1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
5 
land is divided, the owner of each parcel gets the 
benefit of the covenant. This covenant is broken 
only by eviction, i.e., by the grantee being put off 
the land. The measure of damages might be the 
value of the land, or the consideration money with 
interest, or it might be something else. The 
question is rather too technical to consider fully 
in a popular article. 
[ In most States, not in all, the wife must join the 
husband in conveying land. Until quite recently, 
the officer taking the acknowledgement, had to 
take the wife’s acknowledgement “separate and 
apart from her husband,” that she signed the deed 
without fear or compulsion. It is not generally 
known that this requirement is now done away 
with in New York State, at least, and both husband 
and wife may give their acknowledgements at the 
same time.—E d.] 
Two Good Garden Vegetables Little 
Grown. 
BY JOSEPH HARRIS, AUTHOR OP “ WALKS AND TALKS ON 
THE FARM,” ETC. 
Salsify. 
Salsify, often called Vegetable Oyster, is rarely 
grown to perfection. When well grown and prop¬ 
erly cooked, it is a healthful and delicious vegeta¬ 
ble, and deserves to be much more generally and 
extensively cultivated. The cultivation of salsify 
rs precisely the same as for parsnips. It is impor¬ 
tant to get good seed grown from carefully select¬ 
ed roots. The seed can be sown as early in the 
spring as the ground is in good working condition, 
and I have sown it as late as the first week in June 
with excellent results. As a rule, however, it is 
desirable to sow it early. The land should be pre¬ 
pared in the autumn, and it can not be made too 
deep, or too rich, and mellow. It will do well on 
a great variety of soils. I have had a fine crop on a 
well worked, heavily manured clay, but as a rule it 
is better to sow it on a sandy loam, heavily ma¬ 
nured the fall previous or early in the spring. I 
sow in rows, twenty inches apart. The seed is long 
and slim, and few drills will sow it evenly without 
wasting the seed, and as that is quite expensive, it 
is better to sow it by hand, dropping about two 
seeds to each inch of row, and covering about half 
an inch deep; if the weather is dry, and the soil 
very light, it may be covered an inch or an inch 
and a half, and in dry weather it is desirable to roll 
the soil after sowing. As soon as the plants ap¬ 
pear, hoe lightly on each side of the row, and a 
few days later, run the horse-hoe or cultivator be¬ 
tween the rows ; suffer not a weed to grow, and 
ultimately thin out the plants, leaving them from 
four to six inches apart. As usually grown, the 
roots are quite small, because the plants are left 
too thick in the row. Grown as I have recom¬ 
mended, the crop requires considerable land, but 
the roots will be so large and fine, as to command 
an extra price, and much more than pay the extra 
cost of the laud. Salsify is a good crop for the 
field-garden, where land is comparatively cheap. 
The roots bring the highest price in spring. Like 
parsnips, salsify can be left in the ground all win¬ 
ter ; but at least a portion should be dug in the 
fall, and kept in pits or in the cellar, as recom¬ 
mended for parsnips. It is well to have the rows 
forty-two inches apart for convenience in gather¬ 
ing. The seeds do not all mature at the same time, 
and it is usual to go over the piece two or three 
times and cut off the heads of seed as soon as they 
turn brown. There is but one variety of salsify. 
We must look to careful selection of roots to give 
us a good strain. There is an abundant opportu¬ 
nity for improvement in this direction, and I hope 
some of the boys will give us an improved salsify— 
not in name, but in reality. It can easily be done, 
by continued selection of the very best and hand¬ 
somest roots for seed, rigorously rejecting all that 
are not perfect. 
Sea Kale. 
Sea Kale is a most delicious vegetable, which 
sooner or later will certainly be extensively culti¬ 
vated in this country. It belongs to the same 
family as the cabbage. Its shoots only are eaten, 
and that only after being forced or blanched. It 
is a good deal of work to produce sea kale in per¬ 
fection, but when properly grown, it is as tender as 
asparagus and as mild as cauliflower. Our climate 
is well adapted for its production in abundance, 
and of the choicest quality. When grown from 
seed, mark out the bed iuto rows three feet apart, 
then run a fifteen or eighteen-inch marker across 
the rows, and put a dozen seeds where the lines 
cross, and cover half an inch deep. When the 
plants appear, hoe, weed, and thin, leaving three 
or four plants in each hill. 
Sea Kale is a perennial plant, and when the bed 
is once made, it will last for many years. It is 
propagated from the roots as well as from seed, 
and where those can be obtained, a year’s time can 
be saved. When propagated from the roots of 
old plants, it is usual to cut these into lengths of 
two or three inches. In early spring, place the 
pieces in a box in the house or in the liot-bed, cov¬ 
ering them very lightly with damp moss or light 
mould. As soon as they start to grow, and the 
weather is suitable, set out in a bed eighteen by 
thirty-six inches apart. No crop will be produced 
the first year, but the second year a few shoots can 
be removed without weakening the plants ; the 
third year they will produce a full crop. The plant 
needs protection during the winter. A good plan 
is, to cover the bed or plants with leaves, or ma¬ 
nure, or leaf-mould ; this will protect the plants, 
and the shoots, as they push through this cover¬ 
ing, will be blanched and ready for use. If the 
plants are very vigorous, a greater depth of cover¬ 
ing or blanching material will be needed. 
The Wood-Lot in Winter. 
