EXCELSIOR 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y, 
(II Park Row, New York, 
'7 | 82 lltilTalo .St., Rochester. 
FOR THE WEEK ENRING SATURDAY, MARCH 13,18GD 
[Entered according to Vet of Congress, in the 
yom- ISiCT, by I). D. T. Moo hr, i„ tlio Clerk’s <>')).•.• of C, ■ |>l tHcf I 
omt of tin 1 Cnited States for the Southern District of New 
we knew it. Better knock the thing 
in the head at once, Ilian to expose 
the other stock on the farm to con¬ 
tagion of any sort. 
Accidents have sometimes occur¬ 
red, and under almost all circum¬ 
stances they will occur, and cannot 
always be provided against; and so 
will, sometime, diseases, as milk fe¬ 
ver, and other ailments incident to 
their condition, which must be at 
once looked after; but with due pre¬ 
caution they seldom occur under 
proper management of the herd, We 
do not say that all such diseases 
or ailments can be cured; for with 
the best and ablest; treatment, they 
sometimes prove fatal; yet, with due 
care, they may, in a majority of eases, 
lie relieved. 
Wu may be excused for one re¬ 
mark. There exists, in almost every 
neighborhood where cal I In abound, 
some qriack, or pretender, in cattle 
disorders — ignorant in almost every¬ 
thing else, yet professing to be great 
in that department. He assumes a 
sort of intuitive knowledge in those 
matters, and looks profoundly wise 
on every ease, submitted to ids in¬ 
spection, and alloc Is great secrecy in 
the material of his remedies, which 
he is loth to impart to others. He 
may castrate a call', a sheep, or a pig, 
with some cleverness, perhaps, and 
possibly help a cow to calve in 
tongh case, when sheer muscular 
strength is mainly required, and give 
her a simple drink if needed; but as 
to anything like scientific skill m- 
knowledge, ho is as ignorant as a med¬ 
icine man of the Cheyenne Indians. 
Sueli practitioners are freouenilv 
CHILLINGHAM CATTLE. 
The CriTLi,rxr,rtAM Wild Cattle, 
an engraving of which wo present 
herewith, from a drawing by a well- 
known English artist, (Harrison 
Weir,) are of great, interest to nat¬ 
uralists and breeders. According to 
an article in a recent number of the 
People’s Magazine, (London,) they 
arc the least altered descendants 
of the great primeval cattle (Bos prt- 
migenms.) This magnificent species 
roamed through the forests of Europe 
during the stone age, and was do¬ 
mesticated in Switzerland by the 
lake-dwellers, CVesar speaks of these 
wild cattle as haunting, in his time, 
the Hercynian Forest. They are 
alluded to in the Nibelungen Lied, 
under the name of Unis: 
‘ After thin he straightway slew a bisen and 
an elk, 
Of the strong Cri four, and ono fierce 
schelc!). 
They were still found in Germany 
in the sixteenth century. But. the 
original species has now perished, 
and their descendants, the Chilling- 
ham. cattle, are much degenerated in 
size. Lord Tankekville’s park, in 
which they now wander wild at will, 
is so old that it is referred to in a 
record of the year 1220. Both the 
park and the, cattle are probably the 
remnants, the one of the primeval 
forests which formerly extended, ac¬ 
cording to Sir Walter Scott, across 
the whole country, from Chillingham 
to Hamilton, the other of the wild 
cattle which lived in the forest. 
At present) “ the catt le,” 
naturalist, “in their ins 
habits are truly wild. 
are white, with ! has estimated ; yet, as he does not name the 
i brown; eyes class of sheep, on which lie baaed his esti- 
■ brown; hoofs mate, he may mean the English mutton 
d with black.” ' «henp, and in that ease be as near right as I 
The annual in- I am. Mine are thorough-bred American 
nil this, as ten I Merinos, good size; they sheared last June 
led in fighting an average uf nine pounds per head, of clean 
5 to about fifty brook-washed wool; age of fleece one year 
ille gave Mr. and six days; they are not fat, but are in 
i of the furious good fair order. 
age, so .that, as i I do not know which will cat, the most, a 
rigorous selec- cow or a steer; but I am satisfied that I can 
es - winter ten ewes on about I,lie same amount 
- ot feed that will keep a cow or horse. My 
animals arc sheltered, which I think makes 
quite a saving In fodder. If Mr. G.’s esti- 
20th I noticed mate on the proportionate amount of food 
mg Stock,” in consumed by a cow and a sheep is correct, 
liat live sheep t,ie Fatter would eat their heads olT in this 
a full grown l )!irt of the country in less than a year. Call- 
teer will eat I * n .g the winter twenty-two weeks, or one 
med one ; but hundred and fifty-four days, with hay at flf- 
:ept a pony, a teen dollars, allowing three cents a day for 
iast winter 1 eac F sheep, four dollars and sixty-two cents, 
hem but little aft d die remaining two hundred and eleven 
horse. They days for summer pasture, at. two cents per 
spring. This day, four dollars and twenty-two cents, it 
ainb, and one would cost eight, dollars and eighty-four cents 
‘ feed, I have to keep a sheep without grain one year. At 
r o fed, except thut rate but few flocks would pay their way 
tting. I feed with wool at. a dollar per pound. 
