TREATMENT OF SPAVIN. I have a horse that has a bone spavin. Is there any cure for it that you are aware of? I am advised by some to let it alone by others to fire it, and do not know what course I better take. L. stock will have consumed something over 3,000 bushels of turnips, mangolds and parsnips by the first of May, and are now in much better condition than when we commenced feeding them in the fall. I am so well satisfied with my last year's experience with Hungarian grass, that I shall sow from 50 to 60 aeresConfirmed spavin is probably never radically cured. this spring, a portion of which I shall cut for soiling durFiring and blistering are the old remedies, and sometimes ing the summer, and hope to feed 50 cows from the balproduce apparent relief, but they are now discarded by care-ance next winter. I have no doubt that with land in good ful practitioners. Dr. Dadd recommends rest during the irlammatory stage, and the application of cooling lotions to the parts. He uses a mixture of 4 ounces of muriatic acid, and six ounces of tincture of bloodroot, in two quarts of water, and apply this daily by means of a sponge. Or, another remedy, equally good, is a mixture of 4 ounces of very strong vinegar, 2 ounces of proof spirit, and 8 ounces of common salt, dissolved in a quart of water. The following is his mode of application : Take a piece of sponge, slightly concave, corresponding as near as possible to the form and size of the hock; by means of a few stitches, affix two pieces of tape or linen, so as to form an X; each piece must be long enough to encircle the joint two or three times; after dipping the sponge in the mixture, it must be applied to the inside of the hock, and there secured, and afterwards kept constantly moist. By a faithful application of the above the inflammatory symptoms (which are not confined to the joint alone, but prevail in the surrounding tissues) will soon subside, and anchylosis progresses in a slow, yet favorable manner, without the usual pain and irri tation [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] CULTURE AND VALUE OF MILLET. EDS. Co. GENT.-As there seems to be a great diversity of opinion regarding Hungarian grass, I cannot refrain from giving my testimony in its favor. Last spring I came in possession of a farm which had been rented a number of years, and I assure you it had fared not one whit better than other rented farms, and had not one acre of good meadow in the 100 of cleared land. There was one piece which was called meadow, but it was so overgrown with bull rushes, flags, and other coarse herbage, that I thought it of little value in its then state, and had it plowed up. Wishing to do a dairy business, I cast around me to see what I could plant or sow to take the place of hay for winter food. After much inquiry I concluded to sow Hungarian grass and millet. As I had an extra amount o, labor to perform to get my land in some kind of shapef did not get the Hungarian grass sown until the third week in June. A portion of it was sown on a heavy clay sod; this did not yield over one and a half tons per acre. portion on an old field, which had been planted to corn and potatoes, and sowed to oats and rye continually for 18 years, ever since the farm was first put under cultivation, without the first particle of manure; this yielded about one ton per acre. The balance was sown on land which had been cropped two years only, and the year preyious had been planted to corn and potatoes. This being in good heart and condition, gave us from 2 up to 4 tons In one corner of a field planted with market vegetables, there was 30 rods which was too wet for use until late in June. This had been plowed the year before, but being so wet was allowed to lie fallow. We plowed this when we plowed the balance of the lot, and on the 22d of June plowed again, and sowed with four quarts of Hungarian grass seed. On the first of September we cut and drew into our barn from this 30 rods one and a half tons of dry hay. per acre. heart and tillage, we can get from three to five tons per [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] FEEDING COTTONSEED MEAL. S. A. P., in the No. of the Co. Gent. for March 15th, asks for experience in feeding cotton seed meal. He shall have mine. Winter before last I had no corn to feed to my cattle, and I procured from St. Louis a ton of the cotton seed oil meal. I commenced feeding to my cattle about a pint at a feed. This I increased until they received by the secondo week about a quart at a feed. The cattle, consisting of three yoke of work cattle, one bull, two cows and a calf weaned, improved wonderfully. They became fat and sleek. The cows increased the yield" of milk in two weeks to double the quantity given before. the oil meal was fed. They came out in the spring in tiptop order. As an adjuvant in feeding, or in place of corn, or with it in moderate quantity, I consider it an invaluable feed. To those who wish to fatten cattle during winter, I can recommend the use of cotton seed oil meal. Prairie Cottage, Ill. H. HINKLEY. