424 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



welL I know by many years' experience, that 

 this is the best and most eifectual way to cure the 

 scarlet fever. Dr. Wm. Fields. 



Wilmington, Del., Dec. 12, 1851. 



THE KANSAS EMIGRANT. 



BY J. G. WHITTIKR. 



We cross the prairie as of old 



The pilgrims crossed the sea, 

 To make the West, as they the Hast, 



The homestead of the free. 



We go to rear a wall of men 



Oq Freedom's Southern line. 

 And plant beside the cotton tree 



The rugged Northern piue ! 



We're flowing from our native hill3 



As our free rivers flow ; 

 The blessing of our mother-land 



Is on us as we go. 



We go to I'lant her common schools 



On distant praii-ie swells, 

 And give the Sabbaths of the wild 



The music of her bells. 



l'l)-bearing, like the Ark of old. 



The Bible in our van. 

 We go to test the truth of God 



Against the fraud of man. 



No pause, nor rest, save where the streams 



That feed the Kansas run, 

 Save where our Pilgrim gonfalon 



Shall flout the setting sun ; 



We'll sweep the prairie as of old 



Our fathers swept the sea, 

 And make the West, as they the East, 



The homestead of the free ! 



For the New England Farmer. 



CHESS OE CHEAT. 



Mr. Editor : — A word with you about ches?, 

 or as we Suckers call it, cheat. The scientific hold 

 that chess grows from pure chess seed, and is pro- 

 duced by nothing else ; while the mass of farmers, 

 at least in the West, are ready to attest that the 

 growing of the intruder does not depend upon 

 sprouting the pure chess grain or kernel ; but 

 that the injured wheat-roots will shoot up a chess 

 stalk. Some believe that herd's grass is liable to 

 such transmutations. Though my faith is small 

 in such violations of nature's laws, I am compelled 

 to say, I have found many facts connected with 

 chess which puzzled me to account for upon any 

 other suggestion. 



A neigiil)or, Mr. Tuttle, bi'oke up a field of 

 the virgin prairie in June, 1850, which,till then, 

 had probably grown rough except wild grass. 

 Last September he sowed wheat on the land, with 

 carefully selected and well cleaned seed. Early 

 the past spring, a flock of 400 sheep broke into 

 the field of green wheat, and made a circuit 

 around a part of the field. In their course they 

 swept the wheat clean to the ground, and now 

 the course of that flock of sheep can be traced by 

 a most luxuriant growth of chess, while it is dif- 

 ficult to find a single head in any other part of the 

 field. In April, 1R53, I sowed afield of 14 acres, 

 (which in 1848 produced a fair crop of wheat, 

 with SD little chess, if any, that it was not noticed 

 and had since produced corn and no chess that 

 was discovered,) with oats, clover and timothy. 

 Harvested a good crop of oats ; in the fall the tim- 



othy and clover made a fair show, but now there 

 is an exuberant growth of clover and chess, about 

 half and half, while the tiiuothy is hard to find. 

 Next week I intend to put M'Cormick's reaper in- 

 to it, and test its value for hay. Some of my 

 neighbors tell me tq. be of good cheer, that it will 

 all be right next season, that in place of chess, I 

 will have a crop of timothy. Will some one in- 

 form me how to avoid a similar result, as I wish 

 to sow another field next spring. 



H. W. Merriam. 

 Little Town, Tazewell Co., III., June 8, 1854. 



THE LAMP AS. 



A correspondent of the New York Spirit, of the 

 limes inquires as to burning for the Lampas, and 

 whether that is the only cure for it. With the 

 hope that we may perhaps save one horse from the 

 unnecessary and terrible torture of the burning 

 iron, we undertake to reply. 



Burning for the Lampas is as good and as hu- 

 mane a remedy, as is suffocation between two 

 feather beds for the hj^dropholjia ; — both have been 

 practised by the ignorant, and both are effectual. 

 The horse, to be sure, survives the infliction, while 

 the feather-bed patient is bound to die. But both 

 of these barbarous remedies (!) have long been dis- 

 carded by civilized and intelligent men. 



We have occasionally had cases of this complaint 

 in our stable ; and have always attributed it to 

 over-feeding. But in no single case, however bad, 

 within our knowledge and experience as an am- 

 ateur V. S., has it resisted a course of bran mash- 

 es, continued for a day or two ; with the addition, 

 in one or two instances, of a purgative of salts or 

 aloes. (The first thouglit of our farm hands al- 

 ways was, — to take the animal to the blacksmith's 

 to be burned.) 



Youatt says, "The bars occasionally swell, and 

 rise to a level with, and even beyond the edge of, 

 the teeth. They arc very sore, and the horse feeds 

 badly on account of the pain he suffers, from the 

 pressure of the food on them. This is called the 

 Lampas. It may arise from inflammation of the 

 gums, jDropagated to the bars, Avhen "the horse is 

 shedding his teeth — and young horses are more sub- 

 ject to it than others — or from some slight febrile 

 tendency in the constitution generally ; as when a 

 young horse has lately been taken up from grass ; 

 and has been over-fed or not sufficiently exercised. 

 At times, it appears in aged horses ; for the 

 progress of growth in the teeth of the horse is 

 continued during the whole life of the animal. 



In a majority of cases, the swelling will soon 

 subside without medical treatment, or a few mash- 

 es and gentle alteratives will relieve the auimaU 

 A few slight incisions across the bars with a lan- 

 cer, or penknife, will relieve the inflammation 

 and cause the swelling to subside ; indeed this 

 scarification of the bars in Lampas will seldom do 

 harm, although it is far from being so necessary as 

 is supposed. The brutal custom of the fixrrier, 

 who scars and burns down the bars with a re3- 

 hot iron, is most objectionable. It is torturing 

 the horse to no purpose, and rendering that part 

 callous, on the delicate sensibility of which all the 

 pleasure and safety of riding aud driving depend. 

 It maybe prudent, incase of Lampas, to examine 

 the grinders and more particuarly, the tushes, in 

 order to ascertain wether either of them is making 



