1869.] 
331 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
horse that was sick, and after doctoring him a 
long time without any improvement, the veter¬ 
inary surgeon told the owner lie had better take 
him to Mr. Johnston. He did so, and Mr. J. 
gave him a ball, but the horse could not swal¬ 
low it, and he put his hand into his mouth to 
see what was tli# matter, and found a short 
piece of stick in his throat, which he pulled out, 
and the horse soon got well. Since then he has 
known of five similar cases in his own experi¬ 
ence. Once he drove a favorite mare from his 
farm near Geneva to the State Fair at Auburn, 
and noticed that she did not seem very well. 
When he started to come home, three days after¬ 
wards, the mare looked very gaunt, and was not 
as lively as usual. Coming to a watering trough 
on the side of the road, he drove up to it, and 
the mare tried to drink, but seemed to swallow 
with difficulty, and let some of the water run 
out of her mouth. “ That’s the matter, is it ?” 
said Mr. J. to himself, and immediately jumped 
out of the buggy, took off his coat, rolled up the 
sleeve of his right arm, took hold of the mare’s 
tongue with his left hand and held it firm be¬ 
tween her jaws, put his right hand down her 
throat, and took out the stick. 
Some time afterwards a farmer asked him to 
go to his house and look at a horse that was 
sick. Mr. J. asked him what was the matter. 
‘‘Does he eat well?” “lie seems to want to 
eat,” he replied, “ as much a3 ever, but when he 
takes his oats into his mouth he lets them fall 
out again.” “Well,” said Mr. J., “I am not 
very well or I would go with you, but do you 
go home and take hold of the horse’s tongue 
with your left hand, and thrust your right hand 
down his mouth, and just at the beginning of 
the throat you will find a stick.” The man 
stared at him as though he thought he was 
crazy But he went home, did as Mr. J. told 
him, and, sure enough, there was the stick! 
The Deacon says he has cured several horses 
that had the heaves by getting the tender leaves 
or buds of Mullein and boiling them in water, and 
then moistening the cut feed with this Mullein 
tea. He does not know that it will absolutely 
cure a broken-winded horse, but at any rate it 
will greatly relieve him. 
Farmers here have had to pay higher wages 
for harvesting than at any time during the war. 
And I am not sorry for it! It should teach us 
a lesson we seem slow to learn. We must put 
up houses for married men and give them stead¬ 
ier employment. Those of us who cannot afford 
to build houses can at any rate sell an acre or 
two of land to some good man who is willing to 
erect a house for himself, and who will w r ork 
on the farm. While the nurserymen in the city 
got more men than they needed, at $1.25 and 
$1.50 per day, without board, farmers were 
paying $2.00, $2.50, and $3.00 a day and board, 
and the men who worked for us thought and 
acted as though they were conferring a great 
favor. One man, who rents a house near me, 
got $4.00 a day and board, and yet I have no 
doubt that he does not do as well as a man who 
has steady work at $1.00 a day in winter, and 
$1.25 or $1.50 in summer, without board. A 
married man who has worked for me three or 
four years for $1.25 and $1.50 a day, without 
board, thought I did-not pay enough, and this 
spring went to Michigan. He wrote back that 
he w T as getting $2.00 a day. Shortly afterwards 
his wife wrote: “ All George has got this month 
is $7.50.” Both statements were doubtless true. 
The whole system argues little for the intelli¬ 
gence of either the men or the farmers. Both 
alike suffer. But I think the farmers are the 
most to blame, because they discourage married 
men from settling in the neighborhood by man¬ 
ifesting an uuwilliugness to sell a small plot of 
land, and also from not giving steady work. 
This very man, I am told, says lie would not 
have left if he could have found any farmer 
willing to sell • him five acres of land. I 
am v r ell aware that a farmer does not like to 
sell a square piece of land out of his farm near 
the road. I would not do it myself. But the 
plan I propose is to sell a strip of 20 acres to 
four’or five men, and let them open a road in 
front of the houses. There is no difficulty in 
finding the men willing to buy. The Germans 
all want land of their own, and they make cap¬ 
ital farm laborers. Let the farmers he accom¬ 
modating. Plow the land for the men in the 
spring, and cultivate their corn and potatoes 
wdtli the understanding that they shall “ work 
it out.” The women and children will do nearly 
all the work on their little places, and the men 
will be glad to work for the neighboring farm¬ 
ers. In this way we can get men at as cheap 
rates in the country as the farmers and nursery¬ 
men do near the cities. You need not be afraid 
to let a good German have the land without 
any payment down. When he once gets a 
house erected, no matter if it does not cost $50, 
you may he very sure that the land will never 
come back to you. If he lives he will pay for 
the laud. If he sells, it will be to buy a larger 
farm, and in this case the house and land will 
pass into the hands of some other man who will 
want to work for you. 
