The Farmers Own Book 19

The Farmers Own Book 19

FOR TRANSPLANTING TREES.

 

That are flagging or drooping, or looking as if they were going to say

good bye. First reduce the top litter, or if needed a good deal, it may

be that there is more top to exhaust than root to supply; then loosen

the soil and water if dry, and lastly mulch the ground as far as the

roots extend. This you may do by covering it with three or four inches of

straw. Litter tan bark or something of that sort to keep the roots cool

and moist, so as to cause them into new growth. Watering a transplanted

tree every day, letting the surface dry hard with the sun and wind, is

too much like basting a joint of meat before the kitchen fire to be

looked upon as decent treatment, for any thing living when you water do

it after the sun sets. If you find your fruit trees barren from too great

running to wood, (about the first of June is the time) clip or pinch off

the ends of the side shoots, so as to expend its substance in making buds

instead of wasting all the sap in over growth.

 

 

HOW TO KEEP APPLES.

 

Spread on the floor oats to the depth of about two inches; the oats

should be good and properly cured, and then place your apples side by

side on the oats until they are covered over with them. Then cover your

apples again, and continue laying a course of apples and oats until

you have finished your crop. If they are properly put up they will

keep better in this way than any other way. Farmer try it and convince

yourself.

 

 

DOMESTIC YEAST.

 

Boil 1 pound of good flour, ¼ pound of brown sugar and a little salt with

two gallons of water for one hour. When milk warm bottle it and cork

close; it will be fit for use in 24 hours; 1 pound yeast will make 18

pounds of bread.

 

 

COMPOST TO PREVENT CROWS AND INSECTS FROM TAKING CORN.

 

Take from 1 to 2 pounds sulphor brimstone mixed with plaster and ashes,

and a handful scattered on to the corn as it peeps out of the ground will

be sufficient to protect an acre from their ravages. Brimstone is a good

manure on all soil that does not abound in it.

 

 

HOW TO DESTROY LICE OR VERMIN ON CHICKENS.

 

Place among the sand and dust that the hens dust themselves in ½ pound

black sulphor and also sprinkle some lime in and mix. This will keep

them off and give them a glossy appearance. If infested with these

insects dampen the skin under the feathers with a little water, then

sprinkle a little black sulphor on the skin, and in 12 hours they will

all disappear. Also, previous to setting a hen, if the nest be slightly

sprinkled with the sulphor there, is no danger of the hen becoming

annoyed by them.

 

 

WORTH KNOWING.

 

One pound of green copperas, costing 6 cents, dissolved in 1 quart of

water, and poured down a privy, will effectually destroy the foulest

smells; for water closets aboard ships and steamboats, or for rats, mice,

&c., keep it dissolved near the place and in a few days it will all

disappear. About hotels and other public places, there is nothing so nice

to cleanse places as simple green copperas dissolved under the bed in any

thing that will hold water, and thus render a hospital and other places

for the sick free from unpleasant smells. For butchers’ stalls, fish

markets, slaughter houses, sinks and wherever there are offensive and

putrid gasses, dissolve copperas and sprinkle it about, and in a few days

the smell will pass away.

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX.

 

INFORMATION HOW TO TREAT DANGEROUS DISEASES.

 

 

There are several diseases which are very dangerous and run their course

in a very short time, and prove fatal if they are not properly treated or

arrested before they become firmly seated. I would here urge upon every

owner of horses, (and in fact every disease which this work treats on,)

to pay strict attention to it. In many diseases, what you can do must be

done at once or not at all--the old saying is ‘a stitch in time saves

nine,’ and there is a great deal of truth in this, in many diseases.

 

I would here urge upon you the importance of glystering in certain

diseases. In the Wind Colic and also in the Spasmodic Colic, as soon

as you ascertain what the disease is and not before. The truth of the

matter is that no man has any right to give any medicine until he is

certain what the disease is. Give the medicine and course of treatment

prescribed in the disease then quickly follow with injections. If you

have neglected to prepare yourself for glystering, back-rake with your

hand--this is done by greasing the hand and arm with lard or oil and

introduce it as far as you can. The glystering or back-raking never does

any harm but always assists in relieving. Every owner of horses should

prepare himself with several large beef or hog bladders, a few elders

with the pith punched or burnt out, and by so doing you are prepared at

any time to give an injection. This may be done by cutting a notch around

the one end of the elder, then fill your bladder with soap suds or oil,

next tie the bladder on the end of the elder you have notched, firmly,

and introduce the elder into the fundament, and then you can force the

suds into the fundament easily by pressing on the bladder. You should

in all cases where there is great danger of losing your horse, give

injections and continue to repeat them until they operate. There are many

cases in colics that the horse is bound or corked, this can be perceived

by the horse trying frequently or straining to dung; when this does

occur it is very dangerous and you must in these cases give large doses

of aloes and glyster freely, repeating until you get it to operate. If

you fail to get an operation you will lose your horse. Preparation for

glystering: Take warm water and make a suds with soap, add thereto epsom

salts, and in some cases you may add ½ oz. aloes. Fish oil is a very good

article of itself; from a pint to a quart for one injection. I have known

1 pint of fish oil to be given as a drench in colic, and has relieved

where all other remedies have failed.

