24$ THE AURAL NEW-YORKER. APR 43 
STARTING A SMALL CREAMERY. 
E. P., Beverly , N. J.— On my farm of 150 
acres I milk 16 Jersey cows and retail butter 
the year round "at 40 cents per pound. I 
would like to build two silos and keep 40 
cows,starting a small creamery with a centrif¬ 
ugal separator, using the milk from my own 
cows as well as that of about 100 belonging 
to my neighbors; would this be practicable ? 
Ans. —Of course, the whole scheme is emi¬ 
nently practicable; the only weak point 
about it, that is discernible, is the limitation 
put on the number of cows—40—when the 
number, in a short time, should be 150—a cow 
to each acre. The two silos will be all right, 
provided they are made large enough, and 
constructed in a substantial and air-tight 
way. The use of a separator, especially when 
it is contemplated to make butter from the 
milk gathered from other farms, is not only 
right, but it is about the only really practi¬ 
cal, and best method of getting all the cream 
from such milk, still leaving the skim-milk in 
the best feeding condition. For farmers with 
small dairies, not living contiguous to butter- 
factories that manufacture from milk, or 
those who wish to patronize a gathered-cream 
factory, iced creameries are excellent; but 
gathered milk,if butter is to be made from it, 
had better go through the separator. 
VITALITY OF THE EGGS OF PARASITES ON 
SHEEP. 
D. G. W. C., Cumberland, Ohio. —How is 
it that the eggs of parasites on sheep can be 
taken into the stomach without being de¬ 
stroyed? Will freezing destroy their vitality? 
1 notice small white specks on the droppings 
of my sheep; what are they? 
Ans.— In the case of those parasites in 
which the egg is taken into the stomach with 
the food (in ruminants this means the fourth 
or true stomach) the egg-case or envelop is di¬ 
gested off, setting the embryo parasite free. 
If the embryo is then alive it is able to resist 
the'action of the gastric juices, which have no 
power to digest living, healthy tissues. After 
the young parasite has been set free it passes 
to that part of the intestine or system selected 
by that particular parasite as its habitat. 
The same principles apply to the other domes¬ 
tic animals as well as to sheep. So little is 
known of the life history of these parasites in 
their egg and embryo stages that we do not 
know under what conditions the eggs are de¬ 
stroyed, or what degree of cold they will re¬ 
sist. The white particles you notice on the 
sheep droppings are undoubtedly the ripe seg¬ 
ments of tape-worms. 
FUNGUS ON CARP. 
J. H., West Granby, Conn. —I have about 
100 German carp in a pond 10x12 feet, in which 
the water is two feet deep and furnished by a 
spring. The carp are troubled by a fungus 
and several have died within a few days. 
What is the matter? 
Ans.—M arshall McDonald, the U. S. Com¬ 
missioner of Fish and Fisheries, to whom this 
question was'referred, sends the following an¬ 
swer:—> ‘ The fish are probably affected with 
fungus, a vegetable parasite present in nearly 
all waters. Bruises or sores on fish are its 
points of attack, and by its drain upon their 
vitality it causes death. The best remedy is 
to make a strong solution of salt and water, 
and dip the fish in it, allowing them to remain 
for two or three minutes, and then transfer 
them to fresh water. This should be done 
two or three times a week. ” 
STERILITY IN A MARE. 
G. P., Lost Creek, Va. —My 16-year-old 
mare had a colt when she was six years old; 
then she had no chance to get with foal for 
five years; but since then she has been to a 
stallion regularly; but has not got with foal. 
What can be done to get her with foal? 
Ans. —Mares frequently fail to breed after 
they are 10 or 12 years of age, espec¬ 
ially where they have not been bred regu¬ 
larly. There is probably no remedy. In such 
cases about the only treatment that can 
be given is to keep the animal in that condi¬ 
tion most favorable for breeding, i. e. in good 
working flesh—not too fat, on a moderately 
rich diet, but restricted in quantity. Regu¬ 
lar exercise is very essential; even hard work 
Is often most favorable. Idleness and over¬ 
feeding predispose to sterility. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE OF A HORSE. 
S. D. C., Ainsworth, Md .—My horse keeps 
one of his eyes shut nearly all the time. I put 
some sugar on it and it appeared to do good 
at the time; but did not cure it. Eye-water 
doesn’t help it. The eye-ball seems to be dull 
and not so glossy as the other; but there is no 
film over it. What should be the treatment? 
