886 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER 
MAY 24 
This is infection. It is known to be as infec¬ 
tious or contagious a disease as pleuro-pneu- 
monia in cattle or the scab in sheep. It can 
be conveyed by inocula' on. When the truth 
is known it is not dill! ult to find a remedy. 
And the disease has bte r shown by Pasteur to 
be due to infusorial germs similar to those 
which produce cholera in swine or in poultry. 
When we know that It can be easily carried 
from cow to cow or from stable to stable by 
the air or by persons attending to the animals, 
one means of prevention at least is obvious; 
however difficult it may be to find a cure. 
Bt and by, there will be complaints about 
loss of lambs by the disease known as the pale 
disease, paper skin, arremia, bloodlessness, 
cough, husk, boose, etc., etc., and persons will 
be inquiring, What shall we do to save onr 
lambs ? Here is another serious trouble which 
has a most simple remedy. All that is required 
is to keep the lambs tff from pastures where 
old 6heep have run. The old sheep void, in 
their dung, myriads of eggs of the wormB, 
(thread worms, Strongylusfiiaria),which cause 
in the lambs this disease with so many names. 
The eggs adhere to the grass and are taken 
into the lambs' siomache, or they are also 
taken in with water that is drank, and from 
the stomach the worms proceed to the intes¬ 
tines causing trouble there, or ascend the gullet 
and pass into the Wind-pipe and descend into 
the air passages and the lungs. 
What is the Poland-China bog coming to ? 
And where will soon be the Poland-China 
about it? This used to be a black and-white- 
spotted animal descended from variously 
claimed races, but never a word was said about 
any Berkshire in it. But year by year it has 
been changing its spots and growing in black¬ 
ness until now it comes out black all over, ex¬ 
cept four white feet and a white stripe down its 
face. Now the question is, if such a pig is a 
Poland China, what is a Berkshire; and has a 
Poland-China been improved iuto a Berkshire ? 
A recent illustration in a Wester n Stock Jour¬ 
nal of a sow, Black Beauty lOili, which is said 
to be a PolaDd-China, is certainly provocative 
of 6uch an inquiry as thts. If this is a true 
representation of a pig of such breeding, then 
all the Poland-China has been bred out and all 
Berkshire has been bred in. Then what comes 
of the claim of the Poland-China breeders that 
their sort was the best pig lor all uses that was 
ever produced. 
Per Contra, the Berkshire breeders may 
feel a little set up about such an event. 
A Prolific Breeder, Indeed— W. S. 
Moore, Jr., of New Berlin, N. Y., referring to 
Frank Snedd's boast in a late Rural about an 
Oregon cow that was “some pumpkins" on 
calf-getting, Buys that It would take half a 
dozen such cows to equal one owned by Mr. 
Burrows, in that nelgboorhood. This cow, our 
veracious correspondent asserts,has given birth 
to six cal vcb this Spring. Knowing there may 
be some incredulity with regard to the entire 
accuracy of this statement, he refers all 
“ doubting ThomaseB " to John Gaskin, New 
Berlin, N. Y., “ who now has the calves.” 
gairg iuskaUrg. 
OLEOMARGARINE FROM A FARMER’S 
STANDPOINT. 
Among other good articles on various sub¬ 
jects that are constantly appearing in the Ru¬ 
ral was a late editorial on tallow butler and 
lard cheese. Farmers in this county are spe¬ 
cially interested in the condemnation of these 
concoctions, for this has long been a dairying 
and hop-raising section ; and, of course, we 
are honestly opposed to all spurious imita¬ 
tions of our genuine daiiy products. Already 
many of onr well-to-do dairy farmers are 
turning their attention to hop culture and 
sheep raising almost exclusively, because their 
butter has to meet the competition of the 
counterfeit article. It is only the large cream¬ 
eries and dairies that pay nowadays. The 
outcome is likely to be that the butter-buying 
public will soon either have to pay an extrav¬ 
agantly high price for real butter, or rest con¬ 
tent with the miserable trash miscalled by 
that name, but made of any sort of animal fat 
or oil, which misapplied chemistry, capital 
and brains can transform into an imitation of 
the genuine product of the cow. That there 
is money in the business of making the spu¬ 
rious stuff the many factories in different 
parts of the country bear witness; but that 
the imitation pays is a convincing proof of 
the superiority of the original for which it is 
sold. We consider the making and selling of 
bullock butter and hog cheese just as bad as 
the making and selling of ardent spirits. The 
business i6 dishonorable inasmuch as the 
dealers, as a class, cheat the public by obtain¬ 
ing their money without giving them what 
they paid it for. We believe In calling things 
by their right names, and such dealing we 
stigmatize as swindling. While regretting the 
manufacture of the stuff as injurious to our 
own interests, to the health of the public and 
the morality of all who deal in it, our main 
ground of objection to it is that it should be 
sold under the name of a product for which 
the dairymen of the country. l.y yearsof study 
and labor, have won the reputation which now 
makes its counterfeit salahle. The dealers in 
the spurious concoctions make use of our good 
deeds to injure us. W. B. Nearing 
Otsego Co.. N. Y. 
