THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



16 



The Horse. 



Thoiijfli we liave now niachinery that surpasses 

 this nniuial iu speed, we are not yet ready to a- 

 haiidoii him and set him adrift. Other people 

 n^iay ])refer the camel oi- the luule, hut New En- 

 gland farmers know of no servant to be compar- 

 ed wilii the horse. 



For the heavy dranght or for the raCe-^for a 

 ride of ph;asure, or for a tour into the rough in- 

 terior of our country, the horse is our best com- 

 panion and hel|ier. We would haidly estiinatc 

 his worth but by his los.s. 



This animal IS often abused through wanton- 

 ness or carelessness— but still more often injured 

 for want of due consideration of the proper mode 

 of treating tlieni. 



Within a few years it has been customary for 

 drivers of stages in our neighborhood to give 

 their horses meal in their water when they only 

 stop for a short time in the middle of the day. It 

 was then not uncommon for horses driven 

 faster than at present to fall suddeidy dead in the 

 harness. On opening the animal the meal would 

 be found undigested and formed into a hard cake 

 in the stomach. 



We believe this practice is now wholly aban- 

 doned. There is a very prevalent idea that it is 

 injurious to give grain to the animal when he is 

 warm. No^v we have never known any injury 

 to arise from this practice. There is no more 

 diHiger of injury to the horse than to ourselves by 

 eaiing a hearty meal when warm. And whoev- 

 er heard of a man killing hinjself with a hearty 

 dinner because he ate it when he was fatigued or 

 healed ? 



It is hard driving — violent e.xercise, after eating 

 hearty food that causes pain, and olten death. 



Let a man but reflect upon « hat has proved in- 

 jurious to himself; and lie will r;itioiially (•ouchicl" 

 what treatment is most likily to injiire his beast. 

 Let him eat a hearty meal, then run, or use any 

 very violent exercise innnediately alter, and he 

 will be at no loss in conjecturing what must 

 be the danger of furiously driving a beast after a 

 hearty dinner. 



It is hard driving immediately afYer eating grain 

 that kills the horse, and we venture to assert that 

 not an instance can be shown in which he has 

 sustained injin-y from eating' grain merely because 

 he was warm. People should reflect, and reason 

 more on tliis subject. 



Horses that travel and labor violently, as in 

 stages and fast chaises, should eat ilieir grain at 

 night. When laboring moderately on a liiriii it 

 is not so material when their heartiest food is giv- 

 en, for horses are not liable to be injiued in any 

 gear when they are only driven on the walk. 



But we have known many inen, prinlent in 

 most matters, yet guilty of stuffing their hoises 

 with grain in the morniuir, just before starting on 

 ajouniey! They have no grain the night before, 

 reserving (or the starting hour the heartiest lijod 

 for their beast. 



On a journey we have long been in the habit of 

 giving our hoVse grain at night. We give it as 

 soon as he is rubbed down and put to the stable, 

 and we have never found it injm-ed him. 



How absurd to let your horse stand for hours, 

 after a violent exercise, to chop up his own fod- 

 der and attempt to ajipease his hunger or, hay — 

 often |)oor hay, not fit to be fed out to young cat- 

 tle. 



Give the horse half a bushel of oats or one 

 ))eck of corn — if he has been used to grain — as 

 soon as you lead him into the stable, and he will 

 fill himself in one hour or two, and be willing to 

 lie down and enjoy a nap even before you retire 

 to rest yourself 



In any part of the country if you see the grain 

 put into the manger you may be pretty sure the 

 hostler has not forgotten his Am\.— Cultivator's 

 Almanac. 



From the Genesee Firmer. 

 Thorn Fences. 

