THE CULTIVATOR. 
Correspondence, Inquiries, &c, 
Rearing Poultry. 
Mr. Westfall, of Rhinebeck, who at page 116 of 
the 7th vol. of the Cultivator, furnished a cure for the 
gapes in chickens, in a communication in February last, 
(but which was mislaid,) thus gives his further experi¬ 
ence in raising poultry : 
“ I have again alluded to this disease, the gapes in chickens, 
in hopes that you, or some of your able and scientific corres¬ 
pondents would give some light upon the origin of the worm in 
the throat that causes it. Did we but know from whence it 
came, a great point would he gained, as we might then make a 
" stitch in time save nine.” From 45 hens, I have the past sea¬ 
son (1840) raised more than 150 chickens, although I had rather 
poor success in hatching the eggs. I have sold eggs to the 
amount of $21-29; have now over 300 on hand, and the year 
since the receipt of the first egg last spring will not be up till 
the last of this month, and we are now getting from 20 to 25 
per day, from about 80 hens. The question may be asked, 
why I am getting eggs now, but got none last winter! The 
reason, I doubt not, is this. A year ago I fed them oats in suffi¬ 
cient quantity to keep them through the winter only, thinking 
it useless to attempt making them lay in cold weather. This 
winter I have fed them about as much corn as they could eat, 
over a peck a day, and believe I have sent that proportion of 
corn to a profitable market. I have no doubt the value of the 
eggs produced from the last of December to the last of Febru¬ 
ary will more than pay for the food consumed, and say nothing 
of the value of the manure. I give them access to a box of 
pounded clam-shells, sand and lime, for them to pick and dust 
themselves in. I make use of artificial nest eggs, so few of the 
eggs get froze.” — 
Productive Farm. 
Mr. Westfall gives the following as the products of 
his farm of 126 acres, woodland included :—1,000 lbs. 
butter, and 300 lbs. of cheese, and 2 calves, sold from 
9 cows—amount of sales $171.42. This was exclusive 
of milk and butter for a family of 8 persons. 700 bush¬ 
els of potatoes ; 150 bush, of beets; 100 bush, ruta 
baga ; 145 bush, buckwheat, from 4 bush, sowing ; 85 
bush, wheat; 350 bush, oats ; 350 bush, rye ; 450 bush, 
corn : 55 barrels of winter apples and 25 barrels of ci¬ 
der ; and sold pork to the amount of $118.13, princi¬ 
pally fed on potatoes, pumpkins, and apples boiled. 
This is a respectable list of products, all will admit, 
but the expenses of cultivation should also have been 
stated, to give a full view of the matter. 
Urate. 
G. W., of Richmond, (Va.) makes the following que¬ 
ries in relation to the account we gave in the July No. 
of the Cultivator of the European mode of making this 
celebrated manure : 
“ Can this manure, when made according to the directions 
there given, and reduced to powder, be barreled up and kept for 
use in the spring?” 
When the ammonia of the urine becomes fixed, as it 
does when mixed with gypsum, it may he kept for any 
length of time, as it is lost only by moisture and solu¬ 
tion. The carbonate of ammonia in this case is chang¬ 
ed to sulphate of ammonia, and ceases to he volatile. 
See Liebig’s Organic Chemistry, page 238. 
"Will the urate made from recent urine be better than that 
made from putrid urine ?” 
When Madame Daboul commenced the manufacture 
of urate at Paris the liquid used was fermented, and it 
is probable that an incipient putrefaction would be pre¬ 
ferable. The pungent odor arising from putrified urine 
is, however, proof that the ammonia is escaping, and 
this must he arrested, or the most valuable part is lost. 
G. W. will find much to guide him in this matter, in 
Liebig’s chapter on Ammonia from Urine. 
“ Will the application of urate to wheat prove beneficial ? If 
so, when is the best time to apply it, in the fall or spring sea¬ 
son ?” 
Urate may be applied to the growing crops at any 
time with success. Poudrette, and all the preparations 
of night soil, derive their principal value from the fixed 
ammonia they contain, and the same rules that govern 
the application of these or other powerful manures, 
may he followed with urate. In France urate is appli¬ 
ed to root crops by the drill, at the time the seed is 
sown ; to grain crops it is applied either as a top dress¬ 
ing in the manner of gypsum, on the growing plants, or 
at the time of sowing the seeds. 
