1875.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



151 



' Mixed Blood." 



Ill" liail iiuleavored to show what those pure | 

 Bati's :iii(l pure Booth aniiiials were, and he [ 

 wouia now take the niixeil lilood. What was 

 Lord Exeter's hull Teleniaehus CJT.lUi:!,) that 

 had heeu winiiint:attlieUoyaliU\ilolher|iI;u-es 

 for many years V lie was neither a pure IJooth 

 nor a ptire Uates, hut he wa.s of mixed lilood. 

 lie did not Irouhle them with thf pedifiree, 

 but if any of thiMU woidd refer to it, they would 

 find lliat lie was of mixed hlood. Xeverthe- 

 less, he had taken a -ireat many prizes, and was 

 considered to he one of the best bulls out; Mr. 

 Outhwaile's Lord (iodolphin, who won at the 

 Koyal last year, was also mixed. He was hy 

 lloyal Win"dsor,of mixed l)lood; hy Baron Kil- 

 lerhy. of mixed blood; by Weleome (iuest, of 

 mixed blood ; and by '\'anj;uard, of mixed 

 blood. There was n"o question that these 

 were all of mixed blood. \'au,L;nard would 

 perhaps l)e elaimed as pure Booth. 'Hiey 

 saw, therefore, he was not a Wild Kyes, 

 not a Duehess, not an Oxford, not from 

 any of those families that were fashiona- 

 ble. He was not from any of those fainilies 

 for which sueli enormous s'ums were realized. 

 But he was ijood enoujih to win the Uoyal. 

 So, again, with X'ivaniliere, Mr. (iuthwaite's 

 cow, which had won more prizes perhaps than 

 any cow then liviu';. The first bull in her 

 pedii^ree, Brigade Major, was said to be liooth. 

 Tlie next was a Bates bull, and then she went 

 back to a bull that was neither Booth nor 

 Bates, so that she was of mixed blood, and 

 from no fashionable family, and yet she could 

 win, and had wtMi more prizes than any 

 cow livins;. She was not a Duchess, not a 

 pure Bate's, not a pm-e Booth, not an ()xforil,_ 

 nor a Wild Eyes, nor belonging to any one of 

 those families" for which such enormous iiriees 

 were obtained. He would now come to the 

 recent sale at Birmingham. Colonel Loyd- 

 Lindsay won one of the lirst prizes with his 

 bull Augustus, brother to Roderick and Au- 

 tunmns," which bulls won the first prizes in 

 187-1, and Augustus took the lirst prize this 

 year. Now let them see if he was from one 

 of the fashional)le lot. The first bull in his 

 pedigree was Bob Roy (2".t,S0(>.) which was of 

 mixed blood. Then tl'iey had Chanter (l'.).4-j:!,) 

 Wisetonian (17,244,) and Magician the -'nd 

 (10,4S(). ) The last was a bull which he bought 

 at Mr. Lax's sale. He sold him to Mr. Wm. 

 Harrison, of Kirkbank, and at that time Mr. 

 llarrisoitehad very few cows left. He knew 

 them perfectly well, and when he looked over 

 the Birmingliam catalogue, a few years ago, 

 he saw the pe<ligree of Autumnns was incor- 

 rect. He let the matter pass, and thisycarhe 

 looked again. He had now Mr. Wm. ilarri- 

 soii's catalogue of the cows that were sold by 

 • Mr. Wetlierell on April 4lh, IS.'iT. Mr. Har- 

 rison gave the pedigree in his catalogue diller- 

 ently. He (Mr. Fawcett) brought this cir- 

 c\nnstance before their notice, to sho\y tliem 

 what an unsinmd and unprofitable business it 

 must be to give fiOOor 7(10 gs., or, as was.some- 

 tinies the case, ^DbO gs., fjir animals who.se 

 pedigri'e was doubtful, if not incorrect. But 

 even supposing the pedigree to he right in the 

 case he had just mentioned, the animal was of 

 mixed blood. He was neither a Dnchcss nor an 

 Oxford, uor a pure Booth nor pure Bates; but 

 he was good enough to go and win at Birnnng- 

 ham. He would undertake, at any time, to 

 show that the wliole of the Booth and I'.ates ani- 

 mals were just as much mixed, and had i(lenli- 

 cally the same lilood in theui, as those aniinals 

 had which some jiersons appeared to despise, 

 and hold at sucli a cheap rate. 

 Management. 

