226 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[JtfBjEj 
course, no evidence that “Jersey Belle of Scituate” 
■'lias a drop of Guernsey blood in her veins. Yet we 
find in her, as in many cows upon’the Island of 
Jersey, strong Guernsey characteristics. The fact 
being perfectly well known that Guernseys have 
frequently been, and may perhaps even now be, 
brought from the sister island to Jersey for breed¬ 
ing purposes, and it is fair to assume that this cow 
has, and is benefited by, some of their golden blood. 
A Handy Wool-Box. 
The use of some contrivance in packing wool, 
that will make the fleece more presentable in shape, 
and safer to handle, is of importance, especially if 
the flock is large and the device is one that lessens 
the labor of doing up the wool. The Wool-box, as 
such aids are called, here presented, has been used 
by the writer so satisfactorily, and he can recom¬ 
mend it to others. It consists of a Table made of 
three boards of sufficient length and width to allow 
of the spreading of the largest fleece. The boards 
are united by hinges, as shown in figure 1, so that 
the side ones may be turned up to form the box, as 
seen in figure 2. The width of the middle board 
Fig. 1.— THE WOOL-BOX OPEN. 
determines the length of the roll. At one end of 
the middle board is fixed an upright piece, broad at 
the bottom and thin at the top, the inner side of 
which is concave, to fit the curved surface of the 
finished roll. In the upper edge of this front piece 
three notches are sawed, in which are held as many 
ends of balls of wool twine. Each twine runs from 
this attachment along the bottom of the box, to 
holes in the bottom board, near its middle. The 
balls are held in a basket below the table. A 
compound pressure-strap is made of four heavy 
straps of leather—we used old tugs split in two— 
and tacked to the bottom board near the base of the 
front standard, and united at the opposite end by a 
small rod of iron carrying a small hook, the latter 
fastening into a hole in the bottom board. The 
straps are a short distance apart, and the twines are 
below the open spaces. There is a lever fastened 
at the bottom of the table and running out in front 
into an eye, to which the hook of the pressure- 
strap is fastened when the fleece is to be pressed. 
Figure 2 shows the method of using this Wool- 
box. After the wool has been brought into shape 
by the hands, and the sides of the table turned up 
Fig. 2.— -THE BOX CLOSED. 
perpendicularly and secured by pms, the wool is 
pressed into a loose roll, when the pressure-strap is 
brought over the fleece and the hook fastened into 
the eye of the raised lever. The lever is pushed 
down with the foot, and the strings brought up 
and tied between the straps, when the work is 
done. From experience we know that this Box is 
a very handy one, and with it a person can do up 
the fleeces much faster and better than when done 
simply by hand. With wool as with other products 
of the farm, the highest price is obtained, other 
things being equal, when it looks the best, and this 
device, which any one can make and use, is a labor- 
saving one that turns out good, closely packed 
fleeces of pleasing appearance in the market. 
Among the Farmers.—No. 53. 
BY ONE OF THEM. 
My recent wanderings have taken me among the 
herds of five or six good breeders, and 1 have 
been strongly impressed by one fact, which is 
not by any means a new one, viz., that 
The Bull is Half the Herd. 
I went down to Oceanic, N. J., on the Shrewsbury 
River, to see Dr. Ehriek Parmly’s herd of Jerseys. 
He inherits a fine old place. I don’t know its his¬ 
tory, but presume it was built by some old sea 
captain, grown rich upon the sea, and so loving 
the rolling waves, he had seen so much, that he 
wanted to live ever within the sound of their roar. 
The Jerseys. 
There have been several good Jersey breeders 
in this vicinity, and prominent among them was 
Robt. L. Maitland, who imported some of the best 
blood that ever came into the country. Charles 
Carow also imported some animals which proved 
very good. Dr. Yan Buren, and E. Delafield Smith, 
have each had excellent herds, and brought famous 
blood into the vicinity. Dr. Parmly’s herd was 
simply a useful one, there were no “fancy” cows 
in it; no very beautiful ones. A breeder would 
call them “ good plain things.” Two years ago, he 
exercised most excellent judgment, in placing at 
the head of his herd, “Prince of Scituate.” His 
dam is “Belle of Scituate,” and his grand dam 
“Jersey Belle of Scituate,” the most famous Jer¬ 
sey cow in the world. She W'as famous then, but 
not so renowned as now. 
The bull is a beauty. His color is yellowish fawn 
running into gray, with considerable, white. A 
beautiful head, full eye, neat incurved horns, but 
like daggers. His back is level, his body deep, 
his flank very deep, his neck light, tail fine, loin 
broad, and rump bones wide apart; great length 
from hips to rump, and from rump to hocks. He 
is low set and fine limbed, with a hide as soft and 
silky to appearance, as that of a well groomed 
horse. But I did not handle him. He was loose 
in the yard with the cows, and clearly “ monarch of 
all he surveyed,” when strangers were about and 
took liberties. He had a playful way with him, 
which did not seem vicious, yet I would not like 
to offer myself as a plaything for him. I think I 
would rather have had him play with Mr. John D. 
Wing, who was present, or with almost anybody 
else. There is a beautiful 
Flock of Yearlings, 
daughters of “ Prince of Scituate ” ; last summer’s 
calves coming a year old. These look as much 
alike as their dams are dissimilar ; as to color, 
their hues vary. They are bright, upheaded, gen¬ 
tle things of excellent form and promise in every 
respect, generally large teated, with good escutch¬ 
eons, and though deep-bodied, straight, fair limbed, 
graceful, and deer-like, and withal of high quality. 
