162 THE HORSE. 



or oats ; but on your soil clover will not grow without 

 first manuring, and oats will not give you so much as 

 buckwheat ; then oats are a greater exhauster, as their 

 tops are small in proportion to their roots. 



If yours be pasture land, and you cannot well spare 

 it a whole summer, and do not wish to fence it oflf, you 

 can plough up any part of it about the first of Septem- 

 ber, and seed down immediately. In this way you will 

 gradually raise your land every time you plough in the 

 growing grass. — Ed. 



THE HORSE. 



Though we have now machinery that surpasses this 

 animal in speed, we are not yet ready to abandon him 

 and set him adrift. Other people may prefer the camel, 

 or the mule, but New England farmers know of no 

 servant to be compared with the horse. 



For the heavy draught, or for the race, for a ride of 

 pleasure, or for a tour into the rough interior of our 

 country, the horse is our best companion and helper. 

 We could hardly estimate his worth but by his loss. 



This animal is often abused through wantonness, or 

 carelessness ; but still more often injured for want of 

 due consideration of the proper mode of treating him. 



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 stopped for a short time 

 in the middle of the day. It was then not uncommon 

 for horses, when driven no faster than at present, to fall 

 suddenly 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 abandoned. 

 There is a very prevalent idea that it is injurious to 

 give grain to the animal when he is warm. Now we 



