Charles William Burkett

“ One of the main elements of plant food, perhaps you remember, is nitrogen. Just as soon as the roots of the leguminous plants begin to push down into the soil, the bacteria, or germs that make the tubercles, begin to build their homes on the roots, and in so doing they add nitrogen to the soil. You now see the importance of growing such crops as peas and clover on your land, for by their tubercles you can constantly add plant food to the soil. Now this much-needed nitrogen is the most costly part of the fertilizers that farmers buy every year. ”

“ Enough has now been said to indicate that disease originates as a reaction between the cause of it and the body. Withhold food, and starvation—the disease—follows. Withhold fresh air and oxygen, and the tissue breaks down; disease results as a reaction from the normal use of air and the demands of the body for oxygen. Allow bacteria admission to the body and settlement in the tissues or organs most agreeable to each particular one, and these will grow, multiply, and, unless overcome by the natural resistance of the body, will conquer and destroy, causing sooner or later death and decay. ”

“ When the animal is used by man for food, one class of foods stored away in the animal's body produces muscle; another produces fat, heat, and energy. The food furnished by the slaughter of animals seems necessary to the full development of man. It is true that the flesh of an animal will not support human life so long as would the grain that the animal ate while growing, but it is also true that animal food does not require so much of man's force to digest it. Hence the use of meat forces a part of man's life-struggle on the lower animal. ”

“ There seems to be a limit to what the disease can do. A healthy body may be attacked, but, in the end, disease retires, having used itself up. There are diseases, however, that leave their marks in many ways. And these become permanent marks. With many of these all of us are acquainted. Smallpox is one. The pits over the face record the fierce battle that was fought. The same is true of wasted tissues, with scars that conspicuously mark the track along which blood poison has traveled. The shrunken hoof of the foundered horse tells the adverse termination of that disease. ”

“ In the selection of plants from which to get seed, you must know what kind of plants are really the best seed plants. First, you must not regard single heads or grains, but must select seed from the most perfect plant, looking at the plant as a whole and not at any single part of it. A first consideration is yield. Select the plants that yield best and are at the same time resistant to drouth, resistant to rust and to winter, early to ripen, plump of grain, and nonshattering. What a fine thing it would be to find even one plant free from rust in the midst of a rusted field! ”

“ In any event, a post-mortem examination is usually desirable, if for no other reason than that it serves to familiarize you with the organs of the body. With a little experience you can become quite proficient in examining a dead animal, and you can soon learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy organs, between diseased and normal tissues and the relation of the internal parts to the whole body. A post-mortem examination thus enables you to know the cause of the disease—where it is located or whether death is the result of accident or of some fatal disturbance of the system. ”

“ Often a farmer's yield is so increased after he has scattered lime over his fields that he thinks that lime alone will keep his land fertile. This belief explains the saying, "Lime enriches the father but beggars the son." The continued use of lime without other fertilization will indeed leave poor land for the son. Lime is just as necessary to plant growth as the potash and nitrogen and phosphoric acid about which we hear so much, but it cannot take the place of these plant foods. Its duty is to aid, not to displace them. ”

“ The man who deals with farm animals should be well acquainted with them, just as the engineer is acquainted with his engine. If an engine goes wrong the engineer endeavors to ascertain the trouble. If it is beyond his experience and knowledge he turns the problem over to an expert. It should be so with the stock raiser. So familiar should the owner be with his animals in case of trouble he ought to know of some helpful remedy or to know that the trouble is more serious than ordinary, in which case the veterinarian should be called. ”

“ Years ago blackleg was regarded as a form of anthrax. This has been proved erroneous, however, for blackleg and anthrax are two distinct and independent diseases, each being caused by a specific germ. One diseased animal does not transmit the disease directly to a healthy one. When caused, it is the result of self-inoculation, that is, by the germ entering a wound in the skin or mucous membrane of the body, produced on the legs while the animals are roaming over the fields, or at the mouth while grazing; these are the places by which the blackleg germs get into the system. ”

