392 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



good home market for all our produce, all are 

 not satisfied. Some complain that these com- 

 panies are making money too fast. Such per- 

 sons forget that in 1833, the New England 

 press generally' invited moneyed men to come 

 forward and take stock in these roads, and that 

 many were shy of subscribing. Now those 

 ■who entered into the experiment and have 

 been successful surely oilght not to be envied. 

 Suppose the experiment had been a failure, 

 and entailed loss on the shareholders, as many 

 roads have done, would these croakers have 

 shared their loss ? Every man who has occa- 

 sion to visit the city is more directly benefited 

 by railroads in the saving of time and expense 

 than most people realize. Not long since as 

 some of these fault-finders were making com- 

 plaints, an old gentleman made the following 

 statement. In the year 1830 he went to Bos- 

 ton, thirty miles, in a stage coach. The stage 

 went but once a day. lie paid $1.50 for pas- 

 sage, 50 cents for dinner, 50 for supper, 50 

 for bed.. 50 for breakfast, 50 for dinner, and 

 $1.50 for passage home; making $5.50, be- 

 sides two days' time, worth $3.00 ; a total ex- 

 pense of $8.50. Now we can take the morn- 

 ing train to Boston and stay four hours in 

 the city, and return at noon, for $2.00, and 

 Lalf a days' time, $1.00, making $3.00 ; a sav- 

 ing of $5.50 by railway. 



And thus it is with many other inventions 

 and improvements. Let us count up our bless- 

 ings, and look on the bright side of things 

 whenever we can. D. p. 



Attleboro\ Mass.. 1868. 



THE PERCHERON NORMAN HORSE. 



» This breed of horses originated in, and now 

 exist in their most perfect form and condition, 

 in Le PercJie, a district of that portion ol 

 France which was formerly known as Nor- 

 mandy, and are clearly a pure breed per se 

 We do not mean thoroughbred, but a breed 

 capable of producing and reproducing them- 

 selves, ad injiaitian, unaltered and without de- 

 terioration of qualities, by breeding like sires 

 to like dams, without infusion of any other 

 blood, just as is done by Durham, Ayrshire, 

 or Alderney cattle ; by setters, pointers, grey- 

 bounds ; and in a word, by any and all animals 

 of distinct and perfect varieties of thS same 

 species. 



The points of this peculiar breed are that 

 they are much taller than ordinary horses ; 

 their standard is probably from fourteen and 

 a half to sixteen hands high. Secondly, they 

 are very short in the saddle place, and com- 

 paratively long below ; they are well ribbed \ 

 up, and round barrelled, instead of having the 

 flat sides and sway backs which are the defec- 

 tive points in most American horses; their 

 heads are short, with the genuine Arabian 

 breadth of brow and hollow of the profile be- 

 tween the eyes and nostrils ; their necks are 

 well arched, and sulHciently long to correspond 



with the general stoutness of their frames ; 

 their legs are particularly short from the knees 

 and hocks downward, and although heavily 

 haired they are not shaggy, while they have 

 unyieldipg, iron-like sinews, and feet appa- 

 rently unconscious of disease. 



A writer in The British Quarterly Journal 

 of Agriculture, speaking of this class of 

 horses, says : "The horses of Normandy are 

 a capital race for hard work and scanty fare. 

 I have never seen such horses at the collar, 

 under the diligence, the post-carriage, the 

 cumbrous and heavy voitre or cabriolet for one 

 or two horses, or the farm-cart. Thejf are en- 

 during and energetic beyond description. 

 With their necks cut to the bone, they flincTi 

 not ; they pwt forth all their efforts at the 

 voice of the brutal driver, or at the dreaded . 

 sound of his never ceasing whip ; they keep 

 their condition when other horses would die of 

 neglect and hard treatment." 



Mr. Harris, of Morristown, New Jersey, in 

 "Youatt on the Horse," says : "These horses 

 first came under my observation on a journey 

 through France in the year 1831. I was struck 

 with the immense power displayed by them in 

 drawing the heavy diligences of that country, 

 at a pace which although not as rapid as the 

 stage coach travelling of England, j-et such a 

 pace, say from five to nine miles per hour, the 

 lowest rate of which T do not hesitate to say, 

 would in a "short time kill the English horse if 

 placed before the same load." — Southern 

 Planter and Farmer. 



A Fixe DuRn,\5i Dairy. — A correspondent 

 who is an enthusiastic admirer of good stock 

 informs us that he was very much pleased with 

 a herd of seventeen cows which he saw in the 

 barn of T. P. Root, Esq., of Barre, Mass. 

 Mr. Root has bred the Durhams with particu- 

 lar reference to dairy purposes, and is not 

 satisfied with a yield of less than forty pounds 

 of milk per day. Some of these cows he was 

 informed had* given fifty-six pounds of milk 

 per day. His other stock, including a year- 

 ling colt, were very fine, and indicated, in the 

 opinion of our correspondent, a skilful breeder 

 and a good farmer. 



— In the course of some remarks on a late 

 trial of cultivators and harrows, the Vtica Herald 

 says, the somewhat recent application of thills to 

 cultivators and horse hoes must be rcgariled as a 

 decided improvement. With thills, the machines 

 are kept steadfir, while at the end of^thc row the 

 labor of lifting or throwing the implement into the 

 next row is not half so great as with the old stylo 

 cultivators, while there is much less danger also of 

 cutting up lulls from the sudden starting of tho 

 horse. 



