7 67 
NOV 44 
IMerxitaruj. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
|Thr object of articles nnrter this heading 1 b not no 
much to deal with “humbugs" as with the manj un¬ 
conscious errors that creep Into the methods Of dally 
country routine life.—Ens.l 
“SWEENY’’ IN HORSES 
Sweeny is not a disease, but a shrinking of 
the muscles of the shoulder in consequence of 
some disease which produces lameness. The 
lameness causes the horse to avoid exercising 
the diseased part and this throws the large 
muscles of the shoulder out. of use. It is well 
known that when a muscle is constantly and 
severely used it increases in strength, hardness 
and size and when it is not used it becomes 
weak, soft and flabby, and shrinks. This is 
precisely theeffect known as "sweeny,” which 
occurs when, from any lameness, the large 
muscles of the shoulder are not brought into 
use. This may be tietber explained by refer¬ 
ence to the engraving Pig. 426, in which the 
muscles of the shoulder are shown. These are 
as follows: 1. 1. the long abductor muscle, 
by which the leg is drawn backwards after it 
has been thrown forward 2, the superspin- 
atus, a very thick and strong muscle by which 
the leg is thrown forwards and extended 
Fig. 426. 
by the help of the biceps (5); 3, the subspin- 
atus, which acts with the long abductor 
muscle to draw the leg backwards; 4, is the 
short abductor muscle; 5, the biceps, a very 
powerful muscle which draws the leg forward 
by its contraction; 6, is a small interior 
muscle; 7 and 8 are the large and short exten¬ 
sors of the arm, but are scarcely within the 
present consideration. 
Now when the large muscle (2) is violently 
contracted, the shoulder joint is drawn up 
and forwards and the leg is thrown forwards. 
This muscle is brought iuto violent action 
when a horse is trottiug freely or is drawing 
heavy loads. When the muscles 1. 1. and 3 
are contracted the leg is drawn backwards 
again, or rather by the leverage of the limb 
the body of the animal, and its load as well, 
are drawn forwards, and over and beyond 
the line of the leg. It is easily seen wbat 
severe exertion it is necessary for these 
muscles to make when the horse is working 
freely. These are the muscles which cover 
the outer surface of the scapula or shoulder 
blade, and which fill up the form and round 
ness of the shoulder. They fire the muscles, 
too, which are affected by what is known as 
“sweeny,” and sweeny occurs in this way— 
when from disease of the foot, leg or it may 
be—but is very rarely—of the shoulder joint, 
the horse does not move the leg freely, these 
large muscles are not sufficiently exerted and 
waste and shrink and lose their solidity and 
firmness. The shoulder then shrinks and falls 
in and it is supposed that something is wrong 
with the shoulder itself. As we have said, 
it may Ire, for the shoulder may have been 
strained by a slip or a wrench, but this very 
rarely happens and is generally noticed when 
it happens. Mostly the trouble is elsewhere. 
It is evident from most questions which are 
sent to us and which give no indication of 
where the trouble is, that no satisfactory 
treatment can he advised, further than to find 
by a careful examination of the foot, leg, 
knee, etc., which part is affected. 
That Infallible Remedy for Stifle. 
In the Rural of Oct. 7, appeared a critL 
cism by Dr. T. H. Hoskins of my note 
giving “an infallible cure for stifle.” The 
reading of the criticism reminds me of 
the story of the old Dutch Justice, who 
rendered his decision before hearing any evi¬ 
dence. Dr. Hoskins says the theory is wrong, 
and in practice the result promised will not 
be secured. Theory is cheap and quite often 
misleading and erroneous. The author of the 
THE RURAL #4£W-» >R9CER. 
above criticism should have waited for evi¬ 
dence before making so hold an assertion. 
The remedy has cured several cases of stifle 
in horses where they “carried a leg” from 24 
hours to three weeks. Abundance of evidence 
can be had to sustain the above mentioned 
cures if necessary. Pacts are what fs desired. 
Let those who have an opportunity try the 
remedy named on page 635 of the Rural, 
and they will then ascertain which is better 
for stifle—theory, or alum and the whites of 
hens’ eggs, W. B. Nearing. 
iitiscellfmfjcms. 
OREGON GRA.PE-ROOT. 
