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COOKING FOOD FOE STOCK 
How Much to Steam Cut Food, Jcc. 
Mr. J. H. O’IIara asks, in Rural New- 
Yorker, “ what amount of steaming straw 
and stalks need, or what the condition of 
the feed should he when done? Can four 
hundred bushels be steamed at a time and 
fed out so as to give the same benefit? 
Should stalks, straw and hay be steamed 
separately, and the bran or mill feed be put 
on after ?” 
As these questions may arise in the minds 
of many other readers of the Rural, we will 
endeavor to give some plain and practical 
suggestions on these points. 
1. The object of cooking the various kinds 
of coarse fodder is to render them soft, pulpy 
and succulent, and thus imitate, sis far as 
possible, their condition in the green state. 
It then requires less mastication—is more 
easily digested and assimilated, besides much 
of it becomes digestible after cooking that 
was not so before. This woody fiber may 
be considered as well cooked when it be¬ 
comes soft and pulpy, is easily bruised and 
separated by the fingers. The cut feed 
should be wet wit It three gallons of water to 
five bushels of feed before steaming. 
2. Four hundred bushels, or a larger quan¬ 
tity, may be steamed at. a time, provided 
your steam boiler baa a sufficient capacity; 
and it ia much more economical to steam on 
a large than a small scale. The feeder who 
proposes to cook, should pay particular at¬ 
tention to the capacity of his 
Htcatn Boiler. 
The capacity of a boiler depends mainly 
upon the amount of surface exposed to the 
fire. The larger the fire surface the greater 
the amount, of steam for a given quantity of 
fuel, and the stronger the current of steam 
the less time it will take to cook a given 
bulk of feed. Thus it will be seen that a 
large capacity of boiler saves not only fuel, 
but what is quite as important—labor, 
Some, who have found the saving iu food 
quite satisfactory, have been discouraged at 
the time and expense required to cook with 
a boiler, wholly inadequate to the work to 
be done. If only thirty to fifty bushels are 
to be steamed, then a small boiler may be 
used; but it must be remembered that it 
costs more in proportion to cook this small 
quantity. Ten to twelve square feel of fire 
surface ore usually estimated to produce a 
horse-power. We have found, practically, 
that to cook with economy it requires ten to 
twelve feet of fire surface to each hundred 
bushels of feed; therefore your boiler should 
have a capacity of one horse-power to each 
hundred bushels to be cooked. If time and 
fuel are of little object, then a larger amount 
of food may be cooked with this capacity of 
steam. A four-horse Wood, Taber & 
Morse engine and boiler has the capacity to 
cook thoroughly four hundred bushels in 
two hours, and will thresh, cut, grind, saw 
and do all tho work of a stationary power 
required on a large farm. 
The Steam Box. 
3. The construction of the steam box has 
much to do with the time it takes to thor¬ 
oughly cook the fodder. If it be a square or 
oblong box, with a large cover leaking 
steam, it will take much longer to cook it 
soft. Tiie best form of steam box is a large 
cask with two heads—tapering so the hoops 
may be driven. It, should be made with 
two-inch pipe staves and heads, clear of 
knots and sap, with strong hoops—a 0x8- 
inch stick of limber bolted across each 
head. In the center of the head put a three- 
inch gudgeon or trunnion through this lim¬ 
ber — introduce the steam pipe through the 
trunnion. Hang this in a frame so as to 
revolve clear of the floor, and you have a 
rotary steam box. The man-hole will be at 
the bilge, 2% by 3 feet, surrounded by a 
strong frame bolted to the slaves, with hooks 
at eacli corner, through which to run bars 
over the cover — wedges to be driven be¬ 
tween the bars and the cover to hold it 
firmly. 
