1873.] 
4 07 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
.small tumors—which on pressure in milking discharge 
pus and blood into the milk. No mechanical means can 
prevent this effect if such is the cause. An application 
of iodine ointment to the outside of the udders in the 
neighborhood of the tumors twice a day might have the 
effect of producing absorption of the offending matter, or 
•bathing in cold water might be tried. Nothing definite, 
however, could be said about it without more information. 
Packing for Ice-House.—“ F. 8. B.,” 
Lexington, Ky. Some substance ttiat will not easily fer¬ 
ment and mold and rot is to be selected for packing for 
■the ice-house. Fresh sawdust, tan-bark, or charcoal dust 
are the best if they can be procured. The next in useful¬ 
ness are chaff' from the thrashing-machine, finely cut 
straw or sawdust that lias already been used for sonie 
aeasons. Fine chips from a planing mill is very good 
.packing. Buckwheat hulls or hemp heads are too easily 
■ rotted and fermented to he used for this purpose. 
Strains in ILevel JLasad,,—“S. H.,” 
■Oberlin, Ohio. Drains in land so nearly level that a fall 
Of no more than two inches per 100 feet naturally exists 
may yet be made to do satisfactory work. The outlet 
•should be deepened an extra foot, say 4 to 5 feet. Then 
commencing at tiie upper end of the laterals these drains 
may be given a fall of one foot to the 100, or 6 inches 
even would suffice if they are very carefully laid. Water 
is discharged with greater velocity from deep drains than 
from shallow ones, other things being equal. 
Market-CSurd©m C£nestions„—'“ I. C. 
G.,” Basil, O. Yon can not carry on market gardening, 
as we understand it, upon clay or any other land without 
a plenty of manure. Potatoes or other farm crops should 
be raised the first year in order to get the land in good 
condition. We can not answer the questions as to quan¬ 
tities that may be raised, as much depends upon manure, 
variety of plant, and the cultivation. 
The Western! ff’onaltry Association* 
will bold its annual exhibition next January, 14-18 in¬ 
clusive. The notice is dated Pittsburgh, Pa., and we 
assume that the show will be held there; hut it is not so 
stated. 
ffirass for a Wame,-A correspondent, 
whose address we have mislaid, sent a grass which lie 
supposed to be “Quack,” hut it is one of the “Drop- 
seeds.” Botanically it is Muhlcnbei'gia Mexicana , but 
•it does not seem to have acquired any common name. 
Its underground shoots make it, with us, almost as trou¬ 
blesome as “ Quack,” and it is by some mistaken for that. 
Animals are said to he fond of it, but it has never to our 
knowledge been cultivated. 
Swivel Plows.-L, Mager, Hillsdale, Mich. 
The swivel plow may be employed very usefully upon 
leyel ground. By commencing at the center of the field 
and making there a back-furrow eacli half of the field is 
plowed in furrows ail lying the same way. There are 
then no dead furrows, and the field is left in excellent 
shape for seediug to grass or crops in harvesting 
which machines are used. As the horses turn directly at 
the head of each furrow there is a great saving of time 
over plowing a field in land. 
Improving’ Mossy Meadows, — 
“N. G.,” Middleborough. When a meadow the soil of 
Which is clay resting upon a hard pan seventeen inches 
below it becomes mossy it can best be improved by- 
drainage. When thoroughly underdrained, and the im¬ 
pervious hard-pan is broken up, the moss will no longer 
appear. If this can not he done, wood-ashes or lime ap¬ 
plied to the soil after it has been thoroughly plowed and 
Bubsoiled would tend to improve it. It should then be 
reseeded. 
SLate Chickens.—At this season of the 
year hens, unthoughtful of danger, will bring out from 
beneath some clump of neglected weeds, some stack, or 
the floor of some out-building a brood of shivering 
■Chicks, which if not well cared for will inevitably die 
from cold and exposure. We have always succeeded in 
making such a hapless brood survive the winter and 
Come out the earliest of spring chickens, by giving them 
a warm coop in a corner of the barn or the stable and 
feeding them the waste of the kitchen table. In this 
way a little cheap attention will save them, and bring 
them out in March plump broilers worth a dollar a pair. 
IBesic©im BSeMe, whose portrait appears upon 
our first page, is the property of Mr. William Crozier. 
