148 



®l)e iTavincr'B illontl)l» bisitor. 



lioiiie." I am sick of large ciiltle, large sheep, 

 Inign lioises. 1 know ihat the fiii.ill hreeils are 

 most (irofitable. A market is easier lijuiul lor u 

 small bullock than n large one ; the meat is un- 

 questionably belter, anil if an acriilent befal 

 there is the smaller loss. They can be kept on 

 coarse hay ; they need less grain in proportion to 

 their size, anil they will grow lat on land where 

 a DiM'liam pet would only live IVumj day to day. 

 1'lie Durham cattle are adapted to the rich fields 

 of Durham, of Suffolk, liincolnshire, Wiltshire- 

 are bred only for the butcher, and do well iji a 

 market where beef is worth from 6 to 8d the lb. 

 Let us improve oiu" own stock to the highest 

 possible degree of improvement ; covet as much 

 IS |)ossible the " short legs and barrel bodies," 

 give premiujns for the best nalmal milker; and 

 oceasioually pay as high as seventy five dollars 

 for a " Haskin's cow," but go no farther. These 

 exotic breeds are not adapied to our soil, climate, 

 market and means. They are, in another shape, 

 the " mulberry tree," " beet root for sugar" and 

 other Calibans of the imaginatiun which have so 

 afflicted our country, and sown distress and mi- 

 sery through the land in tlie last ten years. We 

 have become wise enough to discard many for- 

 eign lii.xuries, and the cnnseqnence is reluiniiig 

 prosperity — let us remember that these expensive 

 foreign cattle are things we do not need. 



Yours, J. A. J. 



For the F;»rmcr's Monthly Visitor. 

 Horses and Mules. 



Fashion is a tyiant exacting submission with 

 more potency than the nifjst absohile despot. 

 The horse almost every wheje in our coimtrv 

 is preferred to the mule, because he is an animal 

 of better appearance ; bus proportions in size 

 more suited to our vehicles; fills up the h^irness 

 better; and, more th.in these, oilier people use 

 horses, and do not fancy muhs. The horse, 

 moreover, is generally less obf!:irate in temper 

 and consequently easier to amend in any faulty 

 habil.s. A fine horse in his pride .-ind beauty i.s 

 doubtless the noblest animal th:ii man has sid)- 

 jeeted to his use, and when kiniily treated exhib- 

 its traits of character, of courage and attach- 

 ment winning and endeaiing. It is not to be 

 expected then, that with these considerations the 

 liorse will easily be supplaiiteil, or find a rival 

 in the sleepy looking, lo]ig-cared, slope-lailed 

 animal, that is neiilier horse nor ass, but an 

 equivocBl vibrating thing that is half brother to 

 both. 



But dismissing our piide, habits, prejudices 

 and appearances, h-l ns cahnly consider the val- 

 ue of these animals coinparatively to the farmer: 

 let us look at the debit ;mil credit ol'tlie account, 

 and see wlipre that will bring lis, or which will 

 put our aftiiirs in the best condition at the end 

 of ten or fifteen years — the use of horses or the 

 use of mules upon our liirnis. Horses, liom the 

 time they begin lo wink, aie ixeni'rally worn out 

 in that time, their cost is gone, li.st forever; a 

 mule will last fifty or sixty years, or more than 

 three limes as long as the horse ; hence he hard- 

 ly begins to work wln-n ilie horse is gone. This 

 is the first advanlage. 



The iiuile is kept .-.t less expen.se, varying in 

 the opinions of exprrieticed persons fiom one 

 Ihiril to one half that of the horse: this in fif- 

 teen years may be set down as equal lo .-J'lSO, in 

 adiliiion to ihe loss by the worn out horse and 

 the expense of procuring another. 



.\'^aiii, the mule is rarely sick, and will sta'id 

 haiil usage uiucli belter than the horse, and this, 

 ahhough it cannot be put down in figures, is in 

 the roiiife of contingencies a decided gain, for 

 I'l'w of us but occasionally have our horses laid 

 up and even lose llieiii by ilisease. 



'• ISiit," sals ihe advocate liir the horse, "your 

 iiinles are no better than so many Esqniimiux 

 ilous ; they have no weight—they can |ndl noth- 

 ing." Not quite so fast, niy friend ; small though 

 they may he, the owners of mule teams, who 

 once owned horses, declared that they will carry 

 IIS heavy h.ads as an equal nnniber of horses ; 

 that unlike, and surpassing the horses, they are 

 not discoiiraged by being set, or stopped in bad 

 places, and will by their lietter patience and hab- 

 ils of endurance wear out the horse team on the 

 .'lame road with equal weight. 



