The Farmer Glanders.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1997, 25 April 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Farmer Glanders.

Dn. N. H. Paueen, State Veterinarian of Illinois, read a paper before the Chicago EclecLic Medical Society, on the subject cf " Glanders in Man and Animal." Glanders, he said, is a specific febrile disorder peculiar to solipeds, and is capable of transmission to man and other animals. The disease may appear in different forma — simple glanders and acute farcy. In reality, however, glanders and farcy are identical, glanders being the more malignant form, and invariably I .tal. There is a form of simple ohronio glanders, which may exist in the human system, as has been demonstrated in cases that came under the doctor's observation. He cited a case where a farmer, living near Elpin, became inoculated with the most malignant form of glanders from a diseased horse by getting some of the virus from the horse's nostril on his finger. The farmer died a horrible death a few days after the disease had asserted itself. The man's wife, who attended him in bis sickness, became inooulated with the disease in tho form of farcy, and, while she is still alive, after one year's suffering from the disease, she drags out a miserable existence, excluded from the world. There is no such a thing as a cure for glanders or farcy, but it may be temporarily arrested by antiseptic treatment. The only safeguard to Bociety, the doctor said, is the destruction of any animal that show 3 symptoms of the malady.

Large and Small Breeds of Pigs. Thk question before U 3 is the pig. What is perfection in the pig ? There are only two main points as far aa I see — viz., its edible character, and its capaoity for producing puoh a weight of meat from a. given quantity of food that it might be profitable over the scales. " Type," as a third point, is often vaguely appliel, but type from a practical view, should only lead to or govern the two main points. I will take these points in order: — 1. Edible character. — This consists of an ample quantity of lean meat of fine quality, oombined with fat that will not melt away in dripping before the fire, nor to fat in the frying pan, nor be so hard when cooked that it " crunches" between the teeth. Soft fat and oily lean, and hard fat and tough lean, I may Bay here, generally go together ; while both conditions may bo produced by feeding wellbred pigs of the same farrow, but not in "highly" bred sorts. This I will, however, briefly discuss below. 2. Weight according to the food eaten. — This raises the vexed question about two large animals eating as much food as three smaller ones — say, two Cota or Lincoln sheep and three Southdowns or Leicester — and producing no more weight of food of a nutritious quality, the larger at the same time being inferior in texture and flavour. Both the large and the small may be perfection of their kind — particularly is this the case with pigs, if they be bred and fed with the first point in view. 3. Type.— As intimated above, thia is, or Bhould be, such a conformation of the body, head, and limbs as will lead to the realisation of the first and second points. Beauty is deßirablo in our " various races of farm stock," where it can be cultivated without sacrificing utility. Beauty, however, does not come in here. Type, in this instance, only refers to such forms of animals as will produce and perpetuate a great weight of lean meat, and this in the most valuable part. We all know the gammon, the loin, the rib, and the " streaky " (when there are ample " streaks " in it), are far more valuable than heavy shoulders, abnormal necks with their puckered fat, and " chaps " with 10 times as much fat as lean. Pigs that will respond to the above good points, I may, I think, safely characterise as perfection. Tigs are only valuable according to the quantity and quality of relißhable and wholesome food they will produce. They are comparatively valuable, too, just as heavy gammons and deep lean in the loin and back are cultivated. How was it, then, that for 40 years it happened that the prevailing fashion in showyards was to encourage the cultivation of the j very opposite type to that which baconcurers wanted, as they knew which end of a pig their customers would give the most per pound for ? This fashion prevails now. If not, why is it that such a censorious saying as " What 1 that straight nobod, quart-pot-necked brute first ! " is popular in show-yards among the in-and-in breeders — those men who have proclivities in favor of the Chinefce-nosc, blubbery neck, and fat shoulders ? But a movement was begun a few yeara ago by such breeders as Mr. Heber Humfrey, and ouch bacon-curers as Messrs. Harris and Co., of Calne, that has already had a marked effect in Wiltshire and other western counties. The breeders sold the boars and &ows that were awarded prizes at the .Royal and the Bath and West Shows, and used such swine for producing profitable issue as were not even commended by the judges. The result already is, the bacon-curers in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire (at Stroud more particularly) are able to get a supply of English pigs, instead of having often to go to Bristol to buy Irish animals suitable for making bacon of the highest value in London. Colonel Curtis dictum, about large breeds costing no more for attendance than small breeds, applies with greater force to bad quality and good quality of piga. It cost just as much to produce third or fourth-rate sides of bacon as it does those of the highest valuo whon fit lor delivery for consumption. Thus I think it is shown that there are sound practical judges now to be found, if they be sought after, who would soon change the result of awarding prices for pigs at our large shows. Allow me to add here, I quite agree with your proposal about appointing three judges, and leaving one of them out as a referee. But, in the case of pigs, I would tuhiee a bacon curer or London salesman as a referee. If the two judges were such experienced and practical men as I could nominate, the referee would seldom be called in ; and if he was, I know exactly which way he would decide. But I am looking forward for greater and more widely extended results from tho swine herd books (if that be the correct title of them) that are now being compiled. I do this, not because I have the slightest idea that a record of pedigree animals will be of any service to the present fashionable in-and-in bred herds — for on the contrary it will be a means of " usiDg them up " more rapidly, but because the records in them will be a means of showing practical breeders which strains they ought to shun as they would a stock animal that unmistakably shows some hereditary disease. I will illustrate this by reproducing a few remarks that I have often made during the last twenty yearß in various places. Piga, different to all other kinds of farm stock, not only breed twice a year, but they have a batch at each farrowing. Thus, while 10 ewes will have no more than 15 lambs (a large yield), a how will produce 15 in two farrows (not a large yield). But the point here is tho breeding twice a year, which allows in-and-in breeding to proceed at double the rate to tho detriment or '• using-up " of pigs that occurs with cattle or sheep, which breeds only once a year, and seldom have more than one at a birth. To make thin point more striking, with a view to confirm my view in favor of the Bwine herd-book, I will multiply the above numbers as regards the increase of swing as compared with cattle and sheep. As many as 200 ewes are not a large flock, but 20 sows are a large herd of swine. Divide the ewes into lots of 40, there would be five lots. Each lot, cay, would be of a different well-known strum. These in-and-in-bred sheep can, by the skilled breeder who has a flock-book containing the descent of each sheep, turn and turn these males and females about for many years without bringing them to a state of too close conj'anguity. For example, lot No. 1 ram may be put to lot No. 5 ewes, lot No. r > ram to lot No. 1 ewes, and ho on. As many changes

