Whittington Sheep—Breeding Stocks 
91$ 
in his nine years’ patient investigation, than 
the French Academy with its hop, skip, and 
jump-at-conclusions. 
My son’s crop of Whittington wheat is 
again a failure—with us it is a winter wheat; 
a finer and better plant I never saw—it was 
necessary to feed it hard with sheep in the 
spring to counteract its vigorous growth, 
but it has been badly struck with the rust,, 
and I am sorry to add, has been selected by 
the grain worm, who has visited this farm 
for the first time this season. The tea wheat, 
a spring crop, is very excellent , and for this 
land, gave a good yield, 30 bushels just, per 
acre. 
My seed of the Whittington wheat was 
imported, and a more beautiful, large, round, 
fair berry I never saw; 1 was, however, 
aware that it was rather thick skinned—its 
growth was luxuriant and very healthy till 
affected with the rust ; hardy, it must be, or 
it could not live on these cold hills—they 
are threshing it to day, and more miserable 
stuff I never saw go through the fanning- 
mill. I can hardly believe it to be from the 
same seed I sowed two years since, did I not 
know the care it had been grown with, and 
that it was kept unmixed. 
In your classification, you commence with 
“ tlmhorse,” do you mean the best Stallion 1 
if so, I agree with you ; but as agriculturists , 
I think we have nothing to do with your first 
class. The blood-horse, unless as the sire, 
best suited on our common mares, to get 
horses for the saddle and for fast wheeling; 
the cavalry, I presume, require a heavier, 
stronger horse; in England, a cross of the 
Cleaveland bay and Lincoln blacks, both 
heavy breed, are used for this service. 
Classes two and three certainly embrace our 
most useful horses. 
Would not a division of our cattle into 
four classes, be altogether sufficient for the 
present state of agriculture in the United 
States 'l I think it would comprise, for a 
time at least, all the varieties that will be 
likely to predominate ; a few individuals of 
other breeds may be introduced as matters 
of curiosity, but will not the Hereford, the 
Devon, the short horn, and their grades 
form the bulk of our stock I The grades , in 
my view, should supersede the native cattle, 
as their production would be a mere trifle 
more in cost, and within the reach of every 
farmer. 
I would propose the same number of class¬ 
es in sheep as you do, but here again, I 
would exclude the natives, or let them com¬ 
pete with grades in the fourth class ; these 
latter, no matter how bred, intended to unite 
wool and mutton as far as practicable, should 
be encouraged as the farmer’s sheep, while 
the purer animals belong more to the flock- 
master who would be governed in his prefer¬ 
ences by circumstances. 
Your suggestions for classing pigs, do not 
quite meet my views, and yet I have none 
that are better of my own to offer ; that they 
should be divided into two races, the large 
and small, might be attended with advantage; 
the one a grass, the other a corn-fed animaL 
I differ from you in relation to dairy pro¬ 
ducts, in as much as I think in judging of 
butter, an especial reference should be had 
to the size of the dairy. A firkin of butter 
put down at one or two churnings, does not 
require the same skill as one of equal size 
and excellence filled from a small dairy of 
half a dozen cows. I should therefore class 
the dairies, for after all, I should expect the 
most critical observation and the most accu¬ 
rate details from the smaller dairies managed 
by the frugal house-wife herself. 
My observation of some thirty years, and 
more, has led me to the conclusion that in 
cross-breeding, extremes should always be 
avoided ; that there should be some parity in 
the habits, characteristics, sizes, and proper¬ 
ties of the animals brought together, or no 
general symmetry would be preserved in the 
progeny. Lord Western’s crosses of fine 
and coarse woolled animals, you remark, has 
been attended with questionable results, 
(though I presume he used the South Down 
and Ryland crosses)—if so, what it to be ex¬ 
pected from so wide a cross as the Leicester 
and Merino ! Animals wider apart in every 
respect could hardly be brought together; 
nor have I been so fortunate as yourselves in 
the specimens around me, until a third or 
fourth cross has given a decided bias in the 
produce to either the one breed or the other, 
and I have remarked that it has generally 
been in favor of the Long-wooled family, 
probably, from the first dip into that blood, 
destroying all hope of anything but a coarse, 
uneven fleece. It strikes me that if there is 
to be any cross-breeding at all, the South- 
Down is the middle link, and will unite bet¬ 
ter with either the Merino and Long-woolled 
breeds than the attempt to mingling the two 
extremes directly with each other. 
It is but too true, that our farmers have 
yet to learn that a good agricultural periodi¬ 
cal is worth very many dollars to them, and 
that their folly in not taking one, to those 
who are daily reaping its advantages, seems 
little short of idiocy ; and yet they will pay 
