826 
DEC IS 
ANSWER BY HENRY STEWART. 
It depends very much upon the water sup¬ 
ply, what method of operation should be ad¬ 
opted for a dairy. If there is an ample sup¬ 
ply of cold spring water, some one of the 
deep-setting creameries would be the best to 
use, and this would be necessary if the skimmed 
milk is to be us<*d for cheese, which is cer¬ 
tainly advisable as a matter of economy. You 
do not sav how far back the detail should go, 
but it is presumed not further than the milk¬ 
ing and care of the milk As regards the 
milking, this should be done with the greatest 
cleanliness, and tin pails used having strainer 
lips. As the milk is drawn, it is poured from 
the pail into a wire gauze strainer, in which is 
laid a piece of clean, white muslin so that the 
milk passes through three strainers. No hairs 
will then get into tJxe milk by any possibility. 
The strainer fits into the top of the deep pails, 
and the cover is placed over it at once, to pre¬ 
vent dust falliug into the strainer. This is all 
done as each cow is milked. On the whole, 
there are but two churns to lie selected from— 
the Blanchard and the Rectangular. Either 
will make as good butter as the other, aud is 
about as convenient. Reed’s butter-worker is, 
on the w’hole, the best for common use. The 
maimer of packing the butter depends ou t he 
way in which it is to lie disposed of. If it is 
for the general market, 50-pound tubs are the 
best, as these are fitted for the home or the 
foreign market. It would be best to chum 
and pack one tub even - day and ship the but¬ 
ter ever}* week, and also to have the cow's 
coming in regularly through the year, so 
as to keep the supply of milk regular 
throughout the year. It would then be 
possible to have one or more regu¬ 
lar customers, to take all the product. W in¬ 
ter dairying, when well managed, is more 
profitable than Summer dairying and it would, 
no doubt, Is? a very good arrangement to make 
cheese in the Summer time, w hen the demand 
for fine butter is uot so active as in tbe Win¬ 
ter and it is more trouble to make it. The 
farming can then lie better doue aud tbe crops 
attended to more conveniently w hen nearly all 
the cows are dry in the hot months. It is very 
convenient to have the cows come in, iu Sep¬ 
tember and dry off in June, leaving the Sum¬ 
mer for the hay making aud getting in the 
fodder crops. It is very much easier to keep 
a dairy watrn iu the Winter than cool iu the 
Summer. In this case a three-horse power 
engine would bo required to make steam to 
heat the dairy room and to scald the utensils, 
as well as to do the churning, etc. If good 
eow r s are kept the heifer calves should be 
raised upon the skimmed milk, aud pork made 
of the buttermilk and surplus skimmed milk. 
This is better than making skim cheese, unless 
a fancy article could be made for which, no 
doubt, there are abundant openings. Perhaps 
it would be an economy in laying out a dairy, 
to spend $50 iu getting the advice and com¬ 
plete plan from an expert on the ground, aud 
who would know all the necessary details. A 
good deal more than that might easily he l«?st 
in making a single mistake. 
“cribbing’’ and “wind-sucking.” 
W. J. McF., Fredericktown, Ohio .—What 
is a remedy for “cribbing” aud “wind-suck¬ 
ing” in a horse? 
Ans. —“Crib-biting” and “wind-sucking” 
closely resemble each other, and arise from 
the same cause—a diseased condition of the 
stomach, according to most “authorities,” 
or, according to others, a nervous habit, 
just like that of persons who bite their 
finger nails. No cure for crib-biting has ever 
been discovered; it seems inveterate, for after 
a horse has been prevented from indulging in 
it for a long time, he Is likely to return to it 
at once when the restraint has been removed. 
It is held to be an unsoundnest,. because the 
teeth of crib-biters are injuriously worn away; 
they lose a considerable quantity of grain by 
practicing the habit while their mouths are 
fall; much saliva escapes which must lie a 
detriment to digestion; they are unusually 
liable to colic, and that of an exceptionally 
dangerous form: the trick is very likely to 
lie readily learned by other horses iu the 
stable; aud, finally. it is at once annoying to 
the owner, aud damaging to the manger, etc. 
