THE LANCASTER FARMEH. 



^3 



It seems to withdraw the heat and with it the 

 pain, and the healing process soon commences. 

 It is the best application for eruptions caused 

 by poisonous ivy and other poisonous plants, 

 as also for bites and stings of insects. Owing 

 to colds, over-fatigue, anxiety and various 

 other causes, the urine is often scanty, highly 

 colored, and more or less loaded with phos- 

 phate which settle to the bottom of the vessel 

 on cooling. As much soda as can be dipped 

 up with a ten cent piece, dissolved in half a 

 glass of cold water and drank every three 

 hours, will soon remedy the trouble. 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GAME. 



The swift growth of our cities is not near- 

 ly as unparalleled as the rapid disappearance 

 of our game animals. One hundred years ago 

 Eastern North America was the finest game 

 country in the world. "This valley is a himt- 

 er's paradise," says Colonel Boone in his ac- 

 count of the expedition to the mouth of the 

 Kentucky River. "Our dogs started three 

 troops of deer in less than half an hour, on 

 the river we saw tracks of elk, bears and 

 buffalo, and the thickets along the slope were 

 full of turkeys and mountain-pheasants. From 

 the cliffs above the junction our guide showed 

 us the wigwams of the Miamis. About eight 

 miles to the northwest we could see the 

 smoke of their camp-fires rising from the foot 

 of a rocky bluff, but the hill country on the 

 east and the great plains in the west, 

 north and northwest resembled a boundless 

 ocean of undulating woodlands." 



"Northwest of the Blue Ridge " buffaloes 

 grazed in countless herds. During tlie heat 

 of the midsummer mouths they used to re- 

 treat to the highlands, and followed the ridges 

 in the southward migration as the approach 

 of winter gradually crowned the lieights with 

 snow. Along the backbones of all the main 

 chains of the sunken AUeghenies these trails 

 can still be distinctly traced for hundreds of 

 miles. " Buffalo Springs," Buffalo Gap " and 

 scores of similar names still attest the former 

 presence of the American bison in localities 

 that are now nearly '20,000 miles from the 

 next buffalo 1 ange. The centre of our buflalo 

 population is moving northwest at an alarm- 

 ing rate. Herds, in the old-time sense of the 

 word, can now be found only in British North 

 America iind here and there along the frontier 

 of our Northwestern Territory. In cold 

 winters small troops of fifteen or twenty are 

 seen in the Texas Panhandle, in Western 

 Utah, and in the valley of the Upper Ar- 

 kansas, but nowhere this side of the Missis- 

 sippi. Their days are numbered. They can 

 not hide, and their defensive weapons are 

 useless against mountain riflemen. Pot- 

 hunters follow them to their farj northern re- 

 treats ; the International Railroad will soon 

 carry a swarm of sportsmen to their West 

 Mexican reservations, and in fifty years from 

 now their happy pasture grounds will proba- 

 bly be reduced to the inclosed grass-plots of a 

 few zoological gardens. 



Panthers are still found in twenty-six or 

 twenty-seven States, but chiefly at the two 

 opposite ends of our territory— or Florida and 

 Oregon. In the southern AUeghenies they 

 are still frequent enough to make the Govern- 

 ment bounty a source of income to the hunt- 

 ers of several highland counties. AVolves 



still defy civilization in .some of the larger 

 prairie States, and in the wild border country 

 between North Carolina and East Tennessee. 

 But, unlike the panthers, they do not conline 

 themselves to a special locality. Hunger 

 makes them peripatetic, and in cold winters 

 their occasional visits can be looked for in al- 

 most any mountain valley between Southern 

 Kentucky and Alabama. 



FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 



From various sources we have received re- 

 ports within the last few weeks of the appear- 

 ance in this country of what is called the 

 " foot and mouth disease," or aphthous fever. 

 It is not at all strange that this disease should 

 be imported, inasmuch as we are constantly 

 receiving cattle, sheep, and other domestic 

 animals from countries where it has existed 

 for many years ; but for some unknown 

 reason this scourge has never found a perma- 

 nent lodgment on the soil of the United 

 States. Some fourteen years ago it appeared 

 among the cattle of Massachusetts, and several 

 hundred were attacked; but it soon disap- 

 peared, and little has been heard of it until 

 quite recently. 



We learn from the Maine Farmer of Feb- 

 ruary 2S, that this disease has for the first 

 time appeared in Maine, having been intro- 

 duced there by a herd of Hereford cattle, im- 

 ported intojPorfland on February 2, on board 

 the English steamer Ontario of the Dominion 

 line. It is quite natural tliat the farmers of 

 Maine should feel somewhat alarmed at the 

 appearance of this disease in such close proxi- 

 mity to their private herds, and we haye no 

 doubt the requisite precautions will be taken 

 to prevent its dissemination to other points. 

