1863. 



THE ILLINOIS f AEMEK 



303 



Foot Rot in Cattle, -. 



A correspondent of the OMo Farmer states that 

 he cured this complaint as follov/s : "I procured a 

 wash of strong lye and bathed the legs effectually 

 from the knee to the hoof, and was very particular 

 to wash in the clefts of the hoofs. I then wiped 

 the legs dry with a cloth, and let her stand in a 

 warm dry stable all night. Next morning I made 

 a wash of strong vinegar, in which was dissolved 

 a good portion of blue vitriol ; heated it as hot as 

 I could bear my hand in it, and adplied it twice a 

 day for about two weeks, when the animal was 

 cured. 



Cure for Worm in the head. 



Some thirty years ago there appeared a state- 

 ment in Gov. Hill's Monthly Visitor, that worms 

 in the head of sheep could be cured by simply 

 taking whale oil, and with a feather put it up the 

 nostrils two or three times. It should be done in 

 the spring, or whenever the symptoms of the dis- 

 ease make their appearance. It is said by those 

 who have tried it to be a sure remedy. "' 



From WilkVs Spirit. 



The Horse. 



The horse is a living machine, capable of more 

 or less reasoning, and set in motion not only at 

 our will, but also on his own account. The train- 

 er must, therefore, before he begins to handle it, 

 make himself familiar with the capabilities and 

 peculiarities of both body and mind. We hardly 

 ever find this machine in perfect symmetry — ^it is 

 not even wanted to have it so ; for the English 

 race-horse is not symmetrical, but has intentional- 

 ly, by careful breeding, undergone a change of fig- 

 ure deviating entirely from its ancestors, the 

 Arabs. But any such deviation, although it may 

 favor a certain quality, for instance, speed, is the 

 reason that the horse cannot perform other work 

 with equal ease. The body of the thorough-bred 

 appears mare symmetrical than it is, because by 

 breeding for the turf the withers have become 

 so high, that it looks as if the shoulders were as 

 high as the hips ; but the disproportion of the legs 

 strikes any beholder, the fetlock and radius being 

 too long, and the shankbone too short. If these 

 horses perform great deeds apart from speed, find 

 the reason in their great muscular power, and their 

 small bones, as well as in the lightness of the 

 head and neck. But very seldom will the thor- 

 ough-bred naturally be a good steeple-chaser, or an 

 agreeable saddle-horse ; if he is such, he will cer- 

 tainly resemble more or less the Arab, as does al 

 so the English hunter, except in size. 



American Pork. 



A Correspondent of the Irish Farmer^s Gazette 

 writes to the editor of that paper as follows : 



Sir : I want your opinion on the inundation of 

 the country with American bacon, hams, &c., as to 

 whether it is better for the community at large to 

 get their meat at the present low prices, and, as 

 must be the case case if this deluge continues, the 

 breeding and J^eeping of pigs at home given up as 

 a thing that won't pay, or whether sem- thing in 

 the way of an import tax on salted provisions 

 should not be tried, to give poor Irish piggy a 

 chance. It would be a pity, I think, to see the 

 cabins without their friendly grunters, and to know 

 that the means of putting a few shillings into a la- 

 boring man's pocket ss to be taken away from him, 

 because American speculators can furnish the mar- 

 kets at a much cheaper rate ; 3'et I think there is 

 no doubt such must be the case, if things go on as 

 they are at present. 



— The editor makes no reply. '"■;/' 



What is Hog Cholera ? 



To t7>.e Editor of the Illinois Farmer : 



I have lived in this State about twenty years, 

 and have kept hogs — some times but few, some 

 times more, say from ten to two and three 

 hundred, and have never seen a case of what I 

 knew to be hog cholera. I have seen the Asiatic 

 to my heart's content, but that was in the human 

 system. The symptoms and progress of that dis- 

 ease are purging, vomiting, cramping, collapse, 

 and the death-curtain drops and closes the scene. 

 I have had hogs get sick and die, but I have never 

 known a case that I could call cholera. I have 

 heard of a great many hogs dying with hog chole- 

 ra, and in fact for the last eight or ten years, when 

 any considerable number of hogs get sick and die 

 it is pronounced hog cholera, and I have no hesita 

 tion in believing that many hundreds die with that 

 disease, though I never saw one. But have not 

 many died from other causes, for which a remedy 

 might have been found ? I seldom have a hog 

 get well when once sick. 



About two weeks since I experienced a most sin- 

 gular phenomenon in my yards. I had over one 

 hundred hogs in a yard, containing one-fourth of 

 an acre of ground, adjoining this yard I have a 

 hog house, in which I had 48 hogs, adjoining the 

 house and on the opposite side from the large yard, 

 I have a small yard, about four rods square, in 

 which I had twenty-six hogs, making in all about 

 one hundred and eighty, all of which I was feeding 

 for market. Those in the large yard were some 

 older and larger than the others. They had all 

 been running on clover during the summer, until 

 put in these pens ; the larger pen had been filled 

 about a month, the house and small pen had been 

 filled about two weeks. When one in the house 



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