1895 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
477 
THE PROSPECT. 
A news item states that Denmark butter factories 
send $30,000,000 worth of butter to Great Britain 
yearly. It then adds that the grovernment maintains 
a rigid inspection of cattle, and gives prizes at the 
dairy fairs. Any connection between the two ? If 
our Government enforced a rigid inspection of dairy 
products, so that foreigners had confidence in their 
purity, and squelched the fraudulent substitution of 
vile compounds for pure butter and cheese as it has 
the power to do, the latter would not be selling for 
the unreasonably low prices now prevailing. Filled 
cheese and oleo have prejudiced the markets of the 
world against the genuine products, and the dairy¬ 
men are suffering m consequence. 
O 
As will be noticed-in the account of the milk handling 
at Ellerslie Farm, Mr. Cottrell believes fully in the 
principle of aeration, or forcing pure air through the 
milk just after it is drawn from the cow. The dairy 
authorities do not appear to have any clear explana¬ 
tion of just what is accomplished by this operation. 
That it helps the milk is very evident to any one who 
will smell and taste of the product before and after 
the air has been blown through it. Yet this system 
may be used to ruin the milk, if impure air be used. 
The practice of aerating milk in the stable or some 
other bad-smelling or dusty place, is about the worst 
thing that can be done. The beauty of the system at 
Ellerslie is that all air that goes through the milk 
must first pass through absorbent cotton, and is thus 
thoroughly cleaned. 
© 
The following note will serve as “ last call ” on the 
late fodder corn question. The cows will need this 
fodder next winter. Make the soil “ carry double.” 
In reply to B.T. W., Rochester, Mass., page 441, as to what would 
be the best forage crop to follow strawberries, I have had good 
success with ensilage corn and sorghum. Two years ago I plowed 
a half acre of strawberries about July 1, harrowed the ground 
thoroughly with a slanting-tooth harrow, the same way it was 
plowed so as to make it smooth without bringing the old plants 
and mulch to the surface. It rained a little, and on the morning of 
the 5th, I planted the half acre to ensilage corn, using a common 
two-horse check-row corn planter that dropped one kernel about 
every six inches when the check wire was not on. I straddled the 
rows and planted it again, then doubled it again, which made the 
rows less than one foot apart, and I never saw such a crop of fod¬ 
der; it was about 12 feet high and as thick as it could stand. 
Some of it lodged, but it made excellent fodder. A few days later, 
I planted a piece to Evergreen sweet corn, but it did not turn out 
as much feed. Last season I treated another strawberry patch 
the same way, planted it to sorghum, and the yield was almost if 
not quite equal to the ensilage corn. A good deal of it lodged, and 
I cut that part and laid it in piles, letting it lie about a week, then 
piled it in larger piles until I wished to feed it. That which stood 
up, I shocked the same as I would corn; it all cured out nicely 
and made good fodder for my milch cows—if anything, a little 
ahead of corn fodder. If the cows left a little of the coarse stalks, 
I gave them to the horses, and they ate every bit. They seemed 
to be a little laxative, and kept my horses free from worms. 
Sorghum should be planted before July 15. eh corbin. 
Rock Island County, Ill. 
O 
Now is just the time to bring up the summer vaca¬ 
tion question. Last season, two boys aged 12 and 14 
years, living near Rockford, Ill., were given a half¬ 
acre of ground from which to get their spending 
money. They raised early potatoes mostly, and al¬ 
though the season was the most unfavorable known 
for years, they managed to save enough to take them 
to Lake Geneva, Wis., and pay their board for a week 
at a summer hotel, besides incidental expenses. The 
benefit they derived from this week spent among 
strangers in a strange place, the acquaintances made 
among refined city people, cannot be estimated in 
dollars and cents. This year they have formed a 
deep-laid scheme ; no other than to pay the railroad 
fare and two weeks’ board at a hotel for their father 
and mother. They have enlisted their aunt in their 
enterprise ; she is to keep house, and the boys will 
see to the farm work while the father and mother are 
away. The latter will have no knowledge of the plan 
until the week before going ; the boys will pay the 
hotel bill in advance, and buy the railroad tickets, so 
that there will be no alternative but to go. These 
country boys will never be called green ; they will be 
up-to-date young farmers, and will not stop short of 
success. Let us learn a lesson from them ; take the 
family to some resort for a week or so ; hire a cheap 
cottage, take the meals out; and live for a few days 
in rest and peace. If we cannot afford this, hire a 
tent, take an oil stove, cot, beds and blankets, and 
camp out, even though not more than five miles from 
home, and forget for a time the worries of life. 
