MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
350 
She goiificmait. 
THE PERCHERON HORSE. 
The Rura t, New-Youkkr lias recorded 
the arrivals at this port, the past season, of 
several importations of this breed of horses, 
which is deservedly attracting the atten¬ 
tion of those who desire a heavier draft 
horse for both the farm and road, A writer 
in the American Stock Journal who has a 
stallion of this breed, thus writes: 
If the success of my IVroiieron as a stal¬ 
lion is any evidence of fcho value of the 
breed, I can state that ho has averaged 
eighty mares per season for the ton seasons 
he has made in this country, and as ho is a 
very sure foal getter, he must have pro¬ 
duced at. least 500 colts; and as 1 have never 
yet heard of a colt of his that would not 
bring §100, and many of them much higher 
prices, you cr.n judge of the benetit which 
has accrued from his services. 1 have yet 
to learn that ho has produced one worth¬ 
less colt, nor have I heard of one that is 
spavined, curbed, ring-boned, or lias any 
of those defects which render utterly use¬ 
less so large a number of the (Inc-brod colts 
of the present day. The opinion of good 
judges here is, that we never had, in this 
part of the country at. least, so valuable a 
stock of horses for farming purposes; and 
further, that no horse that ever stood in 
this section of the country has produced 
the same number of colts whose aggregate 
value has been equal to that of t he colts of 
my Perchoron ; for the reason that, al¬ 
though there may have been individuals 
among them which would command aniuch 
higher price than any of those of my Per- 
cheron, yet the number of blemished and 
indifferent colts has been so great as quite 
to turn the scale in his favor. 
My Perchoron has not been crossed at all 
with thorough-bred mares—such a thing is 
almost unknown here at the present day; 
but those mares the nearest, approaching to 
it have produced the cleanest, neatest, and 
handsomest colts, though hardly largo 
enough to command the best prices. Those 
I know of that cross are excellent perform¬ 
ers. 
The style of mares with which the Per- 
cheron breeds best, appears to me to be the 
mare which you would choose to breed 
carriage-horses from, with a good length of 
neck, and tail coming out, on a line with the 
back, to correct the two prominent faults 
in form of tho breed, the short neck and 
steep rump. 
What is the result of the cross with dif¬ 
ferent styles (as regards size and shape)? 
This may he answered in a general way by 
stating, the size will depend somewhat 
upon tho size of the mare, with due allow¬ 
ance for casting after back stock, which 
will bo well understood by breeders. As 
regards to shape, you may depend upon 
the predominance of the form of the horse 
in nine cases out of ton. 
-♦♦♦- 
REMEDY FOR HORSE INFLUENZA. 
Tiie people never really know the value 
of a limb until they have lost it. This fact 
is practically illustrated with the present 
epidemic among horses. Almost all who 
have been obliged to walk in place of riding 
in the street cars, now speak of the great 
value of horses, especially to the business 
community. My own love for so noble an 
animal loads mu to send you the following, 
which has been foundprac.icnlly efficacious 
in curing some of the worst cases. The dis¬ 
ease is simply influenza, and should be 
treated as such. The atmosphere only is 
involved in producing it. The cause of its 
attacking the horse and leaving other ani¬ 
mals and man untouched, would occupy 
too much space in your paper, and I have, 
not now the tune to give it in full, but may 
do so at some future time. Common pine 
tar, oue quart; powdered camphor, one 
oz.; do. saltpetre, one oz.; do. sulphur, 
one-half oz.; do. lobelia herb, two oz.; do. 
mullin leaves, two oz.; pure carbolic acid, 
a teaspoonful; mix well together; then 
make any iron dish quite hot; put about a 
tablespoonful of the above mixture into it. 
Throw a blanket over the horse’s head and 
place the dish under the blanket, so that 
the horse may inhale the fumes of the com¬ 
pound. This should be done about four 
times a day, or oftener, according to the 
severity of the case. J then give tho fol¬ 
lowing internal remedyPowdered lobelia 
herb, l oz. ; do. elecampane, 2 oz. ; do. 
coltsfoot, 2 oz. ; do. spikenard, 2 oz. ; do. 
blood root, oz. ; do. slippery elm, 1 
oz.; do. gum myrrh, 1 oz.; do. skunk’s cab¬ 
NOV. 30 
bage, 1 oz.; do. wild turnip, 1 oz.; mix all 
thoroughly together; then mix the whole 
with molasses into a thin paste, and add 
one gill of good vinegar. Of this mixture 
give the animal one tablespoonful every 
hour until improvement takes place: then 
extend the time between the doses to two 
and three hours. The. animal should have 
hard wood ashes, salt and willow charcoal 
mixed with his food. The charcoal may bo 
obtained at the druggist’s. 