 We regret that there is so little attention paid 

 to this branch of domestic agriculture; as it 

 is scarcely probable that with all the hard}', thick- 

 growing and spine producing |)lants of our coiui- 

 try to select from there should be nothing suita- 

 ble for the iniporiant purpose of fijnciiig. We 

 have seen acres of land, wljicli had been cleared 

 many yeurs ago, and then left covered with thorn 

 that had sprung up siiontaiipoiisly, aiid in impen- 

 etrable mnsseg. In other paitsof our coimtry, 



the woods arc fdled with the native thorn. Now 

 it may be considered a well estabhshed fact, that 

 any plant or shrub that will spring up and flour- 

 ish iu a wild state, may, iu the Same place and 

 soils, by a suitable course of cultivation, be made 

 to grow in subserviency to the wishes of man. 



Thus there is notliing to hinder a first rate 

 thorn fence in our soils. The difficulty of mak- 

 ing the seeds of haws grow, has had its" influence 

 in preventing the culture of the thorn ; but JMr. 

 Chiswell, in a late number of the Cultivator, gives 

 the following directions, which seem likely to be 

 successful ; 



" The berries sliould be gathered when ripe 

 and si>read on a loft, where they may remain im- 

 lil about February, when they must be soaked 

 until the ))ulp becomes soft, which will only re- 

 quire a few days iu a cellar ; then they must be 

 carefully mashed, so as not break the seed, and 

 the pidp washed ofi"by rubbing the seed in a ves- 

 sel of water, and pouring off the pidp until the 

 water is perfectly clean ; in this moist state seeds 

 must be kept in a tight vessel in a cool and damp 

 place, covered with a wet cloth, and turned up- 

 side down, or out of one vessel into another, 

 about once a week, or as often as is necessary 

 to prevent them from becoming two dry on the 

 top. 



As early as March— Mr. C. lives in Maryland ; 

 and here we should think April more suitable 

 than March — as soon as the season will admit a 

 seed bed to be prepared ; one must be made 

 which I would advise to be new laid, inclining to 

 be a little moist. If the ground can be burnt first 

 so much the better. About this time you will 

 find the seeds begin to burst, as soon as they gen- 

 erally begin to open and some to sprout, sow 

 them broad cast and pretty thick, and cover 

 theni about one inch deep, by taking the surface 

 earth with a spade or shovel, out of trenches 

 wide enough fiir a man to stand in, at the distance 

 of four fi^et apart, throiij;h your bed ; which 

 trenches serve to ttaiid lu to jiick the weeds fr 

 the young plants, which iiuist be attended to, as 

 the plants are at first very tender, and would be 

 lost by letting the weeds over-run them at first. 

 If the weather is favorable, and the seeds in a 

 proper state they will be up iu a Week, and will 

 urow tlie first season from 12 to 18 inches high ; 

 the lai};est \\\\\ do to plant iu bodge ne.xt spring, 

 and the balance the following spring. 



From the Albnnj- Cultivator. 

 To make Home Pleasaut. 



The way to make a man':5 home more pleasant 

 than any other place is, that he should endeavor 

 to please his uifc, aiid M-ronumidate liei- with 

 every convenience, that .she may liave his meals, 

 Sic. prepared with tin- lea.st possible :,lteiition and 

 labor. There slioulil be tood wdter mar at hand, 

 an article wanted every lew luiuiitus; a lioiise 



Itirilitute her operations; Iiinr,. ili,' iin-essity of 



green leaves protect from the north-western 

 blast, and their lively appearance beguiles the 

 gloomy aspect of winter, whilst the broad leaves 

 of the latter planted along the avenues, afford a 

 shade from the scorching sun 



The yards and garden may be adorned with 

 flowers to bloom in succession all the season, 

 but to attain both profit and pleasure from fruits 

 and flowers, they should be planted in a soil 

 somewhat rich, and receive regularly during the 

 sunmier season, suflicient cultivation to keep the 

 ground mellow and free from weeds— these to- 

 gether with good farm crops will render a man 

 independent ; he visits his neighbors more from 

 duty or necessity than plea.sure ; he enjoys more 

 at home. A family tiius situated has great cause 

 to be thankful to a kind Providence for blessings 

 bestowed, and they should be very cautious about 

 selling a home thus improved, if middle-aged or 

 in the down-hill of life ; as many thereby unset- 

 tle and unfix themselves at a time when rest and 

 repose are desirable, and disqualify themselves 

 from answering the great end of their creation. 

