Illustration: Windmill
Contains all the valuable features of his old "Nichols Mills" with none of their defects. This is the only balanced mill without a vane. It is the only mill balanced on its center. It is the only mill built on correct scientific principles so as to govern perfectly.
ALL VANES
Are mechanical devices used to overcome the mechanical defect of forcing the wheel to run out of its natural position.
This mill will stand a heavier wind, run steadier, last longer, and crow louder than any other mill built. Our confidence in the mill warrants us in offering the first mill in each county where we have no agent, at agents' prices and on 30 days' trial. Our power mills have 25 per cent more power than any mill with a vane. We have also a superior feed mill adapted to wind or other power. It is cheap, durable, efficient. For circulars, mills, and agencies, address
NICHOLS & MURPHY, Elgin, Ill.(Successors to theBatavia Manf. Co., of Batavia, Ill.)
THE CHICAGODOUBLE HAY AND STRAW PRESS
Illustration: Hay Press
Guaranteed to load more Hay or Straw in a box car than any other, and bale at a less cost per ton. Send for circular and price list. Manufactured by the Chicago Hay Press Co., Nos. 3354 to 3358 State St., Chicago Take cable car to factory. Mention this paper.
DEDERICK'S HAY PRESSES.are sent anywhere on trial to operate against all other presses, the customer keeping the one that suits best.
Illustration: Dederick Press
Order on trial, address for circular and location of Western and Southern Storehouses and Agents.
TAKE NOTICE.—As parties infringing our patents falsely claim premiums and superiority over Dederick's Reversible Perpetual Press. Now, therefore, I offer and guarantee as follows:
First.That baling Hay with One Horse, Dederick's Press will bale to the solidity required to load a grain car, twice as fast as the presses in question, and with greater ease to both horse and man at that.
Second.That Dederick's Press operated by One Horse will bale faster and more compact than the presses in question operated by Two Horses, and with greater ease to both man and beast.
Third.That there is not a single point or feature of the two presses wherein Dederick's is not the superior and most desirable.
Dederick Press will be sent any where on this guarantee, on trial at Dederick's risk and cost.
P. K. DEDERICK & CO., Albany, N. Y.
Sawing Made Easy
Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine!
Sent on 30 Days Test Trial.
A Great Saving of Labor & Money.
Illustration: Monarch Saw
A boy 16 years old can saw logs FAST and EASY.Miles Murray, Portage, Mich., writes: "Am much pleased with theMONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE. I sawed off a 30-inch log in 2 minutes." For sawing logs into suitable lengths for family stove-wood, and all sorts of log-cutting, it is peerless and unrivaled. Illustrated Catalogue,Free.AGENTS WANTED.Mention this paper. AddressMONARCH MANUFACTURING CO., 163 E. Randolph St., Chicago Ill.
MONARCH HORSE HOEAND CULTIVATOR COMBINED
Illustration: Horse Hoe
For Hoeing & Hilling Potatoes, Corn, Onions, Beets, Cabbages, Turnips, &c.
SENT ON30 Days'TEST TRIAL.
An immense saving of labor and money. We guarantee a boy can cultivate and hoe and hill potatoes, corn, etc., 15 times as easy and fast as one man can the old way. Illustrated Catalogue FREE. AGENTS WANTED. Mention this paper. Address
Monarch Mfg. Co., 206 State St., Chicago, Ill.
Illustration: Profit Boiler
THE PROFITFARM BOILER
is simple, perfect, and cheap;the BEST FEED COOKER; the only dumping boiler; empties its kettle in a minute.Over 5,000 in use; Cook your corn and potatoes, and save one-half the cost of pork. Send for circular.D. R. SPERRY & CO., Batavia, Illinois.
"THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST."
(For all sections and purposes.) Write forFreePamphletand Prices to The Aultman & Taylor Co., Mansfield, Ohio.
Rememberthat $2.00 pays forThe Prairie Farmerone year and, the subscriber gets a copy ofThe Prairie Farmer[j]County Map of the United States, free!This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country.
Illustration: Live Stock Department
Well-informed live stock men estimate the drive from Texas the coming spring at 325,000 head, unless shipping rates are unusually favorable, when it may go above 400,000 head.
A careful estimate of the stock on the range near the Black Hills is as follows: Cattle, 383,900 head; horses, 2,200; sheep, 8,700. It is asserted that the stock has wintered remarkably well, the loss not exceeding 1½ per cent.
A virulent disease resembling blind staggers has appeared among the horses of Oregon, and a large number of valuable animals have succumbed to it. Over 400 have died in two counties. So far the veterinarians have been unable to stay its progress.
The period of gestation in the mare is in general forty-eight weeks; the cow forty six weeks; the ewe twenty-one weeks, and the sow sixteen weeks. Having the date of service, the date at which birth is due may be easily ascertained. Careful breeders always keep strict record of each animal.
The Illinois State Board of Agriculture has adopted a rule requiring the slaughter of all sweepstakes animals at the next Fat Stock Show, in order that the judgment of the committees may be verified as to the quality of the animals. The premiums for dressed carcasses have been largely increased over last year.
