370 
AMEBICAN AGRICULTURIST 
6.4th in some respects. She is to be commended 
for- her fine shoulder, fore-rib and great quarter. 
She was calved June, 1850, and is by Grand 
Duke (10,281,) dam New Year’s Day, by 2d 
Cleveland Lad (3408.) She was bred by Capt. 
Drlke, of Masstoke Castle. 
Peri is also by Grand Duke, dam Pink, by 2d 
Duke of York (5959.) She was calved June, 
1852, and is a deep rich roan. She is fine all 
over, and about as perfect as Lallah Rookh. 
She has unfortunately had one horn knocked off 
by accident, which detracts a trifle from her ap¬ 
pearance, but does no other injury. She was 
bred by Mr. Bolden, of Lancashire. 
Aurora by 3d Duke of York (10,166,) dam 
Allspice, by 2d Duke of Northumberland 
(3,646,) is another superb animal. She is red 
and white, and was calved April, 1851. She has 
a fine bull calf at her foot, nearly red, got by 
5th Duke of York. She was bred by Mr. Trot¬ 
ter, of Middleham. 
Mystery was bred by the late Earl Ducie. 
She is red with scattered white hairs. Calved 
May, 1850, and is by Ursurer (9,763,) dam Min¬ 
strel, by Count Conrad (3,510.) In shape, &c., 
she resembles Duchess 59th. She has a bull 
calf, dropped in March, by the Duke of Gloster. 
He is deep rich roan, very fine head and eyes, 
and stylish like his dam. All the cows with the 
exception of Darting , we believe, have been 
bred to Or and Duke; besides several other 
fine thorough-bred Short-horn cows which we 
do not particularize. 
Young Balco is nearly all red, and is a splen¬ 
did yearling bull. He is by Balco (9,918,) dam 
Ellen Gwynne, by Sir Harry (10,819.) Mr. 
Thorne used him some in his herd this summer. 
The above are only a portion of the superb 
Short-horns on Mr. Thorne’s farm ; yet, lest we 
should fatigue our readers, we forbear further 
description of them, and turn to the other ani¬ 
mals. 
Working Cattle. — On no farm have we 
found four such splendid pair of working 
cattle as at Thornedale. They are red, and 
partake largely of Devon and a cross of Short¬ 
horn blood. Two of the pair came from Con¬ 
necticut, and are like the supurb workers one 
finds in Hartford county. The two other pair 
are from Otsego county, so famous for breeding 
fine oxen. One pair of these were recently 
weighed, and found to overgo 4000 lbs. They 
can be worked on either side, are perfectly gen¬ 
tle, yet quick and powerful. When beef was 
so high last spring, Mr. Thorne was offered $300 
a pair for them; and though hard at work at that 
time, they were undoubtedly better beef than 
h alf the pretended fat cattle which are weekly 
brought to this market. We hope Mr. T. will 
exhibit these noble animals, as well as others of 
his stock, at the forthcoming show of the State 
Agricultural Society in this city, in October. 
Homes. — Mr. Edwin Thorne has a fine, stout, 
fast-trotting mare, with a splendid filly colt at 
her foot. She is by the trotting stallion Jupiter 
out of Gipsey, by the Long Island Black Hawk, 
by Andrew Jackson, &c., This colt has an un¬ 
commonly elegant set of the neck and head, and 
is about as near right, all over, as one could de¬ 
sire. She will unquestionably make a fast, 
stout, and enduring horse when full grown. 
There is no more valuable stock in the world, 
than the well-bred trotters of the United States. 
South down Sheep— These, Mr, Thorne has 
been just as particular in selecting as he has his 
Short-horns. His flock consists of the buck 112, 
which he obtained of Mr. Jonas Webb, of Babra- 
ham for 130 guineas—$650; twenty choice ewes, 
also of Mr. Webb, seven of which came out in 
lamb to his buck which took the first prize at 
the Show of the Royal Agricultural Society at 
Lewes. The rest took the buck 112 after their 
arrival here. In addition to these, he purchased 
the ten ewes from Mr. Lugar, which took the first 
prize at the Show of the same Society at Glou¬ 
cester; and five prize ewes from Lord Walsing- 
ham’s flock. Several of these were in lamb to 
Mr. Lugar’s old prize buck, which he (Mr. L.) 
has recently had the great misfortune of losing. 
We cannot speak too highly of this buck, nor of 
the ewes and their lambs. They remind us of 
Mr. Webb’s best breeders, and are richly worth 
the money that has been paid for them. We 
would go into a particular description of the buck 
112, and some of the ewes, if we thought it ne¬ 
cessary to show their marked superiority over 
ordinary South-downs. 
Long-wooled Sheep. —Mr. Thorne has a supe¬ 
rior flock of these, long, broad, round, fine and 
well wooled. To produce lambs for his own 
table, he has crossed a few of his Long-wooled 
ewes with a South-down buck. This is a favor¬ 
ite cross in England for market lambs, and the 
mutton is highly prized by amateurs. 
Pigs. —Here we found quite an assortment. 
Berkshires of good size and high breeding. 
