128 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Spreading- Manure.—“ J. M. D.,” Pierce 
Co., Ga., feeds bis cows in box-stalls on cotton-seed, 
wheat-bran, and cured cow-peas, untbrashed. lie asks, Is 
the manure from these cows what may be called good ? 
Will ten tons to the acre do for corn, and will it hurt it to 
haul it out on to light land with clay bottom now ?—Such 
manure is far above the average that is made, and ten 
tons of it will be a very fair dressing for an acre of land. 
It will be far better to haul and spread it at once than to 
wait. It should not be put in heaps. 
Price of Milk iu tlie South.—“J. M. 
D.,” Georgia, writes us that he sells his milk at his door 
for fifteen cents a quart. Happy man 1 
Slow to Learn Farming.—“ T. 8.,” 
Fall River, would learn to be a farmer. He asks if he 
ehould go to work with a farmer next spring, or go to an 
agricultural college.—By all means go and work for some 
good farmer, and spend every spare hour in reading and 
studying books and papers on agriculture. By doing 
this, T. S. and many other young men who have asked 
the same question, and for whom this is intended, will 
be earning money, learning the practice of agriculture, 
and improving their minds at the same time. Closely 
study the Agriculturist , and endeavor to practice and 
test its teachings in the stable, the barn-yard, and the 
field. In a few years there will be money saved to take 
a farm on shares or on rent, or to go West and buy one. 
Inquiries from Oregon.— “W. H. C.,” 
St. Helens, Oregon—Potatoes, turnips, pumpkins, man¬ 
gels, or beets, cooked and mixed with bran or mill-stuff, 
will keep stock-hogs very cheaply through the winter, 
and they will thrive better on such food than on all 
grain. The soil will absorb all the strength of the ma¬ 
nure that may be washed out by the rain. Cornstalks, 
oat-straw, or pea-straw, mixed with a portion of hay, cut 
and mixed with a few quarts of oat or corn-meal and 
a peck of beets or mangels, daily, will be cheap feed for 
cows ; and if they are good, fair cows, it will pay (if no 
labor is to be hired) to make butter at 30 cents a pound, 
but the profit will not be large. The profit in buying 
pork at 6 cents to make into bacon at 15 cents would be 
very small, if any at all. 
The Best Potato Plow.— “Dr. A. S.,” 
Huron Co., 0., asks for the best potato plow to be used 
on clay land. The best plow for cultivating potatoes is 
the one-horse Collins steel plow. 
Worms iu Milk.—“ J. K.,” Sonoma Co., 
Cal., says a neighbor has two cows in whose milk minute 
worms are found, so small that they can scarcely be seen 
without a glass. He asks some reader of the Agiicullur- 
ist to give him light on the subject —Very often milkcon- 
taius very small fragments of curd-like matter which may 
easily be mistaken for worms. These appear also in the 
butter and injure its quality. They are supposed to be 
due to a diseased condition of the blood or milk vessels, 
resulting from fever or inflammation. Again, living or¬ 
ganisms are found both in the blood and milk of cows 
which have drunk impure water, but it would not be safe 
to suppose the so-called worms described above to be due 
to this cause, unless the cows really have drunk such im¬ 
pure water, in which case the cause should be removed. 
Looseness o4‘ the Bowels.— “E. H. 
II.,” Fenton Co., Ind., writes that his horse is troubled 
with looseness of the bowels. The dung is soft, but not 
liquid. He is fed on corn in the ear and prairie-grass. 
What shall he do about it?—Let the horse alone, unless 
the feed can be changed to oats, or his condition is 
affected. This is a very common effect of feeding new 
corn. Salt should be given in moderate quantities daily, 
or be kept where the horse can always lick it. 
Brive-Wells.—“ J. H.,’’ Berks Co., Pa., 
wants to know all about drive-wells. In reply to J. H. 
and several other inquirers, we would say that these 
wells consist of an iron pipe two inches or more in 
diameter, with a solid-steel point, at the end. Above the 
poiut the pipe is perforated with holes. This pipe is 
driven into the ground with a sledge until water is 
reached. If solid rock is met with, the well is a failure; 
if loose rock, another place is chosen and the work is 
done over again. When water is reached, a pump is 
attached to the top of the pipe, and the well is finished. 
They are only used where water is near the surface. 
