4884 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
437 
single horse of the sort. Nothing has been 
said here about the beauty of the horse; his 
utility stands first and foremost. “Handsome 
is that handsome does.” One of the homeliest 
horses in my possession is one of the best in 
the stahle for general use. 
The breed which is best for farmers to raise, 
is determined easily by noting what kind of 
horse brings the most money. Always raise 
such as command the highest market price, 
and if it is necessary, on the score of economy, 
to make the most in every department of the 
farm, sell them. Should you need animals for 
home use, buy them and make money in the 
transaction. The general purpose horse is not 
the one that will bring the most money. The 
horse that brings the highest price at present 
must have one of these three requisites—speed, 
beauty, or size. 
When our boys shall receive lessous in hand¬ 
ling and caring for animals from instruc¬ 
tors who are really competent to stand before 
a class and show practically what are the good 
points and qualities of the noblest of all ani¬ 
mals and how they can be brought out and 
fully developed, then may wo hope to see on 
every farm what are so rarely found now, 
horses good for farm and road. 
Scott County, Iowa. 
ana tuey snowa sell at from four to six cents 
per pound. Natives would probably weigh 
from 00 to 100 pounds, and shear from three to 
four pounds of wool, while the giade will 
shear from eight to 12 pounds. In nmkiug 
the cross, we shall have secured an increase of 
from five to eight pounds on fleece, and from 
40 to 60 pounds on carcass, which would show 
a reasonable profit, besides paying the extra 
cost of the male. 
Sheep husbandry, like any other industry, 
must have the right mau nt the helm to be 
profitable. One must have a liking for it, and 
make it a study. Blood will tell and feed will 
tell, on© may take a flock of sheep and make 
them gaiu and pay, while another will lose by 
the operation. 
Breed well, feed well, and then sell well; 
there is profit, in so doing, there is loss in the 
reverse. 
Sauk Couuty, VVis 
fraud last Fall, shows that these lying eivcu 
lars. etc , have been sent to friends of ours in 
at least 11 State* and two Territories in this 
country and to three provlucos in Canada. 
There is not on this Continent a more bare¬ 
faced swindle that is allowed publicly to prac¬ 
tice its wiles than this New Brunswick scheme, 
which is carried on by a' rogue who skipped 
across the line from Maine as soon as the Post- 
office black-listed such frauds in the United 
States, and undertook to punish their con¬ 
ductors for using the U. S. mails for fraudu¬ 
lent. purposes. Of course, these circulars, etc., 
must have boon sent, to us to tell us of the per¬ 
sistent activity of the swindlers, for we have 
already denounced them bo often and so hearti¬ 
ly, that uone of our readers could be ignorant 
of their uefnrious character. 
The Buckeye Gdden Butter Compound, 
price HI a box, holds half an ounce of crude 
mixture of common soda and alum, each 
worth 10 cents per pound in the markets. It 
is colored with a little organic dye. 
PRIZE ESSAYS.— Class VI 
HORSES—FARM AND ROAD; THE BEST FOR 
THE FARMER’S DSE, 
E. A. LYNDE, 
“.Tack of all Trades and Master of none” 
is applied to persons who pursue a variety of 
callings. The farmer's horse, or a general- 
purpose animal, is the “Jack” among bis class. 
The number of things he is able to do well can 
hardly be enumerated. He is equally useful 
attached to the plow, harrow, seeder, planter, 
roller, reaper, thrasher, or farm wagon. Ho 
has drawn the farm products to market, and 
the family to various social gatherings, and 
the children have had many a happy ride on 
bis back. The owner has used him where- 
ever his labor was available, and has ever 
found him to give satisfaction. Can such an 
animal be described ? Hardly with the pen. 
From a drove of three year old colts I would 
select a “Jack” about as follows: I would turn 
out those heavy fellows: some one in the city 
needs them for heavy traffic; I would also 
turn out those light chaps; they are more use¬ 
ful for quick and light work on the road. 
Now there remain animals of medium size; 
weighing from WOO to 1,000 pounds.it is rea¬ 
sonable to expect that when these have at¬ 
tained the age of five or six years, and are in 
working trim, their average weight will be 
from 1,150 to 1,200 pounds. 
