94, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Among the Farmers—No. 14. 
BT ONE OP THEM. 
Small Farms aud Small Farmers. 
I live among small farmers, in fact, among the 
smallest kind of farmers. The farms are from 50 
to 100 or 150 acres, and 1 find very little to learn 
among them, except perhaps a very low grade of 
“thrift,” based upon very small, constant econo¬ 
mies. The land is of all grades ; some is just re¬ 
deemed from the swamp and forest, other worn too 
nearly out to raise buckwheat, rye, and white beans. 
Market gardening is profitably conducted by a few, 
but it iuvolves hired labor, and the fashion for two 
centuries has been to hire no labor, but to do only 
such work as farmer, his sons, and one or two male 
slaves could do. Now that the slaves are gone, 
there is less work done. There is a little money in 
bank, and there may be a few hundred dollars loan¬ 
ed here and there on mortgage, and this probably 
came from the sale of part of the old farm. So the 
“ thrifty ” natives are in no fear of want, and they 
and their children have no higher ambition than to 
live as comfortably as they do now. Some of the 
land is excellent, and almost all, with good man¬ 
agement, is far more easily worked, and being nearer 
a good market, might yield greater money return 
than nine-tenths of the farms in New England. The 
city quickly absorbs all the more enterprising young 
men, while the rest wait for the shoes of their pro¬ 
genitors, or set up for themselves in a small way. 
Regarding the native farming community only, it is 
quietly sleeping “ the sleep that knows no waking. ” 
You may “stick your finger in its eye aud it will 
not wink.” 1 am perhaps too sweeping. There is 
one thing most of the young men are wide awake 
about. That is 
Trotting Horses. 
It comes to pass in this way. A young man be¬ 
comes a young man when he owns a horse and top 
buggy—he is nothing but a boy before that. It is 
easier to breed and break a colt than to buy one, 
though everybody says* it costs more. So the old 
mare is bred to a trotting stallion, and the colt is 
expected to trot. The stout farm horses that were 
once bred here, that would work well on the farm, 
and make fair time on the road—haul thirty hun¬ 
dred weight of truck to market before breakfast, 
and do a day’s work on the farm between noon and 
dark, have disappeared, and spindle-legged trotters 
have taken their places. On a fine Sunday after¬ 
noon the whole country is alive with smart buggies, 
trotting ponies, and young men, and the young 
men are not alone. There are blushes and ribbons 
about, and the youths often look interesting, and if 
you are approaching on the road, they are quite 
likely to forget to turn out. It’s quite natural, and 
no wonder the boys are fond of horses. They do 
most of their courting behind them. 
What Horses shall Small Farmers Breed? 
It becomes a matter of interest to determine what 
horses it will pay best to breed, especially for small 
farmers. The land, as I have repeatedly said, is 
light. Fall plowing is but little done, and the¬ 
oretically not advantageous. A good farm mare 
may therefore do her spring and summer work per¬ 
fectly well, and have a foal every year in August or 
September. It seems a great pity that so many 
horses should be raised, and among them so few 
that are worth the hay and provender that they eat 
before they are five years old. Were the Norman, 
or Percheron, not so violent a cross, it would seem 
to be the best, nevertheless, I believe experience at 
the West shows that smallish mares will often have 
excellent and well formed foals by such sires. The 
first Percherons ever imported into this country 
were brought into New Jersey, (the Harris importa¬ 
tion). After the importer had used them for some 
years, “ Dilligence,” the stallion, and “Joan,” the 
mare, with other imported animals and their get, 
the entire stock, was sold out by Mr. Harris, to my 
neighbor, Mr. John G. Bell. He bred them for 
some years, and after the death of the old horse, 
bred old Joan to the imported thorough-bred stal¬ 
lion, “ Consternation ” —a horse of most ami¬ 
able disposition for a thorough-bred. The cross 
proved a capital one, and a pair of mares thus bred 
are famous good ones. They are a handsome, 
stylish pair of farm horses, and trundle the family 
Roekaway about in good style, and at a remarkably 
good rate too. There are several stories told of 
The Strength of these Percherons. 
One is, that coming from the field one evening 
after plowing, having left the whiffletrees behind 
them, the plowman found a neighbor with a yoke 
of oxen and a pair of horses at the foot of the hill, 
with a log, which this team was unable to move. He 
was asked to attach his horses, so that the com¬ 
bined force might draw it up.—“ Let me go back 
and get my whiffletrees,” said he; “my mares 
will manage it alone.” — “No, hitch right to 
these.”—They were broken at the first pull. 
Then his own were obtained, and with the reins 
hung on the hames, the word was given to start up 
a little. As soon as the little mares felt there was 
really a weight behind them worthy an outlay of 
strength, they started and did not stop until they 
got to the top of the hill, distancing the entire 
crowd, the log rolling first this way and then 
that. I call them little, and they are, as they 
weigh only about 1,150 pounds each, but it is “ all 
horse,” and not a lazy nerve or fiber. Their hoofs 
are round and solid as iron ; their legs short-jointed, 
flat, and hard, with tough tendons ; they are short- 
coupled, low set, solid fleshed, and were originally 
grey, but now white. 
There is a quick market in all our cities for such 
horses. We ought to raise them. Sending the 
geldings to the market and keeping the fillies for 
farm work and breeding. The young horses could 
be worked on the farm, and would pay for their 
keep after they are two years old, and the work 
would do them good, besides thoroughly breaking 
them without their knowing it. 
