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May 23, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SHALL WE CLIP THE HORSE? 
I see no sense in the explanation of your veterinary 
Shout tiie dipped horse. Do you believe that shearing off 
the hair relieves the system of the usual ceremony of 
throwing off the old hair and growing new? Do not thA 
©Id stumps have to he shed and replaced just the same, ■ 
and with as much drain on the system? Does clipping 
kill the roots of the hair so they never grow naturally 
afterward? Perhaps so, for I never saw one that, had 
boon clipped that looked bright, and thrifty afterward. 
The victim acts lively because lie is cold and wants to be 
moving. The same man who will clip his horse, claim¬ 
ing it does not suffer with cold, will blanket his dog in 
Winter and have him sheared in Summer to keep him 
Cool. Show me the consistency in this if you can. When 
I see a man wrapped in furs driving a clipped horse in 
Winter I want to see him stripped as close as the horse 
is and made to stand on the street as long, or hitched 
in front of the church while the horse is inside over the 
furnace listening to the sermon. They tell us that a horse 
With long hair dries off slowly when sweaty. Granted. 
Put the heat, of the body soon dries the hair next, to the 
skin, and the moisture outside of that is a protection 
from the air and sudden changes. Give your horses a 
few pints a day of India wheat early in Spring, and the 
old hair will conic off in a hurry and a new growth start 
Which will not look so much like a stubble field. 
New Hampshire. H, i,. 
On page 3(53 I notice that you quote Dr. Alexander ns 
saying that the clipping of horses relieves them of the 
Shedding of their coats in Spring, which Raps the energy 
of the horse, etc. Does the cutting off of the hair on the 
horse stop the shedding of the hair? I never heard of it 
before. Neither did I ever hear before that it prevented 
the sweating. The horse sweats the same, but the air 
reaches the surface of the skin and the horse dries off and 
cools ont much quicker than though the sweat was sur¬ 
rounded and protected by the long hair. Please ask Dr. 
Alexander if I am not right; if not I will certainly stand 
corrected. Yours for the clipped horse, if he can lie 
properly cared for, every time. edward p. mayo. 
tention, that so far as stabled city horses are cotv- 
cerned clipping tends to prevent rather than induce 
cold’s, coughs and pneumonia. The following quota¬ 
tion from a reliable source and recently printed in 
•“the Wisconsin Agriculturist, is of considerable inter¬ 
est in this connection: “A few years ago a street 
car company in one of our large American cities 
fully demonstrated the truth of this statement. The 
company employed five hundred or more horses for 
construction and general repair work upon its lines. 
FOOTSORE AFTER CITY LIFE. Fro. 104. 
Half the horses were clipped early in the Spring, and 
the remainder were left unclipped. Both lots of 
horses were handled alike, and a careful record of 
results was kept. It was found that out of the two 
hundred and fifty undipped herses some over one 
hundred and fifty were afflicted with coughs and 
pneumonia, while out of an equal number clipped no 
sickness was reported.’' a. s. Alexander, v. s. 
Maine. 
The old coat of hair is gradually shed by the new 
growing hairs forcing them out of their "sockets.” 
During the shedding process, which takes place at 
a time of year when a heavy overcoat becomes a 
burden, and induces inordinate sweating, the horse 
suffers discomfort from both the heavy coat and the 
imperfect evaporation of sweat. Clipping removes 
immediately the heavy coat, and when it has been re¬ 
moved sweating becomes normal and evaporation 
natural. Men “shed” their Winter overcoats and 
heavy under flannels when the state of the weather 
makes such clothing a burden. We have a notion 
that if they do not cast aside these heavy garments 
they will sweat more profusely than otherwise would 
he the case, and if they sweat profusely, under their 
heavy clothes, they will feel uncomfortable. Also 
we imagine that they would experience relief when 
the heavy garments had been thrown off and the 
sweat mopped up and dried off. 
Certainly the hair goes on growing after the coat 
has been removed. Otherwise one would need to 
shave but once during a lifetime. But the new hair 
coming in is short, and it does not mat and felt with 
sweat, and so clog up the pores and prove a nuisance 
to the horse. The clipping of a horse instantly re¬ 
lieves him of his shedding coat; otherwise the shed¬ 
ding process often is a gradual or tardy one, and 
accompanied by the discomforts suggested. We think 
it reasonable to argue that when the coat lias been 
clipped off it cannot he shed. Possibly, however, there 
may remain some little bristles or stubs of hair still 
to he forced out by the ingrowing hairs; usually how¬ 
ever, these may easily be brushed out or arc carried 
away by the first few groomings after the clipping 
act. Anyhow the shedding of “the old stumps” does 
not bother the horse, and the animal is wonderfully 
relieved by clipping if previously it has shown ill 
effects of the Spring-cleaning shedding process. We 
do not and never did advocate clipping horses during 
Winter, nor at other times than the shedding season, 
and then the work only should he done on carriage 
horses and other horses that are to be perfectly cared 
for and duly blanketed and sheltered against inclement 
weather or cold drafts and wet. Rarely is it a neces¬ 
sary or advisable practice as regards farm horses; 
hut always it helps materially when a horse suffers 
from chronic indigestion and has a coarse, staring, 
long, harsh coat of hair. It also has been claimed, 
and with a great deal of evidence to back the con¬ 
MAKING BORDEAUX MIXTURE. 
Our method of preparing Bordeaux Mixture is to 
keep a barrel of saturated solution of copper sul¬ 
phate on hand, each gallon of which contains very 
nearly three pounds of copper sulphate. -This is 
easily prepared by hanging any convenient amount 
of the copper in a hag near the top of the water. 
