178 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMEK, 



Dec. 21, 1831. 



ireiice witli wliicli men speak in rases where 

 certainly iliey ii.ive no riglit tube cimfiilent, Iciuls 

 tlic too credulous anil iiiexpeiienceil into lalsK ex- 

 pectations and pcrnicions niistal<i's. I liavo iny- 

 gelf been often disappointed by such confident 

 niisslatenienis, and have loni; since heroine so per- 

 ftclly skeplital in regaid to all such accounts as 

 to rejard them, let them come iV'^m what quaiter 

 they will, with no attention, utiless they are detaile<l 

 in so exact a form that their authors a e willing 

 to make oath to them. Tiiey are hut too often of 

 a character to remind us of the testimony of a 

 witness, given on the stand, who being asked how 

 large was the stone with which he saw the defen- 

 dant strike the plaintiff, after vnrions attempts to 

 describe it, ' guessed that it was about as big as a 

 piece of chalk.' H. C. 



WATERING FRUIT TREES WITH SOAP 

 SUDS. 



Ma Fessenden — If the following facts are 

 ■worth publishing in your valuable paper, the 

 whole or any part of them are at your disposal. 

 In the spring of 1828, I purchased (as I suppos- 

 ed) a number of English cherry trees, which 

 were in 1830 pronounced by good judges to be 

 Mazzards. As the trees l)ad been set out two 

 years I felt unwilling to cut them down. In August 

 I had them inomilated. Seeing a statement I 

 think in the New Englainl Farmer, about that 

 tiflie, or previous, that soap suds was valuable for 

 watering fruit trees, I accordingly began by wa- 

 tering one of my cherry trees. I found in a few 

 weeks the buds, which had been put into the tree 

 began to grow, and continued to grow until the 

 frost came ; while the buds in my other trees re- 

 mained as they Were. I began last spring to water 

 the remainder of my cherry, trees, which I continued 

 to do through the summer. I have l)een well paiil 

 for fifteen minutes enih week, thus eniployeil. My 

 trees have grown more the sumimr |>ast than they 

 have for three summers before, anil now each tree 

 has six branches, from three to five and a half 

 feet in length, besides many side branches; all 

 growing frumwhtit were last spring mere buils. I 

 am satisfied that trees watered weekly with siid.s, 

 or sink water, may be brought to maturity in half 

 the time tliat usually occurs. 



A Constant Reader 



fltanchester, CI. Dtc. 15, 1831. 



NEW THEORY OF BOTS IN HORSES. 



Wntkinsville, August!, ltt)l 



Mr Smith — Should you think tlie following of 

 siiflicient value, I wish you would have it publish- 

 eil in the Farmer. A late writer says he has 

 tried all ihq^remedics for bots without success. 

 Had he stopped here I shnidd hare thought him a 

 jierson of correct observation ; but when he says 

 < chickens choppeil u)i and thrust down the throat 

 of a horse while warm,' he relies on more than all 

 the other remedies he lias tried for the relief of a 

 paroxysm of bots, I conceive prejuilice has, even 

 in spile of himself, got the better of his judgment. 

 Also, when he says, ' hickory ashes an<l salts, 

 given twice a week, is a preventive,' judgment 

 gives way to old prejudice. I say all horses have 

 bol.», more or less, at particular sea.sons ; that the 

 jnost healthy and fiit hor.ses have them most abun- 

 dant ; that they never kill of injure horses ; and 

 that t^iere is oidy one way to reduce them, which 

 1$ to starve the horse, anil use liim badly, till be 



becomes very poor. I now give you my reasons 

 for saying so. Those who have dissected many 

 horses know, that poor horses never have near as 

 n\auy bols as fat ones ; this is a fact ihHt none can 

 dispute, who have experience. Mriice I say, 

 make a horse pour and you have a crrlain means 

 of iliiiiinishing the quantity of hots. I have never 

 known a horse out of use, iti a pasture, said lo 

 have died of biits ; this I believe no one will dis- 

 pute. Almost all the horses said to have died of 

 bots, were fat, well kept horses, in use. This I 

 believe will also be acknowledged. Now, when 

 we come to the real truth, very few, and 1 believe 

 Dot one horse ever has died of bots ; the death 

 vvliiih cholic caused, is put upon a very h.'inide.ss 

 insect, and which is, duiilitless, necessary to the 

 health of the horse. It is said that di-section 

 proves death to have been caused by bots, because 

 the bowels are lound pirforated. It is not more 

 certain, that rats will never eat a hole through a 

 vessel at sea below water n>ark, than that bols 

 will not eat a hole through the bowels of a living 

 horse. If what I state as fact will not be taken as 

 such, what I relate will prove it. A very fine 

 saddle horse had the huinerus dislocated ; I pur- 

 chased him for a trifle several veeks afterwards, 

 thinking I could reduce the dislocation. The an- 

 imal, otherwise, was iu good health ; he was bled 

 till he fell; I (hen with ropes and other contrivan- 

 ces put the joint ill place. I neve; saw a horse 

 bleed so much before he fell ; he got ip and walked 

 a few steps, and fell dead. I hac him opened 

 immcdiat ly, and found a great mtiny bols ; and 

 the part where lliey were most abindant very 

 much pel forateil ; some appeared to have just be- 

 gan lo eat, and suini' bad gone about half through. 

