1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
207 
Messrs. 15. Fox & Co.— Our remarks 
concerning this firm last month were based upon the in¬ 
formation then obtained, and justified by it. A member 
of the firm lias called upon us with several references, 
given us their actual place of business (369 Canal-st.), 
says they intend to do a straightforward business, and 
challenges proof that any dollar intrusted to their firm 
has not been appropriated to the purposes directed by 
the sender. He disclaims any intention or willingness to 
deal in the articles to which we objected, says he was not 
aware of their being in the catalogue, and he promises 
that they shall be stricken out and not supplied. We 
have no desire to interfere with any legitimate business, 
and will not; and so long as Messrs. B. Fox and Co., 
(which is the real name of the firm) or any other 
firm or individual, do, as they assure us they will 
do, we shall find no fault. But we shall always stand 
ready to expose and call to account any one sending, 
or offering to send, the “French” or other appliance 
that professes to diminish population, or to render the 
practice of immorality safe, or any books, cards, or pic¬ 
tures that the chaste should not purchase, or marked 
playing and fancy cards, and the like. 
"Watering- Tomatoes.—An amateur, who 
proposes to compete for Col. Waring’s hundred dollar 
premium for the largest tomato grown this year from his 
seed, asks if it is advisable to water the plants with 
manure water during fruiting. If any manure is used at 
this time, it should be exceedingly dilute, and we would 
prefer to use it only during the early growth ; but the 
most abundant watering should be continued throughout 
the whole period of fruiting. Nothing does so much to 
make the fruit large and smooth as plenty of water- 
applied after the suu goes off in the evening. 
That Mexican Saddle.— We have re¬ 
ceived many letters complaining because the Mexican 
and McClellan Saddles, pictured in our April number, 
have iron instead of wood and leather stirrups. Our 
Horseback Editor replies that in directing our artist to 
go for his models to the best wholesale saddlers in New 
York, he did not apprehend that such a mistake would 
be made. But evidently people who sell saddles in New 
York are different from the people who ride in them on 
the plains. One correspondent, writing from Nevada, 
objects to our preference for the English saddle, saying, 
“ 1 profess to be a first-class rider, but I could not be 
hired to get on a bad horse with an English saddle.” 
The writer of our article—by no means professing to be 
a first-class rider, has had some twenty-five years’ ex¬ 
perience in the saddle, including nearly four years of 
steady cavalry service in the Southwest, and he has been 
obliged at times to become accustomed to all sorts of 
saddles. He has not yet seen a horse he would not wil¬ 
lingly mount, and could not stay mounted on, with a 
good English saddle. He would not willingly mount a 
back-leaper or a runaway with any other. Possibly if 
our correspondent had had twenty years’ practice in 
English pig-skin, he would change his opinion. 
Bloody Milk.— Mr. Job Osborne, of Farm¬ 
ers’ Institute, Indiana, has a cow, a large milker, that 
gives bloody milk out of the two front teats. He asks 
for a remedy.—We have had no personal experience with 
this difficulty. Alleu says, in his American Cattle , 
■‘•Bloody milk generally comes from an injury to the ud¬ 
der or teat by inflammation, a bruise, or wound, and 
sometimes from disorder in the interior part of the ud¬ 
der. * * * The effected teat and udder should be 
bathed with some soft emollient, as in garget or puer¬ 
peral fever. An ounce or two of saltpetre, dissolved in 
water, may be given as a dose. * * * Such difficulties, 
however, seldom occur, and are usually overcome with¬ 
out difficulty in a few days by careful usage. Should the 
udder persist in yielding such disordered milk for any 
considerable length of time, aud through a majority of 
the teats, it must be a question of profit to the diary- 
man whether to dry her off for the shambles or still re¬ 
tain her in the dairy, or for breeding in hopes of a better 
prospect in another year.” 
Double Mead of Rye.—J. H. Shook, 
Long, Ill., sends a double head of rye. We have seen 
similar specimens several times before. We shall be 
glad to know if the seed from it produces any double heads. 
High Priced Seeds .- 11 A Subscriber” at 
Three Rivers, Canada, complains that he paid 50 cents 
for a packet of choice Pansy seeds, and received a parcel 
containing very few seeds, and he looks upon the trans¬ 
action in the light of a humbug. Those who purchase 
novelties must expect to pay high for them. Many 
foreign seeds sent out # by our seedsmen are in the origi¬ 
nal little packets put up abroad. The dealers generally 
charge in proportion to the cost. Some seeds cost many 
times more than their weight in gold. 
