308 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
of a fresh wound ; after which, it should be 
washed clean with suds made from Castile 
soap and left to heal, which it will quickly 
do if the acid has been used long enough ; but 
if it does not get well, apply the acid again 
until it does cure, for it is a sure remedy and 
will not fail if it is applied until the diseased 
flesh is all burnt out. 
PUMPKINS AND SQUASHES OF AMERICAN 
ORIGIN. 
The common field pumpkin ( cucurbico 
pepo,) as well as squashes, properly so called, 
ed, is believed to be of American origin, as 
will appear from the following remarks by 
Dr. T. W. Harris, of Harvard University, in 
Cambridge, Massachusetts : 
“ Accident led me some four years ago to 
undertake the investigation of the history of 
squashes and pumpkins, which has led to 
quite interesting results. Most of the older 
and well-known species and varieties were 
by modern botanists supposed to have come 
originally from Asia, and particularly from 
India. This I have proved to be an error, 
and have shown that these fruits were 
wholly unknown to the ancients, no mention 
being made of them in the Scriptures, nor 
by Greek and Latin authors ; the writers of 
the middle ages, while they describe or take 
note of other cucurbitaceous plants, entirely 
omit pumpkins and squashes ; and these did 
not begin to be known and noticed in Eu¬ 
rope till after the discovery of America. 
Early voyagers found them in the West In¬ 
dies, Peru, Florida, and even on the coast of 
New-England, where they were cultivated 
by our Indians before any settlements were 
made here by the Europeans. The old bo¬ 
tanists who flourished during the first cen¬ 
tury after the discovery of the New World, 
or the West Indies, began to describe tnem 
for the first time, and give to them specific 
names, indicating the Indian (American) ori¬ 
gin. Here arose the mistake of modern bo¬ 
tanists in referring these plants to the East 
Indies and to Asia. 
“ From a study of the history of the plant 
I went next to a study of the species, with 
particular reference to their botanical char¬ 
acters, and to this end have been cultivating 
and examining every year all the kinds ac¬ 
cessible to me. I think I have established 
the facts that all the fruits known by the 
names of ‘ pumpkins ’ and ‘ squashes ’ are of 
American origin ; that there are three dis¬ 
tinct groups of them: the first including 
summer squashes and pumpkins, with deep, 
five-furrowed fruit stems ; and the third, the 
winter pumpkins and squashes, with short, 
cylindrical, and longitudinally wrinkled (but 
not five-furrowed) fruit stems. The last 
group v r as, probably, originally confined to 
tropical and sub-tropical parts of the west¬ 
ern side of this continent, from California 
to Chili. The most esteemed varieties now 
cultivated in New-England belong to this 
group, and the best of them are the ‘ autum¬ 
nal marrow 1 and ‘ acorn squashes.’ ” 
Tree Planting in the Papal States.— 
The government of Rome has had an annual 
appropriation of $10,000 for the encourage¬ 
ment of tree-planting in the Papal States. 
Premiums are offered to all who will plant 
trees on their own property, under the in¬ 
spection of the officers in their district. Pro¬ 
vision is made to supply the deficiency, if 
the sum appropriated should prove inade¬ 
quate. The olive, lemon, oak, elm, chest¬ 
nut, and almond, are among the trees named. 
To guard effectually your own interests, 
you must, in the first place, attend to the in¬ 
terests of others. 
BLOODY MURRAIN—A CURE. 
Since our last issue we have conversed 
with Mr. C. Hays, one of our most reliable 
farmers, on the subject of Murrain in cattle. 
He has had considerable experience with the 
disease and formerly lost a good many of 
his cattle, but latterly, he has succeeded in 
curing every case among his own cattle, and 
some for others. His mode of procedure 
is as follows: 
Take of white oak bark, newly peeled from 
the tree, as much as you can easily encom¬ 
pass with the thumbs and fingers of both 
hands. Boil this in one gallon of water for 
a short time ; then pour the water off, and 
dissolve in it a lump of alum the size of a 
hulled walnut, and a lump of copperas of the 
same size. With this mixture drench the 
sick animal and the cure will soon be effected. 
In only one instance did he have need for 
any additional remedy, and then, to facilitate 
the opening of the bow els, he administered a 
plate of lard. 
We hope this remedy will be extensively 
and thoroughly experimented with in all 
parts of the country, and the results reported. 
Murrain is a disease which takes largely from 
the profits of stock raising in the west, and 
as there is no known cure there will be no 
harm in trying this.— Prairie Farmer. 
TOADS. (Bufo vulgaris.) 
