20 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



woulc] now readily coiniitand six or eight times 

 tliat price, they will aninmif to f 3,170. By these 

 nieanSj there will lie siifticirnt funds on hand to 

 pay for the twenty acres of hind, which, at tliirty 

 dollars per acre, will amount to six hundred dol- 

 lar!=, and three thousand dollars for a cocoonery, 

 which 1 shall suppose to have been huilton credit 

 the year b,-fore, togetlier with two hundred and 

 ten dollars interest; still leaving a balancii of per- 

 haps over two thousand dollars. 1 shall also sup- 

 pose that in the course of thefifth season the cul- 

 tivator has made a purchase of two hundred acres 

 of land, which, if the business has been well con- 

 ducted thus far, can easily bo done on a credit, to 

 pay by instalments of one thotisand flollars each, 

 beginninir afti r two years, and which at thirty 

 dollars per acre, wilt nqnh-esix instalments. If 

 this is done, he will now be able, from the re- 

 maining aval's of ast season, to ^ ay the first in- 

 stalment with the interest due. 



MAKAGIIBIERT OF IiORS£:S. 

 The f;ediiig of horses is a thing which for the 

 most part is indifferently attended to in this coun- 

 try, and indeed tlie system of feeding which has 

 been adopted, is but ill calculated to preserve these 

 no'de aninia!s in full liealth and unimpaired 

 in strength and vigor of body. "Witli many plan- 

 ters and farmers, nothing but corn and oats, in 

 the whole grain are doled cut from one end of 

 the year to the other. Now these are each high- 

 ly nutritions and t xcelknt substances, and well 

 calculated to sustain horses under long continued 

 and laborious work, but then are they not too 

 both too heating to the lilood, and too difficult of 

 digestion to be given without change during the 

 whole year? Viou'd it not l)e better, putting the 

 saving out of question, to reduce those grains to 

 something like digestible substances. Whether 

 the horse be fed upon corn or oats, in the whole 

 grain, they necessarily void a large portion of 

 them in precisely the same *tate in which they 

 are received into his stomach. 1 his fact is too 

 well established to be denied at this late day, and 

 hence it follows that all portions of gr: ins which 

 are eaten by the horse and not digested, serve but 

 to irritate the coat of his stomach, inflame his 

 blood, and, by necessary consequences, disease the 

 whole system. The health of a man's family is 

 very properly said to be dependent as tnuch upon 

 his cook as upon any other earthly agent, whether 

 referable to physical or atmospheric causes. Writ- 

 ers upo'.! human health invariably recommend 

 plaiimess of diet, moderation of eating, exercise, 

 and general temperance, and the substance^; which 

 ^'■»^ most earnestly commended to favor, are those 

 wliich afford the most bland nutrition, and which 

 sre easiest of conversion into chyle. If these rec- 

 <Jmmendations hold good with respect to human 



diet, we would ask are not the same general laws 

 of nature applicable to the horse ? If man lives 

 luxuriantly and feeds upon high seasoned and lus- 

 cious food, the chances are as ten to one against 

 him tUat he will get the gout, or some inflannna- 

 tory disease ; and if he feeds upon substances dif- 

 iicuit of digestion, he is just as sure to be visited 

 with that worse than pestilent distemper — the 

 dyspepsia. Ah ! but would you compare the 

 liorse to man ? we think we hear some one asik ; 

 and lest our motives may be mistaken, we will 

 take the liberty of replying to the query in ad-, 

 vance of its being solemnly put on us. We do 

 not conq)are the horse to the man, but we hold it 

 as of a truth which admits not of contradiction — 

 that all the alimentary substances, to b(! profitable 

 to the stomach of either man or hors", should be 

 not only nutritious and bland, but should be eaten 

 in that state in which it is best calculated to un- 

 dergo the digestive process. Mastication does 

 nmch to prepare the food of the horse for that op- 

 eration ; but the evidences wliich are afforded by 

 the substances voided by this animal, incontestably 

 show that it fails most lamentably i-n the pi-rform- 

 ance of this highly necessary work. In England 

 where the management of stock generally, and 

 particularly of the horse, is reduced to a matter 

 of science, but ^liw intelligent feeders think of 

 giving food to that animal in an uncrushed state ; 

 nor do they confine them to grain feeding alone, 

 and for the assigned reason, that it is too heating. 

 Potatoes and ruta baga form a part of the fded of 

 studs of most English country gentlemen ; by 

 which means they keep their horses in better 

 health ; the occasional feeding with roots serving 

 to open their bowels, cool their blood, determine 

 the secretions to the surface, render the skin 

 loose, and the hair silky and healthy. We have 

 said that independently of the saving which is thus 

 effected, the other reasons are sufficient to justify 

 a resort to practice, and we would ask are not the 

 melioration with the animal to which we have 

 just alluded, sufficient of itself, to make it an ob- 

 ject worthy of every consideration? We think it 

 is, and should be rejoiced to find that our sugges- 

 tions were improved upon by Americatn horse 

 owners, for we honestly believe that infinite good 

 both to the master and beast would inevitably re- 

 sult from it. — Farmer and Gardener. 



A chemist of the city of Durham has lately dis- 

 covered by accident, that the sting (venom) of a 

 wasp or bee is an acid which will yield to an ap- 

 plication of powerful alkali. 



Col. Rees, of Florida, owner of a jjlmtation 

 wliich was devastated by the Indians, is said to 

 have lost $140,000 — being the greatest loss sus- 

 tained by any individual in the Territory. 



