M> THIRD BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Manufactures and Mining, , FOR THE YEARS 18 75-76. BY HJENRY M. SEELY, Secretary of the Hoard, LlBRAlTf ' \ I RUTLAND : T[JTTLE & COMPANY, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS. 1876. MEMBEES OF THE BOARD V OF EX OFFICIIS. His Excellency, ASAHEL PECK. Rev. MATTHEW H. BUCKHAM, Pres. State Ag. Coll, Professor PETER COLLIER, Secretary of the JBvard. * HENRY M. SEELY, Secretary of the Board. APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR AND SENATE. Hon. THOMAS L. SHELDON, Btipert. Hon. ALEXIS T. SMITH, JVew Haven. Col. JOHN B. MEAD, Randolph. Hon. C. HORACE HUBBARD, Springfield. Hon. GARDNER S. FASSETT, Enoshurgh. CYRUS G. PRINGLE, Esq., Charlotte. t JOHN H. MEAD, Esq., West Rutland. * Elected to the place of Prof. P. Collier, resigned. t Appointed to the place of Hon. T. L. Sheldon, deceased. MEMBEKS OF FORMER BOARDS. 1871-1872. His Excellency, JOHN W. STEWART. JAMES B. ANGELL, Fres. State Ag. Coll. PETER COLLIER, Secretary of the Board. Hon. a. B. H ALBERT, Essex. Hon. CHARLES H. HEATH, Plainfield. Hon. FREDERICK HOLBROOK, Brattlehoro. Hon. PITT W. HYDE, Castleton. Z. E. JAMESON, Esq., Irashurgh. Hon. NOAH B. SAFFORD, White River Jxinctton, 1873-1874. His Excellency, J ULIITS CONVERSE. Rev. MATTHEW H. BUCKHAM, Pres. State Ag. Colt PETER COLLIER, Secretary of the Board. Hon. a. B. HALBERT, Essex. Hon. CHARLES H. HEATH, Montpelier. Hon. FRANCIS D. DOUGLAS, Whitiyig. Hon. PITT W. HYDE, Castleton. . Z. E. JAMESON, Esq., Irashurgh. THOMAS H. HOSKINS. M. D., Neioport. TABLE OF CONTENTS. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. BUSINESS MEETINGS. PUBLIC MEETINGS. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS. AGRICULTURE- DAIRY HUSBANDRY. STOCK RAISING. FERTILIZATION. GRASS CULTURE. GRAIN CULTURE. ROOT CULTURE. FRUIT CULTURE. RURAL ARCHITECTURE. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. GENERAL AGRICULTURE. EDUCATIONAL TOPICS. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. MANUFACTURES. MINING. REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. GENERAL INDEX. REPORT- To the Honorable^ the General Assembly of the State of Yermont : Herewith is presented the Report of the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, Manufactures and Mining for the biennium 1875-1876. The work of the Board, as in years past, has consisted largely in holding public meetings, at which papers have been read, addresses made, and discussions held upon the topics presented. Public meetings have been held at the following places : In 1875. At Middlebury, January 14 and 15. At Springfield, January 26 and 27. At Essex, January 28 and 29. At Plainfield, February 9 and 10. CO At St. Johnsbury, February 11 and 12. p^ At Jefferson ville, February 16 and 17. en At North Bennington, February 23 and 24. At Clarendon, February 25 and 26. cr At Wilmington, March 2 and 3. At Bethel, March 4 and 5. State Board of Agriculture, *feo At East Berkshire, June 16 and 17. At West Rutland, November 29 and 30. At Ludlom, December 1 and 2. At Canaan, December 7 and 8. At Hinesburgh, December 22 and 23. At Barre, December 28 and 29. At Cabot, December 30 and 31. In 1876. At Irasburgh, January 11 and 12. At Franklin, January 13 and 14. At Brandon, January 17 and 18. At Orwell, January 25 and 26. At Fayetteville, February 1 and 2. At Pomfret, February 3 and 4. At Rochester, February 8 and 9. At Chelsea, February 10 and 11. At Bradford, February 15 and 16. At Waitsfield, February 17 and 18. The last series of meetings began at West Rutland, and is not yet complete, as it is in contemplation to continue the meetings after this date. A notice of these must be reserved until a subsequent report. The Board has also held business meetings as follows : At Montpelier, October 7, 1874. At Burlington, December 10, 1874. At Burlington, October 15, 1875. At West Rutland, November 30, 1875. • At Barre, December 28, 1875. At Pomfret, February 3, 1876. Report of the Secretary. Abstracts of the proceedino-s of these meetings will be found in their proper place. The material interests of the State of Vermont are largely represented by those industries which the Board of Agri- culture, Manufactures and Mining was created to assist. The majority of the older States of the Union years ago established, and have since sustained organizations similar in character or object to the existing Board in Vermont. The younger States, seeing the advantages of such organizatiolis, have patterned after the older, and so have fostered the leading interests of their respective States. So long have those been tried and so valuable have they proved, that they have passed into the permanent institutions of the dif- ferent States. In the judgment of those who have given careful atten- tion to the subject, the act of the Legislature calling the Board in Vermont into existence has proved a wise one. By the work of the Board the great pursuits of the people of the State have been encouraged. The best method of arousing attention, securing co-ope- ration, and conveying information was not quite clear at the first, but the experiment of holding meetings throughout the State for the discussion of practical topics has demon- strated this to be one great means of accomplishing the pur- poses had in view. From the nature of the case the subjects discussed have been chiefly those allied to agriculture. The plan, though not accomplishing all tliat is contemplated, can now no 10 State Board of Agriculture, &o., longer be regarded as experimental ; its value is established. The pubHc meetings have been successful beyond all expec- tation. In several instances the halls for the sessions have been quite too small for the accommodation of those who have wished to attend. The discussions have for the most part been taken up with spirit and conducted with profit. The [people have evinced an appreciation of the workof the Board and an increasing interest in the progress of ideas which tend to the advancement of the farmer's profession. Reports of the proceedings of the various meetings, pro- grammes of the pubKc meetings, copies of as many papers as space will allow, and abstracts of the discussions are annexed to this Report. The Board and the State have met with a great loss in the resignation of the former Secretary, Professor Peter Collier, who had laid so well the foundation of tlie agricul- tural work of the Board and under whose hand it had reached such a marked degree of success. His duties at the University and Agricultural College were thought to demand so much of his time, tliat he could not longer give his attention to the labor which the success of the Board imposed. His resignation taking effect November 30th, 1875, was accepted with regret. The Board has continued a work which was entered upon early in the history of its establishment and which has been appreciated from the first, that of controlhng as far as pos- sible the character of the artificial fertilizers offered for sale within the bounds of the State. With the assistance of Professor Collier they have from time to time gathered Report of the Secretary. 11 these fertilizers and submitted them to chemical analysis. No better evidence of the wisdom of this course is needed than is afforded by the fact that the average of the fertili- zers now offered in market is over thirty-three per cent, greater than when the first analyses were undertaken. These careful analyses by Professor Collier have been of more value than can well be estimated. The improvement in the character of these fertilizers is largely due to the scrutiny to which they have been subjected. Yalueless, falsified, or deteriorated materials, rejected in other mar- kets ought not to find sale here, and are not likely to be offered while they are subject to chemical inspection. The inducement to put upon the market an article of no value is largely removed, as the attempt to do so is liable to be detected at the outset. The oversight which the Board and similar bodies have exei'cised, has no doubt saved the coun- try thousands and thousands of dollars that would other- wise have been sunk in the purchase of worthless articles. By reference to the reports of the business meetings it will be seen that early in the year the Board authorized the Secretary to attempt the establishment of an Agricultural Experiment Station. These Stations have proved of so much value in Europe, and similar institutions have done such satisfactory work in our own country, that it has seemed exceedingly desirable that the State ^of Vermont, having industries somewhat peculiar to herself, should acce]it the advantages which such a station promises. Many questions beyond the reach of the ordinary farmer need to be answered l>y accurate experiments. An Agri- 12 State Board of Agriculture, &g., cultural Experiment Station comes in to supplement the labor of the farmer and to determine the value of those theories and facts which pi'omise great advantage to his profession. The great industry of the State, dairy husbandry, cannot indeed be carried on, on a lai-ge scale, at an experiment sta- tion, but facts of vast importance can be determined there. Among such would be the temperature at which cream can be raised with the best results ; the causes of the decompo- sition of butter and effectual means for preventing decom- position, with many of like character ot prime importance to the butter maker. The cheese maker will be interested in ifbe causes of the coagulation of milk and the best means of producing this coagulation ; the changes that take place in the curing of cheese, and the means of hastening or retarding this change. So questions will arise in every branch of agricultural pursuit ; in grass raising, the introduction of new forage plants ; in seeding the land, the genuineness, purity and vitality of seeds ; in stock raising, food rations and the val- ues of food ; in purchasing fertilizers, their actual value. These are but samples of questixDns that may properly come under consideration at an aajricjultural station. To these may properly be added the work of collecting and distrib- uting facts in the progress of agriculture, whether obtained from the Held or from other agricultural stations. With only fragments of time left over from a busy calling for such work and with a financial basis which pledges no expense to the Board or State, the results of the first few Report of the Secretary. 13 months' labor at the Yerinont Station could not possibly be large. The collection of facts in regard to the fertilizers oiFered for sale within the State and their publication and distribution in the form of a l)ulletin, is all that has as yet been given to the public. • The action of the previous Board called the attention of the Legislature to a change which seemed desirable in the statute creating tlie Board. The framers of the act evi- dently contemplated the holding of one or two or at most a few yearly public meetings. In practice it is found desira- ble to hold just as many as the appropriation will allow. By reference to the list of public meetings it will be seen that already twenty-seven have been held since the present Board came into office. From twelve to fifteen will in all proba- bility be held yearly. The salary of the Secretary is now fixed without regard to the amount of work done, and under the ace as it now stands the more meetings held, and consequently the more work done, the less net compensation he receives ; he being required to attend these meetings at his own expense. With such facts in view the recent Board presented the resolution, that in the opinion of the members, the statute creating the Board ought to be so amended that the Board may regulate the work and compensation of its Secretary, but in no case the entire expenses of said Board to exceed the stated appropriation. These facts remain as weighty as ever and seem worthy the attention of the Legislature. 14 State Board of Agriculture, &c., The present Secretary, coming as he did to his work at the middle of a term of service, could not possibly be fully conversant with the character of all the papers of which the Report is largely composed ; and tlie early date of going to press forbids that careful editing and arrangement which he had proposed. HENRY M. SEELY, Secretary. Middiebary, July 25, 1876. Eighth Business Meeting op the Board. 15 BUSINESS MEETINGS OF THE VERMONT STATE BOARD OF — > < ^♦^ » < — ■ ABSTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES. > * ^♦» > < EIGHTH BUSINESS MEETING. This meeting was held at Montpelier, October 7th, 1874. Present — Governor Converse, and Messrs. Heath, Doug- las, Hyde, Halbert, Jameson and Hoskins. The report proper of the Secretary, as prepared by the Secretary pro tem., was read and approved. The records "of the various meetings for the past two years were read and, after a single correction, approved for publication. On motion, Hon. Pitt W. Plyde was requested to give his attention, in the legislature, to the amendment of the statute establishing the Board, and to other matters affecting this Board that may come before that body. Mr. Jameson, to whom the collection of specimens of the grasses and cereals of Vermont had been assigned, was 16 State Boaud of Agrioultuke, &c., requested to forward a set of specimens to the State cabinet. Adjonrned sine die. T. H. HOSKINS, Secretary pro tern. NINTH BUSINESS MEETING. Pursuant to the call of the Secretary-, a meeting of the Board was held at the American Hotel, in the city of Bur- lington, Thursday, December 10th, at 7 p. m., 1874. Governor Peck, President Buckham, the Secretary, and the newl}' appointed Board, viz. : Messrs. Mead, Hubbard, Sheldon, Smith, Pringle and Fassett, were present. Mr. Sheldon moved that the Board proceed to the elec- tion of a Secretary. Carried. On motion, it was decided to elect by ballot, and the Gov- ernor appointed Messrs. Mead and Sheldon as tellers. Secretary Collier was re-elected to his office. A general discussion was then held upon the work to be done by the Board, the best plan in holding the meetings, etc., and it was Voted, That the system of local meetings at various points in the State as heretofore practiced by the Board be continued ; that the Secretary be instructed to send slips to the press of the State containing a report of the organiza- tion of the Board, and inviting parties who desire to have meetings to communicate with the Secretar}^ ; and that the Secretary proceed as soon as may be to arrange the general programme of meetings for the winter and announce the same. Tenth Business Mee'jin<; of tih: Boahd. 