126 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



as sound as when covered in the fall. In our soil such a mass of unrotted 

 straw under ground is an injury — worse in a dry than a wet season. No 

 good farmers think of plowing late here. 



PEACH TREES NEED PROTECTIOK IN IOWA. 



" I also notice you want proof that peach trees need protection in this 

 latitude. I have been trying to cultivate some for eight years, and they 

 Lave been frozen to the ground five winters out of the eight. Last winter 

 being unusually warm, we have this year (for the first time in the last 

 nine,) some peaches, but where they are exposed on the open prairie there 

 are but few, and in many places none. I do not like the idea of turning 

 tlie tree down to protect it; it seems to me that it would keep the tree 

 Btunted, and finally kill it. Some have been protected here by keeping the 

 tree trimmed low, and covering it in the winter with straw, which is kept 

 from the tree by setting long brush up over the tree first. By covering 

 thick and keeping the straw on late, some have succeeded in raising a little 

 fruit. "What protection would the club advise?" 



With such an accumulation of testimony the Club must be satisfied that 

 peach trees do need protection in Iowa, and recommend growing them 

 almost flat upon the ground. A young tree can be trained into almost any 

 shape, and to grow horizontal limbs not more than a foot from the ground. 



The Lampas in Colts. 



Solon Robinson read a short letter from Wadham's Mills, N. Y., which 

 elicited a long, animated debate. The writer asked for information about 

 burning the lampas in colts Tnouths. " Is it a whim or a necessity ?" 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — In my opinion it is a necessity. It certainly is 

 no whim that colts are affected with this disease, and they cannot eat 

 while so affected, and I know of no other way to get rid of them so easily 

 as by burning. If cut, they bleed, and the cure is not so effectual. I had 

 a colt ten years ago, troubled with the lampas, and used all the mild 

 remedies that I knew, before resorting to the hot iron. Then I had no 

 trouble in effecting a permanent cure. I find the hot iron an excellent 

 remedy for otlier diseases. I have several times applied it for quarter 

 crack. 



Mr. Weayer said: I have had some experience with horses, and never 

 heard this remedy for lampas, called in question as cruel and unnecessary. 



Dr. Crowell. — If tJie iron is heated to a white heat, and applied skill- 

 fully, it gives very little pain. An iron barely red hot is painful, and not so 

 effectual. If the colt has the disease very lightly, it may be cured by as- 

 tringents and light remedies. Some veterinary surgeons use a seaton in 

 the mouth. I do not approve the practice. It is more painful and danger- 

 ous than burning. When a colt is slightly affected it is a good plan to 

 feed him ears of corn to bite upon. 



Mr. R. H. Williams. — Is there such a disease specific and peculiar 

 to the horse? or is the disease usually called lampas only an inflam- 

 matory local disease incident to all animals that shed and renew their 

 teeth ? I regard the disease in the latter light, and although gen- 

 erally incident to the period of dentition, both in the human and the 

 brute creation, yet not necessarily so, as many children and colts 



