NEW ENGI.AND FARMER. 



vol.. XI 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at thk Agricultural Warkhouse.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



NO. 12. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 3, 1882. 



Agriculture. 



SUPERIOR BREEDS OF CATTLE. 



We are giatitifil to learn that a ineiuber of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Society will endeavor 

 to illustrate by examples, tlie properties of a num- 

 ber of breeds of imported cattle, as indicated in 

 animals which are specimens of their respective 

 races. These will be exhibited at the next Brighton 

 Fair, and will display the peculiarities of their 

 kinds downwards from the Gore Breed, which 

 was imported by Charles Vaughan, Esq. a little 

 before 1800, with a subsequent cross of the Bake- 

 well, inqjorted by Gilbert Stewart, Esq. and 

 presented to Sir Bowdoin, about 1800. Mr Par- 

 sons' Bull Holderness was then made use of, and 

 then crossed by Calebs. From 1819 to 1825, crosses 

 were obtained from Admiral, Denton, Coelebs and 

 Sir Is.iac, and since, during the two years past by 

 a full blooded descendant of Wye Comet, import- 

 ed by Col. Powel, and said to be the last and best 

 improvement of the short horned race. This last 

 mentioned animal will also be exhibited. 



Individual animals in which these several races 

 are marked will be offered to view and competi- 

 tion for premiums, such as Cows, Heifers, Bull 

 and Heifer Calves. Full and half blooded oxen 

 will also compete in drawing. Ouy,_ farmers will 

 thus have an opportunity to observe t'oe-form, col- 

 or and quality of the several races; Wife deep red 

 in the Herefordshire, with the white or speckled 

 face, &c. Mention has often been made in our 

 paper, by the Rev. Mr Capen, and others, ard 

 specimens seen at the Cattle Shows, of the excd- 

 lence of the Bakewell breed ; its value in mil h 

 properties and good temper. In the latter partn- 

 ular the short horned race has proved remarkabe. 

 With regard to the Bakewell stock, the practte 

 was to Ijreed "in and in" until the several impn-- 

 tations from abroad took place; of all of which, 

 we learn advantage has been taken. The objct 

 has been to illustrate what could be done by ca- 

 stant eflort ; and ills hoped that, if there is ay 

 good to be derived, of which many are confideit, 

 the advantage, and the practicability of its beig 

 realized may be fully displayed for the benefit if 

 our cultivators. We are fully persuaded thaa 

 desire to promote the agricidtural interest, is te 

 only motive inducing the individual alluded to, o 

 make the exertions necessary for the exhibitio 

 proposed as above mentioned. 



From tho Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 



DIET AND REGIMEN. 



Some thirty or forty years since, when comme- 

 cial expeditions to the remotest parts of the cart 

 were much less frequent than at the present day 

 a ship returned after having made a v<fery fortu 

 nate voyage into the Pacific. The master invitei 

 the owntrs, with his and their friends, to visi 

 bim on board. They partook very liberally o 

 such refri^shments as he offered them; and anion 

 other delicacies, of some excellent smoked oi| 

 dried meat, which was much relished and ad- 

 mired. When the repast was over, the company 

 were informed that the meat was horse-flesh 



which the captain had procured of the Araucani- 

 an Indians. This information sickened the whole 

 part/; and in a little time, vomiting, whether from 

 the squcamishness of individuals, or from sympa- 

 thy, became general, and soon put an end to all 

 furtier conviviality and hilarity. 



I think it is Van Swieten who tells us, that he 

 ^^asonce riding in the heat of summer on a par- 

 ticular road, when he was itistantly seized with a 

 viocnt vomiting, which was caused by the op- 

 preisive stench arising from the sudden bursting 

 of die carcass of a dead animal that lay by the 

 wa; side. He adds, that this sickness made such 

 an uipression on his imagination, and the associ- 

 atini of ideas was so strong, as ever after to pro- 

 diue nausea when he passed by the place, even 

 wh'n he travelled the road in the dead of winter. 



"hese instances are mentioned as specimens of 

 the power of the imagination over the stomach, 

 an( of the commanding influence which the mind 

 poscsses upon the process of digestion, while the 

 boiy is in perfect health. It is impossible to fix 

 th( attention upon the stomach, and the various 

 artcles of the food which we eat — measuring the 

 quaitity, examining the quality, and discussing the 

 saluirity of every mouthful that is taken — with- 

 out greatly disturbing the process of digestion. 

