APRIL 8 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
«§ah|g Huskiulrg. 
SPECIAL FEEDING AGAIN. 
Mr. E. W. Stewart of the Buffalo Live 
Stock Journal, in commenting upon our re¬ 
cent address at tlie Biughamton Convention, 
says : — 11 Mr. II illard takes occasion again 
to explain his views upon special feeding, or 
the effect of food upon the composition of 
milk. He reiterates his opinion that each 
cow has a ‘standard’ of quality peculiar to 
itself, and that its richness above that stand¬ 
ard cannot be materially increased by spe¬ 
cial feeding. We think him in error on the 
last proposition, as we have heretofore stated, 
and that the standard of each cow, either in 
herself or in her ancestor, has been fixed by 
feeding, and that it may, to a considerable 
extent, be modified by further special feed¬ 
ing ; but this feeding must be continued for 
many months, in some, years, before the 
change is very perceptible.” 
Well now, brother Stewart, if a Dairyman 
if obliged to ghittonise his cows, inducing or 
urging them to consume an extra amount of 
extra rich food not only for many months 
but in some cases for years, before the change 
in the quality of the milk ig very perceptible, 
we ask in the name of all truth whether such 
special feeding will pay, or whether the ad¬ 
vice to dairymen to so feed is sound and 
proper and for their best interests ? 
Mr. Stkwart, we not ice, in referring to 
what was said at the Binghamton Conven¬ 
tion on “ special feeding” is careful to leave 
out tlie statements of those persons who had 
materially injured their cows by special 
feeding. He also makes the statement of S, 
T. Hawley to appear as if in favor of special 
feeding, whereas Mr. Hawley distipcl-ly as¬ 
serted he was opposed to that theory, and 
instanced the cows referred to by Mr. Stew¬ 
art, the one making 18 pounds of butter per 
week and the heifer VI pounds, os being fed 
on nothing but grass. 
But Mr. Stewart takes the position in tlie 
above quotation which we have given from 
the January number of the Journal, that the 
standard of each cow’s milk either in herself 
or her ancestor, hus been fixed by special or 
extra feeding arid hence be thinks by extra 
feeding the standard of richness may be 
raised higher. We ask what arc tlie facts to 
prove this assumption i On the other hand, 
do not till the facts show that extra or over¬ 
feeding 1ms a tendency to lay on fat rather 
than in developing the milking qualit ies of 
the animal ? Is it not true, that some strains 
of the Short-Horn have been so bred and fed 
as to be nearly worthless as dairy animals 2 
The fact has become notorious, and the 
breeders of Ayrshire stock in Scotland are 
careful not to push this matter of extra feed¬ 
ing on their dairy stock, believing that it is 
injurious to the milking qualities of the 
breed. And we have often heard the remark 
made by noted breeders of Ayrshire stock in 
this country, that there is a tendency among 
some breeders to feed too high and by mak- i 
ing fleshy, showy animals of the Ayrshire, 
they were thus breeding and feeding out the 
milking habit of this particular breed. 
And Dr. Voklcker, in referring to some 
experiments in feeding an extra ration of 
linseed meal to milch cows in 18(H) which ' 
were at pasture, says that “ Whilst the qual- i 
ity of the milk was not materially bettered : 
the quantity became slightly leas, especially * 
in the case of the three ordinary cows. It 1 
would appear, then, that the additional food i 
had a tendency to go into meat or produce 1 
fat. This shows that we cannot increase or > 
improve, ad infinitum , the quantity or qual- i 
ity of milk. Cows which have a tendency to ] 
fatten when supplied with additional food I 
rich in oil and in flesh-forming materials, \ 
have the power of converting that food into I 
fat; but they do not produce a richer milk, < 
and they may even produce it in smaller ( 
quantity.” Is not this statement of Dr. s 
Voelcker near the truth i , 
feeding of meal. But in the majority of cases 
the waste from extra feeding goes to enrich 
tlie manure heap. What we waut is correct 
knowledge in regard to feeding. Men should 
not be led astray by being taught that extra 
feeding will make a cow “a good butter 
cow.” We must rather look to individual 
cows or breeds remarkable for yielding a 
rich quality of milk and then feed judiciously 
and we shall obtain satisfactory results. 
