THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
179 
RULES EOR IMPROVEiMENT IN BREEDING 
STOCK. 
The rules for breeding all kinds of domestic 
stock, vhether the horse, the ox, the sheep, or 
the pig, are very siiT.,.le', tiie judgment, howev- 
er, required in making selections and coupling 
aniiiiais together, with a view of cCfiUnued ini- 
provement, can only be acquired by persons pos- 
ses.siiig an innate talent for the thing, and long 
personal experience in its practice. JSiill, every 
one who is dispo.sed may effect something, and 
for their guide we merely give in a lew words 
the long adopted principles of the most eminent 
breeders oi domestic animals. 
1. V hen better materials do not exist, or the 
persc-n wisiiing to make the improvements has 
not the means of going abroad for sr- doing, 
choose from the bed natives at hand for this pur- 
pc-e. 
2. But when it is possible to do so, obtain 
iko rov gk-bred males of the proper kind from su- 
pe;ior improve ! .stocks, to cross on to the native 
fe.males, and so continue breeding up the grade 
females to the thorough- bred males. 
b. Be very ca.eful iu a thorough -bred stock to 
u.se no male which is not at least equal to the 
fe naies, and il he can be found superior, so 
much the better, lor this will ensure still lurther 
impruveineai, it possible, in the progeny. 
In various communications to the agriciltu- 
ral journals tor the past five years, we have le- 
peaie lly urged on the farmers of our country 
the practice ot ihe first and second rules above; 
for in following them, great and decided im- 
provements may be made at a very cheap rate. 
What our countrymen most fail in, except in 
New England, where the beautiful reds predo- 
minate, IS a want of uniformity pervading their 
stocKS. Animals looh much better together 
w-hen tney match; that is, that all shall be as 
near alike as possible in size, in shape, in color, 
in thei’’ hurn.s, and in their general expression. 
Thus formed, they reflect a beauty on each 
otiiei ; and although they may command no par- 
ticubr attention .single, yet as a body they will 
excite respect, and if pre'ty good, not unlre- 
quenily admiration; for they den ate at least, that 
there is an established system in their breeding. 
In ilurope the.se incongruities do not so general- 
ly prevail. In one^sirict, the traveller observes 
that the animals are nearly all black, wiUioul 
horns; in another, they are unilormly the same 
color, n-iui horns; a few miles beyond, and we 
find them suddenly changed to a pure red; again, 
they may be white; and further, they appear in 
mi.'ced colors, though still preserving a unilor- 
mily, as in the case of the Italian, Swiss, 
Dutch, Jersey, Ayrshire, Hereford and Durham 
c'diils.— American AgricuUv.rist . 
PREPARATION FOR WINTER. 
With farmers it is important to have all ne- 
cessary prei arations for the hard weather that 
is approaching. It is as essential to save crops 
as to make them, and too often it is the case that 
gathering is delayed too long. Corn after ma- 
turity loses daily till housed. 
Sweet potatoes should be put away before 
frost, and Irish potatoes are liable to injury af- 
ter the cold sets in. Above all things, have 
nreparations to shelter stock of every kind. — 
Miich cows cannot be kept in good condition 
without protection from the pelting storms, and 
they will not give half the milk. 
An open shelter, with a southern exposure, is 
easily con.structed and answers an admirable 
purpose. Sheep should have shelters where 
they can escape the cold rains, and lie down on 
dry places. 
Hogs ore the better to have protection from 
the rain. Care, however, should be taken that 
their sheds be kept free Irom wet straw, corn 
husks, or any thing that will induce diseases ot 
the skin. It is important that their apartments 
have all the dust and litter scraped out every 
few days. 
The secret of having stock in good condition 
through winter is to have them fat at the start, 
and then commence feeding earl}", and be sure 
that they have regular attention and are not suf- 
fered to tall off. One good animal well attend- 
ed is worth more than two inferior ones neglect- 
ed. A fat, strong farm hoises will do more 
work than two leeble, poor animals. Keep no 
more animals than can always be in condition, is 
the secret of success, and it is to be regretted 
lew adhere to ibis rule. — Venn. Agr. 
Prksrrving Sweet Potatoes. — We copy 
ihe following method of preserving p laloes 
from the American Agriculturists’ Almanac: — 
Select a dry place, level the earth, and lay a 
bed ot dry straw so as to form a circle of about 
six feet in diameter. On this straw pile up the 
potatoes until they form a cone lour or five feet 
high, over which spread a little dry grass. Then 
cover the entire cone with corn-stalks set up 
endwise, with the huts resting on the ground, 
and the tops reaching over the apex, of a suffi- 
cient thickne.ss to conceal all of the potatoes. 
Then cover the whole pile with earth at a depth 
of at least a foot, without leaving any air-hole j 
at the top, as is frequently done. A small shel- 
ter should then be made so as to prevent the 
rains from washing off the eatth. This may 
be done by inserting in the ground about the pile 
four forked stakes, on which rails maybe placed 
to support the covering, which maycjnsistof 
boards, bark, thatch orolher siibstr-nces. Pota- 
toes can be preserved in this ma.iner untilJune, 
nearly as fresh as when first put up. 