-- 
An Anti-self Milking Device. —Our friend 
J. G. B., of MeGrawville, N. Y., sends us the 
accompanying sketch of a device for the above 
object. In describing it he says : “ A piece of 
half-inch basswood board, seven by four and a 
half inches, is all that is required, and the con¬ 
trivance can be made with a jack-knife in five 
minutes by following the diagram. The space 
ANTI-SELF-SUCKING DEVICE.— FIG. 260. 
bet ween the arms, C. C, should be only half an 
inch. Insert one arm in one of the nostrils of 
the cow and then by a peculiar *• twist ” slip the 
other arm into the other nostril, and the job is 
done. The device will in no way prevent the cow 
from grazing, but it will prevent her mouth 
from touching either her own teats or those of a 
companion. During the past couple of years 
I have seen it used on some of the worse self¬ 
sucking cows in this neighborhood, and I have 
yet to hear of the first instance where it has 
failed to e ffect a complete cure. I do not know 
whether it is a new invention, but I have never 
seen it described either in the Rural or any 
of the other agricultural papers." 
Remarks. —This nose-piece was first de¬ 
scribed ahout 20 months ago in Professor J. P. 
Sheldon’s Dairy Farming, from which the illus¬ 
trations and description thereof were promptly 
reproduced in the Rural New-Yorker of Dec. 
6th, 1879. B itb were again reproduced in the 
Rural of April 17th, 1880, iu the Querist De¬ 
partment, iu answer to an inquiry about the 
best auti-self-sucking device. To show how the 
nose-piece is used we once more present to 
our readers one of our former illustrations— 
that which shows ^ow the device appears when 
fixed on the cow. 
DEVICE ON COW.—FIG. 261. 
We know that our friend of MeGrawville 
has been an ordinarily attentive reader of the 
Rural for more than two years ; but his foi- 
getfuluess shows how many really excellent 
things in it are not noticed so as to be remem¬ 
bered by many readers. 
Casting the Calf-bag. —A friend referring 
to our directions for treating inversion of the 
womb in a cow, in the Rural of April 2, says 
that he had a cow which was troubled in that 
way for several years before calviDg. and he 
always found the following remedy ilffcacious. 
It must not be prepared, however, until 
needed: Clean the parts and sprinkle freely 
on them the following mixture finely pow¬ 
dered;—two tablespooniuls of burnt beans; 
one tableepoonful of black pepper; one table¬ 
spoonful of chalk; one tablespoontul of alum. 
Replace the parts and put on harness, as di¬ 
rected in article above referred to. 
Remarks.— A cow never casts her “ withers” 
or “calf-bag" before calving. It sometimes 
happens, however, that from various causes 
the vagina or the rectum of a cow becomes in¬ 
verted, and it must he to such a case our 
friend alludes. Only a strong cow could sur¬ 
vive the application of the recipe lie gives, if 
U6ed as directed. The best treatment in such 
cases is the same as that described in our ar¬ 
ticle of April 2. 
-» » - • - 
A Large Milk Yield —Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, 
Peterboro, N. Y , writes under date of May 8, as 
follows: “My Holstein Cow Ondine (winner of 
flr6t prize at the laBt N. Y. State Fair) during 
ten days of last month produced 84 6 pounds 
of milk on dry feed. For eight days her daily 
average was 85 pounds 10% ounces. The 
highest yield in one day was 90J pounds. She 
is now milking about 80 pounds per day.” 
(Kitfomolopral, 
THE CLOVER-STEM BORER-Languria 
Mozardi. 
Though the larval habits of this insect 
have been Ivut recently described, (See Prof. 
