474 



FARMERS 5 REGISTER 



[No. 8 



ought we to add to our fields year after year what 

 new land we can clear, putting our farm-yard ma- 

 nures upon the galls and poor places? 



Will meadows sown in timolhy and herds grass 

 in August last, be improved by a dressing of plas- 

 ter of Paris next spring? A serous answer to 

 this query will oblige 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 REASONING OF BRUTES. ANECDOTES OF CATS. 



There has been much idle discussion on the 

 question whether other animals besides man ex- 

 ercise reasoning powers, or are always guided by 

 instinct. Although this is one of the many sub- 

 jects on which "much may be said on both sides," 

 it has always seemed to me clear that all animals 

 (man included,) possess and exercise both these 

 powers, in greater or less proportion — the more 

 perfect animals, as man, and the elephant, and 

 the dog, having most reason and least instinct; 

 and the lower orders, as insects, possessing 

 the most admirable instinct, and the least of rea- 

 son. Still man has some instinct, and the ant ex- 

 hibits still more evidence of having some share of 

 the reasoning faculty. 



Domestic animals, by ages of servitude to, and 

 companionship with man, have not only departed 

 greatly, as to each family, from their original wild 

 character, but many individuals seem to have 

 learned more than others, and to exhibit feelings, 

 as well as acquirements, different from all others ot 

 their kinds. Many well attested and interesting 

 accounts have been published of such facts of el- 

 ephants and of dogs, the animals which can best 

 profit by man's teaching, and even seem to share 

 his passions and feelings. I shall state a circum- 

 stance of another, and the least tamed and docile 

 of all domestic animals, the cat, which exhibits 

 every appearance of the possession of not only 

 reasoning, but of feeling. The circumstances 

 were witnessed by all the members of a highly 

 respectable family in my neighborhood, by several 

 of whom I have heard them stated — and in such 

 manner as to leave no possible doubt of the cor- 

 rectness of the details which will be here re- 

 peated. 



A female cat that was nursing her litter of kit- 

 tens in the cellar of the mansion house, died when 

 they were so young, that in most such cases it 

 would have been deemed a more merciful plan to 

 drown them, than to attempt to raise them. But 

 as cats were then scarce aboui the house, and the 

 rats and mice very numerous and destructive, or- 

 ders were given to use every care to nurse and 

 raise the young kittens. The cellar in which they 

 were, was generally open, being partly a kind of 

 lumber room, and frequented continually by the 

 servants in their different occupations. 



Writers on natural history have treated the cat 

 as devoid of all affection or kindly feelings for its 

 owner, and indeed for every thing else but self- — 

 that caring for nothing but what conduced to its 

 own comfort or pleasure, the cat was a complete 

 exemplification of a being altogether selfish. Such 

 is truly their almost universal character. In ad- 

 dition, we know that however tame cats become 

 in the houses where they live, they still remain as 

 wild animals at others, and in the presence of stran- 



gers — going abroad by stealth, and at night — and 

 flying in alarm from the approach of every lbotstep. 

 The cats raised in our negro-houses, are very fear- 

 ful of approaching the "great house," and rarely 

 venture to do so except at night, and when at- 

 tracted by the company of their own species. 



At one of the negro's houses, about 100 yards 

 distant from the mansion, another cat had kittens 

 of about the same age of those left by the one 

 that died. This one, as usual, had never been 

 seen at the house, and probably had never ventu- 

 red there except in their customary roaming at 

 night. The next day after the death, this "quarter 

 cat" was seen carrying off one of the orphan kit- 

 tens, in her mouth. She was chased, the kitten 

 taken from her and brought back. It was not 

 long before she-returned, and repeated the attempt, 

 but with the same ill success as before. She had 

 to pass through a considerable distance exposed 

 to detection, and could not, without being seen, es- 

 cape with her burdens. The report of these at- 

 tempted abductions, and the singularity of the cir- 

 cumstances, caused the family to attend with cu- 

 riosity to her proceedings, and left the poor animal 

 the less chance of success. She continued how- 

 ever, for several days, (the door of the cellar being 

 then always open) to carry away the kittens, 

 without being able to escape, undetected, a single 

 time. At last a new and more interesting move- 

 ment was seen. She was bringing one of her 

 own kittens to the cellar— and being left undisturb- 

 ed, she soon brought them all, and placed them 

 with those which she was so anxious to nurse. 

 There she took her place in spite of her fears, and 

 nursed both litters as long as they needed it. Of 

 course she, and all her charge, had every aid of 

 food, and care from the ladies of the family. 



Another anecdote of a reasoning cat will be 

 stated which was told me by an intimate and va- 

 lued friend, whose habits of observation are re- 

 markable for strictness and care, as are his state- 

 ments of every kind for the most entire correct- 

 ness. He had a cat raised in his house, and as 

 tame as usual under those circumstances. But 

 whenever about to produce her young, she would 

 take refuge in some out-house, not inhabited. 

 There she kept her kittens until they were old 

 enough to begin to eat — and then with every litter 

 her course was always to bring them one by one, 

 (held according to their mode of transporting 

 them, by the skin of the back,) and lay them on 

 the hearth rug in her mistress' chamber. For ex- 

 periment, they were sometimes taken up and car- 

 ried back, and more than once in the same in- 

 stance. But she would patiently repeat her labor, 

 and continue to bring them and lay them on the 

 rug, until they were permitted to remain, and 

 were fed and taken care of. This cat was a bad 

 nurse, and generally lost some of her kittens, even 

 with the aid thus obtained. No words could have 

 been used to express more strongly than her con- 

 duct, the prayer to aid her in her maternal duties. 



E. R. 



EFFECT OF BOIVE MANURE ON CORN. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Brookfield, (Henrico) Nov. 6, 1835. 



In a number of the last volume of your Regis- 

 j ter, a correspondent describes an experiment made 





