86 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
in advertising, or people would know where to apply. 
The letters we have had about these during the last two 
months, would, if followed by purchases, make a good 
business for any poultry dealer. Secondly , people do not 
generally understand that we illustrate and talk about 
such things, because we think it will benefit our readers 
to know of them, and that neither publishers nor editors 
Save for sale, or have in any way the slightest interest in 
the sale of any bird, beast, or other thing that is noticed 
in our columns, except it be books, and Crandall's Blocks, 
etc., for children, which are specially advertised. 
The Way of Halits.— 1 “ F. O. W. ” Mass., 
asks if after Tulips, Hyacinths, etc., have bloomed, they 
form new bulbs. Yes. If the bulbs have been forced by 
blooming in the house in water, they are too much ex¬ 
hausted to be of use. If they were in pots of earth, then, 
when the ground is open, the bulbs may be turned out 
and left to themselves, and in a year or two they will 
give fair flowers, but never so good as at first. If you 
Sake up a tulip bulb, planted last fall in the open ground, 
after the leaves have faded, you will find it like the one 
you planted, but it is a new bulb that replaced the old one. 
A New Cnciimber, Taill»y’s Hy¬ 
brid. —It is not our custom to say much about new 
varieties of vegetables until we have tried them. Our 
previous experience has been that when Mr. J. J. H. 
Gregory, of Marblehead, Mass., says that he has tried a 
squash, and pronounces it good, we on trial are able to 
say ditto. As the cucumber belongs to the same family 
with the squash, we are disposed to accept his judgment as 
4o Tailby’s Hybrid, and when he says “it is unsurpassed 
fey any and equalled by few,” and that it unites the 
good qualities of the English sorts with the hardiness 
®f our American varieties, we are sure it is worth trying. 
Heating' our Buildings. —Our frieDd 
J. M. Jordan, the well known horticulturist of St. Louis, 
Mo., is quite convinced that our buildings will ultimately 
fee heated by hot water pipes, and wishes ns to urge upon 
manufacturers of such apparatus, to make a full display 
of them at the Centennial. We are sure that here is a 
fine field for inventors, and when we consider the great 
improvements made of late years in heating greenhouses, 
we have hopes that a cheap plan may be found for warm¬ 
ing dwellings in a similar manner. 
Black-Teg in Calwes. —“C. M.,” Algo- 
na, Iowa. The best fed calves are the most subject to 
“black-leg” or black-quarter, (carbuncular erysipelas). 
They are most subject to it in the warm damp weather of 
early spring, and a mild winter is greatly provocative of 
diseases of this kind. Their is little danger if the calves 
are kept from abundant green food until they are gradu¬ 
ally used to it, and are occasionally physicked as spring 
approaches with a dose of salts (4 ounces), with an ounce 
of ginger in it. A regular supply of salt should be 
given to them. Fair, moderate feeding is better than an 
excess for young animals, and some linaeeq i« a valuable 
addition to their feed. 
Heavy Essex Bigs. —“E. N.,” Batavia, 
Ill., sends the weight of an Essex pig, 27 months old, 
that weighed alive 630 lbs , and dressed C16 lbs., also of 
two others about 17 months old, weighing 575and 520 lbs. 
Do Tice Produce Fleas? — “C.,” 
Bowling Green, Ky., asks this question. We think a 
very little reflection would have been sufficient to enable 
©nr correspondent to decide this matter for himself. 
Lice are very different insects from fleas, both In their 
form and habits, and each kind reproduces itself. The 
feet that fleas are found in the bedding of hog pens, and 
not upon the hogs, while they are found upon dogs, cats, 
and poultry, is explained by the habit of the fleas to 
hide beneath some dense covering, and the thin coat of 
the hog does not furnish sufficient shelter for them, they 
therefore gather anywhere except upon that animat. 
When to Set a Saw.—“J. H., jr.,” 
New Orleans. It is usual to file the saw first, and set it 
afterwards, although some sawyers and mechanics do tho 
reverse. It matters very little which is followed. 
Binding Grain witb "Wire. — “M. 
N.,” Annapolis, Ill. This practice will scarcely ever be¬ 
come popular, on account of the danger from the use of 
the bands. Already a cow that was sold for $25,000, has 
been lost throngh swallowing a piece of a wire band 
from a bale of hay, and doubtless many less valuable ani¬ 
mals would be lost, were the use of wire bands to become 
prevalent. They are also dangerous in the thrashing 
machine. Twine would be perfectly safe, and no doubt 
that inventors will contrive to substitute it for wire. 
