THE GENESEE FARMER. 



RAISING IMPROVED STOCK. 



Tht8 hrnnch of industry constitutes one of tlie 

 principal sources of profit to farmers; consequently 

 we may supposed tliat it occupies their iittentive 

 thnught. All intelligent farmers agree upon one 

 point : that the stock they raise, no matter whether 

 it he the horse, the neat cattle, the sheep or swine, 

 t'ney slioulil, for profit, be of the most approved 

 kind. Through the medium of some si)irited indi- 

 vi<hials, some of the best imi)roved stock that t'or- 

 ciigii countries has produced have been imported, 

 composing the varii'ties above indicate<l. This 

 stock has been exhibited at our State and County 

 Fairs, and it has awakened the mind to active com- 

 petition, and tiie result has proved a marked and 

 visible improvement — as every individual who lias 

 a qu ck and experienced eye can readily see that a 

 great improvement lias lieeii made when he com- 

 pares the stock which now graces the farmers' pas- 

 tures and barn-yards with that which was seen 

 tliere iu 184:0. No good farmer will remain con- 

 tent with the progress he has made wliile there is 

 still room for more improvement. F^r their en- 

 couragement it may truly be said : there is little 

 fear that the multiplication of improved animals 

 ■will exceed the demand, as it is a well-established 

 fact that in Europe, wliere scientific breeding has 

 been successfully practised for half a century, the 

 advance of prices have steadily kept pace with the 

 improvement until many animals liave brought 

 prices which would seem almost fabulous. I have 

 deemed it not unseasonable to present the forego- 

 ing remarks, as I wish to illustrate them by stating 

 with what comparatively trifling expenditure every 

 farmer may, in a short period, raise up a hei'd of 

 fine improved animals. For this purpose I cordi- 

 ally invite farmers to call at my farm and examine 

 a cow of the Durham breed, which I i)urchased in 

 the month of May, 1858, for $125, from a gentle- 

 man to whom I sold a choice bull and a heifer of 

 superior milking qualities, some years ago, when I 

 was raising Durham stock. The animal I allude to 

 •was then a two-year-old heifer, with a heifer calf 

 at iier side dropped a few days previous. From 

 this heifer and her then calf I have raised six 

 calves — four heifers and two bulls — making this 

 stock now eight in number. Three of them are 

 now with calf, with a promise of increasing the num- 

 ber to eleven animals the coming spring. These 

 animals, with the exception of one bull calf — whicli 

 I have sold — I hope to exhibit at our next fall's 

 cattle sliow. I make tliis statement 8im])ly to en- 

 courage such farmers as decline raising improved 

 stock, on the ground that it costs too much money 

 to make the first pi\rcliase, to prove to them that, 

 witli an outlay of $125, they may in four or five 

 years rear a pretty large herd, as to numbers, pro- 

 vided they do not dispose of any of the increase. 

 While rearing an improved herd they can dispose 

 of the old animals to make room for the new lierd. 

 AiUreM of Hon. Georob Vail before the Ji*nsdlear 

 County Agricultural Society. 



Liming Hay. — A correspondent of the Conntry 

 Oentleman\)Ttfer(i lime to salt for 8i)rinklinif on 

 hay. Two quarts of air-slaked lime is sutticient 

 for a tun of hay. It is sai<l toal).-orb tlie moisture 

 and prevent moldiness, and stock relish the hay 

 thus prepared. 



ARTIFICIAL FISH-BREEDING. 



Stephen IT. Ainswokth, President of the West- 

 ern New York Fruit-Growers' Society, gives the 

 following interesting account of his experiments iu 

 fish-breeding. He says: 



"I have taken a very great interest in the grow- 

 ing of brook trout artificially in ponds on my place. 

 I have tried from seven years' old down to last 

 spring's hatcliingv'in three different ponds, keeping 

 the young fry until two years' old before 1 put 

 them into the large pond with the ol'.er ones, at 

 which time they are able to take care of them- 

 selves. The original stock was put in my larger 

 pond, containing sixty-one square rods of ground, 

 fourteen feet deep, supplied from springs three 

 years ago last spring, 1,400 in number, age then 

 from one to four years' old. They weigh now from 

 one to thrf^e pounds each. They liave been fed 

 daily witli liver, and are about as tpme as kittens-— 

 come at call, and take their food like pigs, throw- 

 ing themselves clear out of the water iu tlieir haste 

 for the food, by the five hundred at a time, and 

 even take it out of a spoon six inches above the 

 water. Tliink of seeing five hundred trout, all at 

 the same instant, weighing from one to three 

 pounds, and from twelve to eighteen inclies longl 

 The like has never been seen in this country to my 

 knowledge before. It will well pay the disciple of 

 Sir IzAAK Walton a long journey to see ; visitors 

 from hundreds of miles come to see them — ponda 

 and fixtures for breeding and growing. 



"The front spawns in November, December and 

 January. When (m their spawning beds I take 

 them and exude their ova artificially, and impreg- 

 nate them with milt from the males, and then place 

 the spawn in troughs, on gravel witii pure spring 

 water running ever them. Tliey liatcli in seventy- 

 eight days, and commence fee<iing from forty to 

 fifty days after, during which time they live on the 

 egg attached to them. 



" Last fall I took in this way about 00,000 eggs, 

 and hatched say 40,000 of them, wliich ai-e now 

 from two to four inches long. Witli ail things 

 right, nearly all will hatch in this way. These 

 will grow to a pound weight in four years, with 

 good water and plenty of food. 



"A two-pound trout will furnish about 8.000 

 spawn; smaller ones less in j)ro|)ortion. They 

 commence spawning when one year (dd. 



"In this way they can be increased and grown 

 to any extent, and all the ponds and streams in the 

 country stocked to overflowing. 



"They can lie raised in this way with great 

 ]irotit for market. Price from four to six shillings 

 per pound." 



Beloian Potatoes. — E. P. Robin80n writes to 

 the Mufisachnsetts Plowman that he has planted 

 some of the Belgian potatoes, imported by the 

 State Society. He had eighteen pounds for seed, 

 and the yield was five hundred and thirteen pounds, 

 quite free from rot. A friend of his planted eight 

 pounds of the same variety, and had a yield of 

 t^o luindred and forty-three pounds. lie pro- 

 nounces them an excellent potato for the table. 