As the preparation and use of this powerful manure 
is comparatively new, much is yet to he learned by the 
agriculturist respecting it ,• and the proper quantity per 
acre can hardly he ascertained except by actual experi¬ 
ment. Poudrette has been found in some instances, 
when applied too liberally to wheat, to produce so much 
straw as to render the crop of little value ; and urate, 
applied injudiciously in France, produced similar re¬ 
sults. The experiment making by “ G. W.” is an im¬ 
portant one, and we wish him every success. 
Chess. 
A desire to oblige our friends who are believers in the 
doctrine of transmutation, and the hope of throwing 
some light on this vexed question in farming, induces 
us to give the following communications, or the sub¬ 
stance of them, on that topic. We do not deem it 
necessary to offer any comments, perceiving nothing in 
either case which may not he explained on well known 
principles, and by well known causes, without reference 
to the change contended for. Perhaps it would he bet¬ 
ter for those who hope to receive Mr. Ruifin’s premium 
of $100, to present their evidence directly to him. 
Mr. Finley of Oswego, in 1833, prepared five acres 
and sowed them the middle of September, with good 
sound wheat. He then prepared three acres of corn 
143 
ground and sowed it with fine Genesee wheat weighing 
62 lbs. to the bushel, the last week in November. Both 
looked well in the spring, hut the late sown promised to 
to give the best crop. In the fore part of August, the 
first sown had a plump berry, and the straw began to 
turn yellow; the late sown was still green, the berry 
soft, and apparently three weeks later than the other. 
At this time there was an extraordinary exhibition of 
electricity, rapid flashes of light proceeding the whole 
night from one cloud or another, without either thunder 
or rain. [Vespertine lightning, probably.] Mr. F. 
had heard that such lightning, accompanied as this was 
with a close hot air, was injurious to wheat, and found 
it so in his case, the late sown appearing to ripen almost 
at once ; and while the early sown wheat gave a plump 
berry and a good yield, the late sown was so shrunk 
that the millers would not purchase at any rate. By 
the advice of a farmer, Mr. Finley used this shrunk 
wheat for sowing eight acres of well prepared land that 
year, and put it in in September. It came up well and 
looked promising ; but in the spring instead of a broad 
healthy blade, it was small and narrow ; in short it was 
all chess, and Mr. F. had it cut with a sythe and made 
into hay. Mr. F. says : 
“ I am decidedly of the opinion of your Ontario Subscriber, 
that sowing sound plump wheat will not yield any chess and 
my opinion is, that chess is not produced by frost, but the trans¬ 
mutation is caused by other atmospheric influences.” 
The following is from Garret Bergen, an eminent 
practical farmer of Brooklyn, L. I. 
“ Wheat is only apt to change into chess in certain places 
about a common farm, and with many it is never placed in such 
situations. Hence their escape, and their disbelief. Sow your 
grain adjoining your barn yard, and allow a flock of fowls to 
frequent it in the spring and fall when it commences to grow 
and prevent it from growing rapidly—in other words to keep it 
down without killing it—and if it escapes in all cases being 
changed to chess, it will be contrary to much of my experience. 
To silence objections being made that the fowls carry the seed 
there, and thus introduce the Chess, I will give you another 
case where the objection cannot apply. Sow your grain distant 
from your barn, o-n a field which contains small valleys or hol¬ 
lows in which the water remains standing late in the spring, so 
as to prevent the wheat taking as early a growth as the adja¬ 
cent parts of the field ; and in many eases, the grain in these hol¬ 
lows will be entirely changed to chess. This Messrs. Editors, 
has been my experience frequently, and the result' of observa¬ 
tion for upwards of 50 years, and 1 can assure you that I have 
been in the habit of sowing clean seed. I take the cause of 
transmutation, therefore, to be a hindrance to the growth of 
the grain in the spring, when the weather has become sufficient¬ 
ly warm to cause what is placed in more favorable situations to 
grow and flourish. 
Improving Stock—Inquiry. 
