vol.. XIV. NO. 3C . 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



'205 



I" lin 

 ■is, 



(if)! 



ON BRKEDING HORSES. 



Tlic following is extracted from a coiiimunica- 

 ion to the Eilitor, by T. A. Knight, Esq. at 

 ownston, llercfordshiro. " Having introdnced 

 for the usb of my tcmmts a high priced stallion, 

 if the breed of the large London dray horse, I 

 wish to state to agricnlnirists the gronnds njion 

 nrhich I wish to anticiimtc much advantage from 

 ;he introduction of so large an animal. He will, 

 have reason to believe, he, when full grown, not 

 less than seventeen hands high, and very compact 

 n form. 



" I conceive myself to have proved, by many 

 xperiments, of a part of which an account was 

 :)ublished some years ago in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, that the length of the legs of the 

 tTspring of all those animals which nature has 

 ntended to accompany their parents in flight, at 

 in early age, is governed wholly by the habits of 

 he female parent. This tribe of animals compre- 

 ends the horse, the cow, the sheep, and deer, 

 nd many others. If the female parent be of low 

 stature, and descended from a breed of a similar 

 form and size, the length of the legs of the off- 

 spring will be short, and will not be increased in 

 length, though they will in strength, by any influ- 

 ence of its male parent, however tall and large 

 that may have been ; and the converse of this 

 proposition will be found equally true. 



"The experience of almost every farmer must 

 hav.e taught him that horses with drop shoulders 

 and bodies, and capacious chests, are more capa- 

 ble of bearing hard and long-continued labor than 

 those of which the shoulders, and of course the 

 chests, are shallow and the legs long; but com- 

 paratively few know how ra])idly the powers of 

 draft in any animal mechanically decrease with 

 the length of the le;s, comparatively with the 

 depth of the shoulders and body. If a horse, 

 proportioned as English horses now generally 

 are, be sixteen hands high, his forelegs, measured 

 from the elbow joint, will be about three feet, or 

 nine hands high, and his shoulder about two feet 

 four inches, or seven hands high. If such a horse 

 be able to raise, by means of a cord passed over 

 « pulley, a weight of a thousand pounds, another 

 horse similar to that in every other respect, except 

 that of having its legs eight inches shorter, would, 

 on account of the mechanical advantages of its 

 form be able to raise twelve hundred and fifty 

 pounds, or one fourth more, with considerable 

 less exertion ; for his power would increase with 

 the diminished length of his legs, nearly in the 

 same proportion as the power of the weights upon 

 the longer arms of the steelyards is increased by 

 being made to recede from the points of susjien- 

 sion ; and if the length of the leg of euch horse, 

 comparatively with the depth of the shoulder, 

 were further diminished, its power would increase 

 in an accumulating ratio. The enormous strength 

 of a bull of mature age, affords familiar evidence 

 of the truth of these positions; and I doubt much 

 whether the offspring of a Norwegian pony, and 

 a strong and low draft mare would not be found 

 capable of drawing a heavier weight up hill, to 

 any considerable distance, than the largest horse 

 of the ordinary form and proportion ; whilst it 

 would not, probably, exceed two thirds of its 

 weight, nor require more than two thirds the 

 quantity of food ; and it would possess much 

 more activity, and be much less subject to acci- 

 dents. And I have good reason to believe that 

 more perfect animals, for supplying mankind with 



food, may generally be obtained by cniss-brei'diiig 

 from females of small, and male animals of large 

 size, than from any breed of fixed and permanent 

 habits, relative to size." — Em^. Far. Mas. 



Feeding Live Stock in Winter. — There is, 

 perhaps, nothing relating to rural economy, in 

 which the farmers difter more, both in theory 

 and practice, than in feeding their cattle in the 

 winter season. We speak not now of the differ- 

 ent kinds of fo<lder, or of their comparative value 

 in the feeding of stock, but merely of the manner 

 and frequency with which the cattle are fed. 



Many farmers believe it indispensable, both as 

 to the good condition of their stock and the great- 

 est economy of fodder, to feed them five times, at 

 least, each day, during the winter ; while others 

 practice feeding but three or four times in a day ; 

 and again, others but twice. 



Experiment alone can prove which of these 

 modes of fi!eding will carry stock through the 

 wiiiter in the highest order, and with the least 

 expense of fodder. Our own experience on the 

 subject is decidedly in favor of feeding but twice 

 in a day. More than twenty years' observation 

 and experience in the keeping of stock, in a cli- 

 mate, where, on an average, dry fodder is required 

 to be given more than seven months in the year, 

 has given ns an opportunity to test the value of 

 the several modes of feeding above mentioned. 

 We were first induced to try the exjieriment of 

 feeding twice in a day only, from information 

 communicated to us by a very intelligent and suc- 

 cessful farmer, in a neighboring town. He said 

 he had a few years before occasion to call on a 

 fanner's widow to aid in the appraisal of several 

 cows, and found them near the end of the winter 

 in such high order as to draw his particular atten- 

 tion. 



