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RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
CAR WINDOW PHILOSOPHY. 
Why is there so much uncultivated land 
along the lines of our railways ? One would 
think that almost every foot of land along the 
line of railways leading to our large cities 
would be under cultivation. If a convenient 
market has anything to do with profitable 
farming, surely it should pay to cultivate 
such land. Is it not the result ot the “ penny¬ 
wise-pound-foolish ” policy adopted by many 
of our railways in charging high rates for 
local freight, such as fertilizing materials and 
farm produce ? 
Why will farmers persist in building fences 
where they are not needed and where they can 
be of no earthly use ? Many farmers seem 
impressed with the idea that when a man’s 
land is fenced in, it is in some way more dis¬ 
tinctly his own. The result is that there are 
miles of fencing which serve no purpose ex 
cept the marking of a boundary line which 
could have been just as clearly defined by 
means of a few locust posts. Another reason 
for the great number of useless fences is the 
dividing up of farms according to circumstan¬ 
ces which are only temporary—according to 
the whim of the moment rather than accord 
ing to some clearly defined plan. In a ride of 
two hours I have seen miles of tumbled-down 
fencing which in its present dilapidated state 
is doubtless as useful as it ever has been. It 
doesn’t pay to build a “permanent” fence ex¬ 
cept in places where it will be needed for a 
long time, and in such places it pays to build 
a fence that will stand. 
It is evident that the high price of coal is 
bringing firewood into general use again 
The sound of the wood chopper is once more 
heard in the land. Acres and acres of forest 
land are being cut over, chiefly for firewood 
It is a fortunate thing that when the “coal 
ring” puts up the price of coal, it at the same 
time increases the value of the farmor’s wood 
lot. 
Why have the deep ruts and gulleys made 
by the horses’ feet gone out of existence? I 
can remember when a “road” consisted of two 
deep ruts and two gulleys with three ridges 
between. When but one hors9 was driven an 
“outrigger” was used so that he could travel 
in one of the gulleys. A friend suggests that 
it may be due to the fact that wagon trucks 
are narrower than they used to be, conse¬ 
quently the horses’ feet throw the dust into 
the ruts made by the wheel, while single 
horses rigged to travel in the middle of the 
road prevent the formation of the middle 
ridge. I am inclined to think, however, that 
improved methods of road making, and es¬ 
pecially the use of the road machine, have 
been the chief cause of the improvement in 
the roads. There are, however, valuable les¬ 
sons which may be learned in the matter of 
wagon building. 
What a sad sight it is to see horses or cattle 
turned out to pasture on a wet, cold, drizzly 
day. They linger under a tree or in a corner 
of the fence apparently as miserable as a 
human being would be under like circum¬ 
stances. It is vastly better to keep animals 
in the barnyard in such weather; in fact, it 
is downright cruelty to turn them out 
RAMBLER. 
Illinois. 
Pleasant Valley, Jo Daviess Co., No¬ 
vember 5.—We have plenty ofj|reasons to ob¬ 
serve Thanksgiving Day in these parts this 
year, for we have had a very fruitful season. 
Winter wheat was especially successful, 
yielding from 20 to 45 bushels per acre. Corn 
is a good yield, but there is a deal of soft corn, 
and if we should have warm, damp weather, 
no doubt much of it will be spoiled in the 
cribs. I have never seen nicer potatoes than 
most of those raised hero this year, though 
the flea-beetle killed the vines in many places 
in August. Potatoes are very plentiful in 
Iowa and are reported slow sale at 10 cents 
per bushel in some places. They ought to 
be more valuable than that cooked for hogs. 
Prices here: Potatoes 20 cents: new corn 
20 cents; wheat 81.; oats, 22 cents ; rye, 52 
cents; Timothy hay 87. per ton; Timothy seed 
plenty at $1.15. Clover seed scarce at 85. 
Hogs, live weight, $5. per cwt. w. s. s. 
Tennessee. 
