1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
io3 
SLEEPY CRASS. 
Very Curious, But True. 
There are many herbs and other forms of vegetable 
life that contain properties that have very curious ef¬ 
fects on animals that eat them, such as the loco, that 
makes them crazy; but only lately has it become a 
well-established fact that there is a grass in the 
mountains of New Mexico, and to some extent else¬ 
where, that‘Causes sleep. It has been considered a 
sort of ranchman’s fable, about the “Sleepy grass,” 
and few have believed there was such a thing. Not 
long since, at one of the meetings of the Washington 
Biological Society, Vernon Baily, one of the scientists * 
of the Department of Agriculture, gave us a very good 
account of Sleepy grass and its effects on the horses 
of his exploring party. They were traveling on the 
Sacramento Mountains, at an altitude of over 8,000 
feet, last September, and one evening camped in a 
“park” bordered with firs and spruces, with an abund¬ 
ance of grass all about. The green base leaves and 
tall, ripe seed heads, much like wild oats, were very 
tempting to the hungry horses, and as soon as the 
saddles and harness were off they began eating it. 
Soon after a native ranchman who was riding past 
called to the campers; “Your horses are eating 
Sleepy grass, and if they get a good feed of it you will 
not get out of here for a week.” They paid no atten¬ 
tion to it, for about half an hour, when they conclud¬ 
ed there might be something in the warning, and 
brought the horses to the wagon, fed them oats and 
picketed them on short grass for the night, where 
none of the Sleepy grass grew. The next morning 
about sunrise the cook came to the tent door and 
wakened the party by saying in an excited tone: 
“Something’s the matter with Old Joe.” On looking 
out, there stood the faithful old wagon horse on the 
hillside asleep, with his feet well spread, both ears 
lopped like those of a dog, and his lower lip hanging 
limp. The other horses showed more signs of life, for 
they were mere¬ 
ly dozing in the 
morning sun. 
They were all 
brought in and 
fed, but Old Joe 
had to be almost 
dragged to camp 
and preferred to 
sleep rather than 
eat his oats. He 
would not drink 
at the spring. 
The others were 
stupid, and when 
all were saddled 
and h a r n e s sed 
and the start 
made they had to 
be urged along. 
Even the narrator’s bright little sadule mare showed 
the effects. At the little town of Cloudcroft, where 
they stopped for provisions, the horses slept soundly 
for an hour, with heads drooped and ears lopping in 
amusing fashion. The traveling that day was slow 
and laborious; spurs and whips being used frequently 
to stir the sleepy animals. Camp was made early that 
night in a park where Sleepy grass was abundant but 
the horses were carefully picketed away from it. All 
began grazing with keen appetites, but Old Joe soon 
braced his legs, dropped his ears, and passed off to 
sleep. He seemed to have had the largest feed of 
Sleepy grass, or it had the most effect on him. 
The second morning all the horses were found 
asleep when the camp tender went for them. They 
were more lively than the day before, but had to be 
urged along and sweated profusely, as they did the 
first day after eating the grass. The effects were 
noticed for about three days, and after that the horses 
showed their former spirit and appetite. There were 
no evil results beside a slight loss of flesh from the 
indisposition to eat during the spell. Ranchmen said 
that travelers who had allowed their horses to have 
a full feed of the grass had been delayed a week or 
more, until they had slept off the effects. Some told 
of horses that had been thought lost in the mountains 
and had finally been found, after several days, asleep 
in the bushes near camp. The native horses do not 
eat Sleepy grass, and it is said that those that are 
brought into the mountains and turned loose will only 
eat one mess. Cattle either do not eat it or are not 
affected by it; for no reports of the sleepy effects on 
them were heard; although they had all other grasses 
nipped close in that region. They certainly avoid it. 
The species is Stipa Vaseyi, and has long been known 
to botanists In a sort of vague way as having sleepy 
effects upon horses. Perhaps an extract could be 
made from the grass that would be useful as a medi¬ 
cine for those affected with insomnia. Its soporific 
quality is as yet little known medically, h. e, v. d. 
PORTABLE ENGINE THAT GETS THERE''. 
The picture shown at Fig. 41 shows a Reeves engine 
“cornin’ ” and “goin’.” Levi Holbrook, of Ray’s Cross¬ 
ing, Ind., who owns the engine, writes us about it as 
follows: 
“I can run my engine anywhere a load of sheaf 
wheat can go. The hills in this part of Indiana never 
get too steep for it to go up and down with my separ¬ 
ator. As to the speed of the engine, I will tell you 
of my trip coming home from the factory. It is 35 
miles from Colnmbus to my home. When we were 
running, we averaged three miles an hour, but have 
run a mile in 12 minutes in thrashing time. On a test 
that was made at the factory, it was run at an aver¬ 
age rate of 17 miles per hour. I have used this engine 
every month in the year with perfect satisfaction. 
The worst we have to contend with is a snow that 
sticks to the wheels. I have run it through mud six 
inches deep, and have been in places and got out 
where other engines have failed. There is not much 
ice in this section of the country, and what I have 
run over the engine would break through, so I cannot 
say what it would do on ice that would bear it up. 1 
have used it in pulling grubs that were anywhere 
from four to six inches in diameter, and did it easily. 
Last August 1 pulled a house that was 16x32 feet 
about two miles in four hours. In that distance there 
were four hills and two of them are the steepest in 
this part of the country. We went down the steepest. 
This hill is well drained and is as hard as a floor. 
