1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
35 
Effect of Ctua.no.—“ J. T. MeL.,” Pietou 
Co., N. S. When guano is applied to summer or fall 
grown crops, and because of a dry season its full effect 
has not been perceived, it is doubtful if the succeeding 
spring crop will be benefited, unless .it bo grass. Guano 
is very soluble, and the copious rains of fall and spiing, 
or the melting snow of winter, would probably wash it 
into the soil beyond the reach of the next crop. 
Umbilical Hernia.— “R. G. H.,” Wash¬ 
ington Co., N. Y. Hernia consists of an opening in the 
muscles of the abdomen, through which a portion of the 
bowels protrude. It appears generally as a small bunch 
or lump near the navel, and is not infrequent in colts. 
The opening through which the umbilical cord passes in 
the newly bom colt, is a weak spot, and the most fre¬ 
quent seat of hernia. The remedy is to turn the colt on 
its back, return the bowel, and clamp the skin together 
with a pair of screw clamps, or pass a fine skewer 
through the doubled skin, bringing the edges of the 
opening in the muscular abdominal coat together, and 
winding a thread around the skewer, in the same manner 
as is done around the pin, after a horse has been bled. 
Care must be taken not to injure the peritoneum or inner 
lining of the abdomen. 
Sheep or Cattle.—“ A Subscriber,” Sul¬ 
phur Station, Texas. If a person knows how to manage 
sheep well, we believe there is more profit to be made 
out of them, than from cattle, especially upon a farm of 
160 to 320 acres. The income from a flock of sheep may 
be from $4 to $8 per head, and five sheep may be kept, 
where one head of cattle can be. Besides the greater 
profit, there is less labor with sheep than with cattle. 
The capital required for both is about the same but it is 
more rapidly turned over in sheep-keepiug. 
Subsoiling- Loose Land.-" E. W. J.,” 
Akron, Ohio. When the subsoil is loose, open, and 
gravelly, subsoiling is unnecessary ; upon such land it is 
generally sufficient to turn over the fertile surface soil, 
and to go no deeper with the plow than the soil can be 
manured. Gradually, as the soil can be enriched, the 
plow may go deeper, but much injury may result by plow¬ 
ing a thin, gravelly soil too deeply at first. 
White Speck in tlae Eye.—“ E. L.,” 
Bradford Co., Pa. This is the result most probably of 
what is called “moon blindness,’’’which generally ter¬ 
minates in cataract. First there is a large flow of tears, 
and the back portion of the eye is dull and clouded. 
The inflammation continues two or three weeks, and pus 
is formed, causing yellowish spots in the eye. The pus 
may be absorbed and disappear, or it may remain in part, 
leaving specks. In two or three months the attack is re¬ 
peated, with the formation of more pus than before, un¬ 
til finally the whole pupil is filled with it, and a cataract 
is formed, which can only be cured, if curable at all, by 
a surgical operation. When the trouble first appears, the 
proper treatment is simply palliative, by frequently ap¬ 
plying a mixture of one ounce of cold water with two 
drama of tincture of opium to the diseased eye. 
Game Fowls.—“ C. R.,” Hart County, Ky. 
Game fowls are the best table fowls, and their eggs are 
well-flavored, and considered by cooks the best for cake 
and puddings. They are good layers. But they are as 
much subject to attacks by hawks as any other fowls. 
The game rooster, however, will give battle to a hawk 
that attacks a hen, if he is near enough, and will gener¬ 
ally drive it away. 
Sheep Utaislaig- asset Wool Grow* 
lug.— “H. H.,” Canton, Miss. Randall’s Fine Wool 
Sheep Husbandry is probably the best source of infor¬ 
mation as to raising sheep and wool in the southern 
states. The Merino is the most profitable sheep for the 
south, and southern grown wool, if the sheep are well 
cared for, is as valuable as that grown elsewhere. 
How far Cass Milk he Carried ?— 
“ C. J. B.” If milk is “ aired ” and cooled as soon as it 
is drawn, and then placed in proper cans which are com¬ 
pletely filled so that there will he no motion of the milk, 
and these are kept cool, it maybe carried to a creamery 
.distant a two hours’ journey or perhaps more, without 
injury. At any rate it may probably be carried safely as 
far as the limit of cost will allow. 
Boring Weills witli Angers .—“ P. 
A. K.,” FauquierCo., Va, To a person who knows noth¬ 
ing about the business of boring wells with augers, and 
who can not afford to lose his money, and hesitates to go 
into the business, we would simply say, Don’t! 
