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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER,  November  i5,  i900 
Trade  Catalogues  Received. 
Dammann  &  Co.,  Naples. — Seeds. 
P.  Lambert. — Hoses. 
Flies  Injarions  to  Stock. 
Under  the  above  headincr  we  have  before  us  a  booklet  by  that 
excellent  friend  to  farmers,  Miss  E.  A.  Omerod,  and  a  most  valuable 
instructive  work  it  is.  Seventy-eight  pages  are  occupied  by  the  full 
life  history  of  seven  kinds  of  insects  commonly  infesting  animals  of 
the  farm,  with  reports  from  leading  farmers,  and  remedies,  both 
preventive  and  curative,  which  have  been  successfully  used  in  dealing 
with  the  attacks  from  these  flies. 
A  vivid  recollection  of  the  loss  of  two  valuable  young  shire  colts 
nine  months  old  from  the  attack  of  hots  in  the  stomach  leads  us  to 
recommend  all  farmers  to  purchase  a  copy  of  this  work,  for  it  is 
pretty  certain  that  the  two  animals  referred  to  would  have  been  saved 
if  we  had  possessed  such  a  book  at  the  time,  and  the  price  is  only  6d. 
The  horse  bot  fly  or  horse  bee  is  a  very  prevalent  pest,  but  may 
infest  a  farm  for  years  without  the  occupier  being  aware  of  it,  for, 
as  Miss  Ormerod  says,  the  grubs  or  bots  may  go  through  the  larva 
state  in  the  stomach  of  a  horse  wi  hout  doing  it  any  apparent  or 
serious  injury  as  long  as  the  animal  be  well  fed;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  the  farmer  receives  no  injury  from  a  monetary  p  int  of 
view,  for  without  these  parasites  sucking  at  and  sapping  its  strength 
the  young  horse  should  have  grown  and  thriven  much  better  than 
it  has  done,  or  should  have  required  a  smaller  amount  of  food  to 
attain  its  present  condition. 
The  bot  fly  lays  its  e2gs  on  tbe  hairs  of  the  mane  shoulders,  or 
fore  legs  of  the  horse,  where  they  can  be  easily  reached  by  its  tongue. 
The  horse  licks  them  off  and  they  pass  into  its  stomach,  the  warmth 
hatches  them  into  grubs  or  larvae,  and  in  this  state  they  attach 
themselves  very  tenaciously  to  the  membrane  of  the  stomach  and 
remain  there  for  ten  months,  when  they  loosen  their  hold  and  pass 
away  in  the  dung  to  turn  into  chrysalids 'and  again  into  flies. 
Horses  which  are  constantly  and  well  groomed  do  not  suffer  much 
from  bots,  as  the  grooming  quickly  removes  the  eggs  from  the  skin, 
and  few  have  the  chance  to  find  their  way  to  the  animal’s  interior,  but 
young  horses  which  run  out  at  grass  practically  all  the  year  round,  and 
are  kept  in  a  rough,  ungroomed  state,  are  very  subject  to  them,  and 
as  we  observed  above,  much  more  so  than  most  farmers  are  aware ; 
but  the  ill  effects  are  not  sufficiently  apparent  to  attract  attention. 
When,  however,  as  in  our  own  case,  and  as  in  that  of  a  friend  of  ours, 
who  two  years  ago  lost  50  p  r  cent,  of  a  drove  of  young  horses  from 
this  very  cause,  it  is  apparent  that  considerable  mortality  and  serious 
money  loss  may  ensue,  it  is  well  that  owners  should  be  sufiflciently 
warned  that  there  is  a  pest  so  prevalent,  as  well  us  so  insidious  in 
its  action,  as  to  be  a  real  danger  under  certain  conditions.  These 
conditions  are  insufficient  nourishment  and  shelter  to  enable  the 
animals  to  keep  in  health  in  spite  of  the  action  of  the  grubs. 
