mteon. go Keep her m good condition ? Her 
work is light but constant; her digestion is 
not good and has not been all summer. Have 
«©Y, 45 
MOOSE’S BUBAL W£W-¥©RKEB 
JTTTTy rv ^ilTVKlVmnit , for keeping up the mule-breeding race of 
^ U 1 horses and mares. The mares from which the 
- mules arc bred belong to farmers and peas- 
THE POITOU^JENNY ASS. ~ 
^x;r ,kb * -*s - 
year-old Poitou jenny ass, with the following Thorn 
notes which will interest mule and ass breed- p m >n>. ° ” v ' ingare fclie measurements of a 
,, . , -louaju jenny ass. 
ere in tins country: J 
The female ass is kept entirely for breeding , lg,lk ,iaiK ^ K meh; forearm, 19 inches; 
ses. What is known occasionally in En- ,iee ’ xnchea; below knee, 8^ inches; 
asses. What is known occasionally in En¬ 
gland, and commonly in Ireland, as a mute, 
jennet, or hinny (the sire in this case being a 
horso or pony, and the dam a donkey), is 
never, or very rarely, seen in Poitou. An 
animal bred in this way is termed bur do!, 
and is considered of little value in compar¬ 
ison with a mule proper, bred from a male 
ass and female horse, 
In Poitou the same points are looked for in 
the female as in the male ass, viz., girth 
large head and ears, plenty of bone in the 
legs, open feet and rough coats. The females 
are not so high as the males as a rule, and 
may be said to vary from 13 to 14 hands. It 
is scarcely necessary to mention that, looking 
at the relative value of male and female 
asses, it is the. great anxiety of the breeder 
that his female asses shall produce male off.. 
spring. With this view, the wretched jen¬ 
nies are kept in as low condition as possible 
under the idea that suoh a condition favor* 
the production of male offspring. Indeed 
the poor wretches are mostly mere skin and 
bone, and are supplied with nothing but hav 
and straw in just sufficient quantity to keep 
them from absolute starvation. This j. 
onother of the Poitou prejudices which re¬ 
quires sweeping away. The great wonder is 
that, looking at the extraordinary prejudices} 
which prevail in Poitou, detrimental alike to 
animal health and animal life, the breeder? 
yet contrive to bring into the market such 
line mules as are to be seen in hundreds at 
the winter Fairs. We use the word “ mules” 
advisedly, as bo it recollected that the breed¬ 
ing of the asses is only to be regarded as a 
means to an cud, which end is the production 
of mules for the market. The breeders will 
sell their mules readily enough, but think 
twice before selling their asses, which may 
truly be said to be the hens that lay the gold- 
on eggs. 
Long before the expected time of parturi¬ 
tion the farmer or his son always sleeps in 
the st able, so as not to be taken by surprise, I 
and the greatest excitement prevails through- 1 
out the whole establishment, if the young i 
animal proves to be a female, the excitement 
subsides quickly enough, but. if a male (tech¬ 
nically termed fed,on) makes its appearance r 
great rejoicing is the consequence, and for a e 
whole month the proprietor scarcely leaves * 
his treasure either by night or day. But i 
here again prejudice and ignorance step in. t 
The young animal is deprived of the first c 
milk, or what is known as the colostrum of \ 
its mother. The peculiar laxative effect of c 
this milk has been well ascertained, but the \ 
Poitou peasant chooses to designate it. as t 
poison ; and the young animals are not. 1 
allowed to partake of what has been specially 
designed by nature for their well-being, and t 
the consequence is that in the first month of h 
thou- existence the whole system becomes a 
thoroughly and irremediably deranged and t 
a great many of them are lost. After the v 
nrst month is over the critical time has h 
passed, and there is then little difficulty t 
attending their rearing. Weaning takes e 
place at. eight or nine months. Those that n 
the breeder does not require are readily 11 
bought by the dealerawho scour the country r 
and who resell them to the keepers of ateliers d 
in various parts of the province. In the case 
1 one breeder selling a young haudet, or p 
male ass, to another, or in the ease of change d 
ot ownership of an adult haudet, great form a 
and ceremony arc attached to the trams- a 
action. 
lhe female asses are sometimes, though o 
mre y , employed in the agricultural labors n 
, lJl ° farm - As a general rule, they are d 
kept solely for breeding purposes, as there is a 
111 idea in Poitou that preguunt animals f ! 
should not bo worked. Possibly the breeders 
inve at some time discovered to their cost n 
mat starvation, pregnancy, and hard work b 
l iken m combination are disposed to have a " 
somewhat deleterious effect upon the animal t 
system generally. ^ 
* <&hc (i$;trtleit. 
forcing asparagus. 
A CORRESPONDENT of the RURAL NEW- 
Yorker asks if any of our readers have ever 
ri-ied forcing asparagus; if so. how it was 
done, and with what results. We shall be 
glad to print, what experienced readers mav 
send us on this subject; meantime we give 
the following from a gardener of experience- 
lo have asparagus worth the trouble of j 
POITOU JENNY 
foot 18 inches; hock, 1(3 inches; below 
l«o<k, 10 niches ; greatest girth, 77 inches; 
girth behind Shoulder op, inches; length of 
head, 58 inches ; leugtb of ear, lft inches ; 
ears, tip to tip across, 34 inches. 
