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THE CULTIVATOR 
237 
—they diminish in size and firmness, and if much or high 
food is allowed, fat is started instead of muscle—or the 
vital organs are unable to resist the accumulation of 
poorly digested food, and weakness, prostration and 
disease ensue. During the season of covering, the vital 
system, on which is then the greatest drain, should be 
stimulated, and the exercise of the stallion should be 
much reduced. A stallion kept at hard work, and at 
the same time allowed to cover, is not sure, and what 
few colts he may get are weak and feeble, showing 
great deficiency in the size and power of their vital or¬ 
gans, and as a matter of course deficient in muscular 
energy. 
The reason why so many good horses are generally sent 
to market from Vermont, is found in the fact that stall¬ 
ions are treated as common farm horses, except during 
the season for mares. Their muscular system is fully 
developed by work, not mere exercise, but hard work, 
cluring the fall and winter, and the spring finds them ro¬ 
bust, hearty, and full of muscular power and vital energy. 
In “ Mason’s Farrier and Stud Book,” edited by Skin¬ 
ner, is a short essay™ u on the condition of a stallion”— 
worth, 'practically , more than all the rest of the work. 
It concludes in these words —“ Trainers find their endea¬ 
vors to produce the highest state of strength in an ani¬ 
mal, greatly impeded by any excitement of the sexual ap¬ 
petite. It is then the more necessary to keep the horse 
in a state of training throughout the year, impressing 
most forcibly, a tone of health and strength upon his sys¬ 
tem, at a time when his nerves are liable to the least dis¬ 
traction—never allowing such excess of service, or of the 
excitement of sexual appetite, as to induce a disturbance 
of spirit or temper, or a relapse from the most thorough¬ 
ly strong, healthy, and regular tone of the system.” 
Such has been the course generally pursued with “ Mor¬ 
gan” stallions; their docility and tractableness, caused 
by constant use, rendering them fit for ordinary labor, 
and more pleasant in the harness than most stallions. The 
blood of the Morgans at this time, amounts to but little 5 
strictly speaking, they are not entitled to a distinct fami¬ 
ly name. For from Mexico to Maine, I can show you 
“ Morgans” in form, size, color, and action, whose pro¬ 
genitors never saw Vermont ; and if you will pay a visit 
with me, some day, to Queen Victoria’s stables, I will 
show you there a stallion, thorough-bred, yet a “ Morgan, 
every inch of him.” 
Some persons are inclined to believe that everything of 
the horse kind in Vermont, of any value, is “ Morgan.” 
It is true that the Morgan name has great weight in some 
quarters, and is, I am ready to admit, entitled to a cer¬ 
tain quantum of respect. But the old Morgan is not the 
only stone in the foundation. Within the past forty or 
fifty years, there have stood in Vermont, among other 
stock horses, a colt of imported “ Magnum Bonum,” a 
get of “ Cock of the Rock,” a get of “Hamiltonian,” 
one of “ Post Boy’s” colts, one got by “ American 
Eclipse,” “ Long’s Henry,” now living, and owned in the 
state, and several descendants of “ Messenger,” and oth¬ 
er thorough-bred horses. 
These all have been, more or less, subjected to the 
same treatment, and have left stock worthy of their il¬ 
lustrious names. 
It is from a promiscuous mingling of such strains of 
blood, amid the pure waters, the sweet pastures, and the 
salubrious atmosphere of Vermont, that she has been en¬ 
abled to furnish so many good, (not to say “ Morgan,”) 
horses. J. Stowe, Vt.. May 10, 1852. 
Utility and Importance of Agricultural Surveys. 
By the way of furnishing a useful variety of practical 
information to the patrons of the Cultivator, I propose 
occasionally, to prepare a few brief sketches of portions 
of the country through which I have visited within the 
past four years, which will tend more fully to bring into 
notice the natural and artificial resources of those sec¬ 
tions I may from time to time describe. The agricultu¬ 
ral press has already done much in effecting this object, 
but a wide field is yet open for those who feel inclined to 
contribute useful facts for their fellow farmers, as a 
means of guiding them correctly in ther onward course 
of improvement. As I have taken a permanent stand at 
a point convenient to this city, as a matter of course, 
most of my descriptions will be confined to Southern and 
Eastern Iowa, Western Illinois, and Northern Missouri, 
as my recent, and probably future journeyings, have been, 
and will be, through those portions of country; but to 
show that I have not fully forgotten Ohio, I will confine 
my observations for a few moments, to a brief descrip¬ 
tion of the Sciota Valley. 
The Sciota Valley presents some important agricul¬ 
tural features and developments, that are worthy of be¬ 
ing understood by every votary of the plow; and I shall 
endeavor to give a bird’s-eye view of some of the promi¬ 
nent features of this interesting region, of what may in 
fairness be styled the first agricultural state in the Union. 
The ancient metropolis, Chilicothe, may be considered 
about in the center of the valley, taking into view the 
wide intervales that stretch along the river from its mouth, 
at Portsmouth, where it enters the Ohio, to the small 
branches at its source. The country lying between the 
Sciota and the Little Miami, some 40 miles in width, and 
nearly 150 in length, was originally a military tract, given 
to the patriots of Virginia, who aided in the achievement 
of the American Independence. 
This extensive tract of fertile lands, being parcelled out 
in large bodies, has given rise to a system of agriculture 
somewhat peculiar to itself, and which strikingly con¬ 
trasts with that of any other portion of the state. The 
descendants of “ the first families in Virginia,” upon their 
initiatory movements in pioneering a region of country 
distinguished for the number, power and industry, of the 
aboriginal tribes, found much to contend with; and after 
driving the red man of the forest from his almost bound¬ 
less plantations of maize, established a system of agricul¬ 
tural operations that highly comport with the vastness 
and grandeur of their domain. The intelligence and 
magnanimity of the Sciota farmers, are among the most 
striking features that distinguish them from those who 
occupy some other portions of the west; and farming, in¬ 
stead of being done in the snug, quiet way that is charac¬ 
teristic of the Yankee farmer, in the north-eastern range 
of counties, is prosecuted upon a large scale, which can 
only be comprehended by giving a specific, detailed de¬ 
scription. In no portion of this continent can an equal 
