118 



NEW ENGLA2TO FAEIHER. 



March 



plants and trees. The sap vessels, lying deeper ! 

 and better protected, will endure still more 

 cold. In the larger limbs and trunks covered 

 by thicker bark, the circulating vessels are 

 seldom ruptured, though, occasionally, in 

 rapid-growing, soft woods, we see the trunks 

 split for many inches, or even feet, by long 

 continued, severe cold. In such cases the sap 

 in all the vessels is frozen solid, and the whole 

 mass of wood is so expanded that the pres- 

 sure from within becomes so great that the 

 bark and alburnum burst, like the hoops on a 

 cask when the water contained within it is fro- 

 zen. In slow growing, hard wood trees this 

 is seldom or never seen in our latitude. In 

 forests, the trees mutually protect each other. 

 The difference in temperature between the 

 recesses of a forest and the open field where 

 the currents of air are unobstructed is very 

 great. The power of life to resist frost is 

 truly surprising, and it is wonderful how slight 

 a protection will enable it to endure almost 

 any amount of cold. The bark of a tree, the 

 outer coating of a seed, a thin layer of leaves 

 or straw, a little earth, a covering of snow, 

 the feathers of a bird, the hair of an animal, 

 the cocoon of a chrysalis, will protect the liv- 

 ing organism that would otherwise perish. 



Frost, like snow, has its uses. It fines and 

 mellows the soils, and manures and prepares 

 them to yield their nutriment to vegetable 

 life. Frost, like fire, is a bad master. But 

 so far as we can guard against it and compel 

 it to work for us, it will, like the other forces 

 of nature, contribute to our comfort and hap- 

 piness. 



EXTEACTS AJSTD BEPLIES. 



POISONED OR DISEASED PIGS. 



I lost two fine pigs about the first of October, 

 and as no one here can ttU what ailed them, I will 

 make a brief statement of the symptoms of the 

 disease, and ask you or some brother farmer the 

 nature of it. 



The first pig had the scours about a week ; but 

 not severely. I gave it simple remedies and 

 changed its diet, which had been boiled pump- 

 kins principally, and it began to improve, as I 

 thought ; but all at once it refused to eat, breathed 

 quick and hard, and was inclined to stand with its 

 head pressed into the corner of the pen. 1 then 

 applied warm soap suds, washing it thoroughly 

 and scrubbing with an ox-card, which it appeared 

 to enjoy very much. Its suppressed breathing 

 wore off gradually in about thirty-six hours, and 

 then it began to turnpurple— first its ears and tail, 

 then along the spine, then about the head and 

 along the belly,— living about four days after it 

 turned purple. 



On the very morning that I found the first one 



dead the second refused to come to his breakfast. 

 I drove him out of his nest and noticed he breathed 

 like the other. He came out and ate a little. I 

 washed him as the other and gave him two spoon- 

 fuls of sulphur, but as it had no effect, gave three 

 more at night, and saw no signs of an operation. 

 The next morning he breathed naturally, but had 

 begun to turn purple all over. Before noon he 

 died, apparently in keen distress. 



Tliey were in adjoining but separate pens. 1 

 turned the first one out doors as soon as he began 

 to turn purple. Both had been well all summer. 

 I had given tUem all the pig weed they would eat 

 nearly every day. Their pens were kept well 

 supplied with rotted chips to absorb the liquids, 

 cleaning out occasionally, and were well ventil- 

 ated, being in an old barn. While the first was 

 sick I searched the "Farmer's Book" for a remedy. 

 Found a plenty of diseases and plenty of reme- 

 dies, but as it gave none of the symptoms it was 

 worthless to me. I enclose a short piece that 1 

 clipped from some newspaper, which states that 

 swill at a certain state of fermentation is poison- 

 ous. Is that a fact ? J. L. Mouse. 



Jaij, Me., Dec. 2S, 1869. 



Poisonous Swill. — A correspondent of the 

 Prairie Partner, having complained of a disease 

 among his hogs, is told by another correspon- 

 dent that the symptoms are similar to those of 

 hogs of his own, which he is satisfied died from 

 eating swill that had become poisoned by stand- 

 ing too long. He says :— "Chemists say that after 

 swill stands a certain length of time after it has 

 soured, it becomes poisonous. I don't know that 

 this is so, but I do know that I shall not feed any 

 more old swill." 



Remarks. — Yes, Brother Morse, swill and every 

 thing else which is suffered to undergo the putre- 

 factive or destructive fermentation, generates poi- 

 sonous gases and poisonous plants; and these 

 gases and plants if taken into the system in large 

 quantities, will kill a pig or a boy— a hog or a man. 



The mould so often seen on old swill and other 

 decaying substances is a poisonous vegetable, be- 

 longing to that grand division of the vegetable 

 kingdom called Cryptogamia, or flowerless plants ; 

 and not a few of the vegetable poisons will pro- 

 duce the symptoms described in your interesting 

 letter. 



Whether the pigs in question were killed by 

 eating bad swill, or by eating or inhaling some 

 other poison, we cannot tell ; but we do not doubt 

 they were poisoned. It is not necessary that pigs 

 and hogs should have the same kinds of food that 

 the children and the old folks eat, but it should be 

 nearly as clean ; at least, if they are expected to 

 eat some dirt, it should be clean dirt, and not the 

 poisonous dirt which comes from decaying matter, 

 whether vegetable or animal. 



OPERATION ON THE THROAT OF A CHOKED COW. 



On the 19th of November, a cow seven years 

 old, belonging to Mr. Baldwin of this town, attempt- 

 ing to swallow a large fragment of a round turnip, 

 about 3 inches by 2.;^, became choked. The piece 

 of turnip stuck a Utile more than a third of the 

 way down the gullet. Three different men passed 

 their arms into the gullet and tried to grasp the 

 turnip, but were unable to get their fingers around 

 it. A fork handle was then passed down upon it 

 it, but failed to remove it. After the turnip had 

 been in the gullet about five hours, William Rey- 



