AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
355 
process is retarded by a cause which, so far 
from applying to the case of the horse, there 
operates in the contrary direction. There can 
be no doubt, as regards sheep for instance, that, 
compared with the Merinos and the black-faced 
Scotch, the Leicesters and the improved South- 
downs are but breeds of yesterday. And ac¬ 
cordingly there is a very strong impression that, 
however well the first cross between a Scotch' 
ewe and a Leicester ram may succeed, to cross 
the produce again with the Leicester would not 
answer. How this may be, my experience is 
not sufficiently extensive to enable me to decide. 
If the idea is well founded, it is, at any rate, in 
accordance with the theory of M. Malingie 
Nouel, who conceives the influence of either race 
to be in proportion to its antiquity and purity. 
With regard to short-horns, as far as the op¬ 
portunity which surrounds their origin permits 
us to judge, I am inclined to think that they 
have existed as a breed for a considerably lon¬ 
ger time than our improved breeds of sheep. 
Further back than about 100 years, authentic 
details of the ancestors of the short-horns are 
few and scanty. But, according to the Rev. H. 
Berry, a race of cattle existed at that time, on 
the borders of the Tees, similar in all essential 
points to those of which the pedigrees have 
since been recorded in the “ Herd Book.” As 
some of the earliest animals of which we possess 
authentic record have probably been among the 
best short-horns that ever existed, it is by no 
means likely that they should suddenly have 
sprung to the perfection which, in judicious 
hands, they have ever since maintained—in a 
few years, or even generations. This unifor¬ 
mity of excellence is scarcely applicable on any 
other supposition than that of very considerable 
antiquity belonging to the breed. We know, 
too, that when an ordinary cow is put to a good 
thorough-bred bull, the offspring usually re¬ 
sembles the sire more than the dam. We also 
find that on the cross being pursued for succes¬ 
sive generations, the offspring, so far from show¬ 
ing tokens of degeneracy, is in time scarcely, if 
at all, to be distinguished from those of the 
purest blood. But although these facts indicate 
a more than respectable degree of antiquity for 
the short-horns, they, in common with all other 
domestic races, must by a long interval yield 
the palm of antiquity to the thorough-bred 
horse. Compared to him, they are indeed of 
yesterday. The oldest of them are but moderns 
in the presence of his Arab sires, contempora¬ 
ries of the Prophets and the Patriarchs! No 
one who reads Job’s sublime description of the 
war-horse can mistake the race to which it ap¬ 
plies, or deny that it is as suitable to the thor 
ougli-brcd charger, which bears our heroes to 
victory, as it was a living patriot of his Arab an¬ 
cestor 3000 years ago. Allusion has been made 
in some quarters to a supposed degeneracy in 
the thorough-bred horse. My firm belief is the 
reverse. Our modern horse is a great improve 
ment on the small, low-shouldered, though stout 
Arabs from which he is descended. I am con¬ 
fident that never were there better thorough¬ 
bred horses in existence than those which have 
adorned the turf for the last twenty years, and 
which still continue to compete for our great 
prizes. He who thinks otherwise had best be 
silent, since to express his opinion would only 
be to expose his ignorance. 
To know the thorough-bred horse well and 
thoroughly is not only invaluable to the breeder, 
but indispensable to him, if he wishes his suc¬ 
cess to rise above mediocrity. This is the les¬ 
son, and a very long one it is in practice, which 
the farmers of the midland counties have to 
learn. At the outset they must dismiss the 
prejudices which represent him as a slight, 
weedy animal; unless when away from the 
turf, except as a cover hack or a lady’s pad. It 
is sheer delusion to suppose that* blood is neces¬ 
sarily opposed to power. Doubtless there are 
weeds among thorough-bred horses—bad sam¬ 
ples of a noble race. But are there not abun 
dance of feeble animals of any other breed, from 
the hunter down to the cart-horse ? He who 
wishes to form a sound opinion as to the value 
of any breed must look at the characteristics of 
the best individuals before he is competent to 
decide upon its merits. It is a fact well worthy 
the attention of breeders, that a considerable 
proportion of the most successful racers have 
been horses of great power. I should weary 
your readers were I to enumerate them all; but, 
in order to show that the highest blood and the 
greatest swiftness arc not incompatible with a 
degree of strength and substance which would 
fit its possessor for any purpose (except the 
drayjto which the horse is ever.put, I will men¬ 
tion four examples in support of my argument— 
viz., Melbourne, Lanercost, Sir Tatton Sykes, 
and Van Tromp. The first is the sire of an 
Oaks winner, two Derby winners, and two St. 
Leger winners. Lanercost is the sire of a Leger 
winner, and an Oaks winner. Van Tromp, his 
son, won the Campagne Stakes, the St. Leger, 
and the Emperor’s Vase. Sir Tatton Sykes won 
the St. Leger. Here, then, are four horses of 
first-rate reputation, the two first as sires of 
winners, and the two last as winners themselves; 
any one of which would, as a hunter, have been 
strong enough to carry fifteen stone across the 
country. To those who know what hunting is, 
such a character offers more explicit evidence as 
to power than any other description. Animals 
like these, though too valuable to be put—save 
in exceptional cases—to any but thorough-bred 
mares, would out of working mares produce the 
best of cart-horses. In fact, I know two horses 
belonging to a neighbor of mine—out of an ex¬ 
cellent working mare, and got by Melbourne— 
which it would be difficult to surpass in every 
point which a working horse ought to possess. 
