130 



FARfllERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



parison ol females, would show the advantage of 

 getting that sex which can give the breeder a hun- 

 dred of his offspring in a season in place of one. 

 Another advantage is the letting out the males to 

 hire lor the season, a thing greatly to be wished 

 the soceity would encourage, and give premiums 

 for. The system is productive of the best conse- 

 quences, a few of which it may be well to bring 

 betbre the society ; and be it remembered that it 

 is only by the male, for a thousand obvious rea- 

 sons, that it can be done. When a person has 

 bred or purchased a male, he not only does not 

 like to put him away, although he perhaps has 

 found out that he is not well calculated, either as 

 to cross or selection, to suit the females he has to 

 put him to; but from the partiality which we all 

 have for our own, it is ten to one but we think an 

 animal," which, in truth, is of no value, to be a 

 very fine one; and thus the breeder patters on 

 with an inferior animal, instead of year by year 

 selecting such a male for hire as he sees would 

 be best suited to correct the faults of his stock. 

 Look to the good arising in our breed of hor- 

 ses from this system, which in fact public stal- 

 lions exemplify. Look how the districts in Eng- 

 land, where the practice of letting bulls and rams 

 of by the season exists, have far outstripped the rest 

 the island in the excellence of the stock which ihey 

 possess; and let any one say if the benefit result- 

 ing from it is not self-evident. If such a thing 

 were to be introduced in Scotland, and I shall hope 

 one day to see it introduced under the patronage 

 of the Highland Society, it ought decidedly to be 

 in the shape of shows or competitions. Then a 

 spirited farmer, or a few neighbors, could join and 

 procure a fine animal at an easy rate : then the 

 ignorant pretending judge would be told the truth 

 by the verdict passed on his property by the pub- 

 lic, who would not spare either his veracity or self- 

 conceit ; comparison would teach all a better taste 

 and judgment; fine animals would be brought 

 from England, and all parts of the country; and 

 rewards, not only of fame, but of emolument, would 

 be conferred on the man who paid the greatest 

 attention to his trade, and consequently brought 

 foward the finest animals. I do not think I can 

 better conclude than by quoting the words of Sir 

 John Sebright, whose ideas on the subject alto- 

 gether coincide with my own. "There is, per- 

 haps," says he, "no means by which the breed of 

 animals can be so rapidly and so effectually im- 

 proved, as by its being the particular business of 

 some breeders to provide male animals for the 

 purpose of letting to hire. No trouble or expense 

 will be spared by those who expect to derive pro- 

 fit, not from the quantity but from the quality of 

 the animals which they breed ; the competition 

 which must always exist between breeders of this 

 description will be a never-failing stimulus to ex- 

 ertion. The common farmer, who seldom sees 

 any stock but his own or that oi' his neiwhborf=, 

 generally concludes that his have arrived\t the 

 summit of perfection. But the breeder, who lets 

 for hire, must frequently submit his own male ani- 

 mals to the inspection of the public, and to the 

 criticism of his rivals, who will certainly not en- 

 courage any prejudices he may entenain of their 

 superiority. Thus each, besides the improvement 

 of his stock, will receive a fair remuneration ; and 

 every breeder have the means of aelectino- the 

 male he thinks best calculated for the females he 

 may happen to possess." 



I have now, I humbly conceive, shown not only 

 that it is the male parent which is capable of most 

 speedily improving the breed of live stoik, con- 

 nected with agriculture, but that the male is the 

 parent, i'vom motives of sense and sound policy, 

 which we can alone look to for the improvement 

 of our breed of live-stock. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 ICE-HOUSES. 



In your July No, the question is asked, " who 

 will answer to the request of a subscriber to be in- 

 formed of the best plan of building ice-houses, the 

 most suitable situation, &c. &c. '?" As my expe- 

 rience upon this subject has been considerable, and 

 differs, in some respects, from that communicated 

 for the Cabinet in some of the succeeding num- 

 bers, I beg leave to trouble you with it, though at 

 this late day : and ask the lavor of a publication, 

 if you shall believe there is in the premises any 

 information conveyed worth the expense of print- 

 ing. 



The first great secret in constructing an ice- 

 house, which will preserve the ice until the suc- 

 ceeding winter, consists in making it of considera- 

 ble capacity; to contain from 80 to 100 full ox-cart 

 loads. The next is, that it should be underground, 

 and in a porous soil. If this last cannot be obtam- 

 ed, the inconvenience may be obviated, where the 

 location will admit of it, by a tortuous drain fiom 

 the bottom, so constructed as to permit the pas- 

 sage of the water from the dissolving ice without 

 admitting the introduction of the warm external 

 air; or in a comparatively level situation, by sinkmg 

 a well in the centre, deep enough to reach a porous 

 soil; or, if this cannot be reached easily, of capa- 

 city safficienl to contain eight or ten hogsheads of 

 water, and in^both cases loalled and not filled up 

 with stone. The bottom of the pit may be so con- 

 structed as to have a fiill from the whole circum- 

 ference to this centre. 



My ice-house is a pit eighteen feet square, and 

 twelve feet deep, walled up with stone as an ordi- 

 nary cellar — the wall eighteen inches thick, and 

 continued one foot above the ground — the roof of 

 shingles, and the ends boarded up with the space 

 of an inch between each board, to admit a free ven- 

 tilation. I fill it in the following manner. When 

 there comes a good snow which drifts a good 

 deal, I collect three or four ox-carts and half a do- 

 zen hands, and chosing a drift which has blown 

 from a grass-field, the snow is cut with a shovel 

 or spade into blocks of a size to be handled with fa- 

 cility, loaded into the carts, which are backed up 

 to the door of the ice-hou.-^e anil tilted in. The bu- 

 siness of one hand is to remain in the ice-house 

 and tramp the snow ivell and evenly doivn. When 

 the snow is in good condition, that is, when it is 

 drifted info high l)anks, and thereby remltred so- 

 lid, the filliiiiris executed with great iiiciiity, econo- 

 my anil celerity. In the winter of 1837," my ice- 

 house Wits filled to the condt of the root in one 

 day and a quarter, by seven hands and two ox- 

 carts, Thedrift was within 150 yards of the ice- 

 house. In the winter of"lS38 T filled the same 

 house in one dny and a half by five hands and ,j 

 three ox-car's. This snow was not. drifted. It was I 

 the last of March, and the prospect of getting drift 1 



