one ounce of sugar of lead dissolved in a quart 
of water. See that the harness is properly 
fitted and kept clean. If boils or abscesses 
form they should be fomented with warm 
water or poulticed until the abscess points; 
then open freely and treat as an open sore. 
Open sores may be treated with the oxide of 
zinc ointment, or the zinc oxide in powder. 
3. The same general rules that apply to the 
castration of the other domestic animals, will 
apply to swine. The only special precautions 
necessary are, to make the incision low down 
to allow of free drainage, and not to leave a 
sac or pouch to catch and retain the dis¬ 
charge; and not to castrate swine during hot 
weather. Cool or cold weather is desirable. 
Do not tear out the cords with the pig or any 
other animal. It is not only a barbarous, but 
an unsafe practice. Either twist or scrape 
the anterior part of the cord to avoid bleed¬ 
ing, first cutting through the posterior por¬ 
tion. 
4. If you have a skilled operator at hand so 
as to suffer little or no loss, the operation 
would undoubtedly prove quite profitable, al¬ 
though I am of the opinion that you would 
not obtain as favorable results as are obtained 
in the spaying of heifers. 
ADVIOE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 
A. H. H., Rayville, Md.—A single young 
man full of ambition and energy has a one- 
eighth interest in a $3,000 farm. He has the 
privilege of living on it, working, and taking 
all he can make out of it after supporting a 
family of four, including himself. He has 
been doing this for five years, and finds that 
. after paying all expenses and keeping the 
place in good condition, there is nothing left. 
He is thinking of going to Washington Terri¬ 
tory; would it be advisable for him to do so? 
What business would be best for him there, 
and what is the nature of the country ? 
Ans. —This is a case where one might well 
hesitate to give advice. Too much depends 
upon the man himself. A word from a disin¬ 
terested outsider might lead this young man 
into a worse condition than that in which he 
now stands. Washington Territory possesses 
many attractions for an energetic young man. 
One can readily find, in that vast Territory, 
climate, soil and opportunities that willsurely 
please him. One can readily make a home 
there. But it is “out of the world” to one 
who has strong family or social ties at the 
East. Our friend’s grand children may see 
the day when the dweller in Washington Ter¬ 
ritory can feel that his friends near the 
Chesapeake Bay are within a few hours of 
them, but he never will. If the young man 
goes West he can reasonably expect 
that he will find an opportunity to 
show just what there is in him, and 
hat his success will be measured by 
his capabilities. Success never comes to 
the sluggard, the coward or the careless, no 
matter what part of the country he goes into. 
The lazy man bad better stay at the East. If 
the young man expects to go west to make 
enough money in a few years, to enable him 
to come back and display his wealth, he will 
be disappointed. If he goes at all, he should 
go to stay, or go prepared to spend what 
money he has in investigation and then come 
home and call the record square. If the 
writer of this occupied what he considers the 
position of this young man to be, he would 
start early next March for some point in Col¬ 
orado—say Denver or Greeley—and hire out 
on a stock ranch, or wheat farm for the sum¬ 
mer. If in the fall, he found that it suit¬ 
ed him [to stay away from the East, and he 
still wanted to see Washington Territory, he 
would cross the mountains and make his way 
across to San Francisco and thence to the 
Territory. The fact is that it is next to an' 
possible for one person to so advise another 
in a matter of this kind, that the result will 
be fully satisfactory. 
AN ICE-HOUSE; CARROTS OR BRAN FOR 
HORSES? 
L. P. H., Hillier, Ont., Canada.— 1. The 
stone wall on the north side of my barn is 10 
feet high; would it do to build an ice-house 
against it? I could fill it very easily from the 
bridge leading into the barn. How should 
the ice-house door be built? 2. Which would 
it be the cheaper to buy for horses, carrots at 
$12 per ton or brau at $18 per ton? I have 
plenty of rye and buckwheat, but very little 
oats and no hay. I have to feed the grain 
ground on cut straw. 
Ans.— 1. The door of an ice-house should be 
quite as impervious to warmth as the walls 
are. You could build against the stone wall 
of the barn, but to secure the requisite air¬ 
tight wall the ice-house should be made quite 
independent of the barn wall, although built 
close up to it. Otherwise, the ice-house would 
certainly settle away from the barn wall and 
leave space for air to enter. The door of an 
ice-house should be made as close as possible 
outside and inside, and in the summer the 
THE BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB. 
OCT 13 
space should be filled with sheaves of straw. 
