vol.. TVI. NO. 33. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



e morn rapid tlic fattening process, as a general 

 le, llic mure disease. Even Dr. Playfair admits 

 Hil is an t(ii;irt/i(ra/ production," as wns stilled 

 tlio report of liis lecture in your paper a lew 

 eeks aiin. 



One of ihe tesfs, then, of the healtlifulncss of 

 I article of fooil, is its tendency to keep an animal 

 such a state that all the functions of the hoiiy 

 ay have thi.ir proper play — or in other words, 

 eir pruprr and hoallhfiil action. In such circum- 

 ance.*, there will be no undue accumulation of 

 Tliat there may be a degree of plimipncss, I 

 Imit; and I also admit, that a difference of con- 

 ilution, (which, however, is often but an inherited 

 ndi'nry to disease,) will permit of a good deal of 

 .riety in this respect, within the limits of what 

 ay be called a healthy condition, is not denied, 

 It r'llher afliriiied. 



Let us look at the circumstances which favor 

 ; fattening proceg--. First, confinement. But 

 jes confinement promote health ? Secondly loo 

 uch keat. Does excess of heat promote health ? 

 it even compatible with it? Thirdly, bad air. 

 1st in proportion as you succeed in your efforts at 

 ntiuing and overheating an animal, you increase, 

 a general fact, the im[iurity of the air he breathes, 

 jes this conduce to health ? Fourthly, some far- 

 ers deny their fattening animals any drink. Does 

 is comport with the best health ? Man may sub- 

 st without drink, and so may beasts ; but unless 

 eir food is succulent, and they have good air and 

 entv of exercise, they will soon deteriorate under 

 e process. Shall I add, as a fifth item in fatten- 

 a,bndfood) If we know that to be the worst 

 r, temperature, &c., which fattens best, why 

 lould not that be the worst food which fattens 

 ;st or fastest? > 



Is it asked, what man has to do with promoting 

 e heallh of domestic animals ? I know this is, 

 acticatlij, the great question, but I am sorry it is 

 1. For, to say notning of the intention of the 

 city in committing animals to the care of man, I 

 aintain that human health and happiness must sl- 

 ays be dependent, in a greater or less degree, np- 

 ihe healthy condition of domestic animals. It 

 ould he so, if wc did not eat them. I!ut when we 

 jiiie to take animals which have plethora, liver 

 jmpiaiiit, dropsy, fever, or consumption, and kill 

 lem (perhaps just before they would otherwise 

 18 of disease,) and eat them, 1 think the tendency 

 ) disease and premature death in the conmiunity, 

 reatly increased. Must it not be so? 



Is it said that these remarks, if true, would ope- 

 ite against the farming interests, at least in a 

 razing country, like our own? But what have 

 e to do with that, provided they are true ? I do 

 ot see, however, that such would be the result, 

 n the contrary, I believe, and think myself com- 

 etent to show, that the interests of every country 

 —even a Green Monntnin country — would be 

 oubled and trebled, by carrying out the principles 

 'hich have been feebly but honestly developed, or 

 t least hinted at, in these jiaragraphs. Nay, I be- 

 eve the result would be, to put money into every 

 armor's pocket, liealth into his children's veins, 

 nowled"-e into their heads, and goodness into their 

 hearts. ° VVM. A. ALCUTT. 



Dedknm. March 15, 1643. 



.Y(,(e. — I hope your readers will not be alarmed 

 est they should be inundated with articles on this 

 ubject. My book for young farmers — if I can 



course, to think well of llitir own children ; hut I 

 cannot help believing that, as in some other mat- 

 ters, so in farming, "old things," ninny of them, 

 are destined, ore long, to "pass away." Not sim- 

 ply because they are old, but because Ihey are wrong. 

 W. A. A. 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



SLOBBER GRASS—" PRIME FACTS, &c. 

 Mr Pdtnam — Through the politeness of some 

 friend, I recently received a small volume enti- 

 tled " Prime Facts for the Farmer," &c. Notwith- 

 standing the pomposity of the title page, I believe 

 some of those "furls" deserve a passing notice. 

 After naming things which had been supposed 

 or gnessed to he the cause of slobbers in horses, 

 the book says : '' Every thing known as to tlie real 

 cause of the complaint, was altogether blind un- 

 certainty, up to the period of the monih of Au- 

 gust, eighteen hundred and thirlyeight.^' Now, sir, 

 I let any one who wishes to know another fad, turn 

 to page 58 of the ad vol. of the New England Far- 

 mer, and he will find a description of a grass, which 

 is probably the same described by the author of 

 "Prime Facts." That communication is dated 

 Sept. 15, 1823, ./(/'(fCrt years before the "Prime 

 Facts" are brought before the public, but not until 

 several years after the discovery ; which lapse of 

 time had given the writer satisfactory proof that 

 he had discovered the true cause of the slubbers, 

 or slavers, in horses. It was communicated for 

 publication that individuals interested in the mat- 

 ter, might compare that species of grass with other 

 plants which had been supposed by some to he the 

 cause of the disorder called slobbers. How stupid 

 I was to take this course, when I might, with little 

 trouble, have collected a few "prime facts" about 

 slobber grass and its effects, and handed them to 

 some third-rate lawyer, or other person who was 

 no farmer, who would have made of them a book, 

 with a high sounding title, sent it forth to the pub- 

 lic, and perhaps have made a fortune by it. But 

 this was not done. My disli, as others have said, 

 is always upside-down when it rains porridge. 

