236 
MR. HOLBERT’S DAIRY, CHEMUNG, N. Y. 
THE COW—HER DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT.— 
No. 15. 
Looseness, or Scouring. —This disease is not un* 
frequent with cattle at all seasons of the year, as it 
arises from a variety of causes. It is very liable 
to proceed from an acrid state of the bile, which the 
appearance of the stools will show, although it may 
he produced from over-heating, the fluids being 
driven from the surface towards the bowels; but it 
more frequently arises from errors in diet than from 
any other cause. Thfls, food given hotter than it 
ought to he will occasion the complaint; and a 
want of proper nourishment will produce the same 
effect. Hence, cows long denied their customary 
support are generally afflicted by this malady. 
The disease consists in a frequent discharge of 
the contents of the bowels, which varies in its ap¬ 
pearance during its progress, being generally of a 
liquid form, sometimes slimy, at other times black 
and bilious, and occasionally of a watery, frothy, 
consistence. The animal has generally a bad ap¬ 
petite, the pulse weak and low, the skin dry, 
soon becoming tight to the ribs, the countenance 
appearing dull, and accompanied by a degree of 
slow fever with much thirst. On opening the body, 
after death, the gall bladder will be found full of a 
thin, acrimonious fluid, the part of the bowels near 
it showing several putrid spots, and the whole in¬ 
testines will be more or less inflamed. Besides 
this, the ulcerations are sometimes so extensive 
that callous pieces, equal in size to one’s fist, have 
been found in the bowels, which has given rise to 
the names of u rottenness,” and “ garget in the 
guts.” When laboring under this disease, cattle 
are very sensible to the impressions of weather, and 
generally seek shelter, or cover, wherever it can be 
found. 
Whatever the'cause of this malady may be, the 
commencement of the treatment should take place 
first, by clearing out the bowels, and discharging 
any acrid matter contained in them, which may 
tend to keep up irritation. This maybe done by 
the use of the following saline purge, notwithstand¬ 
ing some degree of looseness may prevail at the 
time :— x 
Take of Epsom salts, M lb.; saltpetre, oz.; camphor 3 
drachms ; coriander and cumin seeds, % oz., each. 
Mix the whole into a powder, and give it to the 
animal in two quarts of water gruel, sweetened with 
half a pint of molasses. When this medicine has 
operated, remedies opening to the skin may be ad¬ 
ministered and continued, among which the follow¬ 
ing is recommended:— 
Take of camphor 1 y z drachms ; salt of tartar, 3 oz. ; saltpetre, 
% oz. ; Mithridate, % oz. 
To be mixed and given at one dose in two quarts 
of water gruel, in which one ounce of soap has 
been previously dissolved. If the symptoms of 
the disease demand it, the dose should be repeated 
one or twice a day. As soon as the stricture or 
dryness of the skin is removed by the above-named 
medicines, and the complaint is only kept up by 
the weakness of the bowels, the cure then, but not 
till then, may be trusted to the use of the following 
astringent:— 
Take diascordium, \% oz. : dragon’s blood, 2k£ oz. ; powdered 
ginger, 1 oz. ; grains of Paradise, 3 drachms. 
To be mixed and given at one dose in a pint and 
a half of the followingdecoction, and repeated once 
a-day ;— 
Take of logwood chips, 4% oz. ; camomile flowers, 3 oz.; va¬ 
lerian, % oz., 
which must be boiled in three quarts of water till 
one half is wasted by evaporation. 
The above mode of treatment will always suc¬ 
ceed whenever the disease has not advanced so far 
that the bowels of the animal have arrived at a 
state of ulceration, in Which case, it commonly 
proves fatal, and she lives till she is reduced to skin 
and bone. 
During this complaint, the cow should be kept 
particularly warm, and both her food and drink 
should be given with the chill just taken from them. 
The food should also be of the same nourishing 
kind so often recommended on former occasions, as 
warm washes of malt, Indian meal, &c. 
MR. HOLBERT’S DAIRY, CHEMUNG, N. Y. 
We copy the following statement on butter ma¬ 
king from the Transactions of the New-York State 
Agricultural Society, for 1848 :—The dairy an4 
farm to which reference is made belongs to Mr. 
John Holbert, and is located in the town and county 
of Chemung, New York, adjoining the Pennsyl¬ 
vania state line; elevation about 800 feet above 
tide water, and at 42 degrees north latitude. 
The farm contains 200 acres of land, which was 
farmed the past season as followsI have kept 
and milked 40 cows, and my grain pastures and 
meadows are as follows :—24 acres of wheat ; 8 of 
buckwheat; 10 of oats ; 20 of corn and potatoes; 
2 of summer fallow; 40 of meadow ; 74 of pas¬ 
tures; 22 of wood and waste land. The soil is a 
gravelly loam, with a slight mixture of black sand; 
subsoil the same. I use no roots nor slops for my 
cows; all that I feed them is hay and grass, and 
corn stalks. My pastures are clover and Timothy, 
and hay the same ; and my meadows produce from 
one to two and a half tons per acre per annum. I 
sow plaster on all my pastures and meadows every 
year, and use the Cayuga plaster. 
Breed of Cows. —My cows are generally the 
common breed. 1 have a few that have a slight 
mixture of Durham blood in them. Their ages 
will range from three years old to twelve. I prefer 
a cow not less than five years old for the dairy, and 
as much older as she winters well. I change pas¬ 
tures often, and think it a good plan to change 
twice a week. Too much care cannot betaken 
to have your cows well watered and salted. I keep 
a large watering trough in my cow yard, where I 
very frequently observe cows drinking large quan¬ 
tities of water immediately after coming from the 
brook. I keep salt lying in the yard the year 
round. 
Making Butter. —I take care to have my cellar 
thoroughly cleansed and whitewashed early every 
spring. I keep milk in one cellar and butter in 
another. Too much care cannot be taken by dairy¬ 
men to observe the time of churning. I usually 
churn from one hour to one hour and a half. I 
put from one to two pails of cold water in each 
churn, before commencing to churn, and one pail 
more in ejach, when nearly done, in order to thin th 
