THE GENESEE FARMER. 



341 



This layer is crowning — three to four inches 

 higher in the middle than on the sides. Then 

 conies some two inches of coarse, screened flint 

 gravel, say of the size of hickory nifts. Each of 

 these layers is thoroughly rolled and packed, and 

 finally a dressing of line flint gravel one inch thick 

 is applied and rolled firm, the crowning being 

 maintained as stated, not very bold, but about an 

 inch and a half to ten feet in the width. This road 

 will need no patching or mending for years. 



If this road does not need a good deal of "patch- 

 ing or mending" in less than tea j^ears, we are 

 much mistaken. The stones "of the size of one's 

 fist" will assuredly work up through the gravel 

 and render the road rough and uneven. This has 

 been the result on all the English roads. All the 

 gravel and broken stones that can be put on the 

 top of the larger stones will not keep them down. 

 This is now well understood, and the English road- 

 masters, when tliese stones heave up their hated 

 heads, have tliem taken up with a pick and broken. 



CHOICE OF A BREED OF CATTLE. 



At the last monthly meeting of the Newcastle 

 ( England) Club Mr. Hedley read a paper on cattle, 

 from which we make the following extract : — " We 

 now arrive at the third part of our sulyect, nameh', 

 what kind of animals to select to be most remunera- 

 tive to tiie graziers of this country? In my close 

 identification with fat cattle for several years I have 

 always found that the best animals have the most 

 massive heads, most capacious chests, and strongest 

 spines. I have, therefore, envolved a few rules to 

 go by in the purchase of lean ones, and scarcely 

 with one exception I have found them to be appli- 

 cable. The head of any of our bovine races ought 

 to have the first consideration ; that is the true 

 index to the vital acumen, and even bodily con- 

 struction ; and will be found to foreshadow all of 

 good or bad that may be accomplished. Thus an 

 animal possessed of a broad, full, spacious skull and 

 strong evenly-bent deflective horns will be found to 

 have a. thick neck at the base., wide tlK^'ax, and 

 strong nervous system ; while one Avith long, nar- 

 row contracted skull, and puny, abrubtly bent 

 horns, will be characterized by weakness, wildness, 

 and slowness to fatten; a small, dull, sunken eye 

 betokens hardness of touch and inaptitude to fatten ; 

 and a bright, large, open soft eye, vice versa ; a 

 starting, dark, fiery eye often accompanies a small 

 forehead and hereditary wildness, and when com- 

 bined with small drooping horns, and a chin with 

 no loose sk,in hanging from it, is a very despicable 

 animal indeed, weak in constitution, predisposed to 

 lung disease, and sterile in tatteuing propensities. 

 Animals with weakly-formed hands, have always 

 small apetites, often narrow shoulders, and small 

 loins, and the width of these parts will always be 

 found in an exact ratio with the strength of the 

 head. The nose, instead of being long and fine, as 

 Virgil, Aristotle, and several other nauturalists re- 

 commend it, ought to be in my opinion thick, strong, 

 and near the ear as possible, if only in proportion 

 to the size of the frame. Thickness of nose and 

 thickness of chest are often twins, and so are thin, 

 meagre, irregular noses and consumption. Small, 

 snij)j noses oft snift the air into frames of small ca- 



pacities, and|are joined to mouths that can crop but 

 very small morsels at a time. These observations 

 I have found to be applicable to any of the kinds 

 of catile shown at Newcastle market, but besides 

 the shapes of animals, the age and class must 

 always liave especial consideration, and be adapted 

 according to food and situation ; otherwise, the 

 realization of remunerative profits will be uncer- 

 tain. In warm sheltry valleys, abounding with 

 rich, fine, succulent herbage, 1 do not think there 

 is any class of animals whatever can equal the Short- 

 horns for growing and making pay, and most as- 

 suredly not any for Turnijis in folds in winter. I 

 would choose for Grass in spring heifers or steers 

 quite filled up with lean flesh, and not less than two 

 and a half or three years old ; and for Turnips in 

 winter, the same class of animals as regards fresh- 

 ness, but from three to four years old, or otherwise 

 large stirks possessing all their calf life; such stirks 

 are decidedly preferable to small slender two-year- 

 olds for Turnips, and do infinitely better for the 

 grazier on the same amount of food. For seven- 

 eights of the summer pasturage of England, how- 

 ever, the Shorthorns are found to be too good, and 

 when judiciously alloyed with the Irish and Gallo- 

 ways the produce has been found for several years 

 to supersede the Shorthorns in their purity. The 

 half Irish breed excels the half Galloway on alti- 

 tudes dry and arid, and the latter the former in 

 marshes low and humid. The Irish ox is the truest 

 type of the old breed, the stripe along the back not 

 having yet disappeared. The Galloways are the 

 hardiest race known, and the only one that appears 

 quite invulnerable to lung diseases, and when well 

 crossed with soft-backed Shorthorns are better for 

 Turnips than the half Irish, and nearly equal to the 

 Shorthorns themselvts; but the half Irish as a 

 bod}' quite excel the half Galloways for Grass, 

 being often of more suitable ages, and hence easier 

 fattened. 



Rats — -Potato BtfG. — In reply to D. N. D. in the 

 October number of the Genesee Farmer for 1860 — 

 in relation to driving and keeping Rats from corn- 

 cribs and granaries. Place some gas tar in them 

 and daub some in their holes, and they will leave 

 the premises at once. The tar can be obtained at 

 any place where gas is n'lanufactured for burning, 

 at about six cents per gallon, and a gallon will 

 drive them from the premises. As to the Potato 

 Bug I have had them on my potatoes in dry sea- 

 sons several times, and I thought to the detriment 

 of the crop. I sowed slacked lime on my potatoes 

 and they left in 24 hours; try it, it will not cost 

 much. — J. K. Jenkins. 



Sowing Peas in the Autumn. — Cobbett, in his 

 American Gardener, recommends sowing early peas 

 in the fall, and mentions the following fact: 



" Upon a spot, where I saved peas for seed last 

 year, some that was left in a lock of haulm, at the 

 harvesting, and that lay on the dry ground till the 

 land was plowed late in November, came up, in the 

 spring, the moment the frost was out of the ground, 

 and they were in bloom full fifteen days earlier 

 than those sown in the same field as early as possi- 

 ble in the spring." 



Will our readers favor us with their experience 

 on this subject? 



