THE RHUBARB. WOOL. 217 



greatest freshness and vigror. This period is at about five years old. The pow- 

 ers of a horse will aua:ment by suitable treatment in this respect until about the 

 age of nine years : and, in order to obtaining the most valuable stock, a stallion 

 should not be put to service before attaining a full development of his powers, 

 nor kept at it after his form or energies appear to be affected for the worse. He 

 ' should be, then, between five and fifteen years of age, if of an ordinary constitu- 

 tion ; but if of remarkable energy and endurance, and exhibiting no symptom of 

 debility, may be continued until past twenty. 



Trainers find their endeavors to produce the highest state of strength, in an 

 animal, greatly impeded by any excitement of the sexual appetite. It is then 

 the more necessary to keep the horse in a state of training throughout the year, 

 impressing most forcibly a tone of health and strength upon his system at the 

 time Avhen his nerves are liable to the least distraction ; and continuing the 

 course carefully throughout the season of copulation ; never allowing such ex- 

 cess of service, or of the excitement of sexual appetite, as to induce a disturbance 

 of spirit or temper, or a relapse from the most thoroughly strong, healthy and 

 regular tone of the system. G. B. 



Coutraiy to the system laid down by ' G. B.,' and which is urged with plausibility aiid 

 force, the practice with too many is to keep the stallion tlu'ough the season, as hogs ai-e kept 

 to caiTy them to the greatest possible weight in the shortest time, to which end it is deemed 

 best to make them eat as much, and sleep as much as possible. Is it reasonable to expect 

 a vigorous and sprightly offspring from an animal in that condition ? Tlie trath is that in the 

 range of a fanner's occupations, there are few thiugs that require more care and considera- 

 tion and skill than in the department o^ breeding his stock. &c. Yet there are few in which 

 less skill is possessed, or less consideration is exercised. For maintaining animals of various 

 kinds, in their- highest form and qualities of excellence, if the trath must be acknowledged, 

 we have not among American husbandmen generally, the practiced judgmejit, the leisure, 

 the conveniences, or the capital ; neither have we the stimulus to close and persevering at- 

 tention to be produced by the certainty of demand at remunerating prices. Hence the gen- 

 eral deterioration which marks the descendants of choice imported animals — unless the 

 Horse be an exception. To him our climate is particulai-ly congenial, and improvement has 

 been mamtained by the high prices, still to be had from opulent men in the cities, for supe- 

 rior match horses. Another auspicious influence was that of the hirf, but that declining al- 

 most to extinction, a corresponding effect will be visible after some years on the shape and 

 powers of the Horse. We remember once, at the table of the British Ambassador, to have 

 asked the late J. Randolph, of Roanoke, whether Virginia maintauied her ancient superiority 



in the character of her horses; to which he answered, promptly, " No, Sir, far from it far 



from it. Sir. Since we gave up horse-racing and turned up the whites of our eyes, our 

 horses have sadly depreciated." 



The Rhubarb. — The leaf of the common garden rhubarb is a fine display of the order of 

 vegetable nature. It is common to find them about two feet square, and containing over 

 500 square inches. We noticed a lover of Natin-e examining one a few days ago and making 

 a calculation, the result of which, for its curiosity, we will give. He found that on the sur- 

 face of the single leaf could be ti-aced more than two miles of distinct canals through which 

 the nourishment passed to give life and vigor to the leaf. These canals being about the 

 sixteenth of an inch apart, divided the leaf into 130,000 fields, each as distinct to the eye as 

 the division by walls of the grass and grain lands of the well cultivated farm. As lateral 

 fibres, more minute than the unaided eye can discover, pass in close contiguity through these 

 small fields, there is no doubt that could all the canals for ch-culation in a single leaf be ex- 

 tendcdin one line, they would reach the distance of ten mUes. 



1^=" At the Utica Woolen Factory from 3.50,000 to 37.5,100 lbs. of fleece wool are required 

 annually for manufactm-ing, at a cost generally of about $125,000. The cloth manufactured 

 daily exceeds 450 yards. The (juantity of goods sold each year wiU amount to upward of 

 $300,000, whereas the cost of buildings, machiueiy, lots, &c., does not exceed $75,000, the 

 whole of the machinery being now in full operation. The wool purchased since Ist June 

 last by the Company, is about 384,000 lbs., costing about $115,000. 

 (457) 