17 After a tree discussion as tc» the number of meetings to be held during the winter, it was Yoted^ That the Secretary appoint three meetings in the month of January, and that subsequent meetings be reserved for the further consideration of the Board. Mr. Fassett expressed the desire of the farmers of E nos burii'h that the Board should meet with them this winter. Mr. Hubbard invited the Board to Springfield ; and upon motion Springfield was designated as one of the places where a meeting should be held in January. On motion, the meeting adjourned subject to the call of the Secretary. PETER COLLIER, Secretary. o TENTH BUSINESS MEETING. Pursuant to a call of the Secretary, a meeting of the Board was held at the American Hotel in Burlington, Friday, October 15th, at 7:30 p. m., 1875. Every member of the Board was present except T. L. Sheldon. There was a very full discussion of the work intrusted to the Board, as well as the best means of accomplishing the most favorable results. It was voted, that two joint meetings be held with the New Hampshire Board, one in Yermont and one in New Hampshire, and that the Secretary be authorized to make arrangements for the same. It was voted, that the number of meetings to be held this winter be left to the Secretary ; and tliat lie be directed to 18 State Boakd of Agkiculturk, &c. appoint as many as may be held by using and not exceeding the funds at the command of the Board. It was voted, tliat abstracts of papers and reports of dis- cussions at the public meetings be made, and such abstracts be furnished to the papers of the State. It was voted, that the Secretary continue the analysis of fertilizers sold within the State. Professor Collier tendered his resignation as Secretary of the Board, it being regarded necessary that all his time should be given to his lectures and work in the laboratory. Several members of the Board expressed the hope that some way might be found out of this difficulty, so that the Board might retain Prof. Collier in its service. President Buckham noticed the difficulties of the case : — that the duties of the Secretaryship so interfered with Prof. Collier's work that it really made it necessary to employ extra instruction in Chemistry. He thought, however, that Professor Collier might be permitted to be absent from his college work from December 22d to January 27th, and still continue in tlie employ of the Board as Secretary, A resolution was proposed and adopted : That the work intrusted to us will not justify the Board in accepting the limitations to the services of the Secretary, as proposed by President Buckham. Secretary Collier's resignation was accepted to take effect November 30th, 1875, and the following resolutions were adopted : Besolved, That in accepting the resignation of Secretary Collier, the Board desires to express our approbation of the ability and zeal which he has brought to the discharge of Er^EVENTH Business Mkkting of the Board. 19 the important duties of the office, and the confidence which the Board and people of A^ermoiit entertain in his work. Resolved, That it is our hope that in severing his official relations with tlie Board, Professor Collier will continue to co-operate, so far as he may be able, with the Board and the people of the State as heretofore, for the promotion of the agricultural interests of Vermont. Professor Henrj^ M. Seely was nominated as Secretary, and unanimously elected. PETER COLLIER, Secretary. ELEVENTH BUSINESS MEETING. At a meeting called by Secretary Collier at West Rut- land, Thursday, November 29th, at 6:30 p. ra., 1875, there were present Messrs. Buckham, Mead, Hubbard, Smith and Pringle. Governor Peck being absent, President Buckham was appointed Chairman pro tem. Secretary Collier was also absent, and H. M. Seely was appointed Secretary pro tempore. On motion of Col. Mead, Mr. Hubbard was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the feelings of the mem- bers of the Board at the deatli of their late colleague, Hon. Thomas L. Sheldon of Rupert. On motion, proposed clianges of time in holding some of the public meetings of the Board, was referred to Mr. Hub- bard and the Secretary elect. Subsequently the following resolutions were reported, and were adopted by the meeting : 20 State Board of Agriculture, &<;., Whereas^ It lias pleased Divine Providence to remove from life, by a sudden casualty, our late associate, Thomas L. Sheldon, therefore, it is Resolved^ That in the death of Mr. Sheldon we mourn the loss of one from whom we expected valuable assistance in the work of the Board. Resolved^ That our condolence and sympathy be extended to the family of Mr. Sheldon in their irreparable bereavement. Resolved^ That the Secretary forward copies of these resolutions to the family of Mr. Sheldon, and furnish them to the papers of the State. HENRY M. SEELY, Secretary j^ro tem. TWELFTH BUSINESS MEETING. In accordance with the call of the Secretary, a business meeting was held at Barre, Tuesday, December 28th, at 4:30 p. m., 1875. Present, all the members of the Board except Governor Peck, to wit : Messrs. Buckhani, Fassett, Hubbard, J. B. Mead, Pringle, Smith, Seely and J. II. Mead, the latter gentleman having been recently appointed by the Governor to till the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas L. Shel- don. The object of the calling of the meeting was stated by the Secretary : that of making some provision, in accord- ance with the desire of the State Auditor, for the inspection and approval of the bills of the Secretary. Thiuteentu Business Meeting of tke Board. 21 It was suggested that a pro tempore Chairman might be elected by the Board, wJio should be directed to perform this service. On motion of x\. T. Smith, Mr. G. S. Fassett was appointed Chairman pro tempore, and authorized to pass upon the Secretary's bills. The Board then adjourned. HENRY M. SEELY, Secretary. THIRTEENTH BUSINESS MEETING. At the call of the Secretary, a meeting was held at Pom- iret, February 3d, 1876, at which the following members were present, viz. : Messrs. Fassett, Hubbard, J. B. Mead, J. H. Mead, Pringle, Smith and Seely. Mr. Fassett, pre viously elected President pro tempore, took the chair. In accordance with the notice in the call, the Secretary presented his views on the feasibility of establishing an Experimental Station at Middlebury. After discussing these views, a committee was appointed to consider the matter further, and at an adjourned meeting the following- report was made : The committee appointed to consider the subject of an Experimental Station in Vermont have given to the subject the consideration which its importance demands, and unani- monsly recommend that the Vermont Board of Agriculture do establish the second Experimental Station on this conti- nent ; and we submit to the Board the following preamble and vote, the passage of which we recommend : 22 State Board of Agriculture, &c., Whereas, There are many questions which need to be determined by accurate and careful experiments, and Whereas, Professor Henry M. Seely of Middlebury has signified his willingness to give, without remuneration, a portion of his time to such investigations and experiments, therefore, it is Voted, That the Vermont Board of Agriculture, Man- ufactures and Mining do "establish the Vermont Experiment Station, to be under the control of this Board, and tliat the same be placed in the charge of Professor Henry M. Seely as superintendent. Voted, That the superintendent be authorized to make, or cause to be made by others, such investigations and experiments as shall seem to him likely to simplify and explain the relations of science to agriculture, make addi- tions to our knowledge and skill in the cultivation of the soil, and raising and care of stock, and protect us from fraud and imposition. Such investigations to be without expense to the Board or the State. C. HORACE HUBBARD, for Committee. The report was accepted and the votes unanimously passed. HENRY M. SEELY, Secretary. Public MEETiNas. 23 PUBLIC MEETINGS OF THE VERMONT STATE BOAB.D OF Agilailtiii,, ManuiacturQi mi Mmlis. Twenty-seven public meetings have been held at various points in the State by the Board since the appointment of the present members. Invitations have come from various agricultural associations and from individuals, and in accord- ance with these solicitations the two dav meeting's have been held. While the programmes have been widely varied, the form and purpose of the gatherings have been substan- tially the same. The people have felt that the meetings were their own ; they have officered them from their own number, have entered into the exercises with spirit, and have taken up the discussions with an intelligence and an enthusiasm that has been most gratifying. A general report of one meeting may characterize ail. If the Board has met for the first time with the farmers of the place, the first session usually opens with a small number, the second session is well attended, and from that time on the rooms are crowded. Hegrets are expressed by tlie late comers that they did not earlier know the charac- 24 State Boaud ok Agkiculture, tfec, ter of the meetings. All are interested to the close, which thej unite in saying has corae too soon, and with a hearty good will invite the Board to appoint another and an early meeting. If a similar meeting has in some previous year been held in the place or the vicinity, the sessions are fully attended from the first, and closed Math the same approval of the work of the Board. The local newspapers have usually given fall reports of these meetings and so a larger audience than that addressed by the speakers has been reached. The meetings early in the year of 1875 were in a few instances held in a time of storm, which materially interfered with the attendance. But the series beginning November 29 suffered no interruption on account of weather, and the programme of every meeting was carried out with the exception of a single session, which at one of the meetings was omitted on account of a powerful storm. The following programmes were presented at the various meetings, and departed from only so far as circumstances indicated conv^enience or improvement. TwENTV-NiNTii Public Meeting. 25 TWENTY-NINTH PUBLIC MEETING HELD AT Middlebury, Tfmrsday and Friday, January \4dh and 15 PUBLIC MEETING IIKI.D A'l Eochester, Tuesday ami Wechicsdap, February Hth and dt7i, 1876. PROGRAMME. TUESDAY MORNING. " Welcome," Dr. A. Kichmond, Rochester. " Potato Culture," C. G. Priugle, Charlotte. " Care and Management of Horses," V. M. Hubbard, Kochester. TUESDAY AFTERNOON. " Sheep Husbandry," J. II. Mead, West Eutland. " Improvement of Pastures," M. A. Ballard, Gaysville. " The Grass Crop," C. Horace Hubbard, Springfield. TUESDAY EVENING. " Science on the Farm," H. M. Seely, Middlebury. " Opportunities for Young Farmers," J. B. Mead, Kan- dolph. WEDNESDAY MORNING. " Education of Farmers," R. J. Flint, Granville. FiFTY-TllIKD Puiil.IC MEETINa. 49 " Butter Making — Tlieoiy ami Pi-actice," A. Chapman, Middlelnu-y. " Clieese Factories," H. D. Morgan, Stockbridge. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. " Fruit Raising on our Hills,'" C. W. Sawyer, Gaysville. " Should the People of Vermont raise their own Bread ?" W. ^Y. Williams, Rochester. WEDNESDAY EVENING. " Farm Lite," Mrs. O. R. Eaton, Rochester. "Home Life on the Farm," Pres. M. LL Buckham, Bur- lington. FIFTY-THIRD PUBLIC MEETING. HELD AT Chelsea, Thursday and Friday, February lOth and 11th, 1876. THURSDAY AFTERNOON. " Words at the Start," Ezra Walker, Chelsea. " Scatterings," C. W. Clarke, Chelsea. " Gleanings," Geo. F. Smith, Washington.. THURSDAY EVENING. " Grasses," C. G. Pringle, Charlotte. " Leaves," H. M. Seely, Middlebury. FRIDAY MORNING. " Sheep Husbandry," J. LI. Mead, West Rutland. " Horses for Vermont," A. Chapman, Middlebury 60 State Boabd of AGiiicur/nRE, &c. FRIDAY AFTERNOON. " Morgan Horses," J. F. Hemenway, Chelsea. " The Grass Crop," C. Horace Hubbard, Springtield. FRIDAY EVENING. " Opportunities for Young Farmers,'' J. B. Mead, Ran- dolph. FIFTY-FOURTH PUBLIC MEETINO HELD AT Bradford, Tuesdai/ and Wednesday, February \Mi and Kith, 1H76. PROGRAMME. TUESDAY MORNING. " Opening Address," R. Farnhani, Bradford. " Tlie Horse," Dr. John B. Ornisby, Bradford. "The Grass Crop," C. Horace Hubbard, Springfield. TUESDAY AFTERNOON. " Specialties in Farming," A. W. Paine, Fairlee. " The Butter Dairy,'' G. S. Fassett, Enosburgh. " Butter Making," Mrs. Eliza A. Bari-ett, Bradford. TUESDAY EVENING. " The Calling of the Farmer compared with other Call ings," Alex. McLane, Fairlee. "Opportunities for Young Farmers," J. B. Mead, Ran- dolph. FiFTV-FlKTH P1.I...IC j\JeET1NG. 51 WEDNESDAY MORXING. "Smut and Ergot," C. G. Tringli', Charlotte. " Com,"' Wright (Jhainborhiin, Newbury. " Does it Pay to raise Corn in Yennont V' Wni. Cliilds Fairlee. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. " Tlie Potato," Z. E. Jameson, Irasbnrgh. -0 — FIFTY-FIFTH PUBLIC MEETING HELD AT Waitsfleld, Tliursdaij and Friday, Fehruary \lth and ISt/i, 1876. PROGRAMME. THURSDAY MORNING. " Opening Address," E. W. Bisbee, AVaitsfield. " Leaks in Farming," E. A. Fisk, Waitsfield. " Smut and Ergot," C. G. Pringle, Charlotte. THURSDAY AFTERNOON. " Leaves as Fertilizers," Z. W. Boyce, Fayston. " Commercial Fertilizers," J. Ilolden, Waitsfield. " Saving of Fertilizers," J. B. Mead, Randolph. THURSDAY EVENING. " (Subject unxannounced,)" Mrs. L. B. Boyce, Fayston. " Farmers and their Calling,'' S. P. Joslin, Waitsfield. 52 Statk Board of Agriculture, &c. FRIDAY MORNING. " Grasses," C. Ct. Pringle, Clmrlotte. "The Grass Crop," C. Horace Hubbard, Springfield. FRIDAY AFTER^^OON. ^' Some Points in Daiiying," A. T. Smith, New Haven. " The Butter Dairy," G. S. Fassett, Enos])nrgh. FRIDAY EVENING. " Capital in Farming," G. H. C]-andall, Duxbury. " Opportunities for Young Farmers," J. B. Mead, Ran- dolph. SELECTION OF COAVS FOIl THE BUTTER DAIRY. BY GARDNER S. FASSETT, OF ENOSBURGH. For eighteen years I have been dairying, makhig butter exchisively dnring the whole time. I have always given some attention to the selection and care of cows ; usually, or until within a few years, depend- ing upon my skill in buying cows adapted to the purpose I wanted them for, rather than raising cows from calves. I thought it more economical than raisins^ them. If I succeeded in getting a cow with apparently a good, vigorous constitution, giving an abundant flow of milk with good care, that milked easy without shedding her milk, was contented to stay in the pasture and didn't kick, she was put on the permanent list. If she proved defective in any essential point, after being tried a year or two, she w^as sent to the butcher. In this way, I succeeded as well as my neighbors, perhaps, or at least made as much butter per cow as others, and was quite well satisfied with my success. But I never knew, during this time, by any well con- ducted expei'iments, whether each member of my herd was paying a profit, or whether I was keeping some cows at an actual loss. 54 IState Boakd of Agkicui.tukk, &c. This course, or substantially the same, has been pursued by the majority of the dairymen of Vermont, and is to a great extent the plan of to-day, so far as my observation extends. Now this plan is entirely defective, and, unless aban- doned for one which will result in securing to butter dairy- men a better income, in proportion to the outlay and expense of running the business, cannot, in the future, lueet the expectations of those engaged in 1,his branch of hus- bandry. But, fortunately, men of scientific knowledge have come to the rescue, and have given us, in practical shape, a vast amount of information upon the subject of breeding cattle for specific purposes, on the subject of milk and its con- stituent elements, and the manufacture of butter and cheese, so tluit the dairyman may be sure of a desired result if he follows the rules. Thus the relation of science to agricul- ture and dairying is beginning to be recognized, and is, in my judgment, a most hopeful indication, which should greatly encourage us in our labors. Quite recently 1 have commenced testing my cows sepa- ratel)', to ascertain their relative value for the butter dairy. It is astonishing what a great difference there is in the value of cows as butter producers, not only in the amount of but- ter they produce, but in the quality of the butter, as well as the color, and particularly with regard to the readiness- with which butter can be manufactured from the milk. It is scarcely less astonishing what an effect judicious, lib- eral feeding has on a M'ell bred cow, to increase the butter product, and diminish the labor of making butter. Sei^ectiox of Cows. 55 In regard to breeding cattle : it is no longer a problem with me how the Shorthorns, the Aj-rshircs, the Devons, the Holsteins, the Jerseys, and the Brittanies, have and retain their characteristics, as fowls are bred, true to a feather. It is brains that does it. Nature's laws, as related to the breeding of cattle, though not in the least violated, are as much under the control of the experienced and skilll'u] breeder, as the ship is under the ■control of the lielmsman. So in all our endeavors to improve our dairies, whether in breeding for a