“ Messrs. Editors—As I am a young farmer, and wish to com 
mence improving my stock, having heard much about ‘Her.c 
Book Cattle,’ and ‘ Cattle without pedigree,’ and yet remain ir 
the dark on the subject; I will consider myself much obliged if 
you, or some of your correspondents will give the desired in 
formation on these points in your valuable paper, as I wish tc 
start in the right road, and doubtless many others wish the 
same. A Subscriber.” 
East Windsor, Ct. 1841. 
Since the increased attention to the improving of cat¬ 
tle has taken place in England, and particularly since 
the Cokings, Berry, Althorp, &c. have effected such 
wonders on the Short Horn breed of cattle, in order tc 
prevent imposition, and show that the animal was of 
the improved breeds, a list of all the principal herds of 
this stock, those that could claim an undoubted desceni 
and purity of blood, were collected by Mr. Coates in a 
volume, regularly numbered, and breeders of pure stock, 
that is those derived from the herds of the gentlemen 
named, or which can be directly traced to them, are in 
the habit of naming and numbering all such choice ani¬ 
mals as are kept for breeding or are worthy of particu¬ 
lar notice, and these recorded in the successive editions 
of Mr. Coate’s book, are termed Herd Book cattle. In 
the hands of Mr. Codings, the bull Hubback may be 
considered the founder of the Improved Short Horns, 
and all of unquestionable purity of blood can he traced 
to the herds originating from him. Pedigree means 
nothing more than the list of animals through which the 
sire or dam or both have received their blood for seve¬ 
ral generations ; and by tracing the breed through these, 
the value of the stock, and purity of the animal may be 
easily determined. In improving stock, it is very desi¬ 
rable to begin with animals in which the desired quali¬ 
ties that constitute the value of the breed, whether it be 
form, aptitude to fatten or milk, have become constitu¬ 
tional, and therefore permanent. Animals of the com¬ 
mon beeeds are sometimes found embracing some or all 
these qualities, hut they are accidental, are not types of 
the race, and the progeny is therefore frequently whol¬ 
ly unlike the parent. With Herd Book animals the case 
is different. Skillful selection and careful breeding for 
generations has rendered the desirable qualities of the 
improved stock constitutional and permanent. If the 
pedigree of an animal is good, that is, if the Herd Book 
shows a descent from the best animals, there is little or 
no danger that the stock will prove inferior, or as the 
phrase is “ run out.” 
Cisterns-—Inquiry. 
Our correspondent “ P.” of Ohio, referring to the 
method of building cisterns described in the Cultivator, 
vol. vii. page 61, asks whether “if pebbles and good 
sand cannot be procured, a water proof wall could be 
made of lime aloneHe says, “ this country abounds 
in lime, (whether any is hydraulic, I cannot say,) much 
of it containing a large portion of silex. It also con¬ 
tains abundance of yellow sand, hut no beds of gravel, 
pebbles, or white sand, that I am acquainted with. If 
you can give the desired information through your pa¬ 
per, it would doubtless he acceptable to many of your 
readers as well as to myself.” 
One of the best cisterns we have ever seen was made 
of limestone, the walls cemented with good common 
lime mortar, and then the wall plastered over with a 
thick covering of the same. In this way, great care 
must be taken in laying the walls, as it is frequently 
found that the mortar will settle from the under side of 
the stones, and leakage be the result. Broken lime¬ 
stone would answer the same purpose as pebbles, if 
the mode of building recommended in the Cultivator 
should be preferred ; but it must be remembered that 
ordinary lime mortar requires a longer time to set, or 
harden, than hydraulic lime, and if water is admitted 
before this operation has taken place, it will never be 
performed perfectly. The color or kind of sand used, 
is of little or no consequence, provided it is clean and 
sharp ; on these things much of the strength and hard¬ 
ness of any mortar is depending. Unless we are mis¬ 
taken, hydraulic lime is found in abundance on the line 
of the Ohio canal, and with that mortar and broken 
limestone, in the room of pebbles, cisterns of the best 
quality could easily be made. 
The Bloody Murraiiin 
Messrs. Editors— On the morning of the 26th June, I disco¬ 
vered that the urine of one of my cows appeared to be very 
highly colored, and upon examination found it to consist prin¬ 
cipally of blood. In a short time she commenced trembling vi¬ 
olently and fell, and appeared to be convulsed, after which she 
recovered enough to rise. Her discharges became more fre¬ 
quent, and gradually turned darker colored, until they became 
almost black., and in a few hours she died. 
