1883.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER 



89 



coming up stream are caught on the wheel 

 and literally broken. Tiiey fall into a 

 "chute," something like a wood-drive, and 

 slide down into boxes. A wheel scoops up 

 .■i,00() or 4,000 salmon a night. There is no 

 law to inevent thi.s wholesale slaughter and 

 destruction, but there is a loud cry for it. 



PURE OLIVE OIL. 



" Nine dealers out of ten don't know what 

 real choice olive oil is," said the buyer of a 

 large importing house, "and it is not very 

 strange, either, since but little of it is sent to 

 our market." 



"Can't it be bought from any lirst-class 

 grocer '? " he was asked. 



"No, indeed. Olive oil can be bought, but 

 not the finest grades. If you had ever tasted 

 the best you would readily believe what I 

 have just said when you dressed your salad 

 with the. other. Oil of the finest quality has 

 a faint, agreeable odor, and a delicious, inde- 

 scribiible taste. When spread over nice, crisp 

 lettuce or used to dress a cucumber, it lends a 

 flavor which requires actual experience to ap- 

 preciate. Why, its a pleasure almost to look 

 at its pale, greenish color." 



" AVhy don't we get more of this oil ? The 

 best of everything else usually comes here." 



"It is easily explained. There is not as 

 much demand in America for choice oil as 

 there is in Europe. Thousands of Americans- 

 will not taste oil under any consideration, 

 while iu Italy and the south of France the 

 poorest persons would think his meal incom- 

 plete without it. The best grades are kept 

 for home consumption, while the rest is ex- 

 ported. Do you know that there are as many 

 qualities of olive oil as you have lingers and 

 toes, to say nothing of the almost hundreds 

 of adulterations and imitations ? 



"^ high degree of skill is shown iu the 

 manufacture of olive oil. The thoroughly 

 ripe olive yields about 70 per cent, of oil. 

 The persons who make the finer kinds gather 

 the fruit by hand as soon as it begins to color. 

 It is spread under sheds, where it is allowed 

 to remain until most of the moisture has 

 evaporated. The ripe olive is of a dark pur- 

 ple color, and yields considerably more oil 

 than that I have just spoken of. So you can 

 see why the two oils should be of diflereut 

 value. The process of manufacturing the oil 

 will give you a good idea of the grades. 



" The olives are crushed to a jjulp in a mill, 

 and then placed in sacks of loosely woven 

 cloth. These sacks are piled one upon another, 

 and are submitted to pressure. The oil which 

 flows from them is run into a vat coirtaining 

 water, from the surface of which it is after- 

 wards dipped. The first pressing is called 

 virgin oil. A second quality is obtained by 

 mixing the pulp with very hot water and 

 submitting it to additional pressure. Then 

 there is a third pressing, after which the pulp 

 i^ chemically treated for other grades." 



" What kind of oil is used in the ordinary 

 eating house ?" 



"It is an oil made from cotton seed, and 

 has no more the taste of olive oil than it has 

 of ginger. It is thick and, to me, very un- 

 pleasant. It is only in first-class hotels and 

 restaurants that olive oil of any grade at all 

 is served. There is also an oil made from 

 ground-nuts, which does not seem to be very 

 popular. Of the cotton seed oil there is an 

 immense sale." 



CONTRACTEU FEET AND PROPER 

 SHOEING. 



Contracted feet are more commonly theconse- 

 quence of lameness in horses than the cause. 

 Any diseased condition inside; the hoof, giving 

 rise to an unusual degree of beat, leads to a 

 more rapid evaporalion from the surHicc of 

 the horn, to drying and shrinking of the hoof 

 and to absorption of the soft parts witliin. 

 The shrinkage or narrowing takes place, espe- 

 cially at the heel, where the foot has not a 

 long, liut only an elastic cartilaginous inter- 

 nal support, which yields easily to any pres- 

 sure from without. A second condition, 

 which always coincides with this drying due 

 to disease, is the disease of the heel by the 

 animal standing on its toe or removing the 

 weight from the entire foot. When the foot 

 is planted on the ground and the weight 

 thrown upon it, the soft parts descending 

 within the hoof tend to press it outwatd, and 

 as a matter of fact the hoof does actually ex- 

 pand at the upper part (next the hair), and 

 thus the natural tendency of the unused elas- 

 tic horn to contract is to a great extent coun- 

 teracted. Disease is therefore the most com- 

 mon cause of contraction, and in all cases of 

 contracted feet it is well first to look for some 

 existing disease, such as corns, bruises, pricks, 

 other wounds, gravelling, thrush, inflamma- 

 tion from uneven bearing of the shoe, from 

 the nails being drawn up too tight, from nav- 

 icular disease, from ringbone affecting the 

 second or third phalanx, and so on. 



