AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[September, 
Dairying sat tine SoaaSia.—“J.,” East 
Tennessee. Dairying- can be carried on to great advan¬ 
tage in all the mountainous districts. A cheese factory 
has been established at Asheville in North Carolina and 
is doing well. About 8,000 pounds of cheese were made 
in May and Juno, and the cheese sells at 20 cts. per pound 
in the home market. The managers of the dairy came 
from the North, and there are plenty more ready to go. 
EPisla CSiassmo—Valne ©1" it.—“ E. R. G.,” 
Pa. The statement that “one ton of fish guano mixed 
with a hundred loads of sods is worth as much as a hun¬ 
dred loads of stable manure” is rather strong. It contains 
from threo to ten per cent, of ammonia, and sells from 
twenty to fifty dollars a ton, according to its fineness and 
dryness. It is the cheapest form of ammonia wo know of. 
Wheat in t.lae Sea-hoard States.— 
H. Poor, who has boon preaching wheat and raising it 
these twenty years, writes us : “It is a well ascertained 
fact, that spring and winter wheat can be raised abund¬ 
antly in all the New England States. Farmers need no 
longer doubt the capacity of their soil to give them their 
bread. If short of manure, bone dust and other fertili¬ 
zers are plenty and cheap. Four bushels of wheat are 
equal to a barrel of flour.” The secret of success is 
manure applied to well drained soils. Drill in the wheat 
and cultivate it. We believe statistics show an increase 
of wheat raising in the older States. 
Stemming^ Food for (Cattle.—“J. H. 
C.,” Augusta, Ill. Nothing but steam is wanted to cook 
hay, or any other kind of food. Steam under pressure is 
much hotter than water, and, of course, will cook more 
rapidly. The difficulty may be in not having your box, 
or steaming vat, tight enough. There is no particular 
danger of steaming hay too much. The softer it is made, 
the more easily it is digested. 
ISorae Phosphate and Snperphos- 
pl»ate.—“ J. Ii. P.,” Cold Spring, asks, 1st. If Profes- 
Bor Johnson’s formula for making superphosphate given 
in the June Agriculturist would apply to a large quantity ? 
2nd. The price of phosphatic and fish guanos? 3d. If 
the Charleston deposit could be used for making super¬ 
phosphate ? 1. The formula mentioned is good for any 
quantity. It could be made somewhat cheaper at the 
factory on a large scale, because the materials could be 
purchased at the wholesale price and the factory would 
have conveniences for handling that farmers generally 
do not have. 2. Baker’s Island guano is not in market. 
Fish as scrap: $25, and fine ground and dried $45. 3. 
The Charleston deposit is a good bone phosphate accord¬ 
ing to the analyses given, and a company is formed to 
manufacture fertilizers from it. 
What Variety of Wheat to Sow. 
This depends on the character and condition of the 
soil. Shorthorn cattle, that have been bred for the pur¬ 
pose of taking on flesh rapidly, require rich food and 
plenty of it, and no sensible farmer thinks of keeping 
them on a poor, scant pasture. He selects a breed 
adapted to his land. It is so with varieties of wheat. 
Some require more and richer food than others. Take a 
variety that, with a sufficient quantity of appropriate 
food, will prodnee forty bushels of choice wheat per acre, 
and sow it on poor land, where it cannot get food enough 
to form twenty bushels, and what will be the result ? Let 
tlie shrunken grain of the past, harvest answer. 
We know two fanners in one of the best wheat-grow¬ 
ing counties of Western New York, who have just 
harvested and sold their wheat. One had thirteen 
bushels of wheat per acre, that weighed 54 lbs. per bushel; 
the other had 37'bushels, that weighed G2 l / 2 lbs. per 
bushel. The former was glad to get $1.80 per bushel for 
his crop, and the other sold his at the same time for 
$2.60 per bushel. One crop brought $21.10 per acre, the 
other brought $100.50 per acre. In the same neighbor¬ 
hood there are two farmers that last fall had two litters 
of pigs from good common sows, crossed with a thor¬ 
oughbred Essex boar. The one farmer fed the sow 
liberally, and the little pigs had the run of a barn-yard 
during the winter, where cattle were fed on grain and 
clover hay. The pigs soon learned to eat the heads of 
clover, and on this and the grain they picked up, throve 
astonishingly. During the summer they had the run of a 
good clover lot, with the waste of the house and sour 
milk, and to-day would sell to the butcher for $30 a 
head. The other litter belonged to a man who thinks 
that “ a sow to breed well must be kept thin,” and who 
winters his cattle on straw, and lets his pigs have the run 
of the barn-yard in winter, and of the road-side in sum¬ 
mer. This littor of pigs to-day, though the same age and 
of the same breed as the others, would be dear at $6 a 
head. Naturally enough, he says that “ Essex hogs are a 
humbug.” And he is right, for his style of feeding com¬ 
mon hogs would be better. They will not grow as fast 
on rich food, nor suffer as much from a scanty supply. 
