AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
43 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
I forward herewith an imperfect sketch of a 
Cattle Rack which I think superior to that of T. C., 
described and illustrated on page 281 of vol. XVI. 
The advantages of this one are, that the cattle 
feed at the comers where the weaker do not stand 
m fear of the stronger, as is the case when they 
feed opposite. The rack is six feet square, with 
six feet posts. Alfred Dey. 
REMARK. 
We thank Mr. Dey for his sketch, which we 
have filled up and had engraved as above (We 
shall he greatly obliged to all who will furnish 
sketches of various farm and garden or household 
implements, as well as of plants. We cheerfully 
pay the expense of engraving anything which 
will prove instructive or interesting to our read¬ 
ers.) In order to show the two kinds of feeding 
racks, we re-introduce in connection with the 
above, the one before given. We think Mr. 
Uey’s plan an improvement upon this one There 
are various other contrivances for feeding cattle 
in yards, and we shall be glad to have sketches 
of those in most common and most approved use 
in different parts of the country, fl is an unde¬ 
niable fact that there is a large amount of waste 
in the ordinary modes of “ foddering” stock. 
The annual loss of the country at large, in this 
item alone, must amount to many hundreds of 
thousands, if not millions of dollars. 
Who is the Greenest I —We have often been 
not a little amused to see a company of diminu¬ 
tive, pale-faced city striplings, poking fun at 
country boys ‘‘because they were so green.” 
We say amused, for it always makes us think 
how green those same city boys are when they go 
into the country. We have a good story on this 
point, about half written out for the Agricultu¬ 
rist —it will be finished sometime—we were re¬ 
minded of it just now by hearing a New-Yorker 
teli his experience up in New-Hampshire. While 
riding with a rough farmer, as he called him, he 
asked him how he would like to go down to New- 
York ; to which the farmer, with words long 
drawn out. replied : “ I s’pose if I went deawn to 
New-York I should geawk reaund jest as yeau 
( olks deau up hart ” 
American Cattle. 
We are going to have a talk about cattle. .Some 
of our readers have written that we were not say¬ 
ing enough about such things of late, thinking, 
perhaps, we have either little, or no knowledge in 
that line, or having, declined to publish it. Wheth¬ 
er that be so, or not, they will probably find out 
before we get through. At all events, they may 
be assured that we have the will to say all we can 
to either interest or instruct on a subject so 
important to om American agriculture, as the pro¬ 
duction of all classes of good farm stock. The 
past days when immersed in the cares and anxie¬ 
ties of the farm business for weeks together, we 
have longed at a leisure moment, lor ... good 
farming friend—a real judge in such mailers— 
to drop m and have a down-right good cat¬ 
tle talk with us, so much would it raise our spir¬ 
its, and divert our attention from the monotonous 
hum-drum occupations on hand , and catching the 
spirit that then at times animated us, we shall, as 
occasion serves, in the absence of the uncertain 
farming friend aforesaid, take a talk on our own 
hook, with our readers for audience, 
THE KINDS OF CATTLE WE NEED. 
The wide diversity of soil and climate, in the 
United States, demands different varieties or 
breeds of cattle, as may best be suited to them. 
The rich valleys of our Eastern, the strong soils of 
the Middle, and the wide tracts of deep alluvian, 
and secondary deposits of the Western Stales re¬ 
quire, and will sustain a larger, heavier tieasi than 
the light and comparatively sterile soils which 
abound on the Atlantic slope, and are occasional¬ 
ly interspersed among the States West. These 
comparatively thin soils are better suited to the 
lighter, and more active breeds, which can graze 
and till themselves with less difficulty. Therefore 
it is necessary for an economical agriculture that 
the beast be adapted to the soil, and the climate, 
as well as to ihe immediate use for which it is 
wanted in the hands of the farmer. And here lies 
the grand question with the farmer, to actually 
know what he wants in the way of cattle for Ins 
own best purposes. Our agriculture has been so 
miscellaneous since the settlement of the country, 
and is so miscellaneous now, in its productions 
upon the same soil, and our farmers are so fitful 
in their plans anil practices, that, excepting in a 
few sections of the country, there is nothing like 
a persistent course of farming pursued, and an in¬ 
telligent system of culture adopted. They have 
lived in the make-shift way. They have “ sheeped ” 
it for a year or two ; “ dairyed ” it awhile ; raised 
grain for a period ; laid their land into meadows, 
and sold hay fora time ; raised stock promiscuous: 
ously, for a few years ; dawdled about a little long¬ 
er ; and finally, so far as established results, ter¬ 
minating in a fixed course of farming is concerned 
—done nothing. 
