186 



NEW ENGLAND F A R iM E R , 



DEC. 16, IS4 0. 



taken to liavo the heap well made up at the sides 

 and pointed at the top ; in this situation rain will 

 be thrown off, and the compost preserved dry until 

 ■winter presents some favorable opportunity for lay- 

 ing it on the young- clover, wheat, or for making 

 any oilier use of it which may be required. 



The beneficial effects of top-dressing young clo- 

 vers or mixed grass seeds is scarcely ever regarded 

 with due attention. Ky this help crops are not 

 only much increased, even 30 or 50 per cent., but 

 they are also ready for cutting much sooner, which 

 in a backward .=ipring gives the stock farmer ines- 

 timable advantages for sorting his cattle, and there- 

 by raising manure at his pleasure. The full effects 

 of this practice I first experienced in the dry sea- 

 son of ]8"2t): I had some clovers wliich had beefi 

 manured the previous winter; my land was soon 

 covered with crop, and that so vigorous a one, that 

 the hot weather did not overpower it. My cows 

 that suumier were tied up during the day-time, and 

 in the night they were turned out into the pastures ; 

 most of the stock in my district were much distress- 

 ed from over-heat as well as from being short of 

 food for some weeks; milk yielded little butter, 

 scarcely any for a time was offered in our largs 

 market town : — do doubt that year will be remem- 

 bered by many gentlemen on the Agricultural So- 

 ciety's committee. I, however, was under no dif- 

 ficulties on account of tlie season: my clovers pro- 

 duced plenty of food for my cattle, and in return 

 they yielded as much milk and butter as I ever re- 

 collect from the same number. I am persuaded 

 that the same satisfactory results would have fol- 

 lowed if the same system had been adopted for 

 feeding stock ; it was that year my attention was 

 first directed to raising compost heaps from urine. 

 Tliis I now do frequently without the help of any 

 dung from the cattle-stalls; the same occasion 

 called my mind to another matter well worthy eve- 

 ry farmer's attention-^I allude to the great superi- 

 ority of the manure raised in summer soiling to 

 that produced in the stalls during winter. I verily 

 believe the difference is fifty par cent, unless 

 stock are fed in a great measure during winter 

 wiili artificial food. In an arrangement for making 

 compost heaps from urine, I would recommend a 

 receptacle to be made at the back of the cattle 

 stalls just outside tiie building; this should hold 

 about 20 cartloads of mould, or any other matters 

 to be employed ; if its situation were a little lower 

 tliaii the cattle-sheds all the urine would pass into 

 it, and remain there until tlie mass is completely 

 saturated, which will be sufficient ; when the earthy 

 matters are covered over with it, the compost may 

 tlien be thrown out and the proceeding again re- 

 newed. In order to show part of the benefits of 

 this practice, I beg here to observe that the most 

 foul or weedy mould may be used ; the action of 

 tlie urine, if not reduced by water, is so powerful, 

 that wire-worms, the black slug, many other de- 

 stroying insects, and all vegetables, weed.-!, &.c., 

 when in contact with the urine for a time are de- 

 prived of their living functions. The situation for 

 raising this compost should be protected from the 

 weather by a covering similar to a cart-shed ; in- 

 deed, the deteriorating intlusnces of rain, sun, and 

 arid winds, on all putrescent matters or compost 

 are so serious, tliat in my humble judgment it 

 would be worth wliile to have places under cover 

 where these are usually laid down. 



I beg to conclude this essay with some observa- 

 tions made on a former occasion: No amelioration 

 connected with the rural art is of more lasting im- 



portance than correcting the constitutional defects 

 of a soil. The best horticulturists and market- 

 gardeners are many of them perhaps, unacquainted 

 with the theory, yet perfecily understand the great 

 results from that practice; and in this particular 

 information they are all of them superior to many 

 practical farmers. How often do we see a stiff 

 soil sterile in a great degree from that cause only ; 

 yet in the vicinity of a sandpit and adjoining most 

 bogs there is a considerable breadth of coherent 

 land, which might be made double its present value 

 by judicious and liberal top-dressings of peat, wliich 

 is also unproductive from causes of a contrary na- 

 ture. The present poverty of many e.xtensive 

 tracts of land is a numifesl exhibition of the want 

 of skill or enterprise of their owners and cultiva- 

 tors. 



Fnirn the Albany Cullivntor. 



THE SHORT HORNS AND HEREFORDS. 



I have been for some years a subscriber to the 

 Cultivator, and have been much instructed by the 

 fre<]uent notices of fine specimens of stock that 

 have from time to time appeared in different num- 

 bers. Of late those notices, generally accompan- 

 ied by a beautiful portrait, have become more fre- 

 quent, and so far as I have had an opportunity of 

 forming a judgment upon the plan, it is a good one 

 — the youth particularly, are attracted by the pic- 

 ture, and are anxious to read abjut it and see what 

 it is. This genernlly creates a taste, and often 

 enlarges it where it has been already created, and 

 the results in both cases are highly beneficial. 



