78 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



for the purposes of specu'ation has, no doubt 

 otien been lounded on very inlerior stock. The 

 true Berkshirea have thus been made to bear 

 not only their own burdens, but have been charg- 

 ed wiih the sins of a whole herd of worthless 

 nioni^rels. However breeds may be denoted by 

 ceriain external marks, eiiher ol color or shape, 

 no rule tor all cases can be invariably established : 

 there will occasionally be exceptions. Durban) 

 rows generally run into liijht colors, and it is 

 more absurd to say that Berkshire pigs are or 

 are not pure on account of their feet or tail, than 

 to condemn a Durham cow which happened to 

 be of a red color, or had a dark nose. P. M. 

 East Bradford, Chester Co., Pa. 



MURRAIN IN CATTLE. 



From the Farineis' Cabinet. 



We have sad accounts from England respect- 

 ing the faial disease which is carrying oH' their 

 catile by hundreds, and think that Mr. A. B. 

 Allen did wisely in abstaining lor the present from 

 bringing over any horned cattle. It is said the 

 veterinary surgeons term the disease the bloody 

 murrain, and consider it infectious : now I know 

 not how ihis can be, for amongst ihe very many 

 cases that I have witnessed, 1 have never been 

 able to convince myself of that fact. It is true 

 that to a casual observer it may have the apjiear- 

 ance of being so, for the cattle in a large pas- 

 ture; or even in a whole parish or hundred, will 

 oftentimes be aitackcd by it, and the disorder will 

 spread abro.id like a contagious fi'.ver, but 1 have 

 no doubt the evil arises from a disordered state of 

 the digestive organs, brought on by an unwhole- 

 some state of the atmosphere, or by feeding on 

 unhealthy pastures, those low, cold and damp 

 meadows, infested by aquatic plan's, which, being 

 taken imo the stomach, become pnirid and indi- 

 gestible ; and thus that noisome and putrid dis- 

 ease is engendered. For I have known one 

 half the catile upon a certain farm to be carried 

 off by it, while not a single case has occurred on 

 the immediately adjoining estate, but on the next 

 farm again to that, the whole herd has been 

 swept away ; and just so have I observed the 

 produce of their pasture lands to vary from dry, 

 eweet and healthy herbage, to that which is long, 

 moist, sour and unwholesome. And 1 am incli- 

 ned to believe that the murrain in cattle, like the 

 botts in horses, may be considered an effect, ra- 

 ther than a cause, both disorders arising, perhaps, 

 from an unhealthy stale of digestion, by which 

 is engendered a disease, which, although it 

 must be termed epidemic, might not be by any 

 means inleclious ; indeed I well remember a dairy 

 of fine cows which was thinned to less than one- 

 half its original number, where the individuals 

 were attacked by the disease on bemg confined to 

 their winter quarters, the occupants of stalls 

 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, &c., being carried oH', while the 

 intermediate numbers escaped uninjured, and 

 remained in perfect health. 



But to many persons it will no doubt seem 

 strange to consider the origin of two disorders, so 

 very different in their appearance, symptoms and 

 effects, as the botts and murrain, as arising Irom 

 the same cause, namely, indigestion, but as I 



conceive that thny are engendered by a disordered 

 state of the stomach caused by sour and unwhole- 

 some (bod, and that they might both be cured, or 

 which is better, he prevented, by timely adminis- 

 tration of a medicine, 'alkaline in its nature, I 

 believe that reason will bear me out in the conclu- 

 sion lo which I am partly led by perusing an 

 article on this subject in the Cabinet, vol. 4, p. 

 177, wiiere it is said — quoting Irom the American 

 Farmer — " Some years since 1 purchased ahorse, 

 but he had the appearance of laboring under 

 disease ; I commenced a course of treatment 

 which 1 had before pursuer! in cases similar to 

 appearance, but without effect ; I was therefore 

 induced to try the use of lime, as I was confident 

 he was filled with botts, (or he had discharged 

 several ; I therefore commenced by giving him a 

 table-spoonlul of slacked lime three times a week 

 in bran mashes. Alter pursuing this course 

 near two weeks, the botts began to pass away 

 in qunntities, varying from ten to twenty, which 

 he would expel (rora his intestines during the 

 night; in the mean time his appetite began to 

 improve, and in six weeks he was one of the 

 finest geldings 1 ever saw ; from that day to this 

 I have ki'pt up the use of lime amongst my 

 horses with decided benefit; and as an evidence 

 of its good effects, I have not lost a horse since I 

 began to use it. And lime is a certain preventive 

 in keeping cattle (rom taking the murrain. As 

 an evidence of this (act, I have used it among my 

 cattle three times a week, mixed with salt, for 

 three or (bur years, and in that time I have not 

 lost a single animal by this disease; but in the 

 mean lime some of my neighbors have lost nearly 

 all the cattle they owned. But I will give a 

 stronger case than even the one above mentioned. 

 One of my neighbors who lost all his cattle, had 

 a friend living within two hundred yards o( him, 

 who had several cattle which ran daily with 

 those that died, and his cattle all escaped— he 

 informed me that he made it an invariable rule to 

 give his cattle salt and lime every morning. I 

 have, therefore, no doubt but salt and lime are a 

 sure and inlallible remedy for botts in horses and 

 murrain in cattle." 



And I am reminded of a circumstance by a 

 friend, who has often before mentioned it ; he had 

 two fields of pasture near his house — on one of 

 these he spread lime upon the turf to the amount 

 of more than 200 bushels per acre, but as the 

 other field lay immediately below his cattle-yard, 

 from whence he had formed drains to carry the 

 water over its surface in the most complete man- 

 ner, he determined to let thateuflice for a dress- 

 ing ; and the effect of the highly impregnated 

 water from the yard was a growth of grass truly 

 astonishing. Both fields were kept in pasture, 

 and when the stock had eaten one of them down, 

 they were removed to the other, and so changed 

 regularly about ; but the effect of the different 

 crops on the appearance of the stock, horses and 

 cattle, is not to be expressed, for while feeding on 

 the limed land their coajs were close, shining and 

 healthy, and their spirits light and cheerful, even 

 when they were compelled to labor hard to obtain 

 a bellyful ; but when turned into the watered 

 grass, six inches or more in height, a difference 

 for the worse could be perceived in 24 hours, and 

 every day after they lost condition amidst the 

 I greatest abundancej with coats rough and staring, 



