Few farmers there are, indeed, who are not acquainted with crop diseases. Smut is readily recognized when present in the wheat or corn or oat field; so colic, too, should be recognized when your horse is affected by it. The peach and the apple have their common ailments; so have the cow and pig. In either case the facts ought to be familiar. So familiar that as soon as diagnosed and recognized prompt measures for treatment should be followed that the cure may be effected before any particular headway is at all made. Handled in this way, many cases that are now passed on to the veterinarian would never develop into serious disturbances at all.
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE
The old saying, “Prevention is better than cure,” is both wisdom and a splendid platform on which to build any branch of live stock work. Every disease is the result of some disturbance, somewhere. It may be improper food; the stockman must know. Moldy fodder causes nervous troubles in the horse. Cottonseed meal, if fed continuously to pigs, leads to their death. Hence, food has much to do with health and disease. Ventilation of the stable plays its part. Bad air leads to weakness, favors tuberculosis, and, if not remedied, brings about loss and death. Fresh air in abundance is better than medicine; and the careful stockman will see that it be not denied.
Good sanitation, including cleanly quarters, wholesome water and dry stables, has its reward in more healthy animals. When not provided, the animals are frequently ill, or are in bad health more or less. As these factors—proper food, good ventilation, and effective sanitation—are introduced in stable accommodations, diseases will be lessened and stock profits will increase.
HOG HOUSE AND FEEDING FLOOR
This convenient hog house is inexpensive, and the feeding floor at the side insures cleanliness and thorough sanitary conditions. A sanitary hog house should be one of the chief improvements of the farm.
DISINFECT FREQUENTLY; IT NEVER HURTS AND IT MAY DO A WORLD OF GOOD
As disease is better understood it becomes more closely identified with germs and bacteria. Hence, to lessen disease we must destroy, so far as possible, the disease-producing germs. For this purpose nothing is better than sunlight and disinfectants. Sunlight is itself death to all germs; therefore, all stables, and the living quarters for farm animals, should be light and airy, and free from damp corners and lodgment places for dust, vermin, and bacteria. Even when animals are in good health, disinfection is a splendid means for warding off disease. For sometimes with the greatest care germs are admitted in some manner or form. By constantly disinfecting, the likelihood of any encroachment by germs is greatly lessened.
Fortunately we have disinfectants that are easily applied and easily obtained at small cost. One of these disinfecting materials is lime, just ordinary slaked lime, the lime that every farmer knows. While it does not possess the disinfecting power of many other agents, it is, nevertheless, very desirable for sprinkling about stables and for whitewashing floors, walls, and partitions. When so used the cracks and holes are filled and the germs destroyed. Ordinary farm stables should be whitewashed once or twice each year, and the crumbled lime sprinkled on the litter or open ground. It is not desirable to use lime with bedding and manure, for the reason that it liberates the nitrogen contained therein. Hence the bedding and manure should be removed to the fields as frequently as possible, where it can be more helpful to the land. Thus scattered, the sunlight and purifying effects of the soil will soon destroy the disease bacteria, if any are present in the manure.