11© THE CULTIVATOR. April, 
himself to a narrow atmosphere, and subsist on hard 
ship-bread for a short time; obstinate constipation will 
in nine cases out of ten, supervene. .Medicine has but 
little power over such derangements, while the exciting 
or direct cause exists. This will, in some measure, ac¬ 
count for the unfavorable result, attending the adminis¬ 
tration of Mr. Morrell’s prescriptions. 
“1 have always found that the quantity of medicine 
necessary to act as an opiate on this dry mass,” allu¬ 
ding to that found in the maniplus, “ will kill the ani¬ 
mal. If I am mistaken, I will take it kindly to be set 
right.” You are quite right. 
Let us see what Professor J. A. Gallup says, in his 
Institutes of Medicine. Yol, II. p. 187. “ The prac¬ 
tice of giving opiates to mitigate pain, &c., is greatly 
to be deprecated ; it is not only unjustifiable, but should 
be esteemed unpardonable. It is probable that for for¬ 
ty years past, opium and its preparations have done se¬ 
ven times the injury that they have rendered benefit ” 
—killed seven where they have saved one ! Page 298, 
he calls opium the 11 most destructive of all narcotics,” 
and wishes he could speak through a lengthened trum¬ 
pet, that he might tingle the ears ” of those who use 
and prescribe it. All the opiates used by the Allopaths, 
contain more or less of this poisonous drug. Opiates 
given with view of softening the mass alluded to, will 
certainly disappoint those who administer them; for, 
under the use of such “ palliatives,” the digestive pow¬ 
ers fail, and a general state of feebleness, and inactivi¬ 
ty ensues, which exhausts the vital energies. 
It will be found in stretches, that other organs, as 
well as the u maniplus,” are not performing their part 
in the business of physiological or healthy action, and 
they must be excited to perform their work; for exam¬ 
ple, if the food remains in either of the stomachs, in 
the form of a hard mass, then the surface of the body 
is evaporating too much moisture from the general sys¬ 
tem ; the skin should be better toned. Pure air is one 
of the best, and most valuable of nature’s tonics. Let 
the flock have pure air to breathe, and sufficient room 
to use their limbs, with proper diet, and there wall be 
little occasion for medicine. 
In scours, the surface evaporates too little of the mois¬ 
ture, and should be relaxed by diffusable stimulants in 
the form of ginger-tea. The treatment that I have 
found the most successful, is as follows: take four oun¬ 
ces raw linseed oil—-two ounces of lime water—mix. 
Let this quantity be given to a sheep on the first ap¬ 
pearance of the above disease; half the quantity will 
suffice for a lamb. Give about a wine glass full of gin¬ 
ger-tea at intervals of four hours. Let the animal be 
fed on gruel, or mashes of ground meal. If the above 
treatment fails to arrest the disease, add half a tea¬ 
spoon-full of powdered bayberry bark to each wine glass 
of tea. If the extremities are cold, rub them with the 
tincture of capsicum. 
“ The feeding of pine boughs, we have formerly prac¬ 
ticed and think to be useful.” Eds. of Cultivator. Pine 
has a revulsive action on the skin, is stimulant and diu¬ 
retic, and if used occasionally might be the means of 
preventing many forms of disease in animals. Geo. H. 
Dadd. Boston, Feb., 1849. 
Diseases of Cattle. 
Abortion in Cows. —The cow is more subject to 
abortion than any other of our domestic animals. She is 
liable to this at different periods of pregnancy, from the 
fourth to the eighth month. Mr. Youatt remarks, what 
has been often observed by others, that “ abortion is 
sometimes singularly frequent in particular districts, or 
on particular farms. It seems to assume an epizootic 
or epidemic form. Some have imagined it to be conta¬ 
gious. It is destructively propagated among the cows, 
but this is probably to be explained on a different prin¬ 
ciple from that of contagion. It has been said that 
the cow is an animal considerably imaginative, and 
highly irritable during the period of pregnancy. In 
abortion, the foetus is often putrid before it is discharg¬ 
ed; and the placenta or after-birth rarely or never im¬ 
mediately follows it, but becomes decomposed, and as 
it drops away in fragments, and emits a peculiar and 
most noisome smell. This smell seems to be singular¬ 
ly annoying to other cows—they sniff at it, and then run 
bellowing about. Some sympathetic influence is pro¬ 
duced on their uterine organs, and in a few days a 
greater or less number of those that have been kept 
together likewise abort.” 
In regard to treatment of abortion, Mr. Youatt di¬ 
rects, that if the farmer has ever been troubled with 
this pest, he should closely watch the approaching 
symptoms of casting the calf, and as soon as he per- 
cieves them should remove the cow to an apartment by 
herself. That he should bleed her, and that copiously, 
in proportion to her age, size, condition, and the state 
of excitement she is in; that he should give her a dose 
of physic immediately after the bleeding; after the 
physic begins to operate, he should administer half a 
drachm of opium and half an ounce of sweet spirit of 
nitre. Give the cow gruel, and keep her as quiet as 
possible. By these means, the irritation may be allayed 
and the cow may go her full time. But if the discharge 
is foetid, “ the natural conclusion will be, that the foe¬ 
tus is dead, and must be got rid of as speedily as pos¬ 
sible. Bleeding may even then be requisite, if much 
fever exists. In other respects, the animal must be 
treated as if her usual time of pregnancy had been ac¬ 
complished.” He further directs as a means of prevent¬ 
ing the formation of this habit among cows, that as soon 
as the foetus can be got rid of, it should be immediately 
buried deep, and far from the cow-pasture. A cow that 
has repeatedly aborted, should be fatted and slaughtered. 
She ffjortknltural ^Department 
CONDUCTED BY J. J. THOMAS. 
Short Seasonable Hints. . 
Tender Shrubs, grapes, strawberries, fyc., covered 
late last autumn from frost, should be uncovered early, 
before injury may have taken place by close packing 
and confinement, which is always greater after a win¬ 
ter’s settling. 
Small banks or mounds of earth, which may have 
been thrown around trees to protect them from mice, 
should be levelled down at an early period. 
Orchard Caterpillars should be thoroughly clear¬ 
ed from the trees before or at the time of hatching. A 
little practice quickly enables any one to perceive the 
little knobs of eggs near the ends of the twigs, to cut 
them off and burn them. Every one of these little 
knobs is an embryo nest of caterpillars. They hatch 
simultaneously with the opening of the buds;, and if not 
before removed, the white spiderweb down which the 
young worms thickly vrind about their nest, even in the 
short space of a day or two, greatly facilitates their 
ready detection. It may be very readily comprehended 
how much easier it is to rid a branch of a nest when 
only the hundredth of an ounce in weight, than after 
the size has increased to two or three pounds. 
Raspberries need early pruning. Clear away the 
old stems, and leave only half a dozen of the strongest 
of the new. Their upper extremities are to be short¬ 
ened a foot or two, and the remaining stems, if not of 
a stiff and upright variety, to be tied 1 to a stake. 
Trees in Bud, or which were budded last summer, 
; should be headed down, leaving the inserted bud alone 