“Work is too pressing!” “Have to look after the 
hired man!” “Stock to be taken care of!” “No 
money to spare ! ” etc. Well, if this is the case, send 
your wife and children to some pleasant resort for 
two weeks, not less. Get along some way, even 
though you have to do your own cooking, make your 
own beds, and do the sweeping. The expense ? It 
need not be very heavy. You ought to be able to get 
it in some way; if not you have no business on a 
farm. You may be surprised at the end of the two 
weeks to find how much you think of your family. 
You will be more likely to appreciate your wife ; there 
is no danger of appreciating her too much. And 
when you go to the station to meet them, you will 
have a smile upon your face in spite of yourself. Try 
it this year, and next year you will go yourself. Let 
us strive a little more after happiness, and a little 
less after the “almighty dollar.” DWIGHT herkick. 
R. N.-Y.—Amen to that! 
Q 
Lots of Eastern farmers are much concerned over 
bugs and blights, and think that they have more than 
their share of farm pests. Some of them might 
change their minds if they knew what is going on in 
other parts of this great country. In one part of Min¬ 
nesota, a big grasshopper plague has swept over the 
land. This letter from a man in the State of Wash¬ 
ington, gives a glimpse of trouble most of us know 
little about: 
I sowed about 70 acres of wheat this year; squirrels have taken 
about one-fifth or, say, 300 bushels. I have spent about 30 days 
destroying them, and paid for drugs about $12, or in all, 
300 bushels of wheat at 25 cents per bushel.$75.00 
30 days at $1 per day. 30.00 
Drugs. 12.00 
Total.$117.00 
I used strychnine, phosphorus, cyanide of potassium, carbon 
bisulphide and traps. I believe strychnine to be the most effect¬ 
ive poison in use. As to the gas treatment; in holes can I im¬ 
prove on carbon bisulphide ? I pay 15 cents a pound for it. How 
does it compare with sulphurous oxide in suffocating power ? 
We have machines here for forcing sulphur smoke into the dens. 
Lincoln County, Wash. s. c. 
The animals alluded to are ground squirrels or 
gophers. To comprehend the magnitude of this pest, 
imagine 1,000 woodchucks on your farm instead of 
half a dozen. We believe that the carbon bisulphide 
is the deadliest gas for killing these burrowing ani¬ 
mals. Certainly it is the handiest to use where one 
has but a few to kill. For such wholesale slaughter 
as our friend is called upon to perform, sulphur smoke 
may be better. Will some of our Western readers 
tell us ? 
A STARTER FOR CRIMSON CLOVER BACTERIA 
There is one point in connection with the successful 
growing of leguminous crops that I have not seen 
touched upon in this Crimson clover discussion ; that 
is the part that bacteria have in enabling the plant to 
gather nitrogen from the air. In the absence of these 
bacteria, the plant is powerless to make use of atmos¬ 
pheric nitrogen, and if the seed be sown on land that 
is deficient in available organic nitrogen such as a 
field that has just produced a heavy crop of corn, and 
the germs of the particular species of bacteria that 
produce nodules on Crimson clover are absent from 
the soil, is it not probable that the clover plants may 
die from slow starvation ? In some of the reports on 
Crimson clover I notice that it is stated that the seed 
germinated and the plants started with a flourish at 
first and then gradually died. It seems to me that a 
plausible way to account for this is, that during the 
first period of growth, the young plants secured more 
or less nitrogen from the soil. But as the season 
advanced, and the ground became colder and nitrifica¬ 
tion of the organic matter in the soil grew less, the 
plants, owing to the absence of the proper bacteria, 
were unable to secure any from the abundant atmos¬ 
pheric supply, and the result was starvation instead 
of “winterkilling.” 