Now, as a great many ills are developed 
during the time of breakiug and bringing the 
animal up to his full usefulues, iti* important 
that he should be carefully examined to see 
that he is well made. Hoofs, as compared 
with the size of the animal, should he small; 
the pasterns rather short; from the fetlock to 
the knee and hock short; from the knee and 
hock upward to the joiuts above should be 
long, showing an abundance of muscle—not 
fat—at the upper part; the shoulders should 
have a medium slant; tho withers and breast 
should not be thick; the breast-bone some¬ 
what prominent; the hack, from the withers 
to tho loins, very short; the barrel round; 
from the loins and hack of the hips let every 
part be large and full; neck long, rather than 
short, and on top straight front withers to 
where the head joins. Thu head—I cannot tell 
exactly where horse sense is located, but can 
suy that an intelligent horse is as superior 
among horses as an intelligent man is among 
men, and that a horse without sense, however 
perfect iu other respects, cannot be made a 
good furut unimal, any more than a man 
without seuse can be made a good farmer. 
Tho bead should he clear cut in every part¬ 
icular; nostrils thin and flexible; the head 
should he so joined to neck and so shaped that, 
whether tho nose is held far from or near the 
breast, breathing is not interfered with. The 
eye should he full and prominent; the ears have 
a good width between them and be nearly par¬ 
allel to each other when held in like position. 
The farmer’s horse should he quick in move¬ 
ment, but not continuously in motion. 
As the children are sent to school, because 
youth is the age at which knowledge can be 
acquired with ease and rapidity, so with the 
“Jack that is to be one of the moat important 
factors on the farm. The colt, at three years 
of age, should begin to earn its living; then, 
with proper usage and training, he will pay 
his way until five years, and then he fit to be¬ 
come profitable to his owner. What can thi* 
animal do at the age of five, if he has been 
properly cared for and trained! Briefly, he 
will haul a load equal to hia own weight, on 
a suitable vehicle, 12 miles in three hours; this 
is his walking gait. The same ground will be 
covered iu a light wagon containing the family 
in two hours, and can he gone over readily in 
an hour, when it become* necessary to call the 
doctor. A pair of farm horses, as used in the 
PRIZE ESSAY— Class VII 
SHEEP—THE BEST BREEDS, AND HOW BEST TO 
FEED AND CARE FOR THEM. 
8. A. BELTON 
Geo. Eaton is the name under which a "saw¬ 
dust swindler” is sending a large number of 
ciieulars through the mails to persons in 
different parts of the country, hut especially 
in tho West. On visiting the address ho gives 
in East 16th Street, thi* city, we found that he 
had hired one of a number of letter hoxe* to 
1st iu a little tobacco store. Like all of his 
stripe, be protests vehemently his fidelity and 
friendship; puffs the extraordinary excellence 
or hia “groon leaf articled-counterfeit 
greenback*—and, with child like innoceuco 
declares he “ will have full coufidonce” In hia 
prospective dupe, ir the latter returns the 
"letter”—a printed circular—with which ho 
trie* to beguile him. ‘ 
“ So true as there Isa God 
are some of the <- 
barefaced scoundrel seeks to 
denae of his intsuded victims. 
MAGAZINES 
The magazines for July have almost ri¬ 
valed them selves. They are teeming with the 
most excellent reading, anil the engraviugs 
are done in the highest style of art and taste. 
Uarper’h Mauazink is a mirror of the 
summer world. Its opening article transports 
its readers to the Nile. Dr. Moritz Busch takes 
them to Prince Bismarck’s country seat, his 
Pomeranian home; William Black has brought 
his heroine, Judith Shakespeare, to tho summer 
fields of Avon, which is charmingly described 
iu a picture by Mr. Abbey; E. P. Roe has 
brought his story again to the hanks of the 
Hudson while it hoars its summer beauty. The 
“Summer Resorts of the St. Lawrence,” by 
Annie Howells Frdchette; stories by Frank 
R. Stockton and Miss Mary E. Wilkins; 11 
full pago engravings, wit.li the usual Easy 
Chair, Literary Record, etc. 
The Century has for a frontispiece a full- 
length portrait of John Bright. The leading 
article is 1 ‘Recent Architecture in America,’’ 
by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, very finely 
illustrated; followed by a poem, “Nine Graves 
in Ediubro’,” by Irwin Russell. The article by 
Julian Hawthorne, entitled “Scenes of Haw¬ 
thorne’s Romance,” is filled with most charm¬ 
ing illustrations. “ Catalina’s Betrothal,” 
“Lady Berherlna," Chapter?.; “TheKu-Klux- 
Rlnn, It* Origin, Growth and Disbandment;” 
“Tho U. S. Pension Office,” are some of the 
contents of this number, with Topics of the 
Times, Open Letters, and Brio-a Brae. 
