380 Transactions of the Ameujcan Institute. 



tlie congli worse. We liave tried several remedies which have done 

 no good ; among them condition powder and flaxseed. Please give 

 me some advice in this case, and oblige. 



S. E. Todd, — The cough is doubtless attributable to one of two 

 causes — bad ventilation of stables, or musty and dusty hay. I occa- 

 sionally pass a small and close stable in Brooklyn, in a basement, 

 from which I saw them taking out the third dead horse within a few 

 months past. The death of those noble animals was caused by inha- 

 Kng the poisonous effluvia that arose from their own droppings. 

 Each died with a severe cough. Yery dusty hay, like bad clover hay, 

 will poison horses of a delicate organization. The remedy is pure 

 air and cut feed, or roots and grass. If hay is dusty it should be 

 sprinkled with water. The best treatment for a horse that, like the 

 one described, has an established cough, is to turn him out to pasture 

 for a couple of months. This will apparently cure him, but the 

 complaint will reappear if he is put on dry hay in the fall. But if 

 he is well cared for, in a sweet stable and fed with moist food, espe- 

 cially roots, the cure will be lasting. 



Marl Monopoly. 

 Mr. John Wilson, Bridgeport, Cumberland county, N. J. — I have 

 seen several notices in the published proceedings of the Farmers' 

 Club, of the ofter made by the New Jersey marl companies to pre- 

 sent the members of the Club with fifty or more tons of marl for 

 trial. I should like to say something of our experience with marl and 

 marl companies in this country. When the article was shipped by 

 rail to Bridgeton, I believe the price was $1.25 per ton. It was found 

 to be beneficial to grass crops, and the demand increased. The noble- 

 minded company then put the price up to $1.80, but as corn and 

 wheat were bringing high prices, the demand for marl still increased. 

 Generous company, believing the farmers will stand another turn of 

 the screw, go up to $1.90 ; another turn and it is $1.95 ; another and 

 it is $2.10. Now it is this steady advance of price, wliile farm crops 

 are steadily falling, that I protest against as unfeeling, and in the end 

 a short-sighted policy for the companies and the roads. I liave found 

 bone dust to be abetter manure than marl, especially for grain, and 

 less costly. I believe a dressing of 300 pounds of bones to be equal 

 to ten tons of marl. All we farmers know about the marl, is that it costs 

 more and more each year, and this policy driving us to other com- 

 mercial manures. We have some little curiosity to know what divi- 



