1876 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
While in Philadelphia I took a run out to see 
Mr. GUas. SJiarpless and His Jerseys. 
I knew that one or two of his famous old cows 
were dead, but was really surprised to find that the 
dreaded milk-fever had been so fatal with him. His 
herd is and always has been a small one, but ex¬ 
ceedingly choice. They are generally of solid col¬ 
ors—“Dairymaid’’—bought at Gilby’s sale iu Eng¬ 
land, and imported at a heavy cost, doep not dis¬ 
appoint one. She is certainly one of the most 
beautiful Jersey cows I ever saw. “ Black Bess ” 
is a dark mulberry-brown cow of nearly perfect 
form, but small, and there is certainly not an infe¬ 
rior animal in the herd. I could but say to myself, 
“ I wonder what Mr. Gilby would say to breeding 
‘Dairymaid’ to a nearly black and white bull?” 
“ Dairymaid ” has been bred with extraordinary 
care to retain, with her solid colors, great milk and 
butter qualities. It is the combination of these 
that really gave her her value in England ; uow to 
throw all this away by breeding her to a piebald 
bull of such a bad color, strikes me as extraordi¬ 
nary. Nevertheless, Mr. Sharpless will sell his bull 
calves for more than other breeders can get for 
their heifers, and the butter record of his herd is 
so high that it seems like heresy to question liis 
judgment. It was, nevertheless, a great satisfac¬ 
tion to see so flue a fellow saved from slaughter. I 
hardly know another breeder in the country who 
would not have condemned him as a calf on ac¬ 
count of color alone, for in form he is excellent. 
I have never seen a better milk mirror upon a bull, 
and his pedigree all that could be desired. 
How <lo you Value Hie Milk Minor? 
is a question I often put to farmers and breeders if 
they do not ask me first. The response generally 
is: “We like it in both bulls and cows—breed for it; 
it is certainly no detriment; we never saw a very 
good milker with very poor marks, though occa¬ 
sionally a poor milker will be tolerably well marked ; 
it is a sufficient indication to be a valuable milk 
point, taken in connection with others”—and to that 
effect. “ Which would you rather have, a fine milk- 
mirror or large milk veins ? ”—This question is in¬ 
variably answered by practical men, giving prefer¬ 
ence to the veins. Nevertheless, they are seldom 
met with (the big veins and good mirror) separated. 
It is, however, no doubt true that a great milk-se¬ 
cretion requires a great flow of blood through the 
udder, and in its return to the heart, the greater 
portion of the blood passes through the milk veins 
below the abdomen, hence in large milkers they 
must be large. 
A Cow with tire Garget. 
On getting back from the Centennial, I found that 
one of my best cows which had never showed a 
symptom of caked bag before, except perhaps for 
24 hours at calving, had had a terribly inflamed ud¬ 
der, which was still swollen, caked hard, feverish, 
and from yielding 13 quarts, was giving barely 3 
pints of milk from three teats. We fed poke-root, 
kneaded, rubbed, gave laxative medicine, and she 
improved rapidly, but one-quarter of her bag does 
not give milk, yet a watery fluid flows from it when 
the cow is milked and it is thoroughly worked. So 
long as this evidence of inflammatory action exists, 
I shall feel encouraged to hope that the quarter 
will not be lost. Speaking of the case to my neigh¬ 
bor, Mr. Farlee, he told of a curious case which 
occurred in his own herd. After an attack of gar¬ 
get, one-quarter of the bag remained swollen and 
grew/ worse. It finally suppurated at a point about 
midway of its bight, and again close to the teat. 
Between these openings he passed a narrow strap 
of leather, to prevent any possibility of healing 
from the outside. The suppuration continued un¬ 
til finally apparently the whole inside lining of that 
quarter of the udder sloughed off in pieces large 
enough to exhibit the strue.ture-like ramifying 
tubes, and a sort of honey-combed appearance. 