Patent Fence.— “J. C.,” Cerro Gordo Co., 
lows. It does not follow that a patent fence which may 
not be considered worth paying $5 for the privilege of 
using, is a humbug. When patent rights are offered for 
sale no one is obliged to purchase if he does uot think 
them worth the money asked for them. But if a person 
sees a new kind of fence in use by his neighbors and 
without enquiring if it is patented or not, builds one 
like it for himself, he ought not to complain if he is asked 
to pay a legitimate patent-right fee for its use. If the 
fence is worth using, it is worth paying for. The hum¬ 
bugs are those so-called novelties and improvements 
which have nothing novel or improved fibout them, and 
farmers should let such things alone. 
Brittle Hoofs.—“ C. H. D.,” Susquehanna 
Co., Pa. Brittle hoofs are sometimes caused by the con¬ 
tinual rasping down of the crust by farriers or black¬ 
smiths ; sometimes by the use of tar upon the hoofs, and 
it is often a constitutional defect of the horse. To rem¬ 
edy the defect in the former cases, refrain from the 
causes, and in any case the hoof is softened and made 
less brittle by rubbing it daily with pure glycerine and 
avoiding all contact with water or grease. 
To Use Whole Cotton-Seed.—“ J. 
C. B.,” Mansfield, Texas. The husk of cotton-seed is 
hard and woody, and not easily digestible. When fed to 
horses or cattle, these husks frequently cause irritation 
of the stomach and intestines. Sheep which grind their 
food more thoroughly do not suffer in this way. When 
the seed cannot be hulled or ground, it should be soft¬ 
ened by boiling or soaking in hot water, by which it is 
made more digestible. The cost of doing this would be 
well repaid by the increased value of the seed. See 
Prof. Atwater’s article on page 10. 
Steaming Feed for Cows.—“ B. F. 
M.,” Philadelphia. Steaming feed for cows is useful and 
economical when there is rough feed to he used along 
with meal or bran. It will be found to pay when ten 
head are kept, but hardly for less. In the American 
Agriculturist for January, 1873, is an article on cooking 
feed, with illustrations, in which full directions aud ex¬ 
planations are given. It can be had for 15 cents. 
Strong Manure. —“A Subscriber,” Lex¬ 
ington, Mass. We never found any manure too strong 
for use. If it is very rich, less of it may be used. A 
mixture of poultry manure with stable manure will in¬ 
crease the strength of the latter, and it will go further in 
use. It would require a considerable portion of poultry 
droppings to double the value of mixed stable manure, 
certainly more than is often produced on the farm. 
How Long' Is Milk: Good for But¬ 
ter?— “A Subscriber.” The milk of a cow newly 
calved, not only contains more butter, hut the butter 
exists in larger globules, and is more easily churned than 
afterwards. About five months after calving, the differ¬ 
ence becomes appreciable in the churning, and after the 
cow becomes again in calf, there is often trouble in bring¬ 
ing the butter. The cream is not only small in quantity, 
but it is changed in character; the globtfies are very 
small, and exist as an emulsion with ttie milk, rather than 
as a separate part of it. Another reason for difficulty of 
bringing butter, is that when the cow has been milking 
for some time, the cream being less in quantity, has to be 
kept longer before a churning is gathered. . Then in the 
souring of the milk, alcohol is formed by the decomposi¬ 
tion of the sugar of milk; the alcohol forms an emulsion 
with the cream, and as this is beaten in the churn, it 
foams up and froths over, but makes no butter. When 
this happens, patience ceases to be a virtue, for it is use¬ 
less ; the cream might as well go into cakeg or puddings, 
or to the pigs. 
Sheep inti Warm Climates.—“ S. S. 
H.,” Marshallton, Iowa. The Merino and its grades of 
our native sheep thrive well in warm climates. There 
are many localities in the United States where sheep can 
be pastured tlie year round, or with a very little help in 
winter. Texas, New Mexico, parts of Colorado, south¬ 
ern Kansas, Arkansas, the Gulf states, parts of Virginia, 
North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, are excellent 
sheep grounds, especially for Merinos and their grades. 
To Destroy “ Everlasting’.” — “ C. 
H. P.,” Delaware Co., N. Y. The common weeds known 
as everlasting, as well as most of the weeds which trou¬ 
ble the farmer, are encouraged by keeping land in pas¬ 
ture. To plow up a piece of weedy grass land, sow buck¬ 
wheat and then oats, sowing grass and clover again with 
the oats, aud then pasturing the land, is about as good a 
plan as could he used to perpetuate the weeds. If the 
sod had been planted with corn, and the ground kept 
clean, and the next year or two years plowed again and 
put in potatoes or beans, being all the time kept free 
from weeds by hoeing or hand-pulling, the ground would 
be pretty well cleaned, and might then be sown to clover. 