It is best to take ice always from the top, and 
when a supply is taken out the sawdust 
covering should be replaced. The bridge 
of the barn in this case would afford a 
convenient way for taking out the ice. 2. A 
ton of carrots contains 1,700 pounds of wa¬ 
ter and a ton of bran contains only 260 pounds. 
The 300 pounds of the dry substance contain 
30 pounds of flesh-forming matter, (albumin¬ 
oids) and 230 pounds of fat-forming substance 
carbohydrates. The 1,740 pounds of bran 
contain[280 pounds of albuminoids and 1,350 
pounds of carbohydrates,besides a very consid¬ 
erable quantity of potash and phosphoric acid 
which are valuable in animal growth and 
manure, which carrots do not contain. At 
the prices mentioned, a ton of bran is worth 
several times as much as a ton of carrots. 
The actual feeding value of a ton of carrots is 
not more than $2.50; while that of bran is 
$17.62. The manure left after feeding'a ton 
of bran is worth $10 at the values charged in 
artificial fertilizers. A few carrots are useful 
in healthful effect in the digestion of dry food, 
hut if the food consists of oat straw cut and 
moistened and mixed with rye, buckwheat 
and bran in equal parts finely ground, there 
will be no necessity for the use of carrots. 
ICHNEUMON PARASITES ON THE TOMATO WORM. 
W. H. Lockport, N. F.—What are the para¬ 
sites that appear to be preying on the inclosed 
tomato worms ? 
answered by professor a. j. cook. 
The white, egg-like bodies attached to the 
backs of the large green Tomato worm -larvae 
are cocoons of a small ichneumon fly belong¬ 
ing to the family Braconidm, and probably 
of the genus Blacus. We also find similar co¬ 
coons on cabbage caterpillars, and on the 
larvae of the grape sphinx. These cocoons 
were spun by larvae that had eaten the to¬ 
mato worm up alive, or at least so much of it 
that it can never even pupate, much less be¬ 
come a moth. Thus these little flies are our 
friends, and the fact that they are becoming 
more and more common is greatly encourag¬ 
ing. From these egg-like bodies the small 
flies soon come forth, prepared to lay their 
eggs in others of our insect foes. Our gar¬ 
dener should understand the significance of 
these cocoons and never destroy the insects 
bearing them, for if let alone they will be¬ 
come his very efficient servants, and will work 
without a boss, or direction. 
POTATO DIGGERS. 
D. W. D. F., Plainfield , N. ./.—What kind 
of a potato digger does Mr. Terry use, as 
mentioned in his article on “Gathering the 
Potato Crops” in the Rural of September 
22? I have this year about 1,000 bushels of 
potatoes, grown on a semi-RuRAL plan (flat 
culture). I believe the greatest share of the 
cost of production is the digging, and I am 
anxious to find a machine (at not too great a 
cost) to lessen labor and expense. 
Ans.— On page 575 will be found another 
article by Mr. Terry in which he speaks of the 
various diggers he has used, and the require¬ 
ments of the successful one. The digger 
which he finds valuable is the McCallum, 
which costs $100. There are many others, 
working upon various different principles, but 
he finds them all defective in one way or 
another. We have never experimented with 
the different diggers. Mr. Terry’s statements 
can be relied upon. 
Miscellaneous. 
G. B., Decor ah, la —The plant you send 
for name seems to bo a variety of the South¬ 
ern cow-pea—Dolichos. 
A “ Subscriber ,” Lake Side, N. Y .—The 
Daniel Plow Sulky is made by the Daniels’ 
Plow Co., Havana, N. Y. 
S. C.,'North East, Md— The wheat, speci. 
mens of which you send, is what is known as 
Patagonian, though probably this is a new 
name for an old variety. 
T. P., Charleston, W. Va —Where can I 
get some new seed wheat to sow this fall? 
Ans.—F rofn W. Atlee, Burpeo & Co., Phil¬ 
adelphia, or Samuel Wilson, Mechanicsville, 
Pa. 
R. L. T., Lapeer, Mich .—The glands of the 
throat of my 8^-months-old colt have been 
enlarged from the time he was foaled. They 
are now the sizeof a hen’s egg. Can anything 
be done to reduce them? 
Ans.— Yes; paint them once a week with 
compound tincture of iodine. They will pro¬ 
bably disappear as the colt grows older. 
DISCUSSION. 