The subject of our 1st page illustration, Black Prince, is a representative of that black, hornless race, which had its foundation in Scotland several hundred years ago, known as Polled Aberdeen-Angus Cattle. This breed of cattle has grown into very high favor in America during the last five or six years; so much so, that, while in 1879 the number of representatives of this race in America were very few, now the demand for them is so great that the number imported yearly is easily disposed of at prices ranging from $250 to $2,000. Messrs. Geary Bros., London, Ont., say that the demand for such cattle during the past winter has never been equaled in their long experience. As the prevalence of the foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain, will, without a doubt cause the importation of cattle from that country to be prohibited at an early day, it is safe to say that the value of such stock must rise, as the number of its representatives in America is limited, and those who have such stock in their possession fully appreciate their value; and not being under the necessity of selling, will hold their Aberdeen-Angus cattle unless enticed by a very high price. Therefore, the coming public sale of Aberdeen-Angus cattle in Chicago may be looked forward to as going to show unequaled average prices and especially of individual prize animals.
Black Prince was bought by Messrs. Geary Bros., London, Ont., in Scotland, and brought to America last year. In him are to be found all the fine characteristics of his race. He took the second place at the Smithfield Fat Stock Show of 1883; at the Kansas Fat Stock Show of the same year he was placed second to the Short-horn steer Starlight; and at the last Fat Stock Show of Chicago he took first place among the best three-year-olds of the country. At the time of entry for the Chicago Show he was 1,380 days old, and his weight 2,330 pounds, almost 175 pounds less than he weighed before leaving Scotland for this country. Besides the prizes above mentioned, Black Prince won numerous honors in his own country before coming here.
Their black, glossy, thick coats, their hornless heads, and particularly their low-set, smooth, round and lengthy bodies are the principal features of this breed.
Beef consumers will find them in the front rank for yielding wholesome, nourishing food, juicy, tender, and of the best flavor, free from all unpalatable masses of fat or tallow. It is these favorable characteristics which have gained such an excellent, and widespread reputation for the Aberdeen-Angus cattle. The growing belief that the best breed of beeves is the one that for a given quantity of food, and in the shortest time will produce the greatest weight of nutritious food combined with the smallest amount of bone, tallow, and other waste is going to make these cattle as popular with our beef consumers and producers generally as they have been with those who have long been familiar with their many superior qualities.
With plenty of milk and mill-feed to mix with the corn, good hogs may be grown without grass. But with corn alone, the task of growing and fattening a hog without grass costs more than the hog is worth.
To make hog-growing profitable to the farmer, he must have grass. In the older States where the tame grasses are plenty, it is a very thoughtless farmer who has not his hog pasture. But out here in Kansas and Nebraska, where we have plenty of corn, but no grass, except the wild varieties, the most enterprising of us are at our wits' ends. Hogs will eat these wild grasses while tender in the spring, and, even without corn, will grow long, tall, and wonderfully lean, and in the fall will fatten much more readily than hogs grown on corn. But fattening the lean hogs takes too much corn. We must have a grass that the hogs will relish, and on which they will both grow and fatten. They will do this on clover, orchard grass, bluegrass, and other tame grasses. But we have not got any of these, nor do we know how to get them. Hundreds of bushels of tame grass seeds are sold every spring by our implement dealers. A few have succeeded in getting some grass, but nine out of ten lose their seed. We either do not know how to grow it, or the seed is not good, or the soil is too new. The truth, perhaps, lies a little in all three. Our agricultural colleges are claiming to have success with these grasses, and their experience would be of value to the farmers if these reports could ever reach them. Not one farmer in a hundred ever sees them. I know of but one farmer of sufficient political influence to receive these reports through the mails. The rest of us can get them for the asking. But not many of us know this, fewer know whom to ask, and still fewer ask. I do not know a farmer that orders a single copy. Farmers, living about our county towns, and doing their trading there, and having leisure enough to loaf about the public offices, and curiosity enough to scratch through the dust-covered piles of old papers and rubbish in the corner, are usually rewarded by finding a copy of these valuable reports. But we, who live far away from the county seat, do our farming without this aid, and mostly without any knowledge of their existence. This looks like a lamentable state of agricultural stupidity. Notwithstanding this dark picture we would all read, and be greatly profited by these reports, if they were laid on our tables.
If it pays to expend so much labor and money in preparing these reports and sending them half way to the people, would it not be wise to expend a little more and complete the journey, by making it the duty of the assessor to leave a copy on every farmer's table? Compulsory education.
As an explanation of much of the above, it must be remembered that we are nearly all recently from the East, that we have brought with us our Eastern experience, education, literature, and household gods; and that not until we have tried things in our old Eastern ways and failed, do we realize that we exist under a new and different state of things and slowly begin to open our eyes to the existence of Western agricultural reports and papers giving us the conditions on which the best results have been obtained.
There will be more grass seed planted this spring than ever before, and the farmers will be guided by the conditions on which the best successes seem to have been obtained. But this seeding will not give us much grass for this coming summer. What must we do? I write for our Western farmers who have no clover, orchard grass, blue grass, but have in their cultivated fields.
CRAB GRASS.
This grass, the most troublesome weed of the West, smothering our gardens and converting our growing corn-fields into dense meadows, makes the best hog pasture in the world, while it lasts. Put hogs into a pasture containing all the tame grasses, with one corner in crab grass, and the last named grass will all be consumed before the other grasses are touched.
