178 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
selected to commence with, as the outside of 
the bale should always be of the best; it is laid 
smoothly, with the butts quite even at each end 
of the bale, I fie brush lapping in the center. 
The brush is thus laid in, always being care¬ 
fully placed that the bale may come out square 
at the emls and neat and smooth. The bale is 
pressed very tightly, so as to get 300 pounds or 
over into a space of three feet ten inches long, 
twenty-four inches wide, and thirty inches 
deep. A stout lath is placed at each corner to 
protect the brush, and the bale is bound by four 
or five No. 9, or common fence wires. At fig. 4 
is shown a finished bale with the weight marked 
upon one of the corner laths. The different 
qualities of brush are baled separately. The 
crop is then ready for market. 
Broom-corn is one of those things in which 
“corners” are occasionally got up, by which 
the farmer is victimized; it is therefore well to 
be careful about the person to whom the pro¬ 
duce is shipped, and generally it is safest to sell 
at once when the price is satisfactory; holding 
for a rise brings many a farmer to grief. 
How To Set a Horse’s Broken Leg. 
[Many a horse with a broken leg is killed to 
put it out of its misery that might, with proper 
treatment have been cured, and if not made as 
valuable as before at least saved to many years 
of useful labor. Skilled Veterinary Surgeons 
are yet rare, and in the country very seldom to 
be found. It is much to be regretted that phy¬ 
sicians and surgeons generally think it beneath 
them to treat domestic animals. This is not the 
case, however, with a surgical friend of ours 
who has had much success in treating fractured 
legs of horses, and has had the satisfaction of 
seeing several animals that would otherwise 
have been killed made useful to their delight¬ 
ed owners. At our request lie has written out 
his method of treatment.—E d.] 
Thanks to the application of common-sense 
to surgery, we have now at our command a 
successful method of treating fractured limbs 
among our farm stock. For curable cases this 
new method will give a good percentage of fair 
results. 
Here it is. Suppose we have a horse with 
his hind leg broken six inches above the fet¬ 
lock. The first tiling to do is to make for him 
a firm, narrow stall, not much wider than is ab¬ 
solutely necessary to enable the animal to stand, 
or a pair of stocks such as are used for shoeing 
refractory edits or mules. Arrange a windlass 
by which, when a band of the strongest sail¬ 
cloth or some similar material is placed under 
the animal’s helly, his hind quarters can be 
lifted clear of the ground. This belly-band 
should be one and a half to two feet wide, and 
long enough to allow its ends to be level with 
the horse’s back. Thus it makes a snug cradle 
in which the patient can rest. Put now a col¬ 
lar on his neck, and to it attach a strap which 
shall extend from it between the front legs to 
the belly-band, and thus prevent that from slid¬ 
ing backwards or wrinkling into a band narrow 
enough to pain the horse when his weight 
comes to be borne by it. 
Now having attended to the preliminaries we 
are ready to set the limb. See, first of all, that 
dhe leg is well clear of the ground, making suf¬ 
ficient allowance so that when the belly-band 
stretches it will not allow the foot to reach the 
ground. Bandage the leg smoothly but not too 
firmly from the foot up to above the “knee” 
with a flannel bandage two or three inches wide. 
Now take canton-flannel with a good nap, 
and wide enough to cover the entire bandage 
cut it into such shape as will accurately fit 
around the leg—then make five more just like 
it. Take six pounds of the best freshest Plaster 
of Paris, not land plaster, but such as is used 
for hard finish, and stir enough of it slowly into 
two quarts of cold Witter to make a mixture as 
thick as cream. Saturate one of your last made 
canton-flannel envelopes for the leg in the mix¬ 
ture, then lay it on a board with nap side up, 
and pour on to and rub into it as much of the 
liquid plaster as it will hold. Next rub into 
the same flannel enough of the dry plaster to 
fairly thicken and toughen it. 
Treat another piece of flannel exactly the 
same way and lay the two fairly together one 
on top of the other, and promptly bandage them 
around the leg, which is now to be held in its 
right position until the plaster hardens. Mean¬ 
while spread over the last bandage a thick 
coating of the wet plaster with your hands; and 
then prepare two more pieces of canton-flannel 
as before ; apply these over the first two and 
surround them with a bandage which is also 
smeared with wmt, plaster. 
And, finally, the last two pieces of flannel are 
treated as the others have been, and in turn are 
to be well bandaged and the remaining Plaster 
of Paris rubbed into the last bandage. This, 
when it has set, which will be in a few minutes, 
will give not only a hard but a tough splint that 
fits the leg so closely and keeps the ends of the 
bone in such exact position as to render dis¬ 
placement impossible; providing the leg has 
been properly held while the plaster was hard¬ 
ening. Everything must be in readiness before 
the plaster is mixed with water, and it must re¬ 
quire less than half an hour to saturate and 
apply all the flannel and the bandages, or the 
plaster will have become quite too hard to 
work. By the time the last bandage is to be 
applied it will be seen that the plaster has be¬ 
come thick and pasty, and is then in good con¬ 
dition for coating over all with the hand. 
