276 



NEW E^^^!LAM) FARiMEU, 



Mar. 19, 1830. ' U 



L.1BRARV OF ITSEFUL. KNOWLEDGE. 



lalUinti from fage Sfl8.) 

 CHAPTER IT. 



riir. DHII'.KCNT HKICEDS OK ENULISH 



HOUSES. 



THE nOAD HORSE.' 



The points of sliapc iiiosl essential to bf attend- 

 ed lo ill the choice of a hnckney, arc — the shoiil- 

 dcra -ind the foro le>,'9 and feet : bicausc a hor.-e 

 whose shoulders are properly formed and placed 

 is not liable to fall down : and beeaiise his soijnd- 

 ncss depends cliiefly upon his leps iiiid iV-et. The 

 shoulder should not be too upii!,'lit, hut should 

 slope backwards from the sliouldor point to the 



withers. It is desirable, if the horse is intended _ „ 



to earrv a loan of much wei^'ht, that the shoul- oflier. There can he no doubt that, taking bulk 

 ders should be rather thii-k than thin ; hut it is es- for hulk a mare is stronfrer and more lasting than 

 senlial that ihey should not be too large at the a frelding ; and, in ad.lilion to thi.s the farmer has 

 imints. .V horse whose shoulders are good, stands, ] her to breed from. This and the profit which is 

 when in a natural position, with his fore legs in a 



saddle. The little farmer does not want a sliewy, 

 complete hackney. Ho will be content if he is 

 tolerably well carried; ami (if he has taken a little 

 care in the i lioice of Ins horse ; has selected one 

 with found h^et, shoulders not too thick, and legs 

 not too much under him ; and, if he keeps him 

 in good condition, and does not scandalously over- 

 wi'igl.l him,) the live dayscaning or harrow-work 

 will not, to any material degree, unfit him for the 

 saddle ; especially if the rider bears in mind what 

 we have termed the golden rule of horseuian~liip, 

 always a lUtU lofett the mouth of llie animal he 

 is upon. 



A farmer, and more particularly, a small farm- 

 er, will prefer a mare to a gelding, both for riding 

 and driving. She will not cost him so nni<li at 

 first ; and he will get a great deal more work out 



ill do to breed from ; and, if hej V 

 prancing stallion, with u higli}t< 



ne perpendicular to the ground ; it is therefore 

 very desirable that the piircliaser should see him 

 in the stable, and before he has been moved, for 

 he will then find him in his natural position, in 

 wHiicli it may be ditlicult lo place him after he 

 has been once disturl)c<l. Another mode of as- 

 certaining whether the shoulders are properly 

 placed is, by allowing tl.e hor.se to walk past 



attached to it is well known in the breeding coun- 

 tries; but why the breciling of liorecs for sale 

 should he almost exclusively confined to a few 

 iiorlhern (listricts it is not easy to explain. Wher- 

 ever thero are good horses, with convenieiice for 

 rearing the colts, the farmer may start as a breed- 

 er with a good chance of success. 



If he has a few useful cart-mares, and crosses 

 them with a well-knit, \ half-bred hor.se, he will 



you, and to observe wliether he places his fore certainly have colts useful for every purpose of 

 foot more forward than the shoulder point when 

 he puts it on the ground. A horse whose 

 shoulders are properly formed will always do so; 

 one whose shoulders are upright, cannot. The 

 fore quarters of a liorss intended to be used as a 

 hackney constitute an essential point ; his carcase 

 should be round, and his ribs deep. \ horse's 

 fore leg, of the proper form, should be flat, and 

 as large under the knee as it is just above the fet- 

 lock. Thejiastern should be so jointed to the leg 

 at the footlock, that the horse should neither turn 

 his feet out nor in; but it is Fess objectionable that 

 a horse should turn his feet a little outwards, pro- 

 vided it is not so miioh ns to make him iiit his fet- 

 locks, than that ho should turn them inwards. 



TIIF. F.\RMER S HORSE. 



The Far>ikr's Horse is an animal of all 

 icork ; to be ridden occasionally to market or for 

 pleasure, Imt to be principally employed for 

 draught. He should he liigher than Ihe road 

 horse: about fifteen hands and two inches may 

 he taken as the best standaril. .\ horse with a 

 •-houlder thicker, lower, and less slanting than 

 .'. ould be chosen in a hackney, will better suit the 

 . uUar; and collar-work will he chiefly re,-)uired of 

 him. .'\ stout compact horse should he selected, 

 vet not a heavy eloddy one. Some blood will be 

 desirable, but tho halfdired horse will generally 

 best suit the farmer's purpose. He should have 

 weight enough to throw into the collar, and sufti- 

 cienl activity to get over the ground. 



Farmers are now beginning to he uwnre of the 

 superiority of the modernte-si/ed, strong, active 

 horse over the bulkier, but slower animal of for- 

 mer days. It Is not only in harvest, and when a 

 frosty morning must be seized to cart manure, 

 that this is perceived, but in the cvcry-day work of 

 the farm, the saving of time, and tho saving of 

 provender too, will be very considerable in the 

 course of the year. 



It has often been said, that a horse used much 

 for draught is neither pleasant nor safe for the 



agriculture, and some of them sufficiently light 

 for the van, post-chaise, or coach. If he has a 

 superior mare, one of the old Cleaveland breed, 

 and puts her to a bony three-fourths-hred horse, 

 or, if he can find one stout and eonipai!! enough, 

 a seven-(;ights, or a thorough-bred one, he will 

 have a fair chance to rear a colt that will amply 

 rc[)«y him us a hunter or a carriage-horse. 



