crrsnuan; 
i PRESIDENT GRANT’S HORSES. 
On the preceding page wo present our 
readers with portraits of the horses which 
compose President (In ant’s present stable. 
These, of course, do not include several line 
thorough-bred animals in the pasture at the 
time of our artist’s visit.. Our advices from 
Washington are that President Grant is 
very much pleased with the portraits. The 
only adverse criticism as to the correctness 
of the portraits is made hy General Horace 
Catoon, Commissioner of Agriculture, who 
says that “ the shoulders of No. 4 are too 
heavy and thick; the shoulder blade seems 
covered up with fat; the withers should he 
pointed; the car is too small; the picture of 
this animal re)(resents fat instead of muscles 
on the shoulders. The animal's withers run 
up thin and fall well back.” 
We have great respect for Commissioner 
Capron’s judgment in matters relating to 
horses, and t he points of exception are doubt¬ 
less well taken. But they do not seriously 
detract from the artist’s ability and accuracy, 
since no fault at all in found with the other 
portrait*. The artist is Mr. Edwin Formes, 
who has no superior, if a peer, in this coun¬ 
try in this line of drawing. And we are 
quite sure that the engraver, Mr. Edward 
►Sears, will need no commendation from us 
of the manner in ’which he has done his share 
of the work; for the picture speaks for itself 
in this respect. As in the case of the por¬ 
traits of prize fowls by the same artists, pub¬ 
lished in Herat. of April 10, this picture has 
not been excelled, if equalled, in this coun¬ 
try. The following are the notes upon the 
animals whose portraits are presented: 
.1 eII' Dnvltt. 
Figure 7—Is of a bright black color, fine 
haired, standing about twelve and a half 
hands high, with light tail and mane. He 
has a remarkable head, small, with an ex¬ 
ceedingly fine, bright, changeable eye and 
fine-pointed ear, broad forehead, nose a little 
dished, giving expansive nostrils which open 
when in action so ns to admit a man's 
fist. His head is indicative of intelli¬ 
gence and blood, lie is without wind- 
gall or blemish, carries no extra flesh, and 
is as clean-limbed as a deer. He gives 
every indication that he is of Arabian stock 
and well bred. He possesses that develop¬ 
ment of muscle peculiar to the breed, sug¬ 
gestive of strength and endurance. No 
one can see him without putting him at 
once where ho belongs among the very 
best blood of the country. He is thirteen 
years old, but shows all the points of activity 
and endurance ot a young horse of six or 
seven. His gait is that of a natural pacer. 
His walk is very rapid, pushing the ordinary 
horse into a trot, ilia action is remarkable. 
He is full of animation, will not stand tho 
spur, needs to be cheeked rather Ilian urged, 
and on the slightest, intimation is off like a 
flash. He is a good feeder, will put up with 
any kind of forage, and is consequently al- 
ways in excellent condition and appetite. 
I 
Hilly Hutton nud Redid. j 
Figures 8 and 6—Are two Shetland stal- t 
lions, aged respectively three and thirteen f 
years. “Billy Button” is a dark brown, 0 
standing three feet eight inches high, t 
“ Rebel” is a black, standing three feet six < 
inches high. “ Billy Button ” was sired by | 
“Rebel” from a dam in the possession of t 
Gen. Grant. The little Shetland colt,, \ 
(Figure 2,) from the same dam and sire, was n 
eight, days old when the sketch was taken. ji 
These stallions have all the peculiarities c 
of the pure Shetland breed; shaggy let § 
locks, heavy switch tail sweeping the ground, c 
heavy mane covering the neck, large forelop, a 
short, heavy joints, heavy body—girting ), 
nearly as much as the black horse—heavy „ 
breast, well proportioned every way except j, 
the short legs, and being on this account t.< 
very deceptive as to weight. They are a 
muscular, and possess great strength and f, 
endurance. These can trot inside of four \\ 
minutest *i 
Egypt. 
