114 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
It is a bad practice to allow horses to stand upon 
litter in the day time, except they are unwell or fa¬ 
tigued. 
FOOD. 
The quantity and quality of a horse's food should 
invariably be regulated by the exercise and fatigue 
he has to undergo ; high feeding, without proportion¬ 
ate work, produces half the disorders to which horses 
are subject. 
Good hay is of much consequence to horses engag¬ 
ed in active exercises ; but it should be given in small 
quantities during the day; and when owing to bad 
weather, the horses cannot be exercised, they should 
be stinted both in their hay and corn ; and a bundle 
or two of clean wheat straw maybe put before them. 
All grain given to horses, would be more nutritive if 
bruised in a mill and mixed occasionally with chopped 
straw. Carrots are a most wholesome food, and of 
all roots, rank next to corn in point of nourishment. 
They are particularly serviceable when a horse’s wind 
is affected. 
When horses are first taken from grass they should 
be gradually brought to a dry diet by giving them 
carrots, lucern, bran mashes, &c. with their hay. 
After a few days a small quantity of oats may be 
given, and the feed increased by degrees till they 
come to their full allowance. They should likewise 
be put into a cool stable, and have plenty of walking 
exercise. If such precautions were attended to, a 
great saving might be made, both of physic, and the 
horse’s constitutions. 
WATER. 
Pond water, if it lie on a clay bottom and be sweet, 
agrees best -with horses; hard water may be improv¬ 
ed by throwing some chalk or clay into it, and expos¬ 
ing it in cisterns to the open air. 
It is proper to let the water, intended for the hor¬ 
ses, stand for some hours in pails in the stables before 
it is used. 
Water should be offered to horses frequently; they 
would then never drink large quantities of it at a 
time, which is particularly hurtful to them when 
heated by exercise. It is a good and safe plan when 
travelling, &c. always to mix hot water enough with 
their cold to take off the chill. 
EXERCISE. 
A horse’s exercise should be proportioned to his 
strength, manner of feeding, and the labor required 
of him. He ought, however, to have at least two 
hours of daily exercise. 
Horses should not be ridden fast after having been 
newly fed and watered. A fat horse requires a long 
course of moderate exercise, before he can safely be 
put to trot, which is violent. 
It should be a general rule to ride a horse slowly 
at the beginning of a stage; afterwards increase the 
pace, and slacken it again a mile or two before the 
end of it, so as to bring him tolerably cool into the 
stable. 
If horses come in very warm, they should be walk¬ 
ed about gradually till cool, their feet should then be 
picked, and all dirt and gravel carefully washed out. 
In hot weather, washing their legs is proper, but they 
should always be well rubbed afterwards. In winter, 
cold water is injurious to the heels, and apt to bring 
on swelling and the grease. 
Horses should on no account be permitted to stand 
uncovered in the stable, much less at the stable doors 
after being much heated, except the weather be very 
warm. Road horses should in the middle of a long 
stage have half a pail of water mixed with a little 
oatmeal; and on a journey, if no other corn but what 
is soft and ne-w can be procured, oatmeal just mois¬ 
tened with water or some coarse bread, should be 
given in preference to such corn, which is extremely 
unwholesome. If a horse grow costive, let him have 
some mashes of scalded bran or malt. If he have 
any difficulty in staleing only, an ounce of nitre may 
be given in his food for a few nights. 
Should he be seized with a violent fit of the gripes, 
let him be bled, back-raked, and have a glyster of 
three or four quarts of water gruel mixed with eight 
ounces of glauber or common salt. 
The best instrument for giving a glyster is an ox 
bladder, that will hold two or three quarts, tied to the 
end of a wooden pipe about fourteen inches long, one 
inch and a half diameter where the bag is tied, and 
of a gradual taper to the extremity, where the thick¬ 
ness should suddenly increase, and be rounded off at 
the point, and made as smooth as possible. The hole 
through the pipe may be made sufficiently large to 
admit the end of a common funnel for pouring the li¬ 
quor into the bag ; no other force is requisite to throw 
it up, than the holding the bag a little higher than the 
level of the pipe. If in consequence of violent in¬ 
flammation and pain, and opiates should be necessary, 
a table spoonful of laudanum may be given in a pint 
of water. 
Should a horse be touched in his wind, be very 
careful that he has only moderate quantities of food 
and water at a time. Two spoonfuls of tar mixed 
with the yolk of an egg given in a morning fasting 
will be of great service to him when travelling. In 
hot dry weather, it is useful to stop horse’s feet at 
night with a mixture of soft clay and cow dung, and 
to moisten them frequently with water. 
