THE CULTIVATOR. 
157 
“ BEAT THIS IF YOU CAN. ’ —Fie. 83. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker—I concluded the few 
remarks I appended to the portrait of the heifer “ Onei¬ 
da,” by reference to a sketch m my portfolio, made 
some time since from a large lubberly animal, whose 
owner considered him the “ne plus ultra” of calves. I 
now send you the portrait on the block, ready for Mr. 
Pease, and if he does me as much justice as he did in 
cutting the bull “Dallimore,” I shall be satisfied. I 
was originally induced to make the drawing to oblige 
the gentleman who bred this young giant, and after¬ 
wards preserved it, because it so well illustrated a 'par¬ 
ticular “point,” which I considered almost inseparable 
from certain other general form and qualities, of all 
which this calf was an excellent illustration. 
His head was round, short and vulgar : the neck heavy, 
and shanks coarse ; the points of the shoulders large 
and projecting; the blade bone thick and laying out 
full; the crops low, with a deep hollow behind the 
shoulder; the body very long, and, as is then too common¬ 
ly the case, not ribbed-up close ; the hind quarters short, 
the rumps low, the buttocks large and round, the flank 
thin, and the hind leg rather crooked; joints big, and 
hair harsh, but it was red, with but few white marks 
about him. Here was size enough, and he claimed to 
weigh 614 lbs. at six months old ; still I considered it in 
an unprofitable shape, for with that particular form I 
had usually found the following qualities:—an iron con¬ 
stitution, a hard muscular covering of flesh interspersed 
with very little fat, a thick hide, poor handling, slow 
feeding and no proof.* Such animals preserve a certain 
amount of muscle under the hardest usage, and add but 
little of value to it with the most generous feeding; you 
find them “ always fleshy but never fat;” it may there¬ 
fore be readily conceived, that in the starved herd of 
the niggard, who calculates, as a matter of course, to 
“ tail up” his cattle in the spring, that, such a descrip¬ 
tion of beast would be invaluable from the mere fact 
that he can “ get up alone ;” but in the yard of the 
farmer, who from both humanity and interest, feeds a 
sufficiency of hay to his stock, he will be found a most 
greedy and profitless consumer. 
I will now ask the attention of the Short Horn breed¬ 
ers to this said point, before alluded to—which, meet it 
where I will, my experience and observation has led me 
to view with much jealousy, nor is my distrust laid to 
rest, by either pedigree or pretension, however high or 
however conclusive these may appear to the minds of 
others. I allude to the “ os-sacrum” when it forms an 
uneven line, in continuation of the back and loin, just 
before the setting on of the tail; for with this peculia¬ 
rity, small as it may seem, most or all of the other cha¬ 
racteristics, as seen in the drawing, will be combined in 
a greater or lesser degree. On examination, this bone in 
the present instance, will be found to be somewhat rising 
as well as uneven and short, which obliges the tail to 
spring from a point nearer the loin, thus shortening the 
hind quarter ; the bone at the point of the rump will al¬ 
so be found large, round and bare of flesh, as though the 
skin were stretched tightly over it; and when in ordi¬ 
nary condition, it is without a particle of that soft in¬ 
terposing fatty substance, so indicative of a kindly feed¬ 
er and good handler ; and yet I must confess I have 
seen it in American animals claiming to be of the 
* Proof is a butcher’s term used to express the amount of 
tallow obtained from an animal. 
purest Herd Book family, and for which liberal prices 
have been paid. I am, however, inclined to believe that 
this particular form, together with the big buttocks, re¬ 
sulted from the earlier crosses of the Yorkshire and 
Holderness blood, and does not belong to the more im¬ 
proved animal of the present day. 
