1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



231 



sion to horn-ail in any of the standard works of 

 English or French veterinarians ; and he believes 

 that in ninety-nine of a hundred cases of alleged 

 horn-ail in this countr}', the trouble is located in 

 some other part of the system. He says that a 

 derangement of the digestive organs is often indi- 

 cated by cold horns. Our own hands and feet are 

 often cold when attacked by internal disease. 

 Shall they be bored with a gimlet ? He accounts 

 for the hollowness of the horn sometimes found 

 by boring, by saying, that in aged animals the 

 bony structure within the horn often collapses or 

 shrinks, forming a cavity. And he accounts for 

 the matter which is sometimes let out by the gim- 

 let, by saying that abscesses sometimes form in 

 the frontal sinews, resulting from common catarrh 

 or "hoose," which would have passed off at the 

 nostrils, if left alone. 



la relation to the tail-ail, and to the practice of 

 mutilating this appendage he is still more severe, 

 and unhesitatingly pronounces it an imaginary 

 disease. The soft space at the termination of the 

 bone is a natural growth, evidently intended by 

 nature to perfect the whip with which the animal 

 drives off its insect tormentors. 



In our younger days we had a cow that was 

 doctored by a professed cattle doctor, who first 

 bored her horns, and then cut them off. Our 

 experience in the care of those gimlet holes and 

 stubs was such that we are not disposed to recom- 

 mend the treatment to others. 



From our knowledge of the structure of an ani- 

 mals head, we are doubtful of the beneficial effect 

 on a diseased horn of medicine poured into the 

 ear. 



The symptoms mentioned as indicative of the 

 horn-ail — costiveness, looseness, coldness of ex- 

 tremities, labored breathing, &c , — we do not con- 

 sider as at all conclusive evidence of the existence 

 of any disease in the horns or tail of an animal. 



■WEIGHT OF GOOD AND POOR MILK. 



Which is the heaviest, rich milk, — that which 

 will produce the most butter according to quan- 

 tit' ,— or poor milk ? Sonie of my neighbors have 

 expiesbcdan opinion on the sutject, but I do not 

 pretend to know, an(i should like to be informed. 



Morristown, Vt., March, 1870. O. Lyman. 



Remarks. — The books tell us that milk is a lit- 

 tle heavier than water. If a certain quantity of 

 water weighs 1000, (grains or ounces,) the same 

 quantity of milk will vary from 1025 to 1031. But 

 as there are "sugar of milk," "caseine," and "va- 

 rious salts," as well as cream, in milk, the supe- 

 rior density of milk over water may be owing to 

 some of these other ingredients ; as we must con- 

 clude from the fact that cream rises to the top in- 

 stead of settling to the bottom, that it is lighter 

 than milk ; and consequently that the more cream 

 or butter there is in the milk the lighter that milk 

 must be. When milk is examined with a micro- 

 scope little globules of fatty matter are seen which 

 are quite distinct from the watery Iluid in which 



they are suspended. These globules, enclosed in 

 a thin membrane which must be broken to make 

 butter, constitute the chief portion of cream. Mr. 

 Flint in his book on Milch Cows and Dairy Farm- 

 ing gives the result of some experiments made to 

 test the weight of milk and cream by an instru- 

 ment divided into degrees. 



Pure milk was marked ■ 100" 



Thiu cream 66° 



The first pint milked from a native cow 101° 



The last pint, f trippings, from same cow 86° 



The milk of a Jersey cow 95° 



" " an Ayrbhire cow 100° 



" " a Hereford cow 106° 



" " Devon cow 111° 



It is said that a feeding of salt given to a cow 

 will, in a few hour.'*, cause the specific gravity of 

 her milk to vary from one to three per cent. 



In this connection perhaps the following table of 



analyses of milk, from the American Cyclop/vdia, 



will be of interest. 



Constituents, Cow, Ass. Goat. Ewe, Woman, 



Water 86 28 91.65 86 80 85.62 89 20 



Butter 4.38 11 3.32 4.20 2.60 



■.uuar of milk . . . 5.27 6 08 5.28 5.(0 6^0 



Cdseine : nd albumen 3 80 182 4.02 4.50 2 00 



Various salts .... 0.27 0,34 0.58 68 0.20 



Total 100 00 ICO.OO 100.00 100.00 lOO.CO 



cow MILKING HERSELF. 



I have purchased a cow that is "too well edu- 

 cated," having acquired sufficient knowledge of 

 that sort of labor fi^railiarly known as "doing 

 chores," to milk herself. 



She has a good share of Aldemey blood, and i.s 

 a valuable animal, and I wish to know the best 

 method of curing the habit. Slitting the end of 

 the tongue is recommended, and although a little 

 severe at first, looks to me to be less so "in the 

 long run," than wearing a double collar as a muz- 

 zle with sharp nails, especially in fly time. I 

 wish to know whether slitting the tongue will be 

 attended with any danger from bleeding, or seri- 

 ous inconvenience in eating, &c., &c., also how 

 long a slit to make. Wm. F. Bassett. 



Hammonton, N. J., Feb. 1, 1870. 



Remarks. — We abhor all mutilations of this 

 nature. A simple strap round the nose, with 

 points in it, with another strap buckled on top of 

 the head, has always answered the purpose with 

 us. It is light, does not prevent brushing off flies, 

 and pricks the udder, or surrounding parts sufiOi- 

 ciently to prevent sucking. At any rate, do not 

 "slit the tongue." 



PLOUGHING UNDER MANURE. 



I wit^h to inquire through your paper the best 

 method of applying green manure to land in- 

 tended for corn. My custom has been to spread 

 the manure and plough in about seven inches deep 

 under the sod. 



Last year I ploughed the land in autumn ; be- 

 fore planting in the spring, spread the manure on 

 top of the lurrow, then passed over the furrows 

 with a cultivator, and harvested forty bushels of 

 corn to the acre. Does the strength of the manure 

 pass off in the air, or is it absorbed by the soil ? 

 And will it benefit future crops as much as when 

 turned under the sod ? E. F. Sherman. 



East Dover, Vt., March, 1870. 



Remarks. — The plan of spreading green ma- 

 nure upon the sod, and ploughing it under four 



