Old Jim Avery's own farrier and recipe book ... disclosing the whole secret ... of training and educating the horse ...

Front matter

v— O

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

OLD JIM AVERY'S

Preface

Good news for the horse-, joy and long life to him. Time at length has produced the discovery of an infallible remedy for the cure of Farcy and Glanders.

The anatomy of the horse is so little understood by a majority of those who have to care for and do with him, that the phrases used by most writers to designate the different parts thereof, or even a gland or muscle,* are as foreign to their purpose as it would be to call them Anno Domini; for they scarcely know whether they are reading about the horse or an Egyptian mummy. And in fact nothing short of a collegiate education, or a full course of lectures on the subject, will enable a person to comprehend the use of medicines by their names, any more than they can see the muscles by looking on a portrait painting of a Raphael or feel the warm breath of a sculptured marble of a Powers, or of a Michael Angelo.

In this little book I have endeavored to call things by their right names, and carefully avoided the use of all technical terms without giving their meaning. And I have so arranged the work and its index, that one has only to turn to any particular disease he may wish to look at to find the symptoms plainly laid down and the means of cure given, without reading the whole book to find what he wants to know.

* What, for instance, does the farmer understand by schirtus (an indurated gland), metacarpal, os suffraginis, sessamoid, os coranse, os naviculare, and os pedis, with the metatarsals, &c. (names of bones), unguintum hydrargyri fortis (blue ointment), semi-membrenoBis (a muscle of the leg), aorta molica magna (an artery), extensor carpiverdealis longior (a muscle).

IV PREFACE.

What we want is to bring the horse up to his utmost capabilities by the cheapest, most natural and inartificial means that we are capable of arriving at. In time the things of earth fade and decay, and they may as well be worn out as to rust out.

The artificial life that the domesticated horse is compelled to lead, subjects him to various diseases that he would not be liable to in a wild or natural state; and the only remuneration he asks at our hands for his services (and which is our duty to reciprocate), is to make up to him what he lost by his subjugation to man.

" With a very beneficial result, the rod has been banished from our public schools, the cat-o'-nine tails from our army and navy, flagellation and chains from our lunatic asylums. 11 Hence we see the benefit to be derived from extending the law of kindness to our animals as well as to one another. And I should be right glad to see it tried (as it never has been yet), on a grand scale which must result in universal satisfaction to man as well as the horse.

My friend has written the biography, and I have consented to its publication, further I have not a word to say, it speaks for itself.

The words to be found in the preceding note are all proper and useful terms to the scholar who has been fortunate enough to be able to understand their meaning, but they are a dead language to all others, who, I think, will agree with me in saying that the true philosophy of practice is founded upon the laws of nature, and the theory of disease upon the principles that those laws teach us, and then our materia medica will be the boundless forest.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, BY A FRIEND.

In the beginning of the year 1795, Bilious Avery removed from Wallingford, Ct. (being then twenty-two years of age), to the town of Salisbury, in the county of Herkimer, N. Y. After clearing a small piece of ground and building a log house, he returned, in the fall of the same year, to his native state and birth place. In June of the next year (1796) he married Esther Hall Street, and returned to his new home, then almost surrounded by a dense forest for many miles around. But very few had settled in this part of the county before them.* Thus they became early inured to the hardships of settling a new country, and helped change the wilderness into those cultivated and fruitful fields which we now enjoy.

As a natural result, from this union there grew up nine sons and two daughters. Although the advantages

* More than half a century has passed since the town was first settled. It now contains nearly three thousand souls; and still there remain over forty thousand acres of unbroken wilderness within its borders. It has probably furnished as many well-to-do farmers as any other town in the county.

b BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

for gaining an education in those days were far from what they now are, yet they succeeded well in mastering the common branches, and fitting themselves for the important stations in life which they afterwards held.

James (who has since been called Old Jim), the subject of this biography, was born November 18th, 1809, being the sixth son, or eighth one of this family of eleven. The sequel of this man's history discloses several things touching peculiar traits of character and habits of life, that may be read with pleasure and profit by both the youth and parents of our land.

Higher^ with him, was ever a word of noble meaning, " the inspiration to all great deeds; the sympathetic chain that leads, lipk by link, the impassioned soul to its zenith of glory; and which still holds its mysterious object standing and glittering among the stars."

