Price Five Cents, 
$2.00 Per Year.; 
Vol. XXXIX. No. 51 
Whole No. 1612. 
[Entered according to Act of Gonirress. In the year 1880. by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
gjtrirsmau. 
SHORT-HORN 
BULL, BARON 
22 , 028 . 
HILLHURST, 
In continuing our portraits of prize animals 
of the Albany Bhow, we present this week an 
excellent picture of the 1st prize Short-horn 
bull, Baron Hillhurst, 22,028, exhibited by the 
president of the society, Hen. N. M. Curtis. 
Ogdensburg, New York. The Baron is an ex¬ 
ceedingly stylish and handsome bull six years 
old, and he attracted more attention at the fair 
than any other animal. It is ditllcult to de¬ 
scribe «o well formed a bull. Ordinarily one 
may exercise his skill in passing lightly over 
imperfections, and dwelling especially upon ex¬ 
cellencies; but in the case of Baron Hillhurst, 
the most critical may study him long without 
finding much fault. 
His head is fine, with a baudsomc muzzle 
and a large gentle and beautiful eye, and me¬ 
dium, waxy well shaped horn. He is level 
above and below, with deep brisket, wide loin 
and low in twist and flank. He is thick 
through the heart, with well sprung riba and 
great capacity of barrel. A more upheaded, 
stylish bull one seldom secs, or one of so 
docile and gentle a disposition, aud though 
weighing, in low Hesh, 2.900 pounds, he is ac¬ 
tive, vigorous, ‘‘good on his pine" and as 
quick as a yearling. Notwithstanding he is so 
generally excellent, as ahandler lie is most ex¬ 
traordinary, his skin being mellow aud unctu¬ 
ous, ulastic aud yielding to an extent that de¬ 
lights butchers and feeders, and all others of 
educated “ touch,” and this evidence of quality 
is hightened by bis silky and glossy coat of 
fine hair. Iu color he is almost entirely red 
with few white spots, as seen in the engraving. 
His blood on the dam's Bide is traced through 
the Lady Mary’s to Imported Rod Rose 2d, and 
thence back to Princess by Favorite. His sire 
was sold at Col. King’s sale in Chicago, May 
1874, for .fU,000, aud subsequently went to 
England. 
This noble animal stands at the head of Gen. 
Curtis’s flue herd which is rich in Prin¬ 
cess aud Duchess blood. 
worth $200 or $300but it can’t be done. An 
uninterrupted list of failures on the part of 
every farmer who has attempted it proves the 
truth of my assertion. 
I have, stated that for breeding, the best stock 
must be selected in order to insure success. In 
order to obtain really good stock high prices 
must be paid ; but the converse of this propo¬ 
sition is not always true—a really good animal 
is not always the result of having paid a high 
price therefor. It follows, therefore, that in 
selecting breediug stock a man must have BOmc 
stock education; he must know something 
about that particular animal; he must be able 
from his own personal judgment to examine 
the animal he wishes to purchase critically, to 
discover the weak points of the individual as 
well as the more perfect characteristics. The 
value of pedigrees must uot be ignored, 
if pedigree stock i6 what is to be bred. Tbe 
value of a pedigree animal depeuds very ma¬ 
terially upon certain desirable or undesirable 
crosses. A breeder should be thoroughly 
posted upon all the literature connected with 
the stock he breeds or intends to breed. There 
arc certain ammalB or families that make de¬ 
sirable aud valuable crosses. A man should 
have a certain well defined object in selecting 
breeding animals. The objeet he wishes to 
accomplish by breeding stock should be clearly 
defined in his own mind, and he Bhould select 
his stock with reference to that particular ob¬ 
ject. If a male is to be selected, he should be 
closely studied aud also the stock upon which 
he is to be used, and he should be selected with 
special reference to the object to be accom¬ 
plished by using that male upon that particular 
class of female stock. 
