Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 180, 9 August 1909, Page 3

Farm and Garden

CURIOUS PLOUGHING CUSTOMS. Ploughing operations in Eriglam: do not commence as a rule tii! :":r.-:t Menday after Twelfth Day in January, an-: for chat reason it is known a:-: Plough Monday. For centuries the formal inauguration of the ploughing season has taken place on this day and even now its quaint observances are kept up in some parts of the world. Before our pious ancestors would begin to cultivate the ground, in Catholic times, they would attend a special service for tbe dedication of the plough. At this service the ploughman kept lights burning before certain images in churches, to obtain a blessing upon their work. And they were accustomed, on this day, to go about in procession, gathering money for the support of these "plough lights," as they were called. Plough Feasts and Fools. After the Reformation tbe religious form of the festival changed. The peasantry used V> arrange big processions to collect money, which was afterwards spent in conviviality in the public house. It assumed quite a gay affair. A ploughman used to dress himself up with ribbons and other gaudy decorations, as tbe "Fool Plough." Thirty or forty companions wearing their shirts over their jackets and their shoulders ablaze with ribbons to draw tbe plough through the village, preceeded by one of their number in the dr«>ss of an old woman, nicknamed Bessy. Any one who refused to contirbute to the funds had their gardens ploughed up. All the demonstrators would go through the village with dancing and singing. The whole scene was one of excited merriment.

Except a few local intances these quaint observances have passed away, their place being taken by the more serious occupation of ploughing competition. In the North of England and in Scotland these contests are very popular. In Yorkshire it is customary for the neighbouring farmers to welcome a new comer on Plough Monday by bringing all their horses and farming implements to help him to get his land in onrder.

CRACKED HEELS IN HOSRE3. The first indication of cracked heel h that the horse will be noticed a little stiff in the morning coming out of the stable. This stiffness soon goes off, but next morning the swollen and tender heel indicates that tbe horse moves with difficulty. It is at this stage that a poultice is invaluable, but the majority of stablemen will ask for an ointment —the least desirable form of medicament in cracked heels. The inexperienced will do well to bear in mind the fact that a horse's skin is much more easily scalded than their own and not use a poull ice or clean water hotter than they can comfortably bear the naked elbow in. An ounce of powdered charcoal in a poultice of equal parts of scalded bread and turnips or other roots, is a good one, or half bran and linseed meal; but not bread alone as it goes bad, unless an antiseptic is first put in. The desired result will generally be obtained by twenty four hours of poulticing, and it should not be carried too far, or it leaver the skin and coronet debilitated and non-resistant to cold.

A crack or breach in the skin of the heel is left open after the poultice, and the heeling up of this is a good test of the amateure doctor's skill. Nearly every one will succeed too well, if such a contradiction be allowed. He will apply bluestnoe or other drying stuff that will cause the edges to unite in a single day, and break open again in ten minutes after the horse goes ot work. The union is not a satisfactory one, and should take longer to repair, and with more durable material.

If a mild astringent like alum is used> or sulphate of zinc with flour, one part of either of the former to five of the latter, as a dusting powder, the heel may be protected as well as healed. Better than either is a ten per cent, glycerine lotion to which one per cent, of chloride of zinc has been added. This is supposing that ordinary weather prevails, and that the animal is kept at work. Inflamed heels that parch up after an attack may need some simple ointment like calamine. with ten drops of carbolic acid to theounce; but the greater number are disposed to be quite otherwise, and a real greasy heel often dates iron; a chapped or cracked one improperly treated or neglected at the time. On the old principle of "shutting the stable door after the horse is stolen," all sorts of strainers have hee:: invented to take dirt out ot m:m alter it has got through vary us means, including carele-s. ui.tiey mi.eing, uir ty. dusty stai !■■.-•, dirty -,v.. ete. What we r.eed to aim at :s ;. system which prevent- its getting ::.. docile temperan.•■:.!. V, r.< n t:.ey no times she is milked determines, in a large measure, whether she is going to enjoy the operation. The kicking cow is not born —she is made that way by the milker.