1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
247 
The most of Mr. Ordway’s turkeys and a good many 
of his fowls are raised on surrounding farms under his 
supervision. He is trying to educate the people up to 
seeing the importance of raising purebred stock, in¬ 
stead of the scrubs they have usually raised, and has 
succeeded with some of them. Mr. Ordway is not a 
born chicken man. He was formerly an expert ac¬ 
countant, but the close confinement and severe appli¬ 
cation told upon his health. He saw that it was only 
a question of time when he would necessarily have to 
adopt some outdoor employment, and when this op¬ 
portunity came his way, he seized it. He has brought 
to the business exact business methods and, having a 
superintendent who is an expert in the breeding 
work, he has achieved a success perhaps impossible 
without this combination. 
I called at the factory where the Pineland incubators 
and brooders are manufactured. I found them rushed 
with orders and working to their full capacity. Back 
of the factory is an incubator room where they test all 
the incubators as fast as made as well as all the new 
devices that are originated from time to time. Noth¬ 
ing is sent out unless it has stood the test. 
Since tbe first part of this article was printed, a note 
from Mr. Ordway says that the percentage given ap¬ 
plies to the early part of the hatching season. Later, 
they will do better. He also says that although it is 
frequently the case with cheap machines, that one end 
must be raised to equalize the heat, the case mentioned 
is the only one he has known in which a Pineland went 
astray. It was one of the first machines made, and 
this defect can be remedied as soon as the machine 
can be spared. _ f. h. v. 
TUBERCULOSIS. 
WHAT IT IS ; HOW IT SPREADS. 
A Conservative Review of the Situation. 
Part I. 
This disease is now commanding much of the public's 
attention, and very much is being written that is not 
only not true, but dangerously misleading. Being so 
fortunate as to be present on several occasions when 
tuberculous animals were examined and slaughtered, 
and some four or five very eminent veterinarians have 
lectured as they made the post-mortem, I have availed 
myself of my Yankee prerogative of asking questions, 
and without an exception they have agreed upon the 
following points: 
1. Tuberculosis is Never Spontaneous. —It comes 
only from the contact of active living germs or 
bacilli with receptive conditions in the animal ex¬ 
posed. 
2. Tuberculosis is Not Hereditary. —While an 
animal may be susceptible, it would never have the 
disease unless the active germs or bacilli were in some 
way introduced into the system from without. Dr. 
Law stated at Cornell in June, 1892, while dissecting 
some tuberculous animals and lecturing on the same, 
that if a calf from a cow badly affected with tuber¬ 
culosis were taken at once and properly cleansed and 
suckled on a healthy cow, it would never take the 
disease from its mother. 
3. It is Never Communicated by the Breath.— 
Cattle may inhale the air laden with the breath of 
tuberculous animals and not be in danger of contract¬ 
ing the disease. It is contagious rather than infec¬ 
tious. 
4. Tuberculosis is Communicated by the Sputum. 
—Where a diseased animal slobbers on the grass or 
other food, following animals are liable to contract 
the disease by taking the germs with the food. Or 
where a diseased animal slobbers in a drinking vessel, 
following animals may imbibe the germs with the 
wjftter. Or a diseased animal may slobber or drool 
anywhere and the sputum dry up and the dust blown 
into tbe air may carry the disease into the system and 
inoculate the animal breathing it. 
5. Tuberculosis Is Communicated by the Milk — 
The germs or bacilli are present in the milk of dis¬ 
eased animals, and may thus be taken into the stom¬ 
ach of any animal using it. Dr. Salmon said at 
Pittsford that 123^ per cent of all the deaths in the 
human family were from this disease, and he thinks a 
very large part of these comes from using the milk of 
tuberculous cows. 
6. Tuberculous Bacilli Do Not Always Give the 
Disease. —It is only when the animal receiving them 
is in the right condition that they inoculate. 
7. That Tuberculosis Is Usually Quite Slow in 
Development. —An animal may have the disease for 
years in a mild-form, and may even have it and die of 
some other disease. 
These points being established, the following are 
the legitimate conclusions : That tuberculosis is not 
nearly so dangerous a disease as pleuro-pneumonia. 
That equal vigilance will more readily rid our country 
of the former than it did of the latter disease. That 
the easiest and cheapest way to rid the country is to 
do it as quickly as possible. 
