HARDBACK.—WESTERN CALENDAR FOR AUGUST. 
255 
had been dissolved corrosive sublimate, arsenic, or 
copperas. I tried each of these on different feet, to 
test their respective virtues, then sprinkled over the 
sore pulverised blue vitriol and burnt alum. It took 
most of the night to perform this operation upon three 
or four of the tame animals; all the others, having 
never been handled, were nearly as wild as deer. 
The next morning I put the horses into a meadow of 
tine clover rowen, with a barn standing within the en¬ 
closure, a floor running through the centre of the 
barn, with a mow of hay on one side. Into this barn 
I would decoy a young horse or colt, get a rope over 
the head with a slipping noose, and, with floor cov¬ 
ered with straw, I would bring them to the side where 
the mow of hay was, then they might rear and 
throw themselves against it or upon the floor without 
harm. In this way, I halter-broke the whole of 
them, so that I was enabled to manage and doctor them 
with the assistance of one man. I was completely 
successful in the cure of all, with no additional 
remedy to the foregoing, with the exception of bran 
poultices applied to the feet, which greatly aided in 
drawing out the inflammation. These, after having 
been on 12 hours, would become very offensive; in¬ 
deed, the atmosphere of the whole barn was highly 
impregnated and impure. This practice was perfectly 
successful. Every animal recovered, with the loss of 
three hoofs only out of the whole; sound new ones 
growing out in six or eight months. These horses 
had travelled 120 miles through a settled country, pre¬ 
vious to being attacked, and were four days in per¬ 
forming the journey. Can any of your readers tell 
the cause of the disease ? Ohio. 
Our correspondent has here met a frequent disease. 
It is caused by poisonous weeds. The locality of the 
affection shows this, viz.: the mouth and the feet, 
the only parts so constantly in contact with the 
ground as to be acted upon by weeds, to the produc¬ 
tion of disease. There are several weeds that are 
poisonous, and these are more virulent in wet than in 
dry seasons. The summer of 1842 was in Ohio a 
wet one, and the growth of weeds consequently 
great. What particular weed caused the affection 
mentioned, cannot now be known. In the vicinity of 
New York there are several weeds which, when 
allowed to grow freely, produce like diseases. The 
treatment is: 1st, bleeding, if there be much general 
inflammation, which is sometimes the case; 2d, bran 
mashes, with Glauber salts, in doses of from half a 
pound to two pounds, according to the size and age 
of the animal, and half to a whole tea-spoonful of 
saltpetre per day, to cool and purify ; and 3d, the ap¬ 
plication of lotions, cooling and drying. Of these, 
sugar of lead is the best, unless the discharge from the 
ulcers is very abundant, when copperas may be first 
used, to be followed by sugar of lead. 
Hardback.— A shrub growing two feet high, 
bearing a cone-shaped, lilac-colored tuft of blossoms. 
A great pest to the farmer. Nothing will eat it. It 
grows rapidly, and spreads with destructive energy. 
I know not its botanical name. How shall I kill it ? 
Shall 1 mow it ? Summer fallow ? Shall I starve 
sheep into eating it ? What shall I do ? It grows in 
pasture which I need to occupy. Tvro. 
The Tamarack Tree is the only thing we know 
under the local term of “ Hardhack.” We do not re¬ 
collect the shrub described by our correspondent, and 
hope some of our readers will be able to answer his 
inquiries in full. As to killing it, we think this can 
be easily done; for we never saw the weed or shrub 
which we could not successfully battle against, by 
the simple process of cutting it close to the ground, 
just as it commenced blooming, then spread a little 
salt over the fresh-cut shrub or weed, and turn in a 
flock of hardy sheep. The cutting is injurious to the 
shrub, the salt destructive; for as it dissolves, it pene¬ 
trates the stalk or stem to the roots; besides, if it 
attempts to rise again, the sheep will be pretty certain 
to gnaw it down in nibbling for the salt. 
WESTERN CALENDAR FOR AUGUST. 
During the whole of this month in the hemp¬ 
growing regions, all hands must be employed in cut¬ 
ting and securing the hemp crop. When hemp is 
sown as early as the middle of March, it is sometimes 
ripe in the latter part of July. To afford time to 
complete the hay harvest, it ought not to ripen before 
the 1st of August. If cut too green, it is subject to 
injury, by exposure to a hot sun; and if not cut 
when fully ripe, it is subject to injury of a different 
kind. The operation should, therefore, commence 
the moment hemp is ready for the knife ; and if cut 
within one week, it will be in good time. As the 
hemp grower so arranges his different sowings, as to 
allow of intervals between each, these different parts 
of the crop come on in succession, so as to enable 
him to cut each in due season. After sowing one- 
half of his intended crop, a longer interval than usual 
should intervene, so as to give time to put in rick the 
half of the crop first cut. To permit all to remain on 
the ground till the whole crop is cut, would frequently 
expose the part first cut to injury from too much rain 
falling on it. A moderate quantity of rain, on 
hemp, lying on the ground, is advantageous; excessive 
and long-continued rains are very injurious. 
After the hemp is all cut, it is sometimes too wet 
to put in rick. Intervals of this kind should be em¬ 
braced to employ all hands in cutting a second growth 
of thistles and mulleins, which sometimes spring up, 
and also burrs of all kinds, iron-weed (devil’s bit), 
and other noxious weeds, which infest the woodland 
pastures, which may be exterminated by repeated 
cuttings. 
In this month tobacco begins to ripen, and the 
utmost diligence should be used in cutting and housing 
it as fast as it ripens. Where neither hemp nor to¬ 
bacco is raised, the wheat crop should be threshed, and 
delivered at the mills or sold, during this month. In 
the hemp region, this operation is performed, if pos¬ 
sible, before the hemp crop comes on, by hauling the 
grain directly from the shock to the threshing ma¬ 
chine, and immediately delivering at the mill. But 
those who have large crops, are compelled to stack 
their wheat, and delay threshing till the hemp crop is 
secured. In the wheat growing region, where wheat 
is the principal crop, and much ground intended to be 
sown, the plows should commence running to pre¬ 
pare the fallow or sod-ground, if any, for the coming 
crop. 
Turnips should be sown early in this month, or, if 
seasonable, in the last week of July. 
A. Beatty. 
Prospect Hilly Kij. 
