34 
JAM 43 
five or six years old that has been well fed and 
has paid for his feed in work for three years, 
and so costs his owner nothing, will make 
very good beef for an American market, es¬ 
pecially for the country markets. I think, 
on the whole, Mr. Stewart truthfully repre¬ 
sented a large class of American farmers. 
Perhaps he had no thought of English tastes 
in that direction. And yet I know that the 
Ayrshires stand very high as dairy auimals in 
English dairy districts. 
*** 
Well, all this discussion makes iis turn over 
our ideas, and look on both sides of them, and 
see where they are weak, and that is precise¬ 
ly what I think is one of the best features of 
the Rural New-Yorker as a popular educa¬ 
tor. Let us hear all sides, and I thauk ‘’An¬ 
glo” and the M. L. E. and all other readers of 
the Rural for their well-intentioned efforts to 
get at the truth. 
*** 
I would like to remark just here that butch¬ 
ers are complaining of the wastes of the large 
carcasses of over-fatted cattle. Certainly, 
American house-keepers will not pay money 
for tallow, and the butchers represent the 
popular taste in this direction; and it is rap¬ 
idly becoming felt in stock circles, where the 
Devon has been actually mentioned as better 
adapted for the popular demaud than the 
larger breeds. If we had the West Highland¬ 
ers in this country, I believe they too would 
find a choice place on the Plains. But for 
farm grazing and stall feeding, a Devon car¬ 
cass, I think, fills the bill best. It is certainly 
the most popular breed in New England and 
other Eastern localities, from which it has 
driven many herds of Short-horns. 
*** 
Just now there is much excitemeut in Kan¬ 
sas in regard to a fatal disease which is prev¬ 
alent amoug cattle. From letters which I 
have had from stockmen there, who have suf¬ 
fered considerable losses, it is evident that the 
disease is that well-known one popularly 
called “ dry murrain,” and really iudigestion 
and impaction of the third stomach, or 
mauiplies. It is not at all contagious, but is 
tlie result of over-feeding upon dry forage, 
corn-stalks especially, when infested with 
smut, aud the dry, dead herbage of the fields. 
No effective remedy seems possible, simply 
because the seat of the disorder cannot be 
reached by medicine. This is the third stom¬ 
ach, or mauiplies or manifolds, which are 
really leaves or folds between which the ru¬ 
minated food is rubbed and made fine before 
it passes ou to the fourth or true digestive 
stomach. The food dries between these folds 
and becomes packed hard, as one of my 
friends writes, like cakes of plug tobacco, only 
fine, like dry powder. It seems impossible to 
reach the seat of disease, as water and medi¬ 
cine remain iu the paunch, which is also dis¬ 
ordered and inactive, and do not pass on to 
the place where they could do any good. The 
disease seems to be one of the unavoidable 
incidents of the system of feeding cattle. 
-- 
MAD-ITCH IN CATTLE. 
In the Rural of November 10 a descrip¬ 
tion ot mad-itch was given The writer 
has given the symptoms exactly, but 
not the cause. I saw a number of in¬ 
stances in Michigan some 40 years ago. My 
near neighbor lost three cows by the ailment. 
He fed his shotes or pigs outside the yard on 
the commons, some nubs of corn. He lost a 
horse a few weeks before that time, and drew 
it off iuto the woods. The shotes had access 
to it, and one of them was sick and would 
slobber over the corn. Then the cows were 
let out into the same common, and would eat 
all the cobs, and the “boss” cow—a very large 
one—would eat the most of them, and was at¬ 
tacked first and died in about 24 hours. The 
next one lived longer. Then the third one 
was taken aud just as surely died, but she 
was not so raving mad. 
Auother neighbor, about one-and-one-half 
mile away, lost a horse. The carcass was 
taken back into the woods; his pigs ran there 
too. He also fed them rutabagas, the cows 
would come and lick up every little root the 
pigs might leave, and ho lost one or two cows 
by mad-itch. 
Another man three or four miles away lost 
a cow by the same disease. He fed his hogs 
and cattle together in thick underbrush with 
no other shelter. 
I think every man that looked into the cause 
of that then new and wonderful disease, was 
fully or partially convinced that the hogs, or 
the devil that was in the hogs, had killed the 
cattle. E. C. HOBART. 