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] SHEEP---COARSE WOOL vs. FINE. At a recent meeting of one of the Farmer's Clubs in Maine, during a discussion of some questions connected with sheep husbandry, Mr. R. A. Davis made some interAesting and important statements in regard to the cost of keeping and comparative value of the fine and coarse wooled breed of sheep. In the course of his remarks he gave the substance of a conversation with an intelligent farmer in an adjoining town, who kept a flock of 20 of the native breed of coarse wooled sheep. They weighed on an average 100 lbs. per head, and required 3 lbs, of hay each day. The average clip of wool per head was 3. lbs., which sold for 38 cents a lb., making $22.80. From the 20 sheep, sixteen lambs were sold at $2 per head, amounting to $32, making in all a total of $54.80. Mr. DAVIS then gave some account of his own flock. He had 42 Spanish merino sheep, the wool of which averaged 44 lbs. per head. This was sold for 42 cents per lb., amounting to $74.97. Of his flock 27 were ewes, from which he raised 25 lambs. These were not sold, but he estimated their value at $2 per head, making $50, which added to the wool makes a total of $124.97. In keeping his sheep Mr. DAVIS had weighed their hay, and found them to consume an average of 24 lbs. per day; and by following out this figuring, he had demonstrated that 264 fine wooled sheep could be kept for the same that it would cost to keep 20 of the coarse wooled; thus making a difference in a year in cost of keeping, lambs, and advanced price of wool of the pretty sum of $40! This Mr. DAVIS, consid ered quite an item. 8. L. B... ¿ The result of our experiment is as follows: From 15 acres of Hungarian grass and 3 acres of common millet, we have fed 27 cows, 1 bull, 2 oxen, and 3 horses, from December 1st until this 6th day of March, and still have enough left to carry them until the middle of April. Our stock have had all the hay they would eat. I have no desire to have any person believe that I would try to winter a parcel of milch cows without a good supply of roots. Our Is there any difficulty in keeping a record through the year of all the expenses of the farm and of all the income from it? The income is all that is sold from the farm or consumed by the family. The expenses are for labor, repairs, seed and manure bought, taxes, &c. In regard to most of these, there would be no difficulty in keeping and footing the account. In regard to some items, the young farmer might have some doubt where to put them in the account. If he has, for instance, expended something Fig. 2, exhibits the plan we propose as an improvement. upon his buildings, he might question whether that should We have made it as simple as practicable-laying down go into the expense columns, as repairs, or whether it is but a single carriage road, and a few short walks. A more a permanent improvement, making his farm so much more elaborate plan, and of more costly execution, would have valuable permanently, If it is only so much as to keep up the general repairs of the buildings, the money exincluded various walks over the lawn, now intended to be pended in it may be carried to "repairs" or wear and merely traversed in the short grass. Most of the walks in tare," as some say. But if he makes an addition to his immediate proximity to the house, are such as utility de-buildings, or sets a young orchard, or drains a part of his mands, and they are skirted with the smaller shrubbery; farm, the money he expends in it should be put down in or, if desired, with circular or oval flower beds. But the the column of expenses, and the cost of it, in money and latter must be kept in the neatest trim, and occupied with labor, should be set in the column of "income," as worth so much to him permanently. He has got it yet, only he continued bloomers, or they will appear worse than none. has taken out of one pocket and put it into the other. If We omit the grape arbor on the road to the stable, as being he should buy a fine carriage for his family to ride in, he will not charge that among the expenses of the farm. It has nothing to do with the income or expenses of the farm. Neither has any other item of family expenses, their food, clothing, education, traveling expenses, or be apple trees this spring, and as one principal cause moisture nevolent gifts. The board of the farm hands, whether in the farmer's family or in their own family, should be charged among expenses, the same as labor. Also the value of the labor of the farmer's sons, His own salary is the nett proceeds of the farm, above the interest upon his capital used. 2 Some advise to keep debt and credit with each crop, and each animal or lot of animals. This is very well, and helps form an estimate of the profits of different crops, &c.; but we cannot foot up the profits of the year by that method. Some charge the farm at the beginning of the year with all the stock and implements of the farm, and at the end of the year give credit for the stock