It is just so with varieties or breeds of wheat. We must 
select those adapted to the conditions in which they are 
to be grown. If you have a very choice piece of land, 
capable of producing 35 bushels of white wheat per acre, 
it would be unwise to sow it with Mediterranean wheat. 
On the other hand, if yon have a poor run down, 
neglected, half-tilled weedy piece, that in all probability 
will not produce more than 15 bushels of Mediterranean, 
it would be unwise to sow it with Diehl or Soules. It 
would bo like turning a flock of Cotswold sheep into a 
hilly pasture, where Merinos could hardly get a scanty 
subsistence. 
Tlie fanner who got one hundred dollars an acre for 
his wheat has no better land naturally than the one who 
got less than twenty two dollars an acre. The climate is 
the same, and there is no other difference except in the 
management. One cultivates thoroughly and manures 
highly. lie employs a good deal of hired labor. Does 
not work much himself, but sees that those he hires earn 
their money. He has taken the prize for the best farm 
in the State, and is one of the most thorough, energetic 
and prosperous farmers in the country. His land is clean 
and rich, and no matter what the season is, he has almost 
invariably excellent crops. We have heard him say that 
he believed he could make a good crop of com if not a 
drop of rain fell from the time it was planted till it was 
harvested. He would depend on frequent cultivation, 
keeping the ground mellow and not suffering a weed to 
grow. His land is as rich as it was when first cleared, 
and he can raise just as good wheat. It is not owing to 
tlie variety, for the kind he raises is the good, old- 
fashioned Soules, that so often fails of late with ordinary 
treatment. 
In view of the state of our finances, the general stag¬ 
nation of trade, manufactures and commerce, combined 
with high prices for nearly all the necessaries of life, we 
could almost wish that we had, for a year or two, a choice 
variety of wheat that would give large returns for poor 
treatment. But there is no such variety, and it is vain to 
search for it. Tlie only way to raise good wheat is by 
good culture. Make the land right and then get the best 
variety to be found. If the land is poor and you have 
not time to enrich it, be content with sowing an inferior 
variety. It will do better than the choicer kinds, which 
need richer food and better treatment. And in the mean¬ 
time, make calculations for the harvest of 1870.. Select a 
small piece of the best land yon have, and if it is not 
clean break it up this fill and plow it again early next 
spring and again after the corn is planted; cultivate, 
harrow and roll till every weed is destroyed. Then plow 
again in July and again just before sowing. Drill in two 
bushels of the choicest variety of white wheat yon can 
find, and you may reasonably expect a good crop, and the 
land will not forget such treatment for years. If seeded 
with clover, it will give a grand crop of hay, and if this 
is cut early a crop of clover seed may be expected that 
will .alone pay for all the labor of the summer fallow. 
Will some of our readers figure up the difference in the 
profits of a crop of wheat that brings $100 per acre and 
one that brings only $21 per acre ? 
Texas Murrain or the Spanish Fever. 
We are a selfish and improvident people. We have 
received warning after warning. We have known of this 
terrible murrain by which the Texas herdsmen has seen 
his cattle swept away by the hundred in a night. We 
have known how it has dealt destruction to the cattle of 
Missouri and Kansas, whose grazing grounds were 
annually traversed by herds from Texas. We have even 
seen the disease on the hither side of the Mississippi, 
when it followed the trail of Texas cattle into Kentucky 
in 1866. Yet the General Government took no steps to 
have it investigated, no State Government has looked to 
the matter. Missouri and Kansas passed laws prohibit¬ 
ing driving of diseased cattle through those States; but 
these Texas steers are not to appearance diseased, and so 
far as we know the only sanitary measures so far attempt¬ 
ed, have been those of the uprising of tlie farmers along 
the lines of travel, and the putting a sudden end to the 
traffic by prohibitions enforced by powder and ball. In 
tlie Agricultural Annual for 1867. Dr. John H. Tice, of 
St. Louis, described the disease particularly, and though 
tlie article be brief, it is more to the point than many of 
the labored dissertations which have crowded the press 
since the appearance of the murrain in Illinois and along 
the great railway lines from Cairo, Ill., to Providence, 
II. I., and which caused so great excitement and 
alarm last month. This visitation is so sudden and 
locally destructive that the people are aroused to the im¬ 
portance of investigating and knowing something about 
this alarming and fatal disease besides its results. 