The clover should not be pastared, but mowed once for 
hay, and nnce for seed. The sod might be plowed again 
for corn, and if the weeds were not destroyed, another 
crop of beans or roots should be taken. Few weeds will 
survive two or three well cultivated crops, and fewer still 
this process repeated. 
manufacturing Bone Fertilizers. 
—“ P. C. T.” Lee Co., Ya. We cannot reccommend farm¬ 
ers to manufacture their own superphosphates from bones. 
Having made an attempt to do this, although well acquaint¬ 
ed with the dangerous character of the sulphuric acid 
employed, and having facilities for procuring it cheap¬ 
ly, we found the trouble, the loss from unavoidable 
accident with the acid, to tools, clothing, and bands, and 
the difficulty of completely neutralizing the acid, with¬ 
out rendering the phosphate insoluble, were such as to 
prevent any repetition of the attempt. Unless the bones 
are ground fine, the process is long and troublesome, and 
to grind them fine, requires costly machinery. The acid 
used is a most dangerous substance, and an accident 
might cost the loss of one or both eyes, or severe burns 
upon the body. To make it in small quantities costs 
more than it can be purchased for, and an inexperienced 
person can not tell when the process is perfectly per¬ 
formed. In drying the pasty product, there is danger of 
spoiling the value of it. The process is not described in 
any book except a costly technical work, which is only 
useful to a chemist. 
Value of one Cow.—The history of the 
Short-horn cow, Duchess 66th, which was sold in 1853 
at Earl Ducie’s sale, in England, to Colonel Morris, of 
Fordham, for 700 guineas, or $3,675, is remarkable as 
showing the actual value of one good breeding animal. 
From this cow, which was calved in November, 1850, 
there may be traced in direct descent a number of ani¬ 
mals which have sold for about $500,000. Let it be ad¬ 
mitted that as much of this value as may be, is depending 
on the fancy of rich breeders, and is not the intrinsic 
value of the beef and milk produced, yet no one can help 
admitting that an immense value, estimated in these 
alone, has accrued to the world from this cow ; and in 
proportion to this value may be estimated the profit to a 
breeder from any superior animal he may produce. A 
line of breeding animals is brought into existence, 
which spreads out fan-like, and diverges year by year 
wider and wider, until wo can no longer reach the bounds 
of the beneficial influence. It is in this that lies the 
value of any good animal, and it is an unfair disparage¬ 
ment to confine its value to the weight of meat upon its 
carcass, or its produce in milk and butter. The breedeir 
who produces a superior animal sets in motion an im¬ 
pulse which must in time spread aud increase enormously, 
and far beyond computation. 
Mow many Bricks for a Cistern.— 
“ T. II.,” Hamden, Conn. A cistern 10 feet in diameter, 
and 10 feet deep, will hold nearly 6,000 gallons. Such 
a cistern will require 2,000 bricks if set on their faces; if 
set upon their edges, about 1,100 will make the wall. 
Tlie floor is not included, as that may be cemented. 
Set upon their faces, 6 bricks will make a square foot 
of wail. Set upon edge it only takes 3% bricks. 
Learning Farming from a Hired 
Blast.— 1 “'W. C.,” N. Y. A hired man would be a poor 
teacner for an employer who knew notiiing about farm¬ 
ing. For a you-m? man who knows nothing of farming, 
but who wishes to learn, it would he a good plan to live 
one year with a good farmer and work as a hired man, 
paying his board as a compensation to the farmer for the 
trouble.of teaching the business. This would be better 
in every wa>* than to learn from a hired man. To find a 
farmer who makes a living out of the labor of his men 
without his own personal direction and help, isadifficult 
if not impossible thing to do. 
Glanders.—“ D. D. R Mahaska, Iowa. 
Glanders first appears as a discharge from tlie nostril, 
generally one only, of a thin transparent liquid of an 
acrid character and without smell. The lining membrane 
of the nostril is not red, but of a dull livid or purple 
color. The disease is distinguished by these symptoms 
from any other in which there is a discharge from the 
nose. This stage may last for a few weeks, or for a year, 
but it commences soon after inoculation from a diseased 
animal. Afterwards ulcers form on tlie lining membrane 
of the nose, the discharge is thick and yellow; the glands 
under the jaw swell, become hard, and appear as if fixed 
to the bone, the horse’s coat stares ; he weakens rapidly, 
sores appear on his body, and lie dies, thoroughly emaci¬ 
ated. In the first stage the horse may work for many 
months without distress. It is believed by some veteri¬ 
nary surgeons that at this stage the disease is curable by 
the use of sulphite (not sulphate) of soda, in half ounce 
or ounce doses given twice every day. A prominent 
European surgeon states that he has cured seventy cases 
of glanders by this treatment. 
