THE FARMER'S MONT HLY VISITOR. 



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spirits. Six pounds of meat were daily measured 

 to be used for tlie family : to this was added all tlie 

 liirhter food that the appetites ofthe laborers reqni- 

 re^d The hired men we'-e furnished at this season 

 with their meals five times a day, of which was a 

 lunch in the field forenoon and afternoon, five 

 men in winter and ten men in summer were em- 

 ploved on the farm. The firty cows were milked 

 bv the men morninj and evcnin? within the space 

 of half an hour. Kxceptin; where there was more 

 milk than would supply customers, no butter and 

 cheese were made. . • n c 



The Ryal farm, which consisted originally ot 

 three hundred acres, has been subdivided into two 

 farms- a son of Mr. Adams occupies that part 

 nearest the top of Winter H.ll; he now keeps his 

 twenty to thirty cows, and employed seven hands 

 in hayinT time. Under the improving system 

 which has for so manv years been practiced by the 

 tenants of this magnificent farm, division and sub- 

 division have thegrandeff-ectof (Tivinga greater 

 profit to the lesser amount of land cultivated by 

 the individual— a principle that, we trust, is here- 

 after to be extensively realized in the farming ot 

 New England. What more could an ordinary far- 

 mer desi're than has been realized by the tenants of 

 the Ryal farm during the last fifty years ' If tiiey 

 had been the exclusive owners, they could not have 

 done better— they might not have done as well. 

 Their kind trea'tmeni to the land which they did 

 not own has been returned to them in that abund- 

 ance which has m.ide diem happy and independent. 

 The bright sun of a man like the elder Adams goes 

 down in an unclouded sky, and " the glory remains 

 when the light fades away." 



The Ten Hills farm. 



The last visit with which wo now intend totrouble 

 the patience of our readers was a call at the Ten 

 Hills Farm situated partly on the easterly declivity 

 of Winter Hill, and extending to the bank of Mys- 

 tic or Medford river. This farm contains two hun- 

 dred and twenty-two acres consisting of a variety 

 of soils; there is said to be sufficient clay of an 

 excellent quality in the subsoil of this farm to build 

 another city of brick of the size of Boston. 1 he 

 ground is highly fertile and productive when well 

 cultivated. Twenty acres of mowing ground up- 

 on the side of Winter Hill in one field annually 

 produces on an average three tons of hay to the 

 acre each, without being ploughed, and only spread 

 over with some dozen loads of compost manure 

 once in three or four years. 



Col. S.amuel Jaques, a dlstinruished equestrian 

 and breeder of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, w-ho 

 has discovered more practical skill andbetterjudg- 

 ment in relation to live stock than almost any oth- 

 er man in the countrv, has occupied this farm for 

 the last ten years. The estate is owned m a stock 

 company of one hundred shares of three hundred 

 d.dlars each; and the property is held in trust tor 

 the respective owners of shares. The company 

 was instituted at the instance of Col. Jaques, he 

 paying the proprietors annually five per cent, equal 

 to 'fifteen hundred dollars in the whole, and having 

 the ritrht by himself or his legal representatives at 

 any tune within twenty years of paying the hold- 

 ers of shares the amount by them respectively in- 

 vested, and the five per cent, and receiving an as- 

 si-rnment from them of their right in the premises. 

 "The ori<Tinal design of the association was the 

 establishment of a ""Stock farm," in the near vi- 

 cinity of Boston, devoted to the important objects 

 of breeding and rearing the best breeds of Horses, 

 Neat Cattle, Sheep and Swine. 



The ruliniT passion of Col. Jaqnes appeared on 

 the entrance to the hall of his dwelling, where the 

 first objects that struc!: oureye are portraitsof the 

 Short Horned Bull Patriot, bred in •■'"Sl'^"^ bv 

 Geor« Coates, bearing tlie date of Feb. M,lrilO— 

 of a pair of White Twin Durham Steers weigh- 

 in.T 20O stone or 9^00 lbs. bred by John Witherell 

 Cmnty of Durham, KnglanJ-also the likeness ot 

 a Merino Ram, which gave .!21bs of wool at three 

 shearings, and was sold by Col. Jaques several 

 years ago, to a gentleman in Lebanon, iN. H. 

 « The mellow, mellow horn." 

