vlIjc ^farmer's iiUmil)lij faisitor. 



, -o 



every haulm, upon which a single leaf is affec- 

 ted. A quantity, however small, of the return- 

 ing uncarbonuted (?) Bap being capable (by cata- 

 lysis) of destroying the whole tuber — " A little 

 leaven leaveneth the whole lump." 



Plants are modified by changes in the air they 

 breathe. A diseased leal or haulm disengages 

 pases which differ widely from common air. 

 Query: Have we not here an inference invol- 

 ved of some sigiiificaney ; ami hence a practical 

 rule of importance? — London Card. Chron. 



Principles of Breeding. 



It is generally admitted that there are two 

 modes or systems of improving domestic ani- 

 mals, viz: 



J. Crossing different varieties and afterwards 

 breeding from the produce ; and 



2. Selecting animals for propagation entirely 

 from one breed. 



Hut within a few years, considerable contro- 

 versy has arisen in regard to these two modes of 

 breeding, anil, as often happens where discus- 

 sions are carried on with warmth, the parties 

 have in many instances urged their arguments 

 to extremes. On the one hand it has been 

 held that crossing is the oidy sale course of 

 breeding, while on the other it has been de- 

 nied that any real improvement is ever effected in 

 that way. 



We do not advocate, exclusively, either mode, 

 being convinced that each has its peculiar ad- 

 vantages under different circumstances, and if 

 judiciously pursued will be productive of im- 

 provement. The most essential point is the 

 same in both systems — that is, a proper selection 

 of breeders. As was remarked by Prof. Sim- 

 monds, in his lecture before the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society, — "Every improvement of breed 

 requires the application of the same means to 

 retain it which produced it ; the chief of these 

 is care in the selection of stock, so as to avoid a 

 tendency to hereditary disease [or defects.] — 

 Crossing is founded on a principle just as secure 

 as Bakewell's system of care in selection, added 

 to the in-and-in system. 



The great breeder above referred to, (Bake- 

 well,) evidently combined the system of crossing 

 with that of breeding from one stock ; for his 

 breeding animals were in the first place selected 

 from different breeds, but after the cross had 

 been carried to the desired point, he confined 

 his selections to his own herds or flocks. He 

 formed in his mind a standard of perfection for 

 each kind of animals, and to tins he constantly 

 endeavored to bring them. That he was emi- 

 nently successful in the attainment of his object, 

 cannot be denied. 



But it has been said that " it cost Bakewell the 

 labor of a lifetime and a large fortune to estab- 

 lish a single breed of sheep." It' this were true, 

 it might be replied— if his improvements could 

 only be obtained at such "cost," it was lime anil 

 money well spent. But is the assertion correct ? 

 The language implies that he accomplished no- 

 thing else in his " lifetime " hut the improvement 

 of "a single breed of sheep," and that in effect- 

 ing this he spent "a large fortune" — both which 

 statements we think are erroneous. His im- 

 provements in animals were not confined to 

 sheep, but extended to horses, cattle and swine ; 

 in all which he produced stock superior to any 

 of his time, and for their several purposes it is 

 probable they have never been surpassed. "He 

 was allowed," says his biographer, "to he the 

 first breeder of horses of the age in which he 

 flourished. * * * The different nations of 

 Europe supplied him with materiel, and Nature 



herself might have wondered at the skill he dis- 

 played in bringing her works to a greater degree 

 of perfection." In practical agriculture, his im- 

 provements were scarcely less remarkable, and 

 it has been said, that " no man, perhaps, during 

 the last century, did so much towards increasing 

 the agricultural interests of the country, as 

 Bakewell." " He was in advance of the age, and 

 we might say full half a century before any of 

 his neighbors. Dishley, [the name of his farm,] 

 was in facta school of practical agricultural re- 

 form." — Albany Cultivator. 



The following beautiful ode was composed 

 for the annual celebration of the Berkshire 

 (Mass.) Agricultural Society, in 1823, by Wn. C. 

 Bryant, Esq. It may be new to some of our 



readers : 



Far back in the ages 



The plough with wreaths was crown'd, 

 The hands of kings and sages 



Entwin'd the chaplet round ; 

 'Till men of spoil 

 Disdain'd the toil 



By which the world was nourish'd, 

 And blood and pillage were the soil 



In which their laurels flourish'd. 

 Now the world her fault repairs, 



The guilt that stains her storv j 

 And weeps her crimes amid the careH 



That form'd her earliest glory. 



The proud throne shall crumble. 



The diadem shall wane, 

 The tribes of earth shall humble 



The pride of those who reign ; 

 And war shall lay 

 ills pomp away ; 



The fame that heroes cherish, 

 The glory earn'd in deadly fray, 



Shall fade, decay, and perish. 

 Honor waits, o'er all the earth, 



Through endless generations, 

 The art that calls the harvests forth, 



And feeds the expectant nations. 



Ayrshire Cattle. 



The district in Scotland, where these cattle 

 have their home, has a moist and mild climate, 

 and a soil which Mr. Youatt pronounces suitable 

 to render it the finest dairy country in Scotland, 

 if not in Great Britain. This breed of cattle 

 having been bred for the dairy, for a long time 

 under such circumstances, has become celebra- 

 ted, both in Great Britain and in the United 

 States, for those purposes, and importations of 

 these have been made of late, with a view of 

 testing them in this country. 



