VOL. XLYII. NO. 2003. NEW YORK, JUNE 16, 1888. 
fEntered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.) 
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THE COLLIE DOG. 
A lthough the dog was probably the first 
o£ all animals domesticated by man, 
and although the two have always been in¬ 
timately associated, mauy insist that on sum¬ 
ming up the advantages and disadvantages 
of the canine race to the human, the balance 
is largely against the former. There is no 
doubt that this is the case with regard to 
sheep-owners. In this country alone the 
annual losses of sheep incuri’ed through the 
worrying of dogs must be considerably over 
75,000 head, and the loss is rendered all the 
more aggravating by the consideration that 
the great bulk of it is caused by miserable 
curs and mongrels, which while of no use to 
their owners are a curse to the community. 
Of all the multitudinous breeds of dogs, 
the only one of use to the shepherd is the sheep 
dog. There are several breeds or straius of 
this race in different countries, each of which 
considers its own the best. Probably the 
most ancient and widely diffused is the Span¬ 
ish sheep dog, the largest, most savage and 
powerful of the race. 
In appearance he 
somewhat resembles 
the.Alpine spaniel or 
Bernardiue dog—the 
trusty animal for¬ 
merly employed by 
the monks of St. 
Bernard in rescuing 
travelers among the 
snow storms and ava¬ 
lanches of the Alps. 
So strong and fero¬ 
cious are these that 
one of them can al¬ 
ways master a wolf, 
and dogs of any other 
race rash enough to 
attack the flocks un¬ 
der their charge are 
certain of defeat and 
death. 
The Mexican sheep 
dog is doubtless a de¬ 
scendant of the 
Spanish, and so, no 
doubt, are the vari- 
ous strains found 
among the South 
American States. In¬ 
troduced at the time 
of the Conquest or 
shortly thereafter, 
these have differen- 
tiated considerably 
from the parent 
stock while still re¬ 
taining its chief char¬ 
acteristics — unsoci¬ 
ability, ferocity, 
great strength and 
fierce fidelity in pro¬ 
tecting the flocks in 
their chai - ge. In educating the Mexi¬ 
can pups a few of the strongest, healthi¬ 
est and finest-looking ai’e selected from the 
litter and put to suck a ewe which has first 
been deprived of her own lamb. She soon 
becomes accustomed to the appearance of 
the intruders and learns to look on them with 
maternal affection. For the first few days 
they ai - e kept in a hut, the ewe suckling them 
morning and evening only. Then they run 
with her for some time in a small inclosure, 
and finally they are folded with the whole 
flock for a fortnight or so, and then run per¬ 
manently with the sheep, which after a time 
become so accustomed to them as to be able 
to distinguish them from other dogs, even 
from those of the same litter which have been 
nursed elsewhere. After the pups are weaned 
they never leave the drove among which they 
were reared and in protecting which they are 
at all times ready to die. 
The Hungarian sheep dog is commonly 
white, though sometimes inclined to a reddish- 
brown, and is almost the size of a Newfound¬ 
land dog. Their sharp noses, erect ears 
shaggy coats and bushy tails give them the 
appearance of a wolf, and except towards 
their masters they are extremely savage. 
The French shepherd dog is of medium 
size, has sharp straight ears, hair of a dark, 
color, thickest and longest on the tail, which 
is usually carried horizontally. They are 
very indifferent to caresses, but are vigilant, 
active and faithful in the care of their flocks. 
The English sheep dog, known also as the 
drover’s or butcher’s dog, is a stout, chunky, 
tailless animal. It is larger, fleeter and 
stronger than the collie, though not so well 
known or highly prized by the general pub¬ 
lic. It is a general-purpose farm dog, good 
for driving cattle as well as herding sheep. 
It is intelligent, easily trained and faithful, 
but its merits are much transcended in public 
repining. The sagacity of the dog is wonder¬ 
ful and multitudinous are the instances re¬ 
corded of his intelligence, perseverance and 
fidelity. All the breeds of sheep dogs are un¬ 
usually intelligent in everything that relates 
to their own special business, and indeed, in 
most other matters also. Their care for sheep 
appears to be to a great extent instinctive— 
the tendency increasing through generations 
of faithful guardians. While it takes a great 
deal of time and trouble to instruct other dogs 
for the purposes for which they are destined, 
comparatively little training is needed for 
sheep dogs. Some training, however, is al¬ 
ways required. Indeed in some places collies are 
taught by vicious characters to prey on the 
flocks which they usually protect, and in such 
cases sheep have no more destructive canine 
enemies,as their great activity and the keenness 
of their bite produce great slaughter. It is 
also a mistake to suppose that even a well 
trained sheep dog will be able at once to man¬ 
age a strange flock. The sheep must become 
accustomed to the dog—they must learn that 
he is a friend and guardian instead of a hered- 
Fi 
189. 
