304 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



July 



lime. On the third quarter, the same muck and 

 12 bushels of unlcaohed ashes, and on tlie fourth 

 quarter not anything, and let us know the result. 

 Sinclair, in his Code of Agriculture, classi- 

 fies loams into four sorts: 1. Sandy ; 2. Gravelly; 

 3. Clayey ; and 4. Peaty ; but if decomposed slate 

 contains a considerable portion of lime, and much 

 of the remaiug portions of the soil are evidently 

 of vegetable origin, we do not see why the term 

 "calcareous loam" should not be used as well as 

 "sandy," "gravelly," or "clayey" loam. 



For the New England Farmer. 



"A HORSE'S FOOT"-AGAIN. 



Messks. Editors : — I was struck with the won- 

 derful mechanism of the horse's foot, so minutely 

 described in your last issue. No one, of the most 

 common observation could read it without being 

 instructed, yet this same foot, so necessary to the 

 wants of man, is the careless concei'n of many. 



Now R'ith your permission, T will give you my 

 own cxprrience in this matter. I purchased a mare, 

 originally sound. Her feet became tender ; slie 

 had a colt. At three yeais old, her feet became 

 tender also. The question arose, did the colt inher- 

 it tender feet ? Is disease entailed with the brute 

 creation 1 1 found it for my interest to sell the 

 animals. It was painful to drive them on a hard 

 road. I then purchased a powerful mare, with 

 great action. In a few months she began to crip- 

 ple, and showed stiflfness in the limbs. I investi- 

 gated and sought the cause. She stood on the 

 same soft bed occupied by her predecessor, which 

 was the same with the colt. This was her ma- 

 nure, &c., with straw litter thrown in daily to 

 keep her clean. It was suffex-ed to remain till 2^ 

 feet deep, then pitched out. It was found to con- 

 tain great heat and strongly impregnated irifh am- 

 monia. The hoofs stood in constant contact with 

 heat, while the body of the animal was ex^^erienc- 

 ing the heat of a hoi bed while lying down. There 

 was no escaping it. The conclusion was, that we 

 had ignorautly been manufacturing tender feet, 

 and the proof was apparent in this way. I sub- 

 stituted a plank foor, washed the legs and feet out 

 clean, with cold water, 2 or 3 times a day, which 

 retarded the fever in the limbs, and brought a re- 

 turning moisture to the hoofs. She soon recovered 

 in every respect, which convinced me of the too 

 common error m the country of keeping horses on 

 a hot manure bed instead of a hard floor. 



From whence comes pinched feet, corns, tender- 

 ness, and swellings of the fetlock joints and legs? 

 Do not too many cases begin in the pens where the 

 colts are wintered, and stand in their filth, with 

 occasional littering, for decency's sake? 



Are not their young, tender feet susceptible 

 of disease, and are not many contracted in this 

 way? My experience satisfied me, and I was in 

 season to save as sound an animal as ever travelled 

 from impending ruin. 1 could trace no other 

 cause. Should this communication meet the eye 

 of Doct. Dadd, wo should be happy to hear his 

 views in regard to it, through your excellent pa- 

 per. 



Knowledge upon this subject can do the horse 

 growing farmers no harm — pei'haps, much good 

 What he begins ignorantly to accomplish, is easi- 



ly finished by an unskilful farmer, and a hard, 

 crue/ driver. Yours truly, u.p. 



New YorJc, June 13, 1854. 



Remarks. — There are few subjects which demand 

 the attention of the farmer more than that of the 

 proper management of the horse. A good horse, 

 sound and kind, one that will work in any har- 

 ness, — one that is not skittish, will not stumble, 

 kick, overreach or interfere, and that is active in 

 the carriage as well as sttady on the farm, is now 

 considered so valuable by those keeping but one, 

 that scarcely any price will induce its owner to 

 part with him. Such animals are very rare. The 

 practice alluded to by our intelligent and observing 

 correspondent, is quite common, and ouglit to be 

 discontinued, and the floor occasionally washed 

 with cold water and sprinkled with plaster or weak 

 copperas water. The efforts of Dr. Dadd, a vet- 

 erinary surgeon in this city, are calling more at- 

 tention to the horse than has been given him here- 

 tofore, and we think will have a decided tendency, 

 not only to improvement in the animal himself, 

 but in the modes of treating and managing him. 



CORK. 



Cork is nothing more or less than the bark of 

 an evergreen oak, growing principally in Spain 

 .md other countries bordering the ]Mediterranean ; 

 in English gardens it is only a curiosity. "When 

 the cork-tree is about fifteen years old, the bark 

 has attained a thickness and quality suitable for 

 manufacturing purposes ; and after stripping, a 

 farther growth of eiglit years produces a second 

 crop ; and so on at intervals of even ten or twelve 

 crops. The bark is stripped from the tree, in 

 pieces of two or three inches in thickness of con- 

 siderable length, and of such width as to retain 

 the curved foi'm of tiie trunk whence it has been 

 strip2:)ed.*The bark peeler or cutter makes a slit 

 in the bark with a knife, perpendicularly from 

 the top of the trunk to tlie Iwttom ; he makes an- 

 other incision parallel to, and at some distance 

 from the former ; and two shorter horizontal cuts 

 at the top and bottom. For stripping off the piece 

 thus isolated, he uses a kind of knife with two 

 handles and a curved blade. Sometimes after the 

 cuts have been made, he leaves the tree^to throw 

 off the bark by the spontaneous action of the veg- 

 etation within the trunk. The detached jjieces 

 are soaked in water, and are placed over a fire 

 when nearly dry ; they are, in fact, scorched a lit- 

 tle on both sides, and acquire a somewhat more 

 compact texture by this scorching. In order to 

 get rid of the curvature, and to bring them flat, 

 they are pressed down with weights while yet 

 hot. 



To Farmers. — The Hartford Times mentions a 

 farmer who took up a fence after it had been 

 standing fourteen years, and found some of the 

 posts nearly sound, and others rotted off at the 

 bottom. Looking for the cause, he discovered 

 that the posts which had been inverted from the 

 way they grew were solid, and those which had 

 been set as they grew were rotted off. This is cer- 

 tainly an incident worthy of being noted by our 

 farmers. 



