No. 5. 



Care of Horses. 



157 



winds. They should always be sheltered 

 and protected from rains and storms, and their 

 yard should lie on the south and east side of 

 the bams and sheds. Under these shelters 

 they always appear more comfortable than 

 when ranged in a stall where they are obliged 

 to lie down in their own filth, which otlen 

 J covers them with an unnatural and burthen- 

 j Bome coating of an inch in thicknoss. Good 

 I racks should be provided when cattle are fed 

 in yards, and not much of the fodder is 

 wasted. As we often keep young cattle on 

 the poorer kinds of hay, or straw, &c., they 

 are found to eat those better when at liberty 

 than when confined where their breath makes 

 foul any mess of fodder placed before them. 



MANURES OF WINTER. 



When cattle are tied up in stalls, the ma- 

 nure which fiills from them must be thrown 

 out daily. This is exposed to the freezing 

 y and the thawing of the winter season, and 

 - there can be no doubt it is much injured 

 in this way. We find that lumps of manure 

 that have been frozen and thawed a few times 

 are nearly destitute of perfume, and therefore 

 must have lost much of their virtue. Cattle, 

 left loose in a yard, on the other hand, tram- 

 ple down close all the manure among the 

 scattered litter, and it is not subject to such 

 exposure to the weather as that which is 

 thrown loosely out of the bam. Then in the 

 one case we catch all the liquid portion of 

 the manure, which is absorbed in the litter 

 and in the soil placed in the yard for that pur- 

 pose — in the other cajse we lose most of this 

 liquid, which is quite as valuable as the other 

 part of it 



LICE ON CATTLE. 



Some ingenious men have given directions 

 for building racks in such form as to keep the 

 hay seeds and the chaff out of the heads of 

 the animals. We call this book farming. Hay 

 seeds, or dust, or dirt, are excellent articles to 

 keep out lice from the heads and shoulders of 

 cattle. Animals of this kind are quite fond 

 of wallowing in sand banks, and goring gravel 

 pits in mock warfare ; and when they scratch 

 up the loose dirt with their fore feet, they 

 often lay it handsomely on their backs ! Hens 

 are famous wallowers in " dust and ashes," 

 which are now found far better remedies for 

 lice than for " sore biles." Fowls that are 

 kept on plank floors uniformly become lousy. 

 And they will soon bury themselves in dust, 

 on letting them out, when they can find a 

 convenient place. Instinct prompts these 

 animals — wonderful instinct ! — 



" Who taught the nations of the field and flood 

 To shun their poison and to choose their food." 



Cattle need no unguents — no tobacco steeps 

 to destroy their vermin. Dust should be 



sifted on them when they cannot obtain a sup- 

 ply for themselves. Racks, therefore, should 

 not be made to keep the dust out of their 

 heads. 



FOWLS. 



In winter these should be kept where they 

 can have constant access to food — to light, 

 dirt, and to lime. When a constant supply 

 of buckwheat is kept for them they will not 

 gormandize as when they have been kept 

 hungry. They will not eat so much as when 

 fed only twice in a week, and they will return 

 more eggs. Buckwheat is good food for them. 

 Boiled potatoes are good, as both these articles 

 contain lime, which is necessary for the 

 formation of the egg-shell. Fowls are often 

 so mischievous in summer, that many farmers 

 refiise to keep them. But there are times 

 when they may traverse the garden to very 

 great advantage. Without much training 

 they soon learn to follow close in the rear of 

 the ploughman, and pick up the worms now 

 just aroused from bed. With very little ex- 

 pense a yard may be made for them to be shut 

 in for one or two months in the year, and then 

 they can go at large without doing mischief. 

 W^hen attended to, they are valuable property, 

 and if we keep them in summer, we should 

 contrive to make them pay ui part for their 

 board in winter. 



Hiuts on the Care of Horses* 



There are a great many farmers who take 

 but poor care of their horses in the winter 

 season. In the short days they have water 

 before dark, and then have to go without un- 

 til nine qr ten o'clock the next morning, or if 

 they have water early in the morning, they 

 will not usually drink, as their time of thirst 

 is past. Horses seldom refuse water after 

 they have eaten their evening meal, though 

 if they do not have it then, they will usually 

 drink but little the next morning until after 

 eating. So if a horse will not drink early 

 in the morning, it is no indication that he has 

 not been thirsty the previous evening. 



We have been particular in our observations 

 on this point. We have turned a horse out 

 to drink at nine or ten o'clock in the evening, 

 and seldom knew him to fail of drinking 

 heartily. Then for experiment we omitted 

 to give him water in the evening and attended 

 to it in the morning before he was fed, and 

 he v.'otild seldom drink. If it be best for 

 anim.als to have free access to water at all 

 times, as is generally allowed, then they 

 ought surely to have a supply immediately 

 after eating, when they are usually thirsty ; 

 though the superficial observer who finds that 

 they will not drink early in the morning may 

 think that all has been well. 



There is not a man probably, who has not 



