AILANTHU8 FOR MURRAIN. 
An observing gentleman of McNairy <’o. 
Tenn., Bays that sifter a Berios of careful 
hosts and experiments, the people of that 
region have become fully satisfied that the 
Atlanthus ( Atlanthus yZandulomsi, is a 
ure preventive to murrain in cattle. He 
says the cattle commence eating the leaves 
of the tree about the time In the season 
when murrain would appear; and that none 
having access to it have ever been known 
to take the disease, while others all around 
have been seriously afflicted. As proof 
positive lie. refers to a case, where a gentle¬ 
man had, under the impression t hat it in¬ 
jured t he milk, stopped hi* cattle from feed¬ 
ing on the A llanthii* by keeping them close¬ 
ly penned at night, and driving them be¬ 
yond the range of its growth every morning. 
As a consequence t hey all sickened and died 
of murrain, while t he cattle of Ids less fas¬ 
tidious neighbors escaped. 
•-«««- 
NOTES FOR HERDSMEN. 
in the same manner, hook the other end 
around the cow’s leg above the gambrel 
joint. It is easily made, and very easily 
put on and taken off. It can he carried in 
the pocket of the milker, and thus bo al¬ 
ways at hand ready for use.” 
<§iarg of ;t pluralist. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
FROM THE DIARY OF A OENTLEMAN NEAR NEW YORK CITY. 
Striped Blister Beetle .—July 30,—We 
have not as yet received a visit from the 
Colorado Potato Beetle, but the Striped 
Blister Beetle^ LytUi Vltintu , Fa hr,), which 
is almost as destructive, has appeared upon 
some few fields of potatoes in my neighbor¬ 
hood, and is doing considerable damage. 
This beetle is about three-fourth* of an inch 
long, quite slender, its wing covers st riped 
with yellow and black; hence the specific 
name HHaUi, which is only another word 
meaning striped. It is an old enemy of the 
sect, especially old trees, and it would, no 
doubt, become quite numerous were it not 
for its two great enemies, the Pimpla 
atrata and lunator, of Fa tin. (see Figure 
,‘J,) two ichneumon flies, which deposit 
their eggs in the larva- of the Trcnicx, 
while feeding in the trees, by thrusting 
their long ovipositors through the solid 
wood and into the grub, as it is hidden safely 
from all other enemies except that of t his 
wonderful insect. The Piniplax are two¬ 
winged flies with a body longer than the 
Trcmcx , and the female possesses an ovi¬ 
positor (egg placer) fully three inches long, 
[ 
\\ 
V 
Halt for Farm Stock.—Prof. James E. \ 
Johnson of Scotland says that half the 
saline matter of the blood (7ftper cent.) con- 'jj! 
siats of common salt, and as this is partly 1 
dissolved every day through the skin and 
kidneys, the necessity of continued sup- , . r , 
plies of it. to the lu-alt hy body is sufficiently Q.'~( ■ 
obvious. The bib* also contains soda (fine of - 
t he ingredients of salt) as a special and in- ^ 
dispensable constituent, and so do all the f 
cartilages of the body. Stint the supply of Jj y 
salt, and neither will the bile be able prop- f r 
orly to assist digestion, nor the cartilages to / 
be built up again as fast as they naturally / 
waste. It is better to place salt where ft 
stock can have free acoess to it, than to give / 
it occasionally, in small quantities. They / 
will help themselves to what they need, if / 
allowed to do so at pleasure; otherwise, / 
when they become salt-hungry, they may 
take more than is wholesome. „ . 
ft „3 
iv ><r - - 
\ /ft 
Black Leg.—One of my yearlings died 
with what my neighbors called black leg. 
It was well to all appearance in the morn¬ 
ing—eat its food with the rest; in theuf- 
terdoou 1 found it down; it could neither 
get u)i nor stand up. On examination 1 
found one of Its hind legs swollen. On 
pressing it it wotdd rattle us though filled 
wit h wind and water. In the course of two 
hours it had extended over the whole of its 
hind parts and along its hack to its shoul¬ 
der. when it died. The swollen parts were 
filled with very black, stagnant bh>od. In 
there any cure or preventive? The animal 
was in good condition.—B. E. Keep, Albi¬ 
on, Pit. 