Preventives alone are found to bo effective. 
Of these, one of the best, is to place the feed 
trough ou the floor aud have nothing in t he 
stall that the horse can lay hold of with his 
teeth, more than 18 inches from the floor. A 
horse cannot “crib” when his head is down 
low. The maiu objection to this is that some 
of the feed is dropped under the animal's feet, 
aud being trodden ou he is likely to refuse to 
eat it. A common preventive is to buckle a 
leather strap so tightly round the neck, just 
behipd the jaw, that when the horse attempts 
to crib, the muscles ol’ that part are tightened 
and, pressing against the strap, cause such 
pain as to prevent a repetition for the time. 
Iu confirmed cribbers, however, no ordinary 
pressure w ill suffice, and with sufficient pres¬ 
TBE BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB. 
sure there is danger of causing an irritation of 
the windpipe which is likely to tern inate in 
“roaring.” The strap, of course, must be 
worn constantly, as a crib-biter will use a 
gate, a post, or a fence as ■well as the manger 
for the indulgence of his vice In the con¬ 
cealed manger, the manger slopes downward 
to an angle resting ou a hinge by which it is 
swung backward through the partition iu 
front of the horse, or forward toward the 
horse, for feeding. When it is tilted back, the 
horse has a blank wall In front of him, with 
no chance of getting his teeth last to any¬ 
thing. The objection to this is that while the 
animal is feeding, he can go on cribbing 
without interruption, and this is the time at 
which tbe habit is chiefly practiced. Prob¬ 
ably the best preventive is a muzzle with bars 
across the bottom, sufficiently wide to enable 
the horse to pick up his grain aud pull his hay, 
but uot to grasp the edge of the manger or 
any other fulcrum. This is to he suspended 
at all times from the head by a leather head 
collar. Of course, its use proclaims the 
wearer to be a “cribber,” but though this may 
be objectionable to a horse dealer, iu a private 
stable its utility aud humanity should have 
dominant weight. 
ROUP IN FOWLS. 
F. K. B., Warwick, N. Y .—Last year I 
kept a large lot of poultry. Iu November a 
friend presented me with 30 White Leghorns. 
Soon I noticed that one was ailing, aud it died 
shortly afterwards, aud others did likewise 
uutil uow there is only one of the 30 left. 
Within the last two weeks iny old stock have 
been affected, and l have already lost two, 
and others are sick. The symptoms vary in 
different fowls, but in all cases the disease 
begius with a slight noise, like a sneeze, ac¬ 
companied with a quick jerk of tbe head. 
The noise afterwards grows louder and sharp¬ 
er, resembling a violent hiccough. The hind 
part of the bird grows weak, and the fowl 
sinks backward, as if intoxicated. The early 
victims seemed troubled w ith severe diarrhea, 
but that symptom has uot affected the later 
patients. Some seem dumpish; others do uot. 
What has ailed the poor tilings? 
Ans.— The White Leghorns are more sub¬ 
ject to diseases thau any other fowls, and espe¬ 
cially to those that, are contagious, as this is. 
The "disease described is roup or a membran¬ 
ous catarrh, precisely like the croup of human 
beings. The sneeze or cough is of the charac¬ 
ter of croup, and is produced by an effort of 
the animal to get rid of the obstruction in the 
air-passage. The treatment consists of the 
destruction of the false membrane by means 
of strong caustics, such as sulphate of copper 
or nitrate of silver in solution of four grains 
to au ounce of water. A feather is dipped in 
the liquid and put iu the throat and t wisted 
around so as to touch every part of the wind¬ 
pipe. This is repeated every six hours or 
three times a day. Thp sick fowls should l»e 
removed from the flock as soon as they are 
found to be making the wheezing noise. If 
matter is found collecting about the nostrils, 
and the head is hot aud feverish, it should be 
washed in vinegar diluted with an equal 
part of warm water. If any medicine is 
given at all. a solutiouof one drachm of chlor¬ 
ate of potash in half a pint of winter may be 
given in teaspoonful doses morning aud uight. 
