518 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



Our veterinary adviser is absent this week, and we 

 publish the foregoing at once in the hope that some 

 of our correspondents will be able to advise our 

 Shrewsbuiy I'riend, as to the probable cause and 

 nature of the disease, and its proper treatment. 



As preventives of the murrain, Mr. Cole recom- 

 mends giving salt freely, mixed with lime or ashes ; 

 also sulphur, and tar; the tar may also be rubbed 

 on the nose and between the horns. 



The murrain is difficult to cure. The sick should 

 be separated from the health}', as the disease is re- 

 garded as infectious. Give physic and laxative 

 food when thci-e is costiveness ; , but when there is 

 diarrha'a, check it, by giving four ounces of pow- 

 dei-ed chalk, two ounces of powdered anise-seed, 

 one ounce of powdered ginger and one drachm of 

 opium, cut fine, and mixed in a quart of warm 

 gruel. 



Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, Mass., bleeds in the 

 first stages, till the animal falters, and, when di- 

 arrhoea prevails, gives one ounce of chloride of 

 lime and one drachm of opium. To prevent con- 

 stipation following, give bran mashes and other 

 laxative food, and if this treatment does not pre- 

 vent too sudden check to the looseness, give two 

 or three ounces of salts daily. Dissolve the opium 

 in water. 



orchai'd grass. Whether it would grow on your 

 "yellow gravelly knoll" will depend on conditions 

 of the soil which cannot be inferred from your de- 

 scription. If it is too poor to grow other kinds of 

 grass, we should not expect orchard grass would 

 amount to much on it. 



JEFFERSON COUNTY PIGS — ORCHAED GRASS. 



Can you or any of your subscribers inform me 

 where I can get any Jefferson County Pigs ? Can 

 you inform the value of Orchard grass for hay ? 

 Would it gi-ow on a yellow gravelly knoll ? 



Blackstone, Mass., June 14, 1S71. f. o. w. 



Remarks. — The "American Agricultural An- 

 nual" gives the names of two dealers in Jefferson 

 County Pigs, both of them in Watertown, N. Y. 

 If any one nearer has this variety for sale it may 

 be for their advantage to advertise the public of 

 the fact. 



In his work on "The Pig," Mr. Harris says this 

 breed has been advertised under the names of 

 "Cheshire," "Yorkshire," "Improved Cheshire" 

 and "Improved Yorkshires." These names he 

 thinks indicate the origin of the breed. He says 

 it is said that a large sow of the old English 

 Cheshire breed was taken from Albany to Jefferson 

 County, and about the same time some thorough- 

 bred Yorkshires were introduced into the same 

 neighborhood from England. 



The best specimens of Jefferson County pigs as 

 shown by the leading breeders, Mr. Harris says 

 are as handsome pigs as can be desired. Color, 

 white; small, fine ears; short snout, with a well 

 developed cheek ; long and square bodies ; good 

 shoulders and ham, and very small bones for such 

 large hogs. As compared with the Chester County 

 breed, he says the}'' are nearly or (piite as large, 

 have finer bones, ears and snout, and are altogether 

 superior in form, beauty and refinement to any 

 Chester Whites he has ever happened to see. 



We are not able just now to add anything to 

 what we have recently published in relation to 



THE VSE OF JirCK. 



In your issue of June 24th, 1 find a short article 

 on the use of muck. I am pleased always, to see 

 the sulyect noticed. My muck bed is my only 

 hope of salvation in agriculture. My experience 

 is largely on the side of muck, — dry muck, not only 

 ill the hog-pen, in the l)arn yard, under the priNy, 

 under the sink spout, in my stables, but use it raw, 

 or Just as it comes from the bog. 



though absent from home most of the past year, 

 it was my- good fortune to be 'on my farm a few 

 days last summer during the drought. Advantage 

 was taken of the "situation," and five hundred ox 

 loads of very nice muck were put out upon the 

 uplands. Sixty were spread directly upon an old 

 grass field, covering an acre and a half pretty 

 thoroughly. At the present time, indications are 

 that the grass crop will be much better for the 

 muck. ItWas all taken from basins in my pasture. 

 The water being out of one of them entirely, we 

 had it all our own way, and got it as easily as we 

 could manure from the yard. That being cleaned 

 out, our attention was turned to another basin in 

 which the muck was twelve feet deep. There was 

 some water here, but by the use of a few boards 

 and nails, and tools at hand, a pump was soon 

 constructed, that would throw out one hundred 

 barrels per day. The water was somewhat ex- 

 hausted, and soon the knolls in the vicinity had 

 each a huge black cap on. 



I prefer these small basins, for they afford the 

 best muck. It is composed of the vegetable mat- 

 ter there gro\\ai, and the drift from the upland, 

 and has not been washed by the water. But we 

 find a difference, even here, in its effects upon 

 crops. It was decided, by the council interested, 

 to plant a certain patch of land to potatoes, and to 

 manure with clear muck. At this time, they are 

 all up and growing finely, except the ends of three 

 rows, — about what one load would do. There, the 

 potatoes are looking rather puny, and we find 

 there a finer, lighter colored article than that in 

 other parts of the field. We conclude that load 

 was from the bottom of the bed and that it con- 

 tained more acid than the other. It only needed a 

 little more exposure, to make it all right. 



I give you this experience, ho])iiig it may give 

 courage to some doubting Thomas, so that he may 

 at least try his hand at digging for gold in the 

 muck bed. My observations during a recent three 

 month's stay in the West, convinced me that far- 

 mers in New England must take advantage of 

 every circumstance, or be run off' the track on all 

 staple products of the farm. Some future rainy 

 day, I will give you my theory on the muck ques- 

 tion, which led me so deeply into it. Z. Breed. 



Weave, N. E., June 24, 1811. 



PICTURESQTJENESS OF FARM LIFE. 



It ought to be, and doubtless is, a great consola- 

 tion to the farmer, while making hay under the 

 scorching rays of a July sun, or hoeing corn with 

 a generous portion of one of the planets clinging 

 tohis garments, — or employing the bright hours of 

 "incense-breathing morn" in fighting caterpillars, 

 currant worms or squash bugs, — to know that he 

 forms a lieautiful picture for the far-olf artist or 

 poet. In this respect as in many others, no occu- 

 pation can compare with agriculture. He must be 

 a genius, indeed, who would make the carpenter, 



