NEW PRACTICE. 271 



calved May 22nd, at noon. The following day she began to 

 stagger about the stall and show signs of milk fever. In the 

 course of an hour she became exhausted and lay prostrate in 

 the stall, unable to raise her head. The iodide, or Schmidt 

 treatment, as it is called, was applied, and in fifteen minutes 

 after the injection the cow was standing, and a half hour 

 later began to eat." Schmidt's treatment for milk fever is 

 not empirical, but strictly scientific. By the aid of the micro- 

 scope the disease was discovered to be due to a minute or- 

 ganism which developed first in the udder, and then, passing 

 into the blood, caused fatal symptoms. It was then only a 

 question of finding a suitable antiseptic for injection into the 

 udder. Iodide of potash was that antiseptic ; and where the 

 case is taken in time, it never fails to cure. The cases cited 

 are indicative not only of the new method of treating milk 

 fever, but of the scientific nature of the new practice in deal- 

 ing with animal diseases generally. 



Throughout fully three-fourths of the farm area of this 

 country the conservation of the soil's fertility is a new prac- 

 tice, which, perhaps, not more than one man in a county on 

 an average is at this moment introducing to his neighbors, not 

 so much by his precept as by his example. This will doubtless 

 be interesting reading to the farmers of the Eastern States, 

 where the custom is common and where its importance is well 

 understood; but instead of preening themselves upon their 

 superior shrewdness they should remember that they were 

 forced to the practice by the fierce competition that sprang up 

 with the development of the new and fertile fields of the 

 central West. Early in the history of agriculture in this 

 country it was the custom to farm a piece of land until the 

 soil was worn out. When it would no longer produce a 



