lltli Annual Fair of the American Institute? 
OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
At Niblo’s Garden, No. 576 Broadway. 
This celebration of American industry and the arts 
will be opened to visitors on Monday, the 15th day of 
October next, at 10 o’clock a. M. Articles intended 
for competition for premiums must be delivered on 
Friday or Saturday previous, viz. the 12th or 13th of 
October. O^lce productions from every department 
of industry, whether of agriculture, manufactures, or 
the arts, as well as all kinds of machines, models, &c. 
will be appropriate for exhibition and competition for 
premium. 
To provide the requisite accommodations for the 
grand display which the notices already received de¬ 
cidedly indicate, Niblo’s entire Garden has been en¬ 
gaged, embracing a part of the promenade, never be¬ 
fore occupied by the Institute, with extra room one 
hundred feet in length and twenty-five in width. A 
powerful steam engine will be provided, which will 
aftord a continued moving exhibition of machinery. 
The liberality of the public enabled the managers of 
the last two fairs to bestow in premiums, exclusive of 
diplomas, sixty Gold Medals, and two hundred and 
sixty Silver Medals, in addition to other not inconsi¬ 
derable rewards in money. 
Prompted by a desire to increase the interest awa¬ 
kened in agriculture, particularly in the culture of 
silk, a number of patriotic individuals have volunteer¬ 
ed to add to the means of the present managers, in 
order to enable them to extend more liberal bounties, 
and promote among the silk culturists of our country 
a fresh spirit of emulation. This laudable example 
we hope the opulent and public spirited, who take an 
interest in other departments of productive industry, 
will follow by associating and contributing with simi¬ 
lar high-minded motives. 
The enthusiasm with which former celebrations 
have been hailed, and the cheering influences already 
inspired by the approaching one,—notwithstanding all 
our severe business calamities,—confer on them a 
character and value never before adequately appreci¬ 
ated. By means of these fairs, necessity, instead of 
depressing invention, has brought forth its mighty 
powers, and is developing its unbounded resources. 
Articles sold during the fair cannot be delivered 
until the close: and in order to enlarge the amount 
of sales and bring to fabricators and producers imme¬ 
diate benefits, it is particularly desired that a descrip¬ 
tion should accompany each article, stating the price, 
by whom manufactured, designating particularly the 
place where they may be obtained. The uses and 
objects of each article, if not apparent, should also 
be stated: such a description will facilitate the dis¬ 
tribution of printed catalogues early in the first week 
of the fair, and will no doubt swell the amount of sales. 
The public are invited to attend this anniversary 
celebration. Distinguished individuals, it is hoped, 
will be present, countenancing and inspiring as usual. 
Female delicacy, taste, and ingenuity, have never 
failed to impart a crowning effect; and we trust they 
will, on the coming occasion, more than ever com¬ 
mand admiration. 
MANAGERS. 
Thaddeus B. Wakeman, Adoniram Chandler, Mar¬ 
tin E. Thompson, Charles H. Hall, W. P. Dissos- 
way, John Sampson, E. T. Backhouse, Timothy 
Dewey, E. D. Plimpton, Baldwin Gardner, James 
Hamilton, George Bacon, Joseph Titcomb, Jared L. 
Moore, John D. Ward, J. Van Norden, Frederick 
Goodell, H. M. Graham, J. Prescot Hall, Joseph 
Cowden, Edwin Williams, H. Kelly, of New-York. 
Jeremiah Johnson, William J. Mullen, James Crop- 
sey, Broolyn, N. Y. 
Jesse Buel, C. N. Bement, Albany. 
Paraclete Potter, Thomas W. Harvey, Po’keepsie. 
William Halsey, James Miller, Stephen Dod, Alex. 
C. M. Pennington, Newark, N. J. 
Christopher Colt, Melvin Copeland, Hartford, Conn. 
William C. Gilman, John Breed, Norwich, Conn. 
On the Inflammatory Complaints of Farm-Horses. 
By Mr. Maithew M. Milburn, Thorpfield, near Yorkshire. 
