144 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



upon every axe before it reaches the packing room. 

 Most of the operatives are paid by the piece, each 

 room being under the charge of an inspector, who 

 exercises a general supervision over the operations 

 in his department. The process which has been 

 described applies to common chopping axes. 



Among the other implements manufactured 

 may be mentioned adzes, hatchets, picks, mat- 

 tocks, knives, &c. Also the Spanish axe, an odd 

 pattern manufactured expressly for exportation to 

 Spain ; and the Spanish machetes, an implement 

 used in Cuba for cutting wild cane and also for 

 warfare. The latter are of various patterns, some 

 of them not entirely unlike a long Yankee cleaver, 

 with nice horn handles. 



The Company manufactures nearly half a million 

 dollars' worth of goods annually, for which their 

 market is the world, orders being frequently re- 

 ceived, not only from the various countries of 

 Europe, but from Cuba, Australia, South America 

 and Africa. Viator. 



For tfte New Enaiand Farmer. 

 CUTTITTG FEED FOR STOCK, 



I notice an article in the Farmer on the sub- 

 ject of "Cutting Feed for Stock," and that you 

 invite others to give their views on this topic. 

 Without pretending to any superior wisdom on 

 this matter, I have become fully convinced in my 

 own mind, after some years of experience, that 

 the true course regarding this much discussed 

 question in relation to stock feeding is, that it 

 was only profitable to cut such fodder that the 

 animal will not devour readily and savingly and 

 digest thoroughly. All else is labor lost ; and 

 labor in these times is even more than money, we 

 know by experience, as money will not always 

 hire it. 



For instance, I have a horse to winter, and 

 have for his winter feed a certain quantity of 

 ground feed and hay. A certain quantity of the 

 hay he will consume daily and economically un- 

 cut, and likewise the meal. If he is not too much 

 in years he will thoroughly masticate his hay, 

 which fact can be determined by the excrements ; 

 and the meal, of course, he will obtain the full 

 benefit of, as it is already ground. If his system 

 requires the meal to be wet, this, of course, can as 

 easily be done as though it were mixed with cut 

 hay. And in passing, allow me just to say, that 

 here is apt to be a mistake in regard to feeding 

 uncyt food — we are too likely to give it in a dry 

 state, and thence arises constipation. 



If any of the advocates of cutting feed will give 

 me good, substantial reasons for cutting, under 

 the above circumstances, that is, when it is eco- 

 nomically eaten and well digested, I should be 

 gratified to hear them. But on the contrary, 

 there are numerous cases, I am confident, where, 

 to cut feed, would be highly practicable, — for in- 

 stance, where an aged animal has lost its power 

 of mastication, or where fodder is in such a poor 

 condition that it will not be eaten unless cut and 

 meal added to it. Or, perhaps, in high feeding, 

 where the animal will not partake of as much hay 

 as is desirable, the amount may possibly be in- 

 creased by cutting and adding meal to it. To 

 mefll these exigencies, every stock feeder should 

 own a good feed-cutter. 



But when writers tell us that all fodder, under 

 all circumstances, should be cut before feeding, I 



for one feel that theory does not at times, at 

 least, correspond with what practice teaches is 

 best. W. J. Pettee. 



Salisbury, Conn. 



SKIN" DISEASES IN" ANIMALS. 



Scabies is a pestiferous disease, whether it af- 

 fects the horse, the ox, the sheep, swine, or poul- 

 try, inflicting a loss not easily estimated ; hence 

 the maxim of every intelligent farmer is to avoid 

 it. With him "prevention is better than cure," 

 and therefore his grand desideratum is t6 guard 

 against contagion. Sheep are, perhaps, more sub- 

 ject to it than any of the other animals, arising as 

 much from the nature of their skins and coats as 

 from the fecundity of the acarus ovis, and the 

 greater vicissitudes of the weather to which they 

 (sheep) are exposed. Certain parts of the body 

 are more liable to be affected than others ; and so 

 is an unhealthy skin than a healthy one. Indeed, 

 it has been said that an unhealthy skin will itself 

 produce scabies{?), but this conclusion does not 

 appear to be w«ll founded, for a disease depend- 

 ent upon the presence of living parasites, can nev- 

 er arise spontaneously, but must be effected by 

 contagion, either by means of their eggs, or the 

 insect in some other stage of its existence. 



Now from what has just been said, it will ap- 

 pear obvious that cleanliness, a healthy skin and 

 state of the body, and a separation from foul ani- 

 mals and ground, are the means necessary to 

 avoid contagion. — American Veterinary Journal. 



Treatment of Croup. — IlaU's Journal of 

 Health says: Croup is an inflammation of the inner 

 surface of the windpipe. Inflammation implies 

 heat, and that heat must be subdued, or the pa- 

 tient Avill inevitably die. If prompt eff'orts are 

 made to cool the parts in case of an attack of 

 croup, relief will be as prompt it is surprising 

 and delightful. All know that cold applied to a 

 hot skin cools it, but all do not as well know and 

 understand that hot water applied to an inflamed 

 skin will as certainly cool it off. Hence the appli- 

 cation of ice-cold water with linen cloths, or al- 

 most boiling water with woollen flannel, is very 

 efficient in the cure of croup. Take two or three 

 pieces of woollen flannel, or two folds, large enough 

 to cover the whole throat and upper part of the 

 chest, put these in a pan of hot water as hot as 

 the hand can bear, and keep it thus hot by adding 

 water from a boiling tea-kettle at hand ; let two 

 or three of the flannels be in hot water all the 

 time, and one on the throat all the time, with a 

 dry flannel covering the wet one, so as to keep 

 the heat in to some extent; the flannels should 

 not be so wet when put on as to dribble the water, 

 for it is important to keep the clothing as dry as 

 possible, and keep up the process until the phlegm 

 is loose, the child is easier, and begins to fall 

 asleep ; then gently wrap a dry flannel over the 

 wet one which is on, so as to cover it up entirely, 

 and the child is saved. When it wakes up both 

 flannels will be dry. 



Extensive Ditches. — W. A. Hopkins, of 

 Hampton Falls, N. H., has ditched on the marsh- 

 es of Hampton Falls, Seabrook and Hampton, 

 during the past 16 years, ditches that would reach 

 a distance of one hundred and seventy miles. 



