1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



727 



as they should have been, and you will have no 

 further trouble than to walk to your stable night 

 and morning and look in. As soon as you con- 

 vince him that this thing shall be done, he will do 

 it; for one kind of work is the same thing to the 

 slave as another — and he will do or not do this 

 or any other work ivell as the master permits him. 

 Of the different kinds of food used for horses, 

 my experience tells me, that what is generally in 

 this section of the country called "chopping," that 

 is, cut-straw and meal of any kind mixed together 

 is decidedly the cheapest, and best general food. 

 It is far preferable to corn and fodder in the usual 

 way. With the horse, as with all other animals, 

 an occasional change is of great service. Our 

 neighbors over the Blue Ridge, whose horses are 

 always tat, make their "chopping" of rye-straw 

 and rye-meal; but we, on this side, who adopt this 

 mode of leeding at all, do not much care what 

 kind of straw or meal we use. For the last three 

 months I have been feeding six horses on "ship- 

 stufF" and corn meal, (half and half) and cut 

 wheat straw — occasionally alternating with cut 

 shucks; and I find it, if not the best, certainly as 

 good, and cheaper than any other diet I have ever 

 used. By this method, when they are not at work 

 (when at work I give them corn and fodder at 12 

 o'clock,) my horses cost me a bushel of ship-stuff 

 and a bushel of corn-meal per head per month; 

 the straw 1 count as nothing. My ship-stuff cost 

 me two shillings per bushel. It is frequently 

 bought at 25 cents. I have not used one pound 

 of blade fodder, and calculate by the saving, to 

 pell fodder to twice the amount I paid for the ship- 

 stuff; and my horses are as fat, or fatter than I 

 ever had them in the winter. After clover comes 

 in, I use little or no fodder — but feed on green or 

 half-cured clover, and but little else; for a horse 

 will frequently leave untouched the corn in his 

 trough, if you fill up his rack with enough green 

 clover to keep him going all night. I cut the clo- 

 ver in the morning, and let it partially wilt in the 

 field till night, on which I feed at night and the 

 ensuing day. Were it not so amazingly conve- 

 nient to toss ten years of corn and a bundle of 

 fodder to a horse, I am sure I should never give 

 a grain of corn in the natural state as long as I 

 live. It is a heating, indifferent food — and conve- 

 nience and the dread of a very little trouble, I am 

 convinced, are the causes which induce the great 

 mass of farmers to persist in it — for whether we 

 consult economy, or the welfare of the horse, we 

 should certainly abandon it. I give my horses a 

 quart of meal and ship-stuff a head, mixed up in 

 half a bushel of cut-straw at a feed, in a square 

 box, made for the purpose, holding fifteen bushels. 

 I mix the corn-meal and ship-stuff together, and 

 at each mixing I crumble up three or four bundles 

 of lug tobacco and mix along with it. This an- 

 swers two valuable purposes: it neutralize? that 

 predisposition to costiveness, (and conseqently 

 colic) common to horses in the winter season, 

 and which prevents "cuffee" from robbing the 

 troughs, which, whether it be a part and parcel of 

 his very nature, or from a principle of lex talonis, 

 (to wrong the master because he considers him- 

 self wronged.) he will be sure to do, unless you 

 by some means prevent him, even though you 

 were to give him a bushel of meal and a ham of 

 bacon a day. 



The horse is a noble, generous, ill-used animal. 

 He ministers to man's pleasures and wants. In 

 peace or in war, for work or for fun, he is the same 

 docile, subservient, willing, obedient friend — and if, 

 Mr. Editor, these hasty lines, and imperfect de- 

 scription of what I have found to be an economi- 

 cal and healthful diet, can be of any service either 

 to the "gallant steed" or the "galled jade," he ia 

 welcome to the half hour I have devoted to it. 



From the Tennessee Fanner. 

 SUBSTITUTE FOR THE SPADE. 



I have discovered a much easier and more spee- 

 dy method of digging garden ground, than that 

 performed with the spade, which is merely to sub- 

 stitute in its stead, the common manurefork — one, 

 however, made square at top, for the foot to rest on, 

 would be better. Mine is a coarse 3 pronged fork, 

 the tines 8 inches long, £ inch wide, and £ inch 

 thick at the shoulder, and tapering to the point, 

 and 7 inches in breadth, bent as much as a com- 

 mon spade — the handle straight or nearly so, and 

 4^ feet long. The advantage in working is, that it is 

 easier forced into the ground than a spade, and 

 the upper end of the handle being thrown forward 

 to nearly arm's length, the fork descends perpen- 

 dicularly into the earth — then, instead of lifting 

 and turning, the process is rather rolling the lump 

 over by lever power, first breaking it loose, then 

 as the handle, with one hand near the end, and 

 the other about the middle descends, the arm rests 

 on the knee, and the forward hand becomes the 

 pivot of a second lever, of less power than the 

 first, and sufficient little forward motion, if the 

 ground is somewhat adhesive, to turn over almost 

 a cubic foot at once. If it inclines to turn back- 

 ward^ drawing the fork partly out, will generally 

 obviate that difficulty, but sometimes the old 

 method of lifting and turning must be resorted 

 to. 



Ground dug in fall or winter, I conclude should 

 be left rough, as presenting more surface to the 

 action of the frost and air, it is in better condition 

 in the spring than if made smooth, though finely 

 pulverized. 



Very respectfully yours, 



G. H. 



Dec. 12, 1835. 



From the Fanner and Gardner. 

 THE RIBBON GRASS AGAIN. 



A southern snbsciber writes us the following ac- 

 count of an experiment he has made since the 

 publication of our friend Robinson's essay on the 

 virtues of this grass, in transplanting it in a bog or 

 quagmire, the result of which is not only highly 

 satisfactory to himself, but is entirely corroborative 

 of the statement made by Mr. R. The attention 

 of gentlemen having unproductive marshes or 

 bogs on their estates, should be awakened to the 

 importance of the subject, and they should certain- 

 ly lose no time in following the example of our 

 correspondent, by carrying out the experiment of 

 Mr. Robinson: 



"This grass I have known ever since I was a 



