AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
357 
pensities of the rat family, is, I am told, very 
considerable. 
Our Yankee Frenchman did not, however, 
stop there. It was natural to suppose that 
rats so well fed and provided for, would rap¬ 
idly increase and multiply ; hence the neces¬ 
sity of regulating the matter. Every three 
months a grand ‘ battue’ is made upon the 
aforesaid colony of rats, and all caught above 
ground die the death of rats. The manner 
of doing this amused me. Horizontal and 
cylindrical holes are bored’all around, in and 
at the foot of the inclosing walls—the depth 
and diameter being respectively the length 
and thickness of the rat’s body. Upon the 
morning of the ‘ battue,’ men armed with tin 
pans, kettles, drums, &c., rush in at the peep 
of day and ‘ charivari’ the poor rats, who, 
frightened to death, poke their heads into the 
first opening. Of course, all those in the 
wall holes have tails sticking out. The rat 
collector, with bag over his shoulder, now 
makes a tour of the premises, and the scien¬ 
tific and rapid manner with which the rats 
are seized by the tail and safely (to both rat 
and operator) transferred to the bag, chal¬ 
lenges admiration. It even surpasses the 
‘ Chiffonniers’ rag picking. Perhaps you 
wish to know what becomes of the rats. 
These, also, are sold before they are caught 
or killed. The privilege of gathering rats 
on the ‘ battue’ days is framed out by the 
outhorities, and a profitable business it is. 
These rats, sleek and fat as they necessarily 
are, fetch a highly remunerative price—the 
fur, skin, and the flesh, meet with ready 
sales. 
Color of Horses. —A proverb says, “ A 
good horse can not be of a bad color.” Do¬ 
mestication appears to have the effect of 
multiplying the colors of animals. The pre¬ 
vailing color of the wild species is the bay; 
but Foster says that among the troops he 
saw in Central Asia, the dun and greyish- 
brown colors were most frequent. Bell 
judges the chesnut to be most common in 
Tartarian districts. Sir Francis Head states 
that many of the horses of the Pampas are 
piebald. The black is rarely found among 
the Arabians. The leopard-spotted are said 
to be frequent in China. Witli us (England) 
it ranges from milk-white to coal-black. 
Some persons are inclined to give the pref¬ 
erence to the darker colors, from the fact 
that, among animals generally, the lighter 
the skin the weaker the energy. Lord Bacon 
seems to have entertained the same idea, 
when he asserted white to be the color of 
defect. 
The Adulteration of Food. —The Select 
Committee of the British Parliament, to in¬ 
quire into the adulteration of food, is still in 
session. Dr. Hassall, who was called as a 
witness, mentioned the various articles gen¬ 
erally adulterated, with the substances em¬ 
ployed for the purpose. Coffee, he stated, 
was adulterated by chicory, wheat, rye, 
roasted peas and beans, mangold wurtzell 
and acorns—porter and stout by water, su¬ 
gar, treacle, salt, coculus indrcus, tobacco, 
wormwood, ginger, liquorice, honey, alum, 
carbonate of soda, ground oyster shells, car¬ 
away seeds and coriander—rum by water 
and Cayenne pepper—milk by water, annat- 
to, sheep’s brains, &c.—sugar, (rarely adul¬ 
terated) by sand and plaster of Paris—tea by 
exhausted tea leaves, siccamore, horse chest¬ 
nuts and plum tree leaves, starch, and vari¬ 
ous coloring matters, such as plumbago and 
Prussian blue—wine by sugar, (burnt) and 
sulphuric acid. There was no such thing as 
a pure green tea to be had at present in the 
country. The miscroscope detects, by the 
structure of the article, the adulterations 
practised much more readily than is done by 
chemical analysis. The mode which has 
been suggested of preventing these adulter¬ 
ations, so prejudicial to the public health, is 
the publications of all names and addresses 
of persons whose goods are examined, 
whether pure or impure. The punishment by 
fine, of the sellers of adulterated articles, 
and the punishment by fine or imprisonment, 
or both, of the actual adulterators. 
SHOCKING GRAIN. 
The frequent rains of the present year 
render it exceedingly difficult to gather 
wheat, rye, oats, &c., in good order. The 
dry weather, usually prevailing at the har¬ 
vest season in this country, has induced a 
slackness, a slip-shod habit among Ameri¬ 
can farmers that is quite surprising to Eng¬ 
lishmen, who on account of the damp at¬ 
mosphere and ever “ weeping skies ” of their 
own country, are accustomed to much great¬ 
er care in protecting their grain while it is 
curing in the field. 
Last week we saw a very good illustra¬ 
tion of the different methods, and of the su¬ 
periority of the English practice, while visit¬ 
ing the farms of a couple of wheat growing 
neighbors. One farm was tilled by an Amer¬ 
ican—an out-and-out Iv. N.—the other by an 
Englishman, who still retains many of the 
agricultural notions and practices of his na¬ 
tive country. 
They owned fields of wheat, side by side, 
which had been cut and shocked when we 
saw them, just after a heavy fall of rain. 
