25-i 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[JUIY, 
Ky. State Agricultural Society, in the year 1856, and 
by the U. S. Agricultural Society, when the Fair was 
held in Louisville, Ky., in 1857 ; aud a special diplo- 
ma and medal were awarded by the g'reat Centennial 
Exhibition at Philadelphia, to the wool of this 
breed of sheep, and to blankets made of it, and to 
their dressed skins with the wool on them, none of 
which were specially prepared for the occasion." 
Among the Earmers.— Tfo. 18. 
ET OHB Off THEM. 
In the article under this heading, which w-as 
printed in the February number, aud, of course 
written in December, I deplored the lack of thor- 
ough teaching of the laws of breeding in connec- 
tion with our Agricultural and Scientific Schools. 
**Tlie Yale liCcturcs on Breetliiig." 
I recently received a schedule of a course of lec- 
tures delivered by Prof. Wm. H. Brewer, of the 
Sheffield Scientific School of Tale College upon this 
subject. The lectures were, it seems, delivered be- 
tween the first of January and the fii-st of April. 
The thoroughness of the programme is admirable, 
and its scope embraces the whole subject, with per- 
haps a single exception, to which I will aUude. A 
letter written to Prof. Brewer, that I might leara 
more about this course of lectures, brought an 
answer, a part of which 1 take it, it is no breach of 
propriety to give you for publication, merely re- 
marking, that the establishment by Yale College of 
the Professorship of Agriculture, which Prof. 
Brewer now fills, was the first recognition of agri- 
culture as a science, as well as an art, by any Amer- 
ican School of Learning. It is certainly most agree- 
able to the alumni of this school, (among whom 
are your Mr. Judd and " your humble servant ") — 
to know that " Old Yale " is stUl giving good atten- 
tion to Agricultural Science. Prof. B. writes : 
" New Haven, May 15th, 1877. 
* » # " Now a word on the history of those lec- 
tures. The school was expanded in 1861 by the ad- 
dition of three professors, Verrill (Zoology), Ea- 
ton (Botanv), and myself. Johnson aud I com- 
pleted a plan for an Agricultural Course in 1865, 
and as a part of that course, I gave a course of lec- 
tures on breeding before the class in January to 
March, 1866 ; and I have delivered a course each 
year smce on the same subject. Becoming more and 
more interested in the work, and working over my 
notes last year, as knowledge increased, I systema- 
tized the matter more and more to my mind. In the 
spring of 1875 I was invited to go to California and 
deliver the course, with some other lectures, at the 
University of California. In accordance with the 
custom there, a synoptis of the topics was afterwards 
published in the 'University Bulletin.' Seeing 
how handy such a synopsis was, I have, for the last 
two years, prepared one, such as I sent you, for the 
convenience of the class. This coiirse is the thir- 
teenth time I have gone over the ground, the num- 
ber of the lectures varying from 10 to 33 — the full- 
est thus far given." 
Coming, as this course does, just at the time 
when young farmers can best leave their avocations 
for a couple of months, I should think Prof. Brew- 
er's lecture-room would be crowded. The excep- 
tion to which I refer may be called 
Brcccliitg Brains, 
and I am by no means sure it was not exhaustively 
treated under the head of Instinct. 
A few days ago I took a run up to Colonel Hoe's 
beautiful residence, "Brightside," Morrisania,N. Y. 
The trip is most of the way by boat, and a delight- 
ful saU it is up the East River, under the cobwebs 
that precede the stretching of the Great Suspension 
Bridge, along by the navy yard, and Blackwell's 
Island, and Hell-gate ; by the green slope of more 
islands, and the brick and stone of more alms- 
houses — by broad stretches of troubled waters, 
opening as long vistas bounded by more green 
slopes and waving trees, and pleasant country seats 
— all on the right, while on the left, spreads out 
the ever varying yet always similar jjrospect of 
wharf, and street, and distant spires, and house- 
tops, and chimneys, and the constant hum of the 
busy, busy city, which so makes its presence felt, 
that one feels as if the diu were a part of the land- 
scape. — Well, of all this I hardly caught a passing 
glimpse, for I fell in with my venerable friend. Col. 