Haley, Bedford County, November 20.— 
We are nearing the close of another year 
which in some respects has been one of the 
most prosperous in recent times. The wheat 
crop throughout the State was never better, 
ranging from 15 to 40 bushels per acre. The 
bulk of it went straight from the thrasher in¬ 
to the hands of speculators at 70 to 75 cents 
though there is a great deal of wheat still in 
the hands of our farmers who have refused 
§1,10 for the best. The acreage sown this 
fall is large and the seed was put in in fine 
condition as a rule. The young crop is look¬ 
ing promising though the fly is getting in full 
time with its work. The corn crop was good, 
but badly damaged by the storms, much of it 
being entirely worthless. Hogs are scarce 
and hardly as fat as usual, owing I think to 
the damaged condition of corn. Good hogs 
are bringing about $4.65 per 100 pounds, 
though a short time back they brought $5.00. 
I guess speculators know the cause of this de¬ 
cline; but if the feeders will only have the 
backbone and hold on, they can name the 
price this time. If the producer would only 
see that he has not a living margin at less 
than five cents and say that he will have that 
price or pack his own hogs, it would not be 10 
days before he would have eager purchasers 
at that price. I say, farmers, let us dictate 
awhile. By unity of action we can as well get 
one dollar for our wheat and make a decent 
living as give it away at 50 cents and stint 
our families to pile up the millions for the 
speculators. 
And right here I must commend the Rural 
for its efforts in the right direction, viz. to 
educate the farmer to a higher plane of think¬ 
ing. Potatoes were a good crop. Sweet po¬ 
tatoes were the largest crop for years and 
prices are low—20 to 30 cents per bushel. 
Apples are a heavy crop and there is no de¬ 
mand for them except for distilling purposes, 
in which they bring from 8 to 10 cents per 
bushel. The peach crop was bountiful, but 
the quality was poor as the trees were over¬ 
loaded. 
The weather has so far this fall been very 
mild, with an abundance of rain, which has 
to some extent retarded late seeding. 
w. s. w. 
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COMPLICATED LAMENESS IN A MARE. 
C. S. L., Menomonee Falls, Wis.— Last 
spring my three-year-old filly tore off her left 
fore shoe, three days after being shod. She 
did not go lame, but in a few weeks began to 
stumble on that foot. After the Fourth of 
July, one hot day in driving her to the village 
three and a half miles away, she worried and 
sweated considerably and stumbled more in 
walking than in trotting. I also noticed about 
this time that she could not raise her left fore 
foot in backing. During August there was a 
great deal of thunder and lightning; after one 
of the showers, the mare in playing, reared, 
slipped and fell on her hip and left side. In a 
couple of weeks she stumbled so much and 
knocked her left hind leg against the right 
one so that I called the village veterinarian 
who said there was no lameness but a kind of 
paralysis, “sleeping of the muscles.” Cause, 
lightning, heat, cold or over-exertion. He 
gave a powder to be given once daily for a 
week, also a blistering liniment to be applied 
daily for one week on the shoulder and hip,and 
along the spine. Then he gave her a ball for a 
few days and leftan oily blister,more of which 
he gave afterwards, and he also left another 
package of powders. Her left fore and left 
hind legs at this time became warm while the 
right legs were cold. Her breathing was light 
and slow, and she gained flesh. When the 
blisters peeled off, a boil came on the point of 
the shoulder and scratches on the left hind foot. 
After the blister healed a rowel was put iu 
the breast and left three weeks. The swelling 
of the fore leg went down, but that of the hind 
remained. While the rowel was in, a mild 
blister was applied to the joints of hip and 
shoulder. The “doctor” then gave an oint¬ 
ment of lard and a poison which ne said would 
cure the scratches in three applications, but 
they are not cured yet. He now says I must 
wait until she has foaled. She was bred the 
seventh of last April. Her feed has been hay 
and a bran mash. She has a clean box-stall and 
no bedding. Weight last spring 1,325 pounds. 
Her front leg is carried forward all of a piece 
though it is not so bad as at first. The hind leg 
seems drawn when she is going ahead and is 
not carried forward as far as it should be and 
the patella snaps sometimes. What’s the 
matter? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
It is very difficult, I may say impossible, to 
correctly diagnose a chronic, complicated 
case of this kind from a description. If prac¬ 
ticable we would advise you to have the mare 
examined by a competent veterinarian. If 
you cannot do this, you may try the following 
course of general treatment. Remove the 
shoes and apply to all four feet a warm poul¬ 
tice of ground or well bruised flaxseed. After 
36 hours renew the poultice for a like period. 
