It may seem strange for a farmer to print 'testimonials', as though he were a patent medicine manufacturer, but because of the unusual nature of my methods of treatment, I quote a series of entirely unsolicited letters as examples of the way my methods have succeeded for others. Unlike a manufacturer selling a pennyworth of chemicals with threepenny worth of bottle and several shillings' worth of stamp duty, purchase tax, advertising and profit, I can have no financial interest in people feeding or growing their own wild garlic. These cases are selected from many, to show the diseases with which others have succeeded and that the success of my herbal methods does not depend on my eye for judging curable cattle, my soil, my climate, or even any special skill or magic touch with which I may have been blessed.
MAJOR J. A. R. WISE, Trevarren Farm, St. Columb, Cornwall:
I have cured two cases of mastitis with the greatest of ease by your methods; and one cow who has repeatedly returned to service, held the first time after undergoing five days of your treatment. Since giving up feeding cake the vaginitis trouble in my herd has disappeared....
MR. A. J. HOLLINHURST, Barns Fold Farm, Goosnargh, Preston, Lanes.:
I write to tell you of our success with your treatment. Our first success was with navel ill. The calf at birth seemed to be quite normal but after a few days began to look a bit seedy, hair standing up, and stiff movements. We thought the stiffness may have been hereditary as her dam is a rheumaticky sort of animal, though quite old, perhaps about 14 years.
On feeling at the navel it was slightly swollen and wet with a mattery sort of discharge. We informed the vet., and he came and examined the navel, and regarded it as a bad case of navel ill. He prescribed hot-water fomentations and M. & B.s. We carried out his instructions but the discharge continued although not as severe, and then it seemed to heal although still rather swollen.
After another day or so we noticed an inclination of the calf to frequent urination, but found it was not water but matter. We informed the vet. and he came again and left a further dose of M. & B.s, but said that it was no good really as the bladder and kidneys must be in a bad way, and suggested getting rid of the unfortunate animal.
By this time we had in our possession your book, Cure Your Own Cattle and decided to give your methods a trial. We had decided to do so earlier than this but were waiting for delivery of garlic tablets and seaweed powder. But they arrived on the day the vet. gave up the possibility of a cure.
We disregarded the box of M. & B.s and promptly fasted the calf, following word for word your instructions for this disease, with water and honey and seaweed powder and garlic tablets. The noise the calf made during the fasting period was rather a trial as we seemed to be guilty of starving the poor thing to death. But on the contrary. It gained strength and the discharge ceased, and the swelling at the navel also disappeared. We gradually introduced a normal ration of milk again, and the calf became well and strong again and is now just over 12 months old, and out on some hill land about 800 feet above sea-level and is very fit.
Later we cured a cow of slow fever, after orthodox treatment by the vet. had failed, and we did not hesitate to write for the necessary herbs, and again carefully followed your book as to treatment, and afterwards turned her out to grass. We have since parted with this cow but not through slow fever, but an injury to a teat causing trouble and making my wife extra work milking her by hand whilst I was in hospital.
Since the first cure of the calf we have used less provender than we used to and have found no cases of mastitis from which we always had some trouble.
MR. C. A. M. WEST, Ardleigh Park Farm and Gardens, Colchester, Essex:
We bought a darned good near-pedigree Jersey in calf and she threw the calf on time without any trouble. This cow was intended for a house cow. We hope slowly to establish a Jersey herd. I kept the calf on its dam for eight days and it was right as rain. Then I put it on three pail feeds a day. I know that there is no substitute for a nurse cow but fixed as we are we just couldn't accommodate one at the moment. Otherwise, the calf was well cared for. I am pushed with work and had to cut out the midday feed after about ten days, giving about 9 lb. of milk in two feeds. After another few days the calf suddenly refused its evening feed and was very dopey with two degrees of temperature. I had to call an orthodox vet. He advised and gave M. & B. powder. I didn't like this but what could I do? I was worried about continuing to give milk, even watered milk as per the vet.'s instructions, as watered milk I have found often intensifies the binding. The M. & B. did, of course, reduce the temperature and the vet. advised three doses per diem until the bowels moved. I took the case in my own hands and in all the calf only got two doses of M. & B. I then fed it on mild barley water and gave it mild herbal laxatives and got the bowels going again, and for a few days it was almost normal. The vet. came again and advised a milk diet. I put the little beast back on watered milk and it developed serious staggers, throwing back its head and collapsing, then becoming quite normal. I had been looking out for the staggers, knowing the effect of an inflamed stomach on the brain. The vet. gave a sedative which decreased the intensity of the staggers but nothing was done to try to get the calf well. The form of staggers changed after two days and the calf couldn't use the front legs properly and went into 'reverse', exhibiting a spastic type of derangement. After that I had had enough of vets, and called up you. The honey and water helped at once, probably easing the stomach, and I got the slippery elm and the calf seemed to turn the corner, the slippery elm obviously having a very soothing effect on the stomach. Then came your valuable herbs. There was an immediate effect for the better after the first dose of garlic, and the nervine eased the spasms of the front legs but the temperature was obviously sub-normal, after all the mucking about. I have continued using the garlic and rhubarb tablets, the latter every three days, just to keep the bowels moving. I have now reached the stage when I am finished off with slippery elm and going back again to three small feeds per day of milk, and the calf is well.