Wilkes Agricultural Society.— The ex- 
hibition of stock by this Society last Friday, 
though not to be compared with similar exhibi- 
tions in other parts of the country, was yet most 
gratilying, as giving evidence of the increasing 
interest our people are taking in such matters, 
and we sincerely hope that these small begin- 
nings may result in great and permanent bene- 
fits. It is by the operation of such associations 
that their exhausted lands are to be revived; that 
the disastrous spirit of emigration which has 
desola'ed this county, (called old Wilkes, though 
it has not yet been settled a century,) is to be 
checked; that improvements in agriculture are 
to be discovered and brought into use; that our 
people, the produce of whose labor has gone to 
pay strangers lor their meat and bread, are to be 
made independent ; that our citizens are to 
be taught to enrich and beautify the heritage of 
their fathers, and, by preparing tor their chil- 
dren a home worth loving, lay the best lounda- 
tion for love of country in their hearts. It is 
our ardent desirs to see such associations mul- 
tiply and prosper, to see at least one such in 
every county, and every farmer a member of 
one. 
The next Annual Fair of the Society will be 
on Friday before the fourth Monday in October, 
1844. — Washington News. 
SAVING SEED CORN. 
Very few planters have paid that attention to 
the selection of seed for planting, that their own 
intere.sls demand. It is a principle ot vegetable 
as well as of animal life, that “like produces 
like.” Every one who raises good stock, is not 
only aware of the truth of this, but he carries 
it out in his selections of animals to breed from. 
He selects his finest calves and pigs, and saves 
them from the slaughter pen, because, being 
well formed, large and thrifty, he believes that 
their oflfspring will possess these qualities. But 
although the same thing is true in the vegeta- 
ble kingdom, he seldom thinks of availing him- 
self of the advantage of a judicious selection 
in his seed for planting. Some few have tried 
it, and by care, and a judicious selection, year 
after year, have brought their corn to a high 
state ot perfection; and their neighbors, seeing 
their success, have eagerly sought these improv- 
ed seed. It would do well the first year, but af- 
ter that gradually deteriorate to the common 
standard, and the whole thing would be pro- 
nounced a humbug. The humbug, however, 
was not in the original improvement, but in the 
subsequent neglect. The improver commenced 
by carefully selecting from his field those stalks 
that bore two fine, large ears, and laying them 
carefully aside tor planting. The next year he 
selected with as much care from the product of 
his former selection; and by keeping up this 
system, reaped each year a richer harvest. — 
Whereas, ihe other, w ho commenced with his 
neighbor’s fine seeil, by gathering indiscrimi- 
nately intu his barn, anti selecting his seed from 
the mass in the spiing, would be as likely to get 
the ears I'roui an interior as from a good stalk, 
and thus his seed would, by a law of nature, 
deteritirate to the common standard. 
We believe that it is perfectly practicable to 
have almost every stalk bearing two good ears, 
on land where but one would be produced ac- 
cording to the usual method of selecting seed. 
This is not a mere opinion. It has been tried 
repeatedly, and with enti e success, by various 
persons. What has been called the Dunton, 
the Cook, and the Williamscorn, have all owed 
their celebrity to the judicious selection of seed 
for a series of years, by the respective gentle- 
men whose names they hear. Trite, it requires 
some little trouble to select every year; but 
every planter should have enough of profes- 
sional pride in improving his system ot hus- 
bandry, to take the necessary trouble, e.specially 
when he is so richly repaid by an increased 
harvest. — Columbia Planter. 
Manure. — No farmer can imegine, that has 
not tried the experiment, what a prodigious 
quantity of rich, vegetable and fibrous earth 
may be collected from corners and by-places 
that lie out of the way of cultivation, and 
which, from their retired position, have perhaps 
never so much as attracted his notice. All such 
refuse trash, and fibrous earths and weeds, by 
being conveyed to his barn-yards, at intervals, 
during the fall and winter, and judiciously com- 
bined w'ilh its contents wdll be converted into a 
rich, fertilizing and durable manure, merely by 
absorbing and retaining excess of putrescent 
\ fluid andeflliivia which is otherwise lost by fil- 
tration and evaporation; that is, by soaking 
away and drying up. 
Transplantation of Orchards. — Those 
w"ho have not already on their farms a good 
orchard, il may not be inopportune to remind, 
that as soon as the leaves fall, will be the proper 
time to plant out one, and that as the planting 
of an orchard is a thing which ordinarily occurs 
but once in a life time, that all possible pains 
ought to be taken both in the preparation of the 
ground, the selection ol the trees, and the meth- 
od of setting them out. The ground should be 
deeply plovimd, and subsoiled if possible, and 
should be either limed, marled or ashed. None 
but the best fruit should be selected; pains 
should be taken in planting the young trees, to 
make the holes large, and sAier covering the roots 
with the earth taken out of the holes, to fill up 
with a mixture of the earth taken out ot them 
and some good, rich compost, made either of 
mould, ashes, the scrapings of the road, or thor- 
oughly rotted manure, and to drive a stake down 
by each tree, as set out, to prevent disturbance 
by the w'inds. In putting in the young trees, all 
ragged or broken roots should be smoothly cut 
off, and the remaining ones regularly spread 
out . — American Farmer. 
Cure for Spavin. — A correspondent of tha 
Albany Cultivator gives the toUo wing as a cure 
for bone spavin, in its first stages, if properly 
applied: — “Add to two table spoonsful of melted 
lard one of caniharides, made fine ir pulveris- 
ed, and a lump of corrosive sublimate, pulver- 
ised, as large as a pea — all melted up together, 
and applied once a day till used up, confining it 
to the callous. This quantity is for one leg, 
and maybe relied on as a cure. It will make a 
sore, and the joint will be much weakened white 
applying the medicine. No need of alarm; it 
will all be right when healed up.” 
Fame. — Fame is like a shaved pig with a 
greased tail; and it is only aflei it has slipped 
through the hands of some thousands, that soma 
fellow, by good luck, holds on to it. 