Food is uot required for a few' days, but clean 
water should be provided. 
FEED FOR FATTENING SHEEP. 
J. V. D. P., Plainville, N. J .—The Rural 
of November 17 quotes Prof. Sanborn as say¬ 
ing that the best ration for fattening sheep 
consists of equal parts, by weight, of oats, 
peas aud millet, aud to 15 bushels of the mix¬ 
ture is added one bushel of flaxseed, all 
being ground together fiue, and each sheep 
getting two pounds of the mixture a day with 
hay. Now, would coni answer as a substitute 
for peas or millet, or for either of them? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. J. W. SANBORN. 
There is some mistake iu ascribing the ori¬ 
gin of this recommendation to me. It is 
not my product. It belongs to some student 
of German albuminoid tables. For fattening 
food, for economy, I should say, yes, to his 
question. To the merit of ease of digestion 
and high value as a fattening food, corn adds 
that of being our cheapest concentrated food. 
I r.hink it should be clearly understood that 
corn belongs in, aud has a high place in, every 
fattening ration for all tbe qualities named. 
I have fed much of it against other foods, aud 
have urged other feeding materials for cer¬ 
tain places, but results forbid me to decry 
corn for fattening. As to proportion, let it 
be heavy of corn, tbe amount depending on 
the coarse food given. The more clover, the 
greater the proportion of corn; the more 
straw and earn ladder, the greater the in¬ 
crease of cotton-seed meal; or, if the price 
will allow, of the oats und peas. The latter 
grown together 1 uave found to be a cheap 
and valuable crop. One of the most .success¬ 
ful feeders 1 ever met, Mr. Hooper, of Wal¬ 
pole, N. H., gave me his feeding ration for 
the various stages of fattening. It consisted 
of ship-stuff, corn and cotton-seed meal, the 
latter two in about equal proportions, in¬ 
creasing over the ship-stuff as fattening pro¬ 
gressed. His Winter gain on 1,000 lambs was 
heavy, and of such quality as to command 
eight cents live-weight, three Winters ago. 
In conclusion, I beg to be excused from at¬ 
tempting to fit your corn to another’s millet, 
flaxseed, etc., combination. 
GASTRIC, OR BILIOUS FEVER IN CATTLE. 
S. K. F., Berne, Pa.— A puzzling and very 
fatal disease has broken out niuoug our cat¬ 
tle hereabouts. The visible symptoms are: 
At first the cows seem drowsy, but do not 
lose their milk. A few hours later they seem 
to suffer greatly in the intestines. Then their 
bowels are “moved” frequently, the dis¬ 
charges getting thinner aud thinner, until 
they become as thin as water, and very offen¬ 
sive. Then the patients lie down, groan, and 
soon die. The lungs and livers look like those 
of healthy beasts. The food iu the manifold 
is not re-cut, and the iuside coating of the 
stomach is loose aud looks as if it had lieen 
soaked iu liiue-water to clean it for table use. 
What ails the animals? 
Ans. —The disease is gastric or bilious 
(typhoid) fever. The symptoms are very 
well described, with the exception of dryness 
and heat of muzzle and mouth. The offensive 
diarrhea always precedes death: it‘ this does 
uot appear the case may terminate favorably. 
Tbe treatment should lie begun at the first 
sign of trouble, which is dullness niul hang¬ 
ing of the head, with shivering followed by 
fever. Then give four ounces of Epsom salts 
with one drachm of chlorate of potash daily. 