MARVELOUS HOG RAISING 
J. T., Rome N. Y. If I should be elected a 
director of one of the experiment stations, 
judging from my past experiments, I would 
most likely experiment with new sorts of 
potatoes, grains,and fodder crops; but on read¬ 
ing in the Rural New-Yorker for Septem¬ 
ber 8, page 599, what M. L. says about swine— 
the Poland china in particular,—and his mode 
of feeding and the kind of feed he uses, I 
think on reflection that I would experiment 
on the feeding of swine. I thought I had some 
experience in experimenting with the feeding 
of swine, but M. L.’s story beats all I ever 
remember .reading about. It would be inter¬ 
esting to me t ? have M. L. publish his strict 
accounts with the different breeds of hogs, 
their weights |at the begining of his feeding, 
and their live and dressed weights when 
slaughtered, so that others could see how they 
compared with their doings in that branch of 
farming. M. L. must have some remarkably 
heavy porkers. Only think of a growth of 
five pounds a day, that is, 150 pounds in 30 
days, 900 pounds in six months, and in one 
year—365 days—1,825 pounds, and the offal 
contained in a two-quart pan! At the rate of 
one pound to the pint, there would be four 
pounds of offal: what enormous porkers M. 
L. must raise and that too at so cheap a rate. 
Query: is there a mistake made in M. L.’s 
statements? It seems there must be to one 
old farmer. 
THE POTATO FLEA BEETLE CREPIDODERA 
(HALTICA) CUCUMERIS. 
C. H. G., Iowa Experiment Station —I 
have been interested in the Rural’s accounts 
of damage done to the potato vines in the East 
during the past summer by this little beetle. 
It may be of interest to note the fact that this 
pest is in the West as well. On June 16, I 
gathered a number of these beetles from a 
garden patch of potatoes, in this vicinity, and 
the leaves were at that time badly perforated 
as a result of their attack. I have not visited 
a'patch of potatoes since in which their work 
was not apparent. In some cases the vines 
have died down before the tubers were ripe, 
which must have lessened the crop materially. 
Farmers have complained of their potato tops 
dying and I have no doubt that in most cases 
the flea-beetle was the cause, but, being so 
small, it has escaped unnoticed. 
COMPLAINT AGAINST THE NIAGARA GRAPE CO. 
A.C. WawkeshAjWis.— Three years agolavt 
spring, I procured through the Rural a Nia¬ 
gara grape-vine, presumably from the origin¬ 
ator. (It had the “ seal ” duly affixed). Af¬ 
ter nursing and watching it for three years, 
this season it bore, and to my utter disgust 
produced Moore’s Early grapes, with which 
variety I was already supplied. Now, this 
circumstance, if standing alone, might well be 
overlooked; but unfortunately it is but one of 
a constant series of such blunders permitted, 
if not perpetrated, by that large class who are 
wont to denounce the “Washington Seed 
Store. ” It has occurred to me that a notice 
of this would not be entirely inappropriate in 
the Rural’s department of “ Eye-Opener. ” 
R t N-Y. This is the first complaint against 
the Niagara Grape-.Co. we have heard. 
A. M., Bay City, Mich.—A few years ago, 
when I was a farmer and read the Rural, I 
had a correspondence with it in reference to 
wheat turning to chess, which resulted in the 
assertion on its part that such a thing could 
not be. Still,’it is my full belief that under 
certain conditions wheat will turn to chess. I 
have a theory in reference to the matter, but 
have never put it to a practical test. This 
fall, just after the wheat plant gets a thrifty 
start, will L the Rural editor please select a 
foot square of wheat (not chess) and sever the 
main root above the wheat kernel,'from each 
plant, and see what the result will be at 
harvest time? 
and roots, were therefore questions of consid¬ 
erable interest and importance. All his ' 
evidence points to a very considerably larger 
loss of food in the silo, than there is during 
hay making, and the loss appears to be larger 
in grass silage than in clover. In one set of 
experience where green oats were made into 
silage and were fed to oxen against the ripe 
crop, cut into chaff, straw, and grain to¬ 
gether, the silage proved so inferior to the 
ripe crop that he was led to think that much 
of the starch of the grain, which when put in¬ 
to the silo was quite soft, was destroyed dur¬ 
ing the process of fermentation. 
