70 



THE NEW GEN]:SEE FARMER, 



'OL. 2 



" Washiiigtous Letters on Ajiiculture." 



Mr. D. Hoyt, Bookseller of this city, has placed on 

 our table a very interesting and curious volume; be- 

 ing Fac-Similies of Letters from George Wn.?hington, 

 President of the United States, to Sir John Sinclair, 

 on Agriculture, and other topics. This is an Ameri- 

 can Edition, copied from the Knglish, which was 

 published in London some years ago, by Sir John 

 Sinclair, from whose advertisement .we e.vtrnct the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — 



" It could not but be highly gratifying to mc, to be 

 possessed of so many interesting cominunicnlions 

 from such a distinguished character os the President of 

 iho United States; and it was natural to suppose, that 

 the public, but more especially those individuals who 

 revered his memory, would wish to have in their pos- 

 Bessio.i copies of a correspondence which displayed to 

 such advantage the superior talents, the generous 

 views, and the unbounded philanthropy of that cele- 

 brated statesman. 



"The peculiar predilection which General Washing- 

 ton has so strongly and so frequently expressed, in the 

 subsequent letter, for agricultural improvement, which 

 he preferred to every other pursuit, is another circum- 

 stance which 1 was an.\ious should be recorded for the 

 benelit both of the present and of future times, from a 

 desire that it may make o due impression upon the 

 minds of those who might otherwise be induced to 

 dedicate themselves entirely, cither to the phantoms 

 of military fame, or Jhe tortures of political ambition. 



"As it is a singular circumstance that a person in 

 such an exalted situation as Gencrol Washington, 

 should have leisure to write, witit his own hand, so 

 many letters to an entire stranger, and some of them 

 of considerable length, I have been induced to have 

 them engraved in order to represent the handwriting 

 of their celebrated author: they are exact copies of 

 those received by me. It is proposed to deposit the 

 originals in the British Museum, as the precious relics 

 of a great man, lit to be preserved in that valuable re- 

 pository." 



Some Remarks on the Value of Live Stock, 

 with relation to the Weight of Ofial. 



BY THE UON. AD.i^I FEROCSSON, OF WOODHILL, CANADA. 



Messrs. Editors — In the improvement ot live 

 stock in this country, the views of breeders have been 

 long directed to the selection of animals of good shope 

 and a " a kindly handhng;" and attention to the es- 

 tablishing of new breeds, or to the improving of old 

 ones, has olways been appreciated by the public, os re- 

 flecting credit upon the enterprise of the individuals, 

 Jind as conducing to the prosperity of the counti^y. A 

 judicious improvement in live stock is not limited in its 

 effects to that object alone. It never fails, at the same 

 time, to improve the agricidture of the country 

 nround; the laud being necessarily drained, enclosed, 

 and culiivntcd, in a manner adequate to raise the supe- 

 rior kind and quality of the produce now required. 

 Such being the beneficial consequences of an improve- 

 ment of live stock, no suggestion ought to be disre- 

 garded which may lead to that important end. 



It may be laid down as a maxim, that those breeds, 

 or varieties, are best, which will pay most, all things 

 consiiterctl, in the shortest period, or which will pro- 

 duce the greatest weight of marketahh produce from 

 any giren extent of land, and u-ilhin a.nijgircn period. 

 And, in like manner, it may be stated, that the ani- 

 mal of ony given breed, which, in relation to its lire 

 weight, will bring to the butcher's stall the greatest 

 /jnaittity of good meat iindtallotc, is the aidmal of the 

 {ireatest value. Now there is some reason to suspect, 

 that a question having relation to this latter point has 

 been of late too much overlooked, arising from care- 

 lesness on the part of the farmer, with some profes- 

 sional mystery, perhaps, on the part of the butcher. 

 The question here referred to, is that of the live and 

 doa J weight; and the ratio which one bears to the other 

 in properly fed animals. It is true, that various ta- 

 U.'s, fovtuded on thedetermiiiation of this question. 



have been constructed with the view of assisting the 

 farmer in the disposal of his stock; and such tables 

 are no doubt to a certain extent convenient and use- 

 ful. A difficulty, however, bos generally presented it- 

 self in bringing their accuracy to such a direct ond pal- 

 pable test, as to be suflicient to silence a keen and de- 

 preciating purchaser, and compel him to admit that the 

 seller does not overrate the weight of the animal. It 

 would seem that attention, at once more extended and 

 minute, must yet be bestowed before the relative live 

 and dead wcightof stock can be ascertained, in a man- 

 ner equally satisfactory to the buyer and the seller. 



