Rural 2s T ates anl) (Elucrte 
mortar. The top of tbe vat should be made to 
guard against rains and surface water as much 
as possible. The drain should fall considerably, 
ami should be made of plank eight iuches high, 
and one foot wide, inside. The head of the drain 
should be covered over with a good, strong iron 
grate. The yard ought to be well paved with 
cobble stone, and, with a little pains, you can 
always have a dry yard. The water from the 
barn and sheds should never be allowed to run 
into the yard, but should be carried by good 
eave-troughs to a large cistern for the. purpose 
of watering stock.— Working Farmer. 
guvai spirit of tlu ivustf 
« about or under six months old," anu. » un¬ 
common after “a severe winter and a cold, 
wet spring,” and among weakly animals. Mr. 
Spooler save: “This disease is principally con¬ 
fined to young sheep and to the first year. 
He remarks that it is supposed to destroy a 
million of sheep annually in France, and two 
per cent of the whole number in Germany. 
Staggers, in this country, attack sheep of all 
ages. Within the sphere of our observation it 
has iudeed oftenest attacked tegs, but novel 
those so young by some months as the princi¬ 
pal victims of the malady in England. And in¬ 
stead of attacking the weakly, it has generally 
fallen on those in good condition, or which 
gaining rapidly under the st imulus of high feed, 
in the winter. The transition from apparent 
health to the full development of the symptoms 
was extremely sudden. No intermediate con¬ 
ditions, no gradual approaches of the malady 
were observed, as we should expect from a gradu¬ 
ally increasing cause of disease, like a growing 
or expanding bladder of fluid., each day press¬ 
ing a little more forcibly on the brain. It has 
been by no means uniformly fatal, as we should 
expect if a cause of this kind existed to such 
an extent as to produce partial blindness and 
unconsciousness, and if that cause remained 
unremoved. We have seen sheep gradually re¬ 
cover, after exhibiting all the most decided 
symptoms of staggers, w ithout any remedy or 
any attempt at a remedy; and we have seen 
prompt relief sometimes afforded by bleeding 
and other depletory treatment, winch coaid 
have no effect on a hydatid lodged in the 
Though tho 
this first day or May, our reports in 
i and crop prospects are quite 
Farmers horn up the Genesee Volley— 
' '—aver that the wheat and grass 
crops look unusually well, and that the soil cultivators 
are in good spirit 
and harvest will both prove 
man. And farmers t— =r . 
season is sn 
The Season, Cnor Prospects, &c. 
air is chilly on 
regard to the season 
favorable. 1- 
visiting the city to-day 
A gooo deal has been said as to the best 
manner of raising calves. Milk is an expens ve 
food, but (ora time Set least it must be used as 
there is uothing that can so well be employed in 
the early life of the calf. Alter weaning from 
milk to Whey weare informed the best results 
are obtaiued by feeding the sugar beet. Cut in 
thin slices they soon learn to eat the beets, 
and become so fond of them as to eat with ft vo¬ 
racious appetite. This kind of food makes them 
sleek and fat. It is a cheap food, aud there is no 
dan OK of overfeeding. Where there are several 
toe-ether, of different ages, the younger 
s, believing the promised seed time 
■ —» favorable for the husband- 
and gardeners hereabouts say the 
nicieatly early for all practical purposes in 
their operations, albeit fires and overcoats (notwith¬ 
standing the high prices of coal anil cloth) are “neces¬ 
sary evils’* in the city. In this region spring work 
has been well forwarded, many of our farmers taking 
time by the forelock, aud sowing oats and planting 
potatoes on warm, sunshiny days —so that the ma¬ 
jority of cultivators can probably report commensurate 
aud seasonable progress. Our accounts from other 
sections, near and distant, are generally of a favorable 
character,—and the absence of unfavorable reports at 
this eeason, which is the fact now, is certainly cheer¬ 
ing. Let. every man do his duty, improving the t alents 
trjven him, and the fruits of the earth will be produced 
ter of 18G3-4, with buckwheat straw, with lo cwt. ot 
good marsh hay. They preferred the former He 
gave the lot three pints of buckwheat per day. A few 
of them had sore ears and one scratched its brisket 
until fi was raw. The sheep were of the common 
varietv. During the last winter be has kepthis sheep 
on wheat straw, thrashed with a machine, and two 
bundles of buckwheat In the straw, with an occasional 
change feed of rut a bagae A few have sore ears 
and the flock is not in as good condition as preceding 
winter, hut is in “ good heart 
Several other correspondents have addressed ns on 
the same topic, bnt unfortunately their articles were 
lost, probably in the mail, on their way for publica¬ 
tion. They will therefore excuse us for their non- 
appearance. It appears to he the testimony of a 
majority, so Tar, that buckwheat straw is liable to 
produce soreness about the head and other symptoms 
named bv previous correspondents. If a fact.it is a 
Cornish Mode of Raising Early Potatoes. 
