(1.) Fever drink —Sweet spirits of nitre 1 ounce, 
mindererus spirit 6 ounces, water 4 ounces. 
(2.) Malignant epidemic fever drink— simple oxymel 
[a mixture of vinegar and honey] mindererus spirit, 
beer yeast of each 4oz. sweet spirits of nitre loz. 
(3.) Fumigations for purifying infected stables, sheds, 
&fc .—Manganese 2 ounces, common salt 2 ounces, oil of 
vitriol 3 ounces, water 1 ounce. Put the mixed manga¬ 
nese and salt into a basin; then, having before mixed 
the vitriol and water very gradually, pour them, by 
means of tongues, or any thing that would enable you to 
stand at a sufficient distance, on the articles in the ba¬ 
sin gradually. As soon as the fumes rise, retire and 
shut up the door close.* 
(4.) Tonic Alteratives —Gentian, aloes, ginger, blue 
vitriol, in powder, of each one drachm, oak bark in 
powder 6 drachms. , __ 
Spirit of Foreign Agricultural Journals. 
The principles of an enlightened agriculture have al¬ 
most a universal application. The practices of agricul¬ 
ture vary with climate, with soil, and the demands of 
the market. The European agricultural publications 
contain much of the principles that is useful in our 
practice, and much in practice, from which we may 
profit. They also contain much which is very useful 
on the other side of the Atlantic, but which it would be 
a waste of ink and paper, to promulgate here. We de¬ 
sign to separate the wheat from the chaff, that is, to give 
an abstract, or to publish in detail, such matters, as 
have a direct application to our husbandry, whether in 
principle or in practice, and to omit what is inapplica¬ 
ble to our climate, our products and our markets. These 
notices will of course be excursive, as we find them in 
perusing the foreign works to which we have access. 
If any apology or explanation is deemed necessary, 
for filling so many of our columns with foreign instead 
of domestic extracts—we have two reasons to offer, viz. 
1. That the principles or science of agriculture are better 
understood and applied in Europe than they are in Ameri¬ 
ca, and the practices, perhaps from necessity, more 
economically and profitably managed there, than they 
are with us. And 2. Because these extracts add much 
to the stock of our agricultural knowledge, by superadd¬ 
ing to American skill and knowledge, which is being 
widely disseminated, the agricultural skill and know¬ 
ledge of another continent, from whose science and 
practice we have profited greatly, and may profit much 
more, in all the arts of productive labor, and particu¬ 
larly in the various departments of husbandry. In se¬ 
lecting models for imitation and improvement, it is al¬ 
ways wise to select good ones; for if we fail in copying 
the entire picture, we may catch at least the great out¬ 
lines, and fill up the canvass as our leisure or our inte¬ 
rests will permit or require. 
HONEY-DEW AND MILDEW PREVENTED BY SALT. 
George W. Johnson has given an essay, in the Quar¬ 
terly Journal of Agriculture, on the diseases incidental 
to the most usually cultivated plants, in which he as¬ 
cribes the honey-dew to a morbid state of the sap of the 
plants on which it is found; and he states several expe¬ 
riments in which it was prevented, by the application of 
a weak solution of common salt. There is danger in 
making the pickle too strong, so as to injure the plant. 
Put one ounce of salt, says Mr. Johnson, to a gallon of 
water. “ I have noticed,” says he, “ that standard fruit 
trees, around which, at the distance of six or eight inch¬ 
es from the stem, I had deposited, at the depth of 
twelve inches, a quantity of salt, to promote the general 
health of the tree, according to the manner adopted to 
some extent in the cider countries, for the apple or¬ 
chards ; that these escaped the honey-dew, (which in¬ 
fested adjacent trees,) just as well as those which had 
been watered with salt and water.” 
The experiments of Hittand Knight, which Mr. John¬ 
son quotes, go to show, that salt is also a preventive of 
mildew, a conclusion which we had almost arrived at, 
from our limited experiments upon the gooseberry and 
grape. By the use of water in which a small portion of 
common salt had been dissolved, Knight preserved the 
health of his autumnal crop of peas from mildew, a 
disease to which they are very subject. “ It is more 
than probable,” says this distinguished horticulturist, 
“ that most of the diseases of plants arise, in some way 
or other, from the irregular action of the sap, caused 
very often by sudden transitions in the atmosphere.— 
By a very easy experiment, the cultivator may con¬ 
vince himself of the power of common salt in preventing 
these injuries.” 