 ROB'T SINCL.\IR, Sen. 



IniMi 



tidiiisliiiig a union of interest, and consequently 

 alfuctiou, which never iiiil to make home desira- 

 ble. 



But as money alone v.ill not make home plea- 

 sant, without a proper expenditure of it, and as 

 we all have appetites and senses to idea.se, the 

 necessity of planting around our dwelling a va- 

 riety of the best fruits, is obvious to every one — 

 such as will furnish the kitchen and table" with a 

 succession all the year; also a portion of the 

 grounds should be suitably planted with t)rn;i- 



mcntul trees, a part evergreen and a part with „„..._,, _ , 



deciduous shade frees ; the former by th&ir dense I laFd an open fallow, and received a heavy dress" 



Hard Money.— Copper was not coined in 

 England until the time of Elizabeth, and then in 

 small quantities, and not well received. Iu 1672, 

 a greater coinage took place, of half pennies and 

 farthings. Silver pence, halfpence an<l farthings, 

 were coined down to the reign of Edward UI, 1354; 

 the groats and half groats ; next a shilling. Hen- 

 ry Vin. coined crowns ; Edward VI. half crowns, 

 sixpences, and threepences ; Elizabeth twopen- 

 ces, and three farthing pieces. From 43d of 

 Elizabeth, to the present time, the coinage has 

 remained the same. The fir.st gold coin was 

 imder Henry HI, 1257, in gold pennies. The 

 guinea was coined in 16G8 of Guinea gold, to go 

 for 20s., but it never went for less than 21s, by 

 tacit consent. It is computed that the whole 

 coined cash of the kingdom passes through the 

 Bank every three years. 



Successful FarmiHg. 



The Farmer's Cabinet relates an instance of 

 the most successful farming we have heard of 

 for some time. It is of an old, practical hard 

 working farmer in the neighborhood of Amherst, 

 N. H. who commenced in the work as a day labor- 

 er, and who, notv\ ithstanding he has at various 

 times sustained hiavy pecuniary losses in the iu- 

 vestmeiJl of his riiiiils is now worth at least one 

 hundred tlidiisaiiil dollars. We make the follow- 

 ing extrait from the article in the Cabinet: 



" This man, when thirty years of age, by the 

 avails of his industry, added to a small legacy, 

 was enabled to purchase and pay, in part, for a 

 farm of one hundred and thirty acres of land, one 

 hundred of which was under cultivation, but in a 

 very low state. The farm is altogether ujiland, 

 with a soil composed of loam, clay, and sand, in 

 the chief of which the latter preponderales, the 

 former being least considerable. When he com- 

 menced farming he adopted a particular system 

 of rotation, to which he has implicitly adhered 

 fiom that time to the present, which is forty years, 

 and his success is the best comment on the work 

 of the c.xpcriiiient. His mode was as follows: 

 having divided his farm into eight fields of equal 

 size, as near as possible, three of those fields were 

 sowed with wheat one year, one with rye, one 

 planted with corn, two in clovei,and one an ojieu 

 fallow, on which corn had been raised the year 

 lirevioiis. One of the two clover fields is kept 

 lor mowing, the other for pasture, both of which 

 are ploughed as soon after the harvest as pos.sibie, 

 antl prepared for wheat in the fall. All the manure 



hich is made on the farm for one year is haul- 



1 in the spring on the field intended for open 



fallow, which is then ploughed, and after one 



I'o cross ploughings through the summer is 



sow ed with wheat in the fall. The field on 



which the ne is sown, is that fiom which a crop 



of wheat had been taken the same year, and 



hich has yielded three crops. Corn "is jdanted 

 on the fioiii fiom which rye had been taken the 



ar previous, the stubles of which are plough- 

 ed down iu the fall. Clover seed is sown early 

 in the spring on two of the wheat fields, those 

 ■hich ha\c been most rcccnily luamired. By 

 lis method, each fiehl yields three crops of wheat 

 two of clover, one of rye, and one of corn every 

 eight years. Etich field, in the mean time, has 



