112 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
of the country they were destined to inhabit; their 
smaller body, longer and sinewy legs, and especially 
their great susceptibility of taking on flesh, rendered 
them easy and profitable feeders, and their extreme 
richness of milk, superior working and excellence of 
beef, has justly made them a favorite breed to the pre¬ 
sent day. They do not give the extent of product on 
the same number of legs as the Short Horn, the Here- 
fords, and some" others; but if they yield as much or 
more for the quantity of attention and feed consume!, 
they answer all the ends required by the intelligent 
herdsman. The native cattle have, to a slight extent, 
been crossed with new importations of Devons, improved 
Short Horns and Ayrshires, but this has only been 
done to a limited degree, and with great carelessness; 
for on personal inquiry, l have found that some of the 
most intelligent and liberal minded citizens, hitherto in¬ 
strumental in procuring these animals from abroad, have 
not now a single pure blooded animal in their herds. 
There is the grand fault with our Yankee breeders, the 
total neglect of pedigree and purity of blood, for un¬ 
fortunately their ancestors, in abjuring a hereditary no¬ 
bility and the rights of primogeniture, carried their re- 
fei from the biped to the quadruped, and made genu¬ 
ine democrats of the whole race. 
The principle of placing every man on his own merits, 
is undoubtedly a good one, though it may be controvert¬ 
ing the authority of an omniscient providence to deny 
that the son of wise and virtuous parentage, is not more 
to be relied on, other things being equal, than the child of 
ignorance and sin; but in the animal economy there is 
none of that human dependence on ancestry, for no truth 
has been more fully established as a general rule than 
that “ like produces like.” We must, then, in accord¬ 
ance with this principle, look for capacity in producing 
good animals, not only to what the individual under 
consideration is in itself, but also to what its ancestry 
has been on both sides for generations, as characters 
they faintly exhibited, or scarcely discernible in an in¬ 
dividual, may, from its long inheritance be so grafted 
with the constitution, as to be reproduced in successive 
generations to a great degree. 
Thereseems to be a fieldopen east of the Hudson, to the 
enterprise of persons of capital and taste, not to any con¬ 
siderable extent hitherto occupied or maintained. The 
faet as to the scarcity of pure bred cattle, of any descrip¬ 
tion there, is, I believe, incontrovertible, (and if incorrect, 
I shall be most happy to be set right in the matter,) and 
this want is the more conspicuous, from the general in¬ 
telligence and thrift that pervades that region. Liberal 
gentlemen have, from time to time, imported some of 
the choicest stock from Europe, but these have soon 
become mixed with the general mass, and after a few 
years not an unadulterated animal could be found. 
They have been the means of conferring some benefits, 
but not all that ought to result to the community. The 
great desideratum is the possession of pure bred ani¬ 
mals of whatever description they may be, whose pecu¬ 
liar excellencies shall be constantly augmented and sus¬ 
tained by judicious crossings with domestic and foreign 
stocks of similar breeds. In the selection of species 
best suited to the country, a diversity of opinion, result¬ 
ing in the introduction of several different kinds, would 
be beneficial rather than otherwise, for a competition 
would be produced, highly favorable to successful re¬ 
sults, and the advocates of the Short Horns, the Here- 
fords, the Devons, the Aryshires, and the native breed, 
could test the relative merits of their respective herds, 
by direct comparison. In this essential feature of agri¬ 
culture, England is far before us, and must forever 
remain so, unless we adopt this system, which, as it has 
to some extent been already commenced, we hope may, 
with the usual ardor and zeal of our countrymen, soon 
be fully carried out. 
The best specimens I have seen, are the Herefords 
recently imported by Mr. Sotham, and now in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Albany; but as he promises a description 
in your journal, we may all hope to know more about 
a breed that has, for a long time assuredly, been held in 
high estimation abroad. 