specific pnrpose, or selecting for a specific purpose, or feeding profitably, we need to understand nature's laws, and be able to trace a cause to its effect. My experiments to test the relative value of cows as but- ter producers, and mv observation and knowledo-e of what others have accomplished, in regard to selecting, breeding, feeding and caring for cows, have had the effect to make me somewhat entiuTsiastic on this subject, and I venture the assertion, without fear of successful contradiction, that if this subject were carefully studied, and such tests and exper- iments made as can be made at trifling cost, except applica- tion and work attended with pleasure, the not profit from the cows of Vermont, kept in butter dairies, would be ■doubled in ten years, even though the number should be decreased twenty-five per cent. This may seem an extravagant statement, and, as we all like facts witli the privilege of forming our own conclusions, I desire to call your attention to some of the results from careful selection and care of cows that have come under my observation and notice. •t6 State Board of Agriculture, &c. I have endeavored to make use of no statements which I did not feel sure were rehable. A young man living in the town of Sheldon, purchased a farm, about three years ago, with a dairy of sixty cows. He soon commenced testing each member of his herd separately, with care, and found many of them were not profitable butter cows. After selling and buying, lie had reduced his dairy to tliirty-five cows. He told me, not long since, he had made as much butter from the thirty-five selected cows in one season, as from the sixty cows he bought with the farm, and, during the time, had accumulated a large amount of hay. Of course, you will reinember it costs less to take care of thirty-five than sixty. This dairy was composed of what are termed native cows. Now I do not need to make figures to show that he has very much increased his net income. Wlien this farm is fully stocked with such cows as the thirty-five, the net income must be more than doubled, and the owner have the satisfaction of feeling he has accomplished something worth his while Another marked case is that of the daiiy of E. S. Wood, Esq., of North Pomfret. I have visited Mr. Wood on two occasions, and become familiar with all his management. His dairy is composed of high grade Jerseys entirely. He attributes his success to the bi'eed more than to his skill and good care, but whichever it may be, it is of equal impor- tance as an example. He commenced keeping Jerseys about eighteen years ago. Previous to that time, he tells me, he sold but little Selection of Cows. 57 # more than one hundred pounds of butter per cow annually ; now he makes nearly or quite three hundred pounds of but- ter per cow annually, from his improved dairy of twelve or fourteen cows. He feeds, in addition to hay and pasture, perhaps twelve or lifteen dollars' worth of meal, per cow, yearly. He also makes a fine article of butter, and from its sale realizes over one hundred dollars income yearly, from each cow, besides that from the sale of surplus cattle. This has been accomplished with care, but at little cash expense, as he has not purchased high priced animals, but graded up from a native herd, using thoroughbred males from year to year. To show you how he has succeeded in breeding cows of uniform value as butter producers, I will give you an account of what four two years old heifers I purchased of him last year, have done in my dairy, the past season, at several trials. One of them came in the last of April and two more some time in May. The one that came in in April made the 12th of June, in one day, from 22:^ pounds of milk, one pound and five ounces of butter. Another one, June 4th, from 19 pounds of milk, made one pound and fivd ounces of butter. This heifer afterwards gave several pounds more milk per day, but whether the amount of but- ter was correspondingly- increased, I do not know, as I did not test her again until October 1st, but from other tests I have made, I conclude the butter was only slightly increased. The third one, June 1st, from 23 pounds of milk, made one pound and five ounces of butter. You will see tliat the three made each the same amount of butter per day, though the weight of milk varied. 58 State Boaud of Agijicultuke, &c. . ■ . — . . The fourth one came in later, near the close of Jane, and was not tested but l)}^ weighing her milk until October 1st, when she made in one day, from 19^ pounds of milk, one pound and four ounces of butter, and tlie other three aver- aged over one pound each the same day. All these trials were made when the heifers were having grass only. In these tests in each case the time consumed stirring the cream did not exceed ten minutes, and it was stirred in a broad dish with a spoon. While Mr. Wood was selling but little more than one hundred pounds of butter per cow yearly, his income was nearly or quite consumed for fodder, leaving him almost no profit ; now, with his injproved dairy and better care, his net income must be more than sixty dollars per cow, allow- ing over forty dollars per year for fodder, while his expenses for labor are only slightlj^ increased. Perhaps you say, a cow cannot be kept well a year for even forty dollars. My only reply is, every pound of but- ter made costs more than can be gotten for it if the entire expense is counted at the market price, but by economy, temperance and industry, dairjanen do even succeed in get- ting a good, honest living, and sometimes lay b}' something for a wet day, besides being somewhat independent in their manner of living. But the point I desire to make in calling your attention to Mr. Wood's dairy, is that his improved dairy is really- worth, for net profit, many times his former dairy. You say this is an extreme case. It is, but compare it witfc the average dairy of Vermont. One hundred and thirty-five^ Ski.kction ok Cows. 59 or, at most, one hnnclred nnd forty pounds of butter per cow, may be set down as the probu])le average yearly product in Vermont. In New York, in 1S73, I think, it was found by careful estimates the average yield was 131 pounds per cow ; but allowing the average yield of butter per cow in Ver- mont to be IJO pounds, and Mr. Wood's dairy will yield a net income of more than ten times the average dairy of Vermont. I will now mention a still more extreme case, of a single cow, owned by Mr. WiUiani Tliorp of Underbill. I quote from a letter from Mr. Thorp to W. S. Thorp of Morris- town. This letter was given me at a meeting of the Board of Agriculture, Manufactures and Mining, held at Jeft'er- sonville, soon after it was written, and its truth vouched for at the meeting. " Our cow calved March 22d, 1875. We commenced to use her milk April 1st. There have been only two per- sons in our family. We have sold 395 pounds of butter to various ones for one hundred and twenty-four dollars. We have appropriated to our family use sixty-six pounds, mak- ing in all four hundred and sixty-one pounds as the summer product. We led our cow, from March 23d until June 15th, two quarts of corn meal per day. As soon as convenient she had plenty of grass. During the fall months, we fed her in all five or six bushels of turnips. She is one-half blood Alderney, eight years old last spring, wintered on hay alone. In May, she made in one week, sixteen and one-half pounds of butter." 60 State Board of AaRicuLxuitE, &c. Now compare, or rather contrast, tliis cow witli another, owned bj one of my neighbors. The one of which I now speak, gave a large mess of milk, and was supposed to be a good one. First by acci- dent, and after by careful and repeated trials, it M^as ascer- tained that lier milk contained no cream of any value. This cow was disposed of, and afterM-ards -was kept in a butter dairy for two or three years at least, her owner supposing her to be a good one, because she gave a liberal flow of milk. I ask you to sit down and calculate the relative value of these two cows, last s})oken of, in the Initter dairy. I mention these extreme cases to show that there is a great diiference in the value of cows for the butter dairy, that without actual testing may appear of equal value, and even the one of least value may seem to be much the best. These extremes may not be found in any one dairy, but differences less marked are found in almost all dairies, and dairymen are liable, for want of having tested cows, to sell their best ones and keep the poorest, and breed from them, until n-iilk is more abundant than cream. Another man tested all his cows, and kept an account with them till he was satisfied he had live cow^s in his herd that did not pay expenses, by five dollars a head per year, and other five only exceeded expenses five dollars per year. He had kept ten cows year after year, getting no profit from them, while the rest of his dairy gave him the only profit he got. There is also a great difference in the time reqnired to perfectly cream the milk of different cows. Selection of Cows. 61 I have in my own dairy a liigh grade Jersey heifer that exliibits as good percentage of cream in one hour, when the milk is set in test tubes, as at any time after. The sixth of October last, I filled a six inch test tube with her milk, and it was carried at once in a person's hands, riding in a buggy, nearly four miles to a fair ; it then showed nearly twenty -five per cent of cream, and did not show better afterwards. Scientific men would say, the butter globules in her milk are large and uniform in size. I have also a fine grade Ayi-shire cow, eight years old : her milk shows the best percentage of cream in about twen- ty-four hours. The butter globules in her milk, or at least a portion of them, are small. Large globules rise quickly, small ones slowly. You will readily see that if all our cows were like the Jersey heifer, it would greatly simplify the cream rising process. I believe we may have them by careful breeding. Experiments prove that large globules rupture more easily in churning than small ones, and from this fact, it has been thought — and perhaps some experiments seem to prove — that there would be loss in churnino- cream containino^ large globules with cream containing small globules. I chose the cream from these two cows with which to make an experiment to satisfy' myself upon this point, remembering that one experiment does not always prove a thing, but helps to prove it. I weighed carefully the milk, cream, butter and butter- milk of each cow separately, and noted the time required 62 State Board of Agriculture, it( to cliiu-n each ; also kept the conditions in each case as nearly alike as possible. This experiment was made October 23d, last, when the cows were in the barn at hay, liaving two quarts of oat meal each per day. The Ayrshii-e cow ^ave -22 pounds 4 ounces of milk ; weight of cream 2 pounds ; time in churnino-, forty minutes ; weight of butter, one pound one ounce ; weight of butter- milk, rifteen ounces. Buttermilk appeared rich, as though there were butter trlobulcs left in it. The Jersey heifer, two years old, gave 10 pounds 8 ounces of milk ; weight of cream, 1 pound 4 ounces. Time of churning, twenty minutes ; weight of butter, 12 ounces ; of butteruiilk, 8 ounces. This buttermilk was as blue as skimmed milk. The next day I mixed the milk of the two cows, ^"eight of milk, 32 pounds 4 ounces ; weight of cream, 3 pounds 1 ounce ; time of churning, thirty minutes ; weight of butter, 1 pound 12 ounces ; of buttermilk, 1 pound o ounces. "When taken separately, T had 33 pounds of milk, 3 pounds 4 ounces of cream, 1 pound 13 ounces of butter. Mixed, I had 12 ounces less of nailk, and 1 ounce less of butter. The time in churning the mixed was just half way between the other two, so there seems to be no loss in this experiment. Another experiment might result differently. The butter contained in o-lobules is lischter than milk. The material of which the sack is composed, which contains the butter, is heavier than the milk. This is proved by the experiments of Dr. Sturtevant and others. Large globules, containing more butter in proportion to weight of sack, rise Selection ok Cows. 63 quickly, while the proportion of butter to sack mar be so small in the least globules, that the whole may be heavier than milk, and not rise at all. So the larger and more uni- form in size the butter globules are, the more perfectly can the milk be creamed, and the more easily churned. Dr. Sturtevant has also found out, probably beyond a doubt, and it is a valuable discovery, that the butter is termed in the cow's udder by a process of budding and casting off from the same parent cells. This helps us to understand how liberal feeding will increase the size of the butter globules, and hasten the casting off process, as well as improve the color, just as liberal manuring and good cul- tivation make good corn. I say this is a valuable discovery, and I advise every dai- ryman, who can have access to it, to read a paper prepared by Dr. Sturtevant and read before a Farmers' Convention, held at Woodstock, Conn., in December, 18Ti, on the sub ject of '' Physiological considerations concerning feeding for butter and cheese, with the discussion following it.'' This paper, in my judgment, is worth more to those who may read it, if they will follow the instructions, than the entire expense of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for a year. It contains a vast amornt of valuable information on the suljject of feeding for specific purposes. It was not my intention to say anything on any subject but selecting cows, but you will pardon me if I digress a little and say a word, as I pass along, on subjects so nearly related. You will, perhaps, expect me to say something about breeds of cows as butter producers. You will see I have so far been confined to the selection of cows for the butter 64 State Board of A(^Ricur/ruuE, &c. dairy exclusively. So with regard to selecting cows ; it should be done with dii'cct reference to the particular branch of dairying we are engaged in. If I were selecting for the butter product alone, I should select Jerseys, because they have, for a long series of years, been bred for that particu- lar purpose, and that is what must be done to secure good animals for any purpose. They are more uniformly good buttej- cows than any other bi'eed I am ac(|uainted with. This degree of perfection has been reached at the expense of some desirable points in a cow for all purposes. Some of the points in which the Jersey excels all other breeds, taken as a whole, are these: their ci-eam rises quickei-, simplifying tlie process of setting milk ; their but- ter is yellower, can be churned from cream in very much less time, and can be churned at higher temperature with good I'esults ; their butter certainly does command a higher price in market than that of most other bi-eeds. In short, they are a good machine to convert good food into fine but- ter, but they cannot give a large amount of butter from scanty feed and noxious weeds, any more than a miller can make good Hour in full measure from musty wheat and cockle seed. There are not enough Jerseys now so that all can have a dairy of them, and, if there were, I should not think it advisable, as there are other purposes for which we want cows, and we must have the noble Shorthorns, Ayrshires, Devons and Holsteins; indeed, cows of all tlicse breeds have done wonders in producing butter, when bred foi- that pur- pose, while I do think too much effort has been made to SEr,ECTiON OF Cows. 65 breed for fancy points for tlie good of tliose who have so bred their cuttle. My advice is, strive to improve what yon have, and rather than purchase liigh priced, fancy aninitUs of any breed for cows, raise your own, grading up by the use ot good thor- ough-bred males from a butter producing herd, the Jersey being my choice. A good cow may cost too much, a poor one always does. Sometimes