NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



143 



that it was the practice of the farmers in that town 

 to feed out salt hay to their working oxen after they 

 were turned out to pasture ; but I knew that many 

 of them fed it to their milch cows after they went to 

 pasture. 



I have known milch cows to eat it at that time 

 with greediness, when they would not eat English 

 haj', or lick salt. He asks if it also furnishes the 

 bone material for our oxen. So far as the system of 

 the ox requires the bone material, I think it may ; 

 and when the food contains more than the system 

 requires, it passes off in the excrements. Tliis maj' 

 account for the remark I once heard one of his near- 

 est neighbors make, that he thought the manure 

 made when cattle were fed upon salt hay was better 

 than that made from English haj'. 



My Umited obsers'ation and superficial knowledge 

 led me to think that the salt and lime daily deposited 

 upon the mai-shes by the tide, would cause them to 

 produce hay abounding in phosphate. Ilis informa- 

 tion and research led him to think that if the cold 

 and inert soil did not abound in phosphate, the hay 

 would not. I think the soils in many of our old 

 fields where the corn grows, which he says contains 

 so much phosphate of lime, do not abound in it, 

 before the manure is applied. 



But if we admit that salt hay does not contain 

 any more phosphate of lime than English, yet the 

 salt, as it passes through the various chemical 

 changes in the stomach of the cow and in the soil, 

 may there form phosphate of lime, so that the soil 

 will not be so much exhausted as whore nothing is 

 brought on to the farm from a foreign source. 



The expression, " well fed upon good English hay 

 and Indian meal," I used in mylirst communication, 

 to vindicate my neighbors from the implied reproach 

 cast upon them for not feeding their cows well. 

 ^^^len our correspondent said. If cows are well fed, 

 who would ever dream of their bones being disordered. 



He says that Indian corn contains seventeen per 

 cent, of phosphate of lime, and then he asks how I 

 will reconcile this fact with my theory. 



I will thank him first to refer me to the analysis 

 where it is stated that Indian corn contains so much 

 phosphate of lime ; if it is a fact that it contains so 

 much, then I will give my views upon it. 



In Dr. Dana's iluck Manual, page 51, it is 

 stated that Indian corn contains one and a half per 

 cent, of phosphate and sulphate of lime, about the 

 same as marsh mud. In the same work, page 132, 

 it saj's, " and one cow daily produces, in excrements, 

 salts of lime sufficient for half a bushel of corn." If 

 we add to this the phosphate of lime contained in 

 eight quarts of milk, given daily by a cow, we shall 

 see how she may dispose of the phosphate in four 

 quarts of Indian meal per day, which is a good 

 allowance, even if it docs contain as much as he says. 



In his first eomiiiuuication, Mr. Dodge says, that 

 the soil in one pkice may Ix; as much exhausted as 

 another, judging from the length of time it has been 

 cultivated. It was my object to show that it did not 

 depend so much upon the time that it had been cul- 

 tivated as upon the course pursued, in exhausting 

 the animal matter from the soil. I stated that i 

 thought the practice of selling calves to the butcher, 

 would exhaust the soil more of this ingredient than 

 it would to raise cattle as they do in some parts of 

 the country. I did not confine my remark to the 

 county ; I admitted the practice was the same in 

 other paits of the country. 



I do not understiuid what ho intends by saying 

 " nine tcntlis of tlic calves in this pai't of the country 

 are sold to the butclier. If tliis exhaust the soil of 

 phosphate of lime in our part of the country, why 

 should it not exhaust it in another ? " 



Several years ago, I was in the habit of visiting an 

 aged farmer, who resided in the northern^ pai-t of 



Middlesex county. He prided himself much upon 

 the good appearance of his cows. I was there in 

 May of 18tG. Speaking of his cows, he said that for 

 two or three years past, they had not done so well 

 as formerly after they calved ; and this year thev are 

 worse than ever ; " they are sick, but I "do not know 

 what ails them." His daughter said, " Perhaps vour 

 hay is not so good as it used to be." He said it could 

 not be that, for his oxen were fed upon the same 

 kind of hay, and they did well. He said he was 

 ashamed of his cows, they wore so poor, but he could 

 not help it ; it was not because he did not feed them 

 well ; he gave them as much meal as he did his 

 oxen — four quarts of Indian meal each per day. 

 His oxen were good beef, the cows so poor that they 

 could scarcely get up alone : their appearance was 

 the same as that described in the American Veteri- 

 narian, page 221. He showed me the hay. It was 

 what is generally considered hearty hay, such as 

 grows upon bound out land. For many years there 

 had not been any hay, grain, or manure brought on 

 to the farm. The principal crojis sold were hops, 

 oats, and the produce of the dairy. I wUl not draw 

 any inference. 



Absurd and visionary as your correspondent thinks 

 this whole theory to be, it is not the language of 

 exaggeration to say, that the information jjublished 

 in the Massachusetts I'loughman, which led to the 

 use of bone meal for this disorder, has been of more 

 practical advantage to several farmers in this neigh- 

 borhood than all the other agricultural information 

 published for the last twenty-five years. 



There arc some things connected with this theory 

 which we cannot now fully explain ; but it is founded 

 upon a very simple principle — that a milch cow re- 

 quires more phosphate of lime than a dry one. If it 

 can be shown that she docs not, then I will reject it. 



If he will tell us how the fat and Uiuscle w;i.ste 

 away when an animal does not receive sufficient 

 food, then, perhaps, we shall be able to tell him how 

 the bones waste away when they do not receive 

 proper nourishment. 



So long as we find this disorder confined to those 

 fiirms where there has been a course of cultivation ])ur- 

 sued that would most exhaust the phosphate of lime, 

 and the oxen and dry cows do well, the milch cows 

 become diseased, and when bone meal is given to 

 them, they recover, the natural inference is, that the 

 disorder is caused by the want of phosphate of lime. 

 I may not draw any infcrencc so logitimateh^ as to 

 command the assent of vour corrcsijondent >ipon tliLs 

 subject. WILLIAM P. PUTNAiL 



NouTH Danveus, A2>ril 3, 18-50. 



Kkmaeks. — We believe, as our correspondent has 

 shown, that on old farms, where cows are kept for the 

 dairy, the land becomes exhausted of bone earth, or 

 phosphate of Umc, so that it does not supply fodder 

 having a usual quantity of this ingredients The 

 consequence is, that there is a \va.nt of phosphate of 

 lime to supply the milk with one ounce of this ma- 

 terial to every twenty gallous, according to chcmiial 

 analysis, and that a further supply is necessary to 

 supi>ort tlie bones and system geaerally. 



In sotjie cases farmers have changed their dairy 

 business to that of raising stock, in consequence of 

 the bone disorder amojig their cows^ a;id instead of 

 sick cows, they have had healthy animals. 



Now, it seems, that we have found the cause and 

 cure of this disease, and the symi)toras also ; and the 

 only question is, wliether the disease is rightly named. 

 If not, will some pathologist explain the subject and 

 assign the proper name ? — Eu. 



