36 



NEW ENGLAND FARJ^IER. 



Jan. 



If circumstances require a sale of the farm, 

 that which is most attractive in its general 

 features, will usually command more money 

 than one in a slovenly condition, although pro- 

 ducing excellent crops. 



The scenes of early life are usually deeply 

 impressed upon the mind. If agreeable and 

 attractive, they were the nursery of a patriot- 

 ism that never dies, and so the beautiful pleases 

 the eye, cultivates the affections, increases our 

 wealth and makes us lovers and defenders of 

 our country. 



AQKICUIiTUKAI. COIitiEQB BOYS. 



We copy the folIowiDg statement from the Col- 

 lege Department of the Amherst, Mass., Record. 

 It is encouraging that members of the Junior Class 

 should succeed in securing seven of the eight 

 prizes offered by an agricultural society for best 

 essays on farming subjects ; but is it not discour- 

 aging to contrast the sums they received, with 

 those secured by the owners of fast horses ? Is it 

 an honor to the managers of our agricultural fairs 

 that a horse's heels should be valued at more hun- 

 dreds of dollars than a man's brains are at single 

 dollars? "But the trotting draws" Yes, sir, it 

 is drawing and will continue to draw the indigna- 

 tion and contempt of thoughtfal and moral far- 

 mers. 



The Hampshire Agricultural Society have 

 awarded eight, prizes for the best essays upon 

 "Special and General Farming," seven of which 

 were given to students of this College, and one to 

 a gentleman of North Amherst. Mr. II. W. Liver- 

 more rnceivedthe tirst prize for both classes of es- 

 says, $4 each; Mr F. M. Sommers the'second 

 prize, $(3 for general, and Mr. J. W. Clark the 

 second prize, $3, for special farming. The thrte 

 gentlemen above named are members of the jun- 

 ior class. It was not generally known that prizes 

 had been offered, and many of the students had 

 never heard of it until at terprizes had been awarded. 



STALIilOWS FOR COM WON LA.BOR, 



There are very ft^w geldings in France. The 

 reason is, the stallions are not unmanageable, 

 dangerous and vicious work-horses, but docile, 

 obedient, easily managed and intelligent. 

 There is nothing in the nature of things to 

 prevent our liaving the advantage of the great- 

 er toughness, strength, spirit, fearlessness, 

 safety (in being less liable to take fright.) 

 freedom from disease, and longer serviceable- 

 ness of the stallion over the gelding, were it 

 not that we and our ancestors have so abused 

 ibe temper of the horse, that his progeny ex- 

 hibit, among the unaltered males, vicious and 

 treacherous tempers, si^ as make them unsafe 

 and unreliable as work'^^ses, even under the 

 kindest and most umform treatment. 



The English thoroughbreds, unexcelled for 

 spirit, endurance, tleetness and wind, are the 

 most vicious of al-l horses. They came from 



the gentle, docile, affectionate Arab, and it is 

 only the training and abuse of the English 

 stable boys and grooms, we verily believe, 

 which have thus, in the course of generations, 

 ruined the temper of the most noble of the 

 breeds of horses. Its blood is infused through 

 all our common stock, and to it we owe most 

 of the characteristics for which we value our 

 horses. Where thoroughbreds have been 

 bred for generations under different treatment, 

 as under the handling of the negro grooms and 

 riders of the Southern States, their tempers 

 improve, and extraordinary exhibitions of vice 

 are rare among the stallions. The habit of 

 using stallions is followed a great deal by 

 French Canadians, who send to this country 

 so many of the so-called "Kanuck" horses. 

 These horses are small, close-knit and power- 

 ful, and when entire, tough beyond compari- 

 son. Wherever we meet with them, they are 

 praised for easy keeping qualities, great en- 

 durance, and freedom from ordinary ills, and 

 are seldom complained of as vicious. 



Do we not, in our ordinary treatment, 

 sacrifice a great part of the usefulness and 

 serviceableness of the horse, in rendering him 

 intractable, more liable to disease, and less 

 intelligent and spirited ? Is it not worth while 

 to make experiments oftener of rearing stal- 

 lions lor labor, though it require more patience, 

 gentleness anl kindness on the part of those 

 who handle th« m. and repeated floggings ad- 

 ministered with a will, for any stable boys who 

 dare to pinch or tickle, or to ruffle their tem- 

 pers ? — American Agriculturist. 



LOOK TO THE INCREASE. 



For two or three years past the owners of 

 some of the largest flocks in the country have 

 omitted to breed a large* proportion of their 

 ewes. As the supply of fine wool in our prin- 

 cipal markets is generally admitted to have 

 been in excess of the demand, such a course 

 may have been a wise one — certainly much 

 better than neglecting the flock altogether, 

 and letting disease and casualties adjust the 

 supply to the demand. But is it the part of 

 wisdom to pursue such a policy any longer ? 

 We think not ; and would urge every flock 

 master, even though he should desire to still 

 further reduce his number of sheep, to con- 

 tinue to breed all his best animals, and bring 

 about a reduction by selling off the older and 

 more inferior ones. Any other course will as 

 assuredly bring down the standard of excel- 

 lence in quality of fleece as it will prove detri- 

 mental to constitutional vigor, and. as a con- 

 sequence, increase the cost and labor of hand- 

 ling. Good rams can now be bought for their 

 actual worth, and he w!)0 fails, because of any 

 temporary depression in'prices, to keep up the 

 standard of his flock, may not realize what a 

 mistake he has made until it is too late to 

 rectify it, or recover from its consequences. — 

 A. M. Garland, in Western Rural. 



