1838] 



FA II ME US' REGISTER. 



99 



f 



ed to have been satisfactory to those who have 

 made them; but. I have been unable to procure 

 any exact returns. Admiral Sir Isaac Collin pre- 

 sented a valuable improved Durham short-horn 

 bull and cow to the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society, which were placed on the farm of a gen- 

 tleman in Salem, who retains some of the lialf- 

 blood stock. The amount of the yield in milk of 

 this short-horned cow is mislaid ; but the owner 

 states from recollection, '' that her milk nicrht and 

 morning, weighed 48 lbs., when she had nothing 

 more than pasture feed in June." Respecting 

 this stock, the gentleman adds, — " In my ojiinion, 

 they combine the two qualities of milk and beef in 

 a greater deirree, than any other stock I am ac- 

 quainted with. With me, the pure bloods, and a 

 large proportion of the mixed blood, have proved 

 great milkers, and, when not in milk, take on flesh 

 very rapidly. I have slaughtered two half-blood 

 heilt?rs, which have weiirhed at four years old 

 over 700 lbs. A pair of half-blood steers, at four 

 years old, became so very fit from common keep, 

 that I was induced to dispose of them to the butch- 

 ers; they weighed 1100 lbs. each. The greatest 

 objection to tliem, in ray opinion, is, that they in- 

 cline to go dry a longer time than our native 

 stock." 



My own experience differs somewhat from the 

 respectable authority just given. I have had 

 some of the full-blood and some of the mixed 

 breed; and I am not able to say anything in favor 

 of their milking properties. I have seen some re- 

 markably fine specimens of early maturity and 

 thrift among them; and more beautiful models of 

 cattle than some specimens which I have seen of 

 them, I believe are no where to be met with. 



Another public-spirited gentleman, in Bradford, 

 imported some of this fine stock for his farm. His 

 expectations do not appear to have been fully an- 

 swered, though I was not able to obtain any exact 

 information of their yield in milk or butter. From 

 the letter of his correspondent, whom he employ- 

 ed to procure these fine animals for him without 

 limit as to expense, I extract as follows. " I nuist 

 observe that this breed ol'stock has not been held, 

 of late years, in great estimation for milkincr." 

 He adds, that ''short-horns are only calculated 

 for the best and most powerful land; on poor soils 

 they will do nothing. The most improved plan 

 of keeping them in winter is to have them loose 

 in open warm hovels, two or four together. The 

 bulls you will find it necessary to keep inaltoijellier, 

 from one year old. The milch cows are kept at 

 the stake in enclosed houses; and turned out a 

 short lime in the day time — they bear the cold 

 badly." 



There is another very sirona: testimony, that of 

 Mr. Shiriff, who travelled in this country (or agri- 

 cultural information in 1834-.5; and vvlio is pro- 

 nounced, by one of the most eminent br.eders of 

 the Durham short-horns in England, a farmer of 

 the first rank. In his journal, he remarks, — 

 " There was a fine short-horn bull, intended to 

 improve the dairy stock, Avhich I did not see. I 

 took the liberty of advising the cross to be tried 

 on a small scale, believing the short-horns the 

 worst milking breed in Britain." 



I give these opposite authorities, in justice to 

 the agricultural commimity. The subject de- 

 serves much farther inquiry, and the test of actual 

 experiment. On this account, it were greatly to 



be desired, that the gentlemen who own this fine 

 stock, and li'om the most public-spirited designs 

 have introduced them into the country, would 

 give the public exact statements of their product. 

 Some oxen in the county, descended fi-om the 

 short-horned bull Admiral in the second genera- 

 tion are very fine cattle, in point of size, docility, 

 condition, and work. I have seen the Importa- 

 tions of this stock made by the Ohio Company; 

 and it seems impossible to imagine animals of 

 more perfect symmetry and beauty; or of better 

 promise in point of thrift and condition. They 

 may, however, suit far better the luxuriant mea- 

 dows of Ohio and Kentucky, than our bleak and 

 short pastures. 



From the same. 



MANURES. 



Much and increasing attention is paid through- 

 out the county to the saving of manures and the 

 formation of compost. Vastly more remains to 

 be done. In many parts of the county, cellars 

 are considered a necessary appendage to the barn, 

 where the manure is sheltered from the sun; and, 

 by soaie of the niost careful, from the external air 

 likewise. A Dnnvcrs farmer, on whose good 

 judgment 1 place great confidence, expresses his 

 strong conviction, that the value of his manure is 

 doubled in a dosed cellar, in comparison with it 

 under the former mode of exposure to the sun, 

 and air, and rain. In most of these cases, the 

 barn is placed on a side hill; the cellar is high 

 enough to load in and turn the team and cart; 

 and a trap door is in the barn floor, so that bog- 

 mud, litter, or other refuse, may be easily thrown 

 in to be formed into compost by the store hogs, 

 which are put there to work, and which faithfully 

 earn their living. In two places, I found provi- 

 sion made for saving all the liquid manure from 

 the stalls and the barn yards. It was conveyed 

 by gutters into a capacious cistern, from which it 

 was occasionally pumped into a waterin<i cask, 

 like that used in the streets of cities, and distribut- 

 ed on the grass ground. This was done with 

 great advantage. The liquid manure of a large 

 herd of cattle, could it be properly husbanded, 

 would be of equal value as the solid manure. The 

 subject of saving manures, and collecting and 

 compounding them, is a matter which cannot be 

 too strongly pressed upon the attention of farmers. 

 It is the very life-blood of successful agriculture. 



The subject of the a|ifilication of manures, whe- 

 ther in a perfectly green and unfermented, or in a 

 decomposed state, has been matter of much in- 

 quiry among the Essex farmers. The general 

 impression is, that they should be used in a green 

 state, as their most valuable parts are lost in the 

 progress of decomposition. The philosopliy of 

 manures is as little understood as the philosophy 

 of digestion. Nature draws a veil over many of 

 her processes, which no prying curiosity has been 

 able to raise, and no solicitude has induced her to 

 uncover these operations. By what means the 

 food received into the stomach goes, in its wonder- 

 ful subdivisions and changes, to the formation of 

 blood and bone, muscles and skin, hair and nails, 

 is a matter about which we know as much as we 

 know how the food of plants is taken up and ela- 

 borated, and goes, according to the seed which is 



