MARC 13 33 
£l)c (-Querist, 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
lEvery query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention.] 
KOI' CULTURE. 
Subscriber, address mislaid. —Give briefly 
instruction alxiut hop-raising. 
Ans.—A light clay loam is preferable to 
any other soil for hops, though any soil that 
will grow Indian coru will grow hops if it is 
well drained. The ground should be plowed 
in the Fall, if possible, and prepared for the 
crop as cit rly iu the Spring as the soil can be 
worked. It. should be thoroughly pulverized 
and plowed to the 
depth of 10 or 12 
inches, in order that 
the roots may pene¬ 
trate the subsoil cos¬ 
ily. Plenty of first- 
class farm-yard ma¬ 
nure or other fer¬ 
tilizers is absolutely 
essential to u good 
crop. The land can¬ 
not well be too rich. 
Hop-vines do not 
bear until the second 
year, and just before 
the grouud freezes in 
late Fall four or five 
shovelfuls of welL- 
rotted manure should 
be placed on each 
hill. If the manure 
is piled up in the 
.Spring and forked 
over two or three 
times during the 
Summer it will be 
much better. Hops 
produce seed, but the 
vines are usually 
grown from plants or 
sets, i. e, pieces of the 
roots cut into lengths 
having two sets of 
eyes each. Those in¬ 
tended for planting 
should be taken up 
in the Spring before 
the roots swell or 
sprout, mid if the 
ground is not ready 
for planting they 
should be kept in a 
cool place to prevent 
too much sprouting. 
The sets should lie 
dropped in the hill 
and covered like po¬ 
tatoes, about two in¬ 
ches deep. The sets 
cost on the average 
about $2.50 per hun¬ 
dred, and can be ob¬ 
tained of almost any 
hop-raiser. The price, 
however, will depend 
on the scarcity of 
plants. Planting in 
this latitude, begin 
in May, or as early 
as the ground will 
permit. Rows should 
be about 7x8 feet 
apart, making not 
far from 750 hills to 
the acre. About 
three or four bushels 
of sets will be re¬ 
quired to plant tills 
number of hills, five 
sets to be put in euch 
hill. Some grow po¬ 
tatoes ami com be¬ 
tween the hop-rows 
the first season. Cul¬ 
tivation for hops is 
the same as for coru. 
hoeing the hills when 
the corn or potatoes 
are hoed. In the 
Spring of the second 
year the ground 
should tie plowed, 
not so deeply os lie 1 
fore, turning the fur¬ 
rows from the hills to 
the middle of the space between the rows, j 
Rake the manure from the hills after the | 
plowing and sot the poles. These should be 
about 18 or 20 feet long, and about three inches 
thick at the bottom, which should be sharpened. 
Use an iron crow-bar for making the holes 
and set the poles deep enough to lie perfectly 
solid. They may lx? sot two in a hill, about a 
foot apart, so as to bo iu line, and two vines 
may be trained upon each jiole. About the 
middle of July plow the ground between the 
rows again and turn the furrows toward the 
hills and “hill up” slightly. Harvesting be¬ 
gins about September 1st in this latitude, or 
whenever the seeds of the hops are hard and 
“meaty.” Bins are placed at convenient dis¬ 
tances iu the field and the poles and vines are 
pulled up and carried to the bins where the \ 
hops are picked off. The first thing to do 
after picking, in preparing for market, is to dry 
the hops. They should be put in a dry-house 
built for the purpose. They are spread on a 
doth which is suspended 12 or lo feet above 
the floor where the stove stands. It requires 
from 12 to 24 hours to dry them, according to 
their thickness on the cloth. As soon as the 
hops are cold they may be baled in sacks of 
hop-dotli made for the purpose, and which 
hold about 200 pounds. Hops are usually 
marketed in the Fall to speculators who buy 
aud resell to the brewers. On good soil and 
with good culture 1,500 pounds may be raised 
to the acre. 
SPINAL MENINGITIS IN HORSES. 
J. G., Frrmont, Minn .—A number of horses 
are dying hereabouts from a disease of which 
the following are the symptoms: The ailing 
animals lose the use of their limbs; they at¬ 
tempt to get up and eaunot, though they have 
a good appetite after they are down. The dis¬ 
ease lasts from 12 hours to three or four days 
after the horse is attacked. The horse doctors 
here call it spinal meningitis. Is there a rem¬ 
edy for it ? 
