102 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
A Chicken “Pasture,” 
BY PROP. W. J. BEAL, MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
In the January number, you illustrate a 
coop for chickens. This reminds me of my 
plan for “pasturing fowls.” As we are sit¬ 
uated, fowls are not permitted to run at 
large. I have a yard surrounded by a high 
fence in which they are confined. No grass 
or weeds get a start in such a place. I made 
a box-coop two feet high, four feet wide and 
ten feet long, using common pine lath, nailed 
to stouter pieces. It could be smaller. This 
is quite light so that any person can draw it 
from place to place. To prevent fowls flying 
over, lath strips are nailed across the top. In 
a word the coop is a box made of lath turned 
with the open side next to the grass. At one 
end is a small hole, from which extends a 
movable runway made of lath. I have sev¬ 
eral of these runways, some longer, some 
shorter, so that I can give the fowls a fresh 
place every day. They can in this way feed 
over a large part of the lawn surrounding the 
yard. Several years of experience prove this 
to be an admirable arrangement for a small 
number of fowls where it is not desirable 
to permit them to run at large. 
A New Disease Among Dairy Stock. 
BY X. A- WILLARD. 
Sometime in March, last year, a singular 
disease broke out among the dairy cows in 
Lewis County, N. Y., and made its appear¬ 
ance also in adjoining counties. It was de¬ 
scribed by correspondents in the “Utica 
Herald” and other papers of the interior, as 
an excessive scouring or diarrhoea coming on 
quite suddenly, attacking cows apparently in 
good health and rapidly prostrating them: 
and further that it seemed to be contagious, 
generally attacking animals exposed to it and 
extending to every member of the herd. It 
was described as a terrible scourge, which 
was causing much alarm among farmers in 
this part of the State. As the animals were 
said to be apparently healthy before this dis¬ 
ease made its appearance, and as there was 
no change from the ordinary feed or water, 
nor indeed in any treatment of the stock, the 
causes of this outbreak could not be account¬ 
ed for. It suddenly appeared on farms widely 
separated from each other and where there 
had been no communication with infected 
herds. A disease of this kind going through 
the herds had never been seen or heard of by 
dairy farmers in the section referred to, and 
on account of its peculiar character of attack 
and spread, it was designed as “ Winter Chol¬ 
era.” Though several accounts were given in 
the papers from time to time, concerning the 
progress of this disease, nothing was said in 
regard to its treatment. 
About the middle of April I purchased 
from a drove four cows to fill up my herd. 
All the animals in this drove had been 
picked up in Schoharie Co., N. Y., and by 
easy drives had been brought into Little 
Falls. The cows I selected were grade Ayr- 
shires and Shorthorn. One of the Ayrshires 
was thin in flesh and was already in milk ; 
the others were in good thrifty condition and 
all of them appeared to be in good health. 
While selecting the animals the seller re¬ 
marked that when he started his drove, the 
cow in thin flesh was “ in much the best rig” 
of any of the four; but that she had been 
taken with severe scouring while on the road, 
and before he could find a stopping place and 
get help she had fallen away rapidly, and at 
one time he thought he should lose her. On 
treating her however, after a recipe ob¬ 
tained from an old drover (which he had 
often found useful in such cases) she had re¬ 
covered at once, and 
had since been gaining 
in flesh every day. He 
attributed the exces¬ 
sive scouring to change 
of water and feed on 
the road, and as I 
rather hesitated about 
taking her, he said he 
would “ warrant her 
all right,” and besides give me the recipe 
which perhaps would prove useful on some 
occasion. As the man was well known to 
me and one I had dealt with before, I ac¬ 
cepted his terms. The cows were driven to 
my farm and placed in stable with the other 
members of my herd, and I thought no more 
of the matter until about a week after their 
arrival, when the cow standing next to the 
one warranted, was taken suddenly with 
scouring and diarrhoea. My farmer thought 
at first the trouble was only a temporary one 
and left her overnight without treatment. 
