ta S2BB2 
w, 
EXCELSIOR 
41 l'nrlt Row, New York. 
82 UulValo 8l., Rochester. 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N, Y 
3.00 PER YEAR, 
ingle No., Eight Cents. 
WHOLE NO. 1005 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JAN. 21,1871 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by D. D. T. Mo ow k, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington .] 
cases, and in every instance the condition of 
the internal organs were the same, and such 
as to leave no doubt as to the cause of death. 
The second stomach, commonly called the 
“ manifold,” was in every instance packed 
with the masticated corn husks, so dry and 
hard that the point of a common butcher’s 
knife could only, with considerable effort, 
lie made to penetrate its substance, while the 
coats of the stomach were disorganized and 
separated, showing that a violent and fatal 
cd, I never knew any injury to follow. 
The common practice is to keep cattle on 
the short fall feed, or with light feeding, till 
the cornfield is cleared, when they are turned 
in with empty stomachs and ravenous appe¬ 
tites ; there is generally a scarcity of water, 
and the fatal results follow 
this, my first, last, and only appearance as a 
“ cow doctor.” M - D - 
untl Ardbilertar* 
erhsman 
OATTLE AND CORN SMUT, 
TO MAKE THATCHED ROOFS, 
A CHOKED COW. 
We have received several letters of in¬ 
quiry concerning the effect of corn smut on 
cattle, with the statement that many animals 
have died, in various parts of the West, after 
being turned into the corn fields. We do 
not know, of course, that smut is not the 
In an issue of the Rural New-Yorker 
some months since, a correspondent from 
Iowa inquires how to make a thatched roof. 
To his inquiries T have seen no reply, and ns 
my father was a thatchcr by trade, and I 
had often to “ draw the nee¬ 
dle” for him, it may he that I 
can give him the information 
he desires. 
-41^ Rye or wheat straw only 
should be used, and must be 
carefully threshed with a flail 
to leave the straws unbroken. 
iMiiYVwl Bind * n l,un ^' es > distributing 
l * ie straws equally 
to each end of the bundle. A 
good roof cannot be made if 
flPflilwIi- - the straws all lie one way. It 
w,lH Illvvft y 9 customary to 
mWwivmfk nilllic tbe band three feet long, 
as this gave a bundle of con- 
tm - venient size for handling. In 
f a dry time we sat the bundles 
on end and threw water upon 
them a day or two before using. 
... " The rafters are placed in the 
usual way, and crossed by 
slats two by two, nailed four¬ 
teen inches apart, though 
twelve inches will do equally 
well. 
Begin at the eaves and lay 
a row of bundles across. Have 
t an iron needle eighteen inches 
3* long prepared and threaded 
\ with oakum eight feet long, 
jm. Fasten the thread to the slut 
and pass the needle through 
the bundle to a boy stationed 
under the rafters, making 
three to four stitches to the 
Igfe-:. 4 bundle. The boy draws Hie 
cord up tight, and passes the 
. needle up through again, but 
on the other side of the slat. 
\S$\ i\ By this means the first course 
i~v • ■ ' is sewed on. Succeeding 
•,}"■' courses are treated in I ho same 
way, being laid so as to over¬ 
lap the stitching. Lay the 
heaviest row of straw at the 
caves, to make It look well. 
When you come to the ridge, 
fold the tops of the straw over 
v until you bring up the other 
K side, then get some thin sods, 
ten by fourteen Inches, and 
one and n half inches thick, 
and lay them neatly upon 
the top, using a small piece ot 
board to clap them all slick 
and smooth. Boards put on 
like ordinary ridge hoards will 
f, do instead of sods, if pro- 
p Get the point of an old 
f scythe, about, eighteen inches 
long, attach a handle, so that 
it will be like a long knife, and 
with it “switch down” the 
V • / roof all over, to carry off all 
the loose straws, and trim the 
others off smooth. If well 
done, the roof will he a3 
d Higiiiand smooth as a hoard. Stretch a 
cord along Ahe eaves the whole 
break | length of the building, and trim off straight 
three by It, leaving the outside a little lower 
quart than the inside, which will prevent its look- 
varm in £ tllick am ^ lkCav y‘ , , . .. 
