THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



73 



under the manger, of the stall usually un- 

 occupied, and which it was thoughl, 

 though it could not be positively asserted, 

 was lying under her manger when she 

 foaled. She disregarded the foal lying in 

 the same stall, and evinced the most lively 

 satisfaction at meeting with the dog, ut- 

 tered fond maternal neighings to it, 

 licked it, and gently pawed it as if wish- 

 ing it to rise. The dog not relishing these 

 unaccountable caresses, retreated to an- 

 other stall, whither it was immediately 

 followed by the mare, which continued to 

 show manifestations of affection for the dog. 

 Care w<as always taken to have the foal 

 presented to her when she was standing 

 over the dog. She did not show the same 

 dislike to it then, but still her indifference 

 to it was every now and then evinced by 

 pushing it away when it came between 

 her and the dog ; and it the dog was in 

 one stall and the foal in the other, the 

 mare remained with the dog, and totally 

 disregarded the anxious cries of its own 

 offspring. 



All the dogs were then removed from 

 the stable, and the poor foal was as little 

 thought of as it was in the loose-box ; but 

 was kept close before the mare, with a man 

 in attendance to prevent its being injured 

 by her. And every two or three hours the 

 twitch was applied and the foal allowed to 

 suck, the mare being made to understand 

 that the relief she felt from the drawing 

 of the milk was given by the foal. After 

 some hours' absence, the adopted dog ac- 

 cidentally entered the stable, when the 

 mare, on seeing it, became quite frantic 

 to get near it, wreaking her vengeance 

 on the foal by knocking it over. This ac- 

 cident, however, was prevented a second 

 time by closely confining the dogs in a 

 separate house. By degrees, as the milk 

 accumulated on her and evidently gave 

 her pain, of which she was relieved when 

 the foal sucked her, she took more kindly 

 to it. Gradually the use of the twitch 

 was dispensed with, and she allowed the 

 foal to suck without any interference 

 whatever ; and in twenty-four hours after 

 she foaled the trouble spent on her was 

 amply rewarded by her adopting the foal, 

 and becoming so fond of it as not to allow 

 it for one instant to be out of her sight, 

 and to show her displeasure if any 

 stranger came too near it. 



Jt was not thought advisable to remove 



the other horse from the stable, as in 

 cases where mares refuse to take their 

 foals, their maternal feelings have some- 

 times been quickened by the presence of 

 another horse. As we never heard or 

 read of such a curious case of adoption, 

 we have thought it proper to be more than 

 usually minute in our description of this 

 one. We have often seen ewes, bitches, 

 and cats, when near paturition, adopt 

 lambs, puppies, and kittens, which hap- 

 pen to be near them ; but we never heard 

 before of an animal refusing to acknowl- 

 edge its own offspring and adopting an- 

 other animal of a different genus. 



Journal of Agriculture. 



Roofs and Roofing*. 



Although the good people of Maine live 

 in a lumber country, they find it expen- 

 sive building, and we presume that they 

 also find the most expensive part of a 

 building, taking the item of repairs into 

 consideration, to be the roof. 



Shingles of different kinds are now pret- 

 ty generally used for the external cover- 

 ing of roofs. The first cost of this mate- 

 rial does not seem to be very great, vary- 

 ing from four to eight cents per square 

 toot, according to quality and mode of put- 

 ting them on. 



In old times, for some reason or other, 

 shingles used to last much longer than at 

 present. They were then almost invaria- 

 bly made of the best of cedar, and shaved 

 by hand very smoothly. At present shin- 

 gles are made of almost every kind of 

 wood, sawed into shape by the shingle ma- 

 chine. Hence, little care is taken in re- 

 gard to the quality of the material, as to 

 the "rift" and soundness, for it can be 

 sawed into shape. We think that, on an 

 average, ten years is as long as shingles 

 last. At any rate, a roof laid with the 

 best of sawed shingles will need repatching 

 by the time it is ten years old. 



We formerly supposed it to be a good 

 plan to make a roof pretty tight before 

 laying on the shingles, but experienced 

 builders now take the opposite doctrine, 

 and their reasons appear to be founded on 

 reason. When a roof is made tight, say 

 they, by matching the boards or laying 

 them snug together, there is no chance for 

 the shingles to dry when they become wet. 

 During rains the shingles absorb wet, es- 

 pecially sawed shingles. 



