332 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



appgnded to jjates, stable and barn doors ; and he 

 will particularly guard a,<!;aiD3t the possibility of vo- 

 lunteer pruning of his orchard by hungry kine. 



Young animals of all descriptions must be tended 

 with extra care, and kept in a grovviug condition; for 

 checks in early growth are rarely recovered from in 

 after life. 



Improve your time in rainy days by looking in oc- 

 casionally at the school-house door; and don't stop 

 there — jee if the room is properly warmed and ventil- 

 ated — ascertain for yourself whether the seats are 

 comfortable, and duly proportioned to the respective 

 sizes of the pupils. Grudge not the necessary books, 

 for money is never invested in better stock than when 

 it conduces to the improvement of the young; and 

 be not vexed if your children should wear out their 

 hooks as w^ell as shoes. A pleasant word at night to 

 the school boy and girl, who have been poring over 

 thier books during the day at school — -questions like 

 these: What can you tell me about to-night that you 

 have learned at school to-day ? what more do you 

 know than you did this morning ?~we know from 

 personal experience powerfully contribute to interest 

 children in their studies, and aid a teacher in his ar- 

 duous and too oft poorly-requited labor. 



As the long winter evenings are coming on, be 

 sure that you make your own fire-side more pleasant 

 than elsewhere. Many — too many— liave we seen 

 turn a willing ear to the allurements of pleasure and 

 dissipation, when better judgment condemned their 

 folly, simply because the buoyant and elastic spirits 

 of their childhood and youth were too much curbed 

 and checked by the stern and thoughtless i:)arent. 

 But our limits forbid exhortation. 



The illustration given represents the Archer of 

 Heathen Mythology, w-ho, being accidentally wound- 

 ed with a poisoned arrow by Hercules, and the wound, 

 which was incurable, causing him great anguish, Chi- 

 ron prayed Jupiter to deprive him of immortality, 

 that he might, by dying, be relieved from his excru- 

 ciating pains. Jupiter assented to this request, and 

 changed him into the constellation Sagittarius. The 

 character of this sign is an arrow; and the figure, a 

 Centaur, in the act of discharging an arrow from a 

 bow — holh are supposed to denote the hunting sea- 

 son. The sun enters Sagittarius about the 22d of 

 November. 



PATENT OFFICE AGRICULTURAL RE- 

 REPORT FOR 1853. 



The first Agricnltural Report made to Congress 

 by the present Commissioner of Patents, Judge 

 Mason of Iowa, is a documeut of 448 pages, and 

 embraces about the usual amount of agricultural in- 

 formation annually dispensed through this channel. 

 In place of giving the communications sent to the 

 department entire in one place in the volume, they 

 are often divided into many fragments in order to ar- 

 range each topic discussed under a separate head by 

 itself. This plan has some advantages, .is it throws 

 together what is said by many correspondents on any 

 branch of agriculture or husbandry; while it is de- 

 fective in mixing up the practices and systems of dis- 

 tant [tarts of the United States, which are entirely 

 ' unlike from an essential difference in soils, climates 



and kind of labor employed in farming operations. 

 The first article in the Report is a brief and inter- 

 esting account of the introduction of Domestic Ani- 

 ina's into this country after its discovery, and settle- 

 ment by Europeans, written by Mr. D- J. Bkowne, 

 who occupies the Agriculture Room of the Patent 

 Office. 



In his second voyage in 1493, Columbus imported 

 the first cattle brought from the Old World into the 

 New. These consisted of cows, a bull, and a number 

 of horses. 



More than 100 years elapsed before neat cattle 

 ceased to be very scarce with the early colonists. In 

 1636 cows sold in Massachusetts at from £2.3 to £30 

 each. Before the introduction of cotton culture in- 

 to the southern states, beef, hides and tallow were 

 largely exported from that region ; and even now, 

 stock-growing may be made profitable any where be- 

 tween the District of Columbia and the western 

 bounds of Texas. The fact that so much attention 

 is devoted to planting, instead of detracting from the 

 great natural advantages of this extended range of 

 mild climates, it protects the business from injurious 

 competition, and furnishes additional encouragement 

 to embark in it. The animal prodacts of the coun- 

 try are now less, according to population and the 

 wants of the people, than they have been in the pre- 

 sent century. Ten years ago, our average annual ex- 

 port of Tallow exceeded ten million pounds ; for the 

 last two years it has been less than four million 

 pounds. In 184.5, 1846, 1847 and '48, our average 

 annual export of Cheese w'as about fifteen million 

 pounds; in 18.52-3 it was only 3,763,932 pounds. 

 Our exports of Butter have also fallen off" al)out fifty 

 ]>er cent. In place of sending out of the country 

 any considerable amount of AVool, we annually im- 

 port in woolen goods nearly twice as much wool as 

 there is produced in the United States. These brief 

 statistics are interesting, and suggest the propriety of 

 increasing our domestic animals, and extending both 

 our dairy and sheep husbandry. Mr. Ijrowxe esti- 

 mates the present number of neat cattle at 20,000,- 

 000, which at an average of $20 a head, amounts to 

 $400,000,000. 



]\lr. Joseph Cornish of East Cranby, ConBecticut,, 

 saj's, that it costs $25 to raise a steer or heifer in 

 that county till it is three years old; and that the 

 usual price of a good pair of steers is from $60 to 

 $100. In Litchfield county in the same- State. Mr. 

 T. L. Hart estimates the cost of raising cattle till 

 three years old at $30, and says that their best De.* 

 von steers, well broke, sell as high as $125. Ac- 

 cording to the statement of Mr. A. M. IlKioiNS of 

 Newcastle county, Delaware, about 1,800 head of 

 cattle, having an average weight of 700 ttis., were 

 fed in his district last year, and sold at from .$7 to $8 

 per 100 lbs. He says that cattle have recently ad- 

 vanced from .50 to 100 percent; their .supplies came 

 from the West. Working oxen sometimes sell at 

 $200 a pair. 



Mr. Samuel D, Martin of Pine Grove, (Clarke 

 county, Ky., has furnished the Patent Office with an 

 instructive letter on stock-growing in that excellent 

 grazing and grain-growing State. lie suys that the 

 cost of raising cattle depends very nmch on the treat- 

 ment they receive. Stock cattle are there generally 



