222 
THE CULTIVATOR 
July. 
How to Use Horn Piths Oyster Shells and Bones. 
Messrs. Editors —I have had some experience in 
reducing horn piths to a size suitable for permanently 
manuring grapevines, gooseberries, currants, the quince 
bottoms of dwarf pears, asparagus, and other multira¬ 
dix plants. I hold the pith in one hand on a block of 
convenient height, and with a sharp axe or pretty 
heavy hatchet in the other hand, I cut. the pith trans¬ 
versely into pieces one-fourth or one-half of an inch 
thick. I can easily make one bushel of such pieces 
per hour. I find the above mode of reducing the piths 
much easier and quicker than that by beating them on 
a stone or an anvil with the poll of an axe or with the 
broad face of a sledge. The porosity of the horn piths 
renders the fertilizing matter of the piths, when cut 
into thin disks transversely , about as easily available 
by the feeding roots of plants as it would be if the piths 
were ground into pieces as small as peas. 
Oyster shells, reduced to powder and to small thin 
pieces from the size of a three-cent piece to that of a 
twenty-five cent piece, are an invaluable manure for 
grapevines, and especially for asparagus, and many 
other plants. They are easily reduced to a suitable 
size by pounding them on the surface of a stone on 
on an anvil with a hammer as heavy as a black¬ 
smith’s hand hammer. 
The sooner both bones and shells are reduced and 
covered with earth, the more valuable they are, for 
their decaying organic and soluble matter is absorbed 
by the earth, and retained by it until it is used by the 
roots of plants. If the oyster shells are converted in¬ 
to lime by burning, they are much less useful in most 
cases for fertilizing the earth than they are previously 
to being burned. 
To reduce bones, where there.is no bone mill, let a 
notch, two inches in width and four in depth, with per¬ 
pendicular sides, be cut into a heavy block of some 
kind of hard, well seasoned wood—the notch should be 
wider at one end than at the other, to facilitate the 
clearing of the notch of broken bones. Grind any 
worn-out thick-bladed axe to an edge similar to a 
blacksmith’s cold chisel, lay the bone on the notch, and 
strike it rather violently with the axe thus prepared, 
a.nd the bone will be rapidly broken into pieces. The 
heads of the bones, from their porous structure, are 
more difficult to be reduced than the middle parts. 
The breaking notch can be greatly improved by insert¬ 
ing a piece of a bar of iron of suitable length (from 12 
to 18 inches,) and from 3 to 4 inches wide, one-half or 
three-quarters of an inch thick, into each side of the 
notch, which will make a more solid and unyielding 
support for the bone at the points on which it rests, and 
consequently the blow will be more efficient in break¬ 
ing it. Bones, piths and shells, broken by these slow 
processes, will amply repay~the cultivator, especially 
for grapevines, asparagus, etc., if they cost nothing ex¬ 
cept the hauling. Piths are rendered more easy to be 
cut by lying in the damp ground during the space of a 
week or more. To immerse them in water for several 
days will soften them. Senex. 
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Rapid Increase. —C. P. Ward of East Poultney, 
Vt., states, that he has a breeding sow which has pro¬ 
duced 86 pigs at five litters as follows :—April 8, 1856, 
17; September 4, 15; April 4, 1857, 16; August 22, 
16; April 16, 1858, 22; 64 of these 86 within the 
short term of 15 months and 16 days. 
Best Food for Ewes. 
A venerable farmer of our acquaintance of much 
experience in sheep husbandry, in reply to the ques¬ 
tion, “ What is the best food for breeding ewes 7” says 
No grain I have ever fed to ewes has been so availa¬ 
ble in producing a flow of milk as good shorts from 
wheat. They induce no febrile action, are nutritious, 
and seem to exert a specific influence in producing 
milk. One bushel to a flock of thirty, fed twice a day, 
say every morning and evening, affording about one 
pound per day, I have found sufficient, and to produce 
satisfactory results. Corn he regarded as injurious, so 
far as milk was concerned, and dangerous if fed in any 
quantity. 
Cure for Garget in Cows. 
Eds. Co. Gent. —Having become a subscriber to 
your valuable paper through the Chester County Agri¬ 
cultural Society, and having received some valuable 
information from it, I thought I would give you a pre¬ 
ventive and cure for the garget in cows. 
I have had experience in a large dairy for seven 
years, and never found any thing that would effect as 
speedy a cure as this receipt which I am going to write. 
In giving your stock salt, mix therewith two pounds 
of saltpetre per bushel, and the cows will never be 
troubled with the garget. 
If you have neglected this precautionary measure, 
and any of your animals are attacked as they very 
possibly may be, mix an ounce of saltpetre with some 
meal, making the whole into a soft dough, and admin 
ister it at once. 
In inveterate cases the dose might require repeat¬ 
ing, but in ordinary attacks one will be sufficient, and 
the restoration of milk will be effected in twelve or 
fifteen hours at the farthest. 
This remedy never produces swelling, nausea, or 
other unpleasant symptoms, and may be administered 
with the assurance of success. C. II. Ingram. 
Cure for Heaves in Horses. 
Eds. Co. Gent. —I have great pleasure in stating 
that your prescription of sour milk, has proved an ef¬ 
fectual cure for my broken-winded horse. I do not 
know that it is a certain cure for this equine ill, but it 
has cured my horse. Did you ever hear that in cer¬ 
tain mountain districts of Virginia and North Caroli¬ 
na, where the men are the hardiest and stoutest of any 
in the Union, milk is never used as human food until it 
has become sour 7 ? J. C. S. Cleves, 0. 
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Osage Orange Hedge. —I have cut my two years 
old Osage close to the ground this year, and now it is 
sprouting out of the little stump root as thick as peas. 
My older hedge, which I made by experiments, is an 
awkward looking fence compared with what it ought 
to be, yet it has answered the purpose of a fence since 
last August, protecting by :the roadside against horses, 
cattle and pigs, and haying stood these former extreme 
cold winters by killing down only a foot or two of the 
top, without in the least injuring it for a fence. Far¬ 
mers plant the Osage hedge, and then take care of it! 
It will no more make a fence without care, than your 
corn will make a crop without care. S. Foster. Mus¬ 
catine, Iowa. 
