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WOLF’S TEETH IN HORSES. 
A History of the Tradition which Obtains 
concerning Wolf’s Teeth. 
Your correspondent, “ O. F. L.,” Battle 
Creek, Mich., says, “ I want to say in regard 
to wolf teeth in horses, that f know they 
will blind a horse.” How is it then that 
old horses die with the wolf teeth, (so 
called) both In; and are not blind. And, 
per contra, old horses with both wolf teeth 
out are now living and arc blind of one or 
both eyes? He recommends extracting 
both teeth, and to put honey in the eyes 
aud butter in the oars. What for? Honey 
might be for eye-salve—as the eyes are af¬ 
fected—but I think it objectionable on ac¬ 
count of bees, flies, &c.; but what he puts 
butter in the ears for 1 cannot divine. He 
further says:— “ When I hear a horse doc¬ 
tor say they do not blind a horse, 1 advise 
all to beware of him.” I am not a V. 9. nor 
an M. D., but was brought up on a farm, 
aud have consulted the best authors I could 
find, upon diseases of domestic animals, and 
have failed to find such reasoning. 
Mr. Jno. Mills, a distinguished author of 
Eugland, says:—“There is no higher au¬ 
thority than M. Pkucival’s Lectures.” 
“The many diseases,” says M. Percival, 
“ to which the eye of the domestic horse is 
obnoxious, compared to the many set down 
by ophthalmic writers to the organ of man, 
are certainly very few; yet there is among 
them that have proved in all ages of veter¬ 
inary surgery so pestilential, uud that, even 
at the present day, so obstinately pursues 
its end iu spite of all remedial measures, 
that of itself it is a sufficient reason for us 
to become well acquainted with the anato¬ 
my and physiology of the eye and to pay 
more than ordinary attention to it in a 
state of disease.” Aud he then gives the 
following unfavorable symptoms of tbo 
eyes: "Sunken or gloomy aspect; promi¬ 
nence of the membrana ; nietltans ; a wat¬ 
ery state of the eyes; dimness of the cor¬ 
nea, particularly arofind its margin; dull¬ 
ness or discoloration of the iris; corpora 
Myra, yellowish or spotty; pupil smaller 
than usual; perhaps milky or hazy, with 
white speck in the center, which is incipi¬ 
ent cataract. The chief cause of blindness 
in horses has its origin in inflatunlttHon .’’ 
The artificial state in which domestic 
horses are kept, In hot and illy-ventilated 
stables, with steaming manure, etc., to¬ 
gether with over-work, over-feeding, etc., 
over-heating the blood, changing them sud¬ 
denly from a warm to a cold place, and vice 
versa, all tend to produce inflammation; 
and when the tendency is to the eye, will 
eventually produce cataract. Now, the 
first thing to do will be to reduce the in¬ 
flammation, which is most speedily accom¬ 
plished by physic and bleedings. A eeton 
iu the cheek, or rowel iu the jaw, is a safe 
issue aud speedy escape from the eyes. 
That the knocking out, or drawing teeth 
(called wolf teeth), may relieve the inflam¬ 
mation about the eyes, 1 have no doubt, aud 
it is a very common practice; ami this 
caused many to believe that the teeth 
caused blindness. But, as Tuprer says, 
“there is no wide-spread error but bath 
trutli for its bogi lining.” And so t his practice 
had in the beginning; but is nOW supposed 
to be what Lord Dundreary calls “one of 
those things which no fellah can find out.” 
This custom.near as 1 can learn from farriers' 
books, etc., bad its origin in this wise: 
Prizes were offered in England for “Run¬ 
ning Races ” for colts of two and three years 
old, and by skillful manipulation of their 
teeth by farriers, “ there is no doubt,” says 
Mr. Mills, “that many stakes were carried 
off by horses older than their qualifications 
allowed.” And in knocking out the teeth 
of these “ cults " (for they were knocked out, 
so that the owners could swear they had 
not dm ion them out to make them appear 
like colts sheddiug their teeth), caused the 
blood to flow freely—as when bled in the 
mout h—and a soreness of the gums, which 
produced au irritation like that produced 
by the eeton in the cheek, or a rowel in the 
jaw, and probably caused those “colts ” no 
more pain than bleeding iu the mouth, or a 
seton or vowel, did not appear so disgusting, 
aud answered every purpose. 
These farriers—many of whom are horse 
jockeys—were not slow to discover that 
this would answer in place of bleeding, tow¬ 
eling, etc., aud did not t ake so long nor look 
so bad; aud they selected the two teeth 
just forward of the double teeth in the up¬ 
per jaw, which the horse cau spare as well 
as any other, and called them “ wolf teeth 
(mysterious name)! This did so well, that 
when a cow got sick, she got “ tlie-wolf-in- 
the-tail.” This i 3 the same “wolf," Mr. 
