The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1879-05-22
AGRICULTURE.

COMMON SENSE IN DRIvNG.-Most
men over-driye. They attempt too
much; and in so doing, distract or
hamper the horse Now and then you
find a horse with such a vicious gait
that his speed Is got from him by the
most artificial processes, but such hor-
ses are fortunately rare, and hence the
style of management required cannot
become general. The true way is to
let the horse drive himself,-the driver
doing little but directing him, and
giving him that confidence which a
horse alone gets in himself when he
feels that a guide and friend is back of
him. The most vicious and inexcusa-
bic style of driving is that which so
many drivers adopt, viz wrapping the
lines around either hand, and pulling
the horse backward with all their
might and main, so that the horse, in
point of fact, pulls the weight back Of
him with his mouth, and not with his
breast and shoulders. This they do
under the impression that such a dead
pull is needed in order to "steady" the
horse. This method of driving we re-
gard as radically and superlativoly
wrong 1t would tax>the ingenuity of
a hundred fools to invent a worse one.
The fact is, with rare exceptions, there
should never be any pull put upon the
horse at all. A steady pressure is al
lowable, probably advisable; but any
thing beyond this has no justification
In nature or reason; for nature sug-
gests the utmost possible freedom Of
action of head, body and limbs, in Or
der that the animal may attain the
highest rate of speed; and reason GER
tainlv forbids the suppOsition that by
the bits, and not the breast-collar, the
horse is to draw the weight attached to
It, In speeding our horses W. very
seldom grasp the lines with both hands
when the road is straight and free
from distractions. The lines are rarely
steadily taut, but held in easy pliancy
and used chiefly to shift the bit in the
animals mouth, and by this motion
communicate courage and confidence
to him. We find by this methed our
horses break less and go much faster
than when driven by men who put the
old-fashioned steady pull upon them.
ShJShbD OhAlN fOh IlOhohhs-OdIb
are justly advocated as the grain above
all others adapted to horses-and it Is
true, that for young horses, and those
used on the road, there is probably
nothing equal to oats, but they ought
to be crushed or bruised and not
ground. In fact, l think all grains are
better fed in this way, and it seems
strange that there are no good Ameri-
can oat crushers. They seem to me
simple affairs-as | have seen them in
English stables. A wheel of perhaps
eighteen inches in diameter, made
strong, and having a perfectly fat peri
phery, of steel, | presume, like a steel
tire, having a face about three inches
wide, is turned so as to bear evenly
against a smaller one of say eight inch
es or less in diameter, having a similar
face. These two wheels are geared to
turn together, and the oats are slowly
fed in by a hopper. Good oats, when
crushed, are nearly round, and as big
as a silver three-cent piece, and the
husks are quite inconspicuous poor
ones show more husk than grain, and
retain more nearly the form of the un-
crushed oat. Barley may be crushed
equally well with oats, although hard
er; and corn, when too green to grind,
might well be thus treated. If grain
be swallowed whole it is not easily d.
gested, but if crushed, or broken even,
it is likely to be. "Coarse meal" that
is, the corn-meal usually sold for feed
ing in many Eastern towns, simply be-
cause it can be cheaply produced, is
better than whole corn, because it is
broken and some portion of it tolera-
bly, fine, but all the flinty part is in
large solid pieces, which do not adhere
to cut hay, do not soak quickly, and are
slow of digestion, When new corn is
crushed, although it is not commin-
ted into meal, its integrity is destroyed
and is easily digested, because it readi-
ly absorbs water or the juices of the
stomach.
AVOID giving a tired horse very cold
water, as it often produces collie. In
large establishments exhaust steam is
passed throuuh the horse troughs;
others allow the water to stand for
some time in buckets. On the road