124 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 10,1887. 
will answer best, while for drains 3 or 4 feet deep two long 
narrow tapering spades of different widths will be required. 
Always begin the digging of a drain at the lower end, in 
order that water may escape and leave the trench open for 
the pipes, as well as showing that the bottom of the drain is 
made true and at the required gradient. Let the line of 
each drain b9 fully excavated before any of the pipes are 
laid, and if it is thought necessary test the bottom with water 
before putting in the pipes. Let all possible care be taken 
with this work, for upon it depends very much of our subse¬ 
quent success with our crops. Great care is requisite in 
covering the pipes ; so important do we consider this that we 
invariably put one of our best men to do it. He has to put 
about G inches of soil above the pipes; then, and not till 
then, do we consider it safe to allow the other men to fill the 
trench. It may be thought that we are over-particular, but 
we can assure our readers that dear-bought experience has 
shown us the importance of such care as we advise. Left to 
themselves, workmen who make drains by the perch open 
the trench at the bottom to the required depth, put in the 
pipes, and cover them with soil from the trench. The entire 
work is thus done as they proceed, but it is almost always 
done badly, and a very brief experience of results showed us 
that we dared not trust an ordinary workman thus to conceal 
his faults and “ scamp ” his work. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. • 
The lambing season is now fairly upon us, and the lambs have been 
falling at the singularly uniform rate of half-a-score in twenty-four 
hours. They are strong, vigorous, and lively, as we had reason to expect 
they would be, for the ewes have been well fed since the last season, and 
at no time have they been suffered to fall off in condition. The import¬ 
ance of such careful treatment cannot too strongly be insisted upon, 
tending as it does to afford profitable results in the pleasing guise of fine 
lambs and healthy ewes. The dietary of the ewes now is as many 
mangolds each morning as they can consume at once and no more, 
chaffed hay and barley or oat straw well mixed, and crushed oats. We 
are using no cake this season, nor as yet have we used any bran, but if 
there is the slightest sign of a deficiency of milk some bran will at once 
be added to the oats. The quality of the roots is so excellent that we 
have no doubt our dietary will answer, especially as we have plenty of 
grass close to the fold. So far we have had no difficult cases of parturi¬ 
tion, but the shepherd has a supply of the necessary specifics for any 
cases for which they may be required. For severe straining with throes 
of long duration we use a tablespoonful of equal parts of brandy and 
spirits of nitre, mixed with two tablespoonfuls of a strong infusion of 
ergot of rye. If the lamb be alive and in its natural position it will 
then soon be born, but if it is dead it may have to be removed. In this 
and in all cases of severe straining, carefully wash the vagina with warm 
water after the lamb is withdrawn, and syringe the uterus with carbolic 
oil, which all chemists keep now specially prepared for this purpose. A 
careful watch is kept for swollen udders. If they become swollen and 
hard, as they will do when the ewe has lost its lamb or refuses to allow 
it to suck, we pour equal quantities of olive oil and eau de Cologne in 
the hand and rub it well into the udder, which soon softens, so that the 
milk can easily be drawn from it. Protrusion of the uterus renders a 
ewe unfit for further breeding, and we mark all such for drafting from 
the flock after the lambs are weaned. When the protrusion is very pro¬ 
minent we tie a strong ligature around it as high up as possible ; it falls 
off in a few days without causing any apparent pain or inconvenience to 
the ewe. Each ewe and lamb are kept in the fold for about a week, and 
then if the weather is fine they are put into a meadow apart from the 
sheep which have yet to lamb. 
THE SCARLET FEVER OF COWS. 
In consequence of the alarm which has arisen among many persons 
by the late severe outbreak of scarlet fever at Wimbledon, when over 
300 persons were attacked, and which outbreak is attributed by some of 
our best scientific authorities to the consumption of milk from cows 
suffering from a specific disease, we have been asked by some of our 
readers to give them more definite information as to the nature and 
symptoms of the cow disease which is supposed to produce scarlet fever 
in the human subject from drinking the milk. We find it stated in the 
report made by Drs. Power and Cameron to the Local Government Board 
on the outbreak at Hendon :— 
A specific contagious and infectious disease, occurring usually in 
the first instance amongst newly calved cows, and capable of being 
communicated to healthy cows by direct inoculation of the teats with 
virus conveyed by the hands of the cowman after milking a diseased 
cow, and perhaps by discharges from the mouth, nose, and eyes of 
infected cows coming in contact with the manger at which other cows 
may feed. It is characterised by general constitutional disturbance ; a 
short, initiatory fever ; a dry, hacking cough ; sometimes quickened 
breathing ; sore-throat in severe cases ; discharge from the nostrils and 
eyes ; an eruption on the skin around the eyes ; an eruption on the hind 
quarters ; vesicles on the teats and udder ; alteration in the quality of 
the milk. 
“ From five to seven days, more or less, after the commencement of 
the illness, one or more teats become enlarged, swollen to nearly double 
the natural size, and slightly oedematous. 
“ On fingering the teat there is no feeling of induration or hardness. 
Vesicles or bullae next appear upon the swollen teats, and upon the 
Adder between or near the teats. In number they range from two to 
four on a teat, varying in size from a pea to a horse bean, and containing 
at first a clear fluid. The first vesicle frequently appears between the 
two fore teats, close to the abdominal vein, and is usually as large as a 
good-sized horse bean. This vesicle is not preceded by a hardened 
papule as in cow pox, but is in the first instance a vesicle or bulla. 
