210 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Jan. 23, 1829. 



railway is now contemplated, evea by tlio.se who 

 were most anxious that such improvement should 

 be a navigable canal. These operations or certain 

 compartments of them, may be expected ere long 

 to be carried into effect, as the benefits of the rail- 

 way system are every day more apparent. A 

 public railway is now completed between the 

 Forth and Clyde canal, and the extensive coal 

 field in the vicinity of Monk-land canal, near Air- 

 drie. (To be continued.) 



FOR THE NEW ENGUA.ND FARMER. 



Mr Fessendes — I take the liberty of transcrib- 

 ing the following, which I have not seen in the 

 Farmer. The first is invaluable, and should be 

 preserved or remembered by every farmer. 



" Hovtn in cattle. — As the distension is chiefly 

 occasioned by carbonic acid gas, any substance 

 which will combine with that gas will reduce it. 

 Such a substance is readily found in ammonia 

 (hartshorn) a spoonful of which, infused in water, 

 and forced down the animal'.'i throat, completely 

 removes the distension." Annahs de Chimie. So- 

 da and Potash will combine as readily with car- 

 bonic acid gas as ammonia ; and, therefore, if dis- 

 solved in water, may be eiBcaciously and safely 

 administered. 



Loudon's Magazine for August, mentions the 

 Establishment of two new agricultural schools on 

 the Continent ; one in France, by the Abbe du 

 Pratt, the other in Bavaria, by Baron Von Closin. 

 In the latter, to which is attached an experiment- 

 al farm of 400 acres, youths from 10 to 15 

 years of age, are taken and maintained, clothed, 

 and taught, for five years, for the value of their 

 labor, and 50 florins (about $22) entrance money. 

 The example of Fellenburgh is effecting wonders 

 in Europe. When shall we appreciate and profit 

 by it .' 



Potato Mortar. — M. Cadet de-Vaux, found mor- 

 tar of lime and sand, and also that made of clay, 

 greatly improved in durability, by mixing boiled 

 potatoes with it. — Bid. Un. 



Plants raised from seeds which have been 

 crossed, always bear the form of the mother, but 

 take the colors of the male parent. Fewer seeds 

 are produced by art than nature alone, and the 

 impregnated flowers are less visited by bees than 

 others. — Annates Hort. Soc. Paris. 



Hie Monsieur Pear, a new variety, found in 

 the woods, attracts much attention in France, on 

 account of its large size, beauty of appearance, 

 and excellent keeping qualities, remaining good 

 till after Easter. Messrs Bose and Vihnorin con- 

 sider this fruit to come very near, if not to be, the 

 pear St Lezin. — Id. 



Albany, Jan. 15, 1829. 



HORSES. 



The following remarks upon horses, are copied 

 from the publication of an eminent farrier in Eu- 

 rope ; anil we tliiuk them worth the perusal of 

 farmers generally. 



The pulse of a horse in health, is from 36 to 40 

 beats in a minute, and may be easily felt by press- 

 ing the finger gently upon the tem])oral artery, 

 which is situated about an inch and an halfback- 

 wards frojn the corner of the eye. 



Horses have not the faculty of puking, or even 

 belching wind out of their stomachs, and there- 

 fore are peculiarly subject to wind cholic. 



When a horse has been overridden, bloody 

 .spots may be seen in the whites of his eyes. 



A limber dock is sure evidence of a limber 

 back ; that is, a weak one. 



A horse that is hardy and good for business has 

 a short back bone, which terminates forward of 

 the hip bones. 



A decoction of white oak bark will kill botts by 

 tanning them, and they will become so shrivelled, 

 as scarcely to be discernable when discharged. 



The principal signs of a good horse are these — 

 the eyes set apart in the head, and large and 

 bright ; the quirl high in the forehead ; one or 

 two in the neck is a good sign ; the neck well set 

 on high ; the shoulder blailes pretty high, and 

 converging to a point ; the breast full and large, 

 and so also behind ; the body round, for flat bodi- 

 ed or slab sided horses are weak naturcd ; the 

 dock stiff", going wide behind, for if the gambols 

 knock together, it shows that the horse is feeble ; 

 chewing the bit when provoked is a good sign. — 

 It is a Spanish proverb, that the dapple grey will 

 sooner die than tire. — JV. Y. Gaz. 



Considerations on the processes employed by JVur- 

 serymen for obtaining better sorts of Fruits, and 

 on the means by which JVature appears to accom- 

 plish the same result. By M. Poiteatj. 

