102 



Old Times in Medicine. — Lucerne. 



V0L.V. 



mysterious to be examined into, or even to 

 be thought upon, by those who might find it 

 necessary to apply for relief to the physician ; 

 considernig themselves as having then aban- 

 doned their right of thought, ivord or deed .' 

 I say, we cannot be too thankful that the time 

 is come, when the regularly bred practitioner 

 throws aside, thus willingly, the prerogative 

 with which, by consent of society at large, 

 he has been clothed, and thus exhibits the 

 theory and practice of medicine in all its sim- 

 plicity and reasonableness. 



But, are we sure that old times in medicine 

 are quite passed away 1 Judging from many 

 sovereign remedies for the cure of diseases in 

 cattle, which are now going the rounds of 

 the agricultural papers, I suspect that igno- 

 rance still lingers ; and, to such men as T., 

 the reflection will be mournful, that the light 

 of truth and reason is still obscured by its 

 baneful influence. I cannot resist the oppor- 

 tunity, in conclusion, of mentioning two or 

 three grand specifics, which are in high re- 

 pute at the present time, and which are de- 

 serving a record in the " Country Farm." 



MODERN PRACTICE. 



" For the staggers in hogs. Pour into their 

 nostrils a strong decoction of red pepper and 

 spirits of turpentine, repeating it several times 

 a day ; cut off' their ears close to the head, 

 and fill up the holes, three times a day, with 

 the same mixture, or any other that is very 

 irritatinnf, and bleed on the nose on each side ! 

 The writer observes, he has heard that to 

 bleed freely, in addition, by cutting round the 

 throat, has been attended with success. 



For the same disorder in horses, the same 

 treatment. 



For sickness in hogs. Split them down the 

 back to the depth of three-quarters of an inch, 

 fill the place with salt and stitch it up— they 

 will be brisk and lively next morning ! 



For the botts in horses. Bleed, to the 

 amount of about three quarts, and while the 

 blood is warm, and before it be coagulated, 

 drench the horse with it. 



To cure the internal complaints of a horse. 

 Kill a fowl and pull out the inside whole, and 

 while it is warm, poke it down the horse's 

 throat with a corn-cob ! and if that won't do, 

 try something else .'" 



P. S. The concluding sentence in T.'s 

 first article, in the number of the Cabinet for 

 August, page 22, ought to have been printed 

 in letters of gold. Treat yow brutes like 

 men. 



In the same manner that plenty is the re- 

 compense of assiduous and laborious toil, so 

 peace and serenity of mind are the reward of 

 virtuous conduct. 



To the Editor of llie Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Lucerne. 



Sir, — You have given us, according to 

 promise, your correspondent John Becker's 

 conmiunication, relating to his failures in the 

 attempt to raise a crop of Lucerne. I have 

 written to a friend at Baltimore, requesting 

 him to inform me of the success attending 

 the crop in that neighbourhood, which was 

 noticed in the American Farmer some months 

 ago, and, until lliat information arrives, I 

 would just say to Mr. Beeker, I believe that 

 most of his failures have arisen from the un- 

 suitableness of his soil, and I regret that he 

 did not inform us what is the nature of the 

 subsoil ; I suspect it is wet at the depth of a 

 few feet from the surface, judging from the 

 fate of the two pieces which he sowed last 

 spring, for he says — after telling us they 

 came up finely and grew well for some time 

 — " they began to get red and yellow at the 

 tops and died away ;" these being just the 

 symptoms of an unsuitable soil. 



But why, in the name of common sense, 

 after clearing away a garden which had a 

 good rich soil, and putting it in good order, 

 did he sow "some timothy along with it?" 

 Was he afraid that at last he was going to 

 succeed, and, therefore, took a very sure 

 course to prevent it 1 for, if this had really 

 been his wish, he could not have adopted a 

 better mode of rendering abortive all his 

 attempts — surely not — and there never has 

 been any account of that crop published in 

 this country, without the necessity to clear 

 away the weeds of every description, both 

 before and after the sowing of the seed, being 

 reiterated and plainly insisted upon ! And it 

 is remarkable that the Lucerne grew again 

 during the summer, after he had been com- 

 pelled to mow it to keep the weeds down ! 

 Now if he had at that time turned to and 

 pulled them clean out by hand, I have no 

 doubt he would have secured his crop ; but 

 after this, he might have saved us the trouble 

 of telling us, that in the spring following 

 "not a stem or stalk of it was to be seen." 

 As he does not say the tops had changed co- 

 lour, I presume it was not injured by a poi- 

 sonous subsoil, but only required to be weeded 

 to secure a crop ; a circumstance that he 

 must now, I think, regret. But, after having 

 lost about fifteen dollars' worth of seed in this 

 way, I suppose it was time for him to have 

 "done with it." 



Now, I know not that anything can be 

 added to this account to make it more self- 

 evident, that these failures arose, first, from 

 the unsuitableness of the soil, and second, 

 from the neglect of cleaning and exhausting 

 the land of weeds, before the seed was sown, 

 as well as after the crop had come up, but 



