64 



sirable to make beef of the animal, she was 

 found altogether superior for that purpose to the 

 unspayed ones. 



"In one of the earlier volumes of Ruflin's 

 Farmers' Register may be found a paper on 

 spaying cows or heifers, not only for milk, but 

 for feeding. Mr. Tabb, of Virginia, under whose 

 superintendence the operation was conducted, 

 confirms the representations made of the value 

 of milch cows so operated upon, but thinks it 

 not less essential or important where cows or 

 heifers are to be fed. The following extract is 

 from Mr. Tabb's report : ' The operation is per- 

 formed on heifers not intended for milk when 

 they are about a year old, and with the single 

 precaution of keeping them entirely from food 

 or water during twenty-four or thirty-six hours 

 previous — is not attended with the least risk — 

 is performed in the same way, and may be done 

 by any person in the habit of spaying pigs. — 

 They go to their food immediately after, and re- 

 quire no attention. We select the most indif- 

 ferent heifers to spay, which is one way to im- 

 prove the stock. You increase the size amaz- 

 ingly. They gradually become as large as or- 

 dinary oxen ; are easily kept ; make the finest 

 beef ; and as they are not in perfection until six 

 or seven years old, we work them after three or 

 four, to make them gentle, and for that purpose 

 consider them superior to the ox.' 



" The practice of working milch cows is com- 

 mon in Germany, as appears from the accounts 

 of various travellers in that country ; and teams 

 of spayed heifers have carried off prizes at the 

 ploughing matches of agricultural societies, in 

 England. The suggestion made above, b}^ Mr. 

 Tabb, as to the practice of spaying having a 

 good effect in the improvement of stock, is an 

 important one. If the breeders of stock could 

 so far forego the hope of immediate profit, as to 

 be willing to submit, all inferior or part blood bull 

 calves to castration, and all inferior heifers to 

 spaying, it is evident the chances of breeding 

 inferior animals would diminish rapidly. 



" Mr. Winn, keeper of an extensive hotel at 

 Natchez, communicated to Judge Peters, of Penn- 

 sylvania, the result of experiments made by him 

 in spaying cows for the purpose of securing per- 

 manent milkers. It appears from the paper, as 

 given in the transactions of the Pennsylvania 

 Agricultural Society, that he had two cows, 

 which, after being spayed, gave milk constantly 

 for three years each. He preferred cows that 

 had produced two or three calves, as the bags 

 of such would be more capacious than if spayed 

 after the first calf. I hope some of our breeders 

 or farmers will try this experiment, since, if suc- 

 cessful, there can be no doubt, such cows w 7 ould 

 command greatly advanced prices in places 

 where cows are kept for their milk alone." 



For the Southern Planter. 

 ROADS. 



Mr. C. T. Botts : 



Dear Sir, — I so often have your name and 

 your labors presented to me through the medium 

 of the Planter, that I must address you as if an 

 old and intimate personal acquaintance. And 

 I was most earnestly persuaded, that our present 

 General Assembly would have taken this region 

 of country under their stewardship, and so im- 

 proved the highway through our country, that 

 you would be tempted to visit our region, where, 

 if you would not learn any thing useful, you 

 might see much to encourage you to press on- 

 ward in your laudable efforts in behalf of " the 

 nursing mother of the Arts.'' But I do not 

 agree with you on the subject of roads. I am 

 for that road which will enable me when I kill 

 my pork, to send it the next day to Richmond ; 

 and with such a road, you would not this year 

 have paid a cent over five dollars for your pork, 

 and so of all else we have to sell. It is re- 

 markable, that mighty efforts should be made 

 north and south of us to secure the travel and 

 trade of the West, by all the facilities consequent 

 upon steam-boats and steam-cars, whilst we can- 

 not be successfully moved to an effort in behalf 

 of the old-fashioned wagon and its Conestoga 

 stallions. Shall we give up the contest for the 

 trade and travel of the West, and the whole 

 trade of nearly three hundred thousand people 

 of East Tennessee, sustaining a commerce of 

 nearly twelve millions of dollars? All of which 

 at one time passed through this region of Vir- 

 ginia, mostly to and from Baltimore. But our 

 Southern friends have fixed an unwinking eye 

 upon the trade of Tennessee, and by their rail- 

 wajr, directed to the centre, if not through the 

 State, must inevitably divert from our borders 

 the entire commerce of that eminently produc- 

 tive country, the most abundant at this time 

 in meal and meat, perhaps in the Union. Surely 

 the efforts north and south of us, to penetrate 

 the back country, and draw to their respective 

 markets the commerce and travel of the interior, 

 should awaken our statesmen and urge them to 

 the improvement of the commanding advan- 

 tages Virginia possesses for successful rivalry 

 with North and South. I will not enlarge upon 

 our own suffering region, in itself so worthy of 

 the utmost energies of the State — so often and 

 so strongly presented to public consideration. — 

 Our statesmen doubt the calculations made in 

 relation to the remunerative character of the 

 road desired by the people of the South-West. 

 If the proprietor of Ingle's ferry, on New River, 

 would risk the expenditure of seventeen thou- 

 sand dollars in the construction of a bridge, with 

 ferries above and below him within six miles, 

 contending for the travel of this great thorough- 

 fare, surely the State might derive therefrom 