If you try it on a small scale in a glass of water, 
you can see the heavy stream of copper solution fall¬ 
ing to the bottom of the glass, and fresh water tak¬ 
ing its place, again to fall when it acquires its load of 
copper. This method of preparing the solution is the 
only easy and sure method of getting a saturated 
solution, for as you know if you have tried it, to put 
the copper sulphate into the bottom of the barrel 
and attempt to get it into solution by stirring is a 
very slow and uncertain process, for the saturated 
solution sinks to the bottom of the vessel, and there 
is verv slow diffusion and consequently slow solution 
The lime we prepare by slaking a barrel or more 
at a time in a tight box with enough water to slake 
it properly, after which it is leveled off, and kept 
covered with water and so remains in good order 
till used. Before slaking a large quantity, we weigh 
a certain number of pounds and slake it and find out 
about how much bulk it occupies in a slaked condi¬ 
tion, and then by using a pail of corresponding size, 
it is very easy to get the proper amount of lime for 
any desired mixture. For example: A common 
formula with us is the 3:3:50, and one of our spray 
tanks holds 100 gallons, so all that is needed is to 
FINE HORSE SPOILED BY DOCKING. Fig. 105. 
take two gallons of the copper solution, and of the 
lime, a pail that holds between six and seven pounds 
of the slaked mass and we arc all ready to mix. To 
do this easily, we have a high water tank with 
spouts leading into two smaller tanks, in one of which 
the copper solution is placed and in the other the 
lime; then these smaller tanks are filled from the 
supply tank, and the dilute lime and copper are then 
drawn off through large faucets, falling together 
into the spray tank, where they mix easily and per¬ 
fectly, and the solution is ready for use. If we are 
using a poison, it is poured into the spray tank while 
the Bordeaux is running in, and is well mixed also. 
The above process is the result of several years’ ex¬ 
periment and with ns, is as nearly perfect as we 
can desire. There is very little opportunity for 
error and the results are satisfactory. I prefer to 
use a slight excess of lime, so as not to have the 
trouble of making the ferrocyanide test. I might 
add, that for making arsenate of lead for spraying, I 
much prefer to make it as I use it, for by so doing 
T get a better mixture and with less labor than by 
rubbing up the ready-made preparations, although I 
have found the proprietary articles satisfactory m 
effect. I use a solution containing one pound of 
arsenate of soda to the gallon, and another contain¬ 
ing 254 pounds of nitrate or acetate of lead to the 
gallon, and when wanted these soltrtions are mixed 
in equal quantities, with the production of a finely 
divided and well mixed suspension of lead arsenate. 
The pound of arsenate of soda and 2J4 pounds of 
lead nitrate yields about 5(4 pounds of moist arsen¬ 
ate of lead, and at the prevailing prices there is not 
much economy in making one’s own, except that I 
think we get a better mixed article, n. w. heaton. 
Rhode Island. 
WHAT TO DO WITH TRAMP HENS. 
Law as Last Resort. 
I am more than interested in your hen problem, for 
I am surrounded with neighbors who do not keep their 
hens at home. One of them is reasonable, the others 
are not, and I have seemingly exhausted every right I 
have hut law, and I don’t want to try that. I found 
one man’s hens were laying their eggs in a box on 
my place, and I suggest tliis as a solution to the prob¬ 
lem: That if a man won’t keep his hens home, Just 
put up a few inviting nests where the hens can con¬ 
veniently lay without going ’way home. I think those 
eggs would come pretty near belonging to the man on 
whose properly they were laid. This is one of the 
hardest problems for a person who does not want to 
build hen-tight fences, and it is also one of the most 
aggravating ones. I think the dog is one of the best 
means of keeping the hens off. We had one once 
who would keep them moving, but I still have tlxe 
problem before me, not only with one man, hut with 
three, and would suggest that others give their ex¬ 
periences in this matter, for law is the last thing a 
man should resort to with his neighbor. w. 
Build a Hen-Tight Fence. 
In answer to the poor fellow’s complaint on page 
363, would say I have but 38 acres; my neighbor(?) 
lives hut about 100 yards away, and keeps a big flock 
of chickens. They roamed all over my farm, “fruit¬ 
ing, berrying, etc.” I told him to keep them off. lie 
wouldn’t; my collie knew strange birds, and went for 
them; neighbor was mad, but didn’t "roll up his 
sleeves,” for he knew two could play at that garn-i, 
and I, not caring to he constantly aggravated, bought 
two rolls of five-foot two-inch wire poultry netting, 
stretched it along line, stopped all hifalutin contro¬ 
versies and only cost $8.35; must less cost and trouble 
than fighting, going to law or having my pet collie 
poisoned. T. L. meinjkheim. 
The Poetry of It. 
[Every few years it seems necessary to print this verse, 
originally printed in Tub It. N.-Y. 10 years ago.] 
A maiden lady owned a piece of ground, 
And morn and eve in Summer slie was found 
Within her garden. But her neighbor kept, 
A flock of hens, and while she worked or slept. 
With busy feet they dug her finest seed. 
In vain she chased them at her almost speed, 
And “shooed” and stoned them, quite undignified. 
Then while her neighbor laughed until lie cried. 
But women who can foil the wiles of men, 
Will not he daunted by a Leghorn hen. 
The hand that rooks the cradle, still can block 
Man’s ridicule, and give his nerves a shock. 
Our lady cried a bit—as was her right— 
Then took some cards and on each one did write: 
“Please keep your hens at hornet” A seed of corn 
She strung to each. Witli early break of dawn 
Back came the hens; they gobbled grain and string. 
Then back for home they started on the wing. 
From every mouth tliej dragged the lady’s card. 
“Please keep,” he scratched Ids head—his heart was hard, 
But shame cut through it tike a knife, and hence 
Ilia hens no mor.> flew o’er the lady’s fence. 
