1884.] 
AMEEIOAI^ AGEIOULTEEIST. 
553 
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Our Gallery of Dogs.—Poodles. 
The Poodle is essentially a German breed of dogs 
—inti'oduced into that country in.the latter part of 
the sixteentli century, and has ever since been a 
growing favorite with ali classes. Two kinds of 
dogs are known among us as Poodles, namely, the 
German, or true Poodle, and the French Poodle. 
The latter is a diminutive, useless, lap-dog, with 
white, silky hair, forming a copious mop about the 
head, neck and slioulders, the body and hind quar¬ 
ters usually being closely shorn. The delicate little 
creatures have their faces usually stained and de¬ 
faced by a running from the eyes, which are prone to 
be weak and unattractive. These are not akin to the 
German Poodles, which are in evei-y way a superior 
breed of dogs. These are above medium size, of 
either white or black color, and of great activity, 
vivacity and intelligence. In fact, it is claimed for 
them by many, that they surpass all other breeds 
in intelligence, and this is iu a measure corrobo¬ 
rated by the fact, that the most remarkable trick- 
dogs of the shows arc usually German Poodles. 
When we add to these qualities a certificate of the 
highest canine character, a depth of prompt obe¬ 
dience, fidelity, confidence, and affection, really re¬ 
markable, we can hardly say anything more in 
their favor. As to breeding, the two colors are 
kept separate, the white being bred pure, but in 
the black a patch of white on the breast is admissi¬ 
ble ; in both the nose and nails are black. Besides 
this distinction by color, another is found in the 
character of the hair, which in one breed ismarlied 
by glossy and tight curls, in the other it is woolly, 
not separating into distinct curls, but light and 
flocky, like locks of wool. If the hair of the com¬ 
mon short-haired breed, described as forming close 
curls be allowed to grow, it forms ringlets,which are 
more curious than beautiful. The accompanying en¬ 
graving shows well this interesting breed of dogs. 
Mr. Joseph Harris in the Far West.* 
Editorial Correspondence. 
Charley and I started for the West, Thursday, Oct. 10. 
From Rochester to Buffalo wo were on familiar ground. 
At Buffalo, we took the Michigan Central R. R., and 
turned back our watches one hour. From Buffalo to 
Niagara Falls we pass along the banks of the Niagara 
River, over a rather stiff soil, largely occupied with apple 
orchards, many of them in grass or clover. Some that 
were occupied with corn, had a healthier, larger, and 
more luxuriant foliage. Charley bought a novel on the 
cars and was reading it. I told him we were now ap¬ 
proaching one of the wonderc of the world. I have seen 
Niagara Falls many times, but they are always new. And 
iu fact, the oftener you see them, and the longer you 
look at them, the grander they become. The cars passed 
rapidly over the new cantilever bridge. Formerly, in 
passing over the Suspension Bridge, the train moved 
with a slow, solemn, and cautious motion, but now wo 
go merrily over, and stop on Canada soil. A courteous 
Custom House officer passes through the cars, and in¬ 
spects our unchecked baggage, and we pass on, stopping 
a few moments where a fine view of the Falls is obtained. 
Then, “ all aboard,” and on w'e go. Wo are soon at 
Welland, two hundred and thirteen miles from Detroit, 
and cross the Welland canal. “Put down that novel,Char¬ 
ley,” I said, “ and look at this great ship canal that con¬ 
nects Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.” piiarley looked. 
There was not a boat in sight, and ho soon turned to his 
novel again. I let him read in peace. We pass through 
a fine farming section. Fences, crops, houses, barns, 
cattle and sheep, all indicate good land and good farming. 
At Windsor, the cars are run upon a large steamer and 
carried over to Detroit. The river is brilliant with elec- 
.tric lights, and the whole performance, if not so com¬ 
mon, w'ould strike one dumb with wonder and awe. 
Many of the passengers quietly sleep through it all in 
their berths. It is an old story to them. And we too, 
soon turned in. and knew nothing more until we were 
approaching Chicago. We had to get across the city. 
Omnibuses were provided for passengers, and every¬ 
thing convenient. Our baggage was checked through, 
but we had a hand satchel, two guns, and a dog, to take 
along. We got into the omnibus, and “ Dash ” came in 
too. A man who had been smoking freely the night be¬ 
fore, and was cross in the morning, with a glance at the 
rest of the passengers, growled at the dog, aud said he 
had no business in the omnibus. Dash is a well-bred, 
gentlemanly, handsome dog, and he glanced up modest¬ 
ly at a well-dressed young lady, and she patted him on 
the head and spoke kindly to him. He recognized her 
as his protectoross, and “ charged,” hiding himself 
from the snarling man in the corner, and all was well. 
Cities oppress me. I did not come West to see cities. 
I have seen them before—London, Paris, New York, and 
Chicago. They are all pretty much alike. I am aware 
that Chicago in some respects is ahead of the other great 
cities of the world. But we will not tarry. 
Eeaving tlie Oardeu City. 
We left Chicago at 11.30 A. M., on the C. & N. W. R. 