 But [ don't lament, — for had I adopted this selfish 

 course, and the book been treated as the volume 

 of " Prime Facts" deserves to be, then silence 

 would have been preferable. 



Our author says, page 14, " In the absence, how- 

 ever, of a traditionary cognomen, we venture to 

 christian it SLOBBER GRASS." An entirely 

 new cognomen, no doubt, to the author's self ; — but 

 the writer of this named it Slobber or Slaver grass. 

 twenty years ago — and it has been known by this 

 name by some others in this vicinity. 



The grass described, the lime of year it begins 

 to affect the horse, the time of its ceasing to have 

 that effect, — is believed to be correct; but all the 

 evil effects attributed to it are not believed. H.av- 

 ing paid particular attention to the effects of the 

 slobber grass on the horse, for imofo than twenty 

 years, I yet have never seen or heard, till I read 

 the book of " Prime Facts," that it caused any oth- 

 er real injury than weakness. But to the poor cow 

 its effects are truly appalling, if we believe all the 

 book says. When in one instance there was more 

 of that grass in my pasture than there ever had 

 been at any one time, my cows were so affeeted 

 by it, tlial when they came into the yard at night. 



ver ^et it out— will relieve, i^n some degree, both I there was a stream of water running from their 

 ■our Wlers and their editor. People arc apt, of | mouths continually. But the quantity of milk was 



not lessened, nor was it discovered that lln- quali- 

 ty was injured — perhaps owing to our notjliaving 

 so much disccrniiient as the man in " Sunny Hol- 

 low." Neither has it ever FCrionsly injured the 

 health of my cows— nor, it is beli»»ed, of nnjjoth- 

 ers in this region. The lamb, poor thing, 'Miaa 

 been known to weigh less by 30 per f eiit. when 

 kept where this grass prevails," says the book. It 

 may have been so, but I do not believe it — 'ind for 

 a very good reason. In a small pasture, where 

 there was so rniich of this grass that a horse had 

 to be taken from it, on account of his rxcessivo 

 slobering, there was kept a small flock of sheep 

 and lambs the greater part of the summer, without 

 any injury. They did well, — were as good lainba 

 as any body had. Sheep have been kept there the 

 greater part of the summer for forty years, and 

 have always done well. Perhaps if I had the dis- 

 cernment of the man in " Sunny Hollow," some 

 bad effects might liave been detected. 



Again : " Yet a few cases of the disease were 

 found to have been known when feeding on dry 

 hay in the winter season." It is doubted whether 

 the first crop affects the horse, whether greener 

 dry. It is generally an early grass ; the seed ripe 

 earlier, it is believed, than that of any other. Af- 

 ter the seed is ripe, leaves shootout from the root, 

 and generally have a growth sufficient for an ani- 

 mal t"o get a bite by the middle of June— some- 

 times later. The slobbers are caused by this se- 

 cond growth, whether LI reen or dry. 



/ \vill state a "prime fact," and then have done 

 with the slobber grass. After being troubled ivith 

 this post a number of years, it was at once all gone, 

 and without any apparent cause, and there was no 

 slobbering of burses. So it has once disappeared 

 without the use of the " Patent Slobber Grass 

 Drag," invented by the sage of " Sunny Hollow." 

 Last season, after that long continuance of wet 

 and warm weatlier in August, it made its appear- 

 ance again, with only leaves like grain when it 

 first comes up. 



The book is such a wonderful thing, that it seems 

 impossible to leave it. The peach, it says, "is 

 much larger — much richer" than the plum. Won- 

 derful ! the peach larger than the plum ! — what a 

 discovery ! — what a " prime feet" ! 



But again : " Here (that is, in 'Sunny Hollow,') 

 after a series of patient and close observations, and 

 carefully conducted practical experiments, extend- 

 ing through a period of more than thirty years, it 

 was finally discovered that the peach tree may be 

 easily and safely reared, and made to yield prime 

 fruit for forty or fifty years, and probably a hund- 

 red, as well as four or five." At the end of //i!>/i^ 

 years' experimenting, it ij discovered that the peach 

 "tree may be made to yield fruit, of a prime quali- 

 ty too, for forty or fifty, or an hundred years ! 

 Wonderful discovery I— but it needs proof:— the 

 man has not priicticed raising peach trees forty or 

 fifty years yet, by his newly discovered method, — 

 so it is " all guess-work," as the Yankees say. 



Finally, it is reasonable to believe that the fur- 

 nisher of the '• Prine Facts," or the writer of them, 

 or both, are more conceited than wise. 



LOVETT PETERS. 

 J','tslboro\ March 15, 1843. 



After we had had onr laugh over the catch-pen- 

 ny " Prime Facts," we sent our copy to Mr Peters. 

 His communication confirms our presumption that 

 the slobber grass discovered by the man in " Sun- 

 ny Hollow,'" is identical with that desciibed by Mr 

 Peters years and years ago. — Ed. N. E. F. 