Not only do they prefer it to any other grass, but on no grass will they thrive and fatten so well. Last spring I fenced twelve acres of old stalk ground well seeded to crab grass. With the first of June the field was green, and from then until frost pastured sixty large hogs, which, with one ear of corn each, morning and evening, became thoroughly fat. These were the finest and cheapest hogs I ever grew.
This grass is in its glory from June till frosts. By sowing the ground early in oats, this will pasture the hogs until June, when the crab grass will occupy all the ground, and carry them through in splendid condition, and fat them, with an ear of[jk]corn morning and evening.
A. D. Lee.Centerville, Kan.
Note.—Many of our readers may be unfamiliar with the variety of grass spoken of by our correspondent. It is known as crop grass, crab grass, wire grass, and crow's foot (Eleusine Indica). Flint describes it as follows: Stems ascending, flattened, branching at the base; spikes, two to five, greenish. It is an annual and flowers through the season, growing from eight to fifteen inches high, and forming a fine green carpeting in lawns and yards. It is indigenous in Mississippi, Alabama, and adjoining States, and serves for hay, grazing, and turning under as a fertilizer. It grows there with such luxuriance, in many sections, as never to require sowing, and yields a good crop where many of the more Northern grasses would fail.—[Ed.P. F.]
Some years ago Prof. J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Ill., whom almost every reader ofThe Prairie Farmerin days gone by knows, personally, or by his writings, in company with one of his sons conceived the idea of running an Illinois stock farm in connection with a ranch in Texas. The young animals were to be reared on the cheap lands in the latter State where care and attention amount to a trifle, and to ship them North to finish them off for market on the blue grass and corn of the Illinois farm. To carry out this purpose they purchased nearly 10,000 acres in Coleman county, Texas, and they converted 1,000 acres in a body in Montgomery county, Illinois, into a home stock farm. Unfortunately, just as all things were in readiness for extensive operations, the son died, leaving the business to Prof. Turner, now nearly an octogenarian and entirely unable to bear the burden thus forced upon him. As a consequence, he desires to sell these large and desirable possessions, separate or together, as purchasers may offer.
The Illinois farm is well fenced and in a high state of cultivation. There are growing upon it more than 2,000 large evergreens, giving at once protection to stock and beauty to the landscape. There are also 1,500 bearing fruit trees, a vineyard, and a large quantity of raspberries, blackberries, currants, etc.
Besides a good farm-house, there is a large barn, in which there are often fed at one time 150 head of horses, with plenty of room for each animal; and an abundance of storage room in proportion for grain and hay. Also a large sheep shed, the feeding capacity of which is 3,000 head. Also a large hog house, conveniently divided into pens with bins for grain. Other numerous out-buildings, granary, hay sheds, stock and hay scales, etc., etc. There are on the farm twelve miles of Osage orange hedge, the best kind of fence in the world, in perfect trim and full growth; and four miles of good rail fence, dividing the farm off into conveniently sized fields of forty, eighty and one hundred and sixty acres each, access to which is easily obtained by means of gates which open from each field into a private central road belonging to the farm, and directly connected with the stock yards near the house, so that it is not necessary to pass over other fields in the handling of stock. Stockmen will appreciate this arrangement. Owing to its special advantages for handling stock, it has become widely known as a "Model Stock Farm." The lands are all naturally well drained; no flat or wet land, and by means of natural branches, which run through every eighty acres, the whole farm is conveniently and easily watered, by an unfailing supply. There are besides three large wind mills, with connecting troughs for watering the stock yards and remotest field. This supply of stock water has never failed. It is therefore specially adapted for all kinds of stock raising, and is well stocked. It has on it a fine drove of Hereford cattle and Norman horses, and is otherwise fully equipped with all the recent improvements in farming implements. This farm is only about fifty miles from St. Louis, Mo., two miles from a railroad station, and six miles from Litchfield, Illinois. Besides its location commercially, and its advantages for handling stock, this farm is in one of the best wheat and fruit producing sections of Illinois, and has now on it 200 acres of fine wheat.
The ranch in Texas consists of one body of 9,136 acres of choice land. By means of an unfailing supply of living water the whole ranch is well watered, and has besides a very large cistern. The soil is covered with the Curly Mesquite grass, the richest and most nutritious native stock grass known in Texas. There is also on the ranch a splendid growth of live oak trees, the leaves of which remain green the year round, furnishing shade in summer, and an ample protection for stock in winter.
There is on the ranch a large well built stone house, and also a fine sheep shed, with bins for 5,000 bushels of grain. This shed is covered with Florida Cypress shingles and affords protection for 2,000 head of sheep, and can be used just as well for other kinds of stock. Here can be bred and raised to maturity at a mere nominal cost, all kinds of cattle, horses, mules, and other stock, no feed in winter being required beyond the natural supply of grass. After the stock reaches maturity they can be shipped to the Illinois Farm; and while all the cattle easily fatten in Texas enough for the market, still as they are generally shipped to St. Louis or Chicago, it costs but little more, and greatly increases the profits, to first ship them to the Illinois Farm, and put them in prime condition, besides being near the markets, and placing the owner in position to take advantage of desirable prices at any time. With horses and mules this is a special advantage readily apparent to every one.
It will be seen at once that any individual with capital, or a stock company, or partnership of two or more men, could run this farm and ranch together at a great profit. All the improvements on both being made solely for convenience and profit and not anything expended for useless show.
