THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
27 
4885 
an hour of the time at which they were first 
noticed to be unwell. First they would stag¬ 
ger and fall down; and immediately after¬ 
wards be affected with spasms and convulsions. 
On a post mortem nothing wrong was found, 
except that, the gall was enlarged to the sr/.e of 
a man's two fists. For two or three weeks the 
animals had had scarcely any feed, except 
what fodder they gob in the run of a corn¬ 
field, and they were rather thin in flesh when 
turned into the field. What ailed them? Some ‘ 
of the neighbors attribute their death to smut 
in the corn. 
ANSWERED BY PROF. F. L. KILBORNE. 
The difficulty is undoubtedly the nervous 
form of ergotism, which usually ends in con¬ 
vulsions. It is due to feeding upon ergoted 
grains and grasses, or smutty corn, and is not 
uncommon at this season of the year. Those 
animals fed upon dry fodder, without free 
access to water, are most liable to suffer. This 
nervous form 13 more common during warm 
weather, and a gangrenous form is most com¬ 
mon in cold weather. It was a peculiar form 
of gangrenous ergotism that caused the “foot- 
and-mouth disease” scare in the West last 
Winter. More commonly there are premoni¬ 
tory symptoms in the nervous form, (probably 
overlooked i n the present case) such as gene¬ 
ral torpor, with a tendency to lie down much of 
the time, unconscious of what is passiug 
around them; unsteady gait; dullness of 
special senses; dilatatiou of the pupils of the 
eyes, and coldnessof the skia and extremities. 
Death may follow in a few hours or days, or 
the disease may become chronic, and linger 
along for sometime. In the gaugrenousform, 
besides the nervous symptoms which •> ay, or 
may not be present, there occur heat, swell¬ 
ing and tenderness of the extremities, ears, 
horns, tail and feet, especially the hind 
feet of cattle in Winter, followed by a 
line of demarcation, or circular crack, in 
the skin with swelling just above, while 
thB portion below the line is dry, hard and 
bloodless. This outer portion is dead, and if 
the animal should survive long enough, will 
drop off. Another form of ergotism is seen 
in the not unfrequent cases of abortion 
caused by feeding ergoted or smutty fodder. 
Treatment is not at all satisfactory,and is suc¬ 
cessful only in the very mild cases, or in the 
earliest stages. The first step is to cbenge the 
diet, if possible, to fodder free from er^Ot or 
smut. If ergoted or smutty fodder must be 
fed, moisten it thoroughly, and in either case 
feed plenty of roots, potatoes or sloppy food, 
and give free access to water. Give a laxative 
(Epsom salts, one pound.) to clear the bowels of 
offensive matters,followed by touies.one ounce 
each of cinchona bark, gentian and ginger, 
three times daily. At the end of a week re¬ 
place the cinchona by t wo drachms of sul¬ 
phate of iron for a like period. If there are 
spasms or depression give stimulating anti- 
spasmodics—ammonia one half to one ounce or 
chloral hydrate, one to two ounces, repeated 
every two hours. The treatment of the af¬ 
fection being so unsuccessful, it is important 
to exercise great care in the feeding of ergot 
or smut. Much may be done to preveut the 
development of ergot (which is easily recog¬ 
nized as the dark-brown or black, spur-like 
projections from the heads of grain or grasses) 
by thorough cultivation, frequent stirring and 
druinage of all damp or wet soils. Contaminat¬ 
ed grass lands may bo devoted to cultivated 
crops other than grains. Seed sprinkled with a 
strong solution of sulphate of copper or bi¬ 
sulphite of soda, and dried with quicklime, 
is less liable to develop ergot. Cut grass for 
hay early, wheu it begins to blossom, before 
the ergot has had time to mature. 
DRAINING} MUCK LAND. 
J. M, Elkhorn, Wis .—A bout SO acres of my 
farm consist of a black muck, the bottom of 
which has never been reached. It is so wet 
and soft that horses can not travel on it, and 
cattle can hardly do so. There is a good fall 
for druinage; can it bo drained enough for 
plowing? How much per acre would it cost 
to drain it? How near should the drains be to 
each other? Tiles cost about #20 per thousand 
at the R. R. four miles away, and all ditching 
material is high. Is there any machine that 
will work in such land ? 
Ans. —There is uo doubt but such laud can 
be drained so as to muke it dry, and it will 
then be the most valuable laud on the farm. 
