JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
January 20, 1881. ] 
59 
encouraging farmers’ wives and daughters to take a greater interest 
in the poultry yard. 
- Spratt’s Poultry Food. —Mr. Merrick of Bristol, who is 
obliged to keep his fowls in close confinement, states that “ by feeding 
them almost entirely on Spratt’s patent meal they are kept in excellent 
health, and the food keeps in good condition for months in a closely 
fitting box.” Another correspondent who rears several hundreds of 
chickens and pheasants annually, also speaks in approving terms of 
the value of the meal in question. 
-How Selling Milk Impoverishes the Soil. —Where milk 
is sold all the mineral and nitrogenous constituents which it contains 
are lost to the soil. These elements have been estimated at fully 
two-thirds of all the cow consumes, and although this looks to be a 
large loss it is without doubt correct. Prof. J. F. W. Johnson says : 
“ Every 40 gallons of milk contain 1 lb. of bone earth, besides other 
phosphates. Estimating a cow to yield 750 gallons of milk per year, 
it will require 19 lbs. of phosphate, equivalent to 30 tbs. of bone dust. 
If the calf is sold off, we may assume there is a loss of 20 lbs. of bone, 
and the waste of phosphates in the urine equals 4 tbs. And thus for 
every cow a dairy farm maintains, it will lose of earthy phosphates 
as much as is contained in 56 tbs. of bone dust.” This shows what 
must be returned to the soil, where milk is sold, if complete im¬ 
poverishment of the land would be guarded against. We are all well 
aware this presentation of the subject is not a new one ; but we have 
deemed a recapitulation of these facts desirable on account of many 
recent statements to the effect that “ the selling of milk is the most 
profitable branch of farming where cows are kept.” It does call for 
a less outlay of care, work, and money without doubt, but unless 
purchased manures are largely made use of there will be a constant 
drain upon the reserved fertility of the farm. This provided for, and 
dairying is profitable in this order: First, butter-making; second, 
cheese manufacture ; third, selling of milk .—(New England Farmer.) 
-A Cure for Foot-and-Mouth Disease.—T he Duke of 
Brunswick has of late successfully combated the ravages of this much- 
dreaded enemy on his estate at Stampen,near Oels,in Prussian Silesia, 
by treatment with salicylic acid, the well-known antiseptic that we 
have previously referred to. Instead of several weeks being required to 
effect a cure, as with the remedies hitherto employed, truly surprising 
results have been brought about within a few days by this new 
treatment. A solution of the acid is prepared by pouring some hot 
water on about three tablespoonfuls of salicylic acid in an earthen 
vessel, and adding lukewarm water to make up a gallon. The mouth 
and feet of the diseased animal should be carefully washed three times 
a day with this liquid, and the tops of the hoofs well powdered with 
the dry acid after each ablution. The effect will, moreover, be greatly 
increased by salicylating the drinking water of the beasts by the 
addition of two tablespoonfuls of the acid dissolved in hot water. 
During the above treatment great attention must be paid to the 
perfect cleanliness of the stables or sheds. 
- The Butter Product. —In no single department of agricul¬ 
ture, says the “ American Cultivator,” have more experiments been 
made than in setting milk, resulting in great progress, not only in the 
extraction of butter of superior quality, but also in increased quantities. 
However, it is still an open question whether this notable progress in 
dairy husbandry is owing to superiority in the implements employed 
or to the superior skill of the operator. It seems to be a settled point 
that the butter produced at the creameries is superior in quality to 
the great mass of that made in private dairies, and in this case both 
improved implements and superior skill on the part of the operators 
combine to give the desired result. It needs no argument to 
convince intelligent persons that a dairyman in a well-appointed 
creamery, whose whole energies are devoted to one object, can excel 
in butter-making the individual who is employed in that occupation 
but a few hours in the week. Creameries get a product that is 
stamped with uniformity in quality and appearance, and that is tbe 
result of tbe highest skill in the art, aided by the latest improve¬ 
ments of scientist, inventor, and mechanic. 
