343 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
bloom. Also some Azalias, which should have an increased 
supply of water. Finish pottmg annuals such as Nemo- 
phila, Clarkia, Schizanthus, Lobelia. &c. Bring forward 
Cinerarias and Calceolarias, and keep them free from the 
green fly. Epiphillums in flower will require to be freely 
watered, Chinese Primulas, will now be coming into flower 
and should be freely watered. 
Bring forward roses for forcing, repotting those which 
require it. Keep the atmosphere moist by frequent 
syringing and sprinkling the floors. Cover the houses with 
shutters in severe weather and before heavy snows. Ar¬ 
range plants in a convenient tasty manner where they can 
at all times be looked to. Look out for the first appear¬ 
ance of green-fly, scale and mealy bug, and show them 
no quarter. Stir up the surface-soil occasionally, and 
keep pots and everything else clean and tidy. 
IMPROVED FARM STOCK- 
Among the branches of our agricultural 
progress, none is more conspicuous or grat¬ 
ifying, than the increase of the better kinds 
of domestic animals. Although the last 
three or four years have witnessed the im¬ 
portations of them by hundreds, still they 
come into the country, induced by the high 
prices they bring, and the growing demand 
for them by our enterprising farmers. And 
there is good sense in it. Our meats are 
better since the infusion of improved blood 
into our cattle, sheep and swine. We cannot 
say quite so much for the poultry, for we do 
not think the foreign varieties of fowls have 
done so much in that line, except the Dork¬ 
ings—the best meated chicken, probably, 
alive. Yet the Bremen goose is a decided 
improvement on the common goose of the 
country—larger, more 'juicy, and delicate 
in its flesh. The larger varieties of duck, 
too, like the Aylesbury and Poland, are a 
decided addition to both the weight and fla¬ 
vor of the common kind. 
But in the flesh of no one animal is the 
difference so great as between tbe long- 
wooled and Southdown sheep of England, 
and the old-fashioned, long-legged, fence- 
jumpers of our country, and the merino. 
The latter is a wool sheep, solely, and should 
be reared only for that object; the other 
thing should not be reared at all, not having 
the anatomy for taking on good flesh, but so 
mischievous in its habits as to make it a 
nuisance on any well-regulated farm ; while 
the mutton of the improved English varie¬ 
ties is delicious in every particular of flavor 
and juicyness. It is as proverbial that the 
Americans are not a mutton-eating people, 
as it is that the English are a mutton-loving 
race. The reason is, that here we are un¬ 
used to good mutton, while there it abounds 
in every market. The trumpery things 
with which our markets are crammed from 
one end of the year to the other, are pur¬ 
chased only by the poor. Our better livers 
will not touch it, except in the way of an oc¬ 
casional good saddle, chop, or leg, when 
these can be got. 
But we are improving. Really choice 
mutton sells as high in our markets as the 
best beef. It can be produced cheaper by 
the farmer, and should be only abundant to 
induce our good providers to have it con¬ 
stantly on their tables. Venison is usually 
considered a luxury, but it is not half so 
much of a luxury as a well fatted South- 
down. The one is a dry meat, requiring ar¬ 
tificial dressings to render it palatable, while 
the other cooks itself, and furnishes its own 
best gravies. If our city butchers would set 
about discriminating between the breeds and 
qualities of sheep as they are brought into 
market, paying good prices for the best, and 
discarding the mean ones, our farmers would 
soon take the hint, and produce none but the 
best; but so long as they continue, as they 
do now, to take culls, and everything that is 
offered to them, at pretty much the same 
price per pound, so long will our markets 
have more poor mutton than good in them, 
and the consumers, who are willing to pay 
for what a thing is really worth, can only 
enjoy the occasional luxury of a choice joint 
of mutton. The meat of the improved sheep 
is good in every part of the carcase—that of 
the common and merino, is really good no¬ 
where. A great difference.—[Ed. 
OUR RECENT CATTLE SHOWS-THEIR MOR¬ 
ALS. 
