THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
447 
4888 
MILKING COWS JUST BEFORE AND 
AFTER CALVING. 
of small shade trees it would cause their death. 
It is easy, however, to explain the death of ma¬ 
ple trees in quite another way, and that, too, 
when the appearance is such as suggested by 
Mr.S. Thebig-headed borer (Chrysobotbrisfe- 
morata), which does much injurytoyoung apple 
trees is a great pest of the maple, and is very 
certain to attack this tree the first year or two 
after it has been transplanted. The beetle 
seems attracted to trees whose vigor has been 
disturbed, and so the shock which is so sure to 
follow upon transplanting leads to the further 
injury by the insects. I have washed the 
trunks of maples set out on my farm with 
soft-soap, rubbing each trunk with a cloth 
smeared with this soap each June for the first 
two or three years after setting. This repels 
e 8K"laying, and so prevents the borers from 
doing their injury. So far as I have observed, 
these borers have not attacked the elm; so 
that the special case in Utica is not accounted 
for. I think we should all preach against the 
mania for setting Sugar Maples. 
Of course, they are fine trees; but 
from my observation for the past 
several years, I should say that not 
half of the trees set out live. If 
bass-woods were set it would be far 
different. I think then 95 per cent, 
would thrive. The bass-wood tree 
is beautiful for shade, and is as 
valuable as the maple. It furnishes 
its sugar in the beautiful nectar 
secreted by the flowers, which the 
bees are very glad to utilize. 
bog spavin; swelling in knee 
OF COLT. 
J. C., Montpelier, Ohio. —1. 
What shall I do for a year-old colt 
which is slightly lame from blood 
spavin? 2. The same colt was in¬ 
jured in a fore leg in some un¬ 
known way last summer. The leg 
swelled greatly about the knee, 
and the swelling extended nearly 
tho whole length of the leg. There 
was great tenderness on the inside 
just above the knee. No injury 
was apparent externally; there 
was much fever for two or three 
weeks. Finally the swelling settled 
in a puffy enlargement about the 
knee, which seemed to come to a 
point and contain pus. I lanced 
it slightly and it bled freely, but 
dischared no pus. It resulted in a 
hard enlargement of the knee joint, 
which slowly decreased for a 
while, but now appears perman¬ 
ent. How should it be treated? 
Ans. — 1 . Blood spavin is simply 
a dilatation of the large vein 
which passes over the common 
seat of spavin, and should not 
cause any lameness. We suspect, 
therefore, you have a bog-spavin 
instead, which is due to inflamma¬ 
tion of the hock joint, and would 
cause a puffy, fluctuating swelling 
in the same region and also a si mi 
lar swelling behind the joint. By 
pressing upon either swelling you 
can reduce it and cause the other 
to enlarge. Bog-spavin often 
causes lameness. Try bathing the 
joint several times daily with hot 
water. If this’proves insufficient, 
apply a mild blister over the whole 
joint—powdered cantharides one 
dram, spirits of camphor 5 to 10 
drops, vaseline one ounce. Clip 
the hair and rub well into the skin 
Wash off in 24 hours and anoint 
daily with vaseline. The colt must 
be kept with his head tied so that 
he cannot reach the limb with his 
mouth. 2, Swellings about the 
joints should be opened only by persons familiar 
with the anatomy, otherwise important struc¬ 
tures may be injured with serious results. 
Paint the remaining enlargement daily with 
tincture of iodine and continue for two or 
three weeks or longer if necessary. If the 
iodine should blister the skin withhold it fora 
few days, and then apply less freely. Slight 
blistering will do no harm. 
STERILE MARES. 
O. T., Connersville, Ind. —There are several 
valuable mares here f hat have quit breeding 
and they seem to be a' 1 right with the except¬ 
ion of a lump or hard place under and in front 
of the mouth of the womb. Can anything be 
done to get them to breed? All of them have 
raised one or more colts. Would a rubber in¬ 
strument that is made to hold the mouth of 
the womb open during copulation do auy 
good? 
