JUNE 3 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
■3 S3 
Sains Dusbandrir. 
SOME OF THE LOSSES FROM DAIRYING- 
BAD GASES OF GARGET, &c. 
Some of the expenses connected with dairy- 
inf?. which it is not, easy to foresee or provide 
against, belong t,o t he health and proper 
working condition of milch stock. If a dairy¬ 
man can have the good lurk to start in the 
spring with all the members of his herd “ in 
milk” and sound in health, he has a reason¬ 
able prospect of success and can count pretty 
closely as to the amount of money t hat will 
be turned during the season. But how may 
his herd stand in the full and during winter ? 
Can he count with any certainty upon com¬ 
mencing the second year with the same, ad¬ 
vantage as that of the preceding year ? Pos¬ 
sibly he may, but probably he will not. Very 
likely sonic cows in t he fall will .prove to be 
farrow or will “come in” so lute that, it is 
not profitable to winter them over. Snell 
animals may be turned oil and their places 
tilled by purchasing ot hers ; but there must 
be a loss, and the difference between the two 
sets of animals will be so much to be deduct¬ 
ed from the profits of the year. But then 
this is only a part of the trouble. The nu¬ 
merous accidents incident to keeping stock, 
must he encountered. Some animals may 
slip or get hooked, or in some way become 
disabled, Perhaps abortion may get into 
his herd and then along, in January or Feb¬ 
ruary, the cows will be dropping their calves 
prematurely, and as sueh stock cannot be 
readily sold and will have more than “eaten 
themselves up” when spring opens, the dairy¬ 
man must make up his mind that “he is in” 
for a heavy loss. But, if he is fortunate and 
escapes this bad habit of cows, then there are 
the perils of calving to contend with, and if 
accidents occur they will for the mose part 
fall on Ids best milkers. Again, some ani¬ 
mals may appear perfectly healthy and 
“ come in” all right, but will have obstruc¬ 
tions hi one or more teats, stopping the milk 
and thus resulting in a loss of milk from that 
portion of the. udder during the season. It. is 
true these obstructions can sometimes be 
removed by carefully cutting through them 
so as not to injure the milk duet—and t here 
arc instruments for performing the opera¬ 
tion but A skillful operator is required, and 
if the dairyman attempts the work he may 
ruin the cow’s udder entirely. We have 
known instances where the death of the ani¬ 
mal has resulted in an attempt to remove 
these obstructions, and where, too, the best 
instruments were used for the purpose. 
Then, again, some cows arc likely to lie 
troubled with garget or swelled bag, and the 
dairyman not unfrequently, after working 
faithfully with various so-called remedies, 
finds that, a portion or whole of the udder 
will he lost. Garget, during the past few 
year s, has put on a somewhat new character 
in Herkimer mid ot her dairy counties of New 
York. The udder is hal’d but not excessively 
swollen or inflamed, and the cow yields no 
milk after calving. Wc have never had but 
one ease in an experience of 25 years in dairy 
farming, and that case occurred lust year. 
The cow was apparently healt hy and in line 
condition as to Mesh. She dropped a good- 
sized and heal'.hy-looking calf, and to ull 
appearance nothing was the matter with 
her ; but she gave no milk, And we were 
obliged to suckle the calf on another cow. 
Although various means were employed 
which had proved effectual in relieving cows 
affected with swollen on£ caked udders, no 
milk could be drawn from the teats, and 
what little moisture did come from them 
was a kind of watery fluid. This cow had a 
good appetite, and after a few days showed 
no signs of suffering or inconvenience on 
account of her udder, which at no time be¬ 
came highly inflamed. In about six weeks 
the udder was not very much dissimilar to 
that on an ordinary dry now, and as she had 
not lost Mesh, we turned her to a drover who 
was picking up dry cows to be fattened for 
the Eastern markets. 
Now this kind of garget is becoming quite 
prevalent in certain sections, and sometimes 
from three to half a dozen cowain a herd are 
lost for milk. A well known dairy farmer 
who has several dairy farms and who has 
been engaged in the dairy business for more 
than 40 years, told us recently that this dis¬ 
ease had made its appearance in one of his 
herds this season for the first time, and that 
as many as 15 animals had been attacked, 
but not all alike, since some could be made 
to yield milk, while from others not a drop 
was to be obtained. Hu had never seen any¬ 
thing like it in his experience with cattle, 
and was at a loss to account for it. Cows 
that fail to give milk after calving in the 
spring, are a serious loss to the owner, since 
the cost of their winter keep is double and 
sometimes treble the price that can be ob¬ 
tained for them in market. And as the dairy 
man in most instances desires to keep up Ids 
herd of milkers, this dry stock must be turn¬ 
ed for what it will bring, and the place bo 
filled by purchasing “cowsin milk.” 
