1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
299 
sell the seed of a valuable crop, when lie parts 
with liis best calves? Many men say it costs 
more to raise a cow than to buy one. This is 
palpably wrong, as will be seen if they sit down 
and figure it out. But if it were true now, it 
could not long remain so; for cows must be 
raised; and those who raise them must be paid 
profitably, or they will not do it. We confess 
that there is some ground for the idea that it 
does not pay to raise cows, wrong as it may be, 
and it lies just here: The poorest calves are se¬ 
lected for rearing; and as it costs as much, and 
sometimes more, to feed a poor calf from a poor 
cow, until maturity, when it probably is worth 
twenty-five to thirty dollars only, as it does 
to feed a good calf, that would make 
a cow worth double that money at two 
years old. There is actually a loss in the 
operation, and the farmer is out of pocket, 
not only indirectly, but directly, in having- 
spent more than he can get back again. A 
merchant doing business thus, would soon find 
work for an assignee or the bankrupt court; 
but such are the advantages of the farmer’s oc¬ 
cupation, that he is able to live, and often do 
well, in spite of his unbusinesslike methods. 
Let him make farming a business; let him calcu¬ 
late and figure out results, as other men are 
obliged to do ; and it will be found that there 
is no operation on the farm, but pays fair in¬ 
terest over and above a good remuneration for 
labor and attention, if such labor and attention 
are only well directed; and most surely will he 
find that there is more money in a good heifer- 
calf, than any butcher could afford to give him, 
if he will only give the animal lime to show it. 
So with a bull-calf; if one is to be raised, select 
the best. It is by a course of selection, that the 
present races of blooded stock have been built 
up; as it is by a contrary course, that the native 
stock has been run down. Our “ native ” stock 
has sprung from good sources,' and if the best 
calves are retained on the farm, there will soon 
be a belter supply of good cows. 
--» --- *-«>- 
A Husking Pin, which will be found very 
durable and worth preserving from one season 
to another, may be made out of a twenty-penny 
nail, ground sharp at the point and fitted with 
a piece of leather, through which the second 
and third fingers are passed. Very neat and 
handsome ones may be cut out of bone. 
— ■<> C -—as^u»»---- 
The Pig Question again. 
The author of “Walks and Talks” says: 
“C. D. E.,” of Muncy, Pa., writes us a letter on 
the breeds of pigs. He says: “I have just 
read ‘Walks and Talks,’ and the article on 
‘Berkshire vs. Chester Whites,’ in the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist for May, and have come 
to the conclusion that the hog breeders of 
this country must submit to the inevitable de¬ 
cree of fashion , and for the future go in for 
small instead of large porkers! * * Well, 
let us reject the Chester hogs. They grow too 
large and ‘ coarse,’ and are too heavy to 
handle. Let us try the Berkshire and the 
Essex, and if the fashion shall still tend down¬ 
ward, why not fall back upon the guinea-pig ? 
What pot-pies they would make! Will our 
friend ‘ Walks and Talks ’ consider this prop¬ 
osition seriously, and if he fails to indorse it, 
give us a reason for his refusal ?”—I cannot in¬ 
dorse this proposed cross, for the simple reason 
that the guinea-pig is not a pig at all! And 
another objection is, even if he were a pig, lie is 
too long in coming to maturity, in proportion to 
his size. What I want in a thorough-bred pig, 
designed for crossing with common sows, is 
smallness of bone, little offal, rapid growth, 
fine quality of meat, and early maturity. I 
have no objection to size; but, so far as the ef¬ 
forts of breeders have yet gone, early maturity 
is al ways accompanied with a reduction of ul¬ 
timate growth. If I were going to raise pigs to 
work in tread-powers, I should go in for large 
size and slow growth. But where pigs are re¬ 
quired simply for converting corn into pork, I 
want such as will do this, and nothing else. 
The less corn is expended in producing bristles, 
bones, -cars, legs, snout, and other offal, the 
more will there be left"toproduce gor.l hams, 
pork, and lard. I do not want any more corn 
used to produce heat, motion, and the various 
functions of animal life than is necessary ftfr 
health. I want the pig to eat all it can digest 
and assimilate, and the less of this digested food 
is - used for any purpose, except the production 
of meat and fat, the more profit will there be in 
the business. Now, all this means rapid growth 
and early maturity; and early maturity is neces¬ 
sarily accompanied by a reduction in size. 