 The author observes, it is but rarely that im- 

 proved varieties of our cultivated fruits originate 

 with nurserymen ; they are generally the produc- 

 tion of chance, found in the woods or hedges, or 

 froqi distant corners of provinces, where the finer 

 sorts are hardly known, and where the sorts they 

 have are mismanaged or neglected. That " like 

 begets or produces like," has long been consider- 

 ed a law of nature among animals and some veg- 

 etables ; but this law is not always uniform, es- 

 pecially among domesticated animals or hic'l' 

 cultivated plants. Yet, on this principle, our""?" ( o'ei. 

 serymen have acted in their endeavors to obtrj^ejl^"^ 

 better kinds of fruit, by sowing seeds of the best, 

 in the ho[)e that they would raise something still 

 better. It is well known that in this process they 

 have failed. The celebrated Duhamcl and his 

 contemporaries failed in the same way. From 

 these and other instances, the author concludes 

 that practitioners are wrong in their expectations 

 of obtaining at once what can only be the result 

 of time. He seems to infer that seedling.s, apples 

 or pears, for example, require some years and 

 some cultivation, while they are passing from one 

 stage of their infancy to another, before they can 

 show their inherent (jualities. 



As proof of this conjecture, he instances the 

 case of the fruit trees in the United States of 

 America at this time. There, it appears, they 

 have little trouble in procuring superior fruits from 

 seed ; and, that they have many excellent new 

 kinds, their lists sufficiently testify. The cause of 

 this he conceives to be, that the first imported 

 fruits, which the colonists received from Europe 

 300 years ago, were, amidst the bustle of estab- 

 lishing and securing themselves in a new country, 

 lost, from neglect or ignorance of the art of graft- 

 ing ; and that they only had recourse to soeds for 

 perpetuating the kinds. These seedlings have 

 |)assed through several generations, and are now 

 arrived at that period of their existence in which 

 their inherent qualities ate fully developed. 



The Americans, M. Poitcau adds, attribute tljis 

 to another cause, namely, that in proportion as 

 their newly broken up lands are ameliorated by 

 cultivation, &c. so, in like proportion, are the 

 qualities of their fruit. It is a common saying in 

 Virginia, that the fruits of sucli or such an or- 



chard " begin to change fiir the^better." But this 

 can hardly be admitted ; for though such circum- 

 stance may improve the quality, it cannot change 

 the physical characters of fruit. 



After noticing the fact proved by Mr Knight, F. 

 H. S. that a crab, fecundated by the pollen of a 

 good fruit, produces better kinds from seed than 

 can be had from seeds of improved fruit, he pro- 

 ceeds to describe the method used by the Flemish 

 orcliardists to obtain new sorts, and which is giv- 

 en on the authority of M. Van Mons. The Bel- 

 gians, he says, do not prefer the seeds of amelio- 

 rated fruit. When the seedlings appear, they do 

 not, as others do, choose such only as are free 

 from spines, having large leaves, and remarkable 

 for the thickness and beauty of their wood ; but, 

 on the contrary, such as are most spinous, provid- 

 ed the spines are long, and well furnished with 

 buds or eyes placed near together. This last cir- 

 cumstance they consider as an indication that they 

 will soon show fruit. Individuals having such 

 properties are grafted, apples on paradise, and 

 pears on quince stocks, to hasten fructification.^ 

 The first fruits of these grafts are generally bad ; 

 but whatever they are the seeds are carefully 

 saved and sown. The second generation, treat- 

 ed in like manner, begins to show improvement. 

 Through a third and fourth the process is continu- 

 ed, till they arrive at a point which gives fruit 

 worthy of being preserved. Peaches and apri- 

 cots, treated in the same way, yield excellent 

 fruit the thiid generation ; apples require four or 

 five, and the pear about six, transitions. This 

 ])rocess, concludes M. Poiteau, is only an imitation 

 of that of nature, exemplified in America. — Aii- 

 nales Soc. de Hor. de Paris. 



RAILWAYS. 



By a gentleman just anived in this city, we aro 

 told, that in an interview with Mr Black, a member 

 of the legislature of Soutli Carolina on his way to 

 Charleston, the following information was conmiu- 

 nicated. A company had been incoqjorated for 

 constructing three rail roads. One of these was 

 to extend from Augusta to Charleston ; a second 

 from Columbia, and another from Orangeburg to 

 the same place. In two or three hours after the 

 books were opened, three hundred thousand dollars 

 were subscribed. No doubt ^vas entertained tliat 

 the whole stock would be immediately made up 

 with avidity, as it was considered the best in the 

 state. The cost of con.strnction was $3000 per 

 mile, and plenty of contractors were ready to en- 

 gage for the perfonriance of the work. The rail- 

 ways are to lie of wood, and the iron on which the 

 wheels are to nm is already obtained from England 

 at 862J a ton. Live oak, cypress, and long leafed 

 pine, are to fiirnish the sleepers. Wlien these rot, 

 they will take care to have provided stones from 

 the upper countiy, brought down upon the rail 

 road, to sid)stitiite in the place of the wood as it 

 decays. 



Mr B. said, that if the wood should last only 

 ten, or even five years, they should consider it of 

 little consequence, as they would thus have the 

 means of giving it permanency afterwards. * He 

 was one of the sfockhnldcrs, and had been to Eng- 

 land to obtain iMforination pei-sonally on the metl - 

 ods and advantages of intemal impro\'ement. A 

 model of a rail road had been prepared in the 

 neighborhood of Charleston, of about a mile per- 

 haps ill length, to put such a work to the test. 

 The load fin- a horse was found to be ten tons. 

 Five gentlemen had gone with him to visit this 



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