She was bred by Mr. James Finley, of Monkland, Glas¬ 
gow, Scotland, in 1858, and took five first prizes as the 
•best Ayrshire cow at the exhibitions of tlie Scotch Agri¬ 
cultural Society. Since her importation into America 
she has taken four first prizes, and her progeny have al¬ 
ways taken the highest prizes wherever they have been 
exhibited. Her progeny is scattered all over the country, 
having been sent to California, Georgia, Mississippi, and 
Tennessee; and their descendants have also similarly 
been scattered. In Scotland she gave 36 quarts beer meas¬ 
ure daily, as proved before a justice of the peace there. 
This is equal to 43J4 quarts wine measure, or that by 
which wo measure milk, probably as large a yield as that 
of any cow as well authenticated. She is now, in her 
loth year, a month after dropping her 13th calf, milking 
23 quarts a day; but this is not done without abundance 
of the best food. 
B3ai*ly Eggs.—“I. A. W.,” Orange, N. J. 
If a few light Brahma pullets are kept in a warm, roomy, 
clean coop, and are fed upon corn-meal wetted with warm 
water, with a change to boiled potatoes fed warm, some 
chopped cabbage, scraps of meat, bread, etc., with plenty 
of pure water to drink and occasionally some powdered 
oyster shells and crushed pepper given in their feed, they 
will lay continually throughout the winter. Half a dozen 
fowls thus cared for will provide a family of moderate 
size with sufficient eggs. No cock is needed. 
Paper —Of late years many new 
materials have been introduced into the manufacture of 
paper, and various foreign fibers have been introduced 
into commerce for this purpose. The field of experiment 
in this direction is by no means exhausted, and there are 
no doubt a number of native plants waiting to he utilized 
iu this manner. One of our associates who was recently 
in Colorado brought home some paper made at Denver 
from the leaves of the Narrow-leaved Yucca— Yucca 
angustifolia. The paper was strong and heavy, but much 
better than any we have seen made from straw. The 
Androscoggin Pulp Co., Brunswick, Me., send us a speci¬ 
men of board made of poplar wood, which will be useful 
for many purposes. 
IP sure CwJiaaiOo—“J. A. R.," Ellaville, Ga. 
Pure guano as imported may be purchased of the agents 
of the Peruvian Government in New York in quantities 
of not less than 10 tons. In this or lesser quantities Carr 
& Hobson, 56 Beckman Street, N. Y., may be relied upon 
to sell it without admixture. But, after all, the pure ar¬ 
ticle itself is subject to variation of quality. 
66 Ag-ricMl4t»ral OiildLs’esao 95 —An “Act" 
has recently been enacted by the English Parliament 
called the “Agricultural Children’s Act.” It provides 
that young children under the age of-eight years shall 
not he employed in agricultural labor except by their 
parents. Children above that age and under ten years 
shall not be employed unless they can produce a certifi¬ 
cate that they have attended school 250 times during the 
year, and if over ten 150 attendances are required for the 
year. There are exceptions made as to hay or other har¬ 
vests, or if no school exists within two miles of the 
child’s dwelling. Happily we have very few or none' 
sucli “ agricultural children ” that we need legislate for. 
Mow t© get Farmers to lumpirove 
tlieir Stock. —One of our subscribers in Vermont 
writes us that lie wants to improve bis stock, but that he 
is poor and his neighbors take so little interest in the 
matter that he does not think they would pay any more 
for a thorough-bred than for a common animal. We will 
tell him what to do. In fact, his own letter suggests the 
remedy. He says: “ I like to read ‘ Walks and Talks ’ in 
the Agriculturist. I have a neighbor, a deacon, that is 
very like the Deacon that ‘Walks and Talks’ writes 
about, only not as good a farmer. I read the composi¬ 
tion on weeds to him and some of my other neighbors, 
and told thereat about it.” That is good so far as it 
goes. Tell yonr neighbors about the Agriculturist. Tell 
them you are going to get up a club for 1874, and that you 
want every farmer to sign for it. Make a business of get¬ 
ting subscribers for a few days; or if you can not do this 
yourself, get the postmaster or some one else to attend to 
the business, and help him all you can. If you can get a 
hundred subscribers to the Agriculturist in your town, 
and yon certainly can if you try, there will be no difficulty 
about introducing good stock. 
- ■ - ■ i > » ■" — 
A Centennial Horticultural Society. 
During the late exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horti¬ 
cultural Society a meeting of horticulturists was held for 
the purpose of organizing a society to aid in the horti¬ 
cultural department of the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. 
1 A committee, of which Col. Marshall P. Wilder wag 
chairman, reported a constitution and nominated officers. 