How close together the tiles should be will de¬ 
pend on their size, uud the cost can hardly be 
estimated from so meager a description. If 
the muck is somewhat porous and the tiles 
can be placed three feet deep, tiles four rods 
apart may lie sufficient, or the muck may be 
so close aud peaty as to require them to be 
laid as close as 83 feet apart. Then, too, the 
size of tile to be used will depend upon the 
amount of water in the soil, and, of oourse, 
the cost will depend very largely upou the 
size of tile necessary. There are several styles 
of ditching machines in use that do good work, 
and esjiecially on such ground as yours, en¬ 
tirely free from stones. We hardly think it 
would pay you to buy a machine if the piece 
mentioned is all you have to dig, and it may 
be so soft that you cannot get a team on it to 
draw the machine, if you had it. 
A "barrel” and "sack” of flour., etc. 
H. £?., Ambay, N. F.—L What is “black 
teeth ” and what is the cure? 2. Why does a 
sack of flour contain 49 pounds instead of 50? 
Ans.— “ Black teeth ” in pigs is the result 
of indigestion and is not the cause of any ail¬ 
ment. If the pigs are properly fed and al¬ 
lowed some loosening food, like oil meal gruel 
or a little raw linseed oil, they will soon get 
over the hlack teeth. 2. A legal barrel of 
flour is 196 pounds, and a sack is one-fourth 
of this quantity,or a quarter barrel, which is, 
of course, 49 pounds. A barrel is a unit of 
flour measure adopted a long time ago, and 
was established at that quantity to get an 
even number of stone, (14 pounds) and a bar¬ 
rel contains 14 of these,or 196 pounds. 
MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. 
s H C—M., Henry, III.— I have a sheep 
stable in which there is much manure and 
litter, and it is heating considerably, what 
would be the effect of scattering salt or potash 
on the surface,and which would be the better? 
ans —Never put potash on any sort of de¬ 
caying manure. To do so would liberate all 
the ammonia and nitrogen and cause it to 
escape and be wasted. Salt would hardly 
arrest the fermeutation, unless accompanied 
with plenty of water to dissolve aud carry it 
down into the mass—and water enough to 
saturate it would do this alone, so we say, turn 
on water, if practicable, or, what would suit 
us better, clean out the stables, spreading the 
manure where it is to be used iu the Spriug, 
unless the place is liable to be flooded; or else 
draw and put into a large, flat pile where the 
rain and snow will keep it saturated. 
MANAGEMENT OF CIDER. 
T. J. M., Fredericksburg, Fa.—I made some 
cider and racked it off some two months ago, 
and it was all right then. I put it into a gin 
barrel that had been filled with water for some 
teudays, and to it I added a half pound of 
mustard seed and also a small quantity of 
isinglass, to clarify it and stop fermentation. 
It is now of good color and has strength but 
has no “bead,” but has a flat, disagreeable 
taste. What is the trouble aud what can I do 
to take away the teste? 
Ans.— The bead is due to fermentation, in a 
great measure, and when you stopped that 
you destroy the bead. The flat and "rather" 
bitter taste is, most likely, due to the mustard; 
at least we think the taste given by it is a dis¬ 
agreeable one. If one-eighth of an ounce of 
wintergreen oil (not essence) is added to the 
contents of the barrel, ic will flavor the cider 
so that the mustard taste will not be perceived. 
To do this properly, draw out one gallon of 
the older, add to it one-fourth of the oil, place 
it in a two gallon jug, and shake it well; then 
return it to the barrel, and repeat the opera¬ 
tion till the oil has all been added. 
OIL MEAL AS HORSE FEED. 
A, ft, Saddle River, N.J .— Is new-process 
oil-meal a good food for horses? If so, is the 
combination mentioned on page 881 of the 
Rural equally good for horses as for cattle? 
Ans.— There is no better food for a horse 
than a proper proportion of this. The combi¬ 
nation would be first class for a horse doing 
heavy work, at uot too fast a gait. It' he were 
to bo driven at a fast gait, we should prefer to 
substitute one part of ground oats for one part 
of corn-meal. We should then have a mixture 
containing 16 per cent, of muscle-formers, 8.S6 
pe reent. of fat, aud 59 per cent, of heat pro¬ 
ducers, which would be better for a fast-mov¬ 
ing horse. 
FEEDING STEERS IN WINTER. 
O.E. IF., Springfield. Ind. —Can steers be 
fed from Dec’r 1st to March 1st, with corn at 
40 cents per bushel and clover hay $7.00 per 
ton, at a profit, the feeder receiving an ad¬ 
vance of $1.00 per hundred on the live weight 
when put up to feed, aud five cents per pound 
for the gain? 