Some of the characteristics of the Ayrshire 

 cow arc thus stated by Mr. Youatt : 



"The qualities of a cow are of great impor- 

 tance. Tameness and docility of temper greatly 

 enhance the value of a milch cow. Some de- 

 gree of hardiness, a sound constitution, and a 

 moderate degree of life and spirits, are qualities 

 to be wished for in a dairy cow, and what those 

 of the Ayrshire generally puss< BS, The most 

 valuable quality which a dairy cow can possess 

 is, that she yields much milk, and that of a bnt- 

 yraceous or caseous nature, and that, after she 

 has yielded very large quantities of milk for sev- 

 eral years, she shall he as valuable lor beef as 

 any other breed of cows known ; her fat 

 shall be much more mixed through the whole 

 Besh, and she shall fatten faster than any other. 



They are deep in the carcass, hut not round 

 and ample, and especially not so in the loins 

 ami haunches. Some however have suspected, 

 ami not without reason, that an intention to tin 

 shape and beauty, anil an attempt to produce fat 

 and sleeky cattle, which may be admired at the 

 show, has a tendency to improve what is only 

 their second point — their quality as grazing cat- 



tle—and that at the hazard or the certainty of 

 diminishing their value as milkers. 



The quantity of milk yielded by the Ayrshire 

 cow is, considering her size, very great. Five 

 gallons daily, for two or ihree mouths alter calv- 

 ing, may he considered as not more than an ave- 

 rage quantify. Three gallons daily will he given 

 for the next three months, and one gallon and a 



half during the succeeding four months. This 

 would amount to more than 850 gallons; hut, 

 allowing for some unproductive cows, 600 gal- 

 lons per year may he considered as ihe av- 

 erage quantity obtained annually from each 

 cow. 



The quality of the milk is estimated by the 

 quantity of butter or cheese that it will yield. 

 Three gallons and a half of this milk will yield 

 about a pound of butter, country weight, or a 

 pound and a half avoirdupois ; and when one 

 gallon of water i? added to four of milk, the 

 butter-milk is worth to the farmer, or will sell at 

 2 d. per gallon. An Ayrshire cow, therefore, 

 may be reckoned to yield" 257 English pounds of 

 butter per annum, or about five pounds per 

 week all the year round, beside the value of the 

 butter-milk and her calf. 



When the calculation is formed, according to 

 the quantity of cheese that is usually produced, 

 the following will he the result : twenty-eight 

 gallons of milk, with the cream, will yuld a 

 stone (twenty-four pounds) of sweet milk "cheese, 

 or 514 pounds avoirdiij ois per annum, beside 

 the whey and the call! 



This is certainly an extraordinary quantity of 

 butter and cheese, and fully establishes the repu- 

 tation ot the Ayrshire cow, so far as the dairy is 

 concerned." 



Of the success of these animals since they 

 were imported into this country, we find some 

 very satisfactory evidence in the last Journal of 

 Agriculture, published at Albany, N. Y. : 



"Mr. Geo. Randall, of New Bedford, in a let- 

 ter to the writer of this, speaking of one of his 

 Ayrshire cows, says: 'On the 7th of October, 

 1844, the cream taken from six quarts of her 

 (Medal) milk, made one pound and nine ounces 

 of fresh butler, which is, 1 think, a thing unheard 

 of before. I put a certificate into the hand of 

 the chairman of the committee on cows, signed 

 by three young ladies that saw the whole pro- 

 cess of setting the milk, taking off the cream, 

 and making the butter. 1 saw the butter weigh- 

 ed the second time, believing there had been 

 some mistake in the weighing, hut found there 

 had not. (A Dearborn balance was used.) I 

 will add that Medal had not tasted a panicle of 

 meal or grain of any kind, and nothing hut hay, 

 and grass, and water, from the time she arrived 

 in the United Slates to the time the butter was 

 made.' 



We have now in our possession a cow, got by 

 the Ayrshire hull improved by the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, imported in 

 18117 : from eight quarts of her milk we obtained 

 one pound of butter. She calved about six 

 weeks ago, and now fills a common sized pail 

 night and morning. We have several that will 

 give from sixteen to twenty quarts per day. 



It is conceded we believe, that the Ayrshire 

 cows will yield as much milk in proportion to 

 their size and the food consumed, as any other 

 breed, and that they produce an unusual quantity 

 of rich cream. 



While on a \isit to Boston, a few years since, 

 we hud the pleasure of viewing the Ayrshire 

 cows imported by Mr. Cushing, as well as those 

 more recently imported hy Gapt. Geo. Randall, 

 oi New Bedford. Being desirous of obtaining 

 ihe opinion of Mr. Haggerston, the then malinger 

 of .Mr. Cusliing's firm, we addressed him on the 

 subject, and ihe following is Ids reply : 



'I will with pleasure give you my experience 

 of the A\ rehire stock. As milkers they are quite 

 equal to [lie best native stock I have ever seen, 

 and for years we procured the last native cows 

 that could he found, without regard to price; for 

 some of which we paid as high as two hundred 

 dollars, which was not for fancy, hut was consid- 

 ered the actual worth of the animals for their 

 milking qualities, Inn have found at all limes of 

 Ihe year, when the cows were in full milk, ihe 

 Ayrshires were the best, and whenever we have 

 kept an account of milk given for a length of 



