180 
THE CULTIVATOR 
preparation to renew their subscription to your paper, as I am 
fully persuaded that I shall find so much matter to interest me, 
that I shall be wholly unable to crowd it into a compass that 
will allow you to get it into the present volume, without crowd¬ 
ing out some more useful and valuable matter. 
I remain your’s and your readers’ old acquaintance and friend, 
_ SOLON ROBINSON. 
Mr. Allen’s Visit to England. 
Msssrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Being now on my way home to 
Buffalo, and knowing the anxiety of my friends to learn the 
success of my agricultural expedition to England, I avail my¬ 
self of a few moments of leisure to state the general result. In 
swine I went into a thorough,and minute examination from the 
different species of the China, the wild boar of Asia, and from 
the forests of Germany, specimens of which I found in the Zoo¬ 
logical Gardens and on the estates of the noblemen and gentle¬ 
men in different parts of the country. I also examined all the 
original breeds of England still left of any consideration, and 
the various crosses and improvements that have been made on 
them by importations from abroad. I also saw specimens of 
the Italian, Spanish, French, German and Russian breeds; then 
Scotch, Irish and Welch, with crosses too numerous to mention. 
And the result of the whole is, that the Berkshires, as brought 
to this country by Mr. Hawes, and such as I have heretofore 
and now imported, for the general purposes of the farmer, are, 
upon the whole, the very best animals in the world. There are 
some kinds of swine that beat them as to size; and others, per¬ 
haps, in little minor points. But what I wish to be understood 
as asserting is, that the Berkshire unites more good qualities in 
him for general purposes than anything within my knowledge ; 
and in coming to this conclusion, I stake my reputation as a 
breeder and my judgment as a man; and although I may be 
called an interested party, I may be permitted to also add with¬ 
out prejudice, and after a long, laborious, strict, and, I sincere¬ 
ly trust, an impartial investigation. 
Berkshires in England are spreading very rapidly, and are 
also now taken to Scotland, Ireland and other parts of the 
world. The name, consequently, as with us, has become very 
popular; and all sorts of impositions are there practiced as 
well as herej with grades and every imaginable breed. But the 
real true animal in shape, color and quality, is precisely such 
as Mr. Hawes first imported here, saving one exception; and 
that is, a pig will now and then be cast after the model and 
color of the original breed, as figured in Lowe’s Illustrations, 
viz. sandy or buff with waves or spots of black, and also black 
with some spots or waves of white; but the fancy of the people 
inclining to those more black, or a dark, rich, plumb color, 
just flecked with a little white, the lighter colored and buff ones 
nave been constantly thrown out, till they breed with now and 
then a stray pig, a.s I have so often before explained in the pages 
of the Cultivator. For my part, I rather fancy a slight buff 
with the black, and I found the largest hogs in the county so 
marked, after the old original. Windsor Castle has a buff spot 
on one fore leg, besides a slight flecking of the same on other 
parts of him; and I noticed that more or less of his stock was 
thus marked. 
The old breed has become nearly extinct, a few specimens 
only remaining; and these so degenerated in size that they are 
not now so laTge even as the present improved race—not com¬ 
paring at all with Windsor Castle. All assured me that he was 
the largest animal that had been bred in the county for 20 
years; and in the last No. of the Cultivator you have rather 
under than overstated his dimensions. I know from what I saw 
of the weights of inferior sized Berkshires fatting in England, 
that he may be made to easily attain 800 pounds. Added to 
this great size, he is fine in his points, a most excellent confor¬ 
mation, and what is rather remarkable, of soft thin hair and 
skin. I took unwearied pains with all my other selections; and 
though I could find none else quite as large as Windsor Castle, 
they perhaps had a trifle more of fineness of point and fashion. 