 As an old breeder, who knew thi' ups and 

 downs, as well as the anxieties and dangers, to 

 which, as iaeeders, they were all liable, he was 

 going tospeak tothemasiiractical men. and to 

 tell them liis view as to how Shorthorns ought 

 to he bred, and of what nse they were. In his 

 opinion, the most important jioint in scdecting 

 a cow was to take care she had plenty <if gooil 

 thick-set hair on lier; let her be well covered 

 and have a good jacket ou her, ,so that if they 

 were obliged to keep her out at night, she would 



have somctlHTiR on her to keep her warm. The 

 next point was to look after nnlk. He looked 

 upon milk as the lirst great element in life ; if 

 they had no nnlk they had no const it nt ion, and, 

 without milk, how were ihey going to g<t their 

 cheese and liutter V Therefore he considered it 

 most impiuiauf that very great attention 

 should be paid to th<' milking properties of a 

 cow, and that she shouUl give a fair and rea- 

 .sonahle (piantitv. The next i>oint was lier ap- 

 pearance, and in this respect the fashion was to 

 run almost mad. I'eople wanted to see a cow 

 almost like a barrel; they must not see her ribs 

 or her sJKUilderfi. She must he straight cm this 

 side, on that side, and on all sides. That was 

 what lie called madness, though perhaps it 

 might look pretty. But, as i>ractical men, they 

 all knew that when the cow <-amc tothecalying 

 there was nothing likegood wide loins and hips. 

 With small, narrow loins and hips, tlie calf was 

 in danger, and so was the mother, and it was 

 sacrilicing a great deal for a neat style only. 

 His experience was, thai with good wide loins 

 ami hips there was very little trouble <u- dan- 

 ger in taking away the calf; and he had otXen 

 noticed that with'narrow ones there was often 

 very great ditliculty. The next point was the 

 wid'thof the chest, not the depth of it, hut a 

 good round chest, which gave plenty of room 

 for the heart and lungs, and i)lenty of room 

 between the fore-legs. The next iiiece of ad- 

 vice lie would give them was not to purchase 

 any show aniiiials. The greatest nmnber of 

 liriV.es were now taken by animals fed on sugar. 

 The ell'ect of sugar was certainly to stop breed- 

 ing; and if they canu' to turn these animals 

 oirt to grass, they would melt away like snow 

 in the summer's sun. Then, again, they must 

 liave clean water and clean tbod, if they wanted 

 to do any good with Shortliorus; dirty water 

 would produce inllainmatioii of llie stomach. 

 He u.sed a great (plant it y of bran and linseed, 

 and he hardly ever lost a'cow fnnii milk-fever. 

 If they had anv dillicnlty in raising a calf, let 

 it suck; he had never lost a calf whilst sucking. 

 They might be troubled occasionally with a. calf 

 scoiiring? and he would'tell them how to cure 

 it. < uve it a little castor-oil and ginger, and a 

 small teaspoonful of laudanum, and about a 

 tablesiioonful of treacle; put it in a basin with 

 a little hot water, and give it when new-imlk 

 warm; let the calf suck afterwards, and he 

 would warrant it would cure him. 

 Three Grand Points. 

 His three points were kindness, (piietness, 

 and cleanliness, and he hoped the younger men 

 would remember it, for it might be useful to 

 them when he was at rest. Let them study 

 the dispositions of all their animals, treat them 

 kindly and quietly, keen them clean, and then 

 they could do almost anything they liked with 

 tliein. He had not atteliqUed tosay that Short- 

 horns were better than llcrefords, or any other 

 breeds, fen- he believed they might adai>l any 

 other breeds to their purpose as well as Short 

 h(M-ns, if they only studied the animals. Slioii- 

 horiis had been produced, there was no doubt 

 whatever, by simply crossing all the other 

 breeds, and in a way and manner that no man 

 living knew. By introducing a little new blood 

 with judicious care, they might have herds ol 

 ainios' anv sort they thoie.'ht desirable. Before 

 leaving the room he wished to exju-ess hisdeep 

 .'latitude for the very kind receiition they had 

 given him. "What he hail said was the truth, 

 and he sincerely wished to help them. He 

 knew wMI what "they had to contend w.lh, and 

 for years jiast nobody had been madi' a butt 

 of ill a more disgraci'fiil form than the farmers 

 had. He .should like to know where thi'y could 

 tiiid a better or more holiest class of nieu than 

 the Kngllsh farmers. 



CORRESPONDENCE and COGITATIONS. 



A subscriber who had loaned his .Tune num- 

 ber of TilK Fah.mkh to a person who fm-got 

 to return it, after requesting a duplicate copy, 

 for whii'h he inclosed a satisfactory considera- 

 tion, "winds up" with the tbllowing ; 



"I am much i>lea.sed with the explanation 

 of Ihe 'sexual svsteni of i)lants.' You deserve 

 much credit for your trouble in setting forth 

 the fads. 