This plant is botanically known as Berberis 
aquifolium, Holly Barberry or Mahonia 
(Gray), or, as other authors give it, Berberis 
aquifolium var. repeos. It is found in the 
mountainous regions of California, Oregon, 
Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Montana, and 
its root is value.! very highly among Western 
miners who report it to be an efficient tonic 
and anti-periodic capable of replacing salts of 
quinia in the treatment of malarial disorders, 
and especially what is known among the 
miners as “mountain fever.” 
An analysis of the powdered roots of Ber¬ 
beris aquifolium was made by the chemist to 
the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C., and the result was announced in the 
last published report (1880). The medicinal 
effects of the roots are ascribed to the presence 
of two alkaloids, the one Iwrberina; the other 
oxyacanthina. The former is the substance 
which gives the root its yellow color. It has 
a bitter taste and, together with its salts, has 
been used as a tonic and anti-periodic, and its 
glycerine solutions are employed in treating 
ulcerated surfaces. The latter (oxyacanthina) 
is a white substance which gradually changes 
to a light yellow on exposure to the air; it has 
a bitter taste. Of the medicinal properties of 
this alkaloid hut little is known,and a thorough 
study of the subject would be of the highest 
scientific and practical importance. 
As the composition of the root of the com¬ 
mon barberry (B. vulgaris) is very similar to 
that of the Oregon Grape Root we may infer 
that the medicinal properties and therapeutic 
action of the two are about the same, and if 
so we have in this plant a tonic and febrifuge 
which may aid us in combatting the various 
malarial diseases, fevers, etc., with which 
humanity is affected. 
What Has Become of the Birds ? 
I would like to know if they have disap¬ 
peared everywhere as they have in my neigh¬ 
borhood. It may be from some local cause. 
Do yon think it is the heavy blasting which is 
constantly carried on one mile from here on 
the West Shore Railroad ! Probably Rural 
readers in other sections could answer. Our 
new seedling grapes, which we most prized, 
the birds so nearly destroyed that we were 
compelled to cover whole vineyards with mos¬ 
quito netting, and the invincible oriole and 
top-knot or swamp robin, would creep under 
the net, but since August we have bad a quiet 
which leaves us in amazement. Not a note 
has been heardjfrom a bird of any kind ex¬ 
cepting the ever present English nuisance and 
the ground sparrow. We have not as yet 
noticed any increase of Pall insects, a. j. c. 
Marlboro, Ulster Co., N. Y. 
-- 
CATALOGUES, &C. 
Practical Farm Drainage and Manu¬ 
facture of Tile Drain, is the title of a 
book of 94 pages, octavo, just published by 
J. J. W. Billingsley, Indianapolis, Indiana, 
price $1. Part I, by C. G. Elliott, drain¬ 
age engineer, tells in a practical • way 
why, when and bow to drain. Part II, by 
Mr. Billingsley, editor of the Drainage 
Journal, treats of the manufacture of tile 
drains, selection of clays, plans of factories, 
machinery and the mode of manufacture. The 
two parts are substantially bound together in 
cloth and illustrated with upwards of 60 en¬ 
gravings. In view of the rapid increase of 
interest in tile drainage, this work should 
become popular. 
The Sugars; their Chemical Nature and 
History. The Nature of Swamp-muck and its 
value in Agriculture. The Chemistry of Ni¬ 
trogen in its Relations to Agriculture—being 
extracts from the 29th annual report of the 
Secretary of the Mass. Board of Agriculture 
by Dr. James R. Nichols the accomplished 
editor of the Journal of Chemistry. Boston, 
Rand, Avery & Co., Ill Frtmkliu St. 
Hiram Siblkv & Co., Rochester, N. Y. 
Finely illustrated catalogue of Holland and 
Spring-flowering bulbs of all kinds, for plant¬ 
ing now. Also roses, geraniums, house plants 
of various kinds, grasses and immortelles. 
Also vegetable seeds for Fall sowing. 
Plant Seed Company, 812 and 814 North 
Fourth Street, 8t. Louis, Mo. Preliminary 
Market Gardeners’ Wholesale Price-list of 
vegetable seeds, seed potatoes, onion sets, etc. 
Also, 
An Essay on the cultivation of Dutch Bul¬ 
bous roots. Free to applicants. 
