29 4 = 
[August, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
T?* - ---— - 
would be bard to prove that tbe surface had not 
been plowed within that period. It is indeed much 
easier to establish a lawn or permanent meadow 
.jffpd in England than here, for grass is the natural 
product of the land much more than with us, for 
there the climate is moist and grass grows the year 
rouud, much as it does with us in May. If it be 
true there that a well established natural sward is 
difficult to replace or renew after it is once dis¬ 
turbed, it is ten times true here, where our hot 
summers burn the grass, the frosts of winter heave 
it, and our tremendous rains wash it out. The 
grass of these Westchester Co. pastures was unusu¬ 
ally free from weeds. I observed June Grass, Door- 
yard Grass (Poa annua), Flat-stalked Meadow Grass, 
Red-top, Sweet Vernal Grass, and White Clover, 
in abundance. In order not to introduce the seeds 
of weeds, the pastures are never dressed with 
stable or yard manure, but artificial fertilizers are 
used exclusively. 
It is a matter of vital importance that the young 
horses should have the constituents of bone in their 
food, otherwise they will lack vigor and strength of 
limb. That the grass may not be wanting in these 
essential ingredients, these pastures are frequently, 
if not always annually, dressed With ashes, bone- 
dust, or superphosphate of lime, alternately. This 
separate application is found to be better than to 
put them on mixed. 
Breeding StaUles. 
The arrangement of the breeding stables and 
paddocks is made with exclusive reference to the 
health of the mares, and the full, free, natural de¬ 
velopment of the foals. Those things which we 
farmers are likely to keep constantly in mind, as 
the saving of labor, preserving of the manure, etc., 
seem to be absolutely ignored in solicitude for the 
perfection of the health and growth of the young 
horses. There are groups of moderate, but various 
sized pasture lots, and at the angle where the 
corners of four of these paddocks meet the stables 
are placed, each stable or little barn, being in the 
form of a f, and in each division of the f a stable, 
having doors and windows opening to the south, 
and windows to the east and west, so that the sun 
may freely enter. The doors open into paddocks, 
so that the mares and foals may freely pass and re¬ 
pass. There is storage room for several tons of 
hay and straw in the loft, and a store-room for 
grain on the north side. The fine old thorough¬ 
bred marcs looked as if they were enjoying their 
old age. Dowager queens, no longer reigning favor¬ 
ites, or favored and petted debutantes, but in the 
midst of their greatest usefulness. 
My friends mourned but over one thing, and that 
is, that the colts had not great pastures of several 
hundred acres each to run over, as their dams, 
some of them, enjoyed in Maryland and Virginia. 
A yearling can stretch his legs pretty well in a ten 
or twenty acre lot, according to my notion, and 
certainly they will do it if there be four or five to¬ 
gether. The stables are abundantly lighted, the 
windows being numerous, large and high, so that 
they are very w r arm and comfortable in winter. I 
should have said that there are two stables in what 
represents the upright portion of the T, and usu¬ 
ally one in each wing, with the store-room in the 
rear between them. The foaling stables are at the 
main barn, near the house. They are not peculiar 
except that they are peculiarly good. The mangers, 
water-troughs, and hay racks are elevated rather 
high, having the entire floor free. As soon as the 
foal is strong enough, and begins to feel a little 
independent, he is placed with his dam in one of 
the outside stables, where they pretty much take 
care of themselves^ 
The system upon which these thoroughbreds are 
reared, appears to be to give them all the liberty 
they can have, and to have all arrangements as 
nearly like nature as possible. The breeding mares 
are rarely worked in any way, many of them never 
either saddled or harnessed now-a-days. For the 
full, symmetrical, and vigorous development of the 
young animals, a profusion of the very best food is 
essential, and there seems to be no stinting of oats. 
