1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



285 



oreat, say 4 feet 2 inches. The cost is greater I by their intrinsic value merely lor milk ami beef.— 

 Than 'post and rail, but il" ire//, /u<(7/, there is an Fra nidi n Farmer. 

 end to future labor, expense and repairs. 

 June, 1S3S. A Virginia Farmer. 



From the Gcncsce Farmer. 

 SUBSTITUTE rOR SPAYING. 



A new mode has been adopted, (I do not know 

 when or by whom,) as a substiluic for spay in <r; 

 which is of rrreai iniporlance to the agriculturist. 

 From a nuudoer of contradictory reports, and ii-om 

 a want of the knowledge of operating, the system 

 met with i'cw advocates, and lor the best reason — 

 because the instructions were to use shot, which 

 did not answer the purpose. Instead of shot, a; 

 bullet is now used, whicli iidly and completely an- 

 swers the desired object. I have the best assur- 

 ance of its efficacy, and with pleasure make the 

 communication to the world. 



Mr. llannock Davis, my near neighbor, has 

 tried the experiment, and the result was complete 

 and satisfactory ; so much so, that he has operat- 

 ed on all his young sows, to the number of filty } 

 they are all healthy, thriving and fat, and as bar- 

 ren as if they had been spayed, showing no incli- 

 nation for the boar. lie perlbrms the operation 

 by hanging the sow up by the hind legs, in tiie 

 manner of spaying, and tin'ough a reed or any 

 other tube, introduced two or three times into the 

 vagina, a small rifle bullet is deposited. Any 

 farmer can perform this simple operation with ease 

 and perfect safety, without hunting the neigh- 

 borhood for a person skilful in the art of spay- 

 inff. * * * iVly mode ol' operation on a cow, 

 and which I think would be successful, is this : — 

 Tie your cow or heifer by the head and horns in a 

 narrow stall, and if disposed to kick, tie her hind 

 legs together; have a smooth stick or probe pre- 

 pared, with a cavity in the end sufficiently deep to 

 cover half the bullet, in which you will place it ; 

 introduce the probe four or five inches, elevate 

 and draw it out, and the bullet will be lelt where 

 it was designed. It may require a larger bullet 

 ibr a cow or heiler, than the size used for bulleling 

 sows. 



VALUE OF DURHAM CATTLE. 



The inquiry is often put— 'what can justify a 

 Tarmer in giving the enormous prices demanded 

 and obtain"ed for Durham cattle ? We could easi- 

 ly give a number of reasons which we deem satis- 

 (licTory ; but at present will olfer but one, which 

 we think sufficient. A thorough bred bull may 

 be bought, say ,*500, which we may assume as a 

 fiiir averaging price — for the prices range from 

 $300 to SIOOO. Now the point of the question 

 is, how can a bull pay back in substantial benefits, 

 the iftoOO paid Ibr him '? We will give a lair an- 

 swer to ihe question ; and show that the sum is 

 returned, not merely in blood or pedigree, but in 

 the actual improvement of those qualities in the 

 animals produced from the bull, which every cat- 

 tle raiser most desires. A good bull can safely 

 serve 50 cows a season without injury to himself— 

 and many have served from 80 to 100— but let us 

 take 50. To put the proof to the severest test, 

 we will suppose that these 50 cows are all of 

 common stock, and that their calves are all des- 

 tined for the butcher and not one kept for breed- 

 ing. The question then is — '' will the fifty calves 

 pay in beef, a fair return for the sum expended in 

 the purchase of the bull?' We answer yes ; and, 

 without going into any tedious calculations to show 

 how much more beef they will make in a given 

 time, than the common stock — or how much ear- 

 lier they wiU mature — or how much time, risk, 

 fbo'd, money and interest, are saved — we will de- 

 monstrate the truth of our opinion in the state- 

 ment of the fact, that the lartre graziers of Fay- 

 ette, Clarke and Bourbon, will give ten dollars a 

 head more for half blood Durhams, at two years 

 of age, merely for fattening for the butcher, than 

 they will lor common cattle at the same age. 

 Now these graziers know perfectly well, the value 

 of every description of cattle in the country for 

 fattening, and they would not surely pay so much 

 more for the half blood Durhams, than for others, 

 if they were not justified in doing so by making a 

 better profit from them. It is to be recollected, 

 too, that these large graziers buy their young cat- 

 tle — for none of them can breed one in ten of the 

 number they fatten and sell. Now here are fifty 

 calves, the produce of one season, whose superior 

 qualities at two years of age, pay .$500 (the price 

 of the thorough bred bull) more to the breeder, 

 than the same number of common cattle. It is 

 needless to run out the demonstration further. 

 Every farmer can calculate for himself the advan- 

 tages of breeding several years from the bull— the 

 greater the number of calves he could get than 

 that we have assumed— the superior value of the 

 heifer calves for breeding instead of butchering, 

 &c. ; and we believe no one who will candidly 

 examine the subject, can doubt the economy of 

 procuring, even at their high cost, this invaluable 

 breed of cattle. When this breed shall become 

 so widely diffused as to constitute the general 

 stock of the country, then, and not till then will 

 their price be graduated, like that of other cattle. 



From thu Genesee Farmer. 



don't blabie vour seedsman. 



Few things are more common than for farmers) 

 to purchase seeds at the shops, either Shaker or 

 imported, put them into the ground in the garden 

 or the field, and because they do not all vegetate, 

 the seeds are denouiiced as worthless and the 

 seedsman is compelled to bear the blame of the 

 transaction. Now we venture to assert that nine 

 times out of ten, when the seed has been pur- 

 chased of a well established seedsman, the failure 

 should be charged upon the buyer instead of the 

 seller. 



How many packages of the yellow locust seed 

 have been put into the ground without previous 

 preparation, and when not one in a hundred has 

 grown, the seed has been called bad, and the sell- 

 er a cheat. Now if the buyer had turned boiling 

 water on his seed till they were swelled, perhaps 

 not one in a hundred would have failed, and a fine 



