PERIOD OF SUCKLING YOUNG ANIMALS. 
309 
one made for the purpose, six feet long, two feet 
•wide, and three feet six inches deep, in order that 
the shoulders may be covered with water, when the 
sitting posture is used. Those who cannot afford 
this, may use the great tub that is kept for scalding 
hogs in, which answers admirably. This, placed 
in an out-house, or shed, that can be shut from 
sight by a curtain, or temporary screen, should he 
half filled with water every evening. If a later 
bath is preferred, let it be filled earlier, and, if the 
water is too cold, let it stand for several hours in 
smaller vessels, exposed to the sun 3 or add a few 
gallons of boiling water. I never take, nor advise, 
a bath below 60°F. When the bathers have done 
with it, the water can be used for washing, scrub¬ 
bing, or watering the garden. A shower bath can 
be made at an expense not worth estimating in this 
way. Enlarge the bung hole of a small barrel 
(an old churn will answer finely) 3 lay it on pivots 
m which it will turn freely, in a box a few inches 
wider than the barrel 3 make a hole in this box to 
correspond with the one in the barrel, cover this 
bole with a plate of tin, painted, to prevent it from 
lusting, and perforated with very small holes , or the 
water will fall with too much violence on the head. 
Fasten a rope over the barrel, with the ends hang¬ 
ing within reach of your hands, when standing 
under it; one end to draw it over, and the other to 
pull it hack by 3 then suspend the whole from the 
roof of a shed, or the ceiling of a room, so that 
you secure a fall of about two feet above the head, 
and you have one as effectual and complete as if it 
feost twenty dollars. Two bucketfuls of water is 
$b much as ought to be taken at once 3 therefore, 
the barrel once filled, will last for several persons. 
The “ sheet bath” is preferred by many people, to 
any other method of applying cold water to the 
person, and is certainly accessible to every one, 
being nothing more than to sit down in the largest 
tub you can get, wet a coarse sheet, and draw it 
over you, head and all 3 wrap it closely about you 
for three to five minutes 3 then throw it off - , replace 
it with a dry one, and rub until a glow is produced. 
As a last resource, when nothing else can be pro¬ 
cured, take the following method (any thing will do 
better than allowing you to think you cannot bathe) 3 
put on a loose garment, and take your seat in, or 
on the edge of the trough under a pump, and let 
some one pour over your back and shoulders two 
©r three buckets of water 3 then throw over you a 
dry, coarse sheet, drop the wet garment, put on a 
wrapper, or cloak, if the weather be not very hot, 
and run to your chamber to rub and dress. 
Before going into a bath, always wet the face, 
breast, and back of the neck 3 and when you rise 
from the water, put on instantly a loose wrapper of 
warm cotton, to absorb the water 3 then wipe and 
rub your feet, and put on slippers. This will pre¬ 
vent the chilliness that sometimes come on while 
you are using the rubbers and towels. 
During my residence in Ohio, I knew the wife of 
a farmer, who, with his boys, worked his little 
farm, and lived comfortably by dint of the most per¬ 
severing and patient industry. This woman had 
been born and educated in one of the Atlantic 
states 3 and she considered the daily bath of so 
much importance to health and comfort, that in all 
her difficulties it was rarely omitted. Her log house 
was small and inconvenient, consisting only of two 
rooms and a wood shed below and three small 
chambers above. The kitchen, as in most farm 
houses, was the largest room, and, in one corner of 
this, she had placed for the winter, a hogshead cut 
down, and screened from sight, when in use, by % 
bed cover hung from the joists above. In the sure, 
mer, it was in the wood shed; and in this primitive 
kind of bath, she dipped, first the children, and then 
herself, every morning, while the men were feeding 
the stock, and the kettle on the fire preparing for 
breakfast. Her neighbors sneered, and wondered 
how she could take so much time, and before break¬ 
fast, too 3 but she said, good naturedly, that in 
twenty minutes all was finished, and comfort and 
cleanliness secured for the whole day 3 and, cer¬ 
tainly, a more healthful, merry set of children 
never rewarded a mother’s care. 
Now, Mr, Editor, I trust I have not written in 
vain. The article upon which these remarks are 
founded must have convinced the most prejudicial of 
the healthfulness of the practice of using cold wa¬ 
ter daily, and freely. This, as before stated, will 
point out the means, and leave no excuse but lazi¬ 
ness , which few will urge in favor of unclean 
habits in themselves and others. * M. * 
PERIOD OF SUCKLING YOUNG ANIMALS, 
There are thousands of planters in the south, 
who would read the article on this subject at p. 221 , 
in the July number of the Agriculturist, with con¬ 
demnation ; because there are few who have ever” 
weaned off - any description of farm stock. Their 
mares are fed till the ninth day, and the colts 
suckle until the mare weans them 3 likewise cows, 
hogs, sheep, &c. 3 and yet, no one ever has 
thought, as did Sir Matthew Ridley, for they would 
think that Sir M. R. only spoke from hypothesis. 
I have weaned off all kinds of stock, and I have 
suffered all kinds to run with their dams, and the 
losing of all, or of one fiftieth, at four months, or 
any other age, never occurred. This day, I weaned 
off twenty pigs from three sows 3 but it was with 
the view to avoid feeding them so high, as I wanted 
to push my pigs. I have seventy-one other pigs 
that weaned themselves, running in the woods* 
Since the farrowing of these, I have lost some two 
or three from various causes. Had they been in the 
order of my twenty, I would have lost more. Fat 
pigs die off faster than poor ones in this latitude. 
Some think they are peculiarly subject to the knife 
fever, with whom I agree. I can show now as 
pretty calves as any one can, and I have no doubt 
some of them will suck until a month of their dam’s 
bringing another calf; nor have I lost a calf in 
seven or eight years, since I had a pasture for them. 
I have ten or fifteen calves dropped a year, 75 to 
150 pigs, and 20 to 40 lambs. Sometimes I sepa¬ 
rate them, but as to cut stock, never, unless it be 
sheep. 
There are many men south, who would throw 
down your paper, and condemn it at once, from 
reading your account of that “meeting.” They 
think from raising from one to to one hundred 
young per year, that it is gammon to talk of young 
dying from sucking too long. Owners of 5,000 
cattle, they would say, would soon be “ cowless,” 
if the doctrine were true. Camanche ponies would 
