210 



THE GENESEE FARMER, 



upon this point, may I ask your correspondent 

 John Johnbton to dig down in a few places to 

 horse-»hoe tiles the longest laid, and ascertain and 

 report their condition — especially have the tiles 

 sunk in their clay bed little or much, or not at all ? 

 Ib the waterway washed away or choked up in any 

 degree ? 



Taking into account the quantity of land to be 

 drained, the cost of draining, and the great advan- 

 tage of thorough draining as a first improvement, 

 the best possible sort of drain becomes (with items 

 of depth and interval) an object of national impor- 

 tance. The question is then rather worthy of 

 present discussion, because so little being done in 

 any way, so vjist a proportion remains to be well 

 done. The favorable estimate of the benefits 

 derived with even present costs, furnished by the 

 gentleman above mentioned, must stimulate us all 

 to our earliest elforts in the same direction. 

 Indeed, reports of select farms — in the several 

 matters of drainage, cropping, machinery, stock, 

 their original and their improved state, their pro- 

 gress that is, and the price thereof — are at last the 

 most practical instruction we can receive, and, 

 with the scientific lead of an intelligent editor, all 

 that a periodical can well set forth. Meanwhile, a 

 greater attention to plowing in lands narrower 

 than usual, and more careful water-furrowing by 

 the plow after seeding, and indeed after plowing, 

 should there be prospect of rain, may do something 

 to make our farms drier, till we can afford to drain 

 them with pipes. john badlet. 



Macoupin County, llUnoU. 



w •■^— 



SOILING HOBSES. 



Mbssrb. Editors : — I have in close proximity to 

 my barn a patch of ground 7i rods by 16 (f of an 

 acre) seeded to clover, from which I kept one span 

 of horses in thriving condition from the first day 

 of June last to the last day of August, beside cut- 

 ting nine hundred of good hay, which I put into 

 the barn, and harvested of the second mowing 

 seed sufficient to stock an acre or two of ground. 

 This may, and undoubtedly will, seem to many like 

 & big yarn well stretched. In fact, I should doubt 

 the truth of such a story myself, had not my eyes 

 seen and my hands felt the truth of such a state- 

 ment. By the time I had mowed two-thirds of 

 this little patch, the remainder was fit to be made 

 into hay, which I accordingly did up after the most 

 approved fashion. And that part mowed first was 

 ■ufficiently large to mow again. I fed them three 

 times a day all they could eat. They smelt not, 

 touched not, tasted not one particle of grain during 

 the three months. Used them more or less every 

 day, and at the end there was a perceptible gain in 

 flesh. Never, since I could say my team, have I 

 summered a team so cheaply. The greatest cost is 

 cutting and putting it before the horses. I offered 

 them water, but they did not drink to exceed a 

 pailful a week. 



I am of the opinion that if they had been turned 

 loose upon this piece of ground, ten days would 

 have been sufficient time to eat up and trample into 

 the earth everything green upon it. As five acres 

 of good pasture is little enough to summer a span 

 of horses when allowed to run, there is almost an 

 incalculable saving in soiling them. j. c. adams. 



Seymour, Nno York. 



WHY SO WE OIL OUB BOOTS, SHOES AKO HABr 

 NESSESI 



The hides of animals, if dried without any pre- 

 vious preparation, soon become hard and stiff, and 

 of a consistence very much like glue. If used hi 

 this condition, they crack and break where bent, 

 and their use is attended by much inconvenience. 

 If wet, they become soft but heavy, and if not 

 dried, undergo a slow putrefaction. To prevent 

 this putrefaction, and at the same time to make 

 them soft and pliable, thoy are immersed in a liquid 

 containing tannin, or tanic acid. This compound 

 fills up partially the pores, rendering it less perme- 

 able by water, and less destructible from exposure 

 to the atmosphere. To make it still more soft, pli- 

 able, and impervious, a quantity of oil (more ©i* 

 less according to the use for which it is destined) 

 is incorporated into its body. This, with the pre- 

 vious removal of the hair, and other manipulation* 

 of the currier, complete the manufacture. 



If now kept dry, it retains its suppleness for a 

 great length of time, but eventually the oxygen of 

 the atmosphere, that great destroyer of all organ- 

 ized matter, changes the oil to a gummy or waxy 

 substance, and the leather loses its flexibility and 

 strength. If, on the contrary, it is exposed to wet 

 and the alkalies contained in the water and soil, 

 the alkalies unite with the oil in the leather and 

 form soap, a substance of no use to the leather, 

 and soon removed therefrom by its lack of adhesion. 



Understanding this, the hint is at once taken, the 

 necessity at once seen, of frequently supplying this 

 loss of oil, if we would preserve the leather. The 

 leather used as harness for teams and that worn 

 upon the feet, is also subject to the action of the 

 alkaline salts exuding from the skin in perspiration, 

 uniting again with the oil, destroying its softening 

 quality. Thus we see that a harness, having been 

 long worn, becomes stiff if put in warm soft water. 

 The pressure of the water determines to th« surface 

 a light colored saponaceous and gummy substance, 

 the result of the combination of the oil with th« 

 sweat, which it is necessary to cleanse off to make 

 room for, and render the leather permeable to a 

 new application of oil. 



There has been much discussion in a neighboring 

 paper about the manner of oiling harness, one 

 party contending for^ and the other against, the 

 use of boiling water in cleansing. I shall not side 

 with either, thinking the question is better settled 

 by experiment than dispute. Water somewhat 

 heated seems to be very necessary, but I think 

 that somewhere between blood heat«and the boiling; 

 point, say 125 to 160 deg. is sufficiently hot, am! 

 not injurious. We have probably all learned thai 

 our boots and shoes are more likely to be injured 

 by the heat of the stove when wet, than when 

 dry ; but this by no means proves that immersion 

 in boiling water is injurious, still it offers a hint ibl 

 experiment. agbioola. 



FoK Black Leo ob Bloody Mcbrain. — Taki 

 one pint of salt, one pint and a half of the best 

 vinegar, and drench your ox, cow or calf, but bfl 

 careful not to let the sick get to water for twelve 

 hours after you liave drenched it; and then begin 

 with a half gallon per hour for thirty-six hours, 

 then double the amount every hour till it is welL — . 

 Peteb Detbick, Jr., Bell/ontaine, Ohio. 



