AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NORTH M.iRKET STREET, (AaRiouiTORAL WabehohsbO-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 8, 1843. 



[NO. 32. 



N. E. FARMER. 



For the New England Fanner. 



PrGEON MANURE. 



The manure of the common dove, house pij^eon, 

 like that of the guano, has of late been extensively 

 used in England, and with great success. Ciinino 

 was selling, I believe, last year at the rate of £22 

 sterling per ton — and at this high price, is said to 

 have amply repaid the fanner. I am not aware 

 that pigeon manure has ever been brought into 

 market; though from its effects upon land, 1 ques- 

 tion if it is not almost as valuable as guano. 



Farmers in England very generally breed these 

 birds: there are few or no farms on which you do 

 not see one or more flocks, and some large proprie- 

 tors number several tliousands of them — for the 

 most part of the blue-feather kind, as it is termed. 



Some short time ago, whilst travelling in the 

 midland counties, (of England,) which boast of the 

 most beautiful farms in creation, I met with a gen- 

 tleman farmer, who told me that from his youth 

 upwards he had cultivated and increased hi"> stock 

 of pigeons — using their manure on his barley land; 

 and that no man in the county could grow better 

 barley than he could. Barley grown without this 

 manure, he said, bore no comparison in quantity or 

 quality with that grown with it. He was from 

 Shropshire — the great barley county — a very intel- 

 ligent and scientific farmer. He kept his pigeons 

 in the loft of his barn, upon a floor made from end 

 to end, lor the purpose, upon which wore built pro- 

 per pigeon (or square wooden) boxes. In this floor 

 he had a trap door, through which, once a year, he 

 had the manure swept out into a wagon placed be- 

 neath, and so conveyed to the field. It was a lad's 

 work, and required but little (rouble. The manure 

 should be spread thinly, and applied every year. 

 The pigeon is tha farmer's friend. 



(JI^This communication " is from the pen of a 

 gentleman who is a native of Old England, with 

 all which country he is intimately acquainted, and 

 where he has constantly resided during the last 

 twenty live years." So writes the friend who sent 

 tlie communication. To him and to the writer we 

 wish to Express our thanks. — Ed. N. E. F. 



irater Running up Hill— Dr. J. V. C. Smith, 

 of Boston, in a recent lecture on geology, at New 

 York, mentioned a curious circumstance connected 

 with the Mississippi river. It runs from north to 

 south, and its mouth is actually four miles higher 

 than its source — a result due to the centrifugal 

 motion of the earth. Thirteen miles is the difle- 

 rence between the equatorial and polar radius ; and 

 the river in 2000 miles has to rise one third of this 

 distance, it being the height of the equator above 

 the pole. If this centrifugal force were not con- 

 tinued, the rivers would flow back and the ocean 

 would overflow the land. — Selected. 



Dr. Spencer, of Petersburg, Va., has manufactur- 

 ed good paper from Morua Multicaulis leaves. 



BREEDING OF S lOCK. 



Continuation of the Discussion at the Stcond Jigri- 



cultural Meeting at the Stale House. 



Col. Jaques remarked, that if he could talk out 

 all his thoughts, they might amount to something — 

 but he is not a good talker. 



In 1841, said he, I stated here, to the surprise of 

 many gentlemen, that I could breed animals to or- 

 der, of any size, form, or color thai was wanted : 

 I now find the gentleman who preceded me taking 

 nearly the same ground. He had never seen this 

 position taken by any one who had written upon 

 the subject. The great English breeders never 

 disclosed the principles upon which they proceed- 

 ed. But he had no secrets. From the time when 

 he first read Ihe account of the peeled sticks in the 

 good book, he thought there was something more 

 there thut did not appear. 



By e.\perimcnt? with rabbits and dogs, he found 

 that in 7 to 9 generations he could get them of 

 whatever color he chose. 



The hluod is what he regards, and what he wants 

 to know. The strongest strains of blood prevail. 



Our native cattle are mixed up of every thing, 

 and it would take 30 years to purify them, so as to 

 know what the blood in a particular animal is. 



When he began with cattle, he found good 

 points in the Durham race, some of which he wish- 

 ed to fix upon an American breed. He took the 

 Durham bull Coelebs and put him to a good native 

 cow ; — obtained a heifer calf that was superior. 

 This was the mother of his "Cream Pol" stock. 

