Part 4

Most of the causes of grease are referable to bad management, especially in regard to great and sudden changes in the exterior temperature of the heels. The feet of the horse may be alternately heated by the bedding and cooled by draft from the open stable door; or they may first be made hot and sensitive by the irritating action of the urine and filth on the stable floor, and then violently reacted on by the cold breezes of the open air, or they may be moist and reeking when the horse is led out to work, and then chilled for a long period by the slow evaporation of the moisture from them amid the clods and soil of the field; or they may be warm and even perspiring with the labor of the day, and next plunged into a stream or washed with cold water, and then allowed to dry partly in the open air and partly in the stable; and in many of these ways, or of any others which occasion sudden changes of temperature in the heels, especially when those changes are accompanied or aggravated by the irritating action of filth, grease is exceedingly liable to be induced. Want of exercise, high feeding, and whatever tends to accumulate or to stagnate the normal greasy secretion in the skin of the heels, also operate, in some degree, as causes. By mere good management and by avoiding these known causes, horse owners might prevent the appearance of this disease altogether.

In the early, dry, scurfy stage of grease, the heels may be well cleaned with soft soap and water, and afterwards thoroughly dried, and then treated with a dilution of Goulard's extract--one part to eight parts of water, or one part with six parts of lard oil. In the mildest form of the stage of cracks and ichorous discharge, after cleansing, some drying powder, such as equal quantities of white lead and putty (impure protoxide of zinc), may be applied, or simply the mixture of Goulard's extract with lard oil may be continued. In the virulent form of cracks, accompanied with ulceration, the heels ought to be daily washed clean with warm water, and afterwards bathed with a mild astringent lotion, and every morning and evening thinly poulticed or coated with carbolized ointment; and the whole system ought to be acted on by alteratives, by nightly bran mash, and, if the animal be in full condition, with a dose of purgative medicine. In the worst and most extensively spread cases, poultices of a very cooling kind, particularly poultices of scraped carrots or scraped turnips, ought to be used day and night, both for the sake of their own action, and as preparatives to the action of the astringent application; and the whole course of treatment ought to aim at the abatement of the inflammatory action, previous to the stopping of the discharge. Nothing tends so much to prevent grease and swelling of the legs as frequent hand rubbing and cleansing the heels carefully as soon as a horse comes in from exercise or work. In inveterate cases of grease, where the disease appears to have become habitual, in some degree, a run at grass, when in season, is the only remedy. If a dry paddock is available, where a horse can be sheltered in bad weather, it will be found extremely convenient; as in such circumstances, he may perform his usual labor, and at the same time be kept free from the complaint.

Foul in the Foot.

This name is given to a disease in cattle, which presents a resemblance 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.

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."

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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.

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MISCELLANEOUS.

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THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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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.

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HENRY DAVIS, DYER, IND.

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.

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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."