AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
149 
whom come from a considerable distance, are 
at school at six in the morning. As they tend 
their cattle or their swine, the knitting never 
ceases, and hence the quantities of stocking arid 
other household things which they accumulate 
are astonishing.— Howitt. 
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A CHLOROFORMED HORSE. 
Messrs. Cheeseman & Dodge have a valua¬ 
ble roadster who resolutely eschews all farriers, 
being determined to go as nature provideth, 
and as we often see certain poor bipeds of ano¬ 
ther genus go from necessity— shoeless. The 
horse had long contracted this habit, while 
every means had been tried, from the nose 
twitch , to that of casting and blinding with 
straps, &c., occupying the attention of some 
dozen men in a doubtful issue to set a shoe. 
This morning as I happened in at the stable, 
preparations were in progress for a determined 
shoeing. The fine fellow had been kept without 
his feed for twenty-four hours, hoping that fast¬ 
ing—that terrible modifier of mettle—-might 
aid the operation. I determined to interfere in 
behalf of the noble fellow. I suggested chloro¬ 
form, and procured a half pound bottle. A 
groom led the horse from his stall into the open 
space, and while he held him by the halter 
with one hand, applied a saturated sponge hold¬ 
ing about two ounces of chloroform to his nos¬ 
trils with the other. After a few inhalings, he 
became quite passive; and in 10 minutes, or 
less, was perfectly ready to be shod, which was 
effected through all the various manipulations, 
with the same unconcern that any old nag 
would do, who having traveled a flinty road, 
gloried in a new set a shoes well hammered on. 
He evinced no symptoms of sensation, nor 
flinched in the least during the clinching pro¬ 
cess. When one foot was finished, in taking 
up another, he seemed not to realize the neces¬ 
sity of aiding himself to gravitate. Yet his 
eyes seemed bright and natural The experi¬ 
ment was deemed perfectly satisfactory, and an 
increased value laid upon the horse. There was 
about a fourth of a pound of chloroform used, 
but a portion, perhaps one-third of it, was 
wasted in appliance. The operation over, the 
horse was led out and exercised for a few mo¬ 
ments, when his feed was given to him, and ap¬ 
parently relished with great gusto.— Xenia 
News. 
FRYING-PANS. 
A single law passed by Congress, supposing 
it had the power, and obeyed by the people, 
vvould effect a great reform in the public health, 
diminish the business of doctors and the de¬ 
mands for drugs, and prove of incalculable bene¬ 
fit to this and future genei’ations. Thus : Be it 
enacted, that on the first day of January, 1855, 
every frying-pan in the United States be broken 
up, and sold for old iron, and that no more be 
manufactured henceforth for ever. Frying is 
the most unwholesome of all modes of cooking. 
Every thing cooked by this method is saturated 
with fat or butter, rendered tough, covered with 
empyreum oil, and made as unfit as possible for 
the human stomach. No dyspeptic should ever 
eat any thing fried, and no one should ever do 
so who would avoid becoming a dyspeptic. Let 
your food be boiled or roasted, or broiled, or 
baked even—any thing but fried. Frying meat 
is the worst possible mode of cooking; destroy¬ 
ing whatever good qualities it may possess, and 
exaggerating all its badness. And all this 
comes of having frying-pans, spiders, and other 
cast iron abominations for making food unwhole¬ 
some. Good people, beware of the frying-pan; 
beware of the fat which it scorches ; and beware 
of the meat, and fish, and eggs, which it ren¬ 
ders unfit for food and difficult of digestion, that 
your days may be long in the land —NichoVs 
Journal. 
Benefit of Bees to Fruit Trees.—I t is 
stated that bees greatly improve the fructifica¬ 
tion of fruit trees. Orchards in which several 
hives are kept, always produce more fruit than 
others in which there are none. In the prov¬ 
inces on the Rhine the fruits are more abundant 
and finer than in any other part of Germany, 
and there it is the custom to keep large quanti¬ 
ties of bees. Plants, too, which bees visit, 
thrive better in the neighborhood of hives. 
ANIMALS FORTELLING THE WEATHER. 
INSTINCT AND REASON. 
It is said that the woodcock in New-Jersey is 
building its nest, this year, in open and moist 
places; and old huntsmen predict in conse¬ 
quence that the summer will be a dry one. 
There was a time when science, or what was 
called such, laughed at signs of this description, 
as no better than “old women’s tales;” but 
though many of them are still unreliable, a 
larger observation of nature has taught that 
animals have an instinct, which not unfrequently 
becomes prophetic, as in this example. At 
last year’s meeting of the American Association 
for the advancement of Science, a curious paper 
was read on this subject, by Mr. N. B. Thomas, 
of Cincinnati, who had, for several years, stu¬ 
died the habits of animals in reference to the 
indications which they might afford respecting 
the weather. He showed that birds, if the sea¬ 
son was to be a windy or wet one, built their 
nests in sheltered places; but, if it was to be 
dry, in localities more exposed; that certain 
kinds of snails always came out, and crept up 
the limbs of trees several days before rain ;— 
and that locusts, wasps, and other insects were 
invariably to be found under leaves, and in the 
hollow trunks of trees, hours before a storm 
set in. 
