258 



NEW RNr,T,AND FARMER. 



Vol. 6.— No. 33. 



Same year carry the same weights ; their most 

 distinguishc<i bri'edt rs, wlio have examineJ and , 

 scrutini/.eJ the subject, are of opinion that a Jan- 

 uary colt will not be niiicli forwarder than a June } 

 one : that tlie first will lose more by the exposure 1 

 soon after his foalinir, than hn will have gained by 

 having' had more time to grow. 



The third, and by far th'- most important thing 

 of all, is the horse's treatment from the time he is 

 foaled till he i> full ifrown. One of tne most cele- 

 brated sportsmen of modern times has declared 

 his opinion, th it it is in th ■ power of art to make 

 a superior bone of any colt that nature has not de 

 formed, and whoever is aware of the effects of liif 

 ferent methods of rearing fhildren will not be dis- 

 inclined to agree with liiui. The grand encmit's 

 of young aninnls are moisture anri bad food : and 

 the younifer, the more scrupulously should they 

 be preserved from both. A iiorse should bo fed 

 better, and kept warm and dry more the first year 

 of his lite, than any other : and ii is an advantage 

 he will never lose. Many of our farmers have an 

 idea that though insufficient nourishment will 

 check the growth, the horse will siill be a good 

 one, though of small si'e ; in Enffland they assert 

 that his heijlit will be the same, but that he mil 

 be weak and leggy. I have the opinion of one of 

 the oldest Merino sheep breeders, that it is indis 

 pensable that tiie lambs should be kept warm and 

 thriving, or they will not pay A long coat is 

 both the cause and effect of not thrivini;. If any 

 one will examine long-C'>ated and short-coated 

 horses exposed to the same rain, he will fiud one 

 saturated with water under the belly, chest and 

 throat ; and not dry for some hours after it is 

 done : that the water runs in streaks from the 

 back of the other, that his belly, chest and throat 

 are dry ; and that ho dries all over as soon as the 

 rain is done. The different effect upon the insen- 

 sible perspiration and the lungs are evident enough; 

 and, if a celt wears a long coat, he should not be 

 e.xposed to continued wet weather. 



The thoroui>h bred horse is always allowed, in 

 England, a full allowance of corn at all periods of 

 his life, if well. All danger of his being injured 

 by over feedirnr is prevented by the attentive and 

 experienced liands in which he is placed. He is 

 carefully groomed at the earliest age : the advan- 

 taire of this and clothing, no one is ever convinc- 

 ed of by any thing but experience, thouirh he 

 knows the benefit he himself derives from flannel 

 and flesh bru.shes. Nothing of this, however, is 

 necessary here, excepting that the horse should 

 have a little corn, oats in preference to any other 

 kind of corn, the first year. He must not. howev 

 er, more than any other horse, ho fed hi<rh on any 

 kind of cold, or he is in danger of some local in- 

 tlammation. He may have that of the lungs and 

 die ; or get Wfll with his wind touched or his feet 

 spoiled for life. The thickness of wind arising 

 from thickening of the wind-pipe, i.s attnbuteil in 

 England to imoroper treatment of the distemper. 

 iMan has various tRmpernments : the horse none 

 but the sanguineous. All his diseases, that do not 



arise from contagion, assume an inflammatorv 

 form. If he has been allowed to sufi"er from se- 

 vere colds, when young, he will be preternaturally 

 liable to them through life. This can be explain- 

 ed on anatomical principles: it is an analogons 



fact, that the native of a warm climnto has his 

 health less aflx?cted by the first northern winter 



be is pxposed to, than by any other ; and that in 



'Napoleon's Russian Campaign, the Italians anil 



Spaniards sufl'ered le-^s t. an the Germans and the 

 Poles. 



The colt requires nothing but grass and hay 

 after the first year. He should be perfectly brok- 

 en in the winter before he is three years old ; but 

 must not be taken upon a'frozen road. He is less 

 in danger of hein^ injured by being brought into 

 work at that age, from the gentleness with which 

 he will probably be used, than he often is from 

 beinsf presumed after five, to be fit for common la- 

 bour without time's beinif siven him to be accus 

 tomed gradually to it. A horse taken from grass 

 or the cow-yard should eat no kind of corn till he 

 has been a lodff whilf in work. He will puff in 

 the hoiiffhs and heat in the feet, after walking five 

 miles on the roa<l ; anil if the fever attending his 

 first attempt.s at bibour particularly i' lie is very 

 young, is inrrensed by full feed at thi nne, it will 

 throw itself into his feet alreidy heated by the 

 unusual concussion, and do him permanent i' jury. 

 He is especially in dansjer of this, if first used on 

 the fro?en roads of the lieginning of the winter, 

 when thev are perfectly nnelastick, and he is ex 

 cited hv the state of the atniosphere. 



