342 ^ 



EXTRACTS FROM CASUAL CORRESPONDENTS. 



STOCK-BREEDING. 



Slicnanduah, Virginia. — I have now been in the business of brep(liii<; and raising pure 

 Short Horn cattle for twenty-five years, and am firm in the belief tliat they are, as a 

 breed, far superior to, and much more profitable to handle than our common stock. 

 To demonstrate this, I give a statement of the sales of 26 head of cattle, raised before 

 the war, when beef commanded ordinary prices. The calves were fed on bran and hay 

 the first winter, on haj^, fodder, and straw the second and third, and grazed well during 

 thp summers. They were fattened on twenty-two bushels of corn each, weighing, at an 

 average age of three years eleven months and a half, from 1,.500 to 1,985 pounds ; nine 

 of them bringing $91. 11, fifteen, $100, and two, $100, per head, or an average of $97.38 

 each. From my observation I think these prices are at least 30 per cent, better than 

 could have been obtained for any common stock ever raised or fattened in this section 

 of the country. 



STOCK-RAISING. 



Granger, Texas.— We are now undergoing quite a revolution in the way of stock- 

 raising. Heretofore the ease and cheapness with which cattle have been raised, 

 roaming at large upon our vast prairies, have prevented our people from any extra 

 labor or outlay that might be necessary to improve their stocks of cattle. But "within 

 the past two years the grass upon the prairies, from over-stocking, has deteriorated so 

 much in quality and quantity that our nomadic system must give way to a more profit- 

 able mode of stock-raising. Still, such is the expense of importing stock, owing to 

 4> our interior situation, and the risk attending the same from casualties on the route 

 and acclimation after arrival, that importations on an extensive scale cannot be ex- 

 liected for some time. However, a few enterprising citizens are giving the subject 

 especial attention, and we hope in a few years to have native-born breeders from im- 

 ported stock, to which time we anxiously look as the dawning of a new era in the 

 history of our country. • 



Experience teaches me that, with i^roper attention, no countrj' is better adapted to 

 sheep-raising than this, though our people have been greatly discouraged, from the 

 fact that whole flocks sometimes die out in a few weel^, but the cause is emaciation, 

 superinduced by the disease known as the scab, and the practice of indefinitely in- 

 creasing the size of flocks, and not providing for them in winter. 



We have lately received most valuable acquisitions to our hog- stock by the intro- 

 duction of thorough-bred Chester "White, Berkshire, Poland, China, Neapolitan, and 

 Essex. Much attention is ngw being paid to this stock. 



Our county boasts some dozen or more thorough-bred stallions, besides numbers of 

 brood-mares. Alt ogether, I think our j)rospects for rajjid improvement in stock-raising 

 arc quite flattering. 



J'.dgefield, Souih Carolina. — My land is adapted to the culture of cotton, and only 

 about half enough corn is produced for home consumption, all long forage being care- 

 fully husbanded for work-stock. Cattle are not fed through winter at all, and I could 

 have a marketable beef at any time from my small herd without making much choice. 



After the cattle pick over our corn-fields in the fall they are turned into the cotton- 

 fields, (the crop having been gathered,) the tender limbs and immature bolls affording 

 excellent winter pasturage for awhile; after which the small winter undergrowth 

 among the broom-grass in the old fields keeps them in fair condition until the spring 

 pasturage is ready. It is my experience that cattle, if not fed regularly, do better not 

 fed at all through the winter. On my farm, of about 600 acres, half of it turned out 

 and spontaneously set with a species of wild clover and broom-grass, I could winter 40 

 head of cattle. 



Nemaha, Nehra.sla. — The amount of stock of all kinds is rai^idly increasing, owing 

 mainly to the passage of a herd-law. 



CATTLE-DISIJASE. 



East J'aton Houf/e, Louisiana. — Some few cattle have died during the past summer; 

 supposed to have been poisoned in browsing, or drinking stagnant and impure water. 

 Nothing is known positively as to the real cause, nature, or treatment of said disease. 

 I examined two cases that resulted fatally some five or six days after the attack. The 

 symptoms were general lassitude, a drawn up or contracted body, loss of appetite, and 

 obstinate constipation. The only lesions discoverable after death were softening and 

 an easy separatnre of the mucous lining of the stomach proper. Long-digested and 

 half-digested food were impacted and pressed in between the folds, rather dry ; and the 

 mucous coat se])arated and peeled oft' upon the slightest eftbrt. No ulceration anywhere 

 discoveralile. The feces in the bowels natural and rather dry. 



