192 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 1883, 



effect a cure, he adds, lighten the weight on each 

 front shoe about four ounces ; have the toe of the 

 shoe made of steel, instead of iron, it will wear 

 longer ; have it rounded off about the same as it 

 would be when one-third worn out, in order to pre- 

 vent tripping ; allow one week's rest ; have the 

 legs showered for a few minutes at a time with cold 

 water through a hose, in order to create a spray ; 

 then rub dry, briskly, from the chest down to the 

 foot. Give walking exercise daily during Ihio week 

 for about an hour twice a day. When you com- 

 mence driving again omit the slow jog ; either walk 

 or send him along at a sharp trot for a mile or two, 

 then walk away, but do not speed for at least several 

 weeks. By this means the habit of stumbling from 

 either of the above causes will be pretty well over- 

 come. — Pittsburg Stockman. 



Carp Ponds. 



The Fish Commissiouer at Washington is now 

 distributing carp to farmers who have the endorse- 

 ment of their members of Congress. It has been 

 demonstrated that these fish can be easily raised, 

 and that they grow with great rapidity. Some epi- 

 cures hold that they lack delicacy of flavor. But the 

 farmer raises them to cat and not for the fun of 

 catching them. The fact is, the carp is a fair-eat- 

 ing fish, and when freshly taken from the water is 

 better than the i.verage fish found in the markets. 

 Professor Shelton, of the Kansas Agricultural Col 

 lege, has made a table trial of the carp and pro- 

 nounces it not so palatable, perhaps, as brook trout, 

 but "good enough to be served at our tobies several 

 times every week of the year." A fish-pond stocked 

 with carp will be found a profiable adjunct to any 

 farm. — Philadelphia Press. 



Milch Cows. 



Breed up the cows ; bring them to as near perfec- 

 tion as possible. Weed out the unprofitable, though 

 you give them away, and set your standard at not 

 less than a pound a day per cow for at least eight 

 months in the year. Those who are using their cows 

 for butter must see the propriety of their being bred 

 to a Jersey, Guernsey, or Holstein bull ; and if this 

 cannot be done by individuals, let it be done by com- 

 munities — that IS, a number clubbing together. By 

 these mean, the productive capacity of the cows in a 

 given neighborhood may be loubled in the course of 

 two or three years, and be gradually increised, so as 

 to produce three times that now marketed. There 

 is no manner of doubt of the ultimate establishment 

 of hundreds of creameries in this State, and these 

 will call into requisition every good milch cow to be 

 had, and the better the cow, the greater the amount 

 of marketable product. — Rural World. 



Abortion in Cows. 



One of my neighbors has a herd of fine Shorthorns 

 that are always losing their calves by abortion. He 

 is a careful hand with stock, furnishing good food, 

 good shelter, and soft bedding. But he lets his stock 

 out to water in winter, and they drink out of a hole 

 cut in the ice. They get on their knees to drink; 

 fight and squabble on the ice ; fill themselves, and 

 chill the whole system into a shiver. Is this a suffi- 

 cient cause for abortion ? — L. P. W., Irving, Iowa. 



Abortion is often caused by the animals drinking 

 foul water, or eating bad food ; but in the case you 

 describe, the abuses to which the animals are sub- 

 jected would seem to be a sufficient reason. Of 

 course no good farmer would permit such treatment 

 for a single day. — Country Oentlonen. 



Pure Water for Hogs. 



Mr. J. M. Stahl, writes as follows on the above 

 subject in the Anurican Agriculturist for August. 



