422 
NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 24 
Ans. —This disease is a type of that know n 
as azotrcmia and a form of the well known 
spinal meningitis. It is caused by malnutrition 
and the imperfect oxidation of the nitrogenous 
elements of the food, by the imperfect action 
of the liver. The liver fails to effect the 
change of the albuminoids into urea and these, 
only partially oxidized, accumulate in the 
liver and in the blood. This diseased condition 
of the blood affects the nervous system, especi¬ 
ally the brain and the spinal marrow, produc¬ 
ing inflammation which results in the dis¬ 
charge of the acrid matter from the nose and 
ears, and the stiffness of the muscles, while the 
disordered liver affects and poisons all the 
secretions of the body. No doubt if the urine 
is examined it will be found hot and dark or 
possibly black in color, indicating at once the 
seat of the disturbance. With so young an 
animal as a four or five-days old calf, it is 
difficult to trace the disease to its source, as 
this may as likely be in the dam and be com¬ 
municated by the milk, and more likely even 
than in the calf itself. If the cows are pastur¬ 
ing in swamp meadows, or woods, or feeding 
upon coarse herbage or brush, they would 
suffer from this, more or less, in the same way 
as the calves, but the milk secretion would 
help very much to carry off the excess of the 
burden from the overworked liver and so 
relieve the cows. It is therefore a matter for 
examination and precaution as regards the 
cows first, and it would be both safe and wise 
to treat these so as to remove any taint that 
might be in the milk. Give each cow 
eight ounces of Epsom salts with one ounce of 
saltpeter and the second day one ounce of 
hyposulphite of soda, repeating the last every 
other day for a week. This may be done, 
without regard to the kind of pasture, as a 
help to the calves which will be benefited 
through the milk; but it is imperative, if the 
pasture or feed is as we suspect may be pos¬ 
sible. For the calves, apply warm fomenta¬ 
tions and a rug dipped in hot water to the 
loins; if they are costive give an injection of 
warm,soapy water with a teaspoonful of sweet 
Oil or linseed oil. The effect of the medicines 
on the cow will probably be sufficient for the 
calves, but if not a tablespoonful of linseed 
oil, or half as much castor oil may be given 
once daily with as much molasses, and one 
grain of podophyllin rubbed up with it. If 
the urine is found to continue dark in color, 
give the calf a teaspoouful of sweet spirits of 
niter twice a day. 
COTTON SEED OIL, MEAL—CHEAPEST FEED FOR 
MILCH COW. 
IF. .S'. T., Cornwall, Canada. In a late Ru¬ 
ral it was stated in the Querist Department 
that cotton seed oil meal is not suitable food 
for horses or pigs. 1. Is it suitable for milch 
cows ? If so, how much should be given ? 2. 
What is the cheapest food for a milch cow for 
Summer and Winter to get the greatest quan¬ 
tity of milk and butter—cotton-seed oil meal 
bore sells for f 1.80 per 100 pounds ; corn meal, 
$1.75; bran, 75 cents; shorts, $1.25; provender, 
(ground peas and oats) $1.40; hay, $9 per ton; 
mangolds, 25 cents per bushel. 
Axs.—1. Cotton-seed meal is an excellent 
food for cows; but it must be given in 
moderation. It is highly concentrated, and is 
therefore a dangerous food when given too 
freely, producing an inflammatory condition 
of the system which affects the milk organs 
very quickly. No more than two quarts can 
be given in one day safely under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances; that is, one quart at a feed rnorn- 
iug and night. The cow has a large stomach 
and it contains a large quantity of food, and 
one quart of the cotton-seed is well mixed 
with this food and is then in no way hurtful. 
Bur, it should always be fed with cut hay or 
roots, so that it may be thus diluted. A horse 
or a pig has a very small stomach; that of the 
horse is only half as large in proportion to the 
animal’s weight as that of a mau, and highly 
concentrated food for either of these animals 
is injurious. 2. Of the foods mentioned, a 
mixture of one part each of corn meal, ground 
oats and peas and brau would bo the best 
selection for Summer use , two to four quarts a 
day may be given. For Winter, one part of 
cotton-seed meal might be added to the above. 