FRICTION. 
The currying, brushing, and rubbing down horses 
is of great importance, not only to their coats, but 
also to their general health ; when these operations 
are neglected, or slightly performed, an obstruction 
takes place in the pores of the skin producing mange, 
&c. and the hair instead of being smooth and shin¬ 
ing, stares, and stands on end. Nothing tends so much 
to prevent grease and swelling of the legs, as fre¬ 
quent hard rubbing and carefully cleaning the heels. 
TRIMMING. 
The ears of horses are covered with a short down 
in the inside, mixed with larger hairs, to prevent 
cold air, rain, dust and flies from hurting the inter¬ 
nal ear. The trimming therefore this part, is very 
prejudicial to the horse. 
Harvesting Potatoes, 
Where the crop is large, is a slow and tedious ope¬ 
ration ; and when the plough is employed to abridge 
the labor, great loss often ensues, from the gathering 
being imperfectly made. Our fellow citizen and friend, 
Joab Center, of Hudson, contrived a plough two years 
ago, to facilitate this process, which we were told 
worked well; but as we never saw it perform, we 
have not felt authorized to speak of its merits. In 
the mean time, Mr. Lawson, of Edinburgh, seedsman, 
has invented a mould board, which may be attached 
to a common plough, we believe very much on the 
model of Capt. Center’s. We give drawings of this 
below, together with Mr. Lawson’s description of its 
structure and operation, and in time for those who 
wish to profit from the improvement, to give it a fair 
trial the coming autumn. We take the article from 
the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
“The machine I am about to describe, and which I 
would call the potato-raiser, besides doing its work more 
efficiently, a matter of great importance, saves all the 
hacking, and consequently all the expense of the manual 
labor which that operation incurs, for it throws the 
greater part of the potatoes on the surface of the ground, 
and at once enables the women employed for that pur 
pose to gather them by hand into baskets. 
“The shortest description which, perhaps, can be 
given of this machine, is to say that you take a common 
plough, deprived of its mould-board, the share and coul¬ 
ter remaining in their usual position, and in room of the 
mould board, attach an instrument similar to that which 
is represented in cut in the margin, and which consists 
of malleable iron-bars, join¬ 
ed together in the form of a [Fig. No. 44.] 
gridiron or brander. It is 
26 inches long from a to c, 
18 inches from c to d, and 
27 inches along the line 
from d to h, and the breadth 
a to b 5 inches. It is attach¬ 
ed by the edge a c to the 
furrow side and stilt of the 
common plough by screws, 
the fore part, a b, resting im¬ 
mediately behind the share, 
like the common mould- 
board ; the angle at c is set 
about 8 inches above the 
sole of the plough ; the edge 
c d slopes downwards in a convex curved form until the 
point d is about 4 inches above the level of the sole. 
The brander is fixed by screws at c f, and one may be 
required at the solid part ab, but these fixtures must be 
regulated by the construction of the plough. The fol¬ 
lowing cut represents a plough mounted as a potato- 
raiser in the manner here described. The brander can 
be taken off the plough at pleasure, and mould-board 
again attached, by which the plough can be again ap¬ 
plied to its own proper use. One advantage of apply¬ 
ing it to a plough, is, that the whole apparatus may be 
had for ten shillings:* * 1 2 3 It may be mentioned, that it is 
a matter of very considerable importance, to attend to 
the gradual slope which the brander ought to have/rcm 
[Fig. No. 45.] 
wards the land-side of the plough, It would do its work 
but imperfectly. 
“ The potato-raiser is drawn by one pair of horses, 
in the same manner as a common plough. In working 
it, the ploughman inserts the machine into the potato- 
*For the sake of those who desire to fit up ploughs in this 
manner, it is desirable that the strength of the iron of the 
brander bad beeen particularized. We conceive the ex¬ 
ternal frame should be five-eighths of an inch square, the in¬ 
ternal bars one half inch diameter.— Editor. 
drill, so as to have the whole of the potatoes on the 
right-hand side of the machine. He then proceeds along 
the drill, splitting it up in the common way. The earth 
is thus thrown to the right hand side, and the potatoes 
lie scattered on the surface of the ground behind the 
plough. 
“Women provided with baskets follow the machine. 
