78 
JOTTINGS IN ENGLAND. 
even the “ old oaken bucketto the soil; to his 
associates and relatives, for the purpose of getting 
richer land, which, when cleared, and cultivated 
as is now done, will cause the young flock to wan¬ 
der again—and in reality, only serve to support 
one generation ? I say nay, and therefore urge it 
on our brother farmer C. McD., as on all others in 
that good old state, to make it a part of their regular 
business to save, gather, and make manure ; they 
will find that three years of labor, with the cost and 
loss of moving, will give them such lands, that 
they will cling to the “ old south state,” even if 
they live in the “ Peedee country—God bless 
you.” 
Leibig’s Letters. —I have just finished reading 
Leibig’s Familiar Letters, and a capital fine thing 
it is. I wish it had been published prior to his 
other works, as I think it would have been more 
generally beneficial; whereas, rqany who pur¬ 
chased the first works of his, have not read them 
through, and will suppose this to be a similar work. 
But the form of letters makes it indeed “ familiar,” 
and it treats on “ familiar” subjects. 
M. W. Philips. 
Log Hall, Miss., December 21st, 1843. 
In reply to inquiries, Dr. Philips’ address is Ed¬ 
wards’ Depot. If equally agreeable to our corres¬ 
pondents, we would recommend in communica¬ 
tions made us, always dating from their Post Offi¬ 
ces, when not that of their residence. They can 
then be written to by any one who wishes without 
further inquiry, and with a certainty of the letter 
reaching its place of destination. 
JOTTINGS IN ENGLAND. 
We here give the first of a series of articles that 
are promised us by a friend now travelling in Eng¬ 
land, and although written with all the ease of a 
familiar letter, our readers will find them to abound 
in valuable observations on the agriculture of Great 
Britain, the writer being one of our own most emi¬ 
nent agriculturist. We expect his tour will be ex¬ 
tended to the Continent, and if so, we shall hope 
for a continuation of his observations there. Eu¬ 
ropean continental agriculture is almost unknown 
to Americans, and yet many valuable things are to 
be found there, well worthy the attention of our 
countrymen. 
London, January 3 d, 1844. 
English Horses.— Among other things, I have 
been looking round me with some reference to the 
relative excellence of the English and American 
horse, as alluded to in an editorial article which I 
remember to have seen in the American Agricul¬ 
turist ; and though I then doubted the correctness 
of your opinion, yet I now think, on the whole, 
that a certain class of horses here, answering to 
our horse of all work, is an inferior animal. I 
must, however, think that the strong English 
hunter, the great weight carrier, the noble animal 
that is master of sixteen stone, [224 lbs.,] across a 
heavy country, is of all others the very horse for 
our purpose ; for in him are united size, power, ac¬ 
tivity, and courage, with all the clea?i and valuable 
points of a well-bred horse. At the cover-side, 
you may see gathered together, for the day’s sport, 
some fifty or sixty such; but in my own coun¬ 
try, some few occasionally cross my path, but 
nowhere, and on no occasion, is it the general 
character of our horses. 
When I consider the small difference in expense 
between raising good and bad animals, and the 
vast difference in their value when fit for market, 
I am only astonished at the short-sightedness of 
our farmers, and their “penny-wise and pound- 
foolish” principles of using a cheap stallion, by 
which they often save Ten Dollars, and as often 
lose Fifty. Good breeding must be based on good 
blood. The carriage-horses now in “ town” are 
very ordinary, and are by no means as closely 
marched as they are required to be in the city of 
New York. But I am told that “ London is emp¬ 
ty ,” and consequently the best horses are in the 
country; and I doubt net that in “ the season,” 
London contains more fine horses than any city in 
the world —nous perrons—-(we shall see.) 
Unsound Feet. —Of one thing I am well con¬ 
vinced, that there is very much more unsoundness 
of feet here than with us in America, which I am 
inclined to attribute to a large portion of our 
winter’s work being on snow, which keeps the 
feet cool and moist, and saves them from the con¬ 
stant jar of a hard, unyielding road; while our 
comparatively cold open stables render them much 
less liable to inflammatory disease, affections of 
the eyes, and a thousand other ills attendant on 
thick clothing, and close, warm stables in a climate 
where the thermometer has not as yet ranged be¬ 
low 29 degrees. 
Clipping Horses. —And now let me notice for 
the consideration of such of your readers as are 
interested in horses, the practice here called “ clip-* 
ping,” which is in England attended with the best 
results in every point of view, especially with 
horses that have long, thick coats, and are with 
difficulty dried off after their work. The opera¬ 
tion consists in clipping over the whole of the 
horse’s coat from his head to his heel, with curved 
and other shaped scissors made for the purpose, 
raising at every clip the hair with a very flexible 
and rather fine-toothed comb, in order to its close 
cutting without notch or rib. The expense of 
clipping a full-sized horse is two guineas, or about 
nine dollars and a half, and is generally performed 
by three men, who commence at six o’clock in the 
morning of one day, working all that day through 
the night, and finishing about noon of the next 
day ; their object in thus unintereeptedly continu¬ 
ing the work, is that they may take advantage of 
the animal’s drowsiness to clip the more trouble¬ 
some parts about the belly and flank, which in a 
ticklish horse might otherwise be difficult. One 
would naturally suppose that such an operation 
could not but be dangerous to the health of the 
animal, and that colds, coughs, &c., must ensue, 
but I was surprised to find that this was by no 
means the case, and that an extra blanket for a 
