THE LOCUST. give a few swallows of water; for some horses will not eat without, particularly if feverish at night. The locust belongs to that class of insects which Give three quarts of corn soon after the water; he naturalists distinguish by the name of gryllus. should not be limited in fodder, but let him have it The common grasshopper is of this genus, and in before him from the time he is put up at night till its general appearance resembles the "migratory you start. Give him as much water as he will locust," of which we have to speak. The body drink before you start, travel very slow for the first of this insect is long in proportion to its size, and hour, for many horses are foundered from the body is defended on the back by a strong corslet, either becoming suddenly hot when full of cold water, of a greenish or light brown hue. The head, just as when the reverse happens, filling the body which is vertical, is very large, and furnished with with cold water when it is hot. Give about a two antennæ of about an inch in length: the eyes gallon of water frequently, for by giving a small are very prominent, dark, and rolling: the jaws are quantity often, the stomach is kept more cool, and strong, and terminate in three incisive teeth, the there is less danger. Twice or three times during sharp points of which traverse each other like the day, put about a pint of corn-meal and a little scissors. The insect is furnished with four wings, salt into the water, and stir it well in. Whenever of which the exterior pair, which are properly you water on the road, move off the horse imme- cases to the true wings, are tough, straight, and diately; to stand still after drinking is very wrong. larger than those which they cover, which are When you stop for any time, say an hour or so, pliant, reticulated, nearly transparent, and fold up do not water till you are going off. I never give in the manner of a fan. The four anterior legs corn during the day-three or four quarts of oats are of middling size, and of great use in climbing may be given, and fodder or hay, for the quantity and feeding; but the posterior pair are much larger he will eat will not injure him. In hot dusty and longer, and of such strength that the locust is weather it is very gratifying to the horse to wash enabled by their means to leap more than two or wipe the face, and the inside of the nostrils with hundred times the length of its own body, which a sponge and cold water, and if you add a little is usually from two to three inches. Locusts, as vinegar, it is better;-do this at the time of and the writer of this article has seen them in the East, before watering. When you stop for the night, are generally of a light brown or stone color, with let the horse go into a lot to wallow and walk dusky spots on the corslet and wingcases; the about for half an hour, then let a few bundles of mouth and inside of the thighs tinctured with blue, fodder or hay be given to him while he is rubbed, and the wings with green, blue, or red. These curried, and brushed, and afterwards as plentifully wings are of a delicate and beautiful texture; and as can be given. When cool have his legs wash-in the fine fibres, by which the transparency is traed with soap and cold water, and the feet picked versed, the Moslems of Western Asia fancy that out, and then let him have his fill of water, but they can decypher an Arabic sentence, which sigwithout salt. Be careful that the horse always eats nifies "We are the destroying army of God." some fodder before he gets his corn: give a strong large horse eight quarts of corn at night, or as many ears as are equal to it-it is better to feed on the ear than to shell it, as the horse eats not so fast and will perhaps eat less. If the corn is new, give but half the quantity; always give oats in the morning if to be. got, six quarts will not injure a horse. If the horse gets galled, wash the parts with strong whiskey and water. If your horse becomes dull and heavy on the journey, or loses his appetite, tie a lump of gum assafoetida on his bit, covered or wrapped in a strong rag. This may be continued for the whole journey, and I believe prevents his taking any distemper if put with sick horses, or in stables where they have been: it also is a preventive of founder. Horses sometimes get lame on the road without any apparent cause. It is generally from being improperly shod. There are such various notions as to the treatment of a horse when foundered, that it is difficult to know what to say on the subject. I would bleed freely from the neck-give a pint of whiskey with a little warm water and molasses, with a lump of alum about the size of a nutmeg dissolved in it, and urge the horse on his journey. I have now, my good sir, said what I would do with my horse on the road, and if any part of it is worth your consideration, you are welcome to it. Hoping that you will excuse great hurry and blunders, and with my best wishes for your having safe and pleasant time of it, I remain, yours, with regard, B. a The female locust lays about forty eggs, which in appearance are not unlike oat-grains, but smaller. She covers them with a viscid matter, by which they are sometimes attached to blades of grass, but are more usually deposited in the ground. For this purpose she prefers light sandy earths, and will not leave the eggs in compact, moist, or cultivated grounds, unless she