This box, nine feet in diameter at one end, 
eight, feet at the other and eight fuel long, 
will hold about four hundred bushels. This 
form of box has many advantages. It. can 
be turned up, to be filled from Hie story 
above; down, to be discharged. When part¬ 
ly steamed, the man-hole can be turned 
under, an 1 the steam will then be forced 
through ever} part of the mass, down 
through the nvm b le, and by reversing the 
position of tho tv> my surplus water will 
settle evenly tin >" the whole mass. It 
hold 9 the steam ; " r than a square box, 
consequently w id * ok the food in loss time, 
and, as will be 'seen, is ■much more con¬ 
venient in In .11 ag the contents. This 
style of steam b >x may be of any size 
desired. 1 
4. Cooked liny. Straw, &c., will remain 
warm for two or three days, in the coldest 
weather, in a close, wooden steam box; 
wood beiug a non-concjlictor, the heat is re¬ 
tained. Cows will eat about two and one- 
half bushels each, per day, of steamed food 
—consequently four hundred bushels, steam¬ 
ed twice per week, would supply a stock of 
fifty head. Food thoroughly cooked will 
not ferment, to its injury', in three days,even 
in April. It is therefore more economical of 
labor and fuel to cook, at one time, a supply 
for three days, than to cook every day, and 
equally beneficial. 
5. It is better to cook the bran, middlings, 
meal, turnips and other additional food, with 
the hay, straw, corn fodder, &c., because 
these foods are equally benefited by cooking, 
and tliefr odor will be diffused by steam 
through the coarse fodder and give it a bet¬ 
ter relish. This is one very important ad¬ 
vantage of cooking, that you can mix differ¬ 
ent qualities of food and render them all 
palatable and nutritious.— E. w. 8. 
. — -»»» 
HOW CHEMISTS AGREE 
Mr. Taylor’* Response to Mr. Whitney’s 
Strictures. 
I observe, on page 282 in Rural New- 
Yorker, May 6, an article headed “ Practi¬ 
cal Farm Scieucc,” by .Tames A. Whitney, 
in which he states that the undersigned 
should be more careful in his statements. 
“ He speaks of caustic potassium and sodium 
instead of caustic potash and soda.” In re¬ 
ply I have to state that the “ error of terms” 
he points out is one of reporting and not of 
speech. Mr. Whitney further remarks 
“ caustic potash and soda do not naturally 
exist in the soil.” If they exist in the soil, 
they exist naturally. Every condition has 
a sufficient cause, otherwise it would not 
exist. Every chemical condition is natural, 
whether in the soil or out of the soil. Caustic 
lime containing caustic magnesia, spread on 
the soil, presents an example of a substance 
remaining caustic for months while in con¬ 
tact with another substance having a greater 
affinity for carbonic acid t han ilself. “ Mag¬ 
nesia,” says Sir Humphry Davy, 11 will re¬ 
main for many months ” caustic under the 
conditions pointed out. See his Lectures on 
Agriculture; and I assert that potash and 
soda in the soil will be converted into the 
caustic condition by the presence of caustic 
lime. In Litis case the lime will become a car¬ 
bonate, and the caustic potash or soda, as may 
be, will doubtless be highly diluted, in which 
condition it combines with albumen (or the 
juice of plants) without, chauge at ordinary 
temperature; but at high temperatures 
albumen is converted into protein. This 
fact may explain t he character of sun scald. 
Concentrated caustic alkalies couvert albu¬ 
men into protein, or dilute caustic alkalies at 
a high temperature will have the same ef¬ 
fect, since the juice of all our fruit trees 
coutaius albumen and caustic potash com¬ 
bined. A scalding sun heat will convert the 
albumen to protein and thus destroy sap cir¬ 
culation. 
“ Mr. Taylor,” lie states, “ advocates the 
use of caustic lime for preparing the flesh of 
animals for manure, which is all bosh.” 
“ All bosh 1” I am accustomed to give rea¬ 
sons for the faith I hold, and to ask for 
reasons, and to treat, all men who differ from 
me with respect. The term “ bosh ” is a 
very unscientific term, and establishes only 
the opinion of the writer. Mr. Taylor, 
however, cautioned the fruit growers not to 
use quicklime except under certain condi¬ 
tions, as the article to which he alludes 
points out. I did recommend the use of 
quicklime to be sprinkled over putrefying 
animals, and slated that the mass would be 
converted into a manure by slow decompo¬ 
sition. I. E. Teschemachkr, Esq., in an 
address delivered before the Plymouth Agri¬ 
cultural Society, recommends its use also. 