Give warm linseed gruel or infusions of slip¬ 
pery elm bark, as much as will be drunk. If 
the animal suffers from pain in the bowels, 
apply a blanket wrung out of hot water to 
the belly and cover it with sacks strapped 
around the body to retain the heat. Bren 
aud linseed mashes with two-ounce doses of 
powdered Peruvian bark aud one ounce of 
tincture of muriate of iron, should be given as 
soon as the animal begins to recover, winch 
may be looked for after eight or nine days. 
If recovery is not begun then, death will oc¬ 
cur soon after. The disease is infectious and 
sick animals should be separated from the 
othere, The use of carbolic acid about the 
stables and upon the discharges of sick ani¬ 
mals should uot be neglected. The disease 
prevails at this season more than others, and 
is most common in basement stables. Impure 
water produces it very frequently. 
CLEANLINESS OF COW' STABLES. 
E. H, C., Bowmansdale, Pa. —In the Rural 
of Nov. 8 we are told to keep the cow stables 
clean: bow can this be done ? 
Ans.— Every cow stable should have a broad 
gutter 16 inches wide to eight inches deep be¬ 
hind the cows to catch the droppings, and this 
should lie kept full of litter to keep the cows 
tails out of the water. This will remove one 
frequent source of filth. The floor should 
slope two inches in the four-aud-one-half or 
five feet of the standing floor to keep it dry. 
The stalls should be made with short parti¬ 
tions. so that l he cows are obliged to stand 
straight and not mess up the other cows’ floors. 
Theu every cow must be thoroughly carded 
and brushed before it is milked every time 
and made as clean as a carriage horse is. A 
man that will not keep his cows as clean as 
the horses he drives to clmrcb on Sundays is 
not a clean dairymnu. The COWS should be 
kept well littered, aud the gutter cleared out 
every morning without fuil und littered fresh¬ 
ly every uight with leaves, straw, or chaff. If 
this method is practiced there will be no dust, 
no loose hairs, no filth, and if the milker will 
wash his hands before he milks, the milk will 
be clean enough to drink even without strain¬ 
ing. The udder and teats should be wiped 
with a clean doth the last thing before milk¬ 
ing. 
SYSTEMS OF SETTING MILK. 
F. .4. L., Vallejo, Cal. —Is it settled beyond 
dispute that the Cooley and Fairlamb systems 
of settiug milk are the best ? Would they be 
best in an equable climate ? Is the centri¬ 
fugal separator the best way of getting the 
cream ? 
Ans. —Nothing is settled in the way you 
mention. There is great diversity of opinion 
among the patrons of either system. Where 
there is an equable temperature, tbe shallow- 
pan system of setting in the common manner 
is the liest; and where there is no ice or a cold 
running spring of water, the creameries are 
not desirable, as there must, be a low tempera¬ 
ture to get the best results from them. The 
centrifugal separators are useful only in n 
very limited way, as where sweet creatu is 
sold or where a large number of cows are 
kept and it is iwt convenient to set the milk 
for the cream to rise. Iu a dairy large 
enough to afford a steam engine and to have 
a daily churning and where sweet, skimmed 
milk can be sold, a centrifugal might be use¬ 
ful and economical. 
CULTURE OF THE HARDY CATALPA. 
E. J. S. r Oakland, Neb. —What care and cul¬ 
ture should be given the Hardy Catalpas? 
Ans.—T hey should he planted very thickly, 
and thinned out in after years as they may be¬ 
gin to crowd one another. They may grow one 
to four feet high tbe fij-st year after being set 
out, aud instead of letting the growth remain, 
cut the plants down to within au inch or two 
of the ground. This can be easily done (as 
the wood is soft and pithy) with a scythe as 
you would a field of thistles. Next year tbe 
shoots will lie doubly strong and long. Again 
iu succeeding years ’o not hesitate to cut hack 
weak plants. The reason is this: If you let 
them grow unchecked from the lieginuiug. the 
second season, instead of throwing out a 
strong, straight shoot, they will branch out, 
and thus destroy their value as clean, straight- 
stemmed timber trees. As they advance in 
years and growth, chop out the scraggy 
plants, and those that overcrowd their belter 
neighbors, and with a sharp knife cut out all 
wayward branches. 