; ’ if vonr Iowa correspondent will make Ins 
A communication in the Rural New- 
Yorkf.u for December 24th, from “ A Rural 
Reader,” “reminds me,” as the late Mr. 
Lincoln would have said, “ of a little story, 
and, as the story has two or three good 
morals attached ro it, I am 
tempted to tell it. While I 
■was a student of medicine, I 
was home for the Christmas 
holidays, when one of my 
father’s best cows choked, it , 
was supposed from a potato 
she had picked up, and ira- 
mediately began to swell so 27^1 lit' 
that her abdomen became . 
enormously distended. Of 
tbe animal being a Bw&foSfciiW 
there was no \ 
Scour* in Cnlvt’N. 
Sumner Leach:, North Warren, Me., gives 
the Maine farmer the following remedy 
course, 
valuable one, _____ 
lack of advice and of energetic 
treatment. I will not pretend 
to tell how many rods or ftjfgig&m 
harness traces were thrust 
down the throat of the crea- 
ture, nor yet what compounds 
she was forced to swallow; 
one thing is certain, however, '', 
that she persisted in growing 1 1 
visibly larger and more dis¬ 
tressed. 
Finally I was asked to punc¬ 
ture the abdomen and let off 
the gas. This, however, I 
declined doing, for the reason 
that not having the proper 
appliances at hand, the opera- /j&wjEam 
lion would only result in 
death from peritonitis. In 
the meantime, however, I had 
been diligently reading You- ^ 
att’s excellent work on “ The 
Ox,” and lmd decided on a 
plan of treatment which I put. 3 -A r, 
in operation at once. ‘ 
1 learned from Mr. Youatt, 
that the first stomach of the _., \ 
ox has a fold of membrane at ; 
its entrance, which forms a 
sort of valve, opening in¬ 
wards. When, from choking ^ 
or any other cause, gas begius 
to accumulate in the stomach, 
this valve is shut, and the 
greater the accumulation the ... v -v 
tighter it shuts, and the great- '-'fc f&x 
er becomes the distress of the $!$$ $$& 
animal. This gas, which was 
causing all the trouble, I was 
also informed, was chemically 
chiefly sulphuretted hydrogen, 
and could be decomposed by cwWraxJA 
chloride of lime. Mr. You- 
att therefore directs a solu- JhvWwwls 
tion of the chloride to bo 
forced into the stomach by 
means of a stomach pump. |Iu(|kM 
Of course we had neither the 
stomach pump nor the chlo* HsIlltvH 
ride of lime; but I knew that -AK 
chloride of sodium, (common 
salt,) formed similar com- 
pounds to those of lime, and . Cj 
reasoned that it ought to an¬ 
swer as well; as for the pump, 
we must do without it. So we 
trussed up the cow’s head, and X * Here *’ 
by the aid of a long-necked 
bottle and a good deal of scientific rubbing 
of the gullet, we succeeded in administering 
about two quarts of strong salt and water, 
and in an hour the cow was as well as ever. 
What became of the potato, I don’t know; 
but it certainly was dislodged from the throat, 
probably by the “poking” first resorted to. 
1 have doctored a good many “ humans ” 
mm*: 
cause of their death, but we do not believe 
it is. We are inclined to think that Elmer 
Baldwin, Farm Ridge, III., has given the 
true cause, in a letter to the Prairie Farmer, 
from which we make the following extract ■ 
It is nearly sixty years since I first witnessed 
a post mortem examination of an animal that 
died under such circumstances, and have 
witnessed such examinations frequently since 
—probably, In all, ot more than one hundred 
Henry R. WHIi • asks correspondents bow tie 
shall get rid of lice ou calves without injuring 
the latter. 