 We also have reports of the appearance of 

 this disease in one of the Western States, 

 which, if true, does not speak well for those 

 who have charge of the quarantine yards at 

 the ports where imported animals are received 

 and examined before being allowed to go in- 

 land. We certainly cannot be too cautious 

 in this matter of preventing the introduction 

 of infectious and contagious diseases of ani- 

 mals, and we could far better afford to close 

 our ports to all kinds of domestic animals 

 than to introduce a disease that cannot be 

 readily stamped out without considerable loss 

 or expense. We have already as good ani- 

 mals to breed from as can be found in any 

 European country, and there is really no need 

 of ever importing another one ; and we are 

 not quite certain that it would not be good 

 policy to shut the gates against live stock 

 from all parts of the world. 



This aphthous fever, like all other animal 

 plagues follows in the track of commerce, and 

 has appeared in almost every cattle-raising 

 country in the world ; and while the United 

 States have thus far been exceedingly fortu- 

 nate in escaping any serious loss from it, we 

 cannot expect that this state of affairs will 

 continue for all time, if animals arc permit- 

 ted to come here from infected districts 

 abroad. 



The virus of this disease may be scattered 

 in many ways, and the poison transmitted by 

 direct contact or through the medium of 

 roads, pastures, food, litter manure, drinking 

 troughs, the clothes of the persons attending 

 the animals, and the ships and cars in which 



stock is taken from one country or locality to 

 another. One European authority states that 

 he had known the virus to be preserved a 

 long time in the forage and water of a stable 

 that had been occupied by a diseased animal. 



The disease is not confined to neat cattle, 

 but attacks all cloven-footed animals, and 

 from these is communicated to all warm- 

 blooded animals, even to man. The period 

 incubation is usually from two to six days, 

 and Dr. Jameij Law describes the symjjtoms 

 as follows : " Roughness of the coat or shiv- 

 ering ; increased temperature ; dry mu7.zle ; 

 hot red mouth, U^ats, and interdlgital spaces ; 

 lameness ; inclination to lie down, and shrink- 

 ing from the hand in milking. The second or 

 third day, blisters arise on any part of the 

 whole interior of the mouth, one-half inch 

 across. Saliva drivels from the mouth, col- 

 lecting in froth around the lips, and a loud 

 smacking is made with the lips and tongue." 

 Swine champ the jaws, and both slieej) and 

 swine suffer much in their feet, often losing* 

 the hoofs. 



Nothing is really known in regard to the 

 cau.ses which develop this disease, but it is 

 believed to always proceeil from a particle of 

 virus transmitted from some diseased animal. 

 It is highly contagious and infectious, and 

 must be dealt with accordingly. It usually 

 runs its course in from ten to fifteen days, 

 and, if the animals recive proper care, few 

 few need be lost. The usual treatment is to 

 give laxative medicines, and astringent solu- 

 tions for wiishing the mouth. Dr. Law re- 

 commends Epsom salts for physic ; and for a 

 mouth wash, borax and tincture of myrrh, 

 one ounce each; water one quart; or carbolic 

 acid, one drachm; honey, two ounces; vinegar, 

 one pint; water, one pint. A lotion for the 

 teats may be made of carbolic acid, one-half 

 drachm, glycerine ten ounces. For dressing 

 the sores on the feet use oil of vitrol, one 

 ounce, diluted with four ounce-s of water, and 

 then apply with a feather. The feet may also 

 I)e tied up with tar bandages, or the sores 

 smeared with warm tar. The strength of the 

 animal should be kept up by giving stimulat- 

 ing food, such as oatmeal gruel, linseed tea 

 and good ale. In fact, careful attention to 

 the wants of the animal in the way of proper 

 food and drinks is fully as essential as medi- 

 cines. One attack of this disease does not in- 

 sure the animal against another. 



To prevent the .spread of the di3ea.se all in- 

 fected animals should be secluded from all 

 others, and the attendants must be very care- 

 ful or they will carry the virus in their boots 

 or clothes from the sick to the well anjmals. 

 The milk of the cows with the disease should 

 be buried, and all the manure in the same way 

 or burned. All troughs, pails and other 

 utensils used in the the stables of the affected 

 animals should be carefully disinfected or 

 destroyed, as they are no longer needed for 

 the purpose which they have been used. — N. 

 Y. Sun. 



THE SPEED OF A FLYING DUCK. 



It may be interesting to the reader to know 

 the speed at which many ducks fly down 

 wind : 



Mallard, from 45 to 50 miles an hour. 



Black duck, from 45 to 50 miles an hour. 



Pintal, from 50 to 60 miles an hour. 



