to foot rot in sheep, but is different from this. It appears to be
always occasioned by the neglect and aggravation of wounds and ulcers
originating in mechanical injury--particularly in the insinuating of
pieces of stone, splinters of wood, etc., between the claws of the hoof,
or in the wearing, splitting, or bruising of the horn, and consequent
abrasion of the sensible foot; by walking for an undue length of time,
or a long distance upon gravelly or flinty roads, or other hard and
eroding surfaces. It is sometimes ascribed, indeed, to a wet state of
the pasture; but moisture merely predisposes to it, by softening the
hoof and diminishing its power of resisting mechanical injury.
The ulcers of foul in the foot usually occur about the coronet and
extend under the hoof, causing much inflammatory action, very great
pain, and more or less separation of the hoof; but they often originate
in uneven pressure upon the sole, and rise upward from a crack between
the claws, and are principally or wholly confined to one side or claw of
the foot. A fetid purulent discharge proceeds from the ulcers, and a
sinus may sometimes be discovered by means of a probe to descend from
the coronet beneath the hoof. The affected animal is excessively lame,
and may possibly suffer such a degree of pain as to lose all appetite
and become sickly and emaciated.
If the disease is of a mild form, or be merely in the initiatory stage,
it may be readily cured by cleaning, fomentation, and rest; if it be of
a medium character, between mild and violent, it may be cured by
cleaning, by carefully paring away loose and detached horn, by destroying
any fungus growth, and by applying, with a feather, a little butyr of
antimony; and if it be of a very bad form, or has been long neglected,
it will require to be probed, lanced, or otherwise dealt with according
to the rules of good surgery, and afterwards poulticed twice a day with
linseed meal, and frequently, but lightly, touched with butyr of
antimony.
Founder.
This disease consists in inflammation of the laminæ and of the vascular
parts of the sensible foot. It sometimes attacks only one foot,
sometimes two, and sometimes all four; but, in a great majority of
cases, it attacks either one or both of the front feet. A chronic form
sometimes occurs, and exhibits symptoms somewhat similar to those of
contraction of the hoof; but acute inflammation of the laminæ is what is
generally called founder.
This disease is occasioned by overstraining of the laminæ from long
standing, by prolonged or excessive driving over hard roads, by
congestion from long confinement, by sudden reaction from standing in
snow after being heated, or from covering with warm bedding after
prolonged exposure to cold, by sudden change of diet from a
comparatively cool to a comparatively heating kind of food, and by
translation of inflammatory action from some other part of the body,
particularly after influenza.
In the early stages of founder, a horse evinces great pain, shows
excessive restlessness of foot, and tries to lighten the pressure of his
body on the diseased feet. In the more advanced stages he is feverish,
breathes hard, has violent throbbing in the arteries of the fetlock,
lies down, stretches out his legs, and sometimes gazes wistfully upon
the seat of the disease; and in the ulterior stages, if no efficacious
remedies have been applied, the diseased feet either naturally recover
their healthy condition, or they suppurate, slough, cast part or all of
the hoof, and gradually acquire a small, weak, new hoof, or they undergo
such mortification and change of tissues as to render the animal
permanently useless.
The shoe of a foundered foot must be removed; the hoof should be pared
in such a manner that the sole and central portion of the same alone
come to sustain the weight of the body. Therefore, the wall of the hoof,
or that portion of the hoof which, under normal conditions, is made to
bear upon the shoe, should be pared or rasped away, all around, to such
an extent that it does not touch the ground when the animal stands upon
the foot. A well-bedded shed, or a roomy, well-bedded box-stall, should
be provided, with a view of allowing ample room for stretching out, as
well as for changing position on a floor which should not be slanting,
and which conveniences can not be had in a single stall, or when the
animal is kept tied up in a confined space. Fomentations, evaporating
lotions, wet cloths, and moist poultices should be applied to the feet.
