AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
181 
THE DOG. 
NEWFOUNDLAND. 
The favorite dog—the Newfoundland—is 
one of the largest of his race. He is said to 
have originated (though we can see no rea¬ 
son for the supposition) in the country bear¬ 
ing his name, where he is used and abused 
by the humbler classes of the inhabitants, in 
hauling carts filled with fish in the summer, 
and drawing sleds loaded with wood in the 
winter. They are ever faithful and good- 
natured ; in fact the pleasantest, and one of 
the most useful animals to be met with in 
seaport towns. In England he is highly ap¬ 
preciated, and individuals have become quite 
celebrated for saving people from drowning 
in the Thames, or from ships wrecked at 
sea. A large portrait of a Newfoundland 
dog is quite popular even in this country. 
The dog is represented with a medal round 
his neck, upon which is inscribed “ A dis¬ 
tinguished member of the humane society.” 
Illustrative of his usefulness in saving life, 
is the well-aufhenticated anecdote of a ves¬ 
sel that was driven on the beach of Lydd, in 
Kent. The surf was rolling furiously. 
Eight poor fellows were crying for help, but 
no boat could live in endeavoring to go to 
their assistance. At length a gentleman 
came on the beach accompanied by a New¬ 
foundland dog. He directed the attention of 
the animal to the vessel, and put a short 
stick in his mouth. The intelligent and 
courageous fellow at once understood his 
meaning; springing into the sea he fought 
his way through the waves. He could not, 
however, get close enough to the vessel to 
deliver that with which he was charged; but 
the crew understood what was meant, and 
they made fast a rope to another piece of 
wood, and threw it toward him. The noble 
creature dropped the one in his mouth, and 
seized that which had been cast to him, and 
then, with a degree of strength and determi¬ 
nation scarcely credible—for he was again 
and again lost under the waves—he dragged 
it through the surge, and delivered it to his 
master; a line of communication was thus 
formed with the boat, and all on board were 
saved. 
THE SHEPHERD DOG. 
But the most interesting and useful of all 
the class of dogs we have been describing, 
and of all dogs whatever, is the companion 
of the shepherd. As a guardian of sheep he 
is more perfect than in any other pursuit, for 
the shepherd dog frequently acts independent 
of his master, and takes at times the entire 
control of his helpless charge. Sheep are 
the favorite food of all wild dogs and of 
wolves ; and it is also a fact, that the shep¬ 
herd dog is nearer the original type of his 
race than any other. With this knowledge 
we can form some idea of the immense pow¬ 
er the shepherd dog’s education has over 
his original nature, to make him not only 
forego destroying the tender lamb, but also 
sacrifice his entire life to its protection. In 
Scotland and Spain, the shepherd dog forms 
a prominent object of rural life, and is appre¬ 
ciated as one of the greatest blessings of a 
beneficient Providence. In Scotia, Hogg 
and Burns both commenced their life upon 
their native bleak hills, watching theirflocks, 
with no other constant companion than the 
faithful dog ; it is not only truly interesting, 
but really affecting to read the passionate 
outpourings of these two sons of song in his 
praise. With all their imagination and 
heartiness, they never found language suffi¬ 
ciently strong to do justice to their feelings 
of admiration. Hogg acknowledges that he 
“ never felt so grateful to any creature under 
the sun as he did to his honest Sirrah!” 
Burns, inequallypassionatelanguage, writes, 
“ that the master is the soul of the dog; all 
the powers and faculties of its nature are de¬ 
voted to its master’s service; and these 
powers and faculties are ennobled by the in¬ 
tercourse.” He concludes, “Divines tell us 
that it ought just to be so with the Christian; 
but the dog puts the Christian to shame.” 
That the shepherd dog was specially de¬ 
signed for the purposes to which it is de¬ 
voted, is powerfully suggested in the singu¬ 
lar trait of its history ; that more than any 
other of its species it retains, in spite of 
every circumstance, its peculiar character. 
While other dogs degenerate or improve, or 
have their radical qualities obliterated, the 
shepherd dog seems to have innate energy 
enough to overcome every other blood, and 
ever remain the same, confirming the opinion, 
that the shepherd dog stock is the most per¬ 
fect of the whole species. 
It is safe to say that commerce is indebted 
for the wool which appears in so many cost¬ 
ly fabrics to the watchful care of the shep¬ 
herd dog, for the master could not raise the 
staple, so as to supply it at reasonable prices, 
without the animal’s assistance. A single 
shepherd and one dog will do the work of 
twenty men ; and yet, while thus occupying 
a position so important, absolutely feeding 
and clothing his protectors, the dog is satis¬ 
fied with the hardest fare and more meager 
food, living and rejoicing alone in the ap¬ 
proving smiles of his master’s eye. 
The shepherd dogs of Spain and Mexico 
are the finest in the world, and, armed with 
an iron collar covered with points, are a 
match for the most savage wolf. One thou¬ 
sand sheep require the attention of two men 
and two dogs. The manner of training them 
in the countries alluded to is interesting ; the 
puppies, at their birth, are taken from their 
mother and suckled by a ewe previously de¬ 
prived T>f her lambs. The consequence is 
that the dogs associate at once with the 
sheep, become attached to particular flocks, 
and seem to feel a degree of affection that 
would naturally spring up in generous minds 
toward those to whose fostering care they 
were so much indebted. 
