1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



435 



go through the cold spells without the check 

 those that are younger or tenderer receive, and 

 having gained a good clear start, they will 

 never lose it, and it is the same with lambs, pigs, 

 and young poultry. How attentive to this mat- 

 ter should those be who possess highly bred 

 stock, for if it is worth consideration with 

 good common stock, it must be of immense 

 importance to those who breed animals com- 

 ing to be worth as many thousands as the 

 average grades are hundreds. In England the 

 winters are very much milder than in the 

 Northern States ; yet this is seriously studied 

 with every variety of live stock, for the first 

 winter is the most critical period of agricul- 

 tural animals' existence, and when the young 

 stock is brought to grass at about fourteen 

 months old, plump and fat as they can be, to 

 be perfectly healthy and growing, there is an 

 end to all anxiety concerning them." 



ITEW PUBIilCATIONB. 



An Address 07i the Nfitural History and Pathological 

 Ooteology of the Horse. Deliv.^red htfore the An 

 nual coeetlngof the Connecti'int Board of Ag iciihure 

 at Middletown, Jartmry, i870. By N. Creeay, M. D 

 TiluBtrateo. Hartford: Chase, Lock & Brainard, 

 1870. 



What is known of the horse in its paleontological 

 lineage, as gathered from remains in the Miocene 

 and Drift formations, is here given, in connection 

 with its more modern history, as introductory 

 to an essay on the diseases of the bones of the 

 horse. 



Ringbone, Splint and Spavin he regards as only 

 diSerent names of the result of the morbid process 

 of bony growth, called exostosis. By this word is 

 meant any bony growth or tumor which affects the 

 periosteum, another hard word which means, ac- 

 cording to the dictionary, a fibrous membrane cov- 

 ering or investing the bones, and which seems to 

 be as necessary to the health of the bone as the 

 skin is to the health of the flesh. He says, in a 

 case of acute exostosis — or ringbone, splint or spa- 

 vin — or where it is primarily developed without 

 any hereditary predisposition on the part of the 

 immediate parentage, this disease usually occurs 

 as the result of an injury, either from a blow or 

 a strain. An inflammation follows, and an extra 

 quantity of blood, laden with salts of lime, is 

 brought to the part, and thus the periosteum (or 

 boue sKin) and the surrounding tissues is thor- 

 oughly congested. Eventually the phosphate and 

 carbonate of lime becomes deposited within the 

 periosteum at the seat of injury, and a hard, un- 

 yielding, bony tumor is the inevitable result. All 

 of these alTeetions may be developed from similar 

 txcitiijg causes, or from an inherited constitu- 

 tionality. And as a remedy to alleviate the suf- 

 fering and control the progress of the disease, I 

 would earnestly recommend a preparation of Col- 

 orless Iodine Liniment that I have used for several 

 years with marked success in human and veterin- 

 ary practice. Cases of hereditary ringbone that 



appear early in a colt need no treatment, for their 

 only cure consists in hastening the anchylosis of 

 the joint, which, of course, forever obliterates the 

 freedom of motion there, by soldering the two 

 articulating bones together in firm osseous union. 

 Even with such a cure the creature ceases to limp, 

 because the impaired motion of the joint that 

 caused such excruciating pain in walking has been 

 destroyed. 



TWIN" HEIFEHS. 



Our correspondent who inquired some weeks 

 since whether there was any good reason for the 

 idea prevalent in his neighborhood that twin heif- 

 ers were not reliable as milch cows, and those 

 other correspondents who replied that they had 

 had good success with such animals, will read the 

 following statement from the veterinary editor of 

 the North British Agriculturist, with interest : — 



Calves bom as twins, when of the same sex, 

 breed as regularly and readily as those which 

 come at a single birth, and often inherit the fecun- 

 dity Of their parents. "When, however, a bull and 

 heifer calf come together at one birth, the heifer, 

 in a large proportion of casps, never breeds. Such 

 animals, spoken of by old Roman wrters as 

 Taurse, are popularly known as free martins, and 

 often assume masculine characters, are short and 

 rough-like about the head, but seldom have any 

 appearances connected with their generative or- 

 gans sufficient to account for their not breeding. 

 A few of these martin heifers do, however, breed, 

 but probably not more than two out of erery eight 

 or ten. Bulls born along with heifers do not seem 

 to labor under any disadvantfsge in procreating 

 their species. It has been stated, but without suf- 

 ficient evidence of fact, that the martin heifer is 

 more likely to breed if she happens to be born be- 

 fore instead of after her twin brother. 



To Use Three Horses Abreast. — As it 

 is becoming quite common to use three horses 

 now instead of two, perhaps it would be an 

 advantage and a saving to some of our young 

 farmers to tell them how to hitch up three 

 horses, with an equalizer that, instead of cost- 

 ing five dollars for a patent article, can be 

 made for a few cents. 1 take a piece of two 

 by four, or two by five, scantling and bore 

 first a hole near each end, as I would for a 

 double-tree ; but the piece need not be over 

 nine to 12 inches long; then bore a hole one- 

 third of the length from one end and two- 

 thirds the length from the other , end, and 

 attach the piece by a clevis and ring to the 

 plough clevis, the longest end vp ; then hitch 

 my middle horse to the top, and the team to 

 the bottom end, or short end of the equalizer 

 — using a long doubletree for the team, long 

 enough for a horse to work in the middle. 

 By using this simple device, a saving can be 

 made of five dollars, and the equalizer is, I 

 claim, better than any other, for the simple 

 reason, that it brings the team nearer the nose 

 of the plough beam and consequently nearer 

 the work. — Western Rural. 