MR. T. T. STAMM, Little Boarzell, Hurst Green, Sussex:
May I introduce myself by saying that I am a surgeon and a farmer. . . . I want to thank you for a good turn you have done me! One of my best cows failed repeatedly to hold to service. The Wellcome Research laboratories had her at their establishment for many weeks with no effect. After being dry for a year we tried your method of treatment. On the second service afterwards she held and is now safely in calf—so very many thanks!
Extract from letter from MR. T. G. RICHARDS, Quoit Gate, Brad-worthy, Holsworthy, Devon:
. . . In a large milking herd such as the Ayrshire herd I managed in Gloucester unless very close attention is paid to regular inspection of the cows, illnesses get out of hand before being discovered and then need more rigorous treatment. But by following your treatment with fasting and garlic by eighteen months after taking over I think I can honestly claim that mastitis had become a rarity, and provided it was treated along natural lines as soon as it appeared any slight loss of milk as a result of a fast was generally offset by the obvious improvement in the animal's condition and quite often subsequently increased milk output. If after the four days' fast there appeared to be no improvement, a warm water enema using garlic was given daily, and on the few occasions such drastic treatment was necessary it always did the trick. Garlic is given twice daily.
I find a twenty-four-hour fast with only water has a wonderful effect upon the animal. It also has a marvellous effect on an animal that is ailing or is disinterested in its food, and with garlic it is usually enough to cure an early attack of mastitis.
In a large commercial herd the value of such simple and effective treatment is great if one considers the fact that there are no vet.'s fees and no serums injected, and the subsequent increased good health of the animal.
I had one case which was first treated along orthodox lines without success. She was the highest yielder in the herd with a lactation of 16,311 lb. in 322 days, and tore one of her teats on barbed wire. It was sewn up—thirteen stitches—and she continued to milk well. She finished the lactation in which the accident occurred with 14,066 lb. at 3.66 per cent in 304 days. She calved her sixth calf and gave 5,803 lb. in 123 days. Mastitis developed very suddenly—too suddenly for my liking and a conference was held as to whether my methods or the vet.'s should be used. As the whole herd was to be sold in about six weeks it was decided that the vet. should treat her. Penicillin was injected —but it made no difference to the quarter—it remained looking and feeling like a football and emitting a most noxious smell. The vet. washed his hands of her and the quarter was written off as useless.
I took her into a loose-box and then started treatment along natural lines but with the dice already heavily loaded against me. All food was stopped immediately, she was dosed with molasses and garlic and given cold water treatment on the affected quarter. Every three hours the quarter was stripped out and massaged for about ten minutes. For two weeks she was without any solid food and the above treatment carried out (or so I thought). As a result of the sale there was an end-of-the-term feeling about the farm and my treatment was not always faithfully and regularly carried out, but the swelling had almost completely disappeared by the day of the sale. There was, however, still a continuous suppuration of a pretty foul-smelling liquid.
She was sold for £10 and heading for the knacker's yard when I bought her for £25. Just prior to calving at the end of February 1951, and just after calving, she had two very slight attacks of mastitis and was subjected to two three-day fasts on garlic. As a result of this natural treatment she has now been able in her last lactation with me to produce never less than 5 gallons a day in forty weeks on grass alone.
STANLEY J. WILLIAMS, Glan-y-Mor Farms, Bow Street, Cardiganshire:
We have had many complete cures of mastitis, some of the worst type, and only three failures which were to be expected. Two of these were because it started before the animal calved and it had become too far gone by the time we spotted it. All four quarters were affected and the hardness, etc., was taken to be bagging up to calve. The third case was summer mastitis which was allowed to get too big a hold and in fact the animal itself nearly died. We called in our veterinary surgeon to give us a picture of her clinical condition and his report was that he held little hope of the animal being alive by morning. We saved the animal at the expense of one quarter. We have been free now of the virulent mastitis for two years. We find now that the cows only have an occasional very mild attack (like a minor cold in a human) that one day's treatment puts right.
