368 



Purina: and Burning. 



Vol. III. 



sian horse. From this breed, London is sup- 

 plied with ponies of superlative beauty: they 

 are as perfectly formed as horses of 16 liands 

 hio-h, and may be denominated tiie ditidnulive 

 horse, while tliose of small size, bred in other 

 parts of the country are more properly the di- 

 mished horse, whose want of size has been oc- 

 casioned by defect of e:rowtl^ in their prog-eni- 

 tors, or, want of food ; and may be compared to 

 dwarfs in the human species, who are almost 

 always ill-formed and ill-favored. Great num- 

 bers of these ponies are reared in some of 

 the mountains in Wales, and are well or ill- 

 formed, generous or evil in their dispositions, 

 according to the tracts upon which they have 

 been bred and reared : the form of the head 

 and the setting on to the neck, indicating to a 

 certainty, the difference in temper and trac- 

 tabijity. It is not uncommon to see, on driv- 

 ing down a wild drove of horses from the 

 mountain, an old brood mare, more than 20 

 years of age, with three fine colts of the last 

 three years, following her, the two youngest 

 sucking her at the same time, one on each 

 side ! These foals remain with the mnres, 

 and are never taken off to be weaned, and yet 

 the young foal is not stunted in his growth by 

 this division of the mother's substance. I 

 have selected a poney from such a drove, that 

 had never before been in hand ; docked his 

 tail, had shoes put upon him, bridled and sad- 

 dled him, and rode him five miles, perfectly 

 gentle and quiet, all in one and the same day ! 

 Many of these animals bring large prices, and 

 are used for shooting ponies, their quick and 

 tractable dispositions fitting them peculiarly 

 for this business, the sportsman often shooting 

 his birds while sitting on the back of his po- 

 ney ! 



The black cattle of this district, are as dis- 

 tinct a race as the horses, showing themselves 

 to belong to the Spanish breed ; and these also 

 can be traced all along the Welsh coast even 

 to the Shetland and Orkney isles, where the 

 sheep still produce the finest wool in the 

 world, finer even than that which is at this 

 day produced by their ancestors in Spain. — 

 Stockings made of Shetland wool have been 

 sold for fourteen guineas a pair ! of surpassing 

 fineness and softness of texture ; a pair of 

 Ihem it is said, have been drawn through a 

 lady's wedding ring ! , f. D. C. 



riiiladolphia, June 29th, ]8:i9. 



Dry Wood. 



Dry wood will produce, on a moderate es- 

 timate, twice as much heat as the same 

 amount of green wood; and saves much 

 trouble in kindling fires on cold mornings. — 

 To suppose that green wood will actually 

 cause more heat in burning than dry, is er- 

 roneous. 



Parita;; and Burning. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Sir — A friend has just left me for the Prai- 

 ries in Illinois, where he intends cultivating 

 the sugar beet in large quantities, first for the 

 supply of cattle during the winter, but even- 

 tually for the making of sugar. He de- 

 scribes the land of his new purchase as truly 

 enviable — the surface soil two and tiiree feet 

 in thickness ; a dark sandy loam, resting on a 

 calcareous gravel, of a richness not to be de- 

 scribed. The vegetables are all gigantic ; 

 he mentions a ratlish which he pulled in a 

 garden, two feet long, and eight inches diam- 

 eter ! which the owner assured him was not 

 one of the largest which had grown on the 

 same spot, and he told him of some animal, 

 who had reared a family in one that had be- 

 come hollow ! 



He described the mode of breaking up these 

 prairie lands, which must be any thing but 

 profitable. The neighboring farmers, who 

 have large ploughs for the purpose, of a pe- 

 culiar construction, do the business for hire, 

 turning up the surface to a great depth in 

 large and broad furrows, which, to the depth 

 so turned, presents nothing but a mass of roots 

 of the prairie grass, prairie rose, &c., seeming 

 to defy all farther attempts at pulverization. 

 They however declare, that this is the only 

 mode by which the work can be eflected ; but 

 to those who have seen the effects of paring 

 and burning such a mass of vegetable sub- 

 stances, such uncouth measures appear any 

 thing but desirable, and one almost longs for 

 an opportunity of showing the superiority of 

 a system, which is so peculiarly adapted to 

 such circumstances. 



Much land, not worth a rent of 2.5 cents 

 per acre, has been advanced by paring and 

 burning to thirty times that sum on 21 years 

 leases. If it is done in a workmanlike man- 

 ner, it will yield from 50 to 60 cart loads of 

 40 bushels each, or 2000 bushels of ashes per 

 acre. This operation destroysall grubs, bugs, 

 worms and insects with their whole progen}', 

 fggs, &c., which any farmer would be glad 

 to get rid of at the expense of the whole 

 work, and at the same moment it converts 

 mere rubbish into fertilizing manure. An 

 improver of land should cordially embrace a 

 method, singular in that adnWrable circum- 

 stance, of reducing the wildest, bleakest dus- 

 ert, in the space of a single month, into pro- 

 fitable crops. Mr. Exter, a gentleman who 

 had long practised it, tells us that some years 

 ago he broke up a grass field, paring and burn- 

 ing one half and fallowing the remainder 

 by three plougliings and six harrowings, the 

 land of e(iual goodness ; and the whole was 

 Ihen sown with wheat. The burnt part pro- 

 duced 35 bushels per acre, the fallowed half 



