AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
297 
any other ailment that might be named, yon can 
almost any where meet with individuals who will 
tell you of a certain cure, that will without fail, 
put you to rights in ten or twelve hours, or some 
other specific period of time; and which 3 'ou 
will certainly find, on trial, will not cure at all, 
in eight cases out of ten. It is strange what 
singularly powerful drawing properties are at¬ 
tached, in the minds of some people, to certain 
mixtures, salves, plasters, ointments, &c. In the 
case of a bone-felon the suppuration, (forming 
of matter) commences very near, if not always, 
upon the bone—deeply seated, and covered by 
tough, hard tissues. It is unreasonable to sup¬ 
pose that any medicament whatever could pos¬ 
sess sufficient attraction for the pus or matter in 
such a case, as to draw it to the surface in ten 
or twelve hours after its formation. 
The drawing properties of certain popular 
remedies are only equaled by the healing pro¬ 
perties of others. If a person receives a burn or 
a wound, he must have some favorite ointment, 
salve, or plaster, of wonderful healing virtue. 
Formerly the healing application used to be 
made to the instrument which inflicted the 
wound, and it had one good thing in its favor—it 
did no harm. The truth is that in most such 
cases, a cut for instance, the healing is entirely a 
natural process; the only use of any applica¬ 
tion, is to put the lips of the wound together 
so that nature may the more readily effect a 
union; and to afford a covering, an artificial 
skin, if you please, until new skin is formed. 
Peleg White’s sticking-salve had, a few years 
ago, an extraordinary reputation for its healing 
properties. A story is told of a man who put a 
plaster of it upon his cheek for some pain or 
weakness, and it unfortunately slipped over his 
mouth in the night, and actually healed up that 
natural and quite indispensible orifice. Proba¬ 
bly it did not possess the discriminating powers 
of some modern remedies which draw out can¬ 
cers, and draw the matter of a bone-felon to the 
surface in ten or twelve hours, &c. 
My practice with bone-felons, is to direct a 
poultice of bread and milk, flaxseed, or slippery 
elm, for a few days, perhaps five, and then make 
a deep and free incision to let the matter out. 
When this practice has been followed, I have 
never seen any loss of bone or stiffened fingers; 
on the contrary, where timely opening has been 
neglected one or the other of these casualties 
has frequently resulted. 
I don’t think it best to recommend any soft- 
soap operation in such cases, until there is some 
appearance of reason or facts in its favor. 
L. D. M., M.D. 
South Amboy , Jan., 1854. 
HORSE-POWER TO THE STRAW-CUTTER. 
Having every season considerable quantities of 
marsh hay, straw from all sorts of grain, and corn 
stalks, which it was necessary to feed to a large 
stock of cattle and horses, we have used the straw- 
cutter for many years in preparing it to put with 
the meal and mill-feed with which we mix it up to 
give to them. The best of English hay we have 
also cut and fed dry, except in cases where we 
found it more profitable to feed it to our work¬ 
horses and oxen, milch cows, calves and fatting 
stock, with the mill-feed upon it, they requiring 
better food than the common farm stock. A 
railroad double-horse power stands in our barn 
to drive the threshing-machine. Our straw-cut¬ 
ter, one of the largest kind, took two men to 
turn it for fast cutting, and two more to feed it 
and clear away the chaff as it was cut; and as the 
quantity of forage prepared sometimes amount¬ 
ed to nearly half a ton a day, our labor-bill 
for this extra work—three or four hours a day— 
we soon found was no trifle. Becoming tired of 
this expense after two winters’ trial, we got a 
waggon-maker to attach a wooden pulley in seg¬ 
ments to the rim of the fly-wheel, which is about 
thirty inches in diameter, and giving it, at moder¬ 
ate speed, with one horse in the “power,” sixty 
revolutions a minute. The revolving heads to 
which the knives are attached (it is a cylindri¬ 
cal machine of the largest size) hold two knives, 
and of course, make two cuts a second, and cut 
the hay, straw, or stalks, as fast as two men can 
feed it—-one of them picking it up and handing 
it to the other, who pushes it into the rollers for 
the knives. In this way, an hour or little more 
prepares the food for about sixty head of cattle 
a day. The saving in manual labor by horse¬ 
power, and in the food by cutting, is a large per¬ 
centage—fifty on the men, and at least twenty - 
five in the forage. The food, no matter how 
coarse it be, if clean and well cured, is thus eaten 
freely by the stock, when they would scarce 
touch it if fed to them in full length, at the man¬ 
gers. We have fed a hundred head in this way 
through the entire winter of five months fodder¬ 
ing, at an average consumption of less than a ton 
per head, and most of them from yearlings up¬ 
ward to full grown cattle, including milch cows, 
working oxen, and horses. 
