AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
133 
vinery for these thirty years past, in which I 
have observed many good crops, but never until 
this season have the grapes been really black, 
and such as the Hamburgh will always be if the 
conditions necessary are observed. To have the 
Hamburgh Grape black and well bloomed there 
must be a circulation and change of air in the 
house to a greater extent than is generally al¬ 
lowed—not by fits and starts admitting cold 
draughts here and there to lower the tempera¬ 
ture, so that the thermometer may indicate a 
certain degree of heat, as is too frequently the 
case; but a steady, equable, and imperceptible 
circulation throughout the house, by whatever 
means obtained. Certain it is that red grapes 
may be approved of by many, and considered 
equal to black ; but the development of black 
coloring matter and a fino bloom are attributes 
of the Hamburgh Grape which must always ho 
present as evidences of high cultivation when 
sent to an exhibition.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
For tho American Agriculturist. 
DIFFERENT NAMES IN DIFFERENT LOCALI¬ 
TIES FOR THE SAME THINGS. 
It is well known that many people who till 
the soil in the capacity of farmers, repudiate 
newspaper and book farming, as they call pay¬ 
ing for and reading any kind of agricultural 
works. One reason why such is the fact is, that 
different names are used in different localities, to 
express the same ideas, thus producing doubt 
and confusion in the reader. I will name a few 
to show how easily persons in the different lo¬ 
calities of the United States may be led into error 
in their conclusions, when such words as swamp, 
bottom, meadow, and bog are used. 
In most parts, and especially the north eastern 
parts of New-England, the word swamp is un¬ 
derstood to mean a tract of land covered with 
deep, miry mud, so wet that but little except 
water-bushes can grow, and it is dangerous for 
pedestrians to venture on it, and cattle often get 
^ such ground is called swamp 
land there, but here in this section of New-Jersey, 
the swamp is understood to mean a tract of some 
ten square miles, partly in Chatham and partly 
in Morns Townships. It is more than half 
i c I?v^u.'po^o^wis 
covered originally with a thick and large growth 
of oak, maple, and beach, with some few other 
forest trees. The soil in some parts is quite 
sandy, in others it is of a clayey nature, very 
sticky when wet. It is nearly a level plain, and in 
wet times partially over-fiown ; but very fertile 
and well cultivated. Such is a Morris swamp; 
but in New-England it would be called intervale; 
while in some portions of the south and west, it 
would be called bottom ; and in another section 
it would be called a timbered prairie. 
In New-England a meadow means a portion 
of land too wet for general plowing, but produc¬ 
ing mostly what is there called meadow grass, 
(sedge.) But here and further west and south, 
meadow means any field that is mowed for its 
hay, no matter what the soil. A New-Jersey 
bog is a New-England swamp ; and a New-Jer¬ 
sey meadow may be such in New-England, or it 
may be a portion of their rocky mowing-field, 
producing English grass; and a New-England 
grass intervale would in some parts of the 
Southern States be called bottom meadows. 
There are many other things with different 
names, but these are so prominent, and one 
speaking to a person of the other section with¬ 
out explanation, would be completely misunder¬ 
stood and often called hard names as well as 
green. I think much confusion or misunder¬ 
standing would be avoided if persons in speaking 
of their land would omit any such names, and 
simply describe the soil and the original growth 
too; this would help convey some idea of the 
nature of the soil. I see that the disposition 
seems to be this way, and when the difference 
is completely understood, I think that we shall 
see book and newspaper farmers twice as plenty. 
J. W. D. 
Morristown , N~. J!, Oct., 1853. 
-»-e •- 
A man behind the times should be fed on 
ketch-up. 
From the Farmer’s Magazine 
TO ENCOURAGE IMPROVEMENT IN BREEDING 
HORSES. 
When I visited the Exhibition of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, held at Gloucester, I was 
much surprised and disappointed there were so 
few horses to compete for the prizes offered to the 
very important and valuable class distinguished 
as “roadster stallions;” and those few which 
were shown possessing very moderate preten¬ 
sions. There was but one thorough-bred horse 
in the yard, although there are many within a 
moderate distance of Gloucester, and some of 
which are quite worthy of approbation. This 
induced me to inquire into the cause ; when I 
found it was a prevailing feature at agricultural 
meetings, &c., that owners of stallions of that 
kind were not generally disposed to exhibit them, 
it wao well known to all persons conversant with 
breeding horses, that many thorough-bred ones, 
in high repute as sires of racing stock, are not 
the most eligible if their progeny be intended 
for other purposes. Numerous examples of this 
kind may be brought forward. Modern instances 
might convey invidious distinctions; but breed¬ 
ers who have had experience of the stock derived 
from Fyldener, Master Henry, and Spectre, will 
acknowledge that neither of them was the sire 
of any thing with racing pretensions, although 
first-rate mares afforded them opportunities for 
distinction, and they were superior runners 
themselves. Nevertheless they were the pro¬ 
genitors of many valuable hunters and riding 
horses. To account for the reason why so few 
of this very useful and important class" of stal¬ 
lions are brought to the agricultural exhibitions, 
it may be observed that defective legs might be 
overlooked in candidates for racing fame, if the 
animal possessed the speed and properties of a 
Bay Middleton ; while such legs would not pass 
muster in a hunter or hack. A head badly set 
on to a light weak neck, might not be a great 
impediment in a race-horse; but in one devoted 
to the purpose of carrying a lady, or one of the 
other sex, desirous to “ witch the world with 
noble horsemanship” in Rotten-row, such un- 
symmetrical proportions would be fatal. 
