1874.] 
135 
AM ERIC AN AGrRIO ULT URIST. 
If peas do well and if oats do well, the two 
sown together on rich land will be likely to 
give a good crop. Tiie probabilities are that 
he will do better by growing corn or by grow¬ 
ing oats alone. “ Where can I get the seed ? ” 
I buy mine in Buffalo. The p-^is are brought 
from Canada, and can ne bought at from $1.25 
to $1.50 per bushel. “ How much per acre ? ” 
Sow 11 bushel of oats and R bushel of peas, or 
2i bushels of oats and 1 bushel of peas. I sowed 
thicker than this last year, but I do not think 
there is much advantage in it-. Sow as early as 
the land can be got into good condition. It is 
better to drill in the seed. Sec that the oats 
and peas are well mixed and that they do not 
separate in the hopper. I cut my crop with a 
Johnston reaper. Thrash with a machine. A 
good fanning-mrll will blow out the oats from 
the peas so that they can be fed separately if 
desired. The straw makes excellent fodder for 
horses and sheep. The cows will eat it, but 
they will give more milk on well cured 
corn-stalks. 
This same writer says: “I like‘Walks and 
Talks,’ but there are some things that we West¬ 
ern folks can not put in practice. For instance, 
you say petroleum is cheap and plenty. We 
don’t get it at all here except in the refined 
state.”—I had just the same trouble here. The 
gentleman who some years ago patented the 
use of petroleum for preserving wood sent me 
a “ farm right ” as a present. And so I thought 
I would try it. I went to Rochester to get a 
barrel. But it was not to be found. The deal¬ 
ers in oils and paints evidently thought I was a 
verdant man from the country, and offered me 
“ rock oil ” that they kept for lubricating pur¬ 
poses, telling me that I should soon be tired of 
painting with such stuff. I had to come home 
without my petroleum, and it was several 
months before I succeeded in getting a barrel 
of the kind I wanted. Since then I have used 
a good many barrels of it, and have now no 
trouble in getting all I want. And it will be 
so with my friend in Ohio. I speak of using 
crude carbolic acid, and I buy it by the barrel; 
but I suppose there are thousands of readers of 
the Agriculturist who can not find it at the 
stores. But I ought not to be blamed for this. 
When there is a demand for it the dealers will 
keep a supply on hand. 
“ It is just as I told you, Deacon. Wefarmers 
are going to have better times.” 
“You would not say so,” hi replies, “if you 
knew how hard it is to collect money. I tell 
you, farmers are poor.” 
“ I know that very well—I am a farmer my¬ 
self. But look at the situation. Potatoes here 
on the farm $1 per bushel; white wheat, $2; 
butter, 40c. per pound—and anything but gilt- 
edged Jersey at that; hay $25 per ton, and 
straw $12; barley tor seed, about whatever you 
like to ask for it I suppose you could get 
$2.40 per bushel of 48 lbs. for choice four- 
rowed for seed, which is $100 per ton. I have 
raised R ton per acre, and can do it again.” 
“ Still, I teH you farmers are poor.” 
“ I know it, Deacon; I am poor myself. But 
there is a good chance for good farmers who 
have got their land in good condition. There 
is no money in poor farming—never has been 
and never will be.” 
“ G. W. C.,” of Ashley, Ill., writes that many 
pigs are dying in that neighborhood. I have 
had no experience with such diseases. I think 
if the so-called hog cholera should break out in 
my herd I should separate all that were sick 
and put them in a dry, warm pen and keep 
them as quiet as possible, and give them the 
most nutritious and stimulating food and drink 
I could procure. If I lived near a slaughter¬ 
house I would give them fresh blood. Or I 
would kill a few sheep or a steer and cut up 
t'ue carcass into mince-meat and boil it for a 
few hours, and give the pigs some beef-tea or 
mutton broth mixed with cooked corn-meal or 
oat-meal gruel or any easily digested and nutri¬ 
tious food. A little whiskey might also be 
given to stimulate digestion. 
Some people seem to think that the reason 
why we have so much hog cholera is owing to 
the introduction of improved breeds of pigs. 
I think it is precisely the other way. What do 
we mean by an improved breed of pigs ? 
Usually we mean a breed that has fine bone and 
little offal. A breed that is very quiet and that 
will turn the food it eats into flesh and fat. It 
is a breed that will eat and digest a stomach¬ 
ful of rich food and assimilate it. As a rule, 
the weak spot in all high-bred pigs is that their 
digestive powers are not as good as their assi¬ 
milating powers. They can assimilate more 
food than they can digest. On the other hand, 
our common, coarse, unimproved hogs can 
usually eat and digest more food than they can 
assimilate. They are accustomed to forage for 
themselves. They have plenty of exercise and 
comparatively little food. Now then, if you 
take such a breed of hogs and endeavor to push 
them forward rapidly with rich food, it is easy 
to see how their blood could be poisoned by 
the excess of material which the animal is not 
able to convert into flesh and fat. 