In conclusion, we think Mr, Stew art will 
find a full answer to bra remarks, as above 
quoted, in bis own language given a few 
months back in the Live Slock Journal when 1 
referring to this identical subject—“special 
feeding.” He then said as follows “ If a 
cow is to be fed on full rations of a normal 
diet, nobody has contended that you cau 
change the chemical composition of her milk 
by giving an addition of some particular 
constituent. There must be an absolute, 
deficiency of certain constituents in the food 
to test the question of the effect of the qml- 
ity of the food upon the quality of the milk. 
When the food possesses all the elements in 
due proportion for the production of normal 
milk, but in a bulky state, such as bay or 
grass, the quantity only may he inereasr.dby 
giving additionally the same combination of 
elements in a more concentrated form.” 
hat we would be glad to know' is wheth¬ 
er Mr. STEWART stands by this last proposi¬ 
tion. If lie does, in what way can he make 
this opinion accord with his last criticism of 
our views on extra feeding < 
We wish it to be distinctly understood that 
when a cow is on poor pasturage or is on 
insufficient food, an addition of meal or other 
feed to supply the deficiency named, is not 
to our mind “special” or “extra feeding.” 
When a starved cow receives a full supply 
of food or normal fodder we do not call the 
additional ration to make normal fodder 
“ special feeding.” Extra feeding is an excess 
of food above full rations. This point was 1 
distinctly stated by us at the first, in an- 1 
nouncing our position on this question. 
milk thus manufactured. But the milk at 6c. 
per quart will come to 81c, 
3. Again ; if milk is turned into choose, it 
takes about 10 pounds of the former for one 
of the latter. But admitting, for sake of 
showing an extraordinary average, that a 
gal'oti of milk will make a pound of cheese, 
which sells for 17e.; then the cost of making, 
boxing, &c., is about 2c., leaving 15c, and 
the residue of whey as the value of milk for 
cheese making ; while on the other hand, if 
it was sold at Oe. per quart, it would briug 24c. 
4. The average price of cheese during tlie 
past year will probably fall below He per 
pound, and 30c. to 35c., we should say, would 
be o, good average Cor butter. 
5. When milk has been bought at cheese 
factories, the price is regulated by the price 
of cheese, the assumption being that 10 
pounds of milk will make one of cheese. 
In speaking of the average product of 
cows wo have not had reference to particular 
animals or to special breeds like the Jersey, 
but on the other hand, have based our esti¬ 
mates on tlie yield of the common cows of 
the country of which the majority of our 
herds are composed. Again, we have not 
thought it practical to base our estimates on 
exceptionally high rates obtained by some 
butter makers, who get from 75c. to *1 per 
pound. If the latter figures could be obtain¬ 
ed, doubt less, butter making would be more 
profitable than selling milk at the price 
named by our correspondent. 
(re 
ANTHRAX FEVER IN PIGS. 
As we have repeatedly stated, we are not 
opposed to generous feeding. We say, Give 
the cow food containing all the elements of 
milk in such quantity and form as she can 
assimilate. An extra feeding beyond this 
will not increase materially the quality or 
richness of her milk. Many dairymen are 
wasting money by extra feeding. They over¬ 
feed, under the impression that the more 
feed they can induce a cow to eat the richer 
the milk. Meal is often fed in such quanti¬ 
ties that it is not assimilated by the animal 
and passes off in the excrement. At the 
Pennsylvania Convention a case of this kind 
was mentioned where hogs were turned into 
the cow stable and were fattened on the ex¬ 
crement of cows which had received an extra 
SELLING MILK AND MAKING BUTTER 
ADD CHEESE. 
Mr. X. A. Willard : —I suppose you are 
a ware that the N. U. Agricultural College Is 
located at this place, aud never until ( his 
winter has there been a Farmers’ Club or 
anything of the sort. I am interested in rais¬ 
ing milk and spoke upon this question and 
out of till -, as would naturally be expected 
the question eurue up, Which was the most 
profitable, to sell milk at Oe. per quart, or 
make, it into butter or cheese at the present 
prices ! Will you please tell me lmw many 
quarts of milk are required to make a pound 
or butter on an average, in your State, and 
about what it costs to manufacture it aud 
what has been the average price tin*, past 
season; also, how many quarts are required to 
make a pound of cheese, and wliat that is 
worth ; also, what your cheese factories have 
paid for milk, &o. ? Any further light that 
you can give me will bo thankfully received 
by one who sells milk.— John M. Fuller 
HanoVCr, N. H 
1. There is much more profit in milk at 
fie. a quart than there is to make it into but¬ 
ter or cheese. 