I do not write this communication from any selfish motive, for I have not a penny's worth of interest in either farm or ranch, but I want to let people who are looking for stock farms know that here is one at hand such as is seldom found, and at the same time to do my life-long friend and yours a slight favor in return for the great and lasting benefits he has, in the past, so freely conferred upon the farmers of the State and country.
I know these lands can be bought far below their real value, and the purchaser will secure a rare bargain. I presume the Professor will be glad to correspond with parties, giving full particulars as to terms.
Subscriber.Montgomery Co., Ill.
The Western wool-growers, in convention at Denver, Colorado, March 13th, unanimously adopted the following memorial to Congress:
Whereas, The wool-growers of Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho, New Mexico, and Minnesota, assembled in convention in the city of Denver, the 13th of March, 1884, representing 7,500,000 head of sheep, $50,000,000 invested capital, and an annual yield of 35,000,000 pounds of wool, and
Whereas, Said Industry having been greatly injured by the reduction of the tariff bill of May, 1883, and being threatened with total destruction by the reduction of 20 per cent, as proposed by the Morrison tariff bill just reported to the House of Representatives by the Committee on Ways and Means; therefore
Resolved, That we, the wool-growers in convention assembled, are opposed to the provisions of the Morrison bill now before Congress which aim to make a further reduction of 20 per cent on foreign wools and woolens, and that we ask a restoration of the tariff of 1867 in its entirety as relates to wools and woolens, by which, for the first time in the industrial history of the country, equitable relations were established between the duties on wool and those on woolen goods.
Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to work for and to aid in the restoration of the tariff of 1867[l]on wools and woolens, and request all persons engaged or interested in the wool-growing industry to co-operate with us.
Resolved, That we as wool-growers and citizens pledge ourselves to stand by all committees and associations in giving full and complete protection to all American industries in need of the same, and cordially invite their co-operation in this matter.
The memorial concludes with an appeal to Western Senators and Representatives in Congress to do all in their power to restore the tariff of 1867.
Saturday, March 15, I visited the herds of Messrs. Du Brouck, Schooley and Fannce northeast of Effingham, Illinois, and carefully examined them with Mr. F. F. Hunt, of the university, as they were reported affected with foot-and-mouth disease. In each herd diseased cattle were found; about 20 distinctly marked cases, a few others having symptoms. The disease is unlike anything I have known,but does not resemble foot-and-mouth disease as described by any authority. Only the hind feet are affected, and these without ulceration. In most cases "scouring" was first noticed, followed by swelling above the hoofs. In the most severe cases, the skin cracked about the pastern joint or at the coronet. In four cases one foot had come off. Swelling of pastern and "scouring" were the only symptoms in several cases. The mouth and udders were healthful; appetites good. In one case there was slight vesicle on nostril and slight inflammation of gum. Some animals in contact with diseased ones for weeks remained healthful. Others were attacked after five weeks' isolation. The most marked cases were of eight to ten weeks standing. But one animal had died.
What we saw is not foot and mouth disease as known abroad, nor is the contagious character of the disease proven from the cases in these herds.
G. E. Morrow,University, Champaign, Ill.
Illustration: The Dairy
The Camembert is one of the variety of French cheeses that find ready sale in England at high prices. Mr. Jenkins describes the process of making this cheese in a late number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England which information we find condensed in the Dublin Farmer's Gazette:
The cows are milked three times a day, at 4.30 and 11.30 a. m., and at 6 p. m. In most dairies the evening's milk is highly skimmed in the morning, butter being made from the cream, and the milk divided into two portions one of which is added to the morning's and the other to the midday's milking. The mixture is immediately put into earthen[m]vessels holding twelve to fifteen gallons each, and after it has been raised to the temperature of about 86 deg. Fahr., a sufficient quantity of rennet is added to make the curd fit to be transferred to the cheese moulds in three or four hours, or, perhaps, a longer interval in winter. The mixture of the rennet with the milk is insured by gentle stirring, and the pots are then covered with a square board. The curd is ready for removal when it does not adhere to the back of the finger placed gently upon it, and when the liquid that runs from the fingers is as nearly as possible colorless. The curd is transferred, without breaking it more than can be avoided, to perforated moulds four inches in diameter. The moulds are placed on reed mats resting on slightly inclined slabs, made of slate, cement, or other hard material, and having a gutter near the outer edge. The curd remains in the moulds twenty-four or even forty-eight hours, according to the season, being turned upside down after twelve or twenty-four hours; that is, when sufficiently drained at the bottom. After turning the face of the cheese, the inside of[n]the mould is sprinkled with salt, and twelve hours afterward the opposite face and the rim of the cheeses are treated in the same way. The cheeses are then placed on movable shelves round the walls of the dairy for a day or two, after which the curing process commences by the cheeses being transferred to the "drying-room," and there placed on shelves made of narrow strips of wood with narrow intervals between them, or of ordinary planks with reed mats or clean rye straw. Here the greatest ingenuity is exerted to secure as dry an atmosphere and as equable a temperature as possible—the windows being numerous and small, and fitted with glass, to exclude air, but not light, when the glass is shut, with a wooden shutter to exclude both light and air; and with wire gauze to admit light and air, and exclude flies and winged insects, which are troublesome to the makers of soft cheese.
