370 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
that extends through seven or eight combs on a cool 
morning this month, may be considered strong enough. 
The combs of a light stock from which bees have been 
taken can be set away to freeze, and be used for swarms 
another year. Set right side up, and exclude mice. 
In preparing honey for market, care should be taken to 
have it look neatly, as experience proves that consumers 
have an eye to appearances. Wipe with a damp cloth 
any honey that may have leaked on to the glass. Paste 
paper or muslin on the bottom of the box, to exclude 
dust. Boxes to ride to market should be inverted, to 
prevent breaking, but they should not be inverted at any 
other time, as there are often some unsealed cells that 
will leak, and give the combs and glass an untidy appear¬ 
ance. The effect is worse if they are turned bottom side 
up while warm, when first taken from the hive. In tak¬ 
ing boxes from the hive, they should be carefully lifted 
with a strong knife slipped under the bottom. Set them 
on one side or end, keeping the combs vertical, until the 
bees are out, then put them away, standing them in the 
same position as when on the hive. In regard to foul 
brood, we have succeeded in eradicating it from our 
apiaries, not having seen a case of it this summer. I 
mention this as another argument for movable comb- 
hives. With their aid we can discover it in its incipient 
stages. Hence our success. 
Salting the Sheep, 
See Engraving on first page. 
While flock masters differ upon various 
points of management, they all agree that sheep 
need salt. Some consider salt so necessary to 
the well-being of the flock, that they provide 
covered troughs to contain it, so constructed 
that the sheep can have constant access to the 
salt, while that is protec!ed from loss by rains. 
Others content themselves with salting regularly 
once or twice a week. With our own flock, it 
is made the shepherd’s duty to salt them every 
Saturday. There are those who contend that 
animals do not need salt, but if they could see 
the eagerness with which the sheep come at 
the call, they would be convinced that the ap¬ 
petite, if an artificial one, as they claim, has 
every appearance of being a natural one. In 
England, Flanders, and other countries, salt has 
long been regarded as the chief preventive of 
the formidable disease iu sheep known as rot. 
--—cm-© on—- *~m -- 
Riding on Horseback,—Ho. 6. 
The horse having taught the man—iu the 
earlier papers of this series—it is time now for 
the man to teach the horse. That is, the pupil 
should now have sufficient skill to be able to 
take in hand any horse that is fit to be used for 
pleasure-riding, and so to train him as to make 
him a really good saddle-horse. 
As the best way to do this is, in our opinion, 
on the principle of Baucher’s system, we give 
here a brief sketch of his method, not being 
able to devote anything like the space neces¬ 
sary for its full exposition. The peculiarities 
of the method are thus set forth by Mr. Phil- 
lipps, from whose book we have before made 
extracts: “ It begins by enabling the horseman 
to tauo complete possession of the horse’s facul¬ 
ties while at :est and in slow motion. This as¬ 
cendency, once gained, need never be lost; be¬ 
cause a good horseman is always able to reduce 
his horse to that state in which it can be success¬ 
fully re-asserted. The horse is, in this manner, 
soon made to perceive that if lie escapes from 
the equilibrium required by his rider, when at a 
pace which gives him the opportunity of doing 
so, he will immediately find himself brought 
back to a pace at which he may be forcibly pre¬ 
vented from doing so. When he once under¬ 
stands this truth, his self-will is subdued forever.” 
Baucher teaches that the horse does his work 
easily to himself and pleasantly to his rider only 
when he moves under the rider’s weight and in 
obedience to his directions, with the same ease 
and grace, the same perfect equilibrium , as when 
playing with other horses in an open pasture. 
A horse moving in a state of freedom carries 
his hind legs so far under him, that they carry 
the weight of the hinder part of his body in the 
easiest way, and so as to give the front legs 
only their proper share of work to do. The 
neck is left perfectly free to carry the head in 
whatever position will best assist in maintain¬ 
ing the balance of the body. If we take an un¬ 
broken horse, whose movements in the pasture 
are all perfect, and put a rider on his back and 
a bit in his mouth, he will either perform such 
antics as will make him anything but a pleasant 
saddle-horse, or, which is most likely, he will 
become perfectly rigid and awkward, poking 
out his nose, bearing on the bit with the full 
force of his neck, carrying too much of the 
weight on the fore quarters, and straddling along 
with his hind legs in a very ungainly and un¬ 
comfortable way. Especially in the canter will 
he seem to plunge with his whole weight on to 
his fore feet, making his gait both uncomfort¬ 
able and unsafe. Baucher’s method overcomes 
these difficulties, empowers the rider to carry 
the weight of both horse and rider on the 
fore feet, or on the hind feet, or on all, at pleas¬ 
ure, and to soften the rigidity of the neck, and 
cause the head to be carried in an easy position. 