An owner of a country stallion in good favor 
is_ reluctant to become an exhibitor, because if 
estimation of the public—while gaining one does 
not raise him in an equal ratio. Every person 
having a mare reflects upon the misfortune of 
an unsuccessful competitor; but of horses be 
longing to those who do not make the attempt, 
no comments are made. There are many trifling- 
imperfections or blemishes, which in reality, if 
not hereditary, are not the slightest impediments 
to a horse becoming the sire of very valuable 
and superior stock, but which might be the 
cause of a horse’s rejection for a prize. Owners 
of stallions are often reluctant to submit their 
horses to the opinion of those who are selected 
as judges; and it is a difficulty which must for¬ 
ever exist on subjects to be decided by opinion. 
Some would reject horses with bad hocks, whe¬ 
ther for agricultural or other purposes—the 
judges at Gloucester did not in one of their de¬ 
cisions regard them in the position of insur¬ 
mountable objections. 
Taking all these circumstances into consider¬ 
ation, I am strongly impressed with the advan¬ 
tages which would follow the plan I proposed in 
your valuable columns of the 11th July last, 
namely, to offer premiums at local agricultural 
meetings for future years to the progeny of such 
stallions which may be examined, approved, and 
passed by the judges of those local societies. 
There are many reasons for advocating this plan, 
suggested by the late meeting at Gloucester, 
which did not occur to me in the first instance. 
The objections which the owners of stock horses 
entertain against sending them to compete for 
pi-izes would be withdrawn. They would na¬ 
turally embrace the opportunity of sending 
horses for inspection and approval, in order to 
have them enrolled upon the lists as worthy of 
being the progenitors of their species, although 
they might not be disposed to compete for prizes. 
The approvals would be more numerous than 
prizes; and the increase in the number of mares 
would be equivalent to prizes. Another point 
of considerable importance would be gained: it 
is well known among breeders that a horse’s 
qualification as a sire cannot be determined till 
the stock come into use. The prevailing colors 
may be bad, or they may be bad goers, or weakly 
in their constitution—failings which the sire 
does not proclaim, but which are inherited from 
his ancestors. These are all points of the great¬ 
est importance to those who breed for profit. 
Few breeders devote sufficient attention to mi¬ 
nute details, which the practice of breeding with 
success demands. If properly studied, and the 
results of experience are strictly carried out, it 
is not the speculative concern by which it is 
generally characterized. Most of the events 
commonly accredited to luck have their origin 
in causes which observation and attention will in 
many instances detect and regulate. 
Tt has lately been argued that the present 
breed of thorough-bred horses is predisposed 
to lameness, and fancied that, with a view to 
breeding for racing purposes only, they are in¬ 
jured by injudicious strains; an argument which 
the Stud-book does not corroborate. Whoever 
will take the trouble to examine those pages, 
will find the practice by no means so prevalent 
as it was a century ago; and, to substantiate 
the assertion, that the national breed of horses 
has deteriorated, it must be done by comparison 
with those of former times. No one can depre¬ 
cate the pernicious custom of incestuous breed¬ 
ing in horse or hound more strongly than myself, 
but I cannot find that it is either approved or 
practised by the majority of the most experienced 
and influential breeders of the day. Cecil. 
COTTON IN INDIA. 
A small volume of Indian statistics has been 
-ecently printed by order of the House of Com¬ 
mons. It contains short summaries of the most 
important information which could be collected 
in the statistical office of the East India House, 
on the principal heads of Indian affairs, and was 
originally prepared by order of the Court of Di¬ 
rectors. There are two principal descriptions 
of cotton plants now cultivated in India—the 
Indigenous and the American. The indigenous 
plant of India is an annual, and succeeds, best 
the country. The American plant, though a 
perennial, is practically an annual in India, and 
though gi’own successfully in some parts on the 
black soil, yet thrives better on the light-red 
lands. Each kind is recommended by peculiar 
advantages; the Indian is superior in durability 
and fineness, the American in productiveness 
and length of staple. Both kinds are cultivated 
to a considerable extent, but the indigenous 
plant will probably always continue to be the 
favorite with native cultivators. It may now be 
considered as demonstrated beyond Jill question, 
that India can furnish cotton for the British 
market, and that the natives cultivate the cotton 
plant, in a manner which, if it admits of improve¬ 
ment, is highly efficient. In 1846, the Court of 
Directors directed consignments of 0,000 bales 
to be made annually for three years half to be 
of New Orleans, and half of indigenous cotton. 
Very favorable opinions were pronounced on 
what was sent, by spinners and other competent 
judges, and all doubt as to the capability of In- 
dia°to produce cotton suitable for the purposes 
of our manufactures may be said to have been 
thenceforth set at rest. The great inferiority of 
the Indian cotton as compared with the American 
is the result of what befalls it subsequent to its 
production in the fields, that is, in tne way it is 
gathered and stored, in tlie mode by which it is 
separated from tlie seed, and in its transmission 
to market. The cleaning and packing of cotton, 
in spite of tlie continued attempts of the Govern¬ 
ment to introduce improved saw-gins, is still 
very far from perfect. But the impossibility ot 
getting cotton to the coast from the inland dis¬ 
tricts forms the real reason why so scanty a 
proportion of the cotton we consume m our 
manufactures is derived from India, i ne amount 
which the maritime districts produce could noi, 
probably, be very materially increased. About 
8,000 square miles are already, it is calculated, 
devoted to the cultivation of exported cotton, 
