260 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. [ Jra ®» 
[COPY ItIGMT SECURKD.] 
THE RUBBING POST .— Drawn BY W. H. Cary. — Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
acre, if cut before it is fully ripe; indeed, while 
the ripest of the grain is still in the milk. There 
are several kinds of millet, of which 
Hungarian Grass, since its introduction 
some fifteen years ago, has grown in favor, and 
in many sections is cultivated to the entire neg¬ 
lect of other varieties of millet. It is really on¬ 
ly a delicate variety of the Italian millet, having 
a closer, shorter head, and more abundant fo¬ 
liage. It is usually sown after the hay-crop is 
known to have been cut short, rarely before 
the middle of June, and very good crops may 
be obtained, if sowed as late as July 10th to 15th, 
as it needs only about sixty days to mature. 
Of course, it needs moist weather to promote 
the germination of the seed, but after it has a 
good start, it will bear dry, hot weather well. 
A rich, sandy loam is best for it, but it will 
make a crop on any tolerably clean land, with 
a top-dressing of some good fertilizer. It should 
be cut before the seed approaches ripeness, as 
the hard shell, which incloses the ripe seeds, is 
so indigestible, that injury sometimes comes 
from feeding the unthrashed straw of the ripe 
millet. Horses, and indeed all our domestic ani¬ 
mals, are very fond of hay from Hungarian grass, 
and, if cut early, it may be fed with impunity. 
The Rubbing' Post. 
White’s Natural History of Selbourne, gives 
an account of the animals and other natural 
objects, of a very small district in England. It 
was written something like a hundred years 
ago, yet it remains a standard work to the pres¬ 
ent day. This remarkable popularity is due to 
the fact that the author gives the habits of the 
animals he describes—whether quadrupeds, 
birds, or insects—and it is full of interesting ob¬ 
servations as to their modes of life. ’While we 
have most accurate descriptions of our native 
quadrupeds, birds, etc., and their structure is so 
closely described that there is but little difficulty 
in identifying them, our literature is very barren 
in respect to the habits of the animals. But 
few, since Audubon, have thought it worth 
while to record the very facts that most inter¬ 
est the general reader. By listening to the talk 
of a group of Adirondack guides gathered 
around a camp fire, one can learn more about 
the habits of Deer than he can find in any book, 
and the western hunter is full of curious anec¬ 
dotes concerning the ways of the Buffalo. Sir. 
Cary, who passed some time in the buffalo range* 
illustrates in the above engraving a habit of the 
buffalo that we have not before seen noticed. 
The vast plains over which the herds of buffalo 
range are treeless, and it is only along the in¬ 
frequent water courses that trees are found at 
all, and at those streams to which the buffaloes 
resort for water, they are even there of rare oc¬ 
currence. The buffaloes, besides trampling 
down the young growth, destroy the trees of 
any considerable size, by using them as rubbing 
posts. One after another of these rub their shag¬ 
gy sides against the tree until it is completely 
barked and killed. Once in a while, a tree will, 
after a fashion, survive this rough treatment, 
and here and there there will be a gnarled, 
scraggy, mutilated willow or cotton-wood, 
which maintains a struggling ex tence in spite 
of the buffaloes, and these arc known to the 
hunters as “rubbing posts.” One of these 
trees is represented in the engraving. A bear, 
that is enjoying the luxury of a good scratch¬ 
ing, has his pleasant occupation broken in upon 
by the approach of the herd to water. The 
leading bull, finding the rubbing post occupied, 
charges upon the intruder, who, as soon as the 
remainder of the herd come up, will find him¬ 
self in, the minority and be glad to- retreat. 
