1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



32? 



For the New England Farmer. 



BARBARITY ON HORSES—PRICKING, 

 DOCKING, &c. 



Dear Sir: — In your paper of May 15th, I 

 read an article in which the writer denounces the 

 popular barbarisms, docking and nicking, and 

 asks, "Why this passion for chopping oif tails ?" 



I endorse the sentiments of "P.," and agree 

 ■with him in the opinion that "decency forbids 

 such mutilation." The passion for nicking and 

 docking probably originated with some vain and 

 officious individual, who had an impression that 

 he could make some improvements on nature's 

 handiwork ; in process of time the barbarous fol- 

 ly became quite fashionable, and now it is no un- 

 common thing to see, in some of our city stables, 

 as many as five, sometimes a dozen, horses with 

 their tails in the pullies, for the purpose of giv- 

 ing them the latest style of curve or elevation, to 

 suit the morbid fancy of the horse-dealer. If pur- 

 chasers did but know, how very painful such op- 

 erations are to the horse, I feel assured they would 

 set their faces against them at once. In the course 

 of my practice I have always refused to perform 

 such cruel and unnecessary operations, and if 

 my veterinary brethren would adopt a similar 

 course, and at the same time try to convince the 

 community that such operations are entirely un- 

 necessary, the barbarism would soon cease. 



These unnecessary operations were once as 

 popular in England, as they are here at the pres- 

 ent period, but the English people have at last 

 realized the enormity of torturing uncomplaining 

 animals in this barbarous way, and I feel assured 

 that American horsemen have no desire to be 

 considered less humane than those of the mother 

 country, hence we may reasonably expect that 

 the time is not far distant, when such cruel oper- 

 ations will cease. 



A very philanthropic man, and eminent sur- 

 geon, (Mr. Blain,) in his work on the horse, thus 

 alludes to the popular follies of nicking and 

 docking : — "We are happy to state that this fil- 

 thy and unnecessary operation is now discarded. 

 It never consisted of more than the cutting off a 

 portion of the tail with brute force, and the cruel 

 application afterwards of a hot iron to the ar- 

 teries of the tail. 



Nickiiig. — We should be grateful that this bar- 

 barous and dangerous process is no longer num- 

 bered among the necessary operations. It is so 

 beset with accidents which no skill or prudence 

 can prevent, that no one ought to mutilate a horse 

 by nicking." 



Boston, May 19, 1858. G. H. Dadd, V. S. 



EAGLE MOWER AND REAPER. 



The season of Haymaking will soon be upon 

 the farmer. Is he prepared for it ? We have 

 just been looking at the new "Eagle Mower and 

 Reaper," and thought many of our friends who 

 cut hay for ten head of cattle and upward, ought 

 to look at it too. It is certainly a model of good 

 work, — is light, yet strong, executes rapidly, but 

 with little draft, travels on its own wheels from 

 field to field, — has no gearing to jar its motions, 

 and can be stopt and started in the grass with- 



out any backing. This is the machine that took 

 the one thousand dollar premium offiered by the 

 Massachusetts Society in 1856. It v/as tried with 

 other machines a week or two since in a field of 

 "old fog," or old grass, and went through it, with 

 great facility and ease, while other machines tried 

 with it all clogged more or less, — so a friend who 

 witnessed the operation informed us. We have 

 not yet seen it in motion, and only desire now 

 to call the attention of our friends to it before the 

 hay season comes on. 



FRUIT— ITS BENEFITS. 



After some months of reflection, I am still in 

 favor of "strawberries and cream." I respect Dr. 

 Franklin — I suppose he was a good man — not 

 pious, but patriotic. Patriotism is only a seg- 

 ment of piety, but it is about all the good there 

 is in our "great men" Franklin had something 

 to do with lightning. 1 never exactly found out 

 what, but his relationship in that quarter has ev- 

 idently made women and children, and even men, 

 contemplate him with awe. A sort of philosoph- 

 ical wizard, he is the right kind of man to "head 

 off" poor scribblers. Accordingly a liural cor- 

 respondent arrays the doctor against me. He 

 quotes him, not exactly against my friends the 

 Bartletts and Antwerps, nor yet against eating 

 in general, but against talking of our food, and 

 smacking our lips with too evident relish. Now, 

 I confess to a hearty dislike of sensualism — in 

 fact I was pleased with what the doctor said. I 

 believe in raising our thoughts above the things 

 of earth, but I submit it to the philosophers of 

 this generation, whether our thoughts and asso- 

 ciations would not savor more of Heaven while 

 partaking of Newton Pippins, Seckels and Hov- 

 ey's Seedlings, than when munching crab-apples 

 and Rohan potatoes. 



I believe no man can deliberately set about 

 getting up a good assortment of fruit, without 

 being a better man. I will guarantee that an in- 

 ventory of scoundrels will include but few zeal- 

 ous fruit-growers. A man seldom plants a tree 

 without thinking of his friends, and the good 

 cheer he can give them. He means to send a 

 basket of pears to the minister, and give the 

 widow lady over the way all the peaches she can 

 use; he aint the kind of man that is unwilling to 

 move till he can get a warranty that all the bene- 

 fit shall accrue to himself. He goes for posterity 

 and patriotism. 



How much the general use of fruit, as every- 

 day diet, will do to bring about the millennium, I 

 cannot exactly tell ; but I do know that there is 

 no use in our trying to be wiser than God. Break 

 one link in the divine economy, and the universe 

 is enfeebled in all its parts ; the divine arrange- 

 ment evidently is that fruit shall form a large 

 part of our diet. "Of every tree of the garden 

 thou mayest freely eat," 8zc., implies a variety of 

 fruit and the use of it. The exquisite flavor of 

 our best varieties is nothing more nor less than 

 their adaptation to our natures and necessities. 

 Fruit is suited to our palate, as the shell is suit- 

 ed to the oyster, or the air to the lungs. Men 

 may like tobacco, but it is only in their fallen 

 state, in the very lowest stages of manhood, when 



