The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-04-11
p FOR THE R

Feeding and Grooming Horses.-The
following hints on this subject are from
lecture delivered by Professor Pritch-
ard, of the royal Veterinary College,
England:
Ordinary horses should be fed three
times a day. A little hay should be
given to the horse to amuse himself with
during the cleaning out of the stables,
and he should then have his water
offered to him, but he would certainly
not allow him to have anything like a
meal before giving him water. He
would have about a peck of corn, with
a small quantity of cut hay, and a little
bran, divided into three or at most four
feeds, for the day. He did not believe
in the necessity for crushing oats, the
horse, in proper condition. having
splendid m~asticating organs. But in
dealing with horses in a state of disease,
or in the habit of boiling their food, he
weuld advocate the crushing. AS to
bedding, nothing could be better than
straw, which should be thick in those
places where the animal might injure
his houghs. In case of horse having
a habit of much paving, sawdust might
be used in front of him indeed sawdust
might be used generally, but not in
those stables which have underground
drainage.
He would impress on his hearers the
fact hat horses must be greomed to
keep them healthy as well as to make
them look well. With regard to groom
ing horses legs, he believed that with
ao,oo Az, or@,1o. 4Ioro - L.
fever or cracked to the extentnow found,
Instead of bringing the horse in when
coated with mud and sluicing him with
cold water or even tepid water, he would
have the mud wiped or scraped off as far
as practicable, and then wipe the legs
round till they dried. He believed
hundreds and thousand of cases of mud
fever might be prevented if this plan
were used instead of the system of throw
ing water over them or excessive wash
ing. He should only speak of bandages
on the subject of clothing, considering
wooden bandages to be of great use to the
legs. He had proved this in the case of
horses in his own possession, the use of
bandages having entirely removed wind
gals as big as hens eggs. He advocated
the use of leather soes forhorses working
on hard soil, or in the event of their not
being used he recommended that the feet
should be dressed with some noftening
mixture. He strongly recommended
that horses when not hard worked should
have proper exercise.
Evergreens for Lanes and Borders
At a farmers club meeting lately, in re
ply to a question as to the best ever
greens to plant along lanes and on the
borders of fields for wind-breaks, timber
etc., it was answered in favor of Norway
spruce. A contemporary prefers whit,
pine. We would prefer nom at all. 4
Norway spruce is a better w~ind-breal
than white pine, and is far to be pre-
ferred as to appearances, as the latte
has only the advantage of producing
more and better timber, but for such
purpose a border line of trees would b
entirely out of place. A white pine
next to no protection against the wind
as its boughs grow horizontally and ar
far apart, and as oon as it gets to
pretty good size the branches die ant
fall, leaving a rugged and unseemly tree
, The Norway spruce is a very good pre-
lection and very beautiful; but no tree
in our estimation, is fit to compare to tn
Austrian pine for this purpose. 1t j
perfectly hardy, grows compactly, j
never disturbed by the severest snow o
t hail storms, and is from the beginnin
, more or less of q protection. 1t is a sloN
grower, but for this reason proves itsel
to be a dense grower and better adapte
/, for a wind-break. As to timber, it is nc
t practicable to find any tree to answe
$ all the conditions here demanded
Timber should be grown upon land no
suited for cultivation, and for timbe
4 alone.