"I am trying hard to get you new subscrib- 

 ers for TiiK Faioiku ; oiir people a(hnit its 

 n„.,.ils— that it is very useful to the fanning 

 pulilic in many respects, but they like to read 

 Ihe Xrw 1 orA-ircfWi/ the liest. "—!'., Sqd. 21, 

 is7r). 



We confess that we cannot do otlierwise 

 than commend the literary ta.stes of those 

 who iirefer a New York imA///, lo our jour- 

 nal, whicli only appears iiionthhi ; because, as 

 a general thing, said weeklies are conducted 

 with rari^ ability. But, we would most re- 

 siH'ctfully beg leave to suggest, that tliis may 

 he no better reason for withholding support 

 from a home journal— by tliose who are able 

 to bestow it— and lavishing it upon a foreign 

 one, than it would Vie to withhold support 

 fidi'n a constituent of our own connnuiiity, 

 and bestowing it entirely upon one liir iM-yond 

 our local limits ; especially in a case where 

 the nuriU of such a home Journal is ailmitted, 

 and it is deemed sufficiently interesting to 

 horrmi'. 



Scarcidy a week passes (last week came six) 

 that we do not nceive coininenilat<u-y notices 

 from our coteniporaries, or their friends, far 

 beyond the geographical limits of our own 

 State, and their wonder that we are not lietter 

 patronized at home, where a local recognition 

 and sniqiort ought to originate and be freely 

 accorded. We do not think that we are ille- 

 gitimately .selfish, "sine- self-preservation is 

 Uie fiiist law of nature," but we must insist 

 that the local press of the country is entitled 

 to greater consiihration. both morally and 

 mat'i'rially, than it has ever yet received, and 

 that it forms a constitiuMit in the composition 

 of foreign journals that is mm-e manifest to 

 their conductors than it can he to their 

 readers. Wipi' out the existence of the local 

 press and the local n^coid of a country, and 

 you destroy whatever interest there may 

 have been in the lar._'er puhli<'ationsof foreign 

 localities. Look at the old lilesof (lapels i>ul> 

 lished fifty, sixty or a himdrcd years ago, and 

 see how meagre are their eolunms in items of 

 local interest. Many of them are i.rincipal- 

 ly made up of matter that has very little 

 reference to local afTairs. It is the local press 

 that is the chief instrument in the develop- 

 ment of local resources, anil local eomniuni- 

 ties could not ))ossibly do more towards the 

 advaiiceiiiint of local" progress, than in lend- 

 ing a hearty support to their local journals, 

 whether social, scientific, literary, mechanical, 

 or aLrricultural. 



There are no better rea.sons for supporting 

 foreign journals to the total exclusion of local 

 journals, than there are Ibr supporting foreign 

 merchants, mechanics, arlizansand workshops 

 to the total exclusion of those that are located 

 in the community around us. and it must he- 

 come api>arent, on only a little relleetion, that 

 to withdraw our entire support from our local 

 eominunitv and bestowing it entirely on a 

 foreign oiie, that that coninuinity must ulti- 

 matidv become impoverished— mere "hewera 

 of wood and drawers of water" to foreign 

 monopolies, if it cimid sustain itself at all. 

 The term fmcign is not used here to designate 

 a country outside of the jurisdiction of our 

 Federal rnioii, but mav mean a diflerent 

 country, a different State", a dillerent county, 

 or a diiVereiit town or city from that in ^vhlph 

 we reside. Is it rational, is it politic, is it 

 charitable to ignore our felhnv -citizen, our 

 fellow-taxpaver, our fidlow-associate, or our 

 fellow-sympathizer in our local district Ibr no 

 other reason than because his establishment is 

 not so large and imposing as that of a foreign 

 one ? We by no means disimte the inalienable 

 ri'dit of any freeman to exercise his own wish 

 and will in the distribution of his i>atronage. in 

 anv ca.se. Nor are we in favor of that morbid 

 partiality which can seciiotliing worthy of its 

 consideration beyond the borders of its own 

 immediate liicsiiie. In-cause there may be situ- 

 ations and circnmstaiices under whi<-h a com- 

 munity may be more benefited by a judicious 

 exiiansion t^han by suicidal contraction. 



But we respectfully submit that our local 

 journals, our local entcn)ri.s<'s, our local inter- 

 ests and our local prosperity ought to be ob- 