 For several years we have had a general notion 

 of the eccentric if net chivalric character ot the 

 presenttenantof IheTen Hills Farm. The geu- 

 Ueman has been a hunter we believe for more than 

 thirty years. He was a hop merchant and general 

 Hop Inspector for Massachusetts, at Charlestowu, 

 and like others of his cast of character was unlor- 

 tunale in business; but althou!?h his old responsv 

 bilities ride upon him through life, his courage and 

 enterprise suffer no abatement. Hundreds ot tunes, 

 mounted on a favorite trained charger has he fol- 

 lowed the Isash of hounds in the track of the tox 



over the rockv acclivities of Woburn and Lexing- 

 ton, clearincr the high rail and wall fences and dit- 

 ches at a bound, and treating steep cliffs and thick 

 woods as if there were not even an obstacle in the 

 way. Birn in an up-country YanKee t<,wn, by 

 Enirlishmen who have visited this country, he has 

 been t.aken for, and sworn to be, one of them; and 

 in the rivalry of the chase often has he outstripped 

 the most chivalric. Followed on one occasion in ^i 

 huntino- excursion by an English cockney who had 

 lann-hed at Yankee clumsiness and want of agility, 

 Cof Jaques dodiring between trees and under a 

 protrudintr limb left the following man, like Absa- 

 lom in the oak, suspended in the branches while 

 the steed pursued on without a rider, the foremost 

 man coinincr in at tlie death of Reynard a few miles 

 ahead, and afterwards returning to lament the acci- 

 dent of his companion which he affected not to 

 discover until he had obtained the victory. 

 Improved Breeds of Cattle. 

 For a moment we had on two occasions met Col. 

 Jaques, the first time at Mr. I'hinney's farm in Lex- 

 ington, and the day before our visit while feasting 

 the eye with the fat things of the Boston market ; 

 and we were disposed to attribute much of his en- 

 thusiasm on the subject of improved cattle breed- 

 in<T to his own peculiar character. We in fact 

 had our doubts about his theory of making bulls 

 and oxen and cows just the shape and the color that 

 should pleas" him, and of his theory of breeding 

 horses that should combine the qualities most es- 

 sential to the service in which he would place 



them. . • 1. 1 



Mr Colman, the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Commissioner, in his Second Report has detailed 

 some of the wonders of Col. Jaques' "great im- 

 provement in dairy stock;" and if any thing could 

 throw an air of romance about the theories which 

 that gentleman presents, leading practical fanners 

 who have pursued the old track to distrust him, it 

 would be the almost incredible account which he 

 gives of Col. Jaques' milch cows, asample of which 

 we will present from the report in Col. J's own lan- 

 guage : 



" I have a heifer designated as Betty Cream- 

 Pot one of the third generation, which produced 

 h»r first calf at two and a half years old. Mr. 

 Brown, my foreman, made the following experi- 

 ment upon her milk, without my knowledge at 

 the time After milking, he took two quarts of 

 her milk out of the pail, and having strained it in- 

 to a pan, allowed it to stand twenty-four hours. 

 Havintr then skimmed the cream into a bowl, he 

 churned it with a table spoon ; and in one minute, 

 by the clock, he formed the butter. It was then 

 pressed and worked in the.usual way, and amount- 

 ed to half a pound of pure butter. After this the 

 foUowino- practice was pursued for eight or ten 

 weeks in succession. At each of four successive 

 milkin<rs, two quarts of the strippings were strain- 

 ed into" a pan, making eight quarts in the whole. 

 All was mixed together in the same pan, and then 

 churned. The average time of churning did not 

 exceed ten minutes; in some instances the butter 

 was formed in five minutes. After being pro- 

 perly worked over, it was weighed and never 

 fell short of two pounds The remainder of her 

 milk was for family use, and, when set for cream, 

 produced the usual quantity. Tliese experiments 

 were made on o-rass feed only. She did not give 

 a larce mess ; only about twelve quarts per day 

 I have forty cows and heifeis, ten bulls and bull 

 calves of different grades of this cream-pot breed, 

 all bred and raided bv myself I keep my bulls, se- 

 lected as breeders, until I have proof ot tlie quali- 

 ty of their offspring. My old cream-pot bull is ten 

 years old. My Do~n Cream-Pot, from which I am 

 now breeding with siiue of my caw.s and heifers, 

 is three years old." 



"The n-reat principles o.f breeding (says Mr. 

 Colman in his report) to an experienced and phi- 

 losophic mind are almost as well determined as the 

 rrreal principles of mechanics, chemistry, or any 

 other branch of natural philosophy. The firstand 

 most undoubted of all principles is, that like pro- 

 duces like ; and farther, that good qualities and 

 bad qualities are transmissible; and as where two 

 animals come together of peculiar merits, the good 

 qualities are likely to be transmitted ; so also wnere 

 prominent defects or faults exist, these faults and 

 defects are likely to descend and become aggrava- 

 ted It is therefore the great aim of the accom- 

 ntished breeder, to make such a selection that the 

 desirable qualities slial) predominate on holh sides; 

 and especially that animals having similar delec s 

 or bad properties, should not be sufiered to mingle 

 to the aggravation of these evils. ' 



