THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



207 



temper, I found he most sedulously prevented all 

 intercourse with their infected neighbors. 



The law requiring the carcasses of cattle, dying 

 from distemper, to be deeply buried or burned un- 

 skinned — the skins, however, are usually worth- 

 less — being founded in ignorance of the laws of 

 propagation in that disease, is worse than useless, 

 and, with every dead letter law, ought to be repealed. 

 It leads many, without faith in its value, to obey 

 it scrupulously, because it is a law of the land. I 

 have not a doubt but that with a knowledge of the 

 laws of propagation in distemper, as developed in 

 the foregoing rules, every proprietor could exter- 

 minate it from his premises, were a wisely con- 

 structed fence law only enacted. But such a mas- 

 ter as this is beneath the notice of politicians. 



It is a curious fact, in the history of this disease, 

 that although it has existed so long in our State, 

 it lingers only about our towns, and within a few 

 miles of the roads leading to cattle markets, in 

 this and in more northern States, along which cat- 

 tle from Georgia and the Carolinas were formerly 

 driven. I believe it soon dies out in neighborhoods 

 where the cattle are closely confined in pastures. 

 Although it has been thus smothered, and in many 

 places exterminated, I fear it will break out, with 

 redoubled fury, when blooded cattle shall be trans- 

 mitted all through the State, and bulls of improved 

 breeds begin to go from house to house. I would 

 warn my brethren, remote from the above men- 

 tioned roads, and from localities afflicted by the 

 disease, to watch closely, lest the enormity of such 

 an evil come upon them. Within my recollection, 

 the disease raged greatly about Richmond. If it 

 is still prevailing there, I would exhort all, sending 

 animals to the cattle shows, to guard them most 

 carefully against grazing, by the use of well made 

 muzzles. These, if properly attended to, will save 

 them, unless they chance to get a mouthful of hay 

 or other food which has been slavered on by some 

 infected animal. 



I know very little of what is called "bloody 

 murrain," in Scotland and other parts of Great 

 Britain, but I strongly suspect, from the mystery 

 and destruction by which it has so much aroused 

 the alarms of superstition, that it was carried to 

 North Carolina by Scottish immigrants. Being 

 brought here afterwards, it received, like many 

 European men, a new name — " North Carolina dis- 

 temper." If this be so, I would gladly restore the 

 old name, as I feel disposed to associate something 

 far better than distemper, with the name of the 

 good Old North State. 



The heavy injuries sometimes produced by this 

 disease render it a much more formidable affair 

 than those unacquainted with it would suppose. 

 I would, therefore, implore intelligent, investigat- 

 ing, practical farmers, and especially the officers 

 of our State Agricultural Society, scrutinizingly 

 to search into, and, if possible, suppress the evil. 

 Whole neighborhoods sometimes lose nearly all 

 their cattle, and a little milk, much less cream, 

 cannot be procured to put into coffee. I have 

 known great mischief caused by the transmission of 

 blooded cattle through the country, at a wrong 

 season of the year. Efforts to improve our stock 

 are very laudable, but I again warn those who 

 make them to use muzzles as safeguards, or, which 

 is much better, to do it during those months when 

 the disease seems to be incommunicable. 

 Yours, respectfully, 



W; S. Morton. 



Cumberland , June, 1854. 



ECONOMICAL WHEATEN BREAD. 



A Calais correspondent sent Lord Palmerston the 

 following receipt for making cheap bread, whick 

 his Lordship transmitted to the Council of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England : 



For the purpose of making this bread, only the 

 coarsest of the bran is to be taken from the wheat ; 

 and the second coat, or what is called pollard, 

 ground with the meal, as is usual for wheaten 

 bread. Five pounds of this bran are to be boiled 

 in somewhat more than four gallons of water, in 

 order that when perfectly smooth three gallons and 

 three quarts of clear bran water may be poured in- 

 to and kneaded up with 46 lbs. of the brown flour; 

 adding salt as well as yeast, in the same way as 

 for the other bread. When the dough is ready to 

 bake, the loaves are to be made up and baked two 

 hours and a half in a pretty brisk heat. As flour 

 when thus made up will imbibe three quarts more 

 of this bran liquor than of common water, it evi- 

 dently not only produces a more nutritious and 

 substantial food, but augments it to one-fifth part 

 of the usual quantity of bread ; consequently it is 

 a saving of at least one day's consumption in every 

 week. If this bread were in general use, it could 

 be proved to be a saving to the nation of near ten 

 millions per annum. This bread, too, has the fol- 

 lowing peculiar property : if put into the oven and 

 baked for twenty minutes, after it is ten days old, 

 it will appear again like new bread. 



GAS FOR COUNTRY USE. 



By a recent invention, people living in towns 

 where no coal gas company is or can be profit- 

 ably formed, may still obtain the luxury of a 

 brilliant home-made gas-light, at a cost cheaper 

 than that of the ordinary oil or fluid. This 

 important improvement was in complete ope- 

 ration a few evenings since, at the residence of 

 a well known literary and scientific gentleman, 

 on Spring Hill, Somerville, Massachusetts, 

 being the first house into which it has been in- 

 troduced in this section of the country. The 

 light produced is superior to that of coal gas, 

 being clearer and more powerful, as the flame is 

 of fuller volume and burns with greater steadi- 

 ness, while the expense is about the same as 

 coal gas at $2 50 per thousand feet. It is the 

 combustion of benzole, a resinous liquid, sold at 

 $ 1 50 per gallon, mixed with atmospheric air — 

 the gas being generated by means of an inge- 

 nious and not inelegant apparatus, which may 

 stand in the house entry-way, or even be placed 

 on a closet shelf, and from which common gas 

 fixtures may extend in all directions and give 

 the light in any or every room at pleasure. 

 The apparatus generates no more gas than is 

 immediately consumed, and requires for the 

 purpose only the heat of one of the burners, 

 used as a light — so that the whole cost of the? 

 gas is that of the apparatus and the benzole. 



An apparatus of sufficient capacity for & 

 I good sized dwelling house is afforded for $150l 



