American agriculturist. 
1864] 
small farmer or of any one who has not a large 
stud of breeding horses is first exercised in the 
selection of mares from which to breed. In 
very large establishments the selections of stal¬ 
lions, suitable to the purposes for which the 
horses are bred, is of the first importance. Con¬ 
stitutional unsoundness is apt to be hereditary. 
Broken winded mares seldom breed, and when 
they do, the foals show a predisposition to the 
same difficulty. Of course no animal suffering 
from chronic disease should be allowed to breed. 
There are many defects which are the results 
of accidents, and these do not interfere neces¬ 
sarily with a mare briiri'g a good breeder. 
Spavin, ring-bone and all enlargements and dis¬ 
eases of the bones are considered constitutional. 
Curb, bad feet, and “ break downs,” though less 
likely to recur in the progeny, would lead a 
careful breeder to reject a mare at once. Roar¬ 
ing is also liable to be reproduced; and defect¬ 
ive sight and hearing unless from obviously 
accidental causes, ought to cautie mares or stal¬ 
lions to be rejected aS breeding ariimals. 
The mare therefore should be sound, derip in 
girth, “roomy,” without being “pot-bellied” 
with a wide deep pelvis, the back straight and 
strong, the ribs set well out, giving the barrel 
strength and rotundity, and the tail ought not 
to be set too high, which though handsome is 
apt to be associated with a contracted pelvis. 
Further than this, the more style and beauty 
she has, the better. “ Spirit and quality from 
the sire; size, beauty and constitution from the 
dam," is the horse breeder’s motto, and it rests 
upon established physiological principles. 
The Stallion ought to be of less size than the 
mare, of good temper, courageous, willing, do¬ 
cile, sound, well knit as to muscles and sinews, of 1 
quick and sound perceptive faculties, (hearing, 
sight and smell particularly). He should have 
a bony head, clear eyes, and broad open nos¬ 
trils, a straight short back and straight rump, 
high withers with a broad chest and loins. The 
shoulders should be sloping, the barrel round 
and well ribbed back. The legs muscular to 
the hocks and knees, but bony, flat, hard and 
smooth below. When possible we advise breed¬ 
ing from a thoroughbred stallion, and otherwise 
from those showing the most ‘blood.’ As a gen¬ 
eral rule it will be found true that the sire 
especially influences the nervous energy, per¬ 
ceptive faculties, endurance, spirit, muscular 
and motive power, and the coat of the progeny 
—in short those parts most intimately connected 
with the brain, spinal-marrow and nerves of 
sensation and motion ;—while the influence of 
the dam upon the constitution, vital force, the 
digestive functions, and all those parts govern¬ 
ed chiefly by the involuntary nerves, or located 
near them, is so frequently observed that she 
should be selected with this distinctly in view. 
A Word for the Blue Jay. 
The Blue Jay is usually considered a mis¬ 
chievous bird, but Mr. Geo. B. Cone, Washing¬ 
ton Co., N. Y., thinks it more than pays for its 
board. He has noticed these birds for nine 
years, and finds that although they steal a little 
corn through the opening of the crib, they busy 
themselves in picking off the eggs of insects 
which are glued to the twigs of fruit trees. 
They stay around the orchard all winter, and he 
is quite willing to give the half bushel or so of 
corn they eat, in return for services they render 
in removing the clusters of eggs. Mr. C. says 
that during the nine years that he has allowed 
the Jays to be unmolested, there has been 
scarcely a caterpillar’s nest seen in his orchard, 
while the trees of his neighbors have been in¬ 
fested and nearly ruined. He con|iders the 
Jay one of the farmers’ best friends. Mr. Cone 
says thaftlie crow is a great enemy to the jay- 
and is always on the lookout for a chance to 
destroy its eggs and young. 
■ - — . — . ■ < — - >-»- -- 
Care of Sheep in June. 
After settled warm weather when the water 
is warm and cold storms of wind and rain are 
no longer to be feared, but not before, the care¬ 
ful flock master makes preparations for washing 
and shearing his flock. The views of the Agri¬ 
culturist in regard to the evils of washing sheep 
were expressed in our last issue. Sheep well 
cared for and coming through the winter in 
good heart, will bear shearing ; quite early, and 
a determined stand taken by shCep owners riot 
to submit to a deduction of one-third on good 
clean unwashed wools, will bring manufacturers, 
and speculators too, to fair terrns. There is a 
great deal in putting up wool well to attract the 
eye of the buyer. He expects the farmer to 
roll his fleeces so that only the best part will be 
serin, and trusts his own acuteness of sight, 
sriiell and handling to discover fraud, dirty 
tags, dung, etc.; and buyers will generally do it 
too, and then farewell any hope for a high 
price for that lot of wool. 
Whoever shriars many fleeces, should have a 
flrieCe press. This consists of a strong box 
about 4 feet long and 12 inches wide, inside 
measure. The width maybe decreased.some¬ 
times to advantage if the fleeces run sinall, by 
putting in a false side of inch board on one side 
or both. One end of the box is movable, the 
other fixed, and both consist of three perpen¬ 
dicular pieces, strongly braced on the outside, 
and set a quarter of an inch apart. The mova¬ 
ble end is upon a foot piece to which the braces 
are attached, and which slides under cleats upon 
each side. This end is moved up toward the 
other by means of a strap which lies upon the 
bottom of the box, passing under the stationary 
end, and round a strong axle or drum, which is 
turned by a crank. It is drawn back by anoth¬ 
er strap, the crank being turned the other way. 