Comstock’s report in Department of Ag. Re¬ 
port, 1879,) yet the beetle has been known 
for some time. It had been supposed that 
most of our species of the family to which this 
belongs, lived in fungi—puff-balls, toad-stools, 
etc.—though some of the tropical species are 
leaf-eaters. 
The illustration represents the full-grown 
larva, the chrysalis, the eggs, the beetle and a 
stem of clover cut open to show the larva on 
the inside. Tire beetle is email, slender, red¬ 
dish, with dark bine wing-covers. It gnaws 
the sides of the stalks of Red Clover in the 
early part of the season. After properly pre¬ 
paring the place the female beetle deposits a 
small, yellowish egg as far into the gash in 
the side of the stalk as she can push it. The 
egg soon hatches to a slender grub that feeds 
wholly upon the pith of the stem till it has 
attained itB full eize, being then of the length 
of tbe line by the side of the larva in the cut 
It chauges to a chrysalis in the lower end of 
its burrow, from which the beetle in due time 
emerges. 
A single one of thcee borer*6 in a stem of 
clover does not kill the 6tem but it serves to 
weaken it, and when the borers are very 
numerous they do considerable damage. Prof. 
Comstock thinks that when the clover is 
cut early in the Beason, and then again late, 
little harm can be done by these borers. As 
clover-seed borer — fig. 262. 
the beetles do not come out till August,, cutting 
the clover early would make it probable that 
the larvae would not live in the dry stems of 
the bay, while cutting a second crop would 
head off those that had come from eggs laid 
after the first cutting. If the cutting were 
only partial, the clover left in the corners of 
the fences or elsewhere would serve to develop 
beetles enough for “seed" for another year. 
There is probably but one brood of the insects 
in a season, hibernating in ihe beetle state. 
Carbondale, Ill. prof. g. h. french. 
Jattn ®ojws. 
A CORD OF GREEN COW-DUNG. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of April 30, 
page 291, I notice a criticism upon Dana’s 
weight of a cord of green cow-dung, which 
should not pass unnoticed. Probably no mau 
in America was better qualified to state abso¬ 
lutely the weight of that one commodity than 
he, for his connection with, a large calico print¬ 
ing establishment which uses immense quanti¬ 
ties of it, made it as neceesary for him to know 
its weight as that a grain merchant should 
the weight of a bushel of corn. The statement 
that “ there is nothing in cow-dung heavier 
than water" must he erroneous, as cow-dung 
always sinks in water like a stone. I took a 
sample this morning within one minute after 
it was dropped and put it in a pail of water. It 
went to the bottom instantly, and remains there 
still as compact as when put in, several hours 
ago. Even horse-dung sinks, as I have had 
frequent occasion to know. O. 8. Bliss. 
Remarks. —Will Mr. Bliss kindly state what 
there Is in cow-dung that is heavier thau water 
and why our statement “must be erroneous,” 
Seventy-five per cent, of it is water, or 774 per 
cent., according to some authorities, and the 
remainder is vegetable matter, with some little 
animal matter as mucus, all of which is of 
less specific gravity in its natural condition 
than water. We, too, have this moment of 
writing placed in water a compact fresh drop¬ 
ping from a cow that is fed upon eight quarts 
of grain food daily with clover hay, and whose 
dung is unusually solid, and we find that it 
floats in quite a lively manner. Mr. Bliss must 
know very well that circumstances—unless 
they are exceptional—do not alter cases that 
are founded upon such a reasonable and cer¬ 
tain basis as the specific gravity of substances. 
If the cow eats hay, or grass, or bran, or corn- 
meal and drinks water, and digests from the 
food tbe most solid portions, rejecting chielly 
the lighter cellulose and the water, how can 
the rejected part6 be made heavier than the 
original matter by passing through the cow ? 
The corn is certainly heavier then water, but 
the rest of the food is not, and the whole is 
lighter. Even the dune of horses fed wholly 
on oats, without hay, floats in a trial made at 
this writing. Mr. Bliss has had his own fights 
on thisquestiOD of specific gravity with regard 
to cream, and knows we think too much about 
it to defend what is a clear error of Dr. Dana’s. 
The statement that Dr. Dana should know the 
weight of cow dung because be was connected 
with a calico printing establishment should 
have no effect on this question. 