There seems to be considerable progress making in ad¬ 
ding to the carcass and fleece of their sheep. In Meri¬ 
nos and Saxons they have long held the preeminence; 
but the excellence of the woolly tribe has been, to no 
inconsiderable extent, varied and multipled by the addi¬ 
tion of the South Down, the Bakewell, the Leicester, 
the Lincolnshire and the Cotswold; of these last there 
were some very superior imported by Mr. Sotham, at 
the same time with his Herefords; and at the residence 
of Messrs. Bagg and Hart, of Montgomery, Orange 
county, who are also importers of stock, I saw a con¬ 
siderable flock both of Cotswold and South Doyras, 
hardly I should judge, to be surpassed. With such 
choice stock before them, our intelligent countrymen 
can scarcely fail to come to a correct conclusion as to 
the comparative value and profit of the different breeds. 
It is much to be wished, however, that those who have 
kept them for some years in the vicinity of other flocks, 
should give us the results of their experience as guides 
to future experiments. They have all, to a greater or 
less extent, been highly estimated abroad; are they 
equaly valuable at home ? We want experience in this 
matter, which is the only true test for the farmer. 
In swine a considerable improvement has taken place, 
so far as a cursory view would enable me to judge ; 
their legs and snouts have been shortened ; their ears set 
up and trimmed off; their backs become broader, and 
a portion of their bristles put on the other side of their 
skin and converted into good pork, and the toute ensem¬ 
ble of the grunting tribe, has been very perceptibly bet¬ 
tered. And this improvement, so far as my observation 
extended, has invariably been the result of the infusion 
of a large portion of the Berkshire or China blood. 
This origin was generally sufficiently obvious at the 
first glance, but in one instance where very fine pigs 
were shown me, with a long body, broad back, and sus¬ 
tained through the whole length, and terminating in a 
finely rounded ham; thin hair and no bristles; large of 
their age, and kind feeders, yet entirely white, I was 
struck with the perfection of their form, and thought if ri¬ 
vals were to be found for the Berkshires, they were then 
before me ; but looking a little farther on the same pre¬ 
mises, I saw a fine, pure Berkshire sow, which on in¬ 
quiry, proved to be the dam of the perfect pigs; the mys¬ 
tery was at once solved; they had embodied all their su¬ 
periority from the female ancestry. There was anoth¬ 
er superior lot of pigs I saw at the Worcester hospital, 
produced from successive crosses of the China on the 
Bedford, which the intelligent' head of that well con¬ 
ducted and magnificent establishment informed me, with 
ordinary keep, usually gained one pound per day for the 
first twelve months, at which age they are slaughtered. 
Their great size they get from the Bedford, and their 
great thrift from the China. The truth is, that the Berk¬ 
shire and the China are the perfection of the hog kind; 
and these perfections have been so thoroughly bred in¬ 
to them for successive generations, that they impart a 
much larger share of improvement in a cross than any 
other, and perpetuate it through a remote posterity. 
But on the subject of stock, as that of drains, it is too 
generally the case that our farmers are “ penny wise 
and pound foolish;” they object to the first cost, when 
in both instances they would frequently be repaid the 
first year, and have their investment left as capital, 
yielding a large income annually thereafter. It is to be 
hoped the prevailing spirit of the age, whose every as¬ 
piration is onward, onward, will not fail to inspire them 
with a just appreciation of their true interests. 
Very respectfully yours, R. L. ALLEN. 
Buffalo , June 12, 1840. 
Bloody Murrain caused by Leeches. 
Messrs. Editors —Having lately lost a valuable ox 
by what is called in this part of the country, bloody mur¬ 
rain, which, however, differs from that disease as desig¬ 
nated by writers of the old countries, I have been led 
to investigate this disease of our cattle, and therefore 
examined the body of the animal, which I conceive to 
be the true way of investigating disease, both in its na¬ 
ture and cause, either in the human or other aniriials. 
But I will proceed regularly, and first designate the 
symptoms. The first I observed was the loss of appe¬ 
tite, with trembling of the limbs and twitching, and un¬ 
willingness to move; then discharge of blood from the 
bowels after dunging once; also from the bladder; no 
apparent pain until just before death, which happened 
on the second day of the disease. Is it not a singular 
circumstance, that other cattle are disposed to worry and 
goad a fellow sufferer on the verge of death ? On ex¬ 
amining the body, all parts were in a healthy state, with 
the following exceptions:—The bowels were filled 
throughout with pure blood, the parts in the neighbor¬ 
hood of the liver, and which were placed against its un¬ 
der side, were discolored with blood, which appeared 
transfused through the coats of the stomachs on that side. 