[Mad-itch, or erysipelas is caused by blood- 
poisoning, aud surely there is cause enough 
here for such a result. But there are many 
other causes than poisoniug in this way. 
Thousands of animals are lost every year by 
this and other diseases of like character, pro¬ 
duced by carelessness similar to this.— Eds.] J 
DAIRY NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 
PROF. J. P. SHELDON. 
I am not aware whether the urban citizens 
of America are subjected to systematic and 
very common adulteration of the milk de¬ 
livered to them by middlemen who receive it 
from farmers at a distance from your towns 
and citios, but I imagiuethey are not. [There 
use! to be a great deal of complaint of such 
milk adulteration in most large towns, lint 
the rigid inspection to which milk is now sub¬ 
jected iu most places, has greatly abated the 
fraud. In this and other cities, however, 
there are still a considerable number of con¬ 
victions every week for such dishonest prac¬ 
tice, and a great deal of adulterated or 
skimmed milk is spilt into the gutters by the 
inspectors. There is no doubt, however, but 
that the fraud is much less common here than 
it is in England, judging by the figures given 
below.— Eds.] 1 am under the impressiou that 
it is not uncommon with you for the said 
fanners to be in direct communication with 
with their urban customers, without the in¬ 
tervention of middlemen as such, for I have 
by me samples of glass milk bottles, with 
ingenious self-fastening and irremovable stop¬ 
pers, which are sent, full by the farmers, and 
returned empty by the consumers, in boxes 
containing a dozen or so. [This sort of trade 
is still very small, but. it is growing steadily 
though slowly.— Eds.] These bottles struck 
me as being remarkably ingenious, neat aud 
attract ive, but I am not clear whether or not 
they have come iuto very general use in your 
country. I am constrained to admit, how¬ 
ever, that this way of sending milk by rail 
would not fit in with our rough-and-ready way 
of conducting the milk trade, though, from 
what I know of the American character, I see 
that it will suit your notions exactly. The 
reasou Is here: you are much more painstak¬ 
ing than we shipshnd Englishmen are; we are 
in the habit of doing things with a minimum 
of trouble to ourselves, whenever this is possi¬ 
ble; you take more pride than we do in doiug 
things neatly, and you certainly like to work 
with neater tools, aud utensils, and imple¬ 
ments, than we care to trouble ourselves 
about; and, to sum up the matter, so far at all 
events as it refers to the milk trade, you, as I 
am led to understand, manage the business 
with respect to cleanliness, neatness and hon¬ 
esty, in a way from which we might take 
some hints that would be greatly to our ad¬ 
vantage in many ways. 
Some startling and serious revelations have 
recently been made with respect to the milk 
supply of London by the President of the So¬ 
ciety of Public Analysts, Mr. G. W. Wigner. 
This gentlemen has been at considerable 
trouble to obtain samples of milk which should 
fairly represent the state of the trade through¬ 
out the metropolis. The samples were ob¬ 
tained in October last, and to the number of 
300, from milk-dealers in various parts of the 
city and its suburbs. Of these 300 samples, 
only 93, or 31 percent,., were genuine; 20, or 
7 per cent., were skimmed; 129, or 43 
per cent., were watered; and 57, or 19 per 
cent., were both skimmed aud watered. Thus 
it appears that 69 per cent , or more than two- 
thirds of the milk supplied to Londoners has 
been tampered with in some shape or form, 
and the sum which is nefariously extracted 
from the pockets of cockney milk consumers, 
for water which is sold as milk, is reckoned at 
2^ millions of dollars per annum. The chief 
delinquents are the third and fourth-rate 
middlemen, and others may be found else¬ 
where no doubt. But whoever the culprits 
may be, it. is a scandalous and abominable 
thing that the public should be swindled in 
this manner; and the publication of Mr. Wig- 
ner’s investigations by the Pall Mall Gazette, 
w r hieh has rendered a most important public 
service in so doing, reveals a state of things 
which is very disgraceful. 
Some years ago our Legislature passed an 
Adulteration Act which had a great effect for 
good on the milk trade. Consumers could 
for a time obtain much better milk than 
before, and the demand iucreased greatly. 