The quantity of food given to a cow should be 
apportioned with judgment and with regard 
to the character of the cow. Some cows will 
turn all the extra food given to them into milk 
and butter; others will assimilate only a cer¬ 
tain quantity and the rest will not be digested 
but will do serious mischief by over-loading 
the stomach and intestines, so that one cannot 
say how much a cow could be fed of meal or 
grain food with advantage. This is a matter 
for experiment. If you think your cow could 
usefully take more meal and less hay, increase 
the meal gradually and note the effect and 
stop as soon as there is no increase in milk or 
butter. More meal can be safely given when 
the hay is cut and wetted and the meal mixed 
with it thuu when the latter is fed alone. It 
is better to feed the meal dry than in a mash, 
for reasons given in an article on “ Cows” in 
the Youths’ department recently. 
GArKS IN CHICKS. 
L. M. W., Farmington, Conn. When 
about four weeks old my chickens begin to 
sneeze, stretch out their necks and die in 
about a week. What ails them and how 
should they be treated ? 
A ns. —They are troubled with gapes, a 
disease caused by parasitic thread worms in 
the throat to which all young animals are sub* 
jeet. Lambs, calves and fowls, including wild 
fowls of the gallinaceous tribes, all suffer from 
this disease and many die from it. The 
worm is known as Strongylus Jitarin and ap¬ 
pears like a small piece of white thread. They 
are hatched from eggs dropped from the older 
animals in their dung and picked up by the 
young ones upon grass or in the food when 
the ground is soiled. The eggs hatched in the 
stomach produce the worms which crawl up 
the gullet and pass iuto the windpipe causing 
much inconvenience and irritation and com¬ 
pelling the young creatures to cough, wheeze, 
stretch their necks and gape. They finally die 
from suffocation or from w eakness caused by 
the irritation and the obstruction of the air 
passages. To prevent the disease the chicks and 
other young animals should be kept on f resh 
ground where no old ones have been kept. To 
cure it, turpentine should be given in small 
doses until the system becomes saturated with 
it and the lungs exhale it freely when it will 
destroy the worms. If the chicks are in 
danger of suffocation they may be sometimes 
saved by inserting the end of a small soft 
feather having the vanes stripped off except 
at the extremity,into the t hroat and giving it a 
twist as it is withdrawn, w'hen it will bring out 
some mucus with worms imbedded in it. This 
mucus is produced in the throat by the irrita¬ 
tion of the worms and interferes seriously 
with the breathing. If it can lie removed it 
relieves the chicks and brings out the w r orms 
with it. But it is better to avoid this trouble 
by keeping the runs for the chicks on clean 
fresh ground, when the chicks will be entirely, 
free from it. The same precaution will pre¬ 
vent the same disease in lambs and calves, 
HEAVES IN HORSES. 