The facts are briefly as follows: Texas cattle have been 
during the summer brought up the Mississippi in great 
numbers and landed at St. Louis, Mo., Cairo, Hi., New 
Albany, Lid., and at other convenient railroad termini, 
they have been densely crowded on the steamers, not fed 
nor watered regularly, and when landed turned out to 
graze and recuperate before being shipped by rail, or 
driven into the interior or to market. The cattle, chiefly 
cows, which followed the Texan cattle upon the grazing 
grounds, or which picked up the hay and com left by 
them in the yards, after they were driven off, shortly ex • 
hibited in great numbers symptoms of disease, and soon 
after died. Those familiar with the Spanish fever pro¬ 
nounced it to be unmistakably that malady. 
The Texas beeves appeared tolerably well. Cattle 
simply coming in contact with them have not usually 
taken the disease, and according to the facts now known, 
it is rarely communicated in that way. Northern animals 
crossing their trail or on their pastures, take the disease 
and die with it, while the Texans which communicated it 
continue a longtime apparently well. In Northern stock 
the incubation of the disease,—that.is tlie time it hides 
itself after the exposnre to infection before it breaks out 
—is variable, varying from a few days to several weeks ; 
while if not slaughtered before, the Texans may not 
be struck down by it for months. The disease is com¬ 
municated only by Texan cattle to Northern ones so far as 
reported, not by homo cattle to home cattle. If com¬ 
municated, it is possibly in that torpid, chronic form 
which the Texan cattle have, and which is so long in de¬ 
veloping. The disease appears to be uniformly taken by 
cattle grazing on the same ground or standing in the 
same yards where Texas cattle have been. The diseased 
Texas herds are probably those which have arrived since 
the very hot weather. Those received early in the season 
have neither communicated nor developed disease, so far 
as we have seen tlie reports. 
We greatly rejoice in the general alarm, beeausc so 
many people are brought to agree with ns that “ this 
thing has gone far enough,” and because we hope that 
something will now be done to shield all our citizens ef¬ 
fectually from the disease. W r e must say we feel no very 
great concern as yet for the safety of the' herds of the 
country. Texas cattle are well known by their peculiar 
build, wide coarse horns, etc. Droves of them will not 
be moved at present except perhaps by rail to the mar¬ 
ket. Diseased Northern herds will shortly run their 
conrse—very few live, and those are said to lose their hair 
in patches, or all over their bodies. If cattle take the 
disease only as stated, the fact will soon be known and 
guarded against; and the most important fact of all is, 
the first severe frost 2 »‘ts an end to the infection. 
Symptoms. —An animal acutely attacked draws itself up, 
bowing its back; its head falls; its ears droop ; its eyes 
are dull; the coat is staring. It refuses food, passes 
blood or is constipated, and the urine is very dark. It 
shivers as if cold. Its respiration is labored, and it often 
runs at the eyes and nose. Cattle suffering with the 
Spanish fever have usually great thirst. Dr. Tice says: “In 
all the cases that caine under my own cognizance, the pa¬ 
tients suffered from thirst, but drinking, especially cold 
water, was fatal almost immediately. I have seen affected 
cattle go and slake their thirst at a brook, return to the 
bank and drop down dead.” Alluding to the statement 
of some observers that tlie cattle neither exhibited thirst 
nor hunger, he adds: “ It is said the banks of rivers and 
streams (in Texas) are often lined with the carcasses of 
cattle dying after, drinking.” The first symptom is an 
increase of internal temperature, it rising from 95° 
to 183°, or to 106°. The animals have a high fever, 
the milk of cows dries up, and the disease runs its 
course within three or four days usually. The localities 
most seriously affected by the disease have been along the 
railroad lines, where the Texas cattle have been taken for 
pasturage, and the eastern cattle yards, where the cattle 
have been sent for slaughter. Boards of Health and other 
officers have taken prompt and judicious measures to 
prevent the spread of the disease and the use of the meat. 
TT7iaf should be done ? The question affects every one! 
The Chicago Packers’ Association took the first right step, 
(seconded as we hear by Gen. Capron, Commissioner of 
Agriculture) in employing Prof. Gamgee, who was at the 
time at Chicago, to go with medical and other gentlemen 
to thoroughly investigate the disease ar.dits causes. The 
report of this Committee has not been made public up to 
tho time of our going to press, though sundry con¬ 
flicting statements, purporting to come from Prof. G., 
are reported by the newspapers. Judging from the light 
we have we should certainly say an absolute prohibition 
of the traffic in Texan and Cherokee beeves should be 
enforced except during the season of occasional severe 
frosts. The dates might be set as between November 1st 
and March 15th, or the date of the commencement of the 
driving or shipping of the cattle might be announced by 
the Governor of Missouri, the Commissioner of Agricul¬ 
ture of the United States, or some other suitable person. 