They gather the potatoes into the baskets, and throw 
the stems of the potatoes upon the drill which lies to 
the right-hand of the drill from which they are gathering 
the potatoes. The reason why the potato stems are thus 
removed, is, that, as soon as the potatoes which lie on 
the surface are gathered, the machine returns, and again 
proceeds as before, through the part of the drill in which 
the potatoes lay, still turning the earth to the right-hand 
side. This second operation raises to the surface any 
stray potatoes which the first may not have turned up, 
and the potatoes raised by the second operation, are 
immediately gathered by the women who attend for 
that purpose. This second operation may be delayed 
till about twelve drills are turned over by the first ope¬ 
ration, and the potatoes gathered. The machine may 
then be put through these twelve drills the second time. 
By this there will be a saving of labor, as a smaller 
number of women will gather the potatoes raised by the 
second operation. If the stems of the potatoes be very 
strong and luxuriant, a few women may be put along 
the drill to pull them out of the ground, at the same time 
gathering up any potatoes that may adhere to, and come 
along with, the stems. If this be done, the potato-raiser 
will turn up the greater part of the potatoes by going 
once only through the drill; in going twice it wilfdo it 
in the most satisfactory manner. A man with one pair 
of horses will thus pass over the ground as quickly as 
with a common plough. 
“These two operations are all that are required to 
raise the potatoes to the surface, the land being after¬ 
wards harrowed in * he common way. The potato-drills 
ought to be of the ordinary breadth, so as to give the 
machine room to work. Very narrow drills do not 
suit it. 
“ I may mention, that the farm on which the potato- 
raiser has been used, is a light loam, and in that soil it 
performs its work in a very satisfactory manner. It 
pulverizes the soil in an extraordinary degree, and 
scarcely leaves a potato in the soil. I have never be¬ 
fore been able to clear my fields of potatoes so effectu¬ 
ally as by this machine, or at nearly so small an ex¬ 
pense.” 
Dr. Dana’s new mode of Analyzing Soils. 
[From Professor Hitchcock’’s Geological Report.] 
1. “Sift the soil through a fine sieve. Take the 
fine part; bake it just up to browning paper.” 
2. “ Boil 100 grains of the baked soil, with 50 grains 
of pearl ashes, saleratus or carbonate of soda, in 4 
ounces of water, for half an hour; let it settle; de¬ 
cant the clear; wash the grounds with 4 ounces boil¬ 
ing water; throw all cn a weighed filter, previously- 
dried at the same temperature as was the soil, (1) ; 
wash till colorless water returns. Mix all these li¬ 
quors. It is a brown colored solution of all the solu¬ 
ble geine. All sulphates have been converted into car¬ 
bonates, and with any phosphates, are on the filter. 
Dry therefore, that, with its contents, at the same heat 
as beiore. Weigh—the loss is soluble geine.” 
3. “ If you wish to examine the geine ; precipitate 
the alkaline solution with excess of lime water. The 
geate of lime will rapidly subside, and if lime-water 
enough has been added, the nitrous liquor will be co¬ 
lorless. Collect the geate of lime on a filter ; wash 
with a little acetic or very dilute muriatic acid, and 
you have geine quite pure. Dry and weigh.” 
4. “ Replace on a funnel the filter (2) and its earthy 
contents ; wash with 2 drachms muriatic acid, diluted 
with three times its bulk of cold water. Wash till 
tasteless. The carbonate and phosphate of lime will 
be dissolved with a little iron, which has resulted from 
the decomposition of any salts of iron, beside a little 
oxide of iron. The alumina will be scarcely touched. 
We may estimate all as sails of lime. Evaporate the 
muriatic solution to dryness, weigh and dissolve in 
boiling water. The insoluble will be phosphate of lime. 
Weigh—the loss is the sulphate of lime; (1 make no 
allowance here for the difference in atomic weights of 
the acids, as the result is of no consequence in this 
analysis.)” 
5. “ The earthy residuum, if of a greyish white co¬ 
lor, contains no insoluble geine—test it by burning a 
weighed small quantity on a hot shovel—if the odor 
of burning peat is given off, the presence of insoluble 
geine is indicated. If so, calcine the earthy residuum 
and its filter—the loss of weight will give the insolu¬ 
ble geine; that part which air and moisture, time and 
lime, will convert into soluble vegetable food. Any 
error here will be due to the loss of water in a hydrate, 
if one be present, but these exist in too small quanti¬ 
ties in 4 5 granitic sand,’ to affect the result. The actu¬ 
al weight of the residuary mass is 4 granitic sand.’ 
44 The clay, mica, quartz, &c. are easily distinguish¬ 
ed. If your soil is calcareous, which may be easily 
tested by acids ; then before proceeding to this ana¬ 
lysis, boil 100 grains in a pint of water, filter and dry 
as before, the loss of weight is due to the sulphate of 
ime, even the sulphate of iron may be so considered; 
