where they eat enormous!y, and keep their stom¬ 
achs distended, are usually relieved of their worst 
symptoms. 
I tried all sorts of heave-powders on my patient, 
with no effect whatever. It is said that in a lime¬ 
stone country this disease is unknown, and lime 
water was prescribed, with no apparent advantage. 
*Some one told me to give the horse ginger, and 
strange to tell, I found that a table spoonful of 
ginger given to the General with his oats, when 
breathing his worst, would cure him for the day 
in half an hour after he had eaten it : but on giv¬ 
ing it daily, the effect soon ceased. It is a jock¬ 
ey’s remedy, and will last long enough to swap 
upon. Finalty, I was advised to cut my horse’s 
fodder, and give it always wet. I pursued that 
course carefully, keeping the General tied with so 
short a halter that he could not eat his bedding, 
giving him chopped hay and meal three times a 
day, and never more than a bucket of water at a 
time. 
He improved rapidly. I have kept him five years, 
making him a factotum —carriage horse, saddle 
horse, plow and cart horse-—and he bids fair to 
remain useful for five years to come. Kept in this 
way , his disease does not lessen his value for speed 
or labor, a single dollar. When the boys grow 
careless, and give him dry hay., he informs me of 
it in a few daj T s, by the peculiar cough I have 
mentioned; but sometimes, for six months togeth¬ 
er, no indication of disease is visible, and he would 
pass for a sound horse with the most knowing in 
such matters. There is no doubt that clover hay } 
probably because of its dust, often induces the 
heaves. Stable keepers, with us, refuse it alto¬ 
gether for this reason 
Many suppose that the wind of the horse is af¬ 
fected by the heaves, so that fast driving at any 
time will, as we express it, put him out of breath. 
With my horse, it is not so, nor with others affect¬ 
ed with this disorder. 
When the General was at the worst, rapid driv¬ 
ing, when just from the stable, would increase his 
difficulty, but a mile or two of moderate exercise 
would dissipate the symptoms entirely. We have, 
occasionally, what are called wind-broken horses, 
which are nearly worthless, for want of wind. 
They can never be driven rapidly without great 
'distress, and frequently give out entirely by a few 
miles driving. This is thought to be a different 
disease. The General’s ease is, I suppose, a fair 
example of the heaves. 
I have no doubt that regular feeding \yith chop¬ 
ped and wet fodder , arid v exclusion of dust from 
hay fed to other animals in the same stable, would 
render many horses now deemed almost worthless, 
and which manifestly endure great suffering, 
equally valuable for most purposes, with those 
that are sound. 
And now, my dear gir, if you will call on me . 
when the snow has gone, and the birds begin to 
sing, I will show you the General, fat and sleek. 
I shall be glad, also, to show to the country gen¬ 
tlemen of our neighborhood, one whom they al¬ 
ready know by his worts, as a man who has done 
much to make the earth fruitful and beautiful , and 
to enhance the enjoyments of Rural Life. Exeter , 
N. H., Feb. 7, 1853. 
Rambles in Nexv-Hamp shire and Vermont. 
I propose to give your readers some notes of 
farms and farming, in different sections-of New- 
Hampshire and Vermont. My first letter , will em¬ 
brace the extreme northern valley of the Connec¬ 
ticut River, from its source, away up among the 
highlands of New-Hampshire, down sixty or sev¬ 
enty miles below. 
In no part of. New-England-is there a better or 
more desirable soil, than that composing the whole 
valley of the Connecticut, extending a distance of 
three hundred miles, to the sea-tjpard. The mea¬ 
dows upon either side, are annually overflown, 
and on many farms such rich deposits are made as 
supet^ede the necessity of cultivation , or applying 
manures, for many successive years.. Two tons 
per acre of the best quality of hay , and fifty bush¬ 
els of oats, are produced upon these farms, with 
but very small cost for fertilizing products. 
In the northern valley, the waters in high fresh¬ 
est run so rapidly, that the quantity of sediment 
deposited is comparatively small, anjl consequent¬ 
ly the benefits of irrigation are limited. The land 
has to be turned up and well manured, to-produce 
good crops of hay or grain. When well treated, 
it returns an ample and remunerative harvest! 
Back from the river, the hills afford the sweetest 
pasturage, to their very summits, excepting those 
which have been long cleared. The farmers in 
this section have preferred to intrude upon their 
heavy forests for fresh pastures, rather than at¬ 
tempt the renovation of thair old and worn out 
ones. The first clea ring costs about $10 per acre, 
One crop of wheat is taken. averaging 20 bushels 
per acre, worth from $1.00 to $1.50 per bush¬ 
el. When oats are sown, 50bushel is the average 
crop. If the land is intended for pasture, six or 
eight pounds of clover, with one peckofherdsgrass, 
are sown with the wheat or oats. 
When grass seed is required for a crop, three 
or four quarts, without clover, are used. The first 
yield of seed upon hard-wood land, is usually eight 
to nine bushels per acre. The next from five to 
eight. Three successive crops of grass seed, taken 
fropi the richest upland soil, renders it unfit for 
good pasture. It is a great exhauster. Mr. Ru¬ 
fus Cross, of Colebrook, N. H., raised in 1851, 
300 bushels. Many' others in the same town 100. 
It sold for $3.00 per bushel. 
The farmers, generally, in this part <5f Connec¬ 
ticut River valley, do not yet fully appreciate the 
benefits of thorough culture and liberal manuring. 
They do not yet know the capacity of their farms. 
By attempting without any system, to cultivate 
too many acres with a given quantity of manure, 
their work is done superficially. They are empha¬ 
tically behind the times in the work of improve¬ 
ment. Not so with all, however. There.are many 
wide awake with a noble enthusiasm. 
The following “ Rough Notes from my Memo¬ 
randum- Book.” will give an idea of what some 
of the best farmers are doing in the section of 
which I am writing. 
Mr. Nathaniel Beach, of Canaan, (Yt.) has 
a farm of some 200 acres. 70 of which areConnec- 
Pay all due attention to manual labor, none need 
be ashamed of the marks of honest toil; but a man 
need not insist on rubbing the dirt into his very 
soul, and being all his life a day laborer 
ticut intervale—yielding on portions of it, three 
tons of hay per acre. He applies his manure in a 
rotted state, either on sward or old ground, at the 
rate of 20 cart loads to the acre; spreads and 
in. This is done both in fall and spring, 