- Fluke in Calves. —“ A. B.” writing to Nature says—“ Can 
any of your readers account for the following facts ?—An examination 
of the liver of some six-weeks-old calves which had never touched 
any food but their mother’s milk showed them to be infested with 
fully-developed fluke (Distoma hepatica). It is clear that the pre¬ 
sence of these flukes does not admit of the usual explanation—viz., 
the ingestion with green food or water of mollusca bearing the larva 
in one of its earlier stages. I should be grateful if any of your 
readers could suggest an explanation of the mode in which the fluke 
entered the liver of the calf. Is it possible that the larva may have 
passed into the milk of the mother, and so have entered the stomach 
of the calf ? It may interest some of your readers to know that traces 
of fluke were present in the livers of cattle lately killed when in high 
condition. The fluke had apparently been established in the liver 
some considerable time previous to the slaughter of the animals, and 
had perished on their attaining to a state of high health and vigour.” 
PRACTICAL SCIENTIFIC BREEDING. 
( Continued from page 20.) 
In the cases of poultry and Pigeons pedigree breeding is much 
less usual than it is with horses, cattle, and dogs. It is more 
difficult to identify the progeny of each pair of birds, especially 
with poultry, than is the case in regard to other stock referred to. 
No pedigree is required, and the most successful breeders are 
reticent in disclosing the methods adopted by them. It is thus 
almost impossible to adduce instances of successful in-breeding 
of poultry or Pigeons. At the same time it is known to many 
fanciers that in most classes the winning birds are the results of 
judicious in-breeding. We can, however, argue with certainty 
from the analogy of cattle. In the herd books of the owners of 
the very best strains of Shorthorns will be found the record of 
how much in-breeding has done for this breed. It is by no means 
unusual to find that the name of the same sire appears five or six 
times in the pedigree of a celebrated Shorthorn, and in some cases 
in-breeding has been carried even further than this. It is true 
that in some instances these highly bred stock become barren, but 
this seems to us to be merely a development of a latent tendency 
in this direction which existed in the family. Be this as it may, 
the fact remains that the most successful breeders have resorted 
with no sparing hand to in-breeding. We think it necessary to 
say this much in support of the method of breeding which we are 
about to recommend, because popular ideas are so very much 
astray on the subject. 
It is perfectly common for beginners in purchasing stock to 
make a proviso that the birds sent shall be in no way related to 
each other. Authors, even, in writing about poultry, discourse 
upon the necessity of avoiding in-breeding, and speak of it as if 
it were an uumixed evil. As an example of this w r e would refer 
our readers to the paragraph on this subject in the “A. B. C. 
Poultry Book,” and other instances might easily be cited. This 
general craving for fresh blood is founded partly, no doubt, upon 
the commonly accepted theories as to in-breeding, and partly 
upon the indisputable fact that in-breeding sometimes produces 
evil results and may be carried too far. It is also founded upon 
ignorance of the actual state of facts as to fancy poultry and 
Pigeons. These are for the most part, as at present known, the 
results of artificial selection, and this artificial selection has been 
going on in the case of many breeds or varieties for a great 
number of years. The show bird of to-day in most breeds is of 
a very different type to its ancestors of some years back. The 
process of artificial selection has developed certain points which 
are known as the chief points ” of the breed. So long as the 
breeding stock is composed of birds of the same family even 
though 'they be but distantly related to each other—these arti¬ 
ficially created points continue to show themselves, and tbe more 
in-bred the. family is from birds perfect, or approaching perfection 
in any particular point, the more fixed does that point become in 
the progeny. The moment, however, that entirely fresh or foreign 
blood is introduced the work of years is in all probability over¬ 
thrown by the natural tendency, which we have already referred 
to, to throw back to the original type. It may be that in conse¬ 
quence of one or other of the parents being very highly bred, and 
thus prepotent as to certain points, the progeny, or a proportion 
of them, will be good in these points, and that the tendency to 
throw back may in this way be counteracted, but it will only be 
counteracted as regards the first generation; and the birds thus 