Miss  Ormerod  does  not  recommend  any  special  remedies  as  qualified 
to  expel  the  grubs  from  the  horse’s  stomach,  but  turpentine  2  ozs., 
and  linseed  oil  20  ozs.,  is  recommended  by  one  veterinary  surgeon  as 
being  worthy  of  a  trial  to  be  given  once  a  fortnight.  Miss  Ormerod, 
however,  advises  recourse  to  preventive  measures,  such  as  greater 
attention  to  grooming,  which  would  hardly  commend  itself  to  farmers 
with  large  droves  of  young  horses  in  laige  enclosures,  washings  or 
smearings  with  some  strong-.smelling  substance  deterrent  to  tbe  fly, 
and  the  destruction  of  the  larvae  and  chrysalids  when  observed  in  the 
dung,  so  as  to  minimise  the  chance  of  a  recurrence  of  the  attack. 
We  might  here  observe  that  when  we  lost  the  two  colts  another 
one  remaining  was  well  dosed  with  buttermilk,  an  old-fashioned  and 
simple  remedy  for  worms,  with  the  result  that  the  colt  passed  a 
considerable  number  of  maggots,  and  although  in  a  low  and  weak 
state  it  eventually  recovered.  Other  injurious  insects  dealt  with  in 
this  book  are — “  The  Sheep’s  Nostril  Fly,”  “  The  Sheep  Tick,”  “The 
Forest  Fly,”  “Gad  Flies,”  “Horse  Warble  Fly,”  and  “Ox  Warble 
Fly.”  The  latter  insect  has  a  large  space  devoted  to  it,  and  Miss 
Ormerod  has  evidently  taken  special  pains  in  ascertaining  as  much 
knowledge  as  possible  with  regard  to  its  extensive  ravages  amongst 
cattle.  Statistic-*  were  ob'ained  from  some  of  *he  principal  markets 
bearing  on  the  number  of  warbled  hides  which  passed  through  them, 
and  it  was  found  at  Birmingham  that  there  were  9956  soiand  bides  to 
2146  warbled ;  at  Aberdeen,  46,273  to  14,830 ;  and  at  Manchester, 
83,580  warbled  out  of  a  total  of  250,740,  or  just  about  one- third,  and 
the  loss  from  these  warbled  hides  was  estimated  to  be  £16,716. 
Experts  have  estimated  that  the  loss  caused  by  the  warble  fly  in  the 
United  Kingdom  cannot  be  much  less  than  £2,000,000  annually, 
whilst  some  have  put  the  loss  as  high  as  £1  per  head,  or  £7,000,000  to 
£8,000,000. 
That  the  ox  warble  fly  may  be  to  a  large  extent  prevented  from 
doing  so  much  damage  Miss  Ormerod  clearly  shows,  and  though  we 
have  not  space  here  to  go  into  the  question  fully  we  may  state  that 
mercurial  ointment  used  in  very  small  qumtity  and  applied  to  the 
head  of  the  warble  has  the  desired  effect  of  immediately  killing  the 
maggot,  which  may  the  next  day  be  squeezed  out.  We  had  a 
severe  attack  of  warble  amongst  our  own  cattle  some  years  ago ;  we 
used  this  remedy  as  recommended  by  Miss  Ormerod  now  and  with 
complete  success.  We  followed  it  up  whenever  the  parasite  showed 
itself,  with  the  result  that  after  a  time  it  completely  disappeared.  No 
cattle  except  a  bull  occasionally  and  a  few  newly  dropped  calves  were 
bought  and  the  herd  kept  well  apart  from  others.  This  shows  that 
the  thing  may  be  sot  rid  of. 
The  sheep  nostril  fly,  though  not  very  common,  is  very  tiresome 
when  it  attacks  a  flock  as  we  can  testify.  We  used  a  wash  composed 
of  a  strong  mixture  of  Little’s  dip  and  water  with  success.  Miss 
Ormerod  recommends  a  mixture  of  tar  and  oil. 
The  chapters  devoted  to  the  sheep  tick  and  gad  fly  are  most 
interesting  and  instructive,  and  we  are  sure  that  no  farmer  will  regret 
spending  a  modest  sixpence  on  this  little  work. 
The  authoress  has  worked  very  hard  in  the  interests  of  farmers, 
and  the  latter  should  show  their  appreciation  by  making  use  of  the 
knowledge  which  she  has  been  at  such  p\ins  to  gather  up  in  their 
interest. 
Work  on  %  Rome  Farm. 
