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PIG FEEDING—No. II. 
DR. J. B. DAWES, OF ROTHAMSTED, ENG. 
In my last letter on the subject of pig feed* 
lng, I made some reference to the effect pro¬ 
duced on the animal by the presence of more 
or less indigestible matter In the food supplied. 
I think it may be desirable to make some fur¬ 
ther allusion to his subject, as the question is 
one of considerable importance, and also be¬ 
cause misconception, with regard to results 
which affect to bear upon the point, may easily 
lead any one to false conclusions. 
I will give an instance Some time ago a 
friend, who took an interest in pig feeding, 
informed me that he was often in the habit of 
giving to bis pigs a few pounds of coale, which 
had the effect of increasing their appetites. 
I said to him, in answer, “ I have no doubt 
that your pigs may consume more food, butyou 
may be assured that the consumption of so 
indigestible a matter, will cause the food to pasB 
through the system too quickly, the result of 
which will be that the animal will not receive 
benefit in proportion, and the food itseli will 
be wasted.’’ 
Some years ago we tried at, Rothamsted ex¬ 
periments with a celebrated condiment which 
was said to increase the digestion, improve 
the appetite, and enable the pigs to give a lar¬ 
ger increase upon a given weight of food. The 
result of adding the condiment to the ordinary 
food, was to increase instead of to diminish the 
amount required to produce a given increase 
of the animal. 
In the table which I gave in my last commu¬ 
nication I showed that, for equal weights, a pig 
increased about six limes as faBt as an ox, and 
consumed twice as much food ; but notwith¬ 
standing this fact the pig, further, left less ex- 
cremental matter from the consumption of 27 
pounds of dry food, than the ox from his food 
of less than half that weight. 
Now, bearing in mind what I stated in my 
last letter as to the different character of the 
foods which the pig and the ox are adapted to 
digest, it is evident that when, what may be 
called the machinery of the animal, is employed 
in extracting nutriment from a large amount 
of comparatively indigestible matter, such as 
is found In the bulky diet of the ox, the rate 
of increase will by necessity be slow. A mill 
of a ceitain capacity cannot extract the same 
amount of gold from quartz rock, In a given 
time, where there are only five ounces of gold 
to the ton, as it could if there was double that 
quantity of ore. I think, therefore, it may be 
considered that in order to obtain the greatest 
increase in a given time, as well as the greatest 
increase upon a given amount of food con¬ 
sumed, such food must contain very little indi¬ 
gestible matter. 
It is true that there are substances which 
might bdused economically as food, both when a 
pig is growing and also when he is finally fat¬ 
tening ; but many of these substances, in this 
country, we canuot use—at all events iu the 
final stage—and for this reason, that the food 
consumed by the pig appears to have a more 
marked effect on the quality of the meat pro¬ 
duced, than the food given to oxen and sheep, 
which, by comparison, affects bnt little the 
quality of the beef or mutton. Looking at 
the value of the manure obtained from beans 
and lentils, it would often pay the farmer bet¬ 
ter to nse them aB a fattening food than corn 
or barley used; but as consumers have found 
out that bean-fed pork is hard and unpalatable, 
butchers naturally object to purchase animals 
that have been fattened in this way. 
The general result of our investigations at 
Rothamsted led ns to the couclusiou that, 
while the growing pig might be fed npon any 
or everything, the most appropriate food for 
fattening was corn or barley meal. I may fur¬ 
ther add that we obtained very good results 
when small quantities of bran were added to 
the corn-meal; but whether such addition was 
absolutely necessary to give the best results we 
are not prepared to say. 
ABORTION IN COWS.-II. 
D. E. 3ADMON, D. T. M. 
Having made a hasty review of our knowl¬ 
edge bearing on the causation of this great 
scourge, I must freely confess that this knowl¬ 
edge is exceedingly unsatisfactory ; that there 
is no definite evidence on any point, that can 
serve to clear up the mystery surrounding the 
disorder, or that points to a practicable remedy. 
The discovery of bacteria is in itself without 
importance—these may exist in health as wcl[ 
as in disease, in common as well as in specific 
maladies; but if a particular kind of bacteria 
were discovered to be always present, if this 
were cultivated outside of the animal body for 
a number of generations and then, when inoc- 
culated, it produced the disorder, we would 
have a discovery of some importance. Again, 
smearing the generative passage with a decom¬ 
posing, irritating discharge might cause abor¬ 
tion, irrespective of & specific contagious prin¬ 
ciple ; and. even chlorate of potassa might act 
beneficially m other ways than as an antiseptic. 
