194 
RULES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN BREEDING STOCK.—STOCK ON LONG ISLAND. 
at sea. As soon as we get a line of steam-ships I 
to cross the Ailaniic from this city to Liverpool in 
tea to twelve days, (which will undoubtedly be the 
case in a very few years,) good apples will become 
quite an article of export; instead, therefore, of 
allowing their orchards to go to decay, as man}' - , 
we are sorry to find, are doing in this neighbor¬ 
hood, the production of good selected fruit should 
be more and more the study of the farmer, espe¬ 
cially if he be the proprietor of only a small estate. 
Apples are undoubtedly worth raising even to be 
fed to pigs ; and how much they contribute to the 
comforts and luxuries of the table, we need not 
say. 
The varieties of apples to be grown on the farm 
need not be great; some twenty or at most thirty 
kinds for the summer, fall, and winter, would 
probably embrace all that are particularly desira¬ 
ble for family use. These should be well ap¬ 
proved kinds, known as such by actual tests in 
our climate; for these greatly change by trans¬ 
planting, not only from foreign countries, but even 
in our own diversified territories. We have re¬ 
peatedly seen apples which were very superior in 
the northern and eastern states, prove quite ordi¬ 
nary on being transplanted to the west and south, 
and a knowledge of this fact should operate as a 
caution to those who purchase at our nurseries, 
not to be over hasty in condemning everything 
which does not answer the description given it 
where first produced. 
RULES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN BREEDING STOCK. 
The rules for breeding all kinds of domestic 
stock, whether the horse, the ox, the sheep, or 
the pig, are very simple; the judgment, however, 
required in making selections and coupling animals 
together, with a view of continued improvement , 
can only be acquired by persons possessing an in¬ 
nate talent for the thing, and long personal expe¬ 
rience in its practice. Still, every one who is dis¬ 
posed may effect something, and for their guide 
we merely give in a few words the long adopted 
principles of the most eminent breeders of domes¬ 
tic animals. 
1. When better materials do not exist, or the 
person wishing to make the improvements has not 
the means of going abroad for so doing, choose 
from the best natives at hand for this purpose. 
2. But when it is possible to do so, obtain thor¬ 
ough-bred males of the proper kind from superior 
improved stocks, to cross on to the native females, 
and so continue breeding up the grade females to 
the thorough-bred males. 
3. Be very careful in a thorough-bred stock to 
use no male which is not at least equal to the fe¬ 
males, and if he can be found superior , so much 
the better, for this will ensure still further improve¬ 
ment, if possible, in the progeny. 
In various communications to the agricultural 
journals for the past five years, we haye repeatedly 
urged on the farmers of our country the practice 
of the first and second rules above; for in follow¬ 
ing them, great and decided improvements may 
be made at a very cheap rate. What our coun¬ 
trymen most fail in, except in New England, 
where the beautiful reds predominate, is a want 
of uniformity pervading their stocks. Animals 
look much better together when they match ; that 
is, that all shall be as near alike as possible in 
size, in shape, in color, in their horns, and in their 
general expression. Thus formed, they reflect a 
beauty on each other; and although they may 
command no particular attention single, yet as a 
body they will excite respect, and if pretty good, 
not unfrequently admiration ; for they denote af 
least, that there is an established system in their 
breeding. In Europe these incongruities do not 
so generally prevail. In one district, the traveller 
observes that the animals are nearly all black, 
loiihout horns; in another, they are uniformly the 
same color, with horns; a few miles beyond, and 
we find them suddenly changed to a pure red; 
again, they may be white; and further they ap¬ 
pear in mixed colors, though still preserving a 
uniformity, as in the case of the Italian, Swiss, 
Dutch, Jersey, Ayrshire, Hereford, and Durham 
cattle. 
STOCK ON LONG ISLAND. 
The farmers on this island as we remarked in 
our last, devote their lands almost exclusively to 
the production of hay and garden vegetables for 
the city market; raising stock, therefore, among 
them is no great object, especially at the present 
low prices. Still, when there are so many wealthy 
men, they will indulge their fancies in this sort of 
thing as well as in fine houses and furniture. 
Horses. —There were formerly a considerable 
number of thorough-bred horses kept here, but 
since the decline of racing, these have mostly 
been sent to the south and west. Good trotters 
were also bred to a considerable extent on the is¬ 
land, yet even these useful animals, owing to the 
high price of hay and grain a few years ago, have 
pretty generally followed the course of the thor- 
ough-breds, and we know but one good trotting 
stallion at present kept there, and that is the cele- 
