1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



537 



well, till the moment of death. The evidence 

 to me is conclusive, that they in no way in- 

 jured the stomach until death. 



A valuable essay, by Geo. 11. Dadd, V. S. 

 on this subject, has recently appeared in the 

 American Farmer, and as both he and Dr. 

 Stewart are authority in this country, their ev- 

 idence is entitled to great weight. 



I wish it might put an end to the present 

 system of "doctoring (killing?) horses for the 

 bots." There are hundreds of valuable horses 

 killed by the awful drugging they get to kill 

 the bots, which can't be killed by anything 

 you can put in his stomach. , . 



]Mavhew records an instance, in which a 

 portion of the stomach, covered with bots, 

 was corked up in Spirits of Wine for two years, 

 without killing them. Bracy Clark, an Eng- 

 lish veterinarian, to whom May hew says "the 

 public owe all their knowledge of the bot fly," 

 claims that "the bot is harmless if not benefi- 

 cial." — G. W. D., Philadetpliia, in the Home- 

 stead. 



EAKTHQUAKES. 



"There is," says Humboldt, "no other out- 

 ward manifestation of force known to us — 

 the murderous inventions of our own race in- 

 cluded — through which, in the brief period of 

 a few seconds or minutes, a larger number of 

 human beings have been destroyed than by 

 earthquakes." Lightning and storm, war and 

 plague, are but weak and inefficient agents 

 of destruction in comparison with the earth''s 

 internal forces. And as earthquakes surpass 

 all other phenomena as agents of sudden de- 

 struction, so the impression which they pro- 

 duce on those who, for the first time, experi- 

 ence their effects, is peculiarly and indescrib- 

 ably awful. Men of reputed courage speak 

 of a feeling of "intolerable dread" produced 

 by the shock of an earthquake, "even when 

 unaccompanied by subterranean noises." The 

 impression is not that of simple fear, but a 

 feeling of absolute pain. The reason seems 

 for a while to have lost the power of separat- 

 ing real fi-om imaginary causes of terror. 

 The lower animals also are thrown into a state 

 of terror and distress. "Swine and dogs," 

 says Humboldt, "are particularly affected by 

 the phenomena of earthquakes." And he adds 

 that "the very crocodiles of the Orinoco, 

 otherwise as dumb as our little lizards, leave 

 the shaken bed of the stream and run bellow- 

 ing into the woods." Humboldt's explanation 

 of the peculiar sensations of alarm and awe 

 produced by an earthquake upon those who 

 for the first time experience the effects of the 

 phenomenon, is in all probability the correct 

 one. "The impression here is not," he says, 

 "the consequence of the recollection of de- 

 structive catastrophes presented to our imagi- 

 nation by narratives of historical events ; what 

 seizes us so wonderfully is the disabuse of that 

 innate faith in the fixidity of the solid and 

 surset foundations of the earth. From early 



childhood we are habituated to the contrast 

 between the mobile element water, and the 

 immobility of the soil on which we stand. All 

 the evidences of our senses confirm this belief. 

 But when suddenly the ground begins to rock 

 beneath us, the feeling of an unknown mys- 

 terious power in nature coming into operation 

 and shaking the solid globe, arises in the 

 mind. The illusion of the whole of our earlier 

 life is annihilated in an instant. — Cornhill 

 Magazine. 



Rheumatism. — What is the matter with my 

 mare ? She raised a colt last year, has not 

 been in good condition since the coif was 

 weaned, but I have worked her some, until a 

 short time since. When I took her out of the 

 pasture she was very lame, hind leg was swol- 

 len and feverish at gambrel joint. I took 

 some blood from the neck, and bathed the leg 

 with liniment. Next day another leg was 

 swollen, and the swelling seems to go from 

 one limb to another, and now she is so stiff 

 that she can hardly move, with swelling on the 

 belly. She has no appetite and cannot live 

 but a short time without help. n. c. 



A dose of physic (seven or- eight drachms of 

 aloes) should be given to the mare and a 

 drachm of acetate of potash dissolved in the 

 water that she drinks, so that she may take 

 that quantity each day. The swollen leg 

 should be fomented with hot water for half an 

 hour several times a day, and should be care- 

 fully rubbed dry after each fomentation. The 

 swollen part of the leg should also be bandaged 

 with flannel. — Western Rural. 



Agricultural Jokes. — The Ohio Farmer 

 gets off the following : — 



Large horses are generally most admired by 

 farmers ; but farmers are most adm:red who 

 pony up. 



Prosperity is generally based on knowledge 

 and industry; the swine will get most that 

 nose most. 



Farmers are like fowls — neither will get full 

 crops without industry. 



Because a man who attends a flock of sheep 

 is a shepherd, makes it no reason that a man 

 who keeps cows should be a coiv-ard. 



We like to see a farmer increase the growth 

 of useful plants and shrubs around his home, 

 but do not like to see him use rails, poles and 

 boards to prop-a-gate with. 



The California Farmer says that Tliomas 

 A. Garey and two other gentlemen in Los An- 

 gelos are commencing the silk business in earn- 

 est. They have now growing about 75,000 

 good sized mulberry trees, and 125,000 seed- 

 Imgs ; about 150 to 200,000 worms will be 

 fed this year. Their work is a success, as is 

 shown by the cocoons now on exhibition in the 

 collection of Mr. Prevost, the pioneer silk 

 grower, at the PavUion, in San Francisco. 