The cheeses are turned at first once a day, and afterward every second day, unless in damp weather, when daily turning is absolutely necessary. In three or four days after the cheeses are placed in the drying-room they become speckled; in another week they are covered with a thick crop of white mold, which by degrees deepens to a dark yellow, the outside of the cheese becoming less and less sticky. At the end of about a month, when the cheese no longer sticks to the fingers, it is taken to the finishing room, where light is nearly excluded, and the atmosphere is kept very still and slightly damp. Here they remain three or four weeks, being turned every day or every second day, according to the season, and carefully examined periodically. When ready for market—that is to say, in winter, when ripe, and in summer, when half ripe—they are made up in packets of six, by means of straw and paper, with great skill and neatness.
The Wisconsin Dairymen's Association last year offered prizes for the best essays on butter-making, the essays not to exceed 250 words. Competition was active, and many valuable little treatises was the result. The first prize was won by D. W. Curtis, of Fort Atkinson, and reads as follows. We commend it to all butter-makers and to all writers of essays as a model of the boiled-down essence of brevity:
COWS.
Select cows rich in butter-making qualities.
FEED.
Pastures should be dry, free from slough-holes, well seeded with different kinds of tame grasses, so that good feed is assured. If timothy or clover, cut early and cure properly. Feed corn, stalks, pumpkins, ensilage and plenty of vegetables in winter.
GRAIN.
Corn and oats, corn and bran, oil meal in small quantities.
WATER.
Let cows drink only such water as you would yourself.
CARE OF COWS.
Gentleness and cleanliness.
MILKING.
Brush the udder to free it from impurities. Milk in a clean barn, well ventilated, quickly, cheerfully, with clean hands and pail. Seldom change milkers.
CARE OF MILK.
Strain while warm; submerge in water 48 degrees. Open setting 60 degrees.
SKIMMING.
Skim at twelve hours; at twenty-four hours.
CARE OF CREAM.
Care must be exercised to ripen cream by frequent stirrings, keeping at 60 degrees until slightly sour.
UTENSILS.
Better have one cow less than be without a thermometer. Churns without inside fixtures. Lever butter worker. Keep sweet and clean.
CHURNING.
Stir the cream thoroughly; temper to 60 degrees; warm or cool with water. Churn immediately when properly soured, slowly at first, with regular motion, in 40 to 60 minutes. When butter is formed in granules the size of wheat kernels, draw off the buttermilk; wash with cold water and brine until no trace of buttermilk is left.
WORKING AND SALTING.
Let the water drain out; weigh the butter; salt, one ounce to the pound; sift salt on the butter, and work with lever worker. Set away two to four hours; lightly re-work and pack.
A machinethat can take hay, corn fodder, grass, and grain and manufacture them into good, rich milk at the rate of a quart per hour for every hour in the twenty-four, is a valuable one and should be well cared for. There are machines—cows—which have done this. There are many thousands of them that will come well up to this figure for several months in the year, and which will, besides, through another system of organisms, turn out a calf every year to perpetuate the race of machines. Man has it in his power to increase the capacity of the cow for milk and the milk for cream. He must furnish the motive power, the belts, and the oil in the form of proper food, shelter, and kindly treatment. By withholding these he throws the entire machinery out of gear and robs himself.
Kane County, March 17.—Snow is nearly all gone. There is but little frost in the ground. The spring birds have come. Hay is plenty, winter wheat and winter rye look green, and have not been winter-killed to any great extent. Cattle and horses are looking well and are free from disease. We fear the spread of the foot-and-mouth disease. Every effort should be made to confine it within its present limits. Its spread in this county of so great dairy interests would be a great calamity. Our factory men[o]will make full cream cheese during the summer months. The hard, skim cheese made last season, and sold at 2 cts per pound, paid the patrons nothing. We hear of factory dividends for January of $1.60 to $1.66.
J. P. B.
Grand Prairie, Tex., March 8.—The spring is cold and late here; but little corn planted yet. Winter oats killed; many have sown again. Farmers are well up with their work.
G. E. R.
Brown's Bronchial Trocheswill relieve Bronchitis, Asthma, Catarrh, Consumption and Throat Diseases.They are used always with good success.
