No. 16. 



Horse Rake. 



317 



may be ranked next to the Berkshire. This 

 breed is also well known (with some occa- 

 sional variation) as the Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 The Cheshire, of various colors, but chiefly 

 marked with broad patches of black, or blue, 

 and white, have large heads, with long pen- 

 dant ears; are of a great length, but propor- 

 tionably narrow ; curved in the back and flat- 

 sided ; large boned and long legged, with 

 much loose skin, and altogether ill-formed; 

 but they grow to an extraordinary weight, and 

 are the largest kind of pigs in the kmgdom 

 except 



The Rudgwick breed, which take their 

 name from a village on the boarders of Surrey 

 and Sussex, and are remarkable for the enor- 

 mous size to which they reach, each of these; 

 breeds has its several advocates ; but as their 

 respective value does not, as in other species 

 of stock, depend on soil and situation, tiiese 

 differences of opinion can only be ascribed to 

 the want of suflicient comparative experi- 

 ments, or 'to prejudice. A very competent, 

 and apparently a very candid judge of the 

 meritsof the principal kinds, gives it as his 

 decided opinion that the Berkeshire rough- 

 haired, feather-eared, curled pigs, are superi- 

 or in form and flesh to all others ; even to the 

 best Chinese. 



With regard to these two breeds, that 

 opinion must have been formed on fair ex- 

 periments and due consideration of their re- 

 spective value, for he mentions having fatted 

 a Chinese sow to the weight of forty stone, of 

 fourteen pounds at three and a halfyears old,* 

 and the quality of the bacon, of both kinds fat- 

 ted and cured alike, was decided by a party 

 of gentlemen at Lord Conynghams' table in 

 favor of the Berkeshire. In this we so far, 

 unhesitatingly coincide; but from all the 

 other information we have collected on the 

 subject, we are inclined to think that IMr. 

 Westerns' Essex breed, may fairly compete 

 with either; and the Woburn breed, has not 

 yet been sufficiently tried to admit ol'a deci- 

 sive comparison. 



To these also, there must, in justice be 

 added, a breed partaking cf the Essex blood 

 and generally known as the Essex and Hart- 

 ford breed. It was introduced by Mr. Dodd, 

 of Chenies, in Buckinghamshire, (a most 

 successful breeder.) 



Borse Rake. 



A subscriber inquires where the horse rake 

 can be purchased. We cannot give the de. 

 sired information. The accompanying de- 

 scriptions and wood cuts, will, however, we 

 hope, enable any common carpenter readily 

 to construct one, either of the common or re- 

 volving rake. — Genesee Farmer. 



THE COMMON HORSE RAKE. 



True politeness. — To prefer other peoples' 

 convenience to your own. 



*The height of this pig vi'as 



Length 



Breadth across the loins, 



Girth 



2fl. 3 in. 

 4 11. 

 2 0. 

 9 10. 



Fig. 60. 



This is made of a piece of strong scantling, 

 three inches square and ten feet long, into 

 which about fifteen teeth are inserted hori- 

 zontally, and made of strong white ash or 

 otiier tough wood. The teeth should be 

 about 22 incites long, and one inch by one 

 and three quarters at the place of insertion, 

 and tapering on the under side, so as to give 

 them a slight turn upwards at the point, to 

 prevent their running into the ground while 

 using. The draught ropes are attached to 

 the end of two projecting pieces of wood 

 parallel to the teeth, at each end of the rake. 

 These projecting pieces should be about one 

 third of the length of the teeth. Those un- 

 skilled in the use of the rake, sometimes at- 

 tach the ropes at once to the ends of the head ; 

 in this way it becomes almost entirely un- 

 manageable. The forward ends of the 

 draught ropes are to be fastened to the horse's 

 collar, leaving space enough between the 

 horse and rake for the collecting hay. Han- 

 dles, like those represented in the figure, 

 (fig. 60) are to be inserted in the head near 



