Wkawkit 
AILING STOCK. 
Miss F. V. J3., Ganeseraga, IV. says they 
havo one two-yoar-old colt and two yearlings 
which had the distemper, epizootic—or some¬ 
thing of that liiud—last August and September. 
Afterwards through family bereavement, the 
animals fell into the charge of help who fed 
them poorly so that they began the winter in ill 
condition. They have had good hay and four 
quarts of oats per day ; will not eat mashes or 
potatoes. They eat pretty well, but don't gain a 
bit, are weak aud mere scare-crows. As they 
are expensive blooded stock, it is important that 
they should bo put in good condition. 2. They 
portion to rod clover last spring and the fall 
previous. Moreover I had tried rye a time or 
two before aud failed; and there is not much 
market for rye here at one-third less than the 
price of wheat. 
So I commenced sowing wheat early in Octo¬ 
ber aud sowed grasB seed as fast as I got the 
wheat in. I just sowed the seed on the fresh 
plowed land after the wheat was sowed, without 
harrowing. Tho first sowed, about four acres, 
waB a steep hill that was in corn, the only crop 
that had been on it for at least fifty years, as it 
had grown up with pines and they were large 
enough for saw-logs. On that I have as fine a 
stand of grass and clover as I ever saw. The 
ground, wherover it is moderately good, is per- 
mliiii 
'W! Ilm 
adaptability to fatten—all oombine to give them 
the leadership, and to make them popular in the 
South. 
Brookston, N. C. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Illinois, April 15,1878. 
About the seed exchange I offered in Bubal : 
It has kept me busy, since hundreds of letters 
have come ! The Rural should certainly be a 
good advertising medium. Some of the fore¬ 
most and most noted horticulturists in the coun¬ 
try have applied. In all my replies I spoke many 
good words for the “ Rural.” If I were to en¬ 
gage in it again, I should hire a clerk, a. c. w. 
Fairview, Erie Co., Pa., April 16,1ST8. 
In looking over the old Rukals of 1872, I no¬ 
ticed a letter from Irene Turner of Florida— 
stating that if any of the readers of the Rural 
wished to know anything about Florida, she 
would answer their questions—the name of the 
county where she rosided was not mentioned or 
I Bhould have written to her. If agreeable to 
her I would like to correspond. 
Miss S. E. Rule. 
grain, ho won’t eat half the hay a healthy beast 
ought to, and what ho does take is eaten without 
relish in a half-hearted sort of way; conse¬ 
quently he can’t stand hard work aB well as his 
mate, and such work makes him fall away in 
condition speedily. 
Ans.—T his horse is probably of a different 
temperament from his mate aud may never bo 
as hardy. In such cases medicines at the best 
havo only a temporary effect and are not always 
satisfactory. Make the animal’s surroundings 
as healthy us possible, i. e ., keep in a clean, light 
stable, hoc that ho is well groomed twice a day, 
give pure water for drink, feed bright, plump 
clean oats aud first-quality bay. As medical 
treatment, try one-half pound Glauber salts in 
two equal doses, moruiug and night, to be fol¬ 
lowed the second day by powders composed of 
eight ounces powdered geutian root and two and 
one-half drachms of powdered mix vomica, woll 
mixed aud divided into doses of one-half ounce 
eaoh. One dose to be given morniug and night. 
the ground was in excellent order and I 
sowed the grass seed. On this I have only 
a moderately good stand. I must here say that 
the fall was very favorable to grass, as there 
was abundance of rain, which was the reason 
that the last was not Bowed sooner. 
The remainder of the field is about twelve 
acres of old field, having been in broom Bage for 
own another, but having lost nearly all my 
Berkshires last summer, I was obliged to pur¬ 
chase suoh as were to be had in the neighbor¬ 
hood and among the number were two of the 
genuine Simon Pores, with not the least indica¬ 
tion of Berkshire, Essex, Chester or Duroe. 
Slaughtered when seven months old, each 
weighed twenty-five pounds less than a half- 
THE RURAL JSEW-YO RKER. 
265 
have also a four-year-old heifer that gives four 
quarts of milk a day, has been stabled and fed 
meal and slop enough to make her fat—but her 
hair is rough, she has a continual cough, her 
mother was a superior cow with 1 he ugly draw¬ 
back of hair standing the wrong way. 
Ans. —1. The proper treatment for horses is 
given in answer to M. M. A.above,whose animal is 
affected substantially in the same way. 