-» ■ « ■ «- 
City and Country Boys.—A correspond¬ 
ent of the Detroit Free Press asks why it is 
that the proportion of country boys in the 
United States who succeed in life is much 
greater than that of city boys who seem to 
have many advantages over their rural 
brothers. In the course of its reply the Press 
say3 that with city boys there is altogether 
too much hot-house life. Many of them are 
dwarfed and stunted from their birth. They 
are coddled and indulged. Too many of them 
are brought up with false notions of what, is 
honorable and manly. Their parents are fas¬ 
tidious, without being sensible, in the choice 
of occupations for them, and they are in con¬ 
sequence handicapped through life. They 
have, perhaps, a greater variety of pleasures 
than country boys; but there are many manly 
exercise* from which, from numerous causes, 
most of them are debarred. Thus every 
country boy, almost as a matter of course, 
learns to swim, hunt, and break a horse; 
while the larger the city is the fewer rela¬ 
tively the number of boys who can do any 
or all of these things. These may seem insig¬ 
nificant accomplishments, yet each involves a 
physical and mental training which cannot 
fail to be beneficial in after life. 
-- • 
Blinkers. —Speaking of the use of blinkers 
the Live Stock Journal says that if the horse 
is hieh-strung, full of nervous excitement, 
inclined to he flighty, indulging in shying, or 
timid starts, he should lie trained to drive in 
an open bridle. Nothing inspires confidence, 
nothing overcomes fear in the horse like a 
knowledge that the senses of sight and of 
smelling bring to him that there is no real 
danger. If the horse can see and smell the 
object of his fright, his timidity rapidly dis¬ 
appears. Many flighty, nervous horses have 
been reassured by the use of the open bridle. 
It is likewise an effectual antidote to an over- 
eager ambition. The high-strung road horse 
that would rush along at full speed till he 
dropped dead, or exhausted the strength of 
the driver pulling in vain at the reins to re¬ 
strain his ardor in a bridle with blinders, 
often becomes sedate, and at times positively 
lazy, in an open bridle. Regarding the man¬ 
ipulations of the bit and the use of the voice 
the article says that the intelligent, well- 
trained horse is almost as responsive to the 
human voice as are the highest breeds of the 
dog. At the word of command, he cannot 
only be trained to stop and start, but to ex¬ 
tend himself at full speed when the inspiring 
tones of the skillful driver send a thrill through 
him as if he had been subjected to an electric, 
shock. The roadite is provided with the reins, 
the bit, and the whip; but, greater than all 
combined, with the powerful agency of the 
human voice The reins may guide his horse, 
the bit may inspire him by its skillful manipu¬ 
lation, and the whip may urge him forward 
to greater ambition; but the human voice is 
more potent than all these agencies. Its 
assuring tones will more quickly dispel his 
fright; its severe reproaches will more effec¬ 
tually check his insubordination; its sharp, 
clear, electric commands will more thoroughly 
arouse his ambition, and its gentle, kindly 
praises will more completely encourage the 
intelligent road horse than the united forces 
of the bit and reins and the lash. No animal 
in domestic use more readily responds to the 
power of kindness than the road horse. 
Oats for Pigs.— Present indications point 
to a large crop of oats through the Middle and 
Western States, while the corn crop is liable 
bo he short in all hut Nebraska and Kansas; 
and, as a result, oats are liable to bring 12J^ 
cents per bushel, while corn will probably 
stand at 50 cents per bushel, in which case oats 
are much the cheaper feed. This is the rea¬ 
soning of a paper called Farm and Workshop. 
When oats are worth 25 cents and com 50 
cents, one is us cheap as the other to feed—two 
bushels of oats being considered equal to one of 
corn; so with prospective difference in prices 
for the season, oats will be the cheaper feed. 
The best way to secure the most profitable re¬ 
sults from oats for hogs is to grind and allow 
them to remain twelve hours in the slop from 
the house, water or skim-milk—of course, the 
milk is preferable. A good plan is to add a 
small amouufc of ground oil-cake; and, where 
vegetables can be had, they may also be used 
to advantage, and all the better if boiled. The 
paper above alluded to has known young pigs 
to be raised in this way that were very fine. 
| It should certainly be the object of every 
feeder to study economy in feeding, when one 
kind of grain is high, and another low, to sub- 
titute the cheaper kind so far as possible. 
A fashion reported from Paris is to save 
cherrv, plum, peach and other stones of fruits, 
dry them and keep them until a frosty night 
makes an open Are agreeable. Then bring a 
handful and throw them among the glowing 
coals. They crack and splutter for a moment, 
send up a brilliant flame, and the whole room 
is filled with a delicious odor. 
I » ♦ - 
The citrus men of Los Angeles, Cal., have 
made a discovery of great value to Florida. 