The animal ought to have light and spare diet, and bran mashes. When
much fever exists febrifuges and diuretics should be given.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
COW DRYING UP UNEVENLY. D. W., AUBURN, ILL.--1. What is the cause of a
cow going dry in one teat? She dropped her calf the 25th of May, and it
sucked till it was three months old two teats on one side; that was her
third calf; her next one will be due the last of April next. For some
six weeks past the quantity of milk has been diminishing, till now she
does not give more than a gill from one teat, while the opposite one
gives more than double that of either of the others. Can any thing be
done to remedy the difficulty? 2. If a cow gives more milk on one side
than the other, does it indicate the sex of the coming calf?
REPLY.--Most likely the cow will give milk from all four quarters after
calving. She should be allowed to gradually dry up now, and toward the
time of calving, she should not be fed exclusively on dry food. 2. No.
[Illustration]
THE DAIRY.
Dairymen, Write for Your Paper.
Curing Cheese.
The curing of cheese develops not only flavor, but texture and
digestibility. As a rule, says an English exchange, no American cheese
is well cured, and this is for want of suitable curing houses. Dr. H.
Reynolds, of Livermore Falls, Me., remarks upon this subject as follows:
"Increased attention needs to be given by cheese-makers to this matter
of curing cheese. Cheese factories should be provided with suitable
curing rooms, where a uniform temperature of the required degree can be
maintained, together with a suitable degree of moisture and sufficient
supply of fresh air. The expense required to provide a suitable curing
room would be small compared to the increased value of the cheese
product thereby secured. Small dairymen and farmers, having only a few
cows, labor under some difficulties in the way of providing suitable
curing room for their cheese. Yet if they have a clear idea of what a
curing room should be, they will generally be able to provide something
which will approximate to what is needed. Good curing rooms are
absolutely needed in order to enable our cheese-makers to produce a
really fine article of cheese. The nicer the quality of cheese produced,
the higher the price it will bring, and the more desirable will it
become as an article of food. In the curing of cheese certain
requisites are indispensable in order to attain the best results. Free
exposure to air is one requisite for the development of flavor. Curd
sealed up in an air-tight vessel and kept at the proper temperature
readily breaks down into a soft, rich, ripe cheese, but it has none of
the flavor so much esteemed in good cheese. Exposure to the oxygen of
the air develops flavor. The cheese during the process of curding takes
in oxygen and gives off carbonic acid gas. This fact was proved by Dr.
S. M. Babcock, of Cornell University, who, by analyzing the air passing
over cheese while curding, found that the cheese was constantly taking
in oxygen and giving off carbonic acid gas. The development of flavor
can be hastened by subjecting the cheese to a strong current of air. The
flavor is developed by the process of oxidation. If the cheese is kept
in too close air during the process of curding, it will be likely to be
deficient in flavor."
* * * * *
An anonymous writer very truly remarks that the dairyman, by the force
of circumstances, has to become versed in the breeding and management of
stock, especially that of dairy breeds; hence, in the very nature of
things, he becomes a thoughtful, studious, observing man, and, what is
better, he attains a higher intelligence. The advantages of dairying
call out, among other things, enhanced revenues, because butter and
cheese have become necessities; it enriches the farm, and is perfectly
adapted to foster the breeding and raising of better and more stock. It
embodies thrift, progress, and prosperity. Under "new methods" it makes
fine butter and choice beef, not by any means less, but even more, and
affords better grain. It does not imply farm houses with added burdens,
but, on the contrary, relieved of drudgery, and the time thus gained can
be spent in cultivating the refining graces, and thus making farmers'
homes abodes of culture, refinement, and education, placing the dairy
farmer upon a level financially, socially, and intellectually with any
other class or profession.
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER
The great national farm and garden journal of America, with its
Celebrated Free Seed Distribution, and
THE PRAIRIE FARMER
one year, post-paid, all for only $3.00. It is a rare chance. Specimen
copies cheerfully sent gratis. Compare them with other rural weeklies,
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34 PARK ROW, NEW YORK.
* * * * *
For Sale or Rent.
