1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
75 
Tlie AdvuntiigefH of Keeping - Ac¬ 
counts,—“F. G. F.,’’ Genesee Co., N. Y., writes: “I 
have spent a large portion of my life on a farm, hut feel 
as though I was just beginning to learn to farm. Three 
years since I kept an account, and found what crops cost 
me, and found I could not afford to raise poor ones. I 
sell my potatoes at 20 cents per bushel with a fair profit, 
while I know of fields every acre of which would bring 
the farmer 15 or 20 dollars in debt. 
As to Patent Stay Rakes.—“M. E.” 
Every different make of steel tooth rakes has some com¬ 
bination of parts, or some special part, that is patented. 
The elastic spring steel tooth is common to most kinds. 
Turnips with Keans.—“ R. W. W.,” 
Perry. FT. Y., writes that he planted eight acres of low, 
mucky land with red kidney beans. On the 20th of July, 
after cultivating the beans for the last time, purple-top 
strap leaf turnips were sown between the rows with a 
Holbrook hand drill. The beans yielded 21 bushels to 
the acre, and the turnips were a splendid crop. This 
being his first crop of turnips, is a very encouraging 
experience. 
Dogs and Sheep -—“ M. P.,” Westchester 
County, N. Y., writes in reference to this troublesome 
question: “ I propose that the American Agriculturist 
he a medium through which the sheep-raising and wool¬ 
raising question be discussed in relation to their great¬ 
est enemy, the dog. I would be willing to see all dog 
taxes removed, provided there was a law that every dog 
away from his master’s premises should be muzzled. 
We have no right to prevent a person from keeping dogs 
on bis own premises, or feeding them mutton either, 
but every dog off of his’master's premises not muzzled, 
should be shot,and the person shooting said dog should be 
entitled to one dollar out of the funds of the town raised 
for that purpose. With such a law the farmer can keep 
sheep in any town, county, or state. It will prevent 
litigation, contention, or discord. The dog and sheep 
owners each having rights, will protect themselves by the 
letter of the law.”—Our friend will find that this ques¬ 
tion is treated in a very practical manner in January. 
Farmers in nearly every state in the country are in a 
position to compel fair legislation on this question, and 
if they do not procure it, no one is to blame but them¬ 
selves. One of the greatest difficulties is that the dogs 
which do most mischief are those owned by farmers, 
and they are the most careless of all in controlling them. 
Value ot' Chicken Manure. —“ C. R. 
B.,” Bergen Co., N. J. If the manure is dry, and ha^ 
been well kept, and the fowls have been fed upon grain, 
it ought to be worth about $20 a ton. Some market 
gardener in the neighborhood would probably purchase 
it. It is so rarely sold that there is no fixed market value 
for it. The value also greatly depends upon the manner 
in which it has been kept, as its ammonia is soon lost by 
exposure to the atmosphere. 
Pork-Raising - in Virginia. —A Vir¬ 
ginia subscriber suggests the following method of rais¬ 
ing pork in his locality, viz: to sow down different lots 
in clover, oats, southern peas and corn, and as the crops 
mature, to turn in the hogs to consume them upon the 
ground. Pork sells for 13 cents a pound, and very little 
is raised in the locality. Land can be purchased very 
cheaply, farms with buildings selling for $3 to $8 per 
acre.—Possibly this very rough method of making 
pork may be profitable as a commencement upon land so 
cheap as this, and may be made to serve a good purpose 
In improving the soil. If, however, a large, dry pen 
were provided and supplied with good water, and the 
crops were cut and fed to the hogs in it, and ail the 
weeds, leaves, and rubbish of the land were to be gath¬ 
ered and thrown under the animals for litter, there 
would he a large gain. The loss of flesh consequent 
upon the hogs running about the fields would be pre¬ 
vented, and there would be a large saving in manure. 
There is no doubt that with pork at 13 cents a pound, 
and land at $8 an acre, there should he a good profit in 
raising pigs with a good kind, if they are well managed. 
One field should be reserved as an occasional pasture. 
BIi“ - lit anil Left.—A correspondent has 
got puzzled about right and left as respects the direction 
in which his hop-vines and bean-vines twine, and he asks 
us to tell him which is which, and why so. He reads, he 
says, that his pole beans “ turn against the sun, that is 
from the left to the right hand of the observer,” and that 
his hops 11 move like the hands of a watch, with the sun,” 
i. e. from right to left. Now he says his watch does not 
do that, at least as a rule ; for when the hands are at XII 
they move from left to right, and when at VI they then 
move from the right to the left of the observer. That 
reminds us of the student’s examination, who, in reply 
to the question, whether the sun moved round the earth 
or the earth round the sun, hedged cautiously by answer¬ 
ing “ sometimes the one and sometimes the other.” 