As the impressions made upon the mind in childhood are very lasting, and have considerable influence in forming one's character in after life, perhaps it will not be amiss to state here one that was deeply felt by him in early life. We paint our lives in fresco, and the soft and facile plaster of the moment hardens under every stroke of the brush into eternal rock.

He, as a matter of course in the early part of his life, was brought up under church rule (his parents being Presbyterians, as were a majority of the New England emigrants who came to this state in former days), and, as soon as his infant tongue was able to lisp the Lord's prayer, he was taught to repeat it every night on going to bed, by his Christian mother. This was well, for it had a lasting and beneficial influence upon his mind. The next thing brought to bear upon his mind was the old fashioned catechism and the lessons taught in the Sunday school, where he learned to read tolerably well for a boy of his age. Being naturally fond of reading, he was at this early age taught to read, as well as to believe, the Bible. He was promised a handsome new book if he would read the Bible through: he did so, and was then told the New Testament was meant to be included in the task. He then went through with that also, using the daytime and a good portion of the night to accomplish his purpose. He was finally persuaded, by renewed promises, to read both the Old and New Testaments through, and then the New Testament again, making twice he read the Old Testament, and the New three times, and all this before he was nine years old.

And if you should ask him if he ever got the new book promised him for all this labor, his answer would be, no. This was truly discouraging and detrimental to his education; but which of the two was most injurious to him, the promise not being kept, or over-taxing the mind with this reading, I am not able to say; at any rate neither promises nor books were valued very high by him for some ten years at least, for always after this, while at school, he liked sport better than books, and would have it by exciting his schoolmates to laughter in some way or other, even though it cost him an occasional flogging.

Thus life bore him on like the stream of a mighty river. His little boat* being once launched, it first glides

* See verse at the close of Hints to Purchasers.

along the narrow channel, beside the playful murmurings of the little brook, and the windings of its grassy borders, with nothing to guide its course, except the first lessons taught him by a mother, the trees shedding their blossoms over his young head, and the flowers of the brink seeming to offer themselves to his hands, he was happy with hope, and grasped eagerly at the beauties around him. But the stream hurries him on, and still his hands are found empty. But not so with the mind; it is this which gives beauty to the rose, throws sublimity around the mountain and the comet, envelopes the cascade with beauty, and the heavens with grandeur. And in proportion to the mind's breadth and depth, the store of information it possesses, and the accumulation and scope of ideas, so are the loftiness and intensity of its enjoyments. But his course through youth and manhood has been along a wider and deeper flood, amid objects more striking and magnificent.

He seemed early to realize the circumstances that surrounded him, and was fully impressed with the idea that he must be the artificer of his own fame and fortune, and that success could only be looked for through his own exertions.

While yet a schoolboy, he made himself a book (not the one previously promised him) of clean white paper, in which he daily wrote .such words and sentences as he happened to hear fall from the lips of others, which he thought contained any moral or beautiful language, that might be of use to him in after life. This was followed after he had ceased going to school, by keeping a record of the weather, and, to him, all important events, where he was, what he did each day, and ending, after about thirty years, in keeping an account of the number of horses he had owned, together with the diseases they had been troubled with, and the means of cure employed by him and others. And this was accompanied, the greater part of the time, by the most industrial habits of his hands, working almost incessantly on his farm or elsewhere, being second to none in this respect according to his physical strength. Thus he became a very useful citizen as well as benefactor, and was endeared to his family for producing his full share of the necessaries of life by his own hands.

" Alike to him is time or tide,

Alike to him is tide or time,

Being animated by the moving picture of enjoyment and industry, he thus passed along (as in his school-boy days) until he is brought to reflect more seriously upon choosing some occupation for the future that would be congenial to his mind, when one day he chanced to pick up a copy of the first volume of Judge Buel's Cultivator, published at Albany, N. Y., which he became very much interested in, and he soon learned to appreciate its usefulness while reading it very attentively with both pleasure and profit; after which he was not long in making up his mind what course to pursue for a livelihood.