The Doctor may well be proud of his bull and of 
his get, for now he has the foundation laid for a 
superior breed, and in this case I certainly would 
say that the bull is sure to prove three-quarters of 
the herd. Not that the cows are not good. They 
are, but they lack style, and breeding, and that 
show of “ quality,” which, as it is present or want¬ 
ing, is equally marked in beasts as in mankind. 
A few days after, I had an errand which took me 
to Patterson, Putnam Co., N. Y., where I saw the 
Herd of Mr. It. C. Paterson. 
This was selected with care, and comparatively 
high prices were paid. The cows are largely of the 
Bronx and Bashan family, in fact, this is the only 
herd I know of where this blood preponderates. 
They are generally above medium sized, with large 
bodies, large udders and teats, and are very large 
milkers for Jerseys. Many are solid colored, and 
they have a uniform look, which is desirable in any 
herd. The farm is in one of the best milk-produc¬ 
ing sections of the State—the head of the Valley 
of the Croton River—and Mr. Paterson’s ambition 
has been, of course, not to have his Jerseys es¬ 
teemed as poor milkers by his neighbors—to whom 
milk (quantity) is everything. He has so far suc¬ 
ceeded that he openly challenges any of the neigh¬ 
boring herds to show as good an average. While 
as to quality, without making any intentional tests, 
he finds that his record of butter actually made 
and weighed, averages about 250 pounds a year for 
each cow. His bull is “Mopsus,” now an old fel¬ 
low, but of excellent form, and of that solid dark 
brown, shading into gray, with the darker shades 
nearly black, which is a favorite color with many. 
He is of an excellent milking strain, and his calves 
are much like him, solid, with black points, the 
darker colors predominating. Here I would cer¬ 
tainly say that “ the bull is half the herd.” There 
is a very fair blending of the characteristics of sire 
and dam, so that a casual observer would hardly 
venture to give the preponderance to either parent. 
Not very far from Mr. Paterson’s place are the 
Norfolk Red Polled Oattle 
of Mr. G. F. Taber. - There are about 40 of them, 
and though there is so great a similarity in all the 
animals of the breed, yet any one can see that,, 
while there are marked differences among the im¬ 
ported cows, some being low set, broad and deep - 
others are much taller, and differing more or less in, 
all their points when examined critically. Among 
the young stock no such divergence from the nor¬ 
mal standard exists, and this to a great extent 1 
would attribute to their sire. It is an old idea 
that the young animal as a rule receives from its 
sire, as regards physique, external character, and 
from the dam those qualities which more directly 
affect its life, and hence are called vital characteris¬ 
tics. If this be true, it is not to be wondered at 
that in looks—that is in externals, a good bull 
would mark his offspring so as to occasion a strong 
similarity. But it is supposed that the nervous or¬ 
ganization is derived especially from the sire. 
Hence docility, gentleness, intelligence, confidence 
in his friends, are traits, which, existing in the bull,, 
one would expect to see reflected in his get. 
Mr. Taber was absent when we arrived, and hav¬ 
ing permission to examine the Norfolks, we did so,, 
and found the old bull, so quiet and peaceable as to 
permit himself to be handled by entire strangers,, 
while the younger one—a three-year old—was 
throughout vicious, yet timorous and nervous to a 
high degree. Their calves possessed the same- 
traits, though treated identically alike. 
1 don’t know how familiar the readers of the 
American Agriculturist are with this admirable breed, 
and so I give a brief description. Suppose heavy 
low set Ayrshires to have the color of Devons, uni¬ 
formly, that is, mahogany red, or between the red 
of cherry wood and old mahogany, with big udders, 
as they (the Ayrshires) usually have, but with big 
teats, which the Ayrshires usually have not, and 
with better beef points—that is, deeper in the flank 
and brisket, fuller in crops and loin, and better let. 
down in the twist,—and withal hornless, and a very- 
fair idea may be had of the Improved Norfolks. 
They are excellent milkers, have large calves, whichi 
are easily fattened, and they have proved, with Mr.. 
Taber, very hardy and healthy. He sells his milk, 
so that I do not know what the herd would do put 
to the butter tests. If they resemble the Devons 
in this, as they do in so many other points, they 
will be found to excel. It was a fine herd. 
A few days later, and last in order of time, I had 
the pleasure of visiting for a short time the 
Jersey Herd of Mr. Horatio Parke Kretchmar. 
Mr.Kretchmaris a nephew of that excellent breed¬ 
er, the late Horatio S. Parke, whose sudden death a 
year ago cast a deep gloom upon a large circle of 
friends. He has much of his uncle’s love for cat¬ 
tle, and enthusiasm in breeding them, and as the 
honored name, the tastes, and the fine herd are now 
his, we may look with confidence to its continu¬ 
ance as one of the best herds in the country. 
Early in the Centennial year I went out to the 
Channel Islands to buy cattle, and had a commis¬ 
sion from Mr. Parke to buy the best bull I could— 
answering certain conditions, which indeed were 60 
accurately stated, that he may fairly be said to have 
selected the bull and not I. We were, however, so 
