346 
STATS OF AGRICULTURE IN MORRIS COUNTY, N. J. 
'They were got by the bull, Harry, who was got 
by Rover , dam Daisy, by Wades Eber, grandam, 
Laura , by Marshal Beresford —great grandam, 
White Rose, by Seaton's Favorite, G. G. G. D. 
Primrose, by Colling’s North Star, G. G. G. G. D. 
by R. Colling’s White Bull. 
The mother was a remarkably fine animal, both 
as a breeder and a milker. She was a cross of the 
improved Short-Horn stock of Philip Church, Esq., 
of Belvidere, Alleghany county, and the native 
stock of the country. 
Judge Church was among the first who intro¬ 
duced the improved breed of cattle into western 
New York. It is difficult, for the want of sufficient 
data, to state the exact proportion of the cross in 
these cattle, but enough is known to show that it 
was as high as | or | of pure Short-Horn blood. 
The steers were purchased by me, of Judge 
Fitzbugh, at two years old. That gentleman, in 
a letter to me of the 3d inst. says, “ The steers, 
while I owned them, received no other care than 
any other stock. They were, with other calves, 
taken from the cow at one week old, and received 
new milk for a week or two, afterwards skimmed 
milk, until 2j or 3 months old—then turned to 
grass, taken up in November, or the first of De¬ 
cember, and fed with hay alone until the 10th or 
15th of February, then about a pint of meal a day, 
with a pint of oil cake a week, until about the 
middle of April, then turned to pasture, and the 
next winter fed on hay in the field, without shel¬ 
ter.” 
They did not, at the time of my purchase, pre¬ 
sent the appearance of being cattle of uncommon 
excellence, but were considered as fair, average 
steers. They were domesticated, broke to the 
yoke, and worked till near five years old. They 
were always good workers, but were never put to 
any very severe labor. Their keeping, while thus 
at moderate work, was not more than I usually 
give to my working oxen, or other stock. They 
received hay, with a small quantity of grain from 
March, till they were put to grass; but the im¬ 
provement made under this treatment soon eviden¬ 
ced that they were superior animals, and such was 
their promise, that, in the winter previous to their 
coming five years of age, they were high fed, and 
then m the summer afterwards, moderately fed 
with grain, about six to eight quarts of meal each, 
per day. For one year after the first of November, 
1846, and until the time that I sold them, I gave 
them the best keeping that could be furnished, 
making the whole time of feeding about twenty- 
one months. 
The last year of that time, they were kept at the 
barn on dry feed, averaging about 12 or 14 quarts 
of meal each, with some carrots, potatoes, pump¬ 
kins, &c., and to sustain their appetite in vigor, 
sometimes ground barley was used, with oats and 
eorn, and sometimes clear corn meal, changing 
from one to the other. Great care was taken in 
the quality and preparation of this com meal, in¬ 
deed so far as to have some of the corn, kiln 
dried. 
The cattle were never stabled, but usually put 
up to receive their food, and then exposed to the 
season with more or less of shed protection. To a 
roomy yard, with the ground to stand or lie upon, 
instead of confinement upon a stable floor, I at¬ 
tribute the great activity and sprightliness of the 
cattle when at their perfection. Although remark¬ 
able for expanding in size, and taking on fat, they 
were never, what could be called great eaters. 
I purchased the steers in the fall of 1843 
for the sum of.. $60.00- 
I kept them for work 2| years, but as 
their w T ork was not severe, and they only 
received the ordinary keeping of my stock, 
I estimate the expense of keeping over 
work, at . . • . . . .65.00 
I then commenced feeding them, and for 
three fourths of a year, fed but moderately 
—say, what equals in expense eight quarts 
of corn meal, for each, per day—being £ 
bushel corn per day, for 274 days, making 
137 bushels at 50 cents per bushel, . . 68.50 
Add hay, grass, and attendance $1 per 
week,.39.00 
For the last year, I fed them in the best 
manner—say, corn, oats, and barley meal 
about 12 quarts each, per day, and some 
pumpkins, potatoes and carrots, equaling in 
expense one bushel of corn—being 365 
bushels, at 50 cents per bushel, . . 182.50 
Hay and attendance 50 cents per week, . 52 00 
$467.00 
This, at a liberal estimate, was the cost of the 
cattle when sold. I sold them in November, 
1847, for $550 paid down, and a promise from the 
purchaser, Mr. Calkins of $100 more, if the cattle 
turned out well—which promise he has since agreed 
to make good. Allen Ayrault. 
Albany, April 12 th, 1848. 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN MORRIS 
COUNTY, N. J. 
I am writing you a line from the heart of one of 
the choicest farming regions in our county. Here 
is really model farming, inasmuch as it is successful 
farming, if one dare judge from the well-filled barns, 
numberless hay and grain stacks, fat cattle, &c. &c., 
that meet him on every side. 
A brief description of real life, and its prospects 
here, I hope will not be thought amiss. This 
Troy is a small country place, located on the turn¬ 
pike leading from Newark to Dover, a distance of 
about 16 miles. Hay, fat cattle, and milk are not 
the least important items to which the farmers here 
turn their attention, and just now they have done 
haying; almost every spear of grass has been 
handsomely cured, stacked, or housed, during one 
of the most splendid seasons ever known, with 
scarce one drop of rain to blacken the bright straw. 
This hay is cut in immense quantities every year, 
averaging about two tons to the acre, and the land 
never manured, as I can learn. 
Formerly, considerable cheese was manufactured 
by the “ gude housewife,” but now their attention 
is turned to the selling of milk, reaping one of the 
great advantages of having a good railroad within 
a few miles of the door, to drain the county of its 
surplus produce, and keep the market supplied 
with that “dirty, yellowish-looking scum.” 
One man here, Mr. Hiram Smith, keeps sixty 
cows, sending to the Morristown depot, seven 