Do not let us be led astray by a|'.pearnnces; 



■ mule is not yet done. In "his fooling he far 

 at-ses ihe hoise ; he will travel over acclivi- 



ties where the other Cannot go, and no accident, 

 as broken shafts of the chaise, or broken limlm 

 from pitching out of it, ever occurs, where this 

 careful, faultless footed animal is depended nn- 

 on. Only let him have a Ibothold and he will 

 pull ; give liini but room enough to place his 

 feet, and he will stand up. If lie is obstinate 

 and hard headed, it is only in pursuance of hab- 

 its already formed ; let them be properly inbred, 

 and your mule will ever be found where you 

 would have him. 



In Spain, in Rarbary, and in Italy, the trusty 

 mule has no rival in the horse ; he requires no 

 pen to speak in his [uaise, for his chnracter has 

 long been established. In the .'«ho\vy and easy 

 carriage of the rich he is loiiiid in bright 

 harness. lie is the animal upon which the well 

 fed cardinal takes his airing in the country; the 

 ladies prefer him for the saddle; Ihe traveller 

 journies upon him ; and, lastly, his long cars are 

 seen in the field, and in the cottage the abiding 

 companion of the tiller of the .soil. 



Few or none of iheseanimals are used in New 

 England ; some are found in the middle states 

 of Penn.sylvania, Maryland and Virginia, where 

 their use is increasing; but when we get to the 

 South, and especially on the sugar plantations of 

 Louisiana, there the mule occupies the place of 

 animal labor almost exclusively. The raising of 

 mules for the Soiiihern States and for the West 

 Indies has long been a profitable branch of farm- 

 ing in the West, estiecially Kentucky, and when 

 reared from blooded stock, they make the best 

 of animals lor the carriage, saddle, or for draft. 



MULETEER. 



Ode, 



WRITTEN FOR THE RENSSKLAER COUNTY AGRICUL- 

 TURAL FAIR. 



THE \OICES OF AUTUMW. 



Jjy A I.ADV UF LANSINCBURGH. 



There's music in the forest trees, 



And notes in the still woods now ; 

 The rushing whirl of the failing le.TVes, 



And the sound of the rustling hough. 

 There's music in tlie wild bee's hum, 



As it sports through the garden bowers, 

 And sips the last of the honey-dew, 



From the lingering Autumn flowers. 



There's music in the stream, ere long 



To be bi»und with an icy chain, 

 As its cold briglit waters leap and bound, 



On their way to the distant ninin. 

 .■\nil shall the voice of man t)e mule, 



When nature around him sings, 

 And tiie very " air musical," 



\Viih tlic voices that autumn brings ? 



There's music in the ploughman's song. 



As he wends his homeward way, 

 .\nd thinks on the stores laid up secure, 



I'or the coming winter's day. 

 There's music in the reaper's heart, 



As he views his golden store, 

 .And sees that with heaps of gathcr'd grain. 



His barns are running o'er. 



Oh' there are voices, and sweet ones too, 



That rise from the farmer's home. 

 While gratitude lights his honest tiiow. 



And breathes in his manly tone, 

 Tliey are the rightful " lords of the land," 



And tenants of Clod's own soil, 

 .\nd l-fe makes them rich in Iheir happy homes. 



With the fruits of their honest toil. 



From the Shores of the Ivhine, by Dumas. 

 Napoleon before and after Waterloo. 



GOIKG TO WATERLOO. 



We saw two carriages upproachins', g.illoping, 

 each with six horses. They disapjieared for an 

 instant in a valley, then rose again at a quarter of 

 a league's distant from us. Then we set oli" run- 

 ning toward the town, crying U Empereur ! V- 

 Empereur! We .-irrived breathless, and only pre- 

 ceding the emperor by some five hundred paces. 

 I thought he would not slop, wliatever niigln.. 

 the crowd awaiting him, and so made for ihe 

 post house, when I sunk down half dead, with 

 the running; but at any rate I was ihere. In a 

 moment appeared, turning the coiner of a street, 

 the foaming horses; then the postilions all cov- 

 ered with ribbons; then the carriages themse.ves; 

 then the people following the carriages. The 

 carriages stopped at the post. I saw Napoleon ! 

 He was dressed in a green coat, with little epau- 

 lets, and wore the officer's cross of the legion of 

 honor. I only saw his bust framcil in the square 

 of the i 



chest — that fiimous medallic head of the old Ro- 

 man emperors. His forehead fell forward ; his 

 features, immoveable, were of the yellowish col- 

 or of wax, only his eyes appeared to be alive. 