While more tuberculosis has been found in New York 
than in any other State, it is undoubtedly due to the 
fact that more attention has been given here to the 
examination of herds than elsewhere. TVhile 89 head 
of the Hawley herd of 150 head in all, at Pittsford, were 
in February found diseased and killed, yet, at that 
time. Doctors Curtice and Mackey stated that, as the 
result of all their experimentations, it was their 
opinion that not over two per cent of the cows of New 
York were tuberculous. 
There are really no very marked symptoms of the 
disease, but with an unthrifty appearance with fre¬ 
quent attacks of scours, the disease may be sus¬ 
pected; if to these be added a continue as, dry, hacking 
cough, there would be but little doubt of the presence 
of the disease. There is, however, no method of physic¬ 
al examination that is at all sure. One animal might 
be condemned, and another, fully as bad, be passed as 
sound ; while with mild or incipient cases, no physic¬ 
al diagnosis can be depended upon. 
Much has been said and written against the use of 
the tuberculin test, some going so far in tfieir opposi¬ 
tion to it as to claim that it actually inoculated the 
A Self-Closing Gate. Fig. 71. 
treated animal with tuberculosis. But all the veter¬ 
inarians whom I have questioned, declare that it is 
an almost infallible test. That when it was first 
made and used, it was not always properly made, and 
did sometimes fail, but now it is of such uniform 
strength and purity that it does not fail in one case in 
several hundred. That it cannot communicate the 
disease, becomes evident when we know that it is not 
the active germ that is used, but simply the poison 
after the germs have been killed by heat and the fluid 
passed through a germ-proof filter. Its manner of 
use ia first to take the temperature of the animal two 
or three times, so as to be sure to get the average of 
its temperature, and then inject a small quantity of 
tuberculin diluted in 97 per cent of boiled water to 
which about one per cent of carbolic acid has been 
added. This is injected under the skin ; usually the 
shoulder is selected, though it makes no difference 
where. In nine hours, the temperature is taken again 
and thence once in two hours until 18 hours after the 
injection. If no tuberculosis be present, no rise of 
temperature will take place, but if the disease be 
present a decided rise will occur. If the temperature 
go above 103.6 degrees, and the animal look unthrifty, 
it should be quarantined, and, in a few days, again 
Gate That Shuts Itself. Fig. 72. 
tested. Whenever the temperature has gone to 103.8 
degrees, none has ever been found which did not show 
clear evidences of the disease on dissection. 
In the larger number of animals killed, tubercles 
have been found in the lungs. In some, there were 
none in the lungs, but were in various glands of the 
body, or sometimes in the intestinal canal or in the 
udder. In one case in Binghamton, a cow had a 
tubercle in her udder which, on being taken out, 
weighed 56 pounds. 
It seems to me that the common-sense way of look¬ 
ing at this situation is not to berate the veterinarians 
as a set of thieves, or to treat it as a fad, or to try to 
belittle the danger, but to meet the issue like sensible 
men. We know that it exists. We know that it is 
contagious. We know that it is dangerous to human 
life. We ought to know that the cheapest way to 
eradicate it, is to do it quickly. We ought then to 
take every precaution against its spread and to ask 
the government to treat it the same as it did pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, and stamp it out as quickly and effect¬ 
ually as it did that. .j s. woodward. 
Are you not grateful to the man who originated 
the Concord grape ? Why not show your gratitude ? 
See editorial page t 
SELF-CLOSING GATES. 
The advantages of self-closing gates have been recog¬ 
nized for many years, the most common device for this 
purpose being a chain bearing a heavy weight at¬ 
tached to the gate and to a post within the enclosure. 
This is anything but elegant; the post is frequently in 
the way, and, no matter how firmly planted, it will 
be drawn toward the gate by the continual strain upon 
it. Another form of the same, which is more neat, but 
otherwise is subject to the same objections as the first, 
has a cord running over a pulley in the top of a post 
and bearing a weight at^the end. 
Figs. 71 and 72 represent devices of my own inven¬ 
tion, whose advantages have led a number of the 
neighbors to apply them on their own premises. Fig. 
71 is made from an old spring raketooth, bent as shown 
at a. This is readily accomplished, without destroying 
the elasticity of the spring, by heating it to a red heat 
just at the places to be bent. The end of the rake¬ 
tooth, after being bent, is put into a hole in the 
gatepost, and a strong staple driven over it to keep it 
in a horizontal position. A rope or chain is fastened 
into a screw ring in the gate and hooked to the spring. 