No farmer should be so insane as to use a 
grade or native male upon any stock with the 
object of improving it, no matter how inferior 
such stock may be or how perfect the male 
may be. The result of such a coarse will 
nearly always be that the progeny are of the 
same kind as their parents, or have advanced 
backwards. I have been frequently annoyed, 
when talking to my brother farmers, to have 
them point out for my inspection and commen¬ 
dation some miserably inferior scrub bull calf or 
to remain for u few days, and incalculable dam¬ 
age is done and the breeder becomes discour¬ 
aged. I can recall to mind numerous instances 
of just such failure. It may be a flock of thor¬ 
oughbred sheep that have been brought up to a 
perfect eoudition of quality and have been al¬ 
lowed to stray away, or some scrub ram of the 
scrubbiest character has been allowed access 
to them, and the labor of years has come to 
nothing. All these small things must be guard¬ 
ed against most jealously. Now, if you are 
breeding fine stock, you are at least breeding 
stock that is worth feeding and deserving of a 
comfortable shelter in inclement weather, and 
do not by any means keep stock that is not 
worth food and shelter. You can not afford to 
pay high prices for stock and starve them six 
months of tbe year and freeze them the other 
six. 
Does the breeding ot thoroughbred stock 
pay ? 1 answer yes; when conducted judi¬ 
ciously it pays well. There is no other branch 
of business that will return such large profits. 
Good males of the different breeds of sheep are 
always in demand for orossiug upon common 
stock. And raising pure-bred sheep foi this 
purpose is especially profitable. There is a 
growing demand for Ayrshire and Jersey 
stock for dairy purposes, and those who think 
they cannot afford to invest a large amount of 
capital in this branch of business, yet feel dis¬ 
posed to raise grade stock for their own use. 
This desire to improve farm stock will increase 
faster than the supply, and those who breed 
this class of stock for sale will find it easier to 
sell them, and prices will te much better than 
formerly. It seems to me that shrewd farmers 
will take advantage of this means of securing 
8ucee66 and wealth in their calling. 
St. Lawrence, Co., N. Y. • 
A Very Old Cow and n Great Breeder. 
A writer in the English Agricultural Ga¬ 
zette asks, “ Can any Short-horn breeder give 
evidence of a cow breeding until 38 years old, 
and having produced 31 calves, having had 
twins on two separate occasions ? Her whole 
family were proportionally leug-lived, the 
BREEDING PURE-BRED STOCK. 
F. K. MOREI.AND. 
Success in. breediug depends, first, 
upon shrewdness in selecting the best 
stock to breed from, aud, second, upon 
good judgment in feeding, and I may 
add right here that this “second” is a 
very important matter. A man with 
unlimited wealth may purchase a fine 
thoroughbred colt or a Short-hJrn or 
Jersey calf and pay therefor a fancy 
price, and after twelvemonths’ feeding 
turn out the veriest scrub ever bred on 
a dunghill. Such a man, were he a 
millionaire, could never become a suc¬ 
cessful breeder. Thousands of dollars 
are Invested year after year iu fancy 
stock, and judiciously invested, for 
which no adequate return is ever re¬ 
ceived, and the losers never learn that 
the fault lies wholly in their feeding or 
rather their lack of feeding. I have 
myself sold thoroughbred calves to far¬ 
mers at good prices and been deeply 
chagrined to have those calves fed on 
whey, thus not only ruining the stoek, 
fut injuring me much more thau it did the 
purchasers, for they lost only what they paid 
me, but I lost other customers who would 
probably have treated my stock in the same 
way—although I have grave doubts whether 
that was more Iosb thau gain. Farmers too 
often think that they can pay $50 for a ealf 
and let it feed at the same manger with calves 
worth only $5 per head, and thus rear a cow 
still good getters after 13 years old; but such 
are rare nowadays, owing entirely, we 
think, to their being so highly fsd and forced 
at an early age. If they were allowed to 
grow up more slowly and naturally, they 
would last years longer. 