Figure 5 is a very rangy dark hay, with 
black legs, white hind feet, and not a fleck 
elsewhere, heavy tail and mane, short body, v 
round barrel, and standing sixteen and a half il 
hands high. He is magnificent, in color, j 1 
style and action, having every point for a st 
stylish carriage horse. His peculiarity con- b< 
sists in his fine crest, the neck being so set 811 
on his shoulders that il gives him, naturally, qi 
a lofty carriage. He is remarkable for his q, 
carriage in every way. lie has splendid, th 
large limbs, bright eye, fine, bony head, re d ‘ 
markably good arm, very fine fore and bind )jj 
quarters, large, switch tail, and possesses U 
great strength. He is eleven years old, and 
his legs will carry him for many years yet, nc 
He is a natural trotter, and has made his fc 
mile in 2:28. a " 
teen and a half hands high. “Cincinnati” 
has the clean, bony head, square forehead, 
prominent bright eye, well placed, sharp- 
pointed ear, intelligent face and long, thin 
neck, indicat ive of fine strain of blood, with 
a splendid crest, not common to blood 3tock. 
The shoulders are well hack, withers well 
up and sharp. The barrel is full and round¬ 
ed, wit h hack hollowing. The hind quarters 
are well developed, with fine broad stifle. 
“St. Louis” has a snip in the face, is 
larger and carries perhaps more flesh. He 
shows a broad, full brisket and carries a 
noticeable shoulder. 
In both, the limbs are strong, sinewy, 
clean, and well proportioned to the size of 
the horse. The long neck, arching crest, 
high carriage, erect position of the head, 
and long switch tails, which mark them pe¬ 
culiarly fitted for their purpose. 
In regard to all these horses, it may be 
said that they represent distinct classes, and 
are noticeable in their character. They have 
all seen hard and long service, but stand to¬ 
day without blemish, perfectly sound, in 
good condition, with the spirit and en¬ 
durance of young horses. 
jtbttsfrtal ffiopirs. 
IRRIGATION. 
EY DANTEL LEE. 
TRAINING COLTS. 
Your Western correspondent does very 
well to “first halter break and curry them, 
and to let them stand with harness on a few 
days;” but I prefer to have them know 
something before I hitch them to a wagon. 
My practice is to take a small bit ting cord, 
and teach them to walk, trot, stop and start 
by the word while moving around me, and 
accustom them to the various things J would 
require of any horse, before I hitch them up; 
then they will remember their teaching, and 
obey in harness as they are accustomed to 
out of it. 
If they do not stop at the word “whoa!” 
a little twitch on the cord will soon impress 
it upon their memory. When Hotting, and 
I wish them to walk, I say “ walk,” en¬ 
forcing it at. first with cord or hit. To tench 
them to back, I stand in front of them with 
the whip and tap them in the face, repeating 
the word “ hack.” They will learn it in fif¬ 
teen minutes, tuit the lesson should be re 
peated for several days. 1 pot t hem when 
they mind; am mild but firm in enforcing 
what I require. I am careful not to confuse 
them hy teaching them too many things at a 
time. At first when 1 harness them I strap 
up one foot ; it teaches them to stand, and 
prevents any bqd habits. 
To teach thwu to he tractable when shoo 
ing their hind feet, I put a collar or strap 
around their neck, and pass a line, fastened 
to it, around one hind foot, and tiring the 
other end hack through the collar and draw 
up the foot. They cannot kick, and soon 
learn not to resist. e. 
Albion, N. Y. 
-♦♦♦- 
CALOMEL FOR HORSES’ EYES. 