Now. I think I see a smile of derision on the 
faces of hundreds of dairymen as they read 
this confession of the ignorance and inability 
of the veterinary profession; I hear them ask, 
in my imagination—what I have often heard 
in reality—"01 what value is your profession to 
us, then, if you know neither the cause nor the 
remedy for a disease that results in losses 
amounting to $10,000,000 or $15,000,000 an¬ 
nually. 
Allow me to say a few plain words to this 
class of men,for I know their number is legion. 
If the veterinary profession has no specific 
remedy for this contagious affection, it is not 
inferior in this respect to the medical pro¬ 
fession which, so far, has failed to discover an 
agent that would control a single contagious 
disease, if we except the itch—isolation and 
quarantine are their only means of fighting 
these maladies, and to these the veterinarians 
can add slaughter, which makes their work far 
more effective. 
But what has been done i6 no measure of 
what can be done—the different departments 
of science are daily throwing new light on the 
means of investigation, on the nature of con¬ 
tagious germs, and on the means by which 
these can be destroyed. The investigations 
that have been made with this, and most other 
diseases, are far behind the possibilities of the 
times. Why, then, does not tha profession 
keep its knowledge up with the means of in¬ 
vestigation ? I will explain. 
The investigation of this class of diseases 
requires special knowledge—it is the most 
delicate aud difficult work yet undertaken by 
science—beside it, chemical analysis is an easy 
matter. It requires weeks, months, years 
even, of patient, unremitting application; long, 
weary hours at the microscope ; the cultivation 
of the lowest forms of life in special ap¬ 
paratus, beyond the reach of the most 
minute germs floating in the air ; deter¬ 
mination ol the conditions favorable aud 
unfavorable to their existence ; the testing of 
a large number of medicinal agents in solutions 
of various strengths ; in short, a careful search 
for the vulnerable points of the organism. 
Bnt time is money ; apparatus and chemicals 
are money, and special skill may be classed in 
the same category. 
Now, notwithstanding the great, direct and 
continuous losses sustained by the dairymen 
from this disease; notwithstanding the fact that 
they would be the chief gainers by any dis¬ 
coveries in regard to the nature or proper 
treatment, neither the veterinary profession, 
nor any member of it has ever beeu offered, to 
my knowledge, a single dollar to pay the ex¬ 
penses of the needed investigation ! When an 
investigation of the diseases of animals is to 
be made, it is generally contended that a far¬ 
mer, a physician and a farrier must be on the 
commission—the farrier being a cross between 
a farme/ and a blacksmith. There is little 
appreciation of the proper qualifications of 
persons appointed to investigate such disease; 
as a result th?re are few specialists in the 
country to conduct them, aud the money so 
seldom and sparingly appropriated does not 
produce practical results. Iu marked contrast 
to this policy, however, is Commissioner Le 
Due's appointment of veterinarians to conduct 
such work, for which ho certainly deserves the 
thanks, not only of the profession, but of the 
country at large. 
I have full faith in the ability of modern 
science to overcome these plagues, and I know 
that when there is any assurance of continuous 
and liberal support, the proper men can be 
found to take hold of these questions and per¬ 
severe till success crowns their efforts. When 
the problem is to prevent an annual loss of 
$10,000,000, the yearly appropriation of $10,- 
000 or even $20,000, for such investigations, 
sinks into insignificance, whether this appro¬ 
priation is continued for two or twenty years. 
It is a parsimonious, short-sighted policy in 
our different legislative bodies, that will see a 
thousand dollars destroyed and will not ex¬ 
pend one dollar toward preventing such loss, 
But, primarily, the stock-owners themselves 
are the cause of this policy, for a united de¬ 
mand from them would secure any needed 
legislation; but neither Congress nor the State 
legislatures will appropriate money (except for 
political purposes) unless they know that they 
will be sustained by their constituents. 
There are too many dairymen that have 
such unbounded confidence in themselves, as 
to believe that because they have been baffled 
by this disease, the veterinary profession will 
be equally unsuccessful; there are others who 
think that the individual members of the pro¬ 
fession should make these investigations for 
the abstract love of seience, which they are 
supposed to possess; still others hold the dis¬ 
covery should be made as inventions are, and 
the reward obtained by selling the knowledge 
to interested parties. Bnt, it must be remem¬ 
bered that a professional man at once becomes 
a quack, when he sells either secret remedies 
or secret methods of preventing disease, and 
no mail of honor would stoop to this ; and, al¬ 
though he may have ever so much love of 
science, a professional man, like other mortals, 
must have a subsistence, and must see some 
return for time and expenses before he under¬ 
takes such investigations; finally, the extraor¬ 
dinary and unexpected success that has lately 
rewarded the studies of contagious diseases is 
sufficient to inspire the most inveterate doubt¬ 
er with confidence of the ultimate success of 
systematic, persistent aud intelligent investi¬ 
gation, not only of bovine abortion, but of all 
other contagious diseases. 