The accompanying engraving i 8 from a 
photograph of a jenny ass of 14 hands, be¬ 
longing to M. Jean Roulet, of Breloux, which 
obtained the first prize and silver medal at 
the Grand Concours Mulassler, held at Niort 
xu May, 1805. 
--- 
breeding colts. 
This is an art requiring freedom from old 
fogy ideas. Any one can put a great num¬ 
ber of animate together and let them run 
m nearly a natural state; but breeding to 
produce naught but high-priced and genu¬ 
inely valuable stock is another matter. One 
person will have lambs and calves of a good 
average sort for the purpose desired, aud 
will spoil them by bad management and 
iif-gicjct just at the time they would, by nt- 
ten lion and good feeding, be set, up and gain 
constitution to carry them tlirough life- 
while another breeder would study the needs 
of the young animate at critical times and 
by comfort aud plenty of nourishing food 
bring them round to their full growth much 
better animals than those they sprang from 
Breeders of horses are sadly behind in at¬ 
taining desirable results ; they don’t know 
how to breed one superior horse out of ten, 
and with the same horse produce progeny 
totally dissimilar. It is a kind of chance 
work; good mares are mated with good 
horses and then the colts are so mismanaged 
the first winter that they never recover the 
check received; great and would-be re¬ 
nowned breeders of colts allow them to lose 
llesh after weaning and actually are so igno¬ 
rant as to bring them to grass, at a year old 
disgraceful-looking objects. 
Colts ought not to lose the blooming ap¬ 
pearance gained while with the mare- for if 
during the first winter the condition is such 
as to force growth aud to cause the young 
animals to be full of pl a y and to have fche £ 
hair he close and smooth to the skin, with¬ 
out grttoming, not feeling the cold when run¬ 
ning out, as they should do daily, they will 
develop all the best traits of the race they 
came from. On the* contrary, a course or 
treatment which brings the' animals to i 
standstill, which causes them to look rough 
and set up their hair, find whoever knows 
no better than have his colts in such a plight 
breeding hoc, too, as unthrifty young stock 
wfil do, destroys all the good in the blood 
and not one m twenty of the poor creatures 
wall ever recover sufficient to distinguish it- 
tliero are 
ASS. 
cooking, it. must be grown in the light. Un¬ 
less a heated pit can be spared for the pur¬ 
pose, a hot bed will be necessary. Any spare 
frame will do. The bed should be made of 
leaves, either separately or mixed will, a 
portion of manure; and, to prevent the roots 
receiving any injury in case of the heat of 
the bed becoming too strong, it U a capital 
plan to cover it with a layer of thin f url’s. 
After the bed has been made up a day or 
two, put on the frame, cover the leaves or 
manure with turls and over these place a 
layer of light, friable soil. It wifi not bo 
prudent for the roots to lie put in the frame 
lor a day or two after the frame has been 
put on the bed, as it may so happen that the 
bed may become too hot for the roots A 
bottom heat of 30 should not be exceeded. 
A practical man will know, when the bed 
IS covered with soil, whether there is any 
probability of the heat rising much higher 
than that, and >vi)l act accordingly; but Lhe 
amateur must of necessity proceed with 
caution, and a thermometer buried in the 
sou will show the state of the bed. The 
roots must be lifted carefully, with as much 
801 ft, -»ont them as can be conveniently re¬ 
tained, and packed close .together in the 
frame with sufficient soil to fill up the inter¬ 
stices and cover the crowns to a depth of 
about three inches. Until such times as ten¬ 
der shoots begin to push through the soil the 
fame will not require ventilating beyond 
what is necessary- to allow the steam and ex¬ 
halation arising from the bed to escape, but 
afterwards air must be admitted freely 
whenever the weather will permit of its be¬ 
ing done with safety. An abundance of air 
is essential to the development of the deli¬ 
cate flavor peculiar to this vegetable, but it 
must not be admitted in frosty or otherwise 
unfavorable weather, or it will do more harm 
than good. 
A period of six or seven weeks will bo re¬ 
quired from the time the roots are put in the 
frame till the produce will be ready for the 
table. With two frames placed side by side 
or otherwise, a liberal supply may be main¬ 
tained throughout the winter, with no 
further trouble than changing the roots as 
they become exhausted and adding fresh 
linings of manure or leaves for keeping up 
the heat. As the roots arc removed they 
may at once be destroyed, as being of no 
further service. To maintain a supply of 
roots, it will be necessaiy to make a sowing 
of seed every year. 