Now, within the most populated districts of the 
several States, as well as in our new Territories, 
we have immense tracts of lands naturally suited 
to all the different branches of agriculture, and 
portions of them eminently fitted for one branch 
more than another ; while wider portions of soil are 
adapted to all, or a mixed course of farming. We 
have the finest sheep walks in the world. We 
have wide regions capable of keeping the finest dai¬ 
ries. Others fitted for the breeding and growth of 
young stock. Others again, for grazing, and feed¬ 
ing off cattle for the Shambles—all on a large 
scale, and capable of employing millions of capi-* 
tal, and a wide spread population more profitably 
in those occupations than in any other. The ap¬ 
propriation of these lands to their most productive 
objects requires a division of labor —not that their 
exclusive occupations should be one of the pur¬ 
suits, which we have indicated, but that it should 
be mainly of one kind, producing annually, howev¬ 
er, other things of immediate necessity for theii 
own consumption which they can cheaply and rea 
sonably do. Even in the restricted Island of 
Great Britain, which is scarcely larger than the 
six New-England States—not so large as New- 
York, New-Jersey and Pennsylvania, combined— 
they do so. Their agriculture is divided. They 
have almost entire counties, and in some instances 
several of them together which confine themselves 
mostly to one or two staple productions such as we 
have named ; and among them all they combine as 
wide and profitablea range of agricultural products 
as the climate and soil will afford, and m greater 
amount than any like body of land in the universe. 
The land holders there have long studied their 
soils, iheir capacity to produce certain articles ol 
husbandry ; and then, with a steady perseverance, 
kept on with a regular course ol cropping, stock 
rearing, grazing, feeding, or whatever it may be, 
until they have arrived at as near perfection as 
the case will admit. In that little Island they have 
various breeds of cattle, sheep, horses, swine and 
poultry—all better adapted, as they believe, each 
in its place, to the particular soil they occupy, than 
to any other. In this they may, in some instances, 
be mistaken, and may change their proceeding as 
they improve and enrich their soils, but in the 
main, their experience proves them to be correct. 
Such being the fact in so narrow a compass as 
England and Scotland, with how much greater 
force will the like sub-division of occupation in our 
agriculture apply to the broad lands, and diversi¬ 
fied soils of America. We have been slowly ar¬ 
riving at it in some particular districts, and the 
tendency of late years has been to extend the sys¬ 
tem of sub-division in agriculture still further ; but 
it will not be profitably, nor completely done, so 
far as the breeding and growth o, cattle are con¬ 
cerned, until we have thoroughly studied the best 
breeds to be established in our different climates, 
and on our different soils. Therefore it ,s of high 
importance to examine and determine which are 
really the best for our different uses ; and know¬ 
ing that, proceed to adopt them. 
WHAT ABE OUR COMMON AMERICAN CATTLE l 
It is no slander to say, that taken altogether, 
they are, comparatively, poor things Brought in¬ 
to the country with its first emigrants, without 
selection, and as part of the goods and chattels of 
comparatively poor people, as the early emigrants 
were, and bred and reared for many generations 
after they were brought into the country, through 
poverty and hardship, nothing else than a very or¬ 
dinary race of cattle could be expected to grow 
out of them. Yet these cattle answered the pur¬ 
pose, and were probably as good as the rest oft lie 
farming of the country. Some of the people, no 
doubt, improved their slock by good feeding, and 
a little selection in their breeding animals, but ex¬ 
cepting in few and remote instances, until ahout 
the beginning of the present century by importa¬ 
tions of better breeds from abroad, our native stock 
remained as they were, a low grade ol animals, 
yet adapted by birth and usage to the extremes 
and vicissitudes of heat and cold, fullness and 
hunger, as the circumstances of their owners might 
govern ; that is to say, the cow gave milk, the ox 
labored, and both made beef—alter a fashion. 
Things need be so no longer. We now know 
better. The best breeds of cattle for all purposes 
■ from abroad have been introduced among us. They 
are already made up to our hands in a perfection 
of physical conformity to their several uses, to 
such extent that we have nothing to add to them 
The work is done, and we have only to select 