Causes.-— In order to clear our investigation of 
some difficulties, it will be necessary to show that 
there is not any peculiar predisposition to disease in 
the breeds of horses usually employed in heavy 
draught, nor to any particular and characteristic con¬ 
formation of the animals, which, I think, can easily 
be done. The coach-horse and the draught-horse are 
now very frequently bred from the same mare, and 
the breeds are so completely crossed and intermixed, 
that further than form and capability, with a sufficient 
degree of blood in the case of the coach-horse, they 
have lost their distinctive breeds. The horses em¬ 
ployed in the cultivation of light soils, which the in¬ 
troduction of turnip-culture has so much extended, 
has caused the coach-horse and draught-horse to as¬ 
similate very closely. The peculiar characteristics 
of the old Suffolk breed, is lost in the continual cross¬ 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
es which have taken place to obtain more speed, and 
the farm-horses generally, perhaps with the exception 
of those used on very heavy soils, are partaking much 
of the character of the coach-horses of some ten years 
ago, and although a lighter class of animals have of 
late years been held in requisition for light work, to 
suit the rapid communication which our commerce de¬ 
mands, still so much intermixture has taken place in 
the different breeds, that no distinction can be pointed 
out between the one and the other, in so far as liabi¬ 
lity to the diseases in question is concerned. We are 
not aware that any peculiar conformation has any con¬ 
nection with the predisposition to such diseases.— 
The horse required for last-work must have a capa¬ 
cious chest, to admit of the rapid propulsion of the 
blood which his exertion demands ; but the horse 
of heavy draught also is valuable for his depth and 
rotundity of chest, to enable him to perform the tre¬ 
mendous exertion which is occassionally required of 
him. There are two instances, however, where con¬ 
stitutional peculiarities may predispose to the com¬ 
plaints in question. There are certain horses deno¬ 
minated “ washy,” or horses in which the space be¬ 
tween the last false rib and the hip-bone is wide ; in 
the language of the jockey, when he is not “ well rib¬ 
bed homesuch are known to be liable to diseases 
of the bowels when put to extra exertion,—but upon 
what principle I am unable to say. Others have a 
natural or acquired habit of voracious feeding, which 
is extremely prejudicial to the healthy action of the 
digestive and excretory organs, and to which I shall 
presently allude. 
The post horse, and such as are required to perform 
fast-work, are more liable to attacks of diseases of the 
brain, the nerves, and the lungs, simply because their 
work consists of rapid powerful exertion;—the farm- 
horse,—the animal of long and steady exertion, to 
gripes, inflammation of the bowels, and stomach stag¬ 
gers, —results, as I shall presently shew of a manage, 
ment unsuited to the character of the labor we re¬ 
quire from them. The stomach of the horse is re¬ 
markably small;—smaller in proportion to his size, 
and the quantity of food he requires, than any other 
domestic animal. Nature intends for him a supply of 
nutritious food, and that at short intervals; wherein he 
materially differs from the ox, whose capacious sto¬ 
mach will contain food which will not be digested for 
hours. The post-horse, the hunter, and the carriage- 
horse, have food of the most nutritious description, 
and the time during which they are worked is neces¬ 
sarily short, owing to the extreme exertion required; 
they return to their food, and although their appetite 
may for a time be impaired, and their stomach and 
bowels affected by the general debility of the system, 
yet they recover their tone, as soon as the rest of the 
frame admits of their taking food. The farmers’ 
horse, on the contrary, has food of a less nourishing 
nature, his rack is filled with straw, or, at best with 
clover;—the ploughman rises early, gives him a feed 
of corn, and leads him to his work, where he conti¬ 
nues for seven, eight, and even nine hours, and his 
whole day’s work is completed before he is allowed 
to eat. We do not find the ox, worked under similar 
circumstances, so affected in the stomach and bowels, 
simply because his capacious stomach, when filled, re¬ 
quires many hours to empty, while, as we have seen, 
it is different with the horse. Debilitated and hungry, 
the horse returns, and his rack is plentifully supplied, 
and a good feed of corn given him, and he is left to 
himself; he eats voraciously, half masticates his food, 
loads his debilitated stomach, and his digestive organs 
are weakened, and permanently injured. This course 
is repeated,—a habit of voracity is acquired, and at 
no very remote period the food lodges and obstructs 
the pyloric orifice (the passage from the stomach to 
the bowels,) fermentation ensuses,—gas is evolved, 
the stomach distended ; he grows sluggish and sleepy, 
—drops his head upon his manger; or he is delerious, 
and evinces that the sympathy which exists between 
the stomach and the brain has excited the latter or¬ 
gan ; he rolls, paws, and is seized with convulsions ; 
at length he expires, and he has died of stomach stag¬ 
gers. If the previous history of the horse is examin¬ 
ed, it is probable that he has been subject to gripes : 
thus showing, not only the connection between the 
common management of farm-work horses and dis¬ 
eases of the organs of digestion and excretion, but 
between the two latter. The half-masticated food 
has irritated the bowels, extra exertion of the mus¬ 
cles has been required to propel the dung to the rec¬ 
tum, and cholic or cramp (spasms) of the bowels, has 
followed, or a course of continued irritation, or of con¬ 
tinued cholic, or both, has ended an inflammation of 
the bowels. I remember a beautiful farm-horse, 
which, owing to the distance of part of the farm to 
which he belonged from the buildings, was worked the 
long hours described, and finished his day’s work be¬ 
fore his bait. He was constantly subject to attacks 
of the gripes, which was subdued; but he died of 
stomach staggers. The same stable, then so often 
subject to diseases, is now, by a change in the system, 
131 
completely free from them. Another case, however, 
occured,—a beautiful compact little mare was con¬ 
stantly afflicted by cholic,—she eventually died of in¬ 
flammation of the intestines. 