As  Potatoes  are  the  only  article  of  farm  produce,  apart  from  meat, 
which  are  making  a  satisfactory  price,  it  is  natural  that  when  farmers 
meet  they  should  be  frequently  mentioned,  and  we  are  very  much 
struck  with  the  generally  poor  opinion  held  this  season  as  to  the  utility 
of  spraying.  We  have  only  met  with  one  farmer  amongst  many  who 
thinks  that  spraying  has  done  his  Potatoes  appreciable  good,  but  several 
who  are  wishful  to  act  fairly  to  an  initial  experiment,  or  who  have  had 
satisfactory  results  before,  think  that  the  true  effect  of  the  spraying 
was  nullified  in  gre-it  degree  by  frequent  thunder  showers  during  July, 
which  hardly  allowed  the  mixture  to  remain  long  enough  on  the  leaves 
to  have  the  preventive  effect  to  a  satisfactory  extent.  We  must  not, 
then,  condemn  the  operation  as  useless  because  of  this  year’s  failure, 
but  await  the  results  of  another  season’s  experience. 
Considering  that  some  parts  have  been  suffering  from  drought  we 
may  congratulate  ourselves  here  on  having  had  a  full  sufficiency  of 
moisture.  Three  wet  days  during  the  past  week  have  made  the  soil 
very  sticky  and  heavy,  and  the  ploughing,  which  was  easy  work  before, 
is  now  quite  enough  for  two  horses  to  do  comfortably.  We  are  not  sure 
that  ploughing  had  not  better  stand  over  for  a  little  time. 
During  the  past  month  a  good  deal  of  corn  has  been  threshed,  and 
reports  are  most  unanimous  as  to  the  paucity  of  the  yield.  Markets, 
however,  do  not  respond  to  the  local  scarcity,  but  are  full  of  sweepings 
from  the  world’s  granaries,  and  prices  are  drooping  and  trade  is 
depressed.  Wheat  may  be  bought  at  283.,  and  really  nice  Barley  at 
253.  Potatoes  keep  up  in  price,  though  the  markets  are  full  of  foreign 
stuff.  A  new  German  variety,  named  “  Professor  Maerker,”  is  very 
highly  spoken  of,  and  already  our  friends  have  bought  40  tons  of  seed 
for  planting  next  season.  It  is  an  improved  Imperator,  a  very  beavy 
cropper,  and  as  yet  quite  free  from  disease. 
The  Turnip  lair  is  rather  dirty  for  the  feeding  sheep,  but  they  are 
doing  well.  Ewes  are  on  grass,  which  is  plentiful,  and  they  will  not 
have  many  roots  until  Christmas  is  passed.  Earlyisown  Swedes  are 
being  fed  to  the  bullocks ;  the  roots  are  sound  and  well  ripened,  and 
must  be  valuable  food. 
The  pork  trade  is  brisk,  and  dealers  are  falling  over  each  other  in 
their  efforts  to  forestall.  Seven  shillings  per  stone  can  be  realised  of 
nice  small  weights.  The  pig-feeder  will  have  found  his  business 
profitable  this  year. 
Electricity  In  Agriculture.  —  An  association  of  farmers  in 
Bavaria,  according  to  a  writer  in  “  Feilden’s  Magazine,”  are  building 
large  electrical  works  to  supply  power  for  agricultural  use.  The 
current  is  generated  near  the  village  of  Schaftersheim,  a  distance  of 
seven  miles  from  the  district  of  consumption,  and  is  supplied  partly  by 
steam  and  partly  by  water  power.  From  there  it  is  to  be  sent  at  a 
pressure  of  5000  volts  to  the  surrounding  villages,  where  it  will  be 
employed  for  driving  threshing  machines,  chaff  cutters  and  bruising 
machines.  The  motors  used  are  very  simple  and  compact,  so  that 
they  can  easily  b'  '’fiidled  by  farm  hands.  If  this  experiment  should 
prove  successful,  it  is  almost  certain  to  be  imitated  in  other  portions  of 
Germany,  as  the  power  used,  according  to  the  estimates,  is  far  more 
economical  than  horse  power  or  steam  power  in  separate  plants ;  and 
there  might  be  a  very  profitable  market  for  such  installations  also  in 
our  own  country. 
