[ 1871 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
129 
American Agricultural Annual 
for 187 3.—Though tardy in making its appearance, 
this Annual has lost nothing hy the delay. The usual 
variety and value of the articles has been more than 
maintained, and the Farmers’ Directory, which has been 
for two or three years a prominent feature, has been much 
extended and better classified, giving the addresses of re¬ 
liable manufacturers and dealers in seeds, fertilizers, im¬ 
plements, and live-stock over the whole Union. The An¬ 
nual contains, besides the usual review of the year, and 
the pr'ospects of the year to come, with the notes upon 
Progress in Dairy matters, Veterinary Medicine, Fish 
Culture, and the record of valuable Agricultural Inven¬ 
tions, etc. Articles upon Peat for Fuel, Steaming Fod¬ 
der, Gas-Tar Walks, New Harrows, Fish for Sport and the 
Table (Black Bass); on Leguminous Plants, by Joseph 
Harris; on the best Potatoes of 1S70, by Dr. Hexamer, 
on Mutton Sheep and other articles of practical value. 
Many of the illustrations are of rare excellence. There 
is a complete list of the agricultural and kindred papers 
of North America, and of the books of the past year hav¬ 
ing even a remote reference to agriculture. 
The five volumes now issued form a neat Fanner's 
Library of themselves, containing really a great fund of 
very valuable information upon many topics. They each 
contain 152 pages, are beautifully illustrated, and are 
bound either in enameled paper or cloth covers. The 
price per volume is 50c. in enamelled paper; 75c. in 
cloth. Sont post-paid on receipt of price by Orange 
Judd & Co., 245 Broadway, New York. 
Stands iai I#ava.—J. II. IV. We must de¬ 
cline publishing such letters as yours ; if we allow one to 
present the claims of his locality we must allow all to do 
so, and we could easily fill the paper with nothing else. 
Cii*ial>.s in Cattle.—C., Oregon City. The 
grubs under the skin of cattle along the back, come from 
an egg deposited by a fly.. The common name of the 
trouble is warbles. A full account, with illustrations, was 
given in August last. The grubs may be killed by press¬ 
ure, or by pricking them with a hot sharp wire. 
BSog- disease.—J. M. Mitchell, Knob Nos- 
ter, Mo., Mar. G, 1871,writes: “ I wrote you a month since 
referring to a hog disease prevailing here. Since that 
time this neighborhood has lost probably 1,000 hogs. 
The disease or diseases seems to resemble Measles, 
Pneumonia, and Erysipelas as described by Yonatt and 
Martin. One additional matter has been noted, viz., the 
existence of large balls of small worms in the windpipe 
of the Pneumonia cases—no pleurisy.”—All the symp- 
tons and lesions you describe, are those of malignant or 
irregular Measles or Rubeola, which has broken out in 
the epidemic form in your neighborhood. The causes are 
little known—want of cleanliness, atmospheric changes, 
individual predisposition, and contagion, being the prin¬ 
cipal ones. It is a blood disease, usually associated with 
severe derangement of the bowels, also with pulmonary 
troubles; in the first case often called blue disease, or 
hog cholera. The treatment in mild cases is generally 
simple.—great attention to cleanliness, free ventilation, 
and little medicine. If the eruption is slow to appear as 
in severe cases, diffusible stimulants such as camphor 
and carbonate of ammonia may be used with good 
effect. Much benefit is also obtained from elder-flowers 
and chamomile teas. Inoculation has not succeded yet 
in producing a milder form of the disease.”—[The former 
letter of this correspondent was sent to the Veterinary 
Editor, but was accidentally mislaid and unanswered.] 
A Word to “ The Farmer.”— There 
comes to us by the foreign mail a‘ paper called “ The 
Farmer—Tlie Farm—The Field—The Forest—The Garden 
—A Journal for the Country House.” This journal is pub¬ 
lished in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Havin'* 
reached its 16th volume, one would think it ought to 
have arrived at years of discretion and a knowledge of 
the distinction between meum and tuum. A frequent in¬ 
spection of this “ Farmer ’’shows it to be a most unblush¬ 
ing literary thief. For months it has published the “Tim 
Bunker Papers ” as if they were original contributions. 
