Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-07-13
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

with two parts of pulverized plumbagc
mixed in slowly, stirred well, and the
mixture applied cold.
"A use has at last been found for the
Canada thistle. A shepherd in South
Australia declares that they furnish
more and better food for sheep during
a protracted drought than any plant
that grows. The flower buds are eaten
by lambs in preference to any kind oil
grass.
The high development of special
qualities in our improved breeds, which
have been obtained generally by artif-
cial treatment, has unavoidably dimin-
ished their hardness, and untitled them
to withstand the effects of privation
and exposure.
The wire-worm lives five years,
and changes its skin three times dur
ing this period. 1t then retires from
business for a short time, and comes
out snap-beetle to propagate its
species. Good, enriching culture, in
connection with rotation, tends to re-
duce its numbers.
The guinea fowl is very destructive
to insec's, and will feed on some that
the hens will not touch. They are
great foragers, active, and 20 over a
whole field in short time. There is
another point in their favor not gener-
ally known, which is that thay are not
scratchers and do but little larm To
plants.
Geo. Geddes, of New York, has a
field which for more than three-quar-
tiers of century has been MANFRED
with nothing except clover grown upon
1t and plowed in, upon which has been
grown wheat, corn, oats, barley and
grass. For fifty years plaster has been
used upon the clover, and the land
shows no diminution of fertility.
Many breeders of mutton sheep
prefer thick neck, as it is usually
found in connection with u capacious
chest and vigorous constitution and
thick flesh along the back. The upper
line of the neck should be we'll up to
the line of the chine and loin, as a
dropping neck is an indication of poor
feeding quality.
In the treatment of the sheep-scab
use the following receipt: Four ounces
OF tobacco to one of sulphur, for one
gallon of water. Bring the water to the
boiling r at, then put in the tobacco
and let it eteep until its strength is ex-
hausted, then stir in the sulphur with
little soft soap. There are ratios to be
used according to the quantity of "dip"
required. 1t should be tepid or mod
erately warm, and kept SO during the
process of dipping or application to
diseased sheep.
Glover affords excellent food for
swine. A western farmer estimates
that an acre of clover which would
yield 243 tons of hay, will when fed to
the pigs produce as much pork as the
corn from two acres, yielding forty
bushels per acre. Eighty bushels of
corn, allowing each bushel to produce
ten pounds of pork, at seven cents
pound would amount to $50. Ifan
acre of clover will yield the same
amount of pork it would afford a re-
turn of S56-a very good income from
an acre-and the land would be in
richer condition than it was before the
pigs were turned upon it.
In selecting pump care should
be taken to have it of much larger
capacity than that needed to supply
the boiler, rs there are many things
which affect the workings of pump,
such as defective suction pipes, leaky
valves, etc. II is the practice of most
manufacturers to give the capacity of
their pumps in gallons of water deliv-
cred per minute, from which it is easy
to select suitable size, but the speed
gived in the tables at which the pump
is to run is generally faster than that at
which it is desirable to run them.
The buffalo gnat has appeared this
spring in immense numbers in eastern
Arkansas, western Tennessee, and
western Mississippi, and the great de-
struction of cattle, horses and mules
caused by it has added to the distress
of the inhabitants of those sections of
the country caused by the unprece-
denied floods. The particular species
of simulium in question has not been
determined. AS a cheap way Of pro-
tecting animals, Prof. Riley recon-
mends to wash them once or twice
each day, or oftener, if required, with
water which has been left standing for
several days over coal tar, or in which
small quantity of oil of tar, or oil of
turpentine, or any similar material has
been standing.
For securing give pint and half
of linseed oil in the morning before
feeding, with exercise six hours after
ward to encourage it to act, and when
it has ceased, give one of the following
powders night and morning in his feed:
Take pulverized sulphate of copper,
opium and subnitrate of bismuth, of
each two; prepared chalk and bi-car-
Donate of soda, of each four ounces.
Mix and make into sixteen powders.
Do not allow any more water than is
necessary. and that always an hour be-
fore starting to drive, and feed princi-
pally upon scalded oats. A little bran
may, however, be incorporated with it
Hit the bowels should become costive.
s Have his mouth examined to see that
NILS teeth are in good shane