1807.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
175 
to ihiit of our best college.s, and may be adopted 
by all 80 inclined, there c.xists also a course of 
study more polytechnic in its nature, and which 
is more advanced iu its requirements than that 
of some older and more pretentious institutions 
I could name. Let us glance en passant at the 
course of study insisted on as the requisite for 
obtaining the scientific diploma of the College : 
Anatomy, Physiolog}-, Botaiy, Entomology, 
Zoology, Shades and Shadows, and Perspective 
Drawing, Physics, Principles and Practice of 
Iload Maklng,Chcmislry (laboratory practice two 
years), Meteorology, Practical Astronomy, Phy¬ 
sical Geography,‘Geology, Hygiene (lectures), 
Jlincralogy. 'NVe have here selected from the 
list of studies only such as are entirely omitted 
or passed over with the merest smatteririy in most 
colleges. They are here brentght out prac¬ 
tically into a desired prominence. Correlated 
with these we find an item (not always noticed 
in college graduates), a decent acquaintance 
with Qur mother tongue imperatively demanded. 
Mathematics, Logic, Ilhetoric, and the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, come in to supply the 
{vilish. Ere long a competent Professor of 3Iod- 
ern Language will take a place iu the institution. 
A course of Agriculture adds to most of the 
above Horticultural and Agricultural practice. 
Lectures on Domestic Animals, their diseases and 
cures; Soils, Manures, Rotation of Crops, Drain¬ 
age and Tillage, Grain, Grass, Root and other 
Crops, Agricultural Implements and Farm Build¬ 
ings. Connected with the institute exercises 
proper, we have military exercises from the 
School of the Soldier, up to lectures on Higher 
Tactics, under supervision of acknowledged com¬ 
petency. These military exercises are obliga¬ 
tory. Cases of conscience alone are excepted. 
One fact more is worthy of note—chairs are 
not filled by superannuated “good fellows,” 
who have no other visible means of support. The 
fitness of things seems to have been considered 
in making the recent appointments. 
Tlie State appropriation of the land scrip 
lieing now made to this College, it is placed 
on a secure footing, and may be expected to 
run an extensive career of public usefulness. 
Such an institution has long been wanted to 
meet an existing necessity. Dead languages are 
placed in their proper position, and studies 
which really confer mental power in a measure 
substituted. For those who wish to take up 
Latin and Greek every facility is provided, but 
diplomas may now be merited without giving 
to them the major part of a four years’ course. 
Let us hope that ere long we may not the less 
“ gaze at the stars,” but that wo may fall less 
frequently into the mudholcs of our own ignor¬ 
ance; that we shall have more men whoso 
minds arc rounded by proper educational courses, 
and fewer men made angular by contractions 
derived from some of the liberal studies. 
Dog Statistics. 
"We have received several communications in 
reply to our correspondent’s article on a dog 
law, signed “ Connecticut,” in our March issue, 
some wise and some otherwise. It seems to us, 
that“I. H. P.” in his “ word for dogs” admits all 
that “Connecticut” claims, and that they arc sub¬ 
stantially agreed. “ It is really discreditable, 
he says, “that almost the only dogs in the 
countrj' which are treated with any care, are lap 
dogs, the most useless, and bull dogs, the least 
sagacious. The natural fruit of such neglect is 
a race of nondescripts of all kinds, deteriorated 
in body and brain.” It is because of this non¬ 
descript character of our dog population that 
“Connecticut” and all friends of sheep want efli- 
cient dog laws in all our States. Ninety-nine 
out of every hundred of our dogs are worthless 
curs which need clearing out as much as the old 
Canaanites did to make way for something civ¬ 
ilized, that can keep company with our domes¬ 
tic animals. The destruction occasioned among 
sheep by these animals is appalling, and only 
needs to be better known to secure the requisite 
legislation. The Department of Agriculture 
has made a beginning of gathering statistics 
upon this subject. In 373 counties reported, 
tliere was an estimated loss of 77,854 sheep 
killed, besides many others injured. Some coun¬ 
ties sutfered to the extent of 2000 or 3000, and 
the average number per county was 208. 
From this, the number killed in the whole 
country isestlmated at 500,000, worth at least 
000 , 000 , while the injury to those not 
killed is another million, making a loss to the 
country of three millions of dollars, as the di¬ 
rect result of dogs killing sheep. But this is only 
a small part of the pecuniary damage inflicted 
upon us by these wretched curs. In many dis¬ 
tricts admirably adapted to sheep, farmers dai'c 
not embark iu the business from fear of the dogs. 
In the counties where 3000 sheep are annually 
slain by the dogs, we think this kind of hus¬ 
bandry can not pay very well. The counties 
where few are slain, we apprehend, are the ones 
where the dogs have made sheep husbandry 
unprofitable. The pastures are desolate and 
growing up to brush for want of cropping. 
Millions of dollars are lost to the country every 
year from this cause, and we have, as a con- 
quence, to pay dear for wool and mutton. 