The Great Normans, 
such as the Western breeders have been importing 
so freely of late years, are too large for profitable 
use among Eastern farmers, or among small farm¬ 
ers anywhere, but if we could use the old style 
Percheron such as Mr. Harris brought out, it would 
be exactly what we want, as imparting weight, 
courage, power, soundness, quick growth, docility, 
good trotting action, and almost invariably a fast 
walk. I suppose such stallions may be imported 
for about $1,200, possibly for less—certainly for less 
than a second class trotting stallion is considered 
worth. As to Clydesdales, they are too heavy for 
our use, too expensive also, and need to be crossed 
upon heavy mares, or the progeny lack symmetry 
to a deplorable extent. I mention these—Normans, 
Percherons, Clydesdales—because next to trotters 
they seem to be the available horses. We have a 
good many in this country, and the foreign ones 
may be easily imported. 
Really Good Carringe Horses, 
could we breed them, would of course be much 
more profitable than draft horses, but we have no 
carriage stallions proper, and the carriage horses 
bred in the country come from large mares bred to 
thorough-bred or large trotting stallions, and if 
really fine, are lucky accidents as it were. The 
majority of the progeny being of inferior style, or 
lacking in some important quality. A New York 
merchant having a favorite mare, no longer of use 
in his carriage team, bred her twice to a rather fa¬ 
mous imported thorough-bred. The result was one 
light limbed, heavy-bodied colt, so lacking in mus¬ 
cle and endurance, that he was worthless for any 
purposes for which he could use him, and another 
so light-limbed and small boned, that in his gam¬ 
bols he actually broke his leg in a pasture free from 
woodchuck holes, post holes, or any such tempta¬ 
tion. Last year I bred the only breeding mare I 
have, to Col. Battell’s OrlofF, and really have great 
expectations. If thorough breeding be measured 
by the inheritance of valued qualities, the Orloffs 
are more thorough-bred than the “thorough¬ 
breds.” The English have bred horses for the race¬ 
course, and they have produced from the most in¬ 
telligent, loving, gentle, fast, and enduring breed 
in the world—the Arabian and its congeners—the 
fastest running horses the world has ever known, 
and among them many capable of carrying great 
weight in the race, hence possessing courage, en¬ 
durance, bottom, and speed, and of course fine bony 
and muscular development for these purposes. 
But they exhibit rarely any beauty of style or ac¬ 
tion, aud exceptionally only that power and grace 
which combine so admirably in a fine horse, and 
they oftener than not possess a disposition which 
renders it dangerous to approach or handle them, 
and impossible to trust them. 
Taking the same Arabian blood as a basis, one 
hundred years ago Count Orloff inaugurated a sys- : 
tern of breeding which is now producing legitimate 
fruits. The Orloff horses are very different from 
the Arabians, yet they possess all their intelligence, 
fearlessness, affection, trustiness, courage, and en¬ 
durance, while they have been bred to possess ex¬ 
traordinary beauty of form, carriage, and action, 
with large size, a natural trotting gait of very con¬ 
siderable speed, and generally jet black color. If 
ten to twenty generations of breeding systematical¬ 
ly, for these qualities, the success of which is de¬ 
monstrated by the astonishing uniformity of the 
animals, is not thorough-breeding, I am very sure 
the English system is not worthy the name. True, 
Count Orloff and his successors at Chrenova, open¬ 
ly used cold-blooded mares of various breeds and 
qualities, whereon to cross the Arabian blood, 
while the English breeders have done just the same 
more or less, only they do not acknowledge it. 
Seedling White Oaks. 
I have frequently noticed that in the spring, just 
after the frost is out of the ground in the woods, 
great numbers of acorns under the oak, and par¬ 
ticularly under the White Oak trees, had thrown 
out a radicle, and perhaps a little later developed 
leaves. From experiments made a year ago, I find 
that these sprouting acorns may be transferred to 
mellow, well shaded ground, where they will take 
root, and grow well. They grow slowly, forming a 
thick, fleshy, strong tap-root, and I doubt if those 
that survive mid-summer, could be easily moved in 
any considerable numbers. Seedling maples may 
be moved in autumn, and so may locusts, and no 
doubt, most other trees readily coming from seed, 
but with upland oaks I have failed. Now, however, 
I think I can secure of the White and Chestnut Oaks 
as many as I need for a row or two in my nursery. 
Planting Timber. 
We are losing our timber very fast. I have just i 
heard that a contract has been entered into for the 
clearing of nearly 2,000 acres of land adjoining and 
almost surrounding my little farm. This brings 
the fact home to my own door. What will become 1 
of my never failing, bounteous, sparkling springs ? 
—I can not tell. There is much land unfit for the 
culture of ordinary crops, which grows cedars and 
white birches now, and might no doubt wave with 
Scotch Larch or Yellow Locust in a few years. I 
hope we may see it. 
How to Lead an Unbroken Heifer. 
A few weeks ago I selected a beautiful heifer in j 
a field with others, bought her for a friend, and di- ! 
rected where she should be delivered. She was J 
sent by rail, and on arrival my friend’s man took [ 
her in charge. She was a yearling, and not large 
at that. Before he could get her home, some six 
miles, she had nearly killed him. She had thrown 
herself down half a dozen times, thrown and drag¬ 
ged him no-telling how far. She had exhausted • 
herself, obstinately lain down, willfully gotten up, i 
when she had a mind to, scared horses and women, j 
and made her trip generally memorable along a 
quiet country road. All because as a calf she had j,' 
not been tied up and handled, fed salt perhaps, and j: 
led about a little quietly a few times, before start- .1 
ing her on her journey. It is almost criminal to j 
sell an animal in such an unsafe condition. 
Whenever it is any one’s lot to lead such a crea¬ 
ture, let him first handle and quiet it for some time • 
by every gentle means in his power. He may stand 
with the right hand over its neck, patting it upon' 
the shoulder and neck. He may give it a little salt,, 
stroke its head and ears, scratch its poll between 
the horns, etc. Finally he may let it walk quietly ( 
