122 



Devonshire Cattle — Onions. 



Vol. II. 



longing to Mr. Western,) father of the ox 

 and the cow, portraits of which will be pub- 

 lished in the next number of the Cabinet. 

 We may fancy that we trace in this singular 

 and noble animal, the lineaments of the na- 

 tive, and scarcely reclaimed British bull. 



The head of the ox is small, very singu- 

 larly so, relatively to the bulk of the animal, 

 yet it has a striking breadth of forehead. It 

 is clean and free from flesh about the jaws, 

 The eye is very prominent, and the animal 

 has a pleasing vivacity of countenance plain- 

 ly distinguishing it from the heavy aspect of 

 many other breeds. Its neck is long and 

 thin, admirably adapting it for the collar, 

 and even for the more common and ruder 

 yoke. 



The want of the beautifully arched form of 

 the neck, which is seen in the horse, has 

 been considered as a defect in most breeds of 

 cattle. It is accounted one of the characters 

 of good cattle, that the line of the neck from 

 the horns to the withers should scarcely de- 

 viate from that of the back. In the Devon- 

 shire ox, however, there is a peculiar rising 

 of the forehand, reminding us not a little of 

 the blood-horse, and essentially connected 

 with the free and quick action by which this 

 breed has ever been distinguished. It has 

 little or no dewlap depending from its throat. 

 The horns are longer than those of the bull, 

 smaller and fine even to the base, and of a 

 lighter color, and sometimes tipped with yel- 

 low. The animal is light in the withers; 

 the shoulders a little oblique; the breast 

 deep, and the bosom open and wide, particu- 

 larly as contrasted with the fineness of the 

 withers. The fore-legs are wide apart, look- 

 ing like pillars that have to support a great 

 weight. The point of the shoulder is rarely 

 or never seen. There is no projection of 

 ■bone as in the horse, but there is a kind of 

 level line running on to the neck. 



These are characteristic and important 

 points. Angular bony projections are never 

 found in a beast that carries much flesh and 

 fat. The fineness of the withers, the slant- 

 ing direction of the shoulder, and the broad 

 and open breast, imply both strength and 

 .speed, and aptitude to fatten. A narrow- 

 chested animal can never be useful either for 

 working or grazing. 



To be continued. 



MoRus MuLTicAULis Trees. — The editor 

 of the Baltimore Farmer and Gardiner, has 

 from 25,000, to 30,000 Morus Multicaulis 

 Trees, now growing at his residence, with 

 roots of one, two, and three years old, which 

 will be ready for sale this fall, and which he| 

 will sell on moderate terms. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Onions. 



On reading a'n article in the Cabinet of 

 March 15th, 1837, upon the culture of oniona 

 in Wethersfield, I concluded to try the ex- 

 periment of raising them on Delaware soil. 



I dressed an eighth of an acre with four 

 cart loads of well rotted stable manure, being 

 part of a parsnep lot planted last year for 

 spring feeding of milch cows. After the 

 manure was very evenly spread over the 

 ground, it was ploughed in ridges and planted 

 with nine ounces of seed. 



I did not pursue the Wethersfield plan of 

 sowing the seed in rows, but put them in 

 hills; supposing it would take less seed, less 

 work, and produce equally as good a crop. 

 The instrument to plant them was made in 

 the following manner. A lath about four 

 feet long with four holes bored through it 

 with an inch auger ten inches apart, which 

 were filled with pegs that projected through 

 the lath about one and a quarter inches ; then 

 a handle of three feet long was put in the 

 centre of the lath to carry it by ; this instru- 

 ment was then laid across the bed, which, by 

 stepping on it with one foot on each side of 

 the handle, four holes were made ten inches 

 asunder; then moving it about a foot, and 

 repeating the operation, the bed was soon 

 filled with holes ten inches one way, and ' 

 about a foot the other. A few seeds were 

 then dropped in each hole, the beds raked 

 and rolled, which finished the operation of 

 planting. 



As soon as the young plants began to ap- 

 pear, the beds were raked between the hills 

 with a small rake made of tenpenny nails, 

 which retarded the growth of the weeds, and 

 caused the young onions to advance in size 

 and strength before the time of weeding and 

 dressing them with a hoe had arrived. I re- 

 gard this little operation of early raking the 

 beds quite an improvement ; for part of the 

 ground was not managed in this way, and 

 the process of weeding was much more diffi- 

 cult ; besides, in extracting the weeds, many 

 of the young onions would fall down, and 

 some of them were pulled up in consequence 

 of the weeds having acquired a growth equal 

 to the onions. 



They were dressed several times through 

 the season by pulling the weeds and using 

 the rake and the hoe. The work being 

 done at intervals, and mostly by children, no 

 very accurate account \vas kept of the value 

 of the labor, but it did not exceed ten days 

 work for a full hand. They grew very large, 

 some of them measuring thirteen and a half 

 inches in circumference, and many of the 

 hills had three or four onions clustered to- 

 gether ; they are excellent for the table, fine 