Ans.—I f the steers are well bred, thrifty 
and not more than three years old, we think 
the feeder could, by proper care, make a good 
profit besides a large amount of rich manure. 
W e should recommend that the steers be 
placed in warm, well-ventilated quarters (so 
warm that the manure would never freeze); 
that they be not allowed out of-doors at all, 
except to drink; that they be kept clean; aud 
carded daily, and in addition to the corn 
meal, we would recommend wheat-bran, if it 
can be bought at the price of the meal—$14or 
less—also oil meal (see Rural of Dec’r 13); also 
plenty of good straw at all times, and it would 
add greatly to their health and thrift if they 
could have a daily ration of some succulent 
food, as mangels. 
Miscellaneous. 
It. W. D., Dunkirk, N. F.—1. What is the 
uame of the beans, a sample of which I send 
you? 2. I wish to grow some seedling cur¬ 
rants; how should I treat the seeds this Win¬ 
ter to keep them fresh? How should I plant 
them, and when? 3. How shall I keep the 
young plants the first Winter? 
Ans —1. The beans are the Siou House va¬ 
riety, very common in some parts of the coun¬ 
try. 2. The best you can do is to preserve the 
seeds in moist—not wet—sand until Spring; 
sow them as you would any other small seeds, 
in drills. The young plants may need water¬ 
ing, if the weather should be very dry; but 
otherwise they will need no special care. 3. 
Protect them with a coarse mulch. 
J. J. M , Green Ridge, Manitoba.—Is there 
any work that gives full instructions for mak¬ 
ing aud using incubators and the rearing of 
young chickens without a natural mother? 
Ans.— The use of incubators and artificial 
“mothers” is as yet hardly beyond the expert 
mental stage, except with the best appliances 
in the hands of experts. All the standard 
works on poultry give more or less detailed 
instructions in the matters above inquired 
about. Information can also be obtained on 
the matter from circulars of the various inca- 
bators, lists of which we published twice last 
year; also from “Incubation” published by 
H. H. Stoddard, Hartford, Conn., price 25 
cents; and Incubators and Incubation, for 
sale by A. M. Hoisted, Rye, N. Y. 
M. L„ Gerymlle, Fti.— How many pounds 
of limestone from the quarry make a bushel, 
and how many tons in 1,000 bushels? 
Ans. —Limestone varies, according to its 
firmness, from 144 pounds to 23S pounds per 
cubic foot. On the average, it would therefore 
weigh 191 pounds per cubic foot, or 239 pounds 
per bushel. This would make 1,000 bushels 
weigh about 12 tons. Of course, when it is 
burnt, it loses much in weight and somewhat 
iu bulk. 
M. J. T., Iowa. —Is there a milk pail better 
adapted to keep out dirt, etc., than the old- 
style, open pail, and if so, where can it be ob¬ 
tained? 
Ans. —There are several patent pails, so 
made that the milker sits ou the pail and 
milks into a funnel having a strainer, and at¬ 
tached to a flexible tube leading iuto the pail. 
It should be for sale by Cornish & Curtis. 
Ft. Atkinson, Wis. 
4. IF. S., Morganville.N. J. —Where and at 
what price can I buy muriate of potash and 
nitrate of soda ? 
Ans. —Of the Mapes Formula aud Peruvian 
Guano Co., No. 15S Front Street, N. Y. Mu¬ 
riate of potash S3 percent pure, by single tou, 
$38; nitrate of soda at 2% cents per pound. 
J. C. O., Somerset, Ky —Does the Rural 
Branching Sorghum produce seed? 
Ans, —Five years ago a large field of Rural 
Branching Sorghum (now beiug boomed as 
“Millo Maize”) was raised near Aiken, S. C. 
It failed to produce any quantity of seed. It 
requires a peculiarly favorable season to seed 
freely, 
J. McC., Wallingford, Vt —What will 
remove cancerous bunches from around the 
eye-socket of a cow, the eye being gone? 
Ans.—E xcision with the knife is the quick¬ 
est and surest method. Care must be taken to 
remove all diseased tissues, including the eye 
if necessary, or the operation will be perform¬ 
ed to no purpose. In the early stages, before 
the cancers have become too deep-seated,there 
is some hope of a complete removal. Later 
there is little or no hope. The operation should 
be performed by a surgeon. 
J. L. G., Birmingham, Conn ,sends a box of 
pears.and ask for their name. 
