It is of the highest importance that farmers should possess _reading
habits_; and that they should bring up their children to a love of
books. Every farmer should have a library; it may, at first, be small;
but it should be select. As soon as a farmer is beforehand enough to
own an acre, he is prosperous enough to begin a library. It is said by
many, _books won’t make money_. Yes they will. To-be-sure, their best
effect is the production of intelligence in the reader; but a man well
informed in his own business is just the man to make money. Who ever
thought of making money by buying grindstones and whetstones? But they
sharpen the scythe, and sickle, and the axe, and _they_ produce money.
Books are grindstones and whetstones for a man’s mind.
Many are unwilling to buy a treatise upon the disease of the horse,
although there are several which will _prevent_ most of the evils
which affect this noble animal. In the West, the horse is used, in
town and country, by almost every man. But very few profess to know
how he should be treated! And, of those who think they are wise, how
many have any knowledge except of a few nostrums for sickness? The
horse, in man’s service, is living in an entirely artificial state. He
takes care of himself if left wild. But living in stables, laboring
every month of the year in harness, and under the saddle, not
selecting his own food, but fed at the will of his master, his own
instincts become of little use, and he is dependent entirely on the
mercy and knowledge of those whose slave he is. It ought not to be
thought unreasonable to say that every man who is willing to _own_ a
horse, ought to be willing to know how to _manage_ him, in the stable
and out of it. There is no work in the English language containing
more, or better instructions than[2] Stewart’s Stable Economy. It
should be read by the farmer; and just as much by every man, of
whatever calling, who uses a horse, or owns one. It is of standard
authority in England. Mr. Stewart has long been a professor in
veterinary institutes. Every man ought to know how to treat a sick
horse. Suppose a horse to be taken sick on a journey; most frequently
the driver is the only one at hand to prescribe. If you are at a
tavern, of what use, generally speaking, are the bragging pretensions
of those that crowd around you? Stopping for a night at a wretched
hole of a tavern, one of my horses, at night fell sick. I knew no more
than a child what to do; the landlord (ah me! I shall never forget
him!) was equally ignorant and much more indifferent. A big, bragging,
English booby was the only one pretending to know what to do; and to
him I yielded the animal. After sundry manipulations—punching him in
the loins; pulling at his ears, etc.—he rolled up a wad of _hair from
his tail_, and crammed it down the horse’s throat! presuming, I
suppose, that the hair would find its way back to the place it came
from, and so pilot the disease out! I inwardly resolved never to go
another journey until in possession of the best remedies for the
attacks common to horses on the road.
* * * * *
PREPARING CUTTINGS IN THE FALL.—Cuttings of the currant, gooseberry,
and grape are better if cut immediately on the fall of the leaf,
plunged into moist sand two-thirds of their length, and placed in a
cellar. If nature is as propitious to others as she has been to us,
the cuttings will be found in the spring with the granulations
completed at the lower end, and the roots just ready to push; and on
being planted out, they grow off immediately, forming during the
season well established plants.
[2] _A Treatise on the management of horses in relation to
stabling, grooming, feeding, watering, and working_:
published by A. O. Moore & Co., N. Y.