2. Give the cow one pound of Glauber or 
Epsom salts dissolved in water; the next day 
give half this quantity; and follow this the 
third day with the tonic powder which is recom¬ 
mended in the inquiry already referred to for 
horses in a similar condition. The doses and 
time of giviug should be the same as with horses ; 
it is readily taken mixed with food. The action 
of the salts would be assisted by adding one or 
two ouuces of powdered ginger to each dose. 
[For answer to third question, see Sheep Hus¬ 
bandry.— Eds.] 
FALL vs. SPRING SOWING IN NORTH 
CAROLINA. 
Last fall I wrote a letter of inquiry to the 
Rural about sowing grass seed on twenty-five 
acres for permanent pasture. I was advised to 
sow the laud to 170 and have the grass seed all 
sowed by the 15th Sept. But as it was impossi¬ 
ble for me to do so, I did the best I could to get 
it sowed early. I was necessarily compelled to 
sow the land to wheat as it was about all the 
whfiftf. lfl.rul T }m\A fn anavo T c A ___ j 
UUUJ • A no 
next sowed, about five acres, 
was fallow land of the same de¬ 
scription. except not so rolling. 
It had been cultivated one year 
before in corn. On this there 
is a good catch of grass, but as 
there was rain on tho land after 
the wheat was plowed in and 
before the grass was sowed, it 
did not grow so fast nor did it 
come up as well. The uext 
sowed was about three acres of 
old pasture land. Some of it 
was rich and all considerably 
rolliug. It had been in wheat 
the year before and in corn the 
year previous. This was sowed 
about the 20th of October, and 
at first I did not intend to sow 
tho grass until this spring as I 
thought it waB too late; but 
A BIRD SITTING. 
several years until last summer a year when it 
was turned and sowed in wheat. On this I com¬ 
menced sowing grass seed, following with a grain 
drill with 160 lbs. of Merryman’s dissolved bone 
to the acre, about four weeks ago, and after sow¬ 
ing about two-thirds of the field I was Btopped 
by rain. On this the grass is up nicely, but I 
would much rather risk what waB sowed in the 
fall. The remainder of the field has been sowed 
about two weeks or more, but as there has been 
no rain since it has not come up yet. 
Tho winter has been rather unfavorable to 
grass as it would freeze hard at night and thaw 
tho next day, and so on, sometimes for a week 
at a time. I am satisfied that if clover or grass 
can be sowed in the fall in time to get it up, it is 
much better than the spring for this latitude. 
My experience with olovor is that, as a rule, it is 
as liable to die from sun iu the summer as from 
frost in the winter. Tho former liability is en¬ 
tirely obviated if sown in the fall and it will 
make a pretty fair crop the first year, which it 
will not do if sown in the spnn . 
In this county we can raise almost anything. 
I made last year 1,400 lbs. seed cotton to tho 
acre on ten aores. I also made 450 bu. of wheat 
on fifteen acres of old laud ; also 100 bu. sweet 
potatoes on a quarter of an acre, and other 
things in proportion. I always raise mixed 
crops and it pays best. Everything is low iu 
market: Wheat about $1.10 ; corn, 50 cts.; 
sweet potatoes, GO cts.; Irish, $1.00; country 
bacon, 8 cts.; butter, 20 cts.; eggs, 7 to 8 cts.; 
land from $5 to $18 per acre, according to 
quality and location. s. A. l. 
Mill Bridge, Rowan Co., N. C., April 5 . 
• - -»■» ♦- 
NORTH C AROLIN A NOTES. 
M. B. PRINCE. 
SCRUB HOGS. 
After a little experience with a Razor-Back 
pig I thought nothing could induce me to ev er 
blood Berkshire five month old, though receiv¬ 
ing the same feed and care. If some of those 
worthy people who think a hog is a hog and 
nothing more, will try one or more of these 
long-legged, long-nosed, fence-jumpers, with 
hams like a cat and ears like a cabbage leaf, and 
try to fatten it by the side of any of the im¬ 
proved breeds, I am sore that they will become 
convinced of the great superiority of the 
latter when dressed and on the scales if not be¬ 
fore. 
THE C0WI FOR THE SOUTH. 
