1884. J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER- 



19 



Take one-half pint of tiiriieutiue and forty- 

 five drops of creosote and apply twice or lln-ee 

 times a week externally, being careful not to 

 get it on your hands or in the animal's mouth. 

 We followed the directions twice a week. 

 It made him cross and we had to tie him 

 when the remedy was applied. lu about four 

 weeks it broke and kept ruiuiing lor some 

 time and occasionally we would apply a small 

 quantity. The bull got well and he is now on 

 my farm, and no one would even suspect he 

 bad big jaw.— Tr»!. ii'ooi/i, in LUr. Stcrk In- 

 dicator. 



We don't know to what extent " liig Jaw" 

 (unless under some other other name) now 

 exists in Lancaster county— or even in Penn- 

 sylvania—but we know it did exist when we 

 were a farm-boy, some sixty years ago, and 

 we also have an impression that it was goner- 

 ally considered incurable ; although on one of 

 the farms where we were engaged, a case had 

 been cured, but it left the animal blind of an 

 eye. In another case it almost culminated in 

 a law suit ; because one butcher had inti- 

 mated that another butcher had slaughtered 

 an animal afflicted with Biy Jaw, and had 

 sold the meat to his customers. It possibly 

 may have been true, but it could not be 

 proved, hence the matter was dropped through 

 the disavowal of the party who initiated or 

 circulated the report. 



We insert the above on account of the 

 remedy for big jaw which it contains ; and 

 the simplicity of the ingredients and their ap- 

 plication. The coincidence is somewhat sin- 

 gular that in the above case, as well as in the 

 cases we refer to, the animals afflicted should 

 have been "Bulls," as if bulls were more 

 liable to it than cows or oxen. 



After his cure, " our bull" was finally sold 

 to a stock feeder who lived about five miles 

 off, and it devolved upon us to drive him to 

 his new owner ; iind never can we forget the 

 trial, the vexation, and the fear it occasioned 

 us. The animal left his old home reluctantly, 

 and when he got the " shere " on us from 

 the blind side, it involved a tremendous effort 

 to " head him oft." We are not sure, but we 

 think Wd wished a dozen times, or more, that 

 he never had been cured. 



We know nothing about the symptoms, the 

 pathology, or the treatment of " big-jaw," 

 nor have we heard of it, under that name, for 

 forty years or more ; but, we think it was an 

 inflamation or "healing," affecting also the 

 bone of the jaw and head ; and the eftbrt was 

 to bring it to a "head," after the manner of a 

 boil or fellou, in order to make it " break " 

 and discharge the collected pus. It was, per- 

 haps, cancerous in its character, and when it 

 aft'ected the bone was incurable- Under any 

 circumstances, Mr. Booth seems to know what 

 it is, and also how to cure it, and that is 

 sufficient for those who may have occasion to 

 try it. 



A REMARKABLE CATERPILLAR. 



There is a genuine case of a living creature 

 becoming converted into a vegetable. 



It occurs in a caterpillar that lives in New 

 Zelaud and in Austi'alia. There are several 

 specimens at the College of Surgeons, Lon- 

 don, and elsewhere. We see a caterpillar as 

 hard as if it was carved out of a piece of 

 wood, and from it is growing a long stem. 

 The history of it is as follows : 



The caterpillar eats a f imgus, or the sporules 

 of a fungus, and these immediately begin to 

 grow in its inside. The insect feels uncom- 

 fortable, and possibly thinking that it is going 

 to turn into a chrysalis buries itself in the 

 ground and there dies. 



The fungus goes on growing and absorbing 

 the entire contents of the skin, taking the 

 exact form of the creature. Having done 

 this, it throws out a shoot, and this always at 

 a certain fixed spot— namely, at the joint at 

 the back of the head. Several foreign natural- 

 ists possess si)ecimens which they have kindly 

 shown and explained. 



This caterpillar is fotnid also in China, 

 where it is used as food. 



Xature, frequently prone to produce in in- 

 animate substances models of her own living 

 creations, has produced a plant that resembles 

 a snake in a most remarkable manner. This 

 is a simple house-leek which in certain stages 

 of its growth remarkably resembles a snake. 

 A hairy viper was once seen in the Algerian 

 country, near Drarioh, which resembled an 

 enormous caterpillar. It was of a brownish- 

 red color, and its length was about twenty- 

 two inches. The moment it saw that it was 

 observed it glided into the brushwood and all 

 attempts to discover it were unavailing. 



