AGES OF ANIMALS. 
309 
totally unfit to sustain life ; those workmen, there¬ 
fore, who are standing immediately over it, must 
be seriously injured. There are thousands of in¬ 
genious Yankees who could construct a machine 
to be turned*either by man or horse-power, that 
would do the work more completely than hand 
beating, and the horse or men employed be .at 
sufficient distance from the vat to sustain no inju¬ 
ry. I presume that ten or fifteen feet from the 
vat would render the operation perfectly safe. 
William Partridge. 
From the numerous communications with which 
we have been favored, upon the late course and 
conduct of that immaculate journal, which mod¬ 
estly styles itself, “A Farmer's Library of the, 
most comprehensive kind’ 1 '—“ The best exponent 
of American Agriculture, both at home and abroad” 
— u Not only the cheapest but the best Encyclo¬ 
pedia of Practical Agriculture existing,” &c., &c., 
we select the following Jew. d'esprit, as hitting off 
a couple of its gross errors and absurdities in ad¬ 
mirable style. We only regret that the writer has 
not given his own name to the communication; 
but we think his “ neighbors,” who proved so ob¬ 
stinate at conversion, will not be slow to recognise 
the sound jurist and eminent practical farmer in his 
good-humored witticisms. We must confess, to 
our sorrow, that we are really quite unable to give 
our correspondent any information upon the sub¬ 
ject of determining the ages of horned sheep by 
the rings upon them, being in that respect in as 
great a dilemma as himself; for at the late Orange 
County Show, we had the curiosity to count the 
rings on the horns of three Merino bucks, and 
found one had 53, a second 57, and a third 62 ! 
yet the . owner declared, upon questioning him, 
that the first two were only 3 years old respective¬ 
ly, and the last 4 years old. In its October No., 
the Cultivator says, that “ the improvement of 
animals, or the science of crossing, we consider as 
but in comparative infancy .” Perhaps the cattle 
that shed their horns at 3 years old, and the sheep 
which indicate their ages by rings upon their 
horns, are the result of this improved, scientific 
crossing, which for a long time has been silently 
pursued by these'very learned, practical, and expe¬ 
rienced breeders, and with which results the world 
is soon destined to be astonished. We must fain 
refer “ A Learner” to the editors of the Cultivator, 
not doubting that he will be able to obtain from 
them full information upon the points which seem 
to have got him into so much hot water with his 
neighbors. But a truce to badinage. There is 
scarcely a number of the Cultivator which does 
not contain more or less gross errors on nearly 
every subject upon which it attempts to write; to 
point these out were an endless task, and we hence¬ 
forth dismiss it with the contempt which it merits. 
We can only say to all those desirous of counte¬ 
nancing humbug, they will now find plenty of it 
in its stupid pages. From its definition of the 
word M shed,” &c., the next publication which we 
shall look for from this renowned press, is an 
“ Improved” Dictionary, when Johnson, Walker, 
and Webster, may consider themselves as laid on 
the shelf, and no longer as authority in the matter 
of defining words. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
AGES OF ANIMALS 
Mr. Editor: —I have read your rejoinder to the 
rebuke of the Albany Cultivator, and although you 
make out a pretty fair case for yourself, yet after 
all, I think I can convince you that it is somewhat 
presumptuous on your part, to compare yourself 
in any respect with men of the practical knowl¬ 
edge and accurate observation of the editors of 
that paper. You may, to be sure, have been con¬ 
versant with the various breeds of cattle in Eng¬ 
land ; you may know what constitutes a fine ani¬ 
mal ; may understand the principles of correct 
breeding, even better than the editor of the Albany 
Cultivator, as I think it is very evident you do, 
from your criticism upon the communication in that 
paper, which gave such offence; but after all, 
when you come to look into the peculiarities of 
the different races of animals which occupy so 
much of the attention of farmers, and to investi¬ 
gate their distinctive habits, I think I can show, 
and that you will frankly admit, that you are far 
behind the above able agricultural journalists. 
To do this, I will refer you to the August num¬ 
ber of the Cultivator, page 134, where you will 
find an editorial article upon the “ Age of Ani¬ 
mals.” It is there stated, that “ the ages of all 
horned sheep may be known by their horns, which 
show a ring annually to the end of their lives.” 
Now I have reared many sheep, but for the want 
of that intimate knowledge and accurate observa¬ 
tion of their peculiar habits, which so distinguish 
the editors of the Albany Cultivator, I had never 
learned this important fact before; and I presume 
you, and the great mass of your readers will ad¬ 
mit they are indebted to these same gentlemen for 
this piece of useful information. I made a prac¬ 
tical application of this knowledge during our last 
cattle show. I placed myself beside the sheep- 
pens, where there were very many fine-looking, 
and apparently young bucks, of various breeds. I 
stood there just as the committee were coming 
round to make their examination, preparatory to 
awarding premiums, with the Albany Cultivator 
in my pocket, determined to expose the owners 
of the bucks, if I found them misrepresenting their 
ages to the committee, as they had to me. 
The fir§t buck examined was indeed a fine- 
looking one, considering that he had seen upward 
of fifty winters, with a magnificent pair of horns. 
The owner stated him to be three years old only! 
