JULY 7 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
<l!)c ,Sunnc-ijiT<), 
THE HOG IN JULY. 
JOHN M. STAHL. 
Fifty years have changed the hog from an 
animal of doer-liko proportions, of much hone, 
little muscle and less fat, to a land jelly-fish 
fitted out with four knobs for legs and a tap¬ 
ering extremity for a nose. While a hog’s 
usefulness depended upon his enterprise in 
killing snakes and peeling elm trees, and his 
life upon his ability to subsist on worms and 
acorns and to bra ve, unprotected, alike Win¬ 
ter cold nud Summer heat, he was fit for his 
day and age; but now, when a hog's c ole mis¬ 
sion is to convert coni into lard, and when 
enterprise and a tendency to exercise are pos¬ 
itive disadvantages, the porkine puff-ball of 
A. D. 1883 is the correct thing. But at all 
times a hog dead before its time has been less 
valuable than one living; and it must be con¬ 
fessed that the change from bone and bris¬ 
tles to fat and muscle in the physical make-up 
of the hog has made it too tender for this cold, 
unfeeling world and very liable to shuffle off 
this “mortal coil." The improvement 
of swine has developed an alarming 
mortality among them. After throw¬ 
ing off from the past the glamour 
that ever hangs over it, we still have 
good grounds for asserting that hogs 
now succumb much more easily and 
often to disease than formerly; for 
breeding constitutional vigor out has 
bred disease in. 
Swine plague is most prevalent in 
Autumn. It is then that the hogs “die 
like flies." The germs of the disease are 
implanted before it manifests itself and 
if we notice the circumstances affecting 
the hog we must conclude that iu July 
the causes of disease are most alert and 
potent. And as disease is the ^reat, evil 
of swine raising and as the course of 
breeding has reduced the vigor of 
swine it behooves the fanner to take 
such measures in this month as will 
prevent disease. 
In July the hog suffers much from 
heat. Its nostrils are small and near 
the ground, its neck is short and fat, 
and its lungs imbedded in masses of 
fat. Its body is fat and its normal 
bodily temperature consequently high. 
It. is far from being well prepared to 
withstand the hot sun and heated at¬ 
mosphere of this month. The excessive 
heat proves oppressive, lowers its vital¬ 
ity, impairs digestion, impoverishes its 
blood, reduces the vigor of the body 
and paves the way for disease. 
Many fanners are yet so foolish as 
to feed corn to swine in Summer. 
Corn contains a large jier cent, of oil, 
and therefore its effect must be to pro¬ 
duce much animal heat when eaten. 
Feeding it in the hot season increases 
the discomfort and debility of the hog. 
Or, if the farmer is so sensible as to 
provide pasture for his swine, this 
month is apt to cut it short and at least 
greatly lessen its succulence, the result 
of which is to make it less palatable 
and more difficult of digestion. This 
month is not apt to favor the hog in the 
matter of food. 
The burning sun, heated atmosphere 
and parched earth cause a bodily 
temperature greater than the normal 
temperature, and to reduce this uature 
demands large quantities of cold water. 
A hog will drink vile water, and 
liecause he will, he is often made to 
do so. Breeders who are careful to 
water their horses and cattle at a well, 
compel their hogs to drink at the creek, 
When the creek is fed by springs that 
do not fail, its water will be pure and 
cold. But over the greater part of our country 
the creeks receive their waters from the sur¬ 
face, and in July they shriuk into stagnant, 
slimy pools. This water is unfit for any ani¬ 
mal to drink, because it is not cold and cannot 
perform what is required of it in reducing the 
abnormal animal heat. Iu a vaiu effort to 
quench its thirst the animal drinks excessive 
quantities which must prove deleterious. In 
July this water is charged with all manner of 
(Usoase-pnxlueing agents, and being taken into 
the alimentary canal they will insinuate them¬ 
selves into the system aud produce disast rous 
results. IV hat is true of creek water is equally 
true of pond water. On general principles, 
I would denounce ponds as unmitigated 
nuisances. 