 She gave 21 qts. of milk per day, which made 3 

 lbs. of butter. 



Upon the subject of breeding in-and-in, he hard- 

 ly knew what to say. [If we understood him, he 

 thinks there may be degrees of consanguinity with- 

 in which it is injurious to come — but that those 

 limits are not very wide.] On Breed's Island there 

 is a race of cattle all descended from one bull and 

 one cow, and have had no cross for 30 years — and 

 this stock, so far from deteriorating, has improved. 



It is easy for us, if we will faithfully record the 

 blood of our animals, to get a breed of cows that 

 will make 10 or 12 lbs. of butter per week. We 

 may as well have such, as to go on breeding those 

 that will not make more than 4 or 5 lbs. The im- 

 proved ones would require no better feed than the 

 ordinary. 



As to the influence of the male and female upon 

 the offspring, there is no diff'erence. 



Col. J. gave the points of a good oow : this we 

 hope to give soon from his own pen. 



The handling of the animal is of very great im- 

 portance : a soft, silky, elastic skin is desirable. 

 Take an ox with a hard, wiry touch, and raw-boned, 

 and there is no use in trying to beef him : you 

 might as well stick down two stakes, throw a buffa- 

 lo hide over them, and put your roots and grain 

 down before that. 



The skin should be yellow ; and there should be 

 yelloto dandrulT in the ears ; but color is a mere 

 matter of fancy. 



Mr Buckminster asked Col. J. whether in 20 



years he had accomplished his object ; whether he 

 can give us cows that without fail will make 10 lbs. 

 of butter per week. " 



Col. J. " I have had hut twenty years yet, and 

 beginning with two animals, and it taking about 

 four years to get from one generation to another, I 

 am not ready to furnish the whole Commonwealth 

 with a supply of such cows. But I can show some." 



A gentleman asked whether the thicliness of the 

 hide gave any indications as to fattening propensi- 

 ties. 



Col. J. " Not the thickness, but the elasticity." 



Mr Merriam to Col. J. Did you ever attempt to 

 take any one particular quality of the Durham, and 

 fix it upon your stock ? 



Ans. " Yes — the fullness of the chest particu- 

 larly." 



Mr Buckminster to Col. J. How was your stock 

 kept? 



Ans. "Upon hay and grass, excepting one or 

 two years, when I used ruta bagas." 



Indian meal (he continued,) is destructive to a 

 cow, if long continued in large quantities. This 

 keeping does much for a time, but a cow that is 

 forced upon it soon fails. The milkmen in this vi- 

 cinity do not generally keep their cows more than 

 two or three years. Ruta bagas are good for dry 

 stock — but mangel wurtzel is better for the quali- 

 ty of the milk, and equally good for quantity. But 

 potatoes are better than either. 



Mr Gray, of Boston, wished to learn whether 

 milch cows would do as well on grass and hay 

 alone as with roots. He kept a few cows and was 

 obliged to soil ani to give roots. If he could save 

 the expense of the roots, he should be glad to know 

 it. Carrots he found the best. 



Col. Jaques said he had been obliged to econo- 

 mise, and had therefore fed on grass and hay. Car- 

 rots are good. He would rather have two bushels 

 of meal and one of wheat bran, than three bushels 

 of meal for a cow. 



Col. Sheldon, of Wilmington, knows, he said, 

 something of the Durham stock. He thinks them 

 better for work and beef, than for the dairy. They 

 are as hearty and rugged as any cattle we have, 

 and will thrive on as poor feed. The Durham oxen 

 are generally better fooled than our natives. 



The breeder should be particular about his btdl, 

 especially when ha wishes for good heifers. 'Ihe 

 male parent hae the greatest influence upon the fe- 

 male offspring. So it is in the human family. He 

 cited an instance in proof of this, of a family in 

 which there was a propensity to bleed to death 

 from very slight wounds. This peculiarity went 

 down from father to daughter, from mother to son. 



But after all that may be said about blood, were 

 he at Brighton market for the purpose of purchas- 

 ing animals, he would bo influenced more by the 

 looks, than by any stories about the breed and pa- 

 rentage. 



The points of a good working ox were then 

 given by Col. S. These were substantially the 

 same as those we published in our report of the 

 discussion on stock at one of the agricultural meet- 

 ings two years ago. 



