AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
Farm, GrarcLeii, and. Honseliold. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.”- 
Washington. 
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publishers AND proprietors. V J SINGLE NUMBER, 15 CENTS 
Oflice, 245 BROADWAY. ) Published also m German at $1.50 a Year. ( 4Copiesfor $5 ; 10for$l2;20ormoro, $leach. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in August, 1870, by Orange Judd & Co., at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXIX.—No. 9. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1870. NEW SERIES—No. 284. 
tCOPTRIGIIT SECURED.] 
THE SOCIETY OF F R I E N D S .—From a Painting BY Herring. — Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
Mr. Herring’s pictures of horses are widely 
known. They have not the dash and spirit of 
those of Rosa Bonheur and some other cele¬ 
brated animal painters, hut they are exceeding¬ 
ly pleasing on account of their domestic char¬ 
acter. In the many farm scenes which this 
artist has painted, he has given the animals a 
thoroughly liome-like expression. An artist, to 
he able to give in a picture the varied expres¬ 
sion of which a horse’s face is capable, must be 
not only a close observer, but a real lover of the 
animal. This, Mr. Herring was; for in early life 
he was the driver of a stage-coach, and in his 
later years was constantly surrounded by the 
pet animals, which he has introduced into his 
celebrated picture in so many pleasing relations. 
In the above picture he presents horses as 
affectionate friends. That horses do exhibit re¬ 
markable attachments to one another, as well 
as to man, is within the observation of almost- 
every one. Mules, usually, unjustly consider¬ 
ed inferior to the horse in every “ moral” quali-’ 
ty, form attachments even more readily than 
horses, and show them in the most positive 
manner. The writer knew of a mule that was 
so fond of a particular horse that, no matter 
how hungry it was, it -would not eat if the horse 
w r as in sight, and would be perfectly contented 
if it could only be allowed to stand near him. 
We are all familiar with the accounts of the 
manner in which the Arabs treat their horses; 
they not only make friends of them, but even 
admit them into their families. The artist calls 
his picture the “Society of Friends”—we do 
not know if he had our friends the Quakers in 
mind, at any rate, the animals have that air 
of content and inward satisfaction, which comes 
from kindliness and well-doing, which is one 
of the characteristics of that estimable people. - 