These vesicles usually become broken in milking, leaving raw sores, 
sometimes red, in other cases pale in colour, with raised, ulcerated- 
looking edges. The lymph from these vesicles in this stage can seem¬ 
ingly be conveyed by the hands of the cowman to healthy cows, and so 
propagate the disease by direct inoculation of their teats. Shortly after 
the vesicle has been broken, a brown scab forms upon the sore. The 
scabs may remain attached for five or six weeks, or may fall off in ten 
days or a fortnight, a smaller one forming afterwards. A thin, watery 
fluid exudes from under the scab, and the sore ultimately heals 
under it. 
“ An eruption appears upon the top of the hind-quarter, on one or 
both sides, extending, in some cases, down the outside of the leg as far 
as the hock, in others to the fetlock joint. About fourteen days after the 
commencement of the illness, this eruption on the hind-quarters has 
arrived at its scabbing stage, and the severity of the eruption has 
appeared to correspond, to some extent, with the severity of the attack, 
and the number of vesicles upon the teats and udder. 
“ The milk of cows suffering from this disease, if set aside for some 
hours, is apt to become ropy or ‘ slimy,’ or ‘ as thick as a pudding.’ 
“ But ropiness of milk appears in several other cow diseases. Its 
precise nature, and the causes which give rise to it, require further 
investigation.” 
We are further given to understand that the cow disease is not one 
of those scheduled under the (Animal) Contagious Disease Acts, conse¬ 
quently local authorities have no power to prevent cows suffering from 
a malady productive of danger to public health being freely sold, with 
the consequence that fresh epidemics may possibly be set up in other 
districts. We trust that the attention of Members of the House of 
Commons will be directed to this subject, and that they will endeavour 
to induce the Government to remedy this Session what appears to be a 
serious defect in the present Act. 
OUR LETrER BOX. 
Winter Dietary for Cows (JT. E. G .).—The dietary for cows in winter 
of hay, crushed Oats, bran, and Mangolds has been used for cows of various 
breeds with invariable success at our home farm for several years. We 
both use this dietary and recommend it to our readers, not only because it 
is nourishing, but also because it imparts no taint to the milk, of which the 
yi Id is always full till some two months before calving. Oil cake and 
Turnips are both highly objectionable articles of diet for dairy cows, tend- 
ing as they do to seriously affect the flavour of both milk and butter. Your 
letter is not sufficiently explicit to enable us to understand why oirr dietary 
has not answered for your cows. That there has been some mismanage¬ 
ment we have no doubt, for we have found it answer admirably for Short¬ 
horns, Sussex, Kerrys, GuernseyB, Jerseys, and cross-bred cows. But then 
our cows have a full supply of the best meadow hay, they are never exposed 
to severe cold or wet, and they have plenty of clean dry litter for bedding 
daily. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 61° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
1 Of 
<N OS _ 
Hygrorae- 
d . 
• 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
a 
1887. 
ter. 
3 d 
er 
cL—. o 
■- o 
peratnre. 
Temperature. 
a 
a: 
Jan. and Feb. 
ft 
££ 
d 
In 
On 
MS a 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5 o 
PH 
Max 
Min. 
sun. 
gras* 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
detf. 
deer 
detr. 
de« 
In. 
Sunday .30 
30.326 
35.4 
35.3 
N.E. 
40.0 
4G8 
84 9 
53.6 
365 
Monday .81 
30.109 
46.4 
44 9 
8 . 
39.4 
51.3 
34 6 
60.6 
33.1 
_ 
Tuesday .1 
29.789 
48.9 
47.2 
S.W. 
40.3 
50.6 
42.2 
54.1 
*6.9 
0.094 
Wednesday .. 2 
30.074 
35.4 
34.1 
8 . 
39 4 
44.8 
29 7 
72.2 
25.8 
0.093 
Thursday .... 3 
29.982 
49.8 
46.7 
S.W. 
39.2 
52 8 
31.9 
66.3 
31.6 
Friday . 4 
30.347 
51.3 
49.7 
w. 
41.2 
52 8 
49 5 
57.1 
46.8 
_ 
Saturday .... 5 
30.382 
45.7 
41.6 
S. 
42.2 
54.1 
43.8 
67.9 
57.1 
— 
30.144 
44.7 
43.2 
— 
40.2 
50.5 
38.5 
61.7 
35.4 
0.187 
REMARKS. 
30tli.—Fog in morning, but not dark ; fair afterwards. 
81st.—Fine and pleasant,but without bright sunshine; a little drizzle at noon; clear 
night. 
1st.—Dull early; wet from 11.30 a.m. to 0.30 p.m ; sunshine later, and clear evening. 
2nd.— Fine bright morning; stormy with showers in afternoon ; clear night. 
Brd.—Dull, with a little sun about midday. 
4th.—Overcast all day; tine clear night. 
Cth.—Fine and bright throughout; lunar halo at 7.45 p m. 
On the whole a fine, seasonable week. Mean temperature 6 P above the average, and 4° 
above that of the preceding week.—G. J. SYMONS. 
