16 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



much greater depth in the earth than any forest trees 

 or smaller plants are able to extract them. Our ad- 

 vanced art and advancing science ought to go bej'ond 

 the shallow, empirical practices of the dark ages of 

 agriculture. At the recent examination of students 

 at the Royal Agricultural College of England, it was 

 stated that some virgin soils to which no manure had 

 ever been api^lied, contained nearly one per cent. 

 of ammonia. This would give some thirty thousand 

 pounds to an acre, estimated to the depth of twelve 

 inches. 



^A-***^ 



AMERICAN INVENTORS IN ENGLAND. 



The following remarks of the London Times will 

 be read with interest and j^leasure by every true 

 American: 



The British locksmiths who have been content to carry 

 on their business by rule of thumb, will immediately find 

 Mr. HoBbs turning out by machinery far better and cheaper 

 Jocks than theirs ; so the gunsmiths will find Colonel Colt 

 bringing the same agent to bear in supplying the demand 

 for his revolvers. And it further adds and admits : It is 

 no secret that Mr. Whitworth, of Manchester, has brought 

 back from his recent tour, as a Royal Commissioner, through 

 the manufacturing districts of the United States, a report 

 filled with the most startling evidences of the progress which 

 the mechanical arts are making there. The inventive ge- 

 nius of England, is about to be encountered on its own soil 

 by a rivalry whicli it cannot too soon prepare itself to face ; 

 and one of the first classes that must meet this competition, 

 is the body of agricutural implement makers ; and it will 

 not be the" fault of that pushing, bustling, restless advocate 

 of improvement, the owner of Tiptree, if the Garretts and 

 Ransomes escape the contest. The American reaping ma- 

 chines found their way to liis wheat crops, as if instinct- 

 ively, in 1851 ; the American threshing machine comes 

 now, and we are promised, at no distant date a steam cul- 

 tivator, the invention of an American, which is to deprive 

 agriculture of her motto, and render it no longer necessary 

 to " Speed the Plow." 



We have long contended that American Machinists 

 and Inventors are in advance of those of the Old 

 World; and our employment of four years in the 

 Patent OIBce at Washington served but to confirm 

 this believe, where we had the best possible opportu- 

 nities to study every thing relating to improvements 

 in agricultural implements and machineiy. The model 

 of what the London Times calls the American Steam 

 Cultivator, impressed us very favorably. It may be 

 worked by horses and oxen as well as by steam ; being 

 a rotary digging machine, that combines the mechani- 

 cal operations of the pick, the hoe, the spade and the 

 plow. So important do we regard the possession of 

 first-rate tools, implements, and machines on a farm, 

 that we shall venture to devote more space to the 

 description and illustration of such in this volume of 

 the Farmer than Ave have hitherto assigned to this 

 department of rural economy. Farm labor is gener- 

 ally verj' high, and whatever lessens the cost of grow- 

 ing a bushel of grain, or the production of other 

 crops, by sanng human toil, will benefit not only the 

 producer, but tlie whole human family, so far as they 



■ ; onsume the fruits of agriculture, husbandry and hor- 

 ticulture. Useful inventions will find an earnest 

 iriend in the Genesee Farmer; while those that are 



; worthless will be repudiated. 



Job had 14^000 sheep, beside oxen and camels. 



ON THE CHOICE OF BROOD-MARES. 



There can be no doubt but that the breodinf of 

 horses of a superior description would amply repay 

 those farmers who are possessed of the requisite 

 knowledge; and whose farms present a suitable com- 

 bination of light, productive, arable land, with pas- 

 ture of good quality. The price of first-rate horses 

 has advanced in a remarkable degree of lute years, 

 and is not likely to decline so long as the country en- 

 joys an ordinary degree of prosperity. It is every 

 where matter of complaint among buyers that good 

 horses never were so scarce as at the present moment'; 

 and the man who is possessed of a weight-canyini? 

 hunter, or a fine carriage horse, will, if inclined to setl 

 them, not find himself long without a customer. Still, 

 notwithstanding these inducements, the breeding of 

 horses on a large scale is confined to a few districts, 

 of which the principal are the east and jjart of the 

 North Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and part of 

 Northumberland. On the Yorkshire Wolds it is a 

 pleasant sight to see, field after field, with its half- 

 score of handsome colts; some of them adapted for 

 the chase, while others are destined for London car- 

 riage-horses. Though not so plentiful as I remember 

 them twenty years ago, especially the higher bred 

 ones, they are still to be found in sufficient numbers to 

 show that the farmer considers them a portion of his 

 stock productive of profit, and consequently worthy 

 of attention. Even there, however, breeders might 

 with advantage propose to themselves a higher stand- 

 ard, and aim at producing hunters of the first class, 

 which would surely renumerate them better than the 

 leggy and somewhat underbred coach-hoi-ses, which 

 arc every day less suited to the requirements of cus- 

 tomers. One reauson why hunters are not bred there 

 so extensively as in former years, is that farmers, 

 either tempted by the high prices offered by foreign 

 ers, or under the pressure caused by agricultural dis 

 tress, have, from time to time, parted with their best 

 brood-mares. Much as it is to be lamented that 

 either good mares or stallions should ever leave the 

 country, there are nevertheless abundance remaining 

 from which to rear, with judicious management, a 

 valuable breed of young horses. In the hopes of af- 

 fording some encouragement to the extension of this 

 important department of agriculture, I oiTer the fol- 

 lowing hints: 



One of the most important elements of success is 

 the choice of brood-mares. Never breed from a 

 mare which is not well bred. By well bred I do not 

 mean having many crosses of blood ; for many mares, 

 nearly and even quite thoroughbred, are very undesi- 

 rable animals to breed from. A well bred mare, in 

 the true sense of the word, is one of whifh the pro- 

 genitors, for many generations back have been care- 

 fully selected. In this respect Yorkshire breeders po- 

 sess a considerable advantage over those who reside 

 in districts where breeding is less extensively carried 

 on. In the former country it is easy for a farmer, even 

 of moderate means, to procure mares which are above 

 the suspicion of being tainted with cart-blood. Ow 

 ing to the abundance both of thoroughbred and 

 " nag"* stallions, a roadster-mare is seldom or never 



•A " iwg" is a roadster. He is less in size than a coach-horse, 

 and better bred. 



