254 FARMER'S ASSISTANT, 



increasing paleness of the eyes, and general debility. The 

 beast should be immediately housed and put to dry food, 

 and this, in the early stages of the disease, will generally 

 effect t cure. 



Should it, however, fail, it is directed, in the work last 

 mentioned, to boil a pound of mutton suet in three quarts of 

 milk, till the former is dissolved, and give it to the beast in 

 a lukewarm state ; or, in obstinate cases, boil half a pound 

 of powdered chalk in two quarts of water, till it is reduced 

 to three pints ; add four ounces of hartshorn shavings, one 

 of casia, and stir the whole together. When cold, add a 

 pint of limewater and two drachms of the tincture of opium; 

 keep the whole in a corked bottle, and, after shaking it be- 

 fore using, give one or two hornsful, two or three times a 

 day, as the nature of the case may require. Sometimes, 

 however, this disease proves incurable. 



Cattle sometimes become ho-vcn, as it is termed, owing 

 to eating too much, when first turned into rich pastures, to 

 swallowing potatoes, or other roots, without sufficient chew- 

 ing, and to other causes. The stomach of the animal be- 

 comes distended with wind, and if a vent for this cannot be 

 afforded the beast must die. 



The usual remedy is to open a hole with a sharp-pointed 

 kniie, with a blade three or tour inches long, between the 

 hip and the short ribs, where the swelling rises highest, 

 and insert a small tube in the orifice, till the wind ceases to 

 be troublesome. The wound will soon heal again. 



But some of the English Graziers have adopted an im- 

 proved method of obviating this complaint: This is by 

 providing a flexible tube, with a knob at one end ; the tube, 

 with the knob-end foremost, is run down the throat of the 

 beast into us stomach, and then the confined air escapes 

 through the tube. The operation is repeated, it necessary. 

 The tube for a large Ox should be upwards of six feet 

 long, as that is about the length requisite to reach the bot- 

 tom of his stomach. 



The method recommended by Mr. Young, for curing this 

 complaint, is, to take three-fourths of a pint of olive-oil, and 

 a pint of melted butter, or hogslard, and pour this mixture 

 down the throat of the beast; and, if no favorable change 

 be produced in a quarter of an hour, repeat the dose. For 

 Sheep, about a gill should, in like manner, be given, and 

 the dose repeated, if necessary, Mr. Young asserts this to 

 be a specific, which will not fail of a cure in half an hour. 



To prevent this disorder, cattle should not be turned at 

 first with empty stomachs into rich pastures ; nor should 

 they be allowed to feed on potatoes and some other roots, 

 without their being first steam-boiled, or cut in pieces. 

 Where a beast, however, happens to get one of these in its 