and tools, the differ ence showing the increase or decrease. This is right; but I prefer as more simple, to set down only the difference in the inventory at the end of the year, compared with the beginning, in the column of expenses if there be a decrease in the valuation, and in the income column if there be an increase in the valuation. & CALLAOIS If the farmer would show all that the farm is worth to him, he will add to the nett proceeds the rent of his house, the value of the prepared fuel taken from the farm, and the value of those conveniences of riding about and traveling which his horses afford, and which do not belong to the business of the farm. It ought to be presumed also, that a good farmer will add something to the value of his farm every year by a course of general improvement. I had supposed that there was no need of any published system to aid young men, in a matter so simple, but in some efforts to point out a method to an inquirer, I am led to wish for some plain manual, which may give exam. ples to those who wish to study the subject. My own practice is this, which may not be the best, though I have followed it with entire satisfaction, ever since I began to take the Cultivator, which was with the first number. Transplanting, Pruning and Watering Trees. MESSRS. EDS.-I propose planting an orchard of young from the branches and trunk, which waste the mutilated roots in transplanting, is the excessive evaporation of are not able to supply, a severe shortening-in of the head is! recommended. In connection with pruning, would it not bos a good way to check evaporation, by bandaging the trunk with straw at time of planting? I have also apple trees planted last spring, which I am compelled to bandage every fall, to prevent their being gir dled by rabbits. Would it be an injury to these trees to leave the straw sheathing on during the summer? Also, give me your system of planting dwarf pears. Lebanon, Pa. GEO. W. KLINE. Many newly set trees perish by the large evaporation through the bark before the leaves expand. This is the only way that moisture escapes from them during this period; and as there is but little circulation, and the roots are forn and feeble, there is but little moisture absorbed through the roots. Watering at the roots is consequently of little use at this time—indeed, the roots are sometimes soaked and rotted by too much watering before circulation. equalizes its distribution. Hence, it is important to wet the bark of the stem and branches, which may perhaps be most conveniently done by a thin and light sheathing of straw kept properly moist. The same end has been effi-1 ciently accomplished by merely washing the bark severalz times a day, without the aid of any covering. Trees, badly wilted, and affording little promise of living, have thus been induced to grow finely, when no other treatment could have restored them. After the leaves are expanded, everything is changed. The leaves throw off moisture rapidly, the circulation is stem and branches into the leaves, elaborated juices are rapid, sap flows in at the roots, passes up the wood of sent down through the bark, and new wood and new roots are rapidly formed. There should now be plenty of moisture at the roots, to supply this rapid consumption; yet it is rarely advisable to apply water. A well worked mellow soil will furnish it best. If water is poured in at the foot of the stem, there is too much of it; and settling the earth and causing it to harden and bake, there is too little of it in a short time. This constant succession of flooding and drouth is extremly unfavorable. If water must be applied, take off the top soil, pour in the water, and then cover up again with well pulverized earth. But the best of all means for its supply is, to provide a broad deep bed of mellow soil, in which the tree stands-this will furnish regularly at all times, just what is wanted and no more; and holding it like a sponge will contain a large quantity I keep a book, in which I enter every receipt and every payment through the year, whatever it may be, with date and circumstances sufficiently particular to make it clearly understood. This book is of itself a valuable record. If I have a considerable account with any one, as with a hired man, I keep a separate account of debt and credit with him, and carry the footing only into my first named book. At the end of the year, I have only to carry to its respective column each item of income or expense, whether it be of the farm, or the family, or any other. I have then, ready to be footed, the income of the farm, the expenses of the farm, the expenses of the family, and any miscellaneous income or expense which may have accrued. This summing up at the end of the year requires but a few hours of time, and but little skill in book-keeping. And the information thus put intó tabular form will be so valuable to any young farmer, that he will be very un--many pailfuls within the reach of the roots of a young willing to relinquish this practice, after the experience of