1858 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
29 
box, grafts and all, inverted, on a dry spot. The earth 
preserves their moisture, but does not touch them. 
-0-0 o- 
Substitutes for Hay. 
Having closed up the work of one season, my thoughts 
occasionally stretch forward to survey and plan the 
work of the ensuing one. Among other things which 
I already see must be attended to, one is the providing 
of more fodder than I am likely to get from my mea¬ 
dows, corn and grainfields. In talking with neighbors 
as to what would be the best way of providing a suf¬ 
ficient supply of fodder for my stock, as my hay must 
come short by one half, I find quite a variety of opin¬ 
ion ; and being without experience in providing for 
any such emergency, I am somewhat at a loss to de¬ 
termine which of the ways proposed would be best on 
the whole. Perhaps some of your readers may have 
been in similar need of a substitute for hay, and may 
have learned from experience some lesson which, if 
communicated, might save me and many others from 
going to that proverbially “ dear school.” One neigh¬ 
bor thinks he would sow corn for fodder ; another would 
prefer millet; another thinks sorghum stalks, cut when 
small, would yield two crops in one season fit for hay; 
another would advise raising roots of different kinds, 
and so on. One is very positive that I cannot do bet¬ 
ter than to cut some acres of oats while yet considera¬ 
bly green, and make fodder of these without threshing 
He says that horses will eat the straw of oats, cut while 
in a milky or soft doughy state, in preference to hay, 
and that while the grain will be worth but little less 
than if allowed.to stand until fully ripe, the straw will 
be worth a great deal more. As the oats will not shell 
out, they may be fed as one would feed hay. But this 
would scarcely answer but for horses ; and besides the 
yield of fodder per acre would not probably exceed one 
ton, (see Cultivator for 1856, p. 64,) while I might get 
two or three times that weight of fodder from millet or 
corn sown for that purpose. Moreover, if 400 lbs. of 
carrots, parsnips or beets are equal in nutritive power 
to 100 lbs. of hay or 100 lbs. of oats cut green, then I 
could raise, at the rate of 600 bushels per acre, a more 
economical substitute for hay in such roots, than in oats 
as above proposed. How much more it would cost to 
cultivate a substitute in the form of roots, and how 
much more it would cost to cut, slice, and prepare them 
for the use of stock, I cannot determine for want of 
experience. 
In regard to the substitute for hay which may be 
found in rye or other good straw, cut up fine and mix¬ 
ed with meal, I would like to be furnished with data 
for estimating the expense of this mode of feeding, 
supposing that the work of cutting, mixing, and put¬ 
ting the mixture into the feeding boxes were to be paid 
for at the rate of ten cents an hour. 
As such information as I ask for, with a statement of 
the expense of raising and preparing each substitute 
proposed, will take up a few hours of the time of any 
one who performs the work of presenting various sub¬ 
stitutes, and their respective merits and cost, in a tho¬ 
rough manner, and as I and many others may be ma¬ 
terially benefited by such information, I herewith place 
in the hands of the Editors of this paper one dollar, as 
my contribution towards compensating the individual 
who shall send in the best essay on the subject. Let 
a committee decide which is the best; and let others 
interested contribute to raise the premium to ten or 
twenty dollars. A. B. Reynolds. 
Answer to J. E. W.—Poll Evil. 
Messrs. Editors — J. E. W. (p. 353) wishes to know 
what ails his friend’s valuable mare. I have no doubt 
he will find the spine is diseased, and no remedy for 
her case. The difficulty will increase, and the motion 
in th« hind part of the body will be like a sled drawn 
by a rope on level ground. When she (or the spine) 
becomes so diseased that she cannot get up alone, she 
may be forced, when up, into a fast trot, and move off 
well. When she is slacked into a walk again, the hind 
feet will reel about till she falls, or rather sits down. 
I had a very valuable horse once similarly affected, 
and when he had been for several months unable to 
get up alone, a regiment of troop was passing near 
where he lay. The band began to play, the horse 
sprang up and pranced around several minutes, to ap¬ 
pearance as well as ever. As soon as the excitement 
subsided, he sat down. His health appeared good ; 
would eat as well as ever, and kept in good flesh. Af¬ 
ter using every means I could hear of for his recovery, 
for eighteen months, I had him killed. The more I 
tried to cure him, the worse he grew. The cause of 
his disease I attributed to his being rode with a crup¬ 
per to keep the saddle from hurting the withers ; the 
weight of the man came too much upon the loins; the 
horse was turned to pasture after a hard day’s ride, 
and the night was rather cold, and I supposed he took 
cold. 
As I have began about horses, and having read some 
remarks in the past numbers of the Co. Gent., respect¬ 
ing poll-evil, I will give you a statement of an opera¬ 
tion I had performed upon a four year-old mare to cure 
the poll-evil in her ears. 
When this mare was not over ten weeks old, I dis¬ 
covered a small quantity of matter running from the 
edge of each ear, about half-way from the bottom to 
the tip of the ear. I examined the ear and found a 
very small hole through the skin, about the size of a 
common knitting-needle. This continued with little 
alteration till she was four years old. When driving 
the mare a man came to me and said I must cure those 
running ears or I should lose my mare. I remarked 
I could discover no injury from those ears, except that 
the matter discharged would stick to the hair, and that 
would seldom be noticed. He said it would terminate 
in a pool-evil. I laughed at the idea of a horse dying 
with the pool-evil on the ear. He satisfied me he was 
right, and he recommended the application of lunar 
caustic , to eat out the tube. I adopted a more speedy, 
and I think cheaper and less painful course. I had to 
cast the mare to examine the ear. I found a knitting- 
needle could be run down toward the head more than 
an inch in length, just under the skin. The operator 
ran a wire into the hole, and then ripped the skin on 
the edge of the ear. I took out a sack near or quite l£ 
inch in length and nearly a fourth of an inch in diame¬ 
ter. This sack contained matter. After taking out 
this sack from each ear, the skin was closed with two 
or three stitches, and in a few days the ears were heal¬ 
ed, and no signs of poll-evil in the ears have appeared 
yet, now over three years. I have known two cases of 
the same disease since mine. The same course was 
adopted with the same success. No doubt lunar caus¬ 
tic would answer, but the application must bo made 
more than once, and few horses will permit their ears 
to be thus handled, and casting is necessary. J. S. 
Pettibone. Bennington Co., Vt. 