Swine are subject to the same laws that govern 

 the health of other animals. Vegetable and animal 

 matters, in a decaying state, when introduced into 

 the system, are detrimental to healtli. Such mat- 

 ters are readily introduced with water, being taken 

 directly into the stomach, soon pass to the iutes- 

 tines, etc., and become a source of disease. Experi- 

 ence and observation have convinced us that a large 



per cent, of swine disease is produced by the disease 

 germs being carried into the stomach in foul water, 

 it is now believed that this, and many other diseases, 

 are due to minute organisms, so low in the scale of 

 organic life, that it is difficult to say whether they 

 are vegetable or animal ; they are known by the 

 general name of " disease germs." The vitality of 

 these germs is not great, except when preserved, as 

 it is in water containing organic substances. In the 

 water of pools, ditches and ponds, their vitality is 

 preserved for some time. If hogs are forced to drink 

 such water, they take into their bodies the seeds of 

 disease. 



In August, hogs suffer the most from unwhole- 

 some water. During this month they require much 

 water, and it is more essential that it be pure than 

 any other time of the year. The sun is hot, the air 

 dry, the earth parched ; the hog has a com- 

 pact body, formed largely of fat, small lungs 

 imbedded in masses of fiesh and fat, and 

 with its nostrils near the ground. It inhales dust, 

 which in part consists of decaying vegetables. 

 Everything conspires to produce a feverish state of 

 the body, and a great thirst, to be allayed only by 

 large quantities of cold water. But water from 

 creeks, ponds and the like, are at this season the 

 most heated. The greatest fatality among swine is 

 in September and October, As the period from the 

 inception of the disease to its fatal termination is 

 from thirty to forty days, it would appear that the 

 disease germs are most often taken into the body of 

 the animal in August. 



POULTRY. 



Milk for Hens. 



We have many times urged the feeding of skimmed 

 milk to laying hens, and will add that on the farm 

 where dairying is carried on the use of buttermilk 

 will also be found of great benefit, and will very sen- 

 sibly increase the egg production. After a few days' 

 trial the " biddies" will look out eagerly for your 

 commg with the accustomed dish in hand. Use it 

 instead of water, and the slightly saline quality will 

 be beneficial. Either buttermilk or skimmed milk 

 are excellent. The latter, of course, is not as rich 

 and fattening as the former, but still contains 

 much of good. Should you be keeping a large flock 

 of hens, and the choice lies between feeding the 

 milk to a pig and giving it to the hens, decide in 

 favor of the hens every time. The extra production 

 for one year by the milk feed will buy all the pork 

 your family may need, and make your occupation 

 much pleasanter all round. — Poultry World. 



The Care of Fowls. 



Poultry keeping is much better adapted to women 

 than the milking of cows, which many of them still 

 do, though not as many as formerly. The care of 

 chickens is especially in their line, and many a 

 woman would succeed with poultry who now finds it 

 hard to live by some branch of sewing, or what is 

 about as bad, trying to teach music or write poetry 

 for magazines. Care and patience, united with 

 natural tact, would bring a handsome reward in 

 many cases. 



The only sure cure for egg eating is the axe. But 

 to keep fowls from acquiring the habit, feed them 

 plenty of cheap meat, and such as comes from the 

 table. They rarely acquire the habit if constantly 

 at large, unless in Winter, when insects are gone. 

 But in confinement, with no variety to eat and 

 nothing to do, they both learn to eat eggs and to 

 peck each other for blood and fiesh. Feed meat, 

 scraps, crushed bones, grease, marrow, anything 

 coming from animals or birds that they like. And 

 they don't mind chicken meat, either. 



The study of poultry diseases is not as important 

 as that of animals, because a sick fowl is usually 

 very small, and the time required for proper treat- 

 ment is often worth more theanthe bird itself. The 

 aim should be to keep the fiock In health, which 

 usually is not at all difficult. 



Early chickens are easily raised in a warm, dry 

 cellar, where there is plenty of fermenting manure 

 to scratch over. Have an opening on the south side, 

 with plenty of light, and then if the place is rat 

 proof, as it should be, they will do better than out 

 of doors in July, when it is too hot and lice abound. 



