248 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Mr. Allen. Col. garner is exactly right, as I know from 

 my own experience. I have bred fine stock for a good many 

 years, and I know it is not a safe thing to do. Every careful 

 breeder avoids it, who knows what the result will be. The 

 effect is this, — that impregnation from a scrub bull, of what- 

 ever breed, is ruinous to the after progeny of the cow. 



Dr. RiGGS. About fifteen years ago this same subject was 

 up in this Society, and I recollect stating at that time what I 

 had read in regard to an English experiment. A gentleman 

 there had a quagga, an animal resembling the zebra, with 

 stripes around his body. He was crossed on a mare and she 

 had colts that resembled very much the sire, with some of the 

 characteristics of the mare ; and every colt that she produced 

 after that had stripes around its body plainly and distinctly to 

 be seen, though the sire of the other colts was a horse. The 

 object was to test the thing. This matter is well understood 

 down South. A negro and a white woman produce, of course, 

 a cross-breed, and the woman after that, it is well understood 

 by the Southern people, never can have a pure white child. 

 Her children will all have the characteristics of the negro 

 blood in them. 



Question. Is it advisable for Connecticut farmers to raise 

 sorghum ? 



Mr. R. Powers, of Bolton. I have heard quite a number 

 of our farmers speak unfavorably of it, and some, who are 

 very enthusiastic over other crops, say, " No sorghum for 

 me." I look upon it just in this light : they don't know any- 

 thing about it, any more than people who are prejudiced 

 against the Storrs School. I undertook to raise it for the 

 first time last year, but I was not successful. I had so much 

 other business on hand that I did not attend to it in time, 

 and it did not mature ; I could not do anything with it, and 

 I condemned it. This year I was persuaded by my neighbors 

 to try a little, but I was rather opposed to it. My wife wanted 

 me to try some and urged me to do so, and she dropped the 

 seed and helped to plant it. I was vexed with myself after- 

 wards and said, " our corn crop is going to be short ; I wish 