In regard to the size of hogs, breeders and pork packers in 
England take the same ground as I informed the public in last 
July’s Cultivator, that they had in Cincinnati, the greatest pork 
mart in America, and upon precisely the same principles; and 
it would be a waste of time for me to add another word here 
on the subject. Large animals have consequently become 
very scarce in Berkshire, and exceedingly difficult to find. I 
personally perambulated all Berkshire and the neighboring 
counties, and also employed agents who are dealers in pigs, 
each one of whom annually buys thousands, and knows every 
man’s breeding in the country, to assist me; and I sent over by 
the London packet ships Mediator and Wellington, and am to 
receive next season stock from all the different families bred 
there that are worth possessing. These I shall keep apart in 
breeding at home; and thus, I trust, save the necessity of fur¬ 
ther importations for twenty years to come. Stock of all kinds 
is very high in England now. Pork and mutton sell readily in 
market at 6id. to7jd. sterling; equal to 13 and 14 cents per 
pound of our money. 
White, light spotted, black, blue, gray, and all sorts of color¬ 
ed pigs may occasionally be seen in Berkshire county; but the 
people there would scout the idea of their being called by their 
name; they would consider it an imposition, and I might al¬ 
most add, an insult. And, to my numerous questions, what do 
you call them? They would give me some specific name, or 
say, “we do’nt know, they are not our sort.” I do hope now 
for henceforth and for ever to hear no more about white and 
other Berkshires than as here described for perhaps the hun¬ 
dredth time as the true and genuine breed, as improved by the 
Siamese cross. I have full notes of all these things; the dis¬ 
cussion of which alone would occupy a long article, which I 
must defer to some more convenient period. 
Failing to find Berkshires as large as I anticipated when 
leaving home, I immediately set to work with my agents for 
some other breed; and after a volume of inquiries, and tra¬ 
versing half the kingdom, 1 found the Kenilworths the very larg¬ 
est breed of swine at present existing in Great Britain. The 
owner of the sire of one pair of the pigs I purchased, assert¬ 
ed that he would weigh, full fatted, 1,700 lbs.; but I think 
his maximum would not overgo 1,300 lbs. He stood 4 feet high, 
was proportionably long, with no bristles but thin hair, and 
really possessed a fineness of points that absolutely surprised 
mein so large an animal. Indeed, in general shape and con¬ 
formation he nearly approached the Berkshire. His color was 
pure white. The size of the other three pigs was not quite so 
large, and a trifle coarser, while the sows were still less; but 
this I was informed was always the case with this breed. I do 
hope that my friends now will be satisfied; for they have at 
last in these, a large hog, and, above all, a white one. But if 
these are not big enough, I shall quite despair, and recommend 
the importation of a rhinoceros that I saw flourishing along 
side of an elephant, hardly superior to him in size, at the Zoolo¬ 
gical Garden of Regent’s Park in London. He was upwards of 
4 feet across the buttocks, and might probably weigh some 
three or four tons. 
As I shall not have any of the Kenilworth breed of pigs for 
sale short of a year, I propose crossing the males upon the large 
white Yorkshire, and also with a few of my Berkshires. I 
think the produce of either will be of great size and excellent 
quality ; and as the number of sows to be stinted in December 
to farrow to a Kenilworth boar in the spring will be in accord¬ 
ance with the orders of my friends for this cross, they will 
please to let me know their wishes on this head as quick as 
possible; for they maybe assured, that even with this produce, 
they may safely compete for gain of flesh, in a given space of 
time, with Woburns, or any other breed that gentlemen may 
happen to have on hand for the purpose of a banter. 
Nothing can be superior to the South Down sheep that I 
brought over for Mr. Rotch of Otsego county, this state, and 
our late minister at the court of St. James, Mr. Stevenson, and 
Bishop Meade of Virginia. The sire of Mr. R.’s buck won the 
first prize, 30 sovereigns, as the best of his age, at the Royal 
agricultural show at Liverpool in July, and was let to the Duke 
of Newcastle for this season only for 100 guineas. He was 
considered as near perfection as it is possible for a sheep to be; 
and I may add that the son I chose is no disgrace to his sire. 
Though only 6 months old, he weighed when brought on board 
ship at London 152 pounds. Mr. Stevenson’s and Bishop Meade’s, 
about 18 months old, weighed respectively 254 and 248 pounds. 