Illustration: Veterinary
This disease, which is one of the most easily transmitted of contagious and infectious diseases of domestic animals, is characterized by the appearance of vesicles or small bladders on the mucous surfaces and those parts of the skin uncovered by hair, such as in the mouth, on the gums and palate, on the tongue, and the internal surface of the lips and cheeks; on the surface of the udder and teats, and between the claws. The disease passes through four different stages or periods; but for present purposes it will be sufficient to merely mention the most prominent of the successive changes and appearances, as they occur to the ordinary observer. The incubatory stage, or the time between contamination and the development of the disease, is very short (from twenty-four hours to one or two weeks), and the disease is ushered in by the general symptoms of fever, such as shivering, increased temperature, staring coat, dry muzzle, dullness and loss of appetite. The animals seek seclusion, preferably in sheltered places, where they assume a crouched position, or lie down, and there is more or less stiffness and unwillingness to move. The mouth becomes hot and inflamed looking, and covered with slime, the breath fetid; the animal grinds the teeth, smacks with mouth, and has difficulty in swallowing. There is more or less tenderness of feet and lameness, and in cows the udder becomes red and tender, the teats swollen, and they refuse to be milked. Depending upon the intensity of the fever and the extent to which the udder is affected, the milk secretion will be more or less diminished, or entirely suspended; but throughout the disease the quality or constituents of the milk become materially altered; its color changes to a yellow; it has a tendency to rapid decomposition, and possesses virulent properties. Soon yellowish-white blisters, of various sizes, from that of a small pea to a small hickory nut, appear on the mucous surface within the mouth, and which blisters often in the course of development become confluent or coalesce. They generally break within two to three days, and leave bright red, uneven, and ragged sores or ulcers, to the edges of which adheres shreds of detached epithelial tissue. The animal now constantly moves the tongue and smacks the mouth, while more or less copious and viscid saliva continually dribbles from the mouth. The lameness increases in proportion as the feet are affected, and if the fore feet are most affected, the animal walks much like a floundered horse, with the hinder limbs advanced far under the body, and with arched back. The coronet of the claws, especially toward the heels, becomes swollen, hot, and tender, causing the animal to lie down most of the time. The blisters, which appear at the interdigital space of the claws, and especially at the heels, break in the course of a day and discharge a thick, straw-colored fluid; the ulcers, which are of intensely red or scarlet color, soon become covered with exudating lymph, which dries and forms scabs. On the udder, the blisters appear more or less scattered and variable, and they are most numerous at the base and on the teats. Ordinarily, the disease terminates in two or three weeks, while the animal, which during its progress refuses to partake of any other than sloppy food, gradually regains strength and flesh, and the udder resumes its normal functions. The mortality at times has proved very great in this disease when it has appeared with unusual virulency.
In common "horse language," these propensities are confounded one with the other or else no proper and right distinction is made between them. A horse may be timid without being shy, though he can hardly be said to be shy without being timid. Young horses in their breaking are timid, frightened at every fresh or strange object they see. They stand gazing and staring at objects they have not seen before, fearful to approach them; but they do not run away from, or shy at them; on the contrary, the moment they are convinced there is nothing hurtful in them, they refuse not to approach or even trample upon them. This the shy horse will not do. He can not be persuaded to turn toward or even to look at the object he shies at; much less to approach it.
Timid horses, through usage and experience, get the better of their timidity, and in time become very opposite to fearful; but shy horses, unless worked down to fatigue and broken-spiritedness, rarely forget their old sins. The best way to treat them is to work them, day by day, moderately for hours together, taking no notice whatever of their shying tricks, neither caressing nor chastising them, and on no account whatever endeavoring to turn their heads either towards or away from the objects shied at.
With a view of shedding light on the important question of the contagiousness of glanders, we will mention the following deductions from facts brought forth by our own experience.
1. That farcy and glanders, which constitute the same disease, are propagable through the medium of stabling, and this we believe to be the more usual way in which the disease is communicated from horse to horse.
2. That infected stabling may harbor and retain the infection for months, or even years; and though, by thoroughly cleansing and making use of certain disinfecting means, the contagion may probably be destroyed, it would not perhaps be wise to occupy such stablesimmediatelyafter such supposed or alleged disinfection.
3. That virus (or poison of glanders) may lie for months in a state of incubation in the horse's constitution, before the disease breaks out. We have had the most indubitable evidence of its lurking in one horse's system for the space of fifteen weeks.
4. That when a stud or stable of horses becomes contaminated, the disease often makes fearful ravages among them before it quits them; and it is only after a period of several months' exemption from all disease of the kind that a clean bill of health can be safely rendered.
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Horticulturists, Write for Your Paper.
Illustration: Horticultural Line
InThe Prairie FarmerI notice the interesting note of "O." of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., on the apparent benefit resulting from sand and manure mulching of pear trees.
In the very near future I expect to see much of this kind of work done by commercial orchardists. Already we have many trees in Iowa mulched with sand.
I wish now to draw attention to the fact that on the rich black prairie soils west of Saratov—about five hundred miles southeast of Moscow—every tree in the profitable commercial orchards is mulched with pure river sand. The crown of the tree when planted is placed about six inches lower than usual with us in a sort of basin, about sixteen feet across. This basin is then filled in with sand so that in the center, where the tree stands, it is three or four inches higher than the general level of the soil. The spaces between these slight depressions filled with sand are seeded down to grass, which is not cut, but at time of fruit gathering is flattened by brushing to make a soft bed for the dropping fruit and for a winter mulch.
The close observer will not fail to notice good reasons for this treatment. (1.) The sand mulch maintains an even temperature and moisture of the surface roots and soil and prevents a rapid evaporation of the moisture coming up by capillary attraction from the sub soil.
(2.) The soil under the sand will not freeze as deeply as on exposed surfaces, and we were told that it would not freeze as deeply by two feet or more as under the tramped grass in the interspaces.
(3.) With the light colored sand about the trees, and grass between, the lower beds of air among the trees would not be as hot by several degrees as the exposed surface, even when the soil was light colored clay.
(4.) A bed of sand around the trunks of the trees will close in with the movement of the top by the summer and autumn winds, thus avoiding the serious damage often resulting from the swaying of the trunk making an opening in the soil for water to settle and freeze.
Still another use is made of this sand in very dry seasons, which as with us would often fail to carry the fruit to perfection. On the upper side of large commercial orchards, large cisterns are constructed which are filled by a small steam pump. When it is decided that watering is needed the sand is drawn out, making a sort of circus ring around the trees which is run full of water by putting on an extra length of V spouting for each tree. When one row is finished the conductors are passed over to next row as needed. To water an orchard of 1,200 trees—after the handy fixtures are once provided—seems but a small task. After the water settles away, the sand is returned to its place.