We have had marked success with the treatment of sterility, though I will confess that unless the animal is very valuable I find it less trouble and as economical to sell an animal, that is difficult to get in calf, as a barren. At the moment, of course, they sell as well empty as in calf. The method here is essentially the same as your treatment. Complete starvation for seven days but water given on the third day. In addition the anal and vaginal passages were syringed out twice a day with luke-warm water only. We find that by the second and third day of fasting the faeces evacuated tends to become very hard and the warm water syringing is extended. The animal's fast is broken very gradually on the eighth day with nothing but green food. No concentrates are given and no attempt should be made to fatten up the animal. One of our animals so treated calved last November, and will easily and with no forcing complete 1,000 gallons this lactation.
Another disease which causes us more loss of milk than any is foul foot or 'gibby'. This, like the other diseases, is elimination of waste matter and possibly it occurs in the hoof due to the excessive wetness in winter. The first symptoms are lameness, and inflammation of the hoof and ankle, which finally bursts in between the claws or at the top of the hoof. We have tried many different treatments, but all require three or four days and though no doubt the cow would benefit greatly from a twenty-four or forty-eight-hour fast we don't find it essential. The easiest method is hosing the foot with cold water four times a day, i.e. when the animal comes into the shed in the morning, and then after milking, then in the afternoon before milking and after milking before turning out. We have tried hot bran poultices, hot Kaolin, plain hot water. But all these are far more laborious and no whit more effective than ordinary cold water from a hose pipe.
The numerous cuts, abrasions and gashes caused by horning, all these are cured with us by turning on the cold water hose. When we first started our old cowman was a scoffer. Now he always goes for it on all occasions and he points to the hose-pipe and says: 'Best vet.—that!'
MR. MARK FITZROY, Lower Oak Farm, Okehampton, Devon:
You will be glad to hear that the cow we fasted and treated according to your advice has calved down all right with no sign of mastitis in the milk.
MR. RUSSELL BAILEY, Croft House, Chapelthorpe, Nr. Wakefield:
I am glad to be able to tell you that we have been exceedingly free from mastitis, and have had no case of sterility. I certainly attribute that to the way in which the animals have been fed and treated.
About three months ago, we did have one bad case of mastitis which was not noticed until it had become acute, because it happened during our very difficult harvest when the milking was not as closely supervised as usual. However, immediately my son discovered the position, we followed out the instructions contained in your booklet to the letter.
Later—Mr. Bailey wrote:
I have completely cured the Ayrshire cow of mastitis by following the instructions in your books. I am an engineer and not a farmer, but I fasted her for four days and even bought a syringe and gave her enemas, and of course garlic. My old farm man was certain I should kill the cow. Now he thinks I am a magician!
R. V. LING, Oak Farm, Danehill, Sussex:
I am grateful to you for advice on the treatment of scour in calves.
A two-week-old Jersey calf born on the farm developed white scour, apparently infected by a calf which had just been bought and was scouring. A patent remedy and a vet.'s prescription were tried in turn but after about ten days there was no improvement and the trouble had affected two more calves in spite of isolation. No alteration in feeding had been made as all calves were suckling naturally.
I then had your advice and the following day kept the Jersey calf entirely off food for twenty-four hours; the second day she was given three feeds of not more than five minutes each and by the end of that day evacuation was completely normal. The other three calves were given the same treatment and cured; there was no recurrence.
Some months ago I lost a good Jersey calf through white scour and previous experience had left me very dissatisfied with orthodox treatment. Apart from scientific justification there is the same sense of rightness about your method as there is about organic methods of maintaining soil fertility; and both cases pass the crucial test—they work.
MR. L. C. ABRAHAMS, Woodlands Farm, Headley, Nr. Newbury:
You may remember that I phoned you about ten days before Xmas to ask you about your treatment of Johne's disease outlined in Fertility Farming. In this case the vet. advised slaughter.
The animal affected was a home-bred Guernsey heifer of about eighteen months, and this was the second case on the farm, the other being in an old Jersey, occurring in January 1950 after I had had her about six months.
I carried out your course of treatment, and told my vet. I was doing so; he was professionally dismayed but in order, as he said, 'to encourage such an experiment', he offered to have the dung samples tested and cultures prepared from them free of charge.
I am glad to be able to tell you that he rang me this morning to say that the report had just come in saying that they could find no trace of the disease.
Needless to say, to us, seeing this animal from day to day and noting her very obvious improvement once she came on to food again this was not unexpected. She looks twice the animal she did.
Please accept my thanks for your help, both verbal and written. If you are ever in these parts and care to call we should be very glad to see you.
Yours gratefully . . .
MR. A. E. K. CULL, Llwyndu Court, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.
I feel I must write and tell you about 'Rose'. You will remember that she was an old cow about 12 or 13 years old, and that we had for a year or so continuously failed to get her in calf. A leading veterinary consultant and sterility specialist recommended having her put down.
Mr. Bennett then asked you to come and see her and you told us acout your treatment. We carried this out twice and about a month ago she had a bull calf. She seems to be doing well now. I thought I must write and give you our most grateful thanks.