The particular error into which it is conceived many 

 have fallen, lies in estimating the dead Rlonlyone half 

 the lire iceigiil. It is sufficiently ajiparent that should 

 the former, in any material degree, exceed this pro- 

 portion, a very serious loss may be incurred by the 

 seller, who founds his calculation npon that datum; 

 and from some outheutic returns, to be jnst submitted 

 to the reader, it will be seen that an inference to this 

 effect may be reasonably drawn. 



In the extensive farming concerns of the lote Mr. 

 Curwen, at the Sehoose, County of Cumberland, 

 England, — a mode of estimating dead weight was a- 

 dopted, somewhat singular in its nature, and said to be 

 remarkably correct in its results. Glover, the stock 

 bailiff, a very intelligent man, made use of what he 

 called his " magical mimhcr," "5.5C," by which, up- 

 on receiving the live weight, he professed to give the 

 dead weight, sinking offal, of any fat onimal submit- 

 ted to his lest. The writer need scarcely observe, 

 that there is nothing really " magical" in the number 

 556, or in the manner of obtaining it. If on ox were 

 to weigh .50 stones when alive, and the dead weight 

 were found to be 25 stones, the ratio of dead to live 

 weight would bo represented by the fraction 25 to 50 

 which, converted to decimals, .would give 5, and this, 

 multiplied by the live weight, would give the dead 

 weight. But if Mr. Glover, by a series of more cor- 

 rect observations, found that upon an average of o.xen 

 the live weight was 50 stones, and the deadweight 

 27 stones 11 2-10 lbs,, the proportion of dead to live 

 weight would be represented by 27 stones 11 2-10 lbs, 

 to 50, which converted to decimals, would give ,55G; 

 which again multiplied by the live weight would give 

 the dead weight. In one instance, (verified by the 

 writer,) Glover's calculation certainly opproached 

 very nearly to the truth, and gave a greater return 

 than competent judges were disposed to allow, from 

 handling the onimal alive. The subject of e.xperi- 

 mcnt was an Ayrshire heifer, 18 months old, which 

 Mr. Curwen slaughtered at one of Ids grcot general 

 meetings, as a sample of his favorite system of soil- 

 ing. This animal had never been a day ovt of a calf 

 pen or sttmc yard, from her birth, had never tast- 

 ed oil cake or grain, and was undoubtedly a very for- 

 ward onimal of her age. Her live weight was cor- 

 rectly oscertoincd to be 55 stone, of 14 lbs. to the 

 stone, which being applied as a multiplier to the/u- 

 mous number, ond cutting off the three figures to the 

 right, gave the following product: 550 ><55= 30,- 

 5-0, that is, holding the three right hand figures as de- 

 cimals, about 304 stones. The weight of this hei/er, 

 by measniement, in Aiiislies tables, wasjjrelly nearly 

 the same. The actual result gave 30 stones of meat, 

 and 2 stones of loose fat, fine marbled beef; but by no 

 m;ans prime fut. In this animal, then, which had 

 certainly not ottained a state of perfection, we have a 

 return considerably exceeding one half of the live 

 weight. 



Mr. Rennie of Phantassie, (probably the greatest 

 practical agriculturist in Scotland, of his day,) and 

 Mr. Curwen, with their respective adherents, differ- 

 ed in their cetlination of the live and dead weight up 



more than one half of the live weight to be reckonci 

 upon, except in cases of extraordinary fat, to whici 

 certainly the heifer in question had no pretensions 

 and in whose case, notwithstanding the proportions c 

 Mr. Rennie, were considerably below the mark. 



The following details will still further illustrate thi 

 subject, and may tend to excite more than a doubt 

 whether one-half be not too small a proportion to b 

 assumed in estimating, the live and dead weight c 

 stock. 



Tables of Sheep and Cattle slaughtered in rnrioit 

 years, icith the amount of lice and dead weight- 

 stone of H lbs. 



Ill 



According to thtf average on the above table, Mr 

 Glover's rule would give 5 stone 5 lbs. as thi'*' 



deadweight; but the true multiplier would be 605 1'™ 

 instead of 556, according to Mr. Glover's practice; o | 

 instead of 500 according to the common practice. 



I 





> 1^ 



3 2^' 



rr. <^ (X) (^ t^ Zl tC ^ 



■u <~i <x c;> -i^ o •— S^ 



OCO0Cl.i.C>*.C-. ? 5- 



ci tn en -1 en i-T -i v. 





"^ P -** — £" I 

 *. <l iX ■ ■ 



The above table gives the same result to a fraction 

 as the last, and this curious coincidence is deserving of 



on general principles, Mr, Renniv- would not allow I notice, m occurring in the cose of animals so entirely 



