70 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 



^^r 



^ 



" Wasliingtons Lettei-s on Ag^riciiltuie." 



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

 our tabic a very interesting and curious volume; be- 

 ing Fac-Simdies of Letters from George Washington, 

 President of the United States, to Sir John Sinclair, 

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

 can Edition, copied from the English, which was 

 published in London some years ago, by Sir John 

 Sinclair, from whose advertisement we extract the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — 



" It coidd not but be highly gratifying to me, to be 

 possessed of so many interesting communications 

 from such a distinguished character as the President of 

 the 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- 

 eessioti copies of a correspondence which displayed to 

 Buch 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 

 Bubsequcnt letter, for agricultural improvement, which 

 he preferred to every other pursuit, is another circum- 

 Btance which I was anxious should be recorded for the 

 benelitboih of the present and of future times', from a 

 desire that it may make a due impression upon the 

 minds of those who might otherwise be induced to 

 dedicate themselves entirely, either to the phantoms 

 of military fame, or the tortures of political ambition. 



** As it is a singular circumstance that a person in 

 BUch an exalted situation as General Washington, 

 Bhould have leisure to write, icitli 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, fit to be preserved in that valuable re- 

 pository." 



Some Remarks ou the Value of Live Stock, 

 with relation to the Weight of Olfal. 



BY THE HON. ADAM FERGCSSON, OF WOODniLL, CANADA. 



Messrs. Editors — In the improvement ol live 

 stock in this country, the views o( breeders have been 

 long directed to the selection of animals of good shape 

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

 tablishing of new breeds, or to the improving of old 

 ones, has always been appreciated by the public, as re- 

 flecting credit upon the enterprise of the individuals, 

 and as conducing to the prosperity of the country. 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 agriculture of the country 

 around; the land being necessarily drained, enclosed, 

 and ctdtivated, 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 ouglit 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 thirto-s 

 considered, in the shortest jieriod, or which will pro- 

 duce the greatest weight of markctalle produce from 

 any given extent of land, and within any given period. 

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

 mal of any given breed, which) in relation to its live 

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

 quantity of good meat andtalloic, is the animal of the 

 greatest 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- 

 lesnesa 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 

 dead weight; and the ratio which one bears to the other 

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

 bles, founded o« the determination 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, has generally presented it- 

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

 pable test, as to be sufficient 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 weight of 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 at oh/// ojje half 

 the lire weight. It is sufficiently apparent 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 upoit that datum; 

 and from some authentic returns, to be just 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 late Mr. 

 Curwcn, at the Schoose, County of Cumberland, 

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

 dopied, 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 number," "556," by which, up- 

 on receiving the live weight, he professed to give the 

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

 ted to his test. The writer need scarcely observe, 

 that there is nothing really " magical" in the number 

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

 to weigh .')0 stones when alive, and the deadweight 

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

 weight would be represented by the fraction 25 to 50 

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

 multiplied by tlie 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 .556; 

 which again multiplied by the live weight would give 

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

 writer,) Glover's calculation certainly approached 

 very nearly to the truth, and gave a greater return 

 than competent judges were disposed to allow, from 

 handling the animal alive. The subject of experi- 

 ment was an Ayrshire heifer, 18 months old, which 

 Mr. Curwen slaughtered at one of his great general 

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

 inf. This animal had never been a day out of n calf 

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

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

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

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

 atone, which being applied as a multiplier to the fa- 

 mous numba; and cutting off" the three figures to the 



ght, gave the following product: 556 X55= 30,- 

 5S!), that is, holding the three right hand figures as de- 

 cimals, about 30i stones. The weight of this heifer, 

 by measurement, in Ainslics tables, was pretty nearly 

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

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

 means prime fat. In this animal, then, which had 

 certainly not attained a state of perfection, we have a 

 return considerably exceeding one half of the live 

 weight. 



Mr. Rennie of Phantassie, (probably the greatest 

 practical agrictdturist in Scotland, of his day,) and 

 Mr. Curwen, with their respective adherents, differ- 

 ed in their estimation of the live and dead weight up- 

 on geiwral principles, Mr. Ronnie would not allow 



liii^ 



id 



more than one half of the live weight to be reck iit"' 

 upon, except in cases of extraordinary fat, to v 

 certainly the heifer in question had no pretent le!' 

 and in whose ease, notwithstanding the proportiq li*""" 

 Mr. Rennie, were considerably below the mark. 



The following detailswill still furlher illusirat 

 subject, and may tend to excite more than a di 

 whether one-half be not too small a proportion 

 assumed in estimating, the live and dead weigl 

 stock. 

 Tables of Sheep and Cattle slaughtered in V: 



years, with the amount of live and dead we 



stone of li lbs. 



^— o 



o o £ r o E E n c^ 



"-Sills' 



g 00 j2 - cj 5 • 

 3 3 en--- ""S *-< 



I— »^^scxlO00C2O^^Mot»■ 



w: cc c,5 *k oi ^ ^ Ci 00 -1 :c ^ 



H-tOt*OOWt«>&^M-l5 



oo o o I. 



iO^ W 3 *.. 



,ieT# 



ii*"" 



uilit'l'' 

 l(lbe«i' 



Ijof 



11 



According to the average on the above table, 

 Glover's rule would give 5 ftone 5 lbs. as 

 dead weight; but the true multiplier would be 

 instead of 556, according to Mr. Glover's praclice;aii 

 instead of 500 according to the common practice. ^ 



The above table gives the same result to a fraclion 

 as the last, and this curious coincidence is deserving of 

 notice, as occurring in the case of animals so entirely 



