THE CULTIVATOR. 
smallest rural establishments, by the aid of processes which experi¬ 
ence ought to simplify still more, the fabrication of indigenous su¬ 
gar.”—[See, for the entire report , Journal of the American Institute 
for June 1836.] 
DISEASES OF SHEEP, &c. 
For the fool rot in Sheep. —Take alum, green vitriol and white 
mercury, the first in the largest proportion; dissolve them in water, 
and after the hoof is pared, anoint it with a feather, and bind on a 
rag all over the foot. The Middlesex shepherds use the green 
vitriol alone, after pounding it fine. Others again anoint with a 
feather dipped in aqua fortis, or weak nitric acid. The drovers to 
Smithfield carry a bottle of this with them, to apply to lame sheep. 
It hardens the hoof, and enables the sheep to travel better. Another 
mode is to spread 3 or 4 inches slaked lime over a floor, pare 
the sheep’s feet well, and turn them into this house, where 
they may remain for a few hours, and then be put into a dry pas¬ 
ture. The treatment may be twice or thrice repeated. 
To prevent the foot rot. —Keep the sheep in dry pastures, and if 
stony the better ; examine them often and carefully; and when any 
fissures or cracks, attended with heat, make their appearance, ap¬ 
ply oil of turpentine and common brandy. When these do not avail, 
wash the diseased part, and pare as close as possible without draw¬ 
ing blood, and apply some of the caustics above named. In all 
cases it is of great consequence that the animal be afterwards ex¬ 
posed only to a moderate temperature—be invigorated with proper 
food, and kept in clean, early, dry pasture. 
To prevent sheep from catching cold after being shome. —Rub them 
with water saturated with salt, or plunge them in sea water. 
To cure the scab. —Sir Joseph Banks gave the following prescrip¬ 
tion to the Society for the encouragement of arts: take 1 lb. of 
quicksilver, J lb. Venice turpentine, | pint oil of turpentine, and 4 
lbs. hog’s lard ; rub them in a mortar till they are well incorpora¬ 
ted. Then begin at the head of the sheep, proceed from between 
the ears along the back, to the end of the tail; the wool is be di¬ 
vided in a furrow till the skin can be touched, and as the furrow is 
made, the finger, slightly dipped in the ointment, is to be drawn 
along the bottom of it, where it will leave a blue stain on the skin 
and adjoining wool. From this make similar furrows down the 
shoulders and thighs to the legs, and if the animal is much infected, 
two should be drawn along each side, and the ointment applied 
in all. 
To cure the measles in swine. —The existence of the disease can 
only be known by the animal not thriving or fattening like the rest. 
Put into the food of each hog, once or twice a week, as much 
crude pounded antimony as will lie on a shilling. This is very pro¬ 
per for any feeding swine, though they have no disorder. A small 
quantity of the flour of brimstone will be found of great service, if 
occasionally given to 6wine. But the best way is to prevent disease, 
by keeping their sties clean and dry, and to allow them air, exer¬ 
cise, and plenty of clean straw. 
Cure for cattle swelled with green food. —Give of dose of train oil, 
which, after repeated trials, says the Farmer’s Magazine, has been 
found to prove successful. The quantity of oil must vary accord¬ 
ing to the age and size of the animal. For a grown up beast give 
a pint, which must be administered with a bottle, taking care to rub 
the stomach well, in order to make it go down. After receiving 
this medicine it must be made to walk about, until such time as the 
swelling begins to subside. 
Draining .—The importance of under-draining, to health, where 
lands are flat and possess a retention subsoil, to say nothing of the 
benefits which draining imparts to culture, is well explained in the 
following extract, which we make from M. Puvis. 
“ The water with which the soil is inundated, not being able to 
escape in any direction, [the surface being level, and the subsoil too 
compact for its passage down,] remains there [upon the subsoil] in 
a state of stagnation, the general principle of the corruption of wa¬ 
ter. It forms then in the soil a kind of interior marsh ; the sun and 
the dryness of the air exhale a part. These waters, motionless, di¬ 
minished, heated by the sun in the warmth of the long summer days, 
ferment, become altered, and are sometimes so much corrupted as 
to become black. They are then an unwholesome drink for men; 
and at the same time the exhalations of a soil impregnated with cor¬ 
rupted water, becomes unhealthy, as those of the borders of marshes, 
of ponds, and of all lands temporarily inundated and which the sum¬ 
mer sun strikes upon, after the waters are drawn off'. Thus among 
the inhabitants of a district, in the midst of an atmosphere mixed 
with deleterious exhalations, numerous intermittent fevers occur, 
without the necessity of the appearance of any marshes or ponds in 
the country.” 