(See Mass. Agricultural Transaction, page 
017,1851.) Ami Sir Humphry Davy, who 
is styled the “ immortal author of Lectures 
on Agriculture/’ by Liebig, also recom¬ 
mends the use of quicklime when animal 
manures are too rich. He says, 11 by cover¬ 
ing dead animals with five or six times their 
bulk of soil with one part of lime, and suffer¬ 
ing them to remain for a few months, their 
decomposition would impregnate the soil 
with soluble matters so as to render it an 
excellent manure; and by mixing a little 
quicklime with it at the lime of its removal 
the disagreeable effluvia will be in a great 
measure destroyed, and it might be applied 
in the same way as any other manure to 
crops.” 
Quicklime, in being applied to lands, 
tends to bring any hard vegetable matter 
that it contains into a state of more rapid 
decomposition and solution, so as to render 
it a proper food for plants. The solution of 
llie question whether quicklime ought to 
he applied to a soil, depends upon the quan¬ 
tity of inert, vegetable matter that it con¬ 
tains (see Davy’s Lectures on Agriculture, 
American Edition, p, 217.) A small portion 
of quiclcljme or oilier alkali, added to old 
leather or leather scraps, or shavings, would 
neutralize the tannic ncid, and allow the 
gelatinous matter to decompose. Mr. Whit¬ 
ney states that “salt can be used to advan¬ 
tage on light sandy soils, but not on stiff 
clays. It is supposed to act mainly as a chemi¬ 
cal agent in. dissolving silica This seems 
rather a new feature in chemistry ’—salt dis¬ 
solving silica. For one, I am thankful that 
salt will not dissolve silica. Would not the 
sea be in a bad condition if salt dissolved 
silica? Why, there would be a bole in the 
sea right through to the “Heathen Chinee,” 
and our sand wonld be converted into solu¬ 
ble glass, and tbe invention of labor-saving 
or marine soap rendered useless. 
Salt precipitates silica; it does not dissolve 
it. The composition of sea water as given 
by Lavoisier contains in 10,000 parts:— 
muriate of soda, 1,375; muriate of lime and 
magnesia, 256; muriate of magnesia, 156; 
lime, 87; sulphate of sodaand magnesia,84; 
total, 1,958. (Thompson Chemistry, 4 th Vol., 
page 438 Vol., Edinburgh Ed'n.) 
The composition of sea water varies, but 
in no case will silica be found in its compo¬ 
sition. Alkalies dissolve silica and if caustic 
so much the bel ter. 
While in the way of correction may I 
call your attention to an error of statement 
in vonr paper, page 292, article, kainite a 
new fertilizer. The words “ sulphate of lime 
20 parts,” and again “ sulphate of lime 10 
parts,” one of these I presume should read 
sulphite of lime. Thomas Taylor, 
Chairman of the Scientific Committee of Potomac 
Krutt Growers’ Association, Washington, D. C. 
WOOL CLIP OF CALIFORNIA. 
Most of the sheep shearing in California, 
for the spring clip, is done in the month of 
April. The average weight of fleece is gen¬ 
erally thought to be lighter than last year. 
But the increase in price will more than 
make it up. Wool that sold last year for 18 
to 20 cents per pound, now sells readily at 28 
to 30 cents. Some farmers sold for 20 cents, 
early in the season, not anticipating such an 
advance. The clip of one band that last 
year brought but 18 cents per pound, we 
sold this year at 27^ cents on our ranch, 
saving nil expense of transit by rail or water 
to market, and all commissions and charges. 
This is an increase of fifty per cent, upon 
last, year’s prices. 
