744 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



No. 12 



but wherever the mover slopped to feed, or stay a 

 niglU, the disorder was produced and spread, uiilil 

 he reached tlie mountains; the nearer (he moun- 

 tains, the less the (hsorder spread, and only last- 

 ing one season, and when the mover <rot uito the 

 mountains, he took up camp Ibi some tune, and let 

 his oxen range in the mountains, and in a lew 

 days they lost that property which caused other 

 cattle 10 lake the distemi)er. The oxen were 

 worked with others raised in the mountains, with- 

 out any injury to them. This change it was be- 

 lieved was produced b}^ a change of food, water 

 and air, in the mountains. From these circum- 

 stances I am satisfied that tlie origin of the disor- 

 der is with caUle from the lower country, driven in 

 hot weather. 



The continuance of the disorder in any country, 

 and how communicated, is a mystery. In my first 

 acquaintance with it, when any cattle died, they 

 were burned up or buried, in order to prevent the 

 spreading of the disorder; but a cow driven in 

 hot weather from a place where the distemper has 

 never been, and she would take it, when not a 

 bone or any other part of those that died could be 

 seen. And so now in this section at this time. 

 You may remove a cow from distempered ground 

 to distempered ground, without much danger, but 

 not from undistempered ground. J have moved 

 cattle from sections where the distemper has never 

 prevailed, after hard frost has set, in, and never 

 lost l)ut one or two, when the summer set in. But 

 ever when I move from one distempered place to 

 another, in warm weather, I use some preventive, 

 by giving plenty of salt iuid wheat bran, or some- 

 thing to keep their bowels open. 



As to the cure of the disorder, there are many 

 remedies spoken of by diflerent persons. Some 

 use salts, giauber or Epsom, which I have known 

 to cure in many cases if given in time. Some 

 give calomel in large doses, and I have heard a 

 decoction of the May-apple root spoken of as ben- 

 eficial. Indeed I think any thing which will 

 purge is good. Castor oil will not answer; I have 

 .tried it. 



The best way is to use care and prevent the dis- 

 ,order from getting among your cattle. I had two 

 neighbors, whose cattle ran in the old fields 

 with their neighbors' cattle, who did not lose a 

 single head, when their neighbors' died, and in 

 the old fields where they fed. I asked them what 

 they used to prevent the disorder from getting in 

 their stock. One of them told me he did nothing 

 but salt highly, that he constantly kept salt in the 

 troughs in his cow-pen. The other said he used 

 salt freely and frequently, had tar put on them, 

 and in their troughs. It is said salting on the 

 ground is good. Any thing which will keep the 

 bowels of the cattle open is good ; but begin in 

 time, as the vvaini weather approaches. Keeping 

 in enclosures will not prevent the disease, nor will 

 ranging at large produce it, as I know from ex- 

 perience. 



The irentleman who "entertains the belief that 

 the hollow horn and the distemper are the same 

 disorder" is entirely mistaken. The appearance of 

 the cattle is very difierent, with the two disorders. 

 I have seen cattle have the hollow horn, where 

 the murrain distemper was never known, and cured 

 in the way he speaks of, by borinjj, and putting 

 in pepper and salt. Cattle having distemper may 

 have hollow horn for any thing I know, hut they 



will have hollow horn and not murrain, I well 

 know. Yours, &c. 



A Subscriber. 



P. S. Cows with hollow horn will eat well, but 

 not thrive; but cattle with murrain will not lijed, 

 or eat any thing. 



OKRA, OR ALVARADO COTTON. 



From the Farmer's Gazette. 



We make the following extract fi-om an adver- 

 tisement in the Columbia |)apers ofi'ering lor sale 

 the seed ofthis cotton. 



" Dr. J. H. Taylor from little more than 1-4 of 

 the stand he ought to have had, gathered upwards 

 of 1,200 lbs. per acre. The tbllowing is an extract 

 of a letter, from Dr. Taylor: You nmstobserve, 

 1 had not more than 1-4 of a stand, and planted, 

 too. at 5 leet, instead of 3; and yet I will make 

 about 1,200 lbs. per acre. I believe it capable, on 

 the same land, of yielding 5,000 lbs. planted at 

 5 feet in double rows. If I live another year I will 

 try a hundred acres thai way." Mr F. Al. Gil- 

 mer of Montgomery, Alabama, from as bad a 

 stand, gathered 1,400 lbs. to the acre. Mr. C. T. 

 Billing&lea, of Bibb Co. Alabama, from 1-4 of an 

 acre, gathered 1,060 lbs. and expected 200 lbs. 

 more. Mr. Aldridge, who first cultivated this 

 cotton, it is said, raised 3,000 lbs. per acre, this 

 year, and refused .'pSOjOOO li)r his crop of 30 acres. 

 Dr. J. H. Taylor, from 22,000 lbs. of seed cotton, 

 ginned 13 bales of 600 U)s. average ; or 35 lbs. of 

 clean, to 100 of the seed cotton. Jesse P. Tay- 

 lor, well known liere, weighed 425 lbs. of Petit 

 Gulf, and the same of okra, in the seed, and gin- 

 ned each ; the result was 124 lbs. of ginned Petit 

 Gulf, or 29 lbs. to the 100, and of okra 156 lbs. or 

 36 2-3 to each 100 lbs. of seed cotton. The staple 

 is decidedly finer." 



The price of the seed here offered for sale is S 100 

 per bushel, Si?20 per gallon, and $5 per quarts 

 which are stated to be the Alabama prices. 



LIME FOR THE MOUNTAIN LANDS. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 



I have lately made an excursion of pleasure 

 through the Blue Ridge mountains in various di- 

 rections from Aldie to Warrenton, and surely a 

 finer country no reasonable man could wish or de- 

 sire. Uplifted li-om the deep abysss as those moun- 

 tains evidently were, when old mother earth was 

 yet in her teens and callow leather, God only can 

 say what is ilieir age, but sure I am, that they are 

 old enough lor the comfort of man and beast. It 

 is not material to asricuhure whether they were 

 blown up by subterranean fires or lifted in her cal- 

 low leather by too near an approach to some rough 

 fisted planet, which in passing, may by way of 

 warning, exhibited some of ils gravitating and 

 whirlwind powers, and thereby lifted those ''cloud 

 capped" mountains from the lap of dear old mother 

 earth. Fearful and unscrutable are the ways of 

 God. It is said that lime is of no avail in those 

 mountains; but that plaster-of-paris is as fresh 

 and full in its operation as when first used 40 years 

 ago ; if so, age may be a substitute lor lime, or it 



