THE CULTIVATOR. 
or Alderney breed have been imported into this country. 
R. L. Colt, Esq. of Paterson> N. J., has a fine one, 
purchased of Col. LeCobteur, which has been shown 
at the fairs of the N. Y. State Ag. Society; Mr. J. A. 
Taintor, of Hartford, Ct., has two, selected by him¬ 
self in Jersey; Frs. Botch, Esq. of Morris, Otsego 
county, N. Y., has lately imported one; Mr. Peter 
Lawson, of Dracut, Mass., imported several, within the 
past few years, for himself, and for the Trustees of the 
Massachusetts Ag. Society, and other gentlemen in the 
vicinity of Boston. They are spoken of in high terms 
by those who have seen them. 
Docking [Lambs. 
In the July number of the Cultivator, S. W. Jewett 
has given what he calls a safe method of docking lambs. 
It is simply this: “ Slit down the skin lengthwise, about 
about an inch. The artery, if in a lamb, will be seen 
the size of common knitting-needle. Draw a thread 
of waxed linen or silk under the artery, with the common 
straight needle, or one a little crooked at the point is 
better. Tie up tight before you cut off the tail; which 
you will sever just below the knot. This is all done 
very easily, and with very little loss of blood. You 
may sprinkle a little dust or pulverized alumn on the 
wound to advantage.? 5 
Now I have no doubt that this is all very easily done 
by Mr. Jewett, or any other person who chooses, but is 
it so easy for the poor lamb to suffer it. But since Mr. 
Jewett has given his method of cutting off lambs tails, if 
he would give his reasons for so doing, and the advan¬ 
tages arising from it, I would be very thankful. 
For my part, I am opposed to docking any animal, 
and sheep in particular, and I will give some of my 
reasons for it. The first is this, a long tailed sheep is 
of some advantage to the wool-grower, on account of 
the wool on it. And in the second place, it is of great 
advantage to the sheep, especially when flies are plenty. 
And in the third place, a long tail looks better than 
a short one. And in the fourth place, I think docking 
is a very barbarous practice, and one I hope will be soon 
be abandoned. A Farmer. Alleghany Co., Pa. 
The State Fair at Saratoga Springs. 
The recent State Fair was held under peculiar dis¬ 
advantages, independently of the difficulties of its po¬ 
sition from the center of travel. The frequent heavy 
and continued showers, greatly retarded the necessary 
preparations, some of which, as a matter of necessity 
from this cause, remained unfinished on the arrival of the 
appointed time, and the same cause deterred a larger 
number of exhibitors from forwarding articles of exhi¬ 
bition. In spite of these disadvantages, however, some 
departments of the show r came fully up to those of any 
former state fail', and in some respects exceeded previous 
ones. The uniform excellence of the animals was remar¬ 
ked by all, not only in the large number of fine native, 
grade, and high-bred specimens, but also the high per¬ 
fection which some of these high-bred animals had been 
made to reach. . Without in the least degree disparag¬ 
ing the many exhibitors who showed eminent skill as 
breeders, and in their selections, we cannot omit to give 
special commendation to the large collection of cattle, 
sheep and swine, which were brought to the grounds 
by L. G. Morris, the President of the Society; and 
which, we think, taken for its extent and high merit-, 
has never been equalled by any one individual on any 
former occasion. In the department of horses, likewise, 
a feature of extraordinary interest was furnished in 
the large and beautiful collection of the descendants of 
the celebrated Black Hawk, which was altogether su¬ 
perior to anything of the kind in the show of this breed 
of horses that has ever taken place in the state. 
The exhibition of fruits was of a very high character, 
although very deficient arrangements were made for 
their display. The mechanical and domestic depart¬ 
ments were quite limited. 
Before proceeding to notice the separate objects, it is 
due to the officers of the Society to express special com¬ 
mendation for the selection of a very fine piece of 
ground, covered in part with a grove, and of so dry a 
soil that not the least inconvenience was experienced 
from the enormous quantity of rain that had lately 
fallen ; and also for the ample and comfortable provi¬ 
sion made for the animals, in the long and well ar¬ 
ranged sheds erected for this purpose. 
Cattle. —The display was marked with more uni 
form excellence than we remember to have seen on any 
previous occasion, and fewer poor animals. Among the 
Durhams, the fine animals from Lewis Gr. Morris and 
N. J. Becar, held a very conspicuous place for their 
merit and large number, and included several im¬ 
ported animals of great excellence. There were also 
many fine animals from a considerable number of other 
exhibitors. E. P. Prentice of Albany, had a beau¬ 
tiful collection of Ayrshires, and E. Corning, Jr., of 
Albany, and Remington & Bowen of Cayuga county, 
the best Herefords. A large and fine exhibition of 
Devons was made by S. H. Colby, and Remington & 
Bowen of Cayuga county. Gr. Vail of Troy, A. Ste¬ 
vens of Genesee, W. P. & C. S. Wainright of Dutch¬ 
ess county, and J. H. Caswell of Otsego; and conspi¬ 
cuous among the whole were the fine animals of this 
breed from L. G. Morris. 
We observed a beautiful and symmetrical pair of 
three year old steers, and also an unusually fine yoke 
of five year old oxen, from George Sheldon of Sen- 
nett, Cayuga county, both a fine deep Devon red. The 
best ten yoke was from E. & H. Sheldon of the same 
place. Fine grade cattle were shown by 0. How¬ 
land of Cayuga county, and by others. 
Swine. —The exhibition was small, but contained 
animals of great excellence, among which the beauti¬ 
ful Suffolks, and the Essex and Berkshire animals from 
L. G. Morris, attracted great attention. 
The Sheep were numerous, and many of them of 
great merit. E. Gazley of Dutchess county, exhibited 
a very superior imported Oxfordshire ram, said to weigh 
about 400 lbs. A very fine exhibition of Leieesters was 
made by Hungerford & Brodie of Jefferson county; 
some excellent animals were presented by J. A. & D. 
W. Rathbun of Springfield, Otsego county, and by se¬ 
veral others. The show of Southdowns from L. G. Mor¬ 
ris, Z. B. Wakeman, and others, was of the highest 
character, and great eagerness was shown by the crowd 
to see the extraordinary Southdown ram recently pro¬ 
cured from the flock of Jonas Webb, by L. G. Morris, 
and which we have already noticed in a former num¬ 
ber of, this journal. Greene & Pease, West Corn¬ 
wall, i^t., exhibited about fifty French Merinos, which 
attracted much attention. F. W. Dean, of the same 
town, had twenty-five Spanish Merinos, and George 
Campbell of Westminster West, Vt., had pens of Si¬ 
lesian Merinos and their crosses. Among the exhibitors 
of fine wool sheep in this State, were Joseph Has- 
well, of Rensselaer connty, 0. W. Hull, of New Leb¬ 
anon, very fine Saxons, and Peleg Weeden, of Pres¬ 
ton Hollow, full and half blood French Merinos. 
There was a fine display of Poultry ; the largest 
and best exhibitors of which were J. T. Andrew of 
West Cornwall, Ct., D. P. Newell of Rochester, and 
Wm. H. Southwick of New-Baltimore—the latter we 
regarded as a particularly choice assortment. Most of 
the collections were quite miscellaneous in their char- 
