VOL. XVII. NO. a 3 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



17] 



poor that their manure is o^ no value ; and that 

 the American cart contains no more than the Eng- 

 lish wheelbarrow. Mr. Fisk says : — This breed of 

 swine (the Berkshire) was introduced into this state 

 by the Hon. T. Pickering, from the farm of Gen. 

 Ridgely, at Hampton, 14 miles fmrn Philadelphia. 

 Gen. Ridgely informed him that they were brought 

 into this country, as a present to General Wash- 

 ington from tlie Duke of Bedford, (hence the nan e 

 Bedford, by which they are sometimes known) who 

 committed tliem to the care of an English farmer 

 by the name of Parkinson. This man took a farm 

 in the neighborhood of Baltimore ; but instead of 

 seniling the swine to Gen. Washington, Parkinson 

 sold them. Gen Ridgely esteemed them very 

 highly, andisent Col Pickering a pair of them in a 

 vessel bound for Salem. From thence they were 

 transferred to Roxbury, Worcester, &c. 



When we consider the great value of swine to 

 the commun.ty, the imme.-se numbers that are an- 

 nually fed for pork, and the prodigious saving that 

 ■would result to farmers by substituting some of the 

 improved and easily fed kinds for the former infe- 

 rior sorts, we are pleased at the efforts made to 

 bring such varieties to the notice of the farmer, and 

 disposed to rank the introduction of such animals 

 into any place, as a signal benefit. Slow as some 

 farmers may be to break in on their long establish- 

 ed usages, seeing with theui is believing, and no 

 one can see the fine swine of the Messrs Allen of 

 Erie ; Marks of Onondaga, or Bement of Albany, 

 to mention no others, without being impressed with 

 their superiority. Spite of old prejudices, we be- 

 lieve the Chinese crosses in some of their varieties; 

 the Durham Short Horns, the Leicester and South 

 Downs, and the English roadster, will yet find their 

 way securely into public favor. 



DISEASES OF HORSES. 



Fever is of two kinds — First, when it is an exci- 

 ted state of the system without any peculiar local 

 affection, it is called Idiopathic. Second — when de- 

 pendent (i.e. symptomatic) or intiammation of any 

 part 



First — Idiopathic Fever. Without paying any 

 regard to the question whether or not this disease 

 can really e.vist of itself, without being dependent 

 on some other lesion, I shall consider fever gener- 

 ally, under this head. 



Si/mptoms. — It generally begins with a cold 

 shivering fit, the horse is dull and listless, his legs 

 and feet are cold, though sometimes not all of 

 them, but one, two or three, as it may happen, 

 breathing difficult, quick pulse, costiveness, no ap- 

 petite, and the urine high colored. After the shiv- 

 ering (which first ushers it in) has lasted some little 

 time, it is succeeded by the warm stage, which is 

 an excited state, the skin is hot and dry, the eyes 

 are suffused, pulse full and quick. This stage 

 usually last for a few hours, when it may end in a 

 slight sweating stage, or a cessation of the symp- 

 toms, until the time that the cold stage came on 

 previously, wnen the same thing again occurs as 

 just described. This state of fever may continue 

 for several days,when it terminates either in inflam- 

 mation of the brain or lungs, or gradually subsides. 

 It is not of itself dangerous, but proves so by pro- 

 ducing the above sequel. 



Causes. — Changes of temperature from cold to 

 hot, Dice versa ; any means by which the horse is 

 much chilled or perspiration suddenly checked ; fa- 



tigue, over houted stables, and peculiar states of the 

 atmosphere are the most frequent. 



Treatment. — As fever depends on, or rather is an 

 excited stnto of the system, our remedial means 

 must be of an opposite character, i. e. depressing ; 

 the most powerful is bleeding and Uie quan- 

 tity taken and the propriety of taking any, 

 must be dependent on the degree of the 

 disease. The medical means consist of purgatives 

 and cooling salts, a drachm or a drachm and a lialf 

 of aloes should be given night and morning until 

 he is freely purged ; with this fever medicine, 

 digitalis (foxglove,) ojie drachm, tartar emetic, a 

 drachm and a half, and nitre three drachm mixed, 

 to be given night and morning. Digitalis has the 

 property of producing an intermittent pulse, i. e. 

 after every six or seven beat-^, it (the pulse) ceases, 

 while one, two or even more can be counted; where 

 this is the case the medicine should be reduced to 

 one half, and in a few days totally discontinued ; 

 but the nitre and the tartar emetic is still to be per- 

 severed in. If it does not produce this effect it 

 shows the disease has proceeded too far to be ar- 

 rested by it, or in all probability any thing else. 

 If symptoms of inflammation of the lungs should ap- 

 pear, hellebore should be cautiously and carefully 

 administered in half drachm doses, three times a 

 day: if it produces unpleasant effects discontinue 

 it. The horse should be placed in a cool and well 

 ventilated stable, and be kept warmly clothed. 



Second — Symtomatic Fever is merely the system 

 sympathising with some local affections ; of course 

 by subduing this affection tlie feverish disturbance 

 will cease. — London Fanners^ Magazine. 



