188 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



A HERD OF HEAVY CATTLE. 



For a year or two past there has been a 

 spirited competition between some of the 

 great stock farmers of Illinois. The object 

 being to produce the heaviest herd of catile 

 of 100 head. 



In the spring of 1855, B. F. Harris, of 

 Champaign County, sold one hundred head 

 of cattle, the average weight of which was 

 1,865 pounds. 



Determined to improve on these weights, 

 but in the generous an manly spirit of com- 

 petition which is always productive of great 

 results, Mr. Rufus Calef and Henry Jaco- 

 by, both neighbors of Mr. Harris, and 

 large and opulent stock farms, joined forces, 

 and shipped in the spring of 1855, one hun- 

 dred fat cattle, the average weight of which 

 was 2,090 pounds, thus leading Harris 125 

 pounds to the bullock. 



This put Harris on his mettle, and about 

 the middle of last March, Dr. Johns, "the 

 President of the Illinois State Agricultural 

 Society, was called upon to attend the 

 weighing of another herd of 100 head, be- 

 longing to Mr. Harris. The aggregate 

 weight of the herd was 118 3-5 tons, or 2,- 

 372 pounds each ! Twenty-five of the best 

 and fattest averaged 2,662 pounds each. 

 "The Baby" of the twenty-five kicked the 

 beam at 2876 pounds. They were so fat 

 that three days were required to drive them 

 to the station, 14 miles distant. 



The average of the 100 is less than five 

 years. Not one has ever been hou ed a day 

 in his life ; a half dozen pairs only have 

 been yoked, and a less number worked. 

 They have been pastured and herded on the 

 prairies in the summer, and in the winter 

 fed on corn in the shock and sound timothy, 

 and yarded along the skirts of the Sanga- 

 mon timber. 



It is said that Mr. Harris is likely to rale- 

 ize from $18,000 to $20,000 for the lot. 



[For the Southern Planter.'] 

 Number of Members of the State Ag- 

 ricultural Society in the several 

 counties and towns in virginia. 

 The Secretary has completed from the 

 records of his office a transcript of the 

 names of the Life and Annual members of 

 the Virginia State Agricultural Society for 

 each of the counties and towns in the State. 

 These lists are necessarily imperfect, not 

 only on account of omissions, but of the 

 changes which are constantly occurring by 



reason of deaths, removals and withdrawals. 

 But they are to be submitted to Commis- 

 sioners appointed to superintend elections 

 to the Farmers Assembly in order to obtain 

 and have reported by the 1st of July such 

 corrections and additions thereto as will be 

 at least an approximation to .general accu- 

 racy and serve the purpose of a practical 

 and equal adjustment of representation ac- 

 cording to the scale of apportionment con- 

 tained in the amended constitution. Coun- 

 ties or towns having fifty members, will 

 separately constitute an electoral district 

 and be entitled to elect one delegate — those 

 having one hundred and fifty ; — two dele- 

 gates ; — and an additional one for every ad- 

 ditional hundred members listed. Other 

 counties and towns having less than fifty 

 members will be united as compactly as 

 may be, so as to form other electoral dis- 

 tricts out of two, or as many more as may 

 be necessary to furnish collectively an ag- 

 gregate of at least fifty members, to entitle 

 such district to elect one representative. 

 Many counties and several towns falling 

 below the number necessary to constitute 

 a separate district, may yet desire to aug- 

 ment their membership to the number re- 

 quired to ensure that privilege, and others 

 having numbers sufficient for the election 

 of one, two or more representatives with a 

 large fractional excess, may desire to obtain 

 the complement, of another hundred, by the 

 addition of new members, thereby entitling 

 themselves to an additional representative. 

 To enable all who desire to make such ef- 

 forts, to do it with a correct knowledge of 

 their numerical standing, the following ab- 

 stract of numbers from the general lists, is 

 subjoined, showingjfo\sf, such counties and 

 towns as constitute separately an electoral 

 district and also the number of delegates 

 to which each is entitled, and secondly, the 

 counties and towns which fall below the 

 number of resident members, necessary to 

 constitute an independent district. It will 

 be seen by reference to this abstract that a 

 little effort only on the part of commission- 

 ers or other zealous friends of the society, 

 will be required to secure the complement 

 of numbers necessary to erect many coun- 

 ties into separate districts which must oth- 

 erwise form but an integral part of one com- 

 posed of two or more counties or towns. It 

 will be also observed that other counties 

 and towns having one or more representa- 

 tives, with a large fraction still unrepre- 



