134 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



excursion, I crossed the Lucia near its mouth, and I was surmised to observe 

 how easily our horses, although not used to swim, passed over a width of near 

 six Iiundrod yards. On mentioning this at iMontcvideo, I was told that a vessel 

 containing some mountebanks and their liorses being wrecked in the La Plata, 

 one liorse swam seven miles to Oic shore I la the course of the day I was amused 

 by the dexterity with which a Gaucho I'orced a restive horse to swim a river. 

 He stripped olf his clothes, and jumping on his back, rode into the water until it 

 was out of its depth ; then slipping oil' over the crupper, he caught hold of the 

 tail, and as often as the horse attempted to turn round, theman frigiuened it back 

 by splashing water in its face. As soon as the horse touched the bottom on the 

 other side, the man pulled himself on, and was firmly seated, bridle in hand, be- 

 fore the horse gained the bank. A naked man, on a naked horse, is a fine spec- 

 tacle ; I had no idea how the two animals suited each other. The tail of a 

 horse is a very useful appendage ; I have passed a river in a boat with four peo- 

 ple in it, which was ferried across in the same way as the Gaucho. If a man 

 and horse have to cross a broad river, the best way is for the man to catch hold 

 of the pommel or the mane, and help himself with the other arm." 



So much for what a horse can do in the way of swimming when the crisis 

 comes to " sink or swim." 



History presents no example of the efficiency and usefulness of the horse to 

 equal that which was realized by Cortez, among the greatest of warriors, as 

 related by Prescott, easily the first of American historians, and what is more, 

 an honest historian I for about the most detestable of all swindlers is he who 

 swindles on a point of history. 



But the power of the few horses landed with Cortez on the shores of Mexico 

 was truly magical, for it was much greater in a moral than in a physical sense. 



The native Mexicans had never before seen or heard of such a beast ; and un- 

 der the impression that man and horse were but one animal, each being part and 

 parcel of the other, they concluded it could be nothing less than the Devil incar- 

 nate, and did not wait, as did their descendants, for the charge of our gallant 

 May, but fled by thousands at the approach of a single platoon of cavalry. 



Do not all military annals abound in examples to show the overbearing cflect 

 of moral influences in war, and that every General should be, practically, a good 

 metaphysician ? If old " Rough and Ready " had possessed the means, at hand, 

 to take full advantage of the running start he got at Palo Alto, and the panic his 

 victory spread in the enemy's camp, he might then have overrun a good part of 

 Mexico. A Friend of the Horse. 



MACIITNERY — Savinc; kkfected by it in r.KTTiNTr out Ghain, as ascertained in 

 Germany. — Sowiiiij-inachinns nre only in use forrnpe, iiiul occasionally for turnips. Wlieii? 

 seed is abundniit and labor choap, the outlay for expensive macliines is not repaid, as is the 

 case where labor is dearer. This principle is farllier confinned by exjierinients that have 

 been made with the Scotch tliroslilng-inaclilne as moditled by M. Dombasle, in Alsace. For 

 small quantities tlie advaiilago of niachiacry is scarcely apparent; but machinery applied to 

 large quantities produces a great saving. E.vperiments made in Germany have shown that 

 ■where — 



The produce in Wheat costs to tbresli : 

 With the innchine. By hiind. 



If the production i.s ."ijOOO sheaves i':? tlorius. 135 iioriua. 



10,000 " 116 " 270 " 



20,000 " 103 •' r)4l " 



" 40,000 " 265 " 1,082 " 



Supposing the outlay for a tliresliing-uiacliiiie, of'l-hor.se power, to be £70, it is re'iinbiirsed 

 in one year in a farm producing 40,000 sheaves. A farm producing only .'jjOOO sheaves 

 would not admit of sutricienl saving to pay the interest on the luvesUueiit. 

 (278) 



