FARMERS' REGISTER— CANADA THISTLE. 



755 



If you except those of the horses hitched to the 

 plough, this is the direction of the traces of all the 

 horses harnessed one after the other, and even of 

 those placed hi the shails of carts. Yet the shoul- 

 der of the horse presenting a species of inclined 

 plane to the collar, it follows that the draught ope- 

 rating, in a right line, forces the collar to rise along 

 the shoulder, for the same reason that a double 

 cone rises along an inclined plane. This ascend- 

 ing motion is stopped only by the throat, which 

 sustains the greatest ]iart of the drawing, inso- 

 much, that in great ellbrt.s, the brcatliing of the 

 horse is often endangered. It is one of tlie causes 

 which most usually tends to render horses tliick- 

 winded. 



It is useless to demonstrate the disadvantage of 

 making the throat bear what the eliouldei's ought 

 to support; it is certainly in part to remedy this 

 rising of the collar, and the sort of strangulation 

 which results from it, that'those enormous collars 

 have been contrived at Paris and in Noniiandy, in 

 order that their counterpoise may diminish the in- 

 jurious rising produced by drawing at an acute 

 angle with the shoulder. But there still remains 

 the ill-calculated point to which the traces are at- 

 tached, for these in the French collars, are always 

 placed on the very joint on the shoulder, a veiy 

 great fault, which in the higliest degree cramps 

 the motion of the horse and decreases his strength. 



The collars have besides the inconvenience (and 

 it is known to many by sad experience) of wound- 

 ing the shoulders and Avithers of the horse. This 

 mass of 70 or SO pounds weight produces heating 

 and continual imtation. In veiy warm weather, 

 the air not being able to circulate under so com- 

 pact a covering, the shoulders of the animal are 

 always in a state of })erspiration, which easily 

 makes the skin tender, and soon sores are openecl, 

 Avhich work only poisons, and which sometimes 

 become incurable. 



The Flemish way of harnessing horses obvi- 

 ates all these inconveniences, by causing the draft 

 to bear solely on the shoulders, in which the prin- 

 cipal strength of the animal resides. For this 

 reason, with less efficient means, but more judi- 

 ciously employed, the Flemings execute more 

 work. 



Two horses in Flanders easily draAV six thousand 

 killogrammes upon a pavement; at Paris, it is 

 true, there are horses which draw nearly as much, 

 but these horses, brought mostly Irom Flanders, 

 are much superior in size and strength to those 

 used in the Flemish provinces. It is the elite of 

 Belgian horses which is at Paris. All the good 

 uncastrated colts which are found, are purchased 

 at eighteen months old, liy traders of Normandy, 

 who sell them again in Paris, at four or five years 

 of age. There remain in Flanders only some 

 stalUons reserved to propagate the breed, and if a 

 Flemish farmer wished to have a choice team of 

 unmutilated horses, he would be obliged to go to 

 ])urchase them in France. This countiy then of- 

 fers a valuable market to the horse-breeders of 

 Belgium, whence more than ten thousand of these 

 animals are annually taken by France. Valuing 

 these at only five hundred francs each, there are 

 five millions which this country dispenses yearly 

 among the neighboring farmers, for this single ob- 

 ject. Can we now be astonished at the sympathy 

 of the Belgians? 



Those of the Belgian farmers who go to settle 



in France find advantages in the low jmce of tlie 

 lands, in the saving which they make in the well 

 directed employment of the strength of their 

 horses, &c., &c. 



Besides the causes mentioned above with re- 

 spect to the bad plan of draught in France, there 

 are yet others, the most easy oi'which to be explain- 

 ed, consists in thes):)ring-tree bars. In place of the 

 moveable bars of Flanders, which force the dull 

 horses to draw as much as the quick ones, they 

 always use a fixed bar in France, and tlius the 

 spirited horse must draw all that his lazy com- 

 panion does not pull. This inconvenience, it is 

 expected to remedy by violent ^vhipping, but these 

 lashes only stupify the dull, and force the spirited 

 to do all, by exciting them. Their ardor urges 

 them forward, the double load forces them back; 

 and these shocks kill a much gTcater number of 

 horses than tlie true employment of the strength 

 of the team. The whip and blows are as ineffi- 

 cient on horses as rods on children: they brutify 

 the nund and cow the courage m both. 



To tho Editor of tlic Farmers' Register. 



CANADA THISTLE. 



Poplar Grove, near Ccntreville, Md. > 

 Jjpril 7(h, 1834. S 



I observe in your last number an editorial no- 

 tice of the Canada Tliistle, in Avhich you justly 

 express your apprehension that it will, without 

 some legislative cftbrts to arrest its progress, get 

 into Virginia and traverse the whole country. No 

 plant that I have hitherto become acquainted with, 

 is half so great a joest, nor half so difficult to era- 

 dicate. I regTet a.lso to say to you, that this vile 

 pest is not two or three hundi'ed miles from Vir- 

 o'inia, as you suppose it to be. I have understood, 

 but cannot vouch for the fact, that this thistle has, 

 within a few years, appeared near Norfblli, in 

 your state, ^vhere it is known by the name of the 

 Ram-s-horn thistle, because of its twisting growth, 

 and, perhaps, because also it has been supposed to 

 have been introduced into that neighborhood by 

 importations of merino sheep; and it is very pro- 

 bable the seed may have been brought in the 

 ■ivool of those animals. There is, I am sorry to 

 say, no mistake in the existence of the plant on 

 my farm, and I know not how it could have found 

 its way here, unless brought in the wool of some 

 Saxonys and South Downs, v\'hieh I obtained from 

 Connecticut, a few years since. 



Some six or seven years since, I observed a 

 single plant in one of my fields, on Chester river, 

 which was then in blossom. I had the plant 

 grubbed up, as I thought, roots and all, and care- 

 fully burned. In the fiill, following, I examined 

 the same spot, and found a nundjer of plants 

 springing up in and around the spot occupied by 

 the first })lant. I again grubbed and burned. The 

 next season, the field went into corn, and the year 

 after in Avheat, on the corn ground. After taking 

 oft" the wheat, or probably before, while the plants 

 were in bloom, I had them again grubbed, piled, 

 and burned on the spot. They then occupied an 

 area of fifteen feet across. Last year I contintied 

 the same process lor extiqiation, they having then 

 spread over a circumference of 1wen1y-five or 

 thirty feet across. Becoming alarmed at Ihcir 

 progress under such efforts for their destruction, I 

 last fall had a small deep ditch cut round the spot 