Hoop Poles.— F. W. Hall, New Haven, 
Conn., says: The kinds principally used are walnut, all 
kinds of oak, and occasionally a few white birch. Trim 
them out close, and cut them off twelve and fourteen feet 
long, then split them, and hew or shave them down 
smooth, and put twenty-five in each bunch. Bind them 
with rope-yarn, and they are ready for market. 
I-inrge Eggs. —Referring to a notice of some 
large hen’s eggs, given in the May Basket, F. T. Simpson, 
Wilkes Co., Ga„ writes: “ More than two months ago 
Mrs. S. took from a hen’s nest an egg weighing 6 oz., 
and about three weeks after found another that weighed 
5 oz., and since then has brought in four or five, which 
were net weighed, but much larger than the average size 
of hen’s eggs. The first two were boiled until hard. 
The larger, upon opening, had two coatings of white or 
albumen, one enveloping the other, and two distinct 
yolks, joined together by a ligament % of an inch long 
by of an inch wide. Had this egg been hatched, the 
product would have been twin chickens, joined together 
after the manner of the Siamese twins. The smaller had 
two whites and two yolks, which were not united, but 
entirely surrounded by the whites.”—We have found all 
the very large eggs that we have examined to be either 
double yolked, or, as sometimes happens, a completely 
developed egg, with its shell, within another shell, and 
surrounded by albumen. 
l-'aUeniiig- Cattle mul Hogs in Illi¬ 
nois.—A correspondent writes: “As there is consid¬ 
erable talk in regard to prepared food forcattlc and hogs, 
I will give my plan for getting the most out of a bushel 
of corn. In the first place I feed the corn to cattle, and 
have hogs to follow, and the feed they get is second only 
to cooked corn ; then, after the cattle go on grass, I put 
the hogs on clover with corn, and the green food appears 
to help digest the corn, so that the hogs get the same 
amount of nourishment out of it that they would if 
steamed.”—The plan of giving hogs a good clover pas¬ 
ture is excellent; and the reason assigned is the true 
one, “The green food appears to help digest the corn.” 
And would it not be well to give the cattle some corn 
with their grass for the same reason ? 
Colorado Agricultural Society.— 
The Denver Tribune of April 22, gives the following as 
a list of officers: President —II. B. Bearce; Secretary — 
Fred. A. Clifton ; Treasurer— Frank Palmer. The next 
Annual Fair is fixed for the 12th September, extending to 
the 16th, inclusive, but the place of holding it is not 
mentioned. 
Chicken Cholera. —M. M. Sheets, Hol¬ 
den, Mo., finds this disease taking off his laying hens and 
young chickens. It is malady respecting which little 
is known, though ns u al in such cases all sorts of nos¬ 
trums are prescribed, ' .3 array being formidable in pro¬ 
portion to the ignorance of the would-be doctors. We 
have gathered all the information respecting this dis¬ 
order we could procure, since it prevailed a few years 
since at the West. There is a very malignant type that 
is almost always fatal. A milder form appears in some 
districts that does not destroy more than half or one- 
third of the birds attacked. Alum water made pretty 
strong, given for drink and mixed with their soft feed, 
has seemed to be the best medicine in many cases that 
has been reported. 
Potato Bug, —M. D. Settler, Dayton, O. 
The insect sent is the Colorado Potato Beetle. The best 
known remedy is the virulent poison, Paris green. Mix 
with eight or ten times its bulk of flour, and dust the 
vines. Use carefully to avoid accidents. 
Spurious Eggs lor Matching.—A 
correspondent asks if eggs bought for dark Brahmas, of 
a dealer who advertised in the Agriculturist, were genu¬ 
ine. He says they produced chicks of various colors, 
and some had no feathers on their legs.— If the color is 
not a dark brown at first, with two stripes on the back 
running from neck to tail, and with legs and first and 
second toes well feathered, then the eggs were not dark 
Brahmas. At four or five weeks old the color should in¬ 
cline a little toward grayish, and the stripes become 
chocolate. It is charitable to suppose that the adver¬ 
tiser meant to act fairly. You should write to him to 
correct a mistake if he has made one. If he is a cheat, 
we shall upon evidence exclude his advertisement. The 
Agriculturist always fights humbugs of whatever sort, 
and endeavors to insert only trustworthy advertisements. 
l>ouble»fnrrow Plow.—Z. Acher, Ches¬ 
ter Co., Pa. We know of no plows of this kind in this 
country. The article was givon to call attention to an 
implement now popular in England. 
