1884.] 
AMEEIOA]^^ AGEICULTUEIST. 
485 
some fine half-breed mares, kept to take the places 
of their dams as workers and breeders on the farm, 
breed them either to horses of the same breed as 
their sires, or to thoroughbreds, or to fine, long- 
pedigreed trotting stock. The market is our 
safest guide in breeding. Fashions change slowly, 
and a really first-class article is always salable. 
The cross made by breeding half or three-quarter 
breed “ Percheron-Norman ” mares to Clyde horses 
results very favorably. Some of the best heavy 
draft horses in this city have thus the combined 
blood of these two grand breeds. In them the 
sound, well-shaped, hard feet of the Percheron 
carry the heavy bodies of the muscular, broad- 
chested Clyde, with their large-jointed flat legs, 
while they take after their dams in being short 
coupled, with moderately sloping shoulders and 
fine action. 
The raising of these draft horses, if by good sires, 
is profitable, those weighing fourteen hundred to 
sixteen hundred pounds bring three hundred dol¬ 
lars in the market at five years old. The demand 
is so great now that we suppose it would be quite 
impossible for a dealer 
to pick up a ear load 
from first hands in any 
pai-t of the country 
within a radius of fifty 
miles. The reason for 
this is that yearlings,and 
two and three-year-olds, 
are largely bought up 
from the western breed¬ 
ers, and sold to go still 
further west among the 
pioneers, who raise 
them and use them 
for breeding purposes. 
The farmer who un¬ 
dertakes to supply this 
insatiable market, must 
be on his guard. There 
have been hundreds of 
veritable brutes import¬ 
ed. Pure-blooded they 
may be, but they are not 
good. The supply of 
first - class horses of 
either French, Scotch,or 
English “ shire ” blood 
is limited, and the de¬ 
mand here is so great 
that the importers in 
many cases have brought 
out anything that would sell. So we have stallions 
standing all over the country who only, as it were 
by accident, ever get a decent foal. Still, even 
these “great, ungainly, gaunt, and awkward ” 
half-bloods, bring a pretty good price. Their 
sale cannot, however, be depended upon, and the 
only safe policy is to breed from first-class sires. 
Rats in Poultry Houses.-^Head them off.— 
The loss by rats is much greater than most poultry 
keepers are aware; they steal eggs and chicks, 
and rob the fowls of their food. It may be pre¬ 
vented, in part, by a well-trained ferret or two, and 
a couple of good rat-catching dogs will soon clean 
out the rats, if these, their natural enemiLS, are 
properly used. As these are not always available, 
the next best thing is poisoning the rats. In using 
poison, it must be remembered that it is no re¬ 
specter of persons, and will be as deadly with chil¬ 
dren, with poultry, dogs, cats and other animals, as 
it will with the rats. The utmost care must be ex¬ 
ercised in its use, and the only time it should be 
set where the rats can get at it, is at evening, plac¬ 
ing it where nothing else can reach it. Early next 
morning, remove all the poisoned bits of bread or 
meat to a secure place, and replace them next 
evening. Two or three “treats” of this kind, 
two or three times yearly, will completely rid the 
premises of rats. The phosphorous poisons are 
generally to be preferred, as they are more enticing 
to the rats than any other kind we know of. 
It does not pay to tolerate these sources of 
annoyance and destruction. Poison the rats. 
Angus Cattle. 
The Angus, or as it is called, the “ Aberdeen- 
Angus ” breed, is one of the most useful and at¬ 
tractive breeds of beef cattle. It originated in the 
eartern part of Scotland, in what are termed the 
Lowlands, among the wide-awake breeders of beef 
cattle for the English markets. Prominent among 
whom it is pleasant to notice the name of Hugh 
Watson, often recurring in the pedigrees of some 
of the best families. He was the father of the 
late William Watson of New York, and Westches¬ 
ter Count}q famous as an importer and breeder of 
Ayrshire cattle, whose sons still show the family 
trait of fondness for live stock, and success as 
breeders. The breed has not been long fixed, yet 
polled cattle have been numerous in this part of 
Scotland for nearly two hundred years, and prob¬ 
ably longer. It was not until the interest in breed¬ 
ing and improving neat cattle became general 
among intelligent landholders and breeders, that 
this breed began to be developed as a distinct and 
valuable class of cattle. This chiefly occurred 
after the year 1885, and since about that time to the 
present, the Angus breed of cattle has gone steadi¬ 
ly on gaining as well in merit as in public favor. 
