258 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
jumped too far at this bound, and if we must 
give up Peruvian guano because it contains 
too little phosphate of lime, we must take up 
with ground bones, because they afford it a 
great deal cheaper than it is to be had in the 
Mexican. 
Let us again consult our logical mentor. 
He says: 
“Liebig and others have supposed, from 
synthesis only, that plants, by decomposing 
the ammonia always floating in the atmos¬ 
phere and in the rain water, could, and do 
get all the nitrogen they require from that 
inexhaustable source : no one doubts they 
get all their carbon from the carbonic acid of 
the atmosphere, and, synthetically, some 
suppose that they get the nitrogen in the 
same way. Now plants living in an atmos¬ 
phere four-fifths of whose bulk is pure nitro¬ 
gen, may sympathetically be supposed to 
take their nitrogen from such a convenient, 
wholesome source, without putting them¬ 
selves to the trouble of decomposing the 
noxious, poisonous ammonia, which in small 
portions pervades all porous matter, as well 
as the pores of plants and the atmosphere 
By much practice and careful synthesis, we 
might suggest another very convenient and 
inexhaustable source of nitrogen, but haying 
no desire to announce a new era in agricul¬ 
tural chemistry, we prefer to take the highest 
known authorities on that subject; they all 
agree that the atmosphere, either by its prin¬ 
cipal constituent, or by the ammonia floating 
in’it, can and does always furnish an abund¬ 
ant supply of nitrogen to all classes of vege¬ 
tation. If that theory is true, then surely 
the nitrogen and the ammonia of Peruvian 
guano are worthless—worth less than noth¬ 
ing for any agricultural purpose, unless it 
co'uld be applied to poison and destroy the 
Canada thistle, the army and grubworm, 
that are almost as obnoxious as ammonia 
itself.” 
The non sequitur deductions of this tyro, 
strongly remind one of Shakspeare s youth¬ 
ful pasquinade, which secured for him a 
temporary exile, through the influence of the 
doughty Knight Sir Thomas Lucy, whom he 
so lavishly lampooned. 
“J/lowsie is Lucy, as some volke raiscalle it, 
Then Lucy is lovvsie whatever befall it.” 
On the same principle, if we will allow the 
writer all his assumed facts to be facts, and 
all his conclusions to be legitimate, then we 
may reasonably allow the result at which he 
arrives in the close of his article, viz., “ that 
Peruvian guano can not be worth more than 
$14 per ton, while the Mexican can be had 
in all the Atlantic cities at $40.” Yet intelli¬ 
gent and observing men who have used and 
carefully noted the effects of both for years, 
will continue to buy Peruvian at $50, while 
Mexican is a drug at $20. 
We might here drop this subject, and, so 
far as the article referred to is concerned, 
we deem it finished; but as our object is 
truth and the inculcation of important and 
reliable principle's, we shall pursue the sub¬ 
ject somewhat further in rebutting or quali¬ 
fying some of the dicta of Liebig, which have 
been here profusely quoted, and we must be¬ 
lieve in this instance at least, with the express 
design of perpetuating error. 
Sixty Years Ago. —On Christmas Day, 
1794, the ship Betsey, 190 tons, was launched 
in Salem, thermometer 80 degrees at noon. 
The grease ran down on the ways, and men 
and boys indulged in swimming, as in sum¬ 
mer. [Boston Atlas. 
THE “PATTON” STOCK 
There is a harmless, conceited little man 
down East—we really don't want to hurt 
him—a sort of Dugald Dalgetty, in a 
small way, of the agricultural press, who, 
when his pond has run out in one paper, 
goes over to another ; and of late has turned 
up in the Boston Cultivator. In his farm 
stock discussions he has always had a special 
sympathy and admiration for bastardy in 
cattle-breeding. He believes the best Short 
Horns were made by Charles Colling s cross 
of a Galloway bull on a Teeswater cow— 
(we wonder he don’t recommend another 
Scotch cross to Mr. Thorne, and to Messrs. 
Morris and Becar, on their magnificent Duch¬ 
esses, for further improvement!) and that 
the best milkers in all creation were pro¬ 
duced from something or other of which no 
body can tell the parentage. He has had 
the reputation of the “Oakes” cow under 
his special protection for several years past, 
and now espouses the marvelous merits of 
the “ Pattons ”—fast becoming oblivious in 
Kentucky, the only State where they ever 
had any particular credit, and lost what lit¬ 
tle they had of that as soon as the Short 
Horns were discovered on this side the At¬ 
lantic. 
