382 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
knack of throwing the end over the fence, they 
will always he found in the field where placed. In 
fig. 4 is shown a heavy, yet serviceable contrivance. 
It consists of a block of 
wood (P) one foot in length, 
3x4 inches square, with 
holes bored for the bow 
ends ; also one obliquely for 
the. stick, which is sta¬ 
tionary. With holes bored 
at right angles with the bow, 
it makes an excellent poke 
for breachy cattle. At fig. 5 
is seen one form of a costly 
poke, but it is perhaps the 
most effective one of all that 
are here shown. It is shown 
in perspective in fig. 5, with 
a section at fig. 6. The part R is made of hard 
wood, fourteen inches long, three quarters of an 
inch thick, and 2i inches wide. In the center of 
this are firmly driven six wrought-iron nails, the 
points of which are filed sharp 
and project into corresponding 
holes made in a stick of the same 
size, shown at L. This is kept 
from separating by tw r o short 
bolts, /S', S; the spiral springs 
shown keep the posts, R and L, 
equidistant from each other. 
The whole is bolted to the bow 
by bolts, il/, one of which must 
be unscrewed to remove the poke 
or place it upon the animal. As 
the lower ends of the poke press 
against the fence, it forces the 
pointed nails through the stick, 
P, into the neck or chest of the 
animal.—It is best to avoid the 
use of fetters or hopples if pos¬ 
sible, as they not only strain a 
horse, but girdle the fetlock. Some farmers tie 
their horses down, that is, place a surcingle around 
them, into which, between the fore legs, they tie 
the halter-strap. If the chest should become sore, 
c place the strap 
R 
Fig. 5.—poke. 
R 
f, fi (i n 
l JL 
Fig. 6.— SECTION OF FIG. 5. 
upon the outside 
of the fore-leg, re¬ 
membering that 
they should be 
tied quite short, 
for if a jumper 
can raise his head 
above the fence, he will soon be found on the other 
side of it. Another plan is to pass the halter-strap 
between the fore-legs above the surcingle, and tie 
the end around the fetlock joint of the hind leg. 
To Steady Portable Mills. 
BT L. D. SNOOK, TATES CO., N. T. 
ard, or support, as far as the shoulder ; the head is 
then filed to a point, as indicated by the dotted 
lines. The forms in figs. 2 and 3 are made by the 
blacksmith of the shapes 
shown, and inserted as 
before noticed, care being 
used not to break or bend 
them during the opera¬ 
tion. The idea shown in 
fig. 4 is to cover the en¬ 
tire bottom of the stand¬ 
ard with a thin plate of 
iron, with the edges 
turned up and notched 
with a file, and the whole 
secured by screws or nails 
as shown. A cheap way 
is to saw in the bottom of the standard, and in this 
cavity insert a bit of band or hoop iron, which should 
be driven firmly in place, the projecting edge is then 
filed sharp as indicated in fig. 5. Nails may also be 
driven partially in, and the head then filed sharp. 
Washing machines, benches, etc., should have a 
small piece of india rubber attached to their floor 
surface by a screw ; bits of the soles of rubber 
boots or shoes will answer the purpose, and are al¬ 
ways at hand. 
A Use for Skim-Milk. —As the use of skim- 
milk for the manufacturing of cheese is very un¬ 
profitable, we would suggest that it be condensed 
for use in the cities, where an extensive demand 
for it would undoubtedly spring up. The skimmed 
milk of a farm or creamery, is vastly better than 
the milk produced at those so-called “ dairies ” of 
the towns and cities, where distillery slop is the 
food of the cows. It is pure, wholesome, and 
agreeable, and for cooking purposes, and for chil¬ 
dren’s food, would be very acceptable. It could be 
afforded at a somew'hat less price than the pure 
condensed milk, and if honestly sold for what it is, 
and labelled “ Condensed Skimmed Milk,” it 
would not enter into unfair competition with the 
pure condensed milk, although it might in many 
cases be used as a substitute for it. Any use of 
the skimmed milk would be better than that of 
making it into cheese, which goes “ a begging ” in 
the market at one or two cents a pound, and bring¬ 
ing decent cheese into disrepute. 
The continued jar and vibratory motion of port¬ 
able machines, such as mills, fanning mills, presses, 
and others, while in use, keeps them 
continually creeping, (so to speak,) from 
the position in which they were original¬ 
ly placed, and where it is desirable they 
should remain. This is especially true 
of the fanning 
mill, in such gen¬ 
eral use on the 
farm ; many are so 
annoyed at its in¬ 
stability that they 
nail it to the floor. 
This very incon¬ 
venient method, 
when the mill has 
to he removed and 
again secured at 
£ach successive using, will, 
after a fashion, accomplish the 
object, but there is a better, 
neater, and more economical 
plan, which is here illustrat¬ 
ed. In figure 1 is shown a square-headed spike, 
which is driven into the bottom of the leg, stand- 
- . no '«> mm - 
Spontaneous Generation of Plants, 
A contributor to one of the daily papers asks a 
series of “ interesting questions.” 
