Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 377 



Cherokee rose. Mr. Adams has also made some experiments with 

 grasses, and proved that timothy, orchard-grass and clover would all 

 grow luxuriantly ; also some other grasses, heretofore supposed to be 

 only fit for more northern climates. The land is about 600 feet 

 above the sea level, and is as healthy as any place in the country. 



Adjourned. 



December 9, 1871. 



Nathan C. Ely, Esq., in the Chair; Mr. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 

 Abortion in Cows. 



Mr. Philip W. Lawrence, Spring Mills, K T.— " I milk thirty-six 

 cows, and some of them are- very unfortunate. Lately four dropped 

 their calves two or three months before their time. I fed them 

 through the fall until the last of November on cornstalks, and since 

 then hay twice and good straw once a day. What is the trouble, and 

 what shall be done to save the rest ?" 



Dr. L. D. Shepherd — Ergot in rye has frequently been believed to 

 produce this result. 



Mr. John Crane — The disease, if it can be called so, has prevailed 

 in our neighborhood. We have not been able to explain it or pre- 

 scribe a remedy. When the trouble once begins, it is apt to go 

 through the whole herd in tl^e course of two or three years. The 

 best thing that can be done is to separate the cows. There is some 

 sympathy or contagion which makes this advisable. 



Mr. Henry Stewart— Abortion in cows has been a great trouble 

 among dairy farms in New York for a few years past. The disease 

 was little understood, and even now many dairymen are hopeless of 

 finding a remedy. But it has been noticed that where the disease has 

 been most prevalent it has been where cows have been fed more for 

 the production of milk than for their constitutional thriftiness. Straw 

 or dry hay or cornstalks will bring a cow into a poor, weak state, 

 quite inconsistent with the draft on her system in producing a calf. If 

 feed rich in phosphates, as wheat bran, oatmeal or cornmeal, is given 

 to a cow in calf, the drain on her system is met, and the calf is gener- 

 ally saved. But in the average dairy farm a cow is fed to keep up 

 her supply of milk, and her milk is drawn up to the last day that it 

 is fit for use. Under such conditions there is nothing for the calf, and 

 the cow's system is unable to supply the wants. Hence, mischief. 

 When this tendency occurs in a dairy, it generally runs through the 



