146 



kept. Hens are good. An apple orchard should be 

 ploughed until it bears, and even after, unless sheep or 

 hogs are kept. Potash and phosphate are needed for fer- 

 tilizers. 



Thadeus Hale of Rowley, said that strawberry beds 

 will stand all the manure that can be put on them. The 

 more the better. 



J. S. Needham of West Peabody, spoke of the Hurlburt 

 being a fine eating, but poor cooking apple. Will bear 

 four or five years before the Baldwin. 



James P. King of Peabody, believed that mulching 

 peach trees would be a preventive from freezing. 



Joseph How of Methuen, and one or two other speak- 

 ers followed. 



All the speakers agreed that the peach crop was a very 

 uncertain one, but occasionally paid well. Potash 

 recommended for the yellows. 



The 57th Institute was held with the Amesbury and 

 Salisbury Agricultural Society, at the new Opera House, 

 Amesbury, Feb. 24th, 1888, where the "Care and Treat- 

 ment of the Horse " was considered. 



David Stiles of Middleton, who for over a half century 

 has owned and shod them, opened the meeting. In re- 

 gard to feeding horses, the amount of grain fed should 

 vary with the size and condition of the horse, and never 

 be over eight quarts of meal a day. Horse shoeing he 

 considered a necessary evil, and improperly done a fruit- 

 ful source of lameness and disease to the animal. Heavy 

 shoes are a very common source of injury ; the size and 

 shape of the hoof should govern the size and shape of the 

 shoe. To illustrate, the amount of weight a horse car- 

 ries, wearing a two pound shoe on each foot, and taking 

 a step every second, would, in an hour, lift 28,800 pounds. 

 Many horses are required to do a great deal more than 

 this. A horse's hoofs should be kept clean, and a better 

 knowledge of its anatom} r is needed. As a general rule, 

 in giving medicine, a horse requires five times as much as 

 would be a dose for a man. 



