44 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 BONE DISORDER IN COWS. 



Mr. Editor : In my former communication upon 

 this subject, (Vol. I. p. o!i9,) I attempted to show 

 that there was such a disease, caused by the want of 

 proper food. It will be my object, at this time, to 

 show why it may exist in some sections of the 

 country, and not in others. Those farmers, in this 

 town, whose cows have been affected by it, have not 

 been in the habit of raisinir stock, but they have sold 

 their calves to the butclior. The farmer wlio keeps 

 ten cows, usually sells annually eight calves. These, 

 at five Aveeks old, will wei<;h one hundred and 

 twenty-five pounds each. Where this course has 

 been pursued for fifty years, there have been taken 

 from the soil twenty-five tons of animal matter, and 

 but small return made to it by the manure voided by 

 calves at this a>i;e. Now it will be obvious to every 

 one that this will sooner exhaust the animal matter 

 from the soil, than where they raise stock ; for the 

 ox that is kept until he weighs as much as the eight 

 calves, will have voided a larger amount of manure. 



It is the practice of most farmers here to purchase 

 heifers that arc driven from New Hampshire, Maine, 

 and Vermont, in the autumn, before they are three 

 years old, which are expected to calve in the spring. 

 This is a time when they will reipiire the largest 

 amount of animal matter to promote their own 

 growth, and furnish nutriment for their offspring. 

 It is these young cows that are most likely to be 

 affected by this disease. On Mr. Preston's farm, 

 alluded to in my last communication, for fifteen 

 years before they began to vise bone-meal, they were 

 not able to keep any of these until they were six 

 years old. They became so stiff and feeble that they 

 ■were obliged to dry them. Many of them were 

 driven to New Hampshire to a pasture that has 

 always been used for fattening cattle. There they 

 fatted as well as cows that had never been diseased. 



I will give my reason why I think that this disease 

 has not shown itself any more in Hamilton ; — yet I 

 think I have seen some signs of it there. When I 

 see the boards about the eow-yard look as if the cows 

 had been trying to eat them" up, it is a sure sign of 

 one form of this disease. The farmers in that town 

 are in the habit of using a considerable quantity of 

 hay from the salt marshes of Ipswich and Essex. I 

 have never seen any analysis of this grass ; but, from 

 the large quantity of lime in the shells of clams and 

 muscles, found about these raarshc?,, the inference is 

 that it contains a large amount of phosphate of lime. 



The pastures there jnay be as much e.-ihausted of 

 animal matter as here ; yet if a cow has had a full 

 supply of it during the winter, she will be able to "o 

 through the summer without showing the want of it. 

 It is the opinion of some there, that the manure 

 made from salt hay is better than that made when 

 the cattle arc fed upon English hay. The iuforencc 

 from this is, that it furnishes something to the soil, 

 •which the other does not. 



It is the practice of many there to keep a portion 

 of their best salt hay until the time the cows go to 

 pasture. They will often eat it then, when they will 

 not eat the best of English hay. 



If I am correct in supposing that it contains more 

 lime, it shows that they were giving it to their cows 

 at the very time they most needed it to prevent this 

 disease. 



It may not be, that those farms which have been 

 cultivated the longest are most exhausted of animal 

 matter. It depends more upon the manner of culti- 

 vation than upon the time. 



Perhaps we may ap]jly the same principle to feed- 

 ing milch cows, that we act upon m feeding hens. 

 When we see them trying to eat the lime from the 

 ■walls of their coop, we think they need it to form 



the shell of their eggs, and we give it to them in 

 oyster-shells, old mortar, and bones. So when we 

 see a cow trying to eat old bones, we should think 

 that she needs something of this sort to furnish milk. 



Ilcns that have been well supplied -^vith lime have- 

 enough in their system to enable them to form the 

 shells of eggs for several days after they are deprived 

 of it. When the ground is covered with snow they 

 sometimes lay eggs without shells. This is the same 

 as saying to us, — " If you will only furnish us with 

 the materials, we will give you the eggs." Thus it 

 is with a good cow that has not a supply of lime. 

 She gives us so much of it in milk, that she has not 

 enough to supply her own wants. 



The same principle may apply here, as we act upon 

 in regard to an orchard. We are often told that it is 

 not well to plant a young orchard where an old one 

 has just been removed. This is not because the soil 

 has become so poor ; but it has become deprived of 

 the particular ingredients necessary for a young tree. 

 If we sup]ily this, the tree will do as well as the for- 

 mer one did. 



In every instiince where I have seen this disease, 

 they have pursued that course which would be most 

 likely to exhaust the animal matter necessary for a 

 milch cow. 



In Doctor Dana's Muck Manual, it is stated that 

 the liquid evacuation of the cow contains a consider- 

 able quantity of pliosphate of lime. ^Vllen no atten- 

 tion is paid to preserving this, and the solid excre- 

 ments are exposed to the air, the most volatile and 

 valuable parts are lost. From this we may infer 

 that where there is a barn-cellar for preserving the 

 manure, the cows will not be so likely to have this 

 disease, and exi)crience will warrant tire conclusion. 



It is there stated also that peat-ashes abound in 

 phosphate of lime. If our peat-meadows are re- 

 claimed and cultivated, the hay which they produce 

 then win probably contain more phosphate than 

 that which grows upon them in their natural state. 

 Cows that are fed upon hay that grew upon re- 

 claimed meadows will not be affected by this disor- 

 der. 



By carting muck to our barn-cellars, to be wet by 

 the evacuations of the cows, wo not only increase 

 our manure, but it will abound in that particular 

 ingredient which the soil needs to produce proper 

 food for milch cows. 



I think I can give an instance showing the ben- 

 eficial results of muck in this respect. The farm of 

 Mr. Joseph Putnam is near to Mr. Preston's. This 

 has been for the last fifty years as much of a dairy- 

 farm as any in this neighborhood ; yet his cows havo 

 not been affected by this disorder. He has never 

 brought much manure on to his farm, but he has 

 annually carted a large quantity of muck into his 

 hog-pen and cow-yard; so that, twenty-five years 

 ago, his meadow mud-manure had become proverbial 

 in this neighborhood. Now cows, that are fed upon 

 grass that grows upon land which has been manured 

 with this compost, will not be so apt to have this 

 disorder, as where nothing but the solid excrements 

 oi" the cow had been applied to the soil. 



Wlien I began, I intended to say something about 

 thirt disorder where I have seen it in other places ; 

 but 1 have already trespassed too much upon your 

 patience. WILLIAM 11. PUTNAM. 



>J^ORTii Danvers, Dec. 28. 



R?;ma2ks. — The term animal matter is used by our 

 corrospondtnt in reference to the phosphate of lime, 

 or bone- earth, which enters into the composition of 

 the animal's bonog. Before their formation, the 

 materials may be called mineral maiter ; but after 

 forming a part of the crcivture, tliey are animal mat- 

 tor, as much so as the flcih, horns, or hoofs. 



