1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
759 
Hogs and Pumpkins. 
J. C. Senger, Va —Recently, while 
feeding my hogs their ration of pump¬ 
kins, it recurred to my mind that many 
of the ills with which humanity is 
afflicted, particularly some of a parasiti¬ 
cal nature, are due to our domestic 
animals. More prudence and a little 
forethought might avert much disease, 
not to say death. Tapeworms and other 
parasites find the swine, sheep, etc., a 
congenial breeding place. The both 
humane and wise course to pursue is to 
see that our animals are kept in good 
health, especially so just before slaugh¬ 
tering. Pumpkin seeds are about the 
only vermifuge used in some households, 
and they are among the recognized 
“officinal” articles enumerated in the 
United States Dispensatory, and are 
held in high repute as tseaiafuges by 
practitioners of high repute. It is but 
reasonable to suppose that, when fed to 
our animals, they will exert a similar 
sanitary effect. One thing is certain, 
that when hogs are fed pumpkins in con¬ 
nection with their regular corn ration, 
they will lay on flesh more rapidly, and 
one will get more pork from a given 
amount of corn than without the pump¬ 
kins. This may be due partly to the 
intrinsic feeding value of the pumpkins 
themselves, partly because succulent 
food renders more of the dry food digest¬ 
ible, and partly because less worms 
leave less mouths to feed. We all know 
how difficult it is to fatten an animal 
that is infested with worms. 
The chances are that pumpkins have 
a feeding, a medicinal, and a manurial 
value. But it is not a safe practice to 
feed them indiscriminately, ad libitum, 
to the extent that the hogs will not con¬ 
sume all that may be given them each 
meal. The seeds and stringy matter are 
highly nitrogenous, and in one sense, 
may be classed with the concentrated 
feeds, with all of which good judgment 
must be exercised in feeding. Note the 
following average analyses : 
Muscle- Fat- 
makers. formers. Pure fat. 
Green clover. 4.40 13.50 1.10 
Seeds and strings 
of pumpkins. 6.00 4.78 6.92 
Entire pumpkins.. 1.11 4.34 0.16 
Note the difference in the muscle- 
makers. The seeds and stringy matter 
of pumpkins are over 36 per cent richer 
in muscle-makers than green Red clover. 
In pure fat, few of the common concen¬ 
trated feeds exceed them. A glance at 
the analysis suffices to show that they 
give us a very unbalanced ration, decid¬ 
edly too rich for the preservation of 
health. With the entire pumpkin, the 
matter is altogether different. The flesh, 
which constitutes the bulk of the weight, 
contains much less feeding value than 
even the rind; the nutritive value of 
the whole being quite low. The pump¬ 
kin adds bulk to the food, and its succu¬ 
lence forms a convenient medium to float 
and dissolve the masticated corn, there¬ 
by rendering efficient service to the 
digestive organs, and preventing con¬ 
stipation. The danger lies in careless 
feeding. The hogs much prefer the 
seeds and stringy matter, and when they 
can get their fill of these, the rest of the 
pumpkin will be slighted, and a continu¬ 
ance of such a practice will, sooner or 
later, result in deranged digestion. The 
plain inference is that hogs should be 
fed only as many as they will eat up 
clean, and then satisfactory results will 
follow. The pumpkin is a good thing, 
but like many other good things, it may 
be perverted and converted inio a two- 
edged sword, injuring stock and owner 
as well. 
More Mysterious Barn Fires. 
L. R. T., Vermont. —One of those very 
mysterious fires came under my notice, 
which, in this case, happened to be dis¬ 
covered in time to save a large barn filled 
with all the products of a large farm. I 
have visited the premises several times 
since the fire that so nearly came, and 
once since reading Mr. Phillips’s article, 
page 433, and made special inquiries rela¬ 
tive to the cause, which is easily under¬ 
stood when explained. I believe that 
many fires that are thought to be caused 
by tramps, matches or sparks from a 
smoker’s pipe, are really caused, as in 
this case, by “ spontaneous combustion.” 
This case happened about four or five 
years ago, in the month of October, and 
was caused by the heating of a large 
mow of wild grass or bog meadow hay 
that was cut and put into the barn the 
last of June and first of July previous. 
The bottom of the mow was on a level 
with the drive floor, and has a double 
floor so tight that the chaff and dust 
from the hay do not work through on to 
the cattle that are stabled directly un¬ 
derneath. The barn is wide enough so 
that two rows of cattle are stabled, with 
a feed alley in the center of the stable. 
It appears that the heat was the great¬ 
est in the center of the mow above the 
feed alley, and the nearest approach of 
air to the heated hay was over a large 
joist seven or eight inches in diameter, 
which is over the center of the feed al¬ 
ley, for the fire broke out there, and 
was not discovered until it had burned 
this large timber nearly through, and 
burned a hole in the flooring a foot wide 
and nearly two feet long. Cinders and 
coals had dropped into the dry hay, chaff 
and dust which lay in the feed alley, yet 
no fire had been started from that, so it 
seems that a spark or coal from a pipe 
is not always sure of starting a confla¬ 
gration. 
If it had been the usual time in the 
morning, instead of an hour earlier than 
usual, that the hired man went to the 
barn to do the chores that morning, the 
barn would have been burned to the 
ground, and the cause of the fire laid to 
a tramp’s pipe, or as Mr. Phillips says, 
suspicion would have fallen on some in¬ 
nocent person, shadowing his whole life 
The center of the mow, after cutting 
down and throwing out the hay on top, 
was found to be very hot, and it was 
necessary to use plenty of water on it to 
keep it from bursting into flames when 
they were taking it out. The whole 
mow was badly heated, but the center 
was like charcoal. 