Ans.— The disease, spinal meningitis, is rightly 
named, although it is often complicated by in¬ 
flammation of the meninges, or covering mem¬ 
branes of the brain, and so becomes cerebro¬ 
spinal meningitis. It consists of inflammation 
of the membranes which envelop the brain 
and spinal cord and is a very serious and gen¬ 
erally fatal disorder. In the human subject 
it is known as spotted fever. The fust symp¬ 
tom is inability to drink, at least this is the 
most common form, but. too often this is un¬ 
fortunately overlooked. At this first stage the 
disease may be cured; but when paralysis 
has occurred this rapidly spreads upwards and 
produces insensibility and death. The disease 
is not infectious or contagious, but is usually 
epizootic, being produced by conditions of the 
weather, and just now it is especially preva¬ 
lent. To discover when an animal is affected 
all that is necessary is to offer water; the ani¬ 
mal will try to drink and may appear to do so. 
but one should be suit' if it does or not, if not 
it should be treated at once. It is no use, or 
even dangerous, to give fluid medicines which 
might pass into the throat and lungs and be¬ 
come fatal. The following treatment has been 
found very successful when given at the out¬ 
set, viz., two drains of extract of belladouna, 
with four drams of aloes made into a bolus 
with linseed meal and molasses and put into 
the throat by the extended fingers: then give 
20 drops of tincture of aconite in a teacupful 
of water every three hours alternately with 
one dram of the belladonna extract. Applica¬ 
tions of mustard or turpentine may be made 
to the spine, especially over the loins. It 
would be wise to procure professional help at 
once, but os time is very valuable and an hour’s 
delay may be fatally injurious, if assistance can¬ 
not lie procured at once the medicine should be 
gi ven. When the brain is not affected and there 
may not lx; any difficulty in swallowing, the 
treatment should be the same, with hot fomen¬ 
tations over the loins and the use of mustard 
plaster. Plenty of fresh water should be 
offered and the food should be of the best kind 
aud of small bulk—as oatmeal or linseed gi uel 
oi 1 mashes. Good nursing, pure air and gen¬ 
eral comfort will be 
very helpful and if 
used constantly may 
serve as a valuable 
means of preventing 
the disease. 
1JFE INSURANCE. 
F. TV., Vales Center, 
Fans .—What is the 
principle on which 
life insurance is 
founded, and should 
a poor fanner have 
ins life insured f 
Name some reliable 
life Insurance eom- 
l ianies. 
Ans. —Life insur¬ 
ance is a lotteiy, the 
prizes are drawn by 
those who die early; 
the blanks by those 
who live longest. 
To some extent the 
prizes are paid by 
those who draw the 
blanks as in an ordi¬ 
nary lotteiy, because 
if a person who has 
paid $100 in pre¬ 
miums dies and his 
family get $1,000, the 
$000 must be contrib¬ 
uted by those who 
live aud keep on pay¬ 
ing for many years. 
But in the strict 
sense, life insurance 
is a mutual benefit 
association in which 
those who are so for¬ 
tunate as to be spared 
many years' pay for 
this advantage to 
others who are not so 
fortunate a certain 
sum as a provision for 
a dependent family. 
In this respect it is 
precisely Like tire in¬ 
surance, in which 
the loss is equally 
divided among all the 
insured. We think 
every man who has 
a family who would 
suffer were he to be 
cut off suddenly, 
should insure his life 
against this calamity, 
just as he would in¬ 
sure his house against 
tire; and more so 
because while a man 
may, by good care, 
avoid bur ning his 
house, he cannot be 
sure of his fife one 
hour, not even by the 
greatest watchful¬ 
ness. The New r York 
Mutual,. Equitable, 
Phcenix Mutual of 
Hartford, Conn., are 
all companies of high 
standing. 
KEEPING GOLD FISH. 
Canadian ,” Nor- 
irich. Ontario .—How 
should gold fish be 
kept? 
Ans. -Neither metal 
nor wood is good ma¬ 
terial for a fish-tank; 
the fmetal corrodes 
and poisons the water and the wood favors 
the growth of vegetable matter, which 
soon becomes putrid. A wooden tank 
might do with water constantly running 
through it. The right kind of tank is one 
made of cast-iron bottom and frame, into 
which sheets of glass are coiuentod. These 
tanks are called aquariums. If some water- 
plants are kept growing in the tank the water 
will not need changing oftener than once a 
month, when a portion only will need renew¬ 
ing. A gallon of water will be required for 
GROUP OF BEK ESH IRES.—Flu. 157. 