Then remove the poultice and anoint the 
hoofs daily with an ointment of equal parts 
of pine tar and vaselene. Apply the following 
liniment all around the top of each hoof once 
a week—equal parts of sweec oil and strong 
ammonia well shaken together. If the skin 
becomes blistered use this less freely. Also 
use this liniment freely over and around the 
patella. Internally give the mare a course of 
nux vomica. Begin by giviug half-dram 
doses three times daily and increase the dose 
by half a dram every two davs until you are 
giving two-dram doses. If twitching of the 
muscles occurs,reduce the dose one-half; other¬ 
wise continue it until you have given 10 or 12 
ounces. Keep the mare in the box-stall and 
allow the manure to remain packed on the 
floor to a depth of three to four inches; but 
don’t let there be enough to heat. Bupply 
the necessary bedding to keep the stall dry. 
Feed oats or an equivalent twice daily, with 
half a pint of ground flaxseed, or the whole 
seed bruised or scalded. The mash can be given 
at night; this may be given daily with good 
results; but an exclusive grain ration of bran 
mashes would not be desirable for a brood 
mare with foal. For the scratches, first wash 
with warm Castile soap-suds, and rub dry. 
Then apply benzoated oxide of zinc, rubbing 
the ointment well into the cracks. Keep 
these filled until healed. Do not wet the legs 
oftener than necessary and then always rub 
dry. Moderate exercise in a dry yard on 
pleasant days will be beneficial. 
BLACK-QUARTER OR BLACK-LEG IN CALVES. 
F. M., Bedford, Ky. —Cattle hereabouts, 
especially calves, are dying in large numbers, 
and I lost a calf a week ago. I didn’t 
notice that anything was the matter with it 
until the morning before it died, when it ap¬ 
peared stupid. Within 24 hours it was dead. 
Yesterday another calf appeared lame in one 
hind leg, and it didn’t come up to the stable. 
When I saw it this morning the whole leg and 
thigh were badly swollen and appeared be¬ 
numbed. I think it will die in a few hours. 
What is the trouble ? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
You should have given a more complete his¬ 
tory and description of the disease affecting 
the calves in your county, to enable us to give 
you a definite answer. From the brief symp¬ 
toms given we suspect the disease is a form of 
anthrax, commonly known as black-quarter 
or black-leg. The prevalence of the disease is 
due to a germ or poison that is developed or 
propagated in the rich, low, damp soils of 
certain localities, and taken into the system 
by the young stock grazing on those soils. 
The season is now so far advanced that you 
may expect to have very little more trouble 
with this disease this year. We will, there¬ 
fore, reserve until spring the general con¬ 
sideration of the disease. Treatment is rarely 
successful after the animal sickens; but with 
proper precautions the disease can usually be 
prevented or soon checked wherever it makes 
its appearance. Feed moderately so as not to 
keep the calves too fat; over-feeding produces 
a condition of the system that favors the de¬ 
velopment of the disease. Remove the calves 
from their present pasture, and either “ keep 
them up ” or on pastures which are high and 
dry. Provide comfortable quarters to shelter 
them from the fall winds and storms. Better 
to shelter them at night if you can convenient¬ 
ly do so. Give them each one dram of chlor¬ 
ate of potash three times daily, until all 
danger is removed. Also give 15 drops of 
nitro-muriatic acid to each calf, three times 
daily, alternating with the potash. If the 
animals are costive, give one-fourth of a pint 
of raw linseed oil and one teaspoonful of oil of 
turpentine once daily until relieved. The 
disease is transmitted to men by inoculation, 
so that all dead animals should be handled 
with care. If the skin is broken on the 
hands, a person ought not to handle the 
diseased or dead animals. The dead should be 
deeply buried in some place away from the 
pastures and away from any running or 
drinking water. 
WATER-MEADOWS: SEEDING MUCKY LAND 
TO GRASS. 
K. L. R., Vanlue, Ohio. —What are the 
“ Paulet lands ” in England. ? How were they 
made to produce such an abundance of grass 
as they are credited with ? I have a tract of 
land that I would like to get into tame 
grasses. It is almost all muck with a sub-soil 
of blue clay, the clay coming to the surface in 
places and the muck being often ten feet deep 
The surface water is carried off by open 
ditches, and the wild grass has nearly all died 
out. The “ prairie,” as it is called, has 
grown up to weeds for two or three years past 
and they have been as thick as they can stand 
and six and seven feet high. Can the Rural 
suggest a way of getting this land into grass 
without breaking it (there is too much of it for 
that) and what kind of grass should be sown ? 
