54 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
his tread, causing sudden jars and strains and 
severe shocks, ivc forget that he is no longer in 
his natural position, and needs the closest care 
and the most intelligent management to pre¬ 
serve him from injury. And this is precisely 
what in nine cases out of ten he does not get. 
On the contrary, so long as he can stand be¬ 
neath a load it is piled on. While he can drag 
one leg after another on the road lie is ivged by 
whip and spur. His feet are cut and carved to 
suit the taste of a man who never examined its 
structure. Roads are constructed on any sys¬ 
tem rather than one adapted to suit the valuable 
animals condemned to travel on them; and the 
hills are not made level nor the rough places 
made plain for him. His stable-floors are 
usually made so as to compel him to stand in 
an unnatural and uneasy position, and to weak¬ 
en or to strain his limbs. And finally, although 
many other instances are omitted from want of 
space to mention them, the most thoughtless 
cruelty is often exercised in compelling him to 
over-work when not physically matured. 
Our artist has pictured a scene of the com¬ 
monest occurrence. A horse, loaded to its ut¬ 
most capacity on a level road, has to mount a 
hill. He has not only to draw it upon the 
ground, but he is made to elevate the whole 
weight of himself, the load, and the wagon 
through a space equal to the elevation of the 
hill. In addition, the ground is less favorably 
placed for his foothold. Without mercy the 
whip is used to stimulate the willing but wearied 
beast. This over-exertion may not injure his 
digestive powers nor his circulating system. 
But mechanically the results may be the most 
serious. Bruises of the sole may result in can¬ 
ker, quittor, navicular disease, or thrush; jars 
and shocks produce sprains, knuckling, ring¬ 
bone, shoulder lameness, inflammation of the 
joint membranes, spavins of all kinds, tumors, 
windgalls, and almost every other possible 
blemish or disease of the limbs. These bruises, 
jars, and shocks almost wholly result from 
thoughtlessly putting a horse in the position 
shown in the engraving on the preceding page. 
It is not often that farmers’ horses arc injured 
in any other manner than in some easily pre- 
ventible one, and if sufficient care were used to 
prevent injury there would be but little trouble 
from any of the diseases here pointed out. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.—Ho. 110. 
Mr. John S. Bowles, of Ohio, writes: “lam 
slightly surprised at your advice to farmers in 
your ‘Walks and Talks’ for December. You 
seem to think that no matter how badly farmers 
prosper, it is wisdom for them to keep on farm¬ 
ing.” I did not say so. “ According to the law 
of supply and demand,” Mr. B. continues, “ there 
are now too many farmers in the United States. 
Too much produce is raised, for it is certainly 
too low to pay for raising at the price we have 
to pay for laborers.” It is undoubtedly true 
that farmers are not now getting a fair price for 
their products. But what are you going to do 
about it? The same thing sometimes happens 
to other producers. Manufacturers sometimes 
glut the market with their goods and have to 
sell at a loss. If more coal is dug than the 
market requires, it is sometimes sold below the 
cost of production. And so with petroleum, 
iron, and every other article of trade and com¬ 
merce. We can not all begetting rich at the 
same time. The world, as a world, merely gets 
a living. If you get a better living than your 
neighbor it is because you work harder or to 
better advantage. Of course, this statement must 
be taken in a very broad sense. There seem 
to be a great many local and temporary excep¬ 
tions, but they are only temporary. If you 
think you can work to better advantage in some 
other culling than farming, you ought to do so. 
But be careful you do not make a mistake. 
Mr. B. says very truly that there is such a de¬ 
mand for labor in the mechanic arts, manufac¬ 
tures, railroads, etc., that farmers can not ex¬ 
pect to get men for less than they are now pay¬ 
ing, and yet he is sure they can not afford to pay 
present wages and sell their produce at present 
prices. “ The only thing I can think of,” he 
says, “for farmers to do, is to sell out at some 
figure and go into some other business.” Very 
well; if Mr. B. thinks so, it is not for me to in¬ 
terfere. If he is sure he can do better, all things 
considered, in some other occupation, by all 
means sell the farm. It will not be any the 
worse for those of us who still keep on farming. 
Mr. B. further soys: “Most farmers whose 
farms are worth $10,000 or $15,000, could make 
more money to put it in U. S. bonds and sit 
still on their heels, than they now make off their 
farms working 12 to 14 hours per day.” Again 
I say, let Mr. B. try it! 
But even this does not suit Mr. B. He says: 
“ Some farmers, like myself, can not very well 
afford to stop farming.” [Then I would advise 
Mr. B. not to stop farming.] “We can not always 
sell our farms when we want to, and we do not 
understand any other business. We have 
thrown away our lives learning to farm instead 
of learning trades. Now it is too late to learn. 
