1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
175 
to that of our best colleges, and may be adopted 
by all so inclined, there exists also a course of 
study more polytechnic in its nature, and which 
is more advanced in its requirements than that 
of some older and more pretentious institutions 
I could name. Let us glance en passant at the 
course of study insisted on as the requisite for 
obtaining the scientific diploma of the College : 
Anatomy, Physiology, Botany, Entomology, 
Zoology, Shades and Shadows, and Perspective 
Drawing, Physics, Principles and Practice of 
Road Making,Cheniistiy (laboratory practice two 
j-eai's), Meteorology, Practical Astronomy, Phy- 
sical Geography, Geology, Hygieue (lectures), 
Mineralogy. We have here selected from the 
list of studies only such as are entirely omitted 
or passed over with the merest smattering in most 
colleges. They are here brought out prac- 
tically into a desired prominence. Correlated 
with these we find an item (not always noticed 
in college graduates), a decent acquaintance 
with our mother tongue imperatively demanded. 
Mathematics, Logic, Rhetoric, and the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, come in to supply the 
polish. Ere long a competent Professor of Mod- 
ern Language will take a place in the institution. 
A course of Agriculture adds to most of the 
above Horticultural and Agricultural practice, 
Lectures on Domestic Animals, their diseases and 
cures; Soils, Manures, Rotation of Crops, Drain- 
age and Tillage, Grain, Grass, Root and other 
Crops, Agricultural Implements and Farm Build- 
ings. Connected with the institute exercises 
propei', we have military exercises from the 
School of the Soldier, up to lectures on Higher 
Tactics, under supervision of acknowledged com- 
petency. These military exercises are obliga- 
tory. Cases of conscience alone are excepted. 
One fact more is worthy of note — chairs are 
not filled by superannuated "good fellows," 
who have no other visible means of support. The 
fitness of things seems to have been considered 
in making the recent appointments. 
The State appropriation of the land scrip 
being now made to this College, it is placed 
on a secure footing, and may be expected to 
run an extensive career of public usefulness. 
Such an institution has long been wanted to 
meet an existing necessity. Dead languages are 
placed in their proper position, and studies 
which really confer mental power in a measure 
substituted. For those who wish to take up 
Latin and Greek every facility is provided, but 
diplomas may now be merited without giving 
to them the major part of a four years' course. 
Let us hope that ere loug we may not the less 
"gaze at the stars," but that we may fall less 
frequently into the mudlioles of our own ignor- 
ance; that we shall have more men whose 
minds are rounded by proper educational courses, 
and fewer men made angular by contractions 
derived from some of the liberal studies. 
Dosr Statistics. 
We have received several communications in 
reply to our correspondent's article on a dog 
law, signed " Connecticut," in our March issue, 
some wise and some otherwise. It seems to us, 
that "I. II. P." in his " word for dogs" admits all 
that "Connecticut" claims, and that they are sub- 
stantially agreed. " It is really discreditable," 
lie says, "that almost the only dogs in the 
country which are treated with any care, are lap 
dogs, the most useless, and bull dogs, the least 
sagacious. The natural fruit of such neglect is 
a race of nondescripts of all kinds, deteriorated 
iu body and brain." It is because of this non- 
descript character of our dog population that 
"Connecticut" and all friends of sheep want effi- 
cient dog laws in all our States. Ninety-nine 
out of every hundred of our dogs are worthless 
curs which need clearing out as much as the old 
Canaanites did to make way for something civ- 
ilized, that can keep company with our domes- 
tic animals. The destruction occasioned among 
sheep by these animals is appalling, and only 
needs to be better kuown to secure the requisite 
legislation. The Department of Agriculture 
has made a beginning of gathering statistics 
upon this subject. In 373 counties reported, 
there was an estimated loss of 77,854 sheep 
killed, besides mauy others injured. Some coun- 
ties suffered to the extent of 2000 or 3000, and 
the average number per county was 208. 
From this, the number killed in the whole 
country is estimated at 500,000, worth at least 
$2,000,000, while the injury to those not 
killed is another million, making a loss to the 
country of three millions of dollars, as the di- 
rect result of dogs killing sheep. But this is only 
a small part of the pecuniary damage inflicted 
upon us by these wretched curs. In many dis- 
tricts admirably adapted to sheep, farmers dare 
not embark in the business from fear of the dogs. 
In the counties where 3000 sheep are annually 
slain by the dogs, we think this land of hus- 
bandry can not pay very well. The counties 
where few are slain, we apprehend, are the ones 
where the dogs have made sheep husbandry 
unprofitable. The pastures are desolate and 
growing up to brush for want of cropping. 
Millions of dollars are lost to the country every 
year from this cause, and we have, as a con- 
quence, to pay dear for wool and mutton. 
