Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1901 — Two Foods That Km Pigs. [ARTICLE]

Two Foods That Km Pigs.

The Indiana State Board of Agriculture, In a report, says: Wheat and Barley Beard. It not frequently happens that after hogs have been turned upon wheat and barley stubble that some will die. The symptoms which the pigs will present are quite variable. In some cases it will be an intensely sore mouth, in others it will be those of general bowel disturbance, and in a third it will be those of loud and difficult breathing. The writer has post-mortemed many such cases and found accumulations of beards in the mouth, stomach, or windpipe. A roll of beards may form and get down by the side or at the root of the tongue and penetrate the mucous membrance. The animal can not get rid of them; the parts become Intensely swollen and inflamed, interfering with eating, and starvaton will occur. Plugs of the beards may lodge at any point between the larynx and bronchi, producing loud, distressing breathing and coughing. The foreign body can not be removed and death takes place from suffocation. In the stomach the beards may puncture the walls. The Injury may be so slight as to cause only a mild inflammation and Interference with the appetite for a short time, until the beards become softened and pass on, or the inflammation may be so severe as to cause death. The trouble is one that is not amenable to treatment except in those cases in which the beard is in the mouth. Effects of Cockle Burrs. Numerous articles have appeared in the swine breeders’ journals and agricultural papers indicating that young cockleburrs were poisonous to hogs and calves. While the cockle-burr is young and only three.to four inches high it is very fleshy and tender, and relished by stock. The claims of poisoning of stock attracted sufficient attention that the Indiana Experiment station made a chemical examination and a feeding test to determine the poisonous properties, but in both the results were negative. The young plants, stripped of the burrs, were fed to calves, pigs, rabbits and guinea pigs. They were allowed all they would eat. In no case was any untoward effect noticed. We have been called upon to post-mor-ten some animals claimed to have died from such poisoning, and in all cases death was due to burrs. A few burrs would be swallowed with the young plants, and their horny prickles would irritate the stomach wall and cause inflammation, which Anally terminated in death. In three cases the burrs lodged in the throat and could not be expelled.

Looking After the Features. The agricultural department of the national government is looking after the question of pastures more closely than ever before. Some of the work it has been doing during the past few years is bound to be far reaching in its effects, not only on the ranges of the far west but also on the pasture lands of the more eastern sections oi the country. There is no subject, that, it seems to the writer, has been more neglected or that will pay better pay for thought, investigation and experiment. The pastures of the American farm are badly handled and almost always neglected. The formation of most of our pastures has been a hit-or-miss affair, governed largely by accident. Some of the best arable land on the farm is generally found in pasture land and that has never been disturbed since the forest was cleared away in the old days. We are fust now waking up to the fact that in the pastures are great possibilities. We have been satisfied to have a good many acres support a single cow; we are coming now to consider how the yield of pasture grass may be increased to enable a cow to be supported on as few acres as possible. As an index of the progress being made we recall a question that Was last week put to H. B. Gurler at the dairymen’s meeting at Aurora, Illinois: “How many cows do you support per acre?” The answer was that he had not yet reached the point where he could talk of it as being “so many cows per acre,” but that it was yet “so many acres to the cow,” but he was progressing in the direction of the inquiry. The care of pastures may well concern the department of agriculture. There is no doubt that the poor care given our pastures results in immense losses to American farmers yearly. There are hundreds of millions of acres of pasture land that are yielding results only from the upper few Inches of soil, with a foot of soil below whose richness is untapped. This is due to the fact that so little care is given the pastures that they are always kept short and the roots of the grasses are prevented from striking downward. The attention being given the varieties of grasses to be grown should inaugurate a new era. The one or two grasses that are now so popular must be supplanted by a great number of grasses maturing at different periods throughout the summer. There are some additional features that must be considered, such as method in grazing, rest and fertilization. If one of the children on the farm takes an interest in poultry raising let him or her have a chance to prove what an interested child can do. Do not withhold the earnings of the flock that may be set aside for the use of the child. “Oh, mamma!” exclaimed little Arthur, all out of breath, “I’ve just been playing with the Goodwin children, and they have the measles at their house. Now, can 1 eat all the cake I want to? ’Cause, you know, I’m going to be sick anyway.” Alm to have the butter entirely free of buttermilk.