A common, or what is called a scrub cow, 
belonging to Judge Payne, of Milan, Missouri, 
according to the St. Louis Journal of Agricul¬ 
ture, 14 years old, at nine calvings has dropped 
23 calves. If she keeps on at this rate a few 
years longer she will more than rival the 
English cow above, at least in the number of 
her calves, if not in years. One steer and 
three heifers dropped by this cow on the 26th 
of Juno 1876, weighed on the same day in 
June 1880, 1,700, 1,704, 1,574 and 1,536 pounds, 
altogether 6,514 pounds. In June 1878, the 
cow dropped three heifer calves, which them¬ 
selves calved before two years old, namely, in 
March, April and May 1880, and all have proved 
good milkers. 
In August of the present year, this same cow 
dropped four calves—one bull and three 
heifers. If any one can inform us of a cow 
that has equaled this at 14 years old, we 
shall be &lad to hear from him. 
Cloxe Breediug—questioning “ Stockman. 
In the Rural for Nov. 20th, page 768, 
in 
Notesby a '•Stockman," I notice the following: 
*' The great bugbear of farmers in this business 
is dose breeding. A farmer who was discus¬ 
sing this question with me recently, seemed 
to think what he called incestuous breeding 
of auimals was a crime, an unnatural and re¬ 
prehensible proceeding. I le had never heard 
or known how our best stock has been bred, 
and how closely the most successful breeders 
have kept to one blood Mr. Bates never hesi¬ 
tated to use the same bull on mother, daughter, 
and grand-daughter, when the animal suited 
him. This was bis great principle In breed¬ 
ing, and he once remarked that it was by 
keeping to this rule that his success had been 
entirely won." 
I suppose “Stockman" had reference to 
Thomas Bates, who bought his first Duchess 
of Mr. C. Collings, in 1S04, and 
a two-year-old heifer called Duch¬ 
ess 1st, of the same gentleman in 
1810, and probably this family was 
bred in the manner “Stockman" ad¬ 
vises; that is by close, or in-and-in. 
breeding to as great an extent as Mr. 
Bates ever bred fiom. Now, what I 
wi6h to ask “Stockman ” is this: if Mr. 
Bates was so successful iu his breed¬ 
ing, how many, and where are the 
descendants of Duchess of 1804, and 
of Duchess 1st of 1810, at this date? 
Will “ Stockman ” answer; then far¬ 
mers of the present time can judge 
whether or not there is as much success 
in close breeding as "Stockman" 
, seems to think, and whether Mr. 
Bates did prove that close breeding 
was productive of fine, healthy ani¬ 
mals, that were prolific breeders, or 
whether they have beeome nearly 
worthless for breeding purposes, iu 
consequence of such close breeding. 
Jonathan Tai.uott 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
BARON HILLHURST 22,028—From 
Life.—Fig. 446. 
buck lamb which was being reared for use 
upon the rest of the herd or flock. No possible 
success can attend such a course. Another 
prolific cause of failures with beginuers is this 
—they start all right and attend to their stoek 
intelligently for a few years, aud then they be¬ 
come careless, line fences become defective 
and some neighbor’s scrub bull gets in with 
the herd of Jerseys or Ayrshires and is suffered 
bulls being serviceable until 15 and 16 years 
old." 
The writer was talking of Hereford cattle, 
but whether he meaut to say that the above 
cow was of this breed, we are at a loss to de¬ 
termine. She is the most extraordinary cow 
we ever heard of. Wc have knowu Short¬ 
horn cows to breed well till past 20 years old, 
producing 15 to 17 calves each, the bulls being 
Some time ago I referred to the 
llamiltous of Kentncky, as the larges 
breeders of Short-horns in America, 
if not in the world. At a sale re¬ 
cently held in Kansas City these gentlemen 
sold 140 Short-horn calves at an average 
of $115 per head, a pretty large draft from one 
herd, and a pretty good price for calves. Aud 
yet, doubtless every purchaser will find his 
profit in his purchase. 
Old things become new. The old story cur¬ 
rent years ago about a heifer, which, having 
