Publication Office IVo. 45 North Sixtli street, above Arch. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



Vol. II.— No. 11.] 



PhUadelpIiia^ January 1, 1838. 



fWliole No. 35. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Horned Cattle.— Wo 1. 



There happily appears to be an increasing 

 disposition amongst the farmers of eastern 

 Pennsylvania, to improve their stock of cat- 

 tle by the introduction of English Short 

 Horned and other improved breeds; and by 

 raising more frequently and with greater care 

 than formerly from their own stock, rather 

 than depend on purchasing from droves to 

 replenish their farm yards. This spirit was 

 clearly rtfanifested at the recent sale of im- 

 ported short horn Durhams by the celebrated 

 breeder, Mr. Whitaker, of England. Out of 

 thirty-five cattle then disposed of, sixteen 

 were purchased by farmers in this section of 

 the state. Believing that something may be 

 contributed in aid of this laudable spirit, 

 by throwing together such notes as I have 

 collected in an excursive perusal of the sub- 

 ject, together with such remarks and reflec- 

 tions as some experience and observation have 

 enabled me to make, I shall ask the favor of 

 your valuable pages for their communication 

 to the public. 



For the best and most highly approved 

 kinds of catile we must look to England, that 

 country having taken the lead of all others 

 in raising and improving stock. They have 

 several varieties, each of which has its advo- 

 cates ; the most noted are the Durhams, Dev- 

 ons, Herefords, Ayreshires and Alderneys, 

 each kind having peculiar advantages. For 

 milk alone, perhaps the best Ayreshire and 

 Alderney cows are not surpassed, and as 

 working cattle, the Herefords and Devons ex- 

 cel ; but for the combined advantage of milch- 

 ing and fattening freely, I am convinced that 

 the improved short horns are unequalled, and 

 fully believe them well adapted to the exten- 



dle and western stales aflbrd. Some people 

 are prejudiced against this breed under the 

 supposition that they are too delicate for our 

 rough climate and will necessarily degene- 

 rate. This I am assured is a mistaken opin- 

 ion ; an inference founded on false premises. 

 They have within a few years been rapidly 

 spreading over the northern counties of Eng- 

 land and the Lowlands of Scotland even to the 

 very borders of the mountain districts, and 

 the climate there, is, during the winter, quite 

 as severe as with us, if not more so. 



I fully and freely admit that they require 

 care and attention, plenty of good feed and 

 kind treatment, but these are requisite with 

 every class of animals where improvement is 

 wished, or a high state of perfection to be 

 maintained. How far are these essential 

 points studied by our farmers'] This is a 

 question which every man who undertakes the 

 raising of stock should ask himself, and I am 

 sorry to say that in many, very many cases, 

 the answer would expose great deficiency, 

 and clearly show the reason of so many ani- 

 mals being scrubby, half starved and unpro- 

 fitable. 



It is a prevailing, almost a universal fault 

 with our Pennsylvania farmers in this vicinity, 

 to stock too largely, and when we have a dry 

 autumn, an event that frequently occurs, their 

 fields are pastured bare, leaving nothing to 

 protect the tender roots of the grass from ihe 

 severe frosts of winter. The cattle too are 

 stinted in food, -exposed without shelter day 

 and night until we are almost in mid-winter, 

 and thus instead of entering on this hard and 

 trying season in good order, they are half 

 starved and more than half perished ; their 

 milk is dried up and their offspring conse- 

 quently stunted ! Nay, more, the constant 

 anxiety to keep a large number, leads to the 



sive ranges of pasture lands which our mid- consumption of the food so rapidly that before 

 Cab.— Vol. H.— No. 11. 161 