Ans. —We would advise having the mares 
examined by a competent veterinarian. With¬ 
out such personal examination we could not 
give a satisfactory opinion, and perhaps not 
even then. Mares frequently fail to continue 
to breed from no apparent cause whatever, so 
that it is impossible, even after a personal ex¬ 
amination, to give an answer. 
hard'and lumpy, like a mass of peas or beans 
and occasionally stick firmly to the skin, the 
tongue or the jaw-bone. Tho lymphatics on 
the face often rise as firm as cords. The ulcers 
increase in number, often invading the gristle 
and even the bone ; the glands also enlarge, 
but remain hard and knotty ; the discharge 
becomes fetid, bloody and so abundant and 
tenacious as to threaten suffocation, and the 
animal perishes in great distress. Chronic 
glanders is characterized by the same un¬ 
healthy deposits and ulcers in the nose, vary¬ 
ing extremely in size and number ; and also, 
by the same viscid discharge ; but usually 
it is less tenacious than in the acute form. 
There are also the same hard, nodular or 
knotty glands on the inner side of the jaw¬ 
bone. Except at the outset, the animal ap¬ 
pears to be in good health, except for the 
nasal < ischarge, and hence he is often kept 
while he communicates the disease to other 
horses and even men. The early symptoms of 
acute farcy are like those of acute 
glanders. The local symptoms con¬ 
sist in a thickening of the lym¬ 
phatic vessels, whichfeel like cords, 
painful to pressure; and the 
formation of round, inflammatory 
swellings (farcy-buds) along the 
courso of these corded lymphatics. 
Then follow ulceration of tho 
“buds,” raw sores discharging a 
glairy, unhealthy pus, and dropsi¬ 
cal enlargements of the limbs or 
other parts affected. The disease 
is usually seen to follow the lines of 
the veins on the inner side of the 
hind or fore limbs, but it may ap¬ 
pear on any part. In chronic 
farcy, there islfirst a swelling of 
the fetlock, usually the hind one, 
and a hard, round, nut-like mass 
may be felt, which gradually soft¬ 
ens, bursts, and discharges glairy 
matter. The lymphatics leading 
from it become hard, and farcy- 
buds appear along their course. Or 
the round, pea-like buds appear 
first on the inner side of the hock 
or on some other part of the body, 
soften, burst, and discharge before 
any cording of the lymphatics can 
be felt. Later on dropsical swell¬ 
ings appear on the limbs and else¬ 
where, at first soft and removable 
by exercise; later, hard and per¬ 
manent. Sometimes the farcy- 
buds refuse to soften, remaining 
hard and indolent for months. 
Animals affected with chronic 
glanders or farcy may live several 
years; but the treatment of gland¬ 
ers in all its forms, and of acute 
farcy, with open sores, should be 
legally forbidden on account of 
the great danger of contagion to 
man and other animals. 
before commencing fresh. If they are not, 
the milk becomes thicker, usually bitter, 
gradually partaking of the character of 
colostrum or the first milk after parturition. 
2. No. Even if milked for several days be¬ 
fore we would not use the milk until at least 
the fifth or sixth milking after calving. The 
common practice is to take the ninth milking, 
but good dairymen pay very little attention 
to this arbitrary rule. The milk of a cow 
with no fever in the udder is better on the 
sixth milking, than the fifteenth milking from 
a cow with garget or hard swelling of the 
udder. 3. It may be given in small quan¬ 
tities from the first. But calves receiving 
older milk should not be fed exclusively on 
this new milk. 4. Yes. 5. No. Heifers very 
rarely require it, and when not necessary it 
is always better not to do so. Heavy milkers 
on full feed occasionally require milking for 
several days before calving, to avoid over¬ 
stocking of the udders and the resulting in¬ 
abandoned, turning on to the new leaves a 
far greater number for the formation of new 
colonies. Early, when the buds are opening, 
if the canes were treated with several doses 
of kerosene emulsion, the first ones appear¬ 
ing from the ground or from the eggs for 
a summer life on the leaf instead of the root, 
would have been summarily disposed of. 