There are several causes that contribute 
to this result. In the first, place the quality 
of our wool in California is improving every 
year. We atHk breeding to thorough-bred 
bucks, so that the sheep of 1871 show a 
great advance upon those of ten, fifteen and 
twenty years ago, both in weight of fleece 
and in the quality of wools. A mixture of 
the Spanish and French Merino seems to be 
the most common and approved, with a 
preponderance toward the French. Another 
reason of this great increase in price is the 
increased demand for California wools. 
Like the wheat of our State, our wools are 
beginning to attract the attention of manu¬ 
facturers in our Eastern Stales, and iu the 
European markets as well, by their superior 
qualities. Stewart, the merchant-prince 
of New York, having ordered $150,000 worth 
of California blankets, and otherwise making 
demonstrations toward monopolizing the 
woolen manufactures of lids coast, has 
alarmed other dealers and manufacturers,and 
they are looking around them to ascertain 
the cause of all this. 
Since early in March there have been 
agents here from New York, Boston, &c., 
ready to sieze upon the first clips that made 
their appeal mice in market. They find that 
there is something in the climate and soil 
and feed of California that produces a soft¬ 
ness and elasticity of filter in our wools that 
can nowhere else be found. No such fab¬ 
rics were ever exhibited in any of the East¬ 
ern Slates, or at the Worlds’ Fairs in Eu¬ 
rope, as the woolen blanketsnnd other wool¬ 
en goods produced in California from Cali¬ 
fornia wools. And no one claims that it is 
on account of any superior facilities or man¬ 
agement in the manufacture of these goods, 
that give them this superiority. It is sim¬ 
ply In (he soil feel and firm, glossy tissues 
of the original material, which, it is be¬ 
lieved, can nowhere else be produced in 
such perfection as in California. Hence, 
this rapid and almost unprecedented appre¬ 
ciation iu the prices of our wool clip this 
season. 
Some say this sudden demand and rise in 
the price of wool is caused by the Eastern 
manufacturers, who wish to push the prices 
of wool so high that the woolen manufactur¬ 
ers of California cannot compete with East¬ 
ern manufacturers in the production of wool¬ 
en fabrics. Bat we think the cause is to be 
found in the reasons which we have above 
given. 
Wool growing in California is becoming 
one of the ruling industries of the Slate—al¬ 
ready second only to the products of wheat. 
According to the report of the Agricultural 
Department of Washington, California is the 
third State in the Union in the number of its 
slice]). Ohio is reported as having 6,250.000; 
New York, 4,350,000; California, 3.750,000. 
It is estimated that tho present number of 
sheep in California is 4,000,000; and with 
the additions of Luis year’s increase, we shall 
doubtless have 5,000,000 at the close of 1871. 
The product of wool for 1870 is calculated, 
by the best authorities, to have been about 
20,000,000 pounds. This year it is thought 
to be 25,000,000. This, with an increase of 
25 per cent, in the price over last year, will 
give $6,750,000 as the value of the wool crop 
of California for 1871, against $3,600,000 for 
1870—calling the average of that year, 18 
cents per pound. Having two clips a year, 
(in April and September,) we think it a fair 
average to calculate five pounds to each 
sheep, for the year—which we have done, to 
arrive at Ibe above results. The open, mild 
winter, has been very favorable to tbe in¬ 
crease and prosperous condition of tbe lamb9. 
ntcmological. 
SNOUT-BEETLES 
Injurious to Frnits and Vegetables. 
BY CHAS. V. RILET. 
[Read before the IU. State Horticultural Society.] 
[Concluded from page 315, May 20.] 
Tlio FIuin Gouger — (Avthonomuf prunMda— 
W’alsh.) 
Ii s Clmmc-ler» Pistrlliuiion nnd Food. 
