THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MARCH 22 
i84 
ling colts were owned by a farmer near 
here. One of the yearlings died during the 
first winter. He was poor when he was 
bought, and though he ate well and was 
well cared for he ran down until he died. 
His stable mate has done well, and is to 
all appearances all right. Two of the mares 
were broken to work and all are in good 
condition. Two of the mares raised colts 
last summer. The colts looked well, and the 
mares appeared to be well. They have 
run in a yard with a good warm shed, and 
have been fed wild hay and some corn and 
wheat bran. One has occasionally had a 
slight discharge from one nostril as if she 
had cold or catarrh. She suddenly became 
lame in her hind legs ; it seemed to be diffi¬ 
cult to take a full step forward with the hind 
feet. She was tied in a warm stable and 
feu oats and bran with tame hay. She ate 
well but fell away rapidly and now, at the 
end of about six weeks, she is very poor and 
weak. The discharge at the nose continues 
and her legs are swollen and stiff, particu¬ 
larly the hind ones. A two-year-old geld¬ 
ing that was poor when a yearling became 
lame in the hindlegs early in the fall: he 
also had a discharge at tne nose. His 
breath smelled like that of a person who 
has catarrh in a very bad form. Some 
rough spots on his legs upon being exam 
ined proved to be dead skin and when re¬ 
moved running sores were disclosed. He 
had a good appetite but fell away rapidly 
and was killed. A two-year-old filly that 
has always been smart and in good con¬ 
dition is now slightly lame in her hind legs 
and looks a little gaunt. There is no dis¬ 
charge and she eats all right. These horses 
have run together in a pasture, and since 
the beginning of winter have been kept to¬ 
gether in a yard with shingled, tight board 
sheds, and they have eaten from the same 
feed boxes. As each was discovered to be 
sick, it was separated from the others. 
What ails the animals and what should be 
done for them? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
The history and symptoms of these cases 
are strongly suspicious of glanders and 
farcy, but not sufficiently characteristic 
and definite to enable me to give a positive 
diagnosis without a personal examination. 
Owing to the dangerous character of this 
disease, it would be advisable to call in a 
competent veterinarian to ascertain the 
true nature of the outbreak. 
BLUE MILK. 
Several Subscribers. —“I have had quite 
a good deal of trouble this winter with 
both cream and milk of a blue tint. Both 
seem to be as rich and high-colored as the 
products sold by different dairymen round 
about us, but the difference in the looks 
hurts the sale of mine very materially. 
Having had many years’ experience in car¬ 
ing for cows, I am certain that mine get 
all necessary attention as regards feed, 
etc. I notice quite a number of adver¬ 
tised butter colors; does the Rural think 
any of these could be used in successful 
way to remedy what is referred to ? ” 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
Blue milk is a special indication of tuber¬ 
culosis in a cow. The milk is yielded in 
abundance, but it is deficient in caseine, 
which gives the peculiar color to good 
milk. As this, if existing, is an extremely 
important point, it might be advisable to 
send a sample of the milk for analysis to 
the experiment station in your State. The 
milk might no doubt be colored by mixing 
a sufficient quantity of any good liquid 
butter coloring with a quart of it and then 
stirring this in the whole mass of the milk, 
but for obvious reasons this might be 
thought objectionable. Nothing is said 
about feeding, and this is quite important. 
If buckwheat bran which is a good milk¬ 
making food for quantity, but bad for 
quality and color, is given, that might ac¬ 
count for it. If the cows are healthy, corn- 
meal will be found the best food for mak¬ 
ing well colored milk, with sound clover 
hay. Tuberculosis is far more prevalent 
than is supposed, and as it is infectious, 
it will soon affect every cow in a herd, and 
that the cows are thus affected seems to be 
the most probable cause of the color of the 
milk. This disease is more frequent in the 
mesentery of the bowels than in the lungs; 
but the effect of it is the same ; the udder 
is also frequently diseased, and in this case 
the milk is especially dangerous. Copious 
milkers with slender frames, thin, fine 
skin, large, bright eyes, and a generally 
delicate build are most subject to this 
most serious disorder. Authorities differ 
somewhat in regard to the unwholesome 
character of the milk; but the preponder¬ 
ance of opinion and belief is that the milk 
of such cows is not fit for use. 
SCAB IN SHEEP. 
J. B. S., Anderson, N. F.—Early last 
fall I began feeding my sheep a mixture of 
corn, rye and oats. They soon began to pull 
their wool. Some of the bare spots are 
solid scab, especially on the belly. What is 
the trouble ? 
