86 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
When land has been dressed with barn-yard manure, it may be made to 
yield a crop of grain or maize, and afterwards be sown with woad. 
The season for sowing the isatis varies much in different parts of Europe. 
In Italy, Corsica, Tuscany, &c. it is sown in the course of the month of No¬ 
vember. As it does not receive injury from the cold, it grows during the win¬ 
ter, and in March is sufficiently strong to overcome the weeds which usually 
make their appearance at that season. From the circumstance of its growing 
through the winter, it may be rendered a very important article of nourishment 
for horned cattle. 
In the south of France, woad is sown in March, and in England in February. 
In certain other countries it is sown after the corn harvests; but in this case, a 
season favorable to vegetation is required, and the practice of sowing at that 
time can only be followed advantageously in those climates where rains are 
certain, so that the cultivator may be able to gather two or three liarvest^of 
leaves before winter. His fields of woad will afford him pastures for his cattle 
during the frosts, and he is secure at the return of summer of an abundant har¬ 
vest of leaves. 
The seed of the isatis should be soaked in water previously to sowing, as 
germination will be hastened by it. The seed is sown broadcast, in the same 
quantity as wheat, and harrowed in. Ths blade shows itself at the end of 
ten or twelve days. As soon as the plants have thrown out five or six leaves, 
they must be carefully weeded, and this must be repeated several times before 
gathering the leaves. The design of the weeding is to remove all strange 
plants that may spring up in the same soil, especially the roots of bastard woad, 
(bourdaigne,) the mixture of which injures the coloring matter of the pure 
isatis; and to thin the rows of stalks, that those remaining may have more room 
to grow. 
The isatis, like other plants, has its diseases and its enemies. The leaves are 
frequently seen covered with yellow spots, which turn brown and acquire the 
appearance of rust; this seems to be accasioned by the sudden changes which 
sometimes occur in the atmosphere ; the rays of a hot sun darting immediately 
upon plants after a mist or rain, often produces a rustiness of the leaves and 
stalks. 
It often happens, that, in consequence of a great degree of heat acompani- 
ed by drought, the plants are not fully developed; the leaves acquire not more 
than one-third of their usual size, yet exhibit all the other characteristics of 
perfect maturity; the harvest, i.owever, is lost, for if the leaves be cut in that 
imperfect state, the plants either perish or languish without yielding any pro¬ 
duct. 
The isatis is not exempt from the ravages of insects; there is one called the 
flea, which often destroys the first and second harvests of leaves; another, 
known by the name of the louse, attacks the last leaves, but does less injury 
than the other, because the first harvests are the most important. The snail 
and the cabbage-worm likewise commit some depredations upon woad. 
THOUGHTS ON THE SELECTION, BREEDING, AND FATTENING 
FOR MARKET, OF NEAT OR HORNED CATTLE. 
(Extracted from a Communication in the New - York Farmer.) 
I have said, and I repeat it, with a view of impressing what I here advance, 
on the minds of husbandmen, that the interest of the drovers is amalgamated 
with that of the butchers, for whom the former buy, but differs widely from 
that of the farmer or feeder, as to the profits to be derived from cattle, when 
bought and sold by the weight, after being slaughtered, a circumstance very 
imperfectly understood by farmers, which I shall explain. 
In buying and selling by weight, there are two modes practised, as to weigh¬ 
ing, the one, that of sinking the offal, as it is termed, that is, weighing only the 
four quarters, or carcase, when dressed, without taking into account the weight 
of the hide and tallow. 
The other mode is termed weighing all round, that is, estimating in the ag¬ 
gregate the weight of beef, hide and tallow. 
The former mode (of sinking the offal,) is pursued in the city of New r -York, 
and some other large cities; the latter method is practised in country towns, 
and in the country generally. 
The hide and tallow are equal in weight to 20 per cent, or one-fifth of the 
whole weight of the animal after being slaughtered and dressed, when well 
fattened, but if very fat, somewhat more, and is sometimes absurdly called the 
fifth quartet'. 
