466 



NEW ENGLAOT) FARIMER. 



Oct. 



in spring for cultivation. This I can prove 

 from experience on my farm, -where about 

 three acres of wood stretch along the north- 

 westerly side of a swell of land, thereby shel- 

 tering ten or fifteen acres in two fields in a 

 southeasterly direction, from the wind that con- 

 tinually sweeps up in a northwesterly direction, 

 through a tract of country two and a half or 

 three miles in length, between two long ranges 

 of hills. Forty years ago, where the said for- 

 est trees now stand, — many of which are large 

 enough for "saw-logs," — a field of Indian corn 

 flourished ; the forms of the hills still remain 

 plainly visible among the trees. I believe 

 that, casting the legal interest on said land at 

 $20 per acre, its full value without the wood, 

 from that time to the present, and estimating 

 the wood as it now stands at its market value, 

 it will be shown that no loss has been incurred 

 in allowing it to grow up to a forest, though 

 susceptible of cultivation as a field. 



Now, according to Mr. Jameson's plan, 

 what should I do but rise, slay and destroy that 

 forest ? Were I to do so, 1 should consider 

 myself a fit subject, at the next sitting of the 

 Probate court in this county, for the appoint- 

 ment of some one of my neighbors to a guar- 

 dianship over me and my estate. 



M. J. Harvet. 



Epping, N. H., Aug. 17, 1868. 



THE CATTLE DISEASE. 



The assumption that cattle from Texas or 

 any other section, apparently healthy them- 

 selves, should leave on the ground over which 

 they pass, or in the water of which they drink, 

 a poison, an insect, or anything that causes 

 deadly disease in native cattle, is one which 

 many cattle dealers and butchers in this mar- 

 ket are unwilling to admit. That the seeds 

 or germs of fevers and other diseases of the 

 human #amily may lurk in the clothing of 

 nurses, is a fact more readily admitted and 

 more easily accounted for. 



To admit that 'there is much mystery about 

 the present cattle disease does not explain the 

 facts which have been observed for years by 

 people at the West, who have had a dear- 

 bought experience with the "Spanish Fever." 

 To the facts stated in the communication in the 

 last Farmer, from J. R. Dodge, of the Agri- 

 cultural Department at Washington, we may 

 add, from the Report for 1866, the statement 

 that Texan cattle driver to New Orleans do 

 not communicate the disease to the cattle of 

 Louisiana. In 1865, eight hundred Texan 

 cattle were driven into Mississippi county, 

 Arkansas, and scattered throughout the county 

 without producing the disease. The fact that 



these sections lie on the Mississippi river, and 

 in a miasmatic region is suggested as the rea- 

 son for the non-development of the disease. 

 We also copy from the same Report the fol- 

 lowing communication from Col. J. Wilker- 

 son, originally published in the Southern 

 Cultivator: — 



"I have been a cattle dealer for twenty-five 

 or thirty years, and in that time have had 

 many a death among my stock by this disease, 

 and have in consequence taken some notice, 

 meanwhile endeavoring to learn its causes and 

 how it was brought about. I notice that cat- 

 tle scarcely ever take the fever if let remain 

 where they were raised, and I am fully con- 

 vinced it is generally brought on by a change 

 of climate. For instance, you take cattle 

 from the mountain country to the low country 

 and they will take the fever in a short time 

 and die, but their disease will not affect the 

 cattle raised there ; but, on the other hand, 

 take cattle raised in what we call a distem- 

 pered part of our country — that is, the low 

 countrj' — from warm latitudes, up into a colder 

 one, they will themselves improve all the time ; 

 bit, without being sick themselves, they will 

 spread the fever and kill the cattle in the sec- 

 tion of country into which they are taken, till 

 they travel on, or stay or have staid long 

 enough for the fever to leave the system. I 

 have been in the habit of driving cattle from 

 Florida to Virginia, and found my cattle to 

 improve and do well ; but after I passed the 

 line of 34 degrees, they began to spread the 

 fever all along the line of travel among the 

 stock raised in that section of the country, till 

 I struck the line of Virginia, which is a dis- 

 tance of about 250 miles, then it ceased, and 

 all went on well. I suppose the reason for 

 its stopping was, that my cattle had been out 

 of the low country long enough to become ac- 

 climated. Hence, I think the disease is origi- 

 nated from a change oi climate, either from a 

 colder to a warmer climate, or taking them 

 from a warm climate to a more cool and 

 healthy one. How it is that they carry the 

 disease with them, and give it to others with- 

 out injury to themselves, is a mystery I am 

 not able to solve, and will leave that to be 

 discussed by the bureau of investigation." 



The following case is given by the Prairie 

 Farmer : 



Last fall a herd of Cherokee cattle (85 

 head) were brought into Champaign County 

 and placed on a farm with a herd of native 

 cattle (38 head). They were fed together all 

 winter and through this season so far. This 

 herd was out of the track of the later Texas 

 cattle, but on the 15th of July they were 

 brought up on to the prairie where such had 

 jiassed, and are still kept. About the third 

 of August the natives began to die and when 

 we were there, 20 were dead and all the 