has been brought down on them by rain, wind or fatigue, and rendered incapable of seeking a more eligible situation. Having performed this, the female dies; and the eggs remain in the ground throughout the winter. I much rain occurs, the wet spoils them, by destroying the viscid matter in which they are enveloped, and which is essential to their preservation. Heat also seems necessary to their production, for the little worm which proceeds from the egg sometimes appears so early as February and sometimes not until May, according to the state of the season. This, in the usual course, becomes a nymph, in which state it attains its full growth in about twenty-four days. After having for a few days abstained from food, it then bursts its skin, comes forth a perfect animal, and immediately begins to unfold and trim its wings with the hinder feet. The insects which first attain this state do not immediately fly off, but wait in the neighborhood forthose whose developement is more tardy; but when their army is formed, they take their flight from the district. To those who have not seen a flight of locusts, it is difficult by description to convey an idea of the appearance it presents. As seen approaching in the distance it resembles a vast opaque cloud, and as it advances a clattering noise is heard, which is occasioned by the agitation and concussion of wings in their close phalanxes. When they arrive they fill the air, like flakes of thick falling snow; and we have known the bright and clear sky of Chaldea become darker than that of London on some heavy November day. How far noise may really operate in preventing their descent in ordinary circumstances, it is not easy to ascertain; but on the approach of evening, or when exhausted by their journey, nothing can prevent them from alighting. They will then descend even on the seas and rivers, of which some striking instances are recorded. Wherever they alight, every vegetable substance disappears with inconceivable rapidity be- When a swarm has actually alighted, the means fore them. The most beautiful and highly culti-employed to drive them off are much the same as vated lands assume the appearance of a desert, those to prevent their descent. But this is never and the trees stand stripped of all their leaves as attempted in wet weather, or until the sun has abin the midst of winter. After devouring the fruits, sorbed the dew, as the locust is quite incapable of the herbage, and the leaves of trees, they attack flying while its wings are wet. When the swarm the buds and the bark, and do not even spare the is large, or when it has come down on cultivated thatch of the houses. The most poisonous, caus-grounds, no measure of destruction is practicable tic, or bitter plants, as well as the juicy and nutri- without sacrificing the produce; but when the detive, are equally consumed; and thus "the land is predators have been driven to waste grounds, or as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind happened in the first instance to descend upon them a desolate wilderness." It seems as if no-them, various modes of extirpation are resorted to, thing could appease their devouring hunger, and the energy and activity they exhibit, and the rapidity of their operations, almost exceed belief. Their depredations are not confined to the open air; they scale the walls, and penetrate to the granaries and houses. They swarm from the cellar to the garret, and, within doors and without, they are a terrible nuisance, for they are continually springing about, and often, in consequence, give a person startling raps on different parts of the face, affordingvery sensible evidence of the force with which they leap; and, as the mouth cannot be opened without the danger of receiving a locust, it is impossible to These insect devastators have fortunately a converse or eat with comfort. When they have great number of enemies. Birds, lizards, hogs, settled themselves at night, the ground is covered foxes, and even frogs, devour a great number; and with them to a vast extent; and, in some situations, a high wind, a cold rain, or a tempest, destroys they lie one above another several inches thick. In millions of them. In the East they are used as travelling, they are crushed beneath the feet of an article of food. In some parts they are dried the horses; and the animals are so terribly annoy- and pounded, and a sort of bread is made, which ed by the bouncing against them in all directions is of much utility in bad harvests. They are sold of the insects they have disturbed, that they snort as common eatables in the bazaar of Bagdad, and with alarm, and become unwilling to proceed. the cooks of the East have various ways of pre of which the following is most effective: a large trench is dug from three to four feet wide, and about the same depth; the off side is lined with people furnished with sticks and brooms, while others form a semi-circle, which encloses the extremities of the trench, and the troop of locusts, which are then driven into the grave intended for them by the clamorous noises we have already described. The party stationed on the other side push back such insects as attempt to escape at the edges, crush them with their sticks and brooms, and throw in the earth upon them. STABLE MANAGEMENT. It is not merely the living presence of these in-paring them for use.