It is to be observed, that the New-York butcher pays only for the weight of 
the four quarters; that is, the beef, or carcase, when dressed, and pockets the 
hide and tallow as clear profit of 20 per cent, even should he retail out the beef 
on his stall for the same sum that he paid, but he always has a further profit on 
it. Consequently, the lighter the beef weighs, for which he has to pay, and the 
heavier the tallow and hide, for which he pays nothing, the greater his profits, 
and the less those of the feeder. 
It is an established fact, well understood by medical men, as also by experi¬ 
enced and scientific feeders, that there is a certain pitch, beyond which the 
process of fattening cannot be carried, inasmuch as that the system or consti¬ 
tution of the animal, or organs of life, will admit of only a given quantity of 
fat or suet, whether deposited in the intestines, or mixed throughout the meat; 
consequently, the more the beef or flesh is interlarded with tat, the less re¬ 
mains to be attached to the intestines, or to add to the weight of what is term¬ 
ed the caul; and vice versa. 
It is beyond dispute, that those cattle whose flesh is intermixed, marble-like, 
with fat throughout, weigh heaviest when dressed in proportion to the dimen¬ 
sions of the carcase, the beef, owing to that circumstance, being full of nutri¬ 
tious matter; on the other hand, those whose flesh is void of this beautiful red 
and white, variegated mixture of fat and lean, whose meat cuts up red, and 
sometimes what is worse, of a dark color, resembling horse-flesh, technically 
called lyrey, weigh lighter in the carcase, or quarters when dressed, although 
they may have a larger proportionate weight of caul or gut-fat, or rough tal¬ 
low, in consequence of the fat being more externally ana abstractedly lodged 
in the intestines. I 
We will suppose that two oxen, when put up to fatten, weighed 800 pounds 
each, beef, hide and tallow included; the one, of that breed which was dispose 
ed to mix or marble the flesh throughout with fat—the other, one of those 
whose flesh did not become thus variegated, but continued, as before, red, be¬ 
ing merely coated on the out and inside with a portion of fat. These two 
c i f StS i S ^ a ^ s . to h-fed for six months, each having daily the same allowance 
of food in quantity, kind and quality, and in all respects be treated with the 
same attention. At the expiration of the six months, they are sold to a New- 
York butcher at, say $10 per cwt. slaughtered and weighed. Which do you 
suppose, reader, will give the greatest return to the feeder, for the given quantity 
of provender which each has consumed? The former, unquestionably—he 
W| U weigh much heavier in the beef, that is, the four quarters when dressed, 
he will have a less ratio of gut fat or rough tallow, and his hide will be thin¬ 
ner, and consequently lighter, than his competitor, he will probably have ar¬ 
rived at the gross weight of 1,300 lbs.—of which aggregate, his beef, when 
dressed, will weigh 1,000 lbs.; rough tallow or gut fat 200 lbs., hide 100 lbs. 
The other bullock, we will venture to say, will not in torn, come up to 1,200 
lbs., in the following proportions: beef, when dressed, about 850 lbs.; rough 
tallow 200 lbs.; hide 110 lbs.; making a total of 1,160 lbs. Now the city 
butcher, who pays only for the beef, gets, as it were, a clear profit of 200 lbs. 
of tallow, and 100 of hide, upon his payment in the one case of $100—where¬ 
as, in the other he obtains the like quantity of tallow with 20 lbs. more of hide, 
for only $85. It is true, he gets in the first case 100 lbs. the most beef, but 
this is by no means equal to $15—the difference in the cost of the two animals, 
equal to 15 per cent, which, at the same time, is the precise difference to the feed¬ 
er, in fattening the one or the other of these distinct breeds. But suppose the 
feeder, in place of selling to a city butcher, is situate remote from any large 
town, and disposes of his cattle for packing or barrelling, where the custom is 
to weigh “ all round,” as it is termed, taking into the estimate the gross weight 
of beef, hide and tallow ? The same argument here prevails, the aggregate 
weight of the ox which intermixes the flesh and suet being the greatest. This 
position may appear to rest upon naked assertion, but it is a theory well known 
to all cattle feeders of experience, that animals of this last description fatten 
most quickly and come to the greatest weight upon a given quantity of food. 