F. W. S., Baden, Pa. What is-good for 
heaves in horses. Isn’t arsenic too danger¬ 
ous a remedy 1 
Ans. —The ailment is almost exclusively con¬ 
fined to mature animals. It is due mainly to 
the use of feed of a bulky character, but 
dusty hay and grain, as well as clover hay, 
are also prolific causes of it. One form of it 
is generally produced by a burd gallop or 
other severe exertion after a full meal. In 
the South the disease is generally known as 
“ bellows;” and in the prairie States it is com¬ 
paratively rare. There is no certain cure for 
it, but broken-winded horses will, if properly 
fed, do a great deal of service, though the 
work assigned them should be slow. The feed 
should bo iu a small compass, and given regu¬ 
larly four or five times a day. It should con¬ 
sist of oa ts, beaus, wheat straw, chaff, tu r- 
nips or carrots, with at night a little bright, 
hard-stalked hay, free from dust. Clean, 
cured corn stalks, in small quantity, have al¬ 
so proved beneficial. Grain and grass should 
be the chief feed in Summer, and grain with 
roots iu Winter. Water should be allowed 
sparingly at a time, and the horse should 
never be used for an hour or so after being 
fed or watered. Arsenic in small doses is a 
favorite remedy with dealers, as in nearly 
all cases it effects a temporary cure more or 
less complete. They usually begin with three 
grains a day, increasing to five a day in a 
week, and continue for three or four weeks, 
giving from 10 to 12 grains daily towards the 
end. This, however, is not a remedy we would 
recommend to horse owners who wish to use 
their horses. Dealers employ it because it 
removes the disease at least temporarily. As 
the appetite is morbidly ravenous, leading 
the affected animal to eat the litter, etc., the 
bedding should be removed by day and the 
horse be muzzled by night. A lump of rock 
salt at one end of the manger and a chunk of 
chalk'at the other have been found beneficial. 
DYNAMITE FOR REMOVING STUMPS, ETC, 
E. O., Confidence, IV. Fa.—Where can I 
get dynamite for removing stumps? What 
is the cost per stump, and is its use very dan¬ 
gerous? 
Ans. —We do not know any dealer w r ho 
furnishes dynamite or giant powder directly 
to people who wish to use it for removing 
stumps atul stones. The Atlantic Giant Pow¬ 
der Company, Varnoy & Doe, agents, fil Park 
Place, this city, are the largest dealers iu this 
explosive in the country, but they do not sup¬ 
ply it direct to users of small quan¬ 
tities. In reply to a note of inquiry 
sent them, however, they will furnish 
the name of the dealer nearest to the 
inquirer, who will furnish the article. The 
nearest dealer in gunpowder should be able 
to procure it. The powder is furnished, either 
loose or iu cartridges, iu boxes of 25 to 50 
pouuds each. Cartridges are eight inches 
long and of any diameter required. For 
small stones or stumps the cartridges can 
be cut up iuto pieces. There are two kinds of 
powder in the market, known as No. 1 and 
No. 2, No. 1 is employed for heavy work, 
being the more powerful; No, 2 is less power¬ 
ful, but quite strong enough for blasting 
stumps, etc, The cartridges are exploded by 
caps made for the purpose, and the cap is 
ignited by means of a fuse. Purchasers should 
designate the kind of powder—whether No. 
1 or 2—the number of pouuds, diameter of 
cartridge, number of caps (ene for each ex¬ 
plosion) and feet of fuse they may require. 
The following are the prices of requisites: 
Powder No. I. $1; No. 2, 50 cents per pound; 
caps (inn in a box), $3; single-tape water fuse 
(per 100 feet), 75 cents: nippers, 50 cents. Full 
instructions as to the method of using the car¬ 
tridges are furnished to applicants, iu the 
form of a pamphlet. With ordinarily careful 
handling there is not much danger iu using 
dynamite; but the better plan would bo for 
all in a’neighborhood who wish such work 
done to combine and hire a man accustomed 
to the business. 
“breaking.” 
M. W., Yorhrille. Dakota. How deep 
should “breaking" be done to be “back¬ 
set” in the Fall, or is it better to plow’ deep 
now and not “ backset.” 
Ans. —In “ breaking.” the usual depth of 
the furrow is three inches, and the usual 
width sixteen inches. Wo should certain¬ 
ly prefer to plow a three-inch furrow and 
“ backset’’ in the Fall or after the furrow 
turned in “breaking” has become measurohly 
disintegrated, which often occurs before Fa II. 
