185" 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



87 



must break his neck. ;" and some person, desirous 

 of saving time by performing the three feats at 

 once, has recommended that the horse be tied on 

 the bank of a stream, in such a position that when 

 he breaks his halter he may turn a somerset into 

 the water. But, on the contrary, a horse can be 

 broken of the trick, and that without endangering 

 his life or limbs. The remedy is simply to tie the 

 horse, with a good stout halter, to the end of a 

 stout limb of a tree near the ground. A horse 

 does not break his halter by a steady pull, but by 

 jerking at it ; and as the limb will spring whenever 

 he jerks, it will prevent his snapping it. Tie the 

 horse in various places, (to limbs,) because if he is 

 kept tied in one ])lace be soon gives up pulling at 

 the halter there, but when tied to a post he soon 

 resumes his old tricks. — Philadelphia J^fewspaper, 



by the statements that plaster was tried on lands 

 thirty years ago and did no good. All that may 

 be true, and yet be no guide for the jiresent owner 

 of those lands. The lands were then comparative- 

 ly new. They may have produced well without 

 plaster, possibly as well without as with, in the 

 state in which they then were, and yet in their 

 present state plaster may be of great service. 



As to the quantity. For present efi'ect, 100 lbs. 

 to the acre is as good as 400, If, after thorough 

 trial, it is found to be of little or no use, then the 

 extra application will be saved ; but if its effect is 

 demonstrated to be good, then, after that, apply 

 100 lbs. to the acre yearly, or 400 lbs. once in four 

 years, as you find to be most economical. 



PLASTER FOR PASTURES. 



There is no agricultural paper filled with better 

 and more strictly reliable articles than* the "Plough, 

 Loom and ^^nvil ;" and as an evidence of the truth 

 of the remark, please read the following on the 

 use of plaster for pastures. 



That plaster is not a fertilizer, that it does not 

 enrich the soil directly and by virtue of its own in- 

 gredients, is true. Hence it must not be relied up- 

 on alone, but should be used in conjunction with 

 other manures, either as existing in the soil in some 

 form of organic matter, or as applied by the far- 

 mer in connection with the plaster, or in the form 

 of green crops turned under, or as furnished, in the 

 case of pasture lands, by the droppings of cattle. 



It is true also, we believe, that "plaster increases 

 the green portions of plants — stalks, leaves, etc. — 

 more than it does the grain." This is an argument 

 for its use on pastures. Here the increase of the 

 plant, not of the seed, is the thing sought. The 

 plaster, acting on the organic matter in the soil, 

 protluces three effects : 1st, the direct increase of 

 feed ; 2d, the consequent increase of manure left 

 by the cattle; and 3d, an increased retentiveness 

 of the soil for manure; so that, although plaster is | 

 not in itself, strictly speaking, a manure — does not,! 

 like barn manure, afibrd all the elements of food 

 required by plants, nor more than a small part of 

 them, as sulphuric acid and lime — yet its action is 

 to render the soil permanentlymore j^roductive, on 

 all those lands where it is found to operate well ; 

 and those, we believe, are more extensive than is 

 generally supposed, embracing a very large por- 

 tion of all uplands. 



It may be said, that if plaster causes a luxuriant 

 growth of plants, and yet does not furnish the food 

 out of which they grow but in small part, as we 

 have admitted, it must necessarly exhaust the soil. 

 That does not follow of course ; because, in the 

 case of pastures, what is taken from the soil is im- 

 mediately returned to it ; and besides, it should be 

 remembered, that more than ninety per cent, of 

 the grass growing in a pasture, comes not from the 

 soil, but from the air. If, then, the sprinkling the: 

 surface of a pasture with plaster enables it to re-' 

 tain more of the manure dropped by animals, and 

 to draw more nutritious gases from the air, it is so 

 much saved on the one hand, and so much gained 

 on the other. 



We would earnestly commend more experiments 

 with plaster on pasture lands. Do not be deterred 



THE ELUCATIOH OF THE EYE. 



We may not be called upon to hunt white foxes 

 in the snow; or, like William Tell, to save our own 

 life and our child's by splitting with an arrow an 

 apple on its head, or to identify a stolen sheep by 

 looking in its face and swearing to its portrait ; 

 but we must do many things essential to our wel- 

 fare, which we would do a great deal better if we 

 had an eye as trained as we readily might have. — 

 For example, it is not every man that can hit a 

 nail upon the head, or drive it straight in with a 

 hammer. Very few persons can draw a straight 

 line, or cut a piece of cloth or paper even ; still 

 fewer can use a pencil as draughsmen ; and fewer 

 still can ijaint with colors. Yet assuredly, there is 

 not a a calling in which an educated eye, nice in 

 distinguishing form, color, size, distance, and the 

 like, will not be of inestimable service. For, al- 

 though it is not to be denied that some eyes can be 

 educated to a much greater extent than others, 

 that can be no excuse for anyone neglecting to ed- 

 ucate his eye. The worse it is, the more it needs 

 education ; the better it is the more it will repay 

 it. — The Five Gateways of Knoicledge, by Profes- 

 sor G. Wilson. 



Drainage of the Human System. — Erasmus 

 Wilson, a distinguished physiologist, counted the 

 perspiratory pores on the palm of the hand, and in 

 a square inch found 3,528, with each of which a 

 little tube a quarter of an inch long was connected, 

 making the length of tube in a square inch 822 

 inches, or 73 and a half feet. On the pulp of the 

 fingers the number of pores was a little greater f 

 on the heel the number was 2,268, and the length 

 of the tube 47 feet. Taking 2,800 as an average 

 of the number of pores in the square inch over the 

 whole surface of the body, and 7G0 consequently 

 the length of the tube in inches, the number of 

 square inches of surface in a man of ordinary size 

 being 2,500, there would be 7,000,000 pores, and 

 1,750,000 inches of perspiratory tube, that is 145,- 

 833 feet, or nearly 28 miles. How important the 

 necessity of attention to the skin, lest this drainage 

 be obstructed. 



^° Several gentlemen have recently acquainted 

 the Patent ofRce with the fact of the success of the 

 liquorice plant, which is hardy as far north as Con- 

 necticut. It is employed not only for medical pur- 

 poses, but, they say, is an important element in 

 preparing some of the best ale and porter in Great 

 Britain. 