Ans. The lands referred to are river bottoms 
irrigated and treated as tbe very productive 
water meadows are in that country and parts 
of the Continent. The soil of these lands is 
alluvial clay and very rich, and being 
drained, passes a large quantity of water 
having a large quantity of fertilizing matter 
in it, through it, retaining the fertilizing ele 
ments. Some of these water meadows have 
grown a total of 100 inches (over eight feet.) of 
growth of grass in a year, it being cut several 
times for fodder or hay. Our friend’s land 
cannot be got into tame grasses successfully 
without plowing, thorough breaking up, lim¬ 
ing and seeding. No doubt the land would 
pay liberally for the work In producing good 
crops of grass for several years. The kinds of 
grass suitable for such land are Timothy; 
Tall Oat grass; Meadow Fescue; Orchard 
grass and Fowl Meadow grass—(Poa serotina). 
Thick seeding, 10 pounds per acre of each, 
would be advisable. Without breaking the land 
the weeds would entirely prevent any growth 
of grass. 
SALIVATION OR SLABBERS IN A COW. 
C. P. A., Fort Keogh, M. T.— -My 14-year 
old cow slabbers so much as to make her hay 
as wet as if water were poured on it. What 
can be done for her? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
Make a careful examination of the mouth 
to see if there is not some sharp-pointed body 
penetrating the tongue or other soft parts. 
Also examine the teeth to see that none are 
decayed or overgrown, so as to wound the 
tongue or cheeks. Any such foreign body, 
decayed or overgrown teeth should be re¬ 
moved, when the trouble will probably cease 
without further treatment. If the mouth is 
sore or inflamed, wash twice daily with a so¬ 
lution of borax or a diluted tincture of 
myrrh. There may be paralysis of the lips 
allowing the saliva to flow involuntarily 
from the mouth, in which case a more care¬ 
ful description and special treatment will be 
demanded. If no cause can be discovered, 
and the trouble appears to be constitutional, 
give the cow twice daily, two drams each of 
chlorate of potash and iodide of potassium. 
Then wash the mouth night and morning 
with a solution of alum. Paint the large 
gland beneath each ear and those between tne 
the branches of the lower jaw with compound 
tincture of iodine every thre6 or four days. 
A change of food might be beneficial, espec¬ 
ially since some plant in the pasture or hay 
may be the cause of the trouble. 
BLOODY MILK FROM A COW. 
A. A. C., Wilmington, Del. —I have two 
cows in excellent condition, hearty, good 
feeders;but for the last two months their milk 
has been tinged with blood—only disceraible 
after using the cream. Their feed has been 
bran once a day all summer. This fall they 
get half a bushel of pumpkins twice a day. 
What is the trouble? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
Do you detect the presence of what you 
believe to be the blood in the cream or at the 
bottom of the pau when the milk is poured out? 
If in the bottom of the pan your diagnosis is 
probably correct; but if in the cream, as I am 
lead to suppose from your description, I sus¬ 
pect the color may be due to cryptogams—a 
low form of vegetable growth—in the cream 
throughout the milk. Give the cows each one 
pound of Epsom salts with one ounce of ginger, 
as a drench, and repeat in six or eight days if 
necessary, to secure a free action of the bow¬ 
els. Also give each cow once daily in the feed 
one tablespoonful of pulverized nitrate of 
potash two parts, bisulphite of soda one part. 
Make sure that the drinking water is fresh 
and pure, the feed all wholesome, and that 
the cows do not have access to any foul or 
putrid material of any kind. If the color 
does not disappear in a week or ten days try 
a change of food. 
RATION FOR MILCH COWS AND “SPRINGERS.” 
7. R., Cohoes, N. Y. —In regard to the ra¬ 
tion given on page 764, how can clover hay be 
best substituted for silage and how can the ra¬ 
tion be changed to make a suitable food for 
cows before calving or “springers.” 
Ans. —Clover hay being so much richer 
than silage in protein or flesh-formers, it 
would not be necessary to feed so much bran 
or cotton-seed meal: 20 pounds of clover hay 
of good quality would rather more than bal- 