The American farmer had bound his wheat 
in large bundles or sheaves—as large as the 
arms could encircle ; the bands were put on 
nearest to the “ buts ” of the straw, leaving 
the heads to spread out at a wide angle, and 
just fitting the sheaf to take in all the rain 
falling upon it. These sheaves were set up 
by a boy, inrows, six sheaves leaning against 
six others, in the form of a parallelogram or 
long square. There was so little care exer¬ 
cised in forming these “ shocks,” that many 
of the sheaves had fallen down, or been 
blown over by the wind, while those stand¬ 
ing were quite as broad at the top as at the 
base ; indeed they could hardly have been 
better arranged if they had been expressly 
designed to catch all the rain possible. 
The Englishman, on the contrary, had 
bound his wheat in small bundles ; the bands 
were put on near the grain to contract that 
end of the sheaf as much as possible. They 
were then set closely together in round 
shocks of small size, the heads slanting in¬ 
wards, and the whole was “ capped ” with an 
inverted sheaf. The cap-sheaf was tied up 
with two bands, one near the middle and the 
other near the buts, the latter band being 
drawn quite tightly, to make this end of the 
sheaf as nearly pointed as might be. In put¬ 
ting on this cap, its grain end was opened 
from the center to form a hollow cone, which 
was set over the shocks, the heads of all the 
upright sheaves being first drawn inwards 
to a point. This work was not entrusted to 
a “ boy,” to a careless “ hand,”, but to the 
most careful person on the premises, the 
most of it being done by the proprietor him¬ 
self. 
An examination of these two fields'showed 
that while in the first nearly every sheaf had 
been wet down to the band at least, in the 
latter field the water had in no case pene¬ 
trated to the depth of two inches except 
in the upper or straw end of the “ cap,” and 
in this it had not gone down to within, a foot 
of the grain. 
We conversed with the English farmer as 
to the time and expense, and in answer to 
our inquiries, he stated that after the wheat 
was cut and bound, he could prepare the caps 
and put up in this manner from two to six 
acres a day, or even more, according to the 
stoutness of the crop ; that the expense was 
nothing compared to its advantages, since he 
could leave his grain in the field as long as 
he wished ; that the wheat and straw were 
better for being thus fully cured in small par¬ 
cels, with a free access of air, than if stored 
too soon in a “ mow” or large stack; and 
that after five years’experience in this coun¬ 
try, prior to the present one, he had conclu¬ 
ded that, one year with another, the saving 
from loss by rain in this method was at least 
equal to three times the extra expense over 
the plan commonly pursued. He follows the 
same course with his other grain, rye, oats, 
&c., and when barn room is short he leaves 
a crop in the field until ready to thresh it di¬ 
rectly from the cart. By the latter course 
he also saves one or more handlings.— N. Y. 
Times. 
HOW TO KEEP HARNESS. 
In answer to an inquiry for information as 
to the best mode of cleaning and oiling har¬ 
ness, &c., we re-publish the substance of an 
article given in the Hural New-Yorker : 
Observing the good condition and fine ap¬ 
pearance of the harness of Aid. Baker, pro¬ 
prietor of the most extensive livery estab¬ 
lishments in Rochester, we requested him 
to impart to us, for publication, the modus 
operandi by which so desirable an object was 
achieved. In compliance^therewith, he stated 
the course adopted as the best and most 
economical, after twenty years’ experience 
in a business which required considerable 
attention to tackling apparatus. His process 
of oiling and washing harness is substantial¬ 
ly as follows : 
Take neats foot oil and ivory or patent 
black—the latter well pulverized, or to be 
made so before using. Mix thoroughly, add¬ 
ing the black until the oil is well colored or 
quite black. In cool weather the oil should 
be warmed somewhat before mixing. With 
a sponge apply alight coat of the mixture— 
only Avhat the leather will readily absorb, 
unless the harness is very dry, in which case 
a heavier coating may be necessary. After 
the harness is dry—which will be in from 
two hours to half or a whole day, depending 
upon the weather and previous condition of 
the leather—wash thoroughlyjwith soap-suds. 
In making the suds use good Castile soap and 
cold rain-water. Warm water should never 
be used on harness leather. Apply the suds 
with a sponge. Rub off with buckskin. This 
will give your harness a nice, glossy surface, 
and the leather will retain a good color and 
continue pliable for months. If it becomes 
solid with mud or sweat, an application of 
soap and water as above directed (without oil¬ 
ing) will be sufficient to give it a bright ap¬ 
pearance. 
Two applications of this oil and black mix¬ 
ture a year, (or once every six months) will 
be sufficient to keep harness, as ordinarily 
used, in good order. It may be necessary 
for livery men, and others who use harness 
constantly, to apply the oil oftener—but in 
most, cases, two oilings a year and washing 
with suds when soiled, will keep a harness 
in good trim for sight and service. This pro¬ 
cess will pay a large dividend in extra serv¬ 
ice and durability—to say nothing of im¬ 
proved appearance. 
Aid. B. assures us that the same, or a very 
similar application, is just the thing for 
carriage tops which are made of top leather. 
The only difference in treatment is, that less 
oil should be used, or rather a lighter coat¬ 
ing applied—and it should be washed off 
before drying in, top leather being thin and 
much more penetrable than harness. Of 
course this mixture would not answer for 
enameled leather, of which some carriage 
tops are constructed. 
Help the needy and you will prosper. 