A chemist is employed iu printing works, 
not to weigh cow-dung, which is used as a 
mordant in the dyeing of the cloth, but 
to watch its chemical reactions as well as 
those of tbe various dye stuffs and colors used. 
The specific gravity is of no importance what¬ 
ever, and it iB improbable that Dr. Dana ever 
considered it in this light in Lis connection 
with calieo printing. A precise analysis of 
cow-dung, mad a by a chemist of a print 
works now before us, is as followswater 
69.58 per cent; bitter matter 0.74; sweet 
substance 0 93 : chlorophy 1 0 28; albumen 0 63; 
muriate of soda 0 08; sulphate of potash 0 05; 
sulphate of lime 0 25; carbonate of lime 0 24; 
phosphate of lime 0 46; carbonate of iron 0 09; 
woody fiber 26 S!); silica 0.14; IossO 14. Of Ihese 
the mineral matters—1.31 percent—are heavier 
than water and 28 97 per cent are lighter. On 
the whole this analysis would show that cow- 
dung should be lighter than water. If not 
will our friend show why not ? 
- »«- «- 
ORCHARDS, PIGS AND CLOVER. 
Corn is perhaps as well suited to our apple 
orchards, until the trees are of good fruiting 
size, as any crop we could plant. The culti¬ 
vation required for corn is such as also suits 
the growing trees, and it ceases at a time when 
they should not be pressed to further growth 
for the season, allowing them to rest and ripen 
for Winter. The corn also gives the necessary 
shade whieh the trunks, while young, require. 
Artichokes are also good to be planted in the 
tree row—not nearer to each tree than four 
feet. 
Pigs are the best stock to have access to the 
orchard. They will do the most good and the 
least harm. They may be given free access to 
the orchard as soon in Autumn as the corn is 
cribbed. They will glean the corn-field, har¬ 
vest the artiehoke6 aud give the land a pretty 
thorough Fall plowing. They will also spread 
much valuable manure and destroy millions 
of hurtful vermin iu the larval 6tate. Tbe ar¬ 
tichokes promote the health and rapid growth 
of the pigs, which, without other food, will 
be hall fattened by the time the frost stops 
their rooting. Then liberal " corning” soon 
fits them for the butcher. 
When the orchard is older, the trees well 
grown and required to fruit, the crop may be 
changed from corn to clover. This does not 
promote the rapid growth of the trees, but it 
increases the fruit, aud is very beneficial to the 
soil and young roots of the trees, protecting 
also the whole surface from the scorching sun 
in Summer and severe frosts in Winter. At the 
same time it affords a real paradise for the 
pigs, which may now occupy the orchard 
through the Spring. Summer and Autumn. A 
large number will find ample, nutritious food 
in tbe succulent, growing clover., upon which 
they will thrive and grow rapidly, doing no 
hurt to the trees, but much good by catching 
bugs and worms a thousand boys or men 
would never liud. The apples which drop pre¬ 
maturely contain wotms, which caused their 
fall. The pigs pick op this worthless fruit and 
with it eat the worms, aud thus prevent an in¬ 
crease to millions more. Oa this fine pastur¬ 
age the pigs are so well grown as to he ready 
for sale in September, as feeders, aod all the 
growth is profit. “ Jot.” 
8pringfield, Mo. 
-- 
A Stone Drain —Referring to the method of 
making a stone drain, mentioned in the Rural 
of April 16, in answer to a correspondent, E. 
W. 8. writes us from Afton, N. Y., that in¬ 
stead of laying a row of stones close to each 
side of the ditch for flat stones to rest on, as 
there described, he would luy only one row of 
stones iu the ditch, and then lay largo, flat 
stones with one end resting on the bottom of 
the ditch and the other on the stones along its 
side. Speaking from experience, he Bays that 
a drain laid this way is more durable than 
one made after the other fashion, because, as 
the flowing water wears away the bottom of 
the drain, the two rows of stones along the 
sides will “woik” together, an end that is 
hastened by the action of frost aud the pres¬ 
sure of the sides of the ditch. As they are 
forced close to each other, the drain is grad¬ 
ually damaged, aud fiually destroyed on their 
coming together. On the other hand, when 
only a single row of stone is laid along one 
side of the ditch the flit stones lying at an 
acute angle with it, press it against the side of 
the drain, so that it can be forced out of its 
proper place, neither by outside pressure, nor 
by the action of the water as it washes down 
the middle of the ditch or drain. 