Corn Husking- Machines. — M. C. 
Carr, of N. H., wants to know more about the corn husk¬ 
ing machines alluded to in our report of the Trial ©f 
Implements at the last N. Y. State Fair. We gave all 
the essential facts. We do not regard them as a complete 
success at present. All that can be said is that they 
“ promise well.” We hope and believe that they will 
be improved, and that in a few years we shall no more 
think of husking corn by hand than of thrashing wheat 
with a flail. We will keep our readers informed of all 
improvements that may be made in the huskers. 
Diseased. Fowls.— E. W. Irish, Amherst 
(State not given), has lost half his grown fowls by a dis¬ 
ease with the following symptoms: the legs become 
weak, then the head drops to one side, and comb turns 
pale.—Put the fowls in a dry place. Feed potatoes, 
boiled, mashed and mixed with an equal quantity of 
scalded meal, adding a pinch of cayenne to each fowl. 
Put scraps of rusjy iron in their drinking water. If too 
sick to eat or drink, give them soft hay to rest on, and 
let them alone. 
Dark Brahma Fowls.— J. M. William¬ 
son, Butler Co., Pa., asks : “ Are the dark Brahma fowls 
a good breed to raise for market, and good layers.-”— 
They are large, easily fattened,and good winter layer.-, 
but will not produce so many eggs in a year as some of 
the non-sitting breeds. For the table they are rather 
coarse-fleshed, but still of passable flavor. They have 
the merit of being very hardy when chickens, and easy 
to rear in great numbers. 
1’cas on Sod Land.—“ G. N. L.” Instead 
of plowing under the peas, we should prefer to sow them 
on the farrows as left by the plow, and harrow in. The 
variety we usually sow is the common Canada Creeper. 
Should be glad to know if there is a better variety. 
Will Clover, IPeas, and Deans, 
produce milk containing more cheese than grass and 
corn? Such is said to be the case, from the fact that the 
former contain about double the quantity of nitrogenous 
or “cheese-forming” material than the latter; but we 
know of no satisfactory proof, and we should, for reasons 
we have not now time to give, expect more creatn from 
cows fed on the peas, etc., than from those fed on corn, etc. 
Will Bells on Sheep Frighten 
away the Dogs ?—R. H. Martin writes: “ Our sheep 
have a range of 50 acres, one-half of it pine timber. 
They never stay at the house nights, but go to the pines. 
They have a bell on them, and though several sheep have 
been killed in the neighborhood by dogs, my sheep have 
not ycj been disturbed. Is a bell a reliable safeguard ? ” 
It is unquestionably a great help, but cannot always be— 
depended on. Put a bell on the sheep and some lead in 
the dogs, and use all your influence to get a law enacted 
taxing the dogs, and see that it is enforced. 
Feeding Horses according to their 
Work. —Mr. Smith, of Wisconsin, asks us how he 
shall feed his horses, and remarks : “ I feed them accord¬ 
ing to their work, and they are in splendid condition. I 
am a great hand to pet horses, and like to have them in 
good condition for their work.”—That is right. Nothing 
is more aggravating in a busy time than an inefficient 
team. It is economical to have good horses (or cattle), 
and take good care of them. Feed regularly, groom 
thoroughly, and work steadily; these arc the only rules 
we can give. “ Feeding according to their work ” must 
not be carried to extremes. When a horse is over¬ 
worked, overfeeding will not help him ; aud it is almost 
certain to bring on indigestion, and this leads to colic, 
and, if persisted in, will probably end in death. Many 
a good horse is lost in this way. We know farmers who 
do not give their horses any grain on Sunday because 
they are not doing any thing ; whereas the horses should, 
if any thing, have more grain, because they have time 
and strength to digest it. 
Tree-Planting- in Illinois.— A bill is 
before the Illinois Legislature offering a bounty for plan¬ 
tations of forest-trees. As the bill has not yet become a 
law, we do not give the conditions it proposes. It is be¬ 
lieved that this bill, or some acceptable substitute for it, 
will be passed. 
Purity of Plaster.—“ D. P.,” of N. H., 
asks, “ Is there any way for farmers to test the purity of 
gypsum that is not expensive ?”—We know of none that 
does not require considerable chemical knowledge and 
skill. The manufacturers should have it analyzed by a 
good chemist. It is their interest to satisfy farmers that 
the article is good. 