Prof. Brooks, of Amherst, in a lecture before the 
Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture last winter, 
speaking of nitrogen-gathering crops and these bac¬ 
teria, said, “ Owing to the long cultivation of the 
common clovers, peas and beans, the germs of the 
bacteria peculiar to each are common to most soils ; 
but this is not likely to be the case with the bacteria 
developing upon the roots of such crops as are new in 
any particular locality. Thus, for example, the Soja 
bean upon the grounds of the Storrs School Experi¬ 
ment Station was a failure—clearly being unable to 
appropriate nitrogen from the air—until the appro¬ 
priate bacteria were procured from Amherst, when a 
seemingly magical change was produced. Attention 
is called to this fact to emphasize this point: farmers 
should not be too easily discouraged in their trials of 
new leguminous crops ; they may succeed poorly at 
first, on account of the comparatively small number 
of their nodular bacteria present; but may later prove 
profitable when these bacteria become abundant, as 
they generally will in the course of a few years.” 
Prof. Brooks thinks that he imported some of the 
bacteria from Japan on the Soja bean seed, it having 
probably come in the dust and dirt with the beans, as 
after a few years, the soil at Amherst was plentifully 
supplied with the bacteria peculiar to this bean. It 
seems to me that it would be a good idea when send¬ 
ing to Delaware for seed of the Crimson clover, to pro¬ 
cure also a small amount of soil from a field in which 
the clover had flourished for several years. It is just 
possible that the Crimson clover bacteria may not be 
the same as that of common clover, and that with a 
small amount of the right “ culture ” for a “ starter ” 
properly propagated in a bed, enough could soon be 
had to stock the whole farm. 
Prof. Massey, of North Carolina, claims that the 
Crimson clover will stand more cold than the Red, and 
it seems to me that the farmers of the North should 
not become too easily discouraged about its “ winter- 
killing ” until they have tried every means in their 
power to make it grow. When I first began growing 
peas for fodder, Canada peas made but a small growth; 
but now, after growing them a number of years, I 
get a larger and heavier growth each year. This 
year, on the part of one piece where the present 
crop is the third in four years on that part of the 
field, the peas are decidedly the best, although 
there is not much difference in the oats and barley 
growing with the peas. I attribute the difference in 
the peas to a plentiful supply of bacteria in the soil. 
Massachusetts. f. a. putnam. 
SOME SICK ANIMALS. 
ANSWERS BY F. L. KILBORNK. 
Hog With a Weak Back. 
I have a hog that has been sick for about two weeks; its hind 
parts are stiff, it can hardly rise; when so doing it sits a good 
while, and when up it keeps stamping its hind feet one at a time. 
It eats well enough, but keeps its back bowed up, and does not 
want to travel much. It is kept in a good pen with a small lot to 
run in whenever it wishes. What is the matter, and what is the 
remedy ? j. h. h. 
Drennen, Pa. 
Bathe the loins once daily with the following lini¬ 
ment until well blistered : Sweet oil, strong aqua 
ammonia and oil of turpentine, equal parts of each. 
Shake well together, and shake before using. 
A Lame Horse; Puff on Colt's Leg. 
1. My young mare, not accustomed to farm work,-lias become 
lame and sore in the shoulder from drawing a harrow on rough 
plowed ground. There is no blemish or swelling, neither can I 
discover any fever, but she just seems stiff in the shoulder. 2. A 
colt twelve months old, has a puff on the inside front of the hock. 