J. H. WaUaee, of " Wallace's Monthly," as true a 
horseman as ever tightened a girth, and with him 
the time sped quickly. He has been thinking and 
writing upon the breeding of horses with reference 
to their psychical nature, a subject to which my 
own thoughts have been a good deal directed of 
late, and which I think has engaged the attention 
of others, though I have seen little written upon it 
except indeed the articles of Col. Wallace. 
We have been studying form, and style, and mus- 
cles, bone and sinews, bony leverages, constitution, 
endurance, lungs, nostrils, and every thing else ex- 
cept that which really makes a horse go. How of- 
ten do we see two horses well matched, to look at, 
of the same color, alike in style, weight, muscle, 
and bone, and yet so ill-mated in temper that, while 
they are together, one does all the work, and the 
other gets nothing but whipping and imprecations. 
What is the difference ? — Clearly, one has a mi7id 
to do his best, and the other is innately lazy. Train- 
ing will help the matter a good deal, but that, if 
the horses are kept together, will spoil one while it 
makes the other. If each be trained to do his " lev- 
el best " all the time, the horse >vith a will, will 
keep just so far superior to the other as he was the 
first time they were hitched up together. It is cer- 
tainly within the province of breeders to consider 
these things more than w-e ever have done, and to 
breed spirit, docility, honesty, ambition, intelli- 
genee, and affection. We err in 
Selecting anfl Training Stallions. 
In those countries where, as a rule, horses are 
used entire for all ordinary work, the watoral fem- 
per of horses is very much better than with us. 
Here, and in England, stallions for breeding pur- 
poses are selected with reference to external and 
useful characters and to pedigree. We usually geld 
early and break our horses afterward. The result 
of this is that, though the bi-eaking is easier, yet 
the geldings are not half so well trained, and the 
stallions are apt to be half broken, and often ruined 
in temper by the breaking process. 
In France they rarely geld a horse unless he shows 
vicious traits, and then, they always do— if they 
can't sell him to some American. As a rule, the tem- 
per of French horses is excellent, but one was land- 
ed here a few weeks ago — a superb fellow — that was 
as wicked as a thorough-bred. I fully expect to 
hear of his killing one or two men before long, for 
he is as intelligent as he is vicious. I had almost 
thought it was not in the breed to be right down 
" devilish," but this case undeceives me. Still, the 
breed is an excellent example of what selection 
and early, steady, firm training will do for the 
horse. Such an exception proves the rule. 
The thing for us to do in making the new, im- 
proved, perfected breed of American trotters, is to 
breed brain, or intelligent force, which is viilling to 
do its best. It can just as well be done as not, but 
it wiU take time and study. Instinct, which is in- 
nate intelligence and perception, has been cultivat- 
ed in some directions astonishingly. Sporting and 
shepherd dogs are examples in point in other races, 
and the almost uniform and no less extraordinary 
intelligence of the Arabian horse, is at once an ex- 
ample of what has been accomplished in the course 
of ages, and an indication of the most obvious 
source of improvement for breeds of horses of low 
psychical development. At the same time, among 
modern races of horses which have any reputation 
for extraordhiary merit, either for speed or draft, 
those in which there is the most Oriental blood, 
stand pre-eminent. The amount of the "blood of 
the Desert " claimed for the English thorough-bred 
is so great, that many are even unwilling to admit 
that there has been any admixture of cold blood. 
The merits of the Pereheron are claimed to be due 
to Arabians, imported into Normandy at the time of 
the Crusaders, while the positive pedigrees of the 
OrlofEs, show exactly the proportion of Arabian 
blood in their veins, and how it has been preserved 
aud used so as to give the intelligent, nervous, 
psychical qualities the preponderance. 
