsum) may be sown by hand or by Seymour’s 
broadcast sower. Use 100 pounds per acre_Of lime, 
25 to 50 bushels of lime per acre is generally used; scat¬ 
tered upon the surface and never plowed under_Peru¬ 
vian guano, when pure, is good for all soils and all crops; 
150 pounds per acre is a fair quantity to use... .Milk and 
cream for churning should be kept at a temperature of 
from 40 to 50 degrees. 
Diseases of Swine. —Many persons in¬ 
sist that the prevalent diseases of hogs, especially that 
one known as hog-cholera, is known in no other country, 
and that America should have all the credit, or discredit, 
for the possession. But there is nothing new about this 
disease. It prevails widely and fatally in England, where 
it goes by its proper name of typhoid or enteric fever. 
We notice a recent case, in which, of a herd of 32 hogs 
sent to market in England, 30 died of this disease on the 
way. If the pretended mystery about this disease were 
abolished, and it was acknowledged that it has a ratioual 
and natural cause, the first and greatest difficulty in the 
way of preventing it would be removed. 
A Marc that won’t Plow.—“ M. M.,” 
Alexandria, Ya. A horse that has not been used to the 
plow, is rendered fearful by the strangeness of the imple¬ 
ment and the manner of hitching. In such cases we break 
the animal to the plow by first hitching to a log and draw¬ 
ing that, leading the horse by the head. Then hitch to 
the plow with the point upon a plow shoe, and draw 
that; then plow a light piece of stubble, for half a day. 
By patience and kindness any horse may be taught to 
plow in a short time in this way. 
Feeding Hogs for Profit.-' 1 E. S. C.,’* 
Douglas Co., Kansas. As the price of pork in the great 
corn-growing States usually depends upon the price of 
corn, it ought to be a profitable business to turn corn in¬ 
to pork, even though the corn has to be purchased. It is 
impossible, however, to tell what future prices may be, 
and one who goes into such a business as this, may ex¬ 
pect to lose money sometimes, and to make a profit at 
others, to cover his losses. It is not likely he could 
make money every year, as prices fluctuate so greatly. 
Sawdust tor Foultry Houses. — 
“ Mrs. R. S. H.” Sawdust is not to be recommended for 
use in a poultry house. It harbors vermin. There is 
nothing better for the floor of a poultry house, than 
clean, dry earth upon an earth floor. The floor should 
be scraped over with a hoe or a broad scraper every 
week, and the loose earth and droppings removed. They 
may be stored in barrels, for use upon the garden, or be 
scattered directly upon it. Then some fresh earth should 
be thrown in, or fine sifted coal ashes will be useful. 
A Sick Horse. —“ O. A. G.,” Pelham, N. H. 
Rosin is not a good thing to give to horses for difficulty 
in urinating. It excites the kidneys for a time, but leaves 
them worse than before. When the horse has, as yours, 
a chronic disease of the kidneys, the best course is to 
give only moistened cut feed, with but little corn, and 
only sound, good oats, ground with rye or rye bran. One 
ounce of salt should be given with each feed, and when 
any trouble occurs, give half an ounce of saltpeter, or one 
ounce of gunpowder, powdered and mixed with the feed. 
Never overwork the horse, and never give water when 
tired, nor more than half a pailful at a time. 
No More Gambling at Agricul¬ 
tural Fairs.— The lower branch of the New York 
Legislature has passed a bill prohibiting pool-selling, 
both upon or away from race tracks, fixing the penalty for 
a breach of the law at a fine of $2,000 and two years’ im¬ 
prisonment. This removes one of the chief objections 
against trotting matches at agricultural fairs, and will go 
far to induce a more numerous attendance of farmers at 
these gatherings than heretofore. The example should 
be followed in every State, and above all things enforqefl, 
