VOL,. X. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 5g, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural WARt:HOOSE.)- T. G. FESSENDEN. EDITOR. 



BOSTOV, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 1, 1832. 



NO. 29. 



(S(©sisa^sni®ii^ii(©srs9 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMEK. 



BREEDS OF CATTLE, 



Swine, Accide.nts from Fire Arms, TREAT.MBiVT 



OF Diseased Horses, &c. \ 



Mr Fes.senden — 1 



Dear Sir^Iii the last No. of your excellekt 

 periodical, I observed some remarks upon naive 

 stock, ill wliich your correspondent ' A. R.' frUn 

 very slight premises, jumps at a conclusion incoj- 

 sisteut with the experience of every breeder, wio 

 has had tlie good fortune to obtain stock of 'Jie 

 really improved breeds ; — and which coiiclusioi'i it 

 does appear to me from the trifling and insufi- 

 cient proof adduced, is, to say the least, ratlir 

 illiberal and far fetched. 



The writer says that, a given pasture will fed 

 the same iceight of cattle whether large or smal, 

 that is, if a given pasture will feed 5 large co«s, 

 it will feed 10 smaller ones of the same weiglt. 

 But, says he, ' these small cows eat but one halfio 

 much as the large, therefore you may double he 

 number, you may keep 20.' But why stop thee ? 

 the same reasoning would permit him to keep <); 

 — would permit him to double his number arf tn^t- 

 tum. Really this would he exceedingly comfortate 

 logic for farmers if it would but hold good iu 

 practice. i 



AVhat improved breed can it be which A. I. 

 has found and which possess such long legs. T$ 

 reverse of that is in accordance with my observa 

 tion and experience. 



The Ilolderness, short horned, Denton, and 

 Ayrshire breeds are certainly not long in the leg; 

 and are all of them superior to our native breeds 

 as milkers. There may occasionally be found 

 among the thousands of cows of our native breeds, 

 here and there, one possessing remarkable properties 

 as a milker. But every person who has given the 

 breeds above referred to, a fair trial, will, I doubt 

 not, agree with me that they are in general better 

 milkers than our native cows ; and that they are 

 by no means so destructive to the contents of our 

 barns as the remarks of A. R. would lead us to 

 suppose. 



A brother-in-law of mine, Mr W. J. To\vnsend, 

 has on his farm in the vicinity of New Haven, a 

 cow of the short horned breed which in size, form, 

 and quality, is, I think I may safely say, second to 

 no other cow in America, either of native or 

 foreign breed. She was imported from London 

 by Henry Degroot, Esq., was purchased for him 

 there, by an eminent breeder and dealer in stock, as 

 the best cow in England. She brought since she 

 came into the possession of Mr Towusend three fine 

 calves. For months after bringing each of her 

 calves she has given 30 measured quarts of milk 

 daily and is with difficulty prevented from continu- 

 ing in milk to the day of her calving. 



Mr Josejih Morgan, of Hartford, has four 

 uncommonly fine cows possessing different degrees 

 of the Ayrshire blood ; one of them, a half blood 

 Ayrshire, calved in the fall of 1830, and through the 

 winter of 1830—31 gave rrgularly, 20 quarts and 

 over of milk per day, and continued to do the 

 same through the succeeding summer. 



I have now four two years old heifers from 

 native cows, by my full blooded Ayrshire bull, 

 which are held to be very fine and are not accused 

 of long legs. One only of them, (one of the 

 most delicate and pretty animals I ever saw) 

 brought me a calf last spring. She calved in June, 

 and through the summer, in ordinary pasture, with 

 my other cows gave me 12 quarts of milk per 

 day and now gives eight quarts a day. 



Other persons perhaps possess better cows, and 

 better heifers, and I might mention many other in- 

 stances, but I 'adduce these which are within my 

 personal knowledge merely to show that inv 

 observation and experience lead to results opposite 

 to those wliich in the cases mentioned by A. R. 

 were so discouraging. 



swine. 



In December of 1830, I sold to my neighbor, 

 IMr Zelali Barnes, two pigs out of a sow of native 

 blood, by my imported boar of the KYorfolk thin 

 rind' breed. They then together weighed 45 lbs. 

 In A[)ril last tliey were estimated to weigh 50 lbs. 

 Mr Barnes is a person of undoubted veracity, 

 and he assures me that these pigs had no 

 extra food, or care, but mine were fed and treated 

 in all res])ects as he has been accustomed to feed 

 those which when killed at the same age usually 

 weigh from 350 to 375 lbs. each. These two pigs 

 were dressed on the 13th of Dec. last, then 

 thirteen mouths old and together weighed 902 lbs. 