Dairy farmers, who were beaten out by 
America in cheese-making, found a new out¬ 
let for their milk, and 1 cannot think without 
alarm of what would have become of dairy 
farming in England during the last six or 
seven aqueous years, if it had not been for the 
better profit which milk-selling afforded. It, 
is clear now, however, that the Adulteration 
Act is not stringest enough, and is not en¬ 
forced as generally as it ought to be. The 
penalties inflicted on dealers who are caught 
with adulterated milk in their possession, are 
too Bmall to put a stop to the rascalities of 
these people, aud a risk of detection is worth 
runaing where the profits are so great. A 
new' Adulteration Act is urgently required, 
alike in the interests of producers and con¬ 
sumers of milk, and the new act will need to 
be much more strictly enforced than the old 
one has been. I believe that farmers very 
seldom tamper with their milk, and it is clear 
that their reputation needs protecting against, 
the roguery of other people. This done, the 
milk trade will expand enormously, and we 
shall want more cheese and butter than ever 
from America. 
DRAW BA CKS IN CREAM-GATHERING 
FOR CREAMERIES. 
I lately read Mr. Stewart’s article on 
milk-setting in the Rural of November 24, 
1883, and presume, as he states, that there are 
no unavoidable odors or taints iu the dairy; 
but dees it not require a great deal of labor, 
attention and care, besides extra expense, to 
maintain so immaculate a milk room. Now as 
Jong as a farmer eau reap the same results by 
setting hie milk in cans under the bed or in 
the corner of the wood-house by the swill-bar¬ 
rel, w'haf, inducement has he to keep things 
clean t I believe that cleanliness should be 
rewarded, but are perfect deauiness, and 
regularity of temperatuierequisito forruaking 
good butter? Mr. Stewart says that if uuelean- 
liress and i r regularity of temperature could be 
avoided there would be no bad butter, 
and in closing his article he states that the 
product of creameries excels farm dairy' but- 
tei'. I know that creamery butter commands 
a higher price in tne markets than that from 
the best farm dailies; consequently I pre¬ 
sume it does excel iu quality. Now let us ex¬ 
amine the creamery mode of making buttei', 
and see if it excels the farm dairy' style iu 
cleanliness in this section. The creameries 
buy r the cream of farmei's. They seud 
out teams from their buildings in all 
dix-ectious to gather it and buy of every¬ 
body that has any to sell, and mix the clean 
and filthy all together, and pay the same pi'ice 
for each; but they purify it by straining the 
ci'earn before it is chui'ued. Now thequestiou 
is, can filth be sti’ained out of cream ? If so, 
Mi'. Stewart should have told his friend, who 
drew his kuife through his butter to get the 
hail’s out, that an easier way to got rid of all 
impurities would be to strain his ci'earn; aud 
that, thei’e would be no need to seud hairs aud 
dead flies to market, and his product would 
fetch top prices. It is true managers of 
creameries know how to churn, work, salt 
aud pack butter; but I don’t believe that the 
character of the place where the milk is set to 
get the cream has anything to do with the ex¬ 
cellent qualities of the butter from the cream- 
ei-ies—at least in this ci'eam-gatheripg x’egioi . 
Cliatfield, Minn. J. E. h. 
- «♦«- 
Ijommait. 
THE BARBAROUS WHIP. 
The whipping of a balky horse by an en- 
x'aged driver, which 1 recently witnessed on 
the street of a country village, is no uncom¬ 
mon incident. Half comedy aud half tragedy, 
the Rceue illustrates some important charac¬ 
teristics in horses and in men. Horse nature 
aud hurnau natui'e—not very' wide apart in 
some respects—become vivid iu this little 
drama. We instinctively ask why this animal 
refuses the obedience which its fellow so pa¬ 
tiently yields ? And why does the man, who 
for the time is the despot of these two ani¬ 
mals, let loose his wrath iu vociferous bx-ime- 
stoue, and in quick, cniel blows, when he 
knows well enough that evei'y word uud 
every stroke dx'ive the hope of success further 
away ? Aud the crowd that gathers to the 
scene 1 The stoi'es, the blacksmith shop, the 
saloons aud the little dwelling houses, all 
empty out their life, and contribute to an au¬ 
dience larger than that which gathers to the 
village church on Sunday. Then depravity 
shows itself. Nearly all these spectators side 
with the cniel driver. “Hit him agiu!” 
“Hit him ou the head !” “Kuock him down !” 
“Put a l'opa around his neck an’ hitch a par o’ 
mules to him, an’ 1 reckon he’ll move”; these 
ai-e some of the murderous suggestions they 
press upon the passionate teamster to infuriate 
his spirit. It is bal'd to understand how be¬ 
hind faces just now so blithe and kind, there 
is carried so large a store of explosive cruelty. 