Frost«Work on <*lass.—“C. M.” writes 
that he has discovered the cause of the peculiar scroll 
formation of frost crystals on tlie window-pane. It is 
because in cleaning the glass the cloth is rubbed on to 
it in circles, and the crystals follow these lines.— C. M. 
is mistaken. All windows are not cleaned exactly with 
the same curved strokes. Some are finished with up- 
and-down and lateral strokes, and yet the frost-work is 
alike in all. Besides, how then could the similar scroll¬ 
work seen on the pavements in the streets and other 
places be formed ? 
Harrowing Young Cirass.—“ J. K.” 
asks if it will injure the young grass sown on winter 
wheat to harrow the wheat after the grass is up l— Yes; 
harrowing would then destroy the grass. The harrowing 
must be done either before the grass-seed or clover-seed 
is sown, or immediately after the sowing. 
Automatic Gate.— “F. C. W.,” Windsor, 
Cal., asks for a pattern of a gate that can be opened or 
shut without leaving the carriage.—We do not know of 
any such gate in use that is satisfactory. All those with 
which we are acquainted work well for a time, and then 
fail and become worthless. A really good automatic gate 
has yet to be invented. 
blaster on Potatoes.—“ R. S.,” Evans¬ 
ville, Ind. When plaster is applied to potatoes it is 
lightly scattered on the young plants when they are a 
few inches above ground. With us, plaster and lime 
have caused the potatoes to boil hard, and the same 
effect has been experienced by others. The best com¬ 
mercial manure for potatoes is doubtless superphosphate 
of lime—about a table-spoonful scattered in each hill at 
planting, or sowed lightly in the drill around the seed. 
Plaster at $2.59 per barrel would certainly not pay in 
comparison with superphosphate at $3 per ICO pounds. 
Feeding Corn.- “O. C. 8.,” Ashtabula Co., 
Ohio. Finely ground feed is more economical than whole 
grain, even though the grain be cooked. Millers usually 
charge a toll in grain for grinding the cobs, generally 
equal to a peck of corn for the cobs of ten bushels, and 
as there is no nutriment of any value in the cobs, it is 
evident that it would not pay to grind corn in the ear 
under ordinary circumstances. For oxen and cows which 
require large bulk of coarse feed for perfect digestion, 
it might pay to feed ground ears ; but for horses and 
hogs, which do not require such filling, there would not 
be anything gained in this way. There is no free alkali 
in a corn-cob, until it is burned to ashes, any more than 
there is in straw or wood. This idea has been foolishly 
spread abroad of late by some papers which try to be 
scientific and agricultural at the same time, but it is an 
absurdity. When corn-ears are not properly ground, 
there are sharp, hard fragments of the cob remaining 
whole, which will irritate the intestines of a horse or 
a hog as they pass through undigested. The idea proba¬ 
bly thus arose. If the miller will keep his stones sharp, 
these may be ground so fine as to do no hurt. 
Plowing for Corn. —John S. R., New 
Paris, Ohio. In plowing for corn we would wait until 
we had the manure, and spread it upon the sod, and then 
plow. A late-planted corn crop well put in is very much 
better than an early-planted one poorly put in. Corn 
loves a freshly-manured sod. 
Superphosphate for Potatoes.—So 
far as our own experience goes, a pure superphosphate 
does little good on potatoes—not any more good, in one 
of our experiments, than plaster. Peruvian guano has 
given satisfaction on potatoes. On our land potatoes 
seem to need ammonia rather than phosphoric acid. 
IMstillery Pig Manure.— A correspond¬ 
ent writes us (we suppose he is not a farmer), that there 
are farmers in his neighborhood who live within a mile 
of a distillery where the pig-pen manure is thrown into 
the river, and who have-fat, lazy horses standing idle in 
the stable all winter and yet never draw a load of this 
manure on to their farms.—We fear they live too near 
the distillery 1 Nothing withers energy, industry, and 
intelligence so surely as the habitual use of distilled 
liquors. We did not suppose there was a village in the 
State of New York where manure was thrown away, and 
can account for the fact only on the above supposition. 
Stall-Feeding-Cattle.— F. K. Adams, of 
Wisconsin, in a private letter to one of the editors, says : 
“ I have been stall-feeding 10 head of cattle. I fed them at 
first with sliced turnips ; then wi th chaffed corn-stalks and 
\ hay; then *4 stalks and hay, with corn-meal. They 
gained well, and I sold by New Year’s at 1)4 cent per 
lb. advance, and have a splendid manure pile left.”—That 
will do. The profit of stall-feeding comes not so much 
from the gain iu weight as from tlie improved quality of 
the meat, and the advance in price. 
Host Boots for Milclt Cows.—“ W. 