you can buy cows or heifers that have been bred with care for the butter dairy, at moderate cost, and thereby save j'^ears of time which would be required to raise your own to the same standard of excellence. T do want to again urge tlie dairymen of Vermont to use thorough-brod bulls, and select them with great care, as the inflncnce of tlie sire is almost always greater on the prog- eny than that of the dam. The same care is also necessary in selecting the cow to breed from. The question "• How may I know a good butter cow every time V is the one which interests us most of all, perhaps, and it is one not easily answered to the satisfaction of all, or even most of us. I can only give my own method of selecting and testing, and that of some others. There are certain marks or points good cows usually exhibit, that do not often lead a good selector astray, if selecting for the production of milk. Prominent among these is a soft, velvety skin, and good feed helps to make a good skin. Mr. C. A. Crampton of Swanton, who is as good a judge as I know, and almost a model dairyman, says : " I had 3 66 State Boahd of Agricultuke, &c. rather have my hands tlian eyes with which to select a dairy cow," because he depends so much on a good skin. Other marks are, full eyes, small hoi-ns, wide escutcheon, a place to put a hag, well spread teats of good size, large, crooked milk veins, with large orifice at their source. A slim neck is a good sign, also a slim tail, and clean limbs. Almost all good butter cows are bright and sprightl}'. A good, vigorous constitution is very important. If 3^ou wish a cow giving yellow milk, the newly formed earwax is the l)est guide, if you do not have a chance to prove her. But I do not rely on marks and points nearly as much as on test tubes. These tubes, sufficient for the purpose, cost only seventy-five cents per dozen, and can be found at druggists' and agricultural wareliouses. L. L. Dutcher & Sons, St. Albans, Yermont, keep them. Get as many tubes as you have cows ; bore a row of holes in a narrow strip of board and write the name of each cow opposite a tube, or in some way mark so as readily to dis- tinguish each one. Now fill each tube with milk from cows as designated, note the time the cream is risino; in each tube, see if the separation is com])lete and distinct, examine the color of the cream, its solidity and percentage, also see if the milk under the cream is bluish ; if the milk is bluish and the cream rises quickly, the butter globules are large and of uniform size. So much carefully done, and you will see there is a difference in cows. Of course, the cow's milk must be weighed carefully to have tliese tests of value. This experiment needs to be repeated at intervals, as the Selection of Cows. 67 varied condition of the cows varies the percentage materi- ally, and the dairyman that has the sharpest biting dog, and uses him most freely, will see the greatest variation in the percentage of cream. I mean by this that Hon. E. D. Mason, of Richmond, gave correct directions for driving cows, at an agricultural meeting in Utica, New York, when he said, " I send the laziest man I have after the cows, and if that don't answer I go myself." - Having carefully made such experiments as 1 have spoken of with tubes, you are prepared to make the first weeding in the dairy. Then continue experiments, by setting each cow's milk in separate pans, after weighing, and churn the cream from each pan by itself, again noting all the items : how much butter in proportion to milk in each case, how long it takes to churn each, the color of the butter, also the solidity, &c., and you are prepared to make an almost final selection. It requires time and patience to do this, but remember one good cow that will yield a net income of twenty-five dollars, or more, yearly, is worth a good many that barely pay expenses. The profits must all come from what can be made above expenses. All this done and well done, and yet, without care and good management, the dairy will run down. Barns should be made comfortable for cattle, warm enough to prevent freezing in the coldest weather, and the cows kept in them when they prefer it to being out of doors. The logic is dollars and cents. G8 Statk Boakd ok Agkiculture, &,c. Of course, stables shoiiUl be well ventilated, but warm quarters do much to keep up tlie flow of milk iu winter. Cows must have plenty of good, pure water, and a good bed of straw, sawdust or forest leaves adds much to their comfort and saves much of the liquid manure now being wasted in Vermont. Cows enjoy bL'iug petted and carded, and it does much to make them gentle, I have a great deal of respect for good cows, and would discharo-e a hired man for abusing; a cow sooner tlian for almost iiny other fault. If a cow kicks while beins; milked, I would tie her Icirs carefully together above her gambrels, and keep on milking as thougli nothing luid happened, but never strike her. The subject of the size of cows is discussed considerably recently. I have never considered it one of great import- ance, and yet it demands some attention. A cow consumes of good hay about three per cent of her live weight daily, to support life and rcjiaij- the waste ; if a Ir.rge cow will, when not used for the daiiy longer, make cuough more beef than the small one that makes the same amount of butter to pay for the greater amount of fodder consumed during the years she is kept for a dairy cow, she is worth the same, and this is the best rule I know of by which to judge ot the relative value of large and small cows in the butter dairy. The cow is a quiet animal luiturally, taking but little exer- cise of her own choice. This suggests plainly the inqior- tance of supplying to the cow an abundance of good food. The manner of milking is of ini})orttince. The utmost care should be taken to milk at stated intervals, es])ecially when cows are giving full messes. Selkction of Cows. G3 Hero Mgain science lias lent a helping hand. It is proved by actual experiment, that if milking is delayed beyond the usual time, or until there is pressure in the udder, nature undertakes to relieve b}'^ the process of absorption, thus not only reducing the aggregate amount of milk, but greatly reducing the cream percentage. I have seen a statement from the Superintendent of the Ridge Hill, New York, Creamery that by tests he had ascertained the night's milk of cows which were not milked until fifteen hours after the morning milking, required 5.27 pounds more milk for a pound of butter than the morning's milk. The thinking, practical dair3'man will make use of such an experiment, and it may result in getting him out of a net he has long been in. We do well to read much on subjects relating to our interests. Take a good agricultural paper and pay the printer well. I like the plan of tying cows in a stated place to be milked; it secures quiet, to say nothing of the moral effjct of btjing kicked over without much warninir. It is well to milk the CD same cow first each time. I have thus briefly touched upon the points in this subject that interest rae most. I desire to say oidy, in conclusion, what I have in detail said before. One good, well bred, well fed cow may be worth a dozen poor ones in the butter dairy, and we need to select them with great care. Think and investigate at eveiy step, and we shall be rewarded with seeing the labor of dairying greatly reduced, and enjoy the luxury of a better filled purse. 70 State Board of Agricui.tuke, &c. FEEDING GRAIN TO MILCII COWS. BY E. H. CLEVELAND, OF FRANKLIN. The dairy business, as conducted by a majority of tliose engaged in it in this county, is not a business that pays a large return for the capital and labor invested. I have been astonished, while looking up the results of this branch of industry, the better to qualify myself to discuss the question assigned me on this occasion, to learn what small returns are realized by a large number of our dairymen. I have taken a great deal of pains to ascertain the differ- ence in the receipts of dairies fed grain, and those that are not, and I am sorry to say that tliere arc altogether too many dairies in this county that do not yield one hundred and twenty-five pounds of butter per cow annually, and for which the average price received has not exceeded twenty-eight cents a pound for the same. This only gives thirty-five dollars for keeping a cow one year, and for the laber of milking and making the butter. Every intelligent farmer knows that at this rate a farm cannot be made to pay expenses. I do not intend to convey the impression that the dairies that are not fed grain will not average more than these figures, but will be liberal and place the average production at one hundred and forty pounds to the cow, which, I think, will exceed rather than fall below the actual Feeding Ctkain to Milch Cows. 71 results. Kow if wo figure tliis yield at thirty cents a pound, we shall find that a dairy of twenty cows will produce eight hundred and forty dollars in butter during the season. It certainly will not take a very close calculating man to see that no farmer can afford to hire help, at present prices for the same, and carry on dairy operations with such small returns. But let us see if we can not better the case by feeding grain. I think I communicated with about ten dif- ferent men who have fed grain to their cows, and in every case have found the most gratifying results. Those that have followed this practice, have made their cows to yield from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds each. And another thing : I find that the butter made from cows fed grain will command a higher price in market, other things being equal. I need not dwell upon this point, for I think it will be conceded that the better the quality of the food the cows receive, the better the butter produced. Any man that has not tried feeding grain, will be surprised at the difference in body, color and flavor of butter made from grain fed cows. I think I am safe in concluding, from what I have learned by interviewing enterprising dairymen, that at least two cents more per pound have been realized by those that have fed grain than by those that have not. Now if my conclusions are correct, we need figure no further to find that we can make dairying a more remunerative busi- ness than it is to-day. Bat I wish to go througli this sub- ject to the end, and see where we shall come out. To give the old system the benefit of a doubt, if any should claim it, I will call the average of grain fed cows, two hundred 72 State Boaud of Agkicultuke, &c. and ten pounds, and the increased price obtained, equal to one cent a pound only. Now then, take two farmers, for instance, whose lands jioin, and who keep twenty cows. Their pastures and gen- eral management are similar, with this difference: A feeds his cows on the old plan ; gives them what hay they require in winter in order to bring ihcm through in fair condition, with pastures in summer, and makes two thousand eight hundred pounds of butter, which, at thirty cents a pound, would amount to eight hundred and forty dollars in the aggregate for the season. B is not satished with these fig- ures, so he adds to the feed of his cows four quarts of coarse middlings a day to each, through the entire milking scjison, and obtains the following results : four thousand two hun- dred pounds of butter, for which he realizes one thousand three hundred and two dollars, at thirty-one cents a pound, lie has fed nine tons of middlings, which, at twenty -four dollars per ton, would amount to two hundred and sixteen dollars. Deduct this from the receipts for the butter, and he has left one thousand and eighty-six dollars. A gets for- ty-two dollars per cow, B fifty-four dollars and thirty cents, or twelve dollars and thirty cents more than A, after deduct- ing the cost of the meal. Now 1 calculate that B has been amply repaid for the trouble in feeding his cows this grain in their extra condi- tion, when it comes fall, and in the less amount of hay they will require the following winter ; so I think it but fair to figure what he got more than A, after paying for this grain, a« extra profits on the money invested in its purchase. This amounts to the snug little sum of two hundred and Feki>ing Grain to Mir.cii Cows. 73 forty-six dollars, no inconsiderable amount, as all will agree, for a small farmer to have at the end of tlie season's toil, in addition to his usually small returns. But some may say that this is easier said than done. Well, if sueh do not believ^e the statement, they will not be very likely to try the method given, and so will not know by actual experience. I have no doubt that these results, substantially as I have figured them out, can be realized by every dau'yman in the county. I have come to the conclusion by extensive communica- tion with successful dairymen, receiving from them their actual experience in the matter. I have given, in substance, the facts and figures in a gen- eral way, but not so specifically as I hope they will be given by the gentlemen themselves. In addition to this I would say, that ray own experience during the past season, in regard to this matter, has been highly satisfactory, and fully confirms all I have claimed, in favor of feeding grain to milch cows. 74 State Board of AcRicur;TURE, &c. MEAL FOR DAIllY COAVS. BY E. S. WOOD, OF POMFRET. I often hear the question asked, " Does it pay to feed meal to cows V And again it is said, " If I knew I could get my money back, I would feed meal." The question might with the same propriety be asked, " Does it pay to feed meal to anything ?" How often the farmer feeds large quantities of meal to beef cattle and to hoo;s, without realizino- half its cost. It will be my object, in the short time I shall occupy, to show that meal can be fed to dairy stock and make it pay. It should be borne in mind that it must be judiciously fed, and fed to the right stock. That meal can be fed with profit, in any quantity and to any stock, is not so sure. It was customary, in years past, when farmers were short of hay, to browse their cattle, as it was called ; they took them to the woods, where they had been getting wood, and, in many instances, felled trees on purpose for the ])rush, to use as feed for their stock. Any way to get them through the winter ! They realized so little from their cows, that it would not pay, they thorght, to feed them meal. The small quantity of butter or cheese made, and the low price obtained, would not warrant any such expense. But, as browse grew scarce, they were under the necessity, when Meat, for Dairy Co\vs. 7o there was a scarcity of hay, to resort to the feeding of grain of some sort, in order to get their stock through the winter. It was a sad state of things for the fanner to be thus short, and to be obliged to feed out his corn, if he liad it, and if not to be at the expense of buying it ; but, after going through a few such trials, it was found that cows came out better in the spring, and were really the better for the scar- city of hay, and the grain they had received in conse- quence. By feeding meal from necessity, farmers began to learn that it would pay to feed it to cows, working oxen and horses, in the spring. Their oxen would perform twice the labor with grain, keep in much better flesh, and in a more healthy condition. It used to take nearly all summer to fatten oxen, after they had done a hard spring's work with- out meal. Horses were only fed grain when tliey were to perform some hard day's work, or be driven gn a long jour- ney. How diflPerent now ! No one pretends to keep a horse without feeding it daily with grain. Most people say they can keep a horse with about the same cost, to give it considerable grain, that they can on hay alone, and that it will perform much more labor ; yet these same farmers, who feed grain to their horses, and make beef of their oxen, on meal, at the low price of beef at the present