166 
THU CULTIVATOR. 
_ EXTRACTS. _ 
[From the Maine Farmer .] 
RULES FOR SELECTING SHEEP AND BEASTS. 
Mr. Holmes— The exhibition of the various kinds of stock at the late 
cattle show at Winthrop, is the surest evidence of the increasing interest 
in our farmers to improve their qualities: and much praise is due to the 
trustees of the Kennebec Co. Ag. Society, for premiums offered by them; 
as these premiums had their share in producing great exertions to pro¬ 
mote the views of the society. 
Six lots were entered for the premiums offered by the society; “ on the 
best lot of lambs, not less than four in number, from any cross, forming 
a breed, which shall unite in the greatest degree those qualities which 
shall produce wool and mutton, in the most profitable manner.” The 
first premium was awarded to Mr. J. W. Hains, “ for four lambs of the 
same breed as those exhibited by Mr. Vaughan,” and the second premium 
to myself, for “ four lambs from ewes of my mixed breed, sired by a full 
blood South Down buck.” 
These different experiments, if repeated and varied, must result in se¬ 
curing to our country the most profitable breed of sheep, and well suited 
to domestic use. Breeds that will unite in the best shape, good consti¬ 
tutions, good breeders, and a superior disposition to fatten on the least 
food. 
Notwithstanding the royal patronage of George the third, who import¬ 
ed a flock of merinos from Spain, there are very few merino flocks in 
England. The fine wool, for the manufacture of the finest cloth, is ob¬ 
tained through importations. The improvement in the breeds in Eng¬ 
land, has been made by the crossing of the various kinds already in the 
country, and in the judgment used in selecting the kinds for these crosses. 
Mr. Bakewell, who has deservedly the reputation of having arrived at the 
greatest perfection, by selecting the proper animals to cross with the 
Leicester breed of sheep, has given to the heavy fleeces of combing wool, 
mutton of a superior quality. Out of 16 different breeds, classed accord¬ 
ing to quality, the Dishley breed stands No. 1, in the class of combing 
wool, and the South Down is No. 1, in the class of shearing wool. The 
merino is the last on the list.* 
I shall now proceed to the first object I had in view in making this com¬ 
munication. It was to furnish the rules, used by Mr. Bakewell, and the 
most eminent breeders, which enables them to make their selections of 
the most profitable animals. The extracts which I offer are taken from 
Young’s Annals, and may remove the difficulty of deciding on the quali¬ 
fy of mutton in sheep, without the use of the “ knife ” or the “ cook,” as 
expressed by the committee on sheep, in the report on the various lots of 
lambs offered for the premiums. 
These extracts will clearly show that Arthur Young, Bakewell, and 
other eminent breeders, did not use the sense of taste, but trusted to the 
use of the two senses of seeing and feeling, and more particularly the 
latter. 
Though this article has a reference to sheep, yet as the same general 
principles apply equally to cattle and sheep, those points described as es¬ 
sential in beasts, we give here. 
Mr. A. Young, in a tour through some of the agricultural counties, vi¬ 
sited Mr. Bakewell and explains, 
1. “ The general principles, which guided Mr. Bakewell, in breeding 
a beast or sheep for the butcher, and at the same time explains his own 
stock, which is in the highest perfection, when examined with an eye to 
these principles. 
“ In all his exertions, his aim was to obtain that breed, which with a 
given amount of food, will give the most profitable meat, that in which 
the proportion of the useful meat to the quantity of offal is the greatest. 
2. “ Points of the beast. On this plan the points are those where the 
valuable joints lie, the rump, the hip, the back, the ribs, and after these 
the flank; but the belly, shoulder, neck, legs and head should be light, 
for if a beast has a disposition to fatten, and be heavy in these, it will be 
found a deduction from the more valuable points. A beast’s back should 
be square, flat, and straight, or if there is any rising it should be from a 
disposition to fatten, and swell about the rump and hip bones, and the 
belly should be quite straight, for if it swells it shows weight in a bad 
point. He prefers to have the carcass well made, and showing a dispo¬ 
sition to fatten in the valuable points. So far on seeing. 
3. “Feeling. Mr. Bakewell, to judge whether a beast has the right 
disposition to fatten, examines by feeling. His friend, Mr. Culley, who 
has had an infinite number of beasts go through his hands, agrees entirely 
with Mr. Bakewell in this circumstance, and when with him in Norfolk 
and Suffolk, was surprised to find lean bullocks and sheep were always 
bought there by the eye only. So absolutely necessary is the hand in 
choosing either, that they both agreed, that if they must trust to the eye 
in the light, or to the hand in the dark, they would not hesitate a mo- 
* The maturity of the different breeds, and age for the butcher, ought to be 
noticed. The Dishley, South Down and Teesvvater wethers are fit for the 
butcher in two years, 3 of the 16 at 2j years;—of the others, 2 at 3.1 years, 
and 6 in 4J years. The merino in the list is not graded for mutton. 
ment in preferring the latter. The form of the bone in sheep is quite hid¬ 
den, it is the hand alone that can tell whether the back is flat and broad, 
and free from ridge in the back-bone; or can examine correctly, if the 
other points are as they should be. The disposition to fatten is disco¬ 
vered only by feeling. 