tree-without soaking or flooding the soil. a year or two. Every young farmer should keep also a book for memoranda of various things connected with the farm, the date of the different operations, experiments which he has made, especially his mistakes, notes on the seasons, the arrival of birds, the time of flowering of certain plants, &c., &c. It will be of great value and pleasure to him hereafter. I hope these hints may lead some to make a trial of farm book-keeping. N. REED. Amenia Union. P. S. I ought to have said in my communication on "Farm Accounts," that the "end of the year" is to be considered the last of March, and not as some literally reckon, the last of December. The farmer's year must begin on the first of April, and he can scarcely close his accounts to any other point. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] HAY CAPS. Few of our farmers are aware that the very best hay caps can be made from the common seamless bags made by the Lewiston Bag Co. and the Stark Mills, and others. By slitting one side and the end, and hemming the raw edges, you get a hay cap 42 by 40 inches, of a thicker and stronger fabric than you can purchase in any other form. The bags are retailed at 25 cents each, and need not be cut up until used as bags, and have begun to give out at the corners, I think the fabric the very best that is made, for the purpose, and have often wondered that the manufacturers What good would centuries do the man who only knows did not make a heavy single cloth for the same purpose. how to waste his time? Brookline, Mass. E. V&M 1860. THE CULTIVATOR. HORTICULTURAL NOTES. Protecting Trees from Mice and Rabbits. Some time ago I noticed in THE CULTIVATOR, a plan for protecting fruit trees from mice and rabbits, by simply tying newspaper round the bark, so as to cover it about eighteen inches from the ground. This I have tried for three years, and none so secured have been injured, while others were destroyed. The paper is, however, liable to get wet and become torn, and it is necessary to heap up some fresh earth around the tree, or the mice may get below it. Last year a farmer suggested to me an improvement, to make boxes about 18 inches high of different sizes, for large or small trees open at top and and bottom, 157 Otto BTHE AUSTRALIAN BEE guidont and Ph I was more a collector of insects than an entomolo I think the Australian bees would suit your correspondent cannot give C. P., as they are without a sting. I am sorry you the natural history of the insect, as, during my stay in Australia, gist. However, I remember they were a small black insect, about the size of a em sinall house fly, and when at rest their done over the other, and void of all sting; but wings spped though small in stature, they were legion in numbers, and collected vast quantities of the purest honey. oat would cap. pear like a traveller's tale were I to tell the vast amount of honey I have seen taken from a swarm of these bees in al huge gum treo, (Eucalyptus.) A friend of mine hived the bark, when that side off, until they are placed around swarm of them in a common hive, from which he got a second. one ser screwed or nailed on. I had He said they did well, and offered me one Since country, but of they have been received in that take to England. the results there I am unable to say. I should think they would do well in the southern States, but of course the north would be altogether too cold for them should also think that the climate of England would be too humid for themp prey odi to Ego vila de potrovri adi ni To me, like your correspondent, the sting of a bee is poison, E. H. COLLINS and it would certainly be a great consideration could we naturalize a stingless sort. Onondaga Co Recipe for Cottage Pudding. MESSRS. EDS.-As I consider the recipes contained in your paper worth the price of subscription alone, I will, as time per mits, add a little to them and other matters occasionally; and as I am considerable of an epicure, I will commence with a recipe for a cottage pudding, which every person having a cow may have with little labor, and but very little expense, and which but few who use it (especially in hot weather,) would be willing to do without. a niimber made; and placed round the most valuable trees. The Borer in the Hickory. The same gentleman says he has noticed a winged insect about four times the size of the common wasp, possessing a powerful sting, perforate the hickory trees, and deposit in such excavation its eggs; and that when the Take 3 quarts of milk to 1 quart of flour-one-half of the milk to be put on the fire and brought nearly to boil-then the other half of the milk with the flour, the flour well blended in it-stir into the pot on a slow fire, and keep it boiling for one hour; or until it is as thick as good paste, when you must add a small teaspoon of ginger and salt, and pour into shallow dishes to cool; when it will cut like good jelly, serve up cool with warm milk in winter, or cool in summer. P. S.