Ans. —Cover the eye with a cloth and keep 
it constantly wet with a solution of 80 grains 
of sugar of lead and 10 grains of morphia dis¬ 
solved in a pint of distilled water or clear 
rain water. Give the horse six drams of Bar- 
badoes aloes to open the bowels. Then keep 
the bowels slightly loosened by feeding roots 
or a bran mash once daily. Keep the horse 
in moderately good condition but do not over¬ 
feed. * 
KILLING WIRE-WORMS AND WOOD-LICE. 
J. D. B., Modus , Conn .—How can I get rid 
of wire-worms and wood-lice in a rose-bed in a 
greenhouse? 
Ans. —You cannot rid the soil of wire- 
worms, but you can trap a good many of 
them by burying pieces of carrots in the soil, 
examining these daily and killing all the wire- 
worms found on them. For wood-lice take 
two pieces of old half rotten boards, perfectly 
dry, and lay them one above the other in a 
dry shady part of the rose-bed. The wood- 
lice will crawl in between the boards. Exam¬ 
ine these traps' frequently and kill the insects 
with scalding water. 
THRUSH. 
J. W.C., Halifax,Pa .—All the frogs of my 
seven-year-old mare waste away and have a 
very offensive odor. She appears to be in 
great pain. What is the matter ; and what 
should be the treatment ? 
Ans. —The disease is thrush. Cut away the 
dead horn and scrape the surface clean. 
Then press dry calomel on the diseased sur¬ 
face and well into the cleft of the frog. If 
thorough, one or two applications should be 
sufficient. Keep the feet clean and out of the 
wet as much as possible until well healed. 
Miscellaneous. 
E. A. H., Potsdam, N. Y .—A turkey of 
mine has a swelling just above her bill. It 
began last fall and has been gradually grow¬ 
ing ever since. It is soft and when I press on 
it something like foam runs out of the eye. 
Another swelling is beginning on the other 
side. What should be done for her? 
Ans.— Wash the head with warm vinegar 
and water every day for a week or more. 
D. S. C., Catonsville, Md .—My 16-year-old 
mare had her first colt last May. I bred her 
again in August, and she aborted in March. 
Will it be safe to breed her again, and, if so 
how soon? 
Ans. —Yes, after three or four months if 
the mare appears to be all right. Special pre¬ 
cautions should be taken in her care to avoid 
all causes that would be likely to cause a repe¬ 
tition of the act. 
H. T., Richmond Center, IPt's.—At what 
temperature does an egg get so cold that it 
becomes useless for hatching? 
Ans. —The safe rule is not to allow the tem¬ 
perature to fall below 85 degrees, though it 
does not follow that a point below this is sure 
to spoil the eggs. Too much depends upon the 
eggs themselves and the length of time they 
have been in the incubator. The eggs should 
be kept as near 108 degrees as possible all 
through the incubation. 
P. M., Brucetown, Va— My six-year-old 
mare passes soft droppings like those of a cow. 
She has never had a foal; isshelikelv to have 
one? She is healthy and works well? 
Ans. —The general condition of the mare 
may be improved by giving her two table¬ 
spoonfuls of the following powders on her feed 
night and morning for a week. Then omit for 
a week, after which give the medicine for 
another week alternating for several weeks. 
Sulphate of iron four ounces, powdered gen¬ 
tian, ginger and niter each eight ounces. The 
only way to tell whether the mare will breed 
is to try her. 
A. Q. McD., South Hartford, N. Y .—My 
father has a very fine herd of Short-horn 
cows witn which a Jersey cow is allowed to 
run; will the offspring of the Short-horns be 
liable in any way to be marked like the Jer¬ 
sey? 
Ans.— Many cases are on record where ani¬ 
mals peculiarly marked have had an effect on 
the fetus or unborn young of animals of other 
breeds or varieties. When there is no sudden 
fright or worrying, there is probably no dan¬ 
ger of variation from having animals of one 
breed running with those of another; certainly 
not after the animals are born. 
A “Rural Reader ,” Tioga Co., Pa .—When 
my young grade Jersey cow came in in the 
fall she was nearly dry. We milked her un¬ 
til four weeks before she came in. One teat 
became inflamed and the milk thick and 
stringy. I gave her two doses of saltpeter 
and she was all right. Last week she calved 
and the trouble began again, and again the 
saltpeter was given. The milk comes all right 
now, although it is deficient in quantity. 
There seems to be only about a pint in that 
teat; but a nice lot comes from the others. 
What ought to be done for her ? 
