concomitants—the fleas, of which the woods 
are full. 
As for clothing, it beggars description. 
The smaller fry go about like Mark Twain’s 
Sandwich Island children, clothed in sun¬ 
shine. The women wear the inevitable sun- 
bonnet, and some of them frequently expend 
more for one than a decent dress bonnet 
would cost at a milliner shop. They seldom 
buy what they can borrow, and they exhibit 
a tact for finding out all about your worldly 
possessions which would do credit to a Chi¬ 
cago detective . 
own anything which suvors of being 
LIFE AMONG THE HAZEL SPLITTERS 
HOOF ROT IN SHEEP 
BY MARGARET LIVIN’GSTON 
It. asks, “ What is the best cure ?” Ran¬ 
dall, in Practical Shepherd, gives the fol¬ 
lowing mode of treatment: 
Sheep should be yarded for the operation 
immediately after a rain, if practicable, as 
then the hoofs can be readily cut. In a dry 
time, and after a night which has left no 
dew on the grass, their hoofs are almost as 
tough as horn. They must be driven through 
no mud, <?r soft dung, on their way to the 
yard, which doubles the 1 abor of cleaning 
their feet. The yard must be small, so they 
cau be easily caught, and it must be kept 
well littered down, so they shall not (ill their 
feet with their own manure. If the straw is 
wetted, their hoofs will not of course dry 
and harden as rapidly as in dry straw’. 
Could the yard be built over a shallow, 
gravelly-bottomed brook, it wmuld be an ad- 
Tho hoofs would be 
tie, shake every day, and let it stand six or 
eight days before using ; also mix 3 pounds 
of honey and 2 quarts tar and apply it attei 
the previous compound. “Twoapplications 
to entirely remove disease.’’ 
5. A saturated solution of blue vitriol ap¬ 
plied through a quill in a cork, and finely 
pulverized vitriol dusted over the parts when 
wet. This was the favorite remedy of the 
farmers in the region where I reside 25 
years ago. 
C. The most common and popular remedy 
now used in Central New York is : 1 pound 
blue vitriol, % pound (with some a M pound) 
verdigris, 1 pint of liuseed oil, 1 quart of t ar. 
Ti.e vitriol and verdigris are pulverized very 
fine, and many persons, before adding the 
and though they scorn to 
stuck 
up," I have noticed that, they are quite re¬ 
signed to wearing bucIi things at other peo¬ 
ple’s expense. 
I derived a great deal of amusement the 
first season we resided here, in observing 
their many peculiarities of language. They 
never carry anything, they either pack or 
tote. They do a heap of work in a day—a 
right, smart more than any dog goned Yan¬ 
kee can do. A ravine is called a draw, and a 
ridge is called a divide. A creek, a branch. 
The most, of them have a very faint idea of a 
lake, and think a canal is <i story got. up by 
you VankH to fool us Westerners. A harness 
is gear, and a wagoh box is called a bed, and 
vegetables are sass and truck. A garden is 
called a truck patch. One man said he had 
dug right smart of wells and walled them 
with rock®— meaning stones. 
The country, since the advent of railroads 
and normal schools, is gradually filling up 
with a better class of population, who are in 
favor of free schools, churches and every¬ 
thing else conducive to the general welfare 
and prosperity. Kirk-ivilie, t he county seat, 
contains, besides the normal, a large graded 
school and seven churches. During the re¬ 
bellion there was fought a severe battle near 
the town, and some of the bullet holes are 
still to be seen. 
To the unprejudiced eye, the country in 
the summer time will appear very beautiful. 
But. to those who have been born and bred 
in different scenes, there is an indefinable 
and unsatisfied feeling in regal’d to it that 
time and the influx of a civilized population 
will entirely obliterate. 
My letter has been spun out to too great 
length, and the half is not yet told. It any 
one wishes to hear further of the Hazel 
Splitters,” just mention it, and 1 am at your 
mirable arrangement, 
kept 60 soft that the greatest and most un¬ 
pleasant part of the labor, as ordinarily 
performed, would in a great measure be 
saved, and they would be kept free from 
that dung which, by any other arrangement, 
will more or less get into their feat. 
The principal operator, or foreman, seats 
himself in a chair—a couple of good, sharp 
knives (one at least a thin and narrow one), 
a whetstone, the powerful toe-nippers, a 
bucket of w T ater, with a couple of linen rags 
in it, and such medicines as he chooses to 
employ, wKliin his reach. The assistant 
catches a sheep and lays it partly on its 
back and rump, between the legs of the 
foreman, the head coming up about to his 
middle. The assistant then kneels on some 
straw, or seats himself on a low stool at the 
hinder extremity of the sheep. If the hoofs 
are long, and especially if they are dry and 
tough, the assistant presents cacl) hoof to 
the foreman, who shortens the hoof with 
the toe-nippers. If there is any tilth be¬ 
tween the tots, each man, after first using a 
stick, takes Iris rug from the bucket of 
water, draws it between the toes and rinses 
it, until the filth is removed. Each then 
seizes his knife, and the process of paring 
away the horn commences: and on the 
effectual ‘performance of this all else de¬ 
pends. 
If the disease is in the first stage— i. e., if 
there is merely an erosion and ulceration of 
the cuticle and flesh in the cleft above the 
walls of the hoof—no paring is necessary. 
But if ulceration has established itself be¬ 
tween the hoof and the fleshy sole, the ul¬ 
cerated parts, be they more or less extensive, 
mu9fc be entirely denuded of their horny 
covering, cost what it may of time and care. 