-Penny Magazine. sects which is terrible, but new calamities are occasioned by their death, when the decomposition of their bodies fills the air with pestilential miasma, occasioning epidemic maladies, the ravages of which are compared to those of the plague. Thus famine and death follow in their train; and instances are not of rare occurrence in the East, in which villages and whole districts have been depopulated by them. Notwithstanding that the cost of horses forms a prominent item in the farmer's outlay, there is frequently no part of his live-stock, nor any branch of his business, either so ill understood or so much neglected as stable management. Let any one look into the low-roofed, narrow, dark, and unstallUnder these circumstances it necessarily be-ed building in which teams are often huddled tocomes an object of anxious attention, in the coun-gether in some of the old homesteads, and the tries they are most accustomed to visit, either to prevent them from alighting on the cultivated grounds, or to drive them off or destroy them after they have descended. The impression is very general that noise frightens these insect devastators, and prevents them from alighting. When, therefore, the people are aware of the approach of their armies, every kettle or other noisy instrument in the place is in requisition, with which, and by shouts and screeches, men, women, and children, unite in the endeavor to make the most horrible din in their power. The scene would be truly laughable, from the earnestness which every one exhibits in this strange employment, were not all disposition to mirth checked by the consciousness of the fearful consequences of the invasion which it is thus endeavored to avert, fumes arising from stagnant urine lying upon the uneven pavement, as well as from accumulated heaps of fermenting litter, and he must be convinced that it is a place as noxious to health as the cobwebbed rafters, the unwhitewashed walls, and the confusion of the harness and utensils, show it to be devoid of neatness and order. Let him examine the horses, and he will find that, although perhaps sleek from good feeding, their coats are foul and their heels greasy. Instead of exhibiting the sprightly appearance indicated by animals that have been comfortably bedded, their heavy eyes and sluggish appearance distinctly mark the state of the stable they have quitted. But though this description is strictly applicable to many stables, it must yet be admitted that those on most farms of magnitude wear a very different appearance. A stable for farm-horses need not be trigged out like one for hunters; but it should be roomy, clean, should be paved with either clinkers or tableand well ventilated, and every thing belonging to stones, laid close and even, and well bedded under it should be kept in its proper place. Neither is it the foundation, as otherwise a portion of the urine necessary that it should be completely stalled: will be absorbed by the soil, and will emit a nauteam-cattle are generally quiet-if vicious, they seous and unwholesome exhalation. The floor should be got rid of. A pair of horses, worked should be slightly raised at the front of the stalls; together, will stand and feed together quite as con- but the slope should not exceed 3 inches, and that veniently as in separate stalls, if allowed sufficient should be provided for by raising the litter behind room, and two in one stall are more convenient to them, or they will stand in an uneasy position. the carter. Horses gather their feet under them; The doors would be more conveniently placed at and 5 feet, or 4 feet if the cattle be not large, is one end of the stable than in the side, as the dung sufficient width for the fore-quarter. A division will be more easily removed, and a free passage between each pair is, however, desirable; but a may be allowed to the urine by a gentle slant in strong post and rail will be sufficient, without close the gutter of the pavement at their feet, which boarding, provided a partition be made about four may then be conveniently carried off by a drain. feet long, and extending from thence upwards at Some very intelligent farmers keep their teams least the full depth of the manger, so as to inclose entirely in open yards, or hammels, surrounded both that and the rack. Horses, however, some- with well-littered sheds for them to run under at times acquire a habit of not lying down at all in pleasure; and experience has proved that, in this the stable, if they be not very conveniently lodged; manner, their health may be maintained as well, and as this cannot but prove highly prejudicial to if not better, than in stables. In the eastern distheir health, they should, in such cases, be accom-trict of Suffolk, horses are seldom permitted to remodated with roomy single stalls, or else turned main in the stable at night, but are turned out out under a loose shed. Double stables, in which when fed in the evening, by which treatment they horses stand heel to heel, are objectionable; and become hardy, and are neither subject to swelled hay is better when cut fresh daily from the stack, legs, nor to colds and inflammation.* Such a yard as well as more economically used, than when does for the whole year-for summer soiling and kept in lofts. Corner racks are preferable to those winter feeding-but it is attended with the inconwhich extend along the front; and if bars be nailed venience of exposing them to accidents when across the manger, at about a foot distance from many are thus together; neither can their food be each other, they will prevent the horses from so equally divided, nor can they be kept equally throwing out their food, which they are apt to do clean.