plant small plants. No one not experienced in planting will realize the great advantage of well-grown plants over small ones, or the difference in the plant of a week's growth in the

beds.

The most thorough working and preparation of the surface soil is especially necessary for this crop. If the soil be at all lumpy, harrow and roll again and again. This will save a great deal of hoe labor, and the advantage of a well pulverized surface will be very apparent in the setting of the plants, and, what is most desirable, a quick, early growth.

CLOVER FIELDS.

If clover be intended mainly for the benefit of the land, all stock should be kept from the field till the crop comes into bloom. Then a large stock may be turned on to trample it quickly, that it may lie closely to the surface and rot. The second growth will then come up early, and the ground will get the greatest possible good from the crop. If hay is to be made, stock must of course be kept off, and the clover cut when it is coming well into bloom. If the greatest amount of pasturage is wanted, there should be no delay in turning

stock in when there is a bite.

POTATOES.

This is the common month for planting potatoes, but in our opinion the worst. The early crop should have been planted weeks ago, and the late or general crop not till after the middle of June.

BEETS, CARROTS, ETC.

Whatever root crops are to be planted for stock feeding should, with the exception of the turnip, be planted now. Abundant manuring and thorough working of the soil should precede the planting.

PEAS.

SORGHUM.

The ground will need very thorough preparation and abundant manuring. It is not advisable to plant till the ground is warm enough to make the seed germinate and grow quickly-say after the 15th of the month.

PUMPKINS AND CYMLINGS.

Plant them the latter part of the month.

SWEET POTATOES.

To have them in abundance, a lot should be grown outside of garden limits. Light rich soil, with little or no manure, is most suitable for them. If they are made to grow very large, it is at the expense of the quality.

WORKING STOCK.

Working stock of every kind should have special care during the spring months. Otherwise they are least able to work when there is

most need of their labors. Horses should be

well-groomed, and fed abundantly with chop made of any sound long food, and corn, or rye meal. If corn be used, it is well to mix one-fourth of wheat bran with it. Oxen, if not in best condition, are liable to get weak, and fail to do their work as the days get warm. They are generally considered unfit for labor in hot weather, only, we believe, because not treated as they should be. If given half a peck of corn meal, or its equivalent, daily, to each head, and kept on dry feed while working, they will continue to work as steadily through the season as horses.

COWS AND CALVES.

When there is grass affording a bite for the cows, they and their young are likely to do well. The best method of treating a valuable calf is to let it run in the pasture with the cow for three months and then wean it.When milk is valuable this is costly keeping, and must be modified according to circum

BROADCAST CORN.

Corn broadcast, for green feeding or fodder, may now be sown at intervals of ten days.

MILLET.

Millet of any kind for fodder may be prepared for and sown early in June. A peck of seed to the acre is sufficient, but heavier seeding gives finer hay. The soil must be highly manured, and the surface put in fine condition.

at once from the cow and taught to feed on the new milk, which after two weeks is gradually changed into skim milk. This method may not be altogether successful without great care. A safer method is to keep the calf tied, which helps to gentle it, and let it take a portion of the milk directly from the cow at stated periods, diminishing the quantity

as it learns to take other food.

SELECTING CALVES.

In the way of selection, we should accustom ourselves to noticing such points as may

direct us in choosing those which may best suit our purpose. In the first place, if we would have good milkers, take the calves whose mothers are good milkers, and whose sires are from a good milking strain. The calf itself should have such points as indicate an aptitude to develop good milking qualities; as small fine head, rather long in the muzzle, bright eyes, thin, tapering neck, small, well shaped legs, long body, large hind quarters, set wide behind, soft skin, fine hair, and above all, the milk mirror, or udder veins, should be large and well developed.

Male calves, to be reared for the team or the butcher, should have well shaped head, small ears, short, thick neck, deep brisket, broad chest and shoulders, fine bone, long body, well rounded behind the shoulders, straight back, wide loins, full quarters, tail thin and tapering, skin soft, and not too thin.

SHEEP SHEARING.

Sheep shearing should be accomplished soon after the middle of the month. A great deal of care is necessary to avoid bruising, or cutting with the shears, to both of which the animal is liable from careless hands.

The practice of washing the sheep before shearing, is being abandoned, we think, in great measure, as injurious to the animal, and incurring risk to those engaged in it. If a fair and certain rate of deduction from the price of washed wool could be had for that which is unwashed, there would be no doubt, we think, of the propriety of selling always in the dirt.

After shearing, the flock should be protected from bad weather, especially long, cold rains, by a shed which they may resort to.

