iVlOOBE’S RURAL NEW-VORKER 
SEPT. U 
ease among them. As usual none of the 
Texas animals suffer from the malady. 
We also have Information that about one 
hundred head have died at Funk’s Grove, 
McLean (Jo., supposed to hare contracted 
the disease from a herd of Texas cattle 
brought th°re by Mr. Harpool. 
---- 
BED WATER. 
What ails my cattle? I have lost eleven 
head. They all seem to be afflicted alike. 
The first signs I can see are trembling of 
head; wild staring looks; breathing hur¬ 
riedly, and they are In great distress; oars 
and feet cold; pulse quick; staggering; 
goon lie down; groan piteously; begin to 
bloat, aud soon die. They all died lying on 
the right side. I have opened some of them, 
aud have found lungs and blood vest els 
congested; wind-pipe highly inflamed. My 
object In writing is to find out cause and 
cure.— d. v. f. 
We judge the trouble to be what Is known 
as Red Water, though the symptoms are 
not sufficiently detailed by our correspond¬ 
ent to enable us to determine. Nor does he 
tell how uud wh-re they have been kept; 
whether they have been kept on dry or 
moist lauds; whether the urine is red or 
claret-color; whether the animal becomes 
hide-bouud and constipated. These are 
symptoms, together with those he has 
named, of Red Water. The treatment 
recommended, supposing it to be this dis¬ 
ease, is to give one pint of linseed oil and 
use freely clysters of soap and water. Give 
also plenty of linseed tea to drink. If the 
mine is abundant, give one ounce of tinc¬ 
ture of opium with one dram of powdered 
aloes, three times, at intervals of six or 
eight hours. 
---- 
NATIONAL SHORT-HORN CONVENTION. 
The committee appointed by the Indiana 
Short-Horn Breeders’ Convention, held at 
Indianapolis, on the 21st of May, to corre¬ 
spond with breeders throughout the country 
on the subject of holding a National Short- 
Ilorn Breeders' Convention, said committee 
being empowered to appoint a time and 
place for holding such convention, do here¬ 
by report, that after an extensive corre- 
pondeiice with breeders throughout the 
States and Canada, they find that there is 
an almost universal desire that such conven¬ 
tion should l>e held, also Unit a large major¬ 
ity of their correspondents favor Indianap¬ 
olis as the place, aud the last ^f November 
as the time most suitable for holding the 
same. They therefore issue a call for aNn- 
tlonal Convention of Short-IIorn Breeders 
to bo held in the city of Indianapolis, com¬ 
mencing on the 27th dav of November. The 
programme of proceedings will be published 
hereafter. 
Cum Matthews, Clinton, Iml., 
Gen. 801 .. Meredith, ('mnbridgoCity., 
J. <j. IvxnQsuuky, Indianapolis, linl., 
Committee. 
Correspondence regarding the convention 
may be addressed to either member of the 
Committee. 
-♦-*-«- 
FOOD FOR DAIRY COWS. 
Prof. Cook stated before a Pennsylvania 
Farmers’ Club, that in Scotland ho saw in 
their native locality the celebrated Ayr¬ 
shire cows. lie described these as of small 
size, varying from GOO to 800lbs., live weight, 
and milking, on an average, twenty quarts 
per day . They are fed largely on cabbage, 
which is considered there the best food for 
producing milk. Our dairy farmers here 
would no doubt find equal benefit from feed¬ 
ing cows on cabbages. As with tut nips, 
there will be no taste in the butter from the 
cabbage, if the cows are milked before feed¬ 
ing them. 
Another fact stated by Professer Cook 
was, that in t lie best dairies in England and 
Scotland it was Considered most profitable 
to give the cows all they could eat, and to 
induce them by change of food, etc., to eat 
all ihey could. The soiling system is of 
course pi noticed—aud lie had seen hundreds 
of cows tied up in stalls, where they are 
kept from year to year, no disease or other 
drawback resulting from confinement. 
They were not only healthy, but thrifty — 
and never leave the stalls till they go to the 
butcher. 
-M4- 
NOTES FO R HE RDSMEN. 
Cough in Cattle. —Can some one inform 
me what is the matter with my yearlings; 
also what to do for them V They have spells 
of coughing and act very much as if they 
were choked. They appear smart and well 
but oo not gain, Hotuo of them are losing 
flesh.—R. C. Bullock. 
