154 



<2Tfje .farmer's itlontljln bisttor. 



time from a native cow and an Ayrshire, the 

 Ayrshire invariably held out the best. This I 

 consider one of their best qualities. Another 

 good quality they have, the progeny are as good 

 as the parents in all cases. Our heifers have 

 proved as good for milk as their mothers, and 

 this has also been the case with those which Mr. 

 Gushing lias given near home. I know at least 

 twenty of them, that last season fully developed 

 their milking qualities ; and the owners all say 

 that they are the best cows they have ever own- 

 ed ; many of them have milk farms, with large 

 stocks of cows. We all know this is far from 

 the case with the native stock, for usually the 

 best milking cows produce very inferior milking 

 daughters.' 



Alter taking all things into consideration, con- 

 tinues Mr. H., ' I have come to this positive con- 

 clusion, that the Ayrshire slock, for milkers, are 

 superior to natives : 



1st. In all cases of fair trial between natives 

 and Ayrshire stock, as to quantity and quality of 

 milk for making butter, that has come under 

 my observation, the Ayrshire has proved the 

 best. 



2d. The Ayrshire are more docile and much 

 less apt to be unruly, in regard to fence break- 

 ing. 



3d. The Ayrshires ate equally hardy and 

 healthy, and will give more milk on short feed 

 than the natives. 



4th. The Ayrshires are decidedly the hand- 

 somest animals, and most pleasing to the eye. 



5th. In breeding from llie Ayrshires you can 

 depend upon the young stock. I have (bund 

 them in all cases equal to their parents — I mean 

 tlic tic i Icrs. 



lu 1837, Mr. R. D. Shepherd, of Baltimore, 

 imported some Ayrshire cattle, and the following 

 is the account given of them, when first import- 

 ed, by the editor of the American Farmer: 



' We were first ushered into the apartment in 

 which Mr. Shepherd's Ayrshires were stalled. 

 On the north range stood two 3-year olds, who 

 had but a few days previous given birth to their 

 first calves; and although from our acquaintance 

 with the history of their breed — although we 

 knew they were the pride and boast of the place 

 of their nativity— candor obliges us to declare 

 that they far more than realized our most san- 

 guine expectations of their peculiar excellence. 

 England is justly proud of her Durhams, Dev- 

 ons, and her Herefoids; and Scotland, with an 

 ambition equally well placed, reposes her claim 

 to pre-eminence in the Ayrshires. Cows, it is 

 well known, do not attain the height of their ca- 

 pacity for secreting milk until they have borne 

 their third calve. Here were two 3-year olds, 

 with their first calves, with udders possessing a 

 volume so potent as to create a suspicion of their 

 age, if the ring about their horns and the certifi- 

 cate of pedigree had not settled the point. That 

 were we surprised is natural ; for although we 

 have, in our day, seen many, very many, fine 

 young cows with their firstlings, we certainly 

 never had seen any thing that could compare 

 with these. In answer to an inquiry which we 

 made of him, the cowherd assured us that one 

 of them gave twenty quarts a day, and the other 

 twenty-four quarts.'" 



The Ayrshire cow is described as a small 

 but beautiful animal ; adapted to districts where 

 the feed is short, and soil and climate demand a 

 hardy animal. — Mhamj Cultivator. 



Not being able to purchase and own full blood 

 cattle of the best imported breeds, we content 

 ourselves with raising cows and oxen from the 

 mixed breeds participating of the blood of our 

 best native cattle. Curious as they are success- 

 ful in all practical results, the Shaker brethren 

 succeed in obtaining the best cattle. We saw 

 lately at the first Canterbury family cows of the 

 mixed breeds which had yielded fourteen pounds 

 of butter per week ; and we offered sixteen dol- 

 lars for a heifer calf of last spring from one of 

 these cows to be delivered this fall at the closing 

 up of field grazing. We have an Ayrshire bull 

 of more than three-fourths blood from Air. Web- 

 ster's full blood bidl at Franklin: this animal 



came from a heH'er half Ayrshire belonging to 

 Mr. Horace Noyes, and as a calf at the last cat- 

 tle show in this county of seven months old ob- 

 tained a premium. The mother is twenty-two 

 months only the elder of the bull ; and two fine 

 calves six weeks old from heifers twenty-six 

 months old, are the progeny of the male now 

 only twenty months old — making three genera- 

 lions from the birth of the first female in less 

 than forty months ! Our hull calf of last year has 

 the growth already of a large cow at full age. 

 Ha I we not been called away in a distant jour- 

 ney on no very pleasant business, it would have 

 given the editor of the Visitor great pleasure to 

 exhibit him along with the two heifers and their 

 calves at the October Agricultural Exhibition at 

 Fishersville for the County of Merrimack. 



Cause of the Potato Rot. 



Messrs. Editors of the Boston Cultivator : 



As I have observed of late that there has 

 been much speculation upon the subject of the 

 potato disease, I have thought that I would give 

 you my opinion in relation to that subject, or 

 what I believe to be the cause-or the origin of 

 the disease. I therefore took much pains the 

 last season to ascertain the fact. I was unsuccess- 

 ful in my attempts until the latter part of the 

 season, when on passing through my potato 

 fields, I discovered a small black speck upon the 

 plant, which I found upon my near approach 

 darted off. I immediately provided myself with 

 a microscope, and by carefully approaching the 

 plant, 1 was able to view the insect with the 

 glass, which I found to he a very small bug. 1 

 also found that he fed upon the green part of the 

 leaf, leaving the fibre. The leaf being attacked 

 by eight or ten of these bugs would soon be di- 

 vested of all the green part, leaving, as I have 

 said, nothing but the fibre. I also found that by 

 the loss of the green part of the leaf the stem 

 became overcharged with sap, causing it to wilt 

 and die, and finally, fall from the main stock. 