Dn. Thomas J. Lewis. 
290 West Madison street, Chicago, 111., Nov. 15. 
--♦♦♦— - 
(dgaitm (Btroncmtir. 
“FILING FOUR ACRES ON ONE.” 
Some of the Southern farmers are getting 
the key to the true spirit of Agricultural 
improvement. The better class of these 
planters are of tho thinking and reasoning 
Bort. Necessity is forcing them to con¬ 
clusions which are worth}' of a wide circu¬ 
lation. For instance, a correspondent of 
tiie Georgia Plantation says: 
their value. Ltster Brothers, bone man¬ 
ufacturers at Newark, N. J., pay on an av¬ 
erage about §27 per ton of 2,000 lbs. for cat¬ 
tle bones, dry and in good merchantable 
order, when delivered free on board in N. 
Y. city. Tims they get bones collected in 
Winter, in the Spring; and bones collected 
in Summer, in the Fall. Bones of animals 
which have been killed a long time and out 
of which the substance has been bleached 
by exposure are not of as much value, §25 
per ton being the highest price paid in New 
York when delivered free on hoard cars. 
NOTES FOR HORSEMEN. 
The Horse Epidemic South.—This 
fearful disease has at last made its way to 
the laud of “ flowers.” Georgia is now 
among the crippled agricultural States. 
Cotton wagon a are left standing in the road 
on their way to market. Wheat culture 
will have to be postponed, ginning by horse 
power stopped; turn-outs called in, and all 
tilings that horses are connected with, will 
goon be brought to a stand still. The 
people of this section of tho country ask 
for a preventive. Will not some learned 
stock dealer relieve our troubled minds? 
Will not the Rural help us? Is it fatal? 
By answering the above imploring request 
you will relieve us of great fear.— c. r. a. 
We know of no preventive; the Rural, 
has published already the best remedies 
known. The chief thing Is absolute rest 
until fully recovered; and the animals 
must be kept warm. There are few fatal 
cases where rest is given; where animals 
have been worked before recovering, or 
have been exposed to cold or storms, drop¬ 
sy has followed with fatal result. 
Chronic Glanders are said not to be 
contagious. A veterinarian in the Kan¬ 
sas Farmer recommends the following 
treatment:—“ To remove or neutralize the 
poison, give one-half to one ounce doses of 
tiie sulphate of soda, at night, in out feed, 
for several weeks, and live grains of the 
powdered Spanish liy along with it, which 
will act not only as a powerful tonic, but as 
an agent whereby the product of the dis¬ 
ease will be removed from tiie body of the 
animal by the kidneys. This treatment 
will not interfere with t he ot her medicine, 
which is powdered gentian root, three 
drams; powdered sulphate of copper, two 
drams; mix, and give tho whole for a dose, 
and give oue dose morning and mid-day. 
The horse must, be well and highly fed, and 
removed from ot her horses while the treat¬ 
ment is going on. Change the feed often. 
Remember that glanders, associated with 
tubercles of the lungs, cannot be cured.” 
Dropsy and Glanders now prevail 
among the horses in this city that have re¬ 
covered from the late epizootic which has 
so seriously affected our business interests. 
The deaths among horses are almost entire¬ 
ly in consequence of one or the other of 
these diseases. Horses apparently in per¬ 
fect health at night are found in the morn- 
ing.with legs and body swollen to an aston¬ 
ishing degree. In some of the stables more 
horses have died from these diseases than 
from the influenza from which most of them 
have apparently recovered. It is found, 
however, that most of the deaths from 
dropsy are among horses that were worked 
or exposed while ill of influenza—that those 
most carefully nursed and allowed to rest 
develop no indications of these supplemen¬ 
tary diseases. 
To Fit Collars to Horses.—The Valley 
Farmer says collars are or should be so 
made, as to throw the chief force on tho 
lower part of the shoulder. The horse can 
apply but little strength on the upper 
part, and for this reason breast collars are 
coming greatly into vogue, as the strength 
is exerted on the lower part of the shoulder. 
