DIGEST OP STATE REPORTS. 409 



plied, would cure many diseases. As to the good effects of new earth, 

 he said : 



Where hogs trample constantly over earth, the fresh soil disappears. We find in 

 poultry-breeding that where we keep largo numbers of fowls together, we must keep 

 the ground stirred to bring up iresh earth. In the poultry-house there should be no 

 less than six inches of dry earth, which should be raked over three times a week, and 

 removed once in six months, and then you can keep fifty fowls together without danger. 

 I have kept dry earth in barrels by my pig-pens, spreading it frequently. It is a good 

 absorbent, and keeps my pigs iu excellent health. 



Dr. Claggett stated that in several cases where hogs had died with so- 

 called hog-cholera, post-mortem examinations had revealed diseased 

 lungs. In such cases the disease was not hog-cholera. He then alluded 

 to the absorptive powers of different soils, and agreed with Mr. Monteith 

 as to the beneficial effects of dry earth when applied to wounds and 

 sores. 



Mr. T. A. Charles thought a great many hogs got sick without having 

 hog-cholera, and he regarded it as much a mistake to say tbat every 

 fiick hog had the hog-cholera as that every sick cow had the hollow-horn. 

 He had lost fifty-seven hogs by some disease, and had but three left, and 

 Wo of the three had been sick. He thought the disease was the quinsy, 

 or winter fev^r. 



Mr. L. A. Brown said his farm had been visited by this disease, which 

 had caused him to lose seventy hogs. He believed the disease to be 

 contagious. His hogs had been kept in a clover pasture of two hundred 

 acres, with good running water. His neighbors' hogs had been turned 

 into tho road, with no water to drink; they took the disease, ran along 

 the fence where his hogs were confined, and imparted to them the dis- 

 ease of v/hich they died. 



A resolution providing for the appointment of a committee to investi- 

 gate the subject was adopted by the board. 



Mr. C. "VV. Murtfelt read a paper urging the establishment of experi- 

 mental agricultural stations, which eventually resulted in a protracted 

 discussion 0:1 the subject of the duties and responsibilities of the State 

 Agricultural College. On the last day of the session a resolution was 

 adopted callintj,' the attention of the farmers of the State to the impor- 

 tance of Ibrest-tree culture and to the law passed by the legislature to 

 encourage the ijlanting and cultivation of timber-trees. 



Horticultural. — The sixteenth annual meeting of the Missouri State 

 Horticultural Society was held at Saint Louis, on the 12th, 13th, 14:th, 

 and 15th days of January, 1875. The meeting was well attended, and 

 the proceedings marked with much interest to the fruit-growers of the 

 State. 



. President Henry T.. Mudd, in his opening address, gave a brief 

 history of the organization and progress of the society. From this 

 address the following ft.\cts are gleaned: A small number of Missouri 

 fruit-growers met at Jefierson City on the 5th day of January, 1859, and 

 organized the present society. Prof. George C. Swallow presided, 

 and Mr. F. E. Elliott, (shortly after elected secretary of the American 

 Pomological Society,) acted as secretary. A constitution was framed 

 and adopted, and Mr. N. J. Colman was elected as the first president 

 of the association. A vice-president for each of the then seven con- 

 gressional districts was designated, and Mr. F. B. Elliott and George 

 Husman were respectively elected as recording and corresponding sec- 

 retaries. The first exhibition of the society was held on the 27th day of 

 September, 1859, at which a fine display of grapen and some native 

 wine was made. The first annual meeting of the association was held 



