302 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
ly insuring uniformity of defects, and making them, in 
the end, utterly worthless”! 
Among sheep, of breeds that may be called artificial, 
besides the Leicester, (originated by Bakewell, as be¬ 
fore shown from a mixture of several long-wooled 
breeds,) we have the Cotswolds, which are a cross of 
the Leicester and old Cotswold, and a sub-variety of the 
Cotswold called the Improved Oxfordshire, which have 
arisen within a few years chiefly through the agency of 
Mr. Large, of Broadweli, Oxfordshire. The celebrated 
Cheviot breed of Scotland is a mixture of the Leicester 
with the old Cheviot stock. Some experiments are now 
going on in England, in reference to crossing the South 
Downs and Hampshire Downs with the Leicesters and 
Cotswolds, and Mr. Twynham and Mr. Hilliard have 
flocks originated by crossing these breeds which have 
received many prizes and have been repeatedly com¬ 
mended in high terms. But as these may be consider¬ 
ed not fully “ established,’ 7 we only mention them. 
Of cattle, we have at least two esteemed breeds-— 
the Durham or Improved Short-Horn, and the Ayrshire, 
which according to the most authentic'accounts, were of 
mixed origin. 
Of swine, it may be safely said that we have not a 
single variety of any value that was not derived from a 
mixture of breeds. 
In dogs, the advantages of crossing have been not 
less remarkable than in the animals above mentioned. 
Several varieties now considered distinct were original¬ 
ly produced by intermixture. Youatt, in his work 
entitled ei The Bog/ 7 tells us that the Fox-hound is the 
old English hound u sufficiently crossed with the Grey¬ 
hound to give him lightness and speed without impair¬ 
ing his scent.” He tells us, also, that the Pointer u is 
evidently descended from the hound and that the Bull- 
Terrier is a cross between the Bull-dog and Terrier, 
and 11 is generally superior, both in appearance and va¬ 
lue, to either of its progenitors.” 
A cross between the Bull-dog and Greyhound, of 
which he gives an account, deserves special notice. 
“ Towards the close of the last century,” says Mr. Y., 
ec Lord Orford, a nobleman enthusiastically devoted to 
coursing, imagined, and rightly, that the greyhound of 
his day was deficient in courage and perseverance. He 
bethought himself how this could be best rectified, and 
he adopted a course which brought upon him much ri¬ 
dicule-at the time, but ultimately redounded to his cre¬ 
dit. He selected a bull-dog, one of the smooth, rat¬ 
tailed variety, and he crossed one of his greyhound bitch¬ 
es with him. He kept the female whelps, and crossed 
them with some of his fleetest dogs, and the conse¬ 
quence -was, that after the sixth or seventh generation, 
there was not a vestige left of the form of the bull-dog, 
but his courage and his indomitable perseverance re¬ 
mained; and having once started after his game, he did 
not relinquish it until he fell exhausted, or perhaps died. 
This cross is now almost universally adopted. It is one 
of the secrets in the breeding of the greyhound.” 
Mr. Youatt goes on to relate the exploits of a ce¬ 
lebrated bitch of this breed polled Czarina, which w T on 
forty-seven matches and wprs never beaten.* This same 
bitch commenced breeding in the thirteenth year of her 
age, and two of her progeny, Claret and Young Czari¬ 
na challenged the whole kingdom and won their match¬ 
es. Most of their progeny proved very fleet, some of 
them sold for a hundred guineas each, and their blood 
it is said, “ can now be traced in almost every good 
dog in the kingdom.” 
Of poultry, it is well known that several of the most 
* Lord Orford was so enthusiastically fond of coursing, that he 
insisted contrary to the wishes of his friends, on riding out to wit¬ 
ness the performance of his favorite bitch, though he was at the 
the time seriously ill. She won the stakes; but in the excitement 
and exultation at the moment of victory, Lord O. fell from his horse 
and almost immediately expired. 
noted varieties originated from crosses. Even the Dor¬ 
king fowl, which by some advocates of “pure ” breeding 
has been held in great estimation, was, many years 
ago, pronounced by Arthur Young, “a bastard 
breed,”* produced by a cross of the Malay and Poland 
or Hamburgh fowl. 
We trust our remarks will not be misunderstood; our 
main object has been to show that certain breeds of ani¬ 
mals have been produced by crossing. Other breeds—- 
such as the Devon, Hereford, Galloway and West High¬ 
land cattle, and the South Down and Merino sheep have 
been improved without any foreign admixture. The 
expediency of crossing must be determined by circum¬ 
stances; the breeder’s course must be adapted to th® 
materials at his command. Where animals of the de¬ 
sired form and properties can be found in the same 
breed, we should decidedly choose them for propaga¬ 
tion in preference to introducing alien blood. But the 
breeder should have a distinct and definite object in 
view, he should carefully consider the means of attain¬ 
ing it; and with the requisite facilities, his sucees will 
be proportionate to his judgment and attention. 
The Kerry Breed of Cows.—I here give an ac¬ 
count of the Kerry cows, as far as a short experience 
of the qualities of four of that breed, and the accounts 
I had previously heard of them, justifies me in offering 
an opinion. The yield of milk I consider to be quite 
equal in quality and quantity to that of an average Al¬ 
derney, which sort I have kept, and the Kerry posses¬ 
ses several advantages over that breed. In the first 
place a Kerry is very much cheaper to buy; secondly, 
it is much cheaper to keep, and with less risk, being 
much hardier in constitution, and capable of thriving on 
rough and scanty pasturage; thirdly, the meat is very 
much better, as the carcase of an old Alderney is little 
more than skin and bone; fourthly, the calf, if by a bull 
of a larger breed, such as a short-horn, is equal in size 
to that of an Alderney .—English Farmer's Herald . 
Compost Sheds. —Among the objects most worthy 
of our agriculturists’ attention, are compost sheds; a 
cemented pit, roofed in, with walls on three sides. In 
this kind of shed manure may be economically manu¬ 
factured, with as much industry and care as on a 
Flemish farm. These kinds of sheds are kept constant¬ 
ly filled with vegetable and animal refuse of all kinds, 
amongst which is mixed from time to time a bag of 
guano, to promote the decomposing fermentation; with 
the aid of liquid manure the mass is very soon convert¬ 
ed into a highly exciting compost, and conveyed away 
either for immediate application, or to be preserved in 
a casing of soil, if no crop or ground be ready to re¬ 
ceive it. Thus the manufacture is constantly going 
on, and guano, the most costly of imported fertilizers, 
is made to multiply its own peculiar properties to an 
incalculable amount.-— Ib. 
Top-Dressing for Grass-Lands. —Bones dissolved 
in muriatic acid, will be a good top-dressing for grass¬ 
lands. Boiled will be more easily dissolved than raw 
bones. They must be put in a vessel, wetted till they 
will take up no more water, and then have the acid 
poured over them.— Ib. 
THe Fruit Trade.— -The Patent Office Report for 
1847, states that the quantity of apples shipped from 
Oneida county, N. Y., (chiefly from four townships,) 
was ten thousand barrels in 1845, seven or eight thou¬ 
sand in 1846; and eighteen thousand in 1847. The 
most productive orchard, known as the Goodsell orchard, 
containing about six acres, yielded in 1845 more than 
one thousand barrels, which sold for over a thousand 
dollars. 
* “ Survey of Sussex.” 