The use of salt in promoting health, or preventing 
disease in animals, is now well known; as is the fact, 
that it is most favorable to farm stock when given daily. 
How far the analogy will hold good between animals 
and vegetables, remains to be ascertained. It seems 
from the experiments above noted, that it does operate 
beneficially in preventing certain diseases in some plants. 
This should encourage us to experiment with it upon 
others. 
In speaking of the extravasation of sap from trees and 
vines, which often takes place to a prejudicial extent, 
from wounds in trees caused by winter or spring prun¬ 
ing, before the leaves have expanded, Mr. Johnson di¬ 
rects, as the best means of preventing or checking the 
flow, that the wound be covered with a sponge, dipped 
in.a solution of sulphate of iron, and the sponge covered 
with a piece of sheet lead, and bound there firmly. 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS, 
Are springing up in Ireland, and measures are taking 
* Chloride of soda, or of lime, exposed in a tiquid form, in 
open vessels, would probably be alike afficacious. 
to establish them in England; while in France, says the 
Westford Independent, “new schools are founded daily, 
establishments for rearing cattle of improved breeds, 
and making experiments in husbandry, are formed and 
conducted at the cost of government, and a considera¬ 
ble number of our best animals and sheep, are constant¬ 
ly purchased to improve the native stock. Professors 
are appointed in various parts of the country, to give 
lectures on agriculture, and in short, all possible means 
taken to render the nation independent of foreign coun¬ 
tries, for the supply of such necessaries of life as are 
capable of being produced by their own soil. We con¬ 
sider these schools the grand basis of agricultural im¬ 
provement—the light that will shed its benign influence 
on the mist that now envelops the principles upon which 
the most important practical operations in agriculture 
are based.” 
The most prominent plan proposed in England, is to 
establish a national agricultural college, upon a broad 
and liberal basis, to be supplied with the best teachers, 
and to connect with it pattern or experimental farms, 
upon different soils, and in different sections of .the 
kingdom, to be under the direction of the best practical 
men. In the college the scientific theory of the art is to 
be taught, and the explanations of the different systems 
of practice in the kingdom and abroad to be given.— 
The practical instructions to be given on the farms, to 
which the students are to be sent for stated periods. 
“These farms to be used solely for experiments, to test 
and prove every suggestion that science, theory and practice 
may offer: and if upon repeated trials, they be found irre¬ 
ducible to practice, they will fall to the ground; if they suc¬ 
ceed, they would be sent forth as attested and valuable facts. 
The members of the central college and the conductors of 
the farms would be in constant communication, comparing 
and examining every suggestion and observation, both by 
science and practice, and detailing to each other, for the ge¬ 
neral benefit, the results of reflection and experience.” “ If 
ever such an institution be established,” says a writer in the 
Farmers’Magazine, “ the first step must be, to kick sheer 
overboard, the prejudices of men, and to level with the dust 
that curse of' the human race, the great barrier to improve¬ 
ment in all ages of the world. On every subject, the greater 
part of mankind are biassed in favor of some particular way 
of thinking, and way of performing any operation which they 
have adopted, and to which they have been accustomed, and 
of which very few are ever able to divest themselves. Pre¬ 
judice completely obscures our perceptive and intuitive pow¬ 
ers, clogs our understanding, and perverts our judgment, and 
renders wholly useless the reasoning faculty conferred upon 
us as the distinguishing characteristic of our nature. No sound 
judgment can be exercised on any subject, or a satisfactory 
conclusion arrived at, where this pernicious propensity pre¬ 
vails: no dependence can be placed on the opinion of any 
man, who allows his judgment to take precedence of his rea¬ 
son, and whose mind is wilfully shut against conviction.— 
For the furtherance of any art, the great essential desidera¬ 
tum is to combine theory and practice; and on this point the 
agricultural world (with some splendid exceptions,) has floun¬ 
dered over head and ears in the mud. It is only of late years, 
that our mechanics and manufacturers have been able to com¬ 
bine them; but until that be effected, and as much as possi¬ 
ble in the same persons, or by different persons being in con¬ 
stant and friendly intercourse, it is very evident the progress 
will be slow. If properly established and conducted, incal¬ 
culable benefits might accrue. The members of the college 
must consist of men eminent for knowledge in every branch 
of education connected with agriculture, and one thoroughly 
versed in agriculture itself, and their employment would be 
to draw suggestions from the investigations of science, to be 
transmitted to the farms for the test of experience. The con¬ 
ductors of these farms must be the most intelligent practi¬ 
tioners that can be found for the soils they are intended to 
manage; thoroughly acquainted with arable farming and the 
suitable implements; our different breeds of stock; intelligent 
and open to, and able to comprehend, and able to execute, 
the suggestions transmitted to them from the central college. 
