California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



ticnlture, it is easy to understand the 

 propriety, and even the necessity, of in- 

 troducing into the courses of study 

 those "practical" branches a knowledge 

 of which is essential to success in those 

 pursuits. 



Birds, Insects and Crops. — It won't 

 do any harm to repeat, for the benefit of 

 our many new as well as old readers, that 

 birds pay ten-fold for all they eat on our 

 farms in destroying insects. An old 

 writer of fifty years ago says, in speak- 

 ing of the cut-worms, mice and insects, 

 that he erected thirty boxes in different 

 parts of his garden, which were soon 

 occupied by birds, and he found they 

 soou disposed of the enemies of his cab- 

 bage plants and vines. — Rural Sun. 



SM'ebuchadnezzar. 



BY IBWIN BUSeELL. 



You. Nebuchaduezzar, whoa, sah! 

 Whar is you tryiti' to go, sah '{ 

 I'd hab yoii for to know, eah, 



I'a a-holdin' ob de lines. 

 You better stop dat prauciu'; 

 You'8 pow'ful fond ob dancin*. 

 But I'll bet my yeah'H advancin' 



Dat I'll cure you ob your shiuea. 



Look heali, mule! Better mine out — 

 Fub' t'iuK yoti know you'll fin" out 

 How quick I'll wear dia line out 



On your ugly bLubbo'n back. 

 You needn't try to sieal up 

 An* lit' dat precious heel up: 

 You'd got to plow dia fiel' up, 



You has, sah, for a fac'. 



Dar. dat's de way to do it! 

 He'H comin' right down to it: 

 Jes' watch him plowiu' t'roo it! 



Dis nigger ain't no tool. 

 Some folks dey would 'a beat him; 

 Now, dat would ouly heat him — 

 X know jes' how to treat him; 



You mus' reason wid a mule. 



He minds me like a nigger. 

 If'he was only bigger 

 He'd fotch a mighty figger. 



He would, I tell youl Yes, sah! 

 See how he keeps a-clicltin'I 

 He's as gentle as a chicken. 

 An' nebber thinks o' kickin' — 



Whoa dar I Nebuchadnezzah! 



Is dis heah me; or not rae ? 

 Or is de debbil got me ? 

 Was dat a cannon shot me? 



Hab I laid beah more'n a week V 

 Dat mule do kick amazin*! 

 Dat beast was ep'iled in raisin'— 

 But now I 'spect he's grazin' 



On de Oder side de creek. 



Treatment of Sick Animals — 



^?. 



Cough in a Horse. 



fHEEE has been an internal wound, 

 obstruction or irritation, and the 

 cough is only a symptom or evi- 

 dence that nature is trying to heal 

 or remove it, and should no more 

 be stopped till the cause is removed than 

 the temporary scab that nature throws 

 over nn external scratch should be re- 

 moved before the wound is healed, when 

 it comes off itself. It matters not 

 whether the wound or obstruction is 

 nasal, laryagital, bronchial, thoracic, or 

 stomachic, caused by dust, poison or 

 overwork, the cough will surely stop 

 when the cause is removed. 



No doubt ginger, or other poison, 

 might be more obnoxious to vitality than 

 the injury, and temporarily call of the 

 repair force for its own expulsion and 

 thus abate the cough for a time, but to 

 no greater real benefit than the paying of 

 debts with money hired at a higher rate 

 of interest than that on the debt, which 

 is sometimes, but rarely, expedient, the 

 debtor still has the debt to pay, and "bo- 

 nus" besides. Not to burden youi' col- 



umns with statistical proofs, I will inci- 

 dentally give one which also shows that 

 "Light is dawning in the East." 



In a recent New York Journal of HeaUh 

 containing many useful hints, with 

 "liver pills," etc., its celebrated M. D. 

 proprietor says substantially, "Never 

 try to stop a cough; it is nature's way of 

 removing phlegm from the chest; much 

 better take something to increase the 

 cough," etc.; and also adds that he is 

 the first publishing the (nature cure) 

 doctrine, which was systematized, suc- 

 cessfully practiced and taught by lectures 

 by its talented, self-denying and worthy 

 M. D. discoverer, after ten years' exten- 

 sive allopathic practice, about fifty years 

 ago; and by him practiced till his recent 

 death, at eighty-six, and taught in seve- 

 ral excellent works of his. 



"Spasms in pigs, " "horn ail," men- 

 tioned in the same paper (Jan. 20, 1870) 

 and all ordinary diseases, in man or 

 beast, are the most successfully treated 

 on the "nature cure" system; and noth- 

 ing can be done to help nature, but to 

 remove all hindrances possible and sup- 

 ply all natural wants. Make the patient 

 comfortable and let nature work. Pois- 

 ons tend to death when taken by well 

 animals, and how absurd to think that 

 their nature is instantly changed so as to 

 tend to life, by being taken by a sick.aud 

 perhaps .already nearly dead animal. 