Flowers in Church. —While some de¬ 
nominations have long decorated their churches with 
flowers on Easter and other days, others have rigid¬ 
ly excluded them at all times. The custom in this 
respect has greatly changed within the last 2Q, or even 10 
years, and now there are few churches in which flowers 
are not to be found on especial Sundays, and in some 
they are present every Sabbath. We need not argue the 
appropriateness of this kind of decoration, for its gen¬ 
eral adoption is evidence of that, and some churches go 
to a great expense to provide it. To our taste expensive 
and elaborate decorations are less pleasing than more 
simple ones. As an example of what jmay he done by 
one woman, who has her heart in the matter, we may 
cite that of the Methodist E. Church, at Middletown, 
Conn., where, year after year, summer or winter, and re¬ 
gardless of the weather, the eyes of the worshippers have 
been greeted each Sabbath morning by a display of flow¬ 
ers in some form. Sometimes a vase loosely filled ; on 
other occasions a cross of green, studded with flowers, 
each week presenting some new and pleasing change, 
and the kinds varying with the season ; ferns and wild 
flowers at times are freely used ; the great variety pre¬ 
sented, is as pleasing as the regularity and constancy 
with widen these offerings are contributed. There is no 
expense attending this beautiful decoration, it being 
done entirely by one lady, who, though living at a dis¬ 
tance from the church, never fails to present each Sabbath 
morning, these flowers of her own raising and arrang¬ 
ing. It is with Miss Ellen Rockwell entirely a labor of 
love, and she is amply repaid for her trouble and care, by 
knowing the pleasure she gives others by reminding 
them of the land where “ everlasting spring abides, and 
never withering flowers.” 
Hold. Hunting 1 .—“ O. R.,” Gibson, Pa. 
Gold mining is an attractive but a delusive occupation. 
More money has been spent in procuring our supply of 
gold than has been gained by it. A large amount of 
capital is needed to open a gold mine, and those who 
work in the mine, have a hard and dangerous labor to 
perform for comparatively poor wages. Maps and des¬ 
criptions of lands in the Arkansas valley can be had on 
application to the Land Commissioner of the A. T. and 
Santa Fe R. R , Topeka, Kansas. 
Size of Poultry House.— “H. A. M.,” 
Hudson, N. H. For 200 fowls, the roosting house should 
be 24 feet long, and 12 feet wide; the sitting house should 
be 16x12. For laying places, there should be several re¬ 
tired, small houses, or low sheds, plentifully furnished 
with boxes, and cut chaff. These are better than one 
stated house, as liens like a frequent change of base, and 
would rather steal a nest than have one given to them. 
It is better to humor than to thwart their peculiarities. 
As to Hortli Carolina. —Several corres¬ 
pondents are informed that the address or “ T. B. W.,” 
whose communication appeared a short time ago in the 
American Agriculturist, is T. B. White, Horse Cove, 
Macon Co., N. C. This is a new settlement of eastern 
men in that locality, in which the lands are good, the 
climate mild, and fruit, especially apples, flourishes 
well. Mr. S. T. Kelsey, formerly a prominent fruit 
grower of Emporia, Kansas, is planting largely of apples. 
Pure Spices.—The general adulteration of 
spices was mentioned in our columns some months ago, 
and the item catching the eye of C. E. Andrews & Co., 
Milwaukie, they sent ns a box of their Crocker Mills 
spices, to show that all spices were not adulterated. 
These have been found upon trial to be satisfactory, and 
we doubt not they are, as claimed, “Absolutely Pure.” 
Fure for “Sprung Knees.” —“J. M. 
W.,” North Beach, Minn. The only cure for sprung 
knees is rest; frequent rubbing with a stimulating lini¬ 
ment of creosote and turpentine, one part each, and olive 
oil. two parts, mix and rub on to the back of the joint, 
and bandaging will promote a cure. 