Then we have to add to this the enormous 
tax of supporting our dog population. We 
have no reliable statistics on this subject, but 
estimate one dog to a family, say seven mil- 
lions in'the whole country. Some families have 
none, but others have six, a dog to each child, 
and glory in them ! The food that an average 
cur will devour would keep a pig, and is worth 
at least ten dollars a year. People who are 
paying 70 millions of dollars a year for ' the 
support of curs, to say nothing of damages, 
ought to make inquiries about dog laws. 
Pleuro-Pneumonia or Lung Murrain, 
The pleura-pneumonia is one of the most fa- 
tal and distressing maladies which ever attack 
cattle. At all times liable to spread rapidly 
among animals coming near or in contact with 
those diseased, it frequently assumes the form 
of a contagious epidemic, being taken by almost 
every, animal coming within striking distance. 
This was remarkably the case iu Massachusetts 
a few years since, and the disease every now 
and then breaks out somewhere with alarm- 
ing violence, but happily it appears to be more 
easily controlled here than in Europe, where the 
pole ax, or absolute isolation are the only ap- 
proved ways of checking its ravages. This dis- 
ease has been confounded with the Rinderpest 
or Steppe Murrain, which has lately wrought 
such distress in England, and has not yet stayed 
its inarch of destruction, but it has few or no 
symptoms in common with that, except conta- 
giousness and fatality. The disease exists al- 
most constantly among the swill-miik stables of 
New York and Brooklyn, and probably other 
cities, and certainly should come under the care- 
ful investigation of the Board of Health. The 
following description is furnished by Dr. Bustecd, 
of the N. Y. College of Veterinary Surgeons : 
Pleuro-Pkeumoxia op Cattle. — A malig- 
nant form of inflammation of the lungs, of an 
eminently contagious character, peculiar to the 
ox-tribe, has existed within the memory of man 
in the mountain regions of Ceutral Europe. 
Symptoms. — From the time that an animal is 
exposed to the contagion to the first manifesta- 
tion of symptoms, a certain period elapses ; this 
is the period of incubation. It varies from a 
fortnight to forty days, or even two months. 
Some credit may be given to reports of even 
longer periods. During this period cows are 
found to thrive fast, and often to yield much 
milk. The first signs, proving that the animal 
has been seized, can scarcely be detected by any 
but a professional man ; though, if a proprietor 
of cattle were extremely careful, and had pains- 
taking individuals about his stock, he would in- 
variably notice a slight shiver usher in the dis- 
order, which for several days, even after the 
shivering fit, would limit itself to slight inter- 
ference with breathing, detected readily on aus- 
cultation. Perhaps a cough might be noticed, 
and a diminution of the appetite and milk secre- 
tion. Though the amount of milk may not be 
much diminished at first, milk-maids sometimes 
say that a clever milker can tell when the cow is 
taken ill. The animal becomes costive, and the 
shivering fits recur. The cough becomes more 
constant and oppressive, the pulse full and fre- 
quent, usually numbering about 80 per minute 
at first, and rising to upwards of 100. The tem- 
perature of the body rises, and all the symp- 
toms of acute fever set in. A moan or grunt, 
in the early part of the disease, indicates a dan- 
gerous attack, and the nostrils rise spasmodi- 
cally at each inspiration ; the air rushes through 
the inflamed windpipe and bronchial tubes, so 
as to produce a loud, coarse, respiratory mur- 
mur ; and the spasmodic action of the abdomi- 
nal muscles indicates the difficulty the animal 
experiences also in the act of expiration. Pres- 
sure over the spaces between the ribs and on 
the spine, induce the pain and shrinking char- 
acteristic of pleurisy, and a deep moan not uu- 
frequently follows such an experiment. The 
eyes are bloodshot, mouth clammy, skin dry and 
tightly bound to the subcutaneous tissues, and 
the urine is scanty and high-colored. 
On auscultation, the characteristic, dry, so- 
norous rale of ordinary bronchitis may be de- 
tected along the windpipe and in the bronchial 
tubes. A loud sound of this description is not 
unfrequently detected at the interior part, of 
either side of the chesl, while the respiratory 
murmur is entirely lost posteriorly, from con- 
solidation of the lung. A decided leathery 
friction sound is detected over a considerable 
portion of the thoracic surface. As the disease 
advances, and gangrene, with the production of 
cavities in the lungs, ensues, loud, cavernous 
rales are heard, more or less circumscribed, oc- 
casionally attended by a decided metallic noise. 
When one lung alone is affected, the morbid 
sounds are confined to one side, and on the 
healthy side the respiratory murmur is uniform- 
ly louder than is natural all over. By carefully 
auscultating diseased cows from day to day, in- 
teresting changes can be discovered during the 
animal's lifetime. Frequently the abnormal 
sounds indicate progressive destruction : but at. 
other times portions of lung that have been 
totally impervious to air, become the scat of 
sibilant riles, and gradually a healthy respira- 
tory murmur prove-; that, by absorption of the 
materials that have been plugging the lung-tis- 
sue, resolution is fast advancing. I have seen 
some very remarkable cases of this description. 