Tlie foregoing, which is "going the rounds 

 of the press"— so far at least as concerns 

 the "remarkable caterpillar "—with some 

 modification, contains nothing that is abso- 

 lutely remarkable or nero. Had it been con- 

 sidered either remarkable or new one would 

 have supposed the instances of the kind that 

 h;i.ve occurred in our own country, ought to 

 have found a place in the columns of our live 

 newspapers a least ; but no, they must go 

 away off to Australia, and New Zealand, and 

 China, to find examples of these phenomena, 

 countries so remote that most people would 

 believe or disbelieve at once, rather than to 

 attempt to prove or disprove them. Sixteen 

 years ago, and at various subsequent periods. 

 Prof. C. V. Kiley, described, illustrated and 

 published, in the American EntomologiBt, in 

 the reports of the noxiom and innoxio^^s in- 

 sects of the State of Missouri, and in other 

 publications, accounts of a very similar charac- 

 ter. One of the subjects that came under his 

 observation had two long fungoid stems, 

 which grew out from the under .tide of the an- 

 terior segment (or between the segment and 

 the head) of a white "Grub-worm," one of 

 which stems was fully five inches in length. 

 The grub seemed to be the larva of a species 

 of Melolonthid.e, a family that belongs to 

 the section of Lamellicomia, in the order 

 CoLKOi-TKUA. And these observations of his 

 have been amply corroborated by other reliable 

 authorities. The theory in the above extract 

 is, perhaps, the true one, or makes an approxi- 

 mation to it. 



"Vegetable " snakes" are often produced in 

 twining plants, and are not considered as 

 vmy remarkable. The form of a snake may 

 be very easily imagined in long, naked twin- 

 ing i)lant stems, when there is very little 

 foundation for it. Doubtless the hairy Al- 

 gerian viper may be piu-ely the creature of an 

 easily excited imagination. Being only " once 

 seen " requires further confirmation to render 

 it authentic. But the fungous, white grub 

 worm has long since been placed upon perma- 



nent record in the scientific annals of the 

 country, hence there is no necessity in going 

 abroad for a confirmation of it— unless, like 

 fashion, a foreign paternity be necessary to 

 give it currency in a laud of republican sim- 

 plicity. 



VERY COLD WEATHER. 



The month of January, 18H4, was pretty 

 generally cold ; not only throughout the 

 United States, but also throughout Europe. 

 We think we can recall at least one temporary 

 local record, within the county of Lancaster, 

 where the thermometer marked a lower de- 

 gree of cold (32 degrees below zero, we be- 

 lieve), but the cold was not so uniform, nor 

 so protracted, as it was during the last 

 month. The following is an analysis of the 

 meteorology of the month, and also the tem- 

 perature and the preciintation of the months 

 of January from 1872 to ls83, as i)repared by 

 an ofticer of the Signal Corps, U. S. A. 



METEOROLOGICAL SUMMART POR JA.NUABT. 



Mean daily barometer, 30.1.W. 



Tliffhest barometer, .30.887, on the27tli. 



Lowest barometer, 29.1.S2, on the Utli. , 



Monthly range of barometer, 1.7.55. 



Mean temperature, 5.29, on the .5th. 



Hiirhest temperature-, 5.5, on the 9th. 



Lowest temperature, 10, on the 5th and 7th. 



Greatest daily range of temperature, ^8, on the 

 8th and 9th. 



Least daily range of temperature, 3.5, on the 1st. 



Mean daily range of temperature, 13.4. 



Mean daily dew-point, 21.9. 



Mean daily relative humidity, 73.4. 



Prevailing direction of wind, S. \V. 



Total movement of wind, 6093 miles. 



Highest velocity of wind and direction, 25, N. E., 

 9th. 



Number of clear days, 6. 



Number of fair days, 15. 



Number of cloudy days, 10. 



Number of days on which rain or snow fell, 18. 



Dates of frosts, 14th, 21st, 30th. 



Total rainfall, 5.4ij. 



T. F. TOWNSEND, 



Sergeant Signal Corps, U. 3. A. 

 The most remarkable feature of the winter 

 is that there were six weeks (nearly) in suc- 

 cession, during which there was good sleigh- 

 ing, including the entire month of January, 

 from the first day until the very last. We 

 remember during the winter of 1S34-.5, that 

 there were- with one or two temporary inter- 

 missions — nine consecutive weeks of excellent 

 sleighing, during a part of which period it was 

 exceedingly cold, but we do not remember the 

 register. 



When no registry is made, and the summer 

 or winter happens to be above or below the 

 ordinary temperature, the one present always 

 seems the hottest or the coldest. In this re- 

 spect, we are prone to forget the past, in our 

 reahzing sense of the pre-sent, and our anticipa- 

 tions of the future. Unless we have suffered 

 is a special sense the present winter, it would 

 be hard to say what recollections of it we will 

 carry over to the next winter— if we live so 

 long— whatsoever its character may happen 

 to be. Live and see. 



