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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCTOBER la, 18 jr.. 



r^W l2itH3^<a.Sraf> 2I'J:i.Si3S2l2ma 



BOSTOiN, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCT. 12, 1836. 



FARMERS' -WORK. 



A vALOABi-F. BOOK ON Cattle. — We liave been pre- 

 sented by the publishers, Grigg and Elliot, of Philadel- 

 pliia, by tlie hands of Uould, Kendal! and Lincoln, 

 Booksellers, Boston, with a very useful and excellent 

 work, entitled " Cultle ; their Breeds, Management, and 

 Diseases; with an Index. Published under the super- 

 intendence of the Society for the Diff ision of Useful 

 Knowledge." 



Of the utility of a "iood work of this kind there can be 

 but one opinion among intelligent and reflecting per- 

 sons. " No man will deny the importance of the ani- 

 mal whose milk affords butter, cheese and various tom. 

 binations for his table — whose hide gives leather for 

 machinery, harness, shoes, &c.— whose hair supports 

 the pl.iSter upon his walls — whose horn and bone aie 

 converted into medicines, and articles constantly in his 



use whose tallow and fat are consumed in candles and 



in soap, necessary to his comfort and health — whose 

 heels afford oil, valu.ible in many ofhis pursuits — whoso 

 stomach even constitutes an agreeable repast — whose 

 tail is converted into a conch for his indulgence or re- 

 pose— and whose pstientofispring,afterhaving enabled 

 him to reap the harvest of his fields, yields the most 

 wholesome and nutritious food for his frame, and finally, 

 by his offal, enriches the soil." 



From a cursory perusal of this volume, (we have not 

 yet had time to give that attention which it deserves) 

 we have formed a high opinion of its merits. It gives 

 us the natural history of the ox, the different breeds of 

 British cattle, such -is" Polled Cattle, Irish Cattle, Long 

 Horn, Short Horn, Foreign cattle, including the Alder- 

 ny, Najore cattle, Buffalo and Indian cattle, structure 

 and diseases of different parts of the ox; Breeding, 

 Parturition, the diseases and management of calves," 

 &c. and " a list of the medicines used in the treatment 

 of the diseases of cattle." A few extracts from this very 

 valuable book will give our readers some means of form- 

 ing a correct estimate of the whole treatise. 



In the introduction it is remarked, " If an ox is not in- 

 dividually 80 valuable as a horse, yet, in the aggregate, 

 cattle constitute a much greater proportion of the wealth 

 of the country ; for although Great Britain contains a 

 million and a half of horses, she has to boast of more 

 than eight millions of cattle unrivalled in the world." 



The author gives the items of a calculation, by which 

 he computes that the actual value of cattle, sheep and 

 swine in Great Britain is nearly one hundred and twenty 

 millions sterling, and continues, " Although much has 

 been done by agricultural societies to improve the breed 

 and the genrral treatment of these animals , and much 

 valuable instruction is to be fouml scattered in many a 

 volume, no one has yet attempted to collect these frag- 

 ments of" useful knowledge," and to add to them his 

 own experience; and in one very important part of our 

 subject there has been the most unaccountable neglect, 

 for there is scarcely in the English language a work on 

 the preservation of the health, and the prevention and 

 cure of the diseases of cattle and sheep on which any 

 dependence can be placed. Although a tenth part of 

 the sheep and lambs die annually of disease, (more than 

 four millions perished of the rot alone, in the winter ol 

 1829-30,) and at least a fifteenth part of the neat cattle 

 are destroyed by inflammatory fever and milk fever, red 

 water, hoose, and diarhcea; and the country incurs a loss 

 of nearly ten millions of pounds annually, the agricultu 



rist knows not where to go for information on the nature 

 and the cure of the maladies of which they die , and is 

 either driven to confide in the boasted skill of the pre- 

 tender or make up bis mind that it is in vain to struggle 

 against the evils which he cannot arrest, and lets mat- 

 ters take their course." 



" The parent race of the ox is said to have been much 

 larger than any of the present varieties. The Urus in 

 his wild slate at least, was an enormous and fierce ani- 

 mal, and ancient legends have thrown around him an air 

 of mystery. In almost every part of the continent, and 

 in every district of England, skulls, evidently belonging 

 to cattle have been found, far exceeding in bulk any now 

 known. There is a fine specimen in the British Muse- 

 um : the peculiarity of the horns will be observed, re- 

 sembling smaller ones, dug up in the mines of Cornwall, 

 preserved in the wild cattle of Chillingliam Park, and 

 not quite lost in our native breeds of Devon and East 

 Susse.t, and thoseof the Wel-h mountains,and the High- 

 lands. The cunibat of Guy, Earl of Warwick, with the 

 dun cow, the skull of which is yet preserved in the cas- 

 tle of Warwick will suflicienlly prove the comparative- 

 ly large size of some of the wild cattle of that day. We 

 have reason to believe, however, that this referred more 

 to individuals than to the character of the breed general- 

 ly, for there is no doubt that, within the last century, the 

 size of the cattle has progressively increased in England; 

 and kept pace with the improvement in agriculture." 