Sprouting the seed is sow universally prac¬ 
ticed wherever early maturity is desired. This 
is done in the following manner: An airy light 
room or loft, with windows to be closed in 
severe weather, has tiers of shelves filling up all 
its available space. These are often, from lack 
of room, too close to each other, and a foot 
from shelf to shelf may be given as a good ave¬ 
rage distance. On these shelves the seed is care¬ 
fully placed, each on its end; one sack weigh¬ 
ing two cwt. will thus require about thirty 
square feet of superficial space. With a due 
supply of light aud air, and the occasional re¬ 
moval of any tuber showing signs of disease, 
they may remain till planting time comes. The 
great object is to secure strong, healthy and 
w-eli-colored shoot&, about two iuches In length ; 
the neglect of ventilation aud a proper amount 
of light producing weuk, colorless shoots, liable 
both to injury in removing them, and to decay 
when planted. The earliest crops arejnow in¬ 
variably grown from sprouted seed, and they are 
drawn a good fortnight in advance of former 
years when autumnal planting>as the |rulc.— 
Journal of Horticulture. 
fature against the management or this College. We 
trust the investigation proposed will remove the cloud 
which now hangs over this institution." 
This brief paragraph, written (by our A 1011 associate) 
without malice or the least intention or injury to the 
College, as we believe, has called out a private letter 
(received during our absence) from one of the officers 
of the Mich. State Board of Agriculture, iu which 
occurs this sentence " The Michigan Slate Board of 
Agriculture, and the Faculty of the Michigan State 
Agricultural College, were surprised at the appear¬ 
ance of this paragraph, in your paper, which, owing 
to its somewhat extensive circulation in this and 
other Western States, had just, been used as a medium 
for advertising the Institution, and it was not expected 
that anything calculated to counteract the influence of 
the advertisement wonld bo published through the 
same medium, without good reason." The same ofli- 
cer scuds us a statement showing that the Legislature 
absolves the Institution-a Committee of that body 
declaring that "the said Board aud Faculty have not 
assumed illegal and unwarrantable powers in the man¬ 
agement and conduct or said College, unless it may 
Lave been in the matter of payment of the Secretary, 
of the legality of which your Committee express no 
opinion."-In reference to which we bog to say, that 
we have ever been friendly to the Institution, lia-ring 
many times voluntarily noticed the same favorably— 
that wc are glad no cloud is over it or likely to leesen 
its influence or usefulness, -but that no advertising 
natranaee ever has or will be likely to influence the 
singular one. 
Communications, Ctc 
NORTHERN MICHIGAN 
Since my name appeared in 
brain. And, finally, as uin-.au> 
recollect of bearing of a single case, in this 
country, of a hydatid being found in the brain 
of a sheep. 