 .My brother's race horse killed himself leaping 

 over n fence ; be was the best horse I have ever 

 seen, and very fat. A few hours after, he was 

 opened and found to be very full of bols, aail the 

 parts nearly eat up. Now the fact is, that t le bots 

 while the horse is living, never injure him but so 

 soon as he is dead, they begin to eat wherever 

 they are, and very quickly make the jnunch or 

 gut into a honey comb. Hence, when clolic kills 

 H horse, his death is sudden, and his bow;)s being 

 fi uiid perforated by bols, he is thought U be kill- 

 ed by them. Some years ago, a gentleman drove 

 lip to the tavern where 1 was, about mil-day, in 

 the heat of summer ; be had a very fine pair of 

 greys — the horses were taken out and pit in the 

 stable ; but before they were fed bis boy came to 

 inform him that one horse had the bots I went 

 to look at him ; he had all the symptoiis horses 

 generally have when ihoiight lo have bits ; ! beg. 

 ged to be allowed to prescribe ; but a horse doc- 

 tor's prescription was more valued ; acccrdingly, a 

 chicken's bowels were forced down the throat, the 

 horse rapidly grew worse ; another horse doctor 

 told of woiiilers he had done with copperas; ac- 

 cordingly the horse was drenched with that. In a 

 little time the other horse was taken the safne way ; 

 the symptoms were exactly similar. I now again 

 offered my services, staling lo the gentleman, that 

 as both bot-ses we-re fed alike, drove alike, &c, 

 it was reasonable they might both be taken with 

 iliolic, at or near the same time. While examin- 

 ing this horse and arguing the case, news came 

 tliat the first one was dead. The last one was 

 now given up to my direction ; he was bled till he 

 fell, one mmce of laudanum poured down his 

 throat, and his flanks well rubbed ; in a little time 

 he was well — the dead horse was now opened, and 

 a§ I expected;, mavty bots were found, and, his 



bowels perforated. 'I'o convince this genllemaii 

 more fully, I now repeated experiments I had 

 tried before. Twelve two ounce phials had bols 

 put in them ; one had milk put in it, another water 

 anoihiT mulling, as a standard ; wv tlnii fdledtho 

 others with a strong solution of copperas, a so- 

 lution of arsenic, aqua fortis and water, a solu- 

 tion of coTrosive sublimate, &c. Nine of them 

 being filled with such things as were t!iought lo 

 be most likely lo kill them. The arsenic, copper- 

 as, and aqua futis, appsared to have no etlect on 

 them; they appeared fully as continted as those 

 in the water. Those in the laudanum, however, 

 moved less than the others, remaining apparently 

 dead at the bottom of the phial, hut moved when 

 tiiucheil ; after keeping until we were all .satisfied 

 that iiolhing that a horse could lake would injure 

 them, they were all thrown away. Enthuw comes 

 it that the bowels of horses are found perforated 

 by hots.' If we recollect the conduct of all insects 

 that infest living animals, we should only expect 

 bots lo do as they do ; after death, worms in th» 

 bowels of children eraw'l out at the mouth and 

 anus very often ; lice leave the dead ; ticks loowj 

 their hold on dead cattle as soon as they die ; fleaa 

 will not remain on dead dogs or dead hogs. — All 

 insects that live on or in animals, endeavor to 

 make their escape as soon as the animal dies ; and 

 hots, so soon as the Imrse dies, endeavor to mak» 

 their escape by eating a passage out. Or else, 

 knowing the animal is dead, eat a last meal from 

 choice. Will it not appear strange that bots rais- 

 ed in the bowels of a horse, Piiil never using flesh 

 as food, should, all of them at the same time,. 

 change their appetite and commence eating hi» 

 bowels.' Ill horses said to have hots, a common 

 synipton is to bite their sides ; this is said in fact 

 to he the best symptom by which to distinguish 

 bots from cholic. Dissection will prove that,som|l 

 horses that do not bite their sides, are very full of 

 bols ; and some that bile their sides do not bit* 

 near the place the bols are found. 



Now all these facts and many more that I could 

 mention, for I have paid much altenlion to iha 

 disease, convinces me, that bols never injur* 

 horses ; but that horses in use, fed on dry food, 

 subject to irregularities in exercise, in food, and in 

 drink, are subject to cholic, which often proves 

 fatal. When opened after death, the bowels are 

 found perforated by bots, nnd death is supposed lo 

 be caused by them. Bui if death occurs at some 

 seasons from any cause, and the bowels are found 

 perpirated in the same way, which dissection will 

 prove to be the case, doubts should arise as to th« 

 horse being killed by bols. If a horse have the 

 symptoms said to be produced by hot.*, nnd b«'i 

 opened llie moment of death, and bis bowels bs i 

 not found perforated, it should confirm us in our 

 opinion that bots do not deslioy horses ; and dis- 

 section will always prove this to he fact. Oll•^ 

 serve, the horse is to be opened the moment b*! 

 dies, for it is astonishing how quickly tliey conj' 

 mence eating, alter the horse dies. If not opened ) 

 with this express view, we shall always be too< 

 late. I had one horse taken in this way ; every 

 preparation was made before he died, and as soon 

 as he breathed his last breath he was opened J 

 the huts were found attached to the bowels, but 

 none appeared to have begun to eat ; before tJi* 

 bowel could be taken out and carried home, it W8» 

 perforated Hke a honey comb. Now, if, as I hav» 

 stated, which any person ean try, the hot lives: 

 apparently contented in arsenic, copperas, aqnik 

 fortis, St-c, &c, what fcppe can we have thajt tliAi 



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