But to return to the question of sizes. I am aware 
that the prejudice in favor of great productions is very 
strong with the agriculturist, and that numerous in¬ 
stances may arise at once to his mind, where great ex¬ 
cellence and great size are combined ; these I must beg 
leave to consider as the exceptions; the rule being, in 
my opinion, that a monstrous calf makes a coarse, un¬ 
profitable animal, long in arriving at maturity, slow in 
feeding, and carryjng great offal. In these views I am 
the more confirmed by the experience of others, as I 
observe that in nearly every case of improvements, the 
size of the original breed has been reduced; it would 
therefore seem as though early maturity, beauty of 
symmetry, reduction of offal, and rapid growth has only 
been attained by diminution of superficial size. 
Bakewell, in producing his celebrated breed of sheep, 
diminished the size of the Leicester's; and I believe the 
subsequent improvements made on the Lincoln, Cots- 
wold, and other long woolled sheep, by the Dishley cross, 
resulted in a more compact animal, though often times 
more reduced in apparent size than in the actual weight 
of meat. The improvement of the “ long horns,” by the 
same breeder resulted in the same attendant circum¬ 
stances ; and the “ New Leceisteror Cravens” occupied 
less space than the old breed. Colling did likewise 
when he made improvements on the Teeswater and pro¬ 
duced the “ Alloy.” And I have been informed by a 
very intelligent observer, who is well acquainted with 
the subject, that, when lately on a visit to Thomas 
Bates, Esq. of Kirkleavington, (who has perhaps more 
fully carried out Mr. Colling’s principles of breeding 
than any other individual,) he found nothing at first 
particularly striking in Mr. Bates’ herd of Short Horns! 
—on the contrary he even thought them deficient in size 
and wanting in attraction! but on a closer examination, 
their excellencies grew upon him; they were just in all 
their proportions, their symmetry so perfect, their sub¬ 
stance so great, with such compactness of form, and 
shortness of leg, that they proved to be large animals 
in a small compass; and my friend’s eye, soon becom¬ 
ing corrected as to their true size, rested with increas¬ 
ing admiration on the herd before him ; nor did he long¬ 
er wonder at the successful exhibition of this stock at 
the great Oxford meeting in 1839, when it beat the best 
short horn herds in England. 
In speaking of the course of Mr. Bates’ breeding, I 
would not be misunderstood ; for that gentleman was 
not the copyist but the contemporary of Mr. Colling, 
with whom he lived on terms of friendly intercourse ; 
and as breeders, they indulged a free interchange of 
views and opinions. It was not, therefore, surprising 
that they arrived at the same conclusions, pursued the 
same means, and aimed at the same results. Those who 
feel an interest in these subjects will find much that is 
curious and instructive in a close examination of Mr. 
Bates’ course of breeding; which may be done by re¬ 
ference to the Herd Book, and by a little subsequent ar¬ 
rangement of the materials he will there find—such an in¬ 
vestigation is the better worth pursuing since the awards 
of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1839, have borne 
such ample testimony to its success. Those who make this 
analysis may have to ackowledge that“ close breeding 
in competent hands is the acme of the science, whereas 
it is the ruin of the novice, or indeed of any but the 
most experienced and skillful. R. 
Butternuts, Otsego co. Aug. 19, 1840. 
ADVANTAGES OF DRAINING. 
W. Gaylord, Esq.—D ear Sir—Yours of the 23d 
ult. is received, and in answer to your inquiries* respect¬ 
ing the piece of land to which you allude, I would say, 
that the field contains seven and a hall' acres, which pre¬ 
vious to the year 1837, was never plowed, and was so 
wet as to be useless, except for pasturage, and on almost 
one-half of it the grass was wild, coarse water grass, 
which no animal would eat, except for a short time in 
the spring. The soil, a sandy loam, resting on a stra¬ 
tum of gravel and pebbles, cemented together by clay, 
the whole being impervious to water. The ground 
springy so much so, that in the early part of the year, 
a little exertion of a man when standing on it, would 
shake the ground for yards around. To reclaim this 
ground, in the summer of 1837,1 caused about two hun¬ 
dred rods of stone underdrain to be made on it, at an ex¬ 
pense of about fifty cents per rod. The drains were 
made loo wide, consequently it cost more to dig and 
fill them, than it otherwise would. The drains were so 
placed as to cut off the springs before they broke out on 
the surface, or as an Englishman would say, “ they were 
cut between the wet and the dry.” The drains were 
dug from two to three feet deep, and stoned by laying 
first a row on each side of the bottom of the ditch, leav¬ 
ing a space of about four inches between them, for the 
passage of water ; then capped by laying a larger stone 
on the top, and for these cap stones I prefer cobbles, as 
they prevent the side stones from being pressed or fall¬ 
ing together ; then filled in with smaller stones, until the 
top of the stones were within twelve inches of the top 
of the ground; then put on a small sprinkling of straw, 
just sufficient to prevent the earth falling among the 
stones—more than this I consider injurious, as it fur¬ 
nishes a harbor for mice; then filled in the earth until 
it was raised somewhat higher than the original or ad¬ 
joining surface. 