The fleeces are folded in the usual way—laid 
outside up, the sides folded in, edges to meet in 
the middle; the ends folded in to meet in the 
middle; then the tips and scraps of wool are 
laid in and the fleece is folded again length¬ 
wise. Strings are placed in the press, lying in 
the slots in the ends. The fleece is then laid 
carefully in and' pressed into a square mass and 
tied. The use of cotton twine in tieing, hurts 
the sale, for shreds of cotton mingled with the 
wool may damage the color of some fabrics. 
Some lambs ought to run with the flock for 
two or three weeks at least after shearing. The 
ticks will all or almost all leave the old sheep 
and go upon the lambs. Then the lambs should 
be dipped in a strong decoction of tobacco, 
• soaking every part of the fleece. Randall re¬ 
commends the English practice of using arsenic 
water. “8 lbs. of White Arsenic pulverized 
are dissolved in 6 gallons of boiling water, and 
40 gallons of cold water are added.” The 
fleeces of the lambs are wrung out as dry as 
possible after dipping, while they lie upon a 
dripping board, which is made of slats near to¬ 
gether and supported above a tight inclined ta¬ 
ble which allows the liquid to flow back into 
the dipping box. A flock may thus with com¬ 
parative ease be cleared of ticks. Precisely 
the same operation is a cure for scab, but more 
thorough rubbing in of the liquid into the af¬ 
fected parts is desirable. 
175 
Pigs—What to Do with Them. 
Over a large portion of the West, the pigs* 
those that are left of them, have had a very hard 
time. The country was bare of corn, pigs starv¬ 
ed to death or were killed to prevent starvation 
by thousands, and grass was very late in starting. 
Where there is now good grazing for the herds 
of swine they will do very well, and on the 
open prairie great numbers of them may be 
herded by one or two men with dogs to assist 
them. There are articles of food long over¬ 
looked at the West which in many localities 
may be very profitably used. Beef scraps, 
which are compressed in such hard cakes that 
there is no decomposition, if broken up fine or 
soaked and boiled, form a very nutritious article 
of food. The same is true of almost all animal 
waste which does not readily putrify. Hogs do 
very well turned upon grain fields after they 
have begun to grow well in the spring. A rye 
field will support 6 to 12 head per acre accord¬ 
ing to size, from the first of May to the middle 
of August, with very little of any thing else. 
When it is possible to feed pigs grain in small 
quantities daily during the-spring and summer 
so as to keep them growing and in prime older, 
it is surprising to see how they will outstrip 
others not so fed when corn glazes, so that gen¬ 
eral feeding begins. 
Pigs confined upon the manure and compost 
heaps, or in small yards for the purpose of mak¬ 
ing manure, of course ought not to be “tamed” 
or “ rung.” The amount of weeds, sods, muck 
and litter of all kinds that they will convert in¬ 
to manure of first rate quality, may be stated 
within bounds at 5 cords per shoat ®f not less 
than 4 months old in March, provided it be 
under cover, and the raw material be judicious¬ 
ly supplied during the season. 
White Bullock “ Pride of Livingston.” 
LETTER FROM HIS FEEDER—W. G. MARKHAM. 
“ Pride of Livingston ” was sired by bull 
Goldfinder, out of a three quarters Durham cow, 
owned at the time by Wm. McKensie of Liv¬ 
ingston Co. Goldfinder was a white bull brought 
by J. W. Taylor from Kentucky, I think from 
the herd of Mr. Duncan. The steer was calved 
in May 1857, purchased by M. Downing of Liv¬ 
ingston Co., in 1858, who kept him until the 
fall of 1860, when I bought him at 5 cts. peril)., 
weight 2100 lbs. He had never been fed grain 
of any account until I got him, after which he 
ate an average of 15 qts. meal and one bushel 
roots daily during the winter. In the summer 
while on grass he ate but 8 qts. meal and no 
roots. The meal fed was of corn, barley and 
oats in rotation. 
He weighed in April 1861, 2,450 lbs.; April 
1862, 3000 lbs.; April 1863, 3,380 lbs.; March 
21st, 1864, 3,602 lbs., which I am lead to believe 
is the heaviest on record. He was always a 
hearty feeder, and very active. Fearing there 
might be some dispute about his weight, I had 
several of the most reliable men in town pres¬ 
ent, who saw him weighed accurately. Messrs. 
Beckwith (supervisor of Avon, and on the Com¬ 
mittee to purchase the steers) and Shepard and 
myself made affidavit of his weight. 
I exhibited him at the 1ST. Y. State fair at Ro¬ 
chester in 1862, when he was awarded the 1st 
prize as “ Best fat ox.” He was familiarly 
known by a very large circle of acquaintances 
as the “ Genesee Valley Baby." The Livingston 
Co. people dub him the “ Pride of Livingston.” 