We must drag out our lives saving what other 
people waste, eating what we can not sell, and 
working while other people sleep. But with 
young men the case is different. Let them 
learn any kind of trade, hut do not crowd our 
already overdone business.” I think Mr. B. has 
got dyspepsia. And besides, that terrible scourge 
“ hog-cholera ” has recently carried off about 
one hundred of his pigs and hogs. I do not 
wonder he takes somber views of farming. We 
all have our trials, losses, and disappointments. 
They are not confined to the farm. There are 
“black Fridays” in Wall street, and fires in 
Chicago and Boston. There are times when 
most thinking men feel that they have “wasted 
their lives.” But a good man’s life is never 
wasted. 
The farmers of the United States have not 
wasted their lives in the past, are not now 
wasting them, and will not waste them in the 
future. Some years ago I was traveling with a 
lady in Connecticut. Looking out of the car 
windows I remarked, “I don’t see how a man 
can make a living on such a farm.” The remark 
aroused her New England pride, and she re¬ 
plied, “And yet on these sterile liill-sides men 
havebrought up large families, and sent their soils , 
to college." Did these farmers waste their lives ? 
Fifty years ago where I am now writing was a 
wilderness. To-day the sun does not shine on 
a spot of earth where I he inhabitants as a whole 
and all things considered enjoy greater comforts 
and blessings than in this same “Genesee 
country.” Did the men who pushed out into 
this new country, cljarcd the forest, fenced their 
land, built roads, erected school-houses and 
churches, planted orchards, and made happy 
homes for themselves and their children 
waste their lives—and are they now wasting 
them? This nation, which is the wonder of the 
world, owes much of its greatness and grandeur 
to the farmers. Whatever may be said of the 
hardships, trials, privations, and loneliness of 
American farm-life, no one will deny that a 
large proportion of our best men and most 
agreeable and useful women are the sons and 
daughters of farmers. 
As to whether a young man should learn a 
trade or learn farming is a matter of taste. Mr. 
B. says farming is overcrowded. I imagine 
most of those engaged in those occupations 
which he thinks so much more agreeable and 
profitable than farming would say the same 
thing of thejr business. 
But I have not time to discuss this subject. I 
do not think there are too many farmers in the 
United States, or that we are producing too 
much. We happen to have had an extraordin¬ 
ary crop of corn for two or three years in suc¬ 
cession, and prices have fallen below the cost of 
production. A few years ago pigs were scarce, 
and the consequent high price of pork stimu¬ 
lated an excessive production, and the price is 
now as much below as it was formerly above 
the average. This low price, however, will be 
a great benefit to us in the end, as it is intro¬ 
ducing immense quantities of American pork 
into foreign markets. It will be with our pork 
and bacon as it was with our cheese. It will 
be bought, at first, because of its low price, and 
afterwards it will be bought because of its intrin¬ 
sic merit. We can compete with the English 
farmers in producing pork to far greater advan¬ 
tage than we can compete with them in the 
production of cheese. Our cheap corn should 
give us the monopoly of the pork market. We 
can “ pack fifteen bushels of corn into a barrel,” 
and transport it at a comparatively cheap rate 
to any part of the world. 
I can not give all my reasons for the faith 
that is in me, but I feel as though the prospects 
of American farmers in the near future, were 
never so good as at the present time. Do not 
talk to me or to any other man capable of doing 
a good day’s work about; selling the farm, and 
investing the money in U. 8. bonds, and then 
“sit on your heels and live on the interest." 
If farmers acted on this advice there would soon 
be no interest to live on. Our bonds are good 
because of the industry, enterprise, and intelli¬ 
gence of our farmers. Let them stop work for 
even a few months and the country would be 
hopelessly bankrupt. There is no honest 
method of getting money except by work—and 
those who get it dishonestly often have to work 
harder for it thau those who get it honestly. 
A correspondent at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, un ites: 
“ I am a reader of the American Agriculturist. 
and am much interested in your Walks and 
Talks; but your land and climate are so dif¬ 
ferent from ours that it would be difficult in 
some respects to follow your directions. But 
in regard to live-stock matters, you have the 
‘ right worm in your cake.’ ” The details of farm 
practice differ very materially in different sec¬ 
tions, according to soil and climate; and, for mat¬ 
ter of that, they differ on different farms in the 
same town. And it often happens that there are 
fields on the same farm that require very dif¬ 
ferent treatment. The truth is, a good agricul¬ 
tural paper discusses principles, and illustrates 
them by practical examples, but it leaves their 
application to the good judgment of the farmer. 
True principles are true everywhere. Their 
application differs according to soil, climate, and 
circumstances, I. take tw r o or three English 
agricultural journals, and also some published 
in Scotland, Ireland, and France—and I would 