Our National, State, and County Cattle 
Shows are fast developing a new phase of 
character. The term “ National,” as con¬ 
nected with an Agricultural Society, or Ex¬ 
hibition, may be a myth, so far as any con¬ 
nection with the improvement of our Agri¬ 
culture at large is concerned. To us, as we 
have watched the progress of our National 
Agricultural Association from its birth, it ap¬ 
pears to be an amiable sort of mutual-admi- 
ration-Society,existing pretty much by the ex¬ 
ertions of a few very worthy and respectable 
Eastern gentlemen, who sport it as their an¬ 
nual recreation whenever a favorable local¬ 
ity turns up, in the neighborhood of any city 
where a subscription of sufficient capital can 
be raised, for the amusement of sundry and 
divers pleasure seeking people of our great 
towns, and elsewhere, who have time, and 
pocket money to attend “the races.” This in¬ 
stitution, as two or three experiments have 
shown, has been unable to hold a legitimate 
agricultural exhibition, from its want of con¬ 
nection with any tangible interest of the kind; 
and for the last few years it has taken to the 
“ improvement of horses,” the movements 
of which now constitute the chief, and in¬ 
deed, only paying feature in its perform¬ 
ances. “ Horse-racing ” and “ trotting- 
matches” were formly considered “ immor¬ 
al” in their tendencies, and as such “the 
race course ” has been, for the last twenty 
years, gradually discountenanced by our 
staid, order-loving communities ; but as now 
transformed, patronized, and fostered by the 
National Agricultural Society into “ trials of 
speed,” although betting, and all its attend¬ 
ant benefits and practices are, with the 
other amusements, permitted, it is ascer¬ 
tained to be a highly intellectual and moral 
pageant for “ the promotion of agriculture !” 
In short, the cattle shows at Philadelphia and 
Boston, this year, were trotting matches, 
with a few cattle, and other farm stock 
thrown into them by way of episode. 
The annual exhibitions of the State Soci¬ 
ety of New-York, we are happy to say have 
been carried through thus far without devia¬ 
tion from its original intent, and in accord¬ 
ance with its upright, honorable character. 
Agricultural improvement, in its legitimate 
sense, has always controlled the views of its 
practical, and earnest managers. The ele¬ 
ments, weatherwise, were unpropitious this 
year to its treasury, by keeping back thou¬ 
sands of its wonted attendants ; but we have 
no fears that this pioneer and pattern insti¬ 
tution will not hold the successful tenor of 
its way, so long as it shall be as discreetly 
managed as heretofore, and now. 
Connecticut too, a young beginner, as a 
State Society, has done manfully, and prom¬ 
ises to fulfill all its legitimate functions 
much to the advantage of the farmers of 
that most persevering and thrifty little State. 
Success to her efforts. 
But for Ohio, that noble, stalwart elder 
sister of the Western Galaxy, our fears of 
late have been somewhat excited. Com¬ 
mencing at Cincinnati in 1850, we attended 
its first exhibition, and also its last one at 
Cleveland, in September of this year, with 
two or three intermediate ones at Columbus, 
and elsewhere. No State Society in the 
Union has been more successful in its cat¬ 
tle shows, nor swept such heavy sums into 
the treasury derived from its exhibitions. 
But we thisyearsaw, with great mortification, 
that it is rapidly tending towards the be¬ 
setting sin of the times, in extending its 
patronage to horse-trotting, and its attendant 
vices. Placing, for the first time, a straight- 
laced Quaker at its head—a horse breeder, 
and horse-trainer, we found, on an inspec¬ 
tion of the grounds, that full two-thirds of 
their ample area of near thirty acres were 
appropriated to a trotting and racing course, 
with judges stand, and an amphitheatre, 
erected for the crowd—race course fashion— 
at “ a quarter” a seat! For three days, this 
ring, railed in for half a m : Je in circuit, was 
the main point of attraction to the great 
majority of the “forty-thousand” visiters, 
lining it four, and five deep, and wildly ex¬ 
cited with the feats of the various quadru¬ 
peds of the “ Hawk ” families, and other 
horses coursing over it, among which those 
of the worthy “ President ” were not the 
least conspicuous, either for speed, or for 
bottom.” Nimble footed roadsters in har¬ 
ness, and under saddle—stallion, gelding, 
and filly—all were there, and to eke out the 
frolic, sallow-faced, lank-sided spinsters 
mounted the racing nags and blood stallions, 
and coursed over the grounds time and 
again at the very top of their running speed 
under the shouts, yells, and applauses of the 
multitude, with as little trepidation as a 
troup of circus women would ride their an¬ 
tics over the tanbark. Yet all this occurred 
under the placarded “ regulations,” stuck up 
all over the grounds that “ no shouting,” or 
“ clapping” would be allowed. “-by or¬ 
der of the President!” Pretty well, thought 
we, for an Ohio Quaker, on this day of grace, 
in the nineteenth century ! 
Draft-horses, we believe, were there, and 
possibly received some little attention, but 
scarce any one that we inquired of could in¬ 
form us of their feats, or excellence. There 
were, as usual, great herds of cattle of the 
choicest varieties. We saw these crowded 
into two separate little corners for display 
before the several classes of judges, and on 
