1837} 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



109 



litrht soils. A siiiffle fliniier in Liiicoln.^liire, is 

 sail! to have <;eiiera!ly about GOO acres drt'ssed, 

 almost eniiroly wiili bone nia!iiirp, liiinishinir a 

 vast supply ol" Ibod lor c iltie, and oC corunion ma- 

 nure Kir other laud.-:, and is fittiiiir those on which 

 if is sown lor bearing the most luxuriant crops ol 

 wheat and barley. 



In Scotland, the use of bone manure is still 

 more, recent, but scarcely loss productive. In the 

 Lothians, in Berwickshire, and in fact every- 

 where, it is worlvinjT wonders. JJeinti so light and 

 easily transported, compared with any other kind 

 ol' manure, many a ruL''i£ed and hilly tract is It^rti- 

 lized by it, which must otherwise have remained 

 in a state of nature. To pulverize the bones, mills 

 are constructed in the vicinity of all the large 

 towns, and besides what their own markets lijrn- 

 ish, large quantities ol" bone dust ure imported by 

 the Scotch farmers. 



I am almost ashamed to offer your readers this 

 brief and meager sketch of the present state of 

 British agriculture; but neither time nor space, 

 will permit me to enlarge. There are limits, no 

 doubt, beyond which improvements in cultivating 

 the soil, cannot be carried. But there is no reason 

 to think, that these limits have yet been approach- 

 ed, even in the most productive districts of Eng- 

 land and Scotland — lor the science of agriculture 

 never advanced more rapidly than it has done 

 within the last few 3'ears ; or rather, I should say, 

 were I entitled to speak vvith any authority on the 

 subject, it seems to be almost in its infancy. Who 

 that looks at the astonishing improvements of the 

 last fifty years, both in the science and the art of 

 husbandry — who that recollects how lately the 

 potato, that most rich, nutritious and productive of 

 all our fiirinacious esculents has been brought 

 into general use, who that considers what inex- 

 haustible sources of nutrition and fertility and 

 wealth, the turnip and other green crops have so 

 recently become in Britain, will undertake to say, 

 that other vegetables, still more nutritious and ['re- 

 ductive, may not yet be introduced and brought 

 under general cultivation? Who can tell, what 

 new substances scientific and practical agricultu- 

 rists may yet find, possessing far higher fertilizing 

 vu-tues, than any now in u.'^e — or what combina- 

 tions and mixtures chemistry may fiirnish, so 

 cheap and so abundant, as to put a new aspect of 

 fertility upon lands already most productive? 

 Who, in looking an the best acre in all England, 

 would venture to say, that it can never, by any 

 possible improvements and discoveries, be made 

 more productive of human sustenance than it now 

 is? VVho knows, but that a hundred, or a thou- 

 sand years hence, it may yield four fold 7 Who, 

 in short, can even conjecture, what amazing unde- 

 veloped agricultural resources yet lie hidden in 

 lands, which have hitherto been regarded as 

 scarcely worth tilling at all? * * * 



From the Farmers' Magazine. 

 MANAGEMENT, &C. OF THE HORSE. 



Shoeing. 



Nature never intended that the foot ofthe horse 

 ehovild be bound with a rim of iron ; but as this 

 beautiful quadruped has been taken from his na- 

 tive wilds, reduced to subjection by man, com- 



pelled to receive education, and has become, in 

 liict, a semi-domestic; so, it niay be remarked, 

 that this change from the state of pristine nature 

 to an artificial system of existence, necessarily in- 

 troduced artificial accompaniments — iience, the 

 horse-shoe. 



fn some countries, where tlie horse is rendered 

 as domestic as possible, (us in Arabia lor instance) 

 shoes are not used ; but if these horses were 

 brought 10 this country, our hard |)aved roads would 

 render the shoe indispensable. Theref()re, since 

 shoes are absolutely requisite where the roads are 

 hard, the object of consideration is, to ascertain, 

 if possible, that fcirm of shoes best calculated for 

 the purpose, and the most correct mode of apply- 

 ing it to thefc^iot: — no very easy task, certainly. 

 Various alterations have at limes, been made in 

 the form ofthe shoe, which have been called im- 

 provements by tlie inventors, tind which have ac- 

 (luired strenuous advocates; whose utmost exer- 

 ! tions, however, were unable to support their 

 I evanescent pretensions ; they have been laid aside 

 I for the most part, ilnot altogether forgotten. Yet, 

 ; it must be admitted, that if the form of the shoe 

 t has experienced no very great or striking alteration 

 i of late years, the mode of applying it to the foot is 

 I much improved. 



I Without, therefore, entering into a detailed ac- 

 ^ count of the various alterations of the horse-shoe, 

 ! I shall notice the general princiriles of shoeing, 

 j leaving particular cases lo the reflection and good 

 j sense of the groom and the shoeing smith. 

 i I would lay it down as a general rule, in apply- 

 j ing the shoe, to pare the foot as little as possible, 

 ! from which, however, deviations must occur; — as 

 for instance, where tlie loot is deep and the sole 

 j hollow, the crust is generally thick and strong, and 

 j will, of course, allow of more paring than a broad 

 I thin foot. But no absolute rule can he laid down, 

 I as to how far this paring is to be carried; each 

 I foot should be treated according to its degree of 

 I strpngth, weakness, brittleness, &c. 



As in the action ofthe fiorse, the frog was in- 

 tended by nature to touch the ground, if it be dis- 

 abled by too much paring from doing this, if it 

 1 thus be deprived of its natural action, the tendon 

 becomes elongated, lameness perhaps produced, 

 and not iinfreqnenfly windgalls. 



The bars should not be scooped out, as is too 

 commonly the practice among smiihs; because, in 

 conjunction vvith the fiog, they are intended to keep 

 open and delend the hinder part of the foot. 



Diseases of the feet are frequently caused by 

 improper s^hoeing, as many of the modern smiths 

 treat all kinds of feet in the same manner, and 

 will frequently remove more from a weak-footed, 

 horse than nature can re-supply for some months,, 

 when lameness can scarcely fiiil to follow. If a 

 strong-footed horse, with a narrow and contracted 

 heel, be placed in the hands of one of these men, 

 under the pretence of giving the horse ease, the 

 bar is scooped out, the frog pared, and the sole 

 drawn as thin as possible: — a kind of treatment 

 calculated to produce lameness, or confirm it if' 

 previously contracted. 



Generally speaking, the .shoe should stand 



wider at the points of the heel than the foot itself; 



or, as the foot grows, the heel ofthe shoe becomes- 



j imbedded in ihe foot of the horse, which will be 



i likely to break the crust, produce lam.enes, or a 



1 corn. The foot should be kept short at the toe j 



