DISINFECTING STABLES.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1765, 16 October 1879, Page 4

DISINFECTING STABLES.

Disinfection of stables, drains, sheds, cesspools, and outhouses should now be attended to says a writer. The value of disinfection is no longer a subject of discussion. All malignant maladies have been stayed in their ravages by a free and constant use of the potent agents of disinfection. The walls of stables should now be whitewashed. In every livery stable there should be a bucket of sulphate of iron (copperas). Take a handful every morning, dissolve in a bucket of water, and throw into the drain. It is cheap and effective. So is the chloride of zinc (butter of zinc) ; dissolve an ounce in two gallons of water. Where there are sick animals the sheds and stables should always be fumigated with sulphur at least every other day. If mixed with tar the gases generated are very active disinfectants. Take flower of sulphur half a pound, wood tar one quart; mix with tow ; burn at one or two spots and this will disinfect a large stable. Carbolic acid is a powerful disinfectant, and should bo applied to doors, walls and troughs. Tt is disagreeable to flies. Blankets should be wet with a weak solution of it to destroy all disease germs. Chloride of lime is another popular disinfectant. Disinfecting powders, preparations of carbolic acid, are sprinkled daily throughout the stables of London and Liverpool at an annual cost of only one dollar for each horse. They keep the flies away and the atmosphere pure.— "Mirror and Farmer.” CATS AS FARM STOCK. [“American Agriculturist.”] ‘‘The harmless necessary cat” is not so well treated as it deserves. One rarely considers that a well kept cat may be more profitable than a cow. If one rat per day is destroyed, the services of the cat may be estimated at least equal to 100 dollars per year. Let us calculate the enormous damage done by 365 rats in one year, to say nothing of the ravages of the numerous progeny of so many vermin. One rat per day is a moderate amount of business for an active cat. Recently the wriler counted five rats captured in a stable by one cat in one day, and possibly others were not seen. The cat being well fed, hnnted for amusement, and did did not eat the prey. This is the principal point in the managerm nt of a cat. It should be well and regularly fed, for rata are unwholesome food. They aro infested with larvai or tape-worms, ana cats are frequently tormented with the mature parasites in consequence of devouring diseased rats. When kept free from hunger a cat will watch more patiently, and will occasionally devour a rat or a mouse. The most healthful food for a cat is a mixed animal and vegetable diet. Milk and bread, a few potatoes with meat gravy, or a little fat, and a sprinkling of salt, with an occasional scrap of meat, are excellent food, and will keep the animal in good health. A farm cm usually support four or five cats profitably, and these should be chiefly males and the majority of these should be castrated. A castrated cat will grow to an enormous size, and if of a good breed, as the Maltese, will make a superb banter.