1906. 
137 
SHEEP FOR AN ORCHARD. 
I endorse the Hope Farm man’s advice 
to T. R. on page 45, up to the point of 
putting on a drove of hogs. At this point 
we would differ. I have seen hogs ruin 
apple trees by rooting and eating the bark 
off the roots of the trees. My plan would 
be to go over the orchard after pruning, 
etc., with a Cutaway or spading harrow 
heavily weighted, so as to cut and break 
up the sod as much as necessary, first 
scattering whatever fertilizer I wished to 
use. I would then provide plenty of good 
water for them to drink, and put in from 
eight to 12 sheep per acre, and then feed 
them enough wheat bran to keep them 
thriving. If he put in six hogs and fed 
them two pounds of corn per day he will 
i ot add a very appreciable amount of fer¬ 
tility, and about all the good he would 
get from the practice would be what root¬ 
ing they would do and the eating of fal¬ 
len fruit. If in place of six hogs he 
should put in 10 sheep and feed them 
only five pounds of wheat bran per day in 
the Summer lie would feed more than 
1,000 pounds, and this Would contain 
about 27 pounds nitrogen, 29 pounds phos¬ 
phoric acid and 16 pounds potash per 
acre, a very appreciable amount of fer¬ 
tility, which would very soon show in 
increasing the vigor and growth of trees. 
More than this, the sheep would eat all 
weeds and grass and keep all vegetation 
down, a thing the hogs would not do, and 
they would eat all fallen fruit so quickly 
that no worm would escape. With that 
number of sheep so kept, and an occa¬ 
sional running over with the Cutaway or 
spading harrow, the old sod would be so 
cropped and so broken up that it would 
be much better for the orchard than 
plowing. 
If now the orchard is so situated that 
on a field adjoining a plot of rape can be 
grown, the size depending on size of or¬ 
chard, and sheep be allowed to feed on 
that, and fed the bran as before indi¬ 
cated, the sheep will feed on the rape, go 
into the orchard to lie, and by their drop¬ 
pings enrich the orchard so rapidly and 
so much that the owner would not know 
it if he were to be away from it a year. 
The value of sheen in an apple orchard is 
not half appreciated. J. s. woodward. 
HAY CAUSES BLIND STAGGERS. 
On page 29 a reader in Oregon de¬ 
scribed a case of “staggers” in a horse. 
Dr. Williams thought it was caused by a 
fern known as Onoclea sensibilis in the 
hay. A reader in Canada calls attention 
to Bulletin 95 of the Vermont Station 
(Burlington), which describes a poison¬ 
ous plant—the common horsetail (Equise- 
tum arvense) which has poisoned horses 
and other cattle when in the hay. The 
following description is given: 
It passes under several popular names, of 
which the best, because the most commonly 
used, Is common horsetail. Others are colt 
tail, foxtail, pine-top, pine-grass, meadow- 
pine, Jointed rush, snake-grass. It is a com¬ 
mon native plant, and doubtless more or less 
of it may be found on almost every farm in 
the State. The plant thrives best in sandy 
or gravelly soil which is moist a portion or 
the season, or where the soil water rises to 
within a few feet of the surface. Its occur¬ 
rence in hay fields in serious amounts is ap¬ 
parently restricted to low moist meadows, not 
frequently cultivated, and it has been ob¬ 
served in greater abundance in sandy over¬ 
flowed intervale meadows where it Is mixed 
with “marsh grasses” or sedges, and the 
“polypod brake,” better called the sensitive 
fern. Its frequent occurrence with this “poly¬ 
pod” is doubtless responsible for the suspi¬ 
cion of many horsemen that this fern is also 
poison to horses. 
After eating this plant the horse be¬ 
comes thin and weak, and after a few 
weeks begins to lose control of its mus¬ 
cles and sways or staggers, finally losing 
power so that it cannot get up. In this 
way of treatment the Station advises: 
The first and most important thing Is to 
stop Immediately the feeding of the equlse- 
tum hay. Our practice further than this 
has been to give a purgative pill consisting 
of one ounce of Barbadoes aloes, one or two 
drachms of ginger, and sufficient English 
crown soap—soft soap—to make a ball or 
pill. This is put down the horse's throat, 
at one dose, and following this we have usu- 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ally given bran mashes night and morning 
until the digestive tract is entirely cleared 
of the poisonous plant. In case aloes cannot 
be easily obtained a quart of raw linseed oil 
will do very well. After the physic has 
operated, a teaspoonful of powdered nux 
vomica is added to each grain feed, three 
times a day. This tends to relieve the mus¬ 
cular incoordination. When poison symp¬ 
toms are severe and especially when stagger¬ 
ing is very pronounced, slings should be used 
to support the animal, for when once down 
It is very difficult to make it stand again 
even with the aid of slings. If, however, the 
above treatment is begun before the horse 
loses the power to stand and it can be kept 
on its feet, its life can be saved in practically 
all cases. _ 
HATCHING OF WATER GLASS EGGS 
Will keeping eggs in water glass prevent 
their hatching? o. a. h. 
Such eggs will not hatch. Reports come 
now and then that water glass eggs when 
put in an incubator, have been found 
fertile, but we doubt it. 
Calf Without Milk. —To raise a calf 
without milk the following is practiced here; 
Fill a pail with hay and pour hot water 
over it: feed two quarts of the tea with a 
little milk until a month old, then drop milk. 
Add bran, shorts or oil meal to the tea as 
soon as you think the calf can digest it; 
give him all the good hay he wants to nibble 
at. for a calf will eat hay before it will 
grass. I have seen Spring calves raised that 
way that sold for $10 per head in the Fall. 
They will not. look smooth as all milk 
calves, but will make a good growth. 
Pittsburg, Kan. e. m. c. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
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Every bottle of Caustic Balsam sold is 
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$16.00 AN ACRE 
Western 
Canada 
Is the amount many 
farmers will realize 
from their wheat crop 
this year. 
25 Bushels to the Acre 
will bo the 
Average Yield of Wheat 
The land that this was grown on cost 
many of the farmers absolutely noth¬ 
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160 acres the Government grants, can 
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an acre. 
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Send for pamphlet "20th Century Can¬ 
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THOS. DUNCAN, Canadian Government Agent 
Syracuse Bank Building, SYRACUSE, N. 1 . 
Mention this paper. 
BUSHELS 
PER ACRE ON 
BRADLEY’S 
Said the potato to the corn: 
“ What is good enough for you is good enough for me.” What 
is rich enough and quick enough to produce a good corn crop will 
produce a good potato crop, for corn is a very greedy and quick feed¬ 
er. It not only wants a great deal of fertilizer, but it wants it quick. 
The same is true of the potato crop. The Bradley Fertilizers have 
met with great success in producing large yields, particularly of com 
and potatoes, as well as other crops. They begin to act when the 
crop is planted and hold out until it is harvested and their effects can 
be seen in following seasons. The accompanying picture shows a 
field of i 1-2 acres, which yielded almost 500 bushels of handsome 
potatoes. They were raised by Mr. E. H. Pinkham, of Penobscot 
County, Maine, who used 2700 lbs. of Bradleys Pligh-grade Potato 
Fertilizer exclusively on this piece. The crop speaks for itself. 
The American Agricultural Chemical Co. 
BRADLEY FERTILIZER. WORKS 
92 State Street BOSTON, MASS. 
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