AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



V23 



n 



>s high a grnde in blood os tlie ntiturc (if your 

 d the climate tcill pcnnit. The ai!iiiifgi»ne 

 jefiiro ilio cloeo of tUia imragrapb, of ibe eiior- 

 ireights of ibe Durham ox with good l;0C|iin;;, 

 ,0 the fidlc.-'t c.\;c'nt nil ibnt we claim, when 

 lice of feed is given lo tiir nnimnl. 

 he Gib and latl paragrniib, Mr. C. doubts 

 r lb* Duihiims arc, iifier all, not the best stock 

 10 have, and candidly admits that bis mind is 

 n to ccnvictiiin. Now tbip, after mnkins; the 

 assenions and denials that arc abuvo exbibiiod, 

 rxncily what we eboulil expect from one ol bis 

 ition B1..1 astiiteniss It is indeed too much in 

 of the old adage: " Hang him first, and try 

 ftcrwards." It this Inst paragraph all is n^!- 

 ibat the advocates of Sliori Horns det,iro. We 

 lever asserted that they would produce sreat 

 l;cs of beef, or of mdk, without sullicien! An.d; 

 ould they ihiiv? under continual ill treatment, 

 t and abuse; nor indeed, will they bear so vn.-cJi 

 ion and ill treatment as some of our jiative cat- 

 t we do fearlessly assort that either thorough 

 r giade Short Horns will prodiico more beef, 

 ore milk, each in their own proper time, with 

 'luantities of grass, hay, or other proper (eQi\, 

 breed of entile ever intrnduced into tbis 

 and so have they thus far done in Eng- 



own cattle have never been hinhly kept. On 

 urnry, owing to my farm being at some few 

 listince from my residence, and therefore not 

 uy daily attention, my herd always received 

 Jinnry care, and soraetimes, I regret to say, not 

 bat. But I do eay, that so lar as my experience 

 oved, they have from the highest bred Herd 

 heifer, down to the lowest grade, (never less 

 laU blood,) boon as healthy and as hardy as the 

 on stock ol the country, kept side by side with 

 The opinion, therefore that Dnrhams are to 

 ected for want of hardihood or constitution, is 

 prejudice that deserves to he exploded. 

 1 I am no enthusiast in this nmuer. I would 

 ecommend every farmer to introduce into his 

 :he Durham cow. On the contrary, on very 

 nd light soils, I would not introduce them; nor 

 hing cite that ever lived on a luxuriant one. 

 do say, on lands natural to grass, which afllird 

 yield of pasture and of hay, where either the 

 or the fatting of beef, or even the rearing of 

 for sale, be the object, judging from my own 

 ience, and corroborated by that of others who 

 tried a single cross upon our native, or am/ oth- 

 ed of cattle, no matter what, even up to high 

 3, the Dnrhams are altogether the most desirable, 

 'or appearance and for profit; with the exception 

 ]i9, of the Devonshire, if the climate be very 



iniid they are no milkers. W«re I a dairyman, 

 esired to grow up a race of the best and most 

 able milkers, I would select the best native cows 

 n my reach, then obtain a thorough bred Short 

 bull of a good milking family, and raise my 

 •8 to as high grades as in their natural course 

 d be produced, always using a thorough bred bull, 

 no other way can the excellence and the true 

 cteristics of the race be perpetuated. Did I how. 

 admit of any other foreign admixture, it should 

 irossof the Devon to give addition.il snugncsa to 

 irm; an I then but a single cross, for more than 

 would degrade the milking qualities of the herd, 

 lese animals, bred as they would be from native 

 , would inherit their constitutions and habits; 

 )ecome identified, as much as the most ordinary 

 th onr soils and our habits of keeping. In 

 way should we at once gain all we desire, with- 

 udden or prejudicial change." • • » • • 



Sngar tied for Spring Feeding. 



R — I have for along time been halting between 

 npinions, as to the value of the sugar beet as win- 

 jod for stock, and really have been puzzled with 

 jonflicting testimony of parties, for and against, 

 isit to a friend in an adjoining state, which I 

 f been induced to take at the suggestion of your 

 espondent at p. 205 of the Cabinet for January, 

 whom I can bear out in the remark, that such a 

 ■e of expending a smiU sum is the cheapest and 



way in which a ni.in can study the science of 

 culture, has, however, brought me short about, a 

 ng advocate for its cultivation, and I will tell you 



efore I left home, I was wondering within my- 

 how my poor s'.ock were to subsist airolher month 

 lout a su|)ply of fresh provender: my hay-hnm and 

 i-crib began to show signs of atrophy, the ribs of 

 latter rattling in tbe wind like a drfed EkcUton; 



