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Vol XLI. No. 1684. 
NEW YORK, MAY 6, 1882. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
$2,00 PER TEAR, 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1882, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
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OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
Polled Angus Bull “ Field Marshal.” 1778 
This fine specimen of Angus or Aberdeen 
bulls was bred by Thos. Ferguson, Kinnochtry, 
Coupar Angus, Scotland, and dropped March, 
1878. He was imported by Frank B. Red- 
field, Batavia, N. Y., in October, 1879. He is 
by Sbab (680); dam Eliza by Kinnochtry (3123) 
by Young Palmerston (982); 2d dam Mary of 
Kinnochtry (1770) by Crathie 2d (342); 3d dam 
Eliza of Kiunochtry i!)12) by the Baronet (339); 
4tb dam Miss Scott (913) by Hugh (130); 5th 
dam Beauty of Kiunochtry (595) by Young 
Jock (4); 0th dam Prizie (580) by Black Jock 
(3); 7th dam Young Favorite (01) by Gray¬ 
breasted Jock (2); 8th dam Old Grannie (1); 
bred by Hugh Watson in 1824, and descended 
from the original Keillor Doddies. 
As shown by the above pedigree, “Field 
Marshal ” was sired by the Pride bull, Shah 
(680). The Prides are the tribe of Angus cat¬ 
tle famous as the leading family in the herd 
of the late Wm. McCombie, of Tillyfour, who 
brought, these cattle so prominently forward 
at Paris in 1878, and whose champion herd 
at the great Paris Exposition was illustrated 
in the Rural of February 15, 1S79. As is 
the case with a great many of the most valu¬ 
able of Angus cattle, the Prides are largely of 
Keillor descent. The Shah (680) was first 
prize bull at the Highland (the National So¬ 
ciety of Scotland) Society’s Show in 1878. 
On the dam’s side “ Field Marshal” comes of 
the Baroness branch of 
the old Keillor Prizie ( 580 ) 
tribe. Beginning with 
Grannie (1), first prize 
cow at the Highland 
Show in 1829, a cow 
w hich lived to he nearly 
36 years old, after pro¬ 
ducing 25 calves, as 
shown by actual records, 
this Baroness family 
shows many valuable and 
prize - winning auimals. 
Coming, as it does, di¬ 
rect from Keillor, and 
through Prizie (580), a 
cow pronounced by that 
great breeder, Hugh Wat¬ 
son, the best cow of her 
day, this could hardly be 
otherwise. 
“Field Marshal” was 
sold in the Summer of 
1881 to Mr. Robbius Bat- 
tell, of 74 Wall St„ New 
York, for his ranch at 
Victoria, Ellis Co., Kan¬ 
sas, In a letter written 
in March, 1881, Mr. E. S. 
Thaeher, until lately in 
charge of Mi 1 Battel l’s 
ranch, says of “ Field 
Marshal”:—“We were 
very much pleased with 
him in every way, and 
those of the neighboring 
English and Scotch farm¬ 
ers who were familiar 
with the Polled Angus 
cattle hi the Old Country, 
considered him an excel¬ 
lent specimen of his race 
English stockman of much experience, who 
had been familiar with the Angus cattle from 
his boyhood, and who now owns a stock farm 
near Victoria, said that this bull was very 
far superior to any of those which were im¬ 
ported by Mr. George Grant to Victoria 
some years ago. The most important quality 
claimed for these cattle— i. e. their adaptation 
to live a little ‘ roughly’ and without the care 
which the Short-horn seems to need,—was 
well exhibited by the way in which ‘ Field 
Marshal ’ stood his first Summer in Kansas. 
Finding that he fretted in the stall, and also 
because of the difficulty of watching the heif¬ 
ers as to their coming in season, I turned him 
loose In the pasture soon after his arrival, and 
he ran all Summer with about 30 heifers. 
During a large part of the Summer the winds 
were very hot and dry, aud the pasture was 
parched and rather scanty. There could 
hardly have been a greater change of climate, 
and probably of care and feeding for him, 
coming as he did from green meadows 
and the care of an Eastern fine-stock farm. 
At first he had no feed at all, but the grass of 
the pasture. After a while I fed him a little 
corn once a day in the pasture, and kept this 
np through the Summer. He kept in good 
condition and good feeling, would sometimes 
run and play like a calf. I took him to the 
fair at Hays City, and he attracted a good 
deal of attention. * * * The black 
cattle are wintering well, and stockmen are 
beginning to speak for the half-bred bull 
calves which will come this Spring and Sum¬ 
mer. * * * 1 think there is little 
doubt that the popularity of the Angus cattle 
and their grades will increase on the plains, 
and it seems likely that they may gradually' 
supplant the Durham, and blacken up the 
great droves of the West.” 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
The furore in regard to polled cattle is per¬ 
sistently and laboriously cultivated. They 
are being put through the same course of 
training as the Short-horns were a few years 
back of their proper place so as to add to the 
squareness of the head. 