This would be my plan (as it has been, and 
successful, too,) for the fracture I have described. 
The principle involved in any other case and 
with other animals would be similar; with 
such modifications as common-sense suggests. 
I contend that, an effort should be made 
in almost every instance to save the unfortunate 
animal. I have cured a number by the method 
detailed above. 
The average time would be from six to 
twelve weeks before the belly-band can be re¬ 
moved and the limb tried. It may be necessary 
to renew the splint once, and it should not be 
finally taken off until some time after the leg is 
walked upon, as it affords additional strength 
to the point of fracture. What I have written 
may not be new to some readers. I am certain 
it will be to others,and for them I have written. 
Feeding Young Trout. 
BT FIIKD. MATHER, HONEOYE PALLS, N. Y. 
After trying three years to find live food for 
my fry so that the diseases caused by decaying 
food on the bottom of the troughs would not 
kill half of my “babies” every year, I have at 
last found it, and give it to your trout-growing 
readers in season for this year’s crop. 
Having tried to breed several species of Crus¬ 
tacea, insects, etc., I found accidentally, while 
straining rain-water for laundry use, the article 
so long sought, the “wiggler” or mosquito 
larva. I fed them last season with the most 
gratifying results, and am making arrangements 
to do it on a larger scale at my ponds at 
Honeoye Falls, N. Y., this coming season. 
Probably two barrels will be enough for each 
thousand fish, and the larvae can be collected 
much easier than the same bulk of liver can 
be chopped. Having sent out both spawn and 
young fish to readers of the Agriculturist , I feel 
it my duty to keep them fully posted on all 
matters of importance. 
Nutritive Value of Feed. 
The proportionate values of the following 
materials used for feeding farm-stock are gath¬ 
ered from published analyses bj r the most 
eminent agricultural chemists, and have been 
corroborated by the results of the practice of 
many eminent "English feeders. They include 
the relative flesh-forming, fattening, and total 
feeding values of the different articles men¬ 
tioned, and are probably the most trustworthy 
information that can be gathered from all sources 
at the present time. They areas follows, equal 
weights of each being considered. 
Flesh 
produc¬ 
ing. 
Fat 
produc¬ 
ing. 
Total 
Value. 
Turnips. 
1 
5 
7 
Rutabagas. 
1 
7 
9 
Carrots. 
1 
7 
10 
Mangels amt Kolil Rabi. 
2 
8 
12 
Straw. 
3 
16 
22 
Potatoes. 
3 
17 
ae 
Brewer's grains. 
654 
18 
25 
Rice Meal . 
654 
77 
88 
Locust Beans. 
7 
72 
82 
Hay (early cut). 
8 
50 
64 
Millet, (seed). 
8 
76 
85 
Buckwheat.. 
9 
60 
69 
Malt. 
9 
76 
81 
Rye. 
11 
72 
80 
Oats. 
12 
63 
79 
Corn. 
12 
68 
80 
Wheat and Barley. 
12 
67 
82 
Dried Brewer’s grain. 
16 
70 
87 
Palm-nut meal. 
16 
98 
82 
Earth-nut. cake. 
20 
40 
54 
Beans (English field). 
22 
46 
74 
Peas. 
22 
60 
79 
Linseed. 
23 
112 
82 
Cotton-seed cake. 
24 
4654 
61 
Malt, sprouts. 
26 
60 
87 
Tares (seed). 
2754 
57 
79 
Linseed cake. 
28 
56 
73 
Bran and coarse Millstuff..... 
31 
54 
76 
Rape cake. 
31 
53 
78 
Decorticated Earth-nut cake... 
39 
45 
72 
Decorticated Cotton seed cake. 
41 
57 
82 
In these estimates the flesh-forming value is 
in proportion to the nitrogenous elements con¬ 
tained in the food. The fat-formers consist of 
starch, oil,and fat; and as oil and readv-formed 
fat is estimated as double the value of starch in 
feeding, the total feeding values of different ar¬ 
ticles varies in somewhat different ratios to those 
of the fat-forming elements. For instance, 
while bran contains more carbonaceous matter, 
viz.: starch and oil together, than rape cake, 
and exactly the same flesh-forming material, yet 
its total feeding value is less than that of rape- 
cake, because the 53 parts of starch and oil in 
the rape-cake have more oil and less starch than 
the 54 parts of starch and oil in the bran, and 
the oil being, as we have said, more valuable 
than the starch, therefore the rape cake is worth 
more than the bran as feed. The numerous 
inquiries that have come to us as to the value 
of various feeds are here answered. 
Cultivating Flax.. 
Flax or linseed may be grown on any moder¬ 
ately rich soil, whether upland or bottom. A 
■ moist bottom suitable for oats will grow good 
fiber, and a sod properly plowed under is 
adapted for it. If the object is seed, and not 