I notice in the Rural of May 15th some 
M. D. lmd recommended a preparation of 
calomel, sugar and sugar of lead as a remedy 
for inflammation of the eyes in horses. J 
also notice that it is condemned by the 
Journal ol Agriculture, as being highly in- 
injurious to the eye. Now, 1 will give my 
experience with calomel alone, as a remedy 
for acute inflammation of the eyes of horses 
and cattle. In the summer of 1862 1 was 
(tie owner of a fine young horse which acci¬ 
dentally received a severe wound in one of 
his eyes. The anterior coat, or cornea, of 
the eye was terribly lacerated. Swelling and 
inflammation immediately ensued, and the 
animal evinced signs of much pain. I ap¬ 
plied all the remedies generally used in such 
cases, but without any effect; the heat and 
swelling rapidly increased, and the eye be¬ 
came white. I now resolved to try calomel, 
and placed four grains in a goose-quill and 
Mowed it directly into the eye. This was 
about eight o'clock A. M., and in the even¬ 
ing there was an evident change for the bet¬ 
ter. It was repeated again next, morning; 
and the eye rapidly recovered without any 
further treatment. 1 have since applied it. to 
t he eye of an ox, In a similar condition, with 
the same happy result. b. w. t. 
Clinton Co., Ohio. 
s According to Boi ssinoaci.t, “ Irrigation 
is without doubt the most economical and 
i and efficient means of increasing the fertility 
. of the soil out of the abundant forage which 
, it produces and the resulting manure. Plants 
take up and concentrate in their organs the 
mineral and organic elements contained in 
• the water, sometimes in proportions so min¬ 
ute as to escape analysis; just as they absorb 
and condense in modified forms, the aeri¬ 
form principles which constitute hut some 
ten thousandth part in the composition of 
the atmosphere. It is thus that vegetables 
collect and organize the elements which are 
dissolved in water, and disseminated through 
Hie earth and the air, as a preparative to 
their being assimilated by animals." 
The mineral food of plants, in a soluble 
condition is very unequally distribted. 
Everywhere rain water, falling on tin; ground, 
washing its surface and penetrating into its 
loose and rocky strata, re-appears as living 
springs from which brooks, creeks and rivers 
arc formed. These streams are valuable for 
irrigation, partly for the fertilizing salts held 
in solution, and partly for the rich sediment 
held in suspension, both of which may lie 
given to a properly watered field, and there¬ 
by greatly increasing its fruitfulness. Bous- 
kinoatti.t found that his meadows irrigated 
by the Sauer, supplied annually 1,254 pounds 
phosphoric acid, 627 pounds sulphuric acid, 
602 pounds chlorine, 4,155 pounds lime, 1,672 
pounds magnesia, 5,456 pounds potash and 
soda, and 7,212 pounds silica, lie adds: 
“This large amount of mineral substances is 
supplied by the meadows, which have no 
other manure than the water and mud there¬ 
by deposited, after flowing over the Vosges’ 
freestone; they receive no manure from the 
farm, but are merely earthed by the sludge 
and mire borne down hy the stream ; these 
arc real sources of saline impregnation.” 
Good meadow hay enough to supply 5,456 
pounds of pure potash and soda, and 1,254 
pounds of pure phosphoric acid will feed a 
great deal of farm stock, and furnish every 
ot her constituent of stable manure in large 
quantities. Not a poimcl of these fertilizers 
comes from the home resources of the farm; 
and, therefore, all the wheat or other crops 
they will produce can be sold without de¬ 
pleting either meadow or t illage land. 
The Intelligent farmer will see great 
wealth in having such irrigated meadows for 
raising and felling hay alone. They are al¬ 
most invaluable; yet, the river Sauer flowing 
over “ freestone rocks,” is less fertilizing than 
our own Genesee, Scioto, Wabash, Illinois, 
Tennessee and a thousand other American 
rivers that might be* named as available for 
the purpose of irrigation. That wo do not 
utilize the water in our springs, creeks, riv 
ora and lakes to enrich our pastures, mead¬ 
ows, grain and cotton fields, is no proof that 
water in this country is unavailable as a 
source of inexhaustible fertility. In no 
other country is the water of springs, 
creeks, rivers, great and small lakes, more 
easily applied to irrigate improved lands than 
we enn use it for that purpose. It falls on 
our mountains, hills, valleys and pitting pre¬ 
cisely as it does in other parts of the world, 
and runs into the sea. As the ocean is rich 
enough in agricultural salts already to pro¬ 
duce herbage for whales, and food for myr- * 
iads of other animals, indefinitely, it is time 
to utilize these precious salts on terra Jlnna. 
