REVIEW OF THE JULY NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
281 
fessions have been unrequited benefactors to 
the agriculture of their country. 
Such, however, are not those who are to favor 
the subject of my present writing. Getting hold, 
by hook or by crook, of improved farm stock 
chiefly, after their merit has been tested by 
intelligent men, a certain class of cute people 
set about benefiting the agricultural world with 
their improved animals. Of these we shall only 
enumerate a few—as the run may for the time 
have happened to be; and, first, 
The Morgan Horse. —This, according to the 
general received notion of the creature, is a 
snug, compact, spirited, pony-looking horse, of 
13^ to 15 hands high—an accident in his origin— 
named from the owner of the first of his kind ; 
the true pedigree unknown, but given in a half 
dozen different phases by those who had it from 
“Old Squire Morgan” himself. This class of 
horses hail from Vermont, and some 40 years 
ago, the original stock being only one in num¬ 
ber, and he a stallion. But so prolific has been 
the progeny of this one stallion, that at the pres¬ 
ent time, according to the printed authority of 
sundry agricultural and other papers and hand¬ 
bills, there are at least several hundred “ pure- 
blooded Morgan stallions” standing, to say 
nothing of the number of like-blooded colts for 
sale, all over the country, from Maine to Texas; 
thus showing themselves a most remarkable 
breed of horses in more than one particular, as 
other breeds or races of animals usually show 
their pure descent from a dam as well as a sire. 
Indeed, such a universal modification of qual¬ 
ity do these remarkable animals possess, that 
there may now be found “ pure-blooded Mor¬ 
gans,” from the original pony size of 14 hands, 
oftentimes to 16 hands high, and of the breadth 
of a cart horse, “ got direct from the original stock 
on both sides;” and so extended is the benevolent 
spirit of their propagators, that about the season 
of the annual cattle shows, their cute visages 
are seen on sundry steamboats, railroad cars, 
and along the highways throughout the north¬ 
ern states, with tasselled bridles and gilt trap¬ 
pings, perambulating from one point to another 
in the exhibition of their wares to the gaping 
multitudes on the “ fair ” days. All these pre¬ 
tensions to blood, pedigree, &c., are most con¬ 
veniently verified by affidavits and certificates, 
duly acknowledged before the Vermont and New- 
Hampshire Squires, who seem to have adopted 
a patent-right model of the kind for the ac¬ 
commodation of their customers. Each of these 
“ unrivaled ” horses, too, are the “ last one,” and 
indeed “ the only one to be had in the neighbor¬ 
hood where he was raised;” but it so wonder¬ 
fully happens, owing no doubt to the peculiar 
fecundity of the tribe, that the succeeding year 
another swarm, equal to the last, or larger, in¬ 
deed, if the demand be urgent, is thrown off 
from the same prolific hive, where “ not a single 
critter of the sort'” was left to mark the “ last of 
a mighty line.” 
Reflections , as our good old parson used to 
say in his sermon, when I was a boy. The real 
Morgan horse is a snug, compact, well-made 
beast, with a good deal of spirit, and rather 
pretty action about him, and may be found 
anywhere in the northern states where that 
style of horses is in vogue, comprising partly 
the Canadian-French horse, a dash of the turf 
horse, and the balance made up of the common 
country mare. One of the best horse jobbers 
we ever knew in Massachusetts, (and he was a 
man of honor,) told me that he sent six mares to 
a famous Morgan stallion in Vermont, and he 
hoped that out of the whole six he could get 
one Morgan colt! A pretty commentary on the 
surety of the Morgan blood in transmitting its 
qualities! But, the Morgans must have their 
day, as the proverb has it with the dog, and so 
long as their owners will pay for puffing and 
advertising, so long will the flunkeys in the 
world at large contribute to vive la bagatelle. 
Vermonter. 
-- 
REVIEW OF THE JULY HUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
The leading article in the July number is 
Carrots and Parsnips—Substitutes for Potatoes 
and Field Crops .—Field crops, I object to. I am 
much in favor of root crops for winter-feeding 
stock, and while disease prevails in potatoes, 
other roots may well be substituted for them; 
though I have never found any other roots upon 
which stock could be fed with the same ex¬ 
pense, for the same amount of nutritious food. 
Substituting roots for other field crops is an 
error which American farmers often fall into, 
particularly upon the rich lands of the west. 
Where corn and oats are not worth more than 
15 cents a bushel, and hay two or three dollars 
a ton, and straw nothing, carrots, parsnips, tur¬ 
nips, or any other roots, are poor substitutes for 
such field crops. They may, yes; and should 
be raised in small quantities, as luxuries for the 
animals, but never as substitutes for those 
cheaper kinds of food. Here, in New England, 
we can sometimes feed stock upon roots cheap¬ 
er than upon any other feed, if planted upon 
richly-manured and deep-plowed soil—not oth- 
wise. 