Massaclnisctts Ilorticnltural Society. 



Exhibition of Fkuits. 



Saturday, Nov. 2itk, 1838. 



Beautiful specimens of the Dix pear were exhib- 

 ited, the produce of the original tree. From the 

 condition of these pears, it was evident they had 

 been kept till the latest period they were capable 

 of being, in perfection. 



Mr R. W ard of Roxbury exhibited pears pi'o- 

 duced from a tree imported from France, the nanK'2 

 having been lost, they have received the local name 

 of " Pond Lily Pears," from a very perceptible 

 resemblance in the smell of the fruit to that of the 

 common water lily. 



Mr Magoon of Medford, exhibited a basket of 

 beautiful pears, the produce of his garden, name 

 unknown ; in size, shape and color, they resemble 

 the Bezi d' Montigny, more than any other pear, 

 ripening as they do at a period when good pears 

 are not common, they are highly deserving of cul- 

 tivation. The committee observe of these pears 

 and many others, exhibited at various times without 

 names, that to avoid a hasty and perhaps erroneous 

 conclusion respecting them, it is their intention to 

 procure scions at the proper season, of all those 

 which appear worth of a place in the fruit garden, 

 to engraft tlieni among ir'any others, which have 

 well authenticated names, and by a critical exam- 

 ination of the plants in the various stages of their 

 growth, to arrive at just conclusions respecting 

 their comparative merits, and also to establish the 

 legitimate names by which they were known in the 

 places where they originated. 



Mr Manning e.xhibited Surpass St Germaine, 

 Bishop's Thumb, and Pound pears, and Reinette 

 du Canada apples. 



For the Committee, 



ROBERT MANNING. 



(From tlie Farmer aiiil Gardener.) 



ICE AND ICE HOUSES. 



In answer to your request for imformation as to 

 the best plan of building ice houses, I will merely 

 inform you that I have an ice house that has been 

 used by my family for about fifty years, and has 

 never failed to preserve nn abundance of ice for 

 our supplies. It is about 16 by 12 feet and judging 

 from recollection, for it is now nearly half full, is 

 about 1() feet deep. It was probably dug down 

 to the sand or gravel, is walled like an ordinary 

 cellar, the wall extending about three feet above 

 the level of the adjacent ground, and earth thrown 

 against it nearly to the roof. This serves to pre- 

 serve a uniform temperature, and prevents leakage 

 from rain, &c. The bottom of the cellar is sup- 

 plied with pieces of timber, say eight by eight inch- 

 es thick, which are placed about six inehes apart, 

 and this protects the ice fi-om the influence of the 

 earth below. When the ice is being put in, I take 

 care to have the bottom and sides vrell provided 

 with clean rye- straw, and have the ice occasior.a.lly 

 broken fine, and when the lionse is full I have it 

 well covered up with the same material. This is 

 all that is necessary to be particular about, as the 

 straw is a non-conductor of caloric, and the ice be- 

 ing well embedded therein, does not melt in the 

 warmest weather. Many years ago this house 

 was; lined with boards, which was only useful as a 

 hrirbor for rats. The lining gradually decayed and 

 'has long since been removed and still the ice is 

 kept as well a ever. Give your ice a dry cellar 

 and plenty of rye straw, and rest assured, you will 

 require neither tan nor pulverised charcoal, nor 

 boards to keep it cool. ^A Phila. Co. Farmer. 



The Farmer a King. — Vie city folks dou't 

 reflect that all rnir institutions and ourliberlies are 

 in the hands of the farmers. Two thirds of all the 

 votes given at the poMs ?re given by them. We 

 do not want the city folks ta mix with farmers only 

 to get tip this- or that candidate for office, but all 

 parties must wish that when they tiold so large a 

 share of political power, they shoat(J be well in- 

 formed of our situation. Again, if some of our 

 mfrchants, lawyers, or doctors, should fall in love 

 witli agriculture, and leave the city and grow grain, 

 we do not think it would injure city or country. 

 Our children would at all events be better condi- 

 tioned tljan by remaining here and becoming mer- 

 chants, if such perilous times are to follow as we 

 have seen. 



Governor Hill states, in his address to the Mer- 

 rimack county Society, in New Hampshire, that of 

 the first farm settlers of that state, six out of ten 

 began tlie world with nothing — yet scarcely one in 

 ten of these has not succeeded in making a good 

 living, and in the end a handsome estate. Now 

 not one in ten even of our merchants, who start 

 with more or less capital, dies rich ; and because 

 one in twenty, thirty, fifty, or a hundred, becomes 

 immensely rich, thousands rush into trade. 



Trade overdone is replete with trouble and mis- 

 ery. The farmer is a king, compared with a de- 

 pendent merchant, whose reliance is on bank favors. 

 — Del. State Journal. 



Palmer Johnson of Claremont, says the Eagle, 

 sold a cow and a calf for one hundred dollars. The 

 sale took place some few weeks since. 



