224 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



five pounds and eight ounces, and measured from 

 eleven to twelve inches in length. lie spreads fif- 

 teen loads of about 30 bushels each of manure up- 

 on the land, and some ten or twelve loads in the 

 hill. He also showed us a specimen of a very early 

 variety, which lie said was fit for boiling in nine 

 weeks after planting, which was done the past 

 year on the 9,h of June. This is a white or bufiF- 

 colored variety, eight-rowe . with shorter ears, and 

 though good for cooking is not a "sweet corn." He 

 obtained the seed in Roikport, Mass., and says 

 that he has increased the original size of the ears 

 about one-third by cultivation. He is now hybrid- 

 izing it with a larger variety. Specimens of both 

 these varieties may be seen at the seed store of 

 Hovey & Co., Boston. 



We also made some inquiry as to his manner of 

 feeding his cows which are the only horned stock 

 that he keeps. He thinks much of corn stover. 

 Winters two cows on the husks and st^ilks of an 

 acre of corn, and tliexlover hay from another acre 

 of land. His stalks are run through a hay-cutter, 

 and for a feed he fills the one-half of a flour bar- 

 rel sawed in the middle, wets them with cold wa- 

 ter and adds a quart of shorts and a little salt to 

 the lAess for each cow. Such a feed is given night 

 and morning. At noon the cows have dry hay or 

 stalks. From each half barrel mess of cut corn 

 stover his cows reject as orts from one to four 

 quarts of the hardest stalks. This keeps his cows 

 i 1 good order; one of them at this time being In 

 fair condition for the butcher. 



His larm keeps his hands and his mind busy. 

 In the ttudy of nature as her powers are dis- 

 played in hybridization, in the various processes of 

 grjw;b, maturity and reproduction of crops and 

 animals, he never tires. Every season, every 

 day brings something new, and he has no desire 

 for the pleasures and amusements of city life. 



WEW^ PUBLICATIONS. 



On the Cattle Plague: rr, Contagious Typhus in 

 i^or cdCalle 1 s Uisiory, Ougin Desur ption, and 

 'irfalmmt. By U Buu gi.i.noii, D^'tor ot the Fac- 

 liliit; lie I'aris, Follow of t e Sockly i!e Medicine de 

 Vari- : Laur^at;of tlie liislitute ct Fiance, Member 

 oi ihj Leyion of iioiior, etc. Phildtlphia: J. U. 

 Lippi colt K C).; L ndo . : J. Churchill & Sons; 

 Bub.on: Lee & citiepa. d 18(i9. 



As indicated by the title page, this work is di- 

 vided into four parts : the first contains the history 

 of thi^ tyi'hus from the remotest times down to the 

 prei^erit day ; the second part gives a description of 

 the disease ; the third gives *.ome plain instructions 

 feT the benefit of faimers, cattle-dealers, and elai- 

 rymen ; and the feiurth part treats of the scientitic 

 means and salV guards to be adopted to prevent in 

 future buihastate of helpless panic as England 

 fell i:ito on the late appearance of the disease in 

 that country. 



The author objects to the use of the word 

 "Pkigiie" as borrowed from the gloomy vocabulary 

 of the middle ages, and as tending to perpetuate 

 or cover up popular iguoiauce, and tays the com- 



mon habit of confining our observations of dis- 

 ease *to the phenomena which strikes the eyes, 

 instead of fixing them on the general causes 

 by which these phenomena have been produced, 

 leads to misapprehension both as to the nature and 

 treatment of cattle complaints. Believing that the 

 disorder— rinderpest, plague, or ox- typhus— which 

 was so fatal to the herds of England is the same 

 as that which has prevailed in Eurcpe from the 

 earliest times, even from the days of Homer and 

 Plutarch, he censures the indifference which is 

 manifested in one country to the fiict of the exist- 

 ence in another country of this or other fearful his- 

 toric "epizooty." He regards the quarantine 

 measures that are frequently adopted on the ap- 

 proach of diseases as of little avail, for the real 

 plague, typhus and cholera may be borne along by 

 the winds of heaven, and pass over the longest dis- 

 tances and the highest obstacles. Hq does not be- 

 lieve, as some contend, that the "ox typhus" as h6 

 prefers to call the Cattle Plague, is owing to any 

 peculiar organization of cattle in those sections to 

 which its origin has generally been traced, but to 

 the climate and circumstances in which they are 

 reared, and to the effects of the hardships to which 

 they are exposed in their transportation to market. 

 In relation to the climate, &c., of the banks of the 

 Volga, Don and Dnieper rivers in Russia, and the 

 Danube in Hungary, Mr. Bourguignon, says : — 



In those countries which are damp, argillace- 

 ous, and swampy, and which are inundated by the 

 overflows of their hikes and rivers, or l)y the re- 

 flux of the sea, there is deposited a slimy or brack- 

 ish water, which a temporary torrid heat after- 

 wards causes to formcnt; and then a superabun- 

 dance of life, a teeming vegetation, springs up in 

 all directions. In the mids-t of this swarming vi- 

 tali y live and thrive an infinity of worms, mag- 

 gots, animalculaj, insects, mollusca, fish, reptiles, 

 birds, &c.; and here, too, all these creatures die 

 and decay, when this slime, the prolific source of 

 generations which we might, look upon as sponta- 

 neous, begins to dry up and disintegrate. Then 

 from these organic vegetable and animal matters, 

 in a state of decomposition, escape those deleteri- 

 ous gases, such as hydrogen, carbonic oxide, nitro- 

 gen, carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and 

 even phosphoretted hyeirogen. 



01 ten to ail these causes of infection arc added 

 myriads of grasshoppers, which cover the ground, 

 where they die, aggravating the mats of i)cstiler- 

 ous vapor which fills the a^mo^phcre. Finally, 

 the water which slakes the thir,-t of the herds of 

 cattle is corrupted ; the plants on which th( y feed 

 distil poisons; the air, the water, and tlie plants, 

 carry within them a princip e of venom andeleath. 

 Alter thi>, how can we be surprised if this llaod of 

 putrid emanations is translormed into a e'onta- 

 giuus typliic virus, whose sui;tlc and pcsiikntial ef- 

 fluvia are conveyed by the ox to consideraLile dis- 

 tances ? 



In relation to the power of man and of di Jerent 

 animals to resist the causes which produce conta- 

 gious diseases, the author states a theory which 

 is new to us. He says : — 



"It is an important fact, which deserves our 

 most pointed attention and consideration, iliat the 

 vital rcfistauce inherent in the animal frame to 

 withstand the attacks of these contagious diseases, 

 is very tar from being the same throughout the 



