AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST 
[January, 
ao 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
■Drawn from Life and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
BULL BEACON COMET.- 
of the foreign breeds than we have. We are 
fast becoming mutton-eaters, and would con¬ 
sume much more were that sold in our markets 
worthy the name of mutton. We can produce 
fat, but meat is what is wanted. Thin Leices¬ 
ter or Cotswold mutton is not inviting, and 
when fat it is not desirable. Yet we have pro¬ 
duced some very fair grades of these varieties 
upon common native sheep in which there is 
some merino blood, w T hick have made very 
passable mutton. We think it is unquestion¬ 
able that within reach of the great Eastern 
meat markets it would pay farmers to devote 
their attention to producing a class of sheep 
which should give a carcass of 100 pounds 
without being overloaded with fat, instead of 
the wretched mutton which now mostly comes 
to market weighing about 10 or 12 pounds or 
less per quarter. Grades of the English 
Downs—South-Downs, Hampshire and Shrop¬ 
shire Downs—sheep with black or smutty 
faces and hardy constitutions, with medium 
wool closely packed upon the body and im¬ 
penetrable by rain or snow, and therefore 
affording that protection the want of which in 
the long-wool sheep is a serious and a damag¬ 
ing objection to them; and, most important of 
all, producing a sweet-flavOred, juicy, and ac¬ 
ceptable mutton. These are the sheep which 
furnish the best foundation upon which to 
build up a race of American sheep able to live 
upon our comparatively scanty pastures and 
withstand our summer heats and winter colds. 
But whatever race of sheep our farmers select 
as the basis of their flocks, we can never pro¬ 
duce highly-flavored mutton nor full-fleshed 
-Property op Wm. Crozier, Esq.- 
sheep without the aid of roots and crops of 
rape, tares, and clover for forage. Corn will 
make fat, but not meat, nor does it make an 
even stapled, sound, or lustrous wool; and 
in endeavoring to raise sheep upon dry, bare 
pastures and com is precisely where we fail. 
Polled Cattle Herd-Book. 
The breeders of Norfolk and Suffolk red 
polled cattle in England, we read, recently met 
for the purpose of establishing a herd-book for 
that class of stock. *A standard description 
was agreed upon, a committee of revision was 
appointed, and it was resolved to ask the assent 
of the various agricultural associations and 
cattle clubs to the standard adopted. This 
standard is as follows: A superior animal must 
be of a deep red, with udders of the same 
color; nose not dark or cloudy; tail may be 
white at the tip. Form: a neat head and 
throat; a full eye; a tuft of hair or crest should 
hang over the poll; the frontal bones should 
contract somewhat above the eyes and termi¬ 
nate in a narrow • prominence at the poll or 
summit of the head. An imperfect standard 
includes those having the belly or the udder 
white, but no semblance of a horn can be ad¬ 
mitted. Animals answering to this standard, 
which were in existence on January 1st, 1873, 
may be entered in the first issue of the herd- 
book. This, then, is the way in which an 
English herd-book is proposed to be estab¬ 
lished. The necessity for any inquiry into the 
history of the animals to be entered seems to 
be ignored. Thus an accidental polled animal, 
if of the right color, may gain entry, although 
its sire or dam may have been horned. ¥e 
have raised exactly such an animal as would 
have met every requirement of a superior 
polled cow mentioned in this standard, whose 
sire was a grade Shorthorn and whose dam was 
a black native cow. Such a cow, it seems, 
would be admitted into this herd-book as a 
thorough-bred red polled cow without question. 
As we have a direct interest in this matter, 
growing out of probable importations of this 
stock into the United States, we caution our 
farmers to put no faith in such a registry as 
this, and not to be led into supposing that an 
imported herd-book red polled cow or bull 
will mean any more than a red, hornless animal. 
Beacon Comet 8th. 
The above engraving is a portrait from life 
of the fine young Jersey bull “ Beacon Comet 
8 th,” the property of Mr. Wm. Crozier of 
Beacon Stock Farm, Northport, L. I. He is a 
descendant of Beacon Comet, and inherits the 
good qualities of his sire in a remarkable degree. 
One of his most striking peculiarities is his 
I marking, which consists of beautiful dappled 
spots placed very symmetrically in almost reg¬ 
ular lines from his back down his sides. His 
skin is very fine and mellow, and his handling is 
especially good. For want of space wo. arc 
obliged to give some items relating to his his¬ 
tory and performances in our “Basket” col¬ 
umns, to which we refer our readers. 