3. A quart of milk of average good quality, 
wine measure, at a temperature of 00 Fahr! 
weighs, according to the late Gail Borden] 
who made a number of careful experiments 
with accurate measures and delicate scales 
used as standards by the U. S. Government 
2 pounds 2 2-8 ounces. A gallon, therefore, 
weighs 8 pounds 0 ounces. Now some of the 
butter factories of New York have reported 
as an average 1 pound of butter to a little 
less than 21 pounds of milk ; but when the 
milk is used for making skimmed cheese the 
average is a pound of butter from 28 to 30 
pounds of milk. Zadoc Pratt, a noted but¬ 
ter maker of Greene Co., some years ago re¬ 
ported the average yield from a large herd 
to bo a pound of butter from a little over 10 
quarts of milk. If we assume, then, that 10 
quarts of milk on an average during the sea- 
sou wi 11 make one pound of butter and the 
price be put at 40c. per pound, we have 20c. 
less for the butter than the milk brings at 6c. 
per quart. But in addition to the butter we 
have the sour skimmed milk and also tlie 
cost of manufacturing the butter, which is 
from 4c. to 5c. per pound, to take into the 
account. 
Again, at the butter factories where skim¬ 
med cheese is made, it takes about 14 quarts 
of milk to make a pound of butter and two 
pounds of skimmed cheese; Now, if the but¬ 
ter sells, on an average, at 4Uc. per pound, 
and the skimmed cheese at 12c,, we have the 
product of the 14 quarts amounting to 64c., 
less the cost of manufacturing—say 5c. for 
the butter and 4c. for the two pounds of 
cheese—leaving net to the dairyman 55e. and 
the whey resulting from the 14 quarts of 
We find the following article in the London 
(Eng.) Farmer:—This is one of the many 
forms of blood disease to which our domestic 
animals are liable, but ou the present occa¬ 
sion description will be confined to that 
which affects swine only. 
The word anthrax is used to denote, the 
existence of a peculiar kind of inflammation 
which appeal's, more or less, as circum¬ 
scribed swellings of a deep rod, purple or 
black color; in the latter state the resem¬ 
blance to a coal being more complete, and 
from which the name is derived. Anthrax 
fever then really means a diseuse attended 
wi i ll outward and special forms of local in¬ 
flammation, with such febrile conditions 
that the whole system suffers, aud from 
which mortality is not Infrequent. 
The local manifestations of anthrax fever 
are, in the early stages, general discoloration 
of the whole surface of the skiu ; it becomes 
of a red, next purple, and, as the period of 
death advances, a blue black, the most sus¬ 
ceptible parts being those where the skin is 
thinnest, as upon and behind the earn, inside 
the thigh, and over the abdomen. The red 
color has been usually compared with that 
of which the uniform of many regiments of 
the line is dyed, and, consequently, the dis¬ 
ease has been named “ red soldier.” In the 
second or purple stages it lias beeu termed 
the “blue sickness,” and "blue disease,” 
erroneously “measles,” and, iu medical 
language, “cyanosis.” 
This affection has been very common in 
Ireland, and in the large pig-breeding dis¬ 
tricts of England and Scotland it has com¬ 
pleted great havoc. At the time the cattle, 
plague prevailed so seriously in this country, 
and after men’s minds had been tolerably 
well primed with the fact that rinderpest 
was imported from abroad, it happened, 
singularly enough, that pigs in many locali¬ 
ties were seized with the “blue disease,” 
and to many persons it was a new affection 
altogether; under these circumstances there 
was nothing so likely as the propagation of 
erroneous statements and opinions, and 
therefore, we were told by many that this 
malady was, like the rinderpest, of foreign 
origin also. 
Among the early signs are dullness and 
loss of appetite, the ears hang down and the 
head is carried low, but these may escape 
the notice of the attendant, for the disease 
rapidly passes from the first to the second 
stage, or the animal is away from observa¬ 
tion altogether, having, in the desire for 
quietude, and feeling a gradually increasing 
languor and weakness, buried himself be¬ 
neath a heap of straw, faggots, or some 
other out of the way place, and is not seen 
until the more severe signs are present. 
There are then abdominal pains and the pig 
stretches himself on the ground, bringing 
the abdomen upon it and extending the fore 
legs, and when disturbed lie utters loud cries 
of pain. At times those paroxysms are 
somewhat acute, and one or more of the 
affected animals will jump up quickly and 
run about shrieking in a very Mild and 
curious mariner ; and occasionally an oppo- 
' site state may be seen :—the pigs are rapidly 
! dull and stupid and remain so until death. 