It the water that leaves the ocean hy evap¬ 
oration were as salt as that which runs into it,, 
sea water would he as fresh as that of anv riv- i 
repeated on the side of a hill or mountain to 
the lowest ground to be watered. A succes¬ 
sion of horizontal gutters keeps all the water 
flowing evenly over their firm grass-banka, 
and thereby equally distributed over the 
meadow or pasture. The mud that, collects 
in ditches and gutters is regarded as manure, 
and used as a top dressing. Although 1 have 
done hut little in the way of irrigation, from 
the want, of lime and means, I have no doubt 
that it will pay, and become as popular as 
railways and fast horses. 
To command water for successful irriga- 
lion, is to command great fruitfulness, and 
all the wealth that comes from the posses¬ 
sion of food and clothing for millions of our 
species. Five acres of land, irrigated hy the 
French Broad River, near me, produced four 
hundred bushels of corn in the year 1868. 
The soil deposited by one freshet is deeper 
than any plow can run. From corn worth 
only from forty to fifty cents a bushel, and 
with pork at from eight to nine dollars per 
hundred pounds, we can now make concen¬ 
trated hog manure at a profit for exportation. 
All that is valuable in a commercial fertilizer 
that exists in a bushel of corn, may be con¬ 
densed into ten pounds. Irrigation takes 
potash, magnesia, phosphorus and sulphur, 
from deep mountains and hills, in the shape 
of grass, grain and concentrated fertilizers, 
for distant, consumption. 
Old fogy farmers want cheap and strong 
manures; and men of cultivated brains will 
supply their wants. If irrigation should fail, 
as il will not, the salts of the ocean are not 
beyond human reach. But so long as the 
bones of fossil horses come up from the hot 
tom of deep limestone springs, "earth’s hid¬ 
den strata,” and change themselves first into 
irrigated blue grass, mid then into droves of 
strong, bony mules that irot off in search of 
cotton and sugar plantations in the Sunny 
South, the manure in sea salts may he held 
in reserve or the three for four hundred mil¬ 
lion people that will be here a century hence. 
ALLEN’S POTATO DIGGING PLOW. 
No farmer covets the labor of potato 
digging, or, as Henry IVa rd Beecitkit once 
said, “ no man ever unearthed potatoes for 
the love of it.” The accompanying illustra- 
tration tells, in the main, the whole story of 
an implement designed as a “ material aid” 
to that labor. It is a style of double mold- 
board plow, to w hich are attached by bolts 
wrought iron prougs of any desired size or 
shape, adapting it to different, soils, and 
which may he removed at pleasure, leaving 
an excellent, implement to work Jietween 
rows of corn, potatoes, or other crops. 
Being high in the standard, it works without 
clogging from weeds or potato vines, and is 
certified by practical farmers to perform its 
work first-rate. It claims to digas last a« 
twenty men, can pick them up, and without 
leaving any of value in the ground. It is 
furnished for $15.00. For particulars ad¬ 
dress R. II. Ai.len & Co., P. O. Box 376, 
New York. 
--- 
THE "DESERT REGION.” 
) done there than in Colorado, if the grass- 
- hoppers eat it up as they often do. But 
r enough of such “slop;” T/will not follow it 
, as it runs. I will say that, he quotes from 
3 reports with as much certainty and eonfi- 
s dence as if they were inspired volumes, 
, written by infallible men, whereas they are 
• the products of Eastern men, prejudiced 
i against irrigation, as he himself is. These 
quotations merely sustain the sentiments 
1 beginning this article, and prove that knowl¬ 
edge does not bring wisdom, nor is it. con¬ 
fined to one age nor to a few men. 
