AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
For the Farm , Garden, and Household. 
"AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, M.OST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN."— Washington. 
Volume XLL— No. 7. NEW YORK, JULY, 1882. New Series— No. 426. 
THE NEW ARRIVAL 
A FARM SCENE. —Sketched and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
Having become familiar with almost every 
phase of rural life by a long residence in the 
country, and by much travel and observation, 
we can not avoid a slight suspicion that the 
artist has, in the above sketch, drawn a little 
upon his imagination. If called upon as an 
expert to testify upon this point, we could 
not pronounce it quite “true to nature.” 
Still we would not much censure him, or join 
in any laugh at his expense, for the picture is 
at least founded on fact. Though the new 
comer does not yet exhibit those fine 
“points” that judges at the cattle shows 
discuss with so much gravity, a maturer age 
may develop them. We can well compre¬ 
hend the genuine pleasure the farmer him¬ 
self feels at this substantial addition to his 
herd. As for the lad, what boy ever failed 
to be strongly interested in every infantile 
addition to active life on the farm, be it colt 
. or calf, lambkin or chick, puppy or piggie ? 
We may even conceive Mr. Taurus to have a 
paternal pride akin to that of the maternal 
bovine.—No doubt all animals are endowed 
with some curiosity. We witnessed on a 
western prairie the effort of a hunter to get 
within gunshot of an antelope. Secreting 
himself, he waved his hat on the top of a 
ramrod. The antelope exhibited unmistaka¬ 
ble curiosity, and moved forward to investi¬ 
gate, until he came within reach of the fatal 
bullet. The horse is alarmed at the first 
sight of the railway train, and starts off 
at rapid pace, but soon circles round, 
and gazes with mingled astonishment and 
fear at the puffing, snorting iron steed, 
which so easily and swiftly draws the 
ponderous train along.—We have failed to 
observe much curiosity exhibited by the 
capaciously eared member of the group, but 
he is certainly entitled to a moiety of this 
faculty, by reason of his semi-equinine an¬ 
cestry.—The sheep is always alert on the 
approach of any strange object, but we have 
attributed this chiefly to fear.—As for the 
goat, we doubt if anything could be start¬ 
ling or attractive enough to divert his atten¬ 
tion, if engaged in stripping the bark from a 
fruit or shade tree, or from a crow-bar, as 
for that matter.—Still our artist may be a 
closer observer of animal instincts and man¬ 
ifestations than is the writer, and possibly he 
has witnessed something very like the pic¬ 
ture. It is certainly a very pretty con¬ 
ception, and lacks only representatives 
from the poultry yard and piggery to make 
the picture complete—at once a pleasing 
and instructive farm scene, if not indirectly 
a burlesque upon what often takes place in 
regal residences when a new comer arrives. 
Copyright, 1882, by Orange Jddd Company. 
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second Class Matter. 