Farm of four hundred and eighty acres situated in Marlon County,
Illinois, two and a half miles from Tonti Station, and six miles from
Odin, on branch of Illinois Central R. R., and O. & M. Road--300 acres
under plow, 180 acres timber. The latter has never been culled and is
very valuable. Farm is well fenced into seven fields. Has an orchard on
it which has yielded over two thousand dollars worth of fruit a year. No
poor land on the farm, and is called the best body of land in Marion
County. It was appraised by the Northwestern Insurance Co. for a loan at
$18,000 and a loan made of six thousand. Buildings are not very good.
Will sell for $14,800--$2,800 cash, $6,000 May 31, 1887, and $6,000 Feb.
24, 1892, deferred payments to bear 6 per cent interest, or, to a
first-class party, having a few thousand dollars to put into stock, a
liberal arrangement will be made to rent it for a term of years.
Property belongs to an estate. Address
J. E. YOUNG,
71 Park Avenue, Chicago.
* * * * *
HENRY DAVIS, DYER, IND.
[Illustration]
Breeder of Light Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, Bronze Turkeys, Toulouse
Geese, and Pekin Ducks. Stock for sale. Eggs in Season. Have won 200
prizes at leading shows, including 1st on Toulouse Geese at St. Louis
and Chicago Shows. Write for prices.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
YOUR NAME printed on 50 Cards
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12 NEW "CONCEALED NAME" Cards (name concealed with hand holding flowers
with mottoes) 20c. 7 pks. and this Ring for $1. Agents sample book and
full outfit, 25c. Over 200 new Cards added this season. Blank Cards at
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NORTHFORD CARD CO. Northford, Conn.
* * * * *
SEEDS
Our large GARDEN GUIDE describing _Cole's Reliable Seeds_ is MAILED FREE
TO ALL. We offer the _LATEST Novelties_ in SEED POTATOES, Corn and Oats,
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Agents Wanted, Male and Female, for Spence's Blue Book, a most
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PATENT
Procured or no charge. 40 p. book patent-law free. Add. W. T.
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CARDS
40 SATIN FINISH CARDS, New Imported designs, name on and Present Free
for 10c. Cut this out. CLINTON BROS. & Co., Clintonville, Ct.
* * * * *
AGENTS
WANTED EVERYWHERE to solicit subscriptions for this paper. Write
PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, for particulars.
* * * * *
REMEMBER _that $2.00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _one year, and the
subscriber gets a copy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED
STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any
first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country._
[Illustration]
HORTICULTURAL
Horticulturists, Write for Your Paper.
SOUTHERN ILL. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The members of the Southern Illinois Horticultural Society recently held
a meeting at Alton, and resolved to put a little more life into the
organization. A new constitution was adopted, and the following officers
were elected for the ensuing year:
President--E. A. Riehl, Alton.
First Vice-President--G. W. Endicott, Villa Ridge.
Second Vice-President--Wm. Jackson, Godfrey.
Secretary and Treasurer--E. Hollister, Alton.
The following select list of fruits was recommended for the district, or
Southern grand division of the State:
Apples--Summer--Red Astrachan, Keswick Codlin, Benoni, Saps of
Wine, and Maiden's Blush.
Fall--It was unanimously agreed that fall apples were not
profitable for market purposes.
Winter--Ben Davis, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, Wine-Sap, Winter May,
Gilpin, and Janet.
Apples for family use--Summer--Early Harvest, Red Astrachan,
Carolina Red June, Benoni, Maiden's Blush, Bailey Sweet and
Fameuse.
Fall--Fall Wine, Rambo, Grimes' Golden, Yellow Belleflower.
Winter--Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Winesap, Ben Davis, Janet, Gilpin,
Moore's Sweet, Sweet Vandevere.
Peaches for Market--Bartlett, Howell, and Duchess.
Pears for Family Use--Bartlett, Seckel, Howell, White Doyenne,
D'Anjou, and Sheldon.
Peaches--For Family Use and Market--Alexander, Mountain Rose, L. E.
York, Oldmixon Free, Crawford's Late Stump, Picquet's Late, Smock,
Salway, and Heath Cling.
Grapes--Home Use and Market--Worden or Concord, Cynthiana or
Norton's Va., Mo. Reisling, Noah, Ives.