This disease is known as black-leg, black- 
quarter, or joint murrain, and is usually 
fat al. Early t reatment with bleeding and 
active purgatives, followed by cold linseed 
tea and sedatives, will sometimes save life. 
Cow Willi Three'I'eats.— A Pennsylva¬ 
nia carreKpondent—J. N. Redmond, Craw¬ 
ford Co.—has a very nice cow, live years 
old, which has had two calves, and, in con¬ 
sequence of a caked bag with her first call', 
lost use of one tent. Tie asks the Rural 
.New-Yorker if such n cow will give as 
much milk as if she had the use of all her 
teats. To which we reply, that if every¬ 
thing else is right about the cow, the loss of 
one teat will hardly make any difference in 
the quantity of milk which she will give. 
She will he more liable to have trouble in 
the bag at the time of calving; but other¬ 
wise, a good cow with only t hree t eat s need 
not be discarded from the dairy for that 
fault. 
Jumping: Cattle.—A man who had been 
troubled with jumping cattle, and who had 
tried every plan imaginable, with the worst 
cases of jumping cattle, found nothing 
would succeed in keeping them in their 
place, but to put a hoard over their face. 
Take an inch board, about fourt een or fifteen 
inches square, or large enough to cover their 
eyes, and let it come down within four inch¬ 
es of the end of the nose; tie this to their 
horns, by boring two holes to correspond 
with the width of the horns, and they wil 
not jump. 
To Fasten Cows’ Tails in Fly-Time, 
L. WiNNE recommends: “Take a string 
or cord about the size of a shoe lace, two 
feet, long. Attaob a small wire hook to each 
end; place one end around the cow’s tail, 
just above the brush, and hook it over the 
cord : it will immediately tighten up; then* 
potatoe, and com 
Southern and in 
ern States; at 
reasons for think 
nearly every box 
received during 
any of the local! 
tains more or less 
Lytiti , There are 
species of Blister 
upon the potato, 
two exceptions, I 
ed back fellow is 
tive. 
As this beetle 
when disturbed, 
out of a field by 
some tree or 
leaves upon it, for 
over the vines, 
should work to 
along w i t h i n a 
other, sweeping 
side of them. If 
/ Flo. 1. 
if and not larger than a fine cambric needle, 
jj surrounded by a thin sheath divided length- 
p wise into two segments or parts. These 
-i, r three minute thread-like organs combined, 
— < .'.' .-’i form an implement with which the insect 
•" enabled to penetrate through the bark 
and two inches or more into the solid wood 
of almost any tree. Sometimes, one of 
these ichneumon flies will be found dead 
V \ upon the tree, with its ovipositor thrust 
\ into the wood, and some naturalists have 
I \ supposed that the cause of death was owing 
A ’ to its inability to withdraw the ovipositor 
\ from the wood ; this may be true in regard 
\ to the specimens found in such positions, 
\ they being old and exhausted at the time 
\ of depositing this, their last egg; but na¬ 
ture does not provide such traps for her 
. ,, creatures, so long as they remain young 
mon in all the nud ubh , t0 propa g at ,, their kiud . 
most of the West- 
least. I have good 1 ,l!lV0 watched some of the largest species 
ing so. because <lf icbneumondm, not only when they were 
of insects 1 have thrusting their ovipositor into the trees, 
the Summer from but "bile withdrawing it; tie- latter ope- 
ties named, con- nation was far the more simple and easy of 
of this species of the two. As I have said, tin* ovipositor is 
also several other surrounded by a sheath iu two parts. Now, 
Beetles that feed when the Insect wishes to withdraw it she 
but. with one or first pulls out one side of the sheath, then 
believe this strip- , ,ln °tb ( «r, after which the ovipositor is lib- 
thc mostdestruc- '‘rated. The sheath not only protects the 
ovipositor, but strengthens it while being 
takes to its wings thrust into the wood; the two divisions 
it can bo driven being somewhat wedge-shaped, they arc 
using a branch of readily withdrawn. 