In the Province of Saratov we saw orchards with and without the sand, and with and without the watering. We did not need to ask if the systematic management paid. The great crops of smooth apples and pears, and the long lived and perfect trees on the mulched and watered orchards told the whole story of the needs of trees planted on black soil on an open plain subject to extreme variations as to moisture and temperature of air and soil.
J. L. Budd.Iowa Agricultural College.
The mere "experience" of an individual, whether as a doctor of medicine, horticulture, or agriculture—however extensive, is comparatively worthless. Indeed the million "demonstrate it to be mischievous, judging from the success of quacks and empyrics as to money. An unlimited number of facts and certificates prove nothing, either as to cause or remedy."
Sir Isaac Newton's corpuscular theory "explained all the phenomena of light, except one," and he actually assumed, for it "fits." Nevertheless it will ever remain the most thinkable mode of teaching the laws of light, and it is not probable that any more than this will ever be accomplished as to any natural science—if that can be called science about which we must admit that "it is not so; but it is as if it were so."
Of more than 300 "Osband Summer" which I grafted on the Anger quince successfully, one remains, and this one was transplanted after they had fruited in a clay soil, to the same sort of soil between "the old standard" and a stable, both of which have occupied the same locality and within twenty yards, during much more than fifty years of my own observation—this "Osband Summer" flourishes. It has borne fruit in its present site, but grew so rapidly last year that the blossoms aborted thus illustrating the large proportion of vital force necessary to the production of fruit, as the site has a perennial supply of manure from the old stable. A number of standard trees, of the same variety, developed beautifully until they attained twenty or thirty feet, but then succumbed to the blight, after the first effort at fruiting. So also the Beurre Clairgean etc., etc. Their exposure to the same influences, and their growth during several years did not occasion the blight, but the debility which must inevitably attend fruiting seems the most prolific cause.
All the phenomena of pear blight can be accounted for, and we are greatly encouraged in protecting the trees therefrom if, we assume, it is only the result of weakness and deficient vitality; if so, as in epidemics, all the pear trees may be poisoned or ergotized, but only the weakest succumb; and perhaps this debility may be confined to one limb. The practical value of this view is manifest, as it is impracticable to avoid using the same knife, and remove every blighted leaf from the orchard. Moreover, if the limb is a large one, its prompt removal shocks the vitality of the whole tree[1]and thus renders other parts more vulnerable. On the contrary view, the limb may be allowed to drop by natural process, precisely as all trees in a forest shed their lower limbs, leaving hardly a cicatrice or scar, and this may be insured at any season by a cord of hemp twine, firmly bound around the limb. The inevitable strangulation, and the healing of the stump (without the mycelium of fungi which the knife or saw inevitably propagates by exposing a denuded surface, if not more directly) proceed more rapidly than the natural slough of limbs by starvation. Moreover the fruit may mature on such limbs during their strangulation, as this may not be perfected before the subsequent winter.
The next practical result of my view is the fundamental importance of all those means which are calculated to husband the vital force of the tree during its first effort to fruit; one of these is the use of a soil that will not produce more than twenty bushels of corn without manure, thus a large proportion of the setts will be aborted, but one half of what remains should be removed, and subsequently the area beneath the limbs should have a wheelbarrow of good compost.
D. S.
[1]Note.—The shock as to vital force is demonstrated by the fact that when young trees are not trimmed at all their girth increases more rapidly, and they bear fruit sooner. Moreover, when old trees are severely pruned (though not half the proportion of wood is removed) they fail to bear during the next year. I find that a hemp cord about the size of the stem of a tobacco pipe (one-fourth inch diameter) will soon become imbedded in the bark if firmly tied around a limb, and perhaps this size is more efficient than a thicker cord.
The black walnut is without doubt the most valuable tree we have for the rich lands of the "corn belt," West, and one which is very easily grown everywhere if the farmer will only learn how to get it started. How few we see growing on our prairies. Why? Simply because to have it we must grow it from the nuts. It is nearly impossible to transplant black walnut trees of any size and have them live; although it is a fact that whenever a non-professional attempts to grow them from the nuts he is almost sure to fail, it is also a fact that there is no tree that is more easily grown from the seed than this, if we only know how to do it.
It is my purpose in this note to tell how to do it, and also how not to do it.
In the first instance we will suppose a man lives where he can gather the nuts in the woods. When the nuts begin to fall let him plow deeply the plot of ground he wishes to plant and furrow it off three or four inches deep, the distance apart he wishes his rows to be. He will then go to the woods and gather what nuts he wishes to plant, and plant them at once, just as they come from the tree, covering them just out of sight in the furrows. This is all there is of it; simple, is it not? But it will not do to gather a great wagon box full, and let them stand in it until they heat, or to throw them in a great heap on the ground and let them lay there until they heat. It will not do, either, to hull them and let them lay in the sun a week or two, or hull them, dry them and keep them until spring, and then plant; none of these plans will do if you want trees. Of course if the nuts are hulled and planted at once they will grow; but this hulling is entirely unnecessary. Besides, the hulls seem to act as a special manure for the young seedlings, causing them to grow more vigorously.
