The above spirited engraving we introduce 
for the pleasure of those that love to study ag¬ 
ricultural scenes sketched by the first artists— 
and Who does not? It suggests, also, a topic of¬ 
ten dwelt upon in these columns, viz: the want 
of judgment exercised by very many farmers in 
selling off their lest calves to the butcher. In 
our review of the N. Y. Live Stock Trade for 
1861, given on page 58 of the February Agricul- ■ 
twist, it was stated that during last year there 
were sold in this city at the regular market 
yards, over thirty three thousand (33,388) veal 
calves, at an average price of $5.10 each. Prob¬ 
ably seven or eight thousand more were sold di¬ 
rect to butchers, from boats and barges, and from 
wagons—in all over forty thousand.- We stop 
not to discuss here whether it would or would 
not have been more profitable to have raised all 
these calves. The value of milk in and near 
New-York would probably decide the question 
in the negative. . The point we would here make 
is this: A considerable number of these calves 
were “bobs,” or “kittens” as they are called in 
market parlance, that is, calves two to six days 
old, which sold. to some of the lowest class 
butchers at $1 to $1.50 each—sometimes $2. 
Taking out these, the average would range near 
$6 a head. Now, very many of these calves 
were large noble animals, that sold for $8 to 
$10 each, and these are just the class that find 
the most ready sale, and, we are sorry to say it, 
the class that farmers are most ready to part 
with, because they can get two or three dollars 
more a head for them. But it costs scarcely any 
more to raise to three years of age one of the 
best calves, Ilian one of the poorer ones—indeed 
it. often costs less. Yet at three years old the 
one animal will be worth ten to twenty dollars 
more than the other. It needs no figuring, no 
further argument, to indicate lack of economy in 
the present system. It is on a par with the fol¬ 
lowing: Two brothers each received 80 sheep 
from the same paternal flock. One sold 20 of 
his sheep to pay for a Southdown buck. From 
the 45 ewes left he raised 52 lambs, worth the 
next Autumn $4.25 each=$221. Tha other 
bred his whole flock to a common buck. He 
raised 65 lambs, worth the next Autumn hardly 
$3 each=$195, from which deduct $19 for keep¬ 
ing the extra 19 sheep, leaving $176 against $221. 
Goats on Farms—Mr. Greeley’s Experience. 
Friend Judd. —H. G. T., in the December 
Agriculturist, wonders what can be urged against 
the keeping of goats. I answer—not much, if 
you are living on the stony hills of Palestine, or 
the desert of Sahara, or the Plains of Colorado, 
or the parched, desolate valleys of Utah, where 
a tree is unknown and its production is barely 
a possibility. In fact, I think the goat destined 
to prove a great blessing to all that vast region 
lying westward of the banks of the Platte, and 
eastward of the Sierra Nevada. In a shade- 
blest, fruitful country like this, however, the 
goat is a nuisance and a terror. The utmost vig¬ 
ilance will not prevent the destruction of your 
rarest fruit and shade-trees, if you keep Billy and 
Nanny on your premises. I speak feelingly on 
the subject, for my experience has been a sore 
one. My last trial with a she-goat (bought for 
her milk for an infant,) and three young ones— 
all fine animals, but for their invincible propen¬ 
sity to eat any thing that should not be eaten. 
I am not certain that either of them would have 
barked a crowbar unless very hungry; but I 
would not like to insure the dry, cork-like rind 
of the big trees of California, (from a foot to 
eighteen inches through,) against the teeth of any 
goat I ever harbored. If you must have goats, 
keep them, for their milk is the best food that 
can be had for young children; but tie them fast 
in some lot where nothing grows that you -want 
to survive, or shut them up in a barn, and be 
sure they never have a chance of liberty. A 
goat at large on a Yankee farm woill d more 
damage in a single week than can be repair¬ 
ed in ten years. H. Greeley. 
A Talk about “Pedigrees.” 
'•'■Like produces like" is the adage of the stock 
breeders; but it has some very important excep¬ 
tions. Thus, for example, animals sprung from 
parents of different breeds, (or of no breed at all,) 
produce offspring unlike themselves and of no 
uniform type, unless they be paired with ani¬ 
mals of some breed having fixed characteristics, 
when these fixed characteristics will generally 
be prominent in their offspring. A fixed or es¬ 
tablished breed is one of which the animals for 
many generations have exhibited the same gen¬ 
eral peculiarities, transmitting them to their 
progeny. The more uniformly these or any de¬ 
sirable peculiarities appear in any line, the more 
likely are they to reappear in coming genera¬ 
tions ; so certain is this, that breeders count with 
absolute confidence upon the value of the off- 
