1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



451 



former article fell from impressions made by gen 

 eral reading, rather than from any special investi 

 gation of the facts. If friend Goldsbury has a 

 dift'erent theory, and will briefly set it forth, it may 

 prove interesting and profitable to a majority of 

 our readers. 



For the I\ew England Farmer. 



TOWN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



Mr. Editor : — I noticed in the Farmer some 

 time ago, one of your correspondents recommends 

 that town agricultural societies, or clubs, appoint 

 committees to examine the farms of all the mem- 

 bers, (if I get his idea correct,) and make out a re- 

 port of the improvements made within each year, 

 such as the number of acres reclaimed, the number 

 of rods of drain laid down, and of stone wall built, 

 &c. I think that is a capital idea, and with your 

 permission, I should like to give it a response in 

 my homely way. I would carry the idea a little 

 farther, however, and recommend first, that there 

 he such an organization in every town, and especial- 

 ly in remote towns where it is inconvenient to trans- 

 port stock and other produce to the county fair. 

 Many persons who never think of going ten, fifteen 

 or twenty miles to a fair, would be sure to attend 

 if it was to be in their own town; and many, no 

 doubt, never think of oifering anything for competi- 

 tion with the ivhole county, because they think it 

 beyond their reach, whereas, if they could have a 

 small fair among their neighbors, as it were, they 

 would be ambitious to take a part in the matter ; 

 and even little girls, with the encouragement of their 

 mothers and elder sisters, would exercise their ut- 

 most skill in doing a nice piece of needle-work, and 

 little boys would do their best to raise a big squash 

 or watermelon to take to the fair. 



Each society of course would arrange its own pre- 

 liminaries, but I wish to suggest that the commit- 

 tees on improvement be instructed to notice not 

 only special improvements, but also the^ene?a/ ap- 

 pearance of the farm, the buildings, the garden, and 

 very thing that pertains to the premises. It does 

 eem to me that under such a system, a man would 

 be incited to go and grub up those bunches of eld- 

 ers in the corn fields, and dig up that big pine 

 stump in the corner of the garden, and pick up that 

 rubbish around the barn and hog-yard. 



I would recommend, also, that said committee be 

 composed of men with some knowledge, and a good 

 deal of taste in regard to mechanism, and that they 

 be instructed to examine and report on all stationar} 

 mechanical work, such as carpenter, joiner and ma- 

 son work, with all such machinery as may be new 

 ly invented and not portable. One thing more — I 

 would by all means have a public address at each 

 fair, not necessarily by a popular speaker from a 

 distance, but let some citizen of the town, such as 

 Squire A., or the Rev. Mr. B., or Farmer C, speak 

 to the people in plain familiar language about plain 

 familiar things, so as to be plainly and familiarly un- 

 derstood by us all. Would not such a system, gener- 

 ally adopted and thoroughly carried out, have a sal- 

 utary influence on all the rural interests of our coun- 

 try ? H. Briggs. 



Fairhaven, Vt. 



{Cf» Happiness depends on the mind, not on any 

 external circumstances. 



THE FYLER CHURN. 



Early in the spring we received two or three 

 commendatory notices of this churn. At that time 

 we had never seen it, or before heard of Its merits 

 and expressed a desire to make personal trial of it 

 especially as we had the butter to make, in the fam 

 ily, from six cows. 



Mr. Henry Holmes, of Grafton, Vt., the pro- 

 prietor of the churn, learning our wish to make a 

 personal test of it, very kindly sent us one of the 

 second size, which we began to use about the first 

 of June, and continued its use regularly for six 

 weeks. We found it, 



1. A well made, portable, and convenient article 

 to use, standing up from the floor, as it does, and 

 making it accessible and easy to use. 



2. The butter uniformly came in about twenty 

 minutes, and always hard, if the morning were mod- 

 erately cool. 



3. The butter could be salted and worked over 

 with about half the labor that is required when 

 worked by the hands. 



4. It may be quickly and easily taken apart and 

 cleaned, and has no holes or crevices for the butter 

 or butter-milk to lodge in and make the churn 

 foul. 



5. The women who used it, state that it is little 

 more than half the work to make butter with this 

 churn, that they had been accustomed to in the use 

 of three or four churns of other construction. 



It gives us pleasure to state, that from this trial, 

 it is our opinion that the Fyler churn is, in every 

 respect, an excellent one, saving much time and 

 hard labor, and bringing all the butter the cream 

 affords in the best condition. 



For the New England Farmer. 



FOUNDERING HORSES. 



In your issue of August first, I noticed an article, 

 purporting to have been penned by "a farmer of 

 Niagara county, N. Y.," saying that "in his opinion, 

 nine-tenths of the foundered horses are made so by 

 the shoer." From this idea, I beg leave through the 

 columns of your paper to express my entire dissent. 

 I am not a shoer of horses, nor am I a justifier of 

 the cruel acts of those who are. But for a farmer 

 of Niagara county, or any other county, to assert 

 that a smith (or all of them) could if they tried, 

 "founder" a horse by shoeing, is, in my opinion, as- 

 serting his entire ignorance of the pathology of the 

 disease. 



The disease, founder, does not lie in the feet of 

 horses. That the feet contract, I will allow, but the 

 contraction is the efliect, and not the cause, of the 

 disease. A foundered horse is in prec sely the same 

 pathological condition that a man is with a rheuma- 

 tic fever ; experiences the secondary effects in like 

 manner, from subsequent exposure. 



The cause of founder is attributed to a sudden 

 cessation of the perspiratory action, while the horse 

 is in a heated condition, resulting from too free use 

 of cold water, standing in a cool current of air, or 



