Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Jan. 20, 1903, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER Tuesday, January 20, 1003. Protecting Cattle Against Tuberculosis by Vaccination An Interesting Re port of Experiments Made in Penn sylvania. Editor of The Progressive Farmer: Please find enclosed a preliminary statement upon some ""experiments upon the protection of cattle against tuberculosis by vaccination. The work upon which this statement is based is so convincing that there re mains no room to doubt that the procedure is effective; whether it may be applied practically remains to be determined. The vast practical advantage of such a plan will be evident to you from the fact that tuberculosis of cattle now causes in Pennsylvania losses amounting to at least one mil lion dollars annually and the losses in the other Eastern and in some Western States are in proportion. Yours respectfully, LEONARD PEARSON, State- Veterinarian. Harrisburg, Pa. Some experiments on the vaccina tion of cattle against tuberculosis have recently been published by Dr. Leonard Pearson, State Veterinarian of Pennsylvania, and Dr. S. II. Gilli land. These experiments were con ducted at the Veterinary School of the University of Pennsylvania, with the support of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board. The work has been in progress more than two years, thus antedating all other work along this line, for the German investiga tions of von Behring did not begin until July, 1001. No other investi gations of this sort have been re ported in any other country than in the United States and Germany. The process used was to injeet into the vein of the animal to be pro tected a small quantity of a sus pension of tubercle bacilli non viru lent for cattle. This procedure, called vaccination, may be repeated several times with gradually ascend ing quantities. The immediate ef fect is to produce a passing fever following each injection, which does not annoy the animal enough to cause it to lose a single meal. The general health is not disturbed by the process of vaccination. When the series of vaccinations is com pleted the animal had an astonish ingly high degree of immunity to tuberculosis. In the last experi ments completed four young cattle were used. Two of them were vacci nated last March. All four were in oculated in July by injecting into the wi.idpipe a quantity of culture of virulent tubercle bacilli. A large quantity was introduced and each of the four animals received exactly the same treatment. These animals were killed in October. It was found that the cattle that had not been vacci nated were extensively tubercular, showing alternations of this disease in the windpipe, lungs, throat and intestinal glands; while the two vac cinated animals, inoculated the same time, from the same material, and in the same way, were free from tu bercular infection and were sound. Dr. Pearson considers that this principle of. immunization as ap plied to vaccination against tuber culosis of cattle is proven, and it now remains only to work out the details of the method. This impor tant work i being continued on a larger scale for the purpose of ascer taining the simplest and shortest practicable method of vaccination. It is not yet known how long the immunity will last nor wThat the ulti mate effect upon the animal will be. So far, however, as the few experi ments here and in Germany show, no fear need be anticipated of un favorable results in these particu lars. What is needed now is the painstaking use of the method on a few tubercular herds kept under careful and continuous observation. A scrupulously careful trial on a limited scale under proper condi tions will do more to furnish the information needed to answer the few remaining questions upon this discovery than any amount of gen eral use under less careful super vision. In the estimation of the in vestigators it would be premature to apply this vaccination to herds until such further experiments are com pleted. An effort will be made to secure State aid for experiments on a scale largo enough to solve this most important problem. EAST 'AFRICAN COTTON. First Shipment Significant of Wide Pes sibillties of Future Growth. The first shinmcnt of cotton from East Africa, as well as the first suc cessful crop of Egyptian cotton ever raided outside of Egypt has just ar rived on German soil, says United States Consul Monaghan, in a report to the State Department from Chem nitz, the report reaching Washing ton last week. Although consisting of but four bales, the shipment is re garded as signifying the wide possi bilities for the future cotton import trade of Germany, and should furth er efforts prove successful, German East Africa, says the consul, may become an important source of cot ton for German mills. The product is of a brownish yellow color and has a long silky fibre. Credit for this achievement, the consul adds, is to be attributed to the skill of Ameri can agriculturists whom the German government engaged to go to East Africa and instruct the natives in the method of preparing the soil, planting the seed and harvesting the product. "This all goes to show," the report concludes, "that Ger many's commercial policy includes an effort to make herself independ ent, as far as possible, of all foreign markets in the matter of raw materials." Louisburg Times: Tobacco con tinues to roll in and our stemmeries are kept busy day and night. Sev eral hundred more stemmers could get employment here. All of the prizehouses are full up with tobacco, and the buyers would rent wrroral