Treatment. 
Wbeu a cow shows symptoms of aborting, 
remove her to a quiet place, at a distance from 
the other cows ; give repeated doses ot laud¬ 
anum (two ounces, three times a day) ; give 
the other cows one half ounce of chlorate of po¬ 
tassa, daily, for a week, as a preventive. If 
the cow aborts, keep her at a distance from 
the others for. at least, a month; disinfect and 
bury deeply the feetus and membranes, and 
keep the stable, in which she is, well disin¬ 
fected with carbolic acid, chloride of lime, the 
fumes of burning sulphur or the three com¬ 
bined, and let her be caied for by a person 
who does not go near the other cows. 
It is impossible to say what is the best disin¬ 
fectant in a particular disease, except after 
careful investigation, which is yet wanting 
with this trouble; those agents which are very 
destructive to some germs are almost harmless 
to others. The ones recommended above, 
however, are most promising- 
Injections of weak solution of carbolic acid, 
chlorate of potassa. or salicylic acid into the 
vagina after abortion, would lessen the dis¬ 
charge aud possibly destroy its infections 
properties, and might thus be of considerable 
advantage in preventing the extension of the 
trouble. At all events, if the affected animai 
was, at the time of the abortion or witbin a few 
days of this time, in a stable where other cows 
are kept, and if there is no reason to attribute 
the trouble to a blow, fall or similar cause, 
then, this stable should be thoroughly cleaned, 
Scraped, the particular stall deluged with boil¬ 
ing water, aud the whole stable whitewashed 
with the ordinary lime mixture, to which has 
been added one-half pound chloride of lime 
and four ounces crude carbolic acid to the 
gallon : the whole to be followed by closing 
tbe stable and thoroughly fumigating it several 
times with burning sulphur. When practi¬ 
cable, remove the healthy cows to another 
stable or lot where no diseased animal has 
been to infect it. Wbeu the trouble is once 
fairly under way, it is often the best plan to 
sell the whole stock, thoroughly disinfect as 
above, removing all manure first, and buy a 
new lot of animals. 
These are the best directions that can be 
given at present; but, I repeat, there is reason 
to believe that a thorough investigation might 
improve on these in many respects; it might 
discover that, as with some other maladies, a 
certaiu agent has a peculiar activity in destroy¬ 
ing the infectious principle of this disease ; 
and, when found, such an agent might be suc¬ 
cessfully used as a preventive, and as a curative 
medicine, after the symptons have appeared, 
and as a disinfectant. 
If the most general form of abortion is 
really contagious, as seems to be the case, then 
it is caused by a living principle, which can 
only be produced by a pre-existing organism 
of the same kind; and this inspires the hope 
that, with increased knowledge, we may be 
able to destroy every one of such organisms, 
aud thus rid the world of the greater part of 
the contagious diseases of men and animals. 
There have been many important discoveries 
In regard to the contagious maladies within 
the last few years, and nearly all strengthen 
this view. What we need is more earnest in¬ 
vestigation ; more faith in the resources of 
nature; a determination to exhaust every 
possibility before folding our hands in dis¬ 
couragement. One day the greater part of 
such diseases will probably be exterminated; 
and if we of the present generation hope to aid 
in this extermination, ami to share the benefits 
of it, we have no time to lose. 
§airg itisfrauUrj. 
HOTEL BUTTER. 
R. GOODMAN. 
Stopping a day or two since at a new and 
somewhat pretentious hotel at Albany, N. Y., I 
was struck by the poor quality of the butter. 
