520 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
easters ” driving them even into the Southern 
States. They do not coniine themselves to 
the pine forests ; in Massachusetts they feed 
chiefly upon the berries of the Red Cedar. 
The adult male is carmine on the back, paler 
below, and striped with black. The wings 
are dark with a white edging. The female is 
ashy-gray with saffron markings. The bill is 
short, stout, and almost parrot-like in its 
appearance. This Grosbeak has a rich song, 
but it is seldom heard except in the far 
north, where it passes its breeding season. 
A Handy Feed Measure. 
“ I send you a drawing of a feed measure 
that I have found to be very convenient; also 
A CHEAP AND HANDY FEED MEASURE. 
measurements (inside) for any size, holding 
from one to four quarts. A one-quart measure 
should be 4 inches square by 4'/o inches deep; 
a two-quart measure 5 inches square, 5% 
inches deep; one of three quarts 6 inches 
square, 5 3 / 5 inches deep, and a four-quart 
measure 6 3 / 4 inches square, 5 9 /i 0 inches deep. 
Mine are made of pine, the sides half an inch, 
and the bottom one inch in thickness.” T. 
Shelter Saves Food Is Profitable 
Every keeper of animals would actually 
profit by a little study of chemistry and 
physiology. Here is a short lesson: All kinds 
of food, as hay, grain, bread, meat, etc., are, 
like wood, mainly composed of charcoal 
(carbon) and water, with considerable nitro¬ 
gen in some of them. To prove this, strongly 
heat any of the above food materials in a 
coal pit, or better, under glass. Water, with 
some nitrogen gas, will be driven off and 
can be found in the glass receiver, while only 
charcoal will remain. Let in more air and 
the charcoal itself will unite with the oxygen 
of the atmosphere, and also go off as a trans¬ 
parent, invisible carbonic acid gas. This 
chemical action sets at liberty heat that was 
before concealed or insensible, the same as 
when wood or coal is burned rapidly in a 
stove, producing an active fire ; or as when 
wood decays, but gives off heat so slow as 
not to be observed. 
Exactly the same thing occurs when any 
food is dissolved (digested) in the stomach of 
animals or men, and is taken into the blood 
and carried to all parts of the body. The 
blood gets oxygen also from the air in the 
lungs, and carries it all through the body. The 
atoms of oxygen meet the atoms of digested 
food, here, there, and everywhere in the 
blood vessels. The two unite just as they 
do in a stove ; heat is produced, only a mi¬ 
nute quantity at any one point, but a great 
deal of it, taking the whole blood circulation 
together, and so the whole body is kept warm, 
though heat is constantly escaping from the 
whole outside surface. Nature provid§s that 
the body shall always be kept warm, other¬ 
wise it would quickly perish ; and so if the 
oxygen in the blood don’t find food enough 
to keep up the internal heat, it will attack 
and consume any fat or flesh stored in the 
body, and thus make the animal poor. 
We must have an ever-burning fire in 
both the animal and human system. If the 
surrounding gtmospliere is cold, and carries 
off heat rapidly from the surface of the body, 
we must increase the internal production of 
heat by putting in more food, or by sur¬ 
rounding the body with a covering that will 
prevent the escape of much heat. 
Is it not plain then, that by keeping animals 
warm, by means of close buildings, or 
shelter against heat-stealing winds, less food 
will be needed, and there will be less waste 
of flesh in making heat ? Any arrangement 
of shelter, cover, stable, shed, blankets— 
anything that will prevent the natural 
warmth from passing away from the surface 
of any animal—will be a great saving of food 
required to keep up the absolutely necessary 
internal life warmth ; will prevent loss of 
flesh ; will allow the food to go mors to ad¬ 
ding to weight of flesh, or the yield of milk, 
or of wool. Shelter and external warmth in 
cold weather are most economical and there¬ 
fore profitable in the keeping of farm stock. 
The Nature of Contagious Diseases. 
BY D. E. SALMON, D. V. M. 
Hog Cholera—Chicken Cholera—Anthrax or 
Charbon, etc. 
It is not many years since the investiga¬ 
tion of a contagious fever in our domestic 
animals was completed by a careful study of 
the symptoms, and an examination of the 
different organs of the affected animal. This 
seemed as far as the instruments at com¬ 
mand, the methods of research, and the 
science of the time, justified the observer in 
Fig. 1. —MICROCOCCI FOUND IN HOG CHOLERA. 
(Magnified 1,000 times.) 
going. And at present, when, in making in¬ 
vestigations a post mortem examination is 
finished, people frequently expect that the 
nature of the disease should be revealed at 
once, as well as the appropriate treatment. 
This expectation is not entirely unreasonable, 
when we consider the short time since our 
best scientists went scarcely beyond this; 
and yet, as we look at these diseases to-day, 
the post mortem examination can reveal next 
to nothing of the essential nature of such a 
malady, and can indicate little more in re¬ 
gard to its treatment. 
Some of these diseases, at least, are now 
known to be due to parasites, which are be¬ 
lieved to be of a vegetable nature, and are 
sometimes classed with the lowest of the 
Fungi. Extremely minute, of the simplest 
structure, multiplying with the greatest 
rapidity, capable of resisting the most un¬ 
favorable conditions, and with an extraordi¬ 
nary power of adapting themselves to various 
conditions of life, they gain entrance to the 
circulating fluids of the body, propagate them¬ 
selves in countless numbers, and succeed in 
destroying the most robust individuals. That 
one variety of these parasites should set up 
an inflammation in the lungs, while another 
Fig. 2.— BACTERIA OF CHICKEN CHOLERA. 
(Magnified 1,000 times.) 
produces a similar effect in the bowels, and 
a third in the liver or spleen, is not so much 
to be wondered at; but, knowing the cause, 
we can easily see that such an inflammation 
of the lungs, bowels, liver, or spleen, is not 
the essential trouble, and therefore should 
not receive our undivided attention. If, for 
instance, we look upon hog cholera as a sim¬ 
ple inflammation of the lungs and bowels, 
and upon chicken cholera as a disorder of the 
liver and intestines, as so many do, we can¬ 
not hope to solve the important questions of 
prevention and cure so necessary to the con¬ 
trol of the affections. 
We must go beyond the superficial appear¬ 
ances, then, and recognize the fact that 
these diseases are something more than they 
appear at first sight; we must be willing to 
admit that the inflammations and other 
changes apparent to the eye are but the re¬ 
sults of the growth of something which has 
entered the body, and which is itself the 
essence and origin of the malady. It is to 
this something that our attention must be 
turned before we can gain a thorough 
knowledge of the plague. 
The organisms which so far have been 
found, for a certainty, to constitute the virus 
of contagious fevers, are but few in number, 
and belong to that family of living things 
called Schizomycetes. These bodies may be 
in the form of spherical or oval granules, 
single, or in groups or chains, when they are 
called Micrococci; they may consist of two 
oval elements or short rods, united end to 
end, when they are distinguished as Bacteria 
(the whole family of Schizomycetes is also 
frequently spoken of as Bacteria); and they 
may be in the form of rather long, stiff rods 
Fig. 3. —BACILLUS ANTHRACES. 
tMagniAed 1,000 times.) 
or filaments, in which case they are Bacilli. 
The Micrococcus, shown in figure 1, is 
what I believe to be the cause of hog cholera, 