This work will be found amusing as well as useful, 

 and in our opinion ought to be found in every Farmer's 

 Library. 



the same foxy flavor of most others of our common na- 

 tive varieties. 



By Samuel R. Johnson, from his garden iia Charles- 

 town — Sweet Water, the produce of out of iloor culti- 

 vation, also fine specimens of Black Hamburg. 

 For the Committee, 



WILLIAM KENRICK, Chairman. 



Ho?s. — By accounts received from the Hop Districts 

 in England, it appears thi appearance of the crop had 

 improved beyond expectation. Itisbelieved that a larger 

 crop will be gathered than has been known for several 

 years. The quality good. 



Silk Cocoons have been left ot our office from the 

 House of Industry, at South Boston. They are from 

 eggs of this year, a second crop. The worms came out 

 August 2Gth, were kept in an even temperature of about 

 70 deg., and spun in thirty days. 



Skinless Oats — We are indebted to Mr Holmes, of 

 Dixmont, Mc. for a small quantity of Skinless Oats for 

 distribution. We shall take pleasure in dealing them out 

 to all applicants as long as they last. 



There are three letters at this Office for J. D. B. 

 A communication on the subject of CniNESE Oats in 

 our next. 



Grapes. — We hope that amidst all the new things 

 tiiatare brought before the public, which have in their 

 success a tendency to contribute to our prosperity and 

 advance our comfoits, some, which may now he consid- 

 ered as old, will not Le entirely forgotten. ^Vhile many 

 are engaging with such flattering prospects of reward in 

 the culture of the mulberry, the manufacture of silk, and 

 the making of sugar from beets, we hope that grapes for 

 wine and the table will not be entirely overlooked. For 

 a year or two the columns of the Farmer bore evidence 

 of the interest the raising of the grape excited : but for 

 some cause which remains to be explained, little or noth- 

 ing is now heard on the subject. 



We cannot think that the reason is in the progress of 

 the temperance cause, for desirable as is universal tem- 

 perance, we do n t think it would be in the least in- 

 fringed by a glass of domestic pure grape juice; nor has 

 the fondness of the public pilate for grapes undergone 

 any material abatement. If the attempts at cultivation 

 — and we know they were numerous — have been fail- 

 ures ; if it has been ascertainod that our soil and our 

 climate is unfit for the growth and maturity of the grape; 

 if it is found that neither the domestic or the foreign 

 vine can be made profitable for fruit or for wine, those 

 who have made the experiments are in duty bound to 

 lay the results before the public, that no more needless 

 expenses should be incuired,or time unprofitably spent, 

 in hopeless attempts at cultivation. In the course of the 

 three or four years that have elapsed since the subject 

 first engaged the attention of the western gardeners and 

 agticulturists, much valuable knowledge of the vine, its 

 treatment, the diseases of the fruit, and the best kinds for 

 propagation in the Geneeee country, must have been ac- 

 quired, and we trust that some of this knowledge will 

 ere lomr be imparted to the columns of the Farmer, for 

 the benefit of its numerous readers.— Gen. Far. 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIET Y 



Saturday, Oct. 1, 183G. 



EXHIBITION or FRUITS. 



Pears, by Samuel Philbrick, from his Estate in Brook- 

 line — Heathcoat, and Duchesse D'Angouleme. 



By Col. Wilder, from his Estatejn Dorchester— Ma- 

 rie Louise. 



By John Prince, from his Mansion at Jamaica Plains 

 — Easter Beurre. 



By L. B. Grosvenor — A fruit, name unknown 



Apples, By Mr Downer— Wine apple, so called, a 

 pale red, striped round fruit of middle size, very tender 

 and sweet with an agreeable acid.— This fruit is not the 

 Wine apple, properly so called. 



Ploms, by Samuel Pond— A good sized dark purple 

 Plum, of an oval form and good flavor. 



GKAPES,by Edward P. Tileston — Unripe specimens 

 of a new variety of native grape from the West, having 



Another Strike — The bakers in Boston have re- 

 solved no longer to bake beans for the Sunday dinners of 

 the neighbors at three cents the pot — they have deter- 

 mined on having four-pence-half penny. 



A man has been sentenced at the Worcester Court of 

 Common Pleas, to nine months in the House of Correc- 

 tion for cruelly beating a yoke of oxen. 



Early Snow. — Snow fell to the depth of one or two 

 inches on Wednesday, 4ast week, in Ashburnham, N.H. 

 and its vicinity ; and in Ashby, Mass. 



The President of the United States arrived at Wash- 

 ington on the 1st inst., from Tennessee. It is rumored 

 that he intends to rescind the Treasury order, requiring 

 specie payments for public lands. 



Melancholy.— On Monday afternoon, as the son of 

 Mr Bradford, aged about ten years, was riding on his 

 father's truck loaded with lead, he accidentally slipped 

 from his seat to the ground, when the wheel passed over 

 his neek and head, in an oblique «)irection, and crushed 

 him so badly as to cause his death in a few minutes. 

 Such an effect had the sad event upon his father, that 

 he fainted, and was carried ofi" insensible. — Boston 

 Daily Herald. 