† in search of the corn, when it is mixed with chaff, as well as when they have filled themselves. Every kind of food should also be administered in small quantities at a time: when manger-meat is given, and even when racked up for the night, the provender should be served out sparingly. A cart-horse, fed on dry food, will require from two to three hours to consume his morning feed; the men should therefore be early in the stable, and all food should be punctually given at stated hours. Regularity should also be observed in the hours of their work. A farm-horse can well support ten hours' labor in the day, provided he be not hurried, and the time be divided into two equal periods, with a rest of at least two or three hours between. In the short days of winter, when that cannot be allowed, the time may be prolonged to six or even seven hours, but ought never to extend beyond eight, with a short bait. Carters have the character of being proverbially thieves-not in the most nefarious sense-but they think it no harm to pilfer corn to pamper their teams: they have no idea of any better mode of feeding than to cram them to the utmost, and, if allowed the free use of hay, they will not only waste it, but, out of mistaken kindness, do the animals serious injury by overloading their stomachs. On every consideration, therefore, of health and economy, they should be allowanced. The chaff, as well as the corn, should be weighed or measured, and if hay be given in the racks, it should be bound, and given out in trusses: the expense of binding will be more than repaid by the saving in consumption. Marshall has justly observed in his Minutes of Agriculture, that, by stinting the quantity, the men become more careful; they look upon it as something, and know that, if they lavish to-day, they will want to-morrow; thus the servant learns frugality, while his cattle have their food regularly: he will give them a little at a time, and see that they eat it up clean. There is a sympathy between the human and the brute creation, arising from acquaintance, which is more easily observed than communicated. There are carters who would sooner starve themselves than their horses, and among stock-feeders in gene Care is also requisite in watering horses in the stable; and it should never be given either immediately before or after their corn, unless they first eat some hay. On the road they may be watered moderately, and then put gently into motion, instead of allowing them to stand at an ale-house door while the carter refreshes himself. Some persons imagine that hard spring-water is the most wholesome for cattle, but horses invariably preferral, it is obvious to common observation; though it soft. this kindness does not extend equally to the beFarm-stables are merely intended to protect the stowal of their labor, and, from habit, as well as cattle from the weather, for, being much exposed idleness, they are very generally neglectful of the to changes of the temperature, they should never essential duties of cleanliness. Much of this must, be kept hot; and, as fresh air is an essential ele-however, be attributed to their masters, who too ment of health, the windows should be merely latticed, like those in granaries, and two or three wooden funnels, according to the size of the stable, should be inserted from the ceiling through the roof, thus forming so many chimneys for the escape of foul vapor. The floors of all stables * Suffolk Report, p. 219; Oxfordshire do., p. 283. See also the plans of Cattle-sheds in the following chapter. From 5 lbs. to 6 lbs. of short-cut chaff, exclusive of corn, fill a bushel measure. commonly treat them as men not to be trusted, and suspicion naturally begets deceit. There is, consequently, but little sympathy existing between them; but when servants are used with kindness, they often return it with interest, and devote themselves with sincerity to the service of their employer. CLIMATE OF ENGLAND. In a paper recently published in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Mr. Knight says that he entertains no doubt whatever but that our winters are generally a good deal less severe than formerly,-our springs more cold and Condition is a word of large meaning in the ungenial, our summers, and particularly the latstable of a gentleman; in that of a farmer, whose ter parts of them, as warm, at least, as they forhorses should be kept more for work than for show,. In accounting for these changes, our author obmerly were, and our autumns considerably warmer. it should be understood to mean a sufficiency of wholesome food, evidenced by a healthy, mellow, sive tracts of ground, which were previously coserves, that within the last fifty years, very extenclean-skinned hide, without much fat, a lively vered with trees, have been cleared, and much eye, and a general appearance of health. Com-waste land has been inclosed and cultivated; and mon working horses require but little grooming; by means of drains and improvements in agriculyet their coats should be kept clear of scurt, and their feet should be well attended to. The rough ture, the water from the clouds has been