There was no accidental omission to give credit, as it 
has adapted the articles to the English reader by the use 
of £ s. d. instead of our currency, and various verbal 
changes have been made, to try to give the papers an 
English air. This is, of course, a lame attempt, as the 
papers are so thoroughly American in character, that no 
intelligent person can be deceived. Besides this, “The 
Farmer” has taken whole chapters from books published 
by us, and used them in its pages as communications, 
signing the name or the initials of the author, to make it 
appear as if the matter were written expressly for its 
columns. We have allowed these tilings to pass unno¬ 
ticed until, emboldened by our silence, “The Farmer” 
has committed an outrage upon propriety which calls for 
the punishment of exposure. Timothy Bunker, Esq., is 
the nom deplume which a well-known agriculturist and 
agricultural writer uses for a certain class of his articles, 
and is as much his own property as “Boz” was that of 
Dickens, or as “ George Elliot” isnow that ofMrs. Lewes. 
What would be thought of a waiter who should sign an 
article George Elliot? He would be branded by the 
whole press as a literary forger. This is exactly what 
this “Farmer” has done. Not content with stealing 
“ Timothy Bunker’s ” articles, it now filches his good 
name. In “ The Farmer ” for Jan. 30th we find a note, in 
which the writer says that, not being in a writing humor, 
he has prevailed upon Mark Twain to send an account of 
his experience as an agricultural editor—and this note is 
signed “Timothy Bunker, Esq.,” with a coolness that 
could only come of a long persistence in the habit of ap¬ 
propriating other people’s property. We know that 
there is no written law to prevent these things, and our 
only redress is in exposing its thievery and forgery. 
CJi'cat Mortality amojig Swine.— 
We continue to receive a great many letters from differ¬ 
ent parts of the United States and Canada, in regard to 
the diseases of pigs. A farmer in Ohio writes that he 
has lost over 60 pigs. We cannot tell, from his descrip¬ 
tion, what the disease is. He sends us some of their 
teeth, which are discolored at the top, and asks if the 
disease can be the “ black tooth.” We have seen many 
healthy pigs with teeth much blacker than those he sends 
us. Black teeth may be an effect, but cannot be a cause 
of the disease. His pigs are “ fat,” and have been fed on 
middlings, shorts, and corn-meal, cooked, with a little 
raw corn. We could not wish for better food, and we 
are assured that they have had good care and treatment. 
And many others make similar statements. We cannot 
account for this great mortality, unless the ancestors of 
the pigs have been badly treated. The whole subject 
needs thorough investigation. We would advise not only 
good treatment of the pigs we have, but also the exercise 
of great care in selecting animals to breed from that have 
for several generations back also received good treat¬ 
ment, and which were selected to breed from because of 
their health, vigor, and general superiority. We are 
aware that it is a difficult matter to find such pigs, but 
this, at any rate, should be our aim. We can suggest no 
remedy for pigs actually diseased. As a rule, the best 
thing to do with a sick pig is to make soap-grease of 
him. Our whole attention must be turned to keeping 
the stock healthy. 
Inflammation of the Filing'!!) In 
Lambs. —The most fatal disease to which lambs, espe¬ 
cially of the English breeds of sheep, are subject, is in¬ 
flammation of the lungs. When once attacked, it is rare 
that a lamb recovers. When a farmer loses a lamb, ho 
should examine the lungs, and if inflamed, or there arc 
parts which look somewhat like liver, cut out a piece of 
this inflamed part and throw it into water, and if it sinks , 
we may conclude that the lamb had what physicians call 
infantile pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs; and 
the next lamb that is taken sick, if the symptoms are 
similarto the one that died, may be treated for this dis¬ 
ease. And, what is more important, we should take im¬ 
mediate measures to prevent the spread of the disease. 
Not that it is infectious, but the same causes that pro¬ 
duce it in one case will be likely to produce it in others. 
