1853. 
/THE CULTIVATOR. 
189 
back, the inferior extremities grasping his sides, and thus 
inuringhim to the legs of a rider. 
Portions of harness may now, from time to time, be 
added, the winkers being kept for the last. He may 
now be put in a team, and it is better he should be one 
of three, having one before him and the shaft horse be¬ 
hind him. It is best to begin draught on grass, where 
the colt will not be frightqped with tjhe noise of the 
wheels. He has enough to occupy his thoughts with¬ 
out that, and the grand secret consists in not hurrying 
or confusing him. Let everything proceed gradually 
and by successive stages, and above all, let me entreat 
that no whip or harsh language may be permitted to be 
used. 
Breeders of horses are very apt to fall into a common 
fault, viz: of postponing the breaking of them to a pe¬ 
riod comparatively advanced, and then fancying that the 
training can at once be affected. We have endeavored 
to show that the work of training should be a gradula 
and progressive one, and that it should rather consist of 
a consecutive system of judicious management than be 
converted into a separate business, suddenly undertaken 
and summarily performed. If the colt has been treated 
as we recommended, much subsequent trouble will be 
saved his owner; if it were generally so treated, there 
would be fewer instances of vice and sulkiness displayed 
by the adult horse. 
All horses, especially such as are required for agricul¬ 
tural purposes, should be broken into the saddle as w r ell 
as the harness. This is easily effected when once the 
animal has suffered himself to be yoked in the team, as 
already described. Let his accustomed feeder and 
handler be the first to mount him; there is no doubt that 
the colt will suffer him to do so without struggling, and 
gentleness alone is requisite to complete the lesson thus 
auspiciously begun. At the same time that mildness is 
absolutely hecessary, it is not less essential that the colt 
be taught implicit obedience to the will of his master. 
For this purpose, however, neither the whip nor spur 
must be employed, nor must he be shouted or halloed 
at; nothing is required but firmness, steadiness, and pa¬ 
tience—the three great requisites in a successful horse- 
breaker. 
When the colt has acquired the art of drawing and 
carrying, it will be time to instruct him in, perhaps, the 
most difficult part of his duty—backing. This must be 
done cautiously at first, by the long rope, and gradually. 
Let first a light cart, and then a loaded one be added; 
let care be taken not to hurt the mouth with the bit; 
many a good and valuable horse has been spoiled by 
this bad management. Patience and gentleness will 
effect everything; a contrary course of treatment will 
generate vice. Few, it may said almost no horses, are 
naturally vicious. It is cruel usage which has first pro¬ 
voked resistance. That resistance has been followed by 
greater severity, and the stubbornness of the animal has 
increased. Open warfare has ensued, in which the man 
has seldom gained advantage, and the horse has been 
frequently rendered unserviceable. Correction must be 
used to enforce implicit obedience after the education 
has proceeded to a certain extent, but the early lessons 
should be inculcated with kindness alone. Young colts 
are sometimes very perverse. Many days will occasion¬ 
ally pass before they will permit the bridle to be put on, 
or the saddle to be worn; and one act of harshness will 
double or trible this time. Patience and kindness, how¬ 
ever, will always prevail. 
Hoven in Cattle. 
As I have seen many remedies for'the cure of hoven 
or bloat, and have never seen what I think the best, I 
would say that I regard fat salt pork as the most effec¬ 
tual remedy that can be used; and I -would state, that 
after making use of it for twenty years, I never knew 
an instance, even in the most severe cases, where it 
failed to give immediate relief. The first trial that I 
made, was on an ox, that had eaten nearly one bushel 
of pototoes, and fed on fresh clover. Oil and other 
medicines had been given, and he had been tapped, but 
✓ 
all to no purpose. We gave him pork, and I think he 
was relieved in less than 15 minutes. The next was a 
cow, that was near calving. She broke into a field of 
ripe corn, and eat what she would. The owner was ab¬ 
sent, and his wife asked me what to do. She was down, 
and w r e could not get her up. I called for pork, and 
gave her one pound or more, and in 10 minutes she was 
up, walking about. Soon after I moved into this town, 
a man called on me one evening, and asked me if I knew 
of anything that would relieve a creature that was 
bloated. He said he had a cow that had eaten rye bran, 
and was badly bloated, was down, and five men had 
tried a number of times, and could not get her up. I 
told him of pork. He afterwards told me that he had 
made another trial, but could not get her up. He then 
cut up 1 1-2 lbs. of pork and gave her, and left her for 
the night—went out in the morning, and found her up 
about the stable. I could mention many other cases, but 
these are sufficient. The method of cutting it, is to cut 
it in slices as you would to fry—let one man hold up the 
head and hold open the mouth, and another put it in the 
mouth. If it is thrown up, put it back down near the 
roots of the tongue, and close the mouth. Some crea¬ 
tures will eat it readily. Ebenezer Clapp. Hat¬ 
field , Mass., March 3, 1853. 
Management of Sheep. 
L. Tucker, Esq. —In accordance with your request, 
I will dot down some facts in relation to the manage¬ 
ment of sheep, which much experience has fully estab¬ 
lished in my own mind7 You may be aware that the 
adjoining counties of Washington and Fayette, have 
been the most extensively engaged in wool growing of 
any equal extent in the Union. The large and largest 
farms have been those most generally devoted to this 
business, from the fact that these can be more economi¬ 
cally, and with infinitely less labor and trouble, grazed 
with sheep, than devoted to the cultivation of grain. A 
farm of one thousand acres can be more easily managed 
with the fleecy tribe, than one hundred acres by the 
usual process of grain raising. Once down to grass, it 
remains so for many years; and on such farms, only 
those fields are plowed up which cease-to yield good 
crops of grass, and require renovation by alternation 
with grain crops. They then are prepared to yield the 
heaviest crops of grain. Our experience has fully estab¬ 
lished the fact that a farm of ordinary or low quality of 
soil, or one exhausted by excessive cultivation of grain, 
may be brought by this simple process, to the highest 
condition, w-hich may the more readily appear from the 
fact that grass, especially clover, and a less degree 
timothy, supply the soil with infinitely more of the ele¬ 
ments of fertility in their decay, than they have ever 
abstracted, and also that sheep carry and drop their ma¬ 
nure on the tops of hills, which need it most. Our sheep 
farms range from 150 to 1000 and more acres, and al¬ 
though the average value may be from 35 to 45 dollars 
per acre, the owners believe they derive more profit from 
appropriating them to wool-growing, than the cultiva¬ 
tion of grain. 
1st. There is no mystery in the management of sheep. 
Care and attention, guided by observation and common 
sense, are the only essentials. He who can properly 
manage a farm in other stock, must make a successful 
wool grower. The careless shepherd, whose sheep die 
off with the rot and other diseases in the spring, throws 
all the blame on ill-luck—or the mild winter or the hard 
winter:—on the wet spring, the early spring or the late 
spring—little suspecting or crediting that he alone made 
his own ill-luck—that he had let his stock get too poor 
in the fall, to enter on the winter—that one or two weeks 
of starvation will inevitably, even with sheep in fair 
condition, produce the hunger-rot, (the most formida¬ 
ble, but least known, disease to which our sheep are ex¬ 
posed, and of which the victims must die in the spring,) 
—that he has permitted them to be mercilessly exposed 
without shelter to all the snows and rains and wind and 
cold of a long winter. The fantastical and fancy ama¬ 
teur sheep raiser may fabricate a system as intricate and 