The Paris Kentuckian says; Mr. S. W. Tavebaugh, of this county, has shown us some singular grains of corn, in which the grains are doubled, each grain having a separate heart. He accidentally noticed a few grains as he was shelling his seed corn last year, which he planted, and they produced ears of corn with all the grains doubled.

"A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer thinks a sow should not be allowed to breed until at least a year old. He thinks that until the boar and sow reach the age of four or six years, their progeny is better than from young hogs.

The Vegetable Garden.

MAY.

Asparagus Beds-Keep these clear, and stir with a fork.

Cabbage Plants.-Put these out from time to time as the weather is favorable. The beds should be thinned if they stand too close, that the plants may become stocky and well rooted. Hoe and earth up the early planted.

Make sure of an ample supply of plants for the main crop to be planted in July. There are frequent failures from the destruction done by the fly. Those who have the opportunity should experiment with a solution of the carbolic soap. The Flat Dutch, Stone Mason Drumhead, Drumhead Savoy, &c., are suitable sorts for late planting.

Cauliflower.-Keep these well hoed. Thin out where planted too close, by taking out each alternate plant, as soon as there is a small head formed. Sow now for the fall crop, and continue to plant out from time to time from the hot-beds.

Beets. Keep these well worked-thinning where necessary and transplanting to fill

vacancies.

Celery.-Plant out from time to time for early use. Sow seeds now, in rich, moist and well prepared beds, to plant the principal crop in July.

Peas-Sow for succession, Champion of England, and dwarf Marrowfat, keeping growing crops worked, and, those which need it, properly supported.

Tomatoes, Egg Plants, Peppers, &c.-Should be planted out of the hot-beds as they get size enough, and the weather suits.

Pole Beans, and String Beans-for successive crops should be planted; also, Turnips, Radish, Lettuce, Prickly Spinach, Parsley, &c.

Sweet Corn.-Plant every two weeks for

summer use.

Melons-Plant plenty of these, of several sorts. Be sure to get the best sceds, and plant on inverted sod ground if practicable.

Potatoes-as soon as above ground, should be hoed and have a deep working.

Keep all sorts of growing crops duly thin ned.

The scattered seed of last season, will germi

nate with the growing warm weather, and should be destroyed by a thorough dressing of the whole surface of the garden.

The Fruit Garden.

Newly planted trees, when summer approaches, should be mulched with litter enough to keep down the growth of grass and weeds, and preserve a uniform moisture. Straw to the depth of four or five inches, and to the distance of four feet from the stem, answers the purpose best. The ground between newly planted trees, may be cultivated in growing vegetables, if well manured.

Where it is necessary to work among trees with a plough, use only one horse, with a shortened swingle-tree and lengthened traces. Strawberries need much moisture while setting and growing the fruit, which should be applied artificially, if practicable, and necessary. The best way to secure sufficient moisture however, is by mulching immediately after cleaning off the beds in spring. Pine shatters or straw are both very suitable for the purpose. A rich soil is very necessary to secure an abundant crop, and to make the fruit large, there must be room enough between the plants.

The Flower Garden.

Continue to sow annuals, and plant out

Cheese Making-its Flavor.

In our eastern exchanges we find the proceedings of the third annual meeting of the American Dairyman's Association, from which we extract the following:

The causes affecting the flavor of cheese were treated under the following heads: unclean milk; diseased milk; cows eating weeds and leaves of plants that impart their peculiar flavor; overheated milk, occasioned from chasing the cows with dogs when driving from the pasture; and the pounding and abuse of cows in the stable when milking; failure to remove natural heat from the milk before it reaches the factory; impure annato; bad rennet; curds insufficiently cooked; curds too lightly salted; salting curds too warm; putting curds into hoops and to press before they are properly cooled; exposure of cheese to a too high temperature while curing. Mr. Weeks elucidated the several heads above with extended remarks. Mr. Moon, of Herki

mer, mentioned as a source of bad flavor in cheese, the pasturing of cows upon low, wet, clay lands. Milk, he said, was often rendered unclean from the dust filling the hair of the cows in certain seasons, and partly transferred to the pail while milking.

Prof. Brewer, of New Haven, thought impurity of flavor in cheese might be brought about by a fermentation or growth induced by decaying matter falling into the milk. This matter was of the same class of growth as

Plant out in the beds and borders, as the weather gets warm enough and settled, bedding plants of all kinds, as Scarlet flowering and other Geraniums, Verbenas, Salvias, Heliotropes, Petunias, &c. Keep plants enough in reserve to supply vacancies. Before planting, be sure to harden the plants by some days of full exposure to the air; otherwise they are liable to great loss.

Cuttings of Geraniums may be taken now, potted in small pots and placed under glass, for fall blooming.