The stomachs were all in a healthy state, and more or 
less filled with hay in a partly digested state. One sin¬ 
gular circumstance presented, which, however, was in 
no way connected with the disease, and probably would 
have occasioned nothing unfavorable to the animal, had 
he have lived ; it was a shingle nail run through one of 
the ridges of a lozenge of the paunch. The liver was 
to all appearance healthy, except the transfusion of 
blood through the center of it. From the center of the 
liver I extracted several water leeches or blood suckers. 
Two writers in the last volume of the Cultivator notice 
this complaint, pages 90 and 120—one of them considers 
regular feeding as a preventive; the other (Mr. War¬ 
ner) says —“ The bloody murrain is occasioned by an 
extended and overflowing gall, affecting the liver, caus¬ 
ing the leeches or blood suckers therein, and the flow 
of blood outward or inward,”—“ that the wood herbage 
induces the extended galls”—that all have extended 
galls. For want of a knowledge of the anatomy and phy¬ 
siology of the animal system, many mistakes occur, and 
ignorance necessarily follows with regard to disease, both 
of the human and all animals. Now I think it would 
puzzle this writer to explain how overflowing gall can 
affect the liver, cause those small animals called leeches, 
and the flow of blood outward or inward. The gall or 
bile has always been a terrible bugbear amona man¬ 
kind, from a want of a correct knowledge of anatomy and 
physiology. The gall or bile is a natural, necessary and 
constant secretion from the liver. It is a natural, ne¬ 
cessary and constant purgative and corrective of the 
bowels, a want of which produces costiveness, and a 
superabundance of which produces purgations, diar- 
rhffia and dysentery. In the animal I lost, there was not 
the slightest mark of extension or overflowing thereof. 
It was as usual. Now, some questions occur with re¬ 
gard to the phenomena presented in this complaint. 
How came the bowels filled with blood? How came 
blood discharged from the bladder 1 How came the 
blood transfused throughout the liver, and the coats of 
the stomach facing it? How came the leeches in the 
liver ? I will commence my explanation of the last, 
first: which is, that the eggs of the leech had been im¬ 
bibed with water during the preceding fall, by the ani¬ 
mal drinking from some puddle on my farm, as the leech 
is common here; the eggs, transmitted through the 
circulating medium, were deposited in the liver and per¬ 
haps kidney, there remaining until they grew to their 
full size, when, fixing upon the blood vessels, they cut and 
pierced them, by which means the blood flowed through 
the gall duct or tube to the bowels; and as some of the 
vessels of the fiver are large, the animal thus in fact 
bled to death. Sometimes, probably, the animal does 
not die so suddenly, and the blood is not discharged ex¬ 
ternally, which may arise from the leech cutting the 
smaller vessels only, which causes the blood to be trans¬ 
fused more internally through the coats and membranes 
of the different organs, giving them a dark and bruised 
appearance. The same thing I think must have occur¬ 
red in the kidneys, although I did not detect any leeches 
therein. So that, in fact, gentlemen, this disease is no 
disease at all, but simply the opening of a blood vessel, 
producing death by hemorrhage. Below I give some ex¬ 
tracts from the Comparative Anatomy and Regne Ani¬ 
mal (animal kingdom) of Cuvier, who may be consi¬ 
dered as bavins been the first and greatest writer on this 
branch of science the world has yet produced, and a 
branch which by no means oueht to be omitted to be 
taught in any agricultural school, many of which 
I hope to see established in our country. From my view 
of this complaint, no cure is to be expected, although, 
probably, the preventive of salt and ashes pointed out 
by Mr. Warner, may act favorably, by destroying the 
leech or the egg. J. BAXTER, M. D. 
Miller, Knox Co. Ohio. 
