1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
287 
Spring" or Fa!! Colts. — “Inquirer” 
asks at wlmt season colts should be born to make the 
best horses—spring' or fall ?—In the case of ordinary- 
farmers, it is probably better to raise spring colts (the 
mares not being overworked while suckling), because 
the grass fodder will make more milk than the usual win¬ 
ter rations of a farm team. If grain is fed to the dam all 
winter (the colt having a chance to help himself to it), it 
is a good plan to have the foaling come in the fall, and 
to wedn the colt on grass in the spring. It all depends 
on treatment. If the winter feed is abundant and good, 
we would prefer to have a colt dropped in the fall, rather 
than have him depend for his milk on a mare doing 
spring work. 
Fence Ag’ainwt ©ogs.— “ B. K.,” Green¬ 
up, Ky. Few dogs will get over a picket fence five feet 
high, yet we have known some to do it. With such a 
fence, the danger is that a dog after sheep will dig a way 
beneath it very quickly. In fact, we do not know of any 
plan by which sheep may be kept perfectly secure against 
dogs, unless it bo by fencing with a high -fence and 
closely watching through the day, and shutting the sheep 
up at night in a building. 
S>cep Cans for Mills.—“ J. J.,” Schoon- 
maker, Slaterville, writes that he now has a vat 12 feet 
long, 2 ft. 4 in. wide, and 21 inches deep, through which 
a stream of spring water is led by a half-inch pipe. His 
cans are 17 inches deep and 8 inches diameter. The 
miilc stands 36 hours without souring in the hottest 
weather; the cream is then two inches thick, and solid, 
and makes firm yellow butter without the use of ice. 
The saving of labor to his family and the improvement 
of his butter are so great, that they are abundantly 
satisfied. 
Chicken Catarcli. —“ G. C.,” Wellesley, 
Mass. The best treatment for young chicks with catarrh 
—a complaint which is distinguished by discharge of 
gummy matter from the eyes and mucus from the throat 
—is to keep them perfectly dry and warm, bathe the eyes 
with a weak solution of chloride of zinc, and wash the 
throat with a feather dipped in the same. There should 
be a little cayenne pepper or einger given in the food, 
which should be scalded. Fine corn-meal- or coarse 
wheat-middlings or bread-crumbs fed warm. 
About tlae Mule. —“ H. W. P.,” Alsten 
Co., S. C., writes, in reply to “ C. O. B.,” that after forty 
years’ experience as a planter with mules, he has found 
that the best animal in every way is the produce of the 
Maltese Jack, which is of medium size, has a white 
muzzle, light color around the eye, whitish color under 
the belly, and is gray steel and sometimes nearly black 
as to its body. Its form is symmetrical, and with good 
mares it produces mules of fifteen hands, which, well 
cared for up to five years of age, will last twenty years, 
and keep in good order under hard work. They are 
active and enduring. The large heavy mule is often 
sluggish, and is not to be preferred to these lighter ones. 
He considers a mule to be the most valuable agricultural 
animal in the South and West: and one that, although he 
is generally roughly used, will properly appreciate kind 
and generous treatment. 
Planting Timber. —“ B. K.,” Greenup, 
Ky. If a tract of woodland from which the large timber 
has been cut is left alone and cattle kept out of it, the 
growth will be renewed naturally faster than by replant¬ 
ing. Trees which have been grown in the open ground 
when transplanted into the woods, or trees from woods 
moved into open ground, receive a shock which they are 
a long time recovering from; while seedlings coming 
naturally grow rapidly and flourish in open woods if 
protected. 
Mow Mis Fowls Paid.—“ W. T.,” 
Shelter Island, N. Y., sends an account of the eggs pro¬ 
duced by forty hens from January ls.t to April 30th. They 
were kept in a coop dug three feet below the level of the 
ground, and sixteen feet long and eight feet wide; the 
floor was bare earth, and the peak of the roof was seven 
feet above the floor. A window of six square feet was 
made in the roof. The fowls laid 2.037 eggs, which sold 
for $47.50. and consumed $17.65 worth of corn and clams, 
leaving S29.85 for profit, besides 200 chickens running 
around and more on the way. 
Mink.—“H. L. S.,” Boalsburg, Pa* asks if 
there is any work on the breeding of mink. There is 
no such work known to us, and we believe there is none. 
