206 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



break, and if too slack in warm, it will swag. We 

 have a step way upon the front side of the house, 

 to go up, made with a hand rail on each side, and 

 of locust and heart pine timbers. 



I have been thus particular in describing my fix- 

 tures, in consequence of its cost, ($85,) which is a 

 great terror to many. One whose spring is 100 yds. 

 off, may have his water brought in this way for 

 $30. Or by using additional fixtures, such as I 

 have erected, only more or less complete, as much 

 more as he pleases ; as in the case of building a 

 dwelling house. If you think this, sir, is worthy 

 of a place in the Southern Planter, please give it; 

 otherwise lay it by. 



"Very respectfully, 



Your most obedient servant, 



Ed. J. Thompson. 



Albemarle, March 22d, 1854. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 DISTEMPER AMONG CATTLE. 



Mr. Editor, — During the short call which I made 

 in your office, in Richmond, the other day, you in- 

 vited me to dress over an article, furnished by me, 

 some years ago, to "The Farmers' Register," on 

 the "Distemper among Cattle," and send it for re- 

 publication in "The Southern Planter." 



I shall always regret that, having lost several 

 numbers of the Register, by loaning them out, I 

 have not been able to have them bound in a com- 

 plete set. I have in vain searched in the remaining 

 numbers for the article alluded to, and believe it 

 to have been in one of those lost. I suppose it is 

 well that I cannot find it, as from my recollection, 

 it was somewhat lengthy; and I judge that your 

 readers generally, very properly, prefer short pieces. 

 I shall endeavor to give as short a summary of my 

 thoughts on the subject as its nature will allow. 



1. Omitting a detail of facts which led to the 

 opinion, I have been fully convinced that the dis- 

 ease is infectious, and only so, by the saliva of one 

 animal getting into the mouth of another. Unless 

 this occur, I do not believe that any contiguity of 

 a sound animal to one afflicted with this disease, 

 or even to one having died of it, will cause him to 

 contract it. I believe it is generally admitted that 

 the same law governs the communication of dis- 

 temper to one horse from another, and that he can 

 not take it unless he bite the same grass, eat out 

 of the same manger, wear the same bridle, or in 

 some way get tainted saliva into his mouth. 



2. I have fully satisfied myself that cattle — or 

 at least some of them — which have once had dis- 

 temper, even for years after they have appeared to 

 be well, can communicate it to such as never had 

 it. This law of disease also prevails in the one 

 called glanders in horses. As among glandered 

 horses, so some cattle wear marks of disease dur- 

 ing life, such as a dripping of yellow water from 

 the nose, inaptitude to shed off their hair in summer, 

 although fat, and occasional failure to give milk 

 for a day or two, whilst slight disease is manifest. 

 Perfect severance of such horses from all sound 

 ones, or more safely, killing them, stops the spread 

 of their disease. The same expedients, especially 

 killing tainted cattle at the proper season of the 

 year, would *be followed by the same result. 



3. Commons or other lands on which distemper- 

 ed cattle have roamed, until their bones have almost 

 whitened the ground, if well enclosed during fall 



or winter, may be considered as safe from distem- 

 per ever afterwards, unless causes of re-infection 

 be allowed. This I consider as fully established 

 by striking examples coming under my own obser- 

 vation. It is then very important — especially when 

 so many high-priced cattle are coming into the 

 country — that these rules should be practically 

 remembered. I would, on no account, permit a 

 sound animal to eat grass, or even dry food — at 

 the season of the year when distemper prevails — 

 in company with one which was or ever had been 

 infected. Indeed, I should be quite chary in buy- 

 ing hay — should I unfortunately ever need that 

 article — from an infected farm or district. One 

 Jfcise of infection has come to my knowledge, for 

 which I could find no other cause. 



4. I have not known distemper to occur between 

 the middle of December and the last of J une. It 

 is then possible that new comers into the herd 

 might be protected by separation from the infected, 

 even just before the last mentioned period. For 

 many years, I kept two herds on the same farm- 

 one infected, the other sound. A man with a white 

 skin, was seen to pull and leave down the barrier 

 between them. Unfortunately, before matters could 

 be rectified, a sound ox walked, grazing for nearly 

 fifty yards, on the infected grass. He died of dis- 

 temper in a few days. I kept those two herds se- 

 parate from the last of June until nearly Christmas. 

 In December, 1836, I removed from the neighbor- 

 hood of Farmville to this county, selling all the 

 cattle which had been exposed to those, not only 

 willing, but, like a friend lately purchasing Devons, 

 preferring to buy such as might be proof against 

 the disease in future. I brought the protected fa- 

 vorites to Cumberland, and have had no distemper 

 here. But if I begin to relate facts, I shall violate 

 my promise of brevity. 



5. As regards the cure, I put no confidence in 

 the nostrums so loudly applauded by ignorance 

 and credulity. I have observed that many cattle 

 which discharge only dark, greenish or black urine, 

 resembling strong copperas water, are apt to reco- 

 ver, whether physicked or not; but when the urine 

 was bloody, I never knew one to get well. I have 

 generally endeavored to purge them, when costive, 

 with a pound of Glauber's Salts, or nearly a pint 

 of spirits turpentine, to relieve them from the an- 

 noyance of grey-headed biting flies, which are sure 

 to be attracted to them by myriads, I have, when 

 I could, put them in a dark house. When this was 

 impracticable, I have covered them over with the 

 twigs and leaves of elder, spice-wood, sassafras, or 

 any others whose scent will disguise and conceal 

 their smell from the flies, or have had them well 

 rubbed with bruised horse-mint or penny-royal. I 

 have also applied ice to the hollow behind their 

 horns, and rubbed it along the course of the spine, 

 when there was great heat of skin, and in a few 

 instances soon after the attack, with apparently the 

 happiest effect. If not already in a shade, an 

 arbour should be raised over them. 



6. Many ways of guarding them have been de- 

 vised, besides that surest preventive, a careful se- 

 paration from infected cattle. The basis of most 

 of these is common salt, unlimited access to which 

 is doubtless beneficial to all cattle. I had once a 

 friend living in a neighborhood peculiarly afflicted 

 with distemper. He placed under a shelter, in his 

 pasture, for the use of his cattle, at their pleasure, 

 a large mass of clay, strongly impregnated with 

 equal parts of salt and air-slaked lime. Although 

 he boasted of thus guarding his cattle from dis- 