And the breeder of these superb animals, Mr. Jonas Webb of 
Babraham, killed a wether last Christmas that weighed, dress¬ 
ed with the head on, 200 pounds. The bucks of this flock usu¬ 
ally shear from 10 to lli pounds; and I need not add another 
word to the readers of the Cultivator as to the superiority of 
South Down mutton, and the hardiness and good constitution 
of the animals making it. 
Accompanying the sheep for Mr. Rotch, was the most beauti¬ 
ful shepherd’s dog that lever saw ; and of a breed so good, that it 
requires no instruction to break them into the management and 
eare of flocks. I also brought over for Mr. R. some of the 
large Dorking fowls, that carry an extra toe to their heels, 
and sometimes attain the great weight, when fatted, of 8 lbs. 
To these I added a few pheasants, the beautiful game bird of 
England, and a cross from which on the common barn fowl 
produced the celebrated game cock breed. 
Of Short Horns, I brought nothing, for fear of the disease so 
prevalent throughout horned stock in England, and because 
there is but one man’s herd there that can improve our own; 
and his best I cannot have till another year. It really pains 
me to see any more Durhams of ordinary quality imported into 
our country. The expense of shipping is enormous ; and, after 
all, they are now so plenty in America that they can be bought 
for half or two-thirds the price abroad.; and throwing two or 
three stocks out there, New-York, Ohio, and Kentucky alone, 
might show successfully against all England. This is my de¬ 
liberate judgment after a very careful examination of the best 
Short Horns in that country. Ayrshires we can make here by 
the thousand, by crossing Durham bulls on our best native 
milkers. The Scotch black cattle without horns make the 
best beef in England; and he is a capital hardy animal, and 
probably pays the grazier a better profit than any other; but 
he is black, which do’nt happen to be a popular color, so that 
there is no use in talking of him. Herelords you have already 
pretty well discussed. The Sussex and South Devons are 
scarcely inferior to them in size, and of a beautiful blood like 
symmetry of form that excites universal admiration. 
For horses, England ought to come to us. She has nothing 
that can compare with our famous trotters: and our Dutch 
Pennsylvania wagon horses are far preferable, in my estima¬ 
tion, to her boasted great cart horses. Our climate and soil, 
especially in the primitive regions, is much superior to that of 
England to produce this noble animal in perfection; and we 
have only to pay a little more attention to this department of 
stock to soon become large exporters. 
There are many other things, especially of seeds, methods 
of cultivation, and the condition of the people of England, that 
I would gladly touch upon, but I find my sheet already full 
and must forbear; and to conclude, I hailed England with de¬ 
light, and left it with deep regret. It is a charming country, 
bating its everlasting rain and coal smoke. And the Ameri¬ 
can finds so much in his associations and remembrances there, 
that after all it is the country that he visits abroad with the 
most interest and profit. I deprived myself of many a sleep 
and meal in order to see and learn the more during this short 
sojourn abroad ; and instead of three months, I only wished my 
stay could have been prolonged to as many years. 
I am, as ever, sincerely yours, 
Albany, October 27, 1S41. A. B. ALLEN. 
The Short Horns as Milkers. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —In the June No. of the Cultiva¬ 
tor there appeared an article, signed Lewis F. Allen, in which 
the opinion was advanced, that the improved Short Horns were 
the stock best adapted for New-England dairies. 
The ability with which this article is written, and the source 
from which it comes, ensures it great weight with your read¬ 
ers. But as this opinion is contrary to that of most agricultu¬ 
rists in this neighborhood, (the vicinity of Boston) I have been 
in hopes of seeing an answer to it in your paper by some one 
more familiar with this subject than myself. 
That this stock is the best suited to the rich pastures and fer¬ 
tile lands of New-York and the western states appears to be 
generally admitted. Are they equally well suited to the thin 
soils and scanty pastures of New-England ? 
In the fear of saying too much for his favorites, Mr. A. has 
given them less praise in some respects than we should readily 
concede to them. He compares them with our average native 
cows; we are in the habit of comparing them with our good 
dairy cows. The quantity of milk given by the Short Horns as 
compared with our average native cows is greater than Mr. Al¬ 
len asserts. The quality of the milk is considered by us gene¬ 
rally as inferior to that of the common cows of the country. 
