342 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



high rank as one of the most skilful veterinarians in 

 the country. What we have pubhshed, in regard to 

 the bone disorder in cows, we regard more as a prop- 

 osition than as a well-established fact. 



One thing is certain : we beUeve that milch cows, 

 in particular, are liable to a disorder, and that its 

 symptoms and indications are as we have stated, 

 (p. 18,) and that ground or dissolved bones are a 

 remedy. The disease may have a wrong name, and 

 even the cause assigned may be wrong ; yet the facts 

 as to the symptoms and cure are important and use- 

 ful, and we hope that the hypothesis will be fairly 

 tested. 



We cannot agree with our friend, who has kindly 

 furnished this valuable communication, that the 

 theory is unreasonable and unsupported by facts ; 

 for there are facts that are strong circumstantial evi- 

 dence in its favor. And as to lands yielding an 

 abundance of food for cattle, and supplying nutri- 

 ment for flesh, and not for bones, is nothing more 

 strange, than it is that some food will produce a great 

 flow of milk in cows, but a want of flesh, and other 

 kinds will have an effect directly the reverse ; or that 

 apples and potatoes will cause pigs to grow well, but 

 will not fatten them like Indian corn. 



We do not suppose that anj' animal that is living 

 and moving about has a perceptible decay in its 

 bones ; but the animal may feel a deficienc)'' there 

 before the most skilful anatomist could see it. Can 

 he, by dissection, discover the scat and cause of every 

 pang of rheumatism ? Disease in bones, and its effect 

 on animals, must precede, and probably progress con- 

 siderably before it is perceptible to the anatomist. 



Acidity in the stomach of the animal may cause 

 the symptoms that are ascribed to the bone disorder, 

 as various internal diseases cause the animal to draw 

 herself up, and produce a shrinkage of the whole 

 frame, even of the bone work, from the contraction 

 of the skin and muscles. 



We do not think that the free use of shorts would 

 tend to produce wliat is called the hone disorder, or 

 acidity in the stomach, as it contains a large portion 

 of lime, which, if separate from the food, would be a 

 good medicine to correct these disorders. Yet it 

 may be in such a state, as to its preparation, as to 

 cause acidity. 



It is difficult to prove the existence of some dis- 

 eases, or what effects a cure ; for in many cases, a 

 patient may get well, through medical aid, though 

 doctored for a wrong disease ; and again he niaj' get 

 well in spite of medicine which has an injurious 

 effect. A man may be dosed with sulphur for the 

 salt rheum, and thus cure the itch, which was mis- 

 taken for the rheum. 



Still we think there may be a bone disorder, and 

 that there are stubborn facts to support it. Bones 

 are composed, in a great measure, of phosphate of 

 lime, or bone earth ; and this is an important con- 

 stituent in milk ; and lands long cropped, and the 

 crops removed from them, and no manure returned 

 to them, cease to produce vegetation that abounds in 

 phosphate of lime. Now, as thoi-e must be a drain 

 of this material to supply the milk, is it not reasona- 



ble that there is a deficiency in supplying the waste 

 of the bones ? 



Generally, cows only are affected with the bone 

 disorder, and those only while gijing milk ; and 

 when diseased in this way, while in milk, they re- 

 cover on going dry. The bone disorder is more com- 

 mon on old lands, where the phosphate of lime is 

 evidently exhausted, from the nature of the crops : 

 and in the county of Cheshire, England, distin- 

 guished as a dairy district, this proposition was made 

 an established fact by analyses of the soil. This 

 subject is open, and we invite the attention of men 

 of science, and of skilful practical observers, to its 

 thorough investigation. 



For the Neio England Farm^. 

 POR.CULATION. 



Do not be alarmed, my friend, at the ominously- 

 classical caption of this paper. I do not propose to 

 inflict upon the readers of the Farmer any stupidly- 

 learned essay upon the pachydermatous order of 

 quadrupeds ; or to clamber, for the wonder of gazers, 

 among the branches of the genealogical tree of the 

 genus sus. Noah and his ark are safe from any 

 domiciliary visit from me, and for the very sufficient 

 reason, that I myself have been, at times, almost de- 

 terred from the prosecution of inquiries, as to mat- 

 ters of interest upon a farm, by the terrible long 

 jaunt among the musty records of past ages, which 

 writers will force upon learners. The student of 

 nature, who seeks innocent information as to the 

 peculiar breed of the honed turJ;e>j, which delighted 

 his palate at the hestornal supper party, is crammed 

 incontinently with the mythology of the ancients. 

 Groaning yet under the undigested mass of informa- 

 tion Avhich he had sliced from the subject of his 

 inquiry, he is forced to swallow ^-Esculapius, as a 

 bolus, because patients who survived a doctor for- 

 merly slaughtered a cock to appease his disappoint- 

 ment. The lover of veal is treated to a dissertation 

 on " bos taurus." And one must see a maze in the 

 ear of corn, which he is manufacturing into nutri- 

 ment, under his grinders, unconscious heretofore 

 how " zea maize" tasted. 



I propose to myself, with your concurrence, Mr. 

 Cole, to clear a path which I found infested with 

 brambles, and to render it unnecessary for those who 

 contemplate the breeding of swine for their own use, 

 or for market, to undergo the expensive and dis- 

 heartening probation which fell to my lot. 



The chief dependence of the farmers of Rhode 

 Island for the annual supplies of their sties is upon 

 droves which are brought from Connecticut. There 

 are many of the larger landholders who raise their 

 own swine, and a few who breed on a pretty large 

 scale. Nevertheless, I am safe in naming the wan- 

 dering drover as the chief pig purveyor of the state. 

 There is not, to my knowledge, a boar a year or more 

 old, within eight miles of my residence, except in 

 the cit}^ of Providence. If there is one, he has been 

 'cute enough to evade my search. 



Now, a drove, as it passes along through the vil- 

 lages, is constantly culled, until the last man is forced 

 to take up with the land shark, or to remain hope- 

 lessly pigless until the arrival of the next caravan. 



It has been my fortune to see some of these mi- 

 grating grunters ; and I am fain to confess that for 

 any other earthly purpose than for a match against 

 time, the majority of them were utterly worthless. 

 Ah ! and I well remember a couple which a neigh- 

 bor, knowing my wants, secured for me on their 

 tramp. It was, indeed, the only time they ever were 