MANURING a STRAWBERRY BED. 
B. F. E, West Elizabeth, Pa.—l. Wishing 
to plant two acres of strawberries next Spring 
on mellow clay loam ou which corn was grown 
in ’83 and buckwheat this year, after which 
rye was sown to be turned under next Spring, 
would it be a good plan to spread manure on 
the surface this Winter and plow it well under 
uext Spring before insects will have time to 
lay their eggs? 3. Would spent hops from a 
brewery be a good application, and how should 
they be used l 3. What is the best fertilizer 
for strawberries? 
Ans.— 1. Tour plan is a very good one. 2. 
Spent hops are very useful. They should be 
mixed with the manure during the Winter 
and plowed in, in the Spring. 3. A light dress¬ 
ing of Peruvian guano is the best fertilizer for 
strawberries, but it will not be needed until 
the next Spring, when the strawberries will 
come into bearing. 
POTASH FOR POTATOES. 
F. E. B., Maple t cm, Mich. —Would concen¬ 
trated lye or potash mixed with common land 
plaster make a good fertilizer for potatoes; 
and if so, now much potash should be used to 
100 pounds of plaster aud how much should 
be applied per acre ? 
Ans.—T his is a costly way to get potash; 
wood ashes will be much cheaper. It does not 
require to be mixed with plaster and no good 
is doce to the plaster or the potash by the 
mixing. Wood ashes are the best of all fer¬ 
tilizers for potatoes; 100 pounds of plaster per 
acre might, be beneficial and it might not; 
that has to bo tried; but wood ashes are good 
every time and everywhere aud for every 
crop, ai.d a farmer cannot well get too much 
of them ou his land. 
relative: values of feeding stuffs. 
G. If". W ., Clifton, Arizona .—What is the 
relative va ue of corn-meal, wheat bran, 
shorts and middlings as stock feed, aud what 
is their relative manurial value? 
Ans.—T he relative values of these foods are 
given iu the German feeding tables as follows: 
Comparer! with 
per Itolbs. hay al $t per tooths. 
Corn meal $LiW $i.fi7 
Wheat bran 1.01 1.58 
Shorts H? 1.51 
Slldd lings 1.0U 1.56 
For its manurial value bran stands first 
considerably, on account of the phosphoric 
acid aud nitrogen contained in it. Middlings 
comes next, aud then shorts, and corn meal 
last. Starch has uo manurial value whatever, 
and food that is rich in starch, as corn aud 
wheat shorts, makes poor manure. 
DRY CHOPPED GRAIN FOR HORSES. 
A Subscriber, Baden, Pa. —Is it likely to in¬ 
jure horses to feed them dry, chopped rye and 
corn mixed with dry bran? Some persons 
say such feed will clog iu the bowels and kill 
the animals. 
Ans.—T he feed is no more likely to 
clog in the bowels thau dry oats or corn. 
Thousands of horses have been fed in 
this way for years without any harm. For 
horses in active work tbe chopped food is bet¬ 
ter than whole grain, und will easily make a 
saving of one-third of tho grain, and is much 
better t han moistened cut feed. In England 
chopped oats aud beans (there beans are used 
instead of our corn) are the common feed for 
horses. If nil the oats fed to horses were 
crushed, they would be much better thau the 
whole grain. 
“REDUCING” BONKS. 
W. I>. G., Clintnndatr, N. Y.— Wbat is the 
best way of reducing bones to powder for the 
purpose of compounding them with other fer¬ 
tilizers? 
Ans.—T he easiest and cheapest way is to 
mix the bones in about four times their bulk 
of fresh wood ashes, with unequal quantity of 
fresh lime. It is best to make a pit in the 
ground to put these iu. The heap is then 