more if they were here. The Buff Plymouth Rock. Editor of The Progressive Farmer : What kind of fowls, kind reader, do you intend to breed this spring the common, mixed-up, mongrel stock you've bred for the past ten years, or stock of the thoroughbred class ? Now, if you are satisfied with what you have and don't care to make a change, then to you I have nothing to say. But if you happen to be one of 'the progressive class, and believe in thoroughbred stock and want the best, then I can make a few suggestions that will be help ful. I have bred, during the past ten years, many different kinds of fowls Brown Leghorns, Buff Leg horns, Black Minorcas, Barred Ply mouth Bocks, Silver-Spangled Ham burgs, Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Black Lanshangs, etc., but none that I like as well as the Buff Plymouth Bocks. As an all-round, general purpose fowl the Buffs cannot be surpassed, and are rapidly coming to the front as the peer of the Ply mouth Bock family. To meet the market requirements, the bird must be plump in all stages of its growth, with rich yellow skin and shanks, no dark pin-feathers, rich yellow meat, -and sufficiently large so that one bird will make a good square meal for the average family. The Buff Bocks fill every one of these requirements without a single exception, and are the only fowl that I know of that does. The Barred Rocks, no doubt7 would be equally as good as the Buffs, but for the fact that when picked their flesh contains black pin-feathers, which is very much against them when ship ped as broilers or when used as a table fowl at home. The White Bocks, while they pick clean, are not so large as either the Buff or Barred, nor are they near so hardy or do they lay as well. As an all round egg-producing fowl the Buff Bocks are as good, perhaps, as can be found, and as a table fowl they cannot be excelled. They are fine winter layers, under favorable cir cumstances, and in this respect have but one superior the Black Lan shangs; but take them the year round they will leave the Langshans far in the rear. Their color is a beautiful golden buff, -arrd-a yard full of them is as pretty a sight as one would wish to see. Try them, and we will ven ture to say you will stick to them for all time to come. I will say, however, by way of pa renthesis, that this article is not in tended as an advertisement of my stock, for I have neither fowls nor eggs for sale, but simply to help some brother who is undecided what fowl to breed this spring to choose one that will undoubtedly give sat isfaction under all circumstances. WALTER L. WOMBLE. Wake Co., N. C. Bermuda, Johnson and Other Grasses. I want to ask the readers of The Progressive Farmer for information on. Bermuda and Johnson grasses, as I have a rough, thin-soiled place on a mountain apart from my home place and joining no one else, and can find none of our grasses here that will make a permanent stand on this thin-soiled, hot, southwest land. Does Bermuda grass produce seed, and if so, where can the seed be bought, and what would be the price ? If propigated from the root, where and how could it be bought. What kind of grazing does it make for all kinds of stock? And is it very bad to spread to land where it would not be wanted ? And would it be hard to kill on cultivated land? What height does it grow and will it make a per manent stand on thin, rough, moun tain lands? Also whether it would be advisable to risk the trial of Johnson grass on the above named land, as it is not likely to ever b(Tusedfd?: any; things but grazing for many years to cpme. Could the Johnson grass be kept grazed down so as to keep it from producing seed, so as to prevent it from spreading by the stock or by birds or washing down streams? I earnestly desire the above in formation from you or some reader of The Progressive Farmer. W. K. RHODARNUR. Haywood Co., N. C. (Answer by Prof. W. F. Massey,' of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station.) I would say to your Haywood County correspondent that he had better let alone both Bermuda and Johnson grasses. Bermuda is the finest possible pasture grass for the warm soil ct the cotton belt, but can never be anything but a nuisance in the mountain country of Haywood. Johnson grass, while a valuable hay grass in low moist land, becomes a nuisance by spreading throughout the whole country and would not do so well on the land which your cor respondent describes, and would be a means of scattering it all over the country where it is not wanted. UDown here, where Johnson grass is all over the country, I would not hes itate to use it on a low piece of ground, but the man who introduces it into a section where it is not al ready planted should be prosecuted for a nuisance. I would think that if the land he mentioned is well broken and fertil-. ized he could grow a mixture of or chard grass and tall meadow oats grass more successfully than either of the grasses he names. Johnson grass is not "a pasture grass at best, for about the only thing that-will kill it out is hard pasturing. The T. T. Loftis farm, nine miles southeast of Brevard, has been sold to B. G. Estes, of Buffalo, N. Y. Mr. Estes contemplates stocking this farm with Angora gcrate. Ashsville Citizisra.. Last year the Journal announced that Mrs. W. A. Thomson, of Faison, hud a lemon to .grow at her home to the size of 22 ounces. This year she is the owner of one from the same tree that weighs 39 ounces, Duplin Journal,
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Jan. 20, 1903, edition 1
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