fii'iifrnn" 
-tTOT i wriF laaftav.^.?!; tfBag ' a?=iTa gi 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
29 
From the Massachusetts Plowman. 
MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE. 
This noble animal is an indispensable ser- 
vant and companion of ihe larmef. He plows, 
he harrows, he carts over the larm. He goes to 
market, to mill, and to meeting ; he also accom- 
panies his master to election Irolics, political 
gatherings, and winter sleigh rides, and his com- 
pany is as much sought alter, at such times, as 
the orators or the fiddler’s. 
The horse is more olten abased than any ol 
our domestic brutes. He is too generous to 
spare his limbs or his wind when v;e are in 
haste, and his generous ambiiien too olten 
causes his tuin. 
On the larm, however, the horse is not so ge- 
nerally over-driven as on the highway, when we 
attempt to outstrip the wind, and leave steam 
engines behind. It is fast driving and subse- 
quent neglect that bring on sprained joints, bro- 
ken lungs and premature old age. 
Horses that are worked on a farm and well 
attended to will olten be good m harness at 25 
years ot age; while those that travel in stages 
are not expected to last longer, on the average, 
than six or seven years. They are then turned 
olF to the farmer to serve in better business, or 
are sold to the tanner for what the skin is worth. 
We have thrown out a few hints, in a former 
number, on the subject of horse-breaking. We 
hold that any horse, with proper breaking, may 
be made to draw as sure as an ox. The horse 
requires different treatment, because he knows 
more. And this circumstance makes it abso- 
lutely necessary that his driver should be wiser 
than the driver of an ox. We cannotvouch for 
the saying of the Irishman, “that a horse knows 
as much as a man accordinc to his bigness.” 
Still we conjecture that some horses have more 
understanding than some men have. 
HOW TO TREAT HORSES ON A JOURNEY. 
Much judgment is requisite to keep a horse 
in good trim on a long journey, and when your 
jaunt is but 20 miles, it is worth your while to 
look well to your horse. The first step is to fit 
the horse fur the journey. If he has been kept 
out at pasture, he should be taken up and put 
to hay and gram for a number of days before 
starting. Hay and grain must be his food while 
belabors hard; but when you first commence 
giving grain you mustlimitthe quantity. When 
he has become used to eating grain, you can 
make that his piincipal food on a journey; and 
this you will find cheaper than any other food. 
W e have known farmers, of very good sense 
in ether matters, act most absurdly jn the ma- 
nagement of a horse. They will give “Dobbin” 
a mess of grain just before starting in the morn- 
ing — though he hasnot been used to eating it be- 
fore — just as if half a peck of oats or corn, 
crammed dowm hastily, would aid him in his 
journey. Dobbin would pertorm much better 
through the day without a mouthful of grain. 
Even one that has been long used to it should 
never have his stomach stuffed full of it just be- 
fore starting. 
Your most hearty food should alt be given at 
night, unless you have ostlers that can be de- 
pended on to feed them two or three hours be- 
fore morning; in such case a paitof yourgrain 
may be given at night, soon after you stop, and 
the remainder two hours at least before you re- 
new your journey. 
We are aw'are that some overwise teamsters 
will argue, that if you give your horse his grain 
at night he will eat no hay of consequence, and 
that you will throw away the money you pay 
for hay feeding. They therefore endeavor to 
stuff in as much hay as possible at first, and give 
the more palatable food for a dessert or stuf- 
fer. This is most unwise on two accounts — 
your horse needs his most hearty food soon alter 
his day’s work is over— and very hearty food 
hurts him when fed just before his work com- 
mences. 
If the grain is ^iven at night, your horse soon 
eats enjugtr to cloy him sufficiently to induce 
sleep and rest; but if he must have poor pick- ' 
ing lor some hours alter being put up, his lime of 
sleep and rest is delayed. It may require the 
whole night, on fodder that he must pick over, 
to satisfy the craving of his appetite. 
It you are used to travelling, you know you 
cannot always be sure of the best ot hay for 
your horse. In New York the Dutch tavern 
keeper advises you to feed vi’wh his latest cut ko,y. 
He argues that more heart is found in this than 
in what is cut while in lull blossom. Well, 
give a know'ing horse such hay and he will stare 
you in the face and whinnow for grain. 
We have travelled much, and on long jour- 
neys — we have learned from long experience 
that grain must be our chief reliance lor horse 
food — that the horse wants something substan- 
tial soon after being pul up — that his grain then 
benefits him much more than at any other time, 
because he is then most in want of it, and be- 
cause it then has time enough to digest and go 
into the system. 
The best mode is to rely chiefly on grain. 
One peck of good corn is equal to two pecks of 
oats, but as your hay may not be good, prefer 
turning down half a bushel of oats before your 
horse, soon after putting him up at night. He 
must have something to fill his stomach, and as 
the hay may be worthless, your oats will an- 
swer lor hay and grain too. Your horse will 
now soon eat as much as he wants— he will 
soon lie down to rest and to sleep; and before 
morning his grain will all be converted into 
good chyle and will be nourishing his blood. 
The next morning your horse will be ready 
to start before you wake up. Instead of waiting 
for him to eat a new mess of grain, and then to 
let it digest, you find him plump and good na- 
tured, and asking for nothing but your compa- 
ny. 
It is well known that horses are oiten ruined 
by eating grain at improper times. Farmers 
have fancied that eating it while the animal is 
hot with exercise is the principal cause of inju- 
ry from grain; but it is not so. We have 
known many horses to die suddenly on eating 
grain, hut never on account of eating it soon 
after stopping. It is rapid driving — violent ex- 
ercise soon after eating the most hearty kind ol 
food, that is so destructive to travelling hoises. 
