1 889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
787 
dition is to be put. Such additions 
are preferable to separate small build¬ 
ings for the reason that they are more 
sheltered from storms and winds, are more 
Fig. 284. 
convenient in doing chores, and may be 
utilized for storing grain, hay, etc., in pro¬ 
ductive seasons. 
Bljttf i)itsbani)rij. 
OPHTHALMIA IN SHEEP. 
IIENRY STEWART. 
Inflammation of the eyes with resulting 
loss of sight is a frequent disease in sheep 
in the winter. When once it begins in a 
flock such is its contagious nature that it 
will quickly spread through the whole un¬ 
less the right precautions are taken. This 
disease mostly has its beginning in the fall; 
when the sheep are pastured upon stubble, 
the stiff, short straws come in contact with 
the eyes wounding and irritating them and 
causing the inflammation, which, unallayed 
by any curative measures, proceeds to sup¬ 
puration, and a secretion of diseased pus 
which is left on the feeding racks or other 
places and is thus communicated to the 
other sheep. This pus is also deposited 
within the space between the cornea and 
the conjunctiva or covering membrane, 
which lies over the cornea and, doubling 
back, covers the under surface of the eye¬ 
lids, thus completely inclosing the front 
portion of the eye. Here it forms a bluish- 
white layer, at first cloudy and partly 
transparent, but at length becoming thick 
and opaque and totally obscuring the sight. 
Or this deposit may be made between the 
capsule of the crystalline lens and the ad¬ 
joining membrane in front of it (the mem¬ 
brane of the aqueous humor) and thus 
form the deeper obstruction commonly 
known as a “cataract,” and very difficult 
to remove. 
The pain from this intense inflammation 
is very great and seriously disturbs the 
health of the sheep which stop feeding ) 
grow thin and in time suffer from a com¬ 
plication of disorders to which these animals 
are so subject, and when the spring arrives 
and the shepherd hopes his troubles are 
over, the animals die and both they and 
their lambs are lost, and the care and feed¬ 
ing through the winter are labor and 
money thrown away. 
The disease in question is one that is to 
be prevented, if possible, by avoiding the 
cause. One winter some years ago my 
flock was diseased in this way, and looking 
for the cause, I found fragments of rye 
beard and of chaff from the rye straw used 
as litter aud of which the sheep ate freely 
at night, lodged in the eyes. Previously 
I had noticed the sheep troubled by weep¬ 
ing and inflamed eyes when running on the 
rye stubble in the young clover, and by the 
immediate removal of these causes and 
simple treatment the trouble was removed. 
Afterwards by looking out for any possible 
cause in this direction, I avoided any more 
of this disorder. At times the use of Tim¬ 
othy hay will cause the disease and more es¬ 
pecially when the racks are made so wide 
apart that the sheep can thrust their heads 
through the bars and amoug the stiff stems 
and so wound the eyes, and the seeds or 
chaff can get into them. A good form of 
rack to avoid this trouble is that here shown 
at Fig. 285. 
The front is made of upright bars two 
inches wide and three inches apart; the 
back part is of boards set closely together 
and sloping forward at the bottom, so that 
the hay slides down and keeps close to the 
bars in front where the sheep can reach it. 
The trough for grain is at the front. The 
rack is raised a foot from the ground on 
small posts six or eight feet apart, so that 
young lambs cannot get fast in any way. 
Two of these racks may be set together, 
connected behind so as to form a double 
rack to be placed in the middle of the shed, 
and others may be built against the sides 
of the shed. If the hay-loft is over the 
sheep-shed the hay may be dropped into the 
racks with the least possible labor. Since 
I first used this kind of rack I have never 
had any trouble with inflamed eyes in my 
sheep, in the winter. 
