THE GENESEE FARMER. 



151 



DISEASES OF THE HOBSE. 



Foot Evil. — Pound up and melt an ounce of 

 brimstone in a large ladle. When properly melted, 

 add one ounce of tar ; and while the whole is boil- 

 ing, add one table-spoonful of spirits of turpentine, 

 raise the foot and pour it on to the diseased part, 

 first having cleaned the foot well witli soap suds, 

 aiid got dry. The horse should be kept out of the 

 mud, and fed on light food, green if possible. Two 

 applications a week wUl soon cure most of cases. 



FoK Big Heap, Big Jaw, &c. — Keep the horse 

 out of the wet weather, feed on bran and a small 

 portion scalded oats ; no corn, but green feed if it 

 can be had. Give him three table-spoonfnls of 

 powdered limestone two or three times a week, 

 and persevere. It may take several pounds. I 

 knew one horse to take seven or eight pounds 

 before a cure was effected, when the swelling on 

 the head entirely disappeared without a scar, and 

 he was afterwards a valuable horse. 



For Poll Evil. — Fry green May apple root in 

 tallow until the tallow is completely saturated with 

 its juice. The strength of a peck of roots may be 

 got out with two jjounds of tallow. AVhen wanted 

 for use, melt it and apply it with a swab made 

 round a stick, with cotton rags. Apply it about 

 every third day. If no matter has collected, there 

 win be no scar ; but if it is broken, apply it to the 

 opening or tube from which the matter issues. — 

 When a scab forms so as to prevent the free egress 

 of matter, it must be removed, — easily done with 

 the finger nail. This has- never been in print, I 

 presume, and doubtless many others as well as 

 myself could give valuable information to our race, 

 were we not too selfish. I say come one come all 

 of the readers of the Genesee Farmer^ let us see 

 how much more interesting we can make its col- 

 umns than any other agricultural paper of its size. 

 More anon. a. yotjxg. 



Neosho, Mo., Feby. 25, 1858. 



BUILDING STONE FENCES. 



Editors Genesee Farmer: — One of the best 

 methods of building stone fence to prevent sheep 

 from jumping it, is as follows : 



In a fence of this kind there must be a post every 

 eight or ten feet, and two boards morticed in the 

 posts above the stone. The boards should be six- 

 teen or twenty feet long, six inches wide, and an 

 inch and a quarter thick. The posts should be cut 

 five feet and a half long, split out the same as for 

 post and board fence, or not quite so heavy. The 

 posts at each end of the boards may have two mor- 

 tices; the first may be cut two inches from the 

 end, and the second, eight inches below the first, 

 leaving a space of eight inches between the boards. 

 The posts may be set one foot deep in the ground, 

 vrliich will make the fence four feet and a half high. 



When proceeding to build a fence of this kind, 

 first stake off the ground for the fence, then sink a 



hole one foot deep, put in a morticed post firm, and 

 another the length of your boards distant from the 

 first ; then put in the l)oards and tighten the posts 

 firmly. The ends of the boards should be dressed 

 oft' so as to form a splice of about three inches. 

 The middle post may be put in after the morticed 

 posts and boards are put up. A panel will then be 

 ready for the stone wall. The foundation should 

 be laid on the top of the ground and two and a half 

 or three feet wide, built up as a double wall bat- 

 tered on both sides, tapering up to the lowermost 

 board. The posts should be walled in carefully 

 with large stones, so that they will stand firm when 

 rotted oif at the ground. All sorts of stone may 

 be used in a fence of this kind. It makes a very 

 cheap, handsome, and durable fence. 



I have two hundred rods of this kind of fence on 

 mjr farm. Some of it has been built ten years, and 

 the wall i,s sound yet and the posts stand firm. 

 There is no danger of the wind upsetting it. The 

 cost is about seventy-five cents per rod, I feel sat- 

 isfied that sheep are not so read}' to jump a fence 

 built on this plan. In the fall of 1856 and '57, I 

 had two rams in one field and thirty-five ewes in 

 another, and a fence built on this plan was all that 

 kept them apart. The rams made great efforts to 

 jump, but were obliged to stay on their own side 

 of the fence. john kisee. 



SiippenviUe, Clarion Co., Pa. 



OAKS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



Trees, whether individually or in groups, have 

 ever been considered of peculiar interest. The 

 grove is associated with the earliest records of sci- 

 ence ; and among physical objects, the forest may 

 be considered as exacting the most important influ- 

 ence upon the moral world. This idea is beauti- 

 fully illustrated by Humbolt, in his Tablan de la ' 

 Nature. "The species of animals," says he, "are 

 comparatively few in number, and their fleetness 

 is in general, such as to remove them quickly from 

 our sight. Vegetables, on the contrary, act upon 

 our imagination by their immobility and by their 

 grandeur. Their size indicates their age, and it is 

 in vegetables alone, that with this age is associated 

 the expression of a force which is constantly 

 renewed. The gigantic draggonnier {Dracona 

 draca,) which I have seen in the Canary islands, 

 is sixteen feet in diameter, and enjoying an eternal 

 youth; bears still its flowers and its fruits. When 

 the Bethenconas, French -adventurers, made in the 

 10th ?entury, the conquest of the Fortunate Isles, 

 the draggonnier of Orotava, as sacred to the natives 

 of these islands as the olive of the citadel of Athens, 

 or the elm of Ephesus, was as colossal in its dimen- 

 sions as at the present time. In the torrid zone, 

 a forest of Cisalpina and of ffi/menia, is perhaps 

 the monument of a thousand years." 



Though we cannot boast of such " monuments " 

 as these, the oaks of the forest are known with 

 tolerably certainty to attain the ages of 800 or 900 

 years, and are the most aged trees that we possess. 

 The pines are stated by Dr. Williams, in his his- 

 tory of Vennont, to be from 350 to 400 years. — 

 This information is obtained by counting the num- 

 ber of concentric layers or rings, a metliod of com- 

 putation, the accuarcy of which is admitted by a 

 large majority of vegetable physiologists. 