shrub, with the Packard’s Guide to the Study of Insects 
a brush to sweep is an excellent work for the beginner, ns 
Several persons well as those somewhat advanced in the 
gather, passing study of entomology. 
takes to its wings 
it can be driven 
using a branch of 
shrub, with the 
a brush to sweep 
Several persons 
guther, passing 
few feet of each 
the vines on each 
some dry straw bo 
sine oi morn, it kio. 2. sonieury straw no 
spread along on one side of the field, the 
beetles driven iu that direction, they will 
alight upon it; after which, set on lire, and 
burn up both beetles and straw. This 
method of destruction has often been tried 
with success. Sometimes merely driving the 
beetles from the vines, without destroying 
them, will answer, for they seldom return 
to tin' same field. < If course, by this driv¬ 
ing process you may Bend them to a neigh¬ 
bor’s field while you save your own vines, 
t herefore, it is best to try and kill them, in¬ 
stead of scattering the pest over a wider 
extent of country than they would occ upy 
if not disturbed. 
The Pigeon Tremex .—July 3L -1 have 
received the following letter addressed to 
me, care Moore’s Rural New-Yorker : 
Daily Rural I,in::—I inclose you an 
insect whose name I would like to learn. 1 
perceive that it belongs to the llymenop- 
tera, lull further than that 1 have nomeans 
to trace it. 1 never saw one like it before, 
although it may be very common. It was 
found on a hickory tree, la Packard's 
Guide the best manual for the study of en¬ 
tomology V II. W. Young. 
The four-winged fly, about an inch long, 
with a body nearly the size of a common 
lead pencil, having a stout piercer at its 
extremity, is a female Trcnicx Coin mint, 
Linn (see Figure I). The insect is injuri¬ 
ous to various Kinds of forest trees; also 
occasionally attacking the fruit on orna¬ 
mental trees in our gardens, as the larva, 
which hatches from eggs deposited by the 
female, bores into the stems and feeds upon 
the wood. 
The elm is a favorite resort for this in- 
A Birt h-Day Surprise Party,— Any. 3. 
—A year ago to-day I wrote in my Diary 
among the mountain!! of Vt., Mrs. Rltraltst 
having to remind me of the fact that it, was 
my birth-day. Probably one of the princi¬ 
pal reasons why I have taken so little in¬ 
terest in t liis annual event which interests 
my individual self more than any one else 
(except the lady named above), is, that. 1 
never considered my birth of any great im¬ 
portance except to my nearest relatives. 
The world would have revolved the same 
if 1 had never been born, and mankind just 
as happy; with, of course, the few exrep. 
tions which ure always found to every gen¬ 
eral rule. It is an old saying that women 
cannot keep a secret, but I Know of at least 
one exception to that rule, which was fully 
demonstrated this evening as my friends 
came pouring (yes, that ’s the word, for it 
wasn’t a dropping, but a regular stream of 
young folks and old folks) in, all washing 
me many happy ret urns of Hie day. When 
[ found out what was going on, I felt like 
scolding Mrs. Il„ because she had not given 
me a chance to invite Farmer Garrulous, 
whom 1 had visited only this morning; but 
my scolding Would have done no good, for 
in a few minutes the Farmer drove in with 
his wife and daughter, having been iu the 
secret for several days. Old as I am, the 
jokes played on me in the way of presents 
this evening, were quite enjoyable. I shall 
not he in want of slippers for some t ime to 
come, and the elegant memorandum-book 
from Farmer Garrulous will save me 
from forgetting many items for my Diary. 
The young folks seemed to take special de¬ 
light in poking fun at my bug-hunting 
habits, and New York City must have been 
ransacked to find specimens of art that 
would hit me ontonmlogirally. Mr. Pub¬ 
lisher of the New York Sun and family, 
dealt me some heavy blows in brief notes 
and accompaniments like the following: 
Miss Ida, without wishing to remind him 
of the flight of time, or incur the displeas¬ 
ure of Mrs. IltrrtAi.TST, begs to present her 
friend. Daily Rural TJfe, with a couple of 
house flies that may be more serviceable 
than the usual specimens of such crea¬ 
tures.” 