The disease in both cases is of an apopuctlo 
character, produced hy an unnatural pressure 
on the brain. But both the proximate and more 
remote causes are different, aud they originate 
under different natural and artificial circum¬ 
stances. For all practical purposes, either as 
respects prevention or remedy, they are essen¬ 
tially distinct maladies, with the lines of de- 
markation forcibly drawn, They ought there¬ 
fore, to avoid confusion, to be distinguished by 
different names. The term staggers is not very 
characteristic of the American disease— stagger¬ 
ing being neither a marked nor persistent symp¬ 
tom of it. A better designation of It, we think, 
would he Apoplexy. It certainly is not the 
fully developed form of the disease, described 
under that name by English writers on sheep, 
(see Practical Shepherd p. 280,) and which we 
have never -witnessed. Nor is it that entire 
abolition of sense and voluntary motion im¬ 
plied by the term apoplexy under the old strict 
defenition of the word. But, so far as it goes, 
it is the same effect, produced by' the same 
causes both proximate and remote. It is there- 
Eds. Rural 
your columns in answer to an inquiry lrom “M. 
b. A.,” in relation to Government land in Mich¬ 
igan, 1 have received so many letters of iuquiry 
from persons seeking homes, that I take this 
way to answer them. Northern Michigan, as a 
whole, is a wilderness of Maple, Elm, Basswood, 
Pine, Cedar, Hemlock, Balsam and Spruce. The 
soft timber, Pine, Cedar, Ac,, is scattered along 
the water courses, while the Maple and other 
hard timber is on the high or level land. 
Tbe country is well watered hy rivers of small 
size, numerous small lakes and springs. M e 
have one of the most healthful and exhiierating 
climates I ever knew, with no prevailing disease, 
not even Ague can live here. The winters are 
mild and pleasant, with plenty of snow. The 
coldest day this winter was 10° below zero. The 
soil is a sandy loam, with subsoil of a day or 
mvel. Winter wheat seems best adapted to 
the soil aud climate. Season is rather short lor 
w e Dent corn, but the smaller varieties do 
Sowing and Covering of Grass Seed. 
From experiments conducted] hy Messrs. 
Drummond & Sons, Stirling, England, a fact is 
proved that has only bucu suspectedl,by some 
farmers, that in many cases a considerable por¬ 
tion of the seeds of the grasses and ]clovers are 
lost owing to the manner of sowing and cover¬ 
ing them. Germination of such small seeds is 
often wholly prevented, owing to tbu depth of 
the covering of earth; and when the seeds do 
germinate, the weak shoots do not reach the 
surface, and thus they are not established in the 
soil. The most favorable depth is proved to be 
a quarter of an inch for timothy, grass, and clo¬ 
ver seeds generally. The proportion per cent, 
of the former, which vegetates successfully, at 
this depth, is shown to he 88; while at half an 
inch it is 79, and at one inch, only 57 per cent. 
At the period of sowing grass seeds, farmers 
would do well to heed carefully the results ol 
these interesting experiments.—A5-. 
Hog Pens. 
Evert farmer knows how offensive a common 
sized bog pc-n or yard becomes during the hot 
weather of summer, and how during a rainy time 
it becomes in fact a swamp ot mud. To remedy 
this those who have abundance fill up with straw 
‘ is, Ac., and yet the remedy is 
the smell is not disposed of, and 
full half the time wading in 
or other litter, ashei 
only partial; 1- 
the animals are 
mire. 
The following manner of building a pen we 
have known to remedy the evil completely :— 
Take two pieces of 6 hy 8 timber, each fourteen 
feet long; dress one end of each in lorm of a 
sled runner, then lay them parallel eight feet 
apart, with the six-inch edge on the ground; 
now take 4 by 4 scantling and halve or tenant in 
crosswise one piece at each end, and one loot 
from the ends of A runners, leaving the four- 
inch strips one at^^Hte-hali inches below the 
level line of the uo^Bide of the runners; next 
lay a floor of oxw inctl P la,lk ovcr 
one-half of the stllaTe, say eight by six feet. 
Next mortice in ■! ly 4 scantling at each corner 
and midways for pfets on which to nail boards 
for the enclosing. Let these four hy four poEts 
be flush with the outside line of the runners; 
then nail inch hoards on the inside, dividing the 
whole with a cross fence or partition on a line 
Roof over the floored part, form 
California Rural Home Journal. Among other 
matters which we have omitted to “ make a note of, 
is the appearance of the above entitled Journal—a 
handsome eight page quarto eemi-moutlily, recentlj 
started in San Francisco l>y T. Hart Hyatt & Co. 