Until we have a field of tests, we do not know what invalua¬ 
ble discoveries may he hid in suggestions laughed at and ne¬ 
glected, or in those that may be made. That great absurdity 
has attended many of them, must be readily granted; but the 
wheat cannot be obtained without separating it from the 
chaff.” 
Thus far our extract. There is no truth more palpa¬ 
ble, than that science, to benefit agriculture as it has 
benefitted the other arts, must be associated and com¬ 
bined with its practical labors, as it has been profitably 
combined with the labors of the artizan and manufac¬ 
turer. And we are of opinion that this would be more 
efficiently done, in a school and farm in the same loca¬ 
tion, than it could be where the school is located in one 
place and the farm in another. Locations may be found 
which combine most of the varieties of soil; and the 
principles of science being well inculcated, and their 
general application to practice properly taught and 
explained, the pupil would be qualified judiciously 
to vary his practice according to soil and circumstances. 
Like civil engineering, which was hardly taught or 
practised before the commencement of our system of 
internal improvements, a school of scientific and prac¬ 
tical agriculture would soon produce competent teach¬ 
ers, to take charge of new institutions, or to dissemi¬ 
nate in the community, the various branches of useful 
knowledge acquired in the school. 
STRATHMORE AGRICULTURE. 
A premium of ten sovereigns was awarded last fall, 
by the Highland Agricultural Society, to Robert P. 
Newton, of Hally burton, for an essay on the rural ma¬ 
nagement of the Forfarshire part of the western dis¬ 
trict of Strathmore. We abstract some facts of general 
application, as interesting and profitable to our read¬ 
ers. 
The potato, Hopetoun and common oat, are cultivat¬ 
ed extensively, not only as cattle food, but as a princi¬ 
pal bread corn for the inhabitants. The common oat 
pays best on poor soils; the Hopetoun ripens earliest,-, 
an object there, but is most liable to smut; it gives the 
best straw, and the potato oat, on good land, the best 
yield in grain. 
Root crops, that is, the potato and ruta baga, are ex¬ 
tensively cultivated, fed to cattle, and, being thus con¬ 
verted into beef and mutton, are conveyed, at trifling 
expense, to market, and turned into money, while the 
manure they produce, goes to enrich the land. 
Bone dust is in high estimation, and a handsome pub¬ 
lic acknowledgment has been made to Mr. Keillor, 
who first introduced it, and demonstrated its advantages. 
Bone dust and sheeping together, that is, pasturing of 
sheep, form the most ample and rich preparation for 
the barley crop, which is a favorite one in the district. 
It would be equally advantageous for any other arable 
crop, which should follow turnips. 
REARING CALVES. 
We have endeavored to convince our breeders, and 
even our dairymen, that they mistake their interest, in 
not rearing more calves. Cattle have become scarce, 
from the demands of the butcher and the dairyman, and 
command double the price which they formerly did. It 
has been the practice of the dairymen to deacon their 
calves, that is, to kill them at three days old, to save 
milk; and of the breeder of prime stock, to give two 
cows to one calf, in order to grow large calves—a bad 
criterion, however, of good ones—to let the calves run 
with the cows, and thus sensibly to diminish the value 
of the cows as good milkers. In Strathmore, a far 
better mode is practised. One cow brings up five calves, 
and instead of the latter subsisting altogether upon 
milk, they are early taught to subsist, in part, upon that 
food which is ultimately to constitute their entire sub¬ 
sistence. This course is dictated as well by economy 
as by nature. This mode of managing calves is from 
Mr. Watson, and we give it in his words. 
