654 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



Maine. Oxen are sold at $I60 to $70 per pair, it is 

 true ; and they are also sold at $100 to $200, and 

 you will see one pair reported recently at $2o0, 

 and the presumption is that at these prices the 

 drovers did not realize an extravagant "drift." 

 Yearlings might probably be had at the prices you 

 name. But cows at $10 to $12 per head would 

 probably rank with the "lean kine." Good new 

 milch cows are sold from $50 to $85, at retail, in 

 Brighton. 



If you wish for more definite information, per- 

 haps you might obtain it by addressing some of 

 the drovers in Maine, many of whom have buyers 

 in different counties. Of the few whose address 

 we remember we may give that of Gideon Wells, 

 Pishon's Ferry, Kennebec county; "W. W. Hall, 

 East Dixficld, Oxford county; J. L. Prescott, 

 Farmington, Franklin county ; T. J. Savage, East 

 Madison, Somerset county; I. Tozier, East Cor- 

 inth, Penobscot county; A. H. Clark, Unity, 

 Waldo county. 



SX'LT FOB CATTLE. 



Some time since one of your correspondents said 

 he believed salt was injinious to cattle. As it is 

 sometimes fed, I think'it may be injurious to them. 

 He remarked that he kept salt in a trough for his 

 cattle most of the time. If put in a trough for 

 them at all it should be kept there constantly. 

 The ox that he supposed died from eating too 

 much salt had probably been without any for a 

 long time, and having a ravenous appetite, ate so 

 much as to cause inflammation of the stomach and 

 bowels, which resulted in death. 



A few years since I heard of a similar case. A 

 man kept salt for his stock in a tight trough. A 

 rain dissolved the salt, and his cattle drank the 

 brine, and two died in consequence, as was sup- 

 posed, of taking so much of the brine. I should 

 consider it lisky to leave enough salt at one time 

 for a whole week or longer, under such circum- 

 stances. Different animals have different appe- 

 tites for salt. Some appear to care little for it, 

 others are greedy and ravenous. If my cattle 

 have been some time without salt I take a stick to 

 keep them from me as I deal it out. I have fed 

 salt to my cattle for forty years, but have never 

 been as "regular in doing so as some fsirmers are, 

 because my" belief has been that it did but little 

 good or hurt, being a sort of luxury. I generally 

 throw down about a handful to each animal, and 

 usually remain till most of it is eaten. 



I once had a pasture some distance from home 

 where I kept a lot of young cattle. When I went 

 to salt them they would come up to me as fast as 

 they could run, on being called. This proves that 

 they love salt whether it docs them any good or 

 not. As already remarked I have never been 

 regular in feeding salt,~sometimes giving it weekly, 

 sometimes once in three or more weeks. Last 

 winter I did not feed it more than two or three 

 times during the season, and I never had my cattle 

 do better. Still as they seem to want salt, I like to 

 see them eat it. I never had an animal sick for 

 want of salt, or from eating too much of it, so far 

 as I know. 



A dairy woman remarked to me not long since 

 that she could tell when the cows had been 

 salted by the increased flow of milk. But as long 

 as I have kept cows, and as closely as I have 

 watched their yield of milk I have never witnessed 

 such result. I suppose salt will kill hens if they 

 eat too much of it, and I do not know why it 

 should not have a similar effect on cattle. For the 



human family, salt alone is not desirable, but we 

 could not well do without it as a seasoning for our 

 food. Everything is good and beautiful in its place 

 and season ; for which let us be thankful to the 

 giver of all good, and endeavor to use them as he 

 intended we should. M. L. Goodell. 



South Amherst, Mass., 1871. 



BONE DISEASE. 



Your coiTCspondent, Mr. Fisher, in speaking of 

 the bone disease, alludes to the habit of chewing 

 bones, sticks and old pieces of leather, as symptoms 

 of the disease. Having never seen a case of the 

 kind of disease to which he alludes ; in fact, hav- 

 ing been rather sceptical about its existence, other 

 than in the imagination of some people, — I have 

 supposed it to be something like the horn ail, or 

 loss of the cud, only a symptom of some other 

 disease, and not a disease of itself. 



The habit cattle have of chewing bones may be 

 an indication of it in Mr. Fisher's case, but in 

 other sections it is not. In some parts of New 

 Hampshire near the White Mountains it is consid- 

 ered as an indication of the "Burton ail," the rem- 

 edy for which is rye meal. I believe the cause of 

 the bone disease has been attributed to the want of 

 lime in the soil upon which the cattle are kept. 

 Now the most inveterate bone chewers I have ever 

 known were in the limestone region of Newbury, 

 in this State, where stock is wintered mostly on 

 salt hay. Whether that has anything to do with 

 the habit, I do not know. I am now located on a 

 farm .that has been used as a milk farm for nearly 

 or quite a century, and though there is no lime 

 stone here, yet I have never heard that the dis- 

 ease was ever known here, and in the ten years 

 that I have been here I have never seen an instance 

 of bone chewing. Cows taken fi'om a Newbury 

 fiirm twenty miles distant and brought here have 

 never been seen to indulge in it. 



It seems to be a morbid appetite which induces 

 cows — I don't recollect of ever seeing an ox in- 

 dulge the pastime of bone chewing — to sometimes 

 resort to strange and we should think offensive 

 things to supply a craving for something they do 

 not get in the usual course of feeding. For in- 

 stance, I have had cows that would pass good clear 

 water on their way to the bam to drhik their fill of 

 the nasty green water that stood in the barn yard. 



Mr. Fisher's description of the disease would 

 hardly indicate an aflection of the bone, as he says 

 the muscles seem to be affected. The remedy, too, 

 would not seem to be potent enough to eradicate a 

 disease of the bone, as I suppose the medical qual- 

 ities of the soap is contained in the alkali. I wish 

 Mr. F. had told us what is the final termination of 

 the disease, as he thinks that the soap would not 

 cure a case of long standing. In fine, it is so hard 

 to locate disease in the limbs of animals, unless 

 there is an enlargement of the parts, that I am 

 rather doubtful about the bone disease, as I never 

 heard of the caries of a bone in a dumb beast. 



Peabody, Oct. 31, 1871. J. L. Hubbard. . 



DEODORIZING SKUNK SKINS. 



Will you, or some of the readers of the Farmer, 

 tell me a sure process wherelty skunk skins may 

 be deodorized, and thereby rendered fit for use ? 

 I hope no one will pass this by, thinking it un- 

 worthy of notice, but rather, if they know of a 

 method, will give it, thereby obliging owe, if not 

 more readers of the "Farmer." "Keader." 



Remarks. — Among all the animals figured and 

 colored to life, in Audubon's splendid work on the 

 "Quadrupeds of North America," no one is more 

 beautiful than the Texan skunk. The whole of 

 the long hair, including the under fur on the back, 