Next, we will suppose one wishes to plant walnuts where they can not be had from the woods, but must be shipped in. There seems to be only one plan by which this can be done safely every time, which is as follows: Gather the nuts as they fall from the trees—of course when they begin to fall naturally all may be shaken down at once—and spread them not over a foot deep, on the bare ground under the shade of trees. Cover out of sight with straw or leaves, with some sticks to hold in place called a "rot heap;" then after they are frozen and will stay so, they may be shipped in bags, boxes, barrels, or in bulk by the car-load, and then, again, placed in "rot heaps," as above, until so early in the spring as the soil is in workable condition. Then plant as directed in the fall, except the soil should be firmly packed around the nuts. Keep free from weeds by good cultivation, and in due time you will have a splendid grove.
There was an immense crop of walnuts in this district last fall, and thousands of bushels were put up carefully, in this way, all ready for shipment before the weather became warm; many more thousands were planted to grow seedlings from, for, notwithstanding the walnut transplants poorly when of considerable size, the one year seedlings transplant with as little loss as the average trees.
There is no tree better adapted for planting to secure timber claims with than the black walnut, and none more valuable when the timber is grown. For this purpose the land should be plowed deeply, then harrowed to fineness and firmness, and furrowed out in rows four, six, eight, or ten feet apart. The nuts may then be planted as directed. It is best to plant thickly in the rows, then if too thick they can be thinned out, transplanting the thinnings, or selling them to the neighbors. They should be thoroughly cultivated, until large enough to shade the ground, and thinned out as necessary as they grow larger. A walnut grove thoroughly cultivated the first ten years will grow at least twenty feet high, while one not cultivated at all would only grow two to three feet in that time.
D. B. Wier.Lacon, Ill.
ARBOR DAY.
Why can not Illinois have an Arbor Day as well as Nebraska, or any other State. There ought to be ten millions of trees planted the coming spring within its borders—saying nothing of orchard trees—by the roadside, on lawns, for shade, for wind breaks, for shelter, for mechanical purposes, and for climatic amelioration. Nearly all our towns and villages need more trees along the streets or in parks; thousands of our farms are suffering for them; hundreds of cemeteries would be beautified by them, and numberless homes would be rendered more pleasant and homelike by an addition of one, two, or a dozen, to their bleak places. Can notThe Prairie Farmerstart a boom that will lead to the establishment of an Arbor Day all over the State? Why not? There is yet time.
HOT-BEDS.
For the benefit of those who can not command the usual appliances for hot-beds, I will say that they can be made so as to answer a good purpose very cheaply. Take a nice sunny spot that is covered with a sod, if to be had. Dig off the sod in squares and pile them carefully on the north side and the ends of the pit, to form the sides of the bed, with a proper slope. The soil thrown out from the bottom may be banked up against the sods as a protection. After the bed is finished, the whole may be covered with boards, to turn the water off. These answer in the place of glass frames. As the main use for a hot-bed is to secure bottom heat, very good results can be obtained in these cheaply constructed affairs. After the seeds are up, and when the weather will permit, the boards must be removed to give light and air—but replaced at night and before a rain. Of course, where large quantities of plants are to be grown, of tender as well as hardy sorts, it would be better and safer to go to the expense of board frames and glass for covering.
DON'T DO IT.
Of course, all the peach trees, and many of the other stone fruits, and most of the blackberry and raspberry plants, will show discoloration of wood when the spring opens—so much so that many will pronounce them destroyed, and will proceed to cut them away. Don't do it. Peaches have often been thus injured, and by judicious handling saved to bear crops for years afterward. But they will need to be thoroughly cut back. Trees of six or seven years old I have cut down so as to divest them of nearly all their heads, when those heads seemed badly killed, and had them throw out new heads, that made large growth and bore good crops the following season. Cut them back judiciously, and feed them well, but don't destroy them. And so with the berry plants. Wait and see, before you destroy.
PEARS FROM RUSSIA.
No one who reads Prof. Budd's articles on Russian Pears, can fail to be interested and struck with the prospect of future successful pear culture in the United States. It is highly probable that Russia is yet to give us a class of that fruit that will withstand the rigors of our climate. But how is this to be accomplished? Individual enterprise can, and doubtless will, accomplish much in that direction; but the object seems to me to be of sufficient importance to justify State or National action. The great State of Illinois might possibly add millions to her resources by giving material aid in the furtherance of this purpose—and a liberal expenditure by the General Government, through the Department of Agriculture, or the American Pomological Society, would be more usefully applied than many other large sums annually voted. At all events, another season of fruitage ought not to be allowed to pass without some concerted action for the purpose of testing the question.
Some of our strongest nurserymen will likely be moving in the work, but that will not be enough. The propagator of that fruit, however, who will succeed in procuring from the European regions a variety of pears that will fill the bill required by the necessities of our soil and climate, has a fortune at his command.
OLD WINTER
lingers in the lap of spring, truly, this year of grace, 1884. Here it is the 10th of March, and for over one hundred days we have had winter—winter; but very few real mild and bright days, such as we had "when I was a boy." The Mississippi is frozen over still, with no signs of breaking up, and men, women, and children are sighing for sunshine and showers, and daisies and violets. The wood and coal bills have been enormous; the pigs squeal in the open pens, and cattle roam, as usual, shivering in the lanes and along the streets. The song of a robin to-morrow morning would be a joyous sound to hear.[p]
T. G.