The Society is called the “ Centennial Horticultural Soci¬ 
ety,” and its chief object is to aid the United States 
Centennial Commissioners in tiie preparation of plans 
for the Horticultural Department of tiie Centennial Ex¬ 
position, the planting of the garden, the construction 
and management of horticultural houses, and to provide 
for the proper representation of the gfeat interests of 
pomology and horticulture in the exhibition. The 
American Pomological Society is to hold a session at the 
time of the Centennial celebration, and will co-operate in 
the matter of fruits. The officers of the new Society 
are: President, Patrick Barry, of Rochester, N. Y.; 
Secretary, A. W. Harrison, of Philadelphia; Treasurer, 
Wm. Hacker, of Philadelphia; Vico Presidents, W. L. 
Shaffer, of Philadelphia; P. J. Berckmans, of Georgia; 
J. R. Warder, of Ohio; W. C. Flagg, of Illinois ; W. C. 
Strong, of Massachusetts; and J. Strenzel, of California. 
A large executive committee was appointed, which in¬ 
cludes many of the principal nurserymen and florists of 
the country. 
Horsetail, Equisetum — Mare’s-tail, Hippuris. 
Some time ago a correspondent of the N. E. Homestead 
published an article in which were set forth the gener¬ 
ally conceded injurious effects upon horses of the com¬ 
mon Horsetail, Equisetum anen-se. The writer added: 
“ There is another weed, own cousin to the Equisitaeae 
(!), which is poisonous to horses, and killing them, as I 
have heard in instances, that is, nippuris (Mare’s-taii). 
The plant resembles in growth the Horse-tail, only it 
grows much larger, to the hights of two feet or more, 
and of other proportions.” In an item in September 
last we called attention to this singular assertion, 
and, to show its absurdity, stated that “ nippuris 
is one of the rarest of plants, and as it grows in 
ponds, usually entirely under water, horses must 
he very acute to find it.” Tire correspondent of the 
Homestead does not like cither the manner or the matter 
of our item, and in a long reply asserts that he is not 
“ college-bred,” and a lot of other matter which ispf not 
tiie slightest consequence, but he makes some statements 
which he expects us to accept as facts, which are of im¬ 
portance. He quotes a description of Kippuri3 from 
Gray’s Manual, and says: 
“ I think that neither Gray or the agriculturist professor 
lived in the Connecticut river valley, or they would have 
written somewhat differently, for Hippnris is found in 
many towns lying contiguous to the Connecticut river 
from Hartford north up into Vermont, just how far I do 
not know, and it does not all grow in ponds and under 
water either, as almost any farmer there can tell you. I 
have myself seen on the east side of the river, in several 
towns, quantities of it growing, and more on moist land, 
not ponds or springs, than I ever saw growing in water; 
and as for its growing in Vermont, and horses eating and 
being poisoned or dying after having eaten it, I have the 
authority of the farmers who have lost horses in that 
way, or of some of their friends who were knowing to 
the circumstances.” 
Here it is asserted that a plant, usually considered 
rare, is of very frequent occurrence in the valley of the 
Connecticut; ttiat it grows out of the water quite as 
much or more than it grows in it, and that it is poison¬ 
ous to animals. These three statements are of great in¬ 
terest, not only to botanists, but to fanners, and are 
widely at variance with our own knowledge of thq 
Mare’s-tail; so, as our firstbotanist had been quoted by 
the writer in the Homestead, we addressed the following 
note to Dr. Gray: 
“ A discussion has arisen with respect to the Mare’8- 
tail, BMrpuris vulgaris. You will oblige me by replying 
to the following questions: 1. Are the localities for 
Hippuris in New England numerous ? if few, please name 
those recorded. 2. Is Hippuris known to grow other¬ 
wise than in water f 3. Have you ever known poisonous 
qualities to be attributed to Hippuris or its near 
botanical allies?” 
To these questions Professor Gray replies as follows: 
“In reply to your three questions I would say that, 
1. I have no evidence before me that Hippuris grows in 
New England at all, as there is no specimen in my her¬ 
barium from further east than Northern New York. 2. I 
never saw it growing out of water. I see it is described 
as having the tops sometimes rising out of lie water. 
3. I never heard of its having any poisonous p opertiss." 
The whole trouble witli the correspondent of the 
Homestead probably arises from his calling a plant Iflp- 
puxis which is something else. When corrected, instead 
of consulting with the nearest botanist, he persists iu his 
assertion, gives an innocent and very rare plant a bad 
name, and states that it is common where it does not 
occur at all. Under the circumstances we feel warranted 
in repeating with emphasis the sentence with which we 
concluded our note in September last, and one which 
seems to have troubled this correspondent of the Home¬ 
stead : “A knowledge of their subjects would help thes» 
professional writers for the press.” 
