1873. J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
219 
bo the result, however, the cow's period of usefulness 
may be considered as passed, and she maybe turned into 
beef. The milk from an inflamed udder should not be 
used even by calves or pigs. 
Value of Cotton-«»ee«I as Manure. 
—“E. O. N.,” Tracy City, Tenn., asks, (1st.) What is the 
value of cotton-seed, when well rotted, as manure ? (2d.) 
Is the decorticated seed cake worth more as a fertilizer 
than the seed ? (3d.) Why are the above values assumed, 
the values to be given in comparison with Guanape 
guano at $00 per ton 3 —Replies; (1st.) The value of cotton¬ 
seed consists principally of the nitrogen and phosphoric 
acid of the kernel, the husk being of no account to speak 
of, excepting for its potash and a littlo phosphoric acid, 
ft may therefore be discarded.from the calculation. If 
the husk comprises half the weight of the seed—which 
5s not far from the mark—there will then be in a ton of 
cotton-seed, according to the analyses of Prof. Johnson, 
and Prof. Voeleker of London, about 67.6 pounds of ni¬ 
trogen (equal to 81.5 pounds of ammonia), and 29 pounds 
of phosphoric acid, which will give a ralne of $14.38, as 
shown in the table below. (2d.) TLo cotton-seed cake 
being free from the hull, will contain lust double the 
above quantities of fertilizing- matters, and bear double 
the above value—equal to $2S.75 per ton ; the loss of oil 
iu pressing the seed does not reduce its value in this re¬ 
spect. (3d.) Tke above values are assumed from the 
known constituents of the cotton-seed and the gnano, 
and from the standard value set upon the ammonia or the 
nitrogen from which it is formed, and the phosphoric 
acid in the market, on which the market prices of the 
fertilizers are based. The following table sets the mat¬ 
ter forth as clearly as may be, viz.: 
Composition of Cotton-seed Cake: 
Nitrogen, 6.76 per cent = 135 lbs. per ton. @ 17c. : .- 
$22.95 
Phos. acid, 3.90 per cent — 58 lbs. per ton, @ 10c. - 
5.80 
$28.75 
Composition of pure Guanape Guano (as per analysis re¬ 
cently made in New York). 
Nitrogen, 10.03 per cent = 200 lbs. per ton, @ 17c. 
$34.00 
Phos. acid, 16.3 per cent — 326 lbs. per ton, @ 10c. 
32.60 
$66.60 
These values are the intrinsic values of the two arti¬ 
cles for their nitrogen and phosphoric acid alone. The 
market value of the guano above described is $75 per 
ton in New York. If the value is to be estimated at $90 
per ton, a proportionate addition should be made to the 
value of the cotton-seed. 
linking Manure. —“J. C. C.,” Knoxville, 
Tenn., writes that he beds his cattle heavily with leaves, 
allowing them to remain in the stable until they become 
saturated with the liquid manure, when the whole is 
removed to the manure shed. By doing this he saves all 
the liquid. He thinks this plan open to the charge of 
being slip-shod, but it makes the best manure. This 
plan is far from being a slip-shod plan ; it is followed by 
eminent farmers who, by using abundant bedding, clean 
out their feeding-stalls at the end of the season only, 
when the manure is in the best condition. 
Alsilxe Clover.—“ J. C. McL.,” Plymouth, 
Iowa. So far ns our experience has gone, alsike clover 
is preferable to red clover only on wet soils, where the 
red clover is apt to be heaved out by the frost. On such 
soils it succeeds well, and makes a good crop of hay. 
This, we believe, is consistent with the experience of 
others. It can not be cut a second time for seed; if 
grown for seed, the hay is sacrificed. 
Consumption of Food.— “J. G. R.,” 
Randolph Co., Ill. As a general rule, cattle, horses, and 
sheep will eat three per cent of their live weight of fod¬ 
der per day—that is very near their own weight every 
month. But there is a vast difference amongst them as 
to the profitable results of their consumption of food. 
Some will merely keep alive, while others will increase 
in weight and size, or produce milk in a much greater 
proportion for the food consumed. 
Suclcering- Corn.—“A. B.,” Mansfield, 
Ohio. AVe would certainly advise any farmer to remove 
suckers from corn, especially if he has planted a variety 
lhat suckers profusely. The suckers, if used for fodder 
for cows, or feed for hogs, will pay for the trouble, and 
the com crop is bonefitted. 
