218 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
article as a manure is obviously very consider¬ 
able. The dung of cattle fed upon it will be 
greatly richer, both in nitrogen and phosphates, 
than that of animals fed on hay alone. Where 
stock is kept, probably the best manner of using 
this cake as a fertilizer is to feed it to the cattle, 
and carefully apply the manure they furnish. 
In this way, whatever is not economized as fat 
or flesh will be available as manure.” 
We have tested in the manger the soundness 
of these views from the laboratory, and have no 
doubt of their correctness. We overcame a 
prejudice in using the meal for feeding milch 
cows, and found it a very valuable article. All 
animals will not eat it at first. If it is not rel¬ 
ished at once, it may be mixed in small quanti¬ 
ties with corn meal, and sprinkled with it over 
cut feed. The most reluctant animal will soon 
come to eat it greedily. We would use the meal 
in connection with both roots and hay in the 
winter, feeding not more than four quarts a day. 
It is said to be dangerous to feed it to young 
calves while living in part upon milk. There 
are well-attested cases upon record of its having 
killed them. Whether this was owing to some 
defect in the preparation of the meal, we are 
not able to say. It is well for stock raisers to be 
cautious. It is a safe article for cows, increases 
the flow of milk, and keeps them in good con¬ 
dition. It stands at the head of all kinds of 
fodder in producing manure rich in nitrogen. 
As the value of manure depends mainly upon 
the food from which it is made, farmers ought 
to look a good deal more sharply at this matter 
than they have been accustomed to. 
■ ■ — * < - >— . . 
Sod Fences—Their Utility. 
The sod fences of Ireland are famous,—and 
the hedge and ditch are met with throughout 
England. The moist nature of the climate has 
much to do with the maintenance of these fences 
in permanence and beauty. In this country sod 
fences will last many years in moist ground, 
but severe drouths will brown them, frosts will 
crack them where" the grass dies out, and weeds 
will be found, we fear, in many places more 
hardy than grass. Nevertheless, sod fences 
have their uses with us. There is no better way 
of putting a fence across a swamp; sheep will 
go over them with ease, but they should never 
be pastured in low, wet land. Where there is 
a great scarcity of timber they may be used to 
advantage; and made broad on the top and sur¬ 
mounted by a hedge of thorn locust, even sheep 
will not pass them. In response to a request 
published a few months since, Mr. A. J. San¬ 
born, of Ogle Co., Ill., sends the Agriculturist 
an account of his experience, as follows: 
“I have been a resident of Illinois for twenty- 
eight years and have helped build some sod 
fence, and have seen a good deal more built by 
Fig. 1.—SOD FENCE. 
others. The best is made in this way: The 
ground is laid off twelve feet wide, with a strip 
six feet wide in the centre. The sods are cut 
with a spade from the three-foot strips on each 
side so that they will match and make a facing 
for the bank or fence. [Fig. 1 represents a sec¬ 
tion of the ditches and wall.] First a row of 
sods is set six inches from the edge of the ditch 
on each side, being backed with earth, to hold 
them in place. Then fill in between, and when 
the filling is high enough, lay another row of 
sods. When it is done, the wall will (or should) 
be five feet on the base, three feet high, measured 
on the slope, and three feet across the top. 
Each ditch will be three feet wide at the top, one 
Fig. 2. —SOD FENCE. 
foot wide at the bottom, and two and a half feet 
in perpendicular depth. Such a fence will last a 
good many years, and is the nicest place for 
lambs to play upon I ever saw, and the great¬ 
est nuisance that ever was in a neighborhood.” 
“ J. McL.,” of Bergen Co., N. J.,says that an 
excellent and lasting fence may be made as fol¬ 
lows : (Figure 2 shows this plan in section.) 
“ If a wall three feet high is required, which is 
equal to a fence five feet high, stake out lines 
five feet wide for the wall, and four feet for the 
ditch. First cut all the sods four inches wide 
where the ditch is to be, for a rod in length, 
and lay them where the wall will be made. 
Then lay them up on each side like brick, break¬ 
ing joints, and at the same time filling in behind 
and between the two rows, or successive layers 
of sods. The earth must be trodden and pound¬ 
ed hard, and the sods settled firmly to their 
place by strong raps with the broad side of the 
spade. The sides must slope at such an angle 
that the wall will be three feet wide at the top. 