day, are in doubt about its paying to feed meal to dairy stock. In our own case, after twenty-five years' experience, we are quite sure we realize much more from meal fed to dairy stock, than when fed to any other. It is much easier to produce one hundred pounds of butter, tlian to grow four hundred pounds of beef or pork. In the latter case it 76 State Board of Agriculture, &c. requires considerable capital, as we get no pay until tlie end of the season, while in the former, we get returns eacli day, and in proportion to the amount fed. Nearly all farmers, at the present time, agree that it pays to feed meal to cows in the spring, when they are giving milk, because they have tried it and know ; but, they say, " What is the use in feed- ing meal when the cow can sret all the srrass she wants ? Is there anything better than grass ?" We answer, no, grass for the cow is the staff of life, the same as bread is for man, yet she would pay for something more hearty, when giving a large flow of milk, as well as the laboring man would for a slice of meat with his bread. The cow should be kept in as good condition, while giving milk, as possible, for a cow in good flesh gives much richer milk than when poor. All farmers know that their cows lose flesh fast when their meal is taken off, and they are turned to pasture, also that there will be a fallino; off in the amount of butter. The amount of milk will increase, but the cream will be thin, and will not have the body, nor make so much or so good quality of butter, as when fed meal. The amount of milk required to make a pound of butter, according to the report of many creameries and private dai- ries, where meal is not fed, varies from twenty-three to for- ty-six pounds, while on many trials of our own dairy, in the month of June, it required a fraction over sixteen pounds. K the average cow has two quarts of meal per day, she will hold her flesh better, look sleek, and be strong and sprightly. The amount of milk in June, perhaps, will not be more, but when the feed fails from* drought, she will keep up a nnich larger flow of milk. It is of quite as much importance Meal fou Dairy Cows. 77 when feeding fodder-corn, and tlirougli tlie fall and winter. Bj feeding meal and shorts, cows can be kept in milk the most of the winter, and a good quantity and quality of but- ter mada. Bjsides, when nioal is fed, a greater number of cows can ])e kept. It is estimated that one ton of mcnl is worth nearly as .much as two of hay, as feed for wintering stock, where butter is not taken into account. It has been proved to us in the case of Miller of New York, and others, that cows can be wintered on meal alone, and at a less cost than on hay. But to show you more clearly that it pays to feed meal, I will state a few facts in connection with my own dairy and manner of feeding. My pastures are quite limited, only sufficient to summer eight or ten cows without the use of meal. The past season I have kept fourteen, (all kept at home except two were away nine weeks, being dry in the summer,) and have fed two quarts of meal, or its equivalent in shorts, to each cow, for ten months, or while they are giving milk, at a cost of $280, or $20 per cow, allowing the meal to cost $40 per ton, which is a little more than the average cost of meal. They have made, in the past year, four thousand pounds of butter, a little less than three hundred pounds per cow, which, at thirty-five cents per pound, would be $1,400. Now I estimate, for I do not care to try the experiment to obtain the facts, that did I feed no meal, I could not keep more than twelve cows on the same land. Truly, $280 is a great outlay for the keeping of two cow^s. But let us see how the account stands. Two hundred pounds per cow, wliicli would be a large estimate without meal, would pro- duce two thousand, four hundred pounds, which, at thirty 78 State Boakd of Agkicultuke, &c. cents, would bring $720, or a difference of $680, and a loss of $ttOO on butter alone. The extra amount of sour milk produced in the former case, as feed for calves and hogs, would be of considerable value, and the value of so large an amount of grain fed, as a fertilizer for our worn out farms, 1 shall not attempt to estimate, but think it' much cheaper and better than to buy the popular phosphates,, which are so much resorted to at the present day. A few words with regard to raising dairy stock, as it is quite as important and difficult as any part of dairying. Calves should be allowed to run with the cow until two or three days old, then they should be separated and put some distance apart, so that they Avill not hear each other's calls^^ and where the calf can have plenty of exercise. It is then fed about three quarts of new milk for one week, then on milk set twelve hours for another, and then on milk set twenty-four hours, and so gradually change it to sour milk^ making it about the same temperature as milk drawn from the cow. At this time, or when the calf is about four weeks old, it will begin to eat hay, which should be kept by it, and it should be fed a little bran or oats or both, in a small box prepared for the purpose. The amount should be very small at first, and gradually increased, without increasing the amount of milk fed. In this way, the calf can be kept in a healthy condition, avoiding all those difficulties arising from over feeding with sour milk and meal. When it is of suita- ble age, it may be turned to pasture, if desirable, but will be inuch better if kept up through the hot weather. Much care should be taken, as cold weather comes on, that they do not suffer from cold nights and storms, but that they Meal for Dairy Cows. 79 come to the barn in good condition ; then they can be win- tered as easily as any other stock. A httle grain will be of much value to them in the winter, and even throno;h the next, if they are coming in at two years old, which I think desirable. And now if any thing which I have said on this occasion would induce farmers to keep their dairy stock better, my object will have been accomplished. 80 State Board of Agriculturk, tfec. ASSOCIATKD DAIRYING- BY C. W. MUDGETT, OF WEATHERSFIELD. The dairy has become an important branch of national industry. It is rapidly spreadinoj over new lields, and is engaging the attention of farmers in tiie Western, North- western and Middle States, wherever the lands are adapted to grazing, and there are S2:)rings and streams of living wa- ter. The dairy districts, though comparatively limited^ embrace a larger area than has been generally supposed. It is true there are extensive plains at the South and South- west, where the business of dairying cannot be carried on, but broad belts and isolated patches of land are scattered over our vast domain, well adapted to grazing, and such lands, when taken in the aggregate, cover a wide extent of territory. Tliere are two causes that have been operating, in the last dozen years, to stimulate the development of this branch of industry, and have caused it to assume propor- tions that give it a distinctive feature of nationality. The first is a large and increasing foreign demand for dairy products ; the second is the American system of " associated dairies," now brought to such wonderful per- fection that the business is being readily introduced into new sections, with all the ease and certainty of success in producing the qualities attained in old dairy districts. Associated Daiuying. 81 The foreign demand for cheese, it is beheved, will be per- manent, and exportations tVom year to year must largely increase, since the finest American grades are acknowledged to be equal to the best manufactured abroad, while the cost of production is so much less as to render competition with European dairies an easy matter on our part. This fact alone gives confidence to those entering upon the business of dairy farming — that it will be remunerative and enduring. In addition as the texture and flavor of cheese have improved, a large home demand has sprung up, which requires large quantities to meet its wants. It is stated by those thoroughly conversant with the matter, that the home demand, for years to come, will more than keep pace with the increased production. With a constantly increasing home trade, and a reliable foreign market, no branch of farming to-day ofi:ers better or more permanent remuneration than the dairy. Previous to 1830, dairying in the States comprised but a small proportion of the income of our agriculturists, and, until 1850, but little cheese had been shipped abroad. All the operations of the dairy at that time were rude and unde- veloped. The herds were milked in the open yard, the curds were worked in tubs and]log presses. Everything was done by guess, and there was no order, no system, and no science in conducting the operation. It w^as not till 1851-2, that the foundation of the first cheese factory in the coun- try was laid in Oneida County, New York, and, for the ten years following, but little was accomplished in pushing for- ward the enterprise. But at this time the associated dairy system began to attract attention. 82 State Board of Agriculture, c%c. The system was first inaugurated bj a substantial farmer by the name of Williams, living at Rome, Oneida County, New York, and was suggested from mere accidental circum- stances. Mr. Williams was an experienced and skillful cheese maker ; his dairy, therefore, enjoyed a high reputa- tion, and was eagerly sought for by dealers. One of his sons, having married, entered upon farming on his own account, turning his attention to dairying, and proposed to lift his debt by cheese making. But he could not be sure of as good prices as his father's make always commanded. It was therefore arranged between father and son, that the milk from the new farm should be brought over in cans and made up in the paternal cheese room. Meanwhile the father had contracted the cheese at a figure considerably hio;her than was beino; oflfered for other dairies in that vicin- ity. The plan worked admirably, and the. next year neigh- bors sought admittance as partners or patrons. It was from this small beginning, that has sprung into existence one of the greatest industries of tiie agriculturists of this country, and relieved thousands of its burdened and over-worked far- mers' wives of the heavy drudgery of the cheese room. And here it may be proper to observe, that one of the inconven- iences which is widely felt among dairymen results from the difficulty of obtaining careful and reliable hands for the management of the dairy. If it is desirable to make first class cheese, that will command in market the highest price, all the operations of manufacture must be performed by tried and skillful hands, hands chat can rarely be obtained for hire, and, when obtained, command comparatively large wages. Associated Dairying. 88 Now as cheese making is an art, which must be learned like other trades, and as most of the operations are per- formed by females, the dairy fartner may be said to have, for the most part, nothing but apprentices in liis employ, for when his dairymaid has been carefully taught the trade, she .marries, and is at once lost to him. The scarcity of skilled cheese makers is severely felt through the whole dairy region, necessitating to the farmer and his family, and more especially the female portion, ardu- ous labors, taxing their strength to a degree that tells heav- ily on health and constitution. The result is, that persons prematurely aged, and with broken health, are more fre- quently found in a dairy region than in other farming com- munities. There is no desire to say one discouraging word of a business which has added so much wealth to the coun- try, and in which those who are engaged generally prosper^ and soon become independent in worldly goods; but the truth must be told, nevertheless. Wealth has its advanta- ges, but its price should be kept in view, and, if overtasked muscle, incessant care without relaxation, and finally dis- ease, is to be the patrimony of wives and daughters, its charms, to say the least, are very much diminished. Dairymen are conversant with these facts, and they are points to be considered, and should have their proper bear- ing in making up our estimate of the two systems. The advantages of the factory system are, superior qual- ity, uniformity, higher prices, a saving, by buying at whole- sale such materials as salt, bandages, annatto, boxes, &c., and, finally, relieving tliu farmer and his family from the drudgery of the manutacture and care of cheese. 84 State Board of Agriculture, &c. It is not pretended that a better quality of cheese can be made at the factory than in families, but, that it is quite as fine as the best, and therefore above the average of that man- ufactured in small parcels. I have enumerated some of the causes tliat conspire to depreciate the quality of cheese, when made in single, dai- ries ; these are not present in the factory system. The agent or superintendent makes it his business to see that all parts of the work are properly performed. He employs skillful workmen, and his interests and reputation are at stake, prompting him, at all times, to do his best. He knows that neglect or mistakes will not be tolerated, and the desire to satisfy persons interested, in order to secure their patronage, stimulates him to make every exertion to build up and sustain a reputation for fine goods. He has every convenience at hand for manufacturing to advantage and making the business a sole enn)lo3'ment. He is not liable to be disturbed by other matters, which might serve to call his attention away from time to time, to the prejudice of the immediate work at hand. The same rule must hold good with liim, as witli those engaged in other professions and arts, for he who gives his whole attention and energies in a certain direction, is likely to become more skilled, and arrive nearer to perfection in his calling, than he who is striving to do many and diverse things at tlie same time, more especially in cheese manufac- ture under this system, as a high degree of skill is expected, and jealous and interested eyce are daily watching and notic- ing every short coming. Uniformity and fine quality are more likely to obtain under this system, and whatever prog Associated Dairyixg. 85 ress can be made towards improvement will naturally develop itself more rapidly here than among persons scat- tored over a broad extent of countrj", and who are so occu- pied with a variety of work as to have little time to spend in the improvement of one particular branch. The most important advantage to farmers in tliis union arrangement, is the relief from the drudojerv of cheese makino;, and the constant care and attention necessary in properly curing and fitting the cheese for market. It would be diflBcult to esti- mate this in dollars and cents, since health enters into the account more largely than is generally suspected. As the same process has to be gone through with, in manufacturing cheese, whether the quantity of milk be large or small, and as nearly the same time also is occupied, it will be seen that what requires the labor of a great many persons to do, when cheese making is divided up in families, can be accomplished with but few persons in the factory system, some five or six being sufficient to do all the work about an establishment manufacturing the milk of a thousand or more cows. The question is frequently asked, is the factory system destined to stand the test of years ? Is it to continue to prosper, or will it not soon break up -and dairymen return again to the old order of cheese making. In my opinion it is to live. Tlu! Fystem. is a progressive step, and all history teaches that when that is taken, it is difficult to retract it. Doubtless some may remember when the wool and the flax, grown on the farm, were spun and woven in the fjira- ily. We shall never return to that again, because we can- not afford it. They can be more cheaply manufactured by associated capital, substituting the untiring arm of the 86 State Board of Agriclrlture, &c. machine for one of living muscle. The flesh and blood of onr wives and daughters are of too much consequence to be worn out by this ceaseless toil, when the spindles and looms, driven by steam or water power, can relieve them of the burden at a fraction of what it costs in home manufacture. Why then should a neighborhood of dairymen do the work of cheese making in families, employing many hands, when it can be performed equally well by half a dozen persons in a well constituted factory. The inauguration of associated dairies is rapidly producing a revolution in old customs and heretofore fixed ideas. It teaches the important lesson that farmers can adopt successfully the same means that have proved so beneficial to the merchant, the banker, and the commercial man of the world. By a consolidation of inter- ests, the dairyman of to-day can wield a power and influence never before reached. Butter Making. 