THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



63 



is not suited for such as grow at the South. 

 Now with all due deference I beg leave to differ 

 with you entirely. I flatter myself that I live 

 in a country where cornstalks grow as large as 

 they do almost anywhere. I am in the habit of 

 cutting off my stalks close to the ground, and 

 for the last two or three years that I have been 

 using your cutter I have passed them through 

 it, without the slightest injury to the knife, to 

 the superiority of which in every respect I most 

 cheerfully bear my unqualified testimony. I 

 volunteer this statement, which you will oblige 

 me by inserting in the Planter from a desire of 

 disseminating a knowledge of one of the best 

 and most useful agricultural implements I ever 

 saw.* 



Your obedient servant, 



Peter Hanger. 

 Waynesborough, Augusta, Va., February, 1844. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 SALT— AN INJURY TO STOCK IN WINTER. 



In conversation with a very practical farmer, 

 who has been successful in raising stock, (I re- 

 fer to Dr. Venable, of Mecklenburg, — I know 

 he will excuse the liberty of giving him as au- 

 thority, for what follows,) I was a little sur- 

 prised to hear from him, that if he was requested 

 to give a recipe, for the most, effectual method 

 of gradually destroying a good flock of sheep, 

 he would say — "Salt them freely from the 1st of 

 November or December to the 1st of April" He 

 thinks also, that it is very injurious to cattle, to 

 salt them during the winter months. His rea- 

 son for this opinion is, that the use of salt creates 

 an unnatural thirst, and the introduction of cold 

 water into the stomach of the animal (especially 

 of sheep) is followed by many of the "ills that 

 brutes are heir to." I am very sure, Mr. Editor, 

 that the Doctor is very willing and would desire 

 to hear any objections and reasons in opposition 

 to his theory, and I hope you, or some of your 

 correspondents, will give their " notions" on this 

 subject. The theory is supported (the Doctor 

 tells me) by facts — a very satisfactory mode of 

 argument. Those of his neighbors who have 

 made free use of salt in winter have lost their 

 sheep and cattle : he and others of his neighbors 

 have been very successful in rearing them. 



The Doctor, however, advocates the free and 

 frequent use of salt for cattle, from 1st April to 

 1st November. He gives it three times a week. 

 He does not give the salt alone. He makes use 

 of the following recipe, viz: 



Mix 4 bushels of clay, 2 bushels of salt, 2 

 pounds of sulphur, and 2 pounds of saltpetre : 

 he gives the mixture in ample quantities, and 

 sometimes makes up the mixture in cakes, and 



* I give it up.— C. T. B. 



puts it about his gullies and galls — thus inviting 

 the cattle to frequent such spots and enrich the 

 soil (on which he has scattered herdsgrass seed) 

 by their deposites." 



Junior. 



December 6, 1843. 



We have frequently noticed objections in the 

 northern papers to curing hay with salt, on ac- 

 count of its injurious effects upon the animals 

 to which it was fed, arising from the unnatural 

 excess of salt with which they were thereby 

 drugged. But we had imagined that if a plen- 

 tiful supply of salt were placed at the disposal 

 of the animal, instinct would direct him as to 

 the quantity required for his system. 



HORSE SHOEING. 



A writer upon the subject of " shoeing." ad- 

 verting to the frog and the diseases that proceed 

 from its inaction, maintains, that it should be 

 always, as in a state of nature, subjected to 

 pressure. Fie gives the following directions for 

 shoeing : 



The horse's foot being circular, and not oval 3 

 the shoe should be made in that form ; or rather 

 the shoe should be measured, and the shoe 

 made exactly to correspond. An oval or elliptic 

 foot is generally, nay, we may say always dis- 

 eased. It has assumed that shape in conse- 

 quence of the contraction of the bars, brought 

 on solely by a diseased state of the frog for want 

 of pressure ; and in no one instance of oval- 

 formed feet will the frogs be found healthy. — - 

 The moment the foot is lifted from the ground, 

 the smell indicates the diseased frog, though 

 perhaps cockney equestrians consider this the 

 natural perfume of the organ when in health, 



The shoe should be as light as possible con- 

 sistently with the labor the animal has to un- 

 dergo. Eefore it is put on, the hoof should be 

 pared away toward the heels, in such a manner 

 that without the shoe the horse should stand 

 with the frog close to the ground, as when in a 

 state of nature ; when the shoe is on, it should 

 be filed away towards the heels, being left only 

 sufficiently thick to enable the frog in the na- 

 tural position of the animal without a rider or 

 burthen, just to clear the ground ; so that when 

 the horse bears its burthen or its rider, the frog 

 of the shoed foot should receive the same pres- 

 sure from the ground that it would do if the 

 shoes were taken off and the animal turned 

 loose. When a horse is shod according to ihe 

 present system, besides the various diseases 

 brought on by the want of the frog, the animal 

 walks upon its toes, (the expression cannot be 

 misunderstood,) and the proper muscular action 

 of the foot and leg is perverted. Hence many 



