204 



Hospital for Sick Animals. 



VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Hospital for Sick Animals. 



Every farm should be furnished with a 

 field set apart as a hospital for sick animals, 

 and I believe it is customary to make some 

 such arrangement, the orchard being often 

 appropriated to that purpose ; but when we 

 reflect upon it, we know not that a worse se- 

 lection can be made, for there the herbage is 

 always inferior, in consequence of the con- 

 tinual shade of trees, which engenders the 

 growth of a long and sour grass, that animals 

 in a state of sickness, with depraved appetites, 

 are often found to prefer to that which is 

 more nutritious and grown on more healthy 

 spots ; by which their malady is often in- 

 creased. Add to which, the orchard is often 

 situated on low ground, perpetual shade ren- 

 dering the place cold and chilly. But tliis is 

 not the worst of it, for here also are found 

 the hogs, the calves and the poultry, which, 

 by continually travelling over the sod, render 

 the herbage particulaily offensive to sick ani- 

 mals of other descriptions, turning their en- 

 closure into a hospital indeed, with sight and 

 sounds and smells that are calculated to in- 

 crease rather than to alleviate their woes. 

 And to this close and unwholesome spot the 

 poor creatures are often confined, until the 

 nausea arising from their own filth — which is 

 in many disorders peculiarly offensive — has 

 rendered their food disgusting to them ; and 

 this is particularly the case with sick sheep, 

 whose natural habits of cleanliness are pro- 

 verbial. 



Now it is desirable that the hospital for 

 sick animals should be as different a place as 

 possible from that which has been described; 

 it should be a field that is dry, well watered, 

 with sufficient shade, but not continuous; with 

 good shelter from rain and wind, fine herbage 

 and plenty of it ; for cattle should not be com- 

 pelled to the labour of toiling early and late 

 to procure a belly-full while sick, but ratiier 

 be enabled to recruit their strength, and pay 

 something for their holidays of sickness and 

 cessation from labour. And certainly the 

 most expert veterinary surgeon 1 ever knew, 

 and almost the only one I employ, is Dr. 

 Green ,- i'or whenever I have a horse that is 

 ailing, or a cow that is queer, I send them to 

 Dr. Green, and a month's run in good grass 

 is the cheapest physic that I can find ; the 

 Doctor returning them to me at the end of 

 that time, able and willing to work and make 

 up for lost time, and not emaciated by bleed- 

 ing, and purging, and blistering, and starva- 

 tion. 



But the hospital should be so situated as to 

 admit of sub-division by means of good fences, 

 so that at any time the sick stock could be 

 shifted from one compartment to another with 



care and quietness, by which the pasture 

 might be preserved sweet and unconlamina- 

 ted, and a fresh growth of herbage be encour- 

 aged against another removal : and this 

 should be done on the same principle that we 

 endeavour to excite the appetite of our sick 

 friends by administering to them a change of 

 diet, with cleanliness and quietness — things 

 so essential, we all know, to the recovery of 

 lost health in man, and therefore in animals. 

 I am led to these remarks from having 

 lately visited the hvspilul of a farm belonging 



to a friend in county, into which animals 



of many kinds were crowded, with a number 

 of sick sheep, whose woe-begone countenan- 

 ces — and what animal has a countenance so 

 deplorable as a sick and pining sheep? — 

 spoke in a language, silent but deep, the pe- 

 culiar discomfort of their situation ; while the 

 filth from them had contaminated even the at- 

 mosphere of the enclosure ! Indeed, I have 

 no doubt many animals are sacrificed to a 

 want of attention, convenience and cleanli- 

 ness during a time of sickness, while the dan- 

 ger arising from infection is great, and is of- 

 ten severely felt. Every practical man must 

 have remarked, that many individuals of his 

 flock of sheep during the autumn, when there 

 is a short supply of food, are very apt to be- 

 come lax in their bowels; this, I believe, is 

 often occasioned by a want of fresh pasture, 

 the chilly state of the atmosphere, and the 

 impurity of the air, arising from a filthy and 

 close-fed sod, in many places covered thickly 

 with their excrements, causing disorganiza- 

 tion in their digestive organs, and exhibiting 

 theeflect in a disarrangement of their bowels; 

 all which I believe might often be remedied 

 by a change to a high and dry and sweet pas- 

 turage. The subject is of more importance 

 than will at first be imagined, and the consi- 

 deration of it would richly repay the interests 

 of the stock-breeder. Subscriber. 



Blossom Buds Perishing in Winter. 



A CORRESPONDENT wislies to know why the 

 blossom buds of the peach and apricot perish 

 in winter 1 and also, if there is any way to 

 prevent such loss"? 



A flowing of the sap late in autumn, or in 

 winter, followed by intense cold, has long 

 been considered as the cause of this damage; 

 and we have no doubt of its being the true 

 cause; for those buds can endure a very low 

 temperature, if they are not started by unsea- 

 sonable warmth. We have no knowledge 

 that they have ever been killed in this condi- 

 tion, by the severest cold of this climate — 

 perhaps ten or fifteen degrees below zero, and 

 in the elevated region between the Susque- 

 hanna and the Delaware, they have probably 

 endured a depression of ten degrees more. 