A good nmny farmers arc rushing into the 
dairy business under the impression that the 
profits arc large and sure. They figure only 
00 the profit side of flm ledger and do not 
take into account losses liable to occur in the 
different departments. We do not wish to 
discourage any one from entering upon dairy 
farming, for wc believe it will compare fa¬ 
vorably in its profits, when wc’l conducted, 
with other branches of farming; but wc 
have named some of the disadvantages in 
one department,- that, of livestock—in order 
that men may seo their way more clearly 
and not get, too high notions of the profits to 
be realized. 
Wo advise every farmer who is doing well 
and making a fair income from his special 
kind of farming, to be cautious in changing 
it for other branches concerning which he is 
not familiar; for the chances arc that the 
new business will not yield any more profit, 
and perhaps not so much as the one with 
which he is acquainted. Wo believe the 
profits from dairying are often over estimaf 
cd ; and while its advantages are often the 
topic of discussion ami laudation, it is proper 
that some of the disadvantages be made to 
appear, and then 1 lie balance of account may 
be struck, and no one need be led astray. 
Hifijilsmim. 
SALT, &C., FOR STOCK. 
R. W. writes to the Agricultural Gazette 
the following review of recent investigations 
in agricultural chemistry which should and 
will interest very many of the Rurat. New- 
Youkku The partiality of herbivorous ani¬ 
mals for common salt is well known. This 
partiality is shown as strikingly by animals 
in a wild state as by our farm stock. Carni¬ 
vorous animals, on the other hand, exhibit 
no such predilection for sail, and often an 
aversion to it. A cat, for instance, will ha rd 
ly touch salt, meat. The cause of this differ¬ 
ence between the two classes of animals is 
by no means obvious, ll. is equally necessary 
for each t hat the blood should contain a con¬ 
siderable amount of soda salts. Moreover, 
the quantity of soda furnished by a vegeta¬ 
ble diet is not necessarily less than that con¬ 
tained in a diet of flesh. No obvious expla¬ 
nation is, therefore, at hand to solve the 
problem. The recent experiments made by 
(1. Bunge appeal', however, to offer a feasible 
explanation of the facts. Ho points out that 
the vegetable diet supplies twice as much 
potash in proportion to its soda as tile flesh 
diet docs, ii.ud believing that tho greater 
supply of potash must be attended with a 
greater waste of soda, he proceeded to test 
his theory by experiments upon himself. He 
put himself upon a perfectly uniform diet of 
beef, bread, butter, sugar, and a small quan¬ 
tity of salt. When, by daily analysis of the 
urine, he found that the quantity of soda and 
potash excreted had become constant, he. 
proceeded to take a dose of potash salts, 
swallowing such a quantity during the. day 
as would be sufficient to raise the amount 
of potash in his diet to a, level with that 
daily consumed by a herbivorous animal. 
The result was an immediate excretion of 
chloride of sodium in the urine, the amount 
beiug at once increased to three-fold its pre¬ 
vious quantity. Much potash was of course 
also passed. The experiment was repeated 
at various times, employing different saltsof 
potash, but always with a similar result, a 
dose of potash in every case producing an 
immediate excretion of soda. Tim author 
believes that this tendency of potash to pro¬ 
duce a greater waste of soda in tho system 
is the cause of the desire shown by herbi¬ 
vorous animals for common salt. Their veg¬ 
etable diet is generally very rich in potash 
and they instinctively seek out an additional 
supply of soda. 
Hoda does not seem to bo an essential in¬ 
gredient of plants, but it is certainly indis¬ 
pensable in the animal economy. In muscle, 
and in the blood oorpuscules, potash is an 
essential constituent; but in the fluid por¬ 
tion of the blood potash is actually injurious, 
and if injected, even in small doses, produces 
death. Soda salts, on the other hand, can be 
injected with safety, and their presence in 
tlm blood is essential for vital processes to be 
continued. 