You should have told us on what the 
yearlings have been feeding and how they 
were kept daring the Winter and Sprlug. 
<jf|tcM <Jfr0})S. 
CURING TOBACCO YELLOW. 
The following is N. M. Roan's mode of 
curing what is known as yellow leaf tobac¬ 
co. Mr. Roan is an experienced tobacco 
planter of North CarolinaCuring tobac¬ 
co yellow, for which this section is so fa¬ 
mous, is a very nice process, and requires 
somo experience, observation, and a thor¬ 
ough knowledge of the character and quali¬ 
ty of the tobacco with which you have to 
deal, in order to insure uniform success. 
Much depend* upon th? character of the 
crop when taken from the hill. Jf it is of 
good size, well matured and of a good yel¬ 
lowish color, there Is necessarily but little 
difficulty in the operation. 
As soon as t he tobacco is taken from the 
1 hill and housed, we commence—with a low 
' degree of heat, say 95 to 100 FaLir.—“the 
yellowingor the steaming process.’’ This is 
the first and simplest part of tho whole pro¬ 
cess, and requires from fifteen to thirty-six 
hours, according to the size aud quality of 
the tobacco, and this degree of heat should 
be continued until the leaf opens a lemon 
color, and is nearly free from any green hue. 
When this point is reached, the heat should 
be gradually raised to lil!> degrees, in order 
to commence drying the leaf, and here lies 
the whole difficulty in curing, (I mean dry¬ 
ing the leaf.) The last degree of heat indi¬ 
cated, should be continued five or six hours, 
when it should again be gradually raised to 
lit) degrees, when it should be maintained 
at this point, until the tail or points of the 
leaves begin to curl and dry. Indeed it will 
probably be safest for beginners to continue 
tliis degree, of beat until one-third of the 
leaf is dried. The temperature may then 
be gradually increased to 115 degrees, and 
kept for several hours at that point, until 
the leaf begins to rattle when shaken, then 
again raise the heat to 120degrees, at which 
point it should be continued until the leaf 
is dried, after which the temperature may 
be increased to 150 degrees or 1G!) degrees, 
to dry the stem and stalk; the latter should 
be blackened by the heat before the cubing 
is complete. 
Ordinarily it requires from twonnd a half 
to five days to cure a barn of tobacoo, de¬ 
pendent entirely on the size and quality. 
Put seven or eight plants on each stock, 
and plaoe them eight inches apart on tier 
poles. In the yellowing process the door 
of the barn should be kept closed to exclude 
the air. When the point is reached for 
drying the leaf, the door may be opened oc¬ 
casionally, and kept open from twenty to 
thirty minutes at a time, especially if the 
tobacco gets into a “ sweat,” as it is called, 
or becomes damp and clammy. The tem¬ 
perature is raised in the barn by cautiously 
from time to time, adding coal to the fires, 
which should be placed in small piles on the 
iioor, in rows, allowing about five feet be¬ 
tween each pile, which should contain at 
first a double handful of coal. In adding 
coal, you will soon learn the quantity neces¬ 
sary to be applied by tho effect produced. 
Avoid raising the heat hastily after the 
drying is oommeuoed, lest the leaf should 
be scalded and reddened; on the other hand, 
it should not be raised too slowly for fear of 
“raising the grain,” or the leaf becoming 
spongy and dingy. Both extremes are to 
be avoided, and the skill required attained 
only by experience and observation. We 
usually cut tobacco the latter part of the 
week, house it and suffer it to remain until 
the first of next week, that we may not vio¬ 
late the fourth commandment. 
-- 
SAVING CLOVER SEED. 
J. A. W. asks the best way of saving clo¬ 
ver seed. Cut the clover when ripe—not 
so ripe that the seed will shell out by hand¬ 
ling, but when the seed can be rubbed out 
Iu the hands. Tho way of cutting prac¬ 
ticed by many clover seed growers, is to at¬ 
tach a small platform or apron, B, to the 
cutting bar of a mower, as Illustrated here¬ 
with. It is made of half-inch pine boards 
tho length of the cutting-bar. three feet 
wide—a trifio wider at the outer end, as 
shown. At the end and rear are nailed, or 
otherwise secured to the platform, strips of 
board eight inches wide. P, P, are common 
strap hinges—the longer portion firmly riv¬ 
eted to the platform, aud the shorter bolt- 
od to the cutting-bar. A few inches from 
cither end, cleats of hard wood are screwed 
to the under side of the platform. The 
clover as it is cut falls on the platform, B, 
and is raked off into gavels by a man who 
accompanies the machine for the purpose. 
