318 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



July 



city of Philadelphia; and Cumberland county, 

 in the same state, is near the city of Harris- 

 burg. Both counties had in 1860 more cows 

 than of all other stock put together. 



In the report of Dr. J. C. Dalton, Com- 

 missioner appointed by the legislature of New 

 York for the investigation of abortion in cows, 

 it is stated that "only in New York and Mas- 

 sachusetts have cases been sufficiently numer- 

 ous to excite general attention. In Pennsyl- 

 vania they were found in Chester and in Cum- 

 berland counties, reaching ten per cent, of all 

 cases of pregnancy reported." 



To our own minds the close connection be- 

 tween abortion among cows, as a disease, and 

 the production of milk, as a specialty, is forci- 

 bly suggested by a consideration of the fore- 

 going facts. 



Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum ; is it not 

 equally true that she sooner or later protests 

 against all specialties in her productions? 

 The farmers of Illinois make a business of 

 hog-raising, and the protest of nature is in 

 the form of a cholera ; in Vermont, fine-wooled 

 sheep are raised till the foot-rot intimates that 

 a change is necessary ; New Jersey makes a 

 specialty of peach-growing, and that fever is 

 cooled off by the "yellows ;" Cincinnati hopes 

 to get rich by growing grapes, but the mildew 

 blights her vines and disappoints her expecta- 

 tions ; sanguine amateurs, believing that if a 

 few hens prove profitable, a larger number 

 may be kept with a proportional profit, try the 

 experiment only to increase the number of 

 those with whom "boughten wit is the best;" 

 cotton is raised at the South, and wheat at 

 the West, till the land becomes so tired of 

 these crops, that the men who cultivate them 

 find it necessary to exchange their old fields 

 for new ones. 



But we have another fact bearing on the 

 relation of the milk specialty to this terrible 

 dairy calamity. 



In the last Prairie Farmer we find the fol- 

 lowing announcement: — 



"We regret to state that this scourge that has so 

 long afflicted the cows in the dairy regions of New 

 York and Massachusetts has at length made its 

 appearance in the west." 



The editor,, regarding it as one of the direst 

 calamities that could happen to the farmers of 

 that growing section of our country, recently 

 visited the locality of the outbreak for the 

 purpose of gathering what information he 

 could in relation to the prevalence of the 



trouble. We have read the report of his ex- 

 amination with care, and the only fact stated 

 on which any theory can be grounded to ac- 

 count for the frequent cases of abortion of 

 the cows in this section is the unqualified one 

 that,— 



"The complaint is entirely limited to a small 

 number of herds of cows that are kept with a 

 view of sending their milk to Chicago market." 



The locality of the disease in Illinois is in 

 the township of Lockport, Will countv, con- 

 veniently situated on a railroad for the trans- 

 portation of milk to the city. About 250 

 cows are kept for this purpose by ten farmers. 

 The section is admirably adapted to dairy 

 purposes. "All the pastures are supplied 

 with water of rare purity, being the product 

 of living springs. The pastures are excellent, 

 and are well provided with shade. The barns 

 are roomy and well ventilated. The cows are 

 fed tame hay during winter, together with 

 bran, shorts and screenings. They are kept 

 in good condition for breeding or giving milk, 

 but are not fat." 



In a natural state, cows yield milk for their 

 offspring a few months, which is then weaned, 

 and the mother goes dry the remainder of the 

 year. The milking qualities of our herds are, 

 therefore, largely artificial, and how far this 

 improvement on nature can be carried, is a 

 question that we think is soon to be decided. 

 The limit, we apprehend, has already been 

 reached by some of those who have made the 

 production of the largest amount of milk a 

 study and a specialty ; and we regard the 

 disease under consideration as a notice, post- 

 ed up by nature so distinctly that he who runs 

 may read, — "thus far shalt thou go, but no 

 further." 



We do not claim originality for this theory. 

 In the second report of the New York Com- 

 missioner, Dr. Carmault, successor of Dr. 

 Dalton, before alluded to, the idea that the 

 excessive production of milk may be the 

 cause of abortion is alluded to, and the 

 significant statement is made that in diseased 

 sections of New York there is "an average 

 excess of 1815 pounds more milk per cow 

 than the statistics of the whole State deter- 

 mine should be the yield." 



Can we reasonably expect that the organism 

 of the cow will bear that management and 

 that stimulating food necessary to so great an 

 increase of her milk producing powers ? And 