In the spring of 1838, I gave the field one plowing, 
sowed four acres with barley, (it should have been 
planted,) planted two acres with potatoes, one-half 
acre with corn, and one acre with ruta baga, (this acre 
plowed twice,) all without manure. The produce of 
this first year was about 100 bushels of barley, 600 
bushels of potatoes, 20 bushels of corn, and 600 bush¬ 
els of ruta baga. 
In the spring of 1839, I gave it one plowing, and sow¬ 
ed seven acres with Italian Spring Wheat, and the re¬ 
maining half acre with Whitington Wheat. The lat¬ 
ter proved a total failure, from the fact that the Whi¬ 
tington, in this country at least, proves to be a variety 
of winter, and not a variety of spring wheat, as was 
supposed. The Italian grew very large, was lodg¬ 
ed badly, and consequently was somewhat shrunk. The 
part sown after barley was much inferior to that sown 
after the planted crops. The wheat was deposited in 
my barn with the produce of other fields, consequently 
I cannot give the quantity except by estimation, but I 
should not greatly err in rating the product at fifteen 
bushels per acre. 
Last spring, (1840,) I covered the ground with wheat 
straw, and plowed it under ; a man following the plow, 
and with a fork placing the straw in the furrow—har¬ 
rowed thoroughly, and planted with corn, (except three 
tows of potatoes around the field,) three and a half 
feet each way. The corn and potatoes have been hoed 
twice, and the crop you have seen. I will only add, it 
has gained much in appearance since you saw it. 
Underdraining, I consider one of the greatest improve¬ 
ments in modern farming ; for without it, wet land can¬ 
not be cultivated profitably, because tillage crops can¬ 
not be obtained; consequently a rotation of crops can¬ 
not be practiced; and clover, that great fertilizer of the 
earth, that which fills the fields of the farmer with fat 
cattle and his barns with hay, and the earth with ma¬ 
nure, will not flourish. But in order that underdraining 
may have the desired effect, it must be properly per¬ 
formed. And the greatest skill is required to know 
where to dig the ditch, for one drain properly placed, is 
of more service than many improperly situated. On 
this point, I know of no better general rule “ than to 
dig between the wet and the dry by which I mean, cut 
off’ the springs before they break out on the surface of 
the earth. Where the wild uncultivated grasses spring 
up, there is an excess of moisture, which needs an un¬ 
derdrain to correct the humidity and consequent cold¬ 
ness. 
As to the depth, I would never have them less than 
two feet, and would generally prefer to have them deep¬ 
er. The Avidth should be graduated to the size of the 
stones used for filling, as large stones require a Avider 
drain cut than smaller ones. The width of the drains 
I have cut this season, is fourteen inches at the surface, 
and just broad enough at the bottom to permit the free 
use of the common farm shovel. They should be filled 
* The nature of the inquiries Avill be understood from the 
reply of Mr. M. They related to the mode and expense of 
reclaiming, the nature of the ground, the course of cropping 
adopted, and the results. The original character of this piece 
of land may be still farther seen in an article, page 138 head¬ 
ed “ Among the Farmers.” Mr. Marks assures us that 
this piece of ground is now fit to plow, either in the spring, or 
after heavy rains, sooner than any other part of his farm. 
