84 
FARM-HORSES. 
maker. The cheese acquires a disagreeable flavor 
if kept too long in the jar. Make the cheeses into 
small balls, and set them in a cellar. It should 
not be eaten the first few days, and is best flavor¬ 
ed from one week to two weeks old. 
An Orange County Lady. 
FARM-HORSES. 
The following article was sent us in May last, 
but having been mislaid, its publication has from 
this cause been deferred to the present lime. 
There is no one item of farm management in 
the United States, which has received so little 
systematic attention, as that of raising a breed of 
horses suited to the varied purposes of a farm. 
In every other class of stock, we possess to a great¬ 
er or less extent, original and distinct breeds, long 
tried and highly approved, for the different purposes 
for which they are required. Thus, we have the 
improved Durham cattle for early maturity and 
profitable milking and fattening qualities; the 
Herefords, for the yoke and early economical fat¬ 
tening; the Devons for richness of milk, superad- 
ded to the qualities of the Herefords; and the Ayr- 
shires, a more recent breed, adapted to the dairy and 
the shambles. In sheep, we have the silken-fleeced 
Saxon ; the fine, heavy-fleeced Merino, through all 
the different, yet distinct varieties of Escurial, 
Paular, Nigretti, &c.; the long coarse fleece and 
heavy carcass of the Cotswold, Lincolnshire, and 
Bakewell; and the medium wool, and choice car¬ 
cass of the South and Hampshire Downs, and 
Cheviots. Swine run through the various grades 
of distinctive excellence, the Berkshire, China, 
Mackay, Woburn, By field, Kenilworth, Neapolitan, 
Essex, &c.; while all the lower tribes of geese, 
ducks, chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats, pigeons, etc., 
have their pedigrees as pure and unstained as the 
most legitimate possessors of an hereditary title. 
The horse too, in one branch of his family, enjoys 
a distinct and honorable lineage, as carefully guard¬ 
ed against, all lapse or blemish, as the claimant 
for royal succession. Sometimes, it is true, there 
is a blot in their escutcheon, which, owing to 
great excellence on the part of the individual, the 
world slurs over, as the loyal subjects of Great 
Britain have occasionally done, in the instance of 
their Seventh Henry, and some others; while they 
dwell on the strong crosses from other branches 
of the family with peculiar emphasis and com¬ 
placency. American Eclipse, and his peerless 
daughter, Black Maria, have been more than 
forgiven, for the trifling hiatus in their ped¬ 
igree, in consideration of the unequalled progeny 
of the former, and the hitherto unsurpassed 
performance of his three successive four-mile 
heats, and the yet unattempted imitation of 
the five four mile heats of Black Maria. If 
we except the large, mongrel, Pennsylvania cart 
or wagon-horse, which possesses the greatest 
claims to a definite race, a breed , a distinct , pecu¬ 
liar breed of horses , the best fitted for the general 
purposes of a farm , the horse of all work , is not 
known in America. We have in certain sections 
of the country, a full supply of valuable horses, 
from which may be selected a large proportion of 
individuals well adapted to a variety of purposes, 
and perhaps to all the wants of the community; 
but they are of every form and feature, and can be 
matched, only occasionally, in all requisite points. 
It is vastly to be regretted, that such enormous 
sums have been expended for the importation of 
racing-stock, while so little has been accomplished 
for the production of the more humble and more 
serviceable beast. Millions have been paid at the 
south and west, for turf nags; yet how small the 
proportion of really useful animals do they possess 
at the present moment. In most instances, their 
importations were made without reference to the 
improvement of the farm-horse, or without judg¬ 
ment, if they were; and the breeding has been 
without system or design. Fancy, not utility, has 
been the motive, and fanciful enough has been the 
result. There are thousands of horses, for which, 
for the single item of begetting, their owners 
have paid from $50 to $100, and which have 
cost them as much more, at least, to rear, and 
yet a purchaser would make an indifferent bar¬ 
gain in paying for them the cost ol their con¬ 
ception. Many choice animals, it is true, are 
owned there, which however, are principally suit¬ 
ed to the saddle, and not to the harness, which is 
the great requisite in the farm-horse. As those 
are the sections of the Union distinguished, par 
eminence , for the race-course, it is a very legitimate 
conclusion, that the turf is not always the parent 
of improvement in horse-flesh. Is it essential to 
this improvement? Let us see. 
In the six north-eastern, or New England states, 
horse-racing has either not been practised at all, 
or tolerated in former times, occasionally, by some 
of them, only to a very limited extent. Massachu¬ 
setts and Connecticut have never permitted them, 
and the fancy who were to attempt such a test of 
horse-excellence in either state, would be treated 
to an apartment in their jails, or a seat in their 
stocks; the latter state, placing the champions of 
the turf, in the same category with the votaries 
of Thespis or Terpsichore, play-actors, dancers, 
circus-rid efs, mountebanks, and the whole race of 
Harlequins and Judys. Yet what has been the 
result of horse-breeding in these states? Briefly, 
it may be replied, that with comparatively no ex¬ 
tra expense for costly importations, they have, till 
within a few years past, produced a more valuable, 
serviceable race of horses, than could have been 
shown from an equal territory, in any other portion 
of the country. The Yankees, true to the instinct 
that sent them 3,000 miles . into the wilderness, 
from the most civilized nation in the world, en¬ 
joying all the blessings of an hereditary royalty 
and aristocracy, a state church, and numerous 
other privileged classes, broke loose frommanjrof 
the dogmas of the day, and from none more ef¬ 
fectually, than the long-established one, that suc¬ 
cessful racing was the only true and proper test of 
excellence in a horse. They bred exclusively from 
the manifest, tried, and acknowledged merits of 
an animal, and with some, yet it must be confess¬ 
ed, with too little reference, to the merits of an¬ 
cestry in the one selected for breed. Had the lat- 
I ter principle had that full and ample consideration 
