216 



The Choice. — Gravel in Swine. 



Vol. VI. 



The Choice. 



'T is not to mortals given. 

 While passing throiifrh the thorny way of life, 



To be exempt from ills. Only in Heaven 

 Is perfect pleasure, unalloyed with strife. 



And had we power to choose 

 Our portion while sojourning h^re below. 



No doubt the good we often should refuse. 

 And load our aching hearts with double wo. 



This then is wisdom's part, — 

 To hoar with patience woes we cannot shun, 

 Receive its blessings with a grateful heart, 

 And daily learn to say " Thy will be done." 



Yet since you ask, my friend, 

 My views of life, and where we most may find 



Of hajipiness below, I freely send 

 This rough-wrought transcript of a rural mind. 



It matters less the place 

 Where life's brief visionary days are spent. 

 For who the way ha? ever learn'd to trace 

 That Bliss, the fugitive, her footsteps bent ? 



Still would I wish a home — 

 For rich the joys that cluster round that spot ; 



I^et others through the world's wild desert roam — 

 Be home's calm pleasures my more tranquil lot. 



For there are friends most true. 

 Hearts bound by tender and endearing ties ; 



Yet should the friends of home, tho' dear, be few, 

 And those selected from the good and wise. 



The vain licentious throng, 

 Wlio love the revels of unhallow'd mirth. 



Or idly drag life's tiresome load along. 

 Or raise no thought above the sordid earth. 



These my retreat would shun 

 For more congenial haunts.— Yet when the care 



Of busy day is past — its duties done, 

 I 'd joy to see some friendly neighbour there — 



In converse sweet to spend 

 The social evening hour; — with vocal chime 



Enliven the dull heart, or, reading, blend 

 Instruction, glean'd from every age and clime. 



The gifted sons of song — 

 Montgomery, Milton, Cowper, Campbell, Gray — 



These, and like gifted spirits, should prolong 

 Our social feast, and speed the hour away. 



Above all books, he mine 

 The volume of that law from Sinai given — 



The prophet's vision, and the songs divine, 

 The chart of the blest way that leads to Heaven. 



Thro' life's short shadowy way, 

 Thus would I live to bless and to be blest,— 



Ready at last the summons to obey. 

 That calls the faithful to the realms of rest. 



West Troy Mb. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Gravel in Swine. 



A FARMER of Delaware county, Penn., who 

 keeps a stock of hogs, lo.st one, after protract- 

 ed disease in 1839, the followino; year three 

 died, and in 1841 five died. So many be- 

 coming diseased, led to an examination after 

 death, to discover if possible the cause. The 

 symptoms in all were the .«ame, and all those 

 which were attacked with the disease or died 

 were barrows or males. On a careful exam- 

 ination of those that died the last year, it was 

 found that they were afflicted with gravel ; 

 pebbles or gravel being discovered in the 

 bladders and in the urethra, which obstructed 

 or prevented the passage of the urine. The 



result was irritation, inflammation, mortifica- 

 tion and death. In one case the bladder was 

 found bursted, and its contents discharged 

 into the cavity of the abdomen. The vessels 

 of the kidneys, and those leading to the blad- 

 der were distended with a partially indurated 

 secretion or matter, which, when macerated 

 between the fingers, discovered particles of 

 a sandy character. A quantity of the pebbles 

 or gravel which was obtained from them has 

 been preserved. It is presumed that they 

 are of the same character as those obtained 

 from the human subject. It is worthy of re- 

 mark, that though there was the usual pro- 

 portion of females among the stock, none of 

 them were visibly aflected with the disease ; 

 in that respect following the same general 

 law that has been noticed in the human fa- 

 mily. No remedy has been thought of or 

 suggested, but that of killing off the whole 

 stock or family that has displayed such a re- 

 markable predisposition to this form of disease, 

 and to replace them with new recruits from 

 different families where this newly-discover- 

 ed malady has not been known to exist. In 

 several of the western agricultural papers, a 

 disease in swine has been the subject of nu- 

 merous essays, called the " worm in the kid- 

 neys." Quere, is not the above identical 

 with it] and is not the supposed worm the 

 indurated secretion above mentioned ? which, 

 assuming the form of the vessel containing^ 

 it, has been erroneously taken to be a worm. 

 This suggestion is merely thrown out to pro- 

 mote future careful investigation and inquiry 

 that truth may be arrived at, and should any 

 examinations be made, it is hoped the results 

 of them may be published in some of those 

 very useful and valuable agricultural journals 

 that are now so generally read by farmers. 

 It may be remarked that the above family of 

 hogs have long been on the farm, and have 

 bred " in and in," consequently any defect of 

 constitution, or peculiarity of character, has 

 had abundant time to perfect and display it- 

 self most conspicuously without adulteration 

 or dilution. Agricola. 



Jan. 17, 1842. 



Winter Hens. — Fowls should never be 

 kept till they are old. Young ones lay more 

 eggs, and young ones are more apt to lay 

 when they are removed to a distant barn than 

 when kept where they were bred. Any far- 

 mer may pay for his newspaper for years with 

 the proceeds of a single hen well bred to lay 

 eggs; and one bushel of buckwheat, with a 

 very few potatoes, wi'l keep a hen's crop 

 full during the winter — and two hours' labour 

 on a suitable soil will often be sufficient, 

 without any manure, to raise a bushel of buck- 

 wheat. Who that hath lands cannot afford 

 to take a newspaper ? — Mass. Ploughman. 