Dr. Lawes has not seen his way to substitute 
silage for root crops, nor can he say that 
where seasons are favorable for hay-making 
he can see his way to converting these crops 
into silage. If, however, silage is only to be 
made in those seasons when good hay cannot 
be made. It will be argued that a silo is not 
required, and it will be better to adopt the 
stack system. A good silo is, he thinks, indis¬ 
pensable where farm crops are regularly grown 
for silage purposes, but under other circum¬ 
stances the cheapest method by which the 
necessary pressure can be obtained is perhaps 
the best. 
With a rainfall which averages about 28 
inches per annum and a dry atmosphere, he 
has come to the conclusion that upon his farm, 
which is about one half permanent pasture, 
and one half arable, ensilage cannot De 
adopted successfully as part of the regular 
farm crops, but it is of great value during wet 
seasons when good hay cannot be made. 
If he lived in other parts of the British 
Isles, where;the atmosphere was moist and the 
rainfall greater, he would then place a much 
higher value on the process, as he would con¬ 
sider ensilage crops as part of the regular 
system of the farm. 
Dr. J. B. Lawes on Ensilage.— Dr. J. B. 
jawes says in the London Ag. Gazette, that 
Tactical farmers have never looked with very 
avorable eyes at the system of ensilage—in 
act they have looked upon it more as a kind 
f plaything, suitable for landowners, who 
lave had farms thrown upon their hands. It 
s said that the last disastrous hay-making 
eason has caused many practical farmers to 
lirect their attention to ensilage who have 
lever done so before. 
He has upon his farm about fifty dairy cows 
or the production of milk, which is sold in 
jondou, and above 100 head of cattle of 
various ages. The questions, whether silage 
vas a good food, and also an economical food, 
md whether it could take the place of hay 
The Unreliability of Soil Analysis by 
Chemical Means.— It is often thought that a 
chemical examination of any soil will reveal 
the true value of the ingredients contained in 
it. Many consequently have the idea that to 
analyze .the soil chemically is sufficient to 
show what elements are present and how much 
of these elements can be utilized by the plant 
in the pocess of its growth. And further,that 
by knowing the mineral constituents of the 
matured plant and the total amount of these^ 
constituents*extracted by the crop, it will be* 
an easy step to ascertain what mineral fertil¬ 
izers are needed to apply to the soil to make 
up any deficiency caused by their absence 
from the soil, or to make good what is ex¬ 
tracted by the crop. 
Director H. B. Battle, of the N. C. E. S., 
says that the’fallacy of this reasoning lies in 
the fact that a chemical examination of the 
soil, while it does give the total quantity of 
its constituents, does not give the quantity 
available to the plant, such as can be utilized 
by the plant. This fact is all-important, for 
there may be plant food in abundance, in the 
soil, yet in such a form that it is impossible 
for the plant to derive any benefit from its 
presence, though it may lie in intimate con¬ 
tact with its numerous roots. Many of our 
ordinary feldspathic rocks contain in every 
100 pounds as many as 10 pounds of potash. 
Yet those 10 pounds—almost equivalent to 
100 pounds of kainit—are in such an insoluble, 
unavailable form, that they are absolutely 
unserviceable as plant food, unless by some 
process of disintegration and decomposition, 
they may become changed to a form which 
the plant can take up. 
The thorough chemical examination will 
give the quantity of potash present, and like¬ 
wise the quantity of the other chemical ele¬ 
ments, but the science of chemistry has not 
yet devised an exact method for determining 
the proportion of these constituents, which is 
available to the needs of the plant, and which 
can be used by it in its growth. 
But does a chemical analysis of the soil, no 
matter with what exactness it is carried out, 
show with sufficient accuracy the contents of 
the soil? Can we depend on its rosults to show 
with definiteness what fertilizer to apply to 
the soil to render it more productive? For 
this distinct pui pose the chemical analysis, 
always so delicate and accurate, is inadequate. 
A cubic foot of our average upland soil (from 
results obtained at the Station in the past), 
weighs 110 pounds. An acre of this soil, nine 
inches deep, weighs 2,835,062 pounds, or a 
fraction over 1,417 tons. Nine inches are taken 
as an average depth reached by plants’ roots; 
with cotton the tap-root grows even much 
lower than this. The ordinary application of 
ammoniated fertilizer is 200 to 300 pounds to 
the acre. If this application of 300 pounds is 
thoroughly mixed with the soil, and an aver¬ 
age sample obtained, then by no chemical 
means, no matter how delicate, cau this am¬ 
moniated fertilizer be detected; and yet this 
application chaugos the yield from an unpro¬ 
ductive to a productive one, and draws the 
line between success and failure. Not only 