The first step, after having broken the horse 
to saddle and bridle, is with the neck and 
mouth. Stand at his left side, facing his neck, 
holding the left rein of the snaffle in your left 
hand. Take both curb-reins in your right hand, 
a few inches back of the bit, and draw them 
gently towards the horse’s chest, holding him in 
place, and keeping his head quiet with the left 
hand. The horse will at first resist the pres¬ 
sure of the curb, and try to throw up his head, 
but if you are patient and firm, he will presently 
bend his neck, draw in his chin, and champ the 
bit; then drop the curb-reins, pat his neck, and 
make much of him. Repeat the lesson at short 
intervals, until at the slightest touch of the curb 
he will arch his neck. This lesson having been 
repeated until it is perfectly understood, renew 
it in the saddle, drawing on the curb with a 
steady pressure, until be drops his head and 
champs the bit as before. Reward the first 
sign of obedience by caresses and praise. Re¬ 
peat the movement, until at the first touch of 
the rein he lets go of the bit, arches his neck, 
and stands quietly and at ease. Even if you 
have to call assistance to keep him in place, do 
not let him either back or turn around iu 
order to get away from the pressure of the bit. 
The next step is to obtain the same control over 
the hind quarters that you now have over the 
forehand, and you must first teach him to bear 
the spur without moving. Accustom him first 
to the pressure of the leg and of the unarmed 
boot-heels, and later of spurs with cloth or 
leather over the rowels; when he is perfectly 
indifferent to them, then uncover the rowels. 
Mr. Phillipps says: “When he has learned 
not to resist the spurs (by kicking), he must 
next be taught to spring from them. Get 
him well in hand, and touch him lightly but 
firmly on both sides. If he kicks or winces, 
you are getting on too fast, and must return to 
the covered rowels, if not to the bare heels. . . . 
If he tries to move forward, carefully restrain 
him by the bridle, and then, dropping both 
your legs and hands, caress him, and let him 
stand at ease. Repeat the lesson until the 
slightest pressure of your legs is sufficient to 
make him promptly collect himself and bring 
his hind legs under his body.” The great point 
is now secured; the horse has been taught the 
position you desire him to maintain, to carry 
his weight well on his haunches, to arch his 
neck, and to relax his jaw. Future instructions 
consist mainly in teaching him to preserve this 
position, and to avoid all rigidity at any speed. 
Ogden Farm Papers,—Ho. 21. 
[Note. —This paper should have appeared in 
September, but the editor, going off for a va¬ 
cation, put it into his pocket instead of sending 
it to the printer.—E d.] 
Whether it is in consequence of the dry 
season, or because of the cold June, I will not 
pretend to say, but for some reason Ogden Farm, 
is producing a very small yield of suggestions 
at about this time. I can grow corn fodder in a 
very satisfactory way, and can make a good 
product of butter and get a good price for it; 
but when it comes to sitting down for the 
monthly chat with my readers, the soil seems 
to be sterile, and the crop of “ideas” to have 
been nipped in the bud. What to write about, that 
is the question, and it is sometimes a very hard 
one to answer. Some one suggests, “Your @wn 
experience.” Very well,'but is my experience 
worth the telling? How long can a man farm 
sixty acres of land—even in the best way—and 
get from it an experience that will always be 
worth telling? And then, to tell the truth, the 
editor won’t let me write just as I like; if my 
efforts don’t strike him as worth printing, he has 
a way of not printing them. The consequence 
of all this is, that I am often overtaken by the 
feeling that I -would rather hoe com all day 
than try to squeeze any more “ papers” out of 
Ogden Farm. 
But, after all, is this not a bilious, hot- 
weather view of the case ? What man with or¬ 
dinary wits can devote himself to the wonderful 
processes of an improving farm, and not have 
“experiences” every day—yes, every hour— 
that are richly worth imparting, if only he had 
the faculty of setting them forth in their proper 
clothing of words, and of making others realize 
them as he does ? We have been now nearly 
four years at our work; four years of prepara¬ 
tion. A poor, wet, naked, mossy old farm, 
without a decent fence or a passable building 
on it, with not crops enough to pay rent and 
taxes, with no inducements to buy that were not 
comprised in a low price and a good fall for 
drainage. This was our starting point, and when 
we recall it,-in all its dismal proportions, and 
then see where we are to-day, we do seem to 
have made headway. We have cleared away 
nearly all interior fences; relaid those that 
were kept; built a first-rate barn, sheds, and 
other out-buildings; made the house habitable; 
drawn away through thirteen miles of tile 
drains the accursing ooze that had made the 
farm a slime; accumulated a stock of over 
seventy, horse kind and horned cattle; fed 
them bountifully, and so made abundant man¬ 
ure for the fields, and have really got to a point 
where we can see daylight. The old farm was 
an inert tool—worn out, stuck in the mud, and 
utterly useless. Left to itself, it would soon 
have become a swampy, bushy, wild common. 
It is a source of no little satisfaction to have 
taken this tool out of the mire, put in new 
springs and stays, polished it up, and oiled its 
joints, so that it begius to work again; and to 
feel that the more it is used, if it is only well 
used, the better it will become. Every spot of 
strong and luxuriant growth is an earnest of 
what is coming in due time; it shows what the. 
