No. 7. 



Portraits of Animals. 



211 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Portraits of Animals. 



Sir, — I wish to call your attention to the 

 portrait of a Cotswold buck, as drawn from 

 the life, and given in the number of the Al- 

 bany Cultivator for the last month. This 

 animal has been imported by that spirited 

 breeder and improver, W. H. Sotham, v.'hose 

 perseverance and industry in the cause are 

 above all praise. But, is it really intended 

 we should suppose that the sheep is there 

 faithfully represented? Then he is a nonde- 

 Bcript, and reminds one of the build of a road- 

 wagon, as much as a sheep; for if the hind 

 legs had been brought a little further for- 

 ward, they would then have stood under the 

 centre of the carcass, and have rendered the 

 fore legs quite unnecessary ; or, it might have 

 been as easy to add a couple, to support the 

 enormous rump ! As he now stands, he ap- 

 pears, as some one says, "a creature packed 

 up in two parcels !" And yet, Mr. Editor, 

 the "portrait," as it is called, is nothing more 

 nor less than what we were led to expect, 

 from the importer's notes of preparation, first 

 from the other side of the Atlantic, saying 

 that he was coming, and, on landing, that he 

 had come, and had brought with him the 

 pride of all England ! having, as it would 

 seem, contrived to bribe the English breeders 

 to dispose of their best stock for the conside- 

 ration of a few extra dollars, reserving to 

 themselves their " fair to middling" only, to 

 breed from hereafter ! Now, I must say, I 

 have never found that our English friends 

 were so much like some of ourselves — such 

 penny-wise and pound-foolish folks — as to 

 sell their best stock ; and, judging by some 

 that I have seen imported, I am not inclined 

 to believe that they have so far forgotten 

 themselves as to dispose of their best, even to 

 friend Sotham, either for love or money. 



While reading the importer's account of 

 his magnificent purchase, in the late numbers 

 of the Cultivator, I could not but think that 

 he wrote with a large quill, and was reminded 

 of the boy whose father had always counselled 

 him to " talk large," and who, on being asked 

 what fish he had dined upon, replied, "a 

 whale." And I have heard of an honest 

 Hibernian, who, on going to Enirland to work 

 at the hay harvest, and receiving thirty-five 

 shillings for his labour, hurried back to Ire- 

 land, and, meeting a friend, on landing, who 

 was just going for the same purpose, told him 

 he might just stay where he was, for he had 

 brought away all the money with him ! Now 

 it would really seem as if our Albany friends 

 were determined to keep all the finest and 

 fattest things to themselves, and swallow us 

 and our lean kine at a gulp ! Assuredly 

 they do talk very large, and make wonderful 



animals upon paper; but our stock will grow 

 in proportions in spite of us, and a very large 

 body will fit itself with legs sufficient to sup- 

 port the weight which they are destined to 

 carry; nor have we ever been able to obtain 

 them with a natural piazza at the rump, 

 all ours requiring artificial shelter in stormy 

 weather. But let not our friend Sotham sup- 

 pose, for a moment, that I wish to detract an 

 iota from the praise that is due to him for 

 introducing amongst us improved stock ; he 

 richly deserves all the credit and profit that 

 he can possibly receive; but if he would draw 

 with a more faithful poi¥Sil the delineations 

 of his animals, and write with a leetle smaller 

 pen, he would not be serving himself, or the 

 cause which he has so nobly espoused, with 

 less efficiency, truth, or fairness. 



But I am bound to do him justice m one 

 very essential particular — he has disenchant- 

 ed the spell which has been thrown around 

 the profession of hog-hreeding in the eastern 

 states, and worked the very mischief with 

 the magicians themselves, with all their Tom- 

 foolery about three white hairs and feet! 

 He says, " colour, in Bcrkshires, is not here- 

 ditary; they vary in many instances, and I 

 have seen the pure breed of all colours, 

 nmoncfst the best prize herds in England ; to 

 discard good animals for their colour oulv, 

 are quibbles that seem to me profitless dis- 

 cussions, and too much like quackery to de- 

 serve notice." And, speaking of sheep, he 

 says; "new things have often led farmers 

 into errors ; these breeds are so much mixed, 

 that it is difficult to know from whence they 

 have principally descended, nor do I care, so 

 long as I approve of the sheep ; my idea of 

 name and colour of any cattle is, that it 

 weighs but little in the scale of profit." Now 

 this is refreshing to us, at this distance, and 

 leads us to feel curious to learn how the loise 

 men of the east will settle their differences 

 on this momentous subject. But a friend at 

 my elbow is so uncharitable as to suggest the 

 possibility, that this liberality of the writer 

 might not have been quite so conspicuous, 

 but for the " black spot in the off side of 

 Matchless," which, he informs us, is a Here- 

 ford cow, that won the first prize at the Royal 

 As-ricultural Society's meeting at Oxford, in 

 1S19, against " all England," which spot, 

 however, he says, was " unnoticed by judg- 

 ment." So, then, we have lived to see the 

 time when a comfortably sized black spot, on 

 the off side of a pure-bred Hereford, is of no 

 importance in the " eye of judgment !" Now, 

 after this, a small spot on the nose of a bull, 

 or the colour of it a little too yellow, or two 

 white feet only, and a black tip to the tail of 

 a hog, are defects which might be unnoticed 

 by judgment ! — they are as moats in the 

 sunbeam, and, " Othello's occupation 's gone 1" 



