SOLON ROBINSON, 1840 123 



small ditch or bank on the upper side, keeps the water 

 from the bank inside, which, well covered with straw, 

 makes an excellent floor. Such a stable will last with 

 slight repairs, three or four years; and yet how many 

 expose their whole stock, winter after winter, by the 

 side of a stack on the open prairie, where the north-west 

 wind sometimes blows almost hard enough to take their 

 hides from their backs, were it not for the natural ad- 

 hesiveness between "skin and bone." Others make vast 

 improvement upon such "tender mercy," and shut them 

 up in a "log stable without chinking or daubing," with 

 two rails crosswise for a door, and through which the 

 wind whistles loud enough to break the heart of a man 

 possessed of a tithe of the kind feelings of "L. A. M." 

 Here, fed upon a scanty allowance of prairie hay, (which, 

 by-the-bye, is good or bad, as it is cut and cured,) the 

 poor creatures drag out a miserable existence. And, do 

 you inquire, do they live ? Yes, sometimes : for nature, 

 more provident than their cruel masters, provides them 

 with a coat of hair, that would do honor to "Nick Brad- 

 shaw's wooly horse." In the spring, the cows bring 

 forth a poor "runt of a calf" — the owner curses the bad 

 breed of bulls, and the wife wonders why her cows don't 

 give milk like some of her neighbors. The sheep, like 

 the cattle, shed their winter coat, and without the trouble 

 of shearing; furnishing, however, a rare opportunity 

 for the exercise of industry to the "wool gatherers." 



Can a man be a good man, who so treats his domestic 

 animals? I fear such treatment is not confined to this 

 country. If agricultural schools are ever established, I 

 hope one of the first principles taught, will be that "a 

 merciful man is merciful to his beast." 



But enough of cheap stables, sheds, &c. Now, about 

 Cheap Gates. I write for the poor — the new beginner. 



I have some two dozen gates on my place, and not a 

 scrap of iron, except the nails, about them. I can make 

 and hang one, cheaper than I can made a set of bars. In 

 fact, I would not have the latter on my farm. 



