56 



Riissian Horse-Sandal — Corn Sled. 



A^oL.VI. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Russian Ilorse-Saudal. 



Respected Friend, — A short time previ- 

 ous to the afiixed date, I found in a periodical 

 to which I have had access for many years, 

 an article containing information of a some- 

 what interesting character; a transcript of 

 which I deem worthy of insertion in the 

 " Cabinet." It is as follows : — 



" Important to oivners of Horses. — A 

 Frenchman by the name of Jony, now resi- 

 dent in Poland, has invented a new method 

 of shoeing horses, for which the emperor has 

 awarded him fifty thousand rubles, besides an 

 exclusive patent. Jony covers the entire hoof 

 with iron, and the base of his shoe, or, as 

 it is called, sandal, is perfectly smooth. This 

 method of his is being adopted in all parts of 

 Russia. It requires neither nail nor screw ; 

 it is extremely cheap, and has the important 

 characteristic of great ligiitness. Horses 

 whose hoofs have been destroyed by bad 

 shoeing, are, by the use of these "hippo-san- 

 dals," restored in a short time to their former 

 state of efficiency, and may be used as soon 

 as provided with them. Some horses have 

 been brought to Jony's smithy which could 

 scarcely limp along, and with their hoofs in 

 so lamentable a state, that the common mode 

 of shoeing could not have been applied to 

 them ; but after performing a slight operation, 

 and putting a new sandal on their feet, they 

 are sent back to their owners in a compara- 

 tively sound state, and are fit for work." 



This newly-invented method of shoeing 

 horses is certainly far in advance of the old 

 system, or that which is now almost univer- 

 sally practised in America. The emperor 

 must have conceived it to be an "onward" 

 step of no minor importance in that branch 

 of business, or he would not have rewarded the 

 inventor so liberally; and I should be grati- 

 fied to find it generally imitated by our Ches- 

 ter-county farmers, as well as the proprietors 

 of that kind of stock without exception. The 

 onward march of improvement has been pe- 

 culiarly rapid within the last century, and as 

 mankind have gradually diverged from a 

 state of darkness to comparatively that of 

 light, those good things which contribute to- 

 wards forming the mass of human happiness, 

 have increased in a proportionable ratio. May 

 that spirit which incites us to rise, step by 

 step, in the scale of knowledge, be ever pro- 

 moted ; for it is no detriment to any man's 

 character to devote a portion of his time and 

 talents towards the accomplishment of any- 

 thing, by which he may hope to increase the 

 happiness either of himself or others. I must 

 confess, after thus speaking, that I have not 

 in days past manifested even an ordinary zeal 

 in the cause of agriculture, although from my 

 infant years 1 have not been accustomed to 



view from my door scenes so limited and mo- 

 notonous as is the case in large cities, btJt 

 fields, forests and meadows, clothed, in their 

 season, with verdure, and blooming with 

 transcendent beauty, or covered with the 

 white companion of winter. But 1 trust I 

 shall be making some amends for my past 

 conduct, by thus giving in my mite for the 

 support of a paper which was issued princi- 

 pally for diffusing that knowledge which the 

 husbandman is wont to possess; and to en- 

 deavour to stimulate the lethargic to more 

 industry. 



N. B. Cannot some of the contributors of 

 the Cabinet furnish its readers with informa- 

 tion respecting the cultivation of grape vines'? 

 — the kind of soil they require, &c. .' 



Thine, respectful'ly, Q. E. D. 



Sadsbury, 8th mo. 6, 1841. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Corn Sled. 



The time being at hand for the removal of 

 the Indian-corn crop from ground where it is 

 to be followed by winter grain, a small farmer 

 in Montgomery county. Pa., sends herewith 

 a description of his corn sled, by which three 

 hands and a horse removed with ease in three 

 days his crop of corn last year from a field 

 containing somewhat over three acres. It 

 proved steady occupation for one hand to cut 

 down while the other two were engaged in 

 loading, hauling off, and shocking in an ad- 

 joining field the crop thus removed. Mine 

 was Dutton corn, and proved a good crop, 

 equal in yield to the crops usually raised in 

 the neighbourhood, which are a mixture of 

 the gored-seed and flint. It was planted in 

 rows 4 feet apart, and in the rows 18 inches. 

 I mention the kind of corn removed, that 

 should any incline to use the sled, they may 

 regulate the distance at which their poles, or 

 shafts, are placed by the height of their corn, 

 so that the ends of the stalks may not drag 

 on the ground. 



Mine is simply two cedar poles, 17 feet 

 long, borne up and drawn precisely as shafts 

 to a cart, while the other ends, dressed a lit- 

 tle rounding on the under side, slide upon the 

 ground; two sloats (which are but boards 

 spiked on) are fixed across the poles to keep 

 them at a proper distance apart, one of them 

 at the distance of 4 feet from the end, the 

 other at 10 feet, and having each of them two 

 inch auger-holes bored, in which are fixed 

 four pieces of laths as uprights to support the 

 corn as it is piled on the sled, — these uprights 

 or supports are the better fijr being set in 

 with a slight inclination backward, that too 

 much weight may not be thrown on the horse's 

 back. An article so simple that any small 

 farmer like himself can make it, L. 



August 28, 184J. 