This name was given 
S 1 / by Mr. Walsh to an- 
other indigenous weevil 
T which is represented en- 
Ji SISK* s larged in the accom- 
sM jS ukp\ * p an y i ng ill nst ration 
J ly (Fig. 10.) It is easily dis- 
** * tingnished from either of 
>IG ’ 10 cJoroKR. P,UM the preceding weevils— 
as you will see at a glance by referring to 
the figures and to the specimens in the lec¬ 
ture box—by its ochre-yellow thorax and 
legs and its darker wing-covers, which arc 
dun-colored, or brown, with a leaden-gray 
tint, and have no humps at all. Its snout is 
not much longer than the thorax, but, as in 
the Apple Curculio, projects forwards, or 
downwards, but cannot be bent under, as in 
the Plum Curculio. This insect was first 
described by Mr. Walsh in tbe Prairie 
Farmer for June 13,1863, and the descrip¬ 
tion was afterwards republished in the 
“Proceedings of the Boston Society of 
Natural History for February, 1864.” 
Mr. Walsh gave such a good account of 
it in his Report as Acting State Entomolo¬ 
gist, that it is unnecessary for me to go into 
detail, and 1 will therefore only briefly al¬ 
lude to those traits in its history which are 
well established. 
The Plum Gouger seems to be unknown 
in the Eastern States, but has been very 
generally distributed throughout the Vulley 
of the Mississippi. As a rule, it is much 
less common and does much less injury than 
the little Turk, though in some few districts 
it is found equally abundant, and I received 
specimens on the first of June last from my 
esteemed correspondent, Mr. Huron Burt 
of Williamsburg, Callaway Co., Mo., with 
the statement that it was doing great damage 
to the plums in that locality, though the 
little Turk was scarcely met with. There 
is a plum there known as “ Missouri Non¬ 
such,” which, though said to be Curculio 
proof, is worked upon very badly by the 
Gouger. 
The Plum Gouger i6 often found on wild 
crab trees, and may,like the Plum Curculio, 
occasionally deposit and breed in pip fruit; 
lint it is partial to smooth-skinned stone fruit 
such as prunes, plums and nectarines, and 
it docs not even seem to relish the rougher- 
skinned peach. 
Its Time ol' Appearance. 
This beetle appears in the spring about 
the same time as the Plum Curculio, but as 
no eggs are deposited after the stone of the 
fruit becomes hard, and a6 its larva requires 
a longer period to mature than that of the 
latter, its lime of depositing is shorter, nnd 
the old beetles generally die off and disap¬ 
pear before the new ones eat their way out 
of the fruit, which they do during August, 
September and October, according to the 
latitude. 
It* Natural History. 
Though we have no absolute proof of tbe 
fact, analogy would lead us to believe, and 
in my own mind there is no doubt, that this 
insect passes the winter in the beetle state, 
and that it is, like other species, single- 
brooded, Both sexes bore cylindrical holes 
in the fruit for food, and these holes are of 
the exact diameter of the snout, nnd, conse¬ 
quently, somewhat larger than those of the 
Apple Curculio. These holes are broadened 
at the bottom, or gouged out in the shape of 
a gourd; uml especially is this the case with 
those intended by the female for the recep¬ 
tion of an egg. The egg, in tills case also, 
enlarges from endosmosis, and it is probable 
that all weevils that make a puncture for the 
reception of their eggs, gnaw and enlarge 
the bottom, not only to give the egg room 
to swell, but to deaden the surrounding 
fruit, nnd prevent its crushing such c-gg—the 
same object being attained by the deadened 
flap made by the crescent of the Little 
Turk. Wherever this insect abounds, plums 
will be found covered with its holes, the 
great majority of them, however, made for 
feediBg purposes. The gum exudes from 
each puncture, and the fruit either drops or 
becomes knotty and worthless. 
The young larva which hatches from the 
egg, instead of rioting in the flesh of the 
plum, or remaining around llieoutside of the 
kernel, makes an almost straight course for 
that kernel, through the yet soft shell of 
which it penetrates. Here it remains until 
it has become full-fed, when by a wise in¬ 
stinct it cuts a round hole through the now 
hard stone, and retires inside again to change 
to the pupa, and finally to the beetle state. 
When once the several parts of the beetle are 
sufficiently bard and strong, it ventures 
through the hole which it had already provi¬ 
dently prepared for exit with its stronger 
larval jaws, and then easily bores its way 
through the flesh and escapes. 