But while I am pondering on the bnxte and 
human ethics in volved in the case, an angel of 
mercy alights upon the crowd in the pex-son of 
a Kentucky horseman. After his words “they 
spake not again,” aud his speech “dropped 
upon them”—rough, but coui-ageous aud kind. 
“ Sour horse is iu paiu, sir: don’t beat him; 
it’s a gross shame to abuse the poor brute. 
Look there ! (raising the collar) you’re making 
him haul against a raw shoulder; aud your 
load’s too heavy for him even if he was sound. ” 
Instantly' the scepter passes from force and 
passion to reason and kindness. The jockey 
is king. By his order half the load is taken off, 
the collar is relieved, and the balky hox*se, 
patted and soothed, yields to his duty. 
Then follows a patter of words among the 
crowd ou the subject of horse-breaking versus 
horse-training. The farmers claim that, first 
of all, the will of a colt must be "broke:” 
then he must be “halter broke” and “broke to 
saddle,” “ bi'oke to harness,” aud “bx-oke to 
pull.” The Blue Grass turfman insists that a 
colt should never be “broke,” but always 
“trained ,*” and never beaten with a whip. 
“We mold the will of our Thoroughbreds,” 
said the Kentuckian, “we never break it, be¬ 
cause the will of a hoi’se is just as important a 
force as his muscles and nerves.” 
“Wal,” said a farmer, confident that he 
was making a triumphant point, “if you 
should hitch one of your race-horses to a plow, 
do you reckon he’d pull without bun’ wal¬ 
loped?’ “No;” replied the jockey, “he 
wouldn't pull either with or without whip¬ 
ping, because it’s contrary to his nature to 
pull; his shoulders are not made for the col¬ 
lar, and his withei-s slope back too quick. It’s 
cruel to whip a horse because be won’t do 
things that are contrary to his nature. If a 
horse is stubborn, and will not do what he 
naturally ought to, we make him submit by 
tbe Rarey system, but we never hurt him or 
inflict paiu. We never break colts. The 
Thoroughbred gets the habit of the baiter aud 
saddle when he is so young that he has not 
formed contrary habits.” 
If horses were rational, they would hold a 
convention aud pass a resolution of thanks to 
that Kentucky hoi-seman. He is a missionary 
to benighted and stony hearts, and he should 
be kept moving. His pi'eaching is scai'cely less 
important th in that of the clergyman. A man 
has a poor show of saving himself who will 
not save his horse. A man who is cruel to his 
horse is pretty sure to be cruel to his wife, 
cx-uel to his children, and only needs to be 
ti-ausported by passion to be cruel to every- 
body. Our society for the sxxppression of 
ci'uelty to animals is euti tied “The Humane 
Society.” It is lightly called. Kindness to 
animals is the mark of a higher, nobler hu¬ 
manity. JOHN MONTEITH. 
Dftmiwriim. 
A PREVALENT DISEASE AMONl 
WESTERN CATTLE. 
Just now there are unusually large losses 
amoug the cattle fed in the corn-stalk fields 
iu parts of the West. Some excitement has 
been occasioned among stockmen, who are 
always dreading contagion amoug their herds, 
and whose great bugbear by day aud night¬ 
mare of their dreams is pleuropneumonia. 
Fortunately, this disease, unlike contagious 
pleuro-pneumonia, the plague tha t has wrought 
such losses amoug British cattle, aud agaiust 
which we are taking precautions, is not of 
this kind, und is not iu the least contagious. 
It is common and frequent because the occa¬ 
sion of it is a common one. It is simply a 
form of gastritis or gastric fever, originating 
in indigestion and aecompuuiod by impaction 
of the omasum, or third stomach, commonly 
called the manifolds. There is no doubt that 
a seriously aggravating cause is the great 
prevalence of smut among the corn this sea¬ 
son. Smut is a dry, acrid, irritating poison. 
It produces iuflammattou of the stomach and 
fever, which dries the leaves or folds of the 
stomach aud actually bakes the finely-pulver¬ 
ized food betiVeen these folds. The fever pro¬ 
duces intense paiu, which a. times makes the 
cattle frantic und always causes t hem to groan 
aud moan with distress. 
On opening a dead animal the main atom- 