W.,” Ohio, asks our opinion in regard to sugar-beets for 
milch cows, and how to raise them.—The writer prefers 
the mangel-wurzel, for the simple reason that a much 
larger crop can be raised per acre. The cows will eat 
more than we are ever able to allow them ; and so, even 
if it is true that they like sugar-beets better than they do 
mangels, this is no special recommendation. It is not 
proved that sugar is an economical food. Mr. Lawes’s ex¬ 
periments proved that sugar was no more nutritious than 
starch—and it usually costs more to raise it. 
What is a Billion ?—“E. G. II.,” Ebenc- 
zer, N. Y., asks how many figures are required to represen t 
a billion.—The old-fashioned arithmetics counted a thou¬ 
sand thousand equal to a million, a million millions 
equal to a billion, and so on; but the modern method is 
to call a thousand millions a billion. The old-fashioned 
method would require thirteen figures, and the modern 
one but ten figures, to represent two amounts of differ¬ 
ent values, each denominated a billion. 
Special Farmiiitg; in Connecticut.— 
“ E.”—A light loam is best for raising potatoes, but is 
not best for grass. A strong limestone clay soil is best 
for grass, but grows poor potatoes. If a medium soil 
could be procured, and each rotation abundantly ma¬ 
nured, say with twenty-five two-horse loads of good 
manure, with occasional dressings of wood-ashes, fair 
crops of each kind might be grown ; for instance, two 
tons of hay per acre and one hundred and fifty to two 
hundred bushels of potatoes. Then the question, ‘ ‘ Would 
it pay? ” depends on the price of land, manure, labor, 
and product, of which we are not informed. 
Gcrartlias. —“ W. C. S.,” Ind., asks, “ Why 
does Gray describe Gerardia tenuifolia, flava, etc., aj 
handsome but uncultivatable plants ? They are certainly 
handsome, and grow plentifully in the woods here.”— 
Some of Ihe Gerardias are root parasites and can not be 
cultivated, probably others are not. Why don’t you try 
those which are abundant with you, both by transplanting 
and from seed, and report? 
SweeGFotato.—“W. C. S.” writes: “Last 
spring a new sweet-potato, called Southern Queen, was 
advertised as better, hardier, and more prolific than 
Yellow Nanscinond. Has this year’s experience con¬ 
firmed these claims ? ”—In our grounds, near New York, 
we three years ago grew the Nansemond and Southern 
Queen side by side; the result was such that we have 
since grown the Southern Queen only. Its very light 
color may be unfavorable to it as a market potato. 
Docs ^ubsoiliug' Dry the Surface ? 
—That depends on the formation of the soil. If the sur¬ 
face soil rests on a clay subsoil that is saturated with 
water, subsoiling would not make the surface soil any 
drier. If tlie surface soil rests on a thin layer of tenacious 
clay, and this clay rests on a dry gravelly substratum, 
then subsoiling by breaking up these impervious layers of 
clay or hard-pan, would dry the surface in the rainy sea¬ 
sons, and render it more moist in summer. 
Feeding Farsmaps.—Parsnips left in the 
ground all winter commence to grow early in the spring. 
Let them be dug as soon as the frost will allow. Put 
them in the cellar in a box or barrel, and feed out as fast 
as you need them. They will keep in this way till June. 
“ is L.nitl Increasing iu Value in 
t!i© Eastern States ? Wo do not see the object of 
our correspondent who asks this question. We judge, 
however, that he thinks farms in New England are be¬ 
coming less and less valuable as newer and richer land 
is opened at the West. Wc do not think that mere farm 
land in New England is advancing in price. But we see 
no reason why it should become less valuable. Farms 
that are improving in condition are increasing in value, 
while those that are not improving are not advancing; 
those that arc running down in condition are running 
down in price. Why should they not? 
Sawdust foe Manure.—H. Robbins, 
Vinton Co., Va. White-oak or other sawdust, unless 
it be well rotted, is of little use for manure. If it could 
be used as bedding for cattle, it would be of value. 
£5co. j®. FatcSjeia.—“ L. D. 8.,” Darien, 
Ct., asks if Geo. M. Patchen was a thorough-bred 
horse, if he was old Patchen, and was old Patchen owned 
by a man named Walter Mier?—Our memory would re¬ 
quire considerable “patching" to reply to these ques¬ 
tions, but probably some of our readers can relieve the 
mind of L. D. S. on these points. 
•Mow Many Bows ?—In response to this 
query, in December Agriculturist, J. W. H. Llttell says 
he has raised corn with forty rows, but thirty six and 
thirty-eight rows have been common with him. Corn 
never rose so nigh as that with us. 
