298 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



than others to suffer agr.in; and it will therefore be 

 generally advisable to fit them for the butcher as 

 early as possible. 



The tube may be made of thin, firm sole-leather ; 

 or, if of upper-leather, it may be sowed over a spiral 

 tube of small flexible wire. It maybe three fourths 

 of an inch in diameter, with a suitable bore, and the 

 bulb may be one and a quarter or one and a half inches 

 in diameter. The stiffness of the tube is greatly 

 aided, when necessary, by the introduction of the 

 rod or stilett. 



Every one has lost some animals which in all 

 probability might have been saved by the cheap and 

 simple apparatus we have here described, while 

 many have perished by quackery or the ill-judged ef- 

 forts made to save them. It is but a few days since 

 a gentleman of our acquaintance lost a cow that was 

 choked with a potato. Some little effort had been 

 made to remove it, when he was told that a quantity 

 of soap put down would have the desired effect, and 

 the informant undertook to see it administered. 

 The required quantity was prepared and poured 

 down, when the animal died almost instantly. The 

 probability is, that more was given than the gullet 

 could contain, and that the first breath, by drawing 

 the fluid soap into the lungs, produced instant suffo- 

 cation. Soap, too, is a dangerous remedy for an- 

 other reason : it is very rare that the alkali is so 

 thoroughly neutralized as not to retain some caus- 

 ticity ; and, when put down the gullet, if it remains 

 a considerable time in one place, it excoriates the 

 inner membrane, or in some cases eats through the 

 gullet, and thus destroys the animal. Oil, as above 

 directed, is better in all cases than soap ; and no 

 farmer should intrust another with the care of a dis- 

 eased animal, unless he has reason to believe that he 

 possesses some knowledge of the structure, forma- 

 tion, and capacity of the part diseased. We have 

 known animals killed by thrusting a stick so far into 