ANS.—These symptoms indicate that the 
sheep are suffering from scab, a parasitic 
disease which seems at the present time to 
be more prevalent than usual. This may 
be due to the warm weather which is fav¬ 
orable to the increase of the minute insect 
which causes the disorder. The insect is a 
mite which burrows under the skin and 
causes an exudation of serum which dries 
and forms the scabs or crusts and which 
causes the wool to fall off. This disease is 
contagious and will spread through the 
flock unless means are taken to prevent it 
at once.’ The best remedy is to dip the 
sheep in a preparation which kills the par¬ 
asite and heals the sores. The liquid car¬ 
bolic dip prepared by Lawford & Co., of 
Baltimore, is the most effectual and the 
cheapest; it is easily prepared by diluting 
the liquid according to directions, with 40 
times its bulk of water. The sneep are 
dipped into it and it is thoroughly well 
worked into the wool and the scabby spots 
which are broken off by rubbing with a 
corn-cob until the mites which harbor in 
the skin are reached. A dip in common use 
is made by steeping one pound of strong 
tobacco to each gallon of boiling water and 
adding four ounces of flowers of sulphur. 
The liquid is well stirred until it cools down 
to 120 degrees when the sheep are dipped 
in it as above mentioned. A vat or tub is 
used for the dipping, and after the applica¬ 
tion the surplus liquor is squeezed out of 
the wool on a suitable platform so arranged 
that the drainage is run into the vat. The 
heat is kept up by adding fresh liquid from 
a boiler kept nearby. If there are lambs 
these should be dipped if they have been 
exposed to the contagion, and the whole 
flock should be treated for the same reason. 
“THE CHINESE SACRED LILY.” 
J. R. Jr., Brookfield, Mass.— I have a 
Chinese Sacred Lily which has bloomed. 
Can the bulb be kept for future use ? 
ANSWERED BY WILLIAM FALCONER. 
The Chinese Sacred Lily, so called, is a 
form of Narcissus Tazetta, closely allied to 
if not identical with the variety named 
Grand Emperor. It may be grown in pots 
of earth like other Polyanthus Narcissuses 
or in vessels filled with water as hyacinths 
are often grown. The usual way is to fill 
a basin or bowl half full of pebbles and 
then fill up with water, and into this place 
one or more bulbs of the “Sacred Lily.” 
They make rapid growth and bloom freely ; 
and each bulb has two or more side bulbs or 
off-shoots, and all of these bloom too the fi rst 
year after they are imported. The growth 
made in the soil is moderately firm, and if 
the plants are kept in healthy vigor for 
several weeks after they have done bloom¬ 
ing, they may bloom again a little next 
year. Those grown in basins filled with 
pebbles and water, however, make a pret¬ 
tier and faster growth the first year after 
they have been imported, than do those 
grown in soil, and they bloom quite as 
well, too ; but their whole growth—leaves 
and flowers—is more flimsy, and the bulbs 
are too enervated to be worth much.to keep 
over for further use. Commercial florists 
on Long Island, who have grown them by 
the thousand for cut flowers, throw away 
the bulbs after forcing them. Planting 
them out-of-doors in favorable localities 
and situations would recuperate them after 
a few years, but as they are not hardy in 
the North, planting out-of-doors is imprac¬ 
ticable. Any of the set of narcissuses to 
which this belongs are not hardy in the 
North. Now and then some may squeeze 
through a winter, but never many. 
RAISING EARLY TOMATOES. 
J. A. B., St. Catherines, Canada.—1. 
How can early tomatoes be grown? 2. How 
should a green-house be built for growing 
them on a large scale? 3. Would bottom 
heat be needed? 4. Is there any way of 
heating hot-beds with hot water? 
ANSWERED BY WM. PERKINS. 