A few acres in trees is one of the most valuable 
of a farmer’s possessions ; yet no part of the farm 
is so mistreated, if not utterly neglected. Aside 
from the fuel the wood-lot affords, it is both a great 
saving and a great convenience to have a stick of 
ash, oak, or hickory on hand, to repair a break¬ 
down, or to build some kind of rack or other ap¬ 
pliance. As a general thing, such timber as one 
needs is cut off, without any reference to what is 
left. By a proper selection in cutting, and the en¬ 
couragement of the young growth, the wood-lot 
will not only continue to give a supply indefinitely, 
but even increase in value. A beginning, and often 
the whole, of the improvement of the wood-lot, is 
usually to send a man or two to “ brush it,” or 
clean away the underbrush. This is a great mis¬ 
take. The average laborer will cut down every¬ 
thing; fine young trees, five or six years old, go 
into the heap with young poplars and the soft un¬ 
derbrush. The first point in the management of 
the wood-lot is, to provide for its continuance, and 
generally there are young trees in abundance, ready 
to grow on as soon as given a chance. In the brac¬ 
ing winter mornings one can find no more genial 
and profitable exercise than in the wood-lot. Hard- 
wooded and useful young trees should not have to 
struggle with a mass of useless brush, and a judi¬ 
cious clearing up may well be the first step. In 
timber, we need a clean, straight, gradually taper¬ 
ing and thoroughly sound trunk. In the dense 
forest nature provides this. The trees are so 
crowded that they grow only at the upper branches. 
The lower branches, while young, are starved out 
and soon perish, the wound soon healing over are 
out of sight. In our open wood-lots, the trees 
have often large heads and the growth that should 
be forming the trunk is scattered over a great num¬ 
ber of useless branches. Only general rules can 
be given in pruning neglected timber-trees ; the 
naked trunk, according to age, should be from one- 
third to one-half the whole hight of the tree; 
hence some of the lower branches may need to be 
cut away. All the branches are to be so shortened 
in or cut back as to give the head an oval or egg- 
shaped outline. This may sometimes remove half 
of the head, but its good effects will be seen in a 
few years. In removing branches, leave no pro¬ 
jecting stub on the timber, and cover all large 
wounds with coal-tar. Whosoever works in tbia 
manner thoughtfully can not go far astray. 
A Worm in the Eye of a Horse. 
BY A. LIAUTARD, PRESIDENT AMERICAN VETERINARY 
COLLEGE. 
Is it rare to find an animal with the anterior 
chamber of its eye occupied by a delicate tenant, 
moving more or less gracefully in the aqueous hu¬ 
mor ?—If we believe the reports which at times 
appear in some of our daily newspapers, the con¬ 
dition is almost a wonder, and, no doubt, some en¬ 
terprising speculator of human credulity might try 
his good luck in money making by exhibiting a 
horse with “ a snake in the eye.” In fact, it seems 
that such enterprise has recently been carried out. 
Helminthologists do not agree as to the nature of 
this worm. If its natural history is not yet well de¬ 
termined, its presence, however, in the eyes of 
animals has been quite often observed, and nu¬ 
merous records of similar cases may be found in 
veterinary literature. It is more common in some 
seasons than others, and is often met with in cool 
weather, and after a long period of abundant rains, 
when some practitioners have had as many as 
twenty or thirty cases in a year. The cause of 
their appearance is unknown. At times one, at 
others two of these worms can be detected, freely 
swimming. Ordinarily its presence gives rise to 
great irritation, the eye is covered with tears, and 
the lids partly closed. A little of the extract of 
belladonna placed underneath the eyelid, or a few 
drops of atropia solution, 2 grains to the ounce, 
will have the effect in a short time of drawing the 
curtain produced by that opacity, and afford the 
observer a more extensive view of the anterior 
chambers and their contents. The presence of the 
worm is not an evidence that the animal will lose 
its sight. To remove the worm puucture the cornea, 
thus allowing the escape of the aqueous humor 
and the parasite. The operation can be done by a 
small lance-shaped needle, carefully • introduced 
through the cornea. The worm, resembling a piece 
of white silk, about 22 millimeters in length, semi¬ 
transparent and somewhat flattened. The motions 
resemble those of the common leech. 
After the removal of the worm, all the treatment 
required consists in keeping the animal in a dark 
place, and bathing the eye with a few drops of a 
solution of atropine. 
Application of Plant-food. 
BY J. W. SANBORN, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE, CO¬ 
LUMBIA, MO. 
c | 
In a series of experiments to test the relative 
value of manure plowed under, and that applied on 
the surface, I found that, without exception, the 
position in which the manure was placed affected 
the relative proportion of seed to stem. The plots 
were one-twentieth acre each (8 square rods.) 
Manure plowed under on plot “45,” 1,000 pounds; 
spread on top of plat “46,” 1,000 lbs. Manure 
carefully selected. 
1879 Plot 45. 
Yield corn 
per acre. 
Yield stover 
per acre. 
71% bush. 
84 
53 
55.9 
9,120 lbs. 
9,400 " 
6,200 “ 
5.700 “ 
u “■ 46... 
1881—Plot 45.. . 
“ “ 40. 
With chemicals, when a heavy amount was U6ed 
alone, for a series of years, upon two plots >/ t0 
acre each, the first plot being drilled in, the other 
the same quantity spread broadcast, a somewhat 
similar result was noted. The chemicals in the 
drilled plots were nearer the roots at the beginning 
of plant growth. On the drilled plot the yield of 
corn was 43 bushels, and 3,900 lbs. stover. When 
spread broadcast the yield was 38.1 bushels corn, 
and 3,800 lbs. stover. On the first plot there were 
90.7 lbs. stover to each bushel corn; on the sec¬ 
ond, 99.7 lbs. per bushel. In 1877 I made my first 
experiments with the oat crop on surface versus 
under-surface application of manure. The oats 