This rope or chain should be just long enough so that 
there will be no strain on it when the gate is shut. 
The action may be made more or less decided by plac¬ 
ing the screw ring nearer to or farther from the hinge 
side of the gate. This is a very neat fixture, and has 
the advantage that the rope may be instantly unhooked 
from the spring when it is desired to have the gate re¬ 
main open. 
Fig. 72 is of special use in places where it is not 
desirable to have anything projecting far from the 
fence, as would be the case at the entrance to a gar¬ 
den having a walk along the side, and where the 
spring device would be in the way. A semi-cylindrical 
piece of wood is nailed to the upright of the gate bear¬ 
ing the hinges, and so placed that the center of the 
cylinder would about coincide with the hinges. A 
chain rope is made fast to this block, and then, by 
means of a hook, is fastened to a bar which swings 
from a spike in the upper railing of the fence and 
bears a weight at the lower end. While this is not so 
quick acting as the other, if nicely made, it is very 
neat and quite out of the way. The quickness of 
action may be regulated by an increase or decrease in 
the weight, or by fastening the rope to the bar farther 
from, or nearer to, the weighted end. geo. h. shull. 
WHAT AILS THIS BUTTER ? 
A TOUGH NUT FOR DAIRY CRACKS. 
I have a herd of 2U Jerseys, the best stock that can be had, all 
healthy and well cared for. They are warmly housed, have the 
Buckley device for waterlrK. are kept thorouRhly clean and are 
kindly treated. My dairy room Is as sweet and clean as any can be, 
and Is keot at a temperature of 50 to 58 degrees. The cream la churned 
at 58 to 80 degrees. The butter Is of tine flavor and grain, and has 
commanded regular prices from private customers In New Vork City 
for years. Suddenly this winter there was a change In the flavor of 
the butter, a slight rank taste and odor, and I cannot get rid of It or 
discover tbe cause I feed cut corn stalks, cut mangels, cotto i-seed 
meal, wheat mlddl ngs mixed and moistened, and dry hay, clover and 
mixed. Last year I fed oil meal and bran, but this year, since Decem¬ 
ber 1, I have followed Prof. Stewart’s advice and used cotton-seed 
meal In place of oil mea'. 1 have dropped the bran and use wheat 
middlings. Is there anything In the feed which will give this taste 
and odor to butter ? Or do I ripen the cream and churn It at too low 
a temperature ? Of coarse, this butter Is worth less for private cus¬ 
tomers and I have been greatly annoyed and disappointed, h. .vi. c. 
New York. 
Answered by a Set of Q,uestions. 
Has any good butter been made since the change of 
feed on December 1 ? If so, and the same feed of same 
quality is used, of course that is not the cause. Has 
the source of water supply remained the same ? Is it 
well, pond, running stream or rain water ? It may 
have been injured in some way. Does the same per¬ 
son now, as when good butter was, made, handle the 
milk and convert it into butter ? At what age is the 
cream churned, and where and how is it stored while 
being gathered ? Cream should never be confined in 
a closed vessel unless the temperature be very low. Is 
the rank odor in the milk so as to be noticed when 
aerated ? If not, why look back for the cause ? Is it 
found by taste or smell in the cream when ready for 
the churn ? Why does he think the temperature for 
ripening and efiurning may be at fault ? Is it not the 
same as heretofore—if not, why not make it so ? Is he 
sure that it is not in the salt ? Does the “ slight rank 
taste and odor ” manifest itself before it leaves the 
creamery. Is the butter carried directly to families 
who use it, or is it stored by a middleman and sold as 
called for ? If the latter, does the same one handle it 
continuously ? Is the butter put into close packages, 
or into prints so as to come in contact with the atmos¬ 
phere ? In short, “what ails the butter?” I suppose 
“ H. M. C.” can answer all but the last query. I can 
see nothing objectionable in any of the feeds named, 
and still the cotton-seed meal might be changed for 
linseed, for, in my opinion, the former is more liable 
to be damaged than other feeds. 
An experience of many years leads me to say that 
'• eternal vigilance is the price of ” good butter. An 
hnsuspeeted infectant may l>»rk,at the barn, tha ercau*' 
