1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



523 



thwarts of the boat, just room enough remaining for 

 the legs of the oarsmen. There were three boats, 

 one of which (the Dingy) was soon broken up for 

 fuel. Two buffalo robes, a few blankets and a tar- 

 paulin, composed the sleeping accommodations of 

 the party. They had eighty miles to go upon the 

 ice, but as their party were weak, both in numbers 

 and in health, they were oljligcd to take one boat 

 at a time. The hummocks in the ice were often 

 three or four feet high, and the eighty miles were 

 traversed by many of the party several times over. 

 The ship was left about the 20th of May, and they 

 were a month in traversing the eighty miles of ice. 

 In one single day, after launching their boats, they 

 made, by a splendid sail, almost as much as they 

 had during the month previous. 



Passing Sutherland Island, they came withing 10 

 miles of Hakysluyt Island, where they were ob- 

 structed by ice. The next day, however, the ice 

 opened with the tide, and they reached that island. 

 Here they were compelled to stoj) for two or three 

 days by the ice. They then went on the Dallym- 

 ple rock, Avhere they were delighted to find thou- 

 sands of fresh laid eggs of the cider duck. They 

 were detained there by a south-west wind for a 

 week, during which time they lived almost entirely 

 on eggs. They then packed down a thousand, and 

 sailed for Natilick, an Esquimaux settlement. They 

 met little obstruction from the ice, and Avhen they 

 did they were generally delayed only until the next 

 tide. 



At last they were gratified and delighted at the 

 sight of Cape Dudley Diggs, which is well known 

 to the whalers. From there they ran on until they 

 met the ice off the great glacier, a little north of 

 Cape York. Here they were detained by the ice for 

 a week, but as their quarters Avere near an immense 

 coonery, where countless thousands of birds kept up 

 a continual cawing, and they were able to shoot as 

 many as they pleased, they were not very impatient. 

 Each man ate one or two of them at a meal, and 

 they made up for lost time. At last the ice releas- 

 ed them, ancl without very much obstruction they 

 arrived at Cape York about the middle of July. 

 During the passage they lived principally on the 

 little ank, with which, for miles and miles north of 

 Cape York, the air is continually diu'kened. Hound- 

 ing Cape Y^ork, they passed into Melville Bay. 



Pushing boldly on, sometimes venturing even into 

 the pack ice, they came successively to the Devil's 

 Thumb, Horse Heart Promontory, and finally to 

 Upernavik, where they were received with great 

 joy by the whole village. Here they found a l)an- 

 ish bark bound to England, the Mary Ann, Capt. 

 Anderson ; in her they embarked. They arrived 

 at Lively on the 10th of September, where, after 

 remaining a week, Lieut. Harstein arrived, and 

 their joy was complete. 



Three of Kane's party, seamen, died from expo- 

 sure. The remainder were more or less frost bitten. 

 No traces were discovered of Sir John Franklin and 

 his party. The party has returned in excellent 

 health, and all hands have growm quite stout and 

 fleshy. 



How TO Eat GR.vrES. — The Waltr-Cure Jour- 

 nal — pretty good authority in such matters — says 

 few people know how to cat grajics. Some swallQW 

 pulp, seeds and skin ; others swallow only the pulj), 

 ejecting both seeds and skin. 



In a conversation with ])v. Underbill on this sub- 

 ject, he advised that it would lie well to observe the 

 following rules, namely : Wlien in health, to swal- 

 low onlij the pulp — when the bowels are costive. 

 and you wish to relax them, swallow the seeds with 



the pulp, ejecting the skins. "When you wish to 

 check a too relaxed state of the bowels, swallow the 

 ])ulp -with the skins, ejecting the seeds. Thus may 

 the grape be used as a medicine, while, at the same 

 time, it serves as a luxury, unsurpassed by any oth- 

 er cultivated fruit. 



A man or woman may eat from two to four poimds 

 of ripe grapes per day wth benefit. It is well to 

 take them with or immediately after your regular 

 meals. 



A PLEA FOR HORSES. 



"We have a word to offer to our farming friends 

 who employ horses as their chief draught animals. 

 The horse of all animals is one of the most sensitive 

 to sudden changes of temperature, and to impure air 

 or want of cleanliness. We sj^eak from observa- 

 tion, when we say that not half the stables in the 

 country are, at this. season of the year, kept in a fit 

 condition to he occupied by horses, even while put in 

 about an hour for the noon feeding. 



The droppings of horses, both liquid and solid, 

 are among the most quickly fermenting, easily de- 

 composed manures. In warm weather the work of 

 decay commences immediately, and in a very few 

 days one-half or more of the weight goes off in a 

 gaseous form. This keeps the air consbintly load- 

 ed with noxious, unhealthy matters, Avhich are 

 just as deleterious to the health and vigor of horses 

 as to those of men. During the busy season of 

 harvest and seeding, cleaning stables is scarcely 

 ever attended to regularly. The animals generally 

 occupy them a short time in the morning, at noon, 

 and perha])s in the evening for graining, but the 

 stables lie untouched for days or weeks — we have 

 seen them lie thus for months. The horse is tied 

 up for an hour's feeding and rest in the heat of the 

 day, but instead of standing in a cool, sweet, well 

 ventilated stable, ten chances to one, he stands 

 sweating and panting, with scarcely a breath of air 

 wliich is not literally loaded with the fumes of liis 

 own decaying excrements, and he goes forth tired 

 and debilitated instead of refreshed, to undergo the 

 severe toils of drawing the plow during the sultry 

 hours of the afternoon. 



The remedy for this is very simple. If the stalls 

 do not have a free circulation of air, let a board or 

 two be knocked off in front or on the sides at the 

 head of the stalls ; they can be easily re])laced 

 when cold weather comes on. Let some such plan 

 be adopted, and in every case let the stables bo 

 made as cool and airy as possible. 



Let all excrements, however small in quantity, be 

 removed at least once a day, and by all means keep 

 the floor well sprinkled with some deodorizing ma- 

 terial. A weak solution of sulphuric or muriatic 

 acid is excellent for this piu'pose ; but these are 

 often hiconvenient and trouolesome, even if readily 

 obtained. Plaster of Paris (gypsum or sulphate of 

 lime) is very good; common salt is also good. 

 Each of these substances increases the value of the 

 manure more than its cost. Dry straw and muck 

 are also very valuable for the same reason. 



We have freiiuently known lime and ashes re- 

 commended for this, but tlieserapidlv decompose the 

 maniu-e, and greatly diminish its value for ajjplying 

 to crops, and the}- should never be used unless with 

 muck, or witli long manure which is to lie immedi- 

 ately covered in the soil. These may seem trifling 

 considerations, but they are really of great impor- 

 tance. 