with scarcely a blndo of grass to be seen in the pas- 

 tures, into which hoivevtr, 1 had been compelled to 

 turn the poor creatures, in the hope that they mi;;bt 

 be able to pick up a little to help out; knowing all the 

 while, that what they could extract from the loots of 

 the sod must be at the expense of the coming crop of 

 bay. In this slate of mind and feeling, 1 reached my 

 friend's house, and was infinitely surpriatd to find 

 hitn feeding all his cattle and sbccp, and indeed 1 

 might add hogt, which also come in for a share, to 

 the full head, as he termed it, with sugar beet, which 

 he had reserved for this p.'iriiculnr season, as a link 

 betwe n the winter and summer crops, the value lor 

 which purpose, to use his own words, was "quite 

 above all price." Said he — "While many arc de- 

 bating r.bont the quality of the beet, and are not able 

 te determine whether its cultivation be the greatest 

 good or the most considernble of evils, 1 have gone 

 (juictly on, sowing regulaily the quantity necessary 

 lor my winter consumption, being careful to preserve 

 a full supply for the whole month of April, without 

 regard to the stories that are told about its diH'ereiit 

 and very dissiniilnr properties; and now you tee me 

 wilh plenty of food for every living thing about nie 

 tor a month to come, obtained at a most trilling cost 

 of production; for, from about an acre of land, [har- 

 vested a mountain of green food, to mix with my hay 

 and straw, which have now become dry and hard from 

 keeping: and by these means 1 am able lo keep all 

 my stock from the meadows and pasture until May — 

 a perfectly iucakulnblc advantage; for thus I am not 

 only i'ecding them this year, but adding astonishingly 

 to my means lor the next winter, as I almost fancy 

 that by so doing I am able to mow double the quan- 

 tiiy of hay that 1 used to do. And this is not all; 

 for the large quantity and excellent quoliiy of the ma- 

 nure which I thereby obtain, is of far more value to 

 me than all the labor and expense of cultivating the 

 beets, twice told. You see that my stock are in 

 good conditien, contented and happy, confined to 

 their winter quarters, and not permitted to roam 

 abroad, to the destruction of the lenccs, the loss ol 

 their dung, and the absolute annihilation of the I'uiutc 

 crops of hay; and if these are not advantages suliici- 

 cnt to induce us to go forward wiih the cultivation of 

 the beet, I should be glad to be told what more we 

 have a right to expect'/ Let others argue what is the 

 value ol such a crop for winter food, and especially 

 tor spring use, while 1 am too happy to be ;.ble to cre- 

 ate a summer amongst my stock during the most 

 dreary winter, and preserve my spring crop of grasr; 

 by the very trifling devotion of about a single acre of 

 land to their cultivation. I repeat, my extra manure 

 pays mc for all my extra exi^ense; and my peace of 

 mind is above all price." 1 thought of my poor star- 

 ving animals at home, and shortened my visit dint I 

 might return and be prepared to practice tbe doctrine 

 which my friend had been preaching. — Far. Cabinet. 



JOHK LaCI. 



Schvylkill County, April 1, 1841. 



The following remarks, from the N. E. Farmer, 

 should be read in connection with the article on Hay 

 Making in our last number ; — 



Drinking in Hot Weather. 



Mr. Editor — In your number for June 23d, is an 

 excellent article on Hay making. 1 rejoice to see so 

 many ol thcL-e plain, practical articles in your jiaj^er; 

 and hope they will be read extensively, and he as ex- 

 teiisively useful. 



There are one or two thoughts, however, in the 

 concluding paragraphs of the article to which I al- 

 lude, which do not seem to me so much in accord- 

 ance with general experience as I wish they were. 

 You say — and I know others have also said it — 

 "None but the intemperate are injured by drinking 

 cold water." 



Now, unless you mean that the excessive drinking 

 of cold water is itself intemperance, lam confident 

 this statement cannot be true. That intemperate 

 men are injured most readily by cold water, 1 have no 

 doubt; but that any man, who is at once over-heated 

 and over-fatigued, may be injured by drinking cold 

 water in large quantities, is at least equally certain. 

 Indeed, it is certain that he who is cither over healed 

 or over-fatigued, may be injured in this way. Cases 

 of injury Irom the former cause are of almost every 

 day occurrence. 



I know what is the main thing intended by the 

 writer ol the article in question, in the remarks to 

 which I have here alluded; and I rejoice at the efl'ort. 

