336 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



GARGET. 



Mr. Brottn : — At this season of the year, 

 many cows are afflicted with what is called gar- 

 get — the premonitory symptoms of which are, 

 want of energy, dullness, running at the nose 

 and eyes, loss of appetite, &c., &c., and, unless 

 successfully treated, usually results in seated in- 

 flammation. The udder is generally the seat of 

 inflammation, which, in severe cases, becomes 

 ■very much enlarged, and has the appearance of 

 being filled with knobs, or bunches of diflerent 

 forms and sizes, and many times extremely sensi- 

 tive upon the slightest pressure ; not unfre- 

 quently tumors, from which pus is discharged, 

 and the cow rendered nearly worthless for the 

 season, and may be entirely worthless for the 

 dairy ever after, and only fit for the butcher. I 

 know many slight cases of this disease have been 

 successfully treated by giving the animal garget- 

 root, sulphur, salt, saltpetre, &c. ; but will you, 

 or some of your many readers, inform me, through 

 the medium of your monthly publication, the best 

 method of treatment for a severe case ? 



flammation in the part. Connected with this 

 last cause is the necessity of the advice already 

 given, to milk the cow as clean as possible, at 

 least twice in the day, during the existence and 

 treatment of garget. 



Treatment. — A little time before and after 

 calving, particularly in tlie first birth, often too 

 at other periods, there is observed on the udder a 

 painful inflammatory swelling : the organ is 

 hard, tense, hot and red ; the entire, or only a 

 part, is aflPected with swelling. The animal has 

 rather high fever, a sharp thirst, the mouth is 

 dry, and there is but little appetite ; the secre- 

 tion of milk is more or less diminished. If it 

 has been caused by external injury, frequently 

 moistening the part with arnica water is sufli- 

 cient to cure it ; a dose of it should also be 

 taken internally every day. Arsenicum should 

 be employed only when the disease has been neg- 

 lected, or when there have supervened gangrenous 

 inflammation or ill-conducted ulcerations, with 

 hard and everted edges. After cold, the cure is 

 readily obtained hj aconitum at first, then hry- 

 onia ; if the latter does not suffice, dulcamara. 

 Chamomilla, also, has frequently proved useful. 



Rejiarks. — In reply, we copy from Youatt and 

 Martin on Cattle. Perhaps some of our readers 

 rmay suggest a simple remedy. There is annually 

 very considerable loss to farmers from this dis- 

 ease. 



Garget, or Sore Bag. — Too often, however, 

 the inflammation assumes another and worse 

 character : it attacks the internal substance of 

 the udder ; one of the teats or the quarters be- 

 comes enlarged, hot, and tender ; it soon begins 

 to feel hard and knotty ; it contains within it 

 little distinct hardened tumors or kernels. In a 

 short space of time, other teats or other quarters 

 probably assume the same character. The milk 

 has coagulated in the bag to a certain degree, 

 and it has caused local inflammation where it 

 lodges. This occurs particularly in young cows, 

 after their first calving, and when they are in a 

 somewhat too high condition, and it is visually 

 attended by a greater or less degree of fever. 



The most effectual remedy for this, in the early 

 stage of the complaint, is a very simple one ; the 

 calf should be put to the mother, and it should 

 suck and knock about the udder at its pleasure. 

 In most cases, this will relieve her from the too 

 great flow of milk, and disperse all the lumps. 



The causes of garget are various ; the thought- 

 less and unfeeling exposure of the animal to cold 

 and wet, at the time of or soon after parturition, 

 the neglect of physic or bleeding before calving, 

 or suflering the cow to get into too high condi- 

 tion, are frequent causes. So powerful is the 

 latter one, that instances are not unfre(iuent of 

 cows, that have for some time been dried, and of 

 heifers that have never yielded milk, luiviug vio- 

 lent inflammation of the udder. Tlie hastily 

 drying of the cow has given rise to indurations 

 in the udder that have not easily lieen removed. 

 An awkward manner of lying upon and l)rui.sing 

 the udder is an occasional cause ; and a very fre- 

 quent one is the careless habit of not mili<ing 

 the cow clean, but leaving a portion in the l>ag, 

 and the best portion of the milk too, and Avhich 

 gradually becomes a source of irritation and in- 



CLAY. 



On sandy soils, which are deficient in cohesi- 

 bility, and which are consequently liable to wash, 

 and to be blown by winds, no application is more 

 valuable than clay. This earth is a compound 

 of silica (sand) and alumina (clay) — not merely 

 mixed or mingled together, but existing in a 

 state of chemical combination. Most of the 

 natural clays, are mixed with an extra quantity 

 of sand, or silex, which is sand free from extra- 

 neous substances, and in various degrees of fine- 

 ness. The only methods of separating the silex 

 from the pure clay, is by washing or boiling. 

 The silex, however, which exists in a state of 

 chemical combination with the clay, can be sep- 

 arated from it only by the action of chemical re- 

 agents. "Clay diifers in appearance from silica 

 and alumina, and its properties do not correspond 

 in that degree which might be expected from the 

 proportion in which these two earths are united 

 in it. It has peculiar properties which a me- 

 chanical mixture of silica and alumina cannot 

 be made to exhibit. Nature seems, indeed, to 

 have reserved to herself the power of effecting 

 this intimate union, for although means have 

 been discovered for effecting the combination for 

 silica and alumina by chemical processes, the com- 

 pound thus formed does not constitute a true 

 clay." 



The very lightest and thinest soils, by having 

 a sufficient quantity of good clay incorporated 

 with them, will be capacified for producing all 

 the variety of crops ordinarily cultivated on the 

 farm, and will be so far mechanically and con- 

 stitutionally ameliorated by the admixture of 

 this earth, as never again to become oppressed 

 with the sterility with which they were primi 

 tivcly cursed. 



