Year: 1861

looking across that pile of skin and bones
at me- as if was authority in the matter.
"Now," said l. the difficulty with
this COW is starvation and exposure Ii
was here sitting upon crowner's quest,
| should find under oath, that this animal
died of hunger and cruelty, administered
by Jacob Frink, of Hookertown."


This conversation of my ncighbors
last Spring, shows the secret of a great
deal of the disease among cattle In all the
northern states. | have no doubt that
they had something little extra up in
Massachusetts, perhaps an important dis
case, that was wisely checked by stringent
legislation in that and other states. The
stock interest is so great in this country,
that we can not be too vigilant in guard
inc it. But think starvation and ex-
posure kill more cattle every year, than
the lung murrain did. This disease is
around in almost every neighborhood,
and thousands are slain by it, and other
thousands are so damaged, that they are
of little or no profit to their owners. It
is not thought contagious, and yet it is
wonderful, how it goes through a whole
herd, and spreads from farm to farm.
Yet nobody is alarmed because he is fami-
liar with the disease, and knows the
remedy is of easy application,


Now, Mr.. Editor, want to have my
say on this subject, and you mustn't put
the stopper on till I have it out. You
&c, now is the time to prevent this dis
case If you neglect cattle till they get
down in the yard, like Jake Frink's COW,
it is too late. or if it isn't too late it will
cost all they are worth to get them up
into good flesh again. You see folks are
greatly mistaken about what constitutes
the value of an OK or COW. | take it, 1t
isn't the breath of life in the carcass that
makes COW or OK worth having. But
this seems to be the popular notion, that
a cow is a COW, whether she have five hun
dred pounds of good wholesome flesh be-
tween her skin and bones have come to-
gethcr pretty much like collapsed steam
boiler. Men calling themselves farmers
and living in farming community like
Hookertown, seems to think that a poor
half-starved COW in the Spring is in just
as good condition to give milk, and make
butter and cheese, as one well fed. They
think all the hay and meal they can
cheat their cattle out of in the Winter, is
SO much clear gain. They keep animals
out of doors, at the stack yard, through
all this cold stormy weather, that are
expected to bring calves next April They
lie upon the frozen earth, and often upon
the snow, with the thermometer at zero,
They are fed upon corn stalks, and often
upon poor hay, without meal or roots.


Now I am not particularly savage in
nv disposition, but | should like to have
these improvident stock owners spend just
one night, at the stack yard, with theiI
poor shivering cattle. | rather guess they
would build barns or sheds, and make
them comfortable.


A COW kept in this way, comes out in
the Spring in poor flesh, too weak to bear
good calf, or to make good meal, if the
calf is doomed for the butcher Half the
Summer is spent in recovering the flesh
she has lost during Winter. A few years
of such treatment weakens her vital force
50 that she is liable to die hardening
long before she becomes an old COW. Is il
any wonder that cattle become diseased
under such treatment, that the ribs stick
out, and the hair sticks up, and the crows
scent their prey? We have got laws that
fine men heavily for abusing dumb ami
mails with the whip. We ought to have
others that will prevent them from tor.
turing their animals with frost and hun.
ger.


My remedy for cattle disease is first
good warm stables They can be made
tight, and at the same time be well ven.
tilatcd, so that the thermometer will not
sink much below the freezing point. With
out good stables no amount of feeding can
keep the animal comfortable, or make il
profitable to the owner