Foes lurk oftentimes iu well water. If the 
well be feil by springs or a subterranean 
stream, its water will, under ordinary circum¬ 
stances, be pure. But in many places, es¬ 
pecially in the Western States, there are what 
are called ‘ ‘seep" wells—wells fed by surface 
water percolating but a short distance through 
the earth and often more foul than when it 
left the surface. This water is unlit for ani¬ 
mals to drink in the warm season. 
In our conceptions of hog cholera we must 
regard the term cholera os a generic name 
applied indiscriminately to several distinct 
diseases, or else conceive that hogs suffer from 
but one disease. For no matter what the 
.symptoms or effects may lie. if the disease 
attacks swine it is “hog cholera.” Again we 
must, consider either that the baceilli by their 
introduction into the body directly produce 
disease and from their nature will prove 
equally destructive to hogs in good or bad 
health, or else that while they may produce 
the disease, low vitality aud lack of vigor 
favor them, and that under the same circum¬ 
stances a perfectly healthy hog would have an 
advantage over n treble one. To the writer 
or his article it matters little which view is 
held. I believe there is a true, destructive 
swine plague produced by baceilli; that there 
are other diseases wrongly named swine 
plague or cholera; and that those diseases are 
not produced by baceilli. I further believe 
that whatever t>e the nature of the disease or 
of its causes, a hog in perfect health just be¬ 
fore being attacked by it has a decided advan¬ 
tage over a languishing one. 
Then we are driven to these conclusions: 
Some diseases, if not all, may be prevented; 
aud they muy bo prevented by maintaining 
the general health of the animal; further, 
some local diseases, caused by local circum¬ 
stances, may bo prevented by neutralizing 
those causes. What, then, is to be the work of 
I the farmer iu July, iu maintaining the health i 
1 of his swine? What 1 have already written 
will suggest the answer, lie must provide 
good shelter, good food and good water. We 
are often admonished to shelter farm animals 
in Winter, but rarely are we advised to shel¬ 
ter them in Summer; yet excessive heat is as 
great an evil as exeo«>ive cold. A Summer 
shelter must exclude the sun but not the air. 
A tree is the best shelter; and of shade trees 
the Cottonwood is the best. It is a fast grow 
er, hardy, is not injured by the tramping of 
cattle, has a spreading top and dense foliage. 
As far as possible green vegetable food should 
be provided. Care must be taken that the 
food is not oily. It should be nutritious, but 
easily digested. Charcoal and salt should be 
given regularly. The greater the variety of 
food, the better. The hog is naturally om¬ 
nivorous. 
But what of the local diseases? Of these 
July is the most prolific mouth. The earth is 
dry and dusty; the feet of the hog raise this 
dust and his nostrils being but a few inches 
from the ground, it is inhaled. The blossoms 
of weeds arc now shedding thoir pollen, and 
this, too, is taken into the nostrils aud lungs of 
the animal. As the beast brushes through the 
grass and weeds, innumerable minute parti¬ 
cles of dead vegetable matter are dislodged 
and inhaled. This leads to local irritation. 
This is a month of miasma, when stagnant 
water heated by a burning sun exhales mala¬ 
ria by the wholesale,'exceeded only by that 
given off by vegetable growths rapidly de~ 
composing under the influence of the high 
temperature of the air, and this poisons the 
blood and helps the local irritation to develop 
into diseases of the throat, nostrils, bronchi 
aud lungs. The results are seen iu September 
when thousands of hogs succumb to catarrhal 
pneumonia and lung fever, or later, to con¬ 
sumption. 
These causes the farmer can rarely remove. 
But he can take measures to counteract the e v ils 
of miasmatic poisoning and local irritation. 
He may exorcise a greater care in providing 
food and drink and by keeping his swine vig¬ 
orous and healthy arm them sufficiently strong 
to resist the attacks of incipient disease, I f he 
realizes his danger and his ability to cope 
with it, I shall have accomplished my object; 
the means to be employed aud the manner of 
their employment have doubtless been pointed 
out to him many times. A word of cautiou 
at this time may serve to save the intelligent 
farmer many dollars by avoiding preventable 
losses, and a dollar saved is a dollar gained. 