The collar should be purchased of the 
proper size; just before putting it on the 
first time, immerse it in water, letting it 
remain about a minute, and immediately 
put it on to work. The collar, by being 
wet. will adapt itself to the shoulder, and 
should dry on the horse. When taken off 
it should be left in the same shape it occu¬ 
pied on the horse, and ever after you will 
have a snug-fitting collar and no wounds. 
A Stifled Horse.—C'an you recommend 
anything that will benefit a stifled horse? 
asif b a correspondent of the Rural New - 
Yorker. Not anything that we have our¬ 
selves tried, but a correspondent of the N. 
Y. Tribune says:—“Fora stifled horse, rub 
a teaspoonftil of turpentine, night and 
morning, half way up the crease by the 
tail on the lame side. Keep using tho horse 
as usual, and in three or four days a cure 
will be effected. For scratches or grease 
heel, wet the part frequently witli water in 
which blue vitriol has been dissolved.” 
To enable the farmer to buy less and sell 
more, let him put three acres of land on the 
identical same spot where he now has but 
one, with a spade, or a four-house plow. A 
German or Englishman would do it the llrst 
year. Did not a man (Englishman) near 
Athens, sell fourteen hundred dollars worth 
from loss than three acres? lie did it by 
piling four acres on one. 
Tho example of one man goes far in the 
education of the people. A man buys three 
acres of land instead of fifty and makes 
them produce more than the fifty would by 
ordinary culture. What does he save? lie 
saves the money lie would have invested in 
the forty-seven acres. Suppose he puys, 
or agrees to pay. §20 per acre for lifty acres; 
it amounts to §1,000. Instead lie buys gay 
five acres, for which he pays say $50 per 
acre, or $150. Jle has a cash capital left of 
§850, which he can make available and ac¬ 
tive. He may not have the capital to work 
the fifty acres as he would the live. Few 
men have. But by tho use of his reserved 
capital he makes his live acres produce as 
much as twenty acres of his lifty: and few 
farmers with lifty acres cultivate more 
than twenty-three, unless near large cities; 
even then they cannot do it well without 
a large cash capital. With the five acres 
and the §850 capital a man may secure all 
the tools, manures and labor that may prof¬ 
itably be employed on live acres. Every¬ 
thing is utilized. There is no dead capital. 
Every dollar as it is turned over produces 
another. Every crop is under control. The 
ground can bo prepared for t he seed as and 
when it ought to be; the orops can bo cul¬ 
tivated and harvested when and as they 
ought to bo. Out of the investment come 
ret urns which bring to the farmer the max¬ 
imum profit. 
There are circumstances and conditions 
where this policy does not seem to bo the 
best— especially in locations where land is 
rising in value or where it will rise in value 
in proportion to every dollar expended 
upon it for improvements. Then the far¬ 
mer may reap more profits from his invest¬ 
ment in fifty acres than in five. But on 
lands which have reached their maximum 
value it is folly to spend the bulk of one’s 
capital iu them and cripple his resources 
for rendering them productive. As a rule, 
we think, two-thirds of a farmer’s cash 
capital should be reserved for use on land 
purchased with the other third. 
-♦-*.*- 
SUBSOILING IN THE FALL. 
A CORRESPONDENT of the RURAL NeW- 
Yorker asks if we recommend subsoiling 
stiff soils in the Fall as late as November. 
We do. Wo prefer plowing and subsoiling 
(and trench plowing, too) stiff soils in the 
Fall to doing it in the Spring. Suppose it 
is full of water. Lands that freeze are ben¬ 
efited thereby more than they are injured. 
The fertilizing properties the water fur¬ 
nishes the soil, the aeration which results, 
and the chemical changes produced by 
freezing and thawing do uot deteriorate the 
producing powers of tho land. Wo do not 
recommend trench plowing stiff clay lands 
in Spring for Spring crops under any cir¬ 
cumstances. Spring subsoil plowing for al¬ 
most any crop is safe enough; but Fallsub- 
Boil plowing is, iu our opinion, always better. 