“ The cows intended lor nursing, generally calve early in 
the season, about the month of January or February, when 
a strange calf is procured from some of the small tenants in 
the district, who have dairies. This calf is suckled with the 
others by the same cow, and although the cow at first shows 
great dislike to the stranger, in a few days she receives it very 
quietly, care being taken that both are put to suck (one on 
each side,) exactly at the same time, by tying the calves 
bands to the stall, or to the band of the cow, so as to keep each 
calf at its own side. They remain with the cow for fifteen 
or twenty minutes, by which time her milk is perfectly drawn 
away. As the calves advance in age, they eat hay, sliced 
potato, porridge, and other food they are inclined to take.— 
By the first of May, or as soon as grass is ready, they are 
weaned and turned out from the byre, when two fresh calves 
are immediately put into their stalls, and receive the same 
treatment, excepting that they are turned out at twelve o’¬ 
clock, after they have got their suck, to eat grass, and are 
brought into the byre again at evening, when the cows come 
in to be sucked. This set is ready to be weaned by the first 
of August, and a single calf is put into the feeding-pen, and 
fattened for the butcher, the season being now too late lor 
rearing. As these are fed off’, the cows are let off milk, hav¬ 
ing each suckled five calves. It is necessary to have a very 
steady and careful person to attend to the suckling, which 
has to be done three times a day, viz: early in the morning, 
before the cows are turned out to grass, at mid-day, and in 
the evening when the cows come into the byre for the night, 
and get a little cut grass, tares, or other green food. The 
byre is arranged so that each of the cows has a stall about 
four feet wide, with their heads to the wall; and on the oppo¬ 
site wall the calves are tied up, two in a stall, exactly behind 
the cow, so that there is little trouble in putting them to the 
cow) and no chance of misplacing them. The fat calves 
have in some seasons been sold at £5 (=$22,) each, this be¬ 
ing the scarcest time of the year for veal.” 
On the advantages of sheep husbandry, in improving 
the soil, Mr. Newton is decided and earnest. 
“It is now universally allowed,” he remarks, “ that there 
is no manure which diffuses itself more equally, or which is 
more valuable in its effects, than that produced by sheep, 
whether as applied on pasture land or in turnip feeding on 
the ground. Farmers in this district are now so satisfied of 
this, that they almost universally make a point of grazing 
their pasture lands one year with sheep. It is an old remark, 
that where you have plenty of sheep, plenty of oats follow.” 
Oats, it will be remembered, being the great agricultural 
staple of Scotland. 
In speaking of the roads, Mr. N. very justly gives a 
preference to M’Adams over rail roads, as means of fa¬ 
cilitating agricultural improvement and profit. “The 
superiority of the M’Adams system,” he says, “ is now 
almost universally acknowledged, and almost universal¬ 
ly adopted.” Rail-roads are private, or corporate pro¬ 
perty, subject to the caprice and changes of their pro¬ 
prietors; while the other roads are public, upon which 
every man can travel with his own team, subject to a 
moderate regulated toll. 
Cattle sheds are general. The pillars which support 
the roof are of cast iron, and cost 10s. ($2.22,) each 
the walls are of stone, and the roof is slated. The cattle 
are put in them in cold, rainy or stormy weather, and 
well littered. These sheds are cleaned out at the mid¬ 
dle and close of the season, and the manure is conveyed 
to some spot for a dung hill, convenient to the field to 
which it is to be applied; and women and boys are em¬ 
ployed to go over the pasture with a barrow, to collect 
the droppings, which are added to the pile; the dung is 
turned and mixed, and in August and September, three 
parts of waste earth are mixed with two of the dung- 
and in this condition it is soon after applied as a top 
jessing to grass lands, in proportion to 20 cart loads, 
of 30 bushels each, to the acre. 
The rents in this district average 32s. or about $7 the 
u Cie ' “ peasantry” —farmers—are represented to 
be a sober, hard-working quiet racethe “ hinds”— 