I have had brought to my attention 
two other very mysterious fires. These 
were houses, and both took fire in the 
attic on very warm days in midsummer. 
The theory is advanced by some that the 
nest of the yellow wasp will ignite spon¬ 
taneously. Be that as it may, those 
houses caught fire in such a manner that 
“ pipe, lantern or match’’could not be 
accused, and the circumstances were 
such that no Suspicion could be brought 
to bear on the owners or any one that 
could have had access to the garrets 
Both houses were nearly new, and the 
flues were in excellent condition. 
Notes from Oregon. 
C. E., Forest Grove, Ore. —I sowed 
rape for green manure, in one section 
of my grapeyard, and will never do it 
again. The rape grew finely until the 
time for grapes to ripen, when they were 
attacked by lice (appearing like the 
green aphis on cabbage plants) so thick 
that they settled down on the grapes. 
You may imagine the tasty appearance 
of a lousy grape cluster. So much for 
rape. 
As to the Sir Walter Raleigh potato, 
the report is more encouraging. Having 
only a few hills of them. I dug them 
with the spade, and the first hill I dug 
contained six potatoes,the smallest about 
the size of a hen’s egg As they clung 
well to the roots, I carried the whole 
vine with its tubers to the house. They 
were beauties, indeed ; in fact, an out¬ 
sider could tell that they were some¬ 
thing out of the usual line of potatoes. 
I only wish that I could have cooked a 
mess of them, but that will come next. 
As usual, I have experimented with 
Crimson clover, and it’s best in the vege¬ 
table patch that was heavily manured 
from the barnyard. 
Cow peas (another new thing) have 
done finely. I only wish that I had 
done as the Hope Farm folks did, cut 
them once and got some hay ; but I will 
plant more of them next year. 
The Mexican corn is, indeed, an eye- 
opener. At this date, it is just as green 
and flourishing as ever, and three or four 
stalks seem to go a long way in the 
cow’s ration. 
CHRONIC BRONCHITIS. 
From Dr. Hunter’s Lectures on the Progress of 
Medical Science in Lung Diseases. 
Chronic inflammation of the mucous 
membrane lining the air tubes and cells 
of the lungs is a very common and very 
serious disease. It generally results 
from neglected colds, but is sometimes 
caused by breathing dust in workshops 
and irritating gases and vapors in fac¬ 
tories. 
Particles of dust being inhaled irritate 
the mucous lining of the lungs and make 
them sore, just as dust and small parti¬ 
cles getting into the eyes make them 
red, angry and sore. 
Bronchitis is always a lung disease, 
because the bronchial tubes are the 
chief part of the lungs and ducts through 
which we breathe. To say that a person 
has bronchitis and yet that his lungs are 
sound, is absurd and untrue, since these 
tubes are the seat of every known lung 
disease. All that can truthfully be said 
is that bronchitis is not consumption, 
although it is very liable to end in that 
disease. 
The most constant symptoms of chronic- 
bronchitis are cough, shortness of breath 
and mucous expectoration. Its slight 
or seriou3 character is shown by the 
kind of matter raised and the presence 
or absence of loss of flesh, hectic fever and 
night sweats Tnese latter symptoms, 
wnen present, show the deep hold it has 
on the lung and how greatly it has al¬ 
ready weakened and undermined the 
general health. 
A great many bronchial cases are met 
with in people advanced in life. It be¬ 
gins with a cold in the Fall, which lasts 
all Winter. They cough and expector¬ 
ate quantities of gray and jelly-like 
mucous, but on the approach of warm 
weather the cough grows better, and 
the expectoration almost ceases, only 
to return with increased severity on the 
advent of cold again. Unless arrested, 
this form of senile bronchitis cuts short 
the thread of life. Most old people die 
of it years before there is any necessity 
for dying, for want of proper treatment. 
In many cises chronic bronchitis is as 
dangerous as consumption itself, and 
even more so than some forms of that 
disease. So long as no organic chaDge 
has taken place in the air tubes and air 
cells, bronchitis is always perfectly 
curable by local treatment of the dis¬ 
eased tubes. But I cannot conceive of 
the possibility of any form of bronchial 
disease being cured by stomach medica¬ 
tion or the treatment commonly em¬ 
ployed. No local inflammatory disease 
of any other organ has ever been cured 
without local treatment, and without 
local treatment I consider bronchitis as 
fatal as consumption. The broncuiai 
membrane in time becomes altered in 
structure and pours forth a matter 
which has all the qualities of pus ; hectic 
fever and night sweats supervene, and 
the case tends slowly but surely to death 
There is a form of bronchitis especial¬ 
ly remarkable on account of the great 
abundance of the bronchial secretion. 
The patients expectorate a pint or more 
of frothy fluid a day, resembling gum- 
water. They are pale like persons 
blanched by hemmorrhage ; generally 
free from fever—neither quickness of 
pulse nor beat of skin existing, but the 
wasting of the body and general weak¬ 
ness is extreme. Examined after death 
no ulcerations or tubercles are found, 
nor anything resembling consumption 
in the state of the lungs. They die of 
exhaustion through the excessive drain 
made upon the fluids of the body. Such 
Cises are always curable if timely 
treated by astringents and antiseptics 
applied by inhalation directly to the 
relaxed and weakened membrane with¬ 
in the lungs. 
(To be continued.) 
( Signed ) Robert Hunter, M.D., 
117 West 45th st., 
November 18, 1897. New York. 
NOTE —Readers of The Rural New- 
Yorker who are interested for them¬ 
selves or friends can obtain Dr. Hunter’s 
books free by addressing him as above.— 
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