1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



499 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CHOLBBA. 



Mr. Editor : — As you have occasionally pub- 

 lished articles on dietetics and the means of pre- 

 serving health, and as I consider experimental 

 knowledge preferable to theoretical, 1 thought I 

 would relate a concise history of my own case 

 which recently took place. In the month of July 

 last I was prostrated for a few days with a short 

 fever, and when I got about again my appetite 

 continued poor, till the 16th of August, at 8 P. M., 

 when, to my wonderment, for the first time in my 

 life, I was suddenly attacked with the cholera, 

 and experienced every variety of symptom con- 

 comitant with that disease, from the ejections up 

 and down to the cramp and cold sweats. Being 

 unable to swallow the least particle of anything, 1 

 took nothing for eighteen hours, not even an an- 

 odyne ; the only application made to me was a 

 chunk of hot marble to my feet and a plenty of 

 blankets at the time of the cold sweats and 

 spasms. Thinking that probably my last hour had 

 arrived, unless I had sufficient vitality remaining, 

 with the help of the blankets and marble, to pro- 

 duce reaction, I began to realize an abatement 

 of the agonies of the cold and cramps, which 

 gradually subsided, and were followed by warm 

 sweating. My distress continued seven or eight 

 hours. This is experimental knowledge. 



Now for theoretical prescriptions. I have been 

 amused beyond measure, since my recovery, at 

 reading the sage advice of the author of a publi- 

 cation called the "London Practice of Physic for 

 the use of young Practitioners." After describ- 

 ing the symptoms of the cholera with the wisdom 

 of Esculapius, he advises the young practitioners 

 to the following course of treatment : "Chicken- 

 broth should be freely drank to the quantity of 

 six or eight quarts, and as fast as possible ; milk 

 and warm water, new churned buttermilk, decoc- 

 tions of rice and barley, &c." 



Now in the name of common sense what man, 

 sick or well, could survive such an administra- 

 tion of the bounties of Providence. I wish the 

 author a chance to follow his own prescriptions 

 and see if it would not change his opinion in giv- 

 ing advice to young physicians. Medical writers 

 who will give such absurd instructions to young 

 physicians ought to be punished for their stupid- 

 ity and rashness. I fully believe if I had forced 

 down one pint of chicken- broth or buttermilk, it 

 would have been my last attempt at taking med- 

 icine. 



I fully concur with Prof. Holmes in his senti- 

 ments delivered in his discourse at the last annu- 

 al meeting of the members of the Massachusetts 

 Medical Society. For more than forty years I 

 have been persuaded that medicine, as it is used, 

 does more hurt than good, and unless medicine 

 can be used with more discretion, the world would 

 be better off if it were all cast into Etna's crater. 



Silas Brown. 



North Wilmington, Sept. 15, 1860. 



The Use of Quails. — Wm. Norton, an intel- 

 ligent, observing farmer boy, who makes his home 

 in the southern part of Illinois, has recently been 

 studying the habits of the quail, or incorrectly, 

 "partridge," and gives the following testimony to 

 the Cincinnati ^?'itsa?i: He observed a small flock 



commencing at one side of the field, taking about 

 five rows, following them regularly through the 

 field, scratching and picking about every hill, till 

 they came to the other side of the field ; then tak- 

 ing another five rows on their return, thus con- 

 tinuing till he thought they were certainly pulling 

 up the corn. He shot one, and then proceeded to 

 examine the corn ground. On all the ground 

 that they had been over, he found but one stalk 

 of corn disturbed ; that was scratched nearly out 

 of the ground, l)ut the kernel was still attached to 

 the stalk. In the cro]) of the quail, he found but 

 one cut worm, 21 striped vine bugs, 100 chintzl 

 bugs, that still retained their individuality, a 

 mass apparently consisting of hundreds of chintz 

 bugs, but not one kernel of corn." 



WATEK CISTERWS. 



Every farm establishment should be provided 

 with a capacious and conveniently located water 

 cistern. If the farm buildings are numerous and 

 compactly situated, a very small expenditure will 

 answer for the construction of all the apparatus re- 

 quisite for conducting the water from the roofs in- 

 to the reservoir, which, for greater convenience, 

 should be located in some place where it may 

 supply the wants of the animals in the yards dur- 

 ing winter, as well as the household. 



The convenience and value of such an arrange- 

 ment will be particularly obvious during seasons 

 of protracted drought, or accidents from fire. In 

 the latter emergency, where recourse is had to 

 ordinary wells, too much time is expended in 

 drawing or pumping, especially when the fountain 

 is at a considerable distance below the surface ; 

 but a cistern being situated more superficially, 

 with regard to its contents, is at all times within 

 immediate reach, and may be made to pour forth 

 its treasures at a moment's warning. By furnish- 

 ing troughs where the water is required, a system 

 of pipes will be found highly convenient, as 

 through them the water may be conveyed, in any 

 quantity, and at all times, to the yards or places 

 required. 



Good and substantial reservoirs, perfectly wa- 

 ter tight, may be formed of split stone, brick, 

 plank, or even without either, the interior surface 

 as well as the bottom being covered with two or 

 three coatings of cement. We have known them 

 made by cementing directly upon the earth, but 

 in our climate of penetrating frosts, such would 

 not be the best way. They may be made square, 

 oval or round ; but made in the form of an egg, 

 they are very strong, and require no "deck" or 

 top covering, as the opening in the top m.ay be 

 only a little larger than a man's body, so that he 

 can enter it occasionally to clean it out. 



In a cistern constructed in this manner, the 

 water will soon become clear and fit for family 

 use, if the roofs of the buildings upon which it 

 falls are kept ordinarily clean. Where there is 



