NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



A CRinmxG noRSE. 



Havins a cnl)I)ing horse and wishing to gam all 

 the inlonuation 1 can on the cause and cure, if 

 there is any, it would oblige me if you would an- 

 swer a fcwqucstions upon the suliject in your Ex- 

 tracts and Replies. 



A friend told nic a few days ago that he met an 

 Agent of the Ni;w England Fakmeu in Medway, 

 who, upon seeing a horse crib, said that he knew 

 the cause and cure ; he said that it was owing to 

 the teeth being too tight, and that the remedy was 

 to take a fine saw and saw l)et\vecn the teeth. 

 What I wish to inquire is, do you think this to l)e 

 the real cause and cure ? I have never heard of 

 this before ; is it a new idea or is it an old theory. 

 It is my opinion, founded upon some experience, 

 that it is not caused by the teeth. I think it arises 

 from some hankering in the stomach brought on 

 by some inflammation or disease. L. A. Cobb. 



Sheldonville, Mass., Dec, 1810. 



Remarks. — We doubt whether any person 

 knows, precisely, what causes horses to indulge in 

 ci-ibbing. Was it ever kno\\'n in a colt who had 

 run in a pa.sture in the summer and had the free- 

 dom of a yard in the winter ? We think not. And 

 if not, then it is natural to suppose that it must be 

 something that relates to the management of the 

 animal in the feeding, working, or some peculiari- 

 ty ill the stall or stable. The largest number of 

 "cribbcrs arc found among horses that are not regu- 

 larly worked ; one that is doomed to pass many 

 weary days and weeks of stagnation in the stall. 

 This may be the cause, and proljably is, some- 

 times. Horses in health should never stand a 

 week at a time without exercise. If the owner has 

 no use for the animal, he should give him the run 

 of a small pasture or a large bani-yard, or a drive 

 with some person on his back or attached to a car- 

 riage, for the sake of the exercise itself. 



If long confined to the stall, and fed liberally, he 

 gets full of energy, and foiling to find any other 

 means of working it off, sometimes falls to kicking, 

 linocking the planks of the stalls to pieces, or the 

 boarding flies off in splinters from the side of the 

 barn. Another horse, in his restlessness, will bite 

 at anything he can lay hold of, and finding that he 

 can stretch his muscles a little by holding on with 

 his teeth to the crib, tries it again and again until 

 habit becomes almost immovably fixed. ■ He en- 

 joys it. It affords him exercise and he grunts his 

 approbation of it every time he stretches back 

 with liis teeth fast to the crib. A good horse loves 

 action, as much as does an ambitious man. When 

 properly fed, loaded and driven, he finds enjoyment 

 in work, and no creature is more faithful in it. Is 

 it strange that idleness should beget a bad habit in 

 a horse, when we consider who it is that usually 

 emploj's an idle man ! 



Idleness with high feeding we should -think a 

 sufficient cause of cribbing. Too much sameness 

 in the diet may disarrange the digestion, and lead 

 to a restless habit that induces cribbing. Or, close 

 and tainted air in the stables may lead to it. All 

 these arc theories, but wc doubt whether a horse 



never subjected to any of these things will ever 

 become a "cribber." 



Horses occupying stalls near cribbcrs are quite 

 apt to contract the habit, and, therefore, should 

 not be allowed near them. 



The need of salt to horses and swine is too often 

 overlooked. A lump of rock salt where the horse 

 can reach it, when in the stall, may prevent dis- 

 ease, and would frequently lie grateful to him. 



The process for curing a confimied ci-ibber is 

 rather a long one, and is the only one which 

 proves successful. It consists in tying the horse 

 in some open place, as the bam floor, where he can 

 not lay hold of anything. Tie him by a halt<?r 

 buckled to a staple over his head, and feed him up- 

 on the floor or in a box, and take the box away the 

 moment he has done eating. A six months' treat- 

 ment of this kind will probably be required before 

 he will forget his old habit. 



It is possible, perhaps, that the habit may be 

 broken up in the stall by removing everything the 

 horse can lay hold of. Sometimes, however, the 

 animal does not bite, but presses his teeth against 

 anything he can find, and then stretches and 

 grunts. 



WHY FARMS ARE CHEAP IX WESTERN MASSACHU- 

 SETTS. 



I find a few leisure moments and think I will 

 improve them by giving a few reasons why Massa- 

 chusetts farms are bought and sold so low. Your 

 correspondent, "W. E. A." asked, are they bonded 

 to railroads ? Many of them are. Yes, I may say 

 all are, and many double bonded. I reside some 

 twelve miles from railroad, and the centre of the 

 to^vn is about the same distance from one, making 

 us a border town. I think I nuvy say this town is 

 not bonded to any pai-ficular railroad company, 

 and yet I call the town bonded. In Vermont, they 

 have no Hoosac Tunnel, where millions of dollars 

 of public money are being thrown away, — saying 

 nothing of many lives that are being sacrificed. I 

 say thrown away, for this generation will never 

 see the earnings of the road meet one-half the ex- 

 pense, and I fear no generation will see the return 

 of the money expended. These extra and lavish 

 expenditures arc calling the money from the far- 

 mers of jMnssachusctts, and making their yokes 

 heavy and their farms burthcnsome. In no moun- 

 tain town in New England can you find a more de- 

 sirable location than in this. We have l)cautiful 

 scener3% naturally a good soil, pure air, pure water, 

 and pure temperance people generally. Many of 

 the farms are handed down from father to son. 

 But these sons are getting uneasy. And why ? 

 They cannot make the farm paj- ! Heavy railroad 

 taxes, insurance policies, both on life and property, 

 to say nothing of a multitude of book agents, and 

 all the other agents that must be patronized. Who 

 wonders tliat the cities grow fat, while the ribs of 

 the poor country crop out, and the young farmers 

 ofl'cr their farms at low figures. The present prices 

 of farms in this place average only about fifteen 

 dollars per acre. W. F. Jones. 



Worthington, Mass., Dec. 23, 1810. 



Remarks.— At the risk of being considered old- 

 fogyish, wc confess that we sympathize with the 

 views of our correspondent. Divide the sum of 

 the public indebtedness of Massachusetts — State, 

 county, town and society, without including our 

 national debt, — among the voters of the State, and 



