246 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF THE GRAPE. 



The New York Commercial, in an article on the 

 grape, says this fruit is one of the best and most 

 ■wholesome medicines. This affords an additional in- 

 ducement for the culture of this popular fruit. The 

 CommcrL'ial says, — 



" In the vineyard districts of France, Spain, and 

 other vine-growing countries, the medicinal proper- 

 ties of the grape are well known and highly prized. 

 The free use of this fruit, as we are advised, has a 

 most salutary effect upon the animal system, diluting 

 the blood, removing obstructions in the liver, kid- 

 neys, spleen, and other important organs, giving a 

 healthy tone and vigor to the circulation, and gener- 

 ally augmenting the strength of the entire animal 

 economy. In diseases of the liver, and especially in 

 that monster compound affliction, dyspepsia, the sal- 

 utary and potent influence of a ' grape diet ' is well 

 known in France. The inhabitants of the vincj'ard 

 districts are never afflicted with these diseases ; which 

 fact, however, alone would not be conclusive evidence 

 of the medicinal qualities of the fruit of which they 

 freely partake, since peasant life is rarely marred with 

 this class of ailments ; but hundreds who are thus 

 afflicted yearly, resort to the vineyard districts for 

 what is known as the ' grape cure,' and the result 

 proves to be a cure, except in very long, protracted, 

 and inveterate cases, which are beyond the reach of 

 medicinal remedies. The invigorating influence of 

 the ripe grape, freely eaten, upon the feeble and de- 

 bilitated, is very apparent, supplj'ing ^'igor and the 

 rose hue of health in the stead of weakness and pal- 

 lor, and this by its diluting projierty, which enables 

 the blood to circulate in the remoter vessels of the 

 skin, which before received only the serous or watery 

 particles. 



" In these remarks, however, we must be under- 

 stood as sj)eaking of the fruit when perfectly ripe. 

 Unripe grapes, like all unripe fruits, are detrimental 

 to health, and derange the digestive organs, and those 

 depending upon, and sympathizing with them." 



IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Few arc aware how susceptible of improvement is 

 the living machinery which elaborates milk for nearly 

 every family in the Union. There is a reliable ac- 

 count in this report, of a dairy of forty-one cows 

 kept in the state of New York, which yields sixty- 

 two dollars in butter, cheese, and milk, as the prod- 

 uct of each cow a year. From the returns of the 

 last state census, it is safe to say that 1,100,000 cows 

 are noAV milked in that state, which arc supposed to 

 yield about twenty dollars per head. To imj^rove 

 these up to an average annual product of thirty-one 

 dollars each, (that is, to one half what the best large 

 dairies in the country now yield,) would add 

 $12,100,000 to the income of the citizens of a single 

 state. This gain by the improvement of one kind of 

 rural machinery would be equivalent to creating a 

 capital of $'200,()00,000, and placing the money M'here 

 it woiild yield over six per cent, interest in perpetu- 

 ity. If the thirty millions of sheep in the TTnited 

 States gave as good returns in wool for the food con- 

 sumed as the best 100,000 now do, it would add at 

 least 00,000,000 pounds to the annual clip of this 

 important staple. 



In one of his letters to Sir John Sinclair, General 

 Washington saj's, in substance, " that at the time he 

 entered the public service in the war of the revolu- 

 tion, his Hock (about 1000) clipped five pounds of 

 wool per liccce. Seven years after, when he returned 

 to his estate, his flock had so degenerated that it gave 

 an average of only two and a half pounds per head, 



which was the common yield of Virginia sheep then, 

 as it is now." 



Although the numerous importations of superior 

 sheep, cattle, horses, and swine, have greatly benefit- 

 ed the country, it must be admitted that much has 

 been lost by suffering improved animals to deterio- 

 rate. Every wool-grower should ponder well this 

 fact. If two and a half pounds of wool will pay the 

 whole cost of keeping a sheep a year, five pounds 

 will pay one hundred per cent, profit on that cost. 

 Washington was eminently a "book-farmer," and 

 was anxious to gain knowledge from the educated 

 agriculturists of Europe and his own country. His 

 overseer believed in kccj)ing sheep as his father did, 

 and was opposed to all innovations in hTisbandrj% 



There are now not far from 6,000,000 horses and 

 mules in the United States ; and it is not too much 

 to say that, in a few generations, these animals may 

 be improved full thirty dollars a head, on an average. 

 If so, the gain by this increase of muscular power, 

 and its greater durability, will be $180,000,000. K 

 we study critically the machinery for converting 

 grass, roots, and grain, into beef and pork, the differ- 

 ence is found to be still more striking. If the facts 

 relating to this subject were spread before the peo- 

 ple, great improvement would soon follow, and all 

 classes share equally in the profits of more produc- 

 tive labor. — Patent Office Report for 1849. 



ATTACHMENT TO A PLOUGH FOR TURN- 

 ING UNDER GREEN CROPS, &,c. 



I will describe to you a fixture which I use for 

 turning imder clover, peas, weeds, &c., which I think 

 preferable to a roller or an ox-chain attached to a 

 swingletree. Saw off a block from some hard, dura- 

 ble, and heavy wood, say about ten inches long, and 

 three and a half or four inches in diameter; then 

 take a piece of trace-chain, about three feet long, 

 confine one end to the block by driving a small sta- 

 ple in the end, having first passed the staple through 

 an end link of the chain. Point the other end of the 

 block, and attach a larger chain in the same manner 

 to that. Tie the short chain (attached to the square 

 end of the block) to the rod which passes through 

 the mould-board and beam of the plough, by wrap- 

 ping it around (the beam) at that place ; drop the 

 block in the bottom of a furrow which has been al- 

 ready opened, (of course on the mould-board side,) 

 draw up the long chain, and attach that to the clevis 

 pin or clevis ; be sure that you have both chains 

 just tight enough to permit the block to lie in the 

 furrow below ; allow no slack. The short chain gath- 

 ers the clover, weeds, &c., and bends them down ; 

 the weight of the block prevents the chain from rising, 

 and the plough laps the dirt over the weeds, whilst 

 they are in a recumbent position. I am this day turn- 

 ing under weeds as high as the heads of the plough- 

 men, which are almost wholly concealed. II. 



Nansemond County, Va. 

 — American Farmer. 



Medicine for Horses. — Many seem to imagine 

 that the constitution, physiology, and diseases of the 

 horse are different from those of man and other ani- 

 mals. This is a mistake. The common diseases of 

 the horse are similar to those of men ; and the same 

 medicines, in those diseases, are as tiscful to one as 

 to the other. Some writer states that the doses 

 should be from eight to twelve times larger when the 

 horse is the patient. The anatomical structure of 

 the stomach is such as to forbid his vomiting, so that 

 an emetic should never be given. 