The mare needs not to be idle while she is 

 breeding. She may ho work'jd moderately al- 

 most to the period of her foaling, and with bene- 

 fit rather than otherwise : nor is there occasion 

 that much of her time should he lost even while 

 she is siukling. Ifslie is put to horse in June, 

 Vhe foaling time will fall, and the loss of labor will 

 occur, in the most leisure time in the year. 



Tliereare two rocks on which the farmer of- 

 ten strikes : ho pays little attention to the kind of 

 maro, and less lo the proper nonrishment of the 

 foal. It may he laid down as a maxim in breed- 

 ing, however ^'eneral maybe tho prejudice against 

 it, that the value of the foal depends a great deal 

 more on the dam than on the sire. The Arabs 

 are convinceil of ihis, for no i)rice will buy from 

 them a likely marc of the highest blood ; and they 

 trace back the pedigree of their horses, not 

 through the sire, hut the dam. The Greek sport- 

 ing men held the same opinion, h)iig before the 

 Arab horse was known. ' What chance of win- 

 ning have I ?' inquired a youth whose horse was 

 ahmit to start on tho Olympic course. 'Ask the 

 dam of your iiorse' was the reply, founded on ex- 

 perience*. 



The farmer, however, too frrquonily thinks 



• lUshop Hall, who wrot«in the time of Kllzubcth. in- 

 timates tliiit such was the opinion of hoiseiiiou at that pe- 

 riod. He asks in one ol his .satires (Lib. iv.) 



' dost thou prize 



Thy hruto licnsl*' worth hf their dams' qualilips ' 

 Say'jt Ihoii this roll iliull pr->vi> a swill piic'd steed 

 Onely bocanso a Jennet did liim breed ? 

 Or (ay'iit tlmu this tiniio hor8» Khali win tho prito, 

 Becauao his dun was swiftest Tranclafico ?' 



that any tnare wi 



can find a great 



Bounding name, and loaded with fat, he reckous 



on having a valuable colt: and uhoiild he fail 



he attributes the fault to the horse, and not to his 



own want of judgment. Far more (lepends on 



the mare than is dreamt of in his philosophy. 



If he has an undersized, or a blemished, or un- 

 tound mare, let him continue to use her on his 

 farm ; she probably did not cost him much, 

 and she w ill beat any gchling ; but let him not 

 think of breeding from her. A roomy mare, 

 with some Idood in her, and with most of the 

 good [loints, will alone answer his purpose. She 

 may hear about her the marks of honest work (the 

 fewer of these, however, the belter), but she inusl 

 not have any disease. There is scarcely a mala-' 

 dy to whiidi the horse is subject that is not here- 

 ditary. Contracted feet, curb, sjiavin, roaring, 

 thick wind, blindness, notoriously descend from 

 the sire or dam to the foal. Mr Roberts in that 

 useful publication, ' The Veterinarian,' says, ' Ln?: 

 summer I was asked my opinion of a horse. I 

 approved of his formation with the exccjitiou of 

 the hoeks, w here there happened lo be two curbs 

 I was then told that his sister was in the same 

 stable : she also had two curbs. Knowing 

 the sire to be free from these defects, I inquirejlm 

 about the dam : she also bad two confirmed' ;. 

 curbs. She was at this lime running %vith 

 a foal of hers, two years olil, by another horse, and 

 he also had two curbs.' 



The foal should be well taken care of for the 

 first two years. It is bad policy to stint, or half 

 .starve the growing colt. 



The colt, whether intended for a hunter or 

 ,-arriage-liorse, may be earlier hanillcd. but shoul 1 

 not be hroken-in until three years old ; and ihtn 

 the very best breaking-in for the carriage horse is 

 to make him earn a liltle of his living. Let him 

 he put to a harrow or light plough. (Joing over 

 the rough ground will teach liini to lift his feet 

 well, and give him that high and shewy action, 

 excusable in a carriage-horse, hut excusable in |i 

 no other. In the siiececding winter he will be 

 nerfcctlv nadv for the town or ciuintry market. 



IIORTICULT VRE. 



MELONS. 



Mr Fessenden — It is only within a few )*'■ 

 years that those choice and delicious varieties oC "^ 

 the melon, calli'd Cantelopes, have been common 

 in our market; a fruit which rivals ihe peach nnj 

 pine-apple in exctllence, and requires but liiilo 

 couiparative labor and attention, to be produced 

 III the open air, all over New England. As it is be- 

 coming geuerally known, and highly appreciated. 

 I enclose extracts, conlaining two methods of culti- 

 vation, recently introduced, by the French garden- 

 ers, which may bo advantageously adopted in 

 this country. 



The Musk, Cnntelope and Water Jlelons be- 

 long to dilTercnt genera, — Otrumi* and CitctirbSla. 



The Ciieuniis includes the Cucumber, — C. Sa- 

 livua ; and the Mu.«k and Cantelope Melons, — C 

 Melo. The Cucurlit^t includes the (Jourd, C. La- 

 "■tiirtrio ; the rumpUin, — C. Pepo ; tho Squash,— 

 C. Meloprpo ; nn<l the Water Melon, — C. Cilrullii). 



The Ciicumis .Melo embraces num«rous varie- 

 ties, which may bo divided into two groups, — 

 the Musk or Common Melon and the Cantelope- 

 Thrv are supposed, by Linna<us, to bo natives of • 

 Tartarv. 