87 BUTTER MAKING. BY C4. S. FASSETT, OF ENOSBURGH. The object the dairyman has in view in all his labors, is to accumulate property, or, at least, to secure a good and suffi- cient living, and it should be tlie second thought to accom- plish all the possible good he can. You will, no doubt, agree with me, when I say, the profits of the ordinary butter dairy ai-e not very large. To increase the profits, some plan must be devised to make more butter from each cow, and so improve the quality as that it will command more remune- rative prices. It is not my intention to write an exhaustive paper on tliis subject, if I were able, but to make some sug- gestions, which may be practicable and of use to butter makers. I would not recommend any great changes, but a more careful study of the subject in general, wath a view to improvement. If it costs twenty-four cents to make one pound of butter, and it can be sold for thirty cents, the net profit is, of course, six cents on a pound, or three dollars on a tub of fifty pounds ; and if a cow produces one hundred and thirty-five pounds per year, the probable average in Vermont, the net profit from a dairy of twenty cows would be one Imndred and sixty-two dollars. Now if the quality of tlie butter 88 State Board of Agrtcultukk, &c. Kiade is so improved as to bring thirty-iive cents per pound, and each cow will produce two hundred pounds, and all onr dairies ought to produce as much, many do a good deal moi-e, the net profits from a twenty cow dairy would be increased from one hundred and sixty-two dollars to four hundred and forty dollars, or nearly three times as much. Too nnich of the income is now consumed for running expenses. Success in butter making depends upon the careful observance of nature's laws. Pure milk is the basis or starting point, free from taint ov unpleasant odors. To secure tin's, the cow nnist l)e in a healtliy condition, nbun- dantly supplied witli food containing butter producing ele- ments, must have pure air ;ind pure water. Gentle treat- ment is very necessary, also, as the nervous condition of the cow affects the (juality and quantity of the ])utter prijduct. In short, if the cow is obliged to eat food or -ht or sixty deuttcr are the size of from shot to l)utternuts, and if tlie ehurn is turned ten times after that, the gloss is gone and cannot be restored by any process. If the churning is well done, the remaining work is more easily done well. The buttermilk should be drawTi off from the churn, and the butter rinsed in the churn ; l)ut to remove all the caseine, the butter must be worked with the hands in tlie tray, in water, or, perhaps, three waters, till the water I'uns off cleai- ; or, if woi-ked on the brake, water must be turned on while working. Or the caseine may be removed by working alone, if worked twice. In speaking of removing all tlie caseine, I use dairy parlance, when, in fact, the caseine cannot all be removed by washing or working. In washing butter, it is very important that the water be of the same temperature as the cream while churn- ing, or, perhaps, two degrees colder, in warm weather. Ice water is too cold. All sudden changes should be avoided. If butter is kept at an even, cool temperature, it may be handled or worked very much more without injury to the grain. Some experiments seem to prove that butter keeps better to work out the caseine rather than wash. Some dairymen, also, think washing injures the flavor of butter, but I am not prepared to endorse that belief. In liandling l)utter, either in washing or working in the salt, great care is necessary to avoid a drawing or smashing motion, with the hands or lever, in order to preserve the grain and gloss. The working can be done equally as well with the hands Butte K Making, 97 or on the well constructed brake, l)y one who has had expe- rience. If hnttei' is woi'ked too much, it will be salvy and leaden ; if not enough, streaked with white. The white, streaks -.wo not salted. The amount of salt used must conform to the taste of the consumer. As a genend i-ule, two-thirds of an ounce of salt to one pound of butter is sufficient, unless the butter is to be kept a long time, when an ounce or more may be used. Ashton's and Onondaga salt are the best I know in the market, but manufacturers should give it to us free from dirt or sediment, if possible. I have had no experience with any Init spruce and liem- lock packages. These may l>e prepared for use by tilling them with brine, and allo\\'ing it to remain till the wood is saturated ; then cleanse the tub and sprinkle in a little salt. The buttcM- can be pounded down with a heavy wooden pestle; of course, it nmst be scalded and kept wet. Too much pounding will injure butter. If the face of the pestle is made slightly concave, it will help to leave the top of the butter in o^-al shape, giving it a good appearance. The external appe;irance of everything gives the hrst ini])ression as to its value. To smooth the top of l)utter, a Avooden pad- dle, well prepared, should he used. The l)utter shoidd be covered with a fine cloth, tucked down at the edges, on which should be carefully and smoothly spread, with a knife, a little very clean salt ; not a poimd 01- two. If the cloth is left oif for a few hours, till the butter has 4 98 State Board of Agriculture, &c. lijirdened, so tlie impression of tlie clotli will not show, it will sliine better. If butter is to be ke})t long;, it is well to put on more salt, and keep the bntter covered with brine to exclude the air. If the l>utter is sent to market and used at once, it ^v\l\ .look l)etter to expose it to light, as it will change the color sooner. Everything about the package should l»e neat and whole- some. To keep the tubs looking new they should be stored in a dark room. Butter is })ut up in a variety of forms, to suit the fancy of consumei-s, and the form in which it is sent t(^ consum- ers sometimes adds very nmch to the price, and we all need to l)e looking for a good market. Great improvement has been made in the last few years in this branch of hns1>andry, but not over one-fifth of the butter made in Vermont is yet called " tine," or '' fancy," or " gilt-edge," and we nnist not cry "Eureka" too soon, but call to our aid every means of improvement, and add t(» them some good, thorough thought and work, and tlie frequent complaints fi-om buyers, that but little butter is what it should be, will not be heard, and we shall get more remunerative prices. The Western dairymen are our competitors, and 1 can see no good reason why many of our markets will not be sup- plied with good butter from them, at less cost to the con- sumer than from the dairies of Yermont. We, must excel them in the quality of our product if we would succeed. Butter Making. 99 DISCUSSIONS ON MR. FASSETT'S PAPER ON BUTTER MAKING. AT MIDDLEBUBY. Mr. Douo-las lioped the farmers present would ask Mr. Fassett questions, as he had infonuation Avhich coukl not l)e pressed into the compass of a l^rief paper. Dr. Bond asked, what means couhl he used to reguhite the temperature of the milk room. Mr. Fassett spoke of the expensive one of havhig- an iee room adjoining, and taking the cool air from that room to the milk room. Mr. Douo-las thousrht it made no difference about the tem- perature of the air, ho long as that of the milk was right. This idea of regulating the temperature of the milk room was an old time prejudice, and, like many other prejudices, stood in the way of protitahle improvement. It would astonish any man, as it had the speaker, when the results of slight improvements are tigured out ; the difference in value on the product of twenty cows would amount, at least, to two thousand dollars, between a dairy of average cows, and some dairies of twenty cows that are actually kept in the State. Mr Douglas thought the old small pans were the best possible invention to injure the rpiality of the butter ; the deep, large pans were much better to preserve it. 100 State Boaru of Agkiculture, &c. Mr. Fassett thought favorahly of tlie large pans, but others were getting the l)est of results from the small ones. His own practice was in favor of deep setting. Mr. Eells thought the wliite specks in 1)uttei- were caseine, from the bottom of the cream pots oj" pails. Mr. Fassett had no donl)t but they were dried cream, as he had separated them, strained them through a fine bag- breaking them up into smaller fragments, and churned an inferior quality of l)utter from them. Mr. Douglas liad no doul)t but the white specks were dried cream. Professoi- Collier had analyzed them and found them sucli. After a discussion in regard to cooling milk, Mr. Fassett stated tliat he cooled his milk — but not too suddenly — to about sixty-two degrees, and kept it in a room as nearly as possi]>le at tlie temperature sixty-five degrees, without water around it. Mr. Douglas set liis in water in wooden vats, in deep pails, and controlled tlie temperature of the water by ice. Ml". Benedict set in much the same wav. He thouii'ht six- ty-three degrees al)Out the riglit temperature ; had found it best not to cool the milk too rapidly. Mr. Fassett thought it important that tlie temperature should 1)6 kept as unif(jrm as possible, from the time the milk is set until the butter is packed. He also stated that water around the pans was not used as genei'ally in Franklin County as formerly, noi- was it now considered essential. BuTTEK Making. 101 AT SPRINGFIELD. Mr. Hul)l)ar(l asked Mr. Fassett for his opinion of the effect of the luud upon milk. Mr. Fassett replied that he had not experimented exten- sively, hut he thought that the result of concentrated food was to iucrease tlie amount of milk, but not the quality. Turnips ^vill not injure the flavor of milk, if judiciously and regularly fed. Mr. nuh])ard instanced a case of a dairyman who fed one-half bushel of turnips a day, and sold his l)utter for fifty cents per pouud ; Init his practice was to begin care- fully, with a small (piantity, and feed very regularly. He thought the feeding of meal made a very decided difference in the richness of the milk. Professor Collier called attention to the point of cleanli- ness insisted upon in the paper as being essential to the pro- duction of choice ])utter, since milk is so prone to absorb odors. Good cows were also essential to the production of good ])utter. If the Legislature had the power, and would appoint a commission to kill off the poorest half of the cows, the State W(mld ]>e richer a year hence. Dairymen often sold their most profitable cows at a small advance from the average price, wheu it would be better to give the purcliaser something to (h'ive away some of the poorest. In reply to a call from Professor Collier, Mr. Chapman responded l)y saying that in a dairy where he had kept an account of the receipts from all the cows, and tested the quality of the milk, the (;ow that had generally been consid- ered the best proved the most unprofitable. 102 State Boauu of Agriculture, &c. Mr. Fassett, in reply to a <|m'stioii, thought apples iiiejvaf^ed the flavor of iiiilk, and were, prol»al)ly, good feed. Rev. Mr. Borronghs raised the qnestion whether our native cows would not do as well as Jei'seys if as well fed. From his experiments he tliought so. Mr. Whitniore thonght the Jersey cows over rated. They were treated as pets, well fed, and thns made to return more than could be prolitahly expected by common treat- ment. A little Canada cow was as good a cow as he luul. Mr. Fassett thought some of the breeds were bred for a special pnrpose, and wei'e more reliable for those pnrposes than onr native cows. Experiments by the speaker had proved these breeds more reliable. Examples were given by Mr. Fassett t(^ prove the superiority of the Jerseys, for the dairy, over our cows. Mr. Chapman wanted the term native defined. All the so-called native cows showed some marks of the imported breeds, as they had all been bred from foreign importations at a very earh' day in the history of our country. Some extra (;ows, claimed as natives, were made up of crosses of foreign breeds. Mr. Hubbard thought great improvement could be made by crossing up our nati\'e cows with foreign blood. Breeding Fabm Stock. 103 STOCK RAISING. BREEDING FARM STOCK- BY C. HORACE HUBBARD, OF SPRINGFIELD. In tlie hasty and crude suggestions which I propose to offer for the purpose of opening the discussion upon this 8ul)ject, of such momentous importance to the farmers of Vermont, it is my purpose to recognize the wide difference of principk^ wliicli too often, perhaps I would be justitied in saying usually, governs the breeder of so nmch of the thorougli-bred stock of the country as is deserving of the epithet " fancy stock "" — stock that is bred and trained with the object of gratifying the fancy of the amateur, and to be sold at prices far beyond its intrinsic value for beef, milk, or improving the common stock of the coimtry, and tliat wliicli must control the farmer whose aim is to rear stock that shall pay him tlie best income for the feed consumed aud the lal)or expended in its care. The design of tlie breeder of the former class of stock is to produce animals which, in strains of blood, color, marking and " points." shall meet the po})uLir demand, as it may exist at the time ; while, on the otiier liand, the farmer is bound by everv 104 State Boakd of Agriculture, &c. consideration tliat addresses itself to his desire for a reason- able income from his farm and stock, to liis commendable pride in success, and to his self respect, to make utility the paramount object, and to disregard every temptation, how- ever flattering, to make fashionable crosses which do not stand the test of cold matter-of-fact utility. The office of all domestic animals, except such as are devoted partly or wholly to labor, is to convert the forage and crops of tlie farm into a more concentrated form of merchandise, at the same time that the fertility of the farm is sustained, and its productiveness increased, l)y the eco- nomical guarding and application of the residuum to the soil, in the form of barn yard manure. The digestive appa- ratus of the animal, together with the arterial system, by which the nutriment in the food is made to nourish the tis- sues of the b ody, all kept in life and motion ])y that most mysterious essence, nervous force, constitute the machinery by which this conversion is performed. The degree of suc- cess whicli shall attend the operations of the farmer ; the protit or loss which he may compute at the end of each year ; the means which he shall enjoy for giving to himself and his family those comforts and relinemeuts afforded by our advanced civilization ; the power to give to the wife who labors by his side, and who often bears more than her share of the burden of life, some relief from the exliausting, never ending round of cares of the kitchen, tlie dairy, the nursery and the basket of patches ; the wherewith to educate his children so that th ey may play well their part in life ; and to so live himself, and so train t/iem that they will not detest their father's calling, and fly from the farm at the Brekdinc; Farm Stock. 