Castile soap 2 drachms, water 1 pint: mix at one draught.
Cropping or Docking manifests a want of feeling and a want of taste, which should subject the operator to the loss of a finger by the same useless and dangerous process.
Glanders is so difficult of cure as to require a surgeon, and is so fatal and contagious that he should by no means be allowed to go into the neighbourhood of other horses, nor feed from the same bucket or rack, nor use the same harness. Symptoms are, discharge at the nose, and swelling of glands under the throat. Soon as removed, purify the stall by lime, washing, &c.
Strangles.–Inflammation of under-jaw glands, with cough. Give, once a day, Fever Powder, viz., antimonial powder 5 drachms, camphor 2 drachms. Mix for three doses.
Change from grass to hot stable is injurious.
Chronic Cough.–Blister throat, keep moderately warm, regular exercise, and each day tartarized antimony 1 1-2 dr., aloes 1 1-2 dr., Castile soap 1 1-2 dr. Syrup to form ball.
Fever.–Bleed. Give pint castor oil, keep moderately warm, feed warm bran mashes, and administer, once or twice a day, this Fever Powder: camphor 1 dr., antimonial powder 2 1-2 dr. Mix.
Excessive Purging creates inflammation and is highly pernicious. Give opium, half a drachm, twice a day. Rub well, keep warm and perfectly quiet. If necessary, blister, and rub with turpentine.
Jaundice.–Give, daily, opium 1 dr., calomel 1 dr., and syrup to form a ball.
Diabetes.–Give animal food, at first as broth, until he will feed upon flesh, and omit vegetables and all fluids as far as possible.
The Mange is occasioned by low feeding, want of cleanliness, or by contagion. Rub with oil turpentine 2 oz., sulphur vivum 3 oz., lard 5 oz., mixed.
Wind Galls about the fetlock are from hard labour. Cure by blisters and repose.
Saddle Galls.–Apply cold water, sugar of lead, and water or vinegar.
Brandy and Salt, two thirds brandy and one third salt, good for all kinds of galls, wounds, bruises, and inflammatory sores.
COWS.
Currying.–Cattle are well known to thrive much better where this operation is thoroughly performed, and Dr. B. Rush, in a lecture upon the advantages of studying the diseases of domestic animals, stales that there is an improvement in the quality of the milk, and an increase of its quantity, which are obtained by currying the cow.
Be assured by experience of the truth of the saying, that “one cow well milked is worth two badly milked.”
Curwen, from three acres of grass, cut and fed thirty milch cows with 28 lbs. each day, for 200 days. Their health was excellent, and their milk superior.
Milk clean.–The first drawn milk contains only 5, the second 8, and the fifth 17 per cent. of cream.
Kicking.–If the milker will keep his nails short, not one cow in a hundred will kick.
Sores.–An ointment made on linseed oil and white lead, will cure cracked teats.
Drink.–Those who wish their cows to give large messes of milk in the winter season, should give them warm drink. The extra trouble will be more than rewarded in the increased quantity of milk.
In milking, be kind and soothing: the cow will give down her milk more freely.
Cream.–Do not milk so far from the dairy as to let the milk cool before it is put in the creaming dishes.
SHEEP.
Lobelia (or Indian tobacco) has been found good where the symptoms of disease are a drooping, running at the eyes, weakness in the back and loins, and losing the use of their hind legs, &c.
Foul Noses.–Dip a small mop on the end of a stick in tar, then roll it in salt, and hold it in your sheep’s mouth.
Tar.–During the season of grazing, give tar, at the rate of a gill a day for every twenty sheep. Sprinkle a little fine salt over it. This promotes their general health.
OXEN.
Being well-mated, oxen are more easily trained; and the more easily to effect this, much self-denial on the part of the driver, much coolness of temper, more training by motion and less by voice, may be highly advantageous to man and beast.
HOGS.
Food.–If pumpkins, roots, apples, or any of them be fed to fattening hogs with corn, the advantage will be salutary. Most of the food for swine should be cooked. Swine fatten much faster on fermented, than on unfermented food. Salt, charcoal, and once in a while sulphur, are excellent for hogs under all circumstances.
Good Medicine.–When your hogs get sick, you know not of what, give them ears of corn, first dipped in tar, and then rolled in sulphur.
A Fact.–The first litter of pigs from a young sow are naturally feeble and difficult to raise, and never perhaps acquire the size and weight that litters of the same sow do afterwards.
BEES.
Every farmer should keep bees; a few swarms to furnish honey for his own use, if no more. They toil with unremitting industry, asking but a full sweep of the wing. and no monopoly. Every man, in either town or country, can keep bees to advantage. Dr. Smith of Boston has an apiary on his house top, from whence his little winged labourers traverse the air eight or ten miles in search of food. What a delicious banquet they afford, from the rich nectar gathered! They collect honey and bread from most kinds of forest trees, as well as garden flowers; orchards, forests, and trees–all contribute to their wants, and their owner is gratified with a taste of the whole. Sweet mignonette is especially mentioned as easily cultivated by drills in a garden, and is one of the finest and richest flowers in the world, from which the honey-bee can extract its food.
The cobwebs must he kept away from the immediate vicinity of the hive, and all other annoyances removed.
“Never kill a bee.” The smoke of the fungus maximus, or common puff ball, when dried so as to hold fire, has a stupifying effect on the bees, and renders them as harmless as brimstone does, without any of its deadly effects. By means of this, weak swarms, which would not live through the winter, may be united to strong stocks. It is a fact, borne out by experiment, that a hive thus doubled will not consume more honey in the winter than a stock in its natural state. This was discovered by a Swiss pastor, De Gelior. The additional heat seems to serve instead of additional food, to keep up the vitality of the half-torpid bees. A cold, dry, dark room, is the best winter quarters for bees. They will consume less honey than if left on their summer stands, and will not be weakened by the toss of thousands, which, tempted out by the premature warmth, are caught by cold winds, fall to the ground and never rise again.
Dryness is essential; and ventilation, or proper airing of the hives in summer, is the most valuable improvement in bee keeping.