The only objection I see to the present strife 

 about cattle is, that the object mainly appears to be, 

 who shall produce the largest specimen of the spe- 

 cies. Other considerations appear to be generally 

 merged in this. Whether or not this will be pro- 

 ductive of good to the country, is » question it 

 would be well for the community to examine close- 

 ly. The opinion that the domestic animals of a 

 country should be well suited to the usual and or- 

 dinary accommodations that can be conveniently 

 had lor them, meets with universal approbation. 

 Now, if the great strife is, who shall produce the 

 most extraordinary animal, of course extra food and 

 acconmiodation of every kind must bo provided for 

 all the stock intended for competition, often to the 

 manifest injury of the other stock of the same far- 

 mer—a very few " brag beasts " are kept, and of- 

 ten a large number of cattle that are not worthy 

 of commendation. 



Another matter of surprise, not only to me but 

 to many others wlio derive their book knowledge 

 of these matters from your paper, is the effort now 

 apparently making both in England and America 

 to elevate a different breed of cattle over the heads 

 of the Dinhams. I have particularly examined the 

 account of the recently imported Herofords in the 

 few last' numbers of the Cultivator, and read the 

 appcndad recommendations. I have never seen a 

 sample of the Herefords, but have been familiar 

 with their history as recorded by Mr Youatt, in his 

 work on Jiritish Cattle : and taking the text as laid 

 down by him minutely, the recent discoveries of 

 excellencies in these cattle, calculated to place 

 them before the Durhams or Short Horns, have 

 been matters of considerable surprise. This, to 

 some of the advocates of the Herefords, may sound 

 strange ; but tlie strangeness of the observation 

 will disajipear, if they examine fully the chapters 

 devoted by Mr Vouatt to the difteront breeds of 



cattle, in what may be now, strictly speaking, call- 

 ed their native country. If I understand the work 

 referred to, the engravings in it are calculated for 

 correct representations of the living animals, and, i 

 independent of the writings, they alone will be 

 sufficient to satisfy any breeder that some of the 

 allegations made of the superiorities of the recent 

 importations of Herefords, if they resemble their 

 progenitors, cannot be correct. If these statements 

 are correct, and the appearance and test of the ani- 

 mals will prove it, then " improvement has been 

 extended to them." If they have now properties 

 that the breed in the time of Youatt's writings had 

 not, it is a very important question to know how 

 they have acquired those properties. Mr Youatt 

 says, " the Hereford cow is apparently a very infe- 

 rior animal. Not only is she no milker, but even 



her/oi7n has been sacrificed by the breeder." 



These observations of positive facts, for such we 

 must take them to be when from a standard work, 

 do not read well with the recent assertions of Mr 

 Sotham and Mr Bement — the first of whom holds 

 out the idea that they are equal to the Short Horn 

 or Durham, and the latter that they are very good 

 milkers and large. The lattle gentleman, howev- 

 er, states that he has understood their qualities for 

 milk have been "recently improved." How have 

 they been improved in their quality for milk ? Not 

 certainly by breeding among themselves, for the 

 trite and true axiom is settled, I believe, that ''like 

 will beget like." If then the Herefords in the time 

 of Youatt, and for years before that, were " no 

 milkers," how has the present improvement in that 

 quality been effected ? It must have been by the 

 aid of some other breed, celebrated for their pos- 

 session of that quality, and by whose aid, also, the 

 form of the Hereford cow has been so materially 

 improved ; for Mr Sotham says, his are fine look- 

 ing animals, and so says Mr R. L. Allen, if I recol- 

 lect right, who states that he saw them near Alba- 

 ny. 



Now, Messrs Editors, may it not be possible 

 tli:it we are at the commencement of another " stock 

 mania," by which John Bull is about to realize 

 thousands from the farmers of America, by selling 

 them a compound breed of beautiful cattle, the es- 

 sential qualities of which have been derived, and 

 that very recently, from the Short Horns, that we 

 have been making heavy importations of, for years 

 back ? Let any candid man answer the question 

 to his own satisfaction. See what the Herefords 

 were — hear what they are now, and tlieti say if 

 there is any impropriety in charging their admitted 

 '•recent improvement" in points in which the 

 Short Horns excel, to an admixture with them. If 

 such is the fact, and we have a number of the finest 

 specimens of the Short Horns, cannot we, by judi- 

 cious crossings and attention to these matters, form 

 for ourselves, if I may be allowed the expression, 

 a breed of grade cattle, without expending enor- 

 mous sums to pay our transatlantic neighbors for 

 doing work that ne ought now to do for ourselves ? 

 The state of the times is such as to call loudly 

 upon every man in every station of society to do 

 his duty to himself and to his country; and I state 

 it boldly, without fear of contradiction that there is 

 now abundant materials in our own country, to re- 

 tain by judicious breeding, the purity of the full 

 bred Durham, and to commingle their perfections 

 with the stock of our own country, in such a man- 

 ner as to produce a race of animals equal to that 

 of any other country under the sun, for dairy prop- 

 erties as well as for the butcher. 



