70 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



compresses the spongy tissues of the diseased 

 foot, and liolds it in that condition till the 

 parts can become glued together by the mate- 

 rial supplied from the blood of the animal. 

 This compression aids the healing process, and 

 at the same time renders any fresh matter that 

 may come in contact with the foot much less 

 liable to be absorbed. 



These are all the remedies that need ever 

 be used. 



"But," says many a man, "I have used 

 vitriol many times, and it never cured my 

 sheep." Very true. Many men have mended 

 fences every year, all their lives, and never 

 had one suitable to stop a calf six months old ; 

 still good fences are very useful appliances 

 on a fa.rm. 



The truth is, the work is not properly done. 

 Most men pare a diseased foot as they would 

 their finger nails, cutting off only a rim of the 

 outer border ; whereas every particle that can 

 be detached from the soft parts beneath should 

 be cut away, — as if you would cut off all the 

 nail from the finger, deep down into the live 

 flesh, till it shoutd bleed all round the border. 

 Or, again, such work is done as if you were 

 to cut off only the tips of the shuck of an ear 

 of corn, when you need to strip off every husk 

 down to the but, and lay every kernel bare. 



This preparatory work is indispensable. If 

 it is not done all subsequent labor is wholly 

 lost. Don't be afraid of a little blood. It 

 would be well to wash all severe cases before 

 applying the vitriol as directed in the note 

 below.* 



As soon as this disease makes its appearance 

 in a flock every sheep should be handled, and 

 each foot carefully examined. Every case 

 that shows no more than a suspicion — indi- 

 cated by a little heat or redness, or a slight 

 abrasion of the skin between the claws, — 

 should be separated from the general flock 

 and kept in a different enclosure till made 

 well. Vitriol should be applied to every foot 

 in, the flock. 



The diseased sheep should be treated every 

 third day, till no trace of the disease is seen. 

 If the work is done faithfully, two weeks will 

 be sufficient to make all lame sheep whole again. 



To make sure of the work of the whole 

 flock, the sound portion should be treated by 

 having their feet carefully cleaned and the 

 vitriol applied once in two weeks, for three or 

 iour times. 



If the time is summer, put the affected part 

 into a dry pasture, if possible ; if it is winter, 

 put such in a dry pen and guard against mois- 

 ture. With such measures carried out, no 

 roan need be afllicted for many weeks with 

 this annoying grievance. 



This treatment must be followed up with 



*Heat a pint or more of strong vinegar to near the 

 boiling point, .ind then, while hot, put in as much vitriol 

 as wi 1 .liiisolve while the miisa in stirred. Turn oft' into 

 Rlaea bottlts to keep. It is best applied with a email 

 bruiih, fiuch as paiiiters use to 'dra-w" window sashes. 



the most persistent energy. It is compara- 

 tively easy to cure ninety- nine sheep in a hun- 

 dred ; but we are quite apt to let the last one 

 go till she has reseeded the whole flock. It 

 is old Jackson's "Eternal Vigilance" which 

 can alone secure for us freedom from foot-rot. 

 The sooner flock masters throw out of their 

 minds all ideas about a remedy that will "cure" 

 this m'Jlady without the exercise of such vigi- 

 lance as is pointed out above, the sooner will 

 their flock be free from the mischievous ail- 

 ment. 



Vitriol does not "cure" the injured part; it 

 only aids us in our work of removing and 

 keeping away the causes of the disease, till 

 the waste of the tissues, caused by ulceration, 

 may be repaired by nature's own process — the 

 new material furnished to the part from the 

 blood of the animal. Henry Boykton. 



Woodstock, Vt., Dec, 1869. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 HOQ KILLING .S-T THE WEST. 



The return of this season — which might as 

 appropriate!}', if not as poetically, be called 

 the "time of the squealing of hogs," as is the 

 spring the "lime of the singing of birds" — 

 reminds me of the "times" we used to have 

 in Illinois when that was out west. 



There is something about prairie life, with 

 its wealth of elbow-room, which enlarges the 

 hearts and liberalizes the minds of the settlers 

 and tends to break up the narrowness of idea 

 which the Eastern emigrant brings with him 

 from a land where farmers, as a class, are too 

 much addicted to a little one-horse style of 

 thought and feeling, and whose sympathies too 

 seldom extend beyond the family, or the lim- 

 its of the farm. 



This generous, social characteristic of West- 

 erners, is carried into every department of 

 their business ; the whole neighborhood fol- 

 lows the reaper and thresher. A man's whole 

 crop of wheat goes to market in one day, 

 with perhaps a procession of wagons as long 

 as an "official" funeral; and then come the 

 corn shucking and other "bees" in the fall, 

 closing up with the "hog killing," which brings 

 me back to my subject. 



We'll suppose Farmer Brown has fifty hogs 

 ready for market. At the proper time he 

 goes to town and engages his "crop of pork." 

 This done he proceeds to load his wagon with 

 the various luxuries of the season and returns 

 home. Word is circulated that Farmer B. is 

 to have a "killing." Matrons and misses 

 gather in to help Mrs. B. make the necessary 

 culinary preparation. On the fatal morning 

 all the able-bodied men in the vicinity,^ fully 

 armed and equipped, tender their service to 

 Mr. B. 



Down by the creek, where wood and water 

 is handy, a huge fire soon sets the water a 

 bubbling in the row of great black kettles. 

 Pop goes a rifle ! The battle has commenced, 