“We have now come to nearly the most complicated sto¬ 
machs with which we are acquainted, that is to say, those of 
ruminants, (animals that chew the cud.) They are similar, 
with small differences, in horned ruminants, which have four 
stomachs very distinct. The first of these stomachs, called 
the paunch, rumen or fold, is very large; it occupies a large 
part of the abdomen, particularly on the left side. To the 
right of the oesophagus, -(gullet,) and on the part of the 
paunch, is found the second stomach, or the cap, the small¬ 
est of the four, and which appears only at first sight, but an 
appendage to the first; it touches in front the tendinous cen¬ 
ter of the diaphragm midrif. Then comes the mainfold or 
leaf, which is the third for situation and size; it is placed on 
the right side of the paunch, behind the liver. The oesopha¬ 
gus is inserted into the part of the paunch which is most, to 
the right, and communicates, at the same time, by means of a 
gutter, which we shall describe presently, with the cap and 
manifold. The third stomach is distinct from the second and 
fourth, by very sensible contractions; it is globular, while the 
last is long. This, named the fourth ventricle, is the second 
for size; its situation is likewise to the right of the paunch, 
and a small portion under the manifold. It communicates 
with the latter by a very straight opening, and opens into the 
gut by a second orifice, which corresponds to the pylorus of 
simple stomachs. The membranes of these four stomachs 
present remarkable differences, particularly internally. In the 
paunch of the ox, it has its internal surface covered, for the 
most part, with large and flat papilla, the size of which is very 
different. Larger at the bottom of the sacks, they diminish in 
approaching the edges, and disappear on the folds which se¬ 
parate them, and on all the opposite surface which is split in 
fine creases, presenting a species of lozenges. This surface 
throughout, without excepting the papilla, is covered with a 
fine skin, epiderm, which is raised easily in large portions, 
preserving the molds of the papilla, and is distinguished by its 
yellow color from the internal membrane, which is white, con¬ 
founded with the cellular, and adherent to the muscular. 
This is very thick, particularly in the folds which divide the 
paunch into sacks. 
“In the cap the internal membrane has folds indented on 
their sides, notched on their edges, forming polygonal meshes, 
the areas of which are stuck over with papilla, finer, but ana- 
lagous to those of the paunch. This membrane is whitish, 
as"in the first stomach, covered with a similar epiderm, con¬ 
founded with the cellular, adherentto the muscular, and with¬ 
out mucous on the internal surface. The muscular membrane 
is generally thicker in the cap than in the paunch; its thick¬ 
ness is, however, greater in some places of the latter. 
“The manifold, has, as its name indicates, its cavity di¬ 
vided by large folds, (or leaves,) formed by the internal mem¬ 
brane, the surface of which is stuck over with small papilla, 
like grains of millet, and covered with a very small epiderm, 
and which is raised in large parcels, as in the two first sto¬ 
machs. The walls of this stomach are much thinner than 
those of the two first. 
“It is only in the fourth stomach that the internal membrane 
appears of a mucous nature, and lubricated with abundant 
mucosities. It had large folds, at first longitudinal, then 
irregular, after a previous contraction, separating the first 
part from a sort of gut, which terminates this fourth sto¬ 
mach, and in which this membrane augments in thickness, 
as well as the muscular. This last is besides still thinner in 
the fourth stomach than in the manifold. The orifice which 
communicates from the manifold to the fourth stomach has 
a valvular edge; the lower orifice none. 
“The name of ruminants indicates the singular property of 
these animals to chew a second time the aliments which they 
return to the mouth after the first swallowing, a property which 
arises from the form of their stomachs. They have always 
four, the three first of which are disposed so that the food may- 
enter at will into one of the three, because the gullet termi¬ 
nates at the point of communication. The first and largest, 
the paunch, receives in mass the fodder coarsely bruised by 
a first mastication or chewing; it is passed into the second, 
called the cap, the walls of which have coats similar to the 
comb of bees. This stomach, very small and globular, takes 
the fodder, soaks it and compresses it into small balls, (cuds) 
which successively ascend to the mouth to be there chewed. 
The animal remains at rest for this operation, which is conti¬ 
nued until all the fodder at first swallowed to the paunch, un¬ 
dergoes it. The food thus chewed, descends directly into the 
third stomach called the manifold, because its coats have 
longitudinal folds like the leaves of a book, and from therein¬ 
to the fourth stomach, the coats of which have only wrinkles, 
and which is the true organ of digestion, similar to the simple 
stomach of ordinary animals. While ruminants suck and 