 

I will here state that there are more horses killed by medicine

improperly given than ever was cured. For this reason, the great majority

of owners of horses and in fact a great many farriers who pretend to

know, do not know what the disease is, and next is a dose of medicine

and perhaps in less than half an hour the horse drops down dead, and

why, because in many cases the medicine given for the disease, is the

dose that poisons or kills him, from the fact that he was mistaken in

the disease, or given medicine for one disease when it was another.

Therefore, I here again assert that no man has any right to give

medicine until he fully ascertains what the disease is. This he can

easily get at if he will pay some attention to the symptoms which are

so plainly described in this work. As soon as your horse commences to

complain, watch him closely and you will find him to point out to you

plainly what the disease is, and you will find the horse to point it out

to a hair’s breadth as I have described it to you.

 

Why is it that men will toil and labor hard through the summer’s heat,

and expose themselves to the extreme cold in winter, and at the end of

the year perhaps, will lose more in horse flesh than they have made.

Millions of dollars are lost yearly in horses and a great part of it

for the want of carefulness and paying some attention to the diseases

of the horse, which costs no man any hard labor or exposure. Let me

urge upon you the importance of reading this work over again and again,

paying attention to it as you peruse it over, and you will find it gives

you such information as each and every person should have for his own

interest. I will here state that an ounce of preventative is a great

deal better than a pound of cure. Many diseases might be prevented by

being cautious in their treatment to horses and keeping them in a healthy

condition. This should be done by using the celebrated horse powders

on page 60, twice a year, fall and spring. Say you feed from 1 to 1½

pounds to each horse, each time, fall and spring. If you adopt this once

you will never depart from it afterward, as you will find it to be a

preventative of diseases and will find so much improvement in your stock

that you will not depart from it. Every man that has a horse should habit

himself to sprinkle a little salt on the feed every time he feeds his

horse. The salt is nourishing and is just as much needed in the horse’s

food every meal as it is needed on the food that a man eats.

 

The Inflammation of the Lungs is another dangerous disease. It is

becoming to be a common disease among horses, and carries off its

thousands, simply because it is at first a sneaking disease; the farmer

and owner thinks very little of it when it first makes its appearance,

and the truth is there are very few persons who know anything about the

disease, and if it is suffered to run over the third day, you might as

well take the horse out where you want him to die; yet, with all its

danger and certainty of death if neglected, there is not a disease which

is plainer in its symptoms or is pointed out plainer by the horse than in

this disease. It is impossible to be mistaken in this disease if you but

pay the least attention to it, and is easily conquered if taken in time.

In this disease the foxglove, tartar emetic and nitre should be used

twice or thrice a day, as directed in Inflammation of the Lungs.

 

Bots is another which is very dangerous when they take hold. Feed the

Celebrated Horse Powders, as directed and use plenty of salt and you will

not have one case in a thousand of Bots.

 

If you want the best Lotion in the world for fresh or old wounds on

horses, turn to page 70, there you will find it, Tincture of Aloes and

Myhr; if you want to cure the Ringbone or Spavin, turn to page 71, and

you will find it; if you want to cure the Blood or Bog Spavin, turn to

page 68; if you want a Lotion for to cure the Scratches in a few days,

turn to page 64; if you want a Lotion for Sprains, Bruises, Swellings,

&c., turn to page 63; if you want a certain remedy for Sweaney, turn to

page 74; if you want to see the List of Medicines used in the diseases

of horses, you will find them from pages 93 to 108, giving their medical

properties and uses.

 

I will here name a few Domestic Medicines, Receipts, &c., and would

urge every person and family to make use of them and keep them on hand,

as they have proven to be very valuable and will do what they are

recommended to do. Dr. Wickey’s Cholera Medicine cannot be surpassed for

cholera, cholera morbus, diarrhœa, summer complaint, looseness of the

bowels, sickness of the stomach, cramp colic, flux, &c. This Medicine is

easily prepared and will keep for many years if made out of good brandy.