AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
249 
The second premium of $20 to E. Rice, of 
Warwick. 
SADDLE HORSES. 
The first premium of $20 for the best saddle 
horse to R. L. Lippitt, of Providence. 
The second premium of $10 to E. C. Wade, of 
Providence. 
The third premium of $5 to James D’Wolf, of 
Bristol. 
MATOnED HORSES. 
The first premium of $50 for the best span, 
four years old or over, to Edward Carrington, 
of Providence. 
The second premium of $25 to Mrs. Amasa 
Sprague, of Providence. 
There were only two premiums offered, but the 
committee decided to issue four more to N. 
Chapman, of Windsor Locks, Ct.; Thomas 
Fletcher, of Providence; Wm. W. Hoppin, of 
Providence, and J. H. Hull, of Attleborough; 
and also Diplomas to P. Allen, Jr., W. P. Bul¬ 
lock, Amasa Manton, of Providence, and J. 
Ricketson, 2d, of New-Bedford. 
Many pairs of fine horses were presented, 
but they were not perfectly matched. Matched 
horses, properly speaking, should be alike in 
size, shape, color and external appearance. 
DRAUGHT HORSES. 
The first premium of $10 for the best pair, 
to A. D. Arnold, of Coventry. 
The second premium of $5 was not awarded. 
The first premium of $10 for the best single 
horse to G. A. Billings, of Providence. 
The second premium of $5 to George Hoff¬ 
man, of Pawtuxet. 
COLTS. 
The first premium of $15 for the best 3 years 
old colt, to H. D. Dean, of Mansfield, Mass. 
The second premium of $10 was not awarded. 
The premium of $10 for the best filly, to N. 
F. Potter, of Providence. 
The first premium of $10 for the best two 
years old, to F. B. Woodmancy, of Lisbon, Ct. 
The second premium of $5 to Lowell Pitcher, 
of East Greenwich. 
The premium of $5 for the best filly, to E. 
Spencer, of East Greenwich. 
The first premium of $10 for the best 1 year 
old, to M. B. Ives, Providence. 
The second premium of $5 was not awarded. 
The premium of $5 for the best filly, to Geo. 
W. Payton, of Providence. 
GET THE TOOLS READY. 
The hay and grain harvests are just before 
us. The bearded heads of the wheat and rye 
are already waving in the golden sunlight, and 
the oats have put on their richest green. The 
rains have been abundant, and the promise for 
a hay crop was never better. You have ten 
acres of grain to cut, and three times that area 
in grass. It is laborious business to gather 
these harvests. Will it not pay to get one of 
the new reapers, or mowing-machines? Man¬ 
ual labor is very expensive, at one dollar and a 
half, or two dollars a day. If, with one of these 
new implements, you can gather your own har¬ 
vest in one week, instead of five, will it not pay, 
especially if you have neighbors who will need 
your services for the other four weeks ? It is a 
matter of great importance to have the grain 
cut just at the right time, and scarcely of less 
consequence to have your hay cut and cured in 
bright, sunny weather. These machines put 
the harvest very much under your control, and 
gather them in the best of order. 
But if you are not ready to venture upon any 
new experiments this season, are all the old tools 
in order? Two fingers of the cradle were 
broken last year, and the horse-rake needs a 
tooth or two. The scythes were pretty much 
used up, and new ones must be purchased. 
The rigging for the hay-cart was left out of 
order, and you forgot to mend it in the winter. 
See that all these things are ready for work. 
- +- 
Premiums op the New-York State Agricul¬ 
tural Society to be awarded at the next An¬ 
nual Exhibition. —There have been left at our 
office for distribution, a number of copies of the 
announcement of Premiums, Regulations, and 
Order of Arrangements for the forthcoming show 
to be held in New-York city on the 3d, 4th, 5th, 
and 6th of October next. This pamphlet con¬ 
tains 18 pages, which detail the long list of prem¬ 
iums, and give all needed information to exhibi¬ 
tors. 
Mr. Miller’s Sale of Cattle at Mr. Bath¬ 
gate’s. —This came off on the 22d inst., as adver¬ 
tised. The day was very rainy, which proved 
something of a damper on the sales. About 
forty gentlemen were present, and upwards of 
thirty head of cattle were sold, principally grade 
Durhams. The prices generally were from $50 
to $125 each, which was considered low. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
QUACK MEDICINES--FEVER AND AGUE. 
“ Oh ! what’s the matter ? what’s the matter! 
What is’t that ails youDg Harry Gill ? 
That evermore his teeth they chatter, 
Chatter, chatter, chatter still! 