R., and are soon breathing the free air of the country 
again. For some miles out, agriculture has a market- 
gardening aspect. But not as much so as I should have 
expected. Asparagus and beets were good ; onions and 
turnips poor. In the Chicago market, a man wanted to 
* See page 532, second and third columns. 
sell me a barrel of very poor, dried-up red-top strap-leaf 
turnips for a dollar. An agricultural editor in Chicago 
told me, that Western farmers did not want Eastern agri¬ 
cultural papers, and he intimated, that the best thing I 
could do .was to turn back, and go home again. Western 
people, he said, laughed at the remarks of Eastern 
editors, “Eastern farming was chemical. Western farm¬ 
ing mechanical.” What nonsense ! Two hundred pounds 
of superphosphate per acre would benefit turnips on this 
rich-looking prairie soil as much as on my own farm, aud 
pay equally well or better. I<f that is chemical farming, 
the market gardeners of the West will soon adopt it 
The fact is, the West wants aud will have the best of 
everything. On this very train on which we are now 
traveling, there is a dining car elegantly fitted up, where 
you can sit down at a table and comfortably and quietly 
eat at your leisure, as good a breakfast, dinner, and 
supper, as you can get at the Continental Hotel in Paris, 
far better than you can got at the Langham in Lon¬ 
don, and while eating it you arc speeding on through a 
country whose agriculture is to be purely mechanical! 
I do not believe it. In going from Liverpool to London, 
we got a “ basket-lunch ” at Leicester, aud ate it in the 
car. I thought this very fine. We ate our chickens at 
leisure, aud pitched the bones through the window. But 
here wo have venison steak, broiled chicken, mutton 
chop, tenderloin steak with mushrooms, potatoes, beans, 
cauliflower, celery, fruit, dessert, etc., etc. And “Dash” 
in the baggage car got as good a dinner of scraps as he 
could get at home. The West will have the best breeds 
of horses, cattle, sheep, aud hogs; the best implements 
and machines, and she will adopt the best methods 
of agriculture and horticulture. Farming is now and 
ever will be more or less mechanical, but there is no 
reason why it may not be chemical also—certainly Wes¬ 
tern agriculture will be in the best sense scientific. I 
am not afraid of the Western farmers laughing at me, 
but if they do, I am good-natured enough to stand it. 
Looking through the window, we sec a man digging 
potatoes with a sort of double-mouldboard plow. On 
this light prairie soil, it seems to do good work. In the 
same field is a patch of Long Red Mangolds—not as good 
as such rich-looking soil would seem capable of pro¬ 
ducing. Probably the Yellow Globe would do better. 
Small patches of corn, and large patches of weeds are 
not uncommon. More yellow pumpkins are grown in 
the corn than with us, but they are no larger. 
Cliicago to IViiiona. 
“Where are we going?” asked Charley.—“ Get the 
map and look it up. We are going from Chicago to 
Winona, Minnesota, and from thence west of the Missis¬ 
sippi River into Dakota.” 
West of Harvard, Charley began to get interested in 
the country. He has never seen the prairies before. I 
suppose a Western farmer will laugh at me for calling 
them prairies. They were once prairies, but are prairies 
no longer. On the right hand, and on the left, are large 
fields of corn, and good corn ; large pasture fields, aud 
a hundred head of cattle iu a herd. Hero is a ditch, 
about eighteen inches wide, and two and a half feet 
deep, its straight sides, no wider at the top than at the 
bottom, show that it was dug with a ditching machine. 
At Caledonia, we pass some splendid fields of red 
clover, and near Roscoe a fine fifty-acre field of winter 
wheat, with three large wheat straw-stacks in the field, 
showing that it was wheat after wheat. The wheat was 
dark-green, and hugged the ground, which is what a 
wheat-grower likes to see at this season. The railroad 
goes through a large bed of remarkably white gravel, 
fine, and free from earth. It must make splendid roads. 
The railroad uses it for ballast. Charley noticed with 
interest a long row of willows, near Rock River, that are 
used as fence posts for barbed wire. Near Beloit, Wis., 
ninety-eight miles from Chicago, a road-scraper was 
smoothing and leveling the roads. We have the same 
scraper in “York State,” and we use it when we work 
out our road tax, but owing to our absurd law, it lies idle 
the rest of the year.—“Why so?” asked Charley.—“Be¬ 
cause,” said I, “ our path-masters do not come into office 
until the spring, and they are obliged to have all the 
road-tax worked out before the first of October. If we 
want to draw gravel in the winter, or use the scraper at 
this season, wo c.au get no legal credit for the work.”— 
Charley knew this was one of my hobbies, and he re¬ 
marked, “Tobacco seems to be largely grown in this sec¬ 
tion.”—“Yes,”saidl, “but I supposeas asecond crop.” 
After we left Madison, Wis., I noticed a very intelli¬ 
gent looking gentleman, that I thought from his quiet 
manner and sensible, calm face, might be a farmer. He 
proved to be Mr. Williams, of Baraboo, one of the oldest 
Shorthorn breeders in the State. We talked about farm¬ 
ing, dairying, etc., until he reached home. As I wish to 
go through the country by daylight, we stopped over 
night at Elroy. 
Saturday, Oct. 18, we left Elroy at 5 A. M. Passed 
through Wilton, Norwalk, and Summit, iu the gray of 
the morning. The cows and calves lying on the frosty 
A GROUP OP POODLES. 
Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