He inquired of the widow, particularly, the 

 manner in which they had been kept, and found 

 she had given them nothing but hay through the 

 winter ; and that in consequence of having no 

 man or boy to tend her stock, she had been ob- 

 liged to do it herself; and being in rather feeble 

 health, she had never fed them but twice in a day. 

 This led him to examine, particulaWy, as to the 

 kind and quality of the hay with which the cows 

 had been fed. He found the hay not so good as 

 his own, while the cows were in much higher 

 order than his, though this had been fed five times 

 a day through the winter. 



From a knowledge of these facts, he afterwards 

 adopted the same mode of feeding, giving his cat- 

 tle just so much, twice a day, as they would eat 

 up perfectly clean, and no more ; and has since 

 found it, by experience, both a saving of fodder 

 and a benefit to his stock. From this information 

 we adopted the practice of feeding but twice in a 

 day, something more than ten years ago, and have 

 found the same favorable results. — JVorthern Far. 



On the Feeding and Management of Milch 

 Cows — It is of great consequence in the man- 

 agement of a dairy that the cows should be treat- 

 ed with gentleness, so that they may not be afraid 

 of being milked, or dislike the milker. A coxv 

 will not yield her milk willingly to a person she 

 fears, hates, or apprehends ill treatment from. 

 Young cows, in particular, may have their char- 

 acters for gentleness and good milkers formed by 

 the manner in which they are treated 



dairy or its products, is well islahlished and illus- 

 trated by a comnnmiration from MrKussel Wood- 

 ward, published in Meirioirs of the New York 

 Hoard of Agriculture, in substunce ns follows : — 

 Having formerly kept a large mnnber of cows, 

 [ observed many aujongst them dried up their 

 milk so early in the fiill, that tli(^y were not profit- 

 able, while others with the same keeping, gavo 

 milk in plenty until late in the season. I likewise 

 have ofYeii heard my neighbors observe, that some 

 of their cows, th(uigh very good in the forepart 

 of the season, dried up their milk so early that 

 they were unprofitable, and they would have to 

 put them off; I accordingly found it expedient to 

 find out the cause, if possible : and when I biought 

 to mind the ways that some of my young cows 

 had been kept and milked, I attributed the cause 

 to the milking of them the first season they gave 

 milk; and by many experiments since, I have 

 found that young cows, the first year they gave 

 milk may be made, with careful milking and good 

 keeping, to give milk almost any length of time 

 required, say from the first of May to the first of 

 February following, and will give milk late always 

 after, with careful milking. But if they are left 

 to dry up their milk early in the fall, they will be 

 sure to dry up their milk each succeeding year, 

 if they have a calf near the same season of the 

 year ; and nothing but extraordinary keeping will 

 prevent it, and that but a short time. I have had 

 theta dry up their milk in August, and could not 

 by any means make them give milk much past 

 that time in any succeeding year. I had two 

 heifers, which had calves in Aiiril, and after get- 

 ting them gentle, 1 set a boy to milk them for the 

 season, (which is often done the first season on 

 account of their having small teats:) he was care- 

 less, and dried them both up in August. Although 

 I was satisfied I should lose the greater part of 

 the ))rofit of them afterwards, yet 1 took it upon 

 me the following year to milk them myself and 

 give them good feed, but to no purpose. I could 

 not make them give milk much past the time they 

 dried the year before. I have two cows now 

 that were milked the first year they had calves, 

 until near the time of their calving again, and have 

 continued to give milk as late as ever since, if we 

 will milk them. — Gen. Far. 



Great Fire in London. — The great fire in 

 London, on the 2d September, 1666, consumed 89 

 churches, 13,200 houses, and 400 streets, the city 

 gates, Guildhall, numerous public structures, hos- 

 pitals, schools, libraries, and stately edifices, leav- 

 ing a ruined space of 436 acres, from the Tower 

 to the Temple Church, and from the North-East 

 Gate along the City Wall, to Holburn Bridge, and 

 destroying property to tiie estimated amount, even 

 then, of 10,000,000/., or nearly $50,000,000. Yet ' 

 within less than fve years after this terrible cal- 

 amity, the city was almost wholly rebuilt, in a 

 style of far greater regularity, security, commodi- 

 ousness, and salubrity. 



Who then can doubt that New York, with her 

 commerce, the number, wealth, and enterprise of 

 her citizens, will not even more rapidly recover 

 from the consequences of the recent fire ? 



At the period of the fire in London, its popula- 

 tion was about 500,000. 



The young children bf people advanced in" 

 This I years, remind me (says Johnson) of a little boy's 



truth, of much importance to all concerned in a I dog : fondled without reason, or satiety. 