Ans. —It is impossible to tell positively from 
a few specimens alone without seeing wood or 
leaf. They seem to be Clairgeau. This is a 
showy pear, variable as to quality in different 
places. It is a profitable market pear, with a 
season from October to January, according to 
place where it is grown and the method by 
which it is kept. 
-♦«♦ — - 
DISCUSSION. 
L. H., Rock Island, III.—The Rural of 
December 13 says the present general de¬ 
pression in business the world over, is gener¬ 
ally attributed to over-production, and asks 
whether this over-production is not due “to ^ 
the ingenuity of the age, which has perfected 
millions of labor-saving machines which in all 
civilized lands are capable of producing in a 
month what the world can use in a year.” 
The issue of December 30 says that it can 
not answer the question, “When thousands, if 
not millions, of our people go hungry to bed 
every night, why talk of over-production?” 
There seems to be a great deal of trouble 
about that word, “ over-production,”—how 
would “under-consumption” no? There are 
people who are always cavilling abont the 
shades of meaning of words, splitting hairs, 
insisting on the vast difference ’tween tweedle¬ 
dum and tweedle-dee. These ought be pleased 
by the substitution; for it cannot be denied 
that more goods are produced than are con¬ 
sumed ; or rather, fewer goods are consumed 
than are produced. I certainly think this 
state of things—by whatever name it might 
be called—has been brought about by the 
multiplicity of labor-saviug devices. In this 
country alone there are enough of these to 
perform the work of over 12,00),000 able- 
bodied men. Would I then, destroy these, 
like the Chartists, or stop their manufacture, 
as advocated by some labor agitators i Cer¬ 
tainly not; but 1 would give more of the ad¬ 
vantage derived from them to Labor and few¬ 
er to Capital. I would shorten the hours of 
work, so as to allow a greater numbar of 
"hands” to earn a livelihood, a greater num¬ 
ber of men, women aud children to get an edu¬ 
cation and some rational enjoyment out of 
life. Within the last 75 years labor-saving 
devices have doubled the power of production 
on the farm and quadrupled ic in the factory; 
how great has been curtailment in the hours 
of labor iu either? To the wretch going to 
bed hungry, what matters it that the loaf 
costs but a couple of cents, if he hasn’t a sin¬ 
gle cent to pay for it? To the half clad 
shiverer in the snow, what matters it 
that a warm suit can be bought for 
a few dollars, if he hasn’t a single dol¬ 
lar to pay for it? Goods may be ever so low- 
priced on account of over-production; but 
what matters that to the hundreds of thou¬ 
sands pauperized through lack of work, 
owing to that same over-production? 
J. S. C., Moorestowx, N. J.—In the Rural 
D ecember 27, page SCI, it is said that the 
proper temperature of water for scalding 
hogs, should be from 190 to 200 degrees Fah. 
This temperature is somewhat too high; one 
of 160 degrees will be found quite high enough. 
-■ 
COMMC-NICATIOSS KKCKIVED K08 THB WSKK ESDISG 
Saturday, Jan. 3. 
G O —A.U J.—M.—W B. T.—A. L.-R. M.—S. G. 
W., thanks.—J. H. P.—W. J. F.—A. K. J.—J. M. S.—C. 
W. SL-C. CLL.-F. D.—W. M. E.-W. F.-W. V.—H. 
W. R.-L. M. M , too late.—T. D. C.-P. L. C.-D. A. S. 
—M. T. E.-W, B.-VV. E. J— S. Y. K., thanks.-E. W. 
—T. T. L.-C. D. B.-C. S. C . thanks.-J M.-A. J. C.— 
M. 1L-F. R.-J.B. B.-D. F. D. P.-W. N. R.-W. T. M‘ 
—M. T. A.-M. and F. R.-H. S.—G. F. H.-G. E. M -J. 
Melx’an, thanks.—J. S.—<3. B. G.—P. D. Kinney, best 
thanks.—J. S.—S. C. IV.-\Y. L,—S. J.-M. H. H.-M. C. 
L. F.—J. A. L—H. S.-J. CL— 
(Tree.si, ^eed.si and giants. 
J. M. THORBURKT dfe OO., 
15 JOHN STREET, NEW YORK. 
The OEH ESTHBE1SHED SEED HOUSE of JVew York. 
GrHOWERS Aivn XMPOB.'TXlXt.S OF 
SEEDS AND BULBS. 
Will MAZXj FREE THEIR 3XTHW PRICER OAT /\ TiOGrTJE of 
SEEDS, SEEDS, SEEDS, 
ATdou t -tlxo Middle Of January. 