How, I ask, do these men know how much 
of the land in Colorado is tillable? They 
did not make a survey of irrigating canals, 
the only means of ascertaining this fact, 
which is no hastily done job. Nor will this 
he known for some time to come. This 
writer, II. T. B., is much exercised over 
irrigation, lie talks much of “expense,” 
“cost,” etc. Now as to cost, I will sa}-it 
costs no more to irrigate than to underdrain, 
which every good farmer in the East should 
do, and which we need not do. But it is no 
eofit, for the increased yield over other coun¬ 
tries, where irrigation is not. practiced, is so 
much in two years’ crops that it pays all 
“expense,” all “cost.” 
But it is wearisome to follow these strange 
assertions. 1 will close hy saying something 
of what. I and my neighbors have done in 
this “dry desert region,” on high prairie, 
i raised forty-three and a half bushels of 
wheat to the acre; turnips, sixteen and a 
half pounds each; beets, twelve pounds 
each ; cabbage of my raising not extra; 
others had them weighing each fifty pounds. 
Messrs. McIntyre and Simms, on adjoining 
farm, produce t hirty-five bushels of grain*to 
the aero; eighty bushels is not uncommon 
here. The average of the Territory for last 
year was, for wheat, twenty-eight and a half 
bushels to the acre; oats, thirty bushels; we 
raise no corn. 
1 must say that one man can produce more 
bushels of grain or vege¬ 
tables hy LLs own labor 
here with irrigation than he 
z-s. could in the States without 
_ it, all other things being 
Bjgigpte - equal. As I now look back 
-to my father’s meadow, with 
j its stream of water running 
J through it, I see how it 
fr vff. jJ could have been turned 
oul * ls nft tural channel hy 
^ y one man and a team with 
one Week's work, and the 
meadow t hus made to y h id 
double its usual amount of grass. The gentle 
showers are not so uniform as to make irri¬ 
gation undesirable for any country. It pays 
to irrigate. V. Devinny. 
Denver City, Col. Tor. 
. ua-ea. 
erbsman. 
That the learned and well meaning often 
run into the most strange and ridiculous 
er. Salts of lime in ha rd spring water, (some of errors is no new thing. All that is new in 
Cincinnati nn«! St. Louis. 
Figures 4 and 1, carriage horses, possess the 
same general characteristics. They stand, 
respectively, sixteen and a quarter and six- 
r<m> for Cornu on Horses.— I have scon many 
valuable horses whose usefulness was very much 
impaired by corns; have owned such, and tried 
cutting and burning with but temporary relief. 
I became acquainted with the llirce-quarter 
shoe, and found it a permanent euro. As it rnay 
be new to some who would like to try it, I would 
say that It ts.whm its name Implies"—three- 
quarters of a common shoe. Cutoff a quarter, 
or nearly so, of the shoe -of course, the quarter 
that was over the corn — round the edge a little 
that comes to the hoof,'mol on the shoe, and 
drive on. You will perhaps expect, that your 
horse will interfere, but yon will probably be 
disappointed. Use a shoe with merely a spring- 
heel. , 
I have derived (treat benefit from applying 
neat’s-foot oil to the frog and heels of horses’ 
feet. It keeps them soft, makes the frog-grow, 
and at the same t ime will not keep out water, 
like other grease. It should bo used two or 
three times a week on all horses that are kept in 
the stable. It these suggestions are worth as 
much to one of your subscribers as they have 
been to me. I shall be well paid for putting them 
on paper.—12. G. Peckham, Toledo , 0, 
which are found in tea kettles,) rest mainly 
in the ocean. Alkaline and earthy salts from 
soils, subsoils, rocks, islands and continents, 
flow naturally into all the great reservoirs 
of the earth. If they escaped hy solar evap¬ 
oration, like pure water, rain water would be 
as hard as any spring or well water. Rain 
water is a fertilizer, but does not supply agri¬ 
cultural salts like the best river water, or that 
from springs. 
T find by experience that the latter pays 
better for watering a pasture and meadow 
than for grinding grain in a grist mill, to 
which it was applied when my farm was 
purchased. To show the arrangement of 
gutters, one below another, lbr the re-distri¬ 
bution of water to prevent its collecting in 
rills, some engravings are desirable. The 
steeper the grade of the ground irrigated, the 
nearer these horizontal gutters should be to 
each other. 1 have made them from ten lo 
fifty yards apart, and about four inches deep, 
and from six to ten wide. 