Being intensely fond, from youth, of the horse, therefore the study of it in health and disease would be just the occupation in life to afford ample opportunity to satisfy Lis grow ing desires in this respect, as the horse would be brought into requisition in almost all his industrial pursuits, as well as the breeding, raising and training of this useful animal (which is one of the greatest gifts from God to man) could be turned to profitable account, while the whole labor and care would be attended with unbounded pleasure.

Thus he was borne along the stream of life, being sometimes excited by some short-lived disappointment, until he had gained a competency (for the time being), when his past joys and griefs were alike left far behind. But as he gradually arose in the scale of society, he discovered that he was slighted by those who thought themselves his superiors (which might have been true in artificial acquirements, but not in original strength of mind). Feeling deeply chagrined at this unloooked for conduct in those who ought to have been his friends, he resolved to outstrip them in usefulness by applying his mind to reading and study, for the double purpose of acquiring knowledge and avenging himself on those who had thus offended him. This was a noble resolution of a noble mind, and one, too, that was well kept.

His great love for reading and learning was now fairly rekindled anew (as he used to say he might be shipwrecked but could not be delayed, whether the sea was rough or smooth), while a portion of his time at least, w r as spent in reading the news of the day and other useful matter; and being naturally fond of the horse, he did not fail to read every thing on this subject that he could lay his hands on, as well as to throw on paper every new idea that occurred to him, which is a commendable habit for all young men to imitate, on this or any other subject of importance. He is one of those men who prefer to acquire by rough experience, what others might choose to be taught. And he generally chooses to be governed by the result of his own experience and reflections rather than hazard a novel experiment, controlled by sudden excitement. Although it requires but a moment's reflection to bring him to a position he deems it his duty as a citizen to occupy, yet he always considers the sober second thought the safest to act upon in all great measures or circumstances in life. He possessed a vitality, a moral vigor, that resisted the enervating influences around him. The early principles of piety (though he did not always follow its impulse), instilled into his heart by his strong minded mother, did help to form a basis of rock to his character in after life, which the winds of temptation in vain assailed and beset on every side, in almost its worst forms, and not the Jess dangerous because lurking in flowery ambush. His gratitude toward his benefactors was constant, and only equaled by his affection for them.

The reader will readily perceive by this time that his life has been a somewhat chequered one; and he will please have the goodness to remember that a smooth sea never makes a skillful mariner; neither does uninterrupted prosperity and success in life qualify a man for usefulness or happiness. The storms of adversity, like the storms of the ocean, arouse the faculties, excite the invention, prudence, skill and fortitude of the voyager.

" The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and heroism, worth a life of ease and security."

But the river hastens his little boat towards its goal. Thus he sails along through some twenty years of his life, in almost uninterrupted peace and usefulness; and whatever his faults might have been, they were regarded only as the common frailties of mankind. For he always chose to be right rather than be popular; or, in other words, he was unwilling to sacrifice principle for expediency. Those who were acquainted with him through this part of his journey, speak of him as being kind and generous almost to a fault; to whom an appeal for sympathy or relief, was sure to find a ready and cheerful response. And whatever his mind seemed to lack of wit and fancy, was owing to a want of an early polish; but without this and the adventitious aid of fortune (only what was acquired by his industrious pursuits on his farm), he gained a place in society that was worthy of any man. He accomplished this by the force of a strong native intellect, cultivated and improved by application to study in hours of relaxation from work, and which was further strengthened by the closest observation based on a sound judgment. Therefore he may well be styled what is called a " self made man."

His little boat has brought him now w T here the roar of the ocean is in his ears. It seems to grow in size as the waters expand. As his wants increase, he has to throw out more sail or be shipwrecked; and when he thinks himself sufficiently rigged for the coasting trade, and fairly launched on the ocean of life, he engages in speculation, thinking it might be more remunerative than his farmer labors. But he has often strove to accumulate money for the pleasure it gave him in doing so, as from necessity, though he may sometimes have been straightened to obtain a sufficient sum to meet his present demands. He generally, however, contrived some way to take on board enough ballast to counterbalance the sail he gave to the barge.