In the early stages the akin is of u bright 
scarlet, gradually assuming a deeper and 
more purple shade, and at this time if pres¬ 
sure Is applied with the fingers, impressions 
corresponding to them are left. At a later 
period, and as the darker color is produced it 
does not remove on pressure, the circulation 
lias become so distu rbed, that blood material 
lias become effused into the substance of the 
skin itself, ns well as in the Coll spaces beneath. 
The outer local signs have their counterparts 
within, every organ almost being more or 
less implicated, and marked with patches of 
the same color. This leads to considerable 
systemic disturbance. The heart is inter¬ 
fered with, and the circulation is diminished 
in volume as well as strength, and we have a 
small, rapid and feeble pulse at once. The 
bowels, likewise, are disturbed; digestion 
proceeds badly, and painful spasms follow 
which distress the animal very much. At 
this Btage diarrhea is very likely to arise, 
and it will defy the action of almost any 
remedy ; it becomes profuse aud weakens 
and distresses the sufferer more and more as 
it proceeds, the dejections being black and 
most offensive by reason of the blood material 
of which they are largely composed, as it la 
discharged flora the ulcerations on the mem¬ 
branous surfaces of the bowels. The lungs 
next suffer from congestion, and the breath¬ 
ing becomes short, rapid, and catching, and 
the pulse is more feeble, smaller, and grow¬ 
ing more indistinct under the finger. The 
animal becomes so weak that lie neither 
stands nor raises himself, and ere long the 
use of the limbs is completely gone. The 
skin, which has ussumed a black color in 
many places, begins to slough, exposing 
ulcers which have no disposition to heal, and 
so long as the creature lives, these sores 
increase in number and enlarge in size, but 
usually insensibility comes on and death 
follows very shortly. Tn some cases the 
disease is limited to a slight discoloration of 
the skin, with partial loss of appetite, und 
recovery follows in a day or two, but the 
more Common form exists as we have already 
described. 
There has been much said and written of 
Hie probable contagious nature of this com¬ 
plaint. From tlie fact, that many are seized 
almost at the same hour, we may say, it. has 
been deemed conclusive. As wo have more 
than once pointed out i?i these columns, it 
is necessary here to repeat, that contagious 
maladies do not behave iu such a manner. 
When large numbers of victims are simul¬ 
taneously seized by disease of one kind, the 
circumstance goes to prove the existence of 
some wide-spread cause operating upon all 
alike. When contagions disease isintrodueud 
by one animal or otherwise, it does not seize 
all alike, and hence we find one now, another 
later on, and so On, among numbers, for 
days and weeks; the so-called sporadic dis¬ 
eases, on the contrary, as common cold, for 
instance, will seize hundreds in a moment. 
If we had ever any belief in the contagious 
theory of anthrax fever, it would be readily 
blown away by noticing the fact that where 
absolute cleanliness is established the disease 
is rarely or ever seen. We remember in¬ 
stances where it bad never been known, 
until one (lay all the animals, which had 
never left the farm, having been bred on it, 
were suddenly seized, and while they were 
confined to the sties, they died rapidly one 
after another. 
The cause has been mostly traced to a 
defective state of drains, by which a poison¬ 
ous effluvia has been allowed to rise into the 
sleeping apartment, and when such has been 
decided, the best remedy, after some simple 
aperient has been given, consisted in letting 
the pigs have their liberty. Another fruitful 
source has been found in the stagnant water 
of ponds and wells, into which decomposing 
animal and vegetable matter has heen 
allowed to run. It may seem to be broach¬ 
ing a new theory, that the water of such 
ponds, to which cows and horses, as well as 
pigs, will eagerly rush and drink heartily, is 
so baneful ; but it is no less truthful because 
™y have not heard it 30 stated, or that 
the history of blood diseases from using such 
water has beeu so little written about, 
1 » » «- 
Blind Staggers in Pigs.—P rof. Law gives 
the following “ When the hog is attacked, 
ilash bucketfuls of cold water over the body, 
throw a purgative injection into the rectum’ 
composed of six ounces of sulphate of soda 
and one or two teaspoonfuls of spirits of tur¬ 
pentine in ten ounces of water. Helens satu¬ 
rated with turpentine maybe inserted under 
the skin behind the ears, or the back of t he 
neck may be blistered by rubbing in the fol- 
lpwing mixture Spirits of turpentine and 
liquid - ammonia one ounce each, with pow¬ 
dered eantharidos, two drachms. 