Apart from any disease suflicient to cause 

 lameness, contraction of the feet sometimes 

 goes on to an extreme degree, until indeed 

 one heel may meet the other, and yet lame- 

 ness is not induced. Yet if contraction takes 

 place with rapidity, as under the influence of 

 a long period of rainless weather following a 

 wet spring, the compression of the soft part 

 by the dry and shrinking horn will cause in- 

 flammation and lameness. During the past 

 dry summer this was not at all uncommon, 

 and the thus started bade fair if neglected to 

 go on to serious structural disease and perma- 

 nent lameness. Contraction caused in this 

 way may be counteracted and corrected by 

 measures calculated to soften and expand the 

 horn, followed by such as will retain its natu- 

 ral moisture, and give proper hearing to the 

 shoe. To soften the contracted foot, keep the 

 unshod animal standing every day for sixteen 

 hours in a stream of water coming up to the 

 hair round the toj) of the hoof, or in a soft 

 muck or clay puddle closing in around the 

 foot to the same level. In frosty weather a 

 warm poultice placed in a strong bag drawn 

 over the foot is preferable, the more so that it 

 can be kept ajiplied both night and day. At 

 the end of a fortnight the foot will usually be 

 found to have expanded to its natural dimen- 

 sions. 



If there is much lameness it will be desira- 

 ble to apply a blister on the front and sides of 

 the pastern during the period of poulticing. 

 This may be repeated and the iioulticing con- 

 tinued if lameness remained at the end of a 

 fortnight. As a blister the following may be 

 rubbed into the skin on the front and sides of 

 the pastern : Powdered cantharides, one-half 

 drachm ; oil of lavender, ten drops ; olive oil, 

 one ounce. It may be repeated the second day 

 if heat and tenderness have not been induced 



by the first application, also as soon as the ef- 

 fects of the firstapplicatioii have passed off and 

 the resulting scabs have dropped off. When 

 lameness has dlsaiioeared and the foot has 

 been suHiciently expanded, il should Ih! 

 dressed carefully, going the same height to 

 the wall at all corresponding points on the 

 inner and outer sides, and paring heel and too 

 in proper ratio with each oilier, the .sole being 

 left as far as po.ssible to eome to the heel with 

 the hoof wall at all points and to furnish with 

 it a surface of bearing for the shoe. 



The shoe should be |)erfectly loose and 

 smooth, and when applied should press evenly 

 at all points. It should l)e drawn only mode- 

 rately tight, and on giving its final dre.ssing 

 the use of the file should he as far as possible 

 avoided. The horn is formed of a series of 

 pus tubes with an iiitertubular cellular stnic- 

 ture, and when the riisp or file is used so iis to 

 expose the open ends of these tubules the con- 

 tained moisture exhales, the horn withers and 

 the soft parts may be injuriously pressed 

 upon. For this rea.son the use of the file on 

 the front of the hoof is to be severely depre- 

 cated. I t should only be used on the lower 

 edge of the hoof wall where it projects over 

 the shoe, and when the sharp edges might 

 otherwise split up. For a similar reason, the 

 sole should never be pared down into the 

 lough elastic born, though all scaly miusses on 

 the surface may be safely removed. After 

 shaving, the use of a hoof ointment will serve 

 to prevent evaporation and drying, and is ab- 

 solutely needful after the foot has been sott- 

 ened by poulticing. A mixture of equal parts 

 of wood-tar and sweet-oil will answer admir- 

 ably. This brushed daily over the entire sur- 

 face of the horn — wall, sole and frog— will 

 usually preserve a sufficiency of moisture and 

 the natural elasticity and toughness. 



OUR WOODPECKERS. 

 " Ilaet thou named all tlic birds without a gua 1 

 Loved the wild rose and left It on Its stalk ? 

 O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine !" 



When Wilson, the ornithologist, came to 

 this country, the first bird he saw and se 

 cured was the redheaded woodpecker. His 

 sensations of delight and admiration were re- 

 membered years after, when he gave it a 

 prominent place in his book and described it 

 as the most beautiful bird he ever beheld. 



This bird, Pirns eriithmccphnhi.t, is one of 

 our most common woodpeckers, and with 

 such brilliant colors and active habits is atso 

 best known. It must be a very unobservant 

 person who doesn't know a " red-head." The 

 glossy black body, with broad band of white 

 across the back, is headed by deepest crimson, 

 the color extending far down the neck. The 

 red-head likes to stay about the orchard in 

 fruit time, and we can imagine his crimson 

 head grows brighter from being so often dyed 

 in the blood of the cherries, and the children 

 know that the best apples on the tre? are the 

 ones he has tasted. Wilson says : " He is of 

 a gay and frolicsome disposition, and half a 

 dozen of the fraternity are frequently seen 

 diving and vociferating around the high dead 

 limbs of some large tree, playing with each 

 other, and amusing the passers-by with their 

 gambols." But though he is not above rec- 

 reation, his general air is business-like, and 

 his business is to catch worms. Xot the worm 