“Your remedy, then,” says the Deacon, “is 
not to feed so high.” 
Rather, my remedy would be to raise a better 
class of pigs. I would raise such pigs as would 
stand high feeding until they were fat enough 
to go to market, and then I would dispose of 
them without delay. If you take pigs that are 
not accustomed to mature before they are 
three or four years old, and endeavor to so feed 
and force them that they shall be fit for market 
at twelve months old or less, what can you ex¬ 
pect but hog cholera ? On the other hand, a 
breed that is accustomed, and has been for 
generations, to mature early can be pushed for¬ 
ward rapidly without injury. I should expect 
the best success from pigs raised from a large, 
healthy, common sow sired by a highly refined, 
thorough-bred boar of a breed distinguished for 
its gentleness, fineness of bone, little offal, early 
maturity, and fattening qualities. The mother 
would furnish the digestive powers and the 
sire the assimilating powers. These qualities 
combined with early maturity, fineness of bone, 
and high quality of meat would give you pre¬ 
cisely what a good feeder wants. 
Mr. C. also says: “I see sqme calculations 
in regard to corn grown by John Johnston. 
It is good; but we farmers in Egypt [southern 
Illinois] do not profess to be thorough tillers 
of the soil, and yet I raised 131 bushels of ears 
of com per acre, weighing 40 lbs. per bushel. 
I counted one ear that had 894 grains. Vari¬ 
ety, yellow flint. It ripens earlier than our 
white corn. The ground was broken and 
planted without harrowing. Rows four feet 
apart, and hills two feet in the rows and two 
stalks to a hill. Cultivated three times twice 
in a row.”—I fancy Mr. C. is a far more “ thor¬ 
ough tiller of the soil ” than he pretends to be. 
I have an idea that there were not many weeds 
in that crop of corn. 
“ W. II.,” of Grey Co., Ontario, asks the 
relative value of oil-cake and peas for fattening 
cattle. I do not think there is much difference. 
If anything, the oil-cake, provided it is genuine 
linseed oil-cake, is the most nutritious. I do 
not know how it is in Canada, but here I fear 
there is a good deal of poor stuff sold for oil¬ 
cake meal. I think half pea and half corn 
meal is better for cattle than all peas or all 
corn. Oil-cake enough to keep the bowels -in 
order is also very advantageous. Much more 
depends on management and judicious feeding 
than on the actual and exact quantity of nutri¬ 
ment in a food. The farmer who does not 
keep flax-seed or oil-cake on hand, for at least 
occasional use,does not live up to his privileges. 
I little thought when the Deacon and I talked 
about Mr. Bliss’s potato prizes that he would 
act on our suggestion and offer such liberal 
premiums for the largest yield per acre. I want 
the Deacon and the Judge and the Squire to see 
which can raise the largest crop of our common 
varieties, and I wish others would join in. I 
propose to plant Early Rose, Late Rose, and 
Red and White Peachblows. I raised all these 
in one field last year, and the Late Rose was 
very decidedly ahead. Perhaps it may not be 
so in all seasons. The Peerless is grown to 
some extent here, and yields large crops. So 
far it sells as well in market as any other kind, 
and as long as this is the case it is a profitable 
variety. I notice an article in one of my late 
English agricultural papers on the “ New Am¬ 
erican Potatoes,” in which it is said: “ It is not 
probable that we shall ever beat the Americans 
in the matter of raising crops. Our tubers 
won’t be so large, although we may get as many 
to a root. This will be no evil, but ra er a 
gain. We shall get better quality in our me¬ 
dium-sized tubers than they get in their large 
ones, and they will not be so liable to disease, 
as it is a fact that wherever disease prevails the 
largest tubers are most affected.” It is new to 
me that we raise larger crops of potatoes here 
than in England. And I think it can not be 
true. I supposed three or four hundred bush¬ 
els per acre was not an uncommon crop in 
England. Here 125 bushels is a fair average. 
I presume the tubers are not as large in Eng¬ 
land owing to the fact that they plant in drills 
and much thicker than we do when we plant 
in hills. Here farmers seldom apply manure 
to potatoes, and that is the main reason why 
we do not raise as large crops per acre as they 
do in England. We want to study not only 
the varieties, but how to so manure and man¬ 
age the land as to grow large crops without 
any deterioration in quality. It seems a shame 
that in this great and fertile country consumers 
should now have to pay $1 a bushel for pota¬ 
toes, and those by no means of extra quality. 
There is money to be made in raising potatoes. 
How to Load a Horse-Power. 
“B. K. A.,” Lancaster Co., Pa., sends us two 
methods of loading a horse-power which are in 
use in his neighborhood. One is to procure 
two scantlings or planks framed together with 
cross-pieces. At one end of this frame is a 
roller eight inches in diameter with holes in it 
for pins, by which it is turned. The frame is 
twice as long as the power, and is hooked on 
to the hind axle or bolster of a wagon so that 