more hair which encumbers their fetlocks is useful in the ground becomes more dry in the end of May rapidly carried off. From these circumstances, some countries as a protection against flints, but a than it was formerly, and it consequently absorbs much less quantity would serve that purpose, and when allowed to remain clogged with dirt, it engenders grease. Through a very unwise economy of some masters, the shoes, too, are seldom removed until they are either completely worn or broken, by which much injury is done to the hoof; their shoulders are galled by want of timely attention to the state of the collars; and time is continually lost by the breaking and patching of the harness. In all these cases prevention is better than cure; and, besides the established regulation of removing the dung and 'setting the stable fair' every morning, as well as seeing that each horse be thoroughly dry and clean, his feet washed, and occasionally oiled and stopped, before making up for the night,'-it would be a good rule to have a regular inspection of the cattle, harness, and implements, once every week, even were a portion of the Saturday evening's usual work devoted to that purpose. TEA PLANT. The warm au and retains much more of the warm summer rain this side the Channel. Supposing the ground to contain less water in the commencement of winter, on account of the operations of the drains and improvements before mentioned, more of the water afforded by dissolvNothing seems more extraordinary than that ing snows and cold rains in winter will necessarily be absorbed by it; and in the end of February, we should be dependent upon one country, and often upon the will of a capricious government, for however dry the ground may have been at the a production which may now be considered as a saturated with water; and as the influence of the winter solstice, it will almost always be found necessary of life in Great Britain. It does not ap- sun is as powerful on the last day of February as pear that the tea-plant is altogether the production of a low latitude. On the contrary, various spe-ature of the ground in the latter period which ocon the 15th of October, and it is the high tempercies of the Camellia of tea-plant seem to be culti-casions the difference of temperature in those opvated in China far to the north, and at considera ble elevations. Why, then, might not the tea-posite seasons, Mr. Knight thinks it cannot be plant be cultivated to an unlimited extent in Eu- doubted, that if the soil be rendered more cold by the absorption of water at nearly the freezing rope; or why might we not produce it in our numerous colonies, possessed of every variety of cli- temperature, the weather of the spring must be, to some extent, injuriously affected.-Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. mate? In Prince of Wales' Island it has been long introduced, and it is known that there is no difficulty whatever in raising it. In almost every part of Hindostan, therefore, the tea-plant could be grown. Nay, there is reason to believe that species of it might be grown in Great Britain as easily as some of our most common shrubs. It is said that the Camellia viridis, or green tea-plant, has been recently successfully planted by Mr. Rootsey, of Bristol, in a part of Breconshire, near the source of the Usk, about 1,000 feet above the level of the sea, and higher than the limits of the native woods, consisting of alder and birch. It endured the winter, and was not affected by the frost of the 7th of May, and it has now made several vigorous shoots,-Quart. Journ. Agric. From the Library of Useful Knowledge-Farmer's Series. A beast of draught throws forward as much of his own weight as enables him to overcome the weight, or equivalent resistance, that is behind him; and the more spirited the animal, with the more activity will he exert himself; but, the exertion being measured by its rapidity, velocity is labor in another shape, and though he may draw better for a short space than a heavier and slower animal, yet he will tire sooner: weight is, therefore, the steady power of heavy draught, and is a chief requisite in horses intended to be used on | length of life, which extends to that of double the tenacious soils. It is this which deprives mules of the power of heavy draught. They carry 20 stone of horseman's weight, and travel daily upwards of thirty miles through the mountainous cross-roads of the Spanish peninsula. Horses are incapable of such exertions under the pack; but their weight tells when opposed to a carriage with little muscular exertion, when the mule is forced to put forth his whole strength. Mules are sometimes produced by horses upon she-asses, but are more frequently the progeny of the jack-ass and the mare. The race is, however, in any shape, incapable of reproduction; for, although some rare exceptions to this rule are upon record, it yet seems to be a principle in nature, that all hybrid animals-as those are termed which are the offspring of distinct breeds-should be sterile. Mules are highly esteemed in most parts of the south as beasts of burden for either the pack or the saddle; but in this country they are chiefly used for draught. They are more hardy in constitution, more patient, and more muscular in proportion to their weight, than horses; they are also less subject to disease, and far longer lived, for they are commonly able to work during full thirty or even forty years. They are fed, too, at less expense; and, when in the hands of good masters, and treated with gentleness and humanity, the complaints commonly made of their restiveness are wholly destitute of foundation.