For a time he was very successful in his new occupation, when he came very near losing all, which was accomplished by a trio of black-coated villains, assisted by one of the legal profession, whose heart was blacker than his coat. This put a damper on his operations for the time being, it is true, but his ever hopeful heart was not to be crushed out in this way. Nor could he be induced to join these scamps for the sake of repairing his fortune (as offers were made him to this effect), but he did not despair. He never hoisted the black flag in his life, but left the work of repentance and punishment to whom it belonged. He only had to fallback to his former pursuits of industry and economy, to soon wipe out his indebtedness brought about by the heartless scoundrels, and preserve his integrity, which was never questioned by those who knew him best.

He was temperate in prosperity, resolute and untiring in adversity, which, to say the least, is a part of a great mind. By thus squaring the yards and bracing the sails (as he soon learned to do) of his little boat, that he first started with down the grassy borders of the little stream, it has at length grown to a middle sized ship, compared 2 with the surrounding sail on the ocean of life, where the storms and waves are tossing us about. And he has been able to steer his craft thus far through life's meanderings, and to adhere firmly to the first principles of virtue taught him in youth, which ever appear like stars in the jfirmament, or like a bright ornament among the rubies that make life pleasant and beautiful.

Thus he has occupied a place in the great hive of human industry, content with study, and producing the sweets of peace and innocent, pleasure by the sweat of the brow. He possessed a mind that, with the advantages of an early education, and aided by encouragement from family connection or friends, might have raised him still to a higher sphere of usefulness.

" All superiority and pre-eminence that one man can have over another, may be reduced to the notion of quality;" which, considered at large, is either that of fortune, body or mind. The first of these is that which consists in birth, titles, or riches; and it is the most foreign to our natures, and what we can the least call our own of the three qualities named. In relation to the body, quality arises from health, strength or beauty, which is nearer to us, and more a part of ourselves than the former. Quality of mind has for its source, knowledge and virtue. It is more essential to and more intimately united with us, than either of the other two. Every one knows that there are moments, nay, hours of moral weakness, when the soul quails before its inevitable portion — when the gloom of some terrible dread shuts out every ray of hope, and a courage almost superhuman is needed to endure and brave the trial. He used to say the best way was as good as any. And he never failed to meet bravely the trials, the unavoidable trials of life, after withdrawing from the noise and clamor of a busy world for a time sufficient for repose and reflection, when he always came forth with brightened hope and renewed vigor, which enabled him to confront the dangers of the world and brave the trials of life with fortitude, for, if he ever was ensnared it was while acting under the impulse of the moment. But there are weak souls to whom the hour of triumph never comes. Some of these the grave early claims, and they fade from out the memory that should have cherished them. Others rush to a source of artificial strength, too ignorant or too heedless of consequences to give heed to the voice of kindly remonstrance, which much be followed by a deeper depth of weakness and moral cowardice.

We can give the outlines of one's character and quality of mind as far as we become acquainted with them, and still there is something wanting. Every one, while reading the life and acts of another, has a desire to know how he looks, which can be satisfied better by viewing his portrait than I can do it with the pen. But this much I can say for him: his physical qualities are worthy of the mind and heart that animates them. He stands about five feet eight inches in height; his frame is strong, muscular, but admirably proportioned, while his head is massive, the forehead being high and broad, exhibiting what phrenologists call the organs of ideality, causality, benevolence and veneration in full development. He has a clear, blue and expressive eye, brown hair, the mouth firm but not compressed, and chin round and finished when shaved so that one can see it. In a word, a union of intellectual, benevolent and fearless expression, with good deportment, and about one hundred and eighty-five pounds as an average weighs make him rather a prepossessing figure to look at.

In youth he was remarkably spry. His frowns and gestures were such, when the lion within was aroused by ill-treatment, that but few men cared to cross his path a second time. But this has been overbalanced since by cultivation of the mind and learning to govern his passions, though he, like most of his race, is unwilling to brook an insult without a proper resentment. We always find in those possessed of the finer feelings 'of our nature, the opposite qualities of mind, especially when harrowed up to a pitch that is no longer endurable; for, without this principle we would be but little elevated above the brute creation.

