Vol 1.— No. 19. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL, 



147 



tt ptesent in Norway, the Feroe Isles, and 

 Iceland, and is totally distinct from every 

 thing of horse kind on the continent of Eu- 

 rope, south of the Baltic. In confirmation 

 of this, there is one peculiar variety of the 

 horse in the Highlands, that deserves to be 

 noticed : it is there called the eel-backed 

 horse. He is of different colors, light bay, 

 dun, and sometimes cream colored ; but has 

 a blackish list that runs along the ridge of 

 the back, from the shoulder to the rump, 

 which has a resemblance to an eel stretched 

 out. This very singular character subsists 

 also in many of the horses of Norway, and 

 is no where else known." (Walker's He- 

 brides, vol. ii. p. 158.) "The Highland 

 horse is sometimes only nine, and seldom 

 twelve hands high, excepting in some of the 

 southern of the Hebrides, where the size has 

 been raised to thirteen or fourteen hands by 

 selection and better feeding. The best of 

 this breed are handsomely shaped, have 

 small legs, large manes, little neat heads.and] 

 are extremely active and hardy. The com-j 

 raon colors are grey, bay, and black ; the j 

 last is the favorite one." (General Report 

 of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 176.) 



1 



FiQtn tho New England Farmer. 



SPAYED COWS. 

 Mb.. Fessenden : — Some years since, 

 passed the summer at Natchez, and put up 

 at the hotel then kept by Mr. Thomas Winn. 

 During the time that I was there, I noticed 

 two remarkably fine cows, which were kept 

 constantly in the stable, the servant who had 

 charge of the horses, feeding them regular- 

 ly three times a day, with green Guinea grass, 

 cut with a sickle. 



These cows had so often attracted my at- 

 tention, on account of the great beauty of 

 their form and deep red color, the large size 

 of their bags, and the high condition in 

 which they were kept, that I was at length 

 induced to ask Mr. Winn to what breed of 

 cattle they belonged, and his reasons for 

 keeping them constantly in the stable, in 

 preference to allowing them to run in the 

 pasture, where they could enjoy the benefit 

 of air and exercise, and at the same time 

 crop their own food and thereby save the 

 labor and trouble of feeding them? Mr. 

 Winn, in reply to these enquiries, stated 

 that the two cows which I so much admired 

 were of the common stock of the country, 

 and he believed of Spanish origin — but that 

 they were both spayed cows, and that they 

 had given milk either two or three years. — 

 Considering this a phenomenon (if not in 

 nature, at least in art,) I made further in- 

 quiries of Mr. Winn, who politely entered 

 into a very intereresting detail, communica- 

 ting facts, which were as extraordinary as 

 they were novel to me, and supposing that 

 they will prove equally as interesting to your 

 numerous agricultural readers, as they were 

 to tne, I am induced, on the request of a 

 friend, to offer them for publication in your 

 very valuable journal, in the hope that some 

 of the farmers who supply our large towns 

 with milk, will deem them of sufficient 

 importance, to make experiments for the 

 purpose of ascertaining whether the results 

 which they may obtain, will corroborate the 

 facts stated by Mr. Winn, and which should 

 they be fully confirmed, may lead to great 

 and important benefits, not only to farmers 

 but to tavern keepers and inhabitants of ci- 

 ties, and villages who now keep cows, in 



order that they may be sure of a constant 

 supply of pure and unadulterated milk. 



Mr. Winn, by way of preface observed, 

 that he had in former years been in the habit 

 of reading the English Magazines which 

 contained accounts of the plowing matches 

 which were annually held in some of the 

 southern counties of England, performed 

 by cattle, and that he had noticed that the 

 prizes were generally adjudged to the plow- 

 men who worked with spayed heifers — and 

 although there was no connexion between 

 that subject and the facts which he should 

 state, it was nevertheless the cause w-hich 

 first directed his mind into that train of 

 thought and reasoning, which resulted in the 

 discovery of the facts which he detailed, and 

 which I will relate as accurately as my mem- 

 ory will enable me to do it after the lapse of 

 more than twenty years. 



Mr. Winn's frequent reflections, had (he 

 said,) led him to the belief, ' that if cows were 

 spayed soon after calving and while in a full 

 flow of milk, they ivould continue to give 

 milk for many years, without intermission or 

 any dimunilion of quantity, except what ivould 

 be caused by a change from green to dry or 

 less succulent food.' 1 



To test this hypothesis, Mr. Winn caused 

 a very good cow, then in full milk, to be 

 spayed ; the operation was performed about 

 one month after the cow had produced her 

 third calf; it was not attended with any se- 

 vere pain or much or long continued fever ; 