The usual provision which farmers lay in for 
ordinary farm cattle is one and a half ton of good 
English hay, besides straw to pick at out of 
doors. Bjr cutting, a saving is made of at least 
one-third of the forage, or half a ton per head, 
which will twice pay for all the mill-feed or 
grain and extra labor ; and the cattle will be in 
better condition in the spring than if they had 
consumed the entire amount of hay in the usual 
way of feeding. When not more than half a 
dozen animals are fed, the horse-power is not so 
important; but even then, a few hours with the 
horse will do the cutting for a week or more, 
and the economy is still great. We are well- 
satisfied that even under these circumstances a 
saving of fully one-fourth, in the expense of 
labor and forage is made by the use of the cut- 
ting-box and horse-power. 
CULTIVATION OF CRANBERRIES, 
In answer to the inquiries of M. W. J. Bing¬ 
ham, of Oaks, South Carolina, we would say, 
that it is best to procure cranberry vines from 
the north early in November for his climate, and 
plant them from one to two feet apart, in any 
fresh-water marshy ground ; and in the course 
of a year they will completely pverspread it. 
The vines can be planted by reversing the sod 
a few inches square where you wish to insert 
them, and then set a single vine. The grass or 
weeds in the meadow should not be allowed to 
grow very high the next season, otherwise they 
would choke the cranberries. At the north they 
reverse the sod with the plow, or dig it over as 
they do at the south in preparing ground for rice. 
The land is also flooded something as they do for 
rice, though not so long nor so often. This re¬ 
quires considerable experience to do properly, 
and we much doubt whether northern practice 
after all would suit southern; or whether, 
indeed, the cranberry would flourish well 
there except near and among the mountainous 
districts. Cranberries grow pretty well at 
the north on dry ground. In that case they 
ought to be planted at about two feet apart 
each way, and cultivated the first year the same 
as corn. We doubt whether they would grow 
on the dry uplands of so warm a climate as the 
Carolinas. 
Cranberries will grow from the seed. Plant 
the berry and all about one inch deep, as soon 
as the frost is out of the ground. The common 
cranberries cost about $5 to $7 per barrel at 
the present time in New-York market, and may 
be planted in South Carolina immediately. The 
vines of the bell variety had best be procured 
next fall for planting; we know of no berries 
of this kind for sale in our market. Vines can¬ 
not be got here in the winter, in consequence of 
the ground being so hard frozen that it is impos¬ 
sible to take them up. The bell is the upland 
variety—the cherry the lowland. 
A complete article on the cultivation of cran¬ 
berries would occupy several pages of this pe¬ 
riodical. If required, we will write one early 
next fall, as we have had some little experience 
in their cultivation. 
—-.» e- 
GREAT NATIONAL POULTRY SHOW. 
It was intended to procure the Metropolitan 
Hall for the Great Exhibition of Poultry, which 
is to commence in the city of.New-York, on the 
13th of February next, and continue several 
days; but in consequence of its being burnt, 
some other place must now be selected. The 
Committee will have a meeting at the Astor 
House, on Thursday, the 19th inst., at 7 o’clock 
P. M., and then decide upon the place, which 
they intend shall be central and commodious. 
We shall announce in our next the name of 
the person appointed to receive the poultry, 
&c., and the place where it will be exhibited. 
Those desiring to send poultry to the above ex¬ 
hibition, can do so as early as the 9th of Feb¬ 
ruary next, and good care will be taken of the 
same without charge. 
--- 
Six Varieties of Grapes for a Cold Vi¬ 
nery. —“ Q” wishes us to recommend six varie¬ 
ties of grapes, where there are twenty-two 
plants required for a cold-house. The following 
are choice and profitable sorts : 
Black Hamburg, 6 ; Black Prince, 4; West’s 
St. Peters, 4; Chasselas of Fontainebleau, 3 ; 
Muscat of Alexandria, 3 ; White Fror.tignan, 2. 
The number of the several varieties may be al¬ 
tered to suit the taste of the cultivator. Black 
Hamburg has the preference over all others 
where the variety is limited, and black grapes 
are generally planted more extensively than 
white ones. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
AGRICULTURE OF ST. HELENA. 
The following is an extract from a private 
letter to one of the editors, dated at St. Helena, 
Nov. 25, 1853: 
“ I was truly surprised to find so much beauty 
and fertility in the valleys and on the hill sides 
of this rocky Isle, that looks drear and bleak 
enough from its craggy cliffs. Yet such is the 
variety of altitude, and consequently of climate, 