A frequent cause of this disorder among 
Western flocks is the alkaline dust of the 
soil in the dry, hot weather, and the in¬ 
tensely hot reflection of the heat rays of 
the sun. Where this difficulty is exper¬ 
ienced the sheep may be saved by being in¬ 
closed during the middle of the day for 
some hours, and let out to feed in the even¬ 
ing and night when the soil is not so dry 
or dusty and the heat of the sun lias passed. 
Another very common cause is the use of a 
too close and warm stable from w r hich the 
sheep are'turned out and exposed to a cold 
storm of sleet or rain or damp snow; or to 
dry snow and bright sunshine, the reflec¬ 
tion of which is painful to the eyes and 
produces snow blindness and inflammation. 
Saturated fleeces chill the sheep and when 
the chilled animals go into a close stable 
they huddle together and steam and stew 
and over-heat themselves, and make the 
skin so tender that they suffer from the 
cold on going out again, and thus, passing 
from one extreme to another, contract an 
inflammatory condition which may affect 
the eyes and the nasal membranes, produc¬ 
ing catarrh of these organs, or causing dis¬ 
order of the lungs. 
The following treatment will be found ef¬ 
fective for the trouble after the causes are 
removed. First the affected sheep should 
be removed to a separate place which is 
dark and protected from the most severe 
cold. They should be given a light, cool¬ 
ing, antiseptic medicine, hyposulphite of 
soda in dram doses daily being very use¬ 
ful. The eyes should be examined for any 
foreign substance, which should be re¬ 
moved if easily possible, by a soft camel’s- 
hair pencil; otherwise a small quantity of 
linseed mucilage—made by boiling linseed 
in a little water—may be injected into the 
eye, by which the offending matter will be 
able to make its way to the outer corner 
of the eye where it can be seen and re¬ 
moved. To this mucilage may be added a 
fourth part of a solution of 10 grains of sul¬ 
phate of zinc in an ounce of water, and two 
drops of wine of opium. When the eye is 
cleansed and this palliative injection has 
been used for two days, if the cloud re¬ 
mains, a pinch of burned alum is put into 
a goose-quill or small tube, and is blown 
into the eye. Burned alum is made by 
heating a lump of common alum on a hot 
stove, and after it has been freed from its 
water of crystallization by the boiling and 
bubbling, it remains a dry, pulverulent 
mass, which is easily reduced to a powder. 
A few repetitions of this will cause the ab¬ 
sorption of the purulent deposit and will 
clear the eye. It would be well to give all 
the sheep the above-mentioned quantity of 
the soda hyposulphite, powdered and 
mixed with a little molasses, and spread on 
the back of the tongue, and to continue the 
treatment for a week. 
Ctu'njui!)ctT. 
A SUMMER OUTING IN THE NORTH 
CAR OLINA MOUNTAINS. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Why the place was selected; the journey 
southward; Bull Run; a fine country, 
where only men are lacking; general 
shiftlessncss, dilatoriness and laziness; 
much new agricultural machinery; 
little or no attempt at home adornment; 
Danville; a negro king or preacher; 
fashion among the colored population. 
Just how and when my attention was 
first directed to the mountains of North 
Carolina as a desirable summer outing 
place, I am unable to say. A relative spent 
a summer in them in the region of Ashe¬ 
ville : a dear friend had spent two winters 
in them for health’s sake, and died in the 
second one ; and a botanical acquaintance 
had heard tall tales of the richness of the 
flora at an out-of-the-way place called 
Highlands in Macon County, just north of 
the State of Georgia. So from one source 
and another, I had formed the intention to 
go thither when circumstances should in¬ 
sure me a generous length of time to spend 
away from home. At length it came about 
that early in the month of June, 1880, I set 
out with my laddie, a well-grown boy of 
twelve years, for the unknown region that 
from afar promised so many enticing 
features. Through correspondence a 
boarding place had been engaged for us in 
a private family, but of this we had no 
definite knowledge, except an assurance 
that our prospective hostess was a “ very 
intelligent woman.” That was a favorable 
promise, but when every one we met, who 
had been South, said to us : “ Oh, you will 
find the mountains delightful, but you’ll 
get absolutely nothing fit to eat, nor a 
clean bed to sleep in,” the outlook was not 
particularly satisfactory. As usual, when 
the summer time came, I was thoroughly 
worn out, and I required everything that 
was most strengthening in food, air and 
wholesome surroundings, and it did look 
like a wild-goose chase to expect to find 
them in the mountains of Western North 
Carolina. Anaximander poked a little fun 
at the adventurous undertaking, hoped it 
would turn out all right, and started us off 
evidently with the expectation of seeing 
us back at the end of a month. 