( r 
AAj'V- 
THE 
COLLIE DOG. 
>->• 
estimation by those of the Scotch collie. 
Among English-speaking people, the collie is 
the favorite sheep dog, and he certainly de¬ 
serves the high estimation in which he is held. 
When his business is to mind and manage a flock 
of sheep and not to defend them against ani¬ 
mals larger and stronger than himself,he has no 
superior and scarcely an equal. Light, active, 
sagacious, a single shepherd and his dog, in 
the original home of the latter, will, we are 
assured by the famous “Ettrich Shepherd,” 
James Hogg, accomplish more in gathering 
a flock of sheep on a Highland farm than 20 
shepherds could do without dogs. 
Neither hunger, fatigue nor the worst treat¬ 
ment will drive him from his master’s side, the 
shepherd poet tells us, and he will follow him 
through every hardship without murmur o 1 ' 
itary enemy from which instinct teaches them 
to fly. 
THE SCAB OF POTATOES. 
W. L. DEVEREAUX. 
Remarks on blemished tubers called “ scabby ” 
potatoes; the wire-worms not the only de¬ 
spoilers; the beneficial ground beetles im¬ 
plicated; discussion on their herbivor¬ 
ous habits. 
PART i. 
Although the potato beetle and the blight 
or rot are to be considered the most damaging 
enemies of the potato, there are still many 
other destroyers and defliers of the crop, and 
not the least is that mixed despoiler, causing 
the well-known scabby, mangy condition of 
tubers. Really this is the chief fault or blem¬ 
ish on market potatoes, and where car-loads of 
potatoes are standing on the track, as in New 
York and other marts, a quick comparison 
can be made between lots in which none are 
incrusted or scabby and those in which there 
are many of them. Potatoes placed in mar¬ 
ket, among which there are some scabby tu¬ 
bers, can never be graded as No. 1, and some 
localities never send in car-loads which can be 
graded as the “best,” because they are not 
sorted for smooth ones, and an abundance of 
smooth tubers are not produced. To account 
for this defect of the potato several conflicting 
theories have been started, each having some 
facts to support it. 
The injury is either of insect or of fungous 
origin. If of insect in the beginning, then we 
have fungi as secondary feeders and insur¬ 
ers preventing a healthy healing of the peel, 
and producing that spongy conspicuous scab. 
If a species of fungus 
began the attack— 
that is if the disease 
is of fungous origin 
—then we have to 
regard insects as hav¬ 
ing nothing to do 
with it, except in so 
far as a few mites 
and dipterous larvae 
are drawn there by 
the growing fungi; 
for we can see with 
the naked eye that 
there are fungi grow¬ 
ing on the scab of a 
freshly unearthed 
tuber as appears by 
the white and blue 
tinges of color. 
Formerly, I believ¬ 
ed the whole trouble 
came from fungous 
growths, but it ap¬ 
pears that of the 
numerous fungi 
found on the potato 
most of them are only 
such as follow a pre¬ 
vious injury or dis¬ 
organization of tis¬ 
sues, as is the case 
with various moulds 
and many bacteria. 
Of course, the aggres¬ 
sive parasitic “pota¬ 
to rot.”—Peronospo- 
ra infestans,—c a n 
have nothing to do 
with it, nor is it the 
work of the form of 
an Ascomycetes fun¬ 
gus called Fusis- 
porium solani. Moreover, nearly the 
whole number of reports given in 
the R. N.-Y. of late years indicate that 
the injury is done by insects. The Rural has 
charged the injury to the wire-worm—the 
many-legged wire-worm, a myriapod. Others 
have laid the blame on the true wire-worm— 
the larva of an Elater. The latter does not pro¬ 
duce a shallow or superficial cavity, but makes 
a deep burrow, and it cannot be considered 
the frequent cause of scab in potatoes. The 
white grub eats out deep cavities also, but the 
many-legged wire-worm does nibble out small 
patches of the peel and some of the underly¬ 
ing tissue, leaving an eroded-like spot, which 
is sufficient to bring about an encrusted scale 
of dry, decayed material, and mould, espe¬ 
cially on potatoes lying in the ground for 