“ Speaking of sheep particularly, the points to examine are the same 
as in an ox. Flatness, breadth of back, a spreading barrel carcas3, with 
flat belly, and by no means curved and hanging. The essential is the 
carcass, and a disposition to fatten in the carcass, and perhaps to have the 
least tallow on the sides.” 
In a comparison between the Norfolk breed and South Down, it is the 
opinion of John Vise, butcher to Eton college, that “ with respect to pro¬ 
fit to the feeder, if they are fed entirely with grass, and upon good land, 
my opinion is decidedly in favor of the South Down; or if they eat tur¬ 
nips in winter, and after that are kept two or three months on grass in the 
spring, it is the same. But if they are kept fat against winter and are to 
be completed on turnips, the Norfolk is more profitable that the South 
Down.” On this, Arthur Young remarks, that the profit here spoken of 
must be to the grazier and butcher, but not to the breeder, consequently 
is not so good to the public in general. 
It is time to close, though much valuable matter remains to be noticed; 
I hope what extracts are given, will be found useful. 
CHS. VAUGHAN. 
ECONOMY IN FEEDING. 
There is, perhaps, no department in the business of agriculture so little 
attended to in this country as that of economy in the feeding of stock, and 
none which requires more attention. It has been demonstrated time af¬ 
ter time that the mere bruising of oats, or corn, or the cutting of hay, 
adds fully one-third to their value as food: that is, that one-third less in 
quantity of either will answer. That this is the fact we have no doubt, 
and have long been surprised that so few persons, owners of stock, adopt¬ 
ed this mode of feeding. No one who has watched with a discriminating 
eye the effects of feeding animals with whole grain but must have ob¬ 
served the fact that a large portion comes from them precisely in the 
same condition it was received by them into theiy stomachs. The rea¬ 
son of this is obvious: their stomachs have become so enfeebled, by be¬ 
ing long used to unbruised grain, corn, or oats, as to be unable to digest 
the regular portions of these substances daily given them. This fact alone 
should bring about a reformation, as it is calculated to convince any one 
capable of drawing just deductions from well established principles, that 
all food which is voided in an undigested state, so far from having done 
any good, must have been the cause of much positive harm, as all bodies 
which lie in the stomach in that condition, are so many sources of irrita¬ 
tion, derangement, and disease. But there is another view, which we 
do not recollect to have seen enforced—it is this: that by crushing or 
bruising all grain food given to cattle, the manure will be the more valua¬ 
ble. How often do we see a piece of ground which has been manured 
from the horse stable so covered with oats as to induce the belief in a 
stranger that oats had absolutely been sown, when in fact they had 
sprung from undigested grains which had passed through the horses. 
The trouble which such foul manure imposes upon the husbandman we 
need not mention, as sad experience has made every one intimate with 
it. If then one-third in quantity of grain can be saved; if that fed is more 
nutritious, if the manure made from it is cleaner and better, why should 
farmers and planters hesitate a moment? Why do they not at once aban¬ 
don a practice so replete with evil? We leave the solution of these ques¬ 
tions to those interested, and shall proceed to another branch of our pre¬ 
sent business. 
What is the best food for horses in winter, economy considered? 
Before we reply to this question we will premise, that we may set it 
down as a safe calculation, that the average yield of oats and corn through¬ 
out the United States is not more than 25 bushels to the acre. There 
are, to be sure, many districts of country in which there are numerous 
instances of quantities far above this produced upon an acre of ground; 
but then when we speak of the average for the whole country, we con¬ 
sider it would be unsafe to go beyond the quantity have named. In 25 
bushels of grain there 200 gallons, and as the usual quantity given to a 
horse at a meal is one gallon, and he is fed three times a day, 25 bushels, 
or the product of one acre, will be 66§ days. Now let us see how stands 
the account with carrots. An acre of carrots planted on sandy loam well 
manured, say 20 double cart loads of short manure, if properly tended, 
that is thinned to the distance of 4 inches in the rows, and weeded and 
worked three times, will yield 300 bushels, and as there are 1,200 pecks 
in that quantity, and 3 pecks will sustain a horse a day, so will 1,200 
pecks sustain him 400 days, or 4 horses 100 days, or 5 horses SO days. 
The advantage of such product for winter feed we think so obvious as not 
to require further illustration. Every farmer knows that there are long 
periods of time during the winter months when the horses on, a farm do 
but little work, and during these periods carrots are just as good for them 
as either oats or corn, and require but little more trouble in their prepa¬ 
ration, for if they be not very large the horses will consume them with¬ 
out cutting, so that all they require is washing, a labor which can be per- 
