488 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



The cow must be milked clean at the time the above drink is 

 given, and two hours after may be turned into her pasture. 

 About four days after, if her udder appears hard and full, let her 

 be brought out of the pasture, milked clean, and the drink be 

 repeated as before. 



This is generally sufficient to dry any cow of her milk ; but as 

 some cows give so much that it renders them very difficult to 

 dry, it is therefore frequently found necessary to repeat the drink 

 and milking every fourth day, for three or four times, before they 

 can be completely dried. 



MURRAIN, OR PUTRID FEVER.* 



Murrain, or pests, are undoubtedly the most serious epidemic 

 fevers that ever have appeared among domestic animals, owing 

 to their violence and fatality; they have occasionally raged, from 

 the earliest historical accounts. From the several statements 

 that have been made concerning the disorder, it seems to have 

 varied in its symptoms and effects, according to the countries in 

 which it appeared, the various seasons in which its ravages were 

 commenced, and some other circumstances not perfectly ascer- 

 tained. It is evident that this disease was infectious, since it 

 was easily propagated among the species of animals which it 

 attacked; but it is not certain that it has the power of spreading 

 to other species ; as men, horses, sheep, and dogs, that live in the 

 neighborhood of the cattle infected by it, evinced no signs of 

 having received the contagion. Nineteen out of twenty cattle 

 attacked by this disease are said, by Mr. Savage, to have died. 



Causes. The causes and nature of this disorder have not 

 been precisely ascertained. Some have imagined it to be con- 

 nected with a peculiar state of the atmosphere, and that it did not 

 originate in contagion. Many consider the principal cause of the 

 disease to be previous hard winters, obstructed perspiration, 

 worms in the liver, and corrupted food. 