Strawberries--Home and Market--Capt. Jack, Downing, and Wilson.
Raspberries--Black Caps--Doolittle and Gregg.
Reds--Cuthbert, Brandywine, and Turner for home use only.
Notes on Current Topics.
FARM ECONOMY.
Now, if one wants to ascertain how many agricultural implements are used
by the farmers of the West, let him take a trip across the country for a
day or two, and he will see reapers and mowers, and hay rakes and
cultivators, and plows and seeders, standing in the fields and meadows,
at the end of the rows where they had last been used. A stranger might
think that this is not the place for them at this particular time of
year. But in this he shows his ignorance of Western farm economy--for it
is the very place for them; the identical locality where a great many of
our farmers choose to keep their costly implements. Besides--don't you
see, our farmers believe in fostering the manufactures of our country;
and this place of caring for their tools after using them adds 15 or 20
per cent to the business of the manufacturers.
ABOUT THE BORER.
I referred to the fact that I had lately been cutting away, digging up,
and making stove-wood of a number of dead and decaying apple trees. Some
of them had been dead and dying for two or three years. In splitting up
the body and roots of one of these, I dislodged scores of the borers, of
all ages and sizes--making quite a dinner for a hen and chickens that
happened to be nigh. This fact brought forcibly to my mind what I should
have thought of before, namely--that these dead and dying trees ought
not to be allowed to remain a day after their usefulness has departed;
but should be removed bodily and consigned to the flames. Otherwise they
remain as breeding places for the pests, to the great detriment of the
rest of the orchard. Cut away your decaying trees at once.
COAL ASHES.
Now that coal has become so common as a substitute for wood for fuel,
not only on the railroads and manufactories, but in the villages and on
the farms, wood ashes will still be harder to procure. Though not near
so valuable for the purposes for which wood ashes is chiefly used in
horticulture, it is believed that ashes from the coal has too great a
value to be wasted. It should all be saved and applied to some good
purpose on the garden or orchard. Has any one tried it as a preventive
to pear blight? or mildew on the gooseberry? or the grape rot? or for
the yellows or leaf-curl in peach trees? or for the rust in the
blackberry and raspberry? In any or all of these it may have a decided
value, and should be faithfully experimented with. As an absorbent
alone it ought to be worth saving, to use in retaining the house slops
and other liquid manures that are too often wasted.
ONE CAUSE OF FAILURE
in our orchard trees, of which we read and hear so much in late years,
is doubtless to be found in the fact that we fail to feed them properly.
A hog will fail to put on fat if he is not fed; a hen will not lay eggs
if she is starved for food; and is it more reasonable to expect an apple
or a peach or a pear tree to thrive and grow and yield of its luscious
fruit in perfection while it is being starved? Our fresh soils--some of
them at least--contain a fair proportion of the food needed to support
the life of a tree; we plant our orchards, and for some years, more or
less, they give us paying returns for our investments. But that food
will not always last; it is gradually exhausted, and we fail to feed
them again, or in that proportion their necessities require. They
languish and die; a disease seizes them, and we complain and grumble at
the dispensations of Providence.
Think of it, fellow fruit-growers; let us begin to treat our fruit trees
as we do our hogs and our hens, and see if we can not be favored with
corresponding results. It is doubtless true that many of the diseases to
which our trees are subject are caused by starvation, or by improper
feeding; and a sickly tree is much more certain to be attacked by
insects than a healthy one.
Rare, indeed, is the case where a tree is carefully fed and cared for,
and its wants regularly and bountifully supplied, that it does not repay
as bountifully in its life-giving fruits.
T. G.
PEAR BLIGHT.
THE TWO THEORIES WITH REGARD TO ITS CAUSE, AND THEIR PRACTICAL VALUE.
It is assumed that this pest has cost agriculturists many millions of
dollars during the past decade; not only in the loss of trees, but the
time--as it seldom appears until after the first crop--consequently the
land, manure, labor, enclosure, and taxes are not insignificant items.
