654 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



and ravv-bonp.J breed of caitle, which no well- 

 wisher to the liirming interest would ever desire 

 to encournge. Other things being equal, we 

 should prel'er, as a mailer of profit, to be the ow- 

 ner of a cow or bull that was but little above ihe 

 medium size, rather than of one extraordinarily 

 large. Finenessol'bone, symmetry ol form, ap|iarei)i 

 ihril't and hardmess ol' consiituiion — ihese are '.lie 

 important points. And in relation to young ani 

 mals, intended to he kept as breeders, we should 

 reward it as highly important to know something 

 of the pedigree, so that we might guess wheiher 

 the good points were merely accidental, or whe- 

 ther ihey were fixed in the blood, and would be 

 likely to reappear in liie oHspring. A very finely 

 formed bull, which happens to come from coarse 

 parents, will, in but very lew instances, produce 

 his like ; and ibrihis reason we should make the 

 parentage a matter of importance ; not that we 

 should be anxious to encourajje in a n gion of 

 ehort pasturage, the general introduciion of 

 " Herd Book" aninials — but we should like to 

 know that ihe parents lor two or three generations 

 back had been well-lormed and profitable in our 

 climate, and upon such leed as is usual here. 



" When we come to iVuits and vegetables, the 

 matter is still worse. II a squash, from bome 

 mysterious and unconjectured cause, happens to 

 become a mainmolh, or to be curiously distorted in 

 form, that is the one that must be earned lo the 

 show, while the cart-loads that are finely-lbrmed, 

 of good qualiiy, and the causes ol' whose excel- 

 lence can be explained and reapplied by the pro- 

 ducer and others — these are ielt at home. So it 

 is, io son\e extent, in relation to many other vege- 

 tables and to lluils. 



" Now what we wish to see is, a fair specimen 

 of a good crop, and acconpanying ihai, we desire 

 a statement of ihe mode of culture, so that we 

 nmy obtain instruciion that will he of service to 

 us in our own agricultural and horiiculiur.il opera- 

 tions in future years. The mammoihs, the dwarfs 

 the defornjed, which nature has made in sport, 

 and which cannot be produced again by any par- 

 ticular processes of cultivation — ihese thinus are 

 mere curiosities, and convey no useful inibrmaiion. 

 The fairest, finest and best specimens (not in all 

 cases the Zarges<) are ihc proper ones to be ex- 

 hibited on these occasions." Z. 



Nov. 10, 1811. 



to enable him to declare — which he would do 

 learlessly, although he might seem to some to 

 have committed himself in the above expressed 

 opinion — which however cannot be his own, (iar 

 he ii a man who never makes up his raiud until 

 he has liad an upporiuniiy of Ibrraing a correct 

 judgment — that the bones are real, and go to 

 sliow an animal hitherto undiscovered and un- 

 known." 



THE MISSOURIUBI, OR LEVIATHAN SKELl^TON. 



The last number of the Farmers' Cabinet con- 

 tains a communication on this subject, in which 

 is the following passage : 



" In the last number of the "Farmers' Register" 

 it is said: "The Missourium, or ekeleion of a 

 double-sized mammoth, which has been exhibit- 

 ing in the western cities, turns out to be a coun- 

 lerlieit, or at least so far factitious, as presenting 

 a larger size of the well-known Mastodon, of 

 which this is, in truth, a specimen." Now, Irom 

 what I know of the gil'ted editor and proprietor ol 

 that first of all our agricultural publications, I am 

 quite sure that it would only be necessary for 

 him to take one glimpse of the object in question. 



However liiile deserved may be the highest 

 coinjjlimenis paid in this passage lo us and our 

 publication, the writer has done nothing more 

 ihan bare jusiice in acquitting us of all intention 

 of detracting Irom true merit, or being unwilling 

 lo make amends lor any such unintentional wrong. 

 The short statement which is quoted above was 

 part ol' our weekly summary ol news, and was 

 taken (in substance) from a paragraph in one of 

 the northern newspapers, which has been widely 

 republished, and of which a lull and trustworthy 

 relutation now is presented — and which we take 

 pleasure in admilling lo be such. The gigantic 

 skeleton has recently been exhibited publicly in 

 Philadelphia ; and the strict scientific scrutiny lo 

 which it must ihere have been subjected, as well 

 as the confirmation of two ariicle^ in the Farmers' 

 Cabinet, would alone be enough to saiisly us that 

 ihe enormous size and new character oi^ these re- 

 mains had not been increased by art and decepiion. 

 We regret lo learn thai this skeleton has already 

 been shipped lor Europe, in pursuit of a moie 

 eniighiened curiosity and of better pecuniary re- 

 ward, than this couniry has furnished. 



A previous and longer article in the same num- 

 ber of the Farmers' Cabinet gave a portrait of the 

 skeleton, and an account of it from the pam- 

 phlet of its discoverer and proprietor, Mr. Al- 

 bert Koch, from which we extract the following 

 descripticn and statement of dimensions. 



" This giixaniic skeleton measures 32 feet in 

 length and 15 in height; the head measures, from 

 the lip of the nose lo the spine of the neck, 6 feet ; 

 from one zyiromatic arch lo the other, 4 feet ; from 

 the lower edge of ihe upper lip to the first edge 

 of Ihe front tooth, 20 inches ; from the front point 

 of the lower jaw to the first edge of the front 

 tooth, 8 inches ; from the edge ol the upper lip, 

 measuring along (he roof of the mouth to the 

 socket of the eye, 3 feet ; from thence to where 

 the Alias joins the head, 10| inches. The whole 

 number of teeili is eight — tliat is, four upper and 

 four lower, not including the two tusks. The two 

 upper lore teeth are 4 inches broad and 4^ inches 

 in length, and are situated in the head in such a 

 manner that they slant towards the roof of the 

 mouth, insomuch that their outer edge is 1^ inch 

 higher than their inside edge. The back teeth 

 in the upper jaw are 7 inches in length, and where 

 they unite with the front leeth, they are, like 

 those, 4 inches broad, and from thence run nar- 

 rower back until they end almost in a point. The 

 formation of the nose is very peculiar : it consists 