-«*-*-♦- 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
Letting Cider Remain in Pomace.— 
A correspondent of the Scientific American 
says:—“ To obtain good cider, t he expressed 
juice must remain a short time with the 
pomaoe, which has been crushed or bruised, 
not cut, as is done by most patent cider 
mills. The old mills bruised the apples, the 
new ones cut them. We found, lifty years 
ago, that, with the advantage we then had 
of the old-fashioned mills, it was better to 
grind or crush the apples and then let the 
pomace remain 1 lithe trough at least 10 or 
12 hours; aud if the weather was cool, let 
it remain 24 houx-s.” 
Price of Bones.—A Kansas correspond¬ 
ent asks the price of bones in New York 
market, and whether the difference iu the 
age of the bones makes any difference in 
Long Furrows Economical.—A Ger¬ 
man agricultural journal prints a plea for 
long furrows. The turning of the plow and 
the commencing of a new furrov require 
more exertion in the plowman and the team 
than continued work on a straight line; and 
how great may really be the loss of time, 
from frequent interruptions In short turns, 
may be shown by tho following calcula¬ 
tions:—Tn a field 325 feet long, five and a- 
half hours out of ten are used in re-direct¬ 
ing the plow: with a length of 575 feet, four 
hours arc Sufficient for tho purpose; and 
when the plow can proceed without inter¬ 
ruption for 800 feet, only one aud a-half 
hours of the daily working time are con¬ 
sumed. 
ricntific and tHsejul 
♦ 
SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL NOTES. 
To Cut and Bore India Rubber Stop¬ 
pers.—W. Donkin writes the Chemical 
News:—Dip the knife, or cork borer, in so¬ 
lution of caustic potash or soda. The 
strength is of very little consequence, but 
it should not be weaker than tho ordinary 
reagent solution. Alcohol is generally rec¬ 
ommended, and it works well until it evap¬ 
orates, which is generally long before the 
cork is cut or bored t hrough, and more has 
to be applied ; water nets just as well as al¬ 
cohol, and lasts longer. Whan, however, a 
tolerably sharp knife Is moistened with soda 
lye, it goes through India rubber quite as 
easily as through common cork; aud the 
same may be said of a cork borer, of what¬ 
ever size. I have frequently bored inch 
holes In large caoutchouc stoppers, perfect¬ 
ly smooth and cylindrical, by this method. 
In order to finish the hole without the usual 
contraction of its diameter, the stopper 
should be held firmly against a flat surface 
of common cork till the borer passes into 
the latter. 
Rest Time to Paint Houses.— The Tech¬ 
nologist says:—The best time for painting 
tho exterior of buildings is late in Autumn 
or during the Winter. Faint then applied 
will endure twice as long as when applied in 
early summer or in hot weather. In the 
former it dries slowly and becomes hard, 
like a glazed surface, not easily affected af¬ 
terwards by the weather, or worn off by the 
beating of storms. But in very hot weather 
the oil in the paint soaks into the wood at 
once, as into a sponge, leaving the lead near¬ 
ly dry and nearly ready t o crumble off. This 
last difficulty, however, might in a measure 
bo guarded against, though at an increased 
expense, by first going over tho surface 
wit h raw oil. By painting in cold weather, 
one annoyance might certainly bo escaped, 
namely, the collection of small flies on the 
fresh paint. 
NOTES FOR HERDSMEN. 
Hoof Ail.—A writer saye:—Frequently 
this arises from the bad condition of the 
stables, but in many cases the cause is not 
so apparent. Acrid accumulations in the 
yard or mud in the field may have some¬ 
thing to do with it, or it may even be 
caused by an animal or vegetable parasite. 
Whatever the cause, however, the treat¬ 
ment will be much tho same, and should 
consist of cleanliness, with local applica¬ 
tions of astringents. If the hoof is dis¬ 
eased and partly separated by inflammation, 
all the unhealthful parts should be care¬ 
fully pared off, aud tho foot welt cleaned. 
Then apply once or twice a day a solution 
composed of one dram of carbolic acid in 8 
ounces of water. 
Feed for Milcli Co ws.—A correspond¬ 
ent of the Country Gentleman says:—The 
most profitable feed for cows giving milk 
during Winter, and that used in nearly all 
the best dairies for producing milk for 
New York market, is a good quality of 
wheat bran and corn meal, mixed as fol¬ 
lows: Eight pounds of bran and two of 
corn meal for each cow daily. If the above 
can be thoroughly cooked with cut hay, it 
increases its value about one fifth by actual 
experiment. I produced from 50 cows 500 
quarts of milk daily on ten pounds of feed 
mixed as above and thoroughly cooked. 