It is very much like a bog spavin, a little soft to the touch, but not 
very sore. There is very little or no lameness, but it is a decided 
blemish if permanent. It has been showing for a month or six 
weeks, and was lame a few days previous to that time. How can 
it be removed ? j. c. 
Westover, Md. 
1. If simply sore and stiff, rest and bathing with 
witch hazel, tincture of arnica or alcohol, will be all 
the treatment necessary. I suspect, however, that 
your horse is sweenied. If so, it will be shown by a 
rolling outward of the point of the shoulder, seen by 
standing directly in front of the animal and compar¬ 
ing the two shoulders. Wasting of the muscles on 
the outside of the shoulder will soon be noticeable. 
In this case, rest and the application of an active lini¬ 
ment or mild blister over the muscles, should effect 
a cure. If recovery do not occur in three or four 
weeks, consult a veterinarian. 2. Clip the hair and 
apply a fly blister over the whole puff. Two or three 
applications may be necessary. Rub the blister in 
thoroughly, and allow it to remain until the skin is 
well blistered—24 to 36 hours usually being required 
—then carefully wash off. Keep the head tied so that 
the colt cannot reach the blister with his mouth. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Don’t let any fruit go to waste this year. Get one of the U. S. 
cook-stove driers, and save it all. 
Ip you have a creamery to lease or sell, write to Simplex Dairy 
Co., 812 Bennett Building, New York. 
Some of the superior points of the Freeman steel windmill are : 
Strength, galvanized .after completion, simple in construction, 
and self-oiling Babbitt boxes. For the many other good points, 
send to S. Freeman and Son’s Mfg. Co., 176 Bridge St., Racine, Wis. 
Ip you are building a new barn this year, or repairing an old 
one, why not look into the merits of those “Slow Feed’’ mangers ? 
It may be well to know all about them anyway. Broad Gauge 
Iron Stall Works, 53 Elm St., Boston, Mass., will tell you all about 
them. 
A machine to cut and bind corn just as wheat is cut and bound 
is being put on the market by the McCorm ick Harvester Co., of 
Chicago, Ill. From appearances, it seems to be just the thing 
needed. Those interested should send to the manufacturers for 
full description and we shall have some reports from those who 
have used it later. 
The R. N.-Y. likes to see a man begin at the bottom, and rejoices 
when he works right up to the top round in the ladder in his spe¬ 
cial line. This is what the nurseryman, T. J. Dwyer, of Cornwall, 
N. Y., has done in his Orange County Nurseries. He has done 
so by hard work, personal attention to all details of his work, and 
a determination to earn a reputation for first-class stock. His 
summer catalogue is now ready and will be sent on application. 
Ip you have never tried it, you will be surprised to find what a 
real fine summer drink you can have always ready in a homemade 
root beer made from Hires’ extract. It is one of the most cooling 
and refreshing of drinks, and nothing that we know of is better 
—few if any drinks as good—for quenching thirst. It is a drink 
fit for your choicest guest, and so cheap that you can have it in 
daily use. There is no trouble at all in making it, and it is a 
healthful as well as a delicious temperance drink. 
Some of our folks tell of Crimson clover seed that grew out of 
the ground 28 hours after sowing ! This is a mighty lively plant, 
and when it comes to a head, everything on the farm must move 
at a Maud S. rate. Mr. E. H. Bancroft of Delaware cut 80 tons of 
Crimson clover into his silo in one day! Yes, sir, and he could 
have cut more if he’d had more teams to haul it ! Now he didn’t 
take a broadax and a chopping block to cut that clover up ! His 
wife didn’t come out with her chopping tray and knife. He just 
went and got a Smalley ensilage cutter, hitched the power on, 
chucked in the clover—and the thing was done. There is nothing 
small about this cutter except its name, and its performance is so 
large that you regard the name only as the representative of a 
well-earned reputation for square dealing. Mr. Minard Harder of 
Cobleskill, N. Y., sells this cutter in the East. Write him at once 
for a catalogue. 