-in the morn- Now my sheep, kept as stated, do not cost 
ie quantity to me over a cent and a half each per day in 
cow; at noon winter. My hay cost on an average four- 
of cut, corn teen dollars per ton; one load of straw cost 
ut roots, and throe dollars; two loads corn stalks cost 
ie sheep, but seven dollars each; roots estimated at, thirty 
ii in place of cents per bushel; for twenty-two weeks, at a 
eel one bushel cent and a half per day, wo have two dollars 
ad ono bushel and thirty-oue cents os the cost of wintering, 
out the same and five cents per week for thirty weeks’ 
pasture in summer, one dollar and fitly cents, 
h on a small we have three dollars and eighty-one cents 
e is a greater as the cost of keeping each sheep one year, 
od consumed I do not make this statement to contradict 
r * Granger that of Air. G., for doubtless he has good 
reason for what he says, but simply to show 
the difference in the cost of feeding in differ¬ 
ent places, and under different circumstances, 
if I had plenty of hay and grain 1 am very 
sure T would not feed us close as I have 
done; but whether my sheep would have 
been any better is a matter of doubt in my 
mind. J. M. Forrest. 
Fowlervllle, N\ Y., March, 1869. 
DISEASED CATTLE —TREATMENT 
Lewis F. Ai.lkn, in “ American Cattle,” 
says:—It is an old and true adage, that “ an 
ounce of prevention is better than a pound 
of cure.” So then bo who properly cares for 
his stock from their birth onward, will bo 
visited with few disorders in his herd, and 
these with due precaution, and timely look¬ 
ing after, in most cases, may bo safely con¬ 
trolled. Good shelter, proper food, pure 
water, amt timely care, will in most instances 
■cxtraordinarica 
SAWING OFF CATTLE’S HORNS, 
Leander Smith, a Veterinary Surgeon, 
writes the Journal of Agriculture that the 
treatment of cattle in this condition “ will 
consist in trying to get rid of the gas. Pur¬ 
gatives have no effect. The probang, a hol¬ 
low tube made for the purpose, but not 
inueli used in this country, may be forced 
down the gullet, or the trocar may bo used. 
This is an instrument which every stock 
raiser should possess. But when nothing 
better is at band a knife or lancet may be 
used. The wound may be kept open by a 
Piece of hollow elder or other wood; the 
place of puncture being midway between 
the ilium, or liaunchbono, and the lust, rib, 
one span below the transverse processes of 
Mie lumbar vertebra*, on the left side, or about 
the center of the space. 
“Oil of turpentine, spirits of ammonia, 
sulphite of soda, chlorate of potossa, chlo¬ 
ride of lime and vinegar, have all been used 
with some success by various practitioners; 
but they are all uncertain. The operation, 
with the trocar is very simple, and can bo 
performed by persons accustomed to cattle.” 
keep herds in good health 
excepted. 
We have known farmers with large herds, 
who scarce ever had a diseased animal. We 
have known others equally well situated, so 
far as the opportunity of keeping and caring 
for them were concerned, who were always 
afflicted with sickly cattle. They died an¬ 
nually with murrain, or some other malady, 
solely arising from poverty, exposure, bad 
food, or neglect; and the wonder of this lat¬ 
ter class continually was, “ What ailed their 
cattle 
The habits of all domestic animals'are ex¬ 
ceedingly simple. Their natural tastes are 
so; and their necessary food is so; and their 
anatomical and internal organs are such as 
to dispose of their food and drink, to the 
due nourishment of their systems without 
much, if any artificial help. So then, that 
their food be regular, and sufficient, nature 
may safely be left to its own course, in the 
great majority of cases, with a safe result. 
No farmer should ever bring a creature on 
to his place having a contagious disease, or 
permit one to remain there, either in the 
company, or within the sympathies of the 
other cattle. We once bought a fine blood¬ 
ed cow, diseased with a sort of scrofula, or 
of the head, and that is surrounded by a 
heavy sensitive structure, so that, to cut the 
horns, they had to go below where it was 
simply horny, and the animal had to suffer 
great pain. The nearer the operation was 
performed to the skull, the greater the suf¬ 
fering. That bone was hollow- that is to 
say, it had not one single horned cavity— 
but it had several cells which extended into 
the head, though not to the brain, but close 
to it, Those cavities were exposed, by the 
removal of the horns, to the air; and as 
they are lined with a delicate, sensitive mem¬ 
brane—there being besides a delicate, sensi¬ 
tive covering outside—great suffering must 
bo caused. The cavities were never in¬ 
tended by nature to be exposed to the air, 
which brought on an inflammatory condi¬ 
tion. These cavities were very apt to be 
inflamed, and the inflammation was very 
likely to be extended to the membranes 
ot the brain, causing madness, lockjaw, or 
other dangerous results. This operation is 
one ol the most painftil and unwarrantable 
that could possibly bo performed mi cattle.” 
We commend the foregoing to the attention 
of men who commit liorn-vandalism. 
Hollow Horn in Cattle.— J. Carroll, 
Crestline, O., writes:—“ To cure the ‘ hollow 
Horn or head ’ in cows, take the yolks of 
three eggs and one spoonful of black pop¬ 
per, one spoonful of salt, and soot enough to 
make a paste. Fill the three egg shells full. 
Take the tongue of the cow in the left band, 
and put the three shells of paste down the 
throat with the right hand. It never fails to 
cure. I have practised it for thirty yearn.” 