Th at put on tbe table for the use of the gue&ts was 
not better than very ordiuary cooking butter, 
and both taste and smell nnited in pronouncing 
it unfit for the palates, if not for the stomachs, 
of the four-dollar-a-day patrons of the estab¬ 
lishment. A gentleman at the table, hearing 
me aBk the waiter if that was the best article 
of the kind in the house, thus having hisat 
tion called to it, remarked to his neighbor,; (-, 
nothing gave a hotel such a "black eye’’ as 
poor butter. And yet how few pvblic houses 
even in cities, give a good quality of table but¬ 
ter to their guestB, and how rare to find it sa¬ 
vory enough In country hotels and city or 
town restaurants to allow Us spreading on the 
bread. I bear great complaints of the most 
prominent of the hotels in New York City on 
this score, and tbe clnbs only avoid the dis¬ 
grace of frequent animadversions by taking 
their supplies from private dairies, by which 
means they obtain an article of which the qual¬ 
ity is not only good bnt equable. And this is 
foimd to be more economical than to furnish 
an irregular and commoB article of tub butter, 
and waste it, as Is the ordinary custom. The 
waiters at hotels cut from the dish on the table 
about a quarter of a pouud, "more or less,’’ 
and "dab" it on the small butter plate of the 
guest, and the latter “ musses ” it over; and it 
is removed with the rest of the remains of the 
dinner, and ought to go into the "slush; but 
whether it does or whether it turns up again 
in the “cooked dishes," "no feller can find out.’> 
On the other hand, when nice butter from pri. 
vate dairies is served in little " pats," they are 
daintily picked out and those not used are un¬ 
touched and can be served again as fresh and 
clean as If just taken from the package. 
There can be no question that the hotel or 
club which provides itself with the best butter 
and has it come in rolls from which nice slices 
can be cut, or in pats of an eighth of a pound, 
will find that its butter bill at the end of the 
year is less than when an inferior article is 
purchased aud wasted according to the usual 
custom, unlessitis made to do doubleduty, like 
the proverbial "bread wastes” of boarding¬ 
houses, which are said to; form the next day’s 
pudding. Our hotels, restaurants and clubs 
are compelled by the force of public opinion 
to provide themselves with the beat of bread, 
and they would be relieved of many guests if 
they furnished only the old square loaf bakers 
bread and did not set before them French and 
Vienna rolls, Boston brown bread and other 
popular varieties. But as yet the ‘'gout of 
those who congregate at those caravan series 
has not been educated up to tbe high-water 
mark, and it is a sad truth that Americans eat 
more bad butter than any other civilized people. 
Wc are striving through the 'public press, 
which enters heartily into the matter, and by 
means of lectures, dairy meetings, aud the 
like, to make the farmers ashamed of their 
slovenly habits of butter-making, and the busi¬ 
ness is becoming a specialty, and soon those 
who do not preserve cleanliness in their stables 
and in the processes through which butter is 
made, will fall back into poverty and shift¬ 
lessness generally, whilst those whose practice 
is the reverse will succeed. But, like all other 
reforms, even that of the Civil Service, the 
improvement should begin and be carried out 
at both ends, and whilst it is useless to enact 
reforming rules for tide-waiters and custom¬ 
house officers and lot their superiors do as they 
please, it is equally useless to carry out these new 
measures of dairying, unless those for whose 
eventual benefit they are intended appreciate 
their value and assist their progress. If the 
guests of these expensive hotels, where four 
and five dollars a day should be an equivalent 
for the beBt of everything included in " bed aud 
board," and if those of expensive restaurants 
would insist upon having the best butter as 
well as the best bread, the proprietors would 
soon come to terms. A guest at any of these 
places immediately turns up his nose at a too 
flavory chop or steak and sends it back, and 
would growl fearfully if a “ wot ’’ instead of a 
"dry” wine were put before him when ordering 
the latter; bnt his education is so incomplete in 
the matter of butter, and his natural taste so 
defiled by the quality he has been iu the habit 
of eating, that he is not apt to detect the poor 
quality of that put on the table, nor of ttau much 
worse with which his delicate vlandB are 
drenched and injured. We mean to keep stir¬ 
ring up the farmers to compel them to furnish 
better butter than formerly, bnt their efforts 
must be appreciated, and the public every¬ 
where demand that only good, sweet butter 
shall be put on the table at all times and in all 
places. 
Lenox, Mass. 
- -- 
Petitioning Against Oleomargarine.— 
The following petition Is being circulated for 
signature among dairymen, farmers, and buf- 
ier dealers throughout the country: 
To the, Honorable the senate and House oj Nap) o- 
senlalives Of thfi United States: 
Your petitioners, dairymen, farmers, manufac¬ 
turers of and dealers In butter and cheese in the 
United states, respectfully represent that serious 
injury Is being Inflicted upon the dairy industry of 
this country, and that gross Imposition is being 
perpetrated upon consumers in America and Eu¬ 
rope by the manufacture and Halo of a compound 
known as oleomargarine—a mixture of fat with 
butter or milk and generally sold under the name 
of butter, and urge the passage of a law 
Prohibiting the admixture of fats with butter, 
milk or cream. 
; Prohibiting the use of all coloring matter In the 
s fat of animals designed for food purposes. 