On the morning of the 4th of July I again discovered another, 
and my last cow, in the same situation as the one I have men¬ 
tioned, and upon examining the Cultivator, I found the disease 
to resemble the murrain, as described by Mr. Cookson in the 
Cultivator, vol. 5, No. 6. There was a very slight discharge of 
blood from the bowels. I gave her tar as directed by Mr. Cook- 
son, but it did not produce any good effect; she continued to 
linger, and on the following morning was much worse, being so 
stiff in her joints that it was with difficulty she could walk. I 
gave her another dose of tar, hoping it might relieve her, but 
she died in about two hours afterwards.. Upon examining her 
intestines, I found her bladder to contain about two quarts of 
blood, her gall duct was very much distended, and contained a 
quantity of thick blackish matter; her horns were a little hol¬ 
low. It may be proper to add, that we have had a disease 
among our cattle here during the winter and spring called the 
hollow horn, or horn distemper. Both of the cows that I lost 
were in fine order, having grazed alternately upon clover and 
salt marsh. Should you, or any of your numerous correspond¬ 
ents, know what this. disease is called, you will greatly oblige 
a subscriber by publishing it, and the remedy also if any is 
known, as I fear it will destroy my entire stock of cattle, it ap¬ 
pearing to be the most fatal disease I have ever known. 
Nansemond, Va., July, 1841. WM. J. WEIGHT. 
Remarks. —The above are well characterised cases of, 
bloody murrain, a disease which, as it appears in this 
country, would seem to be unknown in Europe, judging 
from the best works on cattle published there, such as 
Lawrence’s Graziers’ Guide, and Youatton cattle. The 
cause of the disease does not appear to be well under¬ 
stood, but the rapidity with which it reaches a fatal ter¬ 
mination renders it one of the most formidable diseases 
the cattle breeder can encounter As is usual in the 
case of such diseases there are a variety of cures, and 
as some of them may be useful, we give a few that 
have been communicated to us, adding our opinion that 
none of them can be relied on as a specific, but that the 
sate course will be found in prevention rather than in 
the cure. 
A correspondent of the Gen. Farm. vol. 6th, page 81, 
says that a decoction of the green leaves of mullein 
may be considered a certain cure. He took a quantity 
of the leaves of the mullein, steeped them in new milk 
and gave 3 quarts of the tea to an ox dangerously sick, 
which produced an immediate cure ; and a cow attack¬ 
ed by murrain was afterwards cured in the same way. 
The Hon. Dan Bradly communicated the following, 
as a remedy practiced with great success in western 
Pennsylvania. “ Mix together half a pint of spirits of 
turpentine with a pint of sweet milk—pat this com¬ 
pound into a bottle, and after shaking the bottle pour it 
moderately down the throat of the animal. Soon after 
this is done, give physic.” Salts would doubtless an¬ 
swer as physic, and some discretion might be advisable 
in apportioning the dose to the size or age of the ani¬ 
mal. 
Mr. Priestman recommends a half a pound of poke 
root washed clean, cut fine, and boiled in two quarts of 
water until it is reduced one half, then turn it down 
while warm. The dose to he repeated once a day till 
the cure is complete. 
Mr. Sheldon, of Michigan, cured an ox violently at¬ 
tacked, by mixing half an ounce of copperas and half 
an ounce of alum, dissolving them in hot water and while 
warm turned it down the animal. In 12 hours he was 
better, and a repetition of the dose cured him, though 
for a time weak from the great discharge of blood. 
It is stated in the Franklin Farmer, that several cases 
yielded to two doses of sugar of one pound each, mixed 
with water. Some animals in the last stages have been 
cured by this simple remedy. 
As we remarked before, however, we have more con¬ 
fidence in preventives than in cures. It is the opin¬ 
ion of many of the most intelligent men in districts 
where the disease is common, that it arises from blood¬ 
suckers imbibed with stagnant waters, as these animals 
are most frequently found on dissection ; but whether 
the opinion be correct or not, there can be no doubt the 
use of stagnant water must be injurious to the health 
of any animal and predispose it to disease. A farmer 
in Madison county, Ohio, after suffering many losses 
from murrain became convinced the cause was in the 