Much of it would not, I think, sell readily as milk. This is 
contrary to Mr. A.’s experience with his Short Horns; and there 
are (certainly among the grade cows) many exceptions to it 
here: 
Writers are too apt to forget that the most important ques¬ 
tion, and what we really want to know is, what stock or stocks 
will give us the best and cheapest milk, butter, cheese and 
beef; and not what stock will give us the most per capitem. If 
it costs three times as much to raise and to keep an improved 
Short Horn in our climate and on our soil as one of the native 
breed, although it gives twice the butter and cheese and twice 
the beef, it may be a poor stock for us. 
No one here I think would be inclined to accept the wager of¬ 
fered by Mr. Allen at the end of his communication • for we do 
not contend that ten or twenty cows, which should be a fair 
average of the native breed of New-England, would give as 
much milk, butter and cheese as ten or twenty cows of a breed 
of nearly twice their size when both lots had as much nutritive 
food as they could eat. That, our cows seldom have all the 
year round. 
Mr. A. refers to British publications to prove the superiority 
of the Short Horns. Following his example, I will quote the 
British Husbandry and Low, as the best British authorities I 
know of on this subject. In British Husbandry, ch. 36, on 
milch cows, it is said, “ the breed most in esteem with the Lon¬ 
don cow keepers who sell the milk without making butter or 
cheese, is of the old Yorkshire stock, or a cross between the 
Teeswater and Holderness, as producing the greatest quantity; 
for they are in that case soiled in the house, and of course pro¬ 
vided with an abundance of cut grass, brewers’ grains, and suc¬ 
culent roots; but when grazed, they require very good pasture, 
and are not generally considered to produce milk of a rich qua¬ 
lity. But the breed which of all others appears to be gaining 
ground th,»<ughout the United Kingdom for abundant produce 
upon ordinary pasture is the Ayrshire kyloe.” 
David Low in his Elements of Practical Agriculture says, 
“by long attention to the characters that indicate a disposition 
to yield milk, the breed of Ayrshire has become greatly more 
esteemed for the dairy than other animals much superior to 
them in size and feeding qualities.” 
I hope to see this subject more thoroughly discussed in your 
journal by Mr. Alien and others, who, like him, speak forcibly 
what they sincerely believe. A Young Farmer. 
Vtcimty of Boston, Sept. 23, 1841. 
** VUItlUUi 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— In sending you the following ac¬ 
count of my corn crop for 1841, I do not aspire to compete with 
any ol your numerous correspondents; but simply to inform 
some of your readers what may be done in the way of raising 
corn up in the hilly state of “ Varmount." S 
I send you an account of the expense and profits of four acres. 
Ihe soil sandy loam; three of the four acres planted to corn 
and potatoes the previous year; the other sward ground- 118 
loads of unfermented manure spread evenly over the ground, 
and plowed before it had time to evaporate by drying • planted 
upon the furrow; hills three feet by two and a half apart In 
planting, put from five to seven kernels in a hill, which coming 
t ‘ hmi ? ed so as t0 leave from three to five stalks in a hill. 
Hoed three times. In cultivating used the harrow instead of 
the cultivator, and followed the approved mode of making very 
little hill, if any, leaving the ground as even as possible The 
crop was somewhat injured by the drouth, which has material¬ 
ly lessened the corn crop all through this section of the coun¬ 
try. Now for the account. 
jty * • 
To 118 loads manure, 30 cents per load,. 
Expense of hauling on land,. 
3 days plowing, man, team and board, . 
8 days planting, and board, 75 cents per day,. 
8 days weeding, “ “ .. 
6 days second time hoeing, “ . 
6 days third time hoeing, “ ..... 
27 days husking, and housing corn and stalks,. 
1 day digging potatoes,. 
Interest on land at $100 per acre, .. 
Five days cutting up and shocking,. 
$35 40 
10 50 
4 60 
6 00 
6 00 
4 50 
4 60 
20 26 
76 
24 00 
3 75 
To 273 bushels of good corn, $1 per bushel.. 
40 bushels of potatoes, 20 cents per bushel,. 