 "Like, cause, like effect" is as true here 

 as everywhere else. 



In all acute, inflammatory cases, fevers 

 with quick pulse and coated tongue, 

 colds, etc., de not tempt the palate, and 

 give no food unless it is desired in a nat- 

 ural and plain condition, that is, without 

 stimulating condiments. Food in the 

 stomach, uncalled for, is a hindrance to 

 recuperation. Unless there is heat and 

 pain in the bowels, do not disturb them; 

 if there is, pure, warm water enemas, 

 and fomentation are usually sufficient. 



Always remember that nature knows 

 her own business best, and don't try to 

 force action with disagreeable interfer- 

 ence. Unnatural, stimulating food and 

 drink in an unnatural manner and quan- 

 tity, have ofteu given "fits" to other an- 

 imals than voracious pigs, and "uriuo 

 and soap" are not the natural and best 

 remedy; abstinence, rest and natural 

 food and drink are far better. — New Eng- 

 land Farmer. 



The Horsk's Foot. — A competent vet- 

 erinary surgeon writes as follows on the 

 subject of that all-important part of the 

 horse, namely, the foot: 



Most of the horse-shoers of the coun- 

 try prepare the foot, fit the shoe, and se- 

 cure it to the hoof iu the same manner 

 that a wood butcher fits a shoe to an old 

 wood or ox s*ed. The mechanism of a 

 horse's foot is one of the most wonderful 

 and ingenious structures that can be 

 found in all the works of the Creator. 

 Beneath and in the rear of every hoof 

 there is a frog, which is a tough and 

 elastic pad for preventing injury to the 

 animal whenever he plants his foot sud- 

 denly on any hard substance. Largo 

 rolls of cylinders of india-rubber are 

 placed beneath the railway cars to pro- 

 vent injury to any part of the car or to 

 the cargo with which it is loaded. The 

 frog beneath the foot of a horse is de- 

 signed to subserve a similar purpose. 

 But the manner in which most horses 

 are shod lifts them as it were on short 

 stilts, so the frog connot perform its ap- 

 propriate functions. 



If we look carefully at the young horse 

 when he is trotting or running, it will be 

 perceived that every foot is brought to 

 the ground in such a manner tliat the 

 frog receives the powerful blow-. By 

 this means all injury to the animal is 



avoided. Science teaches ns to permit 

 the frog to develop and point downward. 

 But most blacksmiths seem to think that 

 the all-wise Creator made a mistake when 

 He formed the foot of the horse. Hence 

 they fall at the frog with red-hot burning 

 irons, with edge tools and with any other 

 appliance that will enable them to re- 

 UKjve this extraneous excrescence. Il- 

 lustrious minuies! Why not shave away 

 all the rough, callous, adipo.se tissues be- 

 neath their own heels, and allow the 

 bare bones io rest on an iron plate in- 

 side of their own boots and shoes? No 

 frog, no foot; no foot, no horse. 



H0K.SES FOR FAiiMKn.s. — For the ordin- 

 ary American farmer, who cultivates the 

 average-sized farm of about lUU acres, in 

 a variety of crops, a breed of horses is 

 required suited to the heavy work of the 

 farm, the hauling of crops to market, 

 and also possessing the fleetness desira- 

 ble in carriage horses. 



Such farmers cannot afford to keep 

 separate teams for draught and carriage 

 purposes. They want horses which, 

 when hitched to the plow, will move 

 with unyielding strength through sod 

 and stubble, will draw the wagon loaded 

 with grain, hay, corn or roots to the 

 barn or stack, the loaded manure wagon 

 over the soft, yielding earth; that will 

 force the reaper through the stoutest 

 grain, or the mower through the thickest 

 grass; that will move wagons heavily 

 laden with the farm products to market, 

 and at the same time, when the farmer 

 wishes them to get over the ground rap- 

 idly, with carriage or light wagon, will 

 be on hand. 



Some will say that the farmer has no 

 business with fast horses. If he has not, 

 we should like to know who has. He is 

 generally located miles from his market 

 town, whither he is often obliged to go 

 several times a week, to market, on busi- 

 ness, to church or lectures, and he can- 

 not afford to waste much of his valuable 

 time on the road. 