A rather playful account that we gave of 
a Patton cow at the late Springfield Cattle 
Show, in Ohio, has newly excited the ire of 
this editorial cousirt of the Bourbons—(if we 
may be allowed to give relationship of the 
very small to the large,) who never forgot 
an old thing, and never learned a new one— 
and he comes out the freshly burnished 
champion of the Pattons, on hearsay, of 
course, as is his wont—for he does not pre¬ 
tend to say that he ever saw a regular Pat¬ 
ton in his life, any more than he ever did one 
of the contemptible scraggy little Irish moun¬ 
tain “ Kerry’s,” on the value of which, to 
improve our American daries, he so flip¬ 
pantly held forth a while ago to the Boston 
public ! 
And what is the evidence produced by this 
redoubtable champion, to support the supe¬ 
rior qualities of the Patton’s? Why this : 
A grandson of Old Mr. Patton says, that his 
father and two others bought a “ dark red or 
brindie ” bull in Virginia, called “ Pluto,” of 
a Mr. Miller, “ who was an importer of cat¬ 
tle ” ; but he does not say whether Pluto was 
imported or not. “ He was bred upon cows 
got by the Patton bull ‘ Mars,’ ” and they 
produced stock that has rarely been excelled 
in all the essential qualities of the cow kind. 
Great milkers—the lest in Kentucky—they 
were, too ; “ little inferior in point of form 
to the most approved stock of the present 
day, and of the greatest size.” 
Doctor Martin, of Kentucky, is also in¬ 
voked as testimony, who said “ they were 
fine boned, came early to maturity, and fat¬ 
tened kindly, and were extraordinary milk¬ 
ers, but injured by the introduction of bad 
bulls.” Were these “ bad ” bulls Pattons ? 
This evidence of the 15 grandson ” is of a 
piece with the story which every body has 
to tell about a particularly good kind of ap¬ 
ple, pear, or peach that grew in their grand¬ 
father’s orchard ; which they are prone to 
describe with all the gusto of a hungry 
school-boy, but which, if laid before them 
now, would probably turn out a very differ¬ 
ent sort of thing; and, as to Dr. Martin’s 
testimony, it may have been according to . 
his youthful recollection. The best com¬ 
mentary on the Doctor’s opinion of the Pat¬ 
ton is, that he does not breed them. He 
breeds Short Horns. But neither the emi¬ 
nent qualities of the chieftain of the lower re¬ 
gions, nor the God of War, in the similitude 
of the aforesaid bulls—“ Pluto ” and “ Mars '* 
—have been able to save the virtues of the 
Pattons in the good opinion of the Kentucky 
cattle-breeders of the present day. 
For ourselves, we have a fashion of believ¬ 
ing the testimony of our own eyes, and our 
own ears, when objects and sounds are 
brought within sight and hearing ; and some¬ 
times make up an opinion through such evi¬ 
dences in preference to the hearsay of oth¬ 
ers—to whom our learned little friend most 
generally adverts. Now, at the late Spring- 
field Show, there were, in addition to the 
aforesaid Patton cow, of whose feats at the 
pail we discoursed in a late number of this 
paper, some six or eight Patton bullocks, 
exhibited as fat and as working cattle ; and 
having heard much of this stock in days 
gone by, as well as seen them elsewhere, 
we took pains to examine them in company 
with eight or ten eminent Kentucky and Ohio 
cattle-breeders and graziers, who have been 
familiar with them ever since they knew any 
thing about cattle, and years ago bred them 
and fed them for market. The opinion and 
sound judgment of those gentlemen, regard¬ 
ing cattle, will not be questioned in Ken¬ 
tucky, or elsewhere ; and without a dissent¬ 
ing voice, so far as we heard them—and 
their opinions w-ere given freely—they pro¬ 
nounced these cattle fair specimens of the 
Patton stock, as originally introduced and 
bred in Kentucky. They represented them 
as being large, coarse animals, great con¬ 
sumers, slow in getting to maturity, requir¬ 
ing six to nine years, (while a Short Horn is 
fully ripe at four,) with a large proportion 
of offal, like the cattle then before us. The 
cows were occasionally great milkers, (with 
high feed,) and their milk generally of infe¬ 
rior quality. Compared with Short Horns, 
or their crosses on the common cattle- they 
were every way inferior, as a profitable 
beast. Our own previous and present opin¬ 
ions of the Pattons were thus sustained, in 
every particular. 
All we have to say to the little writer in 
the Boston Cultivator is, not to take a word 
here, and a sentence there, out of our story, 
and twist, and pervert, and falsify it to his 
own liking, as he has done, and then make 
his own small comments upon it; but if he 
has any thing at all to do with it, put down 
what w r e do say, consecutively, and then 
pursue such course of remark as he chooses. 
We shan’t hold him to any particular account 
ability. 
To do Mr. Brock and his cow justice, we 
here give his own account. L. F. A, 
THE BANNER MILK COW. 
Willow Farm, west of New Petersburg, O., ) 
November 10, 1854. j 
Tnos. Brown, Esq., Editor of Ohio Farmer: 
At your request, and in the fulfilment of 
