508 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



BAB MOZZIiE TO PREVENT CKIB- 

 BITINQ. 



Dr. Dadd believed crib-biting to be a habit 

 and not a disease. ISIr. Youatt says, although 

 some learned judges have asserted that crib- 

 biting is simply a trick or bad habit, it must 

 be regarded as unsoundness. In the new work 

 on "The Horse," from which we copy the an- 



nexed illustration, recently published by Por- 

 ter & Coates of Philadelphia, cribbing is as- 

 cribed to "a diseased condition of the stom- 

 ach, for which there has never yet been a cure 

 discovered, except on the principle of re- 

 straint." 



Various contrivances have been used to pre- 

 vent or "restrain" cribbing. In the weekly 

 FARMERfor Jan. 23, — Monthly, page 116, — we 

 gave a cut to illustrate an arrangement of the 

 stable for this purpose. A very common 

 method, says the author of "The Horse," is 

 to buckle a leather strap so tightly around the 

 neck, }\xbt behind the jaw, that when the horse 

 attempts to crib, he tightens the muscles of 

 that part, and these being pressed against the 

 strap, occasion such pain that the act is not 

 compl<:^tely carried out, and even if it is on the 

 first occasion, the attempt is not repeated. 

 The strap is buckled sufficiently light to do 

 this without much impeding the act of swallow- 

 ing, or the (low of the blood. Sometimes 

 prongs are inserted in the straps to make it 

 more t flFective. The manger is sometimes en- 

 tirely dit^pensed with and the animal is fed on 

 the floor or ground. "But by far the best 

 preventive," says "Stonehenge," (J. II. 

 Walsh) "in my opinion, is the bar muzzle, 

 consisiu\g in an iron frame- work, covering the 

 lips and nose, and suspended from the head 

 by a leather head collar, so that the lips can 



reach the corn or hay, but the teeth are tco 

 wide to pass through the bars and seize the 

 manger. This mechanical contrivan-e is en- 

 tirely harmless, and perfectly efftctual, the 

 sole objection to it being the fact that it pro- 

 claims the wearer to every one who looks into 

 the stable as a cribber. 1 his may be valid 

 reason for rejecting its use for dealers'" horses, 

 but in a gentleman's stable, utility and hu- 

 manity ought to have precedence of such a 

 feeble argument. When the bar muzzle is 

 adopted, it should always be kept on, except- 

 ing, of course, when the bridle replaces it for 

 work or exercise, or while the head is being 

 dressed." 



COOKINQ FEED. 

 After alluding to the fact that most Western 

 farmers who have tried conking feed for stock 

 praise the plan and then quit it, a correi?pon- 

 dent of the St. Louis Journal of Agriculture 

 says the reason probably is that farmers gen- 

 erally try to cook in a kettle, and great atten- 

 tion is necessary to prevent burning the bot- 

 tom. A steaming apparatus is too expensive. 

 He has tried s-teaming corn with a false bot- 

 tom, and it does not answer at all. He be- 

 lieves it may be done economically by the use 

 of Lot water, which he says contains sufficient 

 heat to cook anything place I in it, provided 

 this heat can be confined and not allowed to 

 escape. He continues : — 



Allow me to direct the experiments of your 

 readers this fall to one point: At the la^t Paris 

 (Krance) Ex^ o-ition, the Poor Man's Cooking 

 Stove, from Norway, arrested general attcntwn. 

 A vessel of any kind was enveloped by a eou'^id- 

 era^ile qu niily (f n n co:;dueiii!g malfrial, such 

 as felt, wool, &c. ; into this vessel was poured 

 scalding water, and the piei^e of meat to be cooked 

 plueed in the water. Tight woolen covers were 

 then plmed oi the vessel confimng the heat. Af- 

 ter the lai)se of a few hours the meat is taken out 

 thoroughly cooked. 



Lee us apply tlii-; principle to our farm economy. 

 Have a l.irge bux, i roperly prepared, strain ii-!ht. 

 Put it within anoh' r lariier box, with cut Mraw 

 and sawdu,-t lietweeii. There should be a non- 

 condueiirig subscanee, like saw-dust, not less than 

 twelve inthes thick, packed around the s>alding 

 box, including ttiei)Otton\ and tup. We ivdl scald 

 our h< g feed in this, c nfiuing the heat as directed. 

 The hot water may be eit)iiomiCMlly Lad, on the 

 plan first suggested, by placing a large boiler on an 

 exten>ion ci okirg stove. Thu> tenor tiltt-en gallons 

 may be heated three times a day, or a to" al of forty 

 gallons. We are trying this plan and like it. 



Thirty thousand acres of public lands were 

 disposed of to actual settlers during January, 

 in Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri and Wis- 

 consin. 