We went via Baltimore, Washington, 
Danville, Salisbury on to Asheville, and 
until Salisbury was reached, the heat of the 
weather increased as we proceeded south¬ 
ward. From Salisbury, a higher altitude 
yielded a fresher atmosphere, and from that 
point we suffered no further discomfort 
from the temperature. The heavy floods 
of the early summer had played havoc 
with the railroads for some distance be¬ 
yond Washington, and for miles the cars 
crept carefully along, at great loss of speed. 
The railroad crosses the Bull Run battle 
field, and the conductor, who had fought 
on the Confederate side, pointed out to us 
that ill-fated ground. My oldest brother, 
who was also the eldest child in the 
family, had fought in that battle, and as 
he was brought home dead not long after 
that, the spot had to me especial interest. 
A little further on we came to Manasses, 
and some remnants of earth-works on the 
brow of a hill were the only suggestions 
we saw in our long day’s ride through Vir¬ 
ginia, of the stormy times of the Secession 
War. 
There is a great deal that is attractive in 
the counties of Virginia through which we 
rode and the entire region, if tilled and 
cared for as are the farms in Central Penn¬ 
sylvania, would nowhere be surpassed for 
beauty. But as spittoons appeared in every 
car seat the moment we left Washington, 
so evidences of the shiftlessness of the 
South became at the same time manifest. 
It may be a cranky notion of mine, but I 
canuot imagine a spitting tobacco-ehewer, 
and a thrifty, tidy, tasteful, well-kept farm 
homestead as going together. 
At various railway stations were new ag¬ 
ricultural machines to be seen, which indi¬ 
cated a revival of agriculture under im¬ 
proved conditions. At one place where the 
train was halted for some time, I saw five 
negroes and two white men loading a large 
wagon with the detached parts of farm 
machinery, and the exceeding dilatoriness, 
and lack of energy in movement, that kept 
these seven men at a task that two Yankees 
unaided would have performed in the same 
length of time, seemed to explain a great 
deal of the shiftlessness that agriculturally 
characterizes the whole South. Rarely iu 
town or country are there indications 
about the homes of the people of a taste for 
beauty. Green, well-kept turf in lawns, 
flowers and shrubs the scattered popula¬ 
tion seems to care nothing about, and un- 
painted country houses, with the outside 
chimneys at either end standing stark-bare, 
have a very lonely look, and they could be 
made so pretty with the native ampelopsis 
growing over them. The country is roll¬ 
ing; there is always the fine line of the 
mountains in the distance, there are noble 
trees left standing here and there, and the 
great lack alone is men—meu of energy 
and good judgment, and, above all, of good 
sense, who do not look upon labor as 
ignoble, and do not regard the tilling of 
the soil as a plebeian occupation only 
suited to “niggers.” Hands without 
brains do poor execution in any depart¬ 
ment of work, and particularly in a region 
where the soil for generations has been ex¬ 
hausted through mal-treatment, is the need 
of intelligence the more required. 
When we reached Danville the shades^of 
night had fallen, and we left the train to 
get a night’s rest in a hotel. We were di¬ 
rected to a new one in which we found good 
beds and good food. Danville is sharing 
with Atlanta in a business revival, but the 
business is largely tobacco, the new, large 
brick buildings at every turn being ware¬ 
houses for this especial Virginia product. 