Editor, and the same “ Wolf-iu-Slieep’s- 
C’lothing" got it up, for the purpose of mys¬ 
tifying the people, and get money out of 
them for curiug their stock—cured in the 
same way by bleeding — i. e., by cutting off 
the end of old Sook’s tail, which lets the 
wolf out! 
It, too, is the prevailing practice, and 
does not do the cow any more harm than to 
bleed in the neck, provided it is not cut off 
too often, and gets too short to keep off the 
flies; but what is her loss is the milkmaid’s 
gain, us “Boss” can’t slash her dirty tail in 
the maid’s face. 
T have been thus lengthy and minute iu 
my explanations of this—which I believe to 
be a common error—because there are thou¬ 
sands who believe that the knocking out of 
the (so-called) wolf teeth will relieve inflam¬ 
mation of the eye; that, therefore, they 
cause blindness if left iu; but, iu my opin¬ 
ion, they are no more the cause of blind¬ 
ness iu horses than the hairs and skin in the 
end of a cow’s tail are the cause of her sick¬ 
ness, because if they arc cut off the cow 
gets well. II, c. 
Delaware, O. 
WOLF TEETH AND RINGBONES. 
Wolf Teeth in Horses.— I saw iu the 
Rural New-Yorker of May 25th a com¬ 
munication from L. M. Y. iu regard to wolf 
teeth and ringbones. Now it always seemed 
curious to mo that a horse should ever have 
any superfluous teeth, or that they should 
be knocked out in order to preserve his 
sight. Any family that has raised children 
aud knows the symptoms and effect, of cut¬ 
ting teeth may have observed kindred 
effects in animals, and would be equally as 
sensible to knock out the child’s teeth, as 
the horse's. We find in adult persons the 
cutting of their wisdom teeth often affects 
their eyes, and we seek other means of re¬ 
lief than knocking them out. In the case 
of the horse this may be done by bleeding 
in the mouth, near the teeth, or by giving 
saltpeter, or some other laxative to decrease 
the fever or inflammation. A great many 
horses have wolf teeth, us they are called, 
and about one horse in fifty is troubled in 
his eyes by it; better bleed him profuse¬ 
ly at the end of his tail than to knock his 
teeth out. 
So, also, in regard to black teeth in pigs; 
when t hey are cutting teeth they become 
feverish, and it gives them a runty appear¬ 
ance. Tf you give the mother plenty of 
raw potatoes or other vegetable diet a 
week or two before dropping her pigs, so 
that she does not have any fever, and has a 
good flow of milk at the time, you will nev¬ 
er have any black teeth iu your jugs. 
Ringbone oil Horses.—Now in regard 
to ringbone on horses: It. is an old saying of 
old men that when you see a colt standing 
with his head down hill and his tail up hill 
he is not gaining or doing well; or, iu of her 
words, he is running down hill in Hush and 
constitution, or becoming sickly. The fact 
of it. is the colt’s toes are so long that his 
ankles ache, and he stands that way to 
rest them. This is the very time, if lie 
capers or runs much, that ringbones, spav¬ 
ins, splints, curbs, etc., start; and they 
may be there for two years before you no¬ 
tice them or could find them. No horse lias 
ringbones, splints, curbs or spavins, unless 
he has been strained; aiyl this is (lie very 
time he receives those strains—when his 
muscles arc weak and liis toes are long, 
and when the ground is hard, which con¬ 
stitute the very nursery of all those com¬ 
plaints. The old saying that an ounce of 
prevention is worth a pound of euro, is 
true; aud to use it let every man who lias 
a colt be sure to have his toes trimmed 
short as soon as the ground freezes in the 
full, aud see to it three or four times iu the 
winter; keep them short, and I will guar¬ 
antee him against all those calamities. 
Marshalltown, Iowa. a. a. s. 
-- 
NOTES FOR HORSEMEN. 
Chiekory for Horses. — A. .1. Hinds, 
Patohogue, L. 1., writes the Farmers’ Club: 
“Several years ago I raised about 1,800 
bushels of cllickory—a root our sandy soil is 
well adapted to, if highly manured. As the 
tops were very rank, I often turned my 
horse in, and he needed no watching to 
keep off from good clover and timothy 
growing in the same field. In winter J fed 
him the trimmings of the roots. I had 
about one toil that was moldy and unfit 
for market (not properly dried). I fed this 
to him next Summer, in place of grain, with 
so much success that I think of trying it 
again for that purpose only. Have others 
tried it for that purpose? If so, with what 
success?” 