J he proportion of potash to soda is very 
different in different plants, even when 
growing in tho same soil; thus, according to 
TVligot, potatoes and parsnips contain no 
soda, while licet root contains a good deal. 
According to most analyses, meadow hay 
also contains more soda than clover hay. It 
is evident, therefore, that some vegetable 
diets require the addition of salt far more 
than others. * 
We do not, at present, recollect any exact 
feeding experiments iu which the effect of 
salt lias been fully investigated ; according 
to Hofmeister, 5 grams of salt (about one- 
sixth of an ounce) per head per day, given 
to sheep fed on a mixture of meadow and 
clover hay, had no material effect on the 
amount of food digested, but'u larger quan¬ 
tity of salt rather diminished the proportion 
of food digested. 
Another of tho mineral constituents of the 
animal frame has lately been made the sub¬ 
ject of experiment . Every one knows that 
the principal constituent, of bou'e is phosphate 
of lime, and it is evident that with a young, 
growing animal considerable quantities of 
phosphate are needed to meet the wants of 
the system. Lawns and (filbert, in llicir ex¬ 
periments on pig feeding, noticed that young 
pigs fed on maize alone, while gaining rap¬ 
idly in weight, became diseased, large swell 
mgs making their appearance in the neck. 
This disease was stopped when a mixture of 
coal ashes, salt, and superphosphate (in the 
proportion of 20. 4, and I) was supplied to 
the troughs ; the pigs ate this with relish, 
and consumed of their own accord 1 to I 1 , 
pound of the mixture per head per week. 
Maize is, Of all the cereal grains, rice excepted, 
the poorest in mineral matter, and in the 
cose just mentioned the mineral matter was 
evidently insufficient for the rapidl y-growing 
pigs; whether, however, tho food was 
specially deficient in phosphates is not shown. 
Hofmeister has lately made some very 
complete experiments on the effect of an 
addition of phosphates to the food of lambs. 
Two lots of oigld-\vocks-old wether lambs 
were fed on hay and potatoes with a little 
salt, the object being to give them a diet 
poor in | hosphorio acid. One lot received in 
addition gelatinous phosphate of lime, the 
other lot received none ; tile experiment was 
continued about seven months. The lambs 
that received the pliosphuLe had a better 
appitite and drank more water than the 
others, but their greater gain in weight was 
insignificant. Both lots were finally killed, 
and t he bones examined. The bones of the 
lambs fed with phosphate were slightly 
heavier, and contained a little more mineral 
matter than the bone* of those lambs which 
had no artificial supply of phosphate, but 
the amount of difference was very small. It 
appeared from the experiment that the 
quantity uf phosphoric acid in the mixture 
of hay and potatoes was really sufficient for 
the wants of the animal. 
Hofmeister carried his experiment further, 
and determined what proportion of the phos¬ 
phoric acid and lime in the food was actually 
digested and taken up bv the sheep. He 
found that when feeding on hay and pota¬ 
toes, an average of 57 per cent, of the phos¬ 
phoric acid iu tho food was taken up, and 
nearly the same proportion of the lime. 
When gelatinous phosphate was added to 
the diet, all the additional phosphoric acid 
was taken up if the dose did not exceed six 
grams of phosphate per day, but beyond 
this point it was not all digested. He ad ’ 
ministered superphosphate to some old 
sheep, and found that with 10 grams per day 
the wholeof the soluble phosphate was taken 
up, but with 20grams only 04 per cent, was 
digested. 
Weiske has made some experiments on the 
effects of phosphates upon young rabbits. He 
found no alteration in the composition of the 
bones to follow tho artificial supply ol 
phosphate. 
It appears, on the whole, therefore, that 
the amount of phosphoric acid in ordinary 
vegetable food is sufficient to abundantly 
supply the want of a growing animal, ex¬ 
cept, perhaps, in extreme cases, as that of 
the pigs fed on maize. 
-- 
MODERN IDEAS PROGRESSING. 
It is nearly 20 years since agricultural 
papers in the United States adopted the plan 
of allowing public opinion to write for itself ! 
in their columns and for those in advance of 
others relative to reform in auy of the vari¬ 
ous operations of husbandry to state their 
sentiments, and for any man to combat the 
notions of t hose he may deem in error. This 
lias led to good results and old-fashioned fol¬ 
lies have given way faster than they would 
with only the editors to correct them, besides 
having spared them from giving offense. It 
is interesting to recall some of the practices 
which were then upheld and to‘know that 
those who at that time advocated those old 
usages have become ashamed of their former 
ignorance. Sometimes experience will be. 
sen! to papers which is a fiction of the Imag¬ 
ination—men deceive themselves and others; 
often whole communities have been in error 
and supported each other in tho folly for a 
generat ion or longer. 