 To put duicTi tbe use of bad or even doubtful drinks, 

 and put up cold water, is noble — and may God speed 

 him who do^s it, ty aegie<» in doing it Nerwtbelees, 



we must avoid doing evil, if wo cnn, in our eflijrts to 

 do good. And instead of saying, " There is no dan- 

 ger Irom /;Yr/Heri< drinking in the hottest wentheir 

 take cold iculLr as oIKn and as freely as you please — 

 there is no danger Irom it, if ytu have not been too 

 long wii!i"ut diink," &c.; iiietmd of this ailvirc, I 

 wish with all my heart you had said something like 

 the following— that i.-, had you bdicrid it: " There 

 is no special danger from frequent drinking, in the 

 hottest weather, provided you use the following cau- 

 tions: 1. To drink very slowly. 2. To drink btit 

 little at a time. 3. To have your drink, thoujih cool, 

 not excessively cold. 4. To use but little drink with 

 or near your meal.'!. 5. To drink but little, very 

 little, when over-faiigucd and over- heated. 



With these lestiictions, you might have said, aa 

 yon have — " Cold water is the best of all drinks tor 

 slaking thirst; there is no danger from it (with the 

 lestiiciions above, j if you have not been too Ion" 

 without drink," Ac. 



You say, " The hay maker must have n full supply 

 of drink: perspiration will be free, and he must havo 

 somcihing to tupport it." Yet 1 can point you to n 

 laborer now over 60, and healthy and strong, vs ho 

 has drank almost nothing at all between his mcaisall 

 bis life long, though he has perspired very freely, and ' 

 no man has enjoyed his life more. Yet ob.'eive, his 

 meal? are better than ihote (pf the average of nun. 1 

 can tell you of another individual, whote en plcy- 

 ments are partly agricultural, and whose labors ere 

 very severe — calculated to elicit thirst, in the common 

 way ol thinking; who con labor through the summer and 

 drink nothing nt all, and who for neatly ten monihe, 

 beginning with August 6, lfc'40, did so. And not 

 only so, but he suM'cred less from thirst during iho 

 lime, than he ever did before in any of the months of 

 his lile. But then he lived rigid otkcricisc. 



These facts are not mentioned, Mr. Editor, to in- 

 duce your renders to go wiiiioul drinking at all, for I 

 cannot advise a person in the woild to do that — at 

 least as long as be retains his present bsbiis in other 

 respects, fily object was simply to show that wo 

 need far less drink than is usually supposed, if tv© on- 

 ly exercise, eat, sleep and think as we ought. 



But I am extending these remarks too for pcihaps. 

 Excuse tbe freedom — well meant, lam sure — which 

 1 have taken. I was brought up a farmer — end, 

 thank God, an intelligent one for the time — and 1 stdl 

 love farming and the farming interest, and the wel- 

 fare and happiness of the farmer. Would that I had 

 the means ol being a New England farmer now, on a 

 small, but truly rational scale and svstcm. 



Yours, Ac, WM.A. ALCOTT. 



Dcdhnm, Jvnc'i^^th, 1841. 



Hj" We thank Dr. Alcott for his strictures upon 

 tbe remarks we made lost week. His long continued 

 attention to matters pertaining to health, entitles his 

 opinions to much weight. We most cheerfully make 

 them public. But at the same time we are far from 

 receding an inch from the ground we took lost week. 

 Will the orcr-hcal and ocer Jat!gi:c '^ccnv, if cold wa- 

 ter is taken with sulficient licquency? It is possible 

 ihat the orcr-faligue may; hut if it should, we ques- 

 lion wheiher cold water, to any extent which the ap- 

 petite craved, would be instantly and excessively in- 

 jurious; (lor the injury dreaded in these cases is the 

 violent pain which often proves foial in a short time.) 

 Our belicif is, that if cold wa'er is taken so frequent- 

 ly as to jirevent the over-hcut, there is no tiangcr from 

 its freest use. We refer, of course, to danger ol se- 

 vere attacks of pain. Whether it would not beyjcr- 

 manevtly belter for our laboring people generally to 

 use less drink, is a question to \\hich we had no re- 

 ference. 



From- the London Farmers^ Magazine. 

 Destroying Eats. 

 SiiK — Tbe following is a reply to your correppon- 

 deni's inquiry as to the best mode of destroying rats. 

 Should he find either ol these methods succeed, he 

 will oblige by a reply through your papei-. 

 1st — Corks, cut as thin as sixpences, roasted, or stew- 

 ed in grease, and placed in their tracks, 

 or — Dried sponge in small pieces, fried or dipped in 



honey, wilh a little oil of rhodiym. 

 or — Bird-lime, laid in their haunts, will stick to their 

 fur and cause their departure. 

 II a live rat be caught, and well rubbed or brushed 

 over with tar and train-oil, and afterwards put to 

 escape in the holes of others, they will disap; ear. 



Poisoning is a very dangerous and objectionable 

 mode. 



The proudest man on earth is but a pauper, ftd and 

 clo<Ixed t^ lire bofttnVrf H-c-a-wn. 