1st. Some 10 acres of land had for 75 years been 
submerged by a mill-dam, the pond had in that time 
filled up frorif 4 to 6 feet, with brook sediment, 
which, after the owner had drained and reclaimed 
it, was so soft that it was mid-summer before a 
man could go over it to sow some grass-seed. Now r , 
“ There appeared upon it, late in the season, an 
immense growth of a strange grass, overtopping 
the plants that came from tiie seed he sowed, and 
became so dense and long that he supposed it 
would smother out his plants. He had the strange 
grass cut and made into hay of little value. This 
new comer, that sprung out of the pond mud— 
not in sparse plants, but in a dense mass—-Prof. 
Prentiss of Cornell University calls rice-cut grass. 
Then he asks a pertinent question, which 1 want 
your learned and experienced contributors to satis¬ 
factorily answer : ‘ Where did it come from ? ’ 
“ Did it come from seed which had been washed 
down by the brook from above, and if so, did this 
seed lie and keep sound in that mud thus covered 
by water for generations, and germinate so luxuri¬ 
antly as soon as the water was drawn off, and take 
Fig. 1. 
the lead of pure, sound seed so recently sown by 
the writer ?” 
Well, if this conundrum were put to us, we 
should say that Rice-eut-grass was much more like¬ 
ly to flourish on such a mucky soil as that, than the 
meadow-grass which was sown. And as to where 
the seed came from, we should say it came down 
stream. No doubt there was plenty of this 
grass all along the banks of. the stream, and in the 
pond when the water became shallow. The seed 
would keep its vitality in the soil for some years, 
perhaps for many years; but here there is no 
need to count on that. Probably the freshets of 
the fall and spring had seeded it with rice-grass. 
2nd. “These strange things are continually hap¬ 
pening. I am told that the old fields of Virginia,' 
which have been cultivated for hundreds of years, 
when abandoned, as they frequently are, are almost 
certain to produce a crop of pitch pines, and no 
other kind of evergreens or trees. Do they come 
from seed?” 
What’s to hinder? Plenty of these pine trees 
not far off, from which every fall the wind carries 
the winged seeds, and sows them broadcast over 
the land. 
3rd. “ Again, when the dense forests of hemlock 
are cut off for lumber, and the annual fires run 
through and burn up the limbs and other refuse, 
the next season is sure to bring a dense crop of 
what is commonly called fire-weeds, and nothing 
else, to be succeeded the next year by an equally 
dense growth of blackberry vines. There had not 
been any fire-weeds or blackberry vines growing on 
this land for perhaps a thousand years before.” 
More likely raspberry than blackberry vines. 
But, anyhow, it is a very unusual piece of open 
hemlock woods, that has not plenty of fire-weed and 
blackberry or raspberry vines growing round, here 
and there, and when cleared off and burned over, 
the wind will do the sowing of the downy seeds of 
the fire-weeds, fast enough, and the birds will drop 
the seeds of the berries ; and the freshly liberated 
potash in the ashes, which these plants particularly 
like, gives them the advantage over everything 
else at the start. 
4th. “ Again, I have seen quite a dense growth 
of hemlock spruce (Abies Canadensis) growing out 
of earth taken from the bottom of a shaft sunk 
for iron ore, perhaps 50 feet deep or more. Now, 
there had been no vegetation growing out of that 
earth for 20 centuries, and it may possibly be 
20,000,000 of years.” 
Now is it not much more probable that these 
hemlock trees came from seed left on the freshly 
exposed soil by the winds, than from seeds buried 
in the ground for twenty centuries or twenty mil¬ 
lions of years ? But the propounder of these ques¬ 
tions declines both alternatives, and says: “My 
opinion is that they did not come from seed, but 
that a certain condition of soil (or matter) and cli¬ 
mate will produce a certain kind of plant, which 
opinion I may hereafter more fully elaborate, if not 
convinced to the contrary.” And he falls back 
upon Prof. Tyndall, as probably “ correct in the 
formula recently advanced by him, that ‘ matter 
contains within itself the power and the potency oi 
all life.’” 
Now we question whether all the “ potency ” 
Prof. Tyndall can muster, ever led him to expect 
rice-grass from muck, blackberries from ashes, and 
hemlock trees from gravel. Finally, while the 
ingenious correspondent is more fully elaborating 
his opinion, he might take up one question more, 
which has some bearing upon it. A clergyman of 
our acquaintance, reading from his pulpit the noble 
discourse on Charity, how that “ it liopeth all 
things,” and “ enduretli all things,” added, “ nev¬ 
ertheless, Charity is not a fool.” So, also, we may 
suggest, Nature is not a fool. She does not do 
utterly superfluous things. Having provided seeds 
in plenty, each producing after its kind, and plen¬ 
tiful means for their dissemination, she trusts to 
them. She keeps her “ promise,” and turns her 
“potency” to much better account, and reflects a 
higher wisdom than doing needless work. 
Why should we take any notice of our newspaper 
philosopher ? First, because there is some amuse¬ 
ment to he had out of it. Secondly, because it is 
a specimen—somewhat more glaring than com¬ 
mon—of the loose way in which questions of this 
kind are apt to be discussed. 