The sagacity thus displayed, if we may call 
it such, seems to put the higher reason of man 
to shame. In vain do our most expert savans 
endeavor to predict the character of an ap¬ 
proaching season, or even to foretell, a few days 
in advance, the condition of the weather. The 
woodcock that unerringly fixes its nest in the 
spot best suited for the coming summer, or the 
snail whose tubercles begin to grow ten days 
before the rain they are preparing to receive, 
appear, at first sight, to surpass the more de¬ 
veloped men. But the inferiority of those lower 
orders of animals is in the quantity of their 
endowments, rather than in the quality; they 
have a single faculty developed to an extraor¬ 
dinary degree, while man has, as it were, facul¬ 
ties almost infinite. In thus adaptizing each 
organization to its special position, the wisdom 
of the Creator is forcibly exhibited.— Philadel¬ 
phia Ledger , May 9. 
Tiie Digging Machine. —An implement under 
the above designation, invented by Mr. Matthew 
Gibson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, already known 
to agriculturists as the originator of the Patent 
Northumberland Clod Crusher, has been daily 
at work for several weeks past on the (arms of 
Sir Hedworth Williamson, Bart., at Monkwear- 
rnouth, and of Mr. Barnes, at Whitburn, near 
Sunderland. During the past week the powers 
of this admirable appliance to agricultural tillage 
have been further tested on the farms of Mr. 
T. T. Hall, of Ovingham, Tyneside; Mr.R. W. 
Swan, of Wallsend, and Sir W. C. Trevelyan, 
Bart., of Washington, Northumberland. Its 
powers, in all the trials referred to, were exhi¬ 
bited on tough clayey soil, and working at a 
depth of 9 inches, at the rate of three-quarters 
of an acre per hour, with four horses, through¬ 
out the whole day, with no more exertion than 
that required for ordinary plowing. The im¬ 
plement consists of a number of cylinders ol 
about three and a half inches in diameter and 
six inches long, revolving on a fixed axle. On 
each of the cylinders is casta disc, twelve inches 
in diameter, which is furnished with ten teeth 
or prongs, of hardened malleable iron or steel, 
of a curved or cat-claw form, springing from its 
periphery, and which, partly by the weight of 
the implement, and partly by the strain of 
draught, is forced into the ground, and, as the 
implement advances, digs or forces up the soil— 
in fact, each prong performs precisely the office 
of a pick or hack in loosening the soil. This 
forking up or loosening of the soil is not the 
only important office of the implement, but 
from the curved form of the teeth, it brings all 
roots and fibrous matter within the depth of its 
operation to the surface, thus producing a clean 
as well as a free tillage, or at once acting most 
effectively as a grubber in bringing up root- 
weeds, and at the same titno performing the 
most important function of the plow in aerating 
the soil. The implement is mounted on a 
strong frame, partly of cast and partly of malle¬ 
able iron, and furnished with a simple but most 
ingenious apparatus for regulating the depth of 
its working in the soil.— Mark Lane Express. 
-• © »- 
CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PATENTS 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 2, 1854. 
Hay Knives. —Seth Whalen, of West Milton, 
N. Y.: I claim attaching a blade made of sheet 
steel, and bent at its upper extremity so as to 
stand out from the handle, directly to and in 
the center of the handle, and between the arms, 
whereby a great saving in time, labor, and ex¬ 
pense in making hay knives can be effected, and 
an equal distribution of the power of the oper¬ 
ator exerted in a perfect manner upon the edges 
of the knife, and it consequently caused to act 
more effectually upon the hay than the ordinary 
knife, as set forth. 
Straw Cutters. —Robert Hogin, of Barnes- 
ville, Ohio. I disclaim the use of an endless 
belt for the purpose of feeding the straw or 
other material to the knife. 
But I claim the straw rest for supplying the 
straw to the knife, said straw rest or rack being 
carried the entire length from rear to front end 
of the cutter box by an intermittent forward 
motion, as set forth. 
Harrows. — W. F. Pagett, of Stone Bridge, 
Va.: I claim, first, the constructing harrow 
beams of sections of iron with the teeth wrought 
solid upon and with them. 
Second, the combinadon therewith and ar¬ 
rangement of cross rods with screw and taps, 
and pipes or tubes, or their equivalents, to 
keep the beams and sections in their places. 
Couplings of Endless Chain Horse Powers. 
—W. E. Arnold, of Rochester, N. Y.: I claim 
the lips, the recesses, and the hooks, by which 
the series of platforms are united into a contin¬ 
uous chain platform, without any other fasten¬ 
ings than those afforded by their own peculiar 
shape, and thus avoiding the use of links, bolts, 
rods, or similar fastenings, as described. 
Spring “ Sport.” —Our contemporary of the 
Clinton Courant condemns in strong terms the 
practice of shooting birds in pairing time, and 
is somewhat sanguinary in his remarks. Here 
is his article, which we commend to the atten- 
ion of those bipeds who deem it manly sport to 
blow a little bird to pieces! 
“ The editor of the Germantoxon Telegraph 
says that he saw, last week, in Philadelphia 
market, several large hunches of robins, which 
had been shot and brought there for sale. We 
don’t desire the death of any man, but if some 
humane sportsman would only manage to put 
shot enough in the legs of the murdering vaga¬ 
bond who killed those birds, to keep him busy at 
home during the remainder of the spring, he 
would confer an especial obligation upon us. A 
man who would slaughter an innocent bird in 
“ pairing time ” would shoot his own grand¬ 
mother, il her hide were marketable. If white 
slavery were legal, we would try and buy that 
chap for the sake of the fun of driving him to 
market in fly-time. 
The difficulty is not so great to die for a 
friend, as to find a friend worth dying for. 
