146 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



be committed to the private care of their masters. 

 Now if the same man shall have taken the same 

 premium each year on any animal, or otherwise 

 three premiums, he will have obtained twelve dol- 

 lars, about equal to his interest in the bull, which, 

 by this means, will have cost him nothing, and the 

 other members (or shares) of the club will each 

 have contributed about a dollar to him. But if 

 they have competed for the premium, as they should 

 be made to do under a penalty equal to its amount, 

 then the superior attention paid to their own ani- 

 mals will have paid them, perhaps ten times over, 

 the amount they have contributed. 



Then let the premium animals, and none others, 

 be sent to the Annual State Fair, and let the card 

 of exhibition state that it is the premium animal 

 of each particular club. In this way the Fairs of 

 Virginia, whether County, District or State, would 

 soon be supplied w-ith their own stock, and those 

 equal to any in the world. 



We said that every male should be castrated, be- 

 cause a half blood cannot be relied on to propagate 

 the qualities of the sire ; and for another reason : 

 they ought not to be permitted to get into other 

 hands, as some would if kept. Neither ought a 

 neighbor to be allowed to send his cows to the bull. 

 Such restrictions look selfish and churlish, but they 

 are neither. We all know that what comes cheap 

 is but little regarded, and that it is much more the 

 neglect of stock, coupled, it is true, with much ig- 

 norance of the suitableness of particular varieties to 

 given localities, than any worthlessness of the breeds 

 themselves that has caused so many persons to be- 

 come disgusted with the business of stock raising 

 in Virginia. From this cause if the benefits of the 

 association are attempted to be conferred on out- 

 siders we think that the character of the whole 

 breed will be injured, and the improvement sought 

 to be introduced will be hindered or delayed. This 

 restriction, too, will stimulate others to the like 

 associations, and thus tend to produce a healthful 

 rivalry and competition in the business. After the 

 services of the bull have been availed of for one 

 set of cows until his calves have become of suita- 

 ble age he can then be disposed of, and another of 

 the same breed substituted ; or, what is much bet- 

 ter, he can be kept, restricting him to the same or 

 a similar lot of cows, to produce half breeds, which, 

 in their turn, shall produce quarter breeds, and so 

 on, until in a few years the desired strain shall be 

 pure for all practical purposes, and in a few more 

 reach that purity which is required by the fasti- 

 diousness of the herd book. 



This, without going into all the minutiae which 

 would be required in the by-laws of such an asso- 

 ciation, is the outline of the plan we propose for 

 improving all the stock of Virginia of every kind 

 and in every place. We have illustrated it by cat- 



tle, but with more or less of modification it applies 

 to every other kind of stock. We deem it entirely 

 practicable and advisable, not as a supplantation 

 of private enterprise, ever the best^ mode of im- 

 provement in all things, but as substitute for it in 

 all cases where want of information or want of 

 means shall form obstacles to improvement. 



As to its rapidity of operation it can be easily 

 seen that in the case of cattle it will be speedy, 

 and more so with some other sorts of stock. The 

 heifer will be ready to breed at two years old, her 

 calf at the same age, and so on, giving intervals of 

 thirty-three months between each generation. The 

 first generation will be half blood, the second three- 

 quarters, the third seven-eighths, and the fourth 

 fifteen- sixteenths, or what is called full blooded. 

 This takes place in eleven years. If a portion of 

 the original female stock be also thoroughbred the 

 period of getting a good stock will be diminished. 



"A Farmer," says Morel de Vinde, though we 

 forget who Morel de Vinde is, " desires to have 

 a flock of 300 sheep — he purchases a sufficient 

 number of ewes, say twelve, eight or four. The 

 first year his flock will be composed of two classes, 

 pure and hybrid. He keeps the females for breed- 

 ing. When he will have accomplished 300 female 

 Merinoes there will no longer be a hybrid in his 

 flock. To obtain this he will require eleven years 

 if he commences with twelve Merino lambs ; twelve 

 years if he commences with ten; thirteen if he 

 commences with eight; fourteen with six, and fif- 

 teen with four." Supposing in each case the usual 

 proportion of ewes. 



The kinds of stock should be adapted to each 

 locality, and breeders should remember that the 

 most fashionable are not, therefore, the best for 

 their lands. We have seen on the farm of a friend 

 on the Southside, a herd of Short Horns which 

 were about as well suited to his pastures as camels 

 would have been to his ploughs, and on the same 

 farm the delicate, sluggish, lubberly, foul nos»ed 

 Cotswold sheep, instead of the compact, clean 

 limbed, hardy Merino or Saxon, or the equally 

 hardy, active and sprightly South Down. 



In the matter of sheep we have spoken before. 

 Of cattle, instead of saying any thing of our own, 

 we submit the following condensed statement of 

 the merits of different breeds presented by Mr- 

 Howard, the Editor of the Boston Cultivator, at a 

 late meeting of the Agricultural Club of Boston: 



"As Dairy Stock — 



"1. For poor and rough soils, the Kerry breed, 

 indigenous to the mountains of Ireland, and repre- 

 sented by all authorities as combining remarkable 

 hardiness of constitution with superior dairy qua- 

 lities, especially for the production of butter. 



"2. For better soils, and for milk-selling esta- 

 blishments, the Ayrshires. 



"3. For cities and towns, the Jerseys, at the 