* They answer well for hard roads, and for harrowing, because the land is then generally dry, and their feet, which are small, neither sink into the ground, nor are they met by the dead pull which they have to oppose in the plough. The cattle, as well as the implement with which they are worked, should be in fact, suited to the soil; and it would be equally incongruous to attempt the use of bullocks upon flinty land, as it would be to employ mules for the ploughing of wet and heavy clay. They have been long introduced into Ireland, and the breed has been much improved in the north by the importation of a Maltese ass, which is described as having been an animal of a very superior description. Wherever they have been regularly employed in this country their utility has been also admitted; but there is a prejudice against rearing them: farmers generally imagining that they are to obtain some notable animal out of any wretched mare, provided she be only covered by a sightly horse, and thence arise expectations we need not say how disappointed; whereas, had they the good sense to serve them with powerful stallionasses, something useful might be produced. In Spain, where great attention is paid to the breed of mules, there is a royal stud of stallion-asses maintained at Reynosa, in the Asturias. Were farmers thus to use the small class of mares commonly found upon the moors and mountains in many extensive districts, they would breed a far more valuable stock for their own immediate use, the intrinsic worth of which, for all the common purposes of labor, would soon increase its price. As to the objection arising out of the impossibility of continuing the breed from the same animals, the remark may be met by that of their greater Survey of Leicester, p. 294. Survey of the County of Antrim, p. 337. Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. length of the horse, and no deficiency of the stock is observable in those countries where they are commonly used in labor. It may not either be generally known that, when a mare has not stood her stinting when covered by a stallion, she will, notwithstanding, probably prove in foal if afterwards covered by an ass.* The appearance and manners of the domestic ass are so well known as to render any description unnecessary. The domesticated race is, however, of comparatively recent adoption in Europe, for we are told by Hollinshed that 'our lande did yield no asses in the time of Queene Elizabeth;' and, although in that he is wrong, for they are mentioned as having been used in this country at a much earlier period,-yet they were probably scarce, and they are even still but rarely seen throughout the north. Those known in England are an inferior kind, to which no attention has been ever paid; but there are various breeds of a superior species, which might be greatly improved by crossing. The wild ass of Persia, and of Africa,-of which a foal has been recently imported to London, and is now at the Surrey Zoological Gardens,-is known to be an animal of great speed and power. There is also a race of Arabian origin, which is chiefly used for the saddle; and those reared at the -a few of island of Gozo, in the Mediterranean,which have been brought to this country, as stallions for the production of mules,-have reached the height of fourteen hands, and have been sold for the sum of 100 guineas. Asses are surprisingly little employed by farmers, considering their use and economy, for they are supported by the worthless pickings of lanes and bye-ways, or the scanty refuse of other cattle; and yet they carry heavy loads, and might be made very serviceable in the supply of green food to stall-fed beasts and working stock, as well as in carrying off the weeds from fields when under the hoe; all which might be done with children as drivers, and panniers made to let the load down at bottom. The saving of food by weeding may not amount to much in a money calculation, though many herbs thus thrown away would be found palatable if gathered for cattle; but were these animals only employed to remove the weeds from the ground when hoed, it would be of great service, for at least one half of them strike root again after the first shower, and the remainder, if not eaten, is lost to the dung-heap, whereas that loss would be prevented were they raked up and collected. Their drivers also would be kept employed, which would be found very serviceable to the poor, not alone as an addition, however trifling, to their earnings, but as bringing them up in habits of industry, and as early initiating them into the care of domestic animals, by which their kindness and attention to brutes is found to be very much improved. This is so remarkable in France, Spain, and Switzerland, that sheep and oxen regularly follow their keepers to the field, instead of being driven; and the peasantry, being more accustomed in their childhood to attendance upon animals, in consequence of the general want of inclosures, soon learn to treat them with tenderness and familiarity, which is returned by the increased docility and the improved condition of their charge. * Complete Grazier, 5th edit., p. 192. |