1875 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
337 
The 10th Duchess of Geneva and Calf. 
About two years ago the famous sale of Short¬ 
horns at New York Mills, near Utica, N. Y., took 
place. The prices obtained for some of the stock 
at this sale have never been surpassed before or 
since. Yet it is probable, considering the high 
prices even now obtained for 
noted individuals of the Duchess 
family, the same animals that were 
then sold at such extreme figures, 
would again realize equally high 
prices if brought to sale once more. 
The cow which brought the second 
price, $35,000, at the sale in Sept. 
10th, 1873, was the 10th Duchess of 
Geneva. At the time of the ship¬ 
ment of this cow to Underley 
Park, England, the home of her 
purchaser, the Earl of Bective, 
various portraits of her, drawn in 
the present fashionable style of 
art, were published. Of course, no 
person could form any opinion of 
the true merits of the cow from 
those portraits. We are able to 
give in the accompanying engrav¬ 
ings, a copy of a photograph of 
this noted cow, with one of her 
last calves, the Duke of Underley. 
The photograph was originally pub¬ 
lished in the London Agricultural 
Gazette, together with copies of paintings, taken 
from life by Mr. A. M. Williams, a capable English 
artist. The photographs and copies are published 
by permission of Lord Bective, the owner of the 
cattle. They may, therefore, be accepted as being 
entirely satisfactory in all respects. There is here, 
as well as in England, a disinclination on the part 
of breeders to have photographs of their stock 
published. They claim that the figures of the ani¬ 
mals are distorted in the process of photographing.. 
To some extent this is true, but a good photograph 
shows the animal very much more life-like than 
the usual drawings put forth by the owners as por¬ 
traits, in which distortion is often carried to the ex¬ 
cess of absurdity, and any fair judge of stock could 
readily form a nearly accurate idea of the animal 
from a good photograph, when he would utterly 
fail to do so f-rom such 
a portrait as is now in 
favor amongst breeders 
of fashionable stock. 
The portraits here given 
represent two really 
beautiful animals. The 
10th Duchess is seen to 
be exquisite in form 
and shape, of extreme¬ 
ly feminine appearance, 
and a worthy represen¬ 
tative of her high bred 
and justly noted family. 
Her calf (shown at 10 
months old) partakes 
much of the character 
of the dam, and prom¬ 
ises to become a valu¬ 
able bull. His owner, 
it is said, has refused 
3,000 guiness (815,750) 
for him already. The 
chief point of value in 
the 10th Duchess was 
held to be her power of 
reproducing her own 
character in her pro¬ 
geny, and it is very cer¬ 
tain that in this case that 
natural gift has been well developed. We should 
rejoice if some of our prominent breeders could be 
brought to see the propriety of representing their 
animals as nearly as possible as they are by means 
of carefully executed photographs from»life, in¬ 
stead of by fancy drawings. We should be glad to 
lend our aid to popularize in this manner a correct 
knowledge of the merits of our valuable stock, 
knowing full well of what importance to the general 
agricultural interest it is to have these merits wide¬ 
ly known and recognized. The examples before 
us certainly show in a remarkable manner that the 
true merits of the stock can lose nothing, but can 
only gain by the use of the photograph in place 
of the fanciful art of the draftsman. Disappoint¬ 
ment and suspicion is felt by the farmer, who has 
SHORT-HORN CALF—DUKE OF UNDERLET. 
known the stock only through the portraits, when 
he discovers that they are not unlike ordinary cattle. 
What Labor-Saving Machines are Wanted. 
-♦ - 
The next great want in the way of agricultural 
machinery is a corn-harvester. To cut the whole 
of our immense harvest of com by hand, one stalk 
or hill at a time, is as rude as the old-fashioned 
way of reaping wheat with the sickle. The sickle 
and the corn-knife ought by this time to hang to¬ 
gether as relics of a bygone age. Perhaps we are 
too exacting in regard to what a corn-harvester 
should be. Used to the present highly finished 
and effective reapers, we look for an equally ef¬ 
fective and finished corn-harvester, forgetting that 
the first reaper or mower was a very different ma¬ 
chine from our present models. If a machine can 
be made to cut corn at all, it will be an improve¬ 
ment upon our present costly method. Designs 
for such machines are in existence, and more than 
one inventor has clear ideas of methods by which 
the work may be done. We cannot expect mechan¬ 
ics and inventors to work from motives of philan¬ 
thropy. That does not supply bread nor purchase 
clothes. If it is likely to be profitable to make a 
corn-harvesting machine, it will be made. But it 
is the first step that costs. If some of our agricul¬ 
tural societies would offer a sufficient premium for 
a corn-harvester, even though it may not be a per¬ 
fect one, or several prizes, graduated according to 
the merits of the machines offered, 
we think several would be present¬ 
ed for competition. When several 
machines were thus brought to¬ 
gether, their defects would be dis¬ 
covered and remedied, and im¬ 
provements would follow, as they 
have always done in similar cases. 
The need just now is not so much 
a machine that farmers will rush to 
buy, as they would a perfect one, 
(for that is impossible at present, 
and will require much previous ex¬ 
periment and cost), but' to have a 
machine that will cut corn cheaper 
and as well as it can be cut by 
hand, and this does not seem to be 
a difficult thing to do. Then we 
need a com-husker that shall strip 
the ears and husk them perfectly 
under all conditions, as well as a 
machine that shall pass through 
the standing corn and gather and 
husk the ears, leaving the rest upon 
the ground to be eaten by stock 
or plowed under. We also need an attachment to 
the grain-harvester, that shall bind the sheaves with 
cord and not with wire, a cotton-picker, a flax- 
puller, and several other labor savers. The inven¬ 
tive ingenuity that has been able to construct ma¬ 
chines that make nails and tacks, all kinds and 
sizes, from bars of iron ; that puddle iron, and 
make needles or railroad bars ; that plait figured 
tapes and weave damasks, and that tie knots in 
tightly stretched cords, as in making weavers’ 
healds, should be able to furnish farmers with all 
the machinery they want. To have such machines, 
all that is requisite is that farmers should make 
it profitable for others to invent them. 
Value of Cotton-Seed Cake.— In the refuse 
of our cotton crop we possess a most valuable food 
material. The cotton¬ 
seed, now almost whol¬ 
ly a waste product, and 
used without economy 
as a manure, contains, 
without the husk, from 
30 to 40 per cent of oil, 
and after the oil has 
been expressed, the re¬ 
sidue consists of 16 per 
cent of oil; 411 per cent 
of albuminous matters, 
which contain nearly 7 
per cent of nitrogen 
(equal to more than 8 
per cent of ammonia); 
101 per cent of gum, 
mucilage, and other 
carbonaceous matters; 
9 per cent of woody 
fiber, and 8 per cent of 
ash, which is rich in 
phosphoric acid and 
potash. There is also 
about 9 per cent of wa¬ 
ter. The large propor¬ 
tion of fat contained in 
the oil-eake makes it a 
valuable food for stock 
in winter, or for fatten¬ 
ing cattle. Most of the large proportion of nitrogen, 
potash, and phosphoric acid, it contains, is left in the 
manure, rendering it almost as valuable in this state 
as it is for feed. Dr. Voelcker estimates the manure 
made from a ton of it to be worth 830. When fed 
to young stock, the nitrogen and phosphoric acid 
are utilized by the young animals to a greater extent 
than when fed to adult stock. In feeding it, the 
SHORT-HORN COW—10TH DUCHESS OF GENEVA. 