Effects of Temperance. —We find from the Register of the Socie¬ 
ty of Friends, or Quakers, that as a consequence of their tempe¬ 
rance, one half of those that are born, live to the age of 47 years; 
whereas Dr. Price tells us, that of the general population of Lon¬ 
don, half that are born live only two years and three quarters. 
Among the Quakers, 1 in 10 arrive at 80 years of age, of the gene¬ 
ral population of London only 1 in 40. Never did a more power¬ 
ful argument support the practice of temperance and virtue. 
Potato Hoe. —We are much pleased with a new cast iron mallea¬ 
ble potato hoe, or hook, manufactured and presented to us by Messrs. 
Thorp and Adams, of Oak Hill, Green county. It has four prongs, 
which are round, and equally well adapted to digging potatoes, or to 
hoeing or loosening the earth about garden or field crops. These 
hoes are for sale at Thorburn’s, at 50 cents each. 
NOTICES OF CORRESPONDENCE, &c. 
Ribwort. —L. S. who dates at Salisbury, complains of the “ south - 
era plantain,'" as a nuisance in his grounds, and asks us how it can 
be got rid of. We presume our correspondent alludes to the rib¬ 
wort plantain, ( Planlago lanceolata,) a hardy plant,' with a tuft of 
long ribbed leaves springing from the crown of the root, and a long 
tap-root. We know of no other mode of getting rid of this, than by 
destroying the plants separately, as we do dock. But the evil, if 
we apprehend aright the plant alluded to, is not so great as our cor¬ 
respondent imagines, inasmuch as the plant is often cultivated on 
account of its herbage, in damp moist grounds, where it thrives best. 
Arthur Young cultivated and recommended it. Anderson says it is 
well liked by horses and cattle, and yields a very good crop in rich 
ground tending to dampness. It abounds in the irrigated meadows 
of Lombardy; and is highly commended both there and in York¬ 
shire as a pasture grass. It affords a nutritious hay, particularly for 
cows, which are also advantageously fed upon the green crop in 
May. Upon dry grounds its growth is stinted. 
Saxon Bucks. —S. C. Scoville, of Salisbury, Vt. wishes to sell 100 
Saxon bucks, which he states to be of the best stock, the clip of 
which has been sold at $1 per pound. Gentlemen who have inquir¬ 
ed of us for these sheep will address Mr. Scoville. 
Cortland Marl. —Mr. N. Gillet, of Cortlandville, is informed, that 
the analysis, in our last, was of his brick, or lower specimen, of 
marl. 
Barley. —M. B. Mason, of Montpelier, Md. asks our opinion of the 
practicability of substituting barley for rye in his farm crops—and 
whether barley can be advantageously grown on corn ground, &c. 
The best soils for barley are light rich clay loams, it neither doing 
well in stiff clay or light sand. The product is greater than that of 
rye, on soils adapted to its growth. The spring barley is alone cul¬ 
tivated here; we of course can say nothing of the winter species. 
Our principal doubt is, whether Maryland is not too far south for the 
crop to succeed w r el), and this doubt would seem to be removed by 
the fact, that barley is among the principal farm crops in Persia, 
and Asia Minor, where we believe the temperature is warmer than 
it is in Maryland. 
Rape. —D. S. Davies, of Saratoga, asks for directions in cultivat¬ 
ing the rape. Rape, colza, or cole seed, ( Brassica campestris, of 
De Candolle,) is an important article in Flemish husbandry, though 
but little cultivated in Britain, and not at all in the United States. 
It is cultivated on account of its seed, which is crushed like lint- 
seed, and the oil expressed' in like manner. The cake is generally 
thrown into the urine cisterns, where it becomes a valuable mate¬ 
rial as manure. The haulm, after the seed is threshed, is burnt for 
the ashes, which are considered of treble the value of other ashes, 
used as a manure. As rape is biennial, it is doubtful whether it 
would withstand the cold of our winters. It is sometimes sown 
broad cast, but generally in seed beds, in August or September, and 
in the latter case planted with dibble in October, in the seams of the 
furrows of fresh ploughed ground, so as to have the plants stand 
one foot apart each way. The crop is cleaned in autumn, and again 
in the spring; it is pulled rather green, and the seed ripens in the 
stack. 
.4 partner wanted in a sheep nr stock farm. —J. B Gray of East. 
