1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



183 



ne%'«r had any in mine, so I cannot tell. My 

 two cows are pure Alderneys, and their butter 

 is hard and line grained as beeswax. If the 

 cream is strained while warm through a cheese 

 strainer, it is said that all the curdy specks will 

 be taken out. If cows are fed with a table- 

 spoonful of saltpetre once in two months, mix- 

 ing it with shorts or meal, all tendency to 

 garget is prevented. This I know by experi- 

 ence, and for garget it can be given every 

 other night until the cure is perfected. 



O. S. Bliss commences his last ai-ticle by 

 saying that as I claim my womanly prerogative 

 of having the last word, he shall grant it to 

 me after a few more words, which, man-like, 

 he increases into tens of tens. I otFcred to put 

 my butter by the side of his — i. e. butter made 

 by his own hands, and not by his neighbors, 

 nor do I intend to send my butter to Maine 

 for the trial. I make butter now fur my own 

 use only, and because I like to do it, and have 

 done it for twenty years, for the pleasure of 

 it. With all due deference to his superior 

 ability, I must still agree to disagree with him, 

 but am certain that we should enjoy a pleas- 

 ant conversation should we ever meet. 



As to "infinitesimal doses." I consider two 

 tablespoonfuls of saltpetre to weigh two 

 ounces ; this added to three gallons of cream, 

 is in the proportion of two ounces to twenty- 

 four pounds. As a "pint''s a pound. all the 

 world round,"" it will make two ounces in three 

 hundred and eighty-four ounces. Is not that 

 a minute quantity — worthy of homceopatli}' ? 



s. o. J. 



FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 

 S. L. Goodale, Esq., who was the delegate 

 from Maine at the recent convention of Cattle 

 Commissioners at Albany, communicates to 

 the Maine Farmer a report of that meeting 

 which embraces some facts which we have not 

 seen elsewhere stated. He says : — 



How the disease was introduced into this 

 country and first disseminated did not clearly 

 appear ; plenty of knowledge probably exists, 

 but most of it is only in the possession of 

 some who have large private interests at stake, 

 (in the reputation of costly herds of high-bred 

 animals,) or of the veterinary surgeons em- 

 ployed by the owners of such herds, and Avho 

 are as close-mouthed as physicians are about 

 disagreeable facts which come to their knowl- 

 edge in the sick room, or priestly doctors, re- 

 garding the secrets of the confessional. 



It was shown that the cattle yards at Al- 

 bany are infected, and that all the cattle, a 

 thousand a day or more, which stop there for 

 feed or sale are liable to take the disease and 

 to disseminate it in all directions. As yet no 

 inspection is enforced there, though the Legis- 

 lature has been petitioned for some action. 



There was no doubt in the minds of the 

 members of the commission that the idea that 

 the disease was the old fashioned Foul-in-the- 

 Foot, was a serious and dangerous error, or 

 that those who made light of it were doing 

 much harm. 



The severest case mentioned was that of a 

 fanner in Massachusetts who had 39 cows 

 highly fed for the production of winter milk, 

 and ten fattening beasts. This farmer, although 

 he lost by death only two or three, deemed 

 his actual loss greater than if he had killed 

 and buried every animal on his farm before 

 being attacked ; as he could, in such a case, 

 restock his farm, and resume his milk busi- 

 ness. The injury to his beasts by loss of fiesb, 

 broken udders, lameness, and the care of 

 treating them, he considered equal to their 

 value at the outset — say, upward of ^400<). 

 But in the great majority of cases, this disease 

 had been nuich ligliter, and the total loss and 

 damage was variously estimated at from not 

 more than a tenth in the lightest, to a third or 

 half in the case of herds more seriously af- 

 fected. 



Plenty of evidence came out that the milk is 

 dangerous to human and brute health. One 

 man related of his own son, a lad of five years, 

 that, by taking the milk of a cow, not then 

 known to be affected, but which soon after- 

 wards showed the disease, the mouth became 

 hned with blisters, bad cracks appeared on 

 the hands, and he was feverish and (]uite ill. 



In Connecticut sheep had contracted the 

 disease ; and in New York dogs fed with the 

 milk in some cases had it, and in some escaped 

 the disease. 



The extremely contagious character of the 

 malady, and the ease with which it is commu- 

 nicated, was abundantly shown ; a single il- 

 lustration here will suffice. A drover bought 

 healthy cows in New York, and drove them 

 homeward to Massachusetts, and sold on the 

 way. At Albany they were in the yards, and 

 contracted the disease, but did not show any 

 signs of it, nor was the fact known to the 

 drover, until his arrival at home. Several 

 hours after these beasts had passed on a cer- 

 tain road, the owner of a herd h'ving there 

 drove his own herd a short distance over the 

 same road ; they never saw the atlected beasts, 

 but in four days they were all lame, and 

 drooling at the mouth, and all the cows sold 

 on the route also carried the disease where 

 they were taken. 



— The farmers in southwestern Vermont, on tlie 

 line of the Harlem Extension railroad from Rut- 

 land'to Bennington, are rejoicing in the prospect of 

 a daily milk train for Nei\' York city, which will 

 largely enhance the value of those splendid dauy 

 fanns on the route. We do not see why it cannot 

 he done, greatly to the advantage of both producer 

 I and consumer. 