Dry sand Is the best packing for oranges and 
lemons. It must be quite dry and no paper 
must be used. The fruit must, touch the sand. 
Experience warrants keeping for five months 
at least. The dry sand has absorbing power 
that apparently takes up all exudations sub¬ 
ject to decomposition, the rind being very 
porous. Naturally the thoughtful mind sug¬ 
gests that, on the same principle, dry sand 
must have a similar preservative effect on 
other fruits, such as pears, plums, nectarines, 
apples and other ■’month-skinned varieties. 
--- 
THE venerable Southern botanist, H. W. Ra- 
venel, savs in the Charleston News: “Seedling 
Grapes: The Rural New-Yorker proposes 
to inaugurate a‘boom’in grape raising. It 
has been the custom of that paper for many 
years past to distribute gratuitously to its 
subscribers packages of the choicest seeds or 
tubers of new and improved varieties of field 
crops, vegetables, fruits and flowers. Its cir¬ 
culation being very large Bnd embracing the 
whole area of the United States, by this mode 
the best of plants become disseminated through 
the country. Among the seeds to be distrib¬ 
uted next Winter will be seeds of the famous 
‘Niagara’ grape, considered one of the very 
best of American grapes. If only a large 
proportion of its subscribers to whom they 
will be sent give them a fair trial, there will 
be the chances among several hundred thou¬ 
sand seedlings of raising grapes superior to 
any we now have. A really first-rate grape— 
one that will possess all the qualities desired, 
viz., hardiness, vigor in growth, productive¬ 
ness, adaptation to different latitudes, free¬ 
dom from rot, quality of fruit, size, and in¬ 
viting appearance—means a fortune to its 
owner. Who will draw the prize?” 
Insects Injurious, to Vegetation. —Pro¬ 
fessor C. V. Riley. Entomologist of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, solicits inquiries 
with regard to insects injurious to vegetation- 
With regard to the mode of forwarding speci¬ 
mens he says:—“All inquiries about insects 
injurious or otherwise, should be accompanied 
by specimens, the more the better. Such 
specimens, if dead should be packed in some 
soft material, as cotton or wool, and inclosed 
in some stout tin or wooden box. They will 
come by mail for one cent per ounce. Insects 
should never be inclosed loose in the letter. 
Whenever possible, larvae (i. e. grub*, cater¬ 
pillars, maggots, etc.,) should be packed alive 
in some tight tin box—the tighter the better> 
as air-holes are not needed—alODg with a sup¬ 
ply of their appropriate food sufficient to last 
them on their journey; otherwise they gen¬ 
erally die on the road and shrivel np. »Send 
as full an account as possible of the habits of 
the insect respecting which you desire infor¬ 
mation; for example, what plant or plants it 
infests; whether it destroys the leaves, the 
buds, the twigs, or the stem; how long it has 
been known to von; what amount of damage it 
has done. etc. Such particulars are often not 
only of high scientific interest, but of great 
practical importance. In sending soft insects 
or larvce that have been killed in alcohol, they 
should be packed in cotton, saturated in 
alcohol. In sending pinned or mounted in¬ 
sects. always nin them securely in a box to be 
inclosed in a larger box, the space between 
the two boxes to be packed -with some soft or 
elastic material, to prevent too violent jar¬ 
ring. Packages should be marked with the 
name ef the sender." 
PITHS AND REMINDERS. 
Dr. Frank H, Hamilton says, in Popular 
Science Monthly, that the offensiveness of 
odors is no test of their insalubrity, but that 
the most fatal germs are often conveyed in an 
atmosphere which is odorless.. 
If you should impartially reckon the value 
of your life to mankind could you honestly 
say that you have been worth as much as a 
good milch cow or a self-respecting mule ?... 
“A man traveling in New Hampshire and 
seeing a laborer at work in a field, said, rather 
pityingly, to him; ‘You must have a hard 
time of it, this land is so rocky and barren V 
And the laborer replied: ‘ Yes, stranger, it is 
poor land. But don’t think I’m so poor as I 
seem. I don’town any of it.”—[Vt.Watchman. 
When Mr. Edmund Hersey hears a man 
proclaim a new departure in agriculture or 
success, after only one or two years' trial, it 
is always evident to him that the speaker has 
formed a hasty conclusion, which time may 
prove incorrect. So he expresses himself in 
our good contemporary, the Mass. Ploughman 
