California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



i^u f,fivta 



She flavor* 



Horses for Farm Use. 



.1^. 



jisALF the secret of doing good work lies 

 nj''! in having good tools to do it with. In 

 jHl like manner the team which a farmer 

 ^Z/ works has as much as aught else to do 

 4^9 with his success or failure in farming. 

 Our modern methods of farm mauaorement 

 lessen the use of horses on one side by em- 

 ploying steam wherever practicable; but they 

 immensely increase it ou the other side by 

 substituting horse-labor for that of men. 

 Improved mowers and reapers for securing 

 the hay and grain crops; improved cultivators 

 nearly superseding the use of the hoe in cul- 

 tivated crops, are the order of the day. It is 

 no wonder that farmers are beginning to take 

 decided interest in the horse business — not 

 always in trotters for the race-course, but es- 

 pecially in good, strong-limbed and fast-walk- 

 ers for the plow, the cultivator, the rake and 

 the reaper. The higher price farmers have to 

 pa3' for hired help makes it doubly important 

 that it should not be neutralized either by in- 

 ferior implements or teams. With some 

 horses, six to seven acres a day is all that can 

 be reajjed or mown; while with others, twelve 

 to fifteen acres are just as easily accomplished. 

 It is discouraging to a farmer, and equally so 

 to his hired man, to work hard all day and 

 accomplish little through the inefficiency of 

 his team. Work soon gets behind hand, and 

 it costs twice as much, often more, to do work 

 three weeks too late as to do it at the proper 

 time. 



What kind of horses do farmers want? This 

 subject is a broad one. Most attention has 

 been paid to the trotting and racing breeds; 

 but these evidently are not the horses for av- 

 erage farmers. What they want is a horse 

 strong enough for any kind of farm woi-k, of 

 good constitution, easily kept, and one that 

 will readily learn a fast walk for ordinary farm 

 work. The old Monroe County Agricultural 

 Society, now the Western New York, did a 

 good thing years ago in oftering premiums for 

 fast walking horses. There is no excitement 

 in these trials of walking speed, but we opine 

 that such premiums do more for the farmer 

 than wbat Jo^h Billings calls the "purely ag- 

 ricultural boss trot." 



In our judgment, the Percheron horse, or 

 some other strain of the Norman French 

 breeds, makes the best basis for breeding a 

 hardy, active and always healthy farm horse. 

 In some sections these French horses have at^ 

 tained considerable popularity under the name 

 of "Samsons," sometimes called "English 

 Samsons," though the basis of the breed is 

 rarely English. Their peculiarities are short 

 legs, souud feet and heavy bodies in propor- 

 tion to their size. The English or Scotch 

 "Clydesdale" breed is generally too large- 

 bodied, and too "loguey" to cross on our na- 

 tive mares. Possibly better results would be 

 secured by taking Clydesdale mares and breed- 

 ing with some of the heavier classes of Amer- 

 i.au trotters. Theoretically, this should give 

 all the strength and body required, with suf- 

 ficient action and speed for all practical pur- 

 poses. 



A team weighing 2,100 to 2,230 pounds, 

 clo.sely built and well kept, will do the bulk of 

 work on a hundred acre farm, as we know by 

 experience. If more team help is needed get 

 S'une more horses as nearly like them as pos- 

 sible rather than strive to get horses of un- 

 natural size and proportions. — Hural Mto 

 Yorker. 



Horse-Racing at the State Fairs. 



Among the abuses to which the State of 

 California has become accustomed, is that 

 which devotes large amounts for the encour- 

 agement of horse-racing at the State's annual 

 Agricultural fair. We have no objection, 

 whatever, to any reasonable encouragement 

 of the breeding of good horses. And that 



horse-racing is one of the ways of encourage- 

 ment for the improvement of racing stock, 

 there can be no doubt. But does the hope of 

 \vinniug the stakes materially aid in the cul- 

 tivation and breeding of good stock, such aa 

 the great majority of the people use, or have 

 need of? We doubt it. It is the race-horse 

 and fast trotter for which the stakes are of- 

 fered, and it is the horse-jockey for whose 

 benefit you and I, reader, are taxed to make 

 up the stakes which go into his pocket. When 

 the State, through its Legislature, offers pre- 

 miums, or racing stakes, it is simply made a 

 party to the violation of its own laws against 

 gambling; for horse-racing is just as much 

 gambling as is the betting at faro, monte or 

 any other gambling game. Call it what you 

 will, it is gambling, nothing less. So that 

 while the State passes laws inflicting heavy 

 penalties for playing games of chance, which 

 it calls gambling, it offers large sums for the 

 encouragement of gambling in another form, 

 in which the horse is used instead of Ihe 

 cards, and the jockey takes the place of the 

 dealer. 



Manipulate the question as you please, 

 plead improvement of stock, and all the rest 

 of the flams used as arguments, it amounts to 

 this: the State offers rewards for breaking its 

 own laws; it encourages horse-race gambling 

 at the expense of all its taxpayers. The 

 horse-race calls together the gamblers particu- 

 larly. It encourages betting, gambling, tur- 

 bulence, a desire to obtain money without 

 having rendered any consideration for it; and 

 the race-course and the stand become the 

 gambling hell out-doors of the gambling fra- 

 ternity. And you and I, aud every man who 

 pays taxes, is assessed that the horse-jockey 

 may win our money. 



While the State does this, it takes away 

 from our citizens who give their monej' and 

 a portion of their time to military affairs, the 

 miserable pittance formerly allowed them in 

 part liquidation of their necessary expenses 

 for Armories aud other indispensable needs. 