How to Improve a Piece of Tnud, 
—“ J. R. D.," New Albany, Ind. Green manuring is an 
easy method of improving land that has still enough 
strength left to produce a green crop. To commence, 
the land might be sown with buckwheat in May next, 
having been plowed rather deeply early in spring. This 
may be plowed down in July, and the ground again sown 
with buckwheat. A few crops grown in this manner 
would prepare the ground for clover, aud if a fair crop of 
clover can be grown, it can be readily improved after 
that by taking a few crops of hay, and plowing in the 
second growth. Perhaps some plaster or lime maybe 
needed to help.The “pod” sent can not be identi¬ 
fied, without a description of the plant it came from. It 
looks like the fruit of the hoiHe-nettle, Solarium Cardin- 
ense, which is worse than the very disreputable Canada 
thistle to get rid of. 
Soaking Clover Seed.— “D. N. K.,” 
Lehigh Co., Pa. It would not be advisable to soak clover 
seed before sowing it. If the weather should be dry or 
cold afterward, the sprouted seed would be killed. There 
is no need of soaking, as the seed sprouts very readily. 
The easiest way of sowing is to do so upon the last snow 
of spring; every seed can readily be seen upon the snow, 
and it can be sown very evenly. It soon sinks through 
the snow, and into the fine cracks of the soil, and when 
the warm weather arrives, it is in the best position for 
growing. Upon hill-sides, or land that is liable to be 
washed by rains, this plan will not be safe. 
- — i — -— 
Sundry Humbugs. 
As yet we are unable to 
say what is to be the lead¬ 
ing style of humbug for the 
present year; for as we have 
before remarked, there are 
fashions in humbugs as in 
other things. At one sea¬ 
son gift distributions pre¬ 
dominate ; again, the pre¬ 
tended counterfeit money 
men are most numerous, 
though of late very scarce; 
again, quack medicines, al¬ 
ways abundant enough, 
seem to overshadow all 
others; and so on. It can 
hardly be possible that the 
advantages offered by the 
Centennial year, when there 
will be much travel, and lib¬ 
eral spending of money, will 
be overlooked by the inge¬ 
nious swindlers, and they will no doubt, as well as hon¬ 
est traders, be prepared for a harvest; but their plans are 
not yet developed. We awhile ago thought that bogus 
Wall street operations were to be the marked feature in 
this year's humbugs, but they have fallen off wonder¬ 
fully. The prompt warnings we have given (in this case 
seconded by the daily journals), the action of the postal 
authority in showing that many of the Wall street “put 
and call” men were the very same as those formerly 
active in the sawdust swindle and counterfeit money 
business, and the introduction of a bill into the legisla¬ 
ture to prevent this form of gambling, have all had their 
effect in deterring these chaps; fewer of them advertise 
than formerly, and these are much less bold than at first, 
and resort to subterfuges. There is no stronger illustra¬ 
tion of the power of an inordinate love of gain than the 
fact that there can be found persons all over the country 
who will believe the stories of the wonderful profits 
made on Wall street, and will trust their money to per¬ 
fect strangers to use in a kind of gambling, which, if fol¬ 
lowed in good faith, is exceedingly hazardous, and much 
more likely to lose than win. 
“ IS THIS A HUMBUG ? ” 
is the question that meets our eye many times every 
month. Circulars, pamphlets, and advertisements cut 
from papers are sent to us in large numbers; on many of 
these is the comment, “ Here is another humbug, show it 
up;” but with many others we find an inquiry which may 
be condensed into, “Is this a humbug?” In such mat¬ 
ters there is a very safe rule. If a scheme or proposition 
of any kind presents itself in such a manner that you 
feel little confidence in it, and are obliged to ask some 
one else if it is not a humbug, you may be very sure that 
is a thing to bo let alone. Here is an advertisement of a 
“Stationery Package and Jewelry Casket,” each “cas¬ 
ket” containing one or two “valuable pieces of Jewel¬ 
ry.” The package sells for 25 cents. A correspondent 
sends the advertisement, and wishes us to state 
“WHAT WE THINK OP IT.” 
See here, friend Risler, let us take a common sense 
view of the thing. Suppose you were to go into this 
“ package ” business, what would bo your object? “To 
make money, of course,” you will say. If your packages 
are to sell for 26 cents each, what would be the cost of 
the things you put into them “ Well, 18 or 20 cents.”— 
But that would not leave you profit enough to pay for these 
large advertisements.—“ Then make them cost 5 or 10 
cents.”—Exactly, and that is just what those fellows do. 
You, and every other sensible man, should know that these 
schemes are carried on to make money, and this can only 
be done by patting into the package things which cost 
less than the package sells for.—Now and then some of 
the concerns may, as on advertisement, put in a thing 
that costs more, so that it may be talked about, but as a 
