294 



XEW ENGLAND FARjMER. 



June 



all they say ? For one, I don't think the editor 

 responsible for all the noise they make. I like to 

 know what is going on, and to keep posted on 

 things new and old. Others like your Extracts 

 and Replies ; and I am sorry that he is not suited. 

 The more farmers write the better. They, and not 

 the editof, are responsible for what they say. I 

 am a constant i-eadtr of the Farmer, and have 

 been for a number of years, and if any one has 

 anything new to say, I hope he will out with it. 

 The more we differ the more we shall leam. That 

 would be a dull paper in which no difftrence of 

 opinion or expression was allowed. Dont you 

 think so, Mr. Smith ? b. l. 



Framingham, Mass., April 20, 1869. 



TAPE AVORMS IN SHEEP. 



I would like to inquire of you or some of your 

 correspondents the cause, symptoms, prevention 

 and cure of the tape worm in sheep ? 1 have lost 

 several sheep this winter, one of which discharged 

 a large worm several feet in length. Perhaps 

 some of the others might have died Irom the same 

 cause, but I did not make exammation, owintc to 

 my ignorance of anything of the kind. I have 

 recently learned that one of my townsmen has 

 lost several fiom a choice flock, some of which 

 had tape worms ten or even twenty tcet in length. 

 Is not this something uncommon ? Subscriber. 



Grantham, iV. H., April 22, 1869. 



Remarks. — Mr. Randall says in the Practical 

 Shepherd that he has never heard of but a single 

 case of worms proving injurious in the intestines 

 of sheep in this country. He however cites from 

 Mr. Spooner a case in England where some fifty 

 Iambs laboring under a violent diarrhcsa, were 

 found to have large numbers of tape-worms— 

 Ttsnia plicata—avd several large round worms. A 

 total change in the diet was made at once, and the 

 following medicine given : — castor oil one ounce ; 

 powdered opium three grains; starch one ounce; 

 boiling water sufficient to make a draught. Thin 

 starch was given night and morning. The lambs 

 improved. After administering this medicine four 

 or five days a stimulant was given to destroy the 

 parasites: linseed oil, two ounces; oil of turpentine 

 four drachms. One dose only was given to some 

 of them, others required two, and a few had three 

 or four in the courseof the following month>, and 

 theu all were well. So much for book doctoring 

 of wormy sheep. Who will help "Subscriber" to 

 more practical information ? The dictionary de- 

 lines tape-worm as a "broad, flat, many pointed 

 worm, often many feet in length." Does that cor- 

 respond with those found in the sheep in Gran- 

 tham ? The books say that when the eggs of the 

 tape worm are swallowed by the hog or other ani- 

 mal they hatch out and, like the trichina, find 

 their way into the muscles, where they become 

 cists or "measles." Then when these cists or 

 measles are taken into the stomach they become 

 the real tape worm, which sometimes attains the 

 enormous length of 100 feet. We published last 

 year, page 133 Monthly Farmer, and weekly issue 

 of January 25, a statement by an Ohio farmer that 

 on opening the intestines of one sheep that had 

 died of what was supposed to be the pale disease, 

 he found a worm perhaps one-third of an inch 

 wide, with points about an eight of an inch in 



length, but which came arart so easily that he 

 could not measure it, but supposed it was nearly 

 forty feet in length. It was of a whitish color, 

 slightly yellow. The part of the worm forward 

 terminated in a point, and was round for perhaps 

 fifteen or twenty inches. Several of his neighbors 

 had also found similar worms in their sheep. 



RAISING calves. 



Almost every farmer has a way of his own for 

 raising calves, and no doubt thinks it the best — at 

 least I do mine- -for I have tried all ways but 

 feeding them hay tea. 



If I can manage to find the calf before it has 

 sucked, and I generally do, I take it away from 

 the cow because, in the first place, the cow does 

 not make half the fuss she would if ihe calf were 

 to suck a week or so. I have cows seven or tight 

 years old that never suckled a calf, and they make 

 no fuss to speak of. In the next place the calf 

 learns to drink quicker and better. I let it get 

 quite hungry, then take some milk in a dish and 

 with my tinker in its mouth, put the call's nose to 

 the milk; but as soon as its nose is in the milk I 

 withdraw my finger and it will soon drink. I have 

 had them drink without fuither trouble by hold- 

 ing the di^h to their mouth, so that the milk would 

 touch their nose. In two or three weeks I turn 

 them with my cows, and as they know nothing 

 about sucking, and as the cow would not allow 

 them to do so if they would, I have no tronule in 

 letting them go to pasture tngLthcr. 



I agree with Mr. Ilartwell in what he said in the 

 Farmer of April 13, as to the milk, but as to grass 

 I do not. 1 do not see why grass should be with- 

 held from a calf more than irom a colt or Jamb, 

 All farmers know that grass is necessary to make 

 young animals grow, unless they have plenty of 

 milk or meal. 



I think new milk the cheapest, although it seems 

 tocot quite, a sum to raise calves on new milk 

 when butter is forty cents a jioiind; but it does 

 not cost so much to winter calves thus fed as it 

 does those that are raised on skim milk. New 

 milk calves do not stop growing when weaned; 

 mine seem hardy to know when thty are weaned, 

 as when they are three or four months old 1 feed 

 less every day, finally drop the moinir g mess, and 

 teed them at night, only, lor a few days. In that 

 way they have a good appetite for grass and do 

 well. 



About three years ago a townsman happened at 

 my place when my cows eatue from pasture at 

 night "Why," said he, "do you let >cur calves 

 suek ?" I told him my method of lai-ing calves. 

 The next year he told me that the inturiiiaiion I 

 gave liim was worth fifteen eloll irs as he laiaed five 

 calves with the least trouble he ever had. 



If these lines benefit any one I shall be satisfied, 

 though it is quite a task lor me to write. I see 

 Mr. ilartwell is down on the swine, but 1 like 

 good pork. C. F. Lixcoln. 



Woodstock, Vt., April 2G, 1869. 



"cracking up new things." 

 As to your remarks on my inquiries of March 

 14, I have but a few words to say. I do not know 

 as you could do any different than you do in re- 

 gard to "new thnigs." But it does seem rather 

 hard for honest farraers to be so unmercifully 

 swindled out of their hard earned money by de- 

 signing men, who live and get iieh on the sweat of 

 llie l)rows of somei)udy else. No class eif men are 

 so often humbugged and swindled as tarmers, who 

 are ofien induceii to purchase by what lliey read 

 m the papers about great laiior saving machines, or 

 some new kind of seed which is of inestimable 