Cotton ware-houses and cotton manufact- 
uries, however, are projected, and the enter¬ 
prise in business, I was told, was largely 
Southern. Danville has electric cars and 
electric lights with much of modern “go” 
in the atmosphere. 
As trains on the Southern roads are like 
the people in being chronically behind time 
we had to wait 20 minutes next morning 
in the railway station. The waiting-room 
was carpeted and furnished with low rock¬ 
ing-chairs, and the larger part of the travel¬ 
ing public that morning was colored. An 
old man of pure negro blood, who was 
dressed in heavy broadcloth, with the ad¬ 
dition of a beaver overcoat, which the state 
of the weather did not require, sat eating a 
luxurious breakfast from a tray in front of 
him, placed on a chair, while a colored 
waiter stood devotedly by fanning on the 
flies, which hovered persistently about an 
enormous wen which grew from the top of 
his head. When he had finished his repast 
and put on his shiny stove-pipe hat and 
consulted his gold watch he looked like a 
Prince of his race,and the marked attention 
which he received could only be explained 
upon the ground that His Majesty was a 
Baptist preacher. The colored women who 
were waiting for the" train were smartly 
dressed in Directoire gowns and large hats ; 
their babies were clad in Hamburg em¬ 
broideries and showily lace-trimmed robes 
—all in the latest styles. Illustrated fash¬ 
ion journals evidently have a very consider¬ 
able patronage among the colored people of 
the South. Everywhere they seemed to be 
more prosperous and more given to the 
vanities ot this world than the “ poor 
whites.” But a planter confirmed my sus¬ 
picion that the colored people had such a 
weakness for personal display as to lead 
them to spend their first and final dollar 
toward the accomplishment of that end. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Oregon. 
Spikenard, Jackson County.—The valr 
ley of the Rogue River is in the extreme 
southern part of Oregon. From its pecu¬ 
liar location and surroundings it has its 
own distinctive climatic conditions. It is 
drier than the Willamette Valley and there 
is more rain than in California. The Coast 
Range shuts off the ocean fogs. There is, 
perhaps, no finer climate anywhere. Our 
annual rainfall is about 25 inches. The 
mercury rarely touches zero in winter, or 
goes beyond 90 degrees in summer. The 
very best conditions here exist for fruit cul¬ 
ture which is largely carried on. All ex¬ 
cept the citrus fruits are raised in perfec¬ 
tion. Grain and stock are largely raised. 
Hogs and corn, beef and butter, poultry 
and eggs all pay good dividends. No 
swine plague is ever heard of, nor is poul¬ 
try ever affected with cholera. Alfalfa is 
at home on our soil, often producing eight 
tons of hay per acre, being cut three times 
during the season. Where the land is irri¬ 
gated, four crops are often secured. 
Though we do not make much noise in the 
world, we have just as good a country as 
anybody. We don’t “boom ” our country 
because" we know by observation that to 
boom is to kill. Merit, only, will win 
in the end. Land is worth a fair price and 
only those who can buy a home should 
think of coming. I am not after immigra¬ 
tion ; I simply desire to contribute to the 
knowledge of' geography of the readers of 
the R. N.-Y. 
Of course, Oregon has her own flora. 
Some one has called her the “emerald land.” 
She is, too, the “flowery land.” Many of 
our native plants are catalogued with a 
great deal of trumpeting, but not more than 
they deserve. Our lilies, the most popular of 
which is the Washingtonianum, are among 
the floral gems of the earth. No one of the 
whole queenly family is more beautiful, 
fragrant and popular (at home) than this. 
It is vexatious to see it catalogued as a Cali¬ 
fornia variety when it is indigenous to only 
a small portion of that State next to us. 
I have presented it to many a Californian. 
The calochortus, erythronium and our 
several fritillarias are other fine plants 
dear to florists. s. 21. 
