SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
371 
“MAD ITCH.’? 
Editors Southern Cultivator — If you or any of your 
subscribers can inform me how to cure and what to use 
as a preventive for a disease I have among my cattle, it 
will be thankfully received. When I discovered the first 
symptoms of the disease, the cattle taken, were rubbing 
their heads very severely ; so much so, that it was not 
long before the hair was rubbed off. They appeared to be 
in the greatest agony, and the disease appeared to be 
principally confined to the head. Some term it “Mad 
Itch,” perhaps it may be. Please let me know if there is 
any known remedy for it, as all that I did had no effect. I 
used tar, sulphur and salt as a preventive with those that 
had not taken it ; there has not been another case of the 
disease since I used the above remedy, though I do not 
know that it is a preventive. Respectfully, 
A Sqbscriber. 
Lamar, Miss., Oct., 1857. 
SNUFF “DIPPING.” 
Senator Bullock, of Ala., editor of the Spirit of the 
South, thus sets his condemnation on the filthy habit of 
“dipping 
“This most disgusting and ruinous practice has become 
alarmingly prevalent. The quantity sold in this county, 
[Barbour, Ala ] exceeds five thousand pounds, and no 
doubt the consumption is equally great in other counties. 
The snuff bottle passes round not less frequently than 
the whiskey bottle among topers — and the one form of dis- 
sipation is about as offensive and ruinous as the other — in 
feet whiskey has the advantage. What can be more re- 
volting to good taste than to see a lady comforting herself 
with a huge mop, ponderous with maccaboy — grinding 
the villainous mass, mop and all, until it become tasteless 
and juiceless. 
“Young ladies and old, married and single indulge, and 
what is passing strange, but few conceal it. There is a 
painful amount of ignorance as to the deadly ravages it 
makes upon the health. It finds a beginning in occasional 
dipping to cleanse the teeth, and such supposed harmless 
use begets a fondness for it as a stimalant, and nothing 
can be more certain than that in the end, you become pos- 
sessed of an irresistible craving for it, which must be 
gratified at all hazards — nervous system wrecked — di- 
gestion and appetite destroyed — gums and lips hardened, 
bloodless and juiceless — skin rough and colorless — the 
snuff dipper stands before you a skeleton, eating nothing, 
enjoying nothing, all the time crying for more snuff 
Ladies, let us beseech you to avoid it as you would the 
most deadly poison. Never use it for any purpose. Sub- 
stitute charcoal in cleaning the teeth— it is far preferable, 
not only as a cleanser, but it keeps the breath pure, and 
should any escape into the stomach it acts admirably as a 
disinfecting agent and benefits digestion. But banish 
snuff at all events, and you will never regret the resolu- 
tion.” 
A Calculation to Look at. — Suppose a man drinks 
four glasses of liquor a day, at five cents a glass, in a 
week he spends $1 40, and in a year S72 80. This will 
buy the following articles: — Four barrels of flour, say 
S24 ; four pairs of boots, say Sl5 ; forty pounds of butter, 
SlO; two hundred pounds of beef, S8; a new hat, S4; a 
a new satin vest, S>4 ; a bonnet for wife, $5; sugar plums 
for the children, $1 80. Total S7’2 80. — Exchange. 
We have a number of gentlemen in our town who will 
average ten glasses per day : and for which they pay ten 
cents per glass. That would be S>1 per day, $1 per week, 
or S3G5 per year; and would buy him a neat little cottage 
for himself and family, and a suit of clothes to boot. — 
Brandon RepnbUcan 
CURE FOR SWOLiUEN FEET IN CHICKENS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I notice in the May 
number of the Southern Cultivator some inquiries made 
by Mrs. M. K. J., as to the cause and cure for Swollen 
Feet Chickens. I do not know the cause, but will give 
the cure. Have their feet and legs well tarred up to their 
knee joints, and repeat it in some four or five days after- 
wards. You will find that all the rough scaly substance 
about their feet and legs will peel off, all the swelling be 
reduced and leave them a beautiful white. Apply the tar 
alone — mix nothing with it. L. E. L. 
Marshall, Texas, Aug., 1857. 
Native Cotton. — The following is an extract from a 
letter published in the Tallahassee Floridian and Journal, 
and dated the 14th of Sept., at Fort Myers, Fla.: 
While on a scout near this place, on the Collooshatchee 
river, a few days, since, I found a large quantity of wild 
cotton. This cotton is growing in a low marshy ham- 
mock, near the river ; when first discovered I could hardly 
believe the fact, but upon examination I found it to be cot- 
ton in its crude and uncultivated state. This cotton has 
the appearance of Nankeen cotton, but I think this is 
caused by the red bug, which seems to have the same ef- 
fect on the bolls as rust on the stem. The leaf of this 
cotton is very much like the Sea Island in shape, but 
from the feeling of the leaf and shape of the bolls one 
would suppose it to be upland. This cotton grows very 
high, and seems to be mostly barren, but this 1 think, is 
owing to the thickness of the growth. This cotton is so 
well adapted to the climate and soil that it grows all the 
winter; it may seem unreasonable to you, sir, but I am 
confident that I saw some stalks that are at least four or 
five years old. It is found mostly in the vicinity of the 
river. I went with Col. Rogers and others, who are well 
acquainted with the cotton plant, to look at this cotton, 
and they all pronounce it cotton growing naturally in an 
uncultivated soil.” 
A Good Word for the Ladies. — Some of the papers 
are lecturing women upon extravagance in dress, and ad- 
vising them to retrench, especially during the present 
financial difficulty. Doubtless there are many cases of 
unwarrantable extravagance in this way ; but do people 
ever consider that two or three glasses of brandy and half 
a dozen regalias indulged in daily by a man, to say no- 
thing of 5 and S‘l0 dinners, amount to more in a year than 
would be required to dress a woman up to the full require- 
ments of fashion 1 Much of this talk about the extrava- 
gance of women is nonsense. They are almost universal- 
ly careful, and many a trader would to-day have been 
sale and sound, if he had listened to the prudent counsels 
of his wife, rather than the reckless promptings of his own 
ambition. It is natural for men to endeavor to shift the 
responsibility of their folly to other shoulders, but it is 
rather too much to charge a commercial revulsion like this 
upon one’s wife and daughter. — Tribune. 
Look out for Manure. — No manure is so well worth 
the saving in October and November, as the new fallen 
leaves of the season. According to Payen, they contain 
nearly theee times as much nitrogen as ordinary barn- 
yard manure ; and every gardener who has strewn and 
covered them in his trenches late in the fall or in Decem- 
ber, must have noticed the next seasou how black and 
moist the soil is that adheres to the thrifty young beets 
that he pulls. No vegetable substance yields its woody 
fibre and becomes soluble quicker than leaves, and from 
this very cause they are soon dried up, scattered to the 
winds and wasted if not now gathered and trenched in or 
composted before the advent of severe winter. — Exch. 
