^64 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



well bred Duchess, young and all right, worth from five to ten thousand 

 dollars? Because they have been bred so long and strong in a line with judg- 

 ment that they improve other Short-horns, and the demand for strong bred 

 sires is greater than the supply. The male practically represents one-half of 

 the herd, hence the necessity of looking upon an animal on paper as well as 

 individually. 



In the onward march of progression there is no place for a backward step ; 

 we must work with a purpose, and as breeders, use double caution in the selec- 

 tion of our breeding animals. To obtain greater uniformity, the head of the 

 herd should be bred stronger than the females, and each successive sire 

 stronger in line than its predecessor. Xo more can we breed good animals 

 without patience, and determination to have each generation better than the 

 preceding, than we can expect to make plants thrive when transplanted from 

 rich to poor soil. 



And now, brother farmers, let us look well to line breeding and the value 

 of pedigrees in our own herds, and see if we can not add value to our live 

 stock, and thus, in one way, confer a blessing on our fellow men. 



MEDICAL TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



BY A. J. STOCKHOLM. 

 [Read at GreenviUe Institute.] 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : When the committee appointed 

 to prepare a programme for this occasion made the request that I write an 

 article to be read at this meeting, on the Medical Treatment of Domestic 

 Animals, I declined to do so, on the ground of incompetency, believing in my 

 ■own mind that I was not qualified to deal with a question of so much import- 

 ance to the public generally, and farmers in particular, in a satisfactory 

 manner. But after a good deal of hesitation, I reluctantly yielded to the 

 mportuuities of friends and this committee, and consented ; aware, as I am, 

 that a subject of this kind necessarily calls out a vast amount of criticism, 

 many different opinions existing in regard to the proper medical treatment of 

 domestic animals; not only of the quadruped, but of the biped species as well. 

 Do you, Mr. President, versed as you are in medical lore, schooled in the 

 principles of scientific medical practice ; a practicing physician in this vicinity 

 for the last 30 or 40 years ; do you doubt me when I say that when commenc- 

 ing to write on a subject like this, one of so much importance to the farmer, 

 and others as well, I feel as if I were standing on the very summit of a 

 volcano, that I knew not how soon might burst beneath my feet?^ I see before 

 me, scattered throughout this large congregation of people, men of science, 

 professors of colleges and schools, doctors of divinity, doctors of physic, and 

 of the law, and it would be hard to say how many of veterinary proclivities. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, I am a farmer, and 1 write as a farmer, to farmers. I 

 make no pretence of being a scientist, having never graduated in any school 

 of veterinary practice. If, in my researches after truth, and the true method 

 of the medical treatment of animals, I have gleaned from the experience and 

 scientific research of others, valuable information, I do not claim to be the 