When the sods are all used up, more must be 
pared from the meadows adjacent, and the wall 
thus raised to the desired liight. There will be 
plenty of earth in the ditch to make the wall. 
The top should be left flat, so that the rain will 
soak in, and if the filling settles, as it probably 
will, more earth maybe taken from the ditch to 
fill it up level. If laid solid it will not give 
much, and the sods may be fastened by pins a 
foot long,cut from brush,as shown in the section.” 
r> f t i n O lw« t <i 
The Cotton Moth. 
In the American Agriculturist for December 
last, appeared a valuable article from “T. A.,” 
of Washington Co., Texas, on the Cotton Moth. 
One or two errors crept into it, and in pointing 
them out the author mentions some other valu¬ 
able facts. In the beginning of the article the 
entomologist Sat is called Jay, and in the last 
paragraph, where the author advocates the use of 
Cresylic soap “in solution, for the prevention 
of the ravages of the cotton worm,” and reports 
the results of some experiments which Mr. A. 
urged planters to make, it should read: “Many 
did so (experimented), but with a simple watery 
mixture of crude carbolic acid. And almost 
every experimenter made the same report, ‘ If the 
mixture is used in sufficient strength to kill the 
worm it also destroys the leaf of the ■ plant.’ ” 
“ As printed,” Mr. A. says, “ it makes me do 
great injustice to the valuable compound I used; 
which will not destroy the leaf \ if used in such 
solution as can be distributed over the plant. I 
find not more than two per cent of the acid will 
combine with water, so that, when applied to 
plants, (and so it is with petroleum ), the water 
runs off the glossy surface of the leaf; but the 
acid adheres to the leaf, in its full strength, and 
destroys it. The solution of the saponaceous 
compound (cresylic soap) clings to the leaf. 
“ In confirmation of my belief as to the hyber¬ 
nation of this insect, I found a healthy, active 
moth in an enclosed gallery of my house, 
about ten days ago, after several killing frosts. 
“We are having a trying winter on stock, and 
thousands upon thousands are dying. No hay 
or rough feed, of any amount, was saved last 
fall, except by white labor. And with everything 
devolving upon us, the quantity saved was very 
limited. The Migratory Locusts , of which I sent 
specimens, ate up a great part of the green pas¬ 
turage. The ‘ Prickley Mesquit ’ of Texas 
alone escaped, and that only partially. Of the 
myriads of eggs deposited—and of which, too, 
you had specimens—I cannot now find a trace. 
Destroyed, I think, by the severe freezes. 
Sheep have suffered greatly—the more as they 
are all more or less fearfully infested with scab 
and other Insects.” 
———o-«-~«a-a »- -- 
Wolf-teeth in Horses. 
We notice occasionally in agricultural papers, 
and find not infrequent mention in our corre¬ 
spondence, something about wolf-teeth as affect¬ 
ing the sight of horses. This is an ancient prej¬ 
udice and entirely without foundation in fact. 
The name wolf-teeth is given to small, super¬ 
numerary teeth, which occur occasionally 
WOLF-TEETH. 
in the mouths of horses, and are situated com¬ 
monly in the upper jaw, but sometimes in the 
lower, as shown in the accompanying figure, 
just in front of the first grinding tooth. They 
are most usually noticed in the mouths of colts, 
and when the permanent teeth come are almost 
invariably crowded out, and thus shed are not 
renewed. Sometimes the root of one of the 
milk teeth is not absorbed properly, but crowd¬ 
ed inward, where it remains, and is called also 
a wolf-tooth. This may cause the horse con¬ 
siderable inconvenience. A third application 
of the name is to points or edges of teeth not 
ground off by the action of the teeth upon each 
other in chewing and biting, when these points 
become so long or sharp as to cut the tongue or 
lips. It is an absurd prejudice, (for which, how¬ 
ever, the ancients are responsible,) that attributes 
diseases of the eye to the supernumerary teeth 
above mentioned. There is not the least foun¬ 
dation for such a view. The wolf-teeth may re¬ 
main, or they may be taken out without fear of 
any evil influence upon the sight of the animal. 
If not shed they may be a nuisance, and are al¬ 
ways a deformity, and may very properly be re¬ 
moved. This is easily done by an oak pin of 
convenient shape placed against the tooth and 
struck a smart blow with a mallet. The sharp 
angles or edges caused by unequal grinding are 
