AGRICULTURAL.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1806, 5 September 1874, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL.

.(From tlie.SanFrancsico Bulletin.). The subjoined condensed extracts are takell from the best authorities on veterinary matters, and will doubtless prove of interest to farmers and stock-raisers generally: — ENLARGEMENT. To cure an enlargement of the knee, caused by the foot striking in passing, cut the hair off as close to the skin as possible and paint it with tincture of iodine twice a week for several months. HOOF OINTMENT. Take of common wood tar, one pound; beeswax,twelve ounces; honey,half-a-pound; suet (beef or mutton), one pound; whale oil, two pounds. The above ingredients to be mixed and slowly melted together in a hot water bath—a tin dish set in a larger dish of boiling water. KNUCKLING. The tendency to knuckle probably depends on a constitutional or hereditary predisposition. The only good that can be effected is indirect, by means of careful dietetic and hygienic management. It should be borne in mind that the main object is to, increase the strength by a generous diet and regular, gentle exercise, until the animal has arrived at full maturity. If good pasturage can be obtained, turn the animal out for two or three months. TRAINING. It is impossible to lay down any fixed rules as to,the earliest.time when it would be safe to commence reducing an animal's flesh by the " sweating" process. The, change from comparative idleness to fast work should be carefully and gradually effected. At first, from one to four hours' walking exercise should be allowed every morning, early. After the second week the exercise should be more active, a light sweat may be given once or twice a week, with the usual exercise every morning, and this should gradually increase in distance and decrease in time,until a two or three-mile "trot" can be taken without distress. DISTEMPEB. Ordinary distemper, as a rule, requires! nothing more than careful nursing. Officious medication cannot be too strongly condemned. The patient should be kept in a well-ventilated stable, and fed on soft diet, as bran or malt mashes; boiled barley with linseed mucilage or oatmeal gruel for drink. In severe cases the use of " vapor baths," warm poultices, &c, do good service. Distemper is a contagious malady—that is, the diseased parts eliminate a specific poision by which the disease is propagated from one animal to another. If this-specific poison | has once found its way into the circulation, [no medicines yet discovered are of any use. j BLOOD-SPAVINS. I Blood-spavins, or bog-spavins, and thoroughpins, are of very common occurrence in colts, often occurring without any cause or causes, and suddenly disappearing and again reappearing without any treatment whatever, though when due to an injury, as a sprain or blow, it is probably better to have recourse to treatment of some kind. Take of cantharides one ounce, and sweet oil six ounces ; melt slowly over a fire, and apply after the blister has formed; apply for a few days the compound tincture of iodine; make a soft swab, say a small piece of sponge secured to a stick, dip into the iodine and swab over the blister carefully with no friction ; do this several times during the action of the blister. In the meantime keep the colt's head tied up to prevent him from biting or irritating the blister, also oil the opposite leg all the way down on the inside, and tie up his tail if long enough to reach the blister.