 Gr«n corn, the most palatable of all the native 

 difiHS of New England, sits as heavy as lead ; 

 ru umbers and pickles become as indigestible as 

 Hilts ; apples, I'eaches, and other fruits of the 

 » ason, are soon as acid as vinegar; and the pulo 

 if the most delicious watermelon is as nauseating 

 .IS Araucanian horseflesh. Our garden vegetables 

 are looked upon with an eye as suspicious as we 

 would view thorn apple, heiidock, or the deadly 

 night-shade. Tarts, sweetmeats, cake, and every 

 delicacy, can be no longer borne ; and even the 

 plain apple ))ie, which has been our favorite froni 

 infancy, is bainshed from the table. Tea distmba 

 the nerves, coffee is too stimulating, and chocolate 

 is indigestible. 



n nine instances in ten, and more probably 

 ninetyniue in a hundred, the mischief which fol- 

 lows the temperate, prudent use of these articles, 

 arises from the disturbance which the imagination 

 gives the stomach, rather than from their being 

 originally improper for food. The influence of 

 the mind upon the stomach, and more particularly 

 so when it is in a state of apprehension and fear, 

 checks the secretion of gastric juice, and prevents 

 a sufficient quantity of it being furnished to per- 

 form the process of digestion. The direction to 

 the disciples to eat whatever was set before them, 

 as well as the command to ask no questions for 

 conscience' sake, was not only an injunction of 

 religion, but a dictate of philosophy ; and it is at 

 this day as obligatory upon every person in health, 

 and wishing to remain in health, as it was in the 

 primitive age of the Gospel. It is difficidt to con- 

 ceive of the great and irreparable injury, which 

 has been done of late years, by diffusing minute 

 rules concerning diet and regimen, among people 

 in ordinary health. Not one stomach in a hun- 

 <lred will bear to be constantly watched, question- 

 ed, and irritated by the mind. The true way to 

 retain a good stomach is, in a sense, to forget that 

 such an organ is attached to the body. 



Peculiar stirtes of health, as well as everything 

 else in this world, go by fashion. At one time 

 everybody is bilious ; at another, nervous. Some- 

 times all must be feverish, and taking cream of 

 tartar ; at others, every one is debilitated, and 

 taking iron, tincture of bark, and bitters. At pres- 

 ent, dyspepsia is the order of the day, and every- 

 thing is to be prevented and cured by abstinence 

 and starvation. Books ui)on this subject are cir- 

 culated among the learned, and the newspapers 

 are constantly enforcing it upon the people at 

 large. The professors of our colleges and schools, 

 many of them, as regularly and as gravely lecture 

 their pupils upon diet and regimen, as upon their 

 systematic studies; and if the professor chances 

 to be in fashion, all the pupils of the institution 

 must have the dyspepsia also. A kind of mono- 

 mania pervades the whole community upon this 

 point. The question now is, not what we shall 

 cat or drink, but what we shall not eat or drink ; 

 and every morsel or draught is as scrupulously 

 examined as if it contained a latent poison. 



Such being the state of things, a squcamishness 

 and delicacy is soon acquired, and the stomach is 

 readily brought into a factitious state, which pre- 

 vents its digesting properly most of the common 

 articles of food. Nothing but the diet of invalids 

 can be borne ; and even this, to sit easy, must be 

 diminished in quantity, till the strength is impair- 

 ed and we all become valetudinarians in reality. 



When an epidemic very generally prevails in a 

 particular, limited '.oca'ity, it sometimes happens 

 that no person enjoys sound health. In such 

 cases, certain cautions may not only be proper, 

 but necessary. But if this locality is a hundred 

 miles from us, and our own vicinity remains sa- 

 lubrious, it is no argument that we should adopt 

 a valetudinarian regimen. It is not necessary for 

 our crew to be put on short allowance, because 

 another ship is in want of provision. The fruits 

 and produce of the season were designed for tem- 

 perate use and rational enjoyment. S« far from 

 its being true, that they are crude the present 

 year, in the vicinity of the residence of the writer 

 the fai-t is directly the reverse. With the excep- 

 tion that the season is perhaps a few days later 

 than usual, there is an ample supply of all our 

 customary productions, in all the iicrfection com- 

 mon to the climate. They are not placed by 

 Providence before a sound man to tantalize his 

 appetite, or to tempt him to destroy his health. 



I have no doubt that much evil has arisen from 

 adopting a cholera regimen in places where there 

 was no trace of the disease, and that by this means 

 the stomach has become enfeebled, and a predis- 

 position formed for the epidemic. Every idle ru- 

 mor has been circulated, to work upon a credu- 

 lous public. In my view, it is the height of folly 

 and credulity to imagine that the eating of an ap- 

 ple, a peach, or a slice of watermelon, in perfec- 

 tion, can ever produce such a disease as malignant 

 cholera in a healthy person, or essentially affect 

 him either as a predisposing or exciting cause. 

 No; where this terrible disease does occur, the 

 cause lies deeper. The whortleberries and milk 

 could not, 1 apprehend, have ever been the occa- 

 sion of the calamity of the clergyman's family 

 at Harlaem ; or if they were, the health of the 