It takes more skill to succeed with fowls when 

 kept up most of the time than when at large, be- 



cause when at large they help themselves to many 

 things that are important 4o a variety. For in. 

 stance, there is grass, which many think not necces- 

 sary. But fowls eat a great deal of grass in a year, 

 and when confined even on a sod they will soon eat 

 off and kill out a considerable area. When this hap- 

 pens it is a sure sign that their yard is not large 

 enough, and that they must have a larger one or 

 more liberty. — Philadelphia Ptk'ss. 



Light Brahmas. 

 In a pretty large experience with fowl raising, for 

 the last thirty years, we have tried many sorts, new 

 and old, and have settled upon the Light Brahmas 

 as the best fowl for villagers and farmers. They 

 are a long time in coming to maturity, but there is 

 no difficulty fn getting nice broilers from them, in 

 July and August, or in getting eggs from the early 

 pullets in the fall, and that is about all that can be 

 done with the earlier varieties. Well fed pullets be- 

 ginning to lay in November, in warm quarters, will 

 give an abundance of eggs through the winter, when 

 they bring the best prices. They are the largest 

 breed with which we are acquainted, adult cocks 

 sometimes weighing thirteen to sixteen pounds, hens 

 ten to twelve pounds. The flesh is of good quality, 

 and when one comes to the table, there is enough to 

 go round and some to spare. They arc the most 

 popular of all varieties, tested by the demand for 

 breeding fowls and eggs. — American Agriculturist. 



Literary and personal. 



"Texas Siptings." — We "sift" from a stray 

 leaf of an old publication, (it bears date September, 

 1S79, and that, in the eye of the present young and 

 fast age, is very old,) that Texas has one hundred 

 and sixty-six periodical publications, of which Gal- 

 vaston and Dallas have each nine; Grayson and Har- 

 ris have each six; Fannin, Bexar, Kaufman, Mc- 

 Lean and Williamson, have each /our; Travis has 

 five; and Robertson, Smith, Tarrant, Limestone, 

 Fayette and Caldwell have each three. A few places 

 have only tieo; for instance, Cameron, .\nderson, 

 Cass, Collins, Cherokee, Ellis, Freestone, Pales- 

 tine, etc., and many others only one. The publica- 

 tions — whether folios, quartos, or octavos, and 

 whether daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, are 

 published in ninety-fine different counties. 



In the month of December, 1S36, we stood upon a 

 " wharf-boat," on the lower Ohio river, when the 

 steamboat came along bearing Gen. Santa Anna 

 as a " hostage " of the United States, to the city of 

 Washington. He had, a short time previously, 

 been defeated by Gen. Sam. Houston, at the battle 

 of San Jacinto, in Texas, which was the downfall 

 of Mexican authority in that State, and the final ulti- 

 mation of Texan independence. Only forty seven 

 years ago, and probably at that time thei'e was not 

 a single English paper published in all Texas or, if 

 any, but few indeed. Texas was then regarded as a 

 wild, reckless, daredevil — if not a cut-throat place, 

 inhabited by people who had "left their country for 

 their country's good." Yet in 1S79 she had her 1(!6 

 literary publications, a result that exhibits more 

 intellectual progress at least than any other section 

 of the American Union. Conservative stay-at-homes 

 usually underrate new communities. From their 

 far.off standpoints they seldom have a proper appre- 

 ciation of the moral and intellectual struggle it re- 

 quires to elevate a heterogeneous mass to a higher 

 plane of humane civilization. Men must be taken 

 at what they are, and gradually moulded into a more 

 orderly form, and during the transition, things often 

 appear as if they had resolved themselves into chaos, 

 but by energy and perseverance, " time eventually 

 makes all things even." Welldoiie indomitable Texa.''. 



Our Society JonRNAL, devoted to the interests 

 of assessment life insurance, literature and the wel- 

 fare of the people; published by the .Journal Pub- 

 lishing Association, Bryant Building, New York 

 City, at 50 cents a year. This is a two-column, six- 

 teenth-page quarto, printed on fine paper and in clear 