“ Plants, insects, birds, beasts, men,—all alike are fed on what grows in this thin layer of soil. If some wild flood in sudden wrath could sweep into the ocean this earth-wrapping soil, food would soon become as scarce as it was in Samaria when mothers ate their sons. The face of the earth as we now see it, daintily robed in grass, or uplifting waving acres of corn, or even naked, water-scarred, and disfigured by man's neglect, is very different from what it was in its earliest days. ”

“ The body of the animal is made up of the identical elements found in the plant, yet the growth of the plant is necessary to furnish food for animal life. The plant takes from the soil and from the air the simple chemical elements, and with these builds up the plant tissue which, in its turn, is the food of the animal.
The animal cannot feed directly from the soil and air; it requires the plant first to take the elements and to build them into tissue. From this tissue animals get their food for maintenance and growth. ”

“ What, then, is an ideal ration for a dairy cow? Before trying to answer this question the word ration needs to be explained. By ration is meant a sufficient quantity of food to support properly an animal for one day. If the animal is to have a proper ration, we must bear in mind what the animal needs in order to be best nourished. To get material for muscle, for blood, for milk, and for some other things, the animal needs, in the first place, food that contains protein. To keep warm and fat, the animal must, in the second place, have food containing carbohydrates and fats. ”

“ On some farms it is seldom that a case of disease is heard of; on others, stock are under treatment at all times. Where order prevails, where cleanliness is appreciated, where disease-producing conditions are never allowed to accumulate or even gain an introduction, health is the rule and disease the exception. When the latter appears, it is due to some outside influence that gave it admission.
The greatest mischief in handling farm stock comes from improper food, filthy or impure drinking water, bad ventilation of stables, overwork, or lack of exercise and poor sanitary conditions. ”

“ Here are two systems of crop-rotation as practiced at one or more agricultural experiment stations. Each furnishes an ideal plan for keeping up land.
In these rotations the cowpeas and clovers are nitrogen-gathering crops. They not only furnish hay but they enrich the soil. The wheat, corn, and cotton are money crops, but in addition they are cultivated crops; hence they improve the physical condition of the soil and give opportunity to kill weeds. The grasses and clovers are of course used for pasturage and hay. This is only a suggested rotation. Work out one that will meet your home need. ”

“ If the udder is good, superior in many respects, and shows great milk production, you can often afford to overlook other defects, especially if the result of accident.
In the case of horses, a disease or blemish due to accident may be overlooked, if the work to which the animal will be subjected does not interfere, let us say, for breeding purposes. The horse has good conformation, good quality, is healthy and very superior, but unfortunately a leg was broken. Shall she be rejected as a breeder? No heavy work will be required of her—she is wanted for colt raising. ”

“ An animal poorly fed cannot do so much work at the plow or on the road as one that receives all the food needed.
Both food and the force produced by it result from the activity of plants. By means of sunlight and moisture a sprouting seed, taking out of the air and soil different elements, grows into a plant. Then, just as the plant feeds on the air and soil to get its growth, so the animal feeds [Pg 291] on the plant, to get its growth. Hence, since our animals feed upon plants, we must find out what is in plants in order to know what animal food consists of. ”

“ The dark and impure blood, after returning to the heart, is sent to the lungs. It is, when collected from the body, just before being sent to the lungs dark, dull and loaded with worn-out matter. It must now be sent to the lungs, where it may be spread over the delicate thin walls of millions of vesicles, to be exposed to the air, which is inhaled by the acts of breathing. The blood gives off the broken-down material and carbonic acid gas very readily. It is both unpleasant and disagreeable, and the blood cells find it very unattractive. ”

“ If, for example, the richest land is planted every year in corn, and no stable or farmyard manure or other fertilizer returned to the soil, the land so treated will of course soon become too poor to grow any crop. If, on the other hand, clover or alfalfa or corn or cotton-seed meal is fed to stock, and the manure from the stock returned to the soil, the land will be kept rich. Hence those farmers who do not sell such raw products as cotton, corn, wheat, oats, and clover, but who market articles made from these raw products, find it easier to keep their land fertile. ”