-- 
GARDENER’S NOTES. 
self or i’- a * f . tu ‘usiingman it- —o « vi.no, 
lhe number of atelier*, or mule-breeding scores of men who iiphollfeach other Pm (md Red Kid ^U Beans. — Will you 
m Ul>0lt0U amounts to about bctte^ctlu-raT'^^- 1-s ? u . c not kllowij >g or some of your many correspondents please 
ot which the Department of the Deux- hftlm * the ^{*mg them out give me the necessary facts, through the 
alone cteims 14. These 94 establish- Which ^w-Yorkicr, pertai/ung to the 
0 tenanted by 465 male asses, 274 then- third year; in fact, are horses and ture > cultivation and yield of the pea and red 
euiale asses, and 156 entire draught horses, $ the gi-eat Vaeea b“he Sidney beans. Are they bush or note “ How 
the latter called tlalons mulassiers; and used ho™* do they compare with the whitTwdLy Z 
A working Farmer. yield ? Where can I get the seed, and at 
what prices ? I also desire to know of whom 
and where I can get some very desirable 
— wIute *!>ring seed wheat, with price. 'Re¬ 
liable information in answer to the above 
will bo highly appreciated by — D. W. Naw- 
w _ GOMB > ftdldwtnsville, N. V. 
■or J anada Victor Tomato in Ontario.— Mi- 
as Wm. Dakeran, Paris, Ont., tried the Canada 
be ' lc . tol > for earliness, alongside four other 
ay varieties of tomato, and it came out ahead, 
ve z —- -- --— _ _ - 
of -jfaijnt (fefatwittg, 
EFFECTS OF GUANO. 
Wishing to cover a hard, gravel road, 
I t n i ty eet broad and four hundred and fifty 
leet long, with grass, a quantity of leaf-mold 
and rich, black loam was spread two or three 
niches thick over the surface. By mistake 
or the laborers a space thirty feet by one 
hundred was covered with a cold, blue clay, 
and the whole was then seeded thickly with 
a good mixture of red-top, timothy and 
white clover. The blunder of the workmen 
having been discovered, a good quantity of 
Lawtons giutno, finely pulverized, was 
carefully spread over the clay surface, hut 
no tertlhzer was put over the loam, Tile 
grass came up well over the whole surface 
and quite uniformly; but at the eml of eight 
weeks the surface covered by the manure 
was far in advance of the rest in color, thick- 
ness and length. It is, of course, by no means 
settled that, tko advantage gained by the 
guano will be maintained. What should be 
the subsequent treatment ? if the roots have 
a good hold, will rain and dew be sufficient 
I on clay to give a good start 3—n. ii. 
A TOP-DRESSING of decomposed manure 
I will do good. If we had it we should put it 
I on, were we in your place. 
-- — -- 
MANURING IN THE HILL. 
In Rural New-Yorker, W. B. W. inquires 
ii it is best to put fresh manure in the hilJ 
With your permission, I will give my expe¬ 
rience the past season. [ planted about four 
acres of sweet corn for this market, putting 
manure in every hill. My earliest planting 
was marked with a plow, using a handful of 
I manure Composed of hen manure, ashes, chip 
I manure, and a little plaster; also a little air- 
slaked lime to each hill. My second planting 
was prepared the same way, except tile mu 
nure, which was simply well rotted, clean, 
horse manure, a good handful in each hill, 
My third and fourth plantings prepared the 
same, using fresh manure from the horse 
arid cow stables, mixed, using a large handful 
in each hill. 1 could see no difference in com¬ 
ing up or growth in the whole field. In fact 
it was remarked to me several times during 
the summer how even my coni had come 
up ; and I thought it singular, as all my 
neighbors complained of their corn coming 
up so bad. Some hills 1 put the manure in 
first and corn directly on it, and others 
dropped the corn first and manure directly 
°™ rifc - J. C. Lyon. 
Chemung Co., N. Y. 
- —-—— 
SALT ON WHEAT. 
It is asked; “ Will it pay to sow salt 
on wheat 3 If so, how much to the acre, and 
when should it be applied—salt (ft per bbl. of 
390 lbs., land sandy loam that washes badly ?” 
No, we would not “sow salt on wheat.” 
But there are few soils lo which salt may 
not profitably be applied. It should be com¬ 
posted with the manure to be put on land— 
that is, mixed with it—or applied direct to 
the soil before seeding. How much may 
profitably be sown depends upon the chemi¬ 
cal condition of the soil, and this cannot be 
determined without chemical analysis. Salt 
sown on some soils seems to show no gain in 
the crop; on others its effect, is very marked. 
Phi ee to fifteen bush els per acre are sown 
broadcast, or, which is better, may be incor- 
poi.ited with the manure in the compost 
heap and this applied to the land. 
--—♦-*-*.- 
FOOD FOR STOCK. 
you or your readers please inform 
me if corn stalks, cut and mixed with mid- 
dJings, are good constant food for cows? 
What kind of food is best for a colt the first 
winter ? She is now six months old. What ~ 
is the best food for an old mare, about r 
-- ...... .... yi util, races net ore, the 
American animals have emerged from colt- 
“ oocl * A Working Farmer 
-- j WUDUgU Lilt 4 ! 
Rural New Yorker, pertaining to the no- 
ture, cultivation and yield of the pea and red 
lxl ll 11C1Y ItAAMn A ... ii * I 
given her condition powders aud fiaxseed 
meal, but with no good result. Can com 
stalks be fed once a uay to a horse with ad¬ 
vantage ?—j. w. 1 ). 
Let some of our experienced, practical 
readers reply to these questions. 
I 