In order to do him justice, as well as the public, touching his knowledge of the horse, and capacity to govern him, it will be necessary to go back some forty years at least, for even in boyhood he is said to have exhibited an intense fondness for horses, and remarkable aptitude for breaking and training them after the old fashioned way; and when but a lad of some dozen years, he would drive or ride horses which had foiled their masters; and I have known him many a time when on the road in company with others whose horses bothered them so they could not make them straighten their traces in some bad place, or up a hill, when, after driving his own safely

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

over, he would go back and drive theirs over or up, as the case might be, by only taking the reins in his hands and talking to them; for, if the whip had not already been worn up on them, he would lay it aside and be careful not to let them see it. And sometimes, when he found it necessary, he might be seen on the back of one, perhaps whistling while they were drawing the load along.

He was the plow-boy at home, and was allowed to do most of the team work, for he always managed the horses well, and did the work up in a farmer-like manner. He chose to go with the team rather than do anything else, as this afforded him all the sport he needed, aside from the work there was to be done. I well recollect dining at his father's house shortly after he had visited a circus. The family were in waiting for him, when they were startled by seeing the horses he had been plowing with coming at the top of their speed some fifty rods distant, and young Jim (not yet old Jim) standing straight up with a foot on the back of each. As the horses reached the stable, to the joy of his mother and others who witnessed the feat, he leaped from off their backs unhurt, and, what was more astonishing to behold, there was nothing on either horse save the bare halters, the ends of which he held in one hand as they were drawn up between the necks of the horses.

I cannot forbear relating another feat of his to which I was an eye-witness, and which I deem worthy of note for its highly amusing character. It goes to show that he possessed remarkable powers of imitation, combined with great muscular activity. This occurred in his youthful days, and shortly after he had been to see a wiredancer and tumbler perform some of his herculean feats on the slack wire, such as going through the sword exercise, snuffing the candle against the wall with the point of his sword, &c. The boys had procured a bed cord and had it strung from beam to girt of the barn and coming down near the floor in the centre. After taking the stretch well out of it, he learned to walk, as well as to lay down and get up again, while swinging as far as the sides of the barn would allow. This brought several of the little neighbors to the barn to see and participate in the play. On one of these occasions, after quite a number of them had congregated, I walked in with several friends to see the sport. Jim, being the champion (as he thought) on the slack rope, without much urging, took his father's swingle knife in his hand for a sword, and mounted cavalry, as he called it. After going through many surprising feats, to the delight and surprise of all present, he next came to the sword exercise, which he performed with great dexterity, mimicking him of the circus in many of his evolutions and drolleries, by balancing it on his chin, twirling it on his thumb, &c. Then came the snuffing of the candle, which was only a wisp of straw one of the boys had tucked up in a crack of the door as a substitute. Jim, after brandishing the swingle knife over his head so as to prepare to cut twice with one motion, as he said, walked towards the candle, making one fell swoop of a blow at it, while at the same time the rope flew out from under his feet, laying Jim, neck and heels, on the opposite side of the barn floor, and sending the old swingle knife over the big beam on the hay mow. When he picked himself up and got through scratching his head, he said that was nothing but a windfall, but he believed he had cut three times instead of twice. However that may be, I think he has not gone through the sword exercise from that day to this. Thus ended that day's performance in a roar of laughter.

At another time, while calling on him at his farm some years afterwards, I was surprised on viewing his stock of young horses. He showed me eight splendid three year old colts, two two year old, besides the working team and a sucking colt and its dam. These he seemed to almost idolize; and it was pleasing, indeed, to see how fond they appeared to be of him, while they all appeared to know their respective names as well as so many boys would. He had Texas, Sampson, Charley, Petona, Snap, Sidney, Donkey, Minx, Flora, Black Hawk, &c, &c, all of which he raised from colts. They would come to him from as far off as they could hear him whistle, and when approaching at the top of their speed, they put one in mind of a caravan crossing the sandy deserts of Arabia.

He always seemed to be very successful in governing the horse under almost any circumstances; and he has passed through several hair-breadth escapes unhurt, owing to his great presence of mind, and capacity to control the feelings of the horse in moments of danger — once in particular, in attempting to ford the West Canada creek where the bridge had been carried away by a freshet. But after he became acquainted with the more humane system of treatment, which he discovered in part himself, he practiced with improved success, both in training and charming the horse (as it is called), in learning it to perform tricks, in obtaining perfect control over its passions, intellect, &c. He breaks the horse to suit his own fancy, whatever that may happen to be, whether it is to step or stand at the word, or any other given signal.