“ The cell is the unit of growth. It is so with all forms of life—plant or animal, insect or bacterium. In the beginning the start is with a single cell, an egg, if you please. After fertilization has taken place, this single cell enlarges or grows. Many changes now occur, all rather rapidly, until the cell walls become too small, when it breaks apart and forms two cells just like the first used to be. This is known as cell division. As growth increases, the number of cells increases also—until in the end there are millions. ”

“ Would you not conclude that it is very poor farming to till deeply any crop after the roots have extended between the rows far enough to be cut by the plow or cultivator? In cultivating between corn rows, for example, if you find that you are disturbing fine roots, you may be sure that you are breaking off millions of root-hairs from each plant and hence are doing harm rather than 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 [6] health, disinfection is a splendid means for warding off disease. ”

“ Many farmers do not follow a system of farming that involves a change of crops. In some parts of the country the same fields are planted to corn or wheat or cotton year after year. This is not a good practice and sooner or later will wear out the soil completely, because the soil-elements that furnish the food of that constant crop are soon exhausted and good crop-production is no longer possible.
Why is crop-rotation so necessary? There are different kinds of plant food in the soil. If any one of these is used up, the soil of course loses its power to feed plants properly. ”

“ While our old theories and supposed information concerning the cause of hog cholera have been very much disturbed by newer work, it is important to remember that hog cholera is now just as much as before to be recognized as a distinctly infectious disease. It is important to remember also that this infection is absolutely necessary, or there can be no cholera no matter how susceptible animals may be. There can be no cholera without this primary and specific cause any more than there can be plants in our wheat fields without the previous presence of mustard seed. ”

“ If the fiber (the lint) only is removed from the land on which cotton is grown, cotton is the least exhaustive of the great crops grown in the United States. According to some recent experiments an average crop of cotton removes in the lint only 2.75 pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, lime, and magnesia per acre, while a crop of ten bushels of wheat per acre removes 32.36 pounds of the same elements of plant food. Inasmuch as this crop takes so little plant food from the soil, the cotton-farmer has no excuse for allowing his land to decrease in productiveness. ”

“ The spread of the disease does not occur through healthy animals coming in contact with animals having tetanus, but by inoculation. The germ of tetanus is present in the soil, manure and dust. It enters the body by way of wounds, especially punctured and bruised wounds. The injury may result from stepping on a nail, and the germs are planted in the deeper structures of the foot. Such a wound usually has poor drainage, the horn of the hoof closing the mouth or opening. Here the germs grow and produce a poisonous toxin that is said to be the most powerful produced by any bacteria. ”

“ Every one thinks he knows what an insect is. If, however, we are willing in this matter to make our notion agree with that of the people who have studied insects most and know them best, we must include among the true insects only such air-breathing animals as have six legs, no more, and have the body divided into three parts—head, thorax, and abdomen. ”

“ Diagnosis and Treatment of Disease
Some diseases are not difficult to diagnose. Those resulting from wounds or knocks are easily located, and their treatment readily outlined. Others, however, are not so easy. Something is observed as wrong, the animal acts strangely, does not take to its food, is fretful, stands or walks unnatural—what is the matter? The stockman must ascertain the trouble, and the quicker the better. ”

“ In selecting varieties it is well to choose those that grow straight up, those that are hardy, those that fruit early and abundantly, and those that hold their leaves. The variety selected for seed should also suit the land and the climate. [Pg 252]
The cowpea will grow in almost any soil. It thrives best and yields most bountifully on well-drained sandy loams. The plant also does well on clay soils. On light, sandy soils a fairly good crop may be made, but on such soils, wilt and root-knot are dangerous foes. A warm, moist, well-pulverized seed-bed should always be provided. ”

“ You remember that [28] all plant food first passes into a soluble state before it can enter the roots and be conveyed to the parts of the plants that require additional food for growth. In the case of plants the entrance is by means of the root hairs. In the case of the animal, entrance in the body is by means of the villi cells that line the intestines. From this we see that digestion is both an intricate and delicate process. Any loss of appetite, any disturbance of the digestion work, and any irregularity of the bowels bear decided results, one way or the other, to the rest of the system ”