In this section of the South we have given but 
little attention to the improvement of domestic 
animals. Our cattle ’are what are usually de¬ 
nominated “Natives”—small, scrawny, and 
giving to the observer every indication of pov¬ 
erty, The bulls are seldom castrated until one 
or more years old, which gives them the thick, 
.msightly, stag-horns. They are put to work 
when two or three years old, usually Bingly, be¬ 
fore the cart and plow, making a very efficient 
little team, and it is truly wonderful how much 
plowing a freedman will accomplish with a fair 
specimen of au “old steer" as they call every¬ 
thing of the ox kind. Several Jerseys, Short¬ 
horns, and Ayrshires have been introduced in | 
different parts of the State, but I am convinced 
that the Devon is the stook for the South. Be¬ 
ing active both in the harness aud out they 
would accomplish nearly the work of a horse 
and at tho same time thrive on our thin pas¬ 
tures. The flesh of our “ Natives" is quite in¬ 
ferior, which would give the Devons another ad¬ 
vantage, Moreover the latter, as cows, are much 
better milkers, and though not equal to the 
Shorthorns as meat producers, or the Jerseys for 
the butter dairy, yet taking all points into con¬ 
sideration—the demand for working cattle, the 
price of butter, our thin pasturage, and their 
CHURCH. 
BEURRK d’ANJOU* 
CUT-WORMS IN GREEN-HOUSES. 
B. PIOKMAN MANN. 
The moths, whose eggs produce cut-worms, 
fly, according to the species, from as early as 
June 9 to as late as September 9, perhaps be¬ 
yond those dates. Even the same species does 
not always lay its eggs in the same way or in 
similar situations. The young caterpillars feed 
on roots and stay under-ground, hut the older 
caterpillars mount the Btems of herbs or of low 
trees, eating the buds, leaves, tender twigs or 
the Btems theniBelves. Some of these caterpil¬ 
lars cut off the stems under-ground ; others drag 
the stems under-ground before they eat them. 
All have the habit of feeding at night, and those 
which come out of the ground at night to get 
their food are snugly hidden again before day. 
Therefore frequently the twigs of young trees 
are kept bare, and the cause of their bareness is 
not known. The caterpillars will be found near 
the trank of the tree or at any rate beneath the 
branches, and not very deeply buried. Most if 
not all the Bpecies are caterpillars when they go 
into winter-qaartera, and wait till some time in 
May before they sally forth for the food on 
which they are to finish their growth. But some 
either pass the winter as moths or in the egg 
stage, thus coming to the destructive period of 
their lives later, while others, favored by circum¬ 
stances, come out earlier. 
A case of the latter kind has lately come to my 
notice. A large bed of Carnation Pinks, grown 
in a hot-house, was severely injured by the de¬ 
struction of the buds. Largo holes were found 
to have been eaten in the sides of the buds, and 
the contents consumed. Fully one hundred dol¬ 
lars' worth of pinks were lost in this way, accord¬ 
ing to the owner's statement. Upon visiting the 
house in the night, with a light, some of the 
caterpillars were caught at their work. An ex¬ 
amination of one of these and of (he descrip¬ 
tions which have been published hitherto, re¬ 
lating to cut-worms, shows a great resemblanoe 
between this caterpillar and that of Agrotis iner- 
mis, as described by Riley in 1869. Although 
precisely such a case as the one now under con¬ 
sideration seems uot to have been reported be¬ 
fore, it is interesting to know in this connection 
that the caterpillar of Agrotis inennis was found 
to be destructive to grape vines in a cold frame, 
coming out of the ground in the night time and 
climbing the vines to get its food, returning be¬ 
fore day-break. Chickens were admitted into 
the cold-frame, aud allowed to work, so that 
in two days no more of the caterpillars was 
to be found. Probably it would not be allow¬ 
able to admit chickens into a hot-house 
where then scratching would do as much harm 
as good, but a patient search by the lesa skilled 
but more judicions fingers of a 
k human would accomplish the 
9 k end sought, aud the captured 
prey need not be eaten by the 
capturer unless it was relished. 
The night visitation of the in- 
BSaKk fested plants is another means 
jS»£a|k of putting an end to the evil. 
The plants may be gently aha- 
rTftW&L ken, and the caterpillars thus 
dislodged and exposed to view. 
Of course the caterpillars must 
k 0 killed. They are good trav- 
elers and can stand a long fast. 
Some persons have been sutfic- 
IKP^rffiSPlOTel* iently uon-sensible to bury them 
alive. The parent moths ought 
fS SB lje exclu ^ tl l from the hot- 
jnf bouses. They may be of many 
kinds, and one or another will be 
in Beason all summer. They are 
Va mSS especially attracted to lights aud 
sweets, and tly mostly, if not on- 
ly, at night. Therefore if the 
windows are not always closed at 
night the openings ought to be 
SSSSflBf covered witn some land of fine 
netting. I shall have some- 
yBgSr thing to say upon the more 
general means of guarding 
against the ravaged of caterpil¬ 
lars at another time. . :—~ 
Middlesex Co., Mass. 
Ij-V* 