The late sown wheat this year, so far as I 
have seen, seems to have done the best. It did 
not look nearly so well this spring as that sown 
earlier. I did not finish sowing until the first 
of October, and the Deacon told me in May 
that my wheat was dying. Some fields in the 
neighborhood, sown in August and the first of 
September, were looking splendidly, but before 
harvest my crop caught up. The crops that 
were put in early, especially where sown thick, 
were badly laid, and did not turn out well when 
thrashed, and, besides, it was a slow and ex¬ 
pensive job to cut them. If the land is in good 
condition, I would not sow wheat before the 
15th of September, and would not drill in 
more than two bushels per acre. Where wheat 
is sown after a spring crop, and is in good me¬ 
chanical condition, it will pay well in this sec¬ 
tion to sow 200 lbs. of Peruvian guano per acre 
on the winter wheat at the time of putting in 
the crop. I would break all the lumps of the 
guano, and then sow it broadcast, and harrow 
or cultivate it in before drilling in the seed. I 
said it would “ pay well.” But of course this 
depends a good deal on the price we get for the 
wheat. At any rate, if the wheat crop pays at 
all, we shall lose nothing by using guano. And 
if we are willing to risk all that it costs us to 
prepare the land, the seed, interest, and the 
labor of cutting, binding and thrashing, I think 
we can afford to risk ten dollars an acre in ap¬ 
plying manure. 
But if the land needs draining, or has not 
been properly cultivated, either directly for the 
wheat or for previous crops, and is consequent¬ 
ly not in good condition, it is throwing money 
away to apply guano. And here is the weak 
spot in our agriculture. Hot one farmer in ten 
really gets his land into the proper mechanical 
state for the reception of the seed. We often 
spend labor enough on it, but do not take time 
enough. Two or three plowings, during two 
or three weeks, just previous to sowing, when 
the weather is very hot, may destroy quack 
roots or thistles, but it does very little towards 
developing plant-food in the soil. It is a 
capital plan to start the seeds of red-root after 
the wheat is sown, and when we can no longer 
get at the plants. 
--» « -. 
When will Top-dressing 1 Pay? 
We think always, when we have any fertil¬ 
izer to spread upon the mowing. Of course we 
must not rob the plowed fields, but every thrifty 
farmer can afford to do something for his mead¬ 
ows every year. Material for top-dressing is by 
no means confined to barn-yard manure. The 
wash of roads is very good, and this can some¬ 
times be gathered in large quantities in the bel¬ 
lows. The subsoil of clay lands produces very 
marked effects upon gravelly meadows. Peat, 
taken from near the surface and weathered one 
winter, will sometimes double the grass crop. 
Ashes, the waste of factories, lime, gas-lime, 
sea-mud, rock-weed, kelp, sea-mosses, and eel- 
grass, all pay well for top-dressing. On almost 
all farms near cities it pays well to sell hay, 
and there is no objection to keeping land in 
meadow and selling the crop as long as one will 
keep it up to a production of three tons to the 
acre by using fertilizers. These farmers are fa¬ 
vorably situated for purchasing fertilizers. 
They can generally get stable manure and night- 
soil on very favorable terms, and have but a 
short distance to carry it. With top-dressing, 
we have no doubt that meadows may he kept 
indefinitely in grass. Without it, most lands 
will run out in a few years, and must be plowed 
to make them profitable. As to the best time 
for applying manure, there is probably much 
less choice than most farmers think. Well-rotted 
compost can be safely put on at any time. 
Fresh stable manure and coarse barn-yard ma¬ 
nure we prefer to apply in the fall. It will tell 
more upon the grass of next season than if 
spread the following spring. There is probably 
some loss of ammonia if green manure is ap¬ 
plied in the summer, but we do not hesitate to 
apply all other manures to grass at any time 
when it is most convenient to cart them. 
How to Keep Pastures in Good Condition. 
It is with a pasture as with a man, the in¬ 
come must be greater than the expenses, or it 
grows poor. Crops are the expenses. It is 
quite possible to make the surface of any soil 
unproductive and unprofitable, by carrying off 
more than is put on. Pasturing with cows 
that are yarded at night does this. Sheep or 
beeves that remain upon the land, on the 
contrary, return more than an equivalent in ma¬ 
nure, and keep the land improving. Where 
plaster meets a want of the soil it may be kept 
improving by sowing broadcast a bushel and a 
half to the acre every spring, and feeding off 
the grass. Many farms in the grazing districts 
in the interior are kept up mainly by plaster 
and feeding. Some of them will carry a bullock 
to the acre. Other lands need lime, and the 
lime brings in clover, and this plant, by the 
large drafts it makes upon the subsoil and the 
atmosphere, always improves the pasture. In 
other districts ashes are accessible at reasonable 
rates,and they are always a reliable top-dressing. 
The effects are visible on some soils in increased 
crops of grass, for twenty years. Cheap ashes 
will keep up any pasture, pay their cost, and 
leave a profit. So will home-made compost, if 
