78 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMEE. 



Mar. 



CoLOits i.F Horses. — A good horse cannot have 

 a bad color. L'ark chestnut was preferred by 

 the old Arabs. They never prayed to Allah for 

 deliverance, unless their pursuers rode chestnut 

 colored hor.-es. George the Third had a passion 

 for confiuiiira cream color. Bay is a favorite 

 color wiih Americaas. White horses need care- 

 ful grooming to look well. 



Sweeney ix Rorses. — We often hear the ex- 

 press; in, '• when a horse is lame in the shoulder, 

 that horse has the sweeney." 



Nov/, Mr. Editor, will you please ask youi; Ve- 

 teritiiiry correspondent to tell me if there is any 

 such disease, and whit is its cure ? 1 have had 

 just ;i little txperience in horses, and when those 

 said to b - iifi-'f-t^d with s.weeney have come into 

 my h:'auls, I have relieved them from all lame- 

 ness HI Irom two to four wetks, by biithing the 

 mus Ic.s 0:1 the inside of the arm and shoulder 

 near the upper part. But I cannot find any author 

 who t;ili:3 of ''sweeney" as a disease; therefore 

 my qUi.^ti'n. Is there any specific disease of 

 that nnme? What is its cause, and how is i 

 cured V — E. 



Propasation by Boot Cuttings. 



Few persons know with what ease many shrubs 

 and eve:i tr^es are propagated by cuttings of the 

 . roots. The way to do this sucoessfu'ly. is to pre- 

 pare a piece of good ground, deeply d .g or 

 trenched. Widl lulverized atid uidin drained, the 

 .Foil to he pelcoicd with reference to the nature of 

 toe p'ants th>vt it is dc = irable to pn^pngate ; for, 

 unlike cut.'iiigs of the branches, tho-^e of the 

 roots form no calus, ar^d the pure sand so neces- 

 sary to the I'ormer method, is not so in this Of 

 course, aii good garden soil contnins saud, in a 

 greatiT or less proportion, niid such phints natu- 

 rally prf'"cr Sindy soils must be propsgated in 

 such. When you.- soil is prepared, maiic cuttings 

 of tlic rofd- you desire to increase. I'^elect pieces 

 from !i quirter to over three-quarters of an inch 

 in diiiu tof, and from four to eight inches in 

 length; phsnt them with the upper end a very 

 little belo-.v the surface of the soil. In a few 

 week-, t'H>se pieces will have pushed out an 

 abutidmce of fibrous roots, and a bud or buds 

 will have formed at the upper end, and this with- 

 out tnere hiving been any trace of such previ- 

 ously. Cuttitigs of this kind often m^ke good 

 plants the fn'st year. This is a common method 

 of prapajjating the hawthorne for hedgi^s in Eng- 

 land, arid form a hedge faster than when grown 

 from the seed. Nurserymen take advantage of 

 this method to increase the r stock, especially of 

 such plint-i as are of slow grotli, or are difficult 

 to pr p:ig\te by seet^. Plum stocks are often 

 raised by this means, and also cherries ; but 

 many object to the latter as produc ng trees that 

 are slioit 1 vel,.and liable to sucker. The quince 

 succeeds well, treated thus ; but the usual method 

 is by eut'iiig off the branches. The .Japan quince 

 is m'^re easi y increased by this means than any 

 other, and the same may be said of a great num- 

 ber of our ornamental shrubs and trets. Even 

 many -tin !s of evergreens wi'l do well, and form 

 nice plants under this treatment, although this 



is seldom tried. The common Altheas may be 

 increased to any extent thus. 



The best time for planting these cutt'ngs jg 

 early in spring, before the plants have leaved 

 out. Of course, all plants will not succeed in 

 this m:inner. Some require that previously 

 formed buds should exist. The dahlia is an ex- 

 ample of this among herbaceous plants; but all 

 plants, wita a natural tendency to sucker, will 

 be sure to succeed. — Ohio Farmer. 



Sleep. 



Dr. Cornell, of Philadelphia, contributes to tho 

 November of the Educator nn artic'e on sleep, 

 from which we make the following ex racts: 



"No one who wishes to accomplish great things 

 shoiild deny himself the advantages of sleep or 

 exercise. Any student will acccmplish more, 

 year by year, if he allow hiinseif seven to eight 

 hours to sleep, and three or four fnr meals and 

 amusements, than if he Ip-bors at his books, or 

 Tvith liis pen, ten or twelve hours a 'lay. It is 

 true, that some few persons are able fo perform 

 much mental labor, and fo ftudy late at night, 

 and yet sleep well. Some require but ll'tie sleep. 

 But such individuals are very rare. G n. Pichc- 

 gru informed Sir Gilbert Elana that, during a 

 whole year's campa'gn he did nut sltep inorothaa 

 one hour in twenty-four. Sle-p si'cmed to be at 

 the command of N.»pole(m, as he etiild nle *p and 

 awake apparently at will. M. Gijizot, minister 

 of Franca under Ljuis Philippe, was a good 

 sleeper. A iate writer observes t' at !.is f-icility 

 for gdng to sleep fifter extreme exeiternont and 

 mental exe'tion was prodigious, and if was for- 

 tunate for him that he was so cotistituted, other- 

 wise would have matt-rially suliercd. A min- 

 ister in France ought not to be a nervous 

 mati ; it is fatal to him If he is. After tlie most 

 boisterv-us rmd tumultuous sittings, at the Cham- 

 ber ; after being baited by the opposition in a 

 most sav.igo manner — there is no milder expres- 

 sion for their excessive violence — he arrives 

 home, throws himself upon a couch and sinks 

 immediately into a profound sleep, from which 

 he is undisturbed till midnight, when proofs of 

 the Moniteur are brought to him for inspection. 

 The most frequent and immediate cause of in- 

 sanity, and oue of the most important to guard 

 against, is the want of sleep. Indeed, so rarely 

 do we see a recent case of insanity that is not 

 preceded l^y want of sleep, that it is regarded as 

 almost a sure precursor of mental derangement. 

 Not wiihstaiiding strong hereditary predisposition, 

 ill health, loss of kindred or properly, insanity 

 rarely resubs. unless the exciting causes are 

 such as to produce a loss of sleep. A mother 

 loses her only child, the merchant his fortune; 

 the politician, the scholar, the enthusiast, may 

 have their minds powerfully excited aul disturb- 

 ed, yet if they sleep well, they will not become 

 insane. No advice is so good, therefore, to those 

 who have recovered from an attack, or to those 

 who are in dtlieate health, as that of securing 

 by all mejns, sound, regular, and refreshing 

 sleep." • 