A Move in tile Righit Direction, 
I was gratified to learn, through a private letter 
received a few days ago, that, under the proprietor- 
ship of Mr. G. D. Coleman, an extensive stock farm 
is conducted in Brickersville, Pa., by Mr. Colin 
Cameron. Here the experiment is being tried of 
crossing an Aj'abian stallion, possessing unusual 
weight and bone, and intelligence, known as the 
JeniftT Arabiayi, upon mares of various breeds, con- 
stitutions, and temperaments, in the expectation of 
establishing from among those with which the cross 
nicks well, a breed of intelligent, fast trotting, hand- 
some horses, which will ultimately be remunerative. 
It will ]'eally be surprising if some very good re- 
sults do not come from several of the crosses. 
Among the mares in his seraglio are two old- 
fashioned Pereheron mares, weighing about 1,300, 
and capable of trotting a mile in 4 minutes, four 
half-bred Percherons, a Black-hawk Morgan, a 
Black-hawk Hambletonian, a Hambletonian, Ameri- 
can Star, three other Hambletonian mares, one 
English bred, without a pedigree, one thorough- 
bred daughter of Lexington, and several high-bred 
road mares of notable excellence. By old-fashion- 
ed Percherons, I mean the small high-bred ones, of 
enormous muscle and power for their weight, and 
spirit to trot quite fast. It I am not mistaken, I 
have seen these mares at J. J. Parker's, in West- 
chester, who, I believe, imported them, and they 
are of the genuine type, which crossed, or rather 
where bred, for generations, with the heavy Nor- 
mans, produces the so-oaUed Pereheron-Normans, 
so much in vogue just now, particularly at the West, 
and which the western people are so sensitive about 
having criticised. It would be better in the end for 
western farmers if more of their journals could ap- 
preciate and would advocate quality in French 
horses rather than mere bulk. There is enough of 
the spirit of the Arabian preserved in the horses of 
Perche to impart to many of these ponderous Nor- 
mans, action and style, vigor and endurance ,at a 
fast gait, aud real blood-like qualities. Never- 
theless, the animal is a grade to all intents and pur- 
poses, except indeed in those cases in which the 
cross was taken several generations back, and by 
judicious selection has been perpetuated. 
If the French kept pedigrees, it would not be 
such a lottery to select a really good big horse, but 
they keep none, and hardly know, or care to know, 
the dam's sire, or even which sire of several may 
have gotten her foal. When real Percherons are 
desired, it is not so hard to find them, though they 
are no longer numerous, but one recognizes them 
by their powerful compact forms, wonderful vigor 
and spirit, style and action, and the general perfec- 
tion of the type, most fi'equeutly seen in horses 
weighing 1,300 to 1,45ft pounds, more or less. 
[By a curious coincidence our correspondent has 
selected a topic, which formed the subject of an 
editorial given last month, aud illustrates his views 
on breeding by reference to the very animals of 
which we there gave portraits. His article was of 
course written without any knowledge of the edi- 
torial, and we are glad to have the points made 
there confirmed and enforced by one of so much 
experience, and so close an observer, as our friend 
who goes Among the Farmers and is "One of 
Them."— Ed.] 
Tllc Use in Keeping Pedigrees. 
The best pedigree in the world will not make a 
poor animal a good one — and having no pedigree at 
all, or a very poor one, will not hurt a meritorious 
animal, judged merely by points. These are almost 
self-evident truths, and they are the ones used as 
arguments by careless stock -raisers the world over, 
who wish us to believe that theu method of pairing 
good, well-foi-med animals is aU sufficient, Now 
every ireecler knows, that the value of a pedigree 
consists in the systematic breeding which it shows, 
and which should agree with the appearance of the 
animal itself. 
A good pedigree is something of slow growth. 
It is a record of the judgment of the breeder, or 
breeders — probably of several ; and it is a hisrory 
of the development, and of the fixing of, valuable 
characteristics, as well as of the weakening of un- 
desirable tendencies. Short-horn breeders seem to 
understand this, but breeders of some other breeds 
of cattle and horses, apparently, do not bear- it suf- 
ficiently in mind, if even they take it into considera- 
tion at all, A tyro of wealth spends his money 