Ever since tlie multiplication of those wretclied 
brutes of more or less Spanish blood, the Texas 
cattle, whose long horns and intractable disposi¬ 
tions make them dangerous as well to one another 
as to their herdsmen. Agricultural writers-—among 
them Mr. A. B. Allen, and Col. Weld, have urged 
the use of Scottish polled bulls, so that the cattle 
of the Plains might gradually be disarmed and ren¬ 
dered more docile and more useful. “ Line upon 
line,” and “precept upon precept” were not 
uttered in vain; Anally Mr. George Grant imported 
some fine Angus bulls in 1873, which we had the 
pleasure of seeing in New York. They were taken 
with a lot of Shorthorns to his “colony,” at 
Victoria, Kansas, and gave the first practical dem¬ 
onstration of the great value of Angus grades—the 
cows as breeders and the steers for beef. Since 
then there have been a great many importations. 
There is an Angus herd book started, but the first 
volume is not yet issued, and the breed is daily 
growing in popularity. It should be borne in 
mind that this is preeminently a beef breed, and 
that as such all the valuable beef points have been, 
and are cultivated, forming the criterions of excel¬ 
lence. Every butcher and drover knows what 
there are, and eveiy breeder ought to know as 
well—but they do not. The breeders are no doubt 
more familiar with well-shaped animals, and with 
good handlers and quick-feeders too, than the 
butchers and drovers are, and yet they laek, as a 
rule, that quick discernment which is a professional 
accomplishment with the latter class of men, and 
which would be almost invaluable to them in im¬ 
proving their herds. The essential characteristics 
of the breed are: First, a lack of horns, or even 
buttons, nubbins, orscurs, by which names the lit¬ 
tle misshapen bits of horny substance arc called, 
which occasionally occur even in pure herds. They 
are of frequent occurrence among grades, which 
indeed often have small horns. The buttons or 
scurs have no bony attachment, but hang by the 
skin alone, and no doubt indicate a not very re¬ 
mote horned ancestor. Second, a black color with 
little or no white, the less the better. The occur¬ 
rence of other color than black-brindle, red, etc., is 
regarded as a disqualification in a breeding animal, 
and yet a slight shade of brown is sometimes ad¬ 
missible we believe. That is, the black is not neces¬ 
sarily, though always preferably a true black, but 
it may shade to brown. Third, a symmetry, which 
in Angus cattle, and in fact in all the polled 
breeds is essentially different from that of the 
Shorthorn, which is generally taken as the highest 
type of a beef animal. It, howevei’, more nearly 
approaches that of the 
Hereford and Devon, 
which occupy a scarcely 
lower position to the 
Shorthorn as typical 
beef breeds. Angus cat¬ 
tle are long, level, low 
set, on fine limbs with 
small bones and fine 
heads and tails. They 
have, however, more 
roundness of outline, 
are not so square, and 
well blocked out as the 
Shorthorn, neither is 
there the same tendency 
to the deposition of fat 
in lumps upon the rump 
and sides. They are of 
large size, or rather of 
great weight, and in this 
respect disappointing, 
for they are generally 
much heavier than they 
look; are good handlers, 
have soft, furry unctu¬ 
ous coats, are quick 
feeders, and come early 
to maturity, thus form¬ 
ing a breed possessed of 
really superlative char¬ 
acteristics in many respects, which can hardly be 
too highly recommended. The grades are gener¬ 
ally hornless, and in other respects take after their 
polled sires. They may be closer packed in railway 
cars for transportation, and from their quietness 
and inability to injure or worry one another with 
horns, they are moved with less danger and much 
less shrinkage. We present, as an illustration to 
this article, the portrait of the excellent four-year- 
old Angus cow “ Eye-bright 4th,” owned by the 
Kansas State Agricultural College. She was bred 
by the Ontario Experimental Farm, her dam, 
“Eye-bright 2nd,” was imported, as was also her 
sire, “ Gladiolus ” (1161), bred by the Earl of Fife. 
Fowls for Winter Laying. — Eggs bring a 
much higher price in winter than in summer, and all 
who keep poultry would like to have winter layers ; 
yet many of us think we can get them without pay¬ 
ing the price. We do not mean the first cost, but the 
care and continued good management which they 
must have to enable them to lay plenty of eggs 
when these are scarce in the markets. For winter 
egg-production, there is nothing better, as a start, 
than extra early hatched pullets, not much matter 
what the breed, so the surroundings and con¬ 
ditions are what they should be. Some breeders 
make good winter layers out of the White Leg¬ 
horns, while others fail to do so, on account of 
their having such large combs, which are readily 
frosted. We select birds with very moderate or 
small combs, to prevent the possibility of injury 
from a sudden and severe change in the weather. 
THE ANGUS COW “ EYE-BRIGHT 4tH.” 
Drawn (by Sprague) and Engraved for Uie American Agriculturist. 