105 earliest opportunity ; and the accunnilation of a little sui-plus to meet the exigencies of sickness and declininii- year>. all depend, to a very great extent, on the (;haracter of the ma- chinery he employs to work the coarse productions of the soil into a finer kind and quality, and more marketable form. A cow that has, in growing to maturity, consumed an undue proportion of the nuti'iment in her food in the man- ufacture t)f a large, coarse head, with a great pair of horns, and a coarse, masculine frame, which must be vitalized and warmed by food every day, or one that expends much vital force in roaming about the pasture, running and lighting, is not an economical ma(;hine. One that fails to draw the nutriment out of her food and make anything of it, may be a good machine to manufacture manure^ Init must be regarded as a wasteful one. The number of cows of the latter class in Vermont, is, I am convinced, enormous. The cow thi'.t C(jnverts too much of her food into bone, muscle, fat or nervous force, at the expense of the pail, is not pos- sessed of a well l>alanced system, and will entail a loss on the dairyman. The sheep that, having plenty of good pasture in the snmmer, and sweet, early cut hay in winter, yields a Heece of three or four pounds of wool, is not manufacturing her food to 2'ood advantage. The pig that works off its excess, of \agor and activity in tearing down its pen, cannot be a good economizer of food, and the horse with no more nervous energy tluni a pig should have, is a most discouraging subject to feed, drive, or write about. 106 Statk Boakd of Agricucturk, &c. The lUHi-giu for the improveiueut of the domestic animals ill the State is very wide. If all tlie animals that never sliould liave been born, and that do not pay any profit, should be sacrificed on the altar of im])rovenient, the slaughter of the innocents would he friiilitfnl. Not a few of the farmers would see the cows they ha\'e In-ago^ed over walk up tind lay their submissive necks under the wheels of this Jui-'o-ernaut. The first step for the farmer to take, or, rather, the pre- liminary to any step, in breeding farm stock, is to fix and determine upon a well considered ideal as \\ hat he wishes to produce ; a standard that shall not l»e often nor lightly changed. Having formed in his mind tlie image of pei'fec- tion to which he desires to attain, there are certain well establislied principles whicli he must o])sei've. Principal among these is the law of similarity, that tlie cpialities of the parents are transmitted to the children. This is a great and wonderful law, and he who perfectly understands it and is master of the power to apply it in practice can mould them at Avill. The size, form, color, temperament and other chai-acteristics of animals, are at his control, and can be gradually changed and modified in a most surprising manner. It is a peculiarity of this law that the qualities of remote ancestors nuiy lie dormant in the inmiediate parent, and yet be transmitted to the offspring in all their force and a,ctivity. It is tlie non-observance of this principle which occasions so frequent disappointment in stock breeding, and especially in breeding farm stock. The farniei' loses sight of the fact that tlie character of the calf mav be controlled Bkekdixg Farm Stock. 107 by some (loruiaiit (quality of the parent, that it may " trace back," as it is termed, to a remote ancestor ; and lie is sm- prised and disappointed, after years of feeding and care, to find that the heifer, which he expected wonld make, like its dam, a vtdnable dairy cow, proves to be e, if tliey are really thorousrh-bred, have become intensilied by lono; breedino:, mitil they possess the power to perpetuate them with great certainty and uniformity. I may as well o;ive a few moments' consideration, at this time, to a question which I foresee will arise. It is this : ISliall we, in l)reeding common farm stock, use thorough- bred males ? My answer would be : if such males are from families that are really thorough-] >red in the line of utility and usefulness, then, most emphatically, yes. If, on tlie other hand, they have been bred for fancy points, if the constitution and stamina have been impaired ])y close breed- ing and pampering, then, a thousand times., no ! I am very certain that close breeding cannot l)e followed for any length (^f time without a marked effect on the con- stitution. The development of the animal may be full and complete, with an appearance, under favorable conditions, of rugged strength, but there are likely to be an inherent sen- sitiveness and a delicacy which are objectionable. The form Breeding Far.m Stock. 109 may be one of perfect synunetry, and every organ, so far as we can see, complete and strong, j^et there is, under the fair exterior, a weakness or want of stamina, a very rotten- ness that needs only some exciting cause to set its destruc- tive agency into fatal activity. And, mifortunately, it is a law of n;itiire, tliat weakness is more certain of transmis- sion to the young than strengtli, and l)ad qualities more easily produced than good ones. As the prices of thorough-bred animals, of any race or breed, advances and a speculative tendency sets in, breeders are sub- jected to a strong temptation to seek to develop fancy points and to neglect real utility and usefulness. The ani- mals Jire not allowed to give milk because it is desired to keep them in show condition. The natural tendencv is to'ra^'ds deterioration. If anv function is not cultivated l*y l^iecding and training, it will be very sure to grow less in power and activity. The cow that is not milked loses the capacity to give milk, and trans- mits a tendency to the same incapacity to her offspring. I do not intend to reflect upon any particular breed of cattle or otlier animals, for tlie same thing exists among all. The Jersey breeder, who goes for a particular color of hair, liorns, tongue or switch, hurts his stock every time. The Ayrshire breeder, wlio endeavors to imitate the lordly form of tlie Shorthorn, impairs the value of his Ayrshire cow ; and the Shorthorn breeder, who, in breeding stock for Is^ew England, neglects to perpetuate Mud improve the dairy <[ualities for which tliiit lireed was once so celebrated, is doing an incalculable injury to the dairy interest. I have had, in my own experience as a breeder of sheep, some very no State Board of Aonicui-TtKE, &c. marked illustrations of the general principles here enmi- ciated. At the same time that I adx'ise the constant effort to develop the points of utility, I should fidl in mj duty did 1 omit to counsel a luirmonious and well l)alan(*ed dcAelop- ment, and to offer one suggestion winch 1 apprehend will be regarded as uncalled for, and which, I fear, no one will consider it necessary to heed. It is, to avoid extremis. I have seen the capacity to j)roduce a large Heece of ffne wool carried to that extreme degree, that the whole strengtli of the sheep was exhausted in growing tlie tleece, and there was no stamina left to reproduce its kind. Tiie next gene- ration was the quintessence of feebleness, worthless to the last degree. I do not know why a cow" may not give so nnidi milk as to exhaust all the strength of her system., so that the calf she bears may fail to receive from her the strengtli of constitution necessary to a dairy cow. 1 do not know wdiere the limit should be placed, but I believe the princi- ple to 1)6 sound, and call your attention to it, so that you may sive it the consideration for wliich your business as dairymen affords the opportunity. It is my Ijelief that ante-natal impressions have a \^\'\ marked effec-t on the calf or other young animal ; that tlie cow that is called to exercise, in a high degree, the lacteal fimction during gestation and up to within, say two months of calving, is more likely to produce a good milker than if she is half dried off early in the seasou. I think the tem- per of the (;alf is modiffed by the quiet or uneasy condition of the cow. A curious instance, as it seemed to me, of the effect of a shock, to the nervous system of the cow on tlie Breeding Farm Stock. Ill unboi'u calf, occurred in my Ijarn. A cow, five months in calf, was slaughtered for heef. The little, perfect calf, in its mother's womlt, was found to ha\e the blood congested in tlie center of the forehead, at a point corresponding to tlie spot where the poor mother received hei' death blow. Domestic animals should ])e treated at all times with gentle- ness, and sufficient hrnmess for good discipline, and no more. The relative intluence of the parents in determining the tlie best and the most profitable. Winter Management of Neat Stock. 113 — » — — WINTER MANAGEMENT OF NEAT STOCK- BY L. C. FISHER, OF CABOT. « When God created the universe, He gave man dominion over all the cattle which He had made. In His infinite wisdom He so constructed the soil of the earth, that, with the aid of the linsbandman, it might bring forth food for the support of man and beast. In our Northern climate, where the winters are so lonff and severe, we are oblio-ed to furnish shelter and much food for tlie support of our stock, at least six months of the year. It has been fully proved that ani- mals fed upon one kind of food alone, for any length of time, will not thrive. To have healthy and well developed animals, it is necessary to have a change and variety of food. The seed time is the time to prepare the winter food for our stock. The root crop should be made a specialty ; at least one acre of land to every fifteen head of cattle, should be devoted to this purpose. My experience is that the turnip crop is tho most profitable of any. Then follows the grass crop, which should be secured while it is grass and not hay seed. Stock should not be kept to kill brier bushes and thistles in summer, and convert straw into manure in win- ter, but kept for profit. And this comes only by good breeding and good care the year round. After the above 114 SxATt: Board of Agricui.ture, &c. \ _ named crops are secured, then comes the winter manage- ment of stock. The same rule applies in keeping stock as in all kinds of business. If it pays for keeping at all, it pays to keep it well. When a man commences right, and keeps on in that direction, he ends right. And when a man commences the winter right with his stock, jind keeps doing for them, they come out looking well in the spring. My practice is to com- mence feeding the tops of my root crop in October. » After they are gone, it is time to feed out of the barn. I feed the best I have to all kinds of stock when they first come to the barn ; the change is so great from green to dry feed, that they need good feed and good care, especially the younff, o-rowino; stock. Here is where a 2;reat amount of money is annually lost. My method of feeding is as fol- lows : After milking is finished, give a feed of nice hay (or rather dried grass), and then a feed of roots and shorts or meal ; inunediately after this is eaten, commence to water ; then another feed of hay or straw, as they wnll then eat the coarsest food best ; let them remain quiet for six or seven hours, then water again, and feed witli hay or oats on the straw, which is a good practice, followed with a little meal or shorts, which is the last feed for the night. Without holiness no man can see the Lord — and it is just as true that without cleanliness no man can have neat stock. The mangers are as essential as the dishes on our tables, and should be cleaned at every meal. Also the sta- bles should 'i)e cleaned three times a day, at least. Salt should be kept where the stock can get at it at their leisure. Air, light and exercise are very essential, but not too much I>KKEi>iNG Fahm Stock. 115 of the former. Prepare some good, light, comfortable barns for the stock, and keep them warm. Lumber is verr much cheaper in Vermont than fodder. Hence the need of making our barns warmer to save feed. How many there are who keep their stock in cold barns, with no roots, no meal, no bedding; and when the cattle get up in the morning, the juice will drip off them, from their briskets to their rumps, and the remainder of them is covered with vermin, two lice to one hair, and three nits to one louse. If they survive the cold winter, they will not get their old coats off till the middle of the summer, and will take the remainder of the season to get to thriving. Such animals will sell very low when put upon the market. The owners of such will toast their shins by a fire made of green wood, or else you will see them around the stores and shops with their hands in their pockets, half way to their ell)Ows, sucking an old, black pipe, complaining of hard times to get money. But few people know how much profit there is in breed- ing and raising good stock. For instance, let us take a well-bred calf, when taken from the cow, at two days old, and learn him to drink his own dam's milk for a few days, and then put in a part skimmed milk, twelve hours old. At ten days give it twelve hours skimmed milk ; at fifteen days, twenty-four hours ; at two months, thirty-six ; at three months, thick milk, with what dry shorts they will take. As often as once in six weeks, dissolve a lump of saltpetre as large as a robin's eg^ in the milk. With plenty of milk, shorts, early cut hay, water and exercise, a calf can be grown from two to three pounds a day for a year. With 116 State Board of Agriculture, &c. this start, you can make almost any sized animals yon wish. After Mr. Fisher's paper, a lively discussion sprang up on the value of different kinds of feed for stock, more espe- cially of roots. The diversity of opinions on this very important subject, gave additional force to the suggestion of Mr. Pitkin, of Marshfield, that an agricultural experiment station was necessary to settle, beyond dispute, these ques- tions. The Horse. 117 THE HORSE, BY DR. J. B. ORMSBY, OF BRADFORD. AN ABSTKAUT. * * What would be the effect upon mankind were thej deprived of the horse ? The mere asking of this question brings vividly to the mind the great importance of the subject. In all ages the horse has been the most con- stant, and tlie most valuable servant of man. In war or in peace, in barbarous or enlightened, in civilized or half civil- ized, or in the savage states of society, we find the horse associated with man as his best servant. It is not a matter of wonder, then, that almost every nation should have had grown up with them a race of horses peculiar to themselves. The Arabians, on their broad and arid plains, leading a nomadic, tent life, with a warm climate, subject to sudden emergencies of depredation, or tempted by revenge or hope of plunder to strike a blow upon some neigliboring tribe, have developed a race noted for astonishing agility. While the Cossack, amid the mountains of Northern Europe, where short summers and lono; winters necessitate a life of toil and exposure to the vicissitudes of a vigorous climate, where hard fare, long terms of fasting and severe labor, have produced a breed of horses as different from the Arabian as 118 State Board of Agkicultitue, &c. there is difference in the locality. EnHand, too, has brono'ht into being a horse characteristic of her people. To com- pare the monster English cart liorse witli the lithe, agile barb of Arabia, cannot fail to bring to mind the description given by the Scottish poet of the contrast between King- Richard, the Crusader, and Saladin, the Saracen Monarch. ****** **** While we see, in all parts of the world, these local char- acteristics, dividing the animal into so great a variety, we can but question onrselves as to what character of horse do our climate and local interests demand. Have we use for large team horses, to haul lumber, minerals or merchan- dise to or from market ? Do we need, or have we induce- ments, to breed to the track "i Is it profitable foj- us to endeavor to make the attainment of a 2:-i0 or a 2:30 ffait an accomplishment to be attained at whatever cost t For what character of horses liave we the best market < Ask Mr. Hunt, who comes to us from Ahington, Massachusetts, near a dozen times a year, and who, in the last twenty years, has paid for horses, in this section, over twenty thousand dollars ; ask him, I say, what kind of horses he most gener- ally seeks for. They are not selected for their great speed, but solid, close built, trappy, hardy horses. He looks for horses of all work ; good on the road, good at the plow, good wherever they are put. As to the history of the New England horse, I can say but little. We know nothing of any animal of the horse kind indigenous to the country before the white people came here. But horses have been brought in from three princi- pal sources, the English, the French and the Spanish. To The Hokse. 