INDIANA FARMERS LOSING MONEY. 
How they Lose by not Breeding Good Stock. 
One of the most important considerations 
in marketing the farm products of the great 
'Vest is the quality of the stock; and there 
is hardly any enumerating the millions of 
dollars lost to the farmers in feeding com¬ 
mon stock, or poor breed. So far as bogs 
are concerned we are doing tolerably well; 
yet here there is room for great Improve¬ 
ment. But when it comes to cattle, we are 
very poor—oh! so poor! Only to think that 
in a large majority of counties they cannot 
boast of one thorough-bred Short-Lorn bull. 
If the sires of our cattle, here in Indiana, 
the lift!) State in the Union, could only be 
gathered together, I think it would cause 
the blush of shame to mantle the cheek of 
every thinking farmer in the State, and 
many a consumer would say, “ 1 will eat 
Bologna sausage no more, for these large- 
headed, pcalced-shanked, thick-necked and 
high-flanked animals are annually losing us 
millions of dollars. Such like Investments 
in any other business in the world, would 
prove utterly disastrous. Certainly, my 
brother farmers, we can do better. 
And now while low prices are pressing 
us so hard, and we are all earnestly trying 
to realize the most from our hard-earned 
l»roducts, can we not. clearly see the neces¬ 
sity of improving the stock of our cattle? 
“ Will It pay ? ” L admit this is the stand¬ 
ard. And now for the figures:—To com¬ 
mence, in buying calves, I sometimes pay 
#15 for one, while ot hers are offered to me 
at #6 to #7 that I would not accept as a gift; 
and the best I can buy are only grades. 
Now, hero is a difference of over one hun¬ 
dred per cent, at the start. Again, take 
your common steer at the age ot three 
years; ho will weigh 1,100 pounds, worth 
four cents, equal t o $44. A steer sired by a 
thorough-bred Short-Horn, of a common 
cow, with the same amount of feed and at¬ 
tention, will weigh 1,400 pounds, and bring 
cents, equal to #77 ; balance iu favor of 
grade steers, $33; on one hundred steers, 
$3,800—enough to buy a small farm, and all 
on the difference iu stock. Now this is no 
exaggeration; and I am satisfied hundreds 
of feeders will verify the figures I make. 
But I will make the case still stronger:—A 
thorough-bred steer at t he same age, keep 
and all, will weigh 1,(500 pounds, and bo 
worth six and a-quarter Ont.s, equal to #100 
—a difference of #50 in one steer in favor of 
thorough-bred. Now, to prove by actual 
experience that the figures are correct, 1 
refer to a statement made at a meeting of 
the Indiana State Board of Agriculture in 
January last, by Dr. A. C. Stevenson of 
(1 reoncastlo, that, a short time previous he 
had sold a lot of good common steers at 
cents per pound gross, while some Dur- 
hauis, fed in the same way, and same age, 
brought (5% cents per pound. 1 do not 
recollect the difference iu weight, but it 
was full as much as I have made it in the 
comparison above. 
I wish those statements could 1 »o kept 
continually before the eyes of every farmer 
in the West, until he would see that “it 
will ]>a.v ” so clearly that he would act upon 
It. J know it will reach many if you publish 
lids; but, unfortunately, there are too 
many who do not take the Rural New- 
Yorker and, like the calf that butted the 
locomot ive, “ it was the worse for the calf.” 
So it is for those plodding farmers who are 
butting against the intelligence and im¬ 
provements of the age—“ it is the worse for 
them.” 
But. to as many as read this communica¬ 
tion T would say — never breed another cow 
to anything below a thorough-bred. If you 
are not individually able, club together in 
each neighborhood and buy a thorough-bred 
animal, and you will soon find “it will pay.” 
If one of your enterprising farmers has such 
an animal, paj r him $5 or $10 for service, 
and make monoy—“it will pay”—rather 
than accept the gratuitous service of au 
animal whose lightest, part is in the rear.— 
Willow Brook Farm, lied House, Mor¬ 
gan Vo ., lnd. 
Since the receipt of the foregoing letter 
the Indianians have organized a State Asso¬ 
ciation of Short-Horn Breeders, andadopt- 
ed resolutions urging the calling of a Na¬ 
tional Convention of this class of breeders 
of live stock. Evidently our intelligent 
correspondent is not the only one iu Indi¬ 
ana who recognizes the loss to that grand 
State from breeding imperfect animals 
when perfect ones are as easily produced. 