After this the interior of the udder healed, a flow 
of milk began to mingle with the pus, the strap 
was withdrawn, and before long the openings 
closed in a healthy way, aud that quarter has since 
been nearly or quite as good as ever. This is an 
exceedingly suggestive statement, and indicates to 
my mind a treatment for lost quarters which I shall 
try some day if I have occasion, after consulting a 
Veterinarian or a good physician. I would put in 
a rowel, and try to excite a similar sloughing of the 
inactive coating upon the interior. 
Iu my last I had something to say about 
Orloff C arriage Horses. 
I have recently had the pleasure of examining a 
stallion of the breed imported by Mr. Robins Bat- 
tell, through Mr. M. C. Weld, of New York. lie 
is an exceedingly fine animal, and his fine style, and 
high, fast, showy action, are admirable. He is 
coal-black, with a well set head carried high, great 
breadth of chest, muscular forearms, flat, clean 
bones, small hoofs, a well rounded barrel, broad 
loin and rump, and is every way powerfully formed 
as well as graceful and beautiful in his carriage. 
With such a horse with a pedigree as ho has, run¬ 
ning through 10 generations of named ancestry on 
the sire’s side, and 8 on the dam’s, one may calcu¬ 
late with great certainty on valuable results, with 
almost any mares, but upon our best trotting blood, 
say “Star,” “Messenger,” “ Black-hawk,” or 
“ Ilambletonian ” mares, it would seem as if we 
might almost certainly predict a combination of 
high speed and great style. Time will show. Mr. 
Battell has been prominent among Connecticut 
men of wealth and position for his earnest efforts 
to improve the horses of that State. He is a real 
lover of the horse, and has made this importation 
because he has long felt that such an experiment 
ought to be tried, in order that our justly famous 
trotting stock may be increased in size, style, and 
action, in beauty and usefulness, so that if a colt 
falls short of trotting “low down in the twenties,” 
he may still bring a good price as a stylish and 
beautiful coupe or carriage horse. 
-- 
Peruvian Guano. 
The deposits of guano which were discovered in 
the islands of the Pacific Ocean, contiguous to and 
belonging to Peru, over 30 years ago, are now all 
but exhausted. Recently, however, large deposits 
of guano have been discovered upion the mainland 
of the South American Continent, which promise 
to furnish supplies for many years to come. Un¬ 
fortunately, these newer deposits have been found 
to be of inferior quality to those first discovered, 
and much dissatisfaction and great complaiuts 
have been the consequence. The consumption of 
guano has been of late much less than it would 
have been had the quality remained as at first, and 
the Peruvian Government and their agents have 
taken great pains to improve the character of their 
present product, aud to regain the confidence of 
farmers. To this end the guano was submitted to 
a process called “rectification.” This consisted 
in treating it with sulphuric acid, by which the am¬ 
monia became fixed, or non-volatile, as a sulphate 
of ammonia, and the phosphoric acid was rendered 
much more largely soluble in water than it was be¬ 
fore, being brought into the cOnditiou of that con¬ 
tained in the best superphosphates. The “ recti¬ 
fied ” guano contained on the average 10 per cent 
of ammonia and 10 per cent of soluble phosphoric 
acid. This being in fertilizing properties, consid¬ 
erably below the old value of guano, the price was 
reduced in proportion, so that farmers should piay 
the same price as before for the ammonia and phos¬ 
phoric acid the guano contained, these being really 
the principal constituents of value to them. This 
inuovation, which was first introduced into England, 
Germany, and France, has for some time been in 
practice here with the best results, and the con¬ 
sumption of guano has recently kept pace with the 
increased confidence of farmers in it. But some¬ 
thing else remained to be done to put the sale and 
use of guano upon a perfectly satisfactory basis. 
