70 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



M 



AR. 



BENEFIT OF UNDER - DRAINING 



BY ADIN MANLY. 



Messrs. Editors : — In the December number of 

 the Farmer my attention was called to the subject 

 of Draining Lands, and believing the subject too 

 little practiced or understood in this country, with 

 your leave I will give you a trifle of my experience 

 in Under-Draining. 



I have now more than forty acres of wheat on 

 which there is not a surface drain, the whole being 

 under-drained. It is some six or eight years since I 

 began the work. My first experiment was on a lot 

 of about twelve acres, very wet and miry in the 

 spring, so much so that we could not get on to it till 

 late. It being rriore particularly designed for spring 

 crops, it became necessary to have it drained. — 

 Accordingly we commenced an under-drain through 

 the dampest part first, until the whole was done. 

 The result was most satisfactory, making the whole 

 dry early in the spring, and rendering the clayey 

 parts friable and easy to cultivate. During a freshet 

 the water will run a day or two on the surface and 

 then all disappear. Streams running from the road 

 and other fields, coming in contact with the drains, 

 immediately disappear. I have observed in wet 

 weather the water would be running out at the lower 

 end of the tlrain when no water was to be seen on 

 the surface. I have been draining more or less for 

 a number of years, with the very best results. 



It is observed in digging drains that the subsoil is 

 full of veins or water-courses, conveying the water 

 considerable distances. I once observed, in digging 

 a drain some thirty or forty feet distant from a small 

 pond of water that had stood a long time, that when 

 we got nearest to it, the subsoil which before had 

 been dry was full of water and commenced running 

 off, and in a few hours the pond was all gone. In 

 addition to what is already stated, I have found a 

 never failing spring of water, which by using about 

 fifty rods of lead pipe, is conveyed to the lane where 

 it is convenient for stock, and teams going to and 

 from work — the benefit of which will pay for draining 

 the whole farm. 



Many other advantages of draining might be 

 named, but enough for the present. This being the 

 first communication ever sent by me to an editor, I 

 will wait and see its fate. Clarkson, JY. Y., 1849. 

 Oor friend acquits himself well for a beginner. He ap- 

 parently understands that plainness and brevity are the 

 essentials in writing for an agricultural journal. Now that 

 his hand is in, we shall be glad to receive a brief statement 

 of his mode of constructing drains, &c. 



, Bone Dust. — An experiment, tried by Mr. Morti- 

 mer, of Silverton, furnishes a remarkable proof of the 

 efficacy of this manure. At a recent meeting of the 

 Netherexe Farmers' Club, Mr. W. Strong, of Pow- 

 hay Mills, offered to give some bone dust to any 

 agriculturist, to be tried against guano. Mr. Morti- 

 mer took the- offer, and manured a piece of land, 

 one part with bone, another with Peruvian guano, 

 and a third portion with farm-yard dung, leaving a 

 small strip without any dressing. The whole was 

 planted with tumeps, and we are assured by an agri- 

 culturist who has seen them, that while on the boned 

 ground there are tnrneps larger than his hat, the part 

 left unmanured has not one so large as his finger. 

 The guano crop is finer than the dung turneps, but 

 by no means equal for the size, though the superior, 

 in thickness and rapidity of growth, to that grown 

 where bone manure was used.— Mark Lane Express." 



ftetmnari JDqjartmart. 



PHYSICKING- THE HORSE. 



When a horse comes from grass to hard meat, or 

 from the cool air to a heated stable, a dose, or even 

 two doses of . physic may be useful to prevent the 

 tendency to inflammation, which is the necessary 

 consequence of so sudden and great a change. To 

 a horse that is becoming too fat, or has surfeit, or 

 grease, or mange, or that is out of condition from in- 

 activity of the digestive organs, a dose of physic is 

 often most servicable ; but the reflecting man will 

 enter his protest against the periodical physicking of 

 all horses in the spring and autumn, and more par- 

 ticularly against that severe system which is thought 

 to be necessary in order to train them for work, and 

 also the absurd method of treating the animal when 

 under the operation of physic. 



A horse should be carefully prepared for the action of 

 physic. Two or three bran mashes given on that or 

 the preceding day are far from sufficient when a 

 horse is about to be physicked whether to promote his 

 condition or in obedience to custom. Mashes should 

 be given until the dung becomes softened A less 

 quantity of physic will then suffice, and it will more 

 quickly pass through the intestines, and be more 

 readily diffused over them. Five drachms of aloes, 

 given when the dung has thus been softened, will 

 act much more effectually and much more safely than 

 seven dramchs, when the lower intestines are ob- 

 structed by hardened fasces. 



On the day oh which the physic is given, the 

 horse should have walking exercise, or may be gently 

 trotted for a quarter of an hour twice in the day : 

 but after the physic begins to work, he should not be 

 moved from his stall. Exercise would then produce 

 gripes, irritation, and possibly dangerous inflamma- 

 tion. — Youatt. 



Cure for Heaves in Horses. — A farmer tells 

 us that he has recently cured two of his horses, 

 which had the heaves badly, by the use of the fol- 

 lowing remedy : To three quarts of sweet milk add a 

 teaspoonful of sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol,) and mix 

 with the horses' feed. Give at first three times a 

 week, and afterwards once or twice as there may seem 

 oceasion for a few weeks longer. Our informant 

 says there was little appearance of the heaves after 

 the first week. — Christian Alliance. 



Lame Cows.— Mr. Editor: In 1802 or 1803 my 

 father had about 44 head of cattle ; the foot ail got 

 into the stock, lost two oxen and one cow before we 

 found a remedy; the hoof began to crack off at the 

 back part and kept on gaining till it came off. We 

 took a fine toothed saw and cut the point of the hoof 

 off so that the hole was sufficient for it to discharge, 

 and put on some tar or other healing ointment : the 

 complaint begins in the hoof and cannot find any other 

 way to discharge but to crack off; the back part 

 without the point is cut off; the inside is dead and 

 rotten and emits a great stench when cut off. We 

 did not lose any after cutting off the point. — Mass. 

 Plowman. 



Snow Balls in Morses Feet.— ^David Thomas, in the 

 Albany Cultivator, says that soft soap well rubbed into the 

 bottom of the hoofs when clean, and before the horses leave 

 the stable, will prevent the collection of balls of snow. 