It is wonderful how well this graiu is adapted to 
horses. There is no substitute for it. Other grains 
can hardly bo fed alone, certainly not in any such 
quantities as we feed oats. The hulls are by no 
means unimportant in aiding digestion, and really 
give the grain its peculiar value. 
When horses are bred for speed chiefly, some 
such arrangements as I have described seem advisa¬ 
ble, but in breeding agricultural horses, they could 
not be carried out with profit. 
Breeding Draft Horses. 
Regular labor, never excessive, nor interfering 
with systematic feeding, gives health and vigor to 
the mares, so that they may have a foal every year, 
and the farmer lose only a few weeks work. The 
foals, if well fed, and moderately pushed by feeding 
crushed or ground oats, with perhaps a little corn- 
meal, or oats and corn ground together, the oats 
being largely in excess of the corn, will make rapid 
growth, and be available for light labor at two to 
two-and-a-half years old. This is particularly true 
of French horses. At this early age many are sold, 
particularly colts, and worked for a year or two 
chiefly upon “ truck ” farms, and beet-sugar farms, 
or where there is a great deal of light work, and 
where few or no horses are bred. Meanwhile, being 
fed very well and gently handled, chiefly by women, 
they develop enormous frames and excellent dispo¬ 
sitions, and as soon as they become too heavy for 
the work needed of them, and at the same time 
marketable, they are turned off at a large advance 
above their cost, and, having paid their way by their 
labor, they are thus the source of a handsome profit 
at a period of life when other classes of horses 
are only a care and expense. 
I have had my doubts whether a similar course 
of treatment would answer well for half-bred Nor¬ 
mans and Percherons in this country, but within a 
few days any doubts I may have had, have been 
set at rest by examining a lot of half-bred Perch¬ 
erons, belonging to Mr. W. S. Taylor, of Burling¬ 
ton, N. J., among them a noble two-year-old, of 
which Mr. Taylor said, he was better able to do 
heavy labor than his dam—a medium sized mare, 
which very likely was a stylish carriage horse in her 
palmy days. 
It seems as if this fact, that draught horses are 
of no expense to their breeders after they are two 
years old, if they may not be profitably sold at that 
age, settles almost the question, “which is the 
most profitable class of horses to raise ? ” 
Trotting Horses. 
In going about among the breeders of trotting 
horses, I find a universal feeling that the business 
has been overdone, and yet it is passing strange that 
so little has been accomplished. We cannot breed 
a trotter—or a “ stepper ” as the phrase is—to a cer¬ 
tainty, or hardly to a probability. Certain crosses, 
such as American Star or Eclipse mares, W'ith Ham- 
bletonian horses, are almost sure to turn out well, 
but there is no certainty that the progeny will ever 
trot the mile even in 3 minutes, which, to be sure, 
is fast enough for any reasonable use. Yet I 
mention extreme cases. If such crosses can not 
be depended upon for Anything but to produce 
a reasonably speedy progeny, what shall be said 
for the flood of trotting blood of less and less 
repute, which surrounds us, and gives in most 
cases for several years after the foaling of a 
colt, a fictitious value to him ? The fact that a sire 
or dam, or some near-a-kin. nag has trotted “ low 
down in the twenties,” gives rise to great expecta¬ 
tions. These are encouraged by trainers and others, 
especially the former, who have simply practical 
knowledge of how “ to get the speed out of a horse 
if it is in him,” and who, of course, have an eye to 
business, and would like the animal in question at 
their stables for six months to train. A good train¬ 
er’s services are exceedingly well paid, and while 
I would not say that they are not a reputable and 
useful class of men, yet no one will dispute the fact 
that immense sums of money are thrown away, 
through them, upon horses of only average merit. 
Wlicrc do tUc Fast Trotters Come Promt 
Are they bred, or do they come by chance ? So far 
as I know they are very seldom bred with any defi¬ 
nite view to especial speed. No doubt our breed¬ 
ers are improving, and we are doing something in a 
loose way towards establishing a breed of fast 
trotters, but it is far from established. We have 
bred for trotters a good many years now, and yet 
how far are we from having a breed like 
Tile Orloflfs of Russiu. 