“ Breaking,” “ backsetting” and “ cross-plow¬ 
ing” constitute the general routine of prepara¬ 
tion of prairie sod for a seed bed, and in any 
section it is always well to follow the plan 
already practiced there until experience has 
demonstrated or strongly suggested a differ¬ 
ent one ; for it may be taken as a rule that the 
methods adopted by shrew'd, practical men in 
farming in any sect ion, are the methods best 
adapted to that section under existing condi¬ 
tions. Anyhow-, it is not wise for a new comer 
to depart from them without a valid reason 
and after a trial, on a small scale, of any 
plan he may thiuk a better one. “ Do as 
your neighbors do,” is a safe rule for all new¬ 
comers in every part of the country, until 
they have had experience there. Then, w'itli 
a full knowlp.dge of the conditions of their 
new location, the remembrance of different 
methods followed elsewhere may suggest val¬ 
uable improvements; but a great many of the 
avoidable mishaps that befall new settlers in 
various parts of the country are due to the 
contempt ofteu felt for the methods already 
in vogue there, aud the consequent substitu¬ 
tion of other methods, which, however ex¬ 
cellent elsewhere under different conditions, 
are not suitable in the new situation. 
ERADICATING WILD MUSTARD.—SWOLLEN BAG 
IN A COW. 
B. H. B., Herkimer, N. Y.: 1. What is the 
best way to remove wild mustard from land ? 
2. What is the proper treatment for swollen 
bag in a cow? 
Ans. —l. This wild mustard (Sinapis arveu- 
sis) and wild radish (Rhaplianus rbaphanis- 
trum) are pests at the Rural Farm, and the 
country, indeed, for miles about is w’ell seeded 
with them. The best way to exterminate 
them, or either of them, is to pull them up as 
soon as they begin to bloom. This seems a 
costly method, but it is not so much so as it 
seems and it is thoroughly efficacious. Both 
plants are annuals and we have pretty fair 
evidence that the seed may remain in the 
ground for 20 years and still germinate. A 
sowing of oats seems the most favorable to 
their germination. In pulling the plants up 
great care should be 'taken to get the roots, as 
when the stems are ..roken many other ax¬ 
illary buds push and bloom, so that a plant 
onee broken will ripen thrice the amount of 
seeds. We can assure our friend that it will 
pay him to follow our advice in this case and 
the sooner the better. 2. Give the cow a 
pound of Epsom salts and afterwards one 
ounce of saltpeter the second ami fourth days 
after it. Bathe the udder well with warm 
water and rub it gently with the hands, 
kneading the hard parts and working them 
until the hard and swollen parts become soft. 
If no milk can be got from a teat by milking 
It, inject some solution of carbonate of soda 
with a common syringe and after a few 
minutes milk it out. The soda dissolves the 
ropy and curdled milk so that it can be easily 
drawn out. 
A CARD FOND, ETC. 
J. H. C., Bradford, Mass. 1, Will German 
carp thrive iu a small gravel bottomed pond 
formed by damming a running stream ? 2, 
Could a fodder crop of oats and peas be 
obtained on light upland after early potatoes? 
If not, what fodder crop umuld be likely to 
make much growth for cutting this Fall? 2, 
Should four-year old peach trees that have 
never been cut back, be cut back now or in 
Fall? 4, Would tan-bark make a good mulch 
for Winter protection for peach and pear 
trees. 
Ans.— 1, No. To thrive carp require an 
abode having a clayey or loamy bottom. If it 
contains marl or some elements of humus so 
much the better. A thick layer of clay or 
loam would fit for carp a pond with a sandy 
bottom. In it, however, there should be a 
depression so deep that the water therein can 
never freeze, so as to afford the fish a safe 
place for hibernating. For food the pond 
should grow aquatic plants such as pond 
lilies, Spatter-dock, Pickerel-weed, Wild rice 
etc. The fish also thrive on garden vegetables, 
barley, wheat, corn, peas, coagulated blood, 
house refuse, curd, worms, larvae of aquatic 
insects, and even excremeuts of cattle and 
pigs. A lengthy illustrated article containing 
full information on carp raising, w’aspublished 
in the Rural for August 27, last year. 2. 