This was that the different qualities should be 
guaranteed, and that each different quality should 
be sold at a price that would be equivalent to its 
actual fertilizing value. The agents of the Peru¬ 
vian Government in the United States, have now 
met this requirement by adopting the following 
method of preparing, assorting, analyzing, and dis¬ 
posing of the guano. As the crude guano on its 
arrival here unavoidably contains some lumps and 
stones, it is now crushed, screened, and all foreign 
matters removed. Each separate cargo is sampled 
and analyzed, and the different qualities assorted, 
and as it is bagged, the actual constituents are 
marked plainly upon the bags. The quality thus 
ascertained by actual chemical tests is guaranteed 
to be exactly what it is represented to be upion the 
bags. The xniees are fixed, according to the guar¬ 
anteed quality, at the following rates per piound of 
the different constituents, viz : for ammonia, 171c. 
per lb. ; for soluble phosphoric acid, 10c. per lb. ; 
for reverted phosphoric acid, 8c. per lb. ; for insol¬ 
uble phosxfhoric acid, 2c. per lb.; and for potassa, 
71c. per lb. By “ reverted ” is meant xfiiosphoric 
acid that has been soluble in water, and which now 
is not soluble, but which becomes soluble very 
easily when mixed with the soil; it is therefore 
only of very little less value than perfectly soluble 
phosphoric acid. The prices stamped upon the 
bags are the retail prices iu all the ports of the At¬ 
lantic States ; at interior towns the freight thither 
will of course be paid by the purchaser. This man¬ 
ner of treating and offering guano removes the ob¬ 
jections to its use, which have heretofore existed, 
and places it honestly, as it ought to come, before 
the consumer. The variable qualities which arrive 
enable the farmer to x>rocure an article exactly 
suited to his needs, either one rich in ammonia, or 
one rich iu xdiosphorie acid. He can select what 
he wants, paying its exact value, while previously, 
he had just what happened to come to hand, and 
paid for a poor article precisely what his neighbor 
paid for the best. Lest fraud might be committed 
by unprincipled dealers, the twine with which the 
bags are sewn, is fastened at each end with a leaden 
seal, so that detection must follow any tampering 
with the bags. We have always considered Peru¬ 
vian guano as the most effective of the artificial 
fertilizers, and have been better satisfied with it 
than with any other, when used for general, and 
not special purposes. As a complete fertilizer, 
naturally combined in very effective proportions, 
it is of the highest value, and as a help to, or a sub¬ 
stitute for, farm-yard manure, or a stimulant to 
failing crops, it has uses for which no other special 
fertilizer can be substituted. The manner in which 
it is now put upon the market will doubtless in¬ 
crease its consumption aud bring it into use with 
many who have previously feared to touch it. 
■--v -. 
The Manufacture of Potato Starch. 
The potato is generally considered only as an ar¬ 
ticle of human food. As a food for live stock it is, 
considering its nutritive value, too much neglected. 
As the raw material for the manufacture of starch, 
gum, dextrine, and alcohol, it is not nearly so much 
used in this country as it might be, or as it is in 
European countries. The cheapness and case with 
which it may be grown, should make it a profitable 
product, if its value were completely developed, by 
applying it to all its possible uses. To do this most 
comxffetely is hardly within the farmer’s province, 
but yet to a certain extent he may not only proper¬ 
ly, but profitably, thus employ his energies and cap¬ 
ital. To use these tubers as food for stock, in ev¬ 
ery possible way, would seem to be so plain a duty 
and so profitable a business, that it should hardly 
be necessary to call the attention of farmers to it. 
Nevertheless, it is rare to see any provision made 
upon a farm either for growing this crop for fodder 
purposes, or for using it in that way. Still rarer is 
it grown for the industrial processes mentioned 
above, but as starch is a stai.de product, always in 
demand, and salable at a remunerative price, it is 
certainly to the interest of farmers who live in a 
district where the soil and climate are favorable to 
the growth of the best quality of potatoes, to en¬ 
deavor to utilize their crops in this manufacture. 
With a view to give the information necessary for 
a clear understanding of the machinery, processes, 
and cost of a starch manufactory, and in reply to 
many inquiries, we have prepared the accompany¬ 
ing illustrations, describing a Potato Starch Factory 