But, not to make fun of a serious matter—for there really 
is no little confusion growing out of the way in which 
these things are expressed in the books—let us help our 
worthy correspondent by asking him to put his watch 
down in a chair, face up, and see winch way the hands 
move by walking round the chair in the same direction. 
He will perceive that he is turning to the left all the way 
round. If he walks around his hop-pole following the 
turning of the hop, he will do the same thing, but if he 
follows his bean-vine lie will go the other way round. 
The confusion which lias got into the books, in describ¬ 
ing the turning of vines or the direction of overlapping 
or twisting of parts, lias come from two different ways 
of looking at the right and left. Linnaeus and the writer 
our correspondent has got hold of, conceive of the ob¬ 
server as standing outside of the turning thing and fol¬ 
lowing it round. That this is the more natural and the 
commoner view is clear from our calling a common 
screw, the thread of which rises from left to right, a right- 
handed screw. But the DeCandolles and many others 
take it the other way, and say that tiie bean turns from 
right to left, they either conceiving the thing itself to 
iiave a right and left, which cannot be so long as it has 
no front and back, or rather that the observer is placed 
within the coil. And if we were in the habit of viewing 
such objects from an inside view, their’s would be the 
natural expression. Mr. Darwin, in his Climbing Plants, 
avoids any obvious ambiguity by not using the terms 
right and left—at least it is so where lie speaks of the 
hop-vine,—but saying instead with the sun or against. 
And here the observer is most naturally regarded as in¬ 
side, which is practically all right. But to an observer 
outside of the circle, the apparent revolution would be 
opposite. 
Dikes mail Ditclaes.—“ W. W.," Mason 
Co., W. T. If a dike is well constructed with a ditch 
upon each side, a very good permanent fence may be 
thus made. The cheapest pian would he to cut the sods 
along the fence row and lay them up in two rows two 
feet apart, leaving a space between them. Then with 
one horse and a plow loosen the earth where the ditch 
will be, and throw it between the lines of sods with a 
shovel. There will he no necessity to use a wheel- 
harrow, as the earth will only need to be lifted from the 
ditch to the dike. Two men with a suitable machine to 
cut the sods ought to make the ditches, and lay up 7 rods 
of such fence in a day, the ditches being 3 feet wide and 
2 feet deep, and the fence being 2 feet wide and 3 feet 
high between the sods. If anything is needed upon the 
dike to prevent trespass by stock, stakes or posts may 
he built into the dike 10 feet apart, and one or two wires 
stretched along the row. Such a fence would be safe 
and indestructible by winds or fire. 
Fleas In tlie Barn. —“ C. H. B.,” Lancas¬ 
ter Co., Pa. When a barn is infested with fleas, there is 
probably some cause for it that might be removed. 
Poultry will sometimes stock a barn with such vermin 
when they are permitted to roost in it. If hogs are kept 
under it, or manure is allowed to accumulate about it, 
vermin will gather and soon stock it. If any such cause 
as this exists, it should be removed. Then when the 
barn is empty in the summer, it should be well cleaned 
out, a quantity of hot clear coals should bo placed upon 
a heap of earth on the floor, and the doors being closed, 
a pound of sulphur should he burned upon the coals. 
After a thorough fumigation, the barn should he white¬ 
washed inside. 
Lime Kilns.—“ W. E. K.,” Lancaster Co., 
Neb. If lime is burned with fine soft coal, the ashes will 
he of no injury, and of little or no inconvenience. The 
fine slack coal that is thrown away at the mines or yards, 
may he used to burn lime. If the lime is carefully burned, 
there will he no cinders left. As good lime may he 
burned in the cheapest ldlns, as in the most costly ones. 
Circus Horses.—“ J. W. M.,” Queen Ann’s 
Co., Md. The curiously spotted or patched horses, com¬ 
mon in circuses, are of Arabian blood. Perhaps this is 
the reason why they are more docile and intelligent than 
common horses, as there is no horse that is so enduring, 
or that can be so easily trained, or is so tractable or gen¬ 
tle as the Arabian. There is no record kept of this breed. 
Sonic Question as to tlie Manage¬ 
ment of a ©airy.— “ Mrs. J.,” Rockbridge Co., 
Ya. Very good plans for spring dairy houses were given 
in the American Agriculturist for October, 1874. A fire in 
a stove need not injure the flavor of the butter if it is 
properly managed. It must n@t he permitted to smoke, 
hut the draft should always be kept perfect. Nor would 
the beat from a stove injure a cement floor. A brick 
floor may be laid upon the cement for tlie stove to stand 
| upon, or a square shallow pit may be left in the floor in 
which the stove may stand if injury is apprehended. Fine 
wire gauze is the best screen for the windows. Tlie 
screens should bo made in a frame to fit the sash so that 
they will slide up or down. The best cover for a milk 
crock is a cover of the same material, or a piece of flat 
tile or slate ; wood is not desirable. The dairy should 
be well ventilated, but without drafts or currents of air. 
