476 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



they whip them brutally every time they commit 

 any little offense, just as though they must. They 

 do not mean to be inhuman, but they do it from a 

 perverse habit. Now this whole whipping and 

 cudgeling process is calculated to beat the life out 

 of oxen and spoil the disiposition of horses. I 

 know of no more effectual way to spoil both horses 

 and oxen than to whip them much. One hard 

 whipping is worse than a whole week's work, in its 

 wear and tear on an animal. We have seldom 

 seen an animal in good plight that is whipped 

 much. Every man who keeps working animals 

 has to pay for the whipping in the extra amount of 

 feed it requires to keep them, as well as in the bad 

 work they do, and in the time lost and strength 

 wasted in the process. 



We would not discard the whip altogether ; 

 sometimes it is best to use it, and use it thorough- 

 ly ; but not often — not as a daily habit. We know, 

 from much experience with working animals, that 

 the whip is seldom needed. The most of horses 

 never need it. The colt may be broken to work 

 better without the whip than with it. The greal 

 majority of the bad habits of horses are acquired 

 by being whipped. The great majority of dull 

 and disobedient oxen are made so by the crack and 

 fall of the whip. The spint of both horses and 

 oxen are broken down by the whip. It is a posi 

 tive injury to the strengch and disposition of ani- 

 mals to whip them. The best whip is good feed. 

 Work with animals must become a habit. Begin 

 ■with a little ; increase as the habit becomes fixed. 

 First they must get used to the yoke and harness ; 

 then get used to being guided ; then used to work. 

 The whole process to be well done must be the 

 process of forming habits in the animals. Any at- 

 tempt to hasten the end by whipping is only to 

 thwart the object. Animals take on habits very 

 readily if kindly treated. "The merciful man is 

 merciful to his beast." — Valley Farmer. 



also arrested in their development by it, and pre- 

 vented from becoming flies or moths. It arrests 

 putrescence, and for many vegetables is one of the 

 most healthy and stimulating articles that can be 

 named in the whole list of manures. " Pigs," says 

 a late writer, " like to eat charcoal, and are thought 

 to fatten on it, and in the course of the summer 

 months I frequently have it thrown into the pen. 

 It makes the manure so much the more valuable 

 that I find it worth while to buy it for that pur- 

 pose." 



By a little timely care with regard to such things, 

 much may be done to keep a pure atmosphere 

 about the premises, to preserve health, and, where 

 there is a farm or garden, to increase the amount 

 and value of fertilizing matter. 



CHARCOAL. 



At this season of the year, and especially when 

 vegetation is so rank, and deleterious exhalations 

 abundant, some deodorizer should be used wher- 

 ever animal or vegetable matters are in a state of 

 decomposition. Chloride of lime is commonly 

 used, but there are several other things, both cheap 

 and effectual. Dry and fine muck or meadow mud 

 is a great absorber, and is excellent where it is de- 

 sirable to increase the bulk of the decomposing 

 matter. Comm,on earth, sawdust, or even sand, is 

 better than nothing. 



Among the substances, however, that can be 

 cheaply obtained, and often in large quantities, is 

 the fine charcoal from coal hearths, or from the 

 wagons and yards where it is deposited in cities. 

 When it can be plentifully obtained, this finely pul- 

 verized charcoal should be thickly spread over ev- 

 ery place where filth has accumulated. It not only 

 has a tendency to prevent unpleasant smells, which 

 is very desirable, but it aiso, at the same time, ab- 

 sorbs that which enables it to act more immediate- 

 ly and powerfully as a manure, when appropriated 

 to lands under cultivation. The larvae of insects are 



For the New England Farmer. 



LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



Salisbury, England, July 21, 1857. 

 Mr Dear Brown : — The last letter I sent you 

 was wiitten, though not dated, I think away up in 

 the middle of Derbyshire, though it related to agri- 

 culture in Suffolk County, which is at the extreme 

 south-east of England. After passing a week in Suf- 

 folk, I spent a jery pleasant and profitable week in 

 Lincolnshire, with my friends whom I mentioned 

 meeting on my second day in England at old Chester. 

 They welcomed me as if I might have been an "angel 

 unawares," and showed me at the same time the best 

 kind of agriculture and hospitality, and I have parted 

 from them with the impression that the best of people 

 and the best of crops may be found in Lincolnshire, 

 although a considerable portion of the country is 

 known by the names of the Lincolnshire Fens, and 

 Lincoln Heath, the former taving been formerly 

 marsh flowed by the sea, and the latter a dreary 

 waste, so desert that the lordly proprietor actually 

 erected upon it a high stone tower to guide travel- 

 lers in their way by day and nigh", a light being 

 kept burning in the darkness for ths-t purpose by 

 the tenant of a cottage built at the foot of the tow- 

 er. The tower is still standing, with a statue of 

 George the Third on its top, placed there in the year 

 facetiously termed by the English "the year of jubi- 

 lee," being the fiftieth year of the reign of that il- 

 lustrious monarch, whose wisdom is so well illustra- 

 ted by Peter Pindar in the Lousiad, and the story 

 of the plum puddmg, in which His Majesty is rep- 

 resented, you will recollect, as sorely puzzled as to 

 how the plums could possibiy have got Inside, see- 

 ing there was no hole. As I looked at the fine 

 statue surmounting the lofty tower, the words of 

 the bard, in which be portrays the consternation of 

 the king's household at being ordered to shave all 

 their heads, would not Keep out of mind — 

 "And all tie palace echoed, wear a wig." 