The Manhattan opens with a very fine en¬ 
graving of Lord DufTeriu, from a photograph, 
and has a well written article upon his life by 
J. L. Whittle. “Fair Verona," an illustrated 
article, by J. W. Davis; “ Riverside Park,” by 
Martha J. Lamb. Also articles and poems, 
by Frank Vincent, Jr., Thomas S. Collier, 
Laura Lodyard Pope, J. Parker Norris, and 
many others. 
remote from markets, where wool only is 
sought, the fine-wools are the most suitable 
breeds. They are extremely hardy, and yield 
a larger amount of wool per head thau the 
coarse-wools, which sells for more money. But if 
one is li ring in a thickly settled country, where 
mutton is the first object and wool secondary, 
then keep the coarse-wools, of which there 
are several different breeds, viz., Leicester, 
Lincoln, South Down, Shropshire and Cots- 
wold. The South Down and Shropshire grow 
medium wool, while that of the Cotswoid is 
the coarsest. As iu the case of all other kinds 
of stock, a grade will satisfy the demands of 
an ordinary farmer better than a thor¬ 
oughbred; a cross of native ewes, with 
thoroughbred males is to he preferred. 
’Tis mutton we are after first, and in 
my experience the cross or the Cotswoid on 
native stock produces the required re¬ 
sult*. We can procure a supply of native 
ewes at from *2 50 to $3 per head, and a 
thoroughbred Cotswoid buck should not cost 
more thau $15 to $20. Ho must ho young 
and of large but compact franio, with a thick 
neck and large limbs, and he should ho well 
woolod, especially on the belly, and have a 
good forelock and pedigree, if a yearling, 25 
ewes are a sufficient number, and double 
that number, if a two year-old. The buck 
should uot be allowed with the owes till about 
the first of December, unless one has extra fa¬ 
cilities for caring for the Jambs. 
So much for our flock; now we must pro¬ 
vide separate sholtor and yard, as poor results 
always follow where sheep aud other stuck 
yard together. The stable may be of logs, a 
straw shed, or a frame building-: the main 
On my Solemn Oath;’’ 
” “Before Heaven,” 
expressions with which the 
- .j win the confl- 
Of course, tho 
name given i* false; of course the fellow will 
never send any counterfeit mouey— he is far 
too Bhrewd to incur the risk of arrest for 
doing so—and, of course, in many cases he will 
ultimately swindle whoever may be foolish 
and knavish enough to correspond with him. 
O. W. D., Fort Madison, la.—We do not 
know any publication named Home Cheer. 
Good Cheer Is probably meant, and that is 
published by Mr. Watsi.u, Greenfield, Conn., 
an enterprisiug man. The credit of tho 
Shouluger Organ Co., of Now Haven, Conn., 
is “ very good.” 
We warn our friends against the Michigan 
Loan and Publishing Co., who are advertising 
to lend money at 3>; per cent. 
A. Perez says ho is in jail iu Havana, Cuba, 
for stealing $237,600 in hank notes and $11,000 
iu gold from the Spanish National Bank, of 
which he was treasurer. With this “ swag" 
he fled to the United States, and on learning 
that a private detective was after him, he 
buried his plunder, and next day was arrested 
and sent back to Havana, where he was de¬ 
prived of all his “equipage, including hia 
trunk,” aud straightway incarcerated. Ho 
is now writing from his “prison” to utter 
strangers in the Unitod States, offering them 
one-third of the buried treasures, whose exact 
location lie thoroughly remembers—on what 
conditions? None are mentioned in the first 
letters sent, but doubtless a cash advance will 
be asked for from any oue foolish enough to 
answer the first missive. We have no extra¬ 
dition treaty with Spain, so Perez could not 
have been surrendered to one of her depend¬ 
encies; but granting that such a thief was 
taken back, it is certain that the fellow who 
writes over his name is not the Him on Pure 
whom the prison authorities would not allow to 
“negotiate” with outsiders with regard to his 
“plunder." If therein a real Perez 
BOOKS, 
rogue in jail, 
another rogue outside tho prison walls is seek 
ing to swindle “Gringoos” in the name of the 
imprisoned rascal. 
To various inquirers:—We do not recom¬ 
mend the Argosy Publishing Company of this 
city. 
Dr. Wei De Meyer’s specific for catarrh is a 
nostrum widely advertised a3 an infallible 
cure. ’ It is put up in small boxes having 
two compartments, containing powders which 
are to be used alternately. Both boxes bold 
about a quarter of an ounce, and both contain 
merely common soda, worth one-fifth of a 
cent. We hare seen the stuff advertised for 
50 cents and $1 per box! 
“Rough on Rats” is merely common white 
arsenic, slightly colored, and there would be a 
profit in it at 15 cents a pound l 