Ans.—S ince the trouble has already disap¬ 
peared treatment is not necessary. The flow 
of milk in that quarter will probably gradually 
return. If it does not do so this season it will 
probably be all right after the next calving. 
The trouble was evidently due either to an in¬ 
jury to that quarter or to over-stocking while 
drying off. 
W. H. L., Walton, N. Y.—l have a hot¬ 
bed for lettuce, two feet deep; how deep 
should the horse manure and soil be to give 
the best results? 2. How far apart should 
the plants be in the bed when thinned out? 
3. Could I transplant some of them without 
hardening them by exposure and^would such 
a course be advisable to secure a large crop for 
the market? 4. Could 1 sprout early potatoes 
by placing them in the hot-bed, then putting 
them In drills, the potatoes being placed be¬ 
tween the seed drills? 
Ans.—I f two feet deep from the sashes is 
meant, 13 inches in depth of manure, four inch¬ 
es of soil, and seven inches of head room. But 
this is a shallo w hot-bed. 2. It depends upon 
the variety; 10 inches is fair distance at this 
time of year. 3. Not safely. Why not 
make a small hot-bed for the seed, then in 
three week’s time make another to trans¬ 
plant the seedlings into? In this way the 
plants not required for the hot-bed could be 
hardened off and planted outside. 4. Yes, 
but we don’t think you would gain very 
much. 
DISCUSSION. 
“RHEUMATISM” AMONG HOGS. 
J. W. J., Sugar Run, Pa.—T here is a 
disease common among young hogs, which is 
very well described by W. S. P., of Forest- 
ville, N. Y., and commented on by Col. F. D. 
Curtis on page 180 of the Rural. I have fre¬ 
quently had cases of it among my hogs when 
kept in close confinement, and have two severe 
cases on hand now. They are both sows 
about six months old and expected to farrow 
in May. The one attacked first showed a 
little lameness in one hind leg, which soon ex¬ 
tended to the other, then to all the legs and 
apparently to every joint in her body. There 
is a stiffness in the neck which can scarcely be 
bent sidewise, and all the muscles seem to be 
sore so that any movement or attempt to use 
them gives the animal pain. A few days 
after the first one was attacked, the other be¬ 
came afflicted in the same manner, but not 
quite so badly. 
They lie still constantly, (generally flat on 
the side), except when driven up; they squeal 
with pain produced by their efforts to use 
their limbs and muscles. They have but little 
appetite and not much thirst; but will eat a 
small quantity when driven to the trough or 
when an ear of corn is thrown beside their 
noses. Since I commenced raising hogs 40 
years ago, 1 have had a good many cases of 
the disease but never any so far as I remember 
that was fatal. They have always got over it 
after a while without any doctoring. Once I 
had a sow so bad that she had to be helped up, 
and as she would not eat; I let her lie and gave 
her up to die, only going to the pen twice a 
day to look in. She lay three or four days 
without eating or drinking, and then got up 
and came to the trough of her own accord^ 
ate moderately, got well and had a litter of 
good pigs. 
Mr. A. D. Hoag, a neighbor,told me that he 
had a sow which he kept for raising pigs un¬ 
til she was about four years old, and that 
every time she had pigs, at a certain stage of 
her pregnancy, a great lameness came upon 
her, but she would get over it before farrow¬ 
ing, have a litter of good pigs aDd do well. 
His opinion is that pregnaut sows are more 
subject to the disease than other hogs; but, 
according to my experience, boars are sub¬ 
ject to it the same as sows. I had a boar 
once that was so stiff in his hind legs that, 
instead of stepping over the board between 
the sleeping apartment and the feeding 
room, he would jump his hind legs over to¬ 
gether rather than bend them. Now if the 
disease was caused “by feeble bones and deli¬ 
cate joints,” as Col. Curtis suggests, my boar 
would not have been likely to do this, as the 
jumping would have jarred the bones and 
joints and hurt him worse than stepping 
over. 
I agree with Col. Curtis that close confine¬ 
ment and want of sufficient exercise have 
a good deal to do with bringing it on, but I 
cannot agree with him that the disease origi¬ 
nates from improper diet. It certainly did 
not in the case of my hogs unless Col. Curtis 
himself recommends an improper diet, for 
with the exception of linseed meal, and the 
addition of milk, they have had the very food 
which he says is proper. Wheat bran, mid¬ 
dlings and milk are what I always feed to my 
young hogs until I want to fatten them, and 
then I substitute corn-meal for the bran. In 
my opinion it would be hard to improve much 
on the food which W S. P. had been feeding 
his hogs when they became “ lame in their 
hind legs, and sore and stiff all over ” unless 
he had milk to give them. The “ boiled pota¬ 
toes, wheat bran and meal” would keep their 
bowels loose enough and make them grow fine¬ 
ly without linseed-meal. The advice to 
“turn them out daily and drive them about 
for a half hour,” I cannot indorse, and would 
not have it done to my sick hogs if Col. Curtis 
would furnish the boy to do it for nothing. It 
is too much like the old way of trotting a sick 
horse up and down the road to cure the colic. 