It is better not to wound the sole so as to 
cause it to bleed freely, as the running blood 
will wash off the subsequent applications ; 
but no fear ol' wounding the sole must pre¬ 
vent a full compliance witli the rule above 
laid down. At. w'orst, the blood cau soon be 
stanched, however freely it flows, by a few 
touches of a caustic—say butyr of antimony, 
If the foot is in the third stage—a mass of 
rottenness and tilled with maggots—the 
maggots should first be killed by spirits of 
turpentine, or a solution of corrosive subli¬ 
mate (two ouuces in a quart of any spirits 
that will dissolve it), or other equally effi¬ 
cient application. It can be most conve¬ 
niently used from a bottle having a quill 
through the cork. By continuing to remove 
the dead maggots with a stick, and to ex¬ 
pose and kill the deeper lodged ones, all 
can be extirpated. Every particle of loose 
horn should t hen be removed, though it take 
the entire hoof, and it frequently does take 
the entire hoof at an advanced stage of the 
disease. The foot should be cleansed il 
necessary with a solution of chloride of lime, 
in the proportion of a pound of the chloride 
to a gallon of water. If this is not at hand, 
plunging the foot repeatedly in water, just 
short of scalding hot., will answer the pur¬ 
pose. And now comes the important ques¬ 
tion, What constitutes (he best remedy f 
The recipes for its cure are innumerable. 
One much used in New’ England at an early 
day, under the recommendation of “Consul 
Jarvis,” was compounded as follows : 
1. Roman or blue vitriol, pulverized very 
flue, three parts, with one part of white 
lead, mixed into a thin paste with linseed 
oil. 
2. Another recipe, also much used in New' 
England, is as follows :—4 oz. blue vitriol, 2 
oz. verb gris to a junk bottle of urine. 
3. Spirits of turpentine, tar and verdigris, 
in equal parts. 
4. The following recipe used to be hawked 
again involves tlie surrouiKimg ■■>• 
Therefore every portion of the diseased flesh 
must be denuded of horn, filth, dead tissue, 
pus, and every other substance which cau 
prevent the application from actually touch¬ 
ing it, and producing its characteristic ef¬ 
fects on it. 
Second. The application must be kept in 
contact with the diseased surfaces long 
enough r.o exert its proper remedial influ¬ 
ence. If removed by any means before this 
is accomplished, it must necessarily propor- 
tioimbly fail in its effects. 
The preparation of the loot, then, requires 
no mean skill. 'The tools must be sharp, the 
movements of the operator careful and de¬ 
liberate. As he shaves down near the quick, 
he must cut thinner and thinner, and with 
more and more care, or else he will either 
fail to remove the horn exactly far enough, 
or lie Will cut into the fleshy sole und cause 
a rapid flow of blood. I have already re¬ 
marked that the blood can be stanched bj’ 
Caustics, but they coagulate it on the surface 
in a mass which requires removal before the 
application of remedies, and in the process 
of its removal the blood is very frequently 
set, flowing again, and this sometimes se\ era! 
times follows the application of the caustic, 
as the. toe vein bleeds freely, and it often 
requires some time and trouble to stanch it. 
Cutting down to the crack between the 
hunl,\ and fleshy sole is not enough. The 
operator must ascertain whether there is 
any ulceration between the outside horny 
walls and the fleshy part of the foot, or at 
the Idc, or whether there is even a rudiment 
of an unreached Biuus or cavity in any part 
of the foot where the ulceration has pene¬ 
trated or is beginning to penetrate. The 
practiced eye decides these questions rapidly 
from the characteristic appearances, w ith¬ 
out the removal of unnecessary horn ; but 
t he new beginner must feel his way along 
cautiously, removing more horn where there 
is doubt, but so removing it that he will not 
unnecessarily cause an effusion of blood, or 
uncover the healthy quick, or disarrange the 
proper bearing of the foot. If tbe foot is in 
the third state, the removal of the maggots, 
the eleauiug of the ulcers, the proper ex¬ 
cision of the dead tissues, etc... require much 
time, sometimes more than half an hour to 
cacn foot. The most experienced operator 
cannot perform such processes in a hurry : 
the inexperienced one mast perform them 
slowly, or all the time saved will be lost, 
twenty times over, in having to repeat them 
for an’indefinite number of times. 
Offi CMlttl 
BALKY HORSES 
TnE Society for the Prevention or ca ueny 
to Animals, puts forth a set of rules for the 
treatment of balky horses. 
1. Pat the horse upon the neck ; examine 
the harness carefully, first on one side and 
then on the other, speaking encouragingly 
while doing so ; then jump into the w’ugon 
and give the word go ; generally he w ill 
obey. 
2. A teamster in Maine says he can start 
the worst balky horse by taking him out of 
the shufts and making him go round in a 
circle till he is giddy. If the first dance of 
this sort doesn’t cure him, the second will. 
3. To cure a balky horse, simply place your 
(he horse’s nose and shut off his 
NOTES FOR HORSEMEN 
Volt with Hole in the Breast,—l have a 
yearling colt that after an attack of distem¬ 
per hau a sore on the middle of its breast 
which continued to run and now’, after six 
months, there is a hole quite deep in the 
breast which still discharges. Can you give 
me a remedy i —Jas. Rush Lincoln. 
Give the animal good feed, good care and 
do not try to heal tbe hole or stop the uis 
charges except by increasing the strengtn 
and health of the animal. 