The lord knows animals have enough 

 to suffer from hunger, thirst, cold, from 

 beating and cruel and thoughtless own- 

 ers, 'rhej' are cut and slashed, burned 

 and blistered without mercy, and still 

 editors will publish ever}' old fogj- remedy 

 handed down from our old, heathenish, 

 ignorant ancestors; and more horses 

 have been spoiled by knives and hot 

 irons than have ever been cured by such 

 treatment, and it is time such abomin- 

 able practices were abolished and a more 

 common sense way adopted. Doctor a 

 horse as you would yourself, and your 

 will find it a vast improvement on the 

 system. If your horse has colic, instead 

 of trotting him around all the time, let 

 him lie still, and cover him with three or 

 four blankets and give large injections of 

 warm water and he will soon be all right. 



IxTEsTiNAL Para-sites. — Prof. Cobbold 

 marshals a considerable amount of evi- 

 dence to show that colic in horses is fre- 

 quently, in this country as well as in 

 India, produced by ascaris, strongyli, 

 and other internal worms. Over l,'2t)0 

 ascaridcs he mentions as having been re- 

 moved in a post mortem examination of 

 the intestines of one unfortunate horse. 

 It is a pity we have no record of the sen- 

 sations, the gastric arrangement, the 

 thriftness of appearance of this much- 

 afflicted animal. What an amount of 

 food these voracious vermin must have 

 consumed from the irritated intestines; 

 rolled in masses, as they often are, they 

 must frequently have formed an almost 

 hopeless obstruction. Thankful would 

 that wretched victim be to suffle off his 

 mortal coil. 



Breeding from Unsodnd Horses. — A. f 

 A. says, in the Country Gentleman, in an- \ 

 swer to an inquiry: Several years ago a , 

 neighbor of mine owned a stallion that ( 

 had the stringhalt, and many of his colts 

 had the stringhalt while following the 

 following the mare; many more of them 

 would be troubled with it after they bad ' 

 been used a short time, and 1 think the 

 colts, when kept to breed from, were 

 more liable to have the stringhalt than 

 those bred from a sound horse. 



The Press of the Day. 



We should not forget that the press is 

 the greatest educator of the day, and, 

 more than any other iustrumcutality, 

 gives caste to individual and national 

 character; and we should remember also 

 that this induence imposes a correspond- 

 ing responsibility upon ns. To meet 

 this heavy and far-reaching responsibili- 

 ty, and to make the press the palladium 

 indeed of American liberty, the elevating 

 lever of our advancing civilization, it 

 must have a moral conscience, and an 

 unyielding spine. Its influence and 

 patronage must be withdrawn from the 

 market. It must love the right and de- 

 terminedly stand by it. It must be used 

 no longer as the tool of demagogues to 

 foist them to office. It must break its 

 league with a remorseless money power, 

 and no longer assist it iu plowing its 

 schemes of fraud through legislation. It 

 must turn away from charletaus and im- 

 postors and refuse to longer recommend 

 them through its columns. It must 

 stand as a faithful guardian of the rights 

 as well as the trustworthy monitor to the 

 minds of the people. And upon the ap- 

 pearance of harm, be it from an open fue 

 or an insidious evil, it must have the 

 courage to give faithful warning to the 

 people, and strike telling blows for hu- 

 manity and the right. To do this, we 

 shall be caUed upon to thin out our ad- 

 vertising colums, and for a short time 

 our subscription list may be cut down, 

 and our revenues greatly lessened, so 

 that some of us may have to exchange 

 the quill for the hammer and plow hand- 

 les, but it will be well; our country will 

 have been saved, and humanity entered 

 upon the ascending note. 



We repeat, then, the great want of the 

 American press to-day, is conscience and 

 backbone. — Oregon Cultivator. 



Science of Money Briefly Stated. 



Under the above broad title, the publi- 

 cations of the New York Mercantile 

 Journal Company, (viz: The New Y'ork 

 Mereanlile Journal, the J)ry Goods Jour- 

 nal, the DriigqisL-i' Journal, the UardvMre 

 Price Current, and the Grocer's I'rir.e Cur- 

 rent,) are actively bringing the following 

 apothegm to the attention of the public; 

 claiming that the adoption of the system 

 of finance therein sit forth will prevent 

 both inflation and undue contraction, 

 thus removing all liability to monetai-y 

 panics, such as iu years past have so se- 

 riously disturbed the tntire industry of 

 the whole country an I entailed such 

 fearful loss upon all. 



"In the interchangability (at the op- 

 tion of the holder) of n.itioual paper 

 money with Government b^nds bearing 

 a fixed rate of interest, t',iere is a subtle 

 principle that will n gulate the move- 

 ments of finance and commerce as accu- 

 rately as the motion of a steam engine is 

 regulated by its "governor." Such paper 

 money tokens would be much nearer 

 perfect measures of value than gold and 

 silver ever can be. The u^e of gold or 

 other merchandise as moi ey is a barbar- 

 ism unworthy of the age." — Wallace i' 

 Groom. 