There are other parts of the management to which 
horses employed in agriculture are subject, which 
induce diseases of the bowels; for instance, a boy 
returning from work, with heated and sweating 
horses, to save himself trouble, allows them to drink 
copiously at some pool or stream he passes. Sudden¬ 
ly one or more of the horses exhibit symptons of gripe, 
they suddenly lie down, roll about look at their 
sides, rise up, seem, relieved, and again speedily re¬ 
lapse ; the sudden application of the cold water has 
produced spasms in the bowels, through which it has 
passed. This is neglected, or perhaps gin or whiskey, 
aided by pepper, is administered as a remedy, and se¬ 
vere and general inflammation of the bowels is the 
result; this is mistaken for another attack, and again 
the poison is administered, and the inflammation in¬ 
creased, and death follows. The horse of heavy work, 
too, is longer exposed to the inclemencies of the wea¬ 
ther than the animal of light work. In the former, 
the rain is allowed to fall upon him for hours, and it 
is allowed to dry upon his back; the sympathy between 
the skin and the alimentary organs is known to every 
groom,—obstructed perspiration, and consequent irri¬ 
tability, is conveyed from the one to the other, and dis¬ 
ease is the consequence. It is true, the latter is also 
partly exposed to the rain, but for shorter periods, and 
the wisp and brush are liberally applied when he en¬ 
ters the stable; a determination of blood takes place 
to the skin, perspiration is excited, and diseases thus 
prevented. 
There is another disease to which horses are sub¬ 
ject, and which is at once the cause and consequence 
of inflammation of the intestines. I mean intestinal 
calculi. Inflammatory action of the bowels, like that 
of every other part of the system which comes in 
contact with any foreign body, is liable to produce 
calculi, which in turn irritate the bowels, and pro¬ 
duce a lasting predisposition to disease. For this I 
am not aware that any remedy has been discovered, 
and what is worse, they generally accumulate with 
age, and eventually produce death, the only power 
over them arising in our endeavors at prevention. 
Prevention. —Of the best means of preventing 
these diseases in farm-horses we will now treat. We 
have attributed the peculiar liability to them in farm- 
horses to mismanagement, with the exception of cer¬ 
tain instances of peculiar formation of the amimals, 
and although the farmer must necessarily work his 
horses longer hours than the horse of rapid work is 
capable, there is no necessity of depriving the ani¬ 
mal so long of food. No horse should work more 
than five or six hours without a bait. If we ex¬ 
amine the history of the stables of large farmers, 
whose fields necessarily lie at a great distance from 
the buildings, and where they are worked long in 
consequence, and compare it with that of small far¬ 
mers, under the contrary circumstances, we shall 
find a striking difference as respects the health of 
the animals. The case referred to above strikingly 
illustrates the truth of this observation. But, it may 
be asked, how it is possible to bait the animals so 
far from home 1 The difficulty seems to be in pro¬ 
curing'food upon the spot, for if this is not done, 
the precaution will be neglected, and, at any rate, 
the land will be occupied by it. This, however, may 
be remedied. In the case, for instance, of a field 
intended for turnips, which has to be worked dur¬ 
ing the spring, a part of it, half an acre, or in pro¬ 
portion to the size of the field, may be sown with 
winter-tares, a few of which may be mown off) and 
given to the animals green, without carrying them 
from the field, interfering with any crop, or wasting 
any time in carrying the horses to a distance. If 
the field be intended for summer-fallow the spring 
tare will answer, and which may be used in the same 
manner, instead of allowing the poor animals gree¬ 
dily and indiscriminately to crop the leaves of the 
hedges at every turning, from the impulse of hunger. 
There is another easy way of baiting, which some 
carters adopt, and which might be applied to the 
farmers’ horse, especially when carting. It consists 
in securing a bag, containing corn, over the animal’s 
mouth and nose, by a string, which passes over the 
poll, and is locally denominated a “nose-bag,” or 
“ horse-poke,” and which should be removed when 
he has finished his feed. To prevent the effects of 
the wet upon the skin, an unexpensive glazed cloth 
may be thrown over the horses backs, and secured 
to the collar and traces. This may by some be con¬ 
sidered very troublesome, but, it will be found, that 
when it is once begun, it will be considered no more 
trouble than carrying the rest of the harness, and if 
disease is prevented, the trouble amounts to nothing. 
To counteract as much as possible any habits of 
greedy feeding which the horse may have acquired, 
his corn should be mixed with chopped straw, or 
chopped clover, which will secure its proper masti- 