It Is the same size as the Rural, similar iu style, and 
devoted to about, as many subjects —its beautiful 
vignette heading including Agriculture, Horticulture, 
Vine Culture, Farm Stock. Rural Architecture, Do¬ 
mestic Economy. Practical Sciences, Literature, the 
Social Circle, News, Ac. The four numbers we have 
received are well filled, handsomely printed, and indi¬ 
cate that the Journal will prove, what wc cordially 
wish It may. a succeed. The senior editor, T. Hart 
IIvatt, is a veteran editor, and has much taste in ant. 
knowledge or Rural A flairs, as well as the ability to 
impart what ho knows. The price of the Journal is 
ner vear. Our steeling to the new member ot the 
Food for Man. 
According to the scientific authorities, an 
adult laboring man must have five ounces of flesh- 
formers suppled daily to restore the waste of the 
organic parts of hia body; it becomes a serious 
inquiry how he can get the things to yield it, and 
their comparative cost. Now, to yield this five 
ounces it takes as follows : 
lbs. oz. s. d. 
Wheat flour_ 2 1 average cost — 0 4X 
Oatmeal .... 1 13 ,, .... 0 
Rice — 4 13 „ — 1 2 
Peas (dry) .... 15 „ . 0 2?» 
Potatoes — 20 13 „ — 0 7 
From these quotations we need not wonder 
that the laborer on oatmeal porridge, and the 
poor on a diet of peas pudding or pea soup, 
should be more hale aud hearty than the potato 
I feed .—Agricultural Gazette. 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE, ITEMS, &c 
To Prevent Grub in the Head.—Josetii Bailey, 
Walworth, Wisconsin, wriies that this is eflected by 
“mixing tar in salt, enough to color it slightly, and 
feeding it to the sheep once a week. Mr. B. says 
■• • he has tried it and found it a sure cure 
of the floor, 
the trough across one end or side of the floored 
part, and with slide door shut your hogs in or 
out of that part — and your pen is completed. 
Now you ask where is the benefit of this pt» 
over auv common one with posts ECt iu the 
ground? We auswer, you can hitch a team to 
it and move it to any part of your grounds, pla¬ 
cing it from time t o time where most convenient 
to feed, &c., besides enriching various spots of 
Bakewell SnEEP.— D. D. Miller. Norris. Fulton 
Co.. Ill. The answers to your questions will be found 
in the Practical Shepherd in description of the Lelces- 
lers —which are the same breed with the Bakewelis. 
The nearest flock to you of pure bloods of which we 
chance to know, belongs to Hon. N. L. Ciiaffee, 
Jefferson, Ashtabula Co., Ohio. 
THE SUGAR SEASON IN VERMONT. 
The sugar harvest in Vermont is just ended. 
The flow of sap was about an average, though 
greater than that ol last season. Sugaring came 
on early and in earnest,—taking most ol our 
sugar • makers unawares, bap begau to flow 
about the ISth of March, and continued for 12 
or 14 days in succession, affording an extraordi¬ 
nary and almost unprecedented run. The most 
and the best sugar of the season was made during 
The sugar made is of unusual 
A Useless Gem.— Mr. W. T. Fraser, Hebron, write.- 
the Rural iu this wise:-" Some time since I saw an 
inquiry In your valuable paper respecting ‘The Family 
Gem Sewing Machine.’ Before seeing au answer to it 
I was unfortunate enough to order a - Gem,’ and my 
experience was like your correspondent's, as I find it 
to be a perfect • Gem ‘ oT—uedeetnete. It is of no prac 
tical use whatever. If any of the readers of the 
Rural have any thoughts of sending for a ‘ Gem, l 
would say to them that five dollars worth of stock iu 
thf> ‘ soft SoaD Oil Company’ will return them as great 
Samples of Wool, —E. N. Bissell, liicnviiie, > 
sends us ten specimens of wool which he says are 
from his pure Infanlado sheep,— six of them hav - 
ing been bred by George Atwood, one by Stephen 
Atwood, and tbe remainder by Mr. B. from Ham¬ 
mond & Atwood stock. Tbe samples are not uniform 
in lnncrtVi or dualitv. but all are of fair and some of 
Hog Cholera-Preventive and Remedy. 
