158 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



made but in dry weather, and when (he land is 

 ■dry ; as otherwise it is apt to be fbrnied into a 

 mortar, which is not easy of sohition. Lime ap- 

 plied in any form to the land, it is to be remeni- 

 ibered, is not an onricher of the soil ; and there- 

 fore, if lime alone should be applied lor a succes- 

 sion of years, and all putrescent or vcjietable nia- 

 nures be omitted, tiie land would be losing instead 

 ■of advancing in fertility. It is merely a preparer 

 or evolver of the food of plants. 



Gypsum has not been found of any apparent 

 value to wheat. 



Saltpetre. Another manure, never, we believe, 

 used in this country, from ibreign accounts de- 

 serves a trial. This is saltpetre. It has been 

 used at the rate of one cvvt. to the acre, finely pul- 

 verized, and sown broadcast upon the growing 

 'Crop; and its beneficial effects upon the plant are 

 staled to have been remarkable, especially in its 

 ■eflipcis upon the straw. It is to be used, however, 

 with caution, as not having been sufficiently tested. 



From the American Turf Register. 

 TAMIKG WILD HORSES. 



Having announced some months since, that the 

 •editor of the Turf Register had become possessed 

 of the secret for taming wild horses, some publi- 

 cation of the results of our experiments has been 

 of course expected, and we now proceed with a 

 statement of facts. We must premise, that there 

 is no man who detests quackery in all its forms, 

 or that abhors more thoroughly the witchery of 

 charms, then does the writer of this. It was this 

 contempt (or empiricism, that kept him for some 

 years from even listening to the reports of ' taming 

 wild horses' in a few minutes, by aid of some se- 

 cret means; and when the high respectability of 

 the reporters was forced upon him as a voucher 

 lor the correctness of the reports, the same feeling 

 compelled him to attribute those wonderful results, 

 to delusion, to the practice of which, respectable 

 men are as liable to become the dupes as any 

 others. At length, a report came from a source 

 which could not be doubted, either on the score of 

 respectability, or the supposition of delusion — the 

 reporter practised with his own hands, and wit- 

 nessed the results vviih his own senses, (see Turf 

 Register, vol. viii. page 261, 262, 263, and 500.*) 

 We then determined to obtain the arcanum and 

 try it ourselves. We have done so, and we are 

 convinced. We shall now state a few facts. 

 Having had no opportunity of course to try it on 

 wild horses, our experiments have been confined 

 to balky horses, and we have had but three 

 chances even with them, and they were acciden- 

 tally met with, and of course we were not duly 

 prepared. A friend was found in the street with 

 one of his carriage horses refusing to go. It was 

 an old trick of hers, (it was a mare,) and in a ride 

 of two miles, she had stopt several times, laid 

 down in the road, and acted the stubborn and sul- 

 ky brute in all its characters. When we found 

 him, our friend was stuffing the animal's ears 

 with soft paper; he had whipped the brute till he 

 was tired, the paper was speedily shaken out by 



See Farmers' Register, p. 481, vol. 5. 



the animal. We approached the mare, asked our 

 fi'iend to desist from further efforts, saying the 

 mare would go presently, at the same time apply- 

 ing the arcanum slightly, but not perceptibly to 

 any of the bystanders. In less than ten minutes, 

 I told my friend I thought she would go; he took 

 the reins, she went off" handsomely, travelled 

 seven or eight miles out, returned in the evening, 

 and exhibited no more signs of balking. VVe 

 have not heard whether the animal has balked 

 since; but should not be surprised if it did, as the 

 operation was very slight and imperfect, from our 

 not being properly prepared. The other two 

 cases were both alike precisely, at different times. 

 They were horses with heavy loads of wood on 

 carts at the foot of the long hill in Charles street. 

 VVe found the drivers whipping; and beating them 

 with the but-end of their whips over the head, 

 and the horses in a perfi^ct frenzy from fear. We 

 prevailed on the drivers to rest the horses, put up 

 the shafts, approached gently their heads, patted 

 them, and applied the acranum slightly, (being 

 unprepared.) In about five minutes the horses 

 were perfectly composed, and we then told the 

 drivers to take the reins, and start them, but not to 

 let the horses see the whip. They both started 

 handsomely, went up the hill to the top with per- 

 fect ease, and without the slightest symptom of a 

 balk. The crowd of negroes standing around 

 were greatly surprised, and expressed their feel- 

 ings in loud tones. Now, in relation to all of 

 these cases, it may be said, that the change of 

 treatment from an extremely severe, to a mild and 

 conciliatory course, would naturally produce the 

 same result, and therefore, we are not left to the 

 necessity of attributing it to a cause so mysterious 

 as the pretended arcanum. We confess these 

 were precisely our own reflections almost reduced 

 to conclusions, until we had an opportunity of ap- 

 plying the same treatment without the arcanum, 

 which had no effect whatever; and before we 

 could return and supply ourselves with the reme- 

 dy, the horse had been taken out and sent away. 

 But a gentleman on the Eastern Shore of Mary- 

 land, has made four experiments with it, much 

 more satisfiiclory and important than our own. 

 We shall give the description of them in his own 

 words, premising that there is no gentleman in 

 our state who stands higher in the estimation of 

 good men than he does. 



Ist Experiment. — '• I have a horse that had 

 stopt at a particular hill two or three times. In 

 every other respect, pert'ectlj' gentle and kind. 

 When I got to the hill the horse halted, I got out, 

 applied the arcanum, gave him the word, and he 

 moved off' instantly. It appeared to me, that he 

 went with more spirit afterwards than usual."* 



2d Experiment. — " My next experiment was on 

 a bull. It was for the most part satisfiictory. We 

 had to throw a rope around his horns and draw 

 him up forcibly to a post and secure him. For 

 some time pending the operation, he made the 

 most violent eflbris at intervals to break loose, but 

 in vain. 1 discovered that he was pinched se- 

 verely by the rope about his head, and on reliev- 

 ing him from the pressure, he soon yielded to the 

 influence of the arcanum. A yoke and bow were 



♦ This horse balked afterwards with another per- 

 son. The remedy has not yet been tried on him tho- 

 roughly. 