 — The peculiarities of the breed are, a propensity 

 to take on flesh, and to dispose of it upon the best 

 points, small bone and hght offal, thin And and 

 ftesV of uncommon fineness of grain and delicacy 

 of texture. 



While the ' Cacoethes scribendi'' is upon me I will 

 add ai.other to the thousand and one warn- 

 ings wlach are annually given of the danger of 

 trying fiie-arms in the vicinity of dwelling-houses. 

 A short time since I shot a hen in my barn vard, 

 ten rods from my house, aiming at the head. The 

 shot passed through the covering of t\f^': ;ow 

 house, were deflected from the course by Lo.itact 

 with a stick of timber, and entered the kitchen 

 through two windows, lodging in the opposite side 

 of the room. My vdfe and sister were both in 

 the room at the time, and were both protected 

 from injury by the wall 20inchesin width between 

 the two windows. 



HORSES. 



A correspondent of yours some time since 

 made, I think, some inquiries respecting a cure for 

 ri7ig bone in horses. — I am frequently called upon 

 to prescribe for horses and colts so affected. In 

 almost every instance blistering ointment, if per- 

 severingly applied, will be of service and in some 

 cases effect a complete cure. It stimulates the 

 liart so that the bony seci'etion is taken into the 

 tirculation and carried off. 



The doctrine advanced by the writer in the 

 [American Farmer that bots are of no injuiy to a 

 horse, is not a new theory ; at least so far as he is 

 concerned, as will appear by a reference to the 

 ' Farmer's Series' where the same theory is broach- 

 ed. 



So far as I am acquauited with the subject, 

 horses taken suddenly ill, if doctored for the bots, 

 will be sure to die. I wiU mention only one in- 



stance of the many which have occurred within the 

 course of my observation. A remarkably fine 

 family horse belonging to a neighbor of mine, had 

 as I should express it a violent attack of cholic. 

 During the day, under the care of those who 

 consider themselves skilful in the art, he was 

 made to swallow immoderate doses of medicine 

 which had 'never failed to kill the bots,' (horse ?) 

 Iu the evening a request was sent me, that I 

 would see the horse. I found him iu agony, covered 

 with a cold sweat and apparently in his last struggle. 

 His owner was persuaded that nothing could be 

 done for him and had given him over. I directed 

 emollients to be applied to counteract the vfTect of 

 the medicine he had taken— that he should be 

 carefully clothed, and be kept as quiet as possible. 

 The next day the horse was nearly well. 



For almost every sudden attack of disease to 

 which horses are liable, bleeding, if immediately 

 effected, is a most excellent remedy and the only 

 one which in all cases can at once be employed. 

 A very valuable horse which I have (worth 2000 

 dollars) although apparently in perfect health the 

 preceding evening, was, when led from the stable 

 one morning, so affected by anticor as to be unable 

 to raise his feet from the ground. — I immediately 

 opened a vein in the insideof each fore leg and 

 in the course of the day took from him more than 

 12 quarts of blood. By dint of hand rubbing of 

 the muscles and repeated bleeding, in three days 

 the horse was well and he has never been in 

 the least troubled with that disease, although more 

 than a year has elapsed since that attack. Had I 

 temporized and tried other things, without copious 

 bleeding, the horse would have been ruined. 



In the course of the last season my grooms 

 bled by my direction from fifty to one hundred 

 different horses, some of them repeatedly at 

 different times until they fainted, taking from the ju. 

 gular vein through a large orifice from lOto 12 qrts. 

 of blood, and in no single instance have I known 

 any accident or injury to arise from the practice. 



A short time since I wrote a sketch of the 

 course I have adopted with complete success in 

 regard to my mowing land, which I intended at 

 the time to send to you for insertion in yom- useful 

 paper ; thinking that as I had derived jileasure 

 and profit from the statements there given by 

 practical farmers of the results of their own 

 experience, so others might be gratified and per- 

 haps some might be excited to pay more attention 

 to the subject by a description from me of the course 

 I have found so successful. I also wrote several 



articles upon the subject of reclaiming land . 



Doubts, however, whether these articles might 

 not derive the interest, which in my view they 

 possessed, from their relation to myself and wheth- 

 er, too, your paper might not be occupied by 

 matter more useful, more instructive, and more 

 entertaining to your numerous readers has hitherto 

 prevented me from forwarding them to you ; should 

 they in your opinion be worthy an insertion in 

 your columns they are at your service. 



C. ROBINSON, 

 Soulhington, Conn. Jan.9, 1832. 



We shovdd be happy to receive the above men. 

 tioned articles. — Editor, 



