30 
IMPROVED STOCK AT THE SOUTH, ETC. 
near the top and bottom,.between which and the 
banks, heavy boards or plank may be set in an 
upright position. The earth keeps them in place 
on one side, and the joist prevents their falling. 
They require to be only tight enough to keep 
the clay from washing in, as no appreciable 
quantity of water will escape from the sides or 
bottom. 
For household purposes, one should be made 
with more care and expense, and so constructed 
as to afford pure filtered water at all times. 
These may be formed in various ways, and of 
different materials, stone, brick, or even wood ; 
though the two former are preferable. They 
should be permanently divided into two apart- 
ments, somewhat similar to the annexed cut, 
one to receive the water, and another for a re- 
servoir to contain such as is ready for use. 
Cistern. — Fig. 9. 
Alternate layers of gravel, sand, and charcoal 
at the "bottom of the first, and sand and gravel 
in the last, are sufficient; the water being al- 
lowed to pass through the several layers men- 
tioned, will be rendered perfectly free from all 
impurities. Some who are particularly choice 
in preparing water, make use of filtering stones, 
but this is not essential. Occasional cleaning 
may be necessary, and the substitution of new 
filtering materials will at all times keep them 
sweet. 
PLASTER CASTS OF ANIMALS. 
Often have I admired that splendid plaster 
cast of a prize shorthorn heifer, belonging to 
Sir Charles Tempest, imported by you a few 
years ago; and admiring, I have been led to 
inquire why something in that way may not be 
done at home 1 It would be a capital oppor- 
tunity for some public spirited man to show his 
love for the agriculture of the country, by 
causing a model to be made by some good artist 
of the best Devon, or even of the best native 
cow to be found, from which copies might be 
multiplied at pleasure at a nominal expense. 
Let the copies be sold cheap, and many farmers 
would have them who would deem it a piece of 
extravagance to purchase an imported one at 
$6. Such casts of improved American stock 
would form an excellent premium for agricul- 
tural societies. 
Look at Power's statue of the Greek Slave, 
hundreds of passable copies of which are daily 
hawked about our streets at a quarter of a dollar 
each — would such a cast as I advocate be any 
the less classic than this? Certainly not; at 
least only to the extent that man is above the 
brute creation — both are nature's handiwork. 
Please give us your views upon the subject. 
Boston, Mass., Oct. 15th, 1849. J. B. D. 
We entirely concur with our correspondent 
in the great benefit it would confer on the farm- 
ing community, if good plaster casts of all im- 
proved domestic animals could be got up and 
distributed as stock prizes by our agricultural 
societies. The farmers would thus have models 
constantly before them to correct and improve 
their taste, and their children would grow up 
with a knowledge of the best forms of domestic 
animals. We have no doubt that this would be 
the means of making a more rapid improvement 
in breeding superior stock in the United States, 
than any other that can be carried into effect. 
It would be well, also, to supply every district 
school in the country with a case of such models, 
and employ a competent person to visit these 
schools, and point out the superiority of their 
forms to the children, and enlarge on the bene- 
ficial effects of breeding such throughout the 
country, instead of the miserable animals which 
are now so common. 
IMPROVED STOCK AT THE SOD'TH. 
Our readers will not be much surprised that 
improved stock does not succeed better at the 
South, after perusing the following extract from 
the letter of one of our correspondents. It is a 
Southern, not a Northern man who speaks. 
Notwithstanding the extreme prejudice among 
the people of this vicinity against Durham cat- 
tle, I have ventured to order you to send me a 
yearling bull, which I intend to cross on some 
choice heifers which I have of the native stock, 
or as they are sometimes called, " old Spanish 
cattle." I also intend to procure some grade 
Durhams, which I can buy in this neighborhood 
for the same price as common cattle; and I 
hope from them with the bull you send me, to 
obtain some better stock than the common piny 
woods cattle of this State. 
Those grade Durham heifers I spoke of in a 
former letter, are the descendants of a bull 
which two of my neighbors bought at Philadel- 
phia several years ago, for which they paid 
$200, and brought him here at a heavy expense ; 
kept him up for a few months, with just such 
care as might be expected from a careless or 
obstinate negro, who had conceived a violent 
prejudice against the animal ; and because he 
did not thrive under such care, during the period, 
too, of his acclimation, (he was most injudi- 
ciously brought on in the spring,) and because 
his owners could not stand the ridicule which 
some of their thoughtless or perhaps malicious 
neighbors were disposed to bestow upon " the 
thousand dollar bull," as they termed him, he 
was turned out among the common scrubs in the 
fall, to fatten upon dry cotton stalks and frost 