Landseer—who devotes his great genius 
to painting the few domestic animals of Eng¬ 
land—has produced portraits of hounds, 
pointers, and shepherd dogs that vie favora 
bly, in good looks and intelligence, with 
many of the representatives of another class 
of “the English nobility.” His great tri¬ 
umph has been a picture of two shepherd 
dogs, lying on a rock, just beneath which is 
sheltered an ewe and twin lambs. These 
dogs are, indeed, the protectors of the flocks 
—one is gazing in the distance for his mas¬ 
ter, the other looks down, with silken eye¬ 
lash and beaming eye, upon the helpless 
charge beneath, expressing a tenderness and 
concern that has rarely been surpassed in 
the thousand Madonnas which have been the 
pride of art, and considered the acme of hu 
man maternity. 
A Monster Iron Ship. —The Edinburgh 
Journal gives a detailed account of an im¬ 
mense iron ship which is now being con¬ 
structed for the Australian trade, at the cost 
of over £400,000, ($2,000,000). She will be 
675 feet long, 83 feet wide at her greatest 
breadth of beam, and 60 feet deep in the 
hold. She will be furnished with paddle 
wheels and a screw—the former of a nomi 
nalpower of 1,000 horses,but practically, the 
combined power may be estimated at 3,000 
horses. The engines, when erected and put 
together, will be upwards of 50 feet in 
height. The weight of the entire machinery 
will be about 3,000 tuns and of the hull 10, 
000 tuns—making 13,000 tuns. She will 
carry several thousand tuns of coal and mer 
chandise, 1,600 passengers, and her meas 
urement capacity gives about 25,000 tuns 
burden. Notwithstanding her draught of 
water will be but small, not exceeding 
twenty feet when light, and thirty when 
fully loaded. She will carry enough for a 
voyage around the world and is built upon a 
model to insure great speed. Her ordinary 
speed is expected to be eighteen or twenty 
miles an hour. She is expected to make 
the voyage from England to Australia in 
thirty days and return by Cape Horn in thir¬ 
ty days more—thus making the circuit of 
the globe in two months. 
Why there is no Rain in Peru. —In Peru, 
South America, rain is unknown. The coast 
of Peru is within the region of perpetual 
southeast trade-winds. Though the Peru¬ 
vian shores are on the verge of the great 
South sea border, yet it never rains there. 
The reason is plain. The southeast trade- 
winds in the Atlantic Ocean first strike the 
water on the coast of Africa. Traveling to 
the northwest, they blow obliquely across 
the ocean until they reach the coast of Bra¬ 
zil. By this time they are heavily laden with 
vapor, which they continue to bear along 
across the continent, depositing it as they 
go, and supplying with it the sources of the 
Rio de la Plata and the southern tributaries 
of the Amazon. Finally they reach the 
snow-capped Andes, and here is wrung from 
them the last particle of moisture that that 
very low temperature can extract. Reach¬ 
ing the summit of that range, they now tum¬ 
ble down as cool and dry winds on the Pa¬ 
cific slopes beyond. Meeting with no evap¬ 
orating surface, and with no temperature 
colder than that to which they were sub¬ 
jected on the mountain tops, they reach the 
ocean before they become charged with 
fresh vapor, and before, therefore, they have 
any which the Pervuian climate can ex¬ 
tract. Thus we see how the top of the An¬ 
des becomes the reservoir from which are 
supplied the rivers of Chili and Peru.— Lieut. 
Maury. 
Statistics of Lard. —The Cincinnati 
Price Current has some interesting statistics 
on the lard produce of this country. The 
number of hogs killed last season, packed 
for commerce, is three millions. The aver¬ 
age amount of lard per hog is thirty-two 
pounds. The total amount of lard in com¬ 
merce is estimated at ninety-six millions 
pounds. Of this amount twenty millions are 
shipped from Cincinnati. England and Cuba 
take more lard of us than all the rest of the 
world. Each of these countries buys over 
eight millions of pounds. In the West In¬ 
dies lard is very generally used as a substi¬ 
tute for butter. Lard oil is made more ex¬ 
tensively at Cincinnati than at any other 
point of the Union. Thirty thousand barrels 
of it are annually sent from that city. The 
demand for lard over the world is on the in¬ 
crease and prices will probably be sustained. 
The following instance of remarkable sa¬ 
gacity of a dog is vouched for by the owner : 
A gentleman residing in Lynn, Mass., has, 
for a long time, visited Boston daily on busi¬ 
ness, at times passing over the turnpike, and 
frequently over the Eastern Railroad, al¬ 
ways accompanied by his dog. One day 
last week, he went to Boston, but during the 
day the dog became separated from his mas¬ 
ter, who returned home without him. A 
few hours after llie gentleman reached home 
the dog also returned. A gentleman who 
went to Lynn in the afternoon train, states 
that he saw the dog enter the cars at the 
depot in Boston, and snugly ensconce him¬ 
self under a seat as if to avoid the vigilant 
eye of the conductor. On the cars stopping 
at West Lynn, the dog jumped out and hur¬ 
ried home with all possible speed. 