Adams Co., Illinois. 
Cxtnavu. 
GYPSIES. 
A wonderful people in some respects are 
the Gipsies, wanderers for ages in every Euro¬ 
pean land, over the greater part of Asia, in 
Northern Africa, and, later, to a mnch more 
limited extent, in North and South America, 
while Australia and New Zealand have recent¬ 
ly been visited by them, Ishmaelites since 
the first misty notice of them in a few obscure 
chronicles of the Middle Ages, their hand has 
alw r ays been against every man and every 
man's hand against them. Their first appear¬ 
ance in European history" is supposed by some 
to have dated back to the year 811, when a 
strange band of “magicians, soothsayers aud 
serpent charmers" appeared about Constanti¬ 
nople, A few obscure passages in the writings 
of various chroniclers between that time and 
early in the fifteenth century, are supposed, 
with more or less reason, to refer to this 
strange race, but it was not until 1420 that 
they became at all noteworthy. Then several 
bands, or several divisions of the same band 
appeared in different parts of Europe, some 
professing to be persecuted exiles from 
E^ypt; others declaring they were 
wanderers from India, Persia orother 
remote lands, while those that visited 
France said they had lately come from 
Bohemia, and hence the race is still 
known by the name of Bohemians 
in France; by that of gipsies among 
English-speaking people, and by a 
large number of other names in other 
countries. 
Whatever the name by which the 
people may be known, however, all 
belong to one distinct race, whose 
origin is very doubtful, though it is 
probable that Northeastern India was 
its original home. It is difficult to 
form anything like a correct estimate 
of the total Inumber of Gypsies. The 
number in Europe is variously estimated 
at 1 0*>,000 to 1,250,000, of whom about 
100,000 ore in Turkey, 200,000 in 
Roumama, 150,000 in Hungary, 40,000 
in Spain, 50,000 iu Russia and smaller 
numbers in other countries. In 1878 
the number in England had dwindled 
down to less than 10,000, the falling 
off being attributed to emigration to 
this country. Besides those from the 
United Kingdom, the United States 
have also received some Gypsies from 
several Continental countries, while a 
considerable number from Spain and 
Italy have made their way to Mexico 
and South America. 
The language of Gypsies, though 
every where preserving enough of 
uniformity to show that, all use the 
selfsame speech, differs greatly in the 
various countries in which it is spoken. 
The Gypsies generally call themselves 
Rom and their language Romani, and 
in Europe alone there are thirteen dif¬ 
ferent dialects. In all ages and all coun¬ 
tries the Gypsies have been a vagabond 
raee. Although iu Eustern Europe 
n considerable number of them have 
become house-dwellers, within the 
last century, the vast bulk of them are 
tent-dwellers, seldom staying any 
considerable length of time in one 
place. Everwhere they ply an endless 
variety of trades, but among the men 
there are three chief callings—workers 
in metal, horse dealers and musicians. 
The Gypsy’s favorite instrument is the 
violin, but few are the instruments 
he has not successfully handled. 
As a rare the Gypsies are of middle 
statue and well projiortioned. with 
tawny complexions, quick black eyes, 
black hair, high cheek bones, and fine 
white teeth, which with their light and 
agile figures cause some of the young women 
to be considered beauties. They have no 
distinctive dress, but readily adopt that of 
the vagabond class of the country iu which 
they may be sojourning. 
The Gypsy character is a strange medley of 
evil and good, black and hateful to the 
“Gentile" world, but fair and lovable to the 
Romani race. At war with the rest of man¬ 
kind for centuries, the Gypsy thinks he is 
justified iu plundering and beguiling his op¬ 
pressors so long as he is not caught. Faithful 
aud affectionate towards each other, to all 
others the Gypsies arc t reacherous, cowardly’, 
revengeful and cruel. They have no religious 
belief aud no word iu their language to signify 
God. the soul or immortality. Marriage 4 
only a temporary form, and in it the limits of 
consanguinity tire not respected. On the 
whole, they are a lazy, immoral, thievish race 
whose presence in any country is not desirable 