This remarkable insect has an extremely 
complicated life-history, being produced from 
as many as five different kinds of eggs, giv¬ 
ing insect varieties winged and unwinged, 
feeding and non-feeding, laying numerous 
eggs and only a few, and various other kinds 
having different stages of growth. So harm¬ 
ful an insect should be circumvented and its 
feeding and breeding grounds should be cur¬ 
tailed in every way, and one method is to dis¬ 
card all varieties of grapes, like the Clinton, 
upon which the pests propagate on tho leaf be¬ 
sides the usual place—tho roots. The Concord, 
Niagara, Catawba, and about all the V. Lab- 
CLUSTER OF QUINCES. One-fifth Natural Size. Fig. 241. (See first page.) 
flammation or garget. But even in such 
cases it can usually be largely avoided by re¬ 
ducing the feed, which will not only reduce 
the milk secretion, but lessen tie danger of 
milk fever or parturient apoplexy so liable to 
occur in those heavy milkers on full feed. 
THE GRAPE-VINE LOUSE—PHYLLOXERA. 
J. K., Stroudsburg, Pa.— My Clinton grape¬ 
vines are full of coxcomb-shaped enlarge¬ 
ments, which are filled with red, louse-like 
larvae. What had I better do with the pests? 
Will persisent cutting off of the infested vines 
and leaves and burning them prevent the 
propagation and spread of the nuisances? 
Clinton is the only variety affected. 
ANSWERED BY W. L. DEVEREAUX. 
The enlargements on the Clinton grape 
leaves are the galls of the grape-vine louse— 
Phylloxera vastatrix—one type of which is 
known to inhabit tlifc leaves of the Clinton, 
Oporto and Taylor (Frost Grapes) and varieties 
of Vitis cordifolia. Plucking off the leaves and 
burning them is the only alternative at this 
season. Only the outer newly formed leaves 
are to be cut off, as the old leaf-galls have been 
rusca type of vines are exempt from leaf 
galls, but, of course, the louse causes more 
or less root galls, but these generally produce 
no apparent injury in this country. 
It is also to be noted that even the Clinton, 
though suffering from both kinds of lice, is 
not badly dwarfed and is never destroyed. 
At least my experience with the Clinton and 
Oporto for 25 years shows that neither is 
fatally affected. I have, however, rooted out 
all these varieties from my vineyards in re¬ 
cent years. 
INJURY TO ELM AND MAPLE STREET TREES. 
A. II. S., lUica, N. Y., calls attention to the 
fact that the elm and maple trees along the 
streets are dying quite badly, while those in 
inclosures are well and healthy. He says the 
bark is loose up for about 18 inches from the 
ground, and asks if the loss of the trees may 
not come from the micturition of dogs? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 
It is a fact that urine is a very strong fertil¬ 
izer, and when it is thrown on grass or shrub¬ 
bery it often causes their death. It is quite 
likely that if passed too freely on to the trunks 
W. C. R., Holland Patent, N. Y. 
—1. Can a cow that has been dry 
and which is “coming in” in Aug¬ 
ust, and which is inclined to give 
some milk now, be induced to give 
a flow of milk again at present 
when on grass, by milking her 
regularly. If so, would the milk 
be suitable for butter and cheese? 
How long before calving should a 
cow “run dry ?” 2. If a cow is 
milked just before calving is the 
milk fit for human use ? In how 
many days after calving does the 
milk become fit for use ? 3. How 
long after calving is the milk fit 
for calves ? 4. Should a cow be 
milked out previous to coming in? 
5. Should heifers be milked just before they 
come in ?. 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
1. A cow that has been “dried off” or has 
been dry for any considerable time, will not, 
as a rule, give milk again until after another 
calving; except in cases of a temporary sup¬ 
pression of the milk flow from disease, priva¬ 
tion, or other causes, when it can be partially 
restored by regular milking after the cause 
has been removed. Occasionally, however, a 
dry cow could probably be “brought to her 
milk” by regular milking; and after a good 
flow had been established the milk would un- » 
doubtedly bo suitable for cheese or other dom¬ 
estic uses. But we would not advise milking 
a dry cow with any idea of obtaining a profit¬ 
able flow of milk, and especially not since she 
is to be fresh in two or three months. The 
milk would not be good for at least two to four 
weeks before calving. Dairy cows usually 
“run dry” from four to ten weeks before par¬ 
turition, and where they do not do so natur¬ 
ally at least four weeks before the time of calv¬ 
ing, it is desirable to dry them off four weeks 