 Next him, on his left, was Prince Jerome, a king 

 without a kingdom, but a faithful brother. He 

 was, at that period, a fine young man of six and 

 twenty or thirty years of age, his features regular 

 and well-formed, his beard black, his hair elegant- 

 ly arranged. He saluted in place of his brother, 

 whose vague glance seeined lost in the future - 

 perhaps in the past. Opposite the emperor was 

 Leiort, his aid-de camp, an ardent soldier, who 

 .seemed already to snufi' the air of battle ; be was 

 smiling too, the poor fellow, as if he had long 

 days to live! All this lasted for about a minute. 

 Then the whip cracked, the horses neighed, and 

 all disappeared like a vision. 



RETl'RNI.NQ FROM WATERLOO. 



Three days afterward, toward evening, some 

 people arrived from St. Quentin ; they said as 

 they came away they heard cannon. The morn- 

 ing of the 17tli, a courier arrived, who scattered 

 all along the road the news of the victory. The 

 18th nothing. The 19lh nothing!" only vague ru- 

 mors were abroad, coining no one knew whence. 

 It was said that the emperor was at Brussels. — 

 The 20lli, three men in rags, two wounded, and 

 riding jaded horses all covered with foam, enter- 

 ed ihe town, and were instantly surrounded by 

 the whole population, and pushed into the court- 

 yard of the town house. These men hardly spoke 

 French. They were, I believe, Wcstiihalians, be- 

 longing somehow to onr army. To all our ques- 

 tions, they only shook iheir heads sadly, and end- 

 ing by confessing that they had quilted the field 

 of battle at Waterloo at eight o'clock, and that 

 the battle was lost when they came away. It was 

 the advanced guard of the fugitives. We would 

 not believe them. We said these men were Prus- 

 sian spies. Napoleon could not be beaten. The 

 fine army which we had seen pass could not be 

 destroyed. Wr wanted to put the poor fellows 

 in prison : so ipiickly had we forgotten '1.3 and 

 '14, lo remember only the years which had gone 

 before. .'My mother ran to the fiirt, where f'^e 

 passed the whole day, knowing it was there the 

 news must arrive, whatever it were. During this 

 time I looked out in the maps lijr Waterloo, the 

 name of which even I could not find, and began 

 to think the place was imaginary, as was the 

 men's account of the battle. 



.^t four o'clock, more fugitives arrived, who 

 confirmed the news of the first comers. These 

 were French, and could give all the details which 

 we asked for. They repeated what the others 

 had said, only adding thai Napoleon and his 

 brother were killed. This wc could not believe! 

 Napoleon n;ight not be invincible, invulneriiblo 

 he certainly was. Fresh news more terrible and 

 di.sastrons continued to come in until ten o'clock 

 at night. At ten o'clock at night wc heard the 

 noise of a carriage. It slopped, and the postmast- 

 er went out with a light. VVe followed him as he 

 ran to the door to ask for news. Then he start- 

 ed a step back, and cried, " It's the Emperor !" I 

 got on a stone bench and looked over my moth- 

 er's shoulder. It was indeed Napoleon ; seated 

 in the same corner, in Ihe same uniform, his head 

 on liis breast as before. Perhaps it was bent a 

 little lower; but there was not a line in hiscoiin- 

 teiiiince, not an altered feature, lo mark what ' 

 were the feelings of the great gambler, who had 

 just staked and lost the world. Jerome and Le- 

 tort were not with him now to bow and smile in 

 his place. Jerome was gathering together the 

 remnants of the army. — Letorl had been cut in two 

 by a cannon ball. Napoleon lifted his head slow- 

 ly, looked round as if rousing from a dream, and 

 then, willi his brief, strident voice, " What place 

 is this?" he said. " Villers Culeret, sire." "How 

 manv leagues from Soissons.^" " Si.x, sire." 

 "From Paris?" "Nineteen." "Tell the post- 

 boys lo go quick ;" and he once more flung him- 

 self back into Ihe corner of his carriage, his head 

 falling on his chest. The horses carried him a- 

 way as if Ihey had wings. The world knows 

 what had taken place between these two appari- 

 tions of Napoleon ! 



!ige window. His head fell ti])on his wc have read 



A True Poet. — The following is the con- 

 clusion of Mr. Hilliard's Oration before the Phi 

 Beta Kappa of Harvard College. It is of rare 

 beauty, as aieall porlions of his discourse which 



