HORSE, AGE OF. 



HORSE-HOE. 



spirited Yankee dealers do not furnish the 

 English market with such luxuries." 



HORSE, AGE OF. See AGES OF ANIMALS. 



HORSE-CHESTNUT. If, says a writer in 

 the American Farmer (vol. xiv.), the value of 

 this nut was more generally understood, it 

 would not be suffered to rot and perish without 

 being turned to any account, as at present. 

 The horse-chestnut contains a saponaceous 

 juice, very useful, not only in bleaching, but in 

 washing linens and other stuffs. The nuts must 

 be peeled and ground, and the meal of 20 of 

 them is sufficient for 10 quarts of water; and 

 either linens or woollens may be washed with 

 the infusion, without any other soap, as it ef- 

 fectually takes out spots of all kinds. The 

 clothes should, however, be afterwards rinsed 

 in spring water. 1 The same meal, steeped in 

 hot water and mixed with an equal quantity of 

 bran, makes a nutritious food for pigs and 

 poultry. See CHESTNUT, HOUSE. 



HORSE DEALERS. Persons whose busi- 

 ness it is to buy and sell horses. Each person 

 carrying on the business of a horse dealer is 

 required to keep a book, in which he shall 

 enter an account of the number of horses kept 

 by him for sale and for use, specifying the 

 duties to which the same are respectively 

 liable. This book is to be open at all reasonable 

 times to the inspection of the officers ; and a 

 true copy of the same is to be delivered quar- 

 terly to the assessor of the parish in which he 

 resides. Penalty for non-compliance, 50/. (43 

 Geo. 3, c. 161.) Horse dealers are assessed 

 if they carry on their business in the metropolis 

 25Z., and if elsewhere, 12/. 10s. per annum. 

 From the papers published by the Board of 

 Trade, it appears that the number of persons 

 of this class assessed in 1831, was 74 in the 

 metropolis, and 963 in other parts of the king- 

 dom. 



HORSE, DISEASES OF. See each dis- 

 order. 



HORSE-FLY or FOREST-FLY (Hippobosca 

 equina, Linn.). In England this fly lives chiefly 

 on horses, but sometimes also attacks horned 

 cattle and other mammalia. The male is 

 scarcely so large as the house-fly ; the female 

 is larger. The insect generally attaches itself 

 to the abdomen of the animal, which is least 

 covered with hair, particularly between the 

 hind legs. This fly has a singular movement: 

 it runs very quickly, but sideways like a crab: 

 it is covered with a hard crust ; and adheres 

 so firmly by its claws as to render it difficult 

 to take it off. As it torments the animals very 

 much, means of driving it away must be thought 

 of. Picking off by hand is too troublesome. 

 By the following remedy it may be got rid of in 

 24 hours' time: take of mineral earth eight 

 ounces; lard one pound, and make them into 

 a salve. Some of this salve is to be rubbed on 

 here and there upon the hair, and worked in 

 with a wisp of straw. After 24 hours the salve 

 is to be washed off with warm water, in which 

 brown soap has been dissolved. Care must be 

 taken for some days that the horse does not 

 catch cold. (Kollur on Insects, Miss London's 

 T/v, ..) See GAD-FLY. 



HORSE-HOE, THE. For this valuable im- 

 plement of agriculture, the farmer is indebted 

 644 



to the justly celebrated Jethro Tull. Previous 

 to his time, we search in vain in the works of 

 agricultural authors for the slightest allusion 

 to such an instrument. The production of the 

 horse-hoe, indeed, seems to have been almost 

 a natural consequence of the adoption of the 

 drill system, for which also the cultivator is 

 mainly indebted to Tull. He gave in his Hus- 

 bandry, more than a century since, an engraving 

 ol a horse-hoe of his own invention, which 

 resembles a common, rudely-shaped swing 

 plough, with the mould board omitted, and the 

 shares having a cutting edge turned up on its 

 landside. A variety of improvements were 

 gradually made in the construction of this im- 

 plement : I proceed to notice those which are 

 now considered to be the best. 



The advantages which these possess over 

 the hand-hoe are very fairly stated by the late 

 Mr. Francis Blakie : he remarks, " In many 

 cases the hand-hoe may be used to advantage, 

 and should then be so used. But generally 

 speaking, the hand is not so efficient as the 

 horse-hoe. Expedition is a most material point 

 in all processes of husbandry, carried on in a 

 variable and uncertain climate, and it fre- 

 quently happens, that hoeing, in any way, can 

 only be executed to advantage, in a very few 

 days in spring : hence the horse-hoe has a most 

 decided advantage over the hand-hoe, for a 

 man will only hoe about half an acre a day 

 with the latter, while, with the former, a man 

 and a boy, with one horse, will hoe eight or ten 

 acres a day, and that in a more effectual man 

 ner." (On Farm-yard Manure, p. 39.) 



Among the most approved implements of the 

 kind in England, are the following: 



Clarke's Universal Ridge Horse-hoe. This is a 

 very ingenious contrivance for carrying out 

 the several operations of ridge culture. It is 

 adapted for the uses of a double torn, a mould- 

 ing plough, a broad share or cleaning plough, 

 ai^i a horse-hoe. It is only as fitted for the 

 latter purpose that we have now to describe it: 

 its other forms will be given under the head 

 PLOUGH. 



To the frame of the plough is attached a 

 pointed share, which serves as a hoe for the 

 centre of the furrow : a movable frame is at- 

 tached to the beam, which is readily adjusted 

 to any given width: to this is attached, when 

 it is intended to hoe plants upon the ridge, the 

 stalks of two curved hoes; when used upon flat 

 work, the flat hoe should be substituted for the 

 curved or inverted hoe. This forms a very 

 perfect and simple horse-hoe. 



Jllakie's Inverted Horse-hoe. This excellent 

 hoe, which was the first that successfully hoed 

 between several rows of turnips at once, and 

 which led the way to the recent improvements 

 of Mr. Garrett, was intended to be attached to 

 a drill-carriage, or any light axletree, by the 

 draft-irons fixed to the handles. Blakie de- 

 scribed it pretty accurately when he said, " it 

 is adapted for cleaning between rows of plants, 

 growing at narrow intervals, within which it 

 may be worked with perfect safety when in 

 their infant state ; indeed the idea first struck 

 me on observing a large proportion of the 

 plants buried by the operation of the hoes 

 formerly in use." 