Remedies. 
Thl9 Plum Gouger is about as hard to deal 
with as the Apple Curculio. It drops almost 
as reluctantly, and we therefore cannot do 
much by llie jarring process to diminish its 
numbers. Moreover, it, takes wing much 
more readily than the other weevils we have 
mentioned; and though fruit that is badly 
punctured for food, often falls prematurely 
to the ground, yet, according to Mr. Walsh, 
that infested with the larva generally hangs 
on the tree until the stone, is hard and pre¬ 
mature ripeness sets in. In all probability 
the stunted and prematurely ripened fruit 
containing Ibis insect will jar down much 
more readily than the healthy fruit, but I 
have so far had no opportunity of making 
any practical observations myself, and must 
conclude by hoping that our plum growing 
members will make the proper experiments 
nnd give us the results. 
■iriit (frops. 
FIELD NOTES AND QUEBIES. 
Potato Culture. 
The raising of potatoes as a crop on the 
farm for. profit is attended with less cost than 
is generally supposed by farmers, and yet 
very fair crops are received. Take a very 
heavy timothy or clover sward—the older 
the better—and haul on a thin coating of 
unroued or long manure and spread evenly 
over; hire hoys who can be procured for a few 
shillings per day, one man to strike out a 
straight furrow through middle and double- 
back, which will make the rows about three 
feet and six inches apart, if the potatoes are 
planted on the land side; then after the po¬ 
tatoes are drilled In about eight or ten inches 
apart, rake on the manure, the width of 
three furrow’s, on the potatoes and plow 
three furrotvs and again and rake the ma¬ 
nure from the next three fbrrows on to pota¬ 
toes and so on. The plow should only be 
allowed to run about three or four inches 
deep. When the potatoes are about coming 
through the ground, harrow well with com¬ 
mon drag harrow. After the potatoes have 
got up to see them well in the row, cultivate 
twice over and not plow at all. In the fall 
the potatoes will come out of the ground fine 
and clean and ready for market—a saving 
of ten per ceut on other plans of cultivation. 
— Lyman B. Speaker, Sullivan Co., Pa. 
Cut-Worms and Corn. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of April 29, 
1 notice an inquiry in regard to coal oil in 
which to soak seed corn in order to secure it 
from the attacks of the cut-worm. I li^nve 
never seen it tried, but am of the opinion 
that it is a humbug, as are all such prepara¬ 
tions. If the gentleman will observe the fol¬ 
lowing directions he need not lose a single 
hill of corn by cut-worms. Just before the 
corn comes through the ground, go over the 
field and cover the hills as deep as they were 
at first covered ; this will give such a length 
to the stalk, and at the same time such vigor, 
that if the worms do cut the com off it "ill 
not hurt it a particle. I believe the above to 
be a never-failing remedy; and even if there 
were no cut-worms to contend with, I tLiiik 
it will amply repay for the additional work 
of covering, being equal to a good hoeing.— 
R. B. Brown, Jefferson Co., O. 
Do Potatoes Mix? 
Will you be kind enough to inform me 
whether potatoes—two different varieties— 
planted alongside of each other, will mix 
and run together, both varieties coming 
from the same bill—or will they grow side 
by side, year after year, and not mix at all? 
I inquire with regard to potatoes being 
planted themselves, not the balls or seed.— 
M. A. R., Stanton, Mich. 
They will not mix. All mixtures of 
which we have any knowledge have result¬ 
ed from mixing seed. We have tried the 
experiment to our own satisfaction. 
--- 
Inquiries tor Farmers.— Will your renders 
please Inform me of the best mode of raisin* 
carrots; also llie best varieties, or rutlier those 
most cultivated on an exlcusIveBdftfe? Asl have 
never raised carrots. I would llkesoine informa¬ 
tion on this subject, and beinira new subscriber, 
] could not refer buck to any former publica¬ 
tion on this subject.— A. s. L. 