 How much better would it be to divert the 

 money thrown away, and worse than that, in 

 the encouragement of horse-racing aud horse- 

 gambling, and bestow it upon our public- 

 spirited men, who, m times of peace prepare 

 themselves for war, in accord with the advice 

 of Washington. In the one case the money 

 put up for the jockey to win, as the gambler 

 wins on the turn of a card. In the other it 

 would be given to men making themselves 

 competent to defend the country against a 

 fareign foe, or domestic violence. Abohsh 

 the premium on horse-racing bestow it upon 

 the military. — Alta, June 14. 



Horned Cattle at the International 

 Exhibition. 



The Centennial Commission proposes to 

 adopt a scale to regulate the respective num- 

 bers of each bi-eed of neat or horned cattle to 

 be entered for competition. 



It is assumed at 700 head will cover all de- 

 sirable entries; and upon that basis will be 

 calculated the number of stalls which will be 

 apportioned each breed. 



The scale divides the aggregate number into 

 ten parts, and of these, four-tenth C-t-lO) are 

 assigned to Short-horns, two-tenths (2-10) to 

 Channel Islands, one-tenth (1-10) to Devons, 

 one-tenth, (1-10) to Holsteins, one-tenth 

 (1-10) to A}Tshires, and one-tenth (1-10) to 

 animals of other pure breeds. 



The exhibition in each breed will compre- 

 hend animals of various ages, as well as of 

 both sexes. Draft and fat cattle will be ad- 

 mitted irrespective of breed. 



The exhibition of horned cattle will open 

 September 20th, 187G, and continue fifteen 

 days. 



It is desirable that all persons who con- 

 template exhibiting, will make application for 

 stalls without delay, and if necessary at a 

 later day such applications can be amended. 



Inquiries may be addressed to the Chief of 

 the Bureau of Agriculture, International Ex- 

 hibition, Philadelphia. 



|?bcicultuvc. 



The Growth of Salmon. 



HISTORY of the growth of the salmon 

 from the small ova or eggs, may be in- 

 teresting in this place. Each adult 

 female salmon lays from 800 to 1,000 

 eggs to every pound of her weight. In 

 their healthy condition, the eggs are generally 

 of a pinky or amber color, with opalescent 

 hues, semi-transparent, and exceedingly pretty 

 in their effect. Sometimes, however, the 

 eggs are very pale— nearly white in color; 

 others, again, are of a bright coral red; but 

 all that have a peculiar transparent iridescent 

 hue are unmistakably healthy eggs. A t(Uigh, 

 horny membrane is the "shell" which holds 

 the embryo sahnon and preserves it from in- 

 jury. This external shell is exceedingly 

 elastic; an egg dropjMid on the floor will re- 

 bound like an India rubber ball. 



For a month or so no change is apparent 

 in the healthy egg, as it lies in its bud of 

 gravel in the running stream where it has 

 been deposited by the mother, with the tem- 

 perature or the water at about 4.5 degrees. 

 The eyes of the fish appear in forty or fifty 

 days; these may be perceived as two small, 

 black specks; and in another three or four 

 days a faint red line is apparent, running 

 round the interior of one side of the egg, and 

 in the centre a small red globule appears. 

 The "thin red line" represents the vertebraro 

 of the fish, just forming; aud the red globule 

 is a minute quantity of oil, which is destined 

 to be absorbed by the fish after it comes out 

 of the shell. 



Gradually the faint indications of life within 

 the semi-transparent shell become more 

 marked till, about twenty days after the first 

 appearance of the eyes, the fish bursts its 

 prison. It now presents a most ludicrous 

 appearance, with the lower side of its slender 

 transparent body affixed to an oval sac which 

 it carries wherever it goes. The vital organs 

 of the fish can be distinctly seen; the pulsa- 

 tions of the heart are easily perceptible; and 

 the rapid vibrations of the gills show that it 

 is, for the first time, breathing just as an 

 adult fish breathes. The empty "shells," as 

 they float about in the water, showing tho 

 rent by which the young fish breaks its prison 

 bonds, now appear like little bits of an India 

 rubber air-ball, or portions of the white 

 membrane found inside the shell of a heu'a 

 egg- 



The fry are now "aU alive," and as active 

 as fish can be. Some of them will be found 

 with their tails turned upward in an impudent 

 manner; others bear their bodies in a becom- 

 ingly staid longitudinal position; while others 

 are strangely deformed. These unfortunates 

 are unable to swim in a straight line, and can 

 only turn round and round as on a pivot in 

 one spot, lying all the time on their side, in- 

 stead of swimming upright, and falling help- 

 less to the bottom as soon as they cease their 

 efforts at locomotion. These cripples gener- 

 ally die; though some of them, no doubt, 

 arrive at maturity, as is proved by the in- 

 stances — rare, it is true — of deformed salmon, 

 with the backbone bent and crooked in vari- 

 ous ways. 



But the most curious instances of mal-for- 

 mation are the ti.shy "Siamese twins." A 

 double-headed creature is of frequent occur- 

 rencs in a family of baby salmon, but these 

 enormities seldom survive more than three or 

 four days, though instances have been met 

 with of a longer term of existence being given 

 to these "monsters." 



For some time after birth, the young fish 

 do not seem to grow very fast; they are ex- 

 ceedingly active, and, though burdened with 

 the umbilical vesicle, they swim swiftly about, 

 rushing for a few seconds, and suddenly fall- 

 ing again to the bottom of the stream; they 

 are unable to rest without touching the bot- 

 tom. 

 The young fry do not require any food for 