There are but few persons engaged in this business, 
which is one that probably few would succeed in. There 
is, however, no secret in it. The chief difficulties are to 
feet the mink, and when they are procured, to keep them 
from getting away again. A closely-fenced yard, with a 
stream of running water passing through it, places lor 
shelter or hiding and nests, and the proper food, which 
should be fresh animal offal and fish, are the chief things 
needed. Then a taste for the business, and unlimited 
patience and plenty of time to waste over it, may enable 
a man to gain a precarious living by it. 
Wald. Onion, or CJarlic ?—“ E. W. S.,” 
Baltimore Co., Md. There is no means of freeing the 
milk or butter from the unpleasant taste of garlic, or 
wild onion. The only thing that can bo done is to pre¬ 
vent the milk of a cow that has eaten the weed from be¬ 
ing mixed with the other milk for twenty-four hours 
afterwards. The breath and skin of the cow will smell 
so strongly that the discovery will be readily made. 
Garlic should be carefully extirpated from meadows aud 
pastures. 
Carrolls for Cows.-“ James,” Mercer 
Co., Ohio. Carrots are better feed for milch-cows than 
mangels, but sometimes the cows refuse to eat them. In 
such cases we have overcome the difficulty by chopping 
up carrots and potatoes and sprinkling salt and a litLle 
bran upon them, when they are readily eaten ; by gradu¬ 
ally leaving out the potatoes the cow will take the car¬ 
rots alone. Parsnips are even better feed than carrots, 
and will yield richer milk. 
Ungrateful Men#.- “ C. 8.,” Montgom¬ 
ery Co., N. Y., has one hundred hens which have a good, 
warm place, plenty of good water, corn, and lime, and 
still they decline to lay more than five to seven eggs a 
day—the whole one hundred 1 What will make them 
lay ? A capital punishment for such hens would be to 
take off their heads and send them to market, and buy 
Light Brahmas or Leghorns or some other fowls that 
are more industrious, with the money. 
“ Wolf in. the Tail.”—“ M. B.,” Mar¬ 
shall Co., West Va., asks if cows ever have “ wolf in the 
tail” with “hollow horn”? There are no such com¬ 
plaints as these. But when cattle become weak and 
poor by want of nourishing food, exposure to damp and 
cold, and by neglect, their extremities begin to show an 
altered appearance, which is a symptom and not a dis¬ 
ease. The barbarous customs of boring the horns and 
pouring hot vinegar into them, and slitting the tail and 
filling the wound with salt, which are practiced by some 
farmers who, by neglect, permit their cattle to get out of 
condition, should be severely censured, and a better way 
pointed out. The cattle should be kept warm and clean, 
be well fed and cared for, and their general health will 
then very seldom be affected so as to call for medicine or 
any other treatment. 
Oats or Corn for Morses.—“J. D. P.,” 
Tipton Co., Tenn. Oats are better than corn as contin¬ 
ual feed for horses; but oats and corn ground together 
will answer very well. A proper quantity when fed with 
cut hay or oat straw would be three quarts at a feed. 
Fig-s wilia a foiigii.—“ M. B.,” Sliirrard, 
West Ya., asks what to do with the pigs which have a 
cough. A cough is more often a symptom of indigestion 
than of cold in pigs. They should have some charcoal 
given to them ; some wheat or rye-bran, scalded and al¬ 
lowed to cool, would be good for them. Soap-suds is 
not to be recommended as a medicine for pigs; a little 
charcoal, with a handful of wood-ashes and a teaspoon¬ 
ful of salt, given to them, would be far better. 
Limed Eggs.—“ S. K.,” Bedford Co., Pa., 
asks how the eggs, known in the market as limed eggs, 
are prepared and preserved. The dealers’ who handle 
large quantities of eggs have brick tanks built in a cool 
cellar. The eggs are packed in these tanks and kept 
covered with clear lime-water. Any vessel, such as a 
tub or barrel, will answer the purpose in a small way as 
well as the tanks. 
A Strang- of SSosiy figurations.—“ E. 
W. P.,” Derby, Conn., asks why two barrels of bone- 
dust, two barrels of woo'd-ashes, and six pails of water, 
mixed and left on the barn-floor for two weeks, did not 
result in the bone dissolving ? (2d.) Can sulphuric acid 
be purchased pure at a druggist's, and at what price ? 
(3d.) In mixing ashes and bone-dust, is there a loss by 
freed ammonia? (4th.) IIow fine is finely-ground bone? 
(otli.) Can ashes be most profitably used on an old mea¬ 
dow soon to be turned under, or on a new meadow ? 
