1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



31 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SALT FOH. ANIMALS. 



Mr. Editor :— It is thought by some, th?,t salt, 

 instead of being beneficial, is so injurious to ani- 

 mals as to do them more harm than good, so that 

 they had better be without it than with it. More 

 than a year ago I heard a former in this town de- 

 claim very earnestly against the use of salt. lie 

 spoke very eloquently and decidedly upon the sub- 

 ject, and pointed out several instances in wliich he 

 had known salt to be injurious to animals. I can 

 not remember all the particular instances he gave ; 

 but they were something like the following : — One 

 farmer "had lost a fat cow by letting her eat as 

 much salt as she ])leased. Another farmer, from 

 the same cause, had lost the use of a fine yoke of 

 three-year old steers which had been so injured as 

 to be unable to do any work for three months. 

 Another farmer, from the same cause, had lost a 

 large flock of sheep, which had become so rotten 

 and diseased that several died daily. 



Now, this all sounded very well, though it was 

 somewhat alarming to some of those present. It 

 was uttered very smoothly and gracefully, and with 

 great apparent sincerity. It was roUed from the 

 tongue in a very flippant and tripping manner 

 which seemed to challenge the possibility of a 

 doubt ; and yet, it is now, as it was then, very evi- 

 dent, that the whole truth was not told ; because 

 it Avas not so much the salt, as the quantity of salt 

 that did the miscliief It is not true, that salt gen- 

 erally injures animals. It is only when eaten in 

 exorbitant quantities, that salt has an injurious 

 efi'ect. It is highly probable, that the same ani- 

 mals would have been equally injured, if they had 

 been fed upon any kind of grain, and allowed to 

 eat all they would, after they had been for a long 

 time without it. The truth probably is, that the 

 animals had not been salted for several weeks, so 

 that, when they had access to salt, they ate so 

 much as to injure them. It is true, that all ani- 

 mals are exceedingly fond of salt; their nature 

 craves it ; they eat it with the greatest avidity, es- 

 pecially when they have been long without it ; and, 

 therefore, they are liable to be injured by it. If 

 they are allowed to have salt every day, they will 

 never eat too much, or be injured by it. It is only 

 when they have been a long time without it, that 

 they devour it with so much greediness as to be 

 injured by it. The daily use of salt, in moderate 

 quantities, is exceedingly beneficial to them ; but 

 large quantities devoured by them, after they have 

 been long without it, are almost always injurious. 

 Besides, the daily use of salt enables animals to 

 take on fat faster than they otherwise would. The 

 salt they eat acts also as a vermifuge, destroying 

 many kinds of worms in the intestines of animals, 

 and confening a healthy tone of action throughout 

 the whole animal economy. 



My practice is to allow animals to have daily 

 access to salt. They eat it moderately almost 

 every day, both in summer and in winter ; and 

 yet I never had an animal eat so much as to be in- 

 jured by it. I do not believe, they ever will eat 

 too much, if they have access to it every day. I 

 always keep a trough full of salt in the yard under 

 cover, and allow every animal to eat as much salt 

 as it pleases. 



About two years ago, I purchased a cow that 

 had not been properly salted. She appeared to 



be almost crazy to get at the salt-trough ; and it 

 was diflicult to keep her away from it. I salted 

 her privately every day for a week or more, giving 

 her a moderate quantity, but not allowing her to 

 go to the trough to eat as much as she would. 

 During all this time, she was gnawing all the old 

 boards, bones, rags and scraps of leather that came 

 in her way. After a while, she calmed down, and 

 became very gentle and tractable, eating only a 

 moderate quantity of salt, but still continuing to 

 gnaw the articles above mentioned. I then pur- 

 chased some bone meal, and fed her on that. Af- 

 ter eating it freely and voraciously two or three 

 times, she refused to eat any more, and immedi- 

 ately left off" gnawing those articles. 



Not long since, I bought a cow of a man who 

 keeps a livery stable in this town. He sold the 

 cow, because she Avas all the time gnawing his har- 

 nesses, and he could not keep her from them. 

 When I first had her, she was as crazy and restless 

 as a June bug. She evidently had a craving ap- 

 petite for something beside her ordinary food. I 

 gave her a pailful of swill daily, and a moderate 

 quantity of salt. She ate them both greedily, es- 

 pecially the salt. Her appetite for salt was soon 

 satisfied in a degree ; she became very quiet ; and 

 she is now allowed to have free access to the salt 

 in the trough, and she never eats too much of it. 

 I do not think I have entirely cured her of her pro- 

 pensity to gnaw harnesses, because it is highly 

 probable that other elements beside salt are need- 

 ed to accomplish tliis object. But I do believe 

 that she will gnaw them with less avidity than 

 before, and that the habit of gnawing them Avas 

 superinduced by neglecting to give her regularly 

 a sufficient quantity of salt. Be tliis as it may, I 

 shall soon put her to the test. K she still shows a 

 disposition to gnaw things, I shall feed her on bone 

 meal, if I can obtain it in tliis neighborhood. If I 

 fail to obtain that, I shall sprinkle ashes with her 

 other food ; or, perhaps, still better, I shall give 

 her small doses of soap for a few days, till her ap- 

 petite for such things is entirely overcome. 



John Goldsbuey. 



Warwiclc, Dec, 1861. 



Working Hogs. — The New England Farmer 

 says : "We do not work our hogs, either in har- 

 ness or on the manure heaps. An Ii-ishman can 

 overhaul the manure heap much cheaper than the 

 hogs can." This is all very well, but still we see 

 no objection to letting store hogs root in the barn 

 yard and pick up scattered grain, &c. On a farm 

 where much grain is fed out, a few young hogs can 

 be wintered in this way at a very trifling cost. — 

 Genesee Farmer. 



Remarks. — Certainly. One objection to wo)-k- 

 ing hogs is, that they are kept half starved in or- 

 der to make them work. Tliis process is cruel to 

 the animals and wasteful to the owner of them. 



Statistics go to prove that tea is used, more 

 or less, by one-half of the human race — 500,000,- 

 000 of people. Theine is the peculiar organic 

 principle which gives tea its value. Taken in 

 small quantities, tea is healthful ; but the extract 

 of one ounce taken per day, by one person, produ- 

 ces trembling of the limbs and wandering of mind. 



