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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



with the appearance of those in health, that phy- 

 sicians have acquired all the really valuable knowl- 

 edge of disease that they possess. This knowl- 

 edge they have acquired under many difficulties. 

 There has always existed a prejudice against the 

 use of dead bodies for anatomical purposes. 

 There is something revolting about it to the feel- 

 ings of most people. So strong has this feeling 

 been, that many eminent medical men have di- 

 rected in their wills that their own bodies should 

 be dissected, in order that their own example 

 might tend to remove it from the public mind. It 

 was with great difficulty that a sufficient number of 

 subjects could be obtained for the use of medical 

 students, until enlightened legislation removed 

 the obstacles. But none of these difficulties exist 

 with respect to the dissection of the bodies of an- 

 mals. There are no prejudices in the public 

 mind to be overcome. Certainly it is for the in- 

 terest of every farmer, as well as of the public in 

 general, that the bodies of animals that die of dis- 

 ease, should be examined, that the seat and na- 

 ture of the disease may be ascertained. A farm- 

 er who has carefully watched the symptoms ex- 

 hibited by a sick animal, and then, after its death, 

 traced carefully the effects produced by disease on 

 one or several organs, will be better prepared, 

 when he observes similar symptoms in another 

 case, to decide what the disease is. A knowledge 

 of the seat and nature of disease is the only safe 

 basis for the application of remedies. The hap- 

 hazard, promiscuous use of remedies now so much 

 practiced, is much worse than nothing. There can 

 be no doubt that thousands of sick animals would 

 have recevered if they had been let alone, and the 

 Bufferings, which they were enduring from dis- 

 ease, had not been aggravated by violent and inap- 

 propriate remedies. Now that Pleuro-Pneumonia 

 is among us it becomes doubly important that 

 every animal which dies or is killed, about whose 

 disease there is any doubt, should be examined, 

 for it is only by an early knowledge of the exist- 

 ence of this disease in a neighborhood, that our 

 herds can be guarded against its destructive con- 

 tagion. When a farmer knows or suspects the 

 presence of this disease in his herd, if he is an 

 honest man, he will isolate his whole stock at 

 once, that the cattle of his neighbors may not be 

 exposed ; and if he regards his own interest, he 

 will abstain from bringing other cattle on to his 

 own premises. Let me illustrate what I have 

 said by an instance ; I have a neighbor, who lost 

 a cow last September ; he did not know what was 

 the matter with her, but called it the horn ail. 

 He buried her without any examination. Since 

 that he has bought a large number of cattle at 

 Brighton, and is wintering them to turn into his 

 pasture in the spring. He h*s recently lost one 

 ox, and now has at least four others sick ; and 

 there is not the shadow of a doubt that the dis- 

 ease is the truePluero-Pneumonia, and from com- 

 paring the symptoms, which the cow exhibited last 

 September, with those presented by the oxen at 

 the present time, he has no doubt that the cow 

 had the same disease. Now if he had examined 

 the cow, and ascertained the nature of her dis- 

 ease, would he have bought some twenty oxen 

 within a few weeks, and brought them into his 

 heifd ? He certainly would have had too much 

 regard for his own interest to run any such risk. 

 There may be some unbelievers in the contagious 



nature of this disease stupid enough to do it, as 

 there may be some reckless and wicked enough 

 to purchase herds that have been exposed to the 

 contagion, if they can get them cheap, and sell 

 them in the public market. But I have too much 

 confidence in the shrewdness and honesty of Yan- 

 kee farmers to believe that many of them, if they 

 had been forewarned by the proofs that would 

 have been presented on the examination of this 

 cow, would have brought other cattle on to their 

 premises during the present winter. They would 

 have preferred to sell their hay and purchase ma- 

 nure for the coming season. R. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BUTTER-MAKING NOT A MYSTERY. 

 Mr. Editor : — "How do you make such nice, 

 sweet butter in winter ?" is a question often 

 asked by my customers, as I carry them their 

 usual allowance of fresh butter for the week. 

 Sometimes I answer, "I will tell you when you 

 go to farming." 



For me, it seems a very simple thing to make 

 butter thatis good and uniform through the whole 

 year. But, were it simple to all, butter would 

 hardly command the present high prices. 



Some one asked, through your columns not 

 long since, how to make good butter in winter. 

 I would answer, "Make it just as it should be 

 made in summer.'' Yet as you may not think 

 that a very definite explanation of the process, I 

 will tell you how good butter can be made in 

 summer. 



A butter dealer said to me, the other day, that 

 were he engaging a dairy for the season, he only 

 wished to see a sample of the August or dog-day 

 butter. If that were satisfactory, he would take 

 his chance with the other two ends of the season. 

 There are about five or six weeks in spring and 

 full when, I suppose, every farmer's wife can make 

 a fair article of butter. It wHl almost "make it- 

 self," with good June or September feed, in a 

 clear, dry, June or September atmosphere, with 

 the mercury indicating an average of 60°. 



What else causes butter made in June, Septem- 

 ber and a part of October, to bring better prices 

 then that made at any other time of the year ? 

 But for the dairy to yield a generous profit through 

 the whole year, a fair article must proceed there- 

 from every week. Everybody cannot be supplied 

 through dog-days with June butter ; nor can ev- 

 ery family have their tubs for winter filled in Sep- 

 tember. 



Now if you can bring the dairy under the same 

 conditions in August or December, that prevail 

 in June and September, why should you not re- 

 alize the same results ? Doubtless you would. 

 But this it seems impossible, at present, fully to 

 do. Yet I think the secret of success in butter- 

 making is to bring about these conditions as near- 

 ly as may be. 



In the first place, you must, of course, have 

 good cows. Some cows will make a large amount 

 of high colored butter, but it is too soft to handle 

 well in any weather, especially when very warm ; 

 others yield an article too white to be attractive, 

 though I consider color of much less importance 

 than solidity. As far as my observation has ex- 

 tended, very yellow butter is not as good as that 

 which is lighter colored. It is apt to be oily, 

 caused, I think, first, by being naturally soft, and 