The following is Prof. Turner’s remedy for 
hog cholera :—“ Take one peck of askc6, four 
pound 9 of ealt, one pound of black antimony, 
seven pounds of copperas, one pound of sulphur, 
one-fourth or one-eighth pound of saltpeter.— 
Pound the ingredients tine aud mix them well, 
aud keep them constantly in a trough by itself; 
these two weeks, 
whiteness, nearly as fair in many instances as 
the “coffee crushed” of foreign manufacture. 
This is owing in part to the continued flow of 
sap for days in succession (nights of course 
excepted,; thus preventing sourness in the tubs, 
and to the absence of storms, so that the sap hft6 
been free from rain aud snow water, either of 
which very much injures the quality of the 
sugar. 
The sugar season has been “ short and Eweet, 
four weeks scarcely intervening from first to 
last. The three feet of snow which so com¬ 
pletely and securely veiled the face of mother 
Earth six weeks ago, has all disappeared, leav¬ 
ing the ground at the present time in good con¬ 
dition for the plow aud husbandman. The spring 
thus far is early, and the farm work of tho sea¬ 
son if progressing. L W. Sajojokn. 
Lyndon, Vt., April 22, 1805. 
We hope every farmer’s sou will set out at 
least one ornamental tree on the homestead this 
spring. It will be one of the first things he will 
look at when he returns home at some future 
time. We always search out the apple trees 
that we raised from the seed — large venerable 
looking trees, and derive a peculiar pleasure as 
they help the memory lo run back to the scenes 
and pleasures of boyhood. To-day we saw a 
pDOTOGRArns of tue Flood, —We are indebted 
E Da into iv & Bro., booksellers of this city, for scl¬ 
eral fine Photographic Views of tbe recent flood in 
Rochester. A number of the views were taken when 
the flood was at Its height, and convey a vivid idea of 
the extent and power of the rushing, raging torrent 
while others, taken after tho subsidence of the waters, 
ehow the devastation caused to etreets. buildings, 
bridges, etc. The Messrs. D arrow are, we presume, 
prepared to fill orders to any extent. 
- * » - - - 
Correction.— Iu the article on "Mixing Diflcruit 
Kinds of Feed,” by K- W. Stewart, in Rural of the 
m u!t., several typographical errors occurred, 
correct hy quoting from a note just received from Mr. 
s •—••The printer makes bad work with the sense in 
several cast-. In the 13th line he changes the word 
■gatu’ into ’grain; - iu 27th line the word ‘fare’ into 
‘fore;’ in 35 th lino the word ‘hoi-cannon’ into ‘kot- 
>n ’ Tn 4fit.li line the word ‘That - into ‘Hot, 
ago. Go and get a healthy looking sugar maple, | 
with as mauy roots as possible. Cut the top off, 
but leave the small underbranches. Set it out 
before the buds begin to swell, in a rich soil, 
aud it will grow aud be an ornament to your 
home. 
Almost every boy is anxious for the time to 
come when he shall go away from home aud see 
the world for himself, but after he has been 
bruised about a few yeuns, he turns his eyes to¬ 
wards the home of his boyhood where every ob¬ 
ject has a peculiar interest, and if he can see a 
beautiful tree that his own hands planted, it will 
add much to hia pleasure. Parents are often 
advised to make home attractive to their boy6, 
but boyB can do much themselves to make it 
pleasant by planting trees. We hope that when 
How to Care for a Light Harness. 
A friend of much experience says the first 
requisite for a good appearance and durability, 
after good leather, is to keep the harness clean. 