 The stalk being thus divested of all its leaves 

 woidd. like the stem of the leaf, become over- 

 charged with sap, die, and finally dry entirely 

 up. The stalk being gone, the potato, like the 

 stalk, had too much sap before it had arrived at 

 maturity, and hence the rot. I would further 

 state, that being in the neighborhood of Portland 

 a few days after I made this discovery of the bug 

 in my fields, I then took occasion to examine 

 some of the fields, and there found the same 

 bug destroying the plants, as in this place. 



Now I think if the farmers and others inter- 

 ested will patiently wait until another year, they 

 will discover to their satisfaction the true origin 

 or cause of the potato disease, ami I fear too that 

 they will have greater cause to complain of the 

 power of this smallest of insects, as I found after 

 this discovery, that he had not confined his rava- 

 ges entirely to the potato plant: he had also 

 made his appearance upon the grape vine and 

 other plants of the garden. 



Fours very respectfully. 



Lowell, Nov. 23, 18+6. 



Lowell, Oct. 5, 1648. 



Dear Sir: — Agreeably to your request I send 

 the above copy of the communication which I 

 alluded to when you were at my house. I have 

 delayed forwarding the above copy in order that 

 1 might also forward you a copy of the commu- 

 nication which appeared in the Family Visitor 

 about six or eight weeks since, describing a 

 small flat green insect apparently carrying its 

 tilth upon its back, and represented as being 

 very destructive to the potato plant, by feeding 

 upon the green part of the leaf and thereby de- 

 stroying the potato plant, and superinducing the 

 rot. 



1 discovered the insects as described by the 

 aid of a magnifying glass. The paper alluded 

 to above has been mislaid and lost. In addition 

 to the above, you will also find upon the leaf of 



the potato, a small green insect which like the 

 others, prey upon the leaf. You will therefore 

 perceive that there are three kinds of insects 

 described as feeding upon the potato plant. The 

 same insects will also be found upon almost all 

 other vegetables and upon forest trees of almost 

 all kinds. The oak has suffered the most so far 

 as I have observed. If the farmers will take 

 pains to examine their fields when what they 

 call the blight first appears, they will find the 

 leaves literally covered with the above described 

 insects, which by taking off the green part of 

 the leaf leaves a brown appearance which is 

 generally called the blight, but which in fact is 

 no more nor less than the loss of the green part 

 of the leaf, which gives it that appearance and 

 finally ends either in its partial or final destruc- 

 tion. The early planted potato suffers less from 

 the effects of those insects, partly because they 

 are not quite so numerous, and partly because 

 the insects find a supply of food upon the ten- 

 der leaves of the young fruit and forest trees : 

 consequently they are less destructive to the po- 

 tato in the early part of the season ; thereby 

 giving the early planted potato a chance to get 

 so far advanced as not to be materially injured 

 by their ravages. It sometimes happens that 

 whole fields escape the ravages until it is too 

 late to injure the root, or until the plant is so far 

 advanced as not to be materially injured: conse- 

 quently there is no rot. 



Most of the fruit trees are more or less injured 

 by the attacks of these insects. For instance ; a 

 crab apple tree which stands in my garden was 

 entirely divested of its leaves before the fruit 

 was fairly ripe — likewise the butter-nut or oil- 

 nut tree, by the loss of its leaves before the nuts 

 were fully grown, which was caused by the in- 

 sects being fastened upon the leaves as I per- 

 sonally observed. 



Your most obedient servant, 



OLIVFR M. WHIPPLE. 



Hon. Isaac Hill. 



Improvement in Harness. — We saw, says 

 the Maine Farmer, not long since, in Alexan- 

 der's Messenger, a notice of a certain contriv- 

 ance or invention, patented by Thos. S. S peak- 

 man, of Philadelphia, to be applied to carts, 

 drays, &&, for the very purpose above named. 

 In the usual mode of harnessing horses into 

 carts and drays, we have a chain passing from 

 one shaft over the saddle on the horse's back to 

 the other. This brings the weight of the shafts 

 and part of the load on the horse's back, and it 

 falls dead and heavy every time the wheels pass 

 over obstacles, or over rough places and inequal- 

 ities in the road. 



To obviate this, and give the horse relief in 

 this respect, Mr. S. fastens under each shaft a 

 half eliptic spring, the centre of which is con- 

 nected to the lower ends of the staple, which 

 pass freely through a hole bored in the shaft 

 and connect with the chain that passes over the .■ 

 back. This affords relief to the back of the 

 horse, by letting the load come down gradually 

 and gently at each jolt, and not suddenly and 

 violently as in the common mode. 



Road-Making. 



There is scarcely any thing, next to the direct 

 improvement of the farm, that is of more im- 

 portance to the farmer, than good roads. He 

 must necessarily spend a considerable portion 

 of his time in travelling either long or short 

 distances. The conveyance of produce to mar- 

 ket is alone a very considerable item of cost and 

 labor. Many farmers are compelled to spend at 

 least one day in seven, on an average, in driving 

 on the road. It therefore becomes a matter of 