E-'our MontUs in Texas.— “R. K.,” 
Adams Co., III., writes that he spent four months of the 
past winter in Texas. There he saw a rich prairie soil 
which produces wheat, corn,'oats, and cotton, and all the 
time during January and February the plows were run¬ 
ning. Land is there $3 to $5 per acre, and farms $10 to 
$25. The wild grasses are disappearing from over-pas¬ 
turing with cattle and horses, hundreds of which he saw 
dead upon the prairies, starved for want of feed. As 
usual in new countries, old things are passing away, and 
new methods of making a living must be followed, for 
cattle raising is fast playing out in Central Texas. 
“ B>o Ciood »E2<1 Mnlce Money.”—A 
fine opportunity to secure both these desirable results is 
offered by the publishers it Hearth and Home and Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist. They have established an Agency 
Department, and all suitable persons may find a capital 
and paying business in an Agency for both the valuable 
papers above mentioned, with their beautiful Chromos 
for each subscriber. For particulars, address Frank B. 
Van Siclen, Manager of Agency Department of Orange 
Judd & Co., 245 Broadway, New York. 
Fourteen Week") in Unman 
Physiology, by J. Dorman Steele. Pp. 23S. A. S. 
Barnes & Co. This little volume comes to swell the list 
of those existing upon the same subject. It is by a 
teacher of repute, and by him is intended for school use. 
Altogether, we like it, notwithstanding some rattier 
loose statements which here and there occur. The me¬ 
chanical execution is good, and the introduction of some 
figures, on which more than usual care has been be¬ 
stowed, illustrative of the bones, muscles, blood-vessels, 
etc., is a special feature, well calculated to give clear 
ideas on these important subdivisions. 
Turnips amongst Corn.— “ W. S.,” 
Binghamton, N. Y. White turnips may be sown 
amongst corn, without injury to the crop, any time up to 
August 1st. The last time of cultivating the corn, a 
pound of seed maybe scattered along the rows on the 
loose soil. If a rain soon follows, no harrowing is neces¬ 
sary ; if not, a brush should be drawn up and down the 
rows. Riita-bagas may be sown in the same manner, 
not later than the 10th or 12th of July. 
Bog-spavin. —“W. C. M. B.,” Washington 
Co., Mo. Bog-spavin is an enlargement at the hock- 
joint of the horse, and is a disease of the joint itself. 
Blood-spavin, which is also called thoroughpin, is an ob¬ 
struction of the vein by the swelling caused by the bog- 
spavin, and therefore these often exist together. But 
they are two different things. Bog-spavin rarely causes 
lameness, and, being often hereditary, is frequently in¬ 
curable. The only treatment is by applications of iodine 
ointment, once in the week, with lard every day; or by 
rubbing the joint with a liniment of two ounces of olive 
oil, one ounce of oil of turpentine, and one ounce of 
creosote, every second day. The feed should be of the 
best character, as spavined horses are never in complete 
health. 
Value «1 B B eat-asl»es.—“ H. B.,” Port 
Jervis, N. Y. Peat-ashes are a valuable fertilizer; and 
if the peat js formed by the remains of woody plants, 
and is heavy and fibrous in texture, the ashes arc worth 
more than the soft, pasty peat resulting from mosses and 
succulent plants. Experiments recently made in France 
showed that oats, wheat, and strawberry plants grew 
vigorously and bore heavily when planted and grown in 
a soil consisting largely of ashes of peat. 
Tlae Force of tlie Wind.—“ H. Y.,” 
Baxter City, Kansas. The variation in the pressure of 
the wind in pounds, per square foot, is as the square of 
the velocity. Thus a wind moving five miles an hour 
exerts a pressure of .123 of a pound per square foot, 
while a wind at ten miles an hour, which is twice the 
rate, exerts four times the pressure, or .492 of a pound to 
the foot. The rule for finding the force of the wind is to 
multiply the surface, in feet, by the square of the velocity 
in feet, and the product by .092288. The result is press¬ 
ure in pounds. 
Steaming' Food.— “A. I’. S.,” Newark, 
N. J.—When it is said that it will not pay to steam food 
for less than twenty head of cattle, what is meant is that 
it will not pay to provide apparatus specially for lees 
than that number. If a person has the boiler and 
steam-pipes, and uses them for other purposes, he may 
use them for this profitably for five or six head. 
Wheat and Chess.—“B. F. B.” If a 
man should shut up a dog iu his barn at night, and iu the 
morning find a cat there instead, ho would not be likely 
to jump at the conclusion that the dog had changed into 
a cat. lie would know that there must have been a good 
reason for the substitution, even if he never found out 
what it -was. So when chess grows in a wheat-field there 
is an equally good reason for its appearance, or for that 
of any other weed that may manifest itself, without sup- 
posing that an impossibility equal to the change of a dog 
into a cat had occurred. 