Oil it with neat’s foot oil about twice per year; 
a little lampblack added to the oil Is a good 
thlug. Occasionally take a sponge and rub It 
with a piece of Castile soap, wetted, until lull) 
saturated, then, your harness taken to pieces, 
should be thoroughly rubbed with this sponge. 
Fill a second spouge with the white of eggs and 
rub the entire harness. This will impart 
RAISING POTATOES 
Burson’s Grain Binder.— I. V. B., Wiudsor, m-> 
Inquires where BuiWOH’8 Grain Biuder cau be had. 
Wc have no further Information than is published m 
the Rural. If the manufacturers will not advertise 
their articles, it is hardly to be expected that if we 
knew we should volunteer to advise the public ior ic 
sole benefit of the delinquents. 
» 4 « — 
To Remove Stumps.—I notice in your Rural that 
vt pftrann in v.i'Utv. Tnd.. has four stumps wbicb bother 
Mr. Editor : — Having noticed, an arucie in 
the Rural of April 22d on Potato Raising, I 
will give my experience. I left a corner of a 
piece of ground, which the year before had been 
planted to corn, and the corn cut up In the fall, 
aud well manured after the corn had been re. 
moved. The amount of ground was three-fourth 
of an acre. It was plowed about the first of 
June, 1864, and harrowed, and furrowed into 
rowE, three and one-half feet apart aud the pota¬ 
toes dropped into the furrows and harrowed in 
by going across the furrows. 
again 
a gloss to the harness scarcely obtaiuauie in any 
other way without injury to the leather .—Prairie 
Fanner. _ 
To Preserve Mai-le Sirups.— A correspond¬ 
ent of the Scientific American gives the follow¬ 
ing:—“ Having cleaned some old champaign 
or Cherry bottles, fill with Sirup to within three 
inches of their mouths, and force in ouch mouth 
a lock of dry cotton. Stand them in a dry cool 
place. The cotton cork allows the gases of fer¬ 
mentation fully to escape and at the same time 
offers a sufficient barrier to external air.” 
To Drive Away Rats.— A correspondent of the 
Canada Farmer succeeded In expelling rats from 
his barn by depositing email bundles of Wild 
in the only way thut 1 know of diapoflmj 
F. W., Clinton, HI*. t _ 
Some Onions. —A Weathersfleld, C 
last year purchased and planted sixteen 
els of onions, from wleh ho raised 
pounds of seed, which be sold at $3.1 
thus realizing $17,500 from his pungent 
becoming muddy where the ground is lower 
than some of its surrounding parts, is to plow 
and scrape from the center to the outside, mak¬ 
ing a gradual descont from the outeidc to the 
center Let the fall bo one-half foot In ten, aud 
falling a little more as you neur the center. Dig 
a drain from the center to some suitable place 
without the yard, where you can construct a vat 
to put in leaves, soda, muck, Ac., that will ab¬ 
sorb and retain tho liquor from the yard. The 
bottom and sides may be formed of plank, or 
may be more substantially built of stone and 
Lambs Eating Wool.—I- W. Briggs, West Mace- 
don, N. V., sends a quantity of wool taken from the 
stomach of a lamb, which died at about b weeks old. 
For several days preceding death “ It stood curled up, 
with its head down, and feet drawn together, grating 
its teeth much of the time.” Tho wool is in a num¬ 
ber of ronudieh, quite solid mae«es of different sizes, 
appears to have been masticated until the fiber is 
much broken up, and has the color of sponge. There 
was a smallish handful of it in the lamb's stomach 
Earth has sometimes been found in the stomachs of 
larabe which died with symptoms described as some¬ 
what. Bimilar to the above. We judge these to be 
results rather than causes of disease, for we do not 
Weevil Fnoor Wheat 
whom can some of the \\li 
spoken of at page 2*8, \ ol. 
Vork.br. bo procured for 1 
formation on this point will 
I). A. B., Cascade. MicA., II 
We are unable to answer 
for sale should make It kne 