These are the favorites with us, and have been 
since we first knew them, and that was about 
twenty years ago. 
Next came the Suffolks, which we found a 
splendid lot. The oldest boar is from the cele¬ 
brated stock of Earl Derby. We should think 
he would weigh 400 lbs., and has had nothing 
but grass all summer, which he has picked up 
running in a narrow lane. He is now turned 
into an apple orchard, where he gets a little fall¬ 
en unripe fruit by way of variety; and still he 
is apparently fatter than half the hogs are 
in the country at killing time. So much for a 
good breed. There are several others here of 
the same kind, three of which are descendants 
of the imported stock of Mr. Jackson, of Astoria— 
finer than which never crossed the Atlantic, 
Mr. Thorne also showed us some Mackay 
pigs, sent him by Mr. Levi H. Dowley, of Massa¬ 
chusetts. They were got by the boar of the late 
Hon. Daniel Webster, of Marshfield. One of 
these pigs closely resembled a fair Suffolk, the 
other is nearly the same shape as the Chinese 
pigs recently sent us by Dr. Green, head sur¬ 
geon of the Japan expedition. 
Madagascar RaFbits. —These are the prop¬ 
erty of young Mr. Thorne, and were selected in 
England with the same care as the other stock. 
The building for them is the neatest, best-ven¬ 
tilated, and best-arranged we have yet seen. 
One of these had pink eyes, and was a pure white 
color, which is very rare in this breed. 
Poultry. —Dorkings and Game Fowls are the 
favorite breeds here. These also belong to 
young Mr. T., who has been quite successful 
with the latter. The hens he found to lay more 
steadily, especially during the coldest winter 
weather, than even the Cochin-Chinas or Shang¬ 
hais. They would lay about thirty eggs, and 
then desire to sit; but upon being broken up, 
they commenced laying again, and so continued 
till they averaged fifty eggs each, By separat-1 
ing the cock chickens from the pullets soon af¬ 
ter they are weaned, he has not been troubled 
by their fighting, which is the greatest objec¬ 
tion to rearing Game Fowls. They are often so 
pugnacious as to kill each other by the score. 
These were sent him by Mr. James B. Clay, of 
Kentucky, and are much like the Earl Derby’s 
breed, though some consider them superior. 
The Pigeons here are tumblers, of handsome 
cinnamon and other colors. Very pretty of 
course. 
Farm Buildings. —These are among the most 
complete and convenient we have yet seen. 
We particularly like the arrangement of the 
cow stables. The stalls run the whole length 
of the building on each side, with a wide paved 
passage-way between, of brick set up on edge 
with cement. On each side of this brick pavement 
is a shallow gutter to carry off the liquid into cess¬ 
pools. From these, the liquid is pumped into a 
cask on a cart, and then spread over the grass 
land. It accelarates the growth of grass very 
much. The stables are high between joints 
and well ventilated. Glass windows are set on 
the south side for warmth in winter, and small 
doors open to the north for summer, besides 
large doors for the cattle at each end. One of 
these stables had stalls for cows on one side, 
and for their calves on the other. This adds to 
the convenience of suckling them. 
The Farm , though one of the best in Duchess 
county, Mr. Thorne is still improving. Aside 
from grass and hay, his crops are principally 
corn, oats, potatoes, sugar-beet and ruta-baga. 
The latter crop would do credit to old England. 
The Mansion is handsome, large and commo¬ 
dious. It is surrounded by a wide lawn, dotted 
on each side by varied mounds and beds of 
flowers and shrubbery. On the front sparkles 
the little lake before spoken of, and the gurgling 
stream. Trees intersperse the grounds, and a 
handsome carriage road of the cleanest gravel 
forks wide from the center, in curved lines to 
two entrance gates on opposite sides of the park, 
opening to the main road. In the rear of the 
house are large gardens and orchards, stocked 
with a great variety of vegetables and fruits of 
the choicest kinds. 
Such, in brief, is Thornedale, and its improved 
stock, which it gives its liberal owner great 
pleasure to show to all who take an interest in 
such things. The number of these, we are glad 
to say, are rapidly increasing throughout our 
country. Would that every farmer appreciated 
these impi’ovements and profited by them ac¬ 
cording to his means. How greatly would the 
comforts, the respectability, and the happiness 
of the people be increased. How much more 
highly would they stand in their own estimation, 
and that of foreign nations, if all strove to do 
the best they could, each in his own proper 
sphere. 
-• 9 9 - 
Thisti.es Good Food foe Cattle. — The Agri¬ 
cultural Society of Clermont (Oise) recommend 
thistles as a good substitute for green food, es¬ 
pecially for milk cows. It states that before 
being given for food, the thistles ought to be 
washed, and then placed in heaps until they 
heat, which generally takes place in twenty- 
four or thirty hours, and has the effect of soft¬ 
ening them, and causing the prickly portion to 
be no longer troublesome. Oxen eat the this¬ 
tles with great appetite when in this state. If 
the vegetation of the thistles be somewhat ad¬ 
vanced, they should be chopped, scalded, and 
given as a sort of mash. 