-You can make enough at one time to do any size family five or six days, if kept in a cool place, and if you wish to make it as good and more wholesome than any other pudding, add a little vanilla or other syrup while warm, and serve with a spread of strawberries, peaches or jellies, or any of the fruit butter and cream. Try it, mothers, daughters and servants, and my word for it, you will away with sago, corn and other puddings, but be careful to stir it all the time, or you will scorch it, and then it is done for. Diamond Plaza, Pa. J. B. C. COAL TAR FOR PAINTING. inquiry from a subscriber, what is the cheapest and most du- wood decays, the young come forth by thousands; by these windows, the gives the building quite a tasty appearance, and at less than half the cost than if painted with any kind of paint. perforations the tree ultimately dies. The remedy is to the land owner. This insect cannot be the same with the apple borer." The curculio is very averse to the smell of burning soot, The same gentleman says he has preserved his plums by burning soot under the trees at the time this insect commences his ravages, We hope that some of your readers will make the trial and give the result. H.... *Thomas says of the apple borer" The perfect insect is a brown and white striped beetle, about half an inch long, which flies at night. It deposits its eggs late in spring or the first of summer, in the bark near the surface of the ground, and sometimes in the forks of the branches. The first indication of its presence is the appearance of numerous small round holes, as if the bark had been perforated by buckshot. These holes will soon become more visible by the ejected dust," Page 129, As to the cost I will give you my experience, as I have two barns, one 38 by 40 feet, the other 28 by 44 feet, wagon house 26 by 51 feet, with several other small buildings, such as hog-house, wood-house, smoke-house, &c. I used two barrels of coal tar in giving them two coats, which they should always have to give them a handsome, glossy appearance, The tar needs no preparation, but use it just as it comes in the barrel, cold, putting it on with a large round brush. I also used about 50 pounds white lead and 3 gallons oil. The white lead should always be painted first before the tar. The labor of putting on was ten days, at 31.25 per day. 3 RECAPITULATION. 2 barrels tar, at $3.50 per barrel,... 3 gallons oil, at 70 cents... 10 days labor, at $1,25 per day.... Total,... Making $25.60, which is certainly cheap enough, and which JAMES OPIE. will last and look good for twenty years. Farmers Should Teach Each Other. WHAT FARMERS WANT is a question much discussed, and people try to answer it in all sorts of ways some with this prescription and some with that one with Science, a second with Colleges, a third with Governmental aid, a fourth with Societies, and it may be a fifth with Agricultural Papers. Two lines which we have chanced to find in a late number of the London Agricultural Gazette, are worth many long treatises upon this subject, because they point to precisely the end which all these pre-tion to give satisfaction and “conquer success. scriptions should have in view, and without which none of them is good for much. in his behalf to outweigh the merits of all the other candidates, of whom Mr. MORTON, of the Ag. Gazette and editor of the Cyclopedia that bears his name, was one of the most eminent. The fortunate appointee, a Mr. FRERE, was only with some difficulty carried against the opposition of such men as HUDSON, the Castle-Acre farmer, and his. compeers, and the selection seems to have met with criticism so general and apparently so well deserved, that we should imagine it difficult for bim long to retain the position, unless the desire of a rather unusually comfortable salary outweighs motives of delicacy, or leads to unusual exer [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] GAIN IN FEEDING CATTLE, In speaking of the recent appointment of a new editor of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, it is remarkNEAR GENEVA, April 7th, 1860, ed that he can only "succeed in the discharge of his MESSRS. TUCKERS-I have sold and weighed to-day, a duties in proportion, not as he brings the, maxims of last Dec. 3d, and their gain since. It may give some of few fat cattle, and will give you the weights when put up** French, of German, of Italian, or of Roman Agriculture the young farmers, who are frequently making inquiries to bear upon his readers not as he uses any influence about feeding, some idea what they may expect from buyfrom without to modify the practice of the English farmer, ing good cattle; but I confess that the gain this year and but just as he shall succeed in inducing and enabling last, is greater than is generally got English agriculturists to teach other." ་་་་ Two steers weighed together Dee. 3; /:::. ^^ 2,785 lbs.