(6th.) What is the comparative value of oats in the straw 
with timothy hay ?— Replies: (1st.) Because the dissolv¬ 
ing or reducing bones by such a method can not be ef¬ 
fected in so short a time as two weeks. (2d.) A druggist 
ought to supply " commercial sulphuric acid” at three to 
twelve cents a pound, or thereabouts. (Chemicully pure 
acid is worth forty cents.) (3d.) Yes, if moisture is 
present. (4th.) The finest is as line as flour. (5th.) It 
will make very little difference in the ultimate profit, but 
generally the quickest returns are from the application 
on new meadows. (6lh.) It depends altogether on the 
time of cutting. Oats cut before maturity (or in the 
milk) are worth as much as the best timothy hay, aud 
twice as good as timothy cut when ripe. 
Eggs from Side Fowls.—“A. Q. H.,” 
West Windsor, Ohio. Cholera being undoubtedly a blood 
disease of course affects to some extent the character of 
the flesh and eggs of fowls subject to it. But after a cure 
the blood is restored to a healthful condition, and the 
fowl no longer experiences any ill effects from the disease. 
Simple diarrhoea does not affect the character of the fowl 
as food, excepting so far as the emaciation which occurs. 
Eggs for hatching should always be selectedfrom healthy 
and vigorous fowls. 
Early Lambs for the Mntcher.—A 
Cumberland Co., N. J., farmer writes; “ I purpose to 
buy some Merino grade ewes and raise lambs for the 
butcher. I want to keep the ewes fat enough to go off 
soon after the lambs are gone. I see you sometimes 
recommend using a Cotswold ram for such purposes. 
Here farmers think they must use a South-Down ram or 
the lambs will not fatten. Cotswold grade Iambs they 
say will grow but not get fat. Is this true ? ”—It depends 
a good deal on the b reeding of the Cotswold. He should 
be thorough-bred, not too large, and so bred that he will 
mature early. A good many breeders of Cotswolds have 
aimed to get size rather than good form and early maturi¬ 
ty. In our own experience we have had no difficulty in 
fattening grade Cotswold lambs, but much depends on 
getting the ngnt kind of ram and on feeding the lambs. 
A well-bred Cotswold should mature as early as a South- 
Down. But you must not select the largest Cotswolds. 
Great size and early maturity are rarely if ever found in 
the same animal. 
Plaster and M«ne>«lust foi'Whent. 
—“ S. D. S.,” Md., asks us to give him “ the proper pro¬ 
portions of bone-dust and plaster, as a fertilizer for 
wheat.”—There is nothing to be gained in mixing bones 
and plaster together. They will do just as much good 
sown separately. Sow from one to two bushels of plaster 
per acre, and five to ten bushels of bone-dust. 
Tlie Might Side of ail Animal.— 
“ H. \V. T.” The right-hand side of an animal is that 
side which corresponds to the right-hand side of a man. 
Thus, when a man faces an animal or looks directly at 
its face its right side is at his left. The protuberance on 
the side of a floated cow is on its left side , and when a 
man is facing the animal of course the protuberance is 
on his right. 
Remedy for Horen. —“ Observer,” La 
Salle Co., Ill,, writes that he has always succeeded in 
curing lioven or bloat in cattle by placing a round stick 
crosswise in the animal’s mouth, and holding it there by 
a rope tied to each end and passing around the horns. 
The animal is then driven briskly around the yard, and 
in its effort to get rid of the stick discharges the gas 
from the stomach. 
Artificial Manure.—“ A. J. B.,” Prince 
Edwards Co., Va., sends a description of an artificial 
manure, composed of 20 bushels of earth, 3 bushel# 
wood-ashes, 3 bushels fine bone-dust, 3 bushels plaster, 
and 113 pounds of nitrate of soda, sulphate of soda, 
muriate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, aud sulphate and 
muriate of ammonia. The advertiser offers to sell all the 
ingredients, except earth and ashes, at $25 per ton. He 
claims it to be equal to naturat guano. Our opinion of 
the matter is asked. Each of these ingredients, except 
the plaster and tho muriate of soda (common salt), is 
worth more than $25 per ton. Some of them are worth 
5 cents and some 18 cents a pound, wholesale. As they 
are the most valuable fertilizers, of course there can be 
but a small quantity of them in the mixture, and the 
mannre would not be an approach to guano in its value 
as a fertilizer. 
I>onI»le Fjhtow Flows. —“ M. B.,” 
Clinton, La. The double furrow plow is extensively used 
in England, and it is found there that three horses and 
one man with one of these plows can do as much work 
as four horses and two men with two single plows, the 
character of the soil being the same in each case. On 
light soils, these plows will undoubtedly be found useful 
and economical. Gang«plows, with three or more shares, 
are largely used in California. 
