12 
INTERCHANGE OF VISITS AMONG FARMERS. 
ful driver. The writer is a little mistaken in 
the assertion of the first line, as in some parts of 
the country oxen are rarely used:— 
“ Oxen are invariably used for farm purposes, 
carting of hay, &c. Some of these animals are 
really wonderfully well paired. A friend of the 
writer’s had a pair so beautifully matched, so 
alike in every respect—color, size, and even 
shape and length of horns—that it was difficult 
to distinguished between the two. The same 
farmer had a young pair which he was rearing 
for the purpose of exhibiting at the great State 
Fair; their color was pure white. We believe 
he gained the first, (or one of the first,) prizes 
for well-matched oxen.” 
It is the pride of exhibiting the premium ox¬ 
en, much more than the premium, which makes 
the first lines of the following paragraph so full 
of truth. The description of a Yankee cow 
stable will be new to many of the London 
readers, and as little interesting as it may be to 
those so familiar with such things “ to home.” 
“Farmers vie with one another in rearing 
handsome, well-paired oxen. Much more atten¬ 
tion is paid now than formerly to the rearing of 
stock. The cow houses are all constructed of 
wood, and have arrangements for feeding and 
housing, very peculiar. In the centre of the 
house, there is a division railed off on each side; 
on this wall, or central alley, the fodder is plac¬ 
ed* The cattle are ranged on either side. By 
lifting up pieces of wood, placed in these rails, 
space is made for allowing the animal to 
insert its head and neck so as to partake 
of the fodder within the inner division. The 
piece wood is let down, thus confining the neck 
and head of the animal in one position till re¬ 
leased. The cattle seem to have no objection to 
this kind of restraint.” 
The following tribute to American horses is 
truthfully graphic, but cannot conyey to the 
mind of the owners of the slow-gaited heavy 
road or farm horses of England, a just idea of 
the excellence of our light-footed, lively and 
most excellent animals. The way they are 
used as described in the last sentence is enough 
to tell the story of the unsubduable spirit of 
American farm horses, to say nothing of the 
same quality in the younger branches. 
“The horses are invariably slender, and at 
first sight, a European fancies they are too much 
so to do much heavy work. This is not the 
case; they are high spirited, and capable of 
undergoing much fatgue. They are used for 
all kinds of work; no such thing being seen, 
so far as we remember, as horses kept for one 
particular kind of jobbing. After a hard day’s 
work in the fields, the spirited animal is glad to 
have a run of ten or twelve miles harnessed to 
a ‘buggy,’ conveying perhaps the younger 
branches of the family to a frolic in the neigh¬ 
borhood.” 
Some of the statements of the next para¬ 
graph we are disposed to correct. In speaking 
of American farm houses, the writer says : 
“They are generally made of wood, placed 
in some cases on low stone basements to pro¬ 
tect them from the damp. They are commodi¬ 
ous, and generally well arranged; the kitchen 
is always the largest apartment in the house. 
The most striking external peculiarities of 
American farm steadings, is the long range of 
wooden outhouses, and the entire absence of 
all appearance of grain, &c. The former is 
caused solely from the fact that the corn, hay, 
and in fact all crops, are housed, not made up 
in stacks as here done. This custom necessa¬ 
rily requires large and commodious outhouses 
to be constructed.” 
-- 
INTERCHANGE OF VISITS AMONG FARMERS. 
We wish the farmers of the United States 
were more in the habit of assembling together, 
and interchanging visits with each other. We 
are certain it would be for mutual advantage to 
do so. They would thus become sooner acquaint¬ 
ed with each other’s improvements of different 
kinds, which would be of vast benefit to them, 
as a class; and then, how agreeable an increased 
social intercourse might be made. The farmer, 
now, is altogether too isolated; and this is the 
reason he is so generally behind the mechanic 
and manufacturer in adopting the improvements 
which they so eagerly seize. See from the fol¬ 
lowing example of My. Mechi,how they manage 
these things in England, 
“On Tuesday last, several hundred gentlemen 
assembled at Mr. Mechi’s farm, to pay it a visit 
of inspection. They came from every part of 
the country, and were, in all respects, fit people 
for such an occasion. They were large farmers, 
intelligent land agents, and enterprising, lib¬ 
eral proprietors. The church was worthily re¬ 
presented by the presence of half a dozen cler¬ 
gyman, and Messrs. Ransome and May, of 
Ipswich, and Mr. Crosskill, of Beverly, were 
there tc see that the farm implements were 
what they should be. With a long train of 
curious and interesting agriculturists, Mr. Mechi 
visited every field on his farm, sometimes skirt¬ 
ing along the headlands, sometimes dashing 
through the centre by the help of a water furrow, 