And there can be no doubt that this new or¬ 
ganization will stimulate more attention to 
breediug good stock and render the annual 
animal product of far greater value. 
NOTES FOR HERDSMEN. 
The Injured Cow Going Blind.—C. D. 
R. relates the circumstances of a cow being 
injured in one eye, and as a common conse¬ 
quence she was blinded; but, as au uncom¬ 
mon consequence she was also blinded in 
the other. I think the cause of that is 
an inflammation of the optic nerve at the 
decussation; and, as the eye is a double or¬ 
gan, when one eye is injured it. would fol¬ 
low that the chances for au inflammation of 
the nerve from that eye would be great. 
Probably the horn, in striking, injured the 
“retina” of the eye, thus communicating 
to the nerve back of it the shook of the 
injury, aud thus exposing it to an irrecov¬ 
erable injury. I think the chances for re¬ 
covery are uncertain, and C. D. R. will find 
something to confirm what l have said by 
reference to a work on “ Physiology ” or 
“Optics.”—F. B. YV., Obcrltn, O, 
Scours in Calves.—I notice au inquiry 
from M. A. Hull for a remedy to euro 
scours in calves. I once had a young calf 
that I thought much of, afflicted just as ho 
describes his, aud cured it. like a charm in 
this way:—Feed it an egg, shell and all, 
every time it is fed milk until it. is well. 
One egg will generally cure a young calf. 
Put the egg in its mouth aud hold it shut 
until it swallows it, no matter if it don’t 
eat all the shell. Eggs are good to cure old¬ 
er catt le as well as calves; but it takes more 
of them. Ail egg put. in the milk every 
morning when a calf drinks skim milk will 
keep it thrifty.—IF. Oarlock. 
Cow ’with Garget.—E. R., Watertown, 
N. Y. Your cow evidently has garget. 
Feed her a small piece of poke root (Phyto¬ 
lacca dicandra) two or three times a week. 
Stick a piece of it in a carrot and give it to 
her. Beans are said to euro garget also. 
Soak a pint Of beans for a feed and give the 
cow every day till better. Bean meal ia 
said to be still better—a pint of it with oth¬ 
er meal every four days has cured bad cases. 
Entomological 
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. 
GrapeVlne Borers.—The enclosed bugs 
1 found in the pith of my grape vines, 
where they have burrowed in great num¬ 
bers. Several of my large, healthy, six- 
year-old vines have been killed since Spring, 
and 1 am in great fear that my vineyard 
will be destroyed. Please state the lmmo 
and habits of this (to me) new pest, and the 
remedy. Do they boro into the vine in the 
Winter or Spring? 1 have examined my 
bearing vines, but have found none except 
in t hose which have been killed, and they 
were healthy and green in early Spring.— 
P. II. S., Macon, Mo. 
Tile small, blackish-brown beetles, vary¬ 
ing from a quarter to one-half au iueh long, 
and about a sixteenth of an inch in diame¬ 
ter, are the TJostrtchus btcaudatus, Say, 
several times referred to of late. They 
must be quite abundant in the Western 
States, as we are in receipt of them from 
various localities at the West, and learn 
from correspondents that they are doing a 
great amount of damage to vineyards this 
Spring. We do not know of auv preventive, 
and, jirobably, t he only sure method of de¬ 
stroying this pest is to cut and burn the in¬ 
fested branches. 
First. Book of Entomology.—Will you 
tell me what book would suit a beginner in 
tbo study of insect life? Are there any 
works which fill the same place in ento¬ 
mology that Grat’s do in botany? If so, 
where and for what price can they be pro¬ 
cured?— X. L. 
YVe have no work on Entomology that 
will give the beginner as clear and ready an 
insight into the science as Gray’s works do 
into the science of botany. Such a work 
will no doubt appear before many years 
have passed, because there is a growing taste 
among our people to know more of insect 
life. There are, however, many good works 
that will aid the student; among them we 
would recommend “Harris’ Insects Injuri¬ 
ous to Vegetation; ” also “Packard'sGuide 
to the Study of Insects. The two volumes 
of the American Entomologist, edited by 
Charles V. Riley, will aid 3 -ou iu learning 
the names, structure and habits of a vast 
number of our native species. These works 
can he had at this office. See our book list 
for price, except the last two, which we be¬ 
lieve arc two dollars per volume. 
Worms on Corn.—If M. C. of Mobile 
will send us a few of the worms which are 
eating his corn and melons, we will try to 
give the information he desires. Pack care¬ 
fully in a small tin box, with a little damp 
cotton or moss. 