Of waistcoats Harry has no lack, 
Good duffle grey, and flannel fine ; 
He has a blanket on his back, 
And coats enough to smother nine.” 
When an individual has made a discovery of 
some wonderful remedy, for any of the diseases 
to which flesh is heir, he is tempted to procure 
a patent, that he may have the exclusive right 
to prepare the medicine, and may be enabled to 
pocket a fortune out of its successful sale. 
Sometimes the nature of the cure prevents the 
possibility of getting a patent, and then, the 
discovery is imparted for a pecuniary consider¬ 
ation to others, as a great secret, which they in 
their turn may only disclose on receiving a sim¬ 
ilar equivalent. 
The uneducated human mind has a tendency 
to accept what it cannot understand, as of more 
value than that which it meets in every-day 
life. The physician, who has spent years in the 
study and practice of his profession, is lightly 
esteemed compared with some mystical old man, 
who comes from nobody knows where, but who 
avows himself skilled in the pharmacy of the 
Indians, and whose smoky cabin is hung around 
with dried herbs and shriveled roots, and whose 
cobwebbed window has an array of bottles filled 
with some unknown compounds, which are to 
work wonders in removing the aches and pains 
of those who purchase them. 
The patrons of these Indian doctors have a 
still higher regard for an Indian doctress, and 
will cheerfully cast aside the prescription of an 
M. D., for some nostrum she has prepared. If 
the patient dies, it is only because this wise 
woman was not called in season. The medi¬ 
cines of the apothecary’s shop killed him. 
The belief in the marvelous leads to the 
adoption of some singular remedies, and often¬ 
times works a cure where it is quite difficult for 
lookers-on to see the connection between cause 
and effect. I have heard of remedies for fever 
and ague, which, to say the least, are not gen¬ 
erally known, and which I may be deemed a 
revealer of secrets for relating. Those who 
told me really believed they had been efficacious 
in their own cases. The first was that of a la¬ 
boring man who had suffered for some time, but 
had not been able to prevent the recurrence of 
chills. He was told that if he dug a deep hole 
in the earth, and sat in it, with his head below 
the surface, he would effectually break up the 
disease. He tried the experiment, and was not 
disappointed in the result. 
Quite as marvelous a cure as the above, came 
to my knowledge recently. A man heard that 
if he arose early in the morning, and went to a 
tree, and tied a string on it, with a knot for each 
preceding chill, and one for that day, and then 
returned to the house without looking behind 
him, he would, if he did not reveal what he had 
done to others, be relieved of his difficulties. 
He knew of several who had been benefitted in 
this wonderful way, and he thought that it 
could at most do him no harm—so, on his chill 
morning he arose, proceeded to a tree, tied the 
requisite number of knots, and walked back to 
his dwelling, looking neither to the right hand 
nor left, and without confiding his secret even 
to his wife, awaited the result. He watched his 
finger nails—they did not grow purple. No 
creeping sensation crawled up and down his 
back; his mouth did not stretch for a yawn. 
The hour passed. He had the control of his 
own nerves, and did not shiver and shake at the 
bidding of the tyrant Ague. The knots had 
conquered. The man could plow and harrow 
to his heart’s content. Chills dared not venture 
near him, and he has bid defiance to them ever 
since. 
I have known individuals who said they had 
removed ague and fever by drinking cold wa¬ 
ter—one tablespoonful, fresh from the well, on 
the first morning — taken immediately after 
rising. The next morning, two tablespoonfuls, 
taken in the same way; the third morning, three 
tablespoons ; and so on, till the number is in¬ 
creased to nine. The ague vanishes before the 
potency of well-water taken in this particular 
way. I am not enough of a hydropathist to 
have confidence in this as a general remedy, 
although I have no doubt that a proper applica¬ 
tion of water will, in most cases, be an effectual 
restorative. 
A person in a chill feels an inclination for a 
moist warmth. This is nature’s indication of 
the means to be used to relieve the sufferer. 
Take a sitz-bath, or a common wash-tub, and 
fill it partially with as hot water as can be 
borne. Fill a pail also. Let the patient be 
seated in the tub, with his feet in the pail; cov¬ 
er him, first with a sheet, then a blanket, and 
over this a comforter, in such a way as to effect¬ 
ually exclude the air. Bathe the head with as 
cold water as can he obtained , to prevent its 
aching. Add hot water to the bath, as it can 
be borne. If you can induce your patient to 
remain in the tub till he gets into a perspiration, 
he will avoid the chill and fever stage. He may 
then be removed to his bed, with the sheet, 
blanket, and comforter about him, where he 
must have patience to remain quietly till per¬ 
spiration ceases. Then he may enjoy a cool 
sponging, and if he chooses, be dressed. It 
