Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-11-12


A correspondent of the New England
Farmer writing from France, touches vari-
ETY. Of interesting topics. Among others we
quote as follows; ~ '' A
II ls no secret that many landed propris-
tors In France have we'll nigh ruined them
selves BY the rearing Of stock and the pro-
duction Of root crops, and now adopt, since
some ten years, plan Of cultivation which
dispenses with farm-yard manure, cattle.
servants, etc. II consists 10 the adoption of
a rotation, comprising, first year, wheat, sec
ond year, oats, each mannred with super
phosphate of lime, and sulphate Of ammonia,
at the rate Of six owt Of the former, and
seventy pounds Of the latter per acre, for the
wheat, and about half these quantities for
the succeeding oat crop. The third year the
land is devoted to buckwheat, clover or mus
tard, ploughed down greco fourth year,
wheat unmanured. The average total ex-
penSes over the four years amounted TO
something better than ono-half the produce
for the three years, and yielded net profit
Of ifty francs per acre. IL this system
spreads, the conditions Of agricultural work
and the situation of the rural classes will be
sensibly modified.
Professor Waltny Of Munich has made a
series Of analyses Of potatoes to test their
richness in fecuia, and has found that the
latter increases with the size and weight of
the tubers, the difference being as much as
two per cent between large and average
sized potatoes. For purposes of distillation
he therefore recommends large, and for feed
ing, smaller tubers, the latter containing more
nitrogen. For the same reason he suggests,
that for seed, cuttings should be preferred
of the large potatoes, as termination requires
matters non-azotised.
NJ. Faucon, the author Of autumnal SUBJ
mersion of vineyards for six weeks or two
months, as a perfect cure for the phylloxera,
and the only one up to the present found to
be successful, has this season been rewarded
by yield OF wine double that produced in
ordinary years; his vines are exempt from
the bug, while those of his neighbors, where
the inundation scheme is not employed, are
nearly destroyed. .. ...
Foot and mouth disease is treated as fol-
lows: When the animal is attacked, it is
separated from the herd, covered with sack
ing and deprived Of food for two days. The
two principal points to be kept in view are,
to calm external irritation, by means of
nitre aud tannin solutions, and to fight the
fever, by purging the blood of the poison
introduced therein. Towards the afternoon
Of the second day, the animal is admins
tered, by means Of a horn or bottle, Q linseed
or meal drink, and next day some slices of
beet and the leaves of that plant. In the
case of milch cows the udder should be
fomented every second hour with the tauuic
acid lotion, bathing the teats to draw off the
milk, and thus prevent inflammation. The
milk for eight days afterwards ought to be
thrown away, as if given to pigs it would
prove contagious.
An excellent means to preserve harness,
and indeed all kinds of leather trappings,
from the Injurious effects of the ammonia of
stables is to add a little gycerine to the
grease ordinarily employed.
To fatten fowls within ten or fourteen
days, they ought to be placed in wooden
cage two feet above the soil, the bottom of
the cage to be strewn with woed ashes daily
the food should consist of rice boiled in
skinned milk, adding spoonful of carbon
ate Of soda; the poultry ought to receive
also pure water twice day, and like the
food, in earthen vessels. The chief object is
to maintain great cleanliness, aud to avoid
the presence of any acid. The flesh of fowls
thus fatted is highly praised.