oan be thus made as a peal of five bells will allow. The if sue again of No. 1 ram and the No. 5 ewes oan be matohed with the issue of No. 5 ram and No. 1 ewes, and so on through the whole flock and their descendants again tind again. In support of this view as regards sheep, I always like to quote the late Mr. Jonas Webbs Babraham flock. He attained the top of the tree at the Royal Canterbury in 1860, where he took all the prizes for Southdowns. He had not introduced a single strain of fresh blood into hia flock for many years before that. At the same time, his eldest son Henry had established a small flook from the Babraham stook at Streetly Hall, Linton, and in 1862, when his father's flock was sold, he bought all the ewes and lambs that, tcoording to the Babraham flock book, suited the stook he had already acquired. Sinoe that time, for 22 years, the Babraham sheep have been kept to themselves in a state of absolute purity. Yet not only have theso sheep not degenerated, but, while their family likeness has become more marked, they have inorcased in size and vigour. This shows what may be done by in-and-in breeding with animals that breed once a year, and where as many of them are kept as will admit of that " ringing of the changes " by systematic and skilled matching which will avert close consanguinity. But this cannot be done with 20 sows that breed twice a year, and keeping 200 sows would, of course, be an impracticable venture. At the small number, for hardy sows, of 15 each, '200 would breed 3000 pigs in one year. Such a lot of swine, I need not say, would be unmanageable, and be afflicted with all sorts of diseases, if they were in one man's hands. This is why a herd of swine, with an average of 20 sows, become used up in 10 years if they be kept to themselves. While they breed twice a year, and theieby run to ruin at double the pace cattle or sheep do under the same condition, numbers enough oannot be kept for suitably " ringing the ohanges." This is where the swine herd-book will come in, as I intimated. Pig breeders will soon have as good a choice from the issue of 200 sows, and the boars they have been matched with, as Mr. Henry Webb now has among his 200 ewes and the rams he knows the descent of. These sows and boars will be distributed among 20 or 30 or 40 breeders ; yet, by their descent being recorded, each breeder will be able to make as certain a choice for matching with his own as though he had the 200 sows and the boars used in 1 his own hands. Breeders of shorthorns have long had this advantage. A herd of 200 cows, at least, would be required to admit of a herd thriving satisfactorily, if they were kept together in absolute purity as one family. But, by the aid of the herd-book, judicious pedigreebreeders buy bulls of other breeders that are ! adapted for tho strains of blood of their own cows. To return to " show-yard judging " for a moment. If the points now aimed at by the Berkshire breeders, as I have endeavored to explain them above, be taken as a guide, there will soon be a change in the type of English pigs. Then the descendants of some of the present fashionable swine will be of less value than common Dutch porkers. — U r . W. O.in thy Li\r tSttwl, Journal,