Unless the season were exceptionally wet, no 
Hungarian Grass would be our choice. 3, We 
should wait until Fall. 4, We do not like tan- 
bark as a mulch at all. It soon becomes too 
compact and impervious to air. Other answers 
later. 
SHEET* OR COWS ?—SOILING. 
J. /)., Maple ton, Minn. 1. Which are the 
more profitable—sheep or cows ? 2. How 
many sheep can be kept on the feed of one 
cow ? 3. Having no pasture I intend to keep 
up my cows this Summer, how many acres 
of clover, Amber Cane or sweet corn will it 
require to keep eight cows for eight months'? 
Ans. —1. It depends wholly upon circum¬ 
stances. Good sheep will always be more 
profitable than poor cows under any cirruui- 
stances; but sheep will never pay so well as 
good dairy cows. A cow that will produce 
200 pounds or more of butter in a year, is the 
most profitable animal that can be kept and 
fed on a farm. 2. It depends upon the kind 
of sheep and cows; six Merinos can be kept 
as easily as three Cotswolds, and either as 
easily as one ordinary cow of 800 pounds live, 
weight; but a large Dutch cow would cost as 
much to keep as two small cows. 3. When 
there is no pasture the cows must be kept up 
and fed; we see no choice about it. When 
laud is cheap and labor dear, pasture is cheap¬ 
er than soiling; but where land is dear and 
grass scarce, feeding green crops is most 
profitable. The space required to keep a cow 
depends upon the condition of the soil and the 
kind of management. Two square rods of 
fairly good rye, clover or core ought to feed 
one cow one day; one square rod may do it. 
Eight acres well managed should feed eight 
cows eight months, but otherwise sixteen 
acres may be required. 
OHIO LAW AS TO RENDERING STREAMS UN¬ 
WHOLESOME. 
A Constant Header, Norwalk, Ohio. The 
neighboring town empties its filth from its 
water-closets, etc., into a stream from which 
the milch cows of several neighboring farmers 
have to drink—is the drinking of such water 
healthful for them and harmless for the milk 
audits products, aud what is the law about 
such nuisances ? 
Ans. —The first part is a question of fact and 
not of law, and depends upon the size of the 
stream and amount of filth. A small amount 
of hurnau excrement is noxious, but running 
water rapidly purifl iestself. No sufficient 
data are given in the query. In Ohio the com¬ 
mon law in regard to “ Injury by rendering 
the water corrupt and unwholesome,” may be 
found in Angell on water-courses, sections 
130-141. Section 140, d, says: “ It is not how¬ 
ever, under all circumstances an unreasonable 
or unlawful use of a stream to throw or dis¬ 
charge in to it waste or impure matter. Whether 
such would be reasonable or not iu auy 
given case, would be a case for a jury upon 
its circumstances.” When health is damaged 
or destroyed, an action for damages is not the 
only recourse, but an injunction may be had 
restraining the offending party or parties from 
further offense. In Ohio it hus been repeated¬ 
ly decided, for example, that cheese factories 
shall not so discharge whey or other factory 
refuse into a stream as to render the water 
unwholesome to cattle, etc.,in pastures below. 
TnK LUNA MOTH. 
S., Derry Church, Pa., sends moth found on 
the trunk of a crab tree, and asks its name 
habits, etc. 
ANSWER BY PROF. G. H. FRENCH. 
The moth is wlmt is known as the Luna 
Moth (Actias Luna.) It is one of our most 
beautiful species of a group of silk worm 
moths which some poet has called the “ Pale 
empress of the night," It is not so large as 
the Cecropia, another one of the group, but 
ou account of its form and delicate color it is 
more worthy of the name given it by the 
poet. The larva or young of this moth is a 
pale, bluish green caterpillar feeding mostly 
on black walnut, butternut and hickory, but 
sometimes on sweet gum, beech, birch, wil 
low aud plum, and perhaps on some other trees. 
It has a yellow stripe on each side of the body 