Where cattle are kept solely for beef, breeders 
aim at early maturity; and such is also the case 
when sheep are bred for mutton. On high- 
priced land, a farmer can not afford to raise an 
ox for beef that does not mature till lie is six 
years old. He must keep one that will mature 
in two or three years. Such an animal will not 
be quite as large as the slow-growing one, but 
the beef will be produced at far less cost. The 
only objection to the system is, that richer and 
more costly food has to be used; and further¬ 
more, it is desirable to get an ox that attains a 
pretty good weight before he matures, for the 
reason that it costs considerable to produce the 
calf. It is a slow process. We get but one calf 
a year. But in the case of pigs, we not unfre- 
quently get twenty in a year. They can be 
multiplied with immense rapidity, and at small 
cost, and there is far less necessity for aiming at 
large size. The cost of this pork-producing ma¬ 
chine is so small, that if twenty of them will 
produce more and better pork, at less cost 
for food, than one big machine, I prefer the 
twenty little ones—and so will the consumers. 
I am well aware that a good deal can be said 
on the other side. In my own case, I want my 
pigs to live on clover during the summer ; and 
if we pushed early maturity ami small size to 
its utmost limits, the pigs would not thrive on 
clover. They would need much more concen¬ 
trated food. But at present we are in no danger 
of getting our breeds of pigs too small. 
The Brittany Cow Bessie. 
Upon page 293 we give an engraving of a 
very interesting Brittany Cow, which is now the 
property of R. H. Allen, Esq., Summit, N. J., and, 
if we mistake not, was imported by him. Bessie is 
of a very dark, silver-gray color, with some white. 
When fresh she yields, upon ordinary good feed, 
from twelve to fourteen quarts of milk, and 
keeps up the supply well. Her bight at the 
fore-shoulders is three feet and four inches. She 
has a broad, heavy bod}', very small bones, a 
fine head and horns, and delicate limbs. This cotv 
is as gentle and familiar as a pet lamb. This 
breed is quite rare in this country, dark colors 
being the favorites. Since the dispersion of 
Mr. Maitland’s herd, we know of no one en¬ 
gaged in breeding these useful animals. 
Drainage in Scotland. 
There was published last year, under the au¬ 
spices of the Highland and Agricultural Society 
of Scotland, an essay on Agricultural Drainage, 
for which the society’s gold medal had been 
awarded to Mr. Hozier, its author. It has been 
said of another book, “ What is good in it is not 
new', and what is new in it is not good.” This 
would not be exactly a fair criticism of Mr. 
Ilozier’s essay, yet, at the same time, it would 
be more uncourleous than unfair to make it. 
Land-drainage is not one of the exact sciences, 
it is true; still a good deal is known about it, 
and it is not to be expected that any new essay 
upon it should avoid repeating the fundamental 
principles that have been determined by long 
experience; consequently, we must expect to 
find in every new book much that is to be 
found in all of the old ones, and we may be 
well satisfied if, in addition to this, we find new 
and valuable principles set forth, or new and 
improved processes described. Mr. Hozier, 
while he proceeds systematically and well in 
giving directions for the laying out and execu¬ 
tion of drainage works, advances some ideas 
which would be important if true, but which 
experience lias led us to judge not to be true. 
For instance, he insists on a fall of 1 foot in 
200 feet, as the very least that can be allow’ed. 
Now, it is quite true that it is highly desirable 
to get this much fall when it is practicable, or 
even more; but there is an enormous amount 
of nearly level land that could not be drained at 
all, without the extensive use of open ditches, if 
this rule must be adhered to. It often hap¬ 
pens that a main drain must be made 1,000 feet 
in length. If the fall of 1 in 200 is insisted upon, 
then the drain must be five feet higher at the 
head than at the outlet. If the land has this fall, 
well andgood; but suppose it is a dead level on 
which we are to work, and that five feet is Hie 
utmost depth w r e can get at the outlet, then, if 
w v e follow the rule, the drain will run quite to 
the surface at its upper end. Now', it is possi¬ 
ble to lay a drain so accurate]}' that a fall of 1 
in 1,000 (Vi. foot in 100 feet) will give a free and 
perfect current. There is a long main drain 
under the upper meadow in the Central Park 
that has only this fall. It was laid in 1860, and 
has always worked perfectly from that time un¬ 
til now. It is much easier to make a good drain 
on a fall of 1 in 600, and this would leave the 
upper end of the 1,000-foot drain in question, 
nearly 3’/a feet below the surface. We are 
strong advocates for all the fall it is practicable 
to get, but we also advocate the underdraining 
of land, in which the least practicable fall is all it 
is possible to get. If the W'ork is properly done, 
very little fall will answer, but in such cases 
the grading of the bottom must be very care¬ 
fully done, so that no fall shall be lost in one 
place by giving too much in another. 
Mr. Hozier recommends that in heavy clay 
soils, drains should not be less than 2 feet 9 in¬ 
ches, nor more than 3 ft. 3 in. deep, and that 
the intervals between the drains be not more 
than 15 feet. This advice will not hold in many 
sections of America; for we rarely have such 
obdurate clays as he has in mind. Indeed, 
with a varied experience in drainage works in 
America, the writer has not found a soil that 
was not completely drained at 4 ft. depth, and 