 the cow was apparently well in a few days, 

 and very soon yielded her usual quantity of 

 milk, and continued to give milk freely for 

 several years, without any intermission, or 

 any diminution in quantity, except when the 

 feed was scarce and dry — but a full flow of 

 milk always returned upon the return of a 

 full supply of green food. This cow ran in 

 the Mississippi low grounds or swamp, near 

 to Natchez, got cast in deep mire and was 

 found dead. Upon her death, Mr. Winn 

 caused a second cow to be spayed ; the op- 

 eration was entirely successful, the cow gave 

 milk constantly for several years — but in 

 jumping a fence, stuck a stake in her bag 

 that inflicted a severe wound, which obliged 

 Mr. Winn to kill her. Upon this second loss, 

 Mr. Winn had two other cows spayed, and 

 to prevent the recurrence of injuries from 

 similar causes with those which had occa- 

 sioned him the lo6s of the two first spayed 

 cows, he resolved to keep them always in the 

 stable, or some safe inclosure, and to supply 

 them regularly with green food, which that 

 climate, throughout the greater part, if not 

 all the year, enabled him to procure. 



The result in regard to the two last spay- 

 ed cows, was, as in the case of the two first, 

 entirely satisfactory, and fully established, 

 as Mr. Winn believed, the fact, that the 

 spaying of cows, while in full milk, will 

 cause them to continue to give milk during 

 the residue of their lives, or until prevented 

 by old age. 



When I saw the two last spayed cows, it 

 was, I believe, during the third year that 

 they had constantly given milk, after they 

 were spayed. 



The character of Mr. Winn, (now deceas- 

 ed) was highly respectable, and the most 

 entire confidence could be reposed in the fi- 

 delity of his statements, and as regarded the 

 facts which he communicated in relation to 

 the several cows which he had spayed, nu- 

 merous persons with whom I became ac- 

 quainted, fully confirmed his statements. 



At the time to which I alluded, I endeav- 

 ored to persuade Mr. Winn to communicate 

 the foregoing facts to the late Judge Peters, 

 then President of the Agricultural Society 

 of Pennsylvania. But he was restrained 

 from complying with my request by an ex- 

 treme unwillingness to appear before the 

 public, and peradventure, his discovery might 

 prove not to be new, as doubts in regard to 

 the facts, might, where he was unknown, sub- 

 ject him to some degree of ridicule. 



The many and great advantages that 

 would result to the community from the pos- 

 session of a stock of cows that would be con- 

 stant milkers, are too obvious to require'an 

 enumeration. 



Should gentlemen be induced from this 

 communication to make experiments, they 

 will find it better to spay cows which have 

 had several calves, rather than heifers ; as 

 at that age, their bags are usually large and 

 well formed, and are capable of carrying a 

 much greater quantity of milk (without pain 

 and inconvenience) than younger animals. 



Keene, N. H. April 1 , 1831. Vi atok. 



ROUGE PLANT AND GUACO PLANT. 



Dr. Hamilton has received a letter from 

 Mr. D. Fanning, the proprietor of the Bo- 

 tanic Garden at Caraccas, including some- 

 rare seeds from that country, among which 

 was one, a Convolvulvus, which furnishes a 

 striking example of the great power of veg- 

 etation within the tropics, as Mr. Fanning 

 mentions his having trained it 5000 feet in 

 the space of six months. Some seeds of 

 most beautiful Crotalaria, and a few seeds 

 of the Ravina tinctoria, or rouge plant, 

 which cannot fail to come into high repute 

 among the fair dames of fashion. It is be- 

 lieved by the secretary to be a nondescript 

 species ; and he has, therefore, given it tho 

 provisional name of tinctoria, from its pecu- 

 liar properties, as a means of distinguishing 

 it till an opportunity offers of determining it 

 botanically. It is much used as rouge by 

 the ladies of Caraccas, one berry being suf- 

 ficient for the service of the toilet at one 

 time. It possesses two qualities which will 

 strongly recommend its use in preference to 

 any of the rouges commonly employed, that 

 of not injuring the natural complexion, and 

 that of not being affected or obliterated by 

 perspiration, while its color equals that of 

 the finest carmine. From the account giv- 

 en by Mr. Fanning, we should conceive this 

 fine pigment capable of being usefully em- 

 ployed in the arts. A few of the seeds have 

 been given to Mr. Pontey. Dr. Hamilton 

 is promised a supply of twelve bottles of the 

 juice of the Guaco plant, so celebrated as an 

 antidote to the poison of snakes, and an in- 

 fallible cure for gout, rheumatism, and a 

 multitude of other distressing maladies. — 

 The abundance of this supply will enable it 

 to be tried upon a large scale. It may be 

 expected by the first vessel from Laguira 

 that touches at Cowes. — Plymouth Journal, 



Sept. 16. 



Canal! — Sixty one boats with heavy 

 cargoes of merchandize, for the wesf, 

 cleared at Albany on the 7th of May ; and 

 the sum of five thousand and three dollar, 

 and fifty nine cents was paid on them for 



toll. ' 



History informs us that (be siege oi 

 Canadiacost the Venetians 366,743 can 

 non balls; 48.119 bombs, and consume.* 

 50,317 barrels. 