' It is too bad for men to state as a, fact that 
they cun and have kept cows on a quantity 
ol food every wane man iu the world knows 
to lie impossible ; It is degrading to the age 
we live in to find moon-struck people, still, 
to all appearance, believing that the moon 
lias influence on the meat from which ani¬ 
mals were killed at such a stage and that 
operations of emasculation and even planting 
of seeds should bo done subject to the changes 
of that planet. But when this class of luna¬ 
tics is disposed of, there is another who are 
never easy unless they have a quantity of 
drugs to closo their stock with—who cannot 
perform the simple operation of castration 
without applying irritating stuff of some 
kind or other, and some even go so far as to 
put that filthy, poisonous pollution, tobacco, 
to a raw wound, while salt; and popper are 
applied to punish the poor, helpless, dumb 
creatures. Some niou seem to riot in any 
treatment causing pain and prolonged mis¬ 
ery, and those with this kind of spirit, hap¬ 
pening to be in possession of live stock, may 
be scon walking around t he stables and yards 
with their pi leketsand hands full of tinctures, 
liniments, elixirs, caustics, &e., then again, 
Tike a walking dispensary, they will weaken 
the stomachs and the constitutions by the 
stinking drugs poured down the throats of 
the unfortunate animals. 
In one of the best agricultural papers of 
the present day, among several replies to a 
question about turnips injuring butter, three 
wise men stay they give their cows the tur¬ 
nips after milking, consequently there is no 
unpleasant flavor imported. Of course, any 
man of common understanding can see the 
milk taken before the turnips are oaten can¬ 
not be affected, but my ideas are not bright 
enough to know what is to prevent the milk 
drawn from the cow 13 hours later from 
tasting, unless it is proved food eaten from 
s to 12 hours before a cow is milked has no 
influence on her milk, iu which case the 
quantity cannot he affected and it is of no 
use to give turnips, excepting to save other 
ftfod. Now, ii would seem to me, who have 
been among cattle for 50 years, that what a 
cow cats immediately before she is milked 
would not have time to be digested and go 
through the process of turning into milk but 
that the next milking would receive the full 
force. 
It shows pitiable ignorance of dairying to 
read much that is written about cows eating 
different kinds of food ; for, leaving butter 
out of consideration, and all bad flavors are 
concentrated in that, the milk itself will 
smell of turnips and taste strong iu propor¬ 
tion to the quantity fed to the cows. Give 
com meal freely with a few turnips and the 
turnip flavor will be counteracted and so on 
with every kind and variety of good and bad 
feed. Home people don’t mind the flavor of 
turnips or of garlic, but when turnips are 
given In large quantities, without good feed 
accompanying it in the stomach, tho butter 
will not only be unpleasant in flavor, but 
be almost white us lard, and look bad enough 
to condemn it. Nevertheless, with an abund¬ 
ance of good butter-producing food, carrots, 
beets, meal oml hay made from grass cut 
when young, some turnips can be mixed 
without detection. 
To shorten our argument of this kind, let 
those who talk of feeding after milking ex¬ 
plain how the next milk escapes the influence, 
fordoes not the milk form and pass gradu¬ 
ally into the udder all the while ? I believe 
the editors of our best papers often allow 
very silly ideas to appear, as an amiable way 
of showing the writers their errors ; and it 
acts well ; the absurdities are made to glare 
out by the gentlemanly-worded corrections, 
and I must admit American gentlemen have 
the advantage of me in this respect, for their 
kind manner of dealing with mistakes is an 
example worthy of imitation. 
A Working Farmer. 
- 
Garget Remedy.— Dr. Bronson of Michi¬ 
gan writes the New York Tribune :—My 
remedy for garget is one tablespoonful of 
saltpeter every other day for three days, 
then skip a few days, and feed again if a cum 
is not effected. 1 think three doses will heal 
the most obstinate case. By-tlie-way, any 
person who keeps cows, should feed to each 
the above dose of saltpeter, once in two 
weeks through the milking season, and there 
will be no complaint of garget. 