If raked off directly opposite each other, 
at each circuit of the field, they will 1)0 left 
in wiurows in better condition for handling 
than the crop could be put by the use of a 
horse rake. The cost of tills addition to a 
mower is small, and it can be used in har¬ 
vesting short grain as well, if desired. 
When properly dried, it should be put in 
_n_A. 
LIAAJlJl-LLL 
the barn or stacked until Winter, when by 
using a combined thresher and cleaner it 
can be removed from the straw. If a com¬ 
bined clover thresher, cleaner and huller is 
used tho seed can bo put in marketable 
condition. These machines are em¬ 
ployed where clover seed I? grown on an 
extended scale for market. But if grown 
in siniill quantities, or for home use, the 
seed is run through a thresher, the straw 
raked off (if a separator is not used), and 
the seed and chaff run through a fanning 
mill, according to tho directions accompa¬ 
nying all the best modern mills. But many 
farmers who grow seed for their own use 
simply, prefer to sow it in the chaff. 
-- 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Spring Wheat Notes Wanted, — It 
would be gratifying and profitable if those 
of your readers who grow Spring wheat 
would give tho names if the varieties they 
grow, the respective localities in which they 
are grown, soli and culture, specifying 
which variety they think mostllighly of, and 
why. If they would also send a small sam¬ 
ple of their best wheat to tho Rural office 
for the editors to report upon, 1 think a 
benefit would be conferred upon each other 
by so doing. For my part, 1 have grown but 
one variety the past season (the Mediterra¬ 
nean, so called) which did not give good sat¬ 
isfaction. It did not stand up nor fill well. 
Tt is the first Spring wheat 1 ever grew.— 
Tyro, Northern Ohio. 
We are glad to second the suggestion of 
our correspondent, and any well-considered 
information sent us in accordance there¬ 
with slinll bo given our readers. 
Drilling Wheat. — Would you advise 
drilling Winter wheat or broadcasting it? 
1’lease give your reason for your prefer¬ 
ence.— P. S. Colwell. 
If land is as well prepared for seeding as 
it should be, we prefer seeding with a drill: 
first, because less seed is required to pro¬ 
duce a given result, the depth of seeding 
being so surely and easily regulated; second, 
because t he young plant (especially on light 
soils) is protected from Winter winds by the 
drill ridges, and from being uncovered by 
the heaving action of frost; third, because 
if the drills run Nort h and South, as they 
should, the plants make a better and more 
uniform growth, and develop and mature 
more equally ; and fourth, because we know 
that better returns are insured at harvest 
for the money, labor and seed invested. 
The Time to Cut lletnp. — At a late 
meeting of the Lexington, Kv., Farmers' 
Club, the subject under consideration was: 
the proper time to cut hemp. It was stated 
that when the dust, (pollen) was blowing off 
freely, which may* be noticed any morning 
when a light breeze is stirring, producing a 
fog like appearance hanging over the hemp, 
and the leaves turning yellow and fallingoff, 
that it is ready for cutting, it was believed 
that when a farmer has a large crop to cut, 
that it was better to cut some of it a little 
green than to leave the last to get too ripe, 
more injury being done to t tie crop by the 
latter than by the former, the lint being 
barky and harsher. 
Cutting Aftermath.—A correspondent 
in Ohio asks if we recommend cutting or 
feeding down the aftermath of meadows. 
It depends upon circumstances. If fodder 
is scarce and manure plenty, we recommend 
cutting it, and putting on a good top-dress¬ 
ing of manure after it is cut. If laud is to 
be kept for meadow, we do not recommend, 
as a rule, feeding the meadows during Sep¬ 
tember. It may be done 6afely in October 
and November, if the growth is large. We 
do not think it benefits t he meadow, how¬ 
ever, to feed it. If it is fed or shorn of its 
aftermath, compensation in tho shape of 
manure should always be given. 
