MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 289 



snbsidiiify on the withdniwal of tlie troops from the locality." Another report 

 on the cholera in India in 1849 says: ''The disease commits its greatest rav- 

 ages in crowded, ill-ventilated barracks, bazaars, and densely po[)ulated towns, 

 particularly such as are surrounded by walls, preventing ingress of pure air, 

 and on that proportion of them where noxious gases are evolved by the decom- 

 position of animal and vegetable remains." After referring to the obduracy 

 of people in taking warning from their terrible experiences, the essayist con- 

 tinues : 



Our superior climate and cleanliness in Michigan has exempted us in the 

 main from such wide spread scourges. Yet even we might be suri)rised if we 

 knew how many an individual friend of ours had come to an untimely grave 

 from just such causes. 



WHiile our swine, also, have been Imgely exempt from the prevailing scourges 

 which have desolated the swine y.irds of other sections of the country, yet in 

 many cases the limit has been I'oached, the boundary line of health over step- 

 ped, and disease invited. The more animals we keep the more care is required 

 that the rank organic matter does not accumulate in excess, for when once it 

 gets among us it is no respecter of j)ersons. Hog cholera is practically un- 

 known and never originates where there are not large numbers of animals, or 

 so many that they cannot be properly cared for. Again, a man taking the 

 craving of his system as a guide, does he confine himself to a diet of one un- 

 changeable food? I trust not. Yet many a hog sees naught but corn from 

 the setting in of winter until the opening of spring. Is it reasonable that the 

 hog because he is a hog needs no change of food of any kind? I think not. 

 One little thing in particular may save you many an animal's life; just 

 humanely give your pigs some salt in his food every day and don't be afraid of 

 giving it too much. Physiologists tell us that salt gives animation to the flu- 

 ids of the body, enabling them to pass through the animal membranes of the 

 body with much greater alacrity — increases the osmotic action, they say. It 

 greatly aids digestion. We recognize the need of salt; we salt our potatoes, 

 we salt our meat, we salt our bread, we salt our puddings, and I i)resume the 

 thrifty housewife can tell us of some other foods that are salted. Then why 

 don't we salt our pigs? It is not going outside of nature. The wild animal 

 has its salt-licks. And a hunter can tell you that a deer-lick is well patron- 

 ized, in spite of ,the danger. Use it freely. If you are troubled with rooting 

 hogs place within their reach a mixture of ashes, coal, and salt. 



Now, to sum up, doctoring hogs is poor business ; the most that can be done 

 is to keep them from getting sick ; they are loth to be handled as a rule. In 

 this case, in an important sense, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 

 cure." In winter keep your animals in good warm quarters, and do not allow 

 filth to accumulate around the pens. Now and then give a change of food, if 

 no more often than once a week, that will often suftice. We have found a feed 

 of roots to be so valuable in keeping our stock healthy in winter, that mo never 

 fail to raise a small patch. Mangel wurzel beet is about as paying a root crop 

 as any to raise, and is well liked by the stock. Animals wintered thus, also 

 have much better results with their young in the spring. Again I repeat it, 

 not corn alone to stock animals. The pens should be occasionally purified by 

 a sprinkling of chloride of lime, frequency determined by the odor of the pens. 

 When cholera is in the neighborhood, I would never allow a week to pass with- 

 out sprinkling the pens with a solution of carbolic acid, which purifies the air 

 and tends to destroy any germs of disease that the treacherous wind has brought, 



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