From the earliest recollection of the “old¬ 
est inhabitants,” this little creature has been 
under the ban, a source of terror to every 
little Miss, an object of disgust to maids and 
matrons, a byword and term of reproach for 
every old aunt and grandma in the land, who 
would never seek further in their vocabulary 
of opprobrious terms for a suitable name for 
little urchin, than to call him a “ little, nasty 
toad." Boys have made it their sport, have 
pelted it with stones, pierced it through and 
through with sharp sticks, substituted it in 
the place of a ball, upon a bat board, throw¬ 
ing it high into the air, and exulting in its 
torture ; and even men in the field, hoeing 
their crops, have been wont to rudely thrust 
it aside with their hoes, as a useless reptile, 
wondering for what purpose such a loath¬ 
some object could have been created. The 
Toad has been accused of being a venomous 
reptile, a fit object of dread, a poisoner of 
choice garden plants, deserving banishment 
from every one’s premises, and fit only to 
inhabit an uninhabitable morass or desert. 
The toad, has, however, occasionally been 
brought into respectable notice by curiosity 
hunters, and newspaper paragraph writers, 
whenever he has chanced to have been found 
in a torpid state in the cavity of a rock, or 
in the trunk of a tree, in which cases an an¬ 
tiquity has been ascribed to it equal to that 
of Egyptian Mummies, or perhaps set down 
as of antediluvian origin. In this manner, 
poor toady has gone the rounds of newspa¬ 
per notoriety, not for any merit or value it 
might have possessed, but as a matter of 
mere curiosity. But tins poor and despised 
creature has not been left entirely friendless 
nor without an advocate. 
Naturalists have placed him in the scale 
of usefulness where he belongs, and have 
shown that he is not deserving the very 
many opprobriums that have been heaped 
upon him. 
To the gardener, the toad is a very useful 
assistant, as it devours a great number of in¬ 
sects and worms that prey upon the plants. 
In the dark of the evening, the toad comes 
forth from its hiding place, and commences 
its work of extermination. Noiselessly it 
passes through the garden, regaling itself 
upon the insects that have just begun their 
nocturnal work upon the tender plants. No 
one but those who have observed the move¬ 
ments of this little animal, can form any 
correct estimate of its usefulness. A few 
evenings since, I watched one a short time, 
and observed that in the space of fifteen 
minutes, it devoured some fifteen or twenty 
insects, of that class too, that in the day 
time, lie concealed from the observation of 
the birds, but at night go forth in armies to 
carry on their work of destruction, to lay 
waste the gardener’s toil. It would be a 
matter of economy for those who till the 
ground, to provide the toad with a suitable 
place for retreat in the day time, thus virtu¬ 
ally saying to him : “My dear little fellow, 
I value your services, and will do all I can 
for your comfort.” 
With proper appreciation for his services, 
and care for his preservation, the toad will 
become quite domesticated, and will contin¬ 
ue his valuable work, for years, simply for 
his “ board and lodging.” Those who wan¬ 
tonly destroy the toad, should be classed 
with those who kill harmless and useful 
birds. 
Some years ago a family in Braceville, 
Trumbull County, observed one day, in the 
hall of the house, a large toad, leaping along 
in an orderly and moderate way towards the 
dining room door. It entered the room and 
took a circuit around, then stationed itself 
between the door and a window, and- sat 
there all day; whenever a fly came near 
enough, he would catch it, and as this was 
quite often, the work of extermination went 
on bravely ; sometimes he would spring up 
a foot or more for a fly upon the wall. At 
sundown he went out to enjoy the refresh¬ 
ing coolness of the evening, and probably, 
the society of his kindred. The next day, 
to the surprise of the family, he came in and 
took the same place by the door, and so con¬ 
tinued to do during the whole summer. The 
family whose premises were so unceremo¬ 
niously occupied, being aware of the useful 
and harmless nature of their visitor, and 
being curious to learn its habits, allowed it 
to remain. Thus the toad carried on the 
war against the flies, until autumn, when 
they, having become greatly reduced in 
numbers, and it being difficult for him any 
longer to obtain supplies by forage, he con¬ 
cluded to go into “ winter quarters.” Im¬ 
mediately on the opening of the spring cam¬ 
paign, however, he was at his old post. His 
message to the flies, as near as can be as¬ 
certained, was, “ Come, and I'll take you 
they came, were seen, and were swallowed. 
The enemy being immensely numerous, the 
war was carried on in the same way, and in 
the same place, for six years, the toad mean¬ 
while having grown strong and increased in 
stature, and having regularly spent every 
night skylarking. 
He was cool and prompt in action, and 
moreover a very slippery antagonist; when¬ 
ever anything was said to him by any person 
passing his stand, his eyes would twinkle in 
a very pleasant -way. The only weapon he 
ever used was his tongue, which was very 
long and rough. The human tongue is 
known to be an exceedingly formidable wea¬ 
pon, but no one has been known to be swal¬ 
lowed outright by its means, though a great 
many have been taken in. 
Sometimes a fly would light within a foot 
of toady, and sit rubbing its miraculous little 
feet with great delight apparently, when the 
toad, imitating the notorious Jeffreys, would 
“ give him a lick with the rough side of his 
tongue,” and the poor fly would be con¬ 
demned and executed instantly. 
In one respect, however, the immortal 
Jeffreys had the advantage of the toad, for 
he could “smell a puritan a mile off” he 
said, while the toad had no sense of smell 
apparently, but was in point of practice, all 
tongue .-—Ohio Farmer. 