It is not believed to be hereditary, though we have 
known a lamb die of the disease in less than twenty-four 
hours after it was born. We shall, probably, be safe in 
concluding that there is something wrong in the manage¬ 
ment of ewes and lambs. Damp and poorly-ventilated 
sheds, barns, or cellars, wet or fermenting manure, that 
the poor sheep and lambs are compelled to lie on, or ex¬ 
posure to draught? of cold air, are among the most fre¬ 
quent causes of this fatal disease. The month of March 
and beginning of April is a particularly trying time for 
young lambs. Better have them come in February, or 
defer it until the latter end of April or May. In the steady 
cold weather of February lambs will do much better than 
in the damp, rainy, cold, and changeable weather we fre¬ 
quently have the latter part of March and beginning of 
April. The rain and melting snow make the previous 
damp, and we sometimes have a warm day, with the 
thermometer at 75", followed by a night ten or fifteen de¬ 
grees below the freezing-point, and the sheep-breeder 
who has not every thing properly arranged will be likely 
to suffer great loss. We know a farmer who, two years 
ago in March, lost fifty nice Merino lambs in two weeks, 
“ and yet,” said he, “ I kept them very warm in a base¬ 
ment-cellar.” They could not have been in a worse 
place. Had he put them on the barn-floor, or in the bays 
above the cellar, he might have saved every lamb. Dry 
cold is not half as bad as warm dampness. Comparative¬ 
ly little can be done for a lamb attacked with inflamma¬ 
tion of the lungs. The first thing is to put it in a warm 
room, and wrap it in flannel; or, what is better, make a , 
flannel wrapper for it. Put some tincture of cantharides 
on the chest, or, in the absence of this, a mild mustard- 
blister; give half a teaspoonful of castor-oil and 3 drops 
of laudanum, and repeat the latter every four hours ; give 
a little warm new milk frequently, but not too much at a 
time. If taken in t ime, the lamb may be saved, but rare¬ 
ly otherwise. Should it get better, it would be well, 
when it is taken back to the ewe, to put them in a pen 
by themselves, and to leave the flannel wrapper round 
the lamb for a few days. 
I®rice of* Wheat in Coimeclicut 
Eighty Years Ago. —Mr. L. M. Lane, in looking 
over some old papers, came across a table his grandfather 
had prepared, showing the price of wheat per bushel at 
different times, from 1790 to 1818, and he has forwarded 
it to the Agriculturist. From February 12, 1790, to April 
12, 1791, the price was 5s. 3d. The next year it was 4s. 
6d., and the next, 4s. From February 11, 1792, to January 
12, 1795, it was 4s. 6d, and during the next two years it 
was 9s., showing that prices fluctuated then as much as 
they do now. In 1798, it was down to 6s., and in two 
years, up to 9s. again, and the next year, 10s. 2d. In 1803, 
it was down to 6s. 4d., and in 1805, Us. 9d ; in 1803, 7s. 
6d., and in 1810, it reached 12s. In 1S13, it reached 12s. 
6d., which is the highest figure reached during the 
twenty-six years. In 1816, it was 10s. 6d., and in 1818, 
12s. The prices are taken from Mr. Lane’s own books, 
and the table is prepared with great neatness, and doubt¬ 
less with much care. 
---- >-■» - 
3Ixlk-iiooms. —Mr. A. O. Bagley, of Derby, 
Vt., asks for a plan of a good milk-room. He 
describes a room built by his father many years 
ago, which for some unknown reason is useless. 
It is 15 x 20 feet, 3 feet below the ground, and 
6 feet above it; the foundation-wall and floor 
being of stone. It is ventilated by a door at 
one end and a window at the other. The ther¬ 
mometer stands, during hot weather, at about 
60° in the lowest part, and 65° in the highest. 
Still he does not get more than two-thirds of 
the cream that he does in another room where 
the thermometer stands at 80° at the same time, 
and the cream is of no better quality.—Unless 
his thermometer is incorrect, we are at a loss to 
account for the difficulty. Common thermom¬ 
eters are often faulty; and if his marks two or 
three degrees too high, then his cellar milk- 
room is too cool; for 60° is the lowest that 
should be allowed under any circumstances, 
and unless the ventilation is very free, 65° 
would be better. Wo would suggest the ex¬ 
periment of putting another window in the side 
of the room that is most exposed to prevailing 
summer winds, so as to secure as free an admis¬ 
sion of warm air as may prove to be necessary 
to secure the best product of cream. We know 
several milk-rooms, built on the plan of this 
one, that are entirely satisfactory; and in all 
successful milk-rooms, arrangements are made 
to keep the temperature down to 65°, or lower. 
About Philadelphia, where the best butter is 
made, they sometimes use spring-houses, built 
of stone, in the side of a bank, setting the milk- 
pans in water of even less than 60° temperature. 
Others have dry milk-cellars, the whole of 
which, except room for ventilation at the eaves, 
is below the surface of the ground. In these 
rooms cream rises much more slowly than in a 
warmer temperature; and it is possible that 
our Vermont friend would have more cream if 
he gave it a longer time to rise. 
Value or Clover. — Mr. Harris, in his 
January “Walks and Talks,” falls far short of 
my standard of faith in the manorial influence 
of clover. I believe, and I think I have had 
good reason for the belief, that “necessarily 
and immediately the actual field ” on which an 
abundant crop of clover has been grown is 
much richer by it, though two cuttings a year 
for two years may have been removed entirely 
