88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



but, if you have any old horse blanket or anything that Avill 

 absorb hot water, wrap her up in it from her head to her 

 tail, and my word for it she will get well, if you take it in 

 season. 



I am sure you have all been perfectly delighted with the 

 exceedingly interesting and admirable lecture which Gov- 

 ernor Hoard has given us upon the dairy cow, and therefore 

 I move a vote of thanks. 



The motion was seconded and carried unanimously. 



Mr. Ware. I would like to ask the governor if he can 

 explain the relation between the nervous condition of a cow 

 in milk-fever, and another cure, which is a pint of rum. One 

 dose is usually sufficient, but a second one is sure to cure. 

 Now, this is a nervous condition, and rum taken by indi- 

 viduals puts them in a nervous condition. I would like to 

 know whether there is any relation between the two, accord- 

 ing to the homoeopathic theory of medicine that "like cures 

 like." Rum will produce a nervous condition perhaps dif- 

 ferent from the nervous condition of a cow in milk-fever, 

 and the remedy I have suggested is a sure cure. Bear it in 

 mind, gentlemen. If you have a cow taken with milk-fever, 

 give her a pint of rum, or whiskey will do ; you may repeat 

 the dose in four hours, and you will save your cow. Is 

 there any relation between the nervous condition and the 

 remedy or cure ? 



Governor Hoard. The only difficulty I see in that is, 

 that up in our country the man would get it, and the cow 

 would go without. But, speaking soberly, I do not know 

 that I ever heard of that remedy. I never had but one case 

 of milk-fever, which occurred in a very valuable Guernsey 

 cow last spring. I should never have had that if I had been 

 attending to my own business, instead of that of the people 

 of Wisconsin. I have always been enabled to prevent it 

 when I have had a chance to look after my own cattle. So 

 far as the symptoms of the rum are concerned, I am reminded 

 of a story. We had in our State a very wicked fellow by 

 the name of Luke Taylor, and he used to get into that same 

 milk-fever condition which you speak of. He met a fellow, a 

 stranger to him, one day on the steamboat going up to St. 

 Paul, and they both got in that same feverish condition. 