A noted breeder of Short-horns once said 
to me that the fashionable style of portraiture 
of those animals which prevailed a few years 
ago, was not intended to represent the animals 
supposed to be portrayed, but to give the ideal 
form which Short-horn breeders were aiming 
to produce. It is fortunate that nature, with 
its abhorrence of straight lines and angles, 
and its love for curves and lines of beauty, 
was too strong for the breeders, or we should 
have seen in time an ox with a carcass as 
square as a packingbox; without a neck; with 
the head projecting from one end and the four 
legs, mere spindles, stuck upon the carcass, 
one at each of the lower corners. I do not 
know that any animal artist, however, found 
it necessary to put the ears of a Short-horn 
away back on the neck. 
and the Irish muleys which are quite plenti¬ 
ful, have thus been produced by the frequent 
practice of dishorning cattle in that country. 
If the absence of horns is more desirable than 
the absence of the long tails of sheep, then it 
is mere folly and foolishness to object to the 
almost painless operation of destroying the 
horns “ in the bud,” and at the same time pass 
without notice the really painful operation of 
removing the major part of the young lamb’s 
tail, or of emasculating the animal. 
Some remarks have been made as to the 
cruelty of dishorning young calves. If our 
humanity is not shocked at the infinitely 
more painful operation of castration, we may 
with perfect composure submit a young calf 
at the tender age when the first button of the 
horns appears, to the almost painless operation 
of dishorning, which is done as follows: The 
button of ‘he horn, yet soft, but devoid of 
sensation almost, is shaved off with a sharp 
knife close to the roots of the hair, and the 
wound which scarcely bleeds, is instantly 
touched with a very hot iron. It is said by 
persons who have submitted to the application 
of white-hot irons to the back as a treatment 
for spinal disease, that the operation was 
almost painless, the intense heat numbing the 
Another painful, but yet necessary oper¬ 
ation, comes to mind, and it ib a timely thing 
to make a note of. This is dipping sheep for 
scab. Skillful surgery is the highest human¬ 
ity. We produce temporary pain to avoid 
long-continued torture. And in d ipping sheep 
for scab, it is absolutely necessary to break 
up the scabby crusts with something rough; 
a corn-cob is the best thing, so as to cause the 
dip to reach the burroevs of the scab mites in 
the dermis or under-skin, which is below the 
epidermis, and in which the insect lives and 
deposits its eggs. Moreover, it is useless to 
use a dip of a lower temperature than 120 
degrees, and that is quite painful during a 
two or three minutes’ exposure. But it must 
be done to destroy the scab insects and their 
eggs. _ 
The foreign shipments of live stock are again 
very large. The exports from New York for 
the week ending Vtarch 23 were equivalent to 
2,212 head, out of total receipts of 11,897 head, 
or nearl / 20 per cent, or one out of five head. 
The prices paid for some of these cattle were 
12)^'c. pr lb. on estimated dressed weight: $7.85 
to §7.35 per 100 lbs. in Chicago was paid for 
some of the beeves which 
averaged 2,065 lbs. live 
weight 1 This is a profita¬ 
ble business, and ought to 
tempt some of the East 
em fanners to try stall- 
feeding their five-een t 
cattle through the Win¬ 
ter, or feeding sheep for 
this export business to a 
market where mutton 
sells, by the whole car¬ 
cass, for 22 to 22j^e. 
pound. 
POLLED ANGUS BULL “FIELD MARSHAL.”—FROM A PHOTOGRAPH— Fig. 132. 
Mr. Bowman, an 
ago, when the horrid efforts of the square-and* 
compass artists appeared in the stock papers 
as “portraits” of noted animals. And a 
Western stock journal opens the ball by giving 
a portrait of a polled bull which has its ears 
on its neck, about half way between the 
shoulders and the forehead. Why the ears 
should be thus displaced aud misplaced is 
difficult to imagine, unless it be that the artist 
Is ignorant of anatomy, or purposely put them 
part so as to produce almost complete insensi- 
bility. Calves subjected to the operation of 
dishorning in the manner above mentioned 
certainly exhibit no such signs of distress as a 
young lamb does when its tail is docked and 
cauterized, and surely the purpose of this 
latter operation is not nearly so requisite or 
useful a one as removing the horns from an 
animal. It is w r ell known that the calves of 
dishorned cattle soon come devoid of horns 
Mr. W. J. Boggs, 
Kansas (page 201), 
fortunate man. He has 
something better than 
the Philosopher's Stone 
or Aladdin’s Lamp ; in 
short, he has a cure for 
the hog cholera; and if 
* he can only make people 
believe it, his fortune is 
made. But he won’t 
make people believe it. 
There are some sensible 
persons who know some¬ 
thing about hogs and hog 
cholera, who have never 
had cholera hogs, just as 
there are persons who 
know all about human 
cholera and yellow fever 
who never yet died of 
’ these diseases. Mr. Bogg 
concludes that I know 
nothing about hog chol¬ 
era, certainly not about 
its cause, prevention 
and cure. He concludes thusly because 
his ideas and mine differ. Therefore he 
believes he knows all about it himself. Now 
I don’t think he does if he has uothing to show 
his knowledge by more than he indicates in 
his communication. For instance, he fed some 
cholera pigs some turnips in connection with 
parched corn, and the pigs recovered. Mr. 
Boggs says it was cholera. It might be and 
it mightn’t But suppose it was, was it the 