If the weather were favorable I would turn 
them out of the pen and let them exercise if 
they saw fit, but to drive hogs as lame as 
mire, for half an hour, or for five minutes 
would be an act of cruelty that the Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
might look after. I call the disease rheuma¬ 
tism, as it has usually come on my hogs dur¬ 
ing rheumatic weather, when it was damp, 
rainy, and the wind in tli9 east. Up to the 
time my hogs were attacked by the lameness, 
they were so strong and active that they al¬ 
ways jumped up when I went to feea them 
and stood on their hind legs with their fore 
feet against the side of the pen as easily as a 
dog would have done it. If their bones had 
been tender and joints weak they would not 
have been likely to do it, and the habit of do¬ 
ing it was favorable for strengthening their 
legs by the exercise it gave them. Col. Cur¬ 
tis is high authority on all farm topics, and 
especially in regard to the management of 
hogs, and it seems like presumption to disa¬ 
gree with him on a subject he has made a 
specialty, but as Mr. Terry would say: in Mr. 
Curtis’s locality, on his farm and in his pens 
he may be right; but in my locality, on my 
farm, and in my pens, the case is altogether 
different. 
RUNNING IN DEBT SOMETIMES A GOOD 
THING. 
S. N., Harlan, Ind.— It has often been 
said that there are two sides to every ques¬ 
tion; but judging from what has been pub¬ 
lished in the Rural from time to time, there 
is only one side to the question, “Shall a man 
run in debt?” A few things, however, can be 
said on the other side. I would say from per¬ 
sonal experience that it has been good for me 
to go in debt, and I am satisfied I have made 
much more than it would have neen possible 
for me to make if I had not done so. A man 
cannot make much money just by day’s work 
if he has nothing else. He needs capital, and 
if he has it not, he must run in debt and use 
the capital of somebody else, and the more 
capital a man has the more profit he ought to 
have at the end of the year. I know that the 
man in a late Rural cartoon was wonder¬ 
fully bowed down with his debts, mortgages 
and taxes. It was a true representation of 
some, while others are not burdened by their 
debts but pay every obligation at maturity. 
I think M. H. W., on page 161, gives us the 
reasons why they are so burdened He would 
name those riders, Intemperance, Lost Time, 
Waste, Dishonor, Ill-health, Crime, and I think 
inmost cases he is right; but if these things 
are the cause of failure, why lay it to running 
in debt. If those who fail from these causes 
had been temperate, industrious, saving and 
punctual, they might nave paid their debts 
and been relieved so they could straighten up. 
Now I know a good many men who com¬ 
menced with nothing, worked till they could 
get enough to make a payment on a piece of 
laud and run in debt for the rest, and paid it, 
and have a good home, whereas if they had 
waited till they had enough to pay for a farm, 
they might never have got one. Then I know 
a few men who as soon as they get a farm 
paid for, will run in debt for another, and so 
buy a farm every few years. 1 don’t know 
how it is in other places; but I do know that 
any man who is economical and has the push 
that would enable him to succeed in any 
other business, can, in this country, buy a 
farm on time and pay for it. 
An editor of the Rural told us a year or 
two ago that he had bought a piece of land 
and intended to make the crops from the land 
pay for it. If be can do that, why should not 
others ? It’s not running in debt that plays 
the mischief, but it is running in debt for the 
wrong things. For instance, if a man goes in 
debt for nice clothes, when they are worn 
out they are gone—there is nothing left. Just 
so with something to eat, and with nice bug¬ 
gies and fast norses, and fine houses and thou¬ 
sands of other things that produce nothing. 
After a short time they are gone or depreciat¬ 
ed in value so that there is a great loss; but 
when a man buys a farm, it ought to bring 
him in more than the interest and be worth as 
much at any time as when he bought it or 
more, so where is the loss ? And if a man 
needs a horse or implement to do his work 
with, it is better to buy on time than to neg¬ 
lect his work. 
The most of those that complain about their 
debts belong to the “farming don’t-pay” class 
