MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



SEPTEMBER, 1845. 



VOL. I. 



PORTRAIT OF A SHORT-HORN BULL : 



WITH A BMEF SKETCH OF THE QUALITIES OF THAT BREED, AND OF ITS INTRODUC- 

 TION INTO MARYLAND. 



We pretend not to offer anything new in giv- 



g the portrait of a Short-Horn Bull ; indeed it 

 'i would be difficult to present an^ttimg in the 

 way of form or description of the properties of 

 •attle, with which agriculturists, at all accus- 

 tomed to read the many excellent journals of 

 the day, have not been made familiar. Never- 

 theless, tlie plan of the Farmers' Library would 

 be but partially filled, if we did not, in due time, 

 take care to have it represent pictorially, and 

 in every mode of illustration, every sort of beast 

 or bird that has been, or that probably might be 

 profitably brought under our dominion, or em- 

 ployed in the purposesof the Agriculturist. We 

 propose to make its pages the repository and 

 instructor of the Naturalist as well as the Farmer 



The animal selected has been taken pretty 

 much at random, to give what we know to por- 

 tray the characteristic points of that breed of 

 cattle. We should have been glad now, as we 

 shall at any time, to give the likeness of a Cow 

 of this breed, imported from Ireland— sent out 

 by Mr. Murdoch, a gentleman possessing a large 

 share of various and useful kno\vledge, now re- 

 siding at Ashe\nlle, N. C. The Cow to which 

 we allude is Sophy, property of Mr. George 

 Law, of Baltimore, and is probably equal to, if 

 not the best milker in the Union. 



The qualities of the short-honis have been so 

 often described, and are so^vell known by their 

 diffusion through the States, as to make it almost 

 Biiperfluous to repeat that they excel in symme- 

 try of form, in early maturity, delicacy and light- 

 ness of head and tail, and in aptitude to lay on 

 fat. As milkers they appear to have been con- 

 demned or approved, as purchasers have hap- 

 pened to get them of particular families — lactif- 

 (273) 



erous secretions running in cue family, as it is 

 said, in a remarkable manner, while the fatty 

 secretions in like manner distinguish other fam- 

 ilies of the same breed. 



Then, again, the Herefords are not without 

 their advocates, in England as well as America ; 

 while there are those who maintain that for all 

 purposes — the pail, the shamble.s, and the yoke 

 — the Devons, on a given amount of food, prove 

 to be the most profitable, take them " by and 

 large," for the generality of farmers and the 

 common pastures of the country. The fine Ne'vr- 

 England Oxen are deep in this blood. 



To all we shall hold an even scale of compar- 

 ison — giving their forms to the life, and impar- 

 tially delineating their qualities on the best tes- 

 timony within our reach. 



We well remember the sensation made in 

 Mai-yland by the first exhibition of three im- 

 proved short-honis — Champion, White Rose, 

 and Shepherdess — at a cattle-show at the old 

 Maryland Tavern, a few days only after their 

 'arrival. The very best cattle that the country 

 could bring together were thrown so far into 

 the shade that their owners hardly knew where 

 to find them ; and yet there were very fine cat- 

 tle ou the ground, of mixed blood, from the best 

 cattle of Holland and Ireland, which had been 

 imported by the late W^illiam Patterson aJid 

 Mr. O'Donnell — to whose public spirit, so much 

 at that time in the lead of their cotemporaries, 

 we would fain do justice, even at this late day. 



A few days before the arrival of the cattle 

 above named — sent out at onr instance, from 

 what we had read of the excellence of short- 

 horns — Governor Lloyd, a very large landhold- 

 er and accomplished farmer of the Eastern 



