76 
SHEPHERD DOGS.—FREE M A.RTINS BREEDERS. 
making the grass palatable for his stock, corrobor-1 
ates the above, and that the cattle eat all the feed 
equally, and he thinks the expense of the plaster 
abundantly paid by fixing the ammonia in the ma¬ 
nure, and preventing its evaporation. 
A mechanic had a piece of land which he pur¬ 
chased at a low price. It was covered with shrub 
oaks so thick, that one of your alligators or land- 
pikes would have found a hard tustle to have 
worked his way through them. He hired an 
Irishman (the best of all laborers for such work) 
o grub them out—planted it with potatoes, and 
.he next year after he had a large crop. He 
then sowed it down to timothy and clover, seeding 
heavily. It has produced for the last five years 
from 2 to 2^ tons of hay per acre, at one cutting. 
He has plastered this land every year, and fed off 
the rowen. The past season he planted it with 
potatoes, had a large crop, and next year he hopes 
to get 100 bushels of corn per acre from it. 
A Traveller. 
SHEPHERD DOGS. 
Speaking of dogs, I think the shepherd’s dog 
the most valuable of his species, certainly for the 
farmer. Our dog Jack, a thorough-bred Scotch 
collie, has been worth $100 a year in managing 
our small flock of sheep, usually about 700 in num¬ 
ber. He has saved us more than that in time in 
running after them. After sheep have been once 
broken in by, and become used to the dog, it is 
but little trouble to manage them ; one man and 
the dog will do more than five men in driving, 
yarding, &c. Let any man once possess a good 
dog, he will never do without one again. 
The sagacity of the shepherd’s dog is wonder¬ 
ful; and if I had not seen so much myself, I could 
hardly credit all we read about them. It is but a 
few days since I was reading in a Scotch paper 
a wonderful performance of one of these collie 
dogs. It seems the master of the bitch purchased 
at a fair some 80 sheep, and having occasion to 
stay a day longer, sent them forward and directed 
his faithful collie to drive them home, a distance 
of about 17 miles. The poor bitch when a few 
miles on the road dropped two whelps ; but faith¬ 
ful to her charge, she drove the sheep on a mile 
or two farther—then allowing them to stop, she 
returned for her pups, which she carried some two 
miles in advance of the sheep, and thus she con¬ 
tinued to do, alternately carrying her own young 
ones, and taking charge of the flock, till she reach¬ 
ed home. The manner of her acting on this oc¬ 
casion was gathered by the shepherd from various 
persons who had observed her on the road. On 
reaching home and delivering her charge, it was 
found that the two pups were dead. In this ex¬ 
tremity the instinct of the poor brute was yet more 
remarkable; for, going immediately to a rabbit 
brae in the vicinity, she dug out of the earth two 
young rabbits, which she deposited on some straw 
in a barn, and continued to suckle them for some 
time, until they were unluckily killed by one of the 
farm tenants. It should be mentioned that the 
next day she set off to the place where she left her 
master, whom she met returning when about 13 
miles from home. 
The anecdotes of their sagacity are innumerable, 
and truly wonderful. 
I purchased a bitch of the tailless species , known 
as the English drover dog, in Smithfield market 
some two years ago. That species is much used 
upon the Downs, and are a larger and fleeter dog 
than the collie. We raised two litters from her, 
got by Jack, and I think the cross will make a 
very valuable dog for all the purposes of the farm¬ 
er. They learn easily, are very active, and so far 
they fully answer our expectations. 
A neighbor to whom we gave a bitch of the 
first litter would tell her to go into such a lot and 
see if there were any stray cattle there; and she 
would go over the field, and if there were any 
there, detect them and drive them down to the 
house. He kept his cattle in the lot, and it was 
full 80 rods from the house. The dog was not 
then a year old. We had one of the same litter 
which we learned to go after cows so well, that 
we had only to tell him it was time to bring the 
cows, and he would set off for them from any part 
of the farm, and bring them into the yard as well 
as a boy. I think they would be invaluable to a 
farmer on the prairies. After raising two litters, 
we sent the bitch to Illinois. I hope farmers will 
take more pains in getting the shepherd dog. 
There is no difficulty in training. Our old one we 
obtained when a pup, and trained him without 
any trouble, and without the help of another dog. 
Any man who has patience, and any dog knowledge 
at all, can train one of this breed to do all that he 
can desire of a dog. T. C. Peters. 
Darien , January , 1844. 
We hope that Mr. Peters will now send us the 
price of his dogs if he has any for sale, for we 
shall have a dozen inquiries within a fortnight 
after the issuing of this No. Well-trained shep¬ 
herd or cattle dogs in this vicinity are worth from 
$25 to $35, and scarce at that. Puppies 3 months 
old, from $8 to $10. 
FREE MARTINS BREEDERS. 
Believing that many persons are not aware 
that a female will breed that is twin to a male, I 
am willing through the Agriculturist to certify, 
that two instances of the kind have occurred with¬ 
in two years, both within my immediate neigh¬ 
borhood. In the first instance, I had no difficulty 
in ascertaining that the female was the larger of 
the two when first calved; the last I did not see 
for some time after they were calved, and the 
owner did not seem to recollect that there was 
any difference in the size of them. I am strongly 
inclined to believe that in both instances the 
males were somewhat inferior to the females in 
size when first brought forth. I have known quite 
a number of instances in which the females would 
not breed; but whether they, or the males to 
which they were twins, were the largest, I know 
not. Should it be a fact that when the female is 
the larger of the two, they are just as likely to breed 