A recent traveler describes them as driveu in 
shafts, often between two running mates, at the top 
of their speed, for miles, and rarely or never break¬ 
ing their square quick-trot. Thoroughbred horses, 
English hunters or Arabians, are used for their 
mates, and we can judge very well that there must 
be a speed obtained which would be judged respec¬ 
table even on our fashionable trotting courses. 
This breed is the result of the discreet breeding of 
a single man, Count Orloff. It has the reputation 
of being composed of a large supply of the best 
Oriental (chiefly Arabian) blood, mingled with that 
of some English, and more of the best trotting 
stock of Europe, (Russia, Germany, and Denmark). 
It seems probable that we shall not see American 
trotters established as a uniform breed, until some 
one, or some company of breeders, systematically 
diffuse (not cross) thoroughbred blood of some 
sort, either English or Arabian, through that of a 
well selected group of mares of our most famous 
trotting families. It is a work of years, and fixed 
results would hardly be expected before the third 
or fourth generation. 
I have been led without thinking into this discur- 
sion of the subject of breeding trotters, when I in¬ 
tended merely to contrast the breeding of draft- 
horses with that of trotters, and to impress the fact 
that the trotting horse is generally a heavy bill of 
expense to his breeder, and a disappointment when 
sold, while first-class draft and express horses, and 
stylish carriage horses may be bred with a certainty 
of reward, which is always the highest satisfaction 
to the breeder. 
OiloiF tarriage Horses. 
I may here mention an interesting fact which 
came recently under my observation while abroad,, 
and that is, that the Russians are using the estab¬ 
lished breed of Count Orloff to develop sub-races 
or branches of the breed. Among these is the Or¬ 
loff carriage horse. These which I saw were superb 
151-hand stallions, coal black, light limbed, up- 
headed, level, and powerfully muscled, with high, 
stylish action, and reputed to be very honest trot¬ 
ters. What a boon it would be to this country to 
have such a breed. 
The Apple Crop. 
Throughout a large portion of the Eastern States 
the apple is regarded as one of the most uncertain 
crops. Some years we have next to none, others 
give us an abundance. Now and then comes a year 
of full bloom, and when fairly set, a cold rain 
checks the development and a “thinning” of the 
fruit takes place which leaves very few to take the 
brunt of insect attacks, and for ripening. This is 
a casualty which may be guarded against in two or 
three ways, and thus we may essentially improve 
our prospects for fruit. Squire A., whose farm is 
much like mine, gravelly, light, with a western 
slope, and well watered, is famous for his apples, 
we can get them there when others have none. He 
uses lime—gas lime—spread in winter and applied 
irregularly, perhaps once in three or four years. 
Col. M. may be called a green farmer, he has a 
small orchard of whiter apples, chiefly Rhode Island 
Greenings and Newtown Pippins. The land was 
used for a strawberry “patch” before he bought 
it, and though the trees shaded the ground a good, 
deal, still the strawberries, ripening as they did in 
the shade, were a little late, beautifully scarlet, and 
firm, so sold well, and on the whole, though the 
beds were really run out, paid pretty well. He, 
almost sacriligiously, plowed up the old gravelly 
and sandy hill-side, and raised a crop of corn, ma¬ 
nuring the ground well. The com was followed 
with potatoes, and each year he had a full crop of 
apples, an unusual thing for Greening or Newtown 
Pippin trees. He found that apples paid better 
than strawberries, at any rate, and very nearly as 
well as corn or potatoes. The third year came. I 
had no idea he would get a crop the third year run¬ 
ning, but he was enthusiastic, and asked advice of 
his neighbors. The trees had grown pretty wide, 
made a good many suckers, and the lower limbs 
were in the way of cultivation. We cannot let an 