Winter Oats.—Last year I saw in the 
Rural New-Yorker some mention made 
by a correspondent in Illinois of Winter 
oats. I should like to know if any one has 
tried them; if so. with what result.—A 
New York Farmer. 
Yes; we received from the correspond¬ 
ent referred to a package which we were 
requested to try and report upon. We did 
so. They were given an excellent oppor¬ 
tunity to grow, on good soil, in latitude 43)^ 
North. They did not even bead out. 
When to Soav Orchard Grass.—W. C. 
At.een can sow orchard grass now, or any 
time between now and May 1. He can har¬ 
row the land he describes and sow this fall 
—one and a-half to two bushels per acre. 
Good barn-yard manure is as good a fertili¬ 
zer as he can apply. 
smait 
ATHLETIC SPORTS IN CANADA. 
TnE following account of what took place 
at Lnohine, Canada, may interest our read¬ 
ers, as it lias ns, on account of its novelty: 
A discussion arose at the tea table of Han¬ 
na’s Hotel in regard to a match of the same 
kind that had lately taken place in England. 
Some Englishmen present spoke rather dis¬ 
paragingly of our Canadian muscle, and ex¬ 
pressed tho opinion that few, if any*, Cana¬ 
dians could perform tho feat. Mu. J. D. 
Armstrong, our well-known amateur run¬ 
ner, who happened to be present, quietly 
informed the young gentleman that a Cana¬ 
dian could do whatever an Englishman 
could do, and that our amateurs particular¬ 
ly could match the English. He then of¬ 
fered to try the feat himself, though he cer¬ 
tainly was not in good trim, having just par¬ 
taken of a hearty meal. 
A match was immediately made aa fol¬ 
lows :—He (Armstrong) was to hop a quart¬ 
er-mile, walk a quarter-mile, run a quarter- 
mile, ride a quarter-mile, and row a quart¬ 
er-mile, and all this was to be done in “six¬ 
teen consecutive minutes." The ground 
was immediately measured, and the quart¬ 
er-mile marked. By the time the arrange¬ 
ments were completed all Lacliine turned 
out to witness the exciting match. 
Armstrong had the choice of running the 
races in any order he chose, and selected 
the hop first. lie accomplished his first 
quarter in 2;3G, and Immediately walked 
his quarter, returning in 2:11. He then ran 
thequartcr in 1:30, and Immedlatelymount- 
tiiigliis horse, mi ordinary carriage horse 
borrowed from a gentleman who had just 
driven in from Montreal, showed the by¬ 
standers that he was no less a novice on 
horseback than on foot. Ha made the 
most of the animal, and landed him at the 
end of tlie quarter in 18 seconds. 
He had now to run to the bench, a dis¬ 
tance Of 100 yards, to get ioto liis boat, 
which was a common family skiff, weighing 
about 300 lbs. The water on the course was 
very shallow, and ids boat ran aground 
several times; but in spite of ail these dilli- 
cultiea lie got over this last quarter-mile in 
5:00, and the whole feat in 12:38, having 3 
minutes and 32 seconds to spare. 
Taking everything into consideration, it 
was a wonderful feat, and one requiring 
great powers of endurance. The feat was 
accomplished in England in 10:40 by a per¬ 
son who had been in a regular training for 
it, aud who had every advantage in his fa¬ 
vor. There is not the slightest doubt that 
had Armstrong had the same advantage 
ho could have dmie it in two minutes less, 
and we would not be surprised to see him 
do it within ten minutes. 
-- 
NOTES FOR SPORTSMEN. 
The Wisconsin Game Law, as amend¬ 
ed by* tlie last Legislature, provides that 
“ No person shall catch, kill or otherwise 
desrtoy, or have in his possession, or ex¬ 
pose for sale, any grouse, prairie hen or 
chicken, partridge, l-uffled grouse or quail, 
between the fifteenth day of November and 
the succeeding twentieth day* of August in 
each year, under penalty of ten dollars for 
each bird,” _ _ 
Hound Puppies Sick.—W alter has a 
hound pup affected with a kind <>f convul¬ 
sion; is never still; shakes ail the while 
like a persou with palsy, or worse. Asks if 
auy one can give the cause and a x*emedy ? 