Spavins and ringbones are sometimes thrown 

 out bv a colt : and their nature -s not understood 

 by our farmers generally. At the lower part of, 

 the front of the |-oir. h there are a number of 

 joints, occupvin-' tosrether but a small space, and 

 possessing hut little motion. Upon any considera- 

 ble inflummnti'in. thev are liable to secrete bony 

 matter, which fills up their interstices; and gener- 

 ally projects in front or on the inside of the hough, 

 and is evident to the eye. It appears suddenly, 

 and soon hardens. As the separate bones then 

 form om^ solid mass, it is obviously incurable. It 

 is vTV common in oxen ; butchers being frequent- 

 ly ohli re ' tn cut throuL'h with an axe, what was 

 once a number of honp= joined together. When 

 it is soft it is absorbed by a blister. It may arise 

 from the inflamtnatton occasioned by a violent blow 

 upon some p:irt of the ler ; and I have a colt 

 spavined in both leirs from a severe kicking. It is 

 ant to keep a horse out of conditiim from its pain ; 

 but many of our first rate work horses are spavin- 

 ed. When T sr)eak of spavin, I, of course, mean 

 bonesnavin ; bon- and blood-spavins, as well as 

 thornu'rh-pins being nothiu' but wind-galls of 

 the houjh. A rin'.'bone is of the same nature as 

 a spavin ; and (renerally proceeds from inflamma- 

 tion of the nasternjoint. It has been ascribed, in 

 some instnnces. to stimpinsr off the flies ; and I 



have hid one arise npparentlv from that cause 



So simnle a reason, however it would be difficult 

 to make a farmer believe. It is not an invariable 

 cauoe of lameness I ike a spavin it-is incurable 

 evceptincp in particular slates : lio„ exactly cor 

 respondintr, however. Purlis are common in tlior- 

 otigrh bred coUs : but are, comparatively of trifling 

 consequence and always to be cured. 

 I Any one, that does not acknowledge the as- 

 sistance which nature may receive from art in a 

 I young animal, must have shut his eyes upon the 

 lyecjetahle world. Kvaty domestick animal was in- 

 tended to reap the advantages of civilization in his 

 food and shelter as much as man ; nor can he be 

 in his highest perfection without them. For (he 

 very fullest development of a horse's powers, ho 

 must be kept continually in a high temperature. 

 It is very well to laugh at the extent to which 

 this appears to be carried ; but the fact is not to 

 I be disputed. 



I'Hii VIAJL. 



Exlracts from die Vine Dresser's Theoretical and Practical 

 Manual. By Thiehaut de Beriieaud, Perpetual Secretary of 

 the Liniisan Society of Paris, &c. &c. Translated from the 

 French. 



The vine belongs to the natural order, Sarmen- 

 tusw, a family of plants with stem-like branches. 

 The class is pent;indria nionogynia ; leaves alter- 

 nate, palmated, five lobed, more or less distinctly 

 incised or dentated ; green or blueisli, with flow- 

 ers or clusters, opposite to the leaves, supported 

 by a common peduncle, which turns to a tendril if 

 the blossom fails. The flowers are small, green- 

 ish — the calyx very small, whole, and five tooth- 

 ed — the corolla is formed of five deciduous petals, 

 sometimes is united together at their summits like 

 a crown, and shed without being ilisunited. The 

 stamens are five in number, opposite to the petals; 

 their filaments subulate, ami supporting simple 

 anthers. No style stii/mata sessile [close set] in 

 a five-chambered ovary. Tuis ovary becoo'es a 

 round or oval berry, juicy, unilocular when ripe — 

 with five stony seeds — two, three, or four of which 

 are abortive. The fruit is only borne on the 

 shoots of the year, and generally at the fifth, sixth 

 and seventh joint ; so that if the seventh joint has 

 made its appearance without si^'n of fruit, none 

 need bo expected from that shoot. 



The species, or varieties of the vine, are very 

 numerous. Their names must long remain ob- 

 scure and empirical, in a measure ; for the labor 

 of arranging them in some regular nomenclature 

 is greater than can be imasined ; it ca,i only be 

 accomplished by the concurrence of agricultural 

 societies. It has been attempted, for the vineyard 

 of Arbois [Jura], by Duniont, corresponding mem- 

 ber of the Linnsan Society of Paris; and in Spain, 

 for the vines of Andalusia, by a distinguished and 



learned naturalist, Dn. Simon Roxas Clamante 



their works only convince us how long we must 

 be condemned to wait for the completion of this 

 interesting portion of ihe history of the vine. The 

 same names are attached frequently to the distinct 

 varieties ; and often, the one variety is so altered 

 or deteriorated by different modes of cultivation, 

 soil, and exposures, that it cannot be known b • 

 the name. To obtain a clear summary of these va- 

 rieties, some certain rules or designations should 

 be chosen, and the value of the characteristics 

 taken to calculate upon, should be fixed and es- 

 tablished. The roots are partly penetrating, part- 

 ly running, and thickly fringed with capillary 

 threads. The stem is cylindrical, thin in propor- 

 tion to its length, and requires support. When 

 young, the stem is more or less strongly divided, 

 and marked by joints or bends. A single plant of 

 the vine is sometimes termed a slip, sometimes a 

 stock; the latter name is more particularly given 

 to that part of the vine which answers to the trunk 

 in trees ; in the wild state, there is no certain 

 length or thickness, both seeming to depend on 

 .iccident ; hut they are regulated by the vinedres- 

 ser, according to his mode of cultivation. The 

 ilock when young, is covered with a green or 

 tawny bark, which becomes brown with ace ; it 

 is uneven in thickness, and irregular in adherence 

 '.o the wood ; most frequently seamed and split 

 iengthwise, and looseneil from the wood in long 

 narrow layers or overlapping parcels, which are 

 in the end entirely started and swept away by the 

 wind and rain. In cold countries, the bark is more 

 even. From the stock or trunk, s))ring the shoots 

 or branches, stem-like — sometimes forked smooth 



