122 AGRICULTURE. 



soils neither too moist nor too dry that it attains 

 the perfection of which it is susceptible. 



What remains of this subject may be referred to 

 the general principles of tillage, and the particular 

 preparation necessary for clover crops, both of 

 which may be found in the preceding chapters. 



CHAPTER XII. 



OF FARM CATTLE. 



THESE consist of horses, mules, cows, oxen, 

 sheep, and hogs. It is not the object of this chap- 

 ter to discuss the relative value of animals of differ- 

 ent kinds, nor to explain the principles on which an 

 individual of either kind is preferred to another in- 

 dividual of the same kind, but merely to indicate 

 the uses of each, and the modes most approved for 

 giving extension and value to these uses. And, 



I. Of the Horse, 



Of this animal naturalists admit but one species, 

 but many and widely different varieties, which are 

 again subdivided under the denomination of races.* 

 At the head of these, by common consent, stands 

 the horse of Arabia, and after him the Persian, the 

 Barb, the Andalusian, and the English. His flesh 

 not entering, like that of the ox, into the general 

 and ordinary subsistence of man,f he is valued only 



* Bake well and others have shown that you may multiply 

 these races at will. By selecting two individuals of any given 

 shape, size, and colour which you may prefer, you secure a 

 progeny having all the qualities of their parents. This obser- 

 vation applies as well to horned cattle and hogs as to horses, 

 and might be usefully taken as a rule of conduct in this country. 



t Horseflesh is eaten by the Negroes of Africa, the Arabs, 

 Tartars, and occasionally by the Chinese. Page 213, vol. 22d, 

 Buffon's Nat, Hist. 