—gain 435. One extra fat cow, Dec. 3. TO INDUCE AND ENABLE AMERICAN FARMERS TO TEACH EACH OTHER-Would be the best motto that our Agricultural Science could assume. To induce, because unless practical experience leads the way, she cannot follow to systematize and to explain-to enable, because every forward step she really makes, is a forward step for practice. The two cannot be divorced, and neither admits of deception and unsoundness in its fellow-but, hand-in-hand, each countenacing and promoting the efforts of the other, they may together find the path of true success. And we have still, in a great measure, to anticipate such concordant effort in this country; we have heretofore been mostly importing the fruits of foreign investigations, and are only by degrees entering upon them for ourselves. Dr. FITCH, in Entomological Science, for instance, has in this State made a right beginning, and we have long thought that if the State, in connection with our Agricultural Society, could be induced to extend similar encouragement to other branches of agricultural science, at least to chemistry-I ever fed of that breed. She is so fat the drovers say I have a fat pure blood Hereford heifer, being the first great good might be gradually effected. And so we might go on to show, that whatever we hope of actual use to our agriculture, either from institutions of Education, from Governmental aid, from our Societies and their Fairs, or from agricultural Reading, can only be accomplished just in that proportion in which the farmers themselves are induced and enabled to teach each other. With this end in view they secure at once a broad foundation for their labors; without it, we may have large and even well filled halls of learning, in which the farmer has no share; grants of land, that go mostly to politicians; socities that sacrifice every design of good with which they were founded, to some outside object or private interest; agricultural books got up to sell, and "agricultural " journais of interesting miscellany. The Hon. A. B. D. will see that what I argued at Albany is proved by practice-that the larger the cattle the more they gain on the same amount of meal, as the above D. will say that the large ones would eat most hay. Per cattle were all fed an equal quantity of meal; Lexpect Mr. haps that may be the case, as it was not measured out to each beast like the meal; but I don't think they do. I weighed 15 cattle to-day, and found the largest always gained most. they would not risk taking her to Albany along with other cattle; they say that there is such a mass of fat on her that the other cattle would bruise her so as to ruin her sale. If all the Herefords feed like her, our friend SOTHAM never said half enough in their favor; but they cannot be all like her, else there would be no other cattle kept for which will be three years old the 23d of this month. fatting purposes. I have also a grade Hereford steer, have no doubt he weighs over 1,800 lbs.-will weigh him on his birth-day. If he goes much over 1,800 lbs. it will be made public. JOHN JOHNSTON, [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] ↓ FEEDING CUT HAY TO HOGS. We might bring the same lesson down to individuals. MESSRS. EDITORS-On the 24th of last Sept. I bought Every farmer who sets a good example is doing something two pigs, four weeks old. They were kept on skim-milk to teach those around him. But he may very largely ex- until about the 1st of Jan., when the quantity of milk tend the sphere of his influence, and, in giving, gain," falling short, I commenced feeding cut hay-clover and if he will more actively contribute to induce and enable timothy-and have continued to do so until the present his neighbors to obtain similar means of improvement-time (April 9th.) I never wintered hogs so easy and for example by supporting in harmony and with some mea- cheap. They have grown finely, and are thrifty handsome sure of public spirit, local or general societies and clubs, by extending the circulation of agricultural journals, and by giving through them the fruits of his and their experience. To revert once more, to the article from which we have taken a text, because it struck us that it might be made suggestive of thought--all the well known English writers on Agriculture appear to feel slighted, not only in person, but in class, by the sudden elevation to the leadership among them of a man never heard of before by the farmers of the country. The new editor of the Royal Ag. Society's Journal appears to have been appointed entirely upon "red tape" grounds-as having had family influence fellows. The mode of feeding is this:-In the morning, after feeding, about four quarts of hay, cut fine, is put into the pail, together with a pint of barley-meal, then boiling water sufficient to wet and scald it, when well stirred up. After standing a while, the pail is filled with milk and dish-water--this is fed to them at noon, at which time the same dish is prepared for them at night, and then, another for the morning. Scalding the hay in this way, makes it tender and sweet, and is readily eaten. I think this a very economical way of wintering hogs. At any rate, I never had them do better than on this feed. Jefferson Co., N. Y. J. L. R. 1 |