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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb, 



TO ASCERTAIN THE WEIGHT OF LIVE CATTLE. 



This is of the utmost utility to all those who are 

 not experienced judges by eye. By the following 

 directions, the weight can be ascertained within a 

 mere trifle : Take a string, put it round the breast, 

 stand square, just behind the shoulder blade ; meas- 

 ure on a foot rule the feet and inches the animal is 

 in circumference ; this is called the girth ; then, with 

 the string, measure from the bone. of the tail which 

 plumbs the line with the hinder part of the buttock ; 

 direct the line along the back to the fore part of the 

 shoulder blade ; take the dimensions on the foot rule 

 as before, which is the length ; and work the figures 

 in the following manner ; Girth of the bullock, six 

 feet four inches ; length, five feet three inches ; — 

 which multiplied together, make 31 square super- 

 ficial feet ; and that multiplied by 23 (the number of 

 pounds allowed to each superficial foot of cattle meas- 

 uring less than seven and more than five in girth,) 

 make 713 pounds. Where the animal measures less 

 than 9 and more than 7 in girth, 31 is the number of 

 pounds to each superficial foot. Again, suppose a 

 pig or any small beast should measure two feet in 

 girth, and two along the back, which multiplied 

 together, make 4 square feet ; that multiplied by 11, 

 the number of pounds allowed each square foot of 

 cattle measuring less than 3 feet in girth, makes 44 

 pounds. Again, suppose a calf, a sheep, fcc, should 

 measure 4 feet 6 inches in girth, and 3 feet 9 inches 

 in length, which multiplied together makes 15 1 square 

 feet; that multiplied by 16, the number of pounds 

 allowed to all cattle measuring less than five feet, 

 and more than 3 in girth, makes 265 pounds. The 

 dimensions of the girth and length of horned cattle, 

 sheep, calves, or hogs may be as exactly taken this 

 way as it is at all necessary for any computation or 

 any valuation of stock, and will answer exactly to 

 ' the four quarters, sinking the offal, and which every 

 man who can get even a bit of chalk can easily per- 

 form. — Chamber 's Information for the people. 



Patent Safety BiunLE. — Mr. Henry Seitz, of 

 Marietta, Lancaster county, Pa., is the inventor of a 

 very ingenious Bridle for which letters patent were 

 recently granted, whereby it is impossible for a spir- 

 ited horse to kick or run away, and perfectly safe for 

 a lady to drive or ride. The principle on which it is 

 constructed is to hold the horse by the application of 

 a pully around which the reins are made to pass at 

 the side of the horse's mouth, which enables the rider 

 to exert a great deal of lever power to control the 

 mouth of the animal, to check him at any moment. 

 We consider this a very useful improvement, as with 

 some horses, especially when they are young, the old 

 curb when pulled makes them to rear and pitch, to 

 the great danger of the rider. This bridle effectually 

 remedies this evil. 



Shearing or Clipping Horses. — We have seen 

 specimens of this recently in the city, that would 

 quite astonish the uninitiated. A long-haired, shabby- 

 looking beast, after being a few hours under the 

 hands of the shears, comes out with a close, smooth, 

 shining coat, quite to the taste of the admirers of 

 horse flesh. There are some advantages' in this 

 practice irrespective of the looks. The horse does 

 not sweat so easily, and when once wet he dries more 

 readily, and the tendency to colds is thereby materi- 

 ally lessened. — Am. Agriculturist. 



REARING LAMBS. 



Like all other young stock, lambs ought to be kept 

 steadily growing, without getting too fat. Where a 

 healthy, strong, and young ewe has a good range of 

 pasture, the lamb may acquire so much fat as seri- 

 ously to interfere with its thrift, when taken away 

 and put upon its winter's food. Experienced flock 

 masters say they have frequently lost lambs from this 

 cause, and that when an ewe has twins, and the milk 

 is divided between the offspring, this loss never occurs. 

 This is an important fact for the practical man. 



It is well to have the lambs accustomed to dry 

 forage before they are put up for the winter. If good 

 sweet hay, dry clover, or oats in the sheaf, or threshed, 

 be thrown out to a few old sheep, surrounded by all 

 the lambs, while the latter are in fine condition, brisk 

 and lively, they will at once begin to nibble at the 

 dry food, and soon will be entirely familiar with and 

 enjoy it. If left, however, till weaned, and they have 

 become pinched by the snows and frosts of approach- 

 ing winter, and the scarcity and insipidity of autum- 

 nal forage, their stomachs are in a weak or diseased 

 condition, they have no appetite for their new dry 

 food, they stay away from the racks, and daily become 

 weaker and more indisposed, and soon have become 

 too far reduced to recover, or if they survive, it is 

 with a constitution permanently impaired. — Am. Ag. 



Unnatural and Injurious Over-Feeding or 

 Animals. — At very many of the meetings and gath- 

 erings of the president, vice president, and members 

 of council, as well as at the yearly, general, and 

 country meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 and, in short, at most agricultural societies, you will 

 find this subject discussed, and correct views on it 

 most strongly and urgently recommended, and in- 

 structions given to the judges are not to take into 

 consideration the fatness of animals in awarding 

 prizes to stock intended for the purpose of breeding. 



In the face of these instructions what is the gene- 

 ral result 1 Why, that year after year, and meeting 

 after meeting, the premiums are still given to a most 

 unnatural and (to breeding stock,) very injurious fat- 

 ness. Fat is sure and certain to carry away the palm 

 whenever placed in competition against rational and 

 fitly-fed animals of every class and description, and 

 that are in a natural and much safer condition for 

 breeding, both as regards themselves as well as their 

 produce, but they are not made almost immovable — 

 most unwieldly, by their joints and sinews being, as 

 it were, rendered of no effect by useless and injurious 

 fat. Bear in mind that I confine my observations 

 wholly and solely to breeding stock, and if the judges 

 would, in awarding the premiums, take into consider- 

 ation the aptness and fitness of condition for breeding, 

 combined with shape, make, and quality, and give 

 these their proper and right, and all-important place 

 (even to the discarding of over-fed breeding animals,) 

 they would be doing greater, truer, and stricter jus- 

 tice to the intentions and objects of the society, and 

 confer a much greater benefit on those engaged in 

 the breeding, not fattening (for they should be viewed 

 and considered separately, ) of animals, than by 

 encouraging, as the awards mostly do, the great and 

 injurious evil of feeding breeding stock so over and 

 preposterously fat. 



Never attempt to save seed from two sorts of 

 Cabbage at the same time — they spoil each other. 