A large opening in the ceiling that can he wholly or 
partly closed by a trap-door and a cord would be advisa¬ 
ble. The best dairy salt is either the English Ashton 
salt, or the Onondaga “factory filled” dairy salt. The 
latter is a home-made, equal to the foreign, and cheaper. 
Ringing- Rigs,—“Ed.” Pigs may safely 
be ringed as soon as they are old enough to do mischief. 
If you had given yonr full name and address, and sent a 
stamped envelope, (a thing often neglected), we would 
have sent by mail the information you wished. 
A Profitable Dairy.—“ T. A. C.,” Sols- 
ville, N. Y., sends us a statement of the yield of his 
dairy of 20 cows, from two to five years old: this was 
6,012 lbs. of butter, which was sold at 40 cents per pound, 
producing $2,004.SQ. These cows have been bred with 
care for a number of years, and are of Short horn descent, 
showing that, the ancient good character of this stock 
for the dairy, may still he retained by care in breeding. 
Indigestion in a Cow.—“ R. O. B.,” 
Fairfield Co., Conn. When a cow disgorges her food, it 
is a symptom of irritation in the stomach and indiges¬ 
tion, probably arising from the presence of too much 
acid. We would give her two drams of carbonate of 
ammonia, with one ounce of ground ginger in some 
scalded bran. This should be given once a day for a 
week. Afterwards she should have a little salt and 
pounded chalk to lick every day as long as she will take it. 
Salt For Wheat.—“D. M. S.,” Geauga 
Co., Ohio. Salt is generally sown upon wheat in the 
spring, as soon as the growth lias commenced. One or 
two bushels per acre, are sown evenly over the crop. 
The effect is to stiffen the straw, and prevent the wheat 
from lodging, and sometimes it has the additional effect 
of producing a clear light colored grain. Some farmers 
sow as much as a barrel or 5 bushels to the acre. 
Might Soil.—“E. C.,” Somerset County. 
There is no good reason why the night soil of a town 
should be rejected as a fertilizer, but many reasons why 
it should be regarded as of great value. The prejudice 
against using it is a relic of ancient times, when even 
animals’ dung, which we value so highly, and is so indis¬ 
pensable to us, was rejected as being “ unwholesome.” 
The “ Five Points of Good Husbandry,” a book written 
about 300 years ago, referred to the use of animal dung 
in this manner. Some consider the contents of privies as 
unfit to use. The truth is, that this matteris the richest 
of all animal manures, and if used upon grass lands or 
root crops, might enter into our agricultural system with 
great economy and a vast benefit to the public health. 
How to Improve Laud.—“ N. M.,” 
Shenandoah Co., Ya. It is as vain to try to improve 
badly run down land without manure, as to attempt to 
fatten an animal without food. If there is no manure to 
be had, it is almost hopeless to expect to improve ex¬ 
hausted land by growing crops to plow under. It is not 
always safe to trust to lime or plaster. If the soil hap¬ 
pens to be abundantly supplied with every other neces¬ 
sary ingredient, except lime or sulphuric acid, then 
lime or plaster may be useful. If the soil has still heart 
enough left to produce clover, there is a favorable pros¬ 
pect for its gradual improvement, by growing this crop 
and plowing it under. In this case 100 lbs. of plaster, 
sown upon the clover when it is young, may be very 
beneficial. When clover can not be grown, buckwheat 
may be tried as a substitute, until two or three crops have 
been turned under. It will perhaps he cheaper in the 
end, to purchase manure or such a fertilizer as guano, 
than to wait for tlie slow process of improving laud by 
means of buckwheat. 
A Preventive of the Heaves in 
Horses.— “C. VV. N.,” New Bedford, Mass., sends the 
following prescription for a mixture which he has used 
successfully as a preventive and cure for the heaves and 
a cough in his horses. It is one pound ground ginger, 
one quart of salt, 4 ounces hard wood ashes, 2 ounces 
ground black pepper, and one ounce each of pounded 
rosin and salt peter. The whole is mixed together, and 
a table-spoonful is given in the feed twice a day, to a 
tiorse that coughs, or breathes with difficulty.—A cough 
or difficulty of breathing, similar to what is called the 
“heaves,” frequently occurs from indigestion, and the 
production of gas in the stomach or bowels. The above 
mixture would have a beneficial effect in such a case, 
hut no use when the trouble exists in the lungs. 
