PRICES OF DRAINING TILE. 
145 
ment has been brooded over till all hope of vi¬ 
tality is 'flea. We admit the egg, but in the 
process of incubation. It may be only half hatched 
by some maternal biped; and it is the duty of 
those who are ambitious of seeing the future 
fledgelings, that they brood over and develope 
these incohate, undeveloped chicks. 
-.©.- 
PRICES OF DRAINING TILE. 
Inquiry has often been made of us concern¬ 
ing the prices of draining tiles manufactured in 
this country. We are now happy to furnish 
that information, by referring our readers to 
the advertisement of Messrs. A. S. Babcock 
& Co., of Albany, on p. 167, of the present num¬ 
ber. The classes of tiles which they furnish are 
represented in the adjoining cut. 
TyeyLAiR tale. 
Draining Tiles.— 24. 
HINTS IN REGARD TO THE PRESERVATION OF 
PURITY OF BREEDS, AND THE IMPROVEMENT 
OF STOCK. 
While a lad, I resided in the same town with 
an old physician, who then gave the greater 
part of his attention to the rearing of mules for 
the West-India market; and there was a fact 
brought to the notice of all who observed closely, 
that seems to have a very important bearing 
upon the retention of purity of blood, and the 
improvement in the breeds of animals. It was 
observed that after a mare had borne a mule , she nev¬ 
er would bring forth a colt of any value , because it 
would possess so much the appearance of a mule as 
to render it unsaleable. Suspecting this rule 
might apply as well to other animals, I observ¬ 
ed that a spotted cow of the native breed pro¬ 
duced her first calf, whose sire was a deep red, 
of a similar color to the male parent, and for 
five or six subsequent years, although she was 
covered by a spotted, brindle and a dark-brown 
bull; yet her calves were all of a deep red. 
I made many similar observations at the time, 
yet, as they were not placed upon record, I do 
not purpose to refer to them except as it relates 
to sheep. I lived in a wool-growing region, 
and we farmers’ sons prided ourselves upon 
wearing home-spun “ sheep’s grey ” for panta¬ 
loons; and to be able to keep in the fashion, it 
was necessary to have at least one black sheep 
in the flock. If one of the ewes brought us a 
black lamb for her firstling, we felt quite sure 
she would continue to do so thq remainder of 
her life, and if we already possessed as many 
of those wearers of sable coats as we wished, 
the unfortunate amalgamationist was inevitably 
consigned to the tender mercies of the butcher. 
Lest it may be thought that what I have con¬ 
sidered as spots upon the sun, are only specks 
on my glasses, I will present the coroborating 
evidence of several English observers. Dr. 
Harvey, physician to the Aberdeen Royal In¬ 
stitute, says; “A jmung chestnut mare, seven 
eighths Arabian, belonging to the Earl of Mor¬ 
ton, was covered in 1815, by a quagga, which is 
a species of wild ass, from Africa, and mark¬ 
ed somewhat after the manner of a zebra. 
The mare was covered but once by the quagga, 
and after a pregnancy of eleven months and 
four days, gave birth to a hybrid which had dis¬ 
tinct marks of the quagga in the shape of its 
head, black bars on the legs, shoulders, &c. In 
1817, T8#and ’21, the same mare, (which had in 
the mean time passed into the possession of Sir 
Gore Ouseley,) was covered by a very fine 
black Arabian horse, and produced, successive¬ 
ly three foals that bore unequivocal marks of 
the quagga.” Besides the instance already 
quoted, there is another similar case recorded : 
“ A mare, belonging also to Sir Gore Ouseley, 
was covered by a zebra, and gave birth to a 
striped hybrid. The year following, she was 
covered by a thorough-bred horse, and the next 
succeeding year by another horse. Both the 
foals thus produced were striped; that is, par¬ 
took of the characteristics of the zebra. 
In both these instances, the mare had pro¬ 
duced offspring from males of a different spe¬ 
cies from themselves. Walker, Baker, and 
Haller state that they have made similar obser¬ 
vations to my own in regard to the ass and 
mare. 
Mr. Me Gillivray gives two instances of simi¬ 
lar results where mares had only been covered 
by males of their own species, although of a 
different breed. In the royal stud, at Hampton 
