FARMERS' REGISTER 



303 



soil ; and that unleached are worth four times as 

 much as leached. Care should be taken to mix 

 uuleached ashes well with the soil. This Ikcl 

 8hows the impolicy of fitrmers selling their ashes 

 for 12^ cents per bushel. J. Townf-ij. 



From the Maine Cultivator. 

 il/r. Editor : — As the raisinjj oCpitrs is a thins; of 

 considerable importance, I will state liow I lost 

 a fine litter two years since, when they were three 

 weeks old. I put into their pens some chaffy wheat 

 straw. The piiis went to rootinn; and champinf^ it. 

 They were taken sick, they lived Irom one to three 

 weeks, the beards they swallowed, doubtless caus- 

 ed their death. My brother had a pig in the fall, 

 his pen was wet, and he threw in a bushel, of 

 wheat chaff, his pig eat some of it, and died soon 

 alter. I knew a man who had a fat hog that eat 

 some of his wheat chaff, the next day he was ta- 

 ken with vomitinir, and he killed him, and on ex- 

 amining his swallow he /bund it coated with 

 beards of wheat which caused his death. Oat 

 straw is perleclly safe. 



Francis Wingate. 



DUKHAM CATTLE. — AT WHAT AGE BEST TO 

 IMPORT THEM — WILT. THRIVE ON OUR 



"WORST PASTURES AND MAY BE BRED 



FROM AT ONE YEAR OLD. 



From tlie Soutliern Cabinet. 



Dear Sir — Having read several articles in your 

 paper on the Durham cattle, I write you this to 

 add to the mass of information already presented 

 to the public. The experience of your other 

 friends differs so entirely from my own, that I am 

 inclined to believe some of us have fallen into er- 

 ror. It is affirmed that the Durhams are too deli- 

 cate in construction, require more feed, and in all 

 other respects are moreunsuited to our climate than 

 the other breed ol'cattle. My experience is directly 

 the other way. For the last six years I have 

 seen many Durhams, Devons, and some Ayrshire, 

 imported into Charleston and its vicinity. Under 

 pioper treatment they have all of them fulfilled 

 here the respective characteristics they have al- 

 ways borne elsetohere. Under improper treatment 

 they have all ol' ihem suffered li-oin delicacy of 

 constitution, &c. All cattle imported from abroad, 

 to become acclimated, must undergo the same 

 changes of constitution as loreigners coming /or 

 tlie first lime amongst us. If you expect cattle 

 Irom Europe, where they are generally lioused, 

 and fed on the richest and best of lood, io keep 

 healthy and lat, when turned out upon our razor- 

 shaved meadows, and corn-stalk lields, you will 

 be sadly disappointed, and even when housed and 

 v/ell fed, il" you expect them nnt to pant during 

 our summers, and to die under the influence of 

 our noxious climate, you will be as much out of the 

 way, as to look lor health and beauty on the 

 cheek of a mountain lass working amid the mi- 

 asma of our low country rice-fields. 



Most of us, at a very high price, import the 

 Durham cattle when f^jll grown. Their constitu- 



tions have been already formed and accustomed to 

 the climate whence they came, and it is impossi- 

 ble lor them to undergo the radical and necessary 

 change required here. Were we (o import at 

 a younger age, the result would be ditierent. Out 

 of twenty or thirty bulls and cows imported from 

 Europe, the north, and Kentucky, during the past 

 year, I know of but three or four now surviving. 

 Out of the same number of calves, I know of aa 

 iew that have not stood our climate. 



But to the point from which I have diverged. 

 About three years since I purchased in Charles- 

 ton a Durham bull-calf one year old. 1 turned 

 him among my commons cattle, and only housed 

 and fed him at night. He survived the summer, 

 and is now perhaps one of the finest bulls in this 

 state. Having supplied myself with several of 

 his get, I sold him to Jenkins Mikell, esq., of 

 Edisto Island, who assures me that although he 

 has turned him upon nothing but the common 

 marsh pastures ol' his island, he has all the year 

 kept fatter and in better health than any of his 

 common cattle. By this bull, when but eighteen 

 months old I got twelve calves. The pasture 

 upon which they have led is a bad one, and yet 

 these calves have kept liat, and are (I speak with 

 due care,) twice as large as calves of other cows 

 by common bulls. I have several calves from this 

 bull, which though but one year old, are as large 

 as their mothers. ! novv own a white Durham 

 hull dropped two years since from a very beauti- 

 ful Durham cow imported by Col. Hampton. I 

 raised him from the bottle, until six months old, and 

 then turned him out to pasture, /feeding him at 

 night as I did my other cattle. At one year old 

 I put him to sixteen of my cows, and this season 

 have sixteen of his calves. Though from com- 

 mon Carolina cows, every one who has seen these 

 calves has been struck with their superior beauty 

 of form, and enlarged size, when compared with 

 the common breed. That I have not taken up 

 a partial opinion, let the lollowing fact speak. One 

 of these calves Irom a very inferior cow, I sent 

 to market with two other calves from good cows, 

 though by a common bull. The calf by the Dur- 

 ham bull, though four tveeks younger, brought 

 twelve dollars, while the other two brought only 

 eiglit dollars apiece. 1 hesitate nothing in say- 

 inir,upon my own experience, and upon in/ijrmation 

 collected from several of my friends who are com- 

 petent to speak, that the Durham feed closer, live 

 on coarser Ibod, grow larger, and give more milk 

 than any other cattle which can be produced in 

 our climate. Their butteraceous qualities, like 

 that of all other breeds, depend upon the butter- 

 aceous qualities of the food they get. If you feed 

 them to give much milk, expect them to give less 

 butter, and vice versa. I owned a Durham cow, 

 which by a particular mode leeding, 1 could make 

 give thirty (piarts of milk per day, and yet the 

 sanie milk would not yield as much butter as 

 when I fed her to give but twelve or fourteen 

 quarts. I have some calves from the most beau- 

 tiful Devon bull ever brought to this state. They 

 are fine calves, but not so good as the Durhams. 



I have a full blooded Durham heiier two years 

 old. It has been raised entirely upc n one of ih<^ 

 poorest pastures in the low-country. For size, 

 beauty, and every other ()ualification, I can safely 

 put it asainst any full grown Devon, Ayrsiiire, oc 

 other cow, I have ever seen. I must distinctly re- 