Folding- Slieep.— Mrs. “P. I.,” Charlotte, 
N. C. In the Agriculturist of November, 1871, the me¬ 
thod of making hurdles for folding sheep was described 
and illustrated. The folding consists in dividing off a 
part of a field of clover or roots, by erecting the hurdles 
across it, and, as the crop is fed off, removing tlie hurdles 
further back, and so pasturing the whole field by small 
portions at a time. 
Warts on Clows’ Teats.— Mrs. “ 8. E. 
H.,’’ Shawnee Co., Kan., can remove warts on cows 
teats, if they are small, by clipping them off with a pair 
of sharp shears, and touching the spot with a little pow¬ 
dered copperas to stop bleeding. If they are too large 
to do this easily, they should he wetted daily and then 
rubbed carefully with a stick of Lunar Caustic (Nitrate 
of Silver). 
Potatoes for Cows. — “Subscriber.” 
Small potatoes, if boiled and fed when nearly cold with 
some bran or meal, are an excellent food for cows. Fed 
raw, they sometimes produce irritation or looseness of 
the bowels, which considerably reduces the flow of milk. 
Hbrawinag Manure. — “ Subscriber.” 
Manure may be drawn and spread at any time, excepting 
on frozen ground, or where it will be washed from the 
surface ; but it should never be left in heaps in the field 
at any season of the year. See “Ogden Farm Papers” 
in March Agriculturist. 
A Cord of Manure is 128 cubic feet ; 
a wagon box 10 feet long, 3 feet 2)4 inches wide, and one 
foot deep holds a quarter of a cord. 
Sowing tdrass Seed.— “ Blue Grass.” 
When grass seed is to be sown without any sheltering 
crop, it is necessary to prepare the ground by plowing 
and careful harrowing, then to sow the seed, and harrow 
or brush it in with a brush or light harrow—as early in 
tire spring as possible. 
OrouudaSumac Waste.— “E. M. H.,” 
Great Falls, N. H. The value of ground-sumac waste 
from a tannery would be, when it is rotted, about equal 1 
to rotten leaves. It would make a valuable material to 
bed cattle with, and add to the bulk of a manure pile, 
and for this purpose it ought to he worth at least two 
dollars a cord. 
Soil for Barley.—“ W. H.,” Vernon Co., 
Wis. Barley will not thrive on the rich, black loam of a 
river-bottom. A rich, sandy, upland loam is the most 
suitable soil, and on such a soil there is seldom any 
trouble about want of stiffness in the straw. The best 
application to stiffen the straw is salt, at the rate of three 
or four bushels per acre, sown in May. 
Waste Salt. — “ J. B.,” Port Richmond. 
Waste salt, or salt water of any kind, may be. profitably 
applied to an asparagus-bed, at the rate of a peck of salt 
to the square rod of ground. If there is no asparagns- 
bcu--but there ought to he in every farmer’s garden—or 
the salt is iu roo great, a quantity to he thus used, it may 
be scattered over a meadow or added to the manure pile. 
A Kew Suh.-ci-iher’s Questions.— 
Directions for reducing hones, preparing blood and 
spoiled fish for manure, and the value of tail-bark, have 
nl^been fully given in the Agriculturist for 1872, which 
can be had for $1.50. It is impracticable for us to repeat 
what has been told so recently in our columns. 
Fajciit B2atel«ing-!Boxes.—“ J. F.,” 
Peapack, N. J. Our advice to any person who desires to 
patent an artificial hatching apparatus, which he has in¬ 
vented, is simply “ Don't.” We would never advise any¬ 
one to buy it, even if it should succeed perfectly. There 
are a great many such inventions now lying dormant. 
Wlint is a CSIolaalc ?—“ N. O.,” Omaha, 
Nebraska, asks what is the meaning of the prescriptions 
in “ Herbert’s Hints to Ilorsekeepers,” in which “ drops, 
or globules," are ordered to be given of certain sub¬ 
stances, such as worm-seed. How can he get drops, or 
globules, of a seed or powder ? The remedies given in 
that work are “ homoeopathic,” and the terms given are 
such as arc used by practitioners of that name. Persons 
who do not desire to follow the homoeopathic methods, or 
who are unacquainted with them, had better use another 
guide than Herbert. McClure's method of treating 
horses, cattle, and sheep is a useful hand-book. 