Let the breeder and feeder of cattle bear in mind, that all live stock are mere 
machines, made use of by the husbandman to convert provender into money, 
consequently that which produces the largest sum in return for a given quan¬ 
tity ol provender expended, is the best. Here, then, is the basis upon which 
the cattle dealer or farmer is to rest his choice. 
There are certain rules to be adhered to in this branch of the agriculturist’s 
pursuits, without a strict observance of which, he will waste his time and em¬ 
ploy his capital to little purpose, at all events, will never bring his stock to that 
excellence so much desired, and so easily to be attained. Numbers are not so 
much to be sought after, as a well chosen stock, proportioned to the means of 
support; a few, well attended to, will afford a surer, as well as a greater profit, 
than a large number worse fed, and occasionally neglected; for it is a maxim 
to be strictly observed, that condition gained, ought never to be lost, or even 
allowed in the least to recede. 
In making selection of a breeding stock, there are four qualifications to be 
minutely attended to; these may be considered the four points of perfection; 
1st. Beauty of form; 2d. Utility of form; 3d. Texture or grain of the flesh; 
4th. The fattening quality or propensity to become fat quickly, and at an 
early age. 
By beauty of form is meant that symmetry or due proportion throughout the 
frame which constitutes strength, agility and facility of movement, which, 
though much lobe desired, is not to be sought after,1o the exclusion or interfe¬ 
rence with what is termed utility of form, which the care and discernment of 
eminent breeders have constituted, by improving the principal parts, or prime 
cuts of the carcase, when offered for sale in the butcher’s stall, both as to quan¬ 
tity and quality, and on the same ratio decreasing the course and offal pans. 
Texture or grain of the flesh, is the difference between coarse open, or lyrey, 
or black flesh, and fine close grained meat, of a lively bright red color. 
The fattening quality, and the disposition to become quickly fat, and at an 
early age, is an indispensable requisite to the agriculturist; upon this qualifi¬ 
cation liis loss or gain, in a great measure, depends; and this so essentially re¬ 
quisite, is innate. ***** 
The writer then sums up the good qualities of the improved short¬ 
horns, in the following brief way:— 
“ The sliort-horned breed have been brought to a degree of perfection, sur¬ 
passing in beauty, utility and profit, all other cattle of the present day—yield¬ 
ing a larger supply of milk, feeding to greater weight, having a propensity to 
become fat at an early age, affording fine grained meat, beautifully intermixed 
with fat throughout, having thin hides, cairying their greatest weight in the 
hind quarters, and the choice pieces when cut up, yielding a just proportion of 
tallow, having small bones, with fine clean heads and light necks, void of that 
great coarse gullet and dew-lap generally the property of heavy cattle; afford¬ 
ing a less proportion of coarse meat of little value when exposed for sale on 
the butcher’s stall, and less offal, than any other breed.” 
SMOKY CHIMNEYS. 
To all who are acquainted with the nature and properties of elastic fluids it 
must be obvious, that the whole mystery of curing smoky chimneys, consists 
in finding out and removing the accidental causes which prevent the heated 
smoke from being forced up the chimney by the pressure of the cool or heavier 
air of the room. These causes are various; but that which will be found most 
commonly to operate is, the bad construction of the chimney in the neighbor¬ 
hood of the fireplace. “ The great fault,” says Count Rumlord, “of all the 
open fireplaces now in common use is, that they are much too large, or rather 
it is, the throat of the chimney, or the lower part of its open canal, in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the mantle, and immediately over the fire, which is too large.”— 
The following is a condensed view of some of the rules given on this subject. 
