174 
THE COW HER DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT. NO. 13- 
furnish a good dressing of vegetable or green ma- 
nure to the soil. 
To destroy these grasses effectually, where they are 
decidedly obnoxious, they should be plowed under 
in the fall, and the roots exposed to frost : and in 
order to secure this to every part of the roots, let 
the operation be repeated two or three times while 
the frost remains. Thorough cultivation the fol- 
lowing year, with sweet potatoes upon the field, or 
any other well-hoed crops, will nearly exterminate 
such roots as have not been previously killed. 
*. 
THE COW-HER DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT.— 
No. 13. 
Remarks on Bleeding. — Every person having the 
direction of the management of cows should be 
able to perform the operation of bleeding, as cir- 
cumstances are liable to occur when the life of the 
animal may be saved by its timely application, where 
proper assistance cannot be immediately procured. 
The method of bleeding requires some attention. 
In local diseases, or those affecting a part of the 
body, the nearer it is performed to the seat of the 
malady, the more effectual it will prove. In the 
general or constitutional diseases, this is less ne- 
cessary; and the blood maybe drawn from any 
part where there is a good vein, particularly the 
neck. It must be remembered that there are two 
kinds of blood vessels, arteries and veins. Through 
the former, the blood is conveyed from the heart 
towards the extremities of the body where they are 
connected with the veins which bring it back again 
to the heart. An artery "pulsates," or " beats" — 
a vein does not. Hence the difference may readily 
be known. 
The operation of bleeding may be performed by 
a fleam or lancet ; the fleam will be found the best 
instrument for those who are not acquainted with 
this process, but the lancet will be preferable where 
the skin is very thick, and much depth to go 
through before reaching a vein. These instruments 
should always be kept bright and free from rust, 
by means of which, the operation will be more 
easily performed, and there will be less danger of 
the orifice, or wound, becoming festered, or foul. 
Bleeding from the Nostrils. — This complaint, 
which is usually attended by a slight fever at its 
commencement, is more or less profuse, according 
to the cause from which it proceeds. Although not 
considered dangerous, to manage it properly, it is 
necessary that the practitioner should be well ac- 
quainted with its origin. When it is accompanied 
with a fullness and distension of the vessels of the 
head, it may be considered as an effort of nature to 
relieve this state, and it should not be stopped too 
suddenly. When it proceeds even from hard exer- 
cise, or over-driving the animal, the evacuation of 
blood will remove the fever produced by this cause ; 
and unless the discharge is very profuse, it can do 
but little harm. But when, on the contrary, it oc- 
curs with a cow which is weak and debilitated, 
and it appears evidently to arise from the thin, acrid 
state of her secretions, then a check must be put to 
it as quickly as possible. 
The stopping of the blood is always in one's 
power by external applications; and a very good 
remedy for this purpose is, to 
Take of sugar of lead, 2 drachms ; and white vitriol, (sul- 
phate of zinc.) 1 drachm, 
and dissolve them in a pint of vinegar. A cloth, 
dipped in this solution, is to be applied cold behind 
the ears and back of the horns of the animal, and 
must be removed as often as the cloth gets warm ; 
or. in place of the above, 
Take of blue vitriol, (sulphate of copper,) 1 oz., 
and dissolve it in a pint of vinegar, and apply it in 
the same manner. 
When the bleeding is stopped by these means, 
which seldom fail, attention is to be paid to the 
cause from whence it proceeds ; and when it is ac- 
companied by a fullness either of the general habit 
or of the head, in particular, or when it proceeds 
from any suppressed secretion of the skin or other 
parts, then these external applications should be 
made in connection with a general bleeding, and 
medicines to open the bowels, in order to lessen the 
excess of fluids in the body. The medicines to be 
administered in this case are as follows: — 
Epsom salts, from % lb. to 1>£ lbs. ; saltpetre, 1>£ oz. ; pow- 
dered ginger, l>j oz. 
To be mixed, and given in a pint and a half, or two 
quarts of water gruel. With these precautions, 
the cure of this malady will generally be found 
easy. 
ON BREEDING.- No. 1. 
The very little attention that is paid to systema- 
tic breeding of any species of animal, in this 
country, does not enable an American writer to 
give much from his own experience nor that of 
others, nor to state facts of an interesting nature, 
on this important branch of agriculture. Our 
people are not yet prepared for undertakings of so 
delicate and nice a character. Whether this arises 
from loose, irregular, and unmethodical modes of 
education, or from a restless and impatient frame 
of mind, or from the present habit of the Ameri- 
can people to look upward, instead of looking for- 
wards and onwards, or from the want of that fixed 
feeling that goes with, and belongs to, the idea of a 
settled and permanent residence, is of no conse- 
quence ; it bears, however, on our general subject 
in so far as by these various reasons we may ac- 
count for the American mind not having yet done 
much, or anything in this, almost the very high- 
est department of the art of agriculture. If an 
American farmer of the stand-as-you-are order 
is asked, why attempts are not made to improve the 
breed of animals in his country, his reply is, that 
it does not pay. If, however, he should carry out 
this coarse idea to all the various conditions of 
civilized life, and he should ask himself, whether 
it would not be more economical to live in a log- 
hut, instead of one built of stone or brick, or to 
be drawn in a cart by a dog or a donkey, instead 
of a well-bred horse , he would then see in a 
question so personal, the absurdity and (he illiber- 
ally of his response. It is not, in truth, because 
it does not pay, but because he takes no pride in 
the object; or because he does not like the trouble 
of the undertaking ; or because his mind does not 
possess the necessary penetration or perseverance, 
or has not been prepared by previous training, 
habit of close observation, and clear reasoning, that 
are essential not only in this pursuit, but in all 
where success depends on precise and accurate de- 