There is no more danger in giving a horse the 
most hearty food in ten minutes alter he stops, 
than in giving a man his most hearty meal as 
soon as he quits mowing in a hot day. 
Let any one consult his own feelings and he 
may rid himself of the delusion that eating after 
violent exercise injures him more than at other 
times. It is violent exercise immediately alter 
eating, before the food has had lime to change, 
that deranges the whole system and causes 
death. If any traveller objects to the cost of 
feeding on grain while on a journey, we answer 
that you pay no more lor half a bushel of oats 
than for half a peck —for if you order half a bu- 
shel, you buy at wliole-^^ale, and your landlord 
will charge you nothing lor the hay. Suppose 
you pay double the wholesale price for oats, 
your horse keeping is then but fifty cents, in 
any country town in New England. And if 
you call for half a peck of oats, with hay, you 
will find your bill not far short oi that sum. 
STAGE HORSES. 
These may be kept in a different manner from 
those that are on long journeys. They are al- 
ways kept cd home, and their tenders have leisure 
enough to prepare their food for them. 
Grain is the principal food of stage horses, 
but it is found economical to mix up cheap sub- 
stances with it to distend the stomach and to 
keep the horse in health. Cut straw, or cheap 
hay, mixed vilh Indian meal is found to be ex- 
cellent food lor hard laboring horses; and as 
drivers have leisure enough to prepare it, this 
has now become the common lood of such 
teams. 
Thirty j'ears ago it was the practice of drivers 
to give their hor.sts meal anrt water on stopping 
for a few minutes t') take breath. In hot wea- 
ther it was no uncommon case to see a horse 
drop suddenly dead in the street. On opening 
the stomaeh raw meal was found in cakes. I he 
violent exerci.se to whirh these horses are sub- 
ject gives no time lor the rich lood to change. 
The horse cannot vomit, as a man and some 
other animals can, and he dies with a load on 
his stomach vvhicti he has no means to remove. 
Show us one case where a horee has been in- 
jured by eating while warm and we will show 
you a hundred where he iias died in 
consequence of travelling immediately after 
eating grain. You have all eat hearty meals 
immediately after labor, and while in a state of 
perspiration, withont injury. And you have all 
lelt pain, on using violent exercise immediatelv 
aftereating. Judge ot the h^rse as of yourself 
and you will judge rightly. ’ 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRIVING. 
ses on a journey. The most important conside- 
ration is to take all due advantage of the ina- 
vienluvi, ov acquired motio7i, wh'xoh your team 
has got up. You see it requires much more 
power to start a train of cais than to keep it in 
motion when under way. So when you move 
a tub ol water on a dray, you find the water in- 
clined to stand stiil, though your tub moves on- 
ward; but the water soon acquires the motion 
ol the tub, and if you keep your tub moving 
steadily the water will need no more spurring, 
W hen your team has once set the load in mo- 
tion it should be regu.arly kept in motion as 
long as your momentum lasts. Set a planet in 
motion, and it continues in motion, fur there is 
nothing to obstruct it. But bodies moving on 
another body are held to it by at raction.'and 
any acquired motion is soon overcome by it. 
On desceriding a hill you acquire momentum 
with but little effort, and one important point, 
in driving, is to inalre as much as possible ot 
this power— kepp it m use as long as you c n. 
A good driver will never lose the power that 
his carri.Tge has acquired in descending a hill 
till it has been fairly overcome bv friction cau- 
sed by the attraction that is found in all bo- 
dies. The momentum thus acquired may car- 
ry him across a plain, or part way up the next 
hill; he should therelore be careful not to check 
this motion in the least degree; but by keeping 
his team along out ot its way, and making them 
lavor rather than check it, he will lose none ot 
Its force. 
But you find thoughtless drivers continually 
disregarding this obvious principle. They will 
come to a walk while the carriage has not vet 
lorgotlen its good will to move. The team ‘in- 
stead of favoring the good will of the carriage 
IS found hanging by the breaching. To com- 
pensate for this lotal loss, the driver finds it ne- 
cessary to renew the momentum, and he will of- 
ten do it by whipping his team while raising 
the next hill! Folly, folly. Your learn must 
have time to breathe, and the best time is while 
walking up hill. But the team should never be 
required to get up a great degree ot momentum 
on rising ground. 
The Editor ol the Alabama Journal has 
been presented with a novel vegetable ol the 
cabbage kind, raised by E. A. Holt, from seed 
sent to him from Belgium, by the Hon. H. W, 
Hilliard. This vegetable is about the size of a 
small hen .s egg, and is a perfect cabbage, firm, 
and white; it is said to be a most delicate dish, 
and superior to anyol ihesame iarailv of^ants. 
The seeds were sown in May, and transplanted 
in August as other cabbage plants are, each 
plant producing irorn thirty to forty of these 
beautiful little cabbage heads. 
I^An establishment for'rhe manulacture of 
various articles ol silk is now in active opera- 
tion at Louisville. The Louisville Journal 
says — “ Most of the operations in this factory are 
effected by steam. I'lie cocoons aie reeled on 
the machine universally known as the Piedmon- 
tese ree‘, aad the silk is spun on a iliro. fie ma- 
chine, a inodification of which makes the twist- 
ed silk. Bhree lo''ms are woiked, and are piin- 
cipally employea in making sewing silk, liand- 
kerchiefs, vestings, and dre‘s patterns lor ladies.” 