In the morning she looked badly, the dis¬ 
charges being excessive and frequent. I de¬ 
termined at once to try the drover’s recipe, 
which consisted in taking the inner bark of 
the Iron-wood tree, commonly called ‘ ‘ hard- 
hack,” and rolling up a ball of it about eight 
or nine inches in diameter, or as the drover 
expressed it, “ the size of a man’s head,” and 
then steeping the bark in this proportion 
with 12 quarts of water. The mixture should 
be reduced by boiling or simmering over the 
range until reduced to six quarts of liquid ; 
when cold give from one to two quarts, and 
repeat if the scouring is not checked. We 
administered the liquid from a strong, long¬ 
necked bottle, and in three doses given at in¬ 
tervals of about six hours each, when the 
trouble was overcome and with no further 
derangement to health, except that the cow 
was very weak. During the next few days 
every animal in my herd, with the exception 
of this warranted cow, was attacked in a sim¬ 
ilar way, and I have no doubt the complaint 
was introduced by the cow from the drove *, 
and in addition, that the disease was the so- 
called “ Winter Cholera,” which had appeared 
in Lewis Co. 
No other cases of the kind occurred in the 
vicinity of my farm. Possibly any astrin¬ 
gent bark or medicine would have answered 
the same purpose as that used, but as this 
seemed to be effectual, and as the Iron-wood 
tree is common in most parts of the State, 
many farmers have a remedy at hand on 
their own farms, for the treatment of this 
strange disease. I say strange because in all 
my experience with dairy stock, extending 
over a period of 30 years, I have never seen 
anything like it. Nor have I heard of it ap¬ 
pearing in any herds except the cases referred 
to in Lewis Co., etc. Perhaps the Veterinary 
Surgeons may explain the causes of this dis¬ 
ease, which certainly is a scourge, unless 
promptly treated. After the first case in my 
herd, the animals, as soon as attacked, were 
treated to a dose of this medicine, and gen¬ 
erally one dose was sufficient to check it; 
and afterward the animals were not affected 
in health on account of the trouble. 
As this disease will probably make its ap¬ 
pearance again during the coming spring, 
this statement of my experience with it may 
perhaps be of some service to the dairy read¬ 
ers of the American Agriculturist. 
Live and Dead Weight of Turkeys. 
A farmer frequently wants to know the 
fair price for turkeys alive, when the price is 
fixed by the butcher, or by the middleman, 
who buys for the large city market. New 
York takes turkeys simply bled and picked. 
The New England markets, with better taste, 
want the crop and entrails out. The average 
loss in dressing will be about one-fifteenth 
for the New York market, and about one- 
tenth for the Eastern markets, a little more 
for small immature birds, and a little less for 
large well fattened turkeys. An old gobler 
weighing 31f lbs. alive, after loss of blood and 
feathers, weighed 29’/ a lbs., or about one- 
fifteenth ; when ready for roasting, 28’/ a 
pounds, a loss of about one-tenth. This 
bird, at 20 cts. a pound, the price which mid¬ 
dlemen have paid for first-class dressed tur¬ 
keys in Connecticut the present season, 
would come to $5.70. Sold by live weight at 
18 cts., it would come to $5.63. This would 
leave only 7 cts. for butchering and dressing, 
which is below cost. The difference then, 
between live and dead weight in turkeys 
raised for the Eastern market, is not over 2 
cts. a pound. Lively middlemen ask a de¬ 
duction of 3 or 4 cents. The farmer may 
as well know that the difference in value is 
only two cents, and claim it.— Connecticut. 
An Improved. Screw-Driver. 
Mr. Wm. Jackson, Madison Co., Ill., has 
improved his screw-driver by cutting an 
“ eye” in the blade in which a lever can be 
inserted. By this means much additional 
AN IMPROVED SCREW-DRIVER. 
power can be applied, and old fast screws can 
be readily started. The engraving shows the 
form and position of the “ eye.”—We would 
add that screws which have been long in place 
and have become fast by the formation of 
rust, are very often difficult to start, even the 
device here given would be of little help. It 1 
is customary to apply olive oil to such screws 
to loosen the rust. The use of kerosene will 
be found much more efficacious. Kerosene 
is of such a penetrating character that it will 
enter where ordinary oil cannot go, and it 
softens the rust quite as well as ordinary oil. 
A I^arg-e Sale of Seeds.— While we 
were in a seed store a few days ago one order 
came from a house in a western city for 
2,000 lbs. of one kind of cabbage seed, and 
l,0OOlbs.o£ another variety,the whole amount¬ 
ing to about $7,000. At the same time peas 
were ordered to the amount of over SI,000. 
