112 FARMERS ASSISTANT. 



But there is a disorder of the feet of Horses, in which 

 they are also said to be foundered. This is a painful dis- 

 ease : The Horse affected with it draws himself up in a 

 heap, and is loth to" move. It is occasion* d by standing in 

 cold water, alter being heated with exercise ; or, some- 

 times, even by standing still in the stable several days, after 

 exercise ; sometimes by bad shoeing, or by bruises on the 

 legs. 



In this case, if a remedy be not speedily applied, a 

 gathering will take place in the feet, and the hoofs will 

 be cast off; by which the use of the Horse will be lost for 

 some time. The remedy is, to slit the hoofs open from top 

 to bottom, so that blood will follow pretty freely. In order 

 to cure these wounds again, apply tar, turpentine, and 

 honey, melted together, with a fourth part of the spirits 

 of wine. Let pledgets made ot tow be soaked in this, and 

 then laid in the chinks, and the foot bound up. These are 

 not to be opened for two days; and then let fresh applica- 

 tions be made every day, till the channels in the hofh be 

 grown up. 



It the sole of the foot is also drawn, it must be served 

 in a similar manner. A piece of leather should be laid 

 over the sole, and the whole foot so bound up with strong 

 bandages, that the applications may not be displaced. 



FREEZING. Every hard stiff soil, when thrown up in 

 ridges in the Fall, and mellowed by the frosts, receives 

 thereby an essential addition to its fertility. A Winter's 

 frost is not, however, always sufficient to mellow the largest 

 clods; those should, therefore, be broken in pieces in the 

 Fall, with the roller, in order to derive full benefit from the 

 frosts. 



A Farmer of Newjersey, some years since, trench- 

 ploughed an exhausted field of clayey soil in the Fall^; 

 cross-ploughed a part of it, and in that part broke th*e 

 lumps to pieces. In the Spring, the field was all ploughed 

 equally, and sown with barley and clover. The part on 

 which the most labor had thus been bestowed was in fine 

 order when sown, and yielded about thirty bushels an acre, 

 of barley : The other part was still in lumps, the frosts not 

 having been found sufficient to mellow them entirely, and 

 the product ot barley was only about twenty bushels an 

 acre. The same difference was afterwards observed in the 

 clover. 



But this field, with this stratum of crude earth thrown 

 uppermost, would have yielded little or nothing the next 

 Spring, and until mellowed and fertilized by Summer-suns, 

 had it not been mellowed and fertilized by Winter frosts. 



