AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
TTai-rri, Garden, arid Honseliold. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AN1> MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.” —Washington. 
oKAJiCiis jrui>® & co.,) ESTABLISHED IN 1842. ( $1 - 50 PER ANNUM » ™ advance. 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. > \ SINGLE NUMBER, 15 CENTS. 
Office, 245 BROADWAY. ) Published also iu German at $1.50 a Year. ( 4 Coi>iesfor $5 1 lOfor $12 ; 20ormore, $leach. 
Entered accordin'* to Act of Congress in December, 1867, by Orange Jodd & Co., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. 
THE ARTIST’S PETS .—Prom a Painting BY Sir Edwin Landseer ,—Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
This successful representation on wood of 
one of Landseer’s famous pictures, will give 
pleasure to many of our readers. Even those 
who constitutionally hate dogs, will admire the 
faithful portrayal of the animals. Few dispute 
with Landseer the palm, which all England 
awards to him, as the first living animal painter. 
We have in the picture the artist’s table, with 
pencils and crayons, stump, and bit of bread for 
erasures, (which last has attracted that frequent 
denizen of artists’ studios, a mouse,) the silken¬ 
haired poodle, and the gigantic mastiff. Aside 
from the beauty of the picture, and its interest [ 
as exhibiting two of this artist’s own dogs—it is 
instructive, as showing also to what an astonish¬ 
ing degree a natural species of animals may vary 
under the influence of food and surroundings. 
In horses we see a great variety in a single 
species, varying in size from the great draught 
horses of 1,600 pounds weight to ponies which 
a man can lift. The varieties of neat cattle ex¬ 
tend from the ponderous Short-horns to the little 
Brittanys andKerrys of one-third their weight. 
In dogs, however, there are still more wonder¬ 
ful differences. The smooth skinned monster, 
standing perhaps 34 inches high to the shoulder, 
and weighing 150 pounds, and his little com¬ 
panion, so covered wdtli its silky fleece as to 
completely hide its slender form, and weighing 
5 or 6 pounds at most, are fitting examples of 
the extent to which the physical characters of 
animals are under the control of man, for it is 
only among such as are subjected to the in¬ 
fluences of civilization that these astonishing va¬ 
riations occur. While a few, like the dog, adapt 
themselves to changes of climate and food, and 
become domesticated, others can only be preserv¬ 
ed alive by imitating the conditions to which 
they are accustomed in their native country. 