Accompanying this note was a pair of 
sleeve buttons made in the form of a house 
fly. Miss Lizzie’s compliments were pre¬ 
sented with an elegant metal paper weight, 
in green and gold, made iu the shape of an 
immense gadfly; while Master Andrew 
presented what his note said was a “ Scur- 
ahcu't nhartlcornl >, or a flue specimen of 
Yankee < ’oleoptera.” Th‘iH was a mat oh safe 
in the form of a big beetle. Master Wil¬ 
lie's note, accompanied by a bronze boot¬ 
jack in the shape of a long-homed beetle, 
ran thus: — “ ScarabcuH lonylcoruix, or 
horned-bug, a cross between the crocodile 
of the Nile and alligator of the Mississippi.” 
But I am making a. longer story of this 
personal matter than 1 intended, my main 
object iu mentioning it at all was to urge 
fat hers and mother*everywhere to remem¬ 
ber their children’s birthdays, and never let 
one pass without, making some demonstra¬ 
tion that will tlx t he date in the mindsof the 
entire family. Leteach birthday ben holiday 
to the entire family, and little presents 
may he given and received to t he gratifica¬ 
tion of all. Within the family circle, the 
presents may he as costly as circumstances 
will allow; hut outside of this, those of an 
expensive character are entirely out of 
place, and not in good taste, inasmuch as it 
places the recipient in a position which is 
somet imes anything hut pleasant. It is the 
good feelings exchanged upon such occa¬ 
sions, and the kind wishes for the prosper¬ 
ity and happiness of the person to whom 
we give our congratulations, which makes 
the natal day one worthy of being remem¬ 
bered. F never knew a family wherein tin* 
natal day of each member was celebrated 
(no matter how humbly) that did not re¬ 
main steadfast and true to each other 
through life. 
^heejr guslmndrir. 
SHEEP IN EASTERN VIRGINIA. 
A correspondent of the Southern Plant¬ 
er (Richmond, Vu.,) says there is no other 
branch of husbandry that presents greater 
inducements to the farmers of that region, 
than feeding sheep. “ 1 have every year, 
since (lie war, fattened a lot of sheep pur¬ 
chased either from drovers or from parties 
living west of me in l ie* mountains of West 
Virginia, and I have never failed to make a 
heavy percent, on the Investment—rarely 
ever failing to double. My own is not an 
isolated case. The same is done by many 
persons in the Valley of Virginia. 
Some farmers say that sheep are. injurious 
to land, and will not keep them on that ac¬ 
count. 1 believe just, the reverse, as they 
always leave their droppings on I In* highest 
part of the field, which isgenerally the poor¬ 
est. You will always find the sheep at night 
on the highest point iq the field. 
“ I find it very profitable to breed sheep. 
I keep a few thoroughbred South Downs. 
I usually have more lamb* t han ewes. The 
lambs I have sold in June as high as .S3.50 
per bead, ami have sold them when three 
years old as high as $13per head. The wool 
will invariably pay for the keep of the sheep, 
and the increase is clear gain. 
“My plan is to employ an agent to pur¬ 
chase for me, limiting as to quality, size, 
and price. My direction* urn about as fol¬ 
lows: Buy no sheep that will weigh less 
t han one hundred pounds, and get t hem as 
much heavier as (hey can be had no deliv¬ 
eries to he mode before the 1st day of Octo¬ 
ber. When delivered, I graze them, and by 
December 1 have my sheep ready for mar¬ 
ket. If my grass is deflioient 1 feed a small 
amount of grain daily—say one ear of corn 
to each sheep. From December until 1 sell 
I always feed grain. I usually sell in Janu¬ 
ary or February; the time of selling de¬ 
pends upon the markets. Parties should 
keep themselves posted in regard to the 
markets, and ship whenever the markets 
will justify.” 
-- 
Difficulty in Breathing. — My sheep 
have adifficulty in breathing, catching their 
breath very quickly, and making a kind of 
snorting noise.—R. W. Wade, Clarendon , 
n. r. 
