Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/340

308&#93; from this uniformly well-dressed piece he selected three rods of equal quality with the rest, and manured them with bones broken very small, at the rate of sixty bushels per acre. Upon the land thus managed, the crop was infi- nitely superior to the rest. The next year's grass was also more luxuriant, and has continued to preserve the same superiority for at least eight years, insomuch that in spring it is green three weeks before the rest of the field. He also dressed two acres with bones, in two different fields prepared for turnips, at sixty bushels to the acre, and found the crops incom- parably more productive than the others managed in the common way. Upon grass-lands, he ob- served, that this kind of manure exerts its influence more power- fully in the second year than in the first. For whatever soil it be intended, the bones should be well broken, before they can be equally spread upon the land. No pieces should exceed the size of small marbles. To perform this neces- sary operation, he recommends the bones to be sufficiently bruised, by putting them under a circular stone which, being moved round upon its edge, by means of a horse, in the manner tanners grind their bark, will very expeditiously effect the purpose. Some people break them with small hammers upon a piece of iron, but that method is inferior to grinding. Al- though bones of all kinds may be used with advantage, yet those of fat cattle are doubtless the best; but unground bones should never be employed, as they are of little or no service to the soil. A. St. Leger has also found it very beneficial to mix. ashes with the bones : a cart-load of the for- mer being put to thirty or forty bushels of the latter, and heated for twenty-four hours (which may be known by the smoking of the heap), the whole should be turned. After lying ten days longer, this excellent manure will be fit for use. Lastly, Dr. Hunter remarks, that the best method of grinding bones, is that between two cast metal cylinders. And as mills are very rarely erected purposely for this operation, the apparatus may be added (o any common water-mill, at a very trifling expence. BONE-SPAVIN, is a bony ex- crescence, or hard swelling, on the inside of a horse's leg. A spavin, which begins on the lower part of the hock, is not so dangerous as that which grows higher, between the two round processes of the leg- bone ; and that which appears near the edge, is less injurious than if it were situated more towards the middle and inwards, where it would, in a greater degree, im- pede the bending of the knee. A swelling occasioned by a kick or blow, is not at first the true spavin, nor so dangerous as when it proceeds from a natural cause ; and that which grows on the leg of a colt, is not so inveterate as that of a horse come to maturity. In old horses, the spavin generally is in- curable.

The usual method of treating this disease is, by blisters, and the actual cautery. When a fullness on the fore part of the hock is occasioned bv hard riding, or any other violence, cooling and repell- ing applications are proper, as in- the case of bruises or strains. Among the various prescriptions for the blistering ointment, the fol- lowing, by Mr., is prefer-