The engine slipped its drive wheels on that solid 
gravel road, and when an engine does that it is all 
it can do, 
“It IS an engine that can be kept in running order 
easily; It starts without a jerk or jar, and that adds 
to the life of an engine. I have had no trouble with 
hot wrist boxes, as on the single cylinder, and now 
after running for two years you can hear no knock¬ 
ing whatever. My engine is a 13 horse-power. I have 
AN INDIANA PORTABLE ENGINE. Fig. 41. 
never had to wait a minute for power, but would ad¬ 
vise anyone who has heavy work to do to buy a 20 
horse-power engine. 
A DISHONEST BARREL OF APPLES. 
The brand on the barrel from which the apples 
shown in Fig. 38 were taken was XXXX N. Spy. The 
cut shows the difference in size, but gives little idea 
of quality. The larger was one of the top layer, a 
beautiful Spy, high-colored and fair. The other was 
green, not the green of a Greening, but that of un¬ 
ripe fruit, green all the way through, corky, and 
about as puckery as a choke-cherry, totally unfit to 
eat. There were from a peck to a half bushel of this 
type in the center of the barrel, and a fair amount of 
a better grade, though inferior to those on top. The 
retail fruit man paid |4 for this barrel of apples. We 
saw him open it. “I know about what is in there,” 
he said, and removing a few from the top showed the 
mixture of pomologlcal insults. He did not seem 
surprised by this development but merely said; 
“That’s the way they do it.” 
Did the packer make any money by this deception? 
We doubt it. The buyer discounted the fruit about 
one-third. He would have paid $6 for a uniformly 
good barrel. This cull-mixing practice is so general, 
though perhaps not in the degree mentioned above, as 
to throw discredit on producers as a class, and it is 
difficult for an honest packer to get full value for his 
barreled fruit unless he has enough so that his brand 
becomes known, 'rhe moral microbe that crawls into 
a man’s conscience and works there until he will do 
such packing as that should receive the thoughtful 
consideration of our scientific men. If it be not killed 
soon it will develop evil deeds of such magnitude that 
heat far above 156 degrees will be required to destroy 
It. The man who will fill such a barrel as this one 
should have the twenty-seventh verse of the twenty- 
third chapter of Matthew printed all over him. 
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed 
appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead 
men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” 
INCREASING USE OF CONCRETE. 
There is little excuse for up-to-date farmers wading 
around in the mud at this season of the year, when 
concrete walks may be had around house and barn 
with a very small outlay of money, provided the man 
is handy and can do the work himself after a little in¬ 
struction. Besides the making of walks concrete is 
being used in many other ways advantageously and 
economically. During the past season we have seen 
fence posts made from stone and concrete that are 
much cheaper than the cut stone post, and just as 
durable. The plan of making the posts was to dig 
down two feet into the ground, or perhaps deeper in 
soft ground, and then make a box the size of post 
wanted, which was filled with the concrete and topped 
out according to fancy. When hinges or eyes were 
wanted for hanging gates holes were bored in the 
box and the eyes inserted before the filling was done, 
taking care to have same anchored well in the post. 
A concrete floor is easily made in houses built of 
stone or brick, and renders a residence practically 
fireproof. We saw floors of this kind made last sea¬ 
son that seem to be perfection. A wooden floor is 
first made of rough lumber and on this is laid a wire 
cloth, in which the concrete is spread six inches thick. 
When it dries the wooden floor is removed and the 
concrete is self-sustaining. This concrete is made by 
mixing together Portland cement, sand and coal cin¬ 
ders. It is said to cost but little more than a first- 
class floor made of wood, including the joists. We 
have seen a number of cisterns made out of concrete, 
no brick being used for walling up. In making a cis¬ 
tern of this kind it is necessary to have a rough 
wooden wall made about three inches all around from 
the dirt and fill in space with concrete. After the 
wood wall is re¬ 
moved one coat of 
cement completes 
the cistern, and It 
is there for all 
time to come. 
The greatest ob¬ 
jection to iron 
fence posts is 
that they are not 
solid in the 
ground, being so 
small. By using a 
bed of concrete 
and the base of 
all iron posts set 
in it will be found 
that they will 
stand as well as 
any other post. 
Indiana. w. w. stevens. 
R. N.-Y.—The present high price of building ma¬ 
terials adds to the interest in concrete. Anyone mak¬ 
ing plans for building would do well to study it, with 
the idea of cheapening construction where possible. 
INSURANCE FROM FUNGUS AND INSECTS 
To-day we have a class of men who claim to know 
it all, who glibly tell the farmer or fruit grower how 
he can raise perfect produce; how he can save his 
trees and vines from fungus and insect pests; yes, 
tell him of his ignorance, lack of business ability, 
and how he might save thousands of dollars. If all 
they say is true I am free to admit that the average 
farmer is an ignoramus. Why should the men who 
till the soil be so far behind others in business abil¬ 
ity? He certainly is so, if what is printed even in 
our agricultural press is true. Or is the art of spray¬ 
ing so intricate that the average farmer cannot mas¬ 
ter it? When he fails to do profitable work he is al¬ 
ways told he failed to do it right. Taking it for 
granted all that is claimed for Bordeaux is true, then 
thousands of farmers stand ready to insure their 
fruit, foliage or vines from fungus or insect pests, and 
there Is money in it for him who can or will do it. 
Wny does not capital which by using power sprayers 
and expert help could do the work so much cheaper 
than the average farmer, with no experience and a 
hand pump, do the work and guarantee results? Or 
are the effects of spraying so uncertain that capital 
which would be sure of its pay for doing the work 
(which many farmers are not) dare not attempt it? 
Why should the men who can ill afford to lose even 
a few dollars, be blamed for not doing that which 
capital feels is too risky a business to invest in? 
Use a little common sense; try to educate capital and 
help humanity, for large crops help the consumer 
most, and then perhaps the farmer is not the only 
ignoramus. h. o. mead. 
Massachusetts. 