1. Prepare your hot-bed at once, (my 
early tomato plants are an inch high now, 
March 5,) and sow six rows of seed under 
a 3x6-foot sash. Each row will give about 
100 plants. Transplant the plants when 
about four inches high into another hot¬ 
bed, setting them four inches apart each 
way. Care should be taken to have at 
least six inches of enriched soil on top of 
the hot manure, or the roots will soon 
reach it and the plants will wither. By 
this method one will have very early toma¬ 
toes. 2. I have tried to raise tomato plants 
in a small green-house, but the plants be¬ 
ing so far from the glass were very 
slender and not nearly so fine as those 
raised in hot-beds. 3. Bottom heat is not 
essential, although it is necessary that the 
ground should be warm or the seed will 
be very slow in germinating. 4. I have 
seen hot-beds heated by hot water, by hav¬ 
ing V-shaped troughs running under the 
bed, the hot water running from a small 
boiler down on one side of the bed and back 
on the other into the boiler. But this plan 
did not work satisfactorily. I believe the 
cheapest and best way for J. A. B. to raise 
his early tomato plants even on a large 
scale, is by the use of hot-beds, unless it is 
very difficult for him to procure hot ma¬ 
nure. I find it a very easy way to grow 
mine for my own use, besides selling a good 
many thousand plants. 
RAISING SUNFLOWERS. 
D. W. N., Indianapolis.— 1. What kind 
of soil is best for sunflowers, or will they 
do well in any soil ? 2. Have they an in¬ 
jurious effect on the soil ? 3. How and 
when ought seed to be planted ? 4. What 
is the method of thrashing'? 5. What 
amount per acre is the average crop ? 6. 
What is the seed usually worth ? 
ANSWERED BY C. L. ALLEN. 
1. The seeds of the sunflower of com¬ 
merce are mostly of the variety known as 
Large Russian, and can be raised in any 
soil where corn will grow, but they prefer a 
deep, rich, lively loam, rich with alkali; in 
none other will it yield a satisfactory crop 
of seed. 2. The sunflower, being a strong¬ 
growing plant, and taking from the soil 
so much matter, must, of necessity, exhaust 
it. The loss to the soil is largely alkali, 
which may be seen by the fact that whep 
the stalks are burned the ash will contain 
10 per cent, of this element. 3. The seed 
should be planted in the same manner as 
we plant corn, but leave but one plant in 
a hill, or one plant on each four square 
feet. The seed should be planted as early 
as the ground is in good condition for 
working. 4. Thrash with the flail and 
clean in a fan-mill. 5. On good soil 50 
bushels per acre can be obtained and 
ought: this is probably rather above the 
average. 6. The price is variable; the 
grower should get from $1.00 to $1.25 per 
bushel of 25 pounds. It has been con¬ 
tracted for at not more than 60 cents for 25 
pounds. 
LOSS OF HAIR IN A COW : FOAMING CREAM. 
E. O., (no address.) —What is the cause 
of co.ws casting their hair in winter and at 
the same time giving very thin milk, and 
when the cream is churned it rises in the 
crock like yeast and yields very little 
butter ? Would too much salt cause the 
trouble ? Would using the card and brush 
cause it ? The cows are fed on good hay 
and corn-fodder and run to an oat straw 
stack when the weather is fair. They have 
a ration of four quarts daily of chopped 
corn and oats with wheat bran, equal parts. 
Ans.—T he feeding is the cause of the 
trouble. Good milk cannot be made if 
straw is fed. Only good clover hay with 
such grain food as is mentioned and a warm 
stable must be provided if good milk and 
butter are desired. Cows naturally shed 
their coats at this season, and the unseason¬ 
able warmth has made this change of coat 
premature. Too much salt is injurious 
and causes such an excessive action of the 
kidneys, through which it is discharged 
from the system, as to produce disease of 
the skin, and it may be that this is one 
reason for the loss of hair. One ounce of 
salt twice a week is enough for a cow that 
is fed on dry fodder with grain food. The 
effect of excess of salt is to cause a large 
loss of nitrogen from the blood by which it 
is impoverished, and such diseases as 
scurvy are due to it. 
LAMENESS FROM FOUNDER IN A HORSE. 
E. E. T., Wilton, Wls.— Phave a mare 
that is tender-footed from the effects of 
founder several years ago. 1. Is there any¬ 
thing I can do to relieve the soreness ? 2. 
Should I keep her shod; if so, should I use 
light or heavy shoes? 3. Where can I 
obtain a reliable book on diseases of horses 
and cattle and treatment of the same ? 
Ans.— 1. Generally, yes. But you should 
have given a careful description of the pre¬ 
sent condition of the feet if you desired a 
specific course of treatment advised. A 
foundered foot may have assumed any one 
of 50 or more conditions during the “sev¬ 
eral years.” Try the application of a can- 
tharides or fly blister around the sides and 
front of the foot just above the hoof, and 
repeat two or three times at intervals of 
four or six weeks if any relief is aflorded. 