The walks as well as borders should be kept clean, and should be rolled occasionally. The lawn should be mowed frequently as the grass springs, and should now be kept in such condition as will make it accord with the opening beauties of the flower garden.

Scalding pans and utensils killed the germs which produced decay. He referred to cheese making in Switzerland, and the excellent pastures on the lower portions of the Alps.

The older the pastures become in a good dairy region, if kept free of weeds, the better it is for grazing and producing a good quality of milk.

Mr. Paxton, of Erie, thought the great trouble was that cheese makers were not careful enough, and need to learn and appreciate cleanliness, both as to person and apparatus. They must have a true sense of cleanliness if a radical improvement was sought.

Cattle standing in cold, muddy yards, exposed to the weather, consume about twice as much as those in sheltered stables, kept clean and littered, and free from the accumulation of manure.

An Essay on Colic and Bots in Horses. Written for the "American Farmer" by G H. DADD, V. S., Baltimore, Md.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Maryland.

Continued from the April number.

A horse while journeying on the road or when performing on the race-course, should not be allowed to imbibe too freely of water, because hard work and active exercise, almost, for the time being, suspends the digestive function; the water then remains in the large intestines, occupies space therein, and being weighty, may in the rapid movements of the animal, operate unfavorably in various ways, more particularly by weight on the gut itself; it being pendulous from the spine.

A horse is often brought into the stable in a state of exhaustion and perspiration; under such circumstances it would be decidedly wrong, to either feed or offer him water, until he had been rubbed dry, and had time for a short rest; for then, food is just as likely (and I think more so) to operate unfavorably as water, on such an animal.

Many horses, however, even when in an exhausted state, will fill their stomachs with food and water, and yet enjoy immunity from colic. Therefore, should colic occur in a horse after a hard drive, and he having partaken of both food and water, it is then very difficult to decide whether the drive, food, or water operated as the exciting cause of the malady; should, however, flatulent colic occur, we know that from some cause or other the digestive organs are deranged, and the food instead of being properly digested, runs into fermentation, thus generating carburetted hydrogen within the stomach and intestines. On the other hand, should the case be one of a spasmodic character-spasmodic colic-we may infer that it is owing to some derangement of the nervous system, first aroused by a morbid action of the stomach, which is the centre of sympathy, for it is well known that the brain has intimate sympathetic relation with the stomach; hence stomach staggers, &c. So, it appears, that the same causes operating on two animals of diverse temperament, and predispositions, may excite spasm in one, and flatulency in the other; and notwithstanding our best efforts to prevent it, colic will occasionally occur among horses that are predisposed to it.

At the season of the year when dried corn

is first fed to horses, colic is quite prevalant, in one or the other of its forms; but on examination it will be observed that in so far as their conformation is concerned, the animal attacked is predisposed to the affection. A horse subject to flatulent colic, is known to have a capacious belly, voracious appetite; does not properly masticate his food; and he is not over particular as to the kind of diet, for we often find him devouring, with apparent relish, the filthy material that has served as bedding. The tongue of such animal is usually foul; the breath is fœtid; the teeth are incrustated, and the salivial fluid resembles soapsuds, and often runs spontaneously from the mouth. Horses subject to flatulent colic are very apt to become crib-biters, and a crib-biter is noted for having a large belly; which appears out of proportion, when compared with other parts of his body.

In regard to corn I find that some of the stable keepers have it steeped in salt and water

for several hours before it is fed to the horses, and I think the plan is a good one, in so far as the colicy horse is concerned, for salt is a powerful antiseptic, and by its presence, when thus introduced into the stomach, prevents fermentation, and the corn being somewhat softened by the salt solution, may undergo a more rapid digestion, and thus prevent an attack of colic; yet notwithstanding this precaution I am frequently called upon to treat horses thus fed; and the same remark applies to some horses that have been fed on grass, clover, green corn, and even on good oats and hay. Finally, therefore, we are led to infer, that the chief cause of colic exists within the horse, and not outside or around him; errors in diet and management, are only the indirect or exciting causes, the principal one being of a predisposing character.

TREATMENT OF SPASMODIC COLIC. The medicines used for the treatment of spasmodic colic, must be of an antispasmodic character; such as assafœtida, lobelia, sulphuric æther, warm water applied to the belly and loins, and enemas of an infusion of lobelia. Sometimes the attack is so violent, and the patient so unmanageable, that it becomes absolutely necessary to chloroform him, using for this purpose, equal parts of chloroform and sulphuric æther, mixed. When the animal gets on the floor, he must there be held by the neck, while the chloroform, by means of a sponge to the nostrils, is administered.