1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



JOTTINGS rilOM MAINE. 



Dear Farmer : — Though it has hccn some time 

 since I have sent you any of my jottings, you have 

 not lieen forgotten ; but as there did not seem to be 

 any particularly important occurrence to note, I have 

 forborne to intrude upon your crowded columns. 

 Now, however, that it is so near to the lime of your 

 promised expansion, and the appearance of that 

 much-missed Monthly, which I hope soon to greet, 

 I send a few items, for remembrance sake, till more 

 room is allowed. 



We have had open ■';\'cather most of the time till 

 far into December, with much rain through No- 

 vember, so that the fountains of water ai'C well 

 filled for winter use. Farmers have had time to do 

 everything they wanted to do, in one sense, and arc 

 anxious for snow. There have been two or three 

 little flurries only, till to-day it is a real North 

 Wester, beginning in the night. The ground is 

 frozen, so now it appears as though the 



"Woodman's axe lies low" 



no more for the want of snow. It has been very 

 favoralilc for hay. Sheep, ■which we are quite well 

 stocked with, have been fed but little, not so much 

 as they ought to have been for their and their own- 

 ers' good, which b is made quite a difference in the 

 amount of barn fodder used, up to date. 



O. W. True. 

 Farmington, Me., Dec. 17, 1866. 



cranberries. — FILM ON AN OX S EYE. 



I have a meadow where I want to raise cranber- 

 ries. Will somebody tell me how to prepare it, and 

 how to set and tend them. The land can be drain- 

 ed (50 as to be quite dry. Is there any simple way 

 to take a film from an ox's eye ? e. e. a. 



Sunderland, Mass., Dec. 21, 1866. 



Remarks. — Will some practical cultivator of 

 cranl)erries furnish the desired information for "E. 

 E. A.," and for such other readers of the Farmer 

 as may be thinking of raising this profitable fruit ? 



In relation to the removal of the film from an 

 ox's eye, we find the following recommendation in 

 the Tribune, as read before the New York Fanners' 

 Club : 



"A. BniTonghs, Dartford, Greenlake Co., Wis., 

 says he never fails to take the film from the eyes of 

 cattle or horses by the following process : melt a 

 piece of fresh butter, the size of a hen's egg ; take 

 the animal l\y the horn and nose ; turn the head so 

 the ear opposite the eye affected is up ; turn the 

 butter into the ear, not the eye, being careful not to 

 have it burn ; wait four or five days, repeat the 

 dose. The third time has always been sufficient." 



We print this as a specimen of the Ijarbarous 

 methods which are sometimes resorted to in the 

 treatment of cattle diseases. The film is a singu- 

 lar manifestation or result of disease, — genei'ally 

 of inflammation. "The horse," say the books, "has 

 a little shovel, concealed in the inner comer of the 

 eye, which he is enabled to protrude whenever he 

 pleases over the greater part of the eye, and Ijy the 

 aid of tears to wipe and wash away the dust and 

 gravel which would otherwise lodge in the eye and 

 give them much pain. The ox has something of 

 the same contrivance, but it is not so movable or 

 so effectual ; and when he travels over a dusty road 

 in the heat of summer, he suffers sadly from the 

 small particles of dirt and the insects which are 



continually flying into his eyes. This portion of 

 the eye, or this third eyelid, seems to be peculiarly 

 subject to disease, particularly to a cloudiness which 

 will change in twenty-four hours from the thinnest 

 film to the thickest opacity, and, as suddenly, the 

 eye will nearly regain its perfect transparency, but 

 only to lose it a second time. These attacks con- 

 tinue, growing gradually more severe, until the 

 troul lie extends to the internal part of the cj'e, and 

 the ox is incurably blind. When it is known that 

 what appears as a film on the surface of the e.ye is 

 a dimness pervading its substance, and even sink- 

 ing deep within it, the folly and cruelty of attempt- 

 ing to rub it off" mechanically, as is often done, by 

 forcing chalk, salt, sugar, and even pounded glass, 

 directly into the eye, is at once apparent." As in 

 case of general inflammation of the eye, Mr. Skin- 

 ner recommends bleeding, physicking, and fomenta- 

 tions. Dr. Dadd says, if a film can be observed, 

 wash with a decoction of powdered blood root, and 

 if a weeping remain, use the following astringent : 

 powdered bayberry bark, one oimce, Ijoiled in one 

 pint of water; when cool, pour otl the clear liquor. 



HIGH price of poultry. 



In the New England Farmer of Dec. 6, it is 

 stated that turkeys at Thanksgiving time, bi'ought 

 from 30 to 40 cents a pound, and were scarce at 

 that. 



There is a cause for all things ; and no doubt 

 there is a reasonable one for this. While specula- 

 tion raises the price of many articles, we must hold 

 it innocent of establishing the price of poultry in 

 general, and turkeys in particular. 



New difficulties, in someeectionof country, have 

 arisen to prevent the raising of poultry. One is the 

 rapid increase of skunks, foxes, and other animals 

 that prey upon the poultiy yard. Consequently 

 greater care and vigilance has to be exercised, and 

 more frequent losses occur. These causes, of course, 

 increase first cost, and those who wish for turkeys 

 and chickens for an old-fashioned Thanksgiving, 

 must expect to pay a good round sum for them. 



The inquiry very naturally comes up, why this 

 increase of foxes, skunks, woodchucks, &c. ? We 

 give the answer to this question as it has often been 

 given to us, to wit: "Since the dog tax has been 

 raised to an extortionary amount, many farmers 

 rather than submit to its oppression have killed 

 their dogs, and many valuable hunters and guar- 

 dians of the house and barn have thus been de- 

 stroyed; and wild animals have increased in con- 

 sequence." Further, they go on to say, that this 

 destniction of dogs gives license to hen-roost and 

 clothes-line robbers. 



We do not object to a tax on dogs, but let it be 

 reasonable; and, what is more, let us know for 

 what purj)ose the money arising from this tax is 

 applied. The object of the hiw was supposed to be 

 the protection of' sheep. All very good. But did 

 it anticipate a revenue to the county or State beyond 

 paving damages actual! v done by dogs? Again, 

 wlio can tell after this law has been in force long 

 enough to test its merits, how many sheep have 

 been killed by dogs in the Stare in any one year ? 



A year ago, I was requested by an inhal)itant of 

 another State to ascertain the amount of tax on 

 dogs, and number of sheep killed l)y dogs in Berk- 

 shire County. There was no difficulty in obtain- 

 ing the amount of tax, and the amount paid for the 

 very indefinite claims of damages to sheep which 

 their owners laid to dogs ; but it was a thing im- 

 possible to find how many had been killed by dogs, 