If we had not ourselves witnessed the stock of 

 Col. Jaques we might have clung long to the opm- 



ion that there wan more of fancy than fact in hil ~ 

 theory. The heifer (now a beautiful cow) which 

 hepails Betty Cream-pot was shown us in the field; 

 and so far as appearance can indicate, confirms his 

 story. But the most beautiful cow we ever set 

 eyes on, of the size of an ox, and standing with a 

 dio-nity as much superior to ordinary cows as would 

 the Belgian giant by the side of the Irish dwarf, 

 was a cow whose name has escaped us, that has 

 produced twenty-oue pounds of butter in a week 

 —the mother of a beaiitiful red calf bull in the 

 same stable who, standing on legs longer than the 

 common ox, weighs at five months of age nearly 

 six hundred pounds. The father of this calf is 

 Don Cream-Pot from the same dam, who was in 

 the stable along side and now five years old, and 

 is a noble animal in every respect. 



Col. Jaques' breed of cattle has now attained to 

 the third generation ; and the last, as exhi- 

 bited in the fine calf, is an improvement npou 

 the others. He, Mr. Colman, says the dam of this 

 stock was a noble sized cow raised in Groton, Mas- 

 sachusetts ; but the owner there knew nothing par- 

 ticular of her origin. She was sold toagentleinan 

 by the name of Haskins, residing in Dorchester, 

 about five miles from Boston ; and her cream was 

 of such extraordinary richness that it would be- 

 come separated into butter by the motion of the 

 carriage in bringing it into the city. The stock 

 owned by Mr. Jaques is descended from this cow 

 by a cross with the improved Durham short horn- 

 ed bull Coelebs, imported some years since into 

 Boston by a gentleman of that city, and owned af. 

 forwards by Mr. Jaques." Mr. J. mentioned that 

 this celebrated bull, while in his possession, went 

 to four hundred cows at ten dollars each; and on 

 his head he received in cash thirt\ -ei,rht hundred 

 dollars. This noble animal, which wis kept by 

 Col. J. about the year 1827, was undoubtedly the 

 means of effecting a great improvement in tlie cat- 

 tle in and about Boston. 



The color of Mr. Jaques' stock (says the Ag- 

 ricultural Commissioner) is a deep red, a favorite 

 color in New England. They are well formed and 

 thrifty upon common feed ; and, if they continue 

 to display the extraordinary properties by which 

 they are now distinguished, thc-y promise to prove 

 themselves for dairy purposes, the most valuable 

 race of animals ever known among us." Such an 

 animal as the five months calf, at tlie price of one 

 hundred dollars, for a breeder, would be capital 

 well invested if kept only for the use of a farm of 

 a dozen cows. 



We iTive Col. Jaques' Own enthusiastic account 

 of his breed of cattle from Mr. Colman's report as 

 much better than any description of ours: — 



" It has been my object to effect such an im- 

 provement in milch cows as should produce the 

 greatest quantity of rich milk, affording the largest 

 quantity of butter. There is a greater difference 

 in pecuniary profit between a good or a poor cow 

 than among any other domestic animals. In some 

 yards, there may be found those which will not 

 produce more llian three pounds per week, and 

 others that would make nine, and all on the same 

 keep. As we sometimes hear of cows, which have 

 produced seventeen pounds of butter per week, 

 and even more, it occurred to me to inquire why 

 a breed or race could not be formed with the same 

 valuable properties. This 1 have attempted; and 

 have carried it to the third generation, and I am 

 confident of success. I have a cow, whose milk 

 has produced nine pounds of the best butter in 

 throe days; and tliis on grass feed only. This J 

 call my Crerim-pot breed. I have hired my cream- 

 pots With' red or mahogany-colored hair, yellow 

 iio.ses, v.'ith mahogany-colored teats, yellow skin, 

 silky and elastic to the touch. 1 have obtained, 

 the breed by the cross of a Durham short horned"' 

 bull on a selected native cow with extraordinary 

 points and properties, anxious to retain as much of 

 the form of the Durham, as to ensure capacious 

 udders and with the valuable property of affording 

 rich milk. Though an admirer of the Durham 

 short horns, I have not found them producing so 

 rich milk nor making so much yellow butter as I 

 could wish. The Durham race are round and 

 straio-ht in the barrel, full in the twist, and inclin- 

 ing to be thick in the thigh. I have wished for 

 some improvement in the form of the bag. But 1 

 would preiuise,^that whatever I may say in respect 

 to breeding animals, I only desire to express my 

 own private notions, without a wish to dictate to 

 any one, from the experience 1 have had, which, I 

 am sensible, is veiy limited. Generally, cows, 

 which I have examined, giving the largest amount 

 of the richest milk, have had capacious bags, full 

 behind, extending far up into the twist and also 

 well formed ; hanging moderately deep when full 

 in milk, and after the milk is drawn, quite the r8» 