If the hoof is dry and brittle, apply daily a 
hoof ointment of equal parts of pine tar 
and vaseline melted together. 2. Shoe 
without calks. If the sole has become 
weak or flattened a heavy bar-shoe with a 
broad web to protect the sole will probably 
be desirable. If the sole is convex, the in¬ 
ner border of the upper surface of the shoe 
should be beveled off slightly. 3. “The 
Farmer’s Veterinary Adviser” by Hr. 
James Law, of Cornell University, Ithaca, 
N. Y. Price $3.00. 
THE SAP OF TREES. 
B. B., Farmingdale, III.— What becomes 
of the sap that flows so freely in some kinds 
of trees and vines during early spring, or 
even in warm days in winter ? 
ANS.—The sap of trees ascending from 
the roots, is water from the soil, holding 
in solution the mineral elements which are 
required for the growth of the tree, and 
probably others. The selective power of 
the roots in taking up the soil water is not 
fully determined. That they have such a 
power, to a certain extent, is probable. 
This crude sap, passing up through the 
“sap wood,” dissolves the soluble matter 
deposited in the wood the previous season, 
and]carries it upward to the opening leaves, 
where it is exposed to air and light and by 
their action becomes organized, or prepared 
for organization, as material for growth. 
In some species of trees the ascending sap 
finds the semi-organized matter it takes up 
to be mainly sugar, or a substance easily 
changed to sugar. In other species the 
similar material takes a different form, 
but in all it is eventually transformed into 
woody material, or other cellular matter 
making up the structure of the tree, its 
leaves and its fruit. Sap carrying this 
matter mostly in the form of sugar is usu¬ 
ally more fluid and flows more freely from 
wounds than other sap. 
THE SUFFOLK PUNCH HORSE. 
E. C. A., Aberdeen, S. J).—What is a 
brief history of the Suffolk Punch breed of 
horses, and who is a breeder of them? 
Ans.—I n England the Suffolk Punch is, 
par excellence, an agricultural horse. He 
is uniformly of a chestnut or sorrel color, 
not so large as the Shire or Clydesdale, but 
compactly built, round-bodied, short-legged 
and rather light-boned for his weight. The 
Suffolk is probably the best established of 
the heavy breeds of English draft horses; 
but it is not so widely popular as the Shire 
or Clyde, and the foreign demand for 
horses of this breed has been much less 
than for either of the others. Still in many 
parts of England, the Suffolk Punch is con¬ 
sidered superior to the Shire, Clyde or 
Percheron for agricultural work, as he is 
nimble and quick, a fast walker and a good 
keeper. Youatt says the rare excellence of 
the Suffolk horse consists in its nimbleness 
of action and the honesty and continuance 
with which it exerts itself at a dead pull. 
Importations of this breed into the United 
States have been small and have not at¬ 
tracted much attention. Several volumes 
of a stud book of the breed have been pub¬ 
lished within the last dozen years. Messrs. 
Galbraith Bros., Janesville, Wisconsin, are 
breeders of Suffolk Punch horses. 
TREATMENT OF MANURE IN LARGE PILES. 
J. A. P.. South Bend, Ind.— I have a con¬ 
tract for the manure from a livery stable 
where marsh hay is used for bedding. 
What is hauled in spring and summer 
must be kept in large piles. Will plaster 
keep it from spoiling? What is the best 
way to manage it? 
Ans.— Plaster will keep it moist enough 
for the best results. The manure should 
be tramped or solidified and water should 
be added nearly to the point of saturation, 
then plaster or earth should be applied. 
The best way to handle the manure 
described would be to pave and cement an 
area sufficiently large upon which the ma¬ 
nure should be piled. The bottom should de¬ 
scend gently to a small water-tight cistern 
or well holding four to six barrels. If the 
rain is not sufficient to cause a little leach¬ 
ing into the well, then add water enough 
so that a few barrels of leachings will ap¬ 
pear each week. Pump this back on to the 
top of the pile from time to time. This 
will destroy most of the weed seeds, rot the 
manure and prevent serious loss. Cover 
the cemented floor during the winter with 
manure sufficient to keep it from freezing. 
SOIL FOR A PEAR ORCHARD. 
J. If 7 . JET., Parry, III.—I have a piece of 
sandy land with a clay subsoil on which 1 
desire to plant a pear orchard in April. It 
has been heavily manured with stable ma¬ 
nure for eight or 10 years. Is it too fertile 
for a pear orchard? The varieties I have 
selected are the Keiffer and Le Conte. Are 
