SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
13 
FAT CATTLE, *&e., IN NEW YORK. 
PLEASANT HOMES. 
The N. Y. Times, of December 16, says : 
The annual exhibition of fat cattle and other stock was 
opened yesterday at Tattersalls, corner of Sixth avenue 
and Thirty-ninth 'street. The collection was not very 
large, but in other respects compares very favorably with 
previous shows. There are 35 hogs there, whose aver- 
age gross weight is 430 pounds each, brought in by James 
A. Hamilton, of Livingston county, New York — they 
were sold to D. C. Gale, of Newburg, at $1 per 100 pounds. 
Wm.E. Holmes shows a fat wether, weighing 321 pounds, 
of Leicester (Eng.) breed. A pair of three-year old fat 
eattle, weighing 4,550 pounds each, is on exhibition by 
Kobert D. Cornell, who raised them from calves on his 
own farm, Clinton, Dutchess county. New York. They ex- 
hibi.ed also most perfect training of yoke cattle, the keep- 
er making them lie down, get up, and perform any desired 
evolution. The speculators said it was a great pity to 
spoil such excellent farm servants by converting them in- 
to roasting pieces for Christmas. There was, also, a lot 
of 16 Herefordshire grade cattle, shown by James Van 
Alslyne, of Ghent, Columbia county. New York, aver- 
aging 1,821 each. They were bought from George Clark, 
of Otsego county. The great ox of the exhibition, how- 
ever, is the ‘‘Livingston Cliief,'’ half Durham, half na- 
tive, from Livingston county, N. Y., exliibited by James 
A. Hamilton. He weighs 2,731 pounds, and was sold to 
Mr. Simon, of Brooklyn. A fine full-blooded Durham 
eow, valued at S140, several native fat cattle, a goat, and 
a fair collection of poultry exhibited by Wm. Simpson, 
Jr,, of West Farms, completed the assortment. 
Wheat in Tennessee, — Although the past season in 
Tennessee was unfavorable to wheat, yet the crop of the 
State was large. At the State Fa the premium fur the 
best ten acres was awarded to Dr. 7. H. Drane, of Jlont- 
gomery county, the average being \'mut thirty-five bush- 
els per acre. As a matter of generai. mteiest, we publish 
below the mode of cultivation furnishe". by Dr. Drane, and 
the surveyor’s cevtifLc&tQ:— Nashville Un 'on. 
REPORT ON WHEAT CULTURE. 
To the Honorable, the Stale Agricultural Bureau'"* : 
I beg to submit a survey of ten acre?^ of wheat, with 
the statement of S. G. Barbee and W. P. Barbee, who had 
the control and superintendence of the threshing, cleans- 
ing and washing of the yield of the said ten acres, the 
same being thirty-four bushels and fifty-four pounds per 
acre. 
The above was part of a field of forty acres, cultivated 
in tobacco the last season, and was seeded to wheat, com- 
mencing about the 8th of October. The tobacco stubble 
was turned under with a large plow, the surface smoothed 
with a heavy brush dragged crosswise, and the wheat 
drill began its work, two bushels of seed per acre, The 
prospect was all that could be desired for a large yield du- 
ring the winter and early spring — but a late frost, with 
frequent heavy rains and storms, while in bloom, and du- 
ring the forming of the berry, did much to diminish the 
product; 
The wheat was cast down so much that it was neces- 
sary to reap it in only one direction, (opposite the storm) 
and then it was found impossible to make clean harvest 
work — aU of which is most respectfully submitted. 
W. H. Drane. 
|^P“Ths orange crop of Louisiana this season is very 
large, and the crop is selling from plantations at from 
six to eight dollars per thousand. Last year, a jDlanter 
below the city was offered for 1)1 .500 a small tract of 
land adjoining his, and which was planted with orange 
trees of full growth. He refused, and this season the 
owner of the tract in question sold h’s crop for S3, 000. 
The homes of America will not become what they 
should be, until a true idea of life shall become more wide- 
ly implanted. The worship of the dollar does more to de- 
grade American homes than anything, than all things 
else. The chief end of life is to gather gold, and that 
gold is counted lost which hangs a picture upon the wall, 
which purchases flowers for the yard, which buys a toy 
or a book for the eager hand of childhood. Is this the 
whole of human life 'I Then it is a mean, meager, and 
most undesirable thing. A child will go forth from a stall, 
glad to find free air and wilder pasture. The influence 
of such a home upon him in after life will be just none at 
all, or nothing good. Thousands are rushing frrm homes 
like these every year. They crowd into cities. They 
crowd into villages. They swarm into places where life 
is clothed with a higher significance; and the old shell of 
home is deserted by every bird as soon as it can fly. An- 
cestral homesteads and patrimonial acres have no sacred- 
ness; and when the father and moteer die, the stranger’s 
money and the stranger’s presence obhterate associations 
that should be among the most sacred of all things. 
I would have you build up for yourselves and for your 
children, a home that will never be lightly ptirted with — a 
home which will be to all whose lives have been associated 
with it, the most interesting and precious spot on earth. I 
would have that home the abode of dignity, propriety, 
beauty grace, love genial fellowship, and happy associ- 
ations. Out from such a home I would have good in- 
fluences flow into neighborhoods. In such a home I 
would see abmition taking root, and receiving all gener- 
ous culture. And then I would see you, young husband 
and wife, happy. Do not deprive yourselves of such in- 
fluences as will come through an institution like this. No 
money can pay you for such deprivation. No circum- 
stances but those of utter poverty can justify you in de- 
nying these influences to your children. 
Timothy Titcomb. 
RACERS vs. TROTTERS. 
Among beasts, there is no greater aristocrat than the 
race-horse; he is no producer, he lives on the fat of the 
land ; on the labor of others. The wi nds of heaven are not 
allowed to visit him too roughly, and he is unquestionably 
lord over all the brute creation. I am a great admirer of 
the horse for his beauty, his excellence, his usefulness, 
his sportiveness— nay I would say give me th^ 
‘ ‘ Horse, which, in frantic fit, ^ 
Throws the foam from curb and bit,” . 
but yet I do not desire the race horse, and why 'I He is 
not suited for work, his belly is too small, hb legs are too 
long, and he is rather deficient in size. He is not suited 
to the saddle. I have seen but verwibw good saddle 
horses that were genuine race-horses:** Their stride is 
generally too long in the gallop, and, as a general thing, 
but few of them pace. For light draught and harness, 
perhaps they are better adapted ; and yet they are inferior 
in my estimation, to the Northern trotter. For more than 
thirty years, I have ridden or driven horses daily, and 
very few men have owned more horses or driven more 
miles. Now, whilst I admit that good horses may occa- 
sionally be found of various forms, yet I ha^e uniformly 
found the following to be the best characteristics of a good 
horse. His muscles should be well developed on the 
thigh ; the breast prominent ; the shoulders deep and 
throsvn well back; the abdomen round and large; the 
legs clean, bones flat and large. A horse with small 
bones is very liable to spavin, splint and wind galls. His 
rump should be round, and the juncture between the 
hinder extremities and the body should be neither too 
close ncr too open. The rump should be a little drooped, 