Climate, soil, and cultivation have utterly failed, so also the
nostrums, such as "carbonate of lime" suggested by the best authority,
and the experts now admit that parasites (such as cause the rust or smut
in our cereals) are the cause of this mischief. The only question is
whether they act directly or indirectly: this question determines
whether it is remediable. If these parasites accomplish all this
mischief by direct contact, as in the case of rust, their ubiquitous
character is so demonstrated that we are utterly discouraged; whereas,
if we prove that their indirect action is the only one that is to be
dreaded, and that indirect action is remediable we are encouraged to
cultivate the pear, though we have lost more than five hundred of one
variety and almost all of the other varieties before we discovered the
real cause of the failure. "Where you lose you may find;" success does
not indicate merit, and "fools never learn by experience." As a
celebrated surgeon said in his lecture. "A good oculist is made at the
expense of a hatful of eyes."
The celebrated Johnson who wrote the Encyclopedia of Agriculture a few
years since, is now regarded as an old fogy, because he assumed that the
spores of smut travel from the manure and seed of the previous crop in
the circulation of the plant to the capsule, and thus convert the grain
into a puff-ball, so also the ears of corn, the oats, and rye. This
monstrosity on the rye grains is called ergot, or spurred rye, and when
it is eaten by chickens or other fowls their feet and legs shrivel or
perish with dry gangrene, not because the spores of the fungus which
produced the spurred rye circulate in the blood of the chicken, nor that
the spawn or mycelium thus traverses the fowl, but the peculiar and
specific influence acts upon the whole animal precisely like the poison
of the poison oak, producing its specific effect on the most remote
parts of the system, and not as mustard confined to the part it touches.
The mustard acts directly, but the "poison Ivy" acts indirectly; so also
the virus of cow-pox poisons the whole system, but usually appears in
but one spot unless the lymphatics of the whole arm are weak, and in
that case crops of umbilicated pustules precisely like the original, may
recur on all parts of the arm for several months. The specific effect of
ergot or the fungus when indirect is manifested by contracting and even
strangulating the tubes or capillaries causing them to pucker up (as a
persimmon acts directly on the mouth), but in this case permanently
though indirectly, so that rye bread sometimes causes dry gangrene in
the human subject; the shins and feet shrivel precisely as those parts
of the limbs of the pear do, moreover a dark fluid exudes (as the
circulation is arrested where a patch occurs) in both cases alike,
consequently if the remedy in both cases is based on the same
principles, and is demonstrated to be equally effectual, the cause and
the disease are similar.
I have seen dry gangrene in the human subject originate apparently from
an old "frost bite;" which means merely chronic debility of the
capillaries of the foot or shin. Thus the extremities of the pear, or
the weakest part, always succumb first, and the most vigorous trees
never manifest it until they are weakened by their first crop of fruit.
All are familiar with the fact that an old frost bite will swell or
succumb to a temperature which will be innocuous to any other part of
the body. The microscope may invariably reveal fungi in the patch of
pear blight precisely as the housewife discovers the mold plant in her
preserves and canned fruit, and even in the eggs of fowls, the mycelium
(or spawn) penetrating the fruit or preserve though it be covered while
boiling hot. If so, the reason why all parts of the tree are not
attacked at the same time, is not because the fungus is not ubiquitous.
We first notice the action of strychnia in the legs, or in paralyzed
limbs exclusively, because they are weaker and become subject to its
influence more easily; so also the same tree may escape for a long time
after the limb which has succumbed is removed. Moreover the grafts,
however numerous, may all be blighted, but the standard seedling on
which so many varieties were grafted has survived more than fifty
winters, and it fruited last year.
DAVID STEWART, M. D.
PORT PENN, DEL.
TREATMENT OF TREE WOUNDS.
Valuable trees that have been wounded or mutilated are often sacrificed
for lack of the discreet surgery which would repair the injury they have
suffered; and Professor C. A. Sargent, of the Bussey Institution, has
done good service to farmers, fruit-raisers, and landscape-gardeners, by
translating from the French the following practical hints, which we give
with slight abridgment: