254 
[July, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 79. 
Mr. James H. Ball writes: “ I wish you would 
interest yourself for the benefit of the folks that 
stand between the plow handles, and try to in¬ 
duce the Collins Co. to »wood some of their 
plows with long handles. Any one that con¬ 
siders the matter, will see that greater length of 
lever gives the plowman more control over his 
plow, and enables him to hold it steadier and 
easier for himself. Eight inches additional 
length to ordinary plow handles would make a 
decided difference in this respect.”—I suppose 
plow manufacturers would be perfectly willing 
to make the hahdles any length that is most 
generally approved by farmers. Let farmers de¬ 
cide what they want, and the manufacturers 
will soon furnish it. I have a long-handled, 
Scotch plow, but have never had a man who 
liked to use it. My men all prefer the short 
handles—probably because they are accustomed 
to them. A good plow ought to run without 
much holding. Long handles are necessary 
when plowing without wheels, as they do in 
Scotland; but it seems to have been proven that 
a plow with wheels runs easier, as a rule, than 
one without wheels. In England, the plows 
are furnished with two wheels, one that runs on 
the unplowed land, and a larger one that runs 
in the furrow. The former regulates the depth, 
and the latter the width of furrow. On smooth 
land, free from stones, such plows do nice work. 
But on stony land they would be useless. One 
wheel, for regulating the depth, is all that is 
needed. The width must be regulated by the 
clevis and by the handles. With a right-hand 
plow, if it runs a little too wide, we bear on the 
left handle, and if too narrow, we bear a little 
on the right handle. This is not hard work, 
and there is no necessity for long handles. With 
a lever, what we gain in power we lose in time; 
and the length of the handles of a plow must 
be determined by reference to the character of 
the work. It is not improbable that our handles 
are too short; but for use on my farm, I am sat¬ 
isfied that plows with handles as long as those 
used in England, would be inconvenient. On 
the smooth prairies of the West, I should think 
long handles would be desirable. 
Mr. B. also thinks that the ends of the handles 
held in the hand are bent too much on a circle, 
and that they have a proclivity for getting into 
one’s pocket, etc. lie thinks a slight depression 
only from the horizontal line is much the easier 
for the hand. In this I quite agree with him. 
Mr. Handy, of Canton, Mississippi, a spirited 
breeder of improved pigs, writes me that a dis¬ 
ease has broken out in his herd, and during the 
past month, he has lost 40 fine pigs, and also 
some grown sows and large shoats. In the case 
of the sucking pigs, “ the sickness first appeared 
with a sort of 1 thumps ’ or heaving of the sides. 
In other cases, diarrhea has ensued. Some have 
troublesome coughs, while others have no out¬ 
ward manifestations of disease, except extreme 
inertia, and loss of appetite, amounting to total 
abstinence from food for a long time—no cough, 
no diarrhea, no heaving of the sides. Those at¬ 
tacked in this way have generally been full- 
grown hogs. Their eyes are frequently affect¬ 
ed—in some cases entirely destroyed. What is 
the matter?”—In Ireland, for the last few years, 
swine have been affected with a disease which 
Prof. Ferguson, in his Report to the British 
Government, in 1907, says “partakes markedly 
of the character of malignant scarlatina and ty¬ 
phus of the human subject; not alone in its 
symptoms during life, but also in the appearance 
presented after death by the different organs and 
tissues, excepting that in this pig disease the fa¬ 
tal termination occurs as quickly as from half an 
hour to forty-eight hours, after the first apparent 
accession of the malady; and the apoplectic con¬ 
gestions and effusions are more frequent in this 
pig malady than in either of the above human 
diseases. In the suddenly fatal cases, on post¬ 
mortem examination, there are almost invaria¬ 
bly found apoplectic effusions of, and within, 
the brain and spinal cord... .In many cases a 
pustular eruption appears about the feet, affect¬ 
ing the animal so painfully that it cannot stand; 
the bowels are generally exceedingly costive 
and difficult to move by medicine; but in some 
cases there is diarrhea in the early stages : such 
cases seldom die suddenly , but when opened after 
death, the air passages of the lungs are found 
filled with a mucus, which during life had 
caused severe coughing. Seventy-five per cent 
is below the average mortality of this disease. 
Unlike measles, it is found to attack with the 
greatest frequency and severity pigs that are 
kept together in great numbers, particularly 
when confined in sties after being collected to¬ 
gether from different parts for fattening. It sel¬ 
dom makes its appearance idiopathically among 
pigs that are allowed to go at large.” 
Were such a disease to break out among my 
pigs, I would instantly isolate those affected, 
and put the others into as many different lots as 
possible. A clover or grass field, in which there 
was a running stream, would be perhaps the 
best possible place. Scatter a little corn for 
them on the grass, changing the place frequent¬ 
ly. Give all the salt, ashes, superphosphate or 
charcoal they will eat. Try to avoid costive¬ 
ness, and this will prevent scours. Scalded 
bran, with a little linseed oil-cake, will be found 
excellent for this purpose. All the piggeries 
and pens should be thoroughly cleaned out and 
disinfected. Scald the troughs, whitewash the 
walls, paint all the wood-work, floor planks, 
troughs, etc., with petroleum. Sprinkle carbolic 
acid, or if this cannot be obtained, chloride of 
lime, about the premises. Use dry earth freely. 
The old litter from the pens where the pigs had 
slept I would either burn or bury. 
If similar means were employed before any 
disease appears, we should hear of fewer cases 
of hog cholera. Diseases of pigs seem to be 
greatly on tlie increase, showing that there is 
something defective about our treatment. As to 
what medicines to give a sick pig, I should con¬ 
sult a'physician; avoiding all quack nostrums, 
and depending principally on cleanliness and a 
change of food, with injections of warm water. 
I never had my pigs do so well as they have 
this spring; and it is due to feeding them steam¬ 
ed potatoes. I fed out several hundred bushels 
ofmj' own, and also bought from my neighbors, 
paying 15 cents a bushel for them. It would he 
a fortunate tiling for the health of our pigs if 
potatoes were always as cheap as they have 
been this spring. And at any rate, instead of 
feeding out our small potatoes in large quanti¬ 
ties in the fall, would it not he better to put 
them in the cellar, and feed them out in small 
quantities daily in the spring? At the ordinary 
price of potatoes, we cannot afford to feed them 
out as food, but we can afford to give a few daily 
as a tonic. The error we make is in feeding out 
all our refuse potatoes in a few weeks to fatten¬ 
ing pigs in the fall, and having none left for the 
breeding and store pigs during the rest of the year. 
Several farmers have asked me what potatoes 
are worth to feed, as compared with Indian 
corn. It is a difficult question to answer, for 
the reason that we must take the digestibility of 
the food and the health of the stock into con¬ 
sideration. Indian corn contains 57 per cent of 
starch, gum, and sugar, and 5 per cent of oil, 
equivalent to 12‘| 2 per cent of starch, say, alto¬ 
gether nearly 70 per cent of starch or its equiva¬ 
lent. Potatoes, on the other hand, contain 
about 22 per cent of starch or its equivalent.— 
The corn, too, contains about four times as much 
nitrogenous matter as the potatoes. We may 
safely assume, therefore, that 100 lbs. of corn 
contains more than three times as much nutri¬ 
ment as 100 lbs. of potatoes. But it does not 
follow from this that corn is always worth three 
times as much to feed out as potatoes. At the 
West, where cattle have an unlimited supply of 
corn, a good deal of it passes through the ani¬ 
mals whole; and still more, probably, only par¬ 
tially digested. Now roots, or any other food 
that would correct this, would have a greater 
value than the mere nutriment they contain.— 
Then again, it is exceedingly desirable to induce 
growing and fattening animals to eat all the food 
they can turn into flesh and fat. Roots and 
corn together are better than either alone. 
There is nothing more important to the breed¬ 
er of improved stock, and in fact to every one 
who fattens animals, than to so feed and man¬ 
age them that they will eat, digest, and assimi¬ 
late a large quantity of food, and at the same 
time, especially in the case of breeding-stock, 
retain perfect health. I find that my sheep, 
when turned out to pasture in the spring, al¬ 
though they have abundance of grass and clo¬ 
ver, will still eat considerable clover hay when 
brought into the yards at night. And the lambs, 
no matter how much milk and grass they have, 
will continue to eat a few sliced mangels or 
parsnips, and a little bran or oats. And no one 
who studies the growth of animals, will suppose 
that the value of this extra food can be meas¬ 
ured by the nutriment which it contains. The 
hay which the sheep eat when on succulent 
grass is of as much use to them as a few roots 
would be when the sheep have nothing but hay. 
John Johnston writes me that, when he com¬ 
menced farming, over 40 years ago, “the first 
three cows he bought cost him $10 each. They 
were good ones and large. Now, in the same 
neighborhood, cow’s are selling for $75 to $120 
each. I believe,” he adds, “cattle and sheep 
will keep their price for some years. If it was 
not for Illinois, I do not see what New York 
City would do for beef. That State furnishes 
from two-thirds to three-fourths of all the beef 
cattle in the market. For instance, last week, 
out of a total of 0,711, Illinois furnished 5,282. 
If there was a Vanderbilt to buy up all the Illi¬ 
nois cattle, he might control the market for 
years to come.” There is probably no danger 
of anything of the kind being attempted. But 
it is time more attention was directed to the 
rearing, breeding, and fattening of cattle and 
sheep. The truth is, that our population in¬ 
creases with marvelous rapidity. And we are, 
as a rule, a nation of hard workers. Our re¬ 
sources are unbounded, and there is probably no 
people that work so hard and live so well as the 
Americans. An English farm laborer gets 50 
cents a day and boards himself. Neither lienor 
his family can afford to eat beef or mutton.— 
The same man here would work harder and 
earn his dollar and a quarter or dollar and a 
half a day, would require a more liberal diet, and 
lie enabled to get it. So may it always lie. But 
that it may be so, the American farmer should 
endeavor to raise more, and better, beef and 