One of the most powerful horses in a team that 
I ever had was by a son of Langar. It may be 
said that such instances do not often occur. In 
one sense they certainly do not; for, unfortu¬ 
nately, good working mares are not often put to 
first-rate thorough-bred horses. But, if they 
were, the produce would probably exhibit as 
great a uniformity of excellence as the breeder 
often attains. My object in the foregoing remarks 
has been to show the uninitiated in such mat¬ 
ters what the thorough-bred horse in perfection 
really is. Let every one who has the opportu 
nity of seeing the winner of any of our great 
races take advantage of it, if he wishes to lool 
on a combination of symmetry, power, and 
beauty, of which the animal kingdom affords no 
other example. It is possible, indeed, that the 
beginner, who looks for the first time at such a 
horse, may be disappointed, and think him un¬ 
worthy of his fame; let him be assured that the 
deficiency is not with the horse, but in his own 
unprasticed perception. He has his lesson be¬ 
fore him—let him study it diligently; and if he 
has an eye to appreciate, and a memory to re 
tain forms, he will in future reap the benefit. 
I have thus, I trust, shown that the thorough 
bred horse possesses every requisite for improv¬ 
ing the existing breed of working horses. In 
many points he is so palpably their superior, 
that to state them is proof sufficient. In speed, 
in courage, in endurance, they stand at the two 
extremes [of the equine scale. The muscle of 
the thorough-bred horse, the development of his 
chest, the width and strength of his loins, and 
the general conformation of his frame, would be 
notable improvements upon the deficiencies of 
the cart-horse in these points. And even in 
respect of size (as I have already shown) of 
bone, weight, and substance—those points where 
the racer is popularly held to be deficient—a 
judiciously selected thorough-bred horse would 
not cause any deterioration. 
As a general practice, however, I am opposed 
to the crossing of races of widely different char¬ 
acter. The common run of cart mares is not 
sufficiently good to render it safe to put them to 
a thorough-bred horse; indeed, I seldom see a 
working mare in the midland counties that I 
should like to breed from at all. The object to 
be aimed at is gradually to infuse a certain 
amount of blood, both into mares and stallions, 
and thus to obtain an improved race, character 
ized by greater quickness, activity, courage, 
and in shape by more compactness; or, in other 
words, by equal strength compressed into a 
smaller compass. I can recommend no better 
plan to the farmer than to purchase mares from 
Yorkshire, whenever his team needs recruiting. 
By so doing, and by never replacing the heavy 
blacks of our own neighborhood, the latter 
would in time pass away, as has already been 
the case with the long-horned cows, which in 
my earlier days used to abound in our dairies. 
The farmer would not find the noble quick¬ 
stepping bay and brown mares of Yorkshire 
more expensive to buy than their own long¬ 
haired slugs; and in them he would have ani¬ 
mals worth breeding from. Their produce 
would remunerate him, whether it were by a 
horse of a similar character to their own, by a 
roadster, or by a thorough-bred horse. 
In Mr. Stephens’s “Book of the Farm,” there 
is a representation of a cart-horse (vol. ii., p. 
712) of which that experienced writer says— 
“ The form is, in his estimation, the very per¬ 
fection of what a farm horse should be.” In 
this opinion I quite coincide with him; and 
therefore recommend the print, and its accom¬ 
panying description, to the careful study of 
every farmer who is interested in this subject. 
The breeding of this horse is said to have been 
“ Clydesdale, with a dash of coaching blood in 
him.” However successful such a cross may 
have proved in this instance, I am not in gen¬ 
eral partial to the coaching blood for farm 
horses, especially for those which have to work 
on strong land. Coach horses being required 
as much for show as for hard work, are apt to 
present an unnecessary length of back—a point 
much detracting from that compactness and 
strength so essential in the farm horse. Mr. 
Youatt was quite right when he said there was 
a great deal of deception about even the im¬ 
proved coach-horses, “and that a pair of poor 
post-horses would, at the end of the second day, 
beat them hollow.” The secret of the endu¬ 
rance of the posters is in their blood; they 
would probably be under-sized or blemished 
hunters, or unsuccessful or aged racers. It 
cannot be too strongly impressed upon all who 
desire to possess first-rate horses, that show, s« 
far from being essential to excellence, is not 
seldom antagonistic to it. The farmer, more 
than all men, ought to hold this in remembrance. 
The animal which by the inexperienced is 
tei-med " a fine horse,” is frequently fit for no 
earthly purpose. Let the farmer look for com¬ 
pactness above all things, for strength evenly 
distributed, well-developed muscles, and wide¬ 
spread loins. These points, combined with a 
quicker temperament, will impart to the work¬ 
ing horse that which he so much requires—a 
greater amount of motive power, and more 
facility in using it. Large limbs, though good 
in themselves, are useless without a frame and 
muscular development in proportion. In these 
points is the nearly universal failing of our 
working horses. In proportion as they are 
corrected will our teams be increased in effi¬ 
ciency, while they will at the same time admit of 
being reduced in number.— Wilj.oughby Wood, 
in Marie, Lane Express. 
ON THE FEEDING PROPERTIES OF TURNIPS, 
RAISED WITH FARM-YARD MANURE, AND WITH OUANO. 
It is almost impossible to over-estimate the 
benefits derived by agriculture from the intro¬ 
duction and use of guano as a fertilizer. By its 
aid much larger crops of both grain and roots 
have been produced, while the extent of land 
under the latter has been greatly increased. It 
has become a common remark amongst practical 
men, that average crops of any kind, but par¬ 
ticularly turnips, cannot now be grown without 
its assistance. Doubts, however, have been 
sometimes expressed as to the feeding proper¬ 
ties of turnips raised with it alone being equal 
to those grown simply with farm-yard manure. 
To test the accuracy of this opinion, the follow¬ 
ing experiment was instituted of feeding three 
separate lots of cattle, the first on turnips grown 
