180 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



DISEASES AMONG CATTLE. 



Upon tlie practice of boring the horns, cutting 

 off the tails, and similar remedies for diseased ani- 

 mals. Dr. G. II. Dadd, veterinary surgeon, Boston, 

 Mass., thus writes to the Valley Farmer : — 



" I wonder that intelligent men, christians, and 

 men who have been, for many years, the owners 

 of high priced and rare specimens of wliat we are 

 pleased to term the inferior orders of creation, 

 should so far disregard the feelings and claims 

 which the latter have on them, as to permit the 

 barbarities of by-gone days to be enacted over 

 again, for no eartlily use than to harass and tor- 

 ment a sick, and perhaps dying animal. For every 

 intelligent man must be aware thit cattle are as 

 susceptible to pain as ourselves, and that the intro- 

 duction of a spike gimlet^ at the base of tlio horn, 

 loiD down, must put the animal to an immense 

 amount of torment; for in the region indicated, 

 the parts are highly organized and very sensitive. 

 It gives me pleasure to tind that you have a heart 

 to feel for these much abused specimens of creative 

 power, and also, that you have the manliness to 

 denounce the practice of cruelty to animals, al- 

 though it attempts to shield itself under the garb 

 of science, but you and your readers may rest as- 

 sured that all educated veterinary surgeons con- 

 sider the practice of boring cow's horns and cut- 

 ting off their tails, both cruel and unnecessary. 

 Some of your readers may ask, IIow are we, who 

 have not studied into the matter, to know that such 

 operations are cruel and unnecessary ? I answer, 

 appeal to your own intelligence; would you sutfer 

 an ignorant pretender or a neighbor, having no 

 more experience in the treatment of disease than 

 yourselves, to send a gimlet into the frontal sinuses 

 of your sick friend, wife, or child, for no otiier 

 reason than that the region of the same was hot 

 and feverish ? Where is the man wlio would stand 

 by and witness such an outrageous procedure?. 

 Some persons may contend that animals recover 

 after such operations have been perlormed. Grant- 

 ed, but that is no proof of the efficacy of the same ; 

 the recuperative powers of the system are often 

 strong enough to bear the animal safely through 

 the disease and the wretched treatment." 



PLANS FOR BARNS, &c. 



Ed9. Gexesee Farmer : — I would like to see 

 some more plans for barns in the Genesee Farmer 

 — something cheaper and suitable for a 50 acre 

 farm. I have tried to contrive something very 

 cheap and very convenient, but have not yet arriv- 

 ed at any satisfactory result. In providing shelter 

 for cattle, I would prefer a large covered shed to 

 stables, provided they were not too numerous to 

 interfere ungraciously with each other's feeding; or 

 if they were tied up to feed, I would loose them to 

 sleep. As to the construction of ashed, I suppose 

 nothing could be cheaper than a lean-to to a barn, 

 which would form one side; the opposite one 1 

 would leave open, closing the two ends, and pro- 

 viding along thera racks and mangers. Tlie ad- 

 vantages would be, the stock would have air 

 and exercise; they would deposit their manure 

 under cover, which, with waste straw and refuse 



bedding from the horses, &c., would provide a 

 much warmer bed than a plank or earthern floor, 

 even if well littered ; the pigs would also prefer it 

 to a sty, and would not only add to the manure 

 heap, but improve it by mixing. Manure so made 

 woi.ld heat and ferment, and bo ready for use the 

 same spring, instead of being then a frozen heap 

 of snow, dung, and undecomposed straw; or it 

 might be drawn and spread upon the land, or built 

 into a heap in the summer fallow, ready for 

 use, during sleighing time. Spread upon meadows, 

 the melting snows would wash it into the roots of 

 the grass. Or if the summer fallow were distant 

 from the barn yard, there would be an advantage 

 in hauling it out on the sleigh in winter, instead 

 of the wagon in summer. 



Some months since there were discussions in the 

 Farmer as to the best or any practicable method 

 of fixing the ammonia arising from the dung hill. 

 I have thought perhaps a volatile acid was the best 

 means of fixing a volatile alkali, and that, in this 

 wooded country, nothing else would be so good and 

 so cheap as pyroligneous acid. The crude acid, 

 with the emyihyreumatic flavor, might be better 

 than pure acid, as the smell, if sufllciently durable, 

 might prevent the attacks of the "Wheat midge, or 

 other insects, many insects being very susceptible 

 of annoyance to their olfactory nerves, j. g, s. 



limisfil, a TF., May, 1S59. 



EGAD MAKING, 



Eds. Genesee Faemeu : — I read, with much 

 interest, several communications in your May 

 number, on tlie manner in which roads should be 

 \vofked and improved. I am of the oj)inion that 

 the present system which regulates our road worK 

 is very good, only be careful to place the direction 

 of each district's work in a good, thorough, faith- 

 ful man's hiinds. I think that the inhabitants of 

 each road district are more competent to judge of 

 where and how the road work should be perfonned 

 than any one single man can be, who might be ap- 

 pointed by the town. There are so many ditlerent 

 kinds of soils in this county, that it would be a 

 ditlicult matter for any man little acquainted with 

 them to judge as correctly when and how to work 

 either, as'those who constantly travel over them. 



The imjjortance of making our roads up in a 

 more passable condition, is becoming day by day 

 more apparent. Our country is improving, and our 

 farmers are improving and cultivating their farms 

 to much better advantage, in clearing ©ut the 

 gullies of their logs and trash, and cleaning the 

 briar lots of their briars, thistles, and noxious 

 weeds, and with this march of improvement in 

 farming, spring up a pride in the breast of farmers 

 witli reference to the road which passes by and 

 through their farms, and tlioy go at them, in the 

 same good, Avholesome spirit, to make them good 

 by their own manual labor, that they Vvould any 

 cash-paying task on iheir farms. And let me here 

 add that the inhabitants of this town, the last year 

 performed, and returned done, more labor tian 

 was assessed for thera to do, thereby showing an 

 interest in the improvement of the roads of this 

 town which is certainly commendable. Labar 

 should invariably be performed by the 20th of 

 June, and as much earlier as practicable. Then thd 