The main ditch that brings the stream into 
the field should be on the highest attainable 
ground, and on a water level on the lower 
side. Its bank must have a firm turf; so 
that in a heavy rain, if it overflows all the 
way, no harm will he done. From this level 
t he main ditch may descend hy a gate and 
lock to a lower level; and those falls may be 
nature and in art, if opposed at all, has 
been denounced by those men. Their zeal in 
pursuit, of their errors is often ns earnest, as 
it is unaccountable. Why, 1 ask, is this? 
Why does H. T. B. in the Rural show so 
much zeal in damaging Colorado and other 
Western Territories. It is certainly not for 
the love of truth; for a lover of truth would 
not sit down and make a special plea to sus¬ 
tain a bad cause, or, rather, 1 should say, a 
false assumption, rather than to seek for the 
truth where it is to lie found. Nor does he 
show much candor. He says “ 50,000 acres 
were, under cultivation in Colorado in I860 
which yielded 1,500,000 bushels of grain. 
One township of Eastern Nebraska of eight 
miles square will yield that amount of grain 
in a good season." Again he says, “ is it best 
for our citizens to roam over desolate, desert 
regions; (!!) to find land that can’t he used 
till that expense (irrigation,) is incurred aud 
then find two grasshoppers to one stalk of 
wheat.” 
Why was be not candid enough to "say 
that in 1866 the grasshoppers were so de- 
structiye as to leave hut half a crop for the 
farmer ? But this would he truth which, he 
wished to shun. Why does he say that that 
amount of grain could be raised in a town¬ 
ship in Nebraska, in a good season? Be¬ 
cause he well knows that it can no more be 
A PERFECT SHORT - HORN. 
A correspondent of the Edinburgh 
Farmer gives the following as the points ot 
a perfect Short-Horn : —“Head moderate 
length, wide, and rather dished, with clear 
horns, and flesh-colored, not blank; number 
ot points, 4. Neck being well sprung from 
shoulder, and slightly arched; number of 
points, 1. Neck vein prominent and full; 
number of points, 2. Shoulder and crops, 
former being well thrown back, and wide at 
top, ‘points’ well covered, and not promi¬ 
nent, crops being very full; number of points, 
6. Breast coming well forward, wide aud 
full; number of points, 2. Back, breadth 
and levelness; number of points, 2. Loin, 
breadth, and being covered, uot low; num¬ 
ber of points, 4. Hocks, breadt h, and being 
alright angles with back-bone; number of 
points, 2. Rumps, not being dropped; num¬ 
ber of points, 2. Quarter, length, levcluess 
and being well filled up; number of points, 
2. Thigh, length aud fineness, and being 
well beefed inwards; number of points, 2. 
Twist, coming well down ; number of points, 
4. Hock, being well bent, and not turned 
in; number of points, 1. Flunk, full aud 
coming well forward ; number of points, 3. 
Back ribs well sprung from hack, and round; 
number of points, 3. Fore-ribs, round and 
coming well down; number of points, 3. 
Quality and hair, not too thin, but soft and 
mellow, hair long and silky; number of 
points, 4, Color, roans and red; number of 
points, 1. Udder and milk vessels well 
formed; teats and udder—large milk veins; 
number of points, 3.” 
-- 
Cows Cleaning.— Tell H. W.tn take a couple Of 
smalt ears of corn. Lore 1 lie pitb from one end, 
or dig it out with a pen-knife, put a thimbleful 
of gun powder in each, and stop up the hole 
with a kernel of corn or bit of potato, and give 
them to bis cow immediately after calving. My 
father always made use of this remedy with un¬ 
varying success.—T., Newark, Wayne Co., N. Y. 
- ■*■-*-+ - 
To Tuke rlmtr from Cattle’s Eyes.— Take a 
goose quill, dip the feather end in honey, turn 
back the lid, aud you can easily wipe out the 
chaff 1 .—J. w. O- 
