170 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
rough-bred hacks ” which are shown about the country, 
and which, though they have, he admits, “ some degree 
of showiness,are nevertheless quite unfit to go through 
with only a very moderate share of fatigue, with a weight 
of twelve stone, [168 lbs.] on their backs;” and he adds 
that in all probability, many of them might be purchased 
at the close of the season, “ for a less sum than the first 
cost of begetting them.” 
Prof. Low, in his “ Illustrations,” speaks directly to 
this point. He says —“ It is difficult to institute a pre¬ 
cise comparison between the horses of a former age and 
those of the present day; but it is the opinion of the 
most careful observers, that the present breed of race 
horses has for a period past been tending to become 
small, long-limbed, delicate in constitution, and accord¬ 
ingly inferior to the elder horses of the turf.” 
Of a similar character is the testimony of a corres¬ 
pondent of “ Bell’s Life in London’’ 1845:) 
;; The English race horse is an animal of which all 
classes of our countrymen are justly proud; but at the 
same time it may be doubted whether the great and nu.- 
merous prizes now offered to speed, without much re¬ 
gard to stoutness do not produce results injurious to the 
country; and I wish to call the attention of your read¬ 
ers, who comprise most of the sporting public,) to the 
present state of our horses. The Arabian blood, by its 
mixture with ours, has long since attained to a won¬ 
derful degree of perfection; and racing having been at 
an early period enrolled among our national amusements, 
the attention of the most wealthy among us has been 
directed, to race horses, and tfr the, breeding of them with 
the utmost possible speed. Formerly horses had to run 
four miles at high weights; now it is a course of a mile 
and a half, with light weights, to try to approximate 
to the speed of steam. One attempt has been made to 
stem the torrent, by the race instituted some years ago 
by the Duke of Portland, but it was against the fashion, 
and it was given up; and if any one objects that such a 
race is more cruef and more distressing to horses than a 
short one, I say he can know but little of racing, for 
horses differ much more in stoutness than in speed; and 
as you lengthen the course you do away with the keen¬ 
ness of the contest, which is what causes the distress, 
and this in fact is the very reason why the B. C. [Bea¬ 
con coitrse, which is 4 miles, 1 furlong, and 138 yards 
round,]^is unpopular. A leggy animal, with a long 
stride is worth more now than he was in the days of our 
fathers; this I say is entirely wrong and mischievous. 
Then, as to another point—no regard is paid to sound 
and lasting legs and feet for mares or stallions; these 
points would be carefully looked to for a riding horse, 
but when it comes to breeding a more valuable animal, 
the breeder says, ‘ Oh, the colt will come out well at 
two years old, and win me a few good stakes, and that 
will do, never mind his legs.’ Then again, what care¬ 
lessness there is as to size and power, especially as to 
the dam; on these points, stoutness, soundness, and 
power, I say, most wonderful indifference is daily shown, 
as any man will see who looks through thorough bred 
studs, in nine cases out of ten. Let him go to Tatter- 
sail’s and almost all the thorough breds he sees sold will 
be thin long-legged colts, (most of them chestnuts,) 
with slight and upright pasterns, and small round fet¬ 
locks. What on earth are they good for ? a Welsh 
pony would kill three or four of them in a coster¬ 
monger’s cart. Then we expect to sell our thorough¬ 
breds to foreigners, but they will not buy small lame 
cats; they buy nothing but the very best sort we 
have. In short, whether for use at home, or as mer¬ 
chandise to go abroad, we ought to be more particular 
jn the shape, size, and soundness of sires and dams of 
horses, than the Short-Horn breeders are as to their cat¬ 
tle; and whereas, most of us, on the contrary, trust to 
blood, and think of little else. I have addressed you 
June, 
long ago on this subject, but I do so again because I 
think it one of great and national importance; and be¬ 
cause I see the evil growing daily. There would be 
much less expense and much less disappointment, if one 
colt was bred from a sire and dam of true form and 
soundness, than if six were bred at random, with the 
hope of one turning up a trump. Again, & is not near 
so easy now as it used to be to buy a good, Strong, 
young hunter. And steam is in some measure the 
cause of this, for an old fashioned, compact, active, 
coaching mare, when her work was over, bred a good 
hunter by a lengthy thorough-bred horse; now, the de¬ 
mand for the machiner is nearly gone, and the animal is 
very scarce. In the want, then, of this middle class; 
from which to recruit the patrician blood of our Sultans, 
&c., we have an additional motive to be careful about 
strength and size in thedatter. I have been bitten by 
thorough-breds when younger, but I think of them now, 
that though a large and powerful thorough-bred is the 
finest form of a horse, bring me them at random, and I 
will engage three out of four will be irredeemable rips.” 
In my next I shall adduce the testimony of our own 
countrymen, in relation to this subject. Equus. 
Cultivation of Onions.—John W. Proctor, Esq., 
of Mass., states in the Boston Cultivator, that there are 
three individuals in his neighborhood, each of whom pro¬ 
duces annually from two thousand to three thousand 
bushels of onions. They, in some instances, rent the 
land at from $6 to $10 per acre, and the average pro¬ 
duct is 300 bushels per acre. He says the onions, when 
ready for market, are worth $100 more than the rent of 
the land and the cost of the manure, leaving this sum 
as the compensation of the labor applied.” He does not 
give the price of the onions per bush., but we have lately 
seen it stated that the average in that neighborhood is 
thirty-seven and a half cents per bushel. The same land 
is continued in onions several years in succession. Mr. 
P. states that some lots have borne this crop every year 
for ten years, without afty depreciation in yield. “ Mus¬ 
cle-bed ” and leached ashes are much used for manure. 
Great pains are taken in the preparation of the soil, 
particularly to have the top well pulverized. The seed 
is sowm with great accuracy by a machine, and strict 
attention is given to keeping the crop clear of w T eeds. 
It is calculated that one man and two boys of the ages 
of 12 to 16 years will manage ten acres. Mr. P. says 
he knows of several individuals wdio commenced this 
business at the age of twenty-one, and have pursued it 
for a dozen years or more, have brought up respectable 
families, and are»now worth comfortable estates. 
Improved Implements. —In the report for the 
county of Champaign, published by the Ohio Board of 
Agriculture, it is said—“ Hussy’s reaping machine, 
worked by horse power, was introduced in this county 
during the past harvest, and some two or three hun¬ 
dred acres of wdieat cut with it. It cuts the grain 
without waste, and leaves a short even stubble. It 
employs nine men and four horses to work it, and cuts 
upon an average 12 to 15 acres per day. The mam 
who sits on the machine, to pass the grain off the 
platform, works very hard, and to great disadvantage, 
from the position in which he is obliged to sit. Ma¬ 
chines are now being made in Urbana, our county 
town, to order, by a machinist wdio promises to make 
them so that they wdll pass oft’ the grain to the binders 
for any size sheaf that may be desired, thus superseding 
the necessity of a man on the machine for that pur¬ 
pose. Improved threshing machines, wffiereby the 
grain is threshed and cleaned by one operation, at the 
same cost per bushel as was formerly paid for thresh¬ 
ing alone, are now in pretty general use in this county. 
The wheat-drill was used by several of our farmers last 
fall, for the first time.” 
