1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



233 



For the New England Farmer. 

 RETROSPECTIVE NOTES. 



Diseases of Farm Stock. — Under this cap- 

 tion, in the issue of this paper of April 30th, we 

 made some remarks intended to show that the 

 want of information in regard to the causes and 

 cure of the diseases of farm stock, resulted in 

 great loss to the farmers and much needless suf- 

 fering to the poor brutes ; and we also made some 

 suggestions intended to assist those who are de- 

 sirous of a better knowledge of proper medical 

 treatment of domestic animals. 



We return to the subject in consequence of 

 having met with some very sensible and useful 

 observations in connection with it, from the pen 

 of Dr. Henry S. Randall, in a recent issue of the 

 Mural New-Yorker. After some remarks upon 

 the folly and venturesome presumption of a cor- 

 respondent who wrote that he tried everything he 

 could hear for of grub in the head, which he sup- 

 posed to be the ailment under which some of his 

 sheep were laboring, Dr. Randall remarks that he 

 who "doctors" at random, or because some person 

 as ignorant as himself has recommended this or 

 that, both being ignorant of the properties of the 

 drugs prescribed or used, stands more than a hun- 

 dred chances to one of doing a positive injury to 

 his poor, mute, defenceless patient. "We have 

 no patience," he says, "with this trifling with the 

 lives of our valuable domestic animals. We have 

 a right to kill them, in a prompt and decent way, 

 when our needs require it. But we have no right 

 to murder them by inches and in torture, by our 

 infernal nostrums and ignorant experiments. 



"The most ignorant is always the most presum- 

 ing person in such cases. The man of large ex- 

 perience and knowledge finds out that 'doctoring,' 

 under the most favorable auspices, for serious and 

 constitutional maladies, is very uncertain in its 

 results, and that, usually, sheep which are 'doc- 

 tored' much, die. His opinions, therefore, are 

 given with hesitation. But your ignorant booby, 

 who knows nothing about the properties of drugs, 

 and who never owned a hundred sheep in his life, 

 understands everything at a glance. He either 

 had or saw 'just such a case once' — such and such 

 things were given — and the sheep 'got well right 

 off.' And some sensible men listen to such non- 

 sense !" 



After showing that this blind and inconsiderate 

 way of experimenting with animals laboring un- 

 der serious disease, bad as it is, is not yet so bad 

 or foolish as that of those intermeddlers with na- 

 ture, who drug and dose animals in perfect health, 

 to prevent some future anticipated or dreaded 

 disease, Dr. Randall, remarks, most judiciously, 

 that the whole doctrine of medical preventives, 

 as commonly understood, is based on, error, ad- 

 vises abstinence from drugs and trying every- 

 thing one can hear of, even when disease seems 

 threatened, and concludes with the following sen- 

 sible admonition, which it would be well if every 

 owner of farm stock would follow, both for them- 

 selves and for their suffering animals : "My 

 friend, if you don't know what to do, and have 

 no well-informed, experienced and intelligent 

 friend to tell you what to do, it is better to give 

 healthy surrounding, cleanliness, fresh air, good 

 nursing, and then fold your arms and wait for re- 

 sults. In nineteen cases out of twenty, those re- 

 sults will be less calamitous than they will be if 



you fall to drugging and dosing. Lay it down as 

 the first and best rule of medical practice among 

 sheep, that when you do not know what to do, do 

 nothing at all. This is true of all animals." We 

 conclude, for the present, by saying that there 

 would be less sickness if there were more good 

 management and kind treatment. 



More Anon. 



THE PRICE OF "WOOL IN 1864. 



Every circumstance would seem to show that 

 wool must bear higher prices this year than it did 

 last year. Nothing has occurred, or is likely to 

 occur, to diminish the consumption. First, our 

 own great civil war continues to rage — expanding 

 rather than contracting in the magnitude of its op- 

 erations and consequently in the employment of 

 men. The most sanguine have ceased to antici- 

 pate its termination before the close of 1864. For- 

 eign wars have not diminished, and there is a 

 strong probability that they will increase. And 

 while the extra demand for woolen clothing will 

 thus be kept up, the ordinary demand will be pro- 

 moted by the fact that there is less than the usu- 

 al surplus of woolen clothing left over from last 

 year, in the possession of consumers. During the 

 high prices of 1863, a disposition was manifested, 

 throughout the world, to economize in its pur- 

 chase. Even in our own country, where there is 

 less providence in such matters in proportion to 

 means than in any other, there was an obvious re- 

 trenchment in this particular. Accordingly nine 

 out of every ten persons have less spare woolen 

 garments than they were in the habit of having 

 before woolen fabrics rose to such high prices. 

 The consequence is that they will be compelled to 

 purchase more freely during the current year ; 

 and the least increase of consumption per head, 

 throughout the wool consumers of the world, will 

 sum up to an enormous aggregate. 



Second : The price of wool is considerably high- 

 er abroad than last year, and the tendency is still 

 steadily upward. Old accumulations are exhaust- 

 ed. In some countries the product, owing to cli- 

 matic and incidental causes, is diminished in quan- 

 tity and quality. Especially is this true of Buenos 

 Ayres and the Cape of Good Hope. These two 

 countries supplied the United States last year with 

 32,000,000 lbs. of wool — within a million pounds 

 of half of the whole quantity imported ; and they 

 supplied us with considerable more than two- 

 thirds of all our imported^/me wools. 



Third : No doubt exists in any quarter, that the 

 tariff on foreign wools will be materially increased 

 during the present season of Congress. 



Fourth : Gold, and consequently exchange, is 

 gradually advancing. Gold yesterday (June 6th) 

 reached 194 — so that it would have required $1- 

 .94 in our currency to buy a dollar's worth of wool 

 in England, at the Cape of Good Hope, or in 

 Buenos Ayres. This state of things alone*"should 

 keep wool fully up to the best last year's prices, 

 provided the consumption, the tariff and foreign 

 production and prices remained the same. But 

 supposing the war to continue, the increase of for- 

 eign prices and of the tariff, and the diminution of 

 foreign production, must necessarily, according to 

 all the laws of trade, advance the price of wool in 

 our country in 1864. The usual effort will prob- 

 ably be made to depress the new clip, but if the 

 growers patiently bide their time, all these efforts 