Corn stalks, thought by good judges to be equal to 4 tons 
of good hay—say 3 tons $10 per ton—the going price, 
$120 15 
$273 00 
8 00 
30 00 
Deduct expenses of culture, &c. 
$311 00 
120 15 
©190 86 
Which gives a nett profit of $47. 71 per acre. 
You may think the price of corn too high. I prized it at what 
it is now worth in this section of the country. Very respect- 
fu £y>. , . „ EPHRAIM G. HULETT. 
Walltngford, Fi. Oct. 8, 1841. 
Canada Thistles—Canada Thistle Forceps. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —I have perused with increasing 
interest, each number of the invaluable Cultivator, since its con¬ 
solidation ; and have noticed many communications on the de¬ 
struction of this accursed and" pestiferous plant— the Canada 
Thistle. I fully concur with the modes which are there spoken 
of, to destroy this pest of our land which is so rapidly spread¬ 
ing and springing up in new places, on almost every farm every 
spring; and which has completely overrun a vast number of our 
most productive and wheat-growing fields. The increase of the 
Canada thistle for the last ten years, has been great; and if it 
continues to spread in the same ratio, for the ten subsequent 
years, it will cover whole farms, and even townships. 
Borne on the “wings of the w-ind,” in a clear day, we may 
see countless numbers of its seed, many hundreds of feet in the 
air: and whose fates can decree on whose soil they will lodge 
and vegetate ? In the highways, and on every piece of land as 
soon as it is cleared, they shoot forth and choke every thing 
about them; and in the highways especially, they are permitted 
to ripen, and then the seed is hurled by every breeze of wind, 
into the air, and scattered over the adjacent fields, or wherever 
it may chance to be carried. Will any one pretend to deny that 
this is a great wrong? We think not. But how is it to be obvi¬ 
ated? I answer, there must be something done to oblige all 
who suffer them to come to maturity, to cut them down, if noth¬ 
ing more, before they blossom. Now, until this is done, we may 
expect nothing else than this—to have them to handle amongst 
all crops. But they may be entirely destroyed, if the right 
course is only pursued! and the extermination of them from our 
land, demands, and ought to secure, the first attention of every 
farmer. 
I am much gratified to see that a few are becoming awakened 
to this important business; and I hope the time is not far dis¬ 
tant, when each and every one will be thoroughly aroused to the 
work; and when there shall be scarcely a patch left, to torment 
the rising generation. 
The Canada thistle is a perennial plant, and will thrive well 
on any soil where there is not a superabundance of water; and 
it will come to maturity long before grain or grass, which may 
be growing on the same ground. Therefore, it will not do to let 
both grow, until both are ripe, if we wish to destroy them; but 
they should be mowed, before they blossom, when it is not con¬ 
venient to use the plow. But in fields where there is not grain, 
they should be plowed, commencing in the spring, and keep them 
down until the hot and dry weather, when two or three times 
plowing will completely eradicate them, and destroy them root 
and branch. 
To cut them with a hoe and salt them is a very good way, but 
plowing them is far more effectual, and consumes less time and 
labor. We have succeeded in destroying many large patches, 
simply by plowing them three times in hot w r eather, when there 
is scarcely any moisture in the ground. And we have destroy¬ 
ed many by the application of the pomace of apples, applied about 
twm inches thick (one inch is sufficient) which proves the most 
effectual of any way or thing that I know of. It will destroy 
any weed to which it is applied, and even elder bushes, thorns, 
&c. But among the various modes, there is one, which I am 
sorry to say, is known to but few throughout the United States; 
and that is, of pulling them with the forceps; of which, every 
farmer should have two or three pair. They are easily made— 
the cost is comparatively nothing—a man of small mechanical 
genius, will make a pair in an hour and a half—and when they 
are finished, they are worth about eighteen pence. 
The design of these is to pull thistles where there are but few, 
as in grain, when a hoe could not be used without destroying 
much'grain. In soft ground, we have pulled them with roots 
eighteen inches long and upwards; and faster than they could 
have been cut up with any instrument; and by going over the 
ground twice, as there will always some come up after the first 
