384 



new'ei^gland 



FARMER. 



1827, it was ascertained that not less than thirty-five 

 of these miserable animals were brought to Montfou- 

 con daily, making a yearly agp;regate of twelve thou- 

 sand seven hundred and eighty-five ! Of this vast 

 number, upwards of three fourths entered the sham- 

 bles alive. They are usually despatched by one of 

 four methods ; the first of which is by injecting air 

 into an opened vein ; the second, by severing the 

 spinal marrow in the neck ; the third, by felling with a 

 blow on the head ; and the fourtli, and most cruel, by 

 stabbing the victim repeatedly ia the chest with a 

 knife. Before slaughtering, the hair is removed from 

 the neck and tail, and disposed of generally to the 

 saddler and chair maker ; the hides arc sold to the 

 tanners. In the year 1739, a previous ordinance was 

 revived, prohibiting, under certain penalties, the sale 

 of horse-flesh, in the Parisian markets, as human food; 

 but during the revolutionary struggle, when the 

 fanning interests were in a depressed and languishing 

 state, the scarcity of provisions was so great that 

 horse-flesh was again used by most classes ; and it is 

 aascrted that many, who partook of no other food for 

 six months, received no injury whatever from its use. 

 The aborigines of this country, liowever, who, dur- 

 ing Philip's war, were, from their straitened cir- 

 cumstances, often compelled to live for weeks, and 

 even months, on horse-flesh, appear to have experi- 

 enced very diiferent results. 



" We have eaten horse-flesh," said an old warrior, 

 ■who had fallen into the hands of the whites, *' and 

 now horse-flesh is eating us." By them it was gen- 

 erally deemed harmful, and was never partaken of as 

 common food, unless from necessity alone. 



In 1803, the open use of horse-meat ceased alto- 

 gether in Paris, and mostly through France ; but 

 during the scarcity of 1811 many butchers again 

 made sale of it, and the medical faculty having 

 decided that the flesh of the horse, when uncontam- 

 inated or unaffected by disease, was a sound and per- 

 fectly healthy article of food, its open sale was once 

 more sanctioned by a public law. But in 1814, this 

 privilege was again withdrawn, but to be revived in 

 1816; and, "at this day," remarks a late writer, 

 " horse-flesh is daily exposed for sale, with other ani- 

 mal flesh, in the meat stalls of the Parisian market." 

 It is, however, supposed, on credible data, that a very 

 large, perhaps a greatly predominating proportion of 

 the horse carcasses of Montfaucon are used as manure, 

 and for feeding animals ; yet, notwithstanding this ap- 

 propriation of large quantities, much is undoubtedly 

 sold to the poor without their knowledge. All the 

 workmen employed in the abbatoirs live wholly up- 

 on it, and are a singularly hardy and active set of 

 men. " It probably," remarks a distinguished writ- 

 er, "strengthens their nerves for their disagreeable 

 business, as it spirited up our early ancestors of the 

 north to their human butcheries." The use of 

 horse-flesh as an article of food among the northern 

 nations is demonstrated, by the existence of certain 

 papal bulls, to have ceased upon their conversion to 

 Christianity ; but the people of Denmark appear to 

 have recently recurred to their old habits, and are 

 the first to have authorized the plenary sale of horse- 

 meat among the ordinary articles of the market. 

 The various parts of the animal are worked up, at 

 Montfaucon, into oil, glue, and other articles of com- 

 merce ; in short, the whole animal is appropriated to 

 some use. Even the shoes go to the cutlers and iron- 

 mongers. It is a trade to gather the larvae for fowls 

 and animals. The camel is a valuable animal to the 

 Bedouin ; so also is the horse to the ingenious people 

 of la belle France, 



A COUNTY FAHMER. 



November 4, 1850. 



HIGH FARMING. 



The English journals are filled with experiments 

 of high farming, and all agree that fair remunerative 

 profits can only be realized by such practice, while 

 the political economists of England boldly assert 

 " that the adoption of high farming alone will ren- 

 der legislative protection unnecessary." If tiiis be 

 true of England, why not with us? Has it not been 

 proved that, by using full quantities of manure with 

 thorough cultivation, better profits can be realized 

 even with the first rotation of crops, than by the 

 ordinary sluggish mode of farming r Are the farmers 

 of New York and the adjacent states asleep, that they 

 do not see from past experience what must be 

 the result of longer continuing the exhausting pro- 

 cess ? Do they not know that one half of the farms 

 of Virghiia are worn out ? that the wheat crop of 

 Ohio is less than two thirds per acre what it was 

 thirty years ago ? and that the average wheat crop of 

 New York is not more than fifteen bushels per acre? 

 We have published that Dr. John WoodhuU, of 

 Princeton, has raised fifty-seven bushels of wheat per 

 acre ; that Allen Middleton, of Crosswicks, N. J., 

 and many others, have raised one hundred and twen- 

 ty-four bushels of shelled corn per acre ; and indeed 

 that all who pursue hiffh /arming properly are ren- 

 dering their vocation profitable, in addition to render- 

 ing their land more valuable for future crops. 



We are tired of hearing those who have neither 

 tried nor investigated the truths of high farming as- 

 sert that " it costs too much," Those who have tried 

 it know better ; the excess of profits are always many 

 times greater than the excess of expenses. A manu- 

 facturer who requires one hundred horse-power to 

 turn his machinery, might as well do it by hiring 

 men enough to 2>crform the whole labor instead of 

 using the steam engine, as for a farmer at this day to 

 refuse the lights of science as applied to agriculture. 

 We have visited many farms during the last three 

 years, and advised modes of manuring, culture, &c., 

 based on the chemical constituents of the soil, and we 

 venture to assert that in every case the improved 

 l^rofits of any two acres would have paid our whole 

 charge for services. Nor is it necessary that we 

 should be employed ; for every farmer who has an 

 analysis made of his soil, and reads The Working 

 Farmer attentively, is capable, without the advice of 

 any one, to farm with profit. We should be glad to 

 publish the English articles on this subject, but at 

 this time they ai-e so much mixed up with the local 

 politics of the day, in which our readers have no in- 

 terest, that we cannot use them. 



We last year hired a piece of ground in our own 

 neighborhood, which was worn out, and had refused 

 corn. Last winter we made an analysis of the soil, and 

 found it short of chlorine, pho.sphate ot lime, soda, 

 potash, and ammoniacal matter. We manured it 

 this spring with a compost costing one dollar and 

 thirty-one cents per acre. The chlorine and soda was 

 supplied by common s<Ut, the phosphate of lime, pot- 

 ash and ammoniacal matter by Peruvian guano, and 

 the volatile matters of the compo.=t retained by the 

 use of charcoal dust and plaster of Paris. We have 

 now a crop of corn standing on this land which will 

 yield certainly more than fifty bushels of shelled corn 

 per acre ; and after measuring, we hope to be able to 

 report a much larger crop, and think too without the 

 proper preparation of the ground bj' subsoil plough- 

 ing, &c., as on our own farm. We invite our readers 

 to visit us and see this field for themselves. — The 

 Working Farmer, 



"Weeds exhaust the strength of the ground. 



When an implement is no longer wanted for the 

 season, lay it carefully aside, but first let it be w«ll 

 cleaned. 