Then we have to add to this the enormous 
tax of supporting our dog population. 'VVe 
have no reliable statistics on this subject, but 
estimate one dog to a family, say seven mil¬ 
lions iu the whole country. Some families have 
none, but others have six, a dog to each child, 
and glory in them ! The food that an average 
cur will devour would keep a pig, and is worth 
at least ten dollars a year. People who are 
paying 70 millions of dollars a year for the 
support of curs, to say nothing of damages, 
ought to make inquiries about dog law’s. 
Pleuro-Pneumonia or Lung Murrain. 
The pleuro-pneumonia is one of the most fa¬ 
tal and distressing maladies w’hich ever attack 
cattle. At all times liable to spread rapidly 
among animals coming near or in contact with 
those diseased, it frequently assumes the form 
of a contagious epidemic, being taken by almost 
every animal coming w’ithin striking distance. 
This was remarkably the case in Massachusetts 
a few years since, and the disease every now 
and then breaks out somewhere wdth alarm¬ 
ing violence, but happily it appears to be moie 
easily controlled here than in Europe, where the 
pole ax, or absolute isolation are the only ap¬ 
proved ways of checking its ravages. This dis¬ 
ease has been confounded with the Rinderpest 
or Steppe Murrain, w’hich has lately wrought 
such distress in England, and has not 3 "ct stayed 
its march of destruction, but it has few or no 
symptoms in common wdtli that, except conta¬ 
giousness and fatality. The disease exists al¬ 
most constantly among the swill-milk stables of 
New York and Brooklyn, and probably other 
cities, and certainly should come under the care¬ 
ful investigation of the Board of Health. The 
following description is furnished by Dr. Bustced, 
of the N. Y. College of Veterinary Surgeons : 
Pleuko-Pneumonia of Cattle.— a malio-- 
nant form of inflammation of the lungs, of an 
eminently contagious character, peculiar to the 
ox-tribe, has existed W’ithin the memory of man 
in the mountain regions of Central Europe. 
Syynptoms .—Prom the time that an animal is 
exposed to the contagion to the first manifesta¬ 
tion of symptoms, a certain period elapses; this 
is the period of incubation. It varies from a 
fortnight to forty days, or even twm months. 
Some credit may be given to reports of even 
longer periods. During this period cows are 
found to thrive fast, and often to yield much 
milk. The first signs, proving that the animal 
has been seized, can scarcely be detected by any 
but a professional man ; though, if a proprietor 
of cattle Avere extremely careful, and had pains¬ 
taking individuals about his stock, hewmuld in¬ 
variably notice a slight shiver usher in the dis¬ 
order, which for several days, even after the 
shivering fit, would limit itself to slight inter¬ 
ference with breathing, detected readily on aus¬ 
cultation. Perhaps a cough might be noticed, 
and a diminution of the appetite and milk secre¬ 
tion. Though the amount of milk may not be 
much diminished at first, milk-maids sometimes 
say that a clever milker can tell when the cow is 
taken ill. The animal becomes costive, and the 
shivering fits recur. The cough becomes more 
constant and oppressive, the pulse full and fre¬ 
quent, usually numbering about 80 per minute 
at first, and rising to upwards of 100. The tem¬ 
perature of the body rises, and all the symp¬ 
toms of acute fever set in. A moan or grunt, 
in the early part of the disease, indicates a dan¬ 
gerous attack, and the nostrils rise spasmodi¬ 
cally at each inspiration ; the air rushes through 
the inflamed Avindpipe and bronchial tubes, so 
as to produce a loud, coarse, respiratory mur¬ 
mur; and the spasmodic action of the abdomi¬ 
nal muscles indicates the difficulty the animal 
experiences also in the act of expiration. Pres¬ 
sure over the spaces betAA'eeu the ribs and on 
the spine, induce the pain and shrinking char¬ 
acteristic of pleuris}’, and a deep moan not un- 
frcquently follow’S such an experiment. The 
eyes are bloodshot, mouth clammy, skin dry and 
tightly bound to the subcutaneous tissues, and 
the urine is scanty and high-colored. 
On auscultation, the characteristic, dry, so¬ 
norous rftle of ordinary bronchitis may be de¬ 
tected along the Avindpipe and in the bronchial 
tubes. A loud sound of this description is not 
unfrequcntly detected at the interior part of 
either side of the chest, Avhile the respiratory 
murmur is entirely lost posteriorly, from con¬ 
solidation of the lung. A decided leathery 
friction sound is detected over a considerable 
-rtion of the thoracic surface. As the disease 
vances, and gangrene, AA’iththe pioduction of 
vities in the lungs, ensues, loud, cavernous 
;es are heard, more or less circumscribed, oc- 
sionally attended by a decided metallic noise, 
hen one lung alone is affected, the morbid 
unds are confined to one side, and on the 
althy side the respiratory murmur is uniform- 
louder than is natural all OA^er. By carefully 
iscultating diseased coavs from day to day, in- 
restiiif^ changes can be discovered duiing the 
Limal’s lifetime. Frequently the abnormal 
unds indicate progressive destruction ; but at 
lier times portions of lung that have been 
tally impervious to air, become the seat of 
bilant rales, and gradually a healthy respira- 
TV murmur proves that, by absorption of the 
aterials that have been plugging the lung-tis- 
I'c resolution is fast advancing. ^ I have seen 
line very remarkable cases of thi^lescription. 
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