1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



329 



arranged, give it time to right itself, not load 

 its weakened vessels with new work in digesting 

 and disposing of new materials wliich furnish the 

 elements of irritating substances, requiring med- 

 icines to remove them from the system. — Am. Ag- 

 riadturist. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



Mn. Editor : — Permit mc to inquire through 

 the medium of your paper the best mode of pre 

 venting the maggot from eating onions ? I have 

 been very mucli troubled with them for two years 

 past ; cannot some of your subscribers inform us 

 what will stop them? R. IIakriman. 



Hcnniker, May 30, 1854. 



Remarics. — "J. M. T.," in the Maine Far 

 mcr, says the egg of the onion maggot is de- 

 posited in the skin of the seed, and that by soak- 

 ing the seed in water, a little warmer than blood 

 warm, tlie egg will be destroyed and the crop 

 saved. He also recommends soaking the seed in 

 weak copperas or saltj)etre water. 



Daniel I/IGUTO.v, in the Monthly Farmer for 

 1852, says that sprinkling the young onions with 

 tobacco water will destroy the egg, which is de- 

 posited on the top, snug to the growing onion. 

 "U. S.," of Sagamore Fftrm, Rye, N. II., says he 

 tried the tobacco water after the maggot had de- 

 stroyed a portion of the crop, and completely 

 arrested their progress 



WHERE SUALL I FARM IT ? 



Mr. Editor : — There was an inquiry made 

 through your columns a few weeks ago, where a 

 man could lay out a small amount of money in 

 a farm in Massachusetts at the best advantage, 

 say from ,slOOO to $2500? Please answer, and 

 you will oblige many that are now thinking of 

 going to farming. u. s. s. 



Lawrence, May 29, 1854. 



Re-uarks. — We are glad to hear that many are 

 looking for farms, and it would bo pleasant for 

 us to be able to direct each and all to that El Do- 

 rado of human aspirations — a good farm. But 

 ■we are, unfortunately, not able to answer the 

 question propounded. Tilings are nearly equal, 

 whether one is located near a city and a good 

 market or remote from them ; if near, the first 

 cost of the farm more, and taxes and living ev- 

 ery way is more expensive, than if a little remote. 

 You most inquire, and take a stroll yourself 

 through such towns as seem to offer the best ad- 

 vantages. 



CRIIIUING. 



Mr. Editor : — I would inquire through your 

 invaluable paper whether cribbing (so called from 

 their gnawmg the crib) in horses is considered a 

 disease, and if so, is there any remedy that can be 

 depended upon as a cure? W. Buguee. 



East Barnard, Vt., May 29, 1854. 



Remarks. — We concur with the opinion below, 

 from Dr. Dadd's Modem llorse Doctor : 



The act of cribbing consists in grasping the 

 crib, on a given point, with one or both jaws, at 

 the same time uttering a laryngeal sound, resem- 

 bling a grunt. A cribbing Jiorse has generally 

 been considered unsound, but we know not on 

 what grounds ; for we look upon a horse as sound 

 so long as he can perform the duties of an ordi- 

 nary horse without inconvenience or lameness; he 

 may have defects, l)oth as regards form and action; 

 but such are not to l)e construed into unsound- 

 ness. It is a remarka1)le fi^t that very few crib- 

 bers fail to perform the duties required of them. 

 They may, once in a while, liave an attack of col- 

 ic ; but that is not due tocriblting, but to indiges- 

 tion ; still the popular belief is, tliat cribbing is 

 either the result or cause of colic. The author's 

 oiiinion is, that cribbing is a habit acquired or 

 hereditary ; that the sound or grunt originates ia 

 the vocal organs, from air admitted witliin them 

 and expelled without entering the trachea, and 

 in consequence of air supplied to them from the 

 lungs during expiration. The grunt is evidently 

 an expiatory murmur, and tlie air necessary for 

 producing such is derived from one of these 

 sources. Some contend that the animal swallows 

 wind and thus creates flatulency, colic, &c. ; but 

 the idea is perfectly ridiculous. ' It is our firm be- 

 Jitf, based upon a knowledge of tlie structure of 

 the parts involved in the mechanism of respira- 

 tion that neither man nor horse, Ity voluntary act, 

 ever has power to svv allow atmospheric air. The 

 organs of respiration and deglutition differ so ma- 

 terially in their anatomical and phyniologieal rela- 

 tions — have each a special function to perform — 

 tliat it is impossible for one to perform the func- 

 tion of the other which should be the case if a 

 horse actually swallows wind — atmospheric air — 

 and then, as some others contend, regurgitated it. 

 On these grounds, we question, therefore, the 

 correctness of either theory. If horses possessed 

 the power of eructating wind or gas from the 

 stomach, we miglit expect in violent cases of flatu- 

 lency, to notice its escape in this way, which the 

 author has never yet been able to do. Crib-biting, 

 therefore, being nothing but a habit or vice, can 

 only be corrected by means and appliances which 

 prevent the subject from indulging in it. In this 

 view, all sorts of contrivances have been resorted 

 to, and among them was one which was invented 

 by Sir Peter Sawin. The space between the bot- 

 tom of the hay-rack and the outer edge of the 

 manger is boarded over, forming a steep, inclined 

 plane, leaving in this way, no edge or point on 

 which the horse can fix liis jaw. Attached is a 

 glass or slide opened only at mcal-time. lie uses 

 common bar soap as a preventive, wliich is to be 

 rubl)ed on the edge or outside of the crib, and ro- 

 newed as often a6 necessary. 



David Gay, of New London, N. H., says gar- 

 get root, steeped in water, will cure sick pigs, if 

 tliey are allowed to drink as much as they will of 

 the liquor. It is a sure remedy for blind stag- 

 gers, and costiveness, and excellent in other die- 

 eases. It is also good for cattle. 



PRUNING EVERGREE.NS. 



Levi Parker, of Wilmington, states that pines 

 and other evergreen trees pruned in the latter 

 part of May or early in Juno will not bleed or be 