119 the north of us, we have a mongrel breed of what are called * French horses, a combination of the Norman with other stock common to the country ; while at the south, are the Spanish reliques of their earlj importations. Intermediate between these two great types are the horses of New Eng- land. Situated as we are, in one of the best climates for the development of muscle and frame, why should we not have a type of horses with as world wide a reputation as is the odor of sanctity ot Plymouth Rock, and tlie fame of our New England teachers? Vermont has deservedly obtained a reputation for her excellent horses. The fame of the " Morgan Horse " is almost world wide. It would be a waste of time for me to give the pedigree of that noble race. It is so well known that almost any school boy can repeat it. Tlie two barbs, '' Ranger " aud '' Bassorah," one from the head of the Per- sian Gulph, brought in 1S19 ; the other, a windfall through accident, coming to this country when he was destined for England, from the Emperor of Morocco to an English offi- cer who had rendered him some service. These horses pre- pared a stock that, when met by the later importations from England, of whom Wildair is a representative, or his foal. True Britton, who, by the fortun-js of war, is separated from his master, Gen. Delancy, and made to mate with what his aristocratic blood might have taken as insulting to his high lineaffe. ********* Thus was our Morgan produced, by a mixture of the high and the low, each side having in their veins blood of 120 State Board of Agriculture, &c. noble an(;estry. There are those here wlio reni(Mnl)er the early Mori^an horse. After the first three of the family had served their time, what has lieen the history of their progeny ? Did they transmit the excellent qualities of their noble progenitor ( or, should we expect it ? Acr-jdentally there arose an Alex- ander and a Napoleon ; but have they left a race of world conquerors ? ******** Though we may have no representative of the old, true Morgan, yet who can say that we have not a better grade of horses than if we had not had him ? * * * The fai-mer, here in Vermont, should consider foi- what purpose he breeds. How can he make horse power more profitable than ox power { The risk is certainly less with oxen than with liorses. Oxen can always be turned ofl:' for beef, while if any accident should happen to a horse, his sale is injured materially, if not destroyed. But the man that begins on a farm to-day, young, just starting in the world, lately married, is in no sucli condition as his grand- father was. The young farmer, in these days, must have a silver plated harness, a two hundred dollar buggy, and a splendid set of coon skin or wolf skin robes ; then, when '.' fair thne " comes, a 2:4-0 or a 2:30 horse. * *' * * * But the question recurs, what is the most profitable style of horse for the farmers of Vermont to pro- duce ? Have we not, through the temptations held out by our agricultural fairs, produced too much of a rivah-y for fast horses ? breeding too nnicli for the track ? Do we not rather want a horse of all work, of medium size, compactly built, of good mettle, but still docile ? * * * * The Horse. 121 * * That horse is of the most service to man, which combines, in the highest degree, his most excellent points, no one overriding the others. The race course has its uses, but all competition should not be confined to speed, neither should all the care in breeding be confined to the sire. The dam, I think, is too much neglected. True it is, too, that great care should be exercised in regard to her first mate. Having a good mare, be sure her first foal is from a good choice of horses. Otherwise, her future progeny will be marked bv the defects of the first. * * * * 122 State Board of Agriculture, &c. HORSES FOR VERMONT. BY ALBERT CHAPMAN, OF MIDDLEBURY. INTRODUCTION. It would not cause any great strain of the memory of those now before me, to remember the time when Vermont horses had the very best reputation of any raised anywhere, and the Morgan l)lood was sought after in all sections, as the best t'voni which to raise horses suited for those uses that demand a high type and pay the most remunerative prices, and many present will remember when stallions raised in this town, and having this blood, brought mucli higher pri- ces than can probably be obtained for any now raised here ; and, as it is very important that horse raisers in Yermont should find, if possible, some reason or reasons for the existence of such a demand for Morgan horses in times past, and why the decline in demand has produced a differ- ent state of affairs, and those who raise horses in Vermont do not now realize as high prices for them as formerly. This, with the fact that Vermont farmers, beino' differentlv situated from large stock raisers in the West and South, cannot profitably pursue the same course in breeding, or raise the same kind of horses for their use and for market, makes the standpoint from which Vermonters nnist view this question very different from that of breeders else- Housed* vart, but more to the fact that Yermonters have not jiroperly appreciated the situation, and the excellence of their own horses ; and then make some enquiries about the best course to improve the horses of Vermont, make their breeding most profitable, and their reputation, as it once was, better than any others. It is evident, in the beginning, that the Vermont farmer cannot have a variety of horses, each adapted to some spe- cial use or work, and on very few farms of the State can horse breeding and raising be made a special, separate and paying interest. The average Vermont farmer must make his horse raising and interest dependant upon other branches of his farming, and upon his own use and work. He can seldom keep one team for driving on the road, and another for his plowing and other heavy work on, and for the farm. His wants emphatically demand the horse of all work, as he will have all kinds of work to perform. The farms in most sections are hillj, and the roads through those sections are, for the most part, not very level, to say the least ; the soil is constantly changing, and often quite full of stones ; therefore, the horse that constantly travels over such roads should possess many good qualities besides an easy, rapid road gait. This constant, continued shifting of strains and positions, as the travel is up or down hill, as Horses for' Veumont. 125 the load is alternately drawn up or held back, makes a well settled, tirni set of limbs, and hard, enduring muscles neces- sary, or this strahi will soon render them unsound. His leet mnst also be good, compact, hard, not flat and soft. This horse, that has such multifarious duties to perform^ must be of medium size. If he is too large, the travel up and down our hills, at any gait Yermonters will be satisfied with, will soon shake him to pieces. He must be medium in height as well as weight. Sixteen hand horses may be all very fine to talk about, perhaps to sell to some parties, but they cannot, as a class, endure the road at a lively pace* with horses of a hand lower measure, especially in a hilly country. I am perfectly aware that many will not agree with me in this, and may, perhaps, be able to instance some xamples of tall horses that have followed the road and lasted well, but I have lived in various parts of our country, and I think I run no risk in offering to find three horses, under fifteen two, that are now sound, after years of hard driving, to every one some one else will find over that height, that, after performing an equal amount of service, has come out sound. Another very important qualification of the Vermonter's horse must he a good, kindly disposition. While he should be a willing, quiet, peaceable worker, he must not be a lazy dolt, or the requirements for a good road horse will not be answered. Although quite as many farmers' sons as is desirable are becoming professional trainers and breakers, still it is, perhaps, quite as well that all cannot be ; and so long as so many of our horses have to be broken and driven by farmers and their sons, who are comparatively unused to 126 State Board of Aghicultukk, &c. this work, tbis item of disposition is one of great impor- tance, and one which we shall refer to more fully under another head. Another requisite for the Yermonter's horse is early ma- turity, or, at least, the ability to perform much of the work of the farm while he is growing, maturing and becoming fitted for market, without breaking down or becoming unsound by such use. And, lastly under this bead, Vermonters should raise such horses that, as they arrive at maturity, will bj'ing good prices in market ; and the nearer they come to gentlemen's stylish driving horses and fulfill the other requirements, the better, and the more they will bring. What I would define as my ideal of a gentleman's driving horse, is one of medium size, well pro- portioned, clean, flat limbs, strongly made, but not coarse or gross ; good color, bay, brown, black or chestnut ; he should have a good, easy road gait, that will take along a buggy, with two men in it, a mile in four minutes, ten miles in an hour, or from sixty to eighty miles in a day ; with a courageous, free disposition, that will not require more work to get this performance out of him than it is worth when you get it. With all, he should have a bottom or endur- ance that will not make it impossible to sometimes repeat these performances, and enable him to perform a reasonable amount of driving every day. With all tliese, a good, kindly disposition, free from all tricks or vices, is indispen- sable. Au}^ horse that possesses all these good qualities, is worth any where from three to five hundred dollars ; and the more beaut}^ and style in performing this work you can combine in them, the more can be added to the prices, with HoRSKS FOR Vermont. 127 a reasonable expectation that the draft will l)e lionored. Some of these qualifications may be dispensed with, and still we can have an excellent, serviceable animal, that will make a. good horse for a physician, the express, the street cars, or various other uses that may be named, and a horse that will bring money enough to make his raising profitable, especially if he has worked sufticient the last two or three years he has been kept on the farm to pay for his keeping during that time. While we may dispense with some of these, and still have a horse that will bring a remunerative price, there are others that we cannot dispense with and have a horse valuable for market, or that will bring a good price, except through some jockeying or trickery, whereby his purchaser is defrauded. A horse may have a fine form and beautiful color, but if he has not a good ga.it, good courage, is ill tempered or tricky, the man that buys him at any price that will pay for his raising and breaking, will be cheated. And this brings us to the consideration of our second head. The reason Vermont horses have stood so high in market, is because they proved more useful and lasting in a greater • number of positions and kinds of work, than any others ; and while they were more successful as horses of all work, more of them were up to the standard of a gentleman's driving horse than any others, and so great became their reputation, that horse breeders niade long journeys from States more or less remote, to purchase stock liorses of our best, with which to breed up and improve their own blood, and very rarely were the expectations of such breeders dis- appointed. I think I run no risk in saying that the repre- 128 State Board of Agricui.tuee, &(•. sentative Morgan stallions of Vermont have Ijeen more suc- cessful, as sires of horses useful for a great variety of pur- poses, when crossed upon almost all kinds, than the stallions of any other breed or race of horses. To use a> phrase common among breeders of horses, the blood of the Mor- gan happily and successfully nicked with the blood of nearly all other races or breeds of horses. And why ? One great reason is, that if not always of medium size, he was a rep- resentative of a medium sized race, and, therefore, when crossed upon other breeds, there were no great differences in size to be bridged over, and a valuable rule of the true breeder was not violated ; that is : in crossing never unite too great extremes in size, especially when the sire is larger than the dam. And here let me mention a rule that the breeder of any kind of stock will do well to heed : The male of medium or less than medium size, will get stock of greater uniformity and excellence than the male of larger bize than the average of his breed or race. While the large sire will occasionally get an offspring of unusual merit, there will be a want of homogeneous quality in many oth- ers, and the average of all will seldom be found very high. This all breeders of experience understand, and a large sire • is seldom used by them except to make some point in breeding, having in view some object or improvement in the future, rather than to get the bulk of the stock to be raised for present profit. This, although seemingly a digression, illustrates one reason for the success of the Morgan stallion in crossing upon other horses. Other reasons were : he was usually a compact horse, a stylish, easy traveller, with a tractable, kind, but courageous disposition, and with great HoRSK> FOR Vkkmont. 129 powers of endurance. With all these, he possessed such fixedness of type as to enable him to impart these good qualities, in a great measure, to his stock. As among other kinds, there were poor ones, and, like all genuine merit, he had his counterfeits that were palmed off for the gemiine, to the great injury of the reputation of the true. But the better specimens of the genuine Vermont Morgan seemed to improve almost all kinds of horses upon which he was used as a cross. To the aristocratic thorough-bred he gave substance, flattened out his limbs, drawing down his hocks, and giving him a make and form that made it possi- ble to get the best trotting action ; a kindly disposition that made it possible to work him with some comfort, with- out taking aught from his spirit and courage. In short, the cross gave animals that could be put to some use besides beasts on which to expend money fitting for the race course only to be disappointed, in nine times out of ten, after they had been fitted, and leaving their owners with a lot of unsound pests, of no use except to perpetuate their own profitless, worthless race. I would not speak disparagingly of the best thorough- bred horses, from which we have derived some excellent and valuable strains of blood, but I nmst be pardoned if I can- not appreciate the value of the most aristocratic thorough- bred blood, after it has flowed through the veins of half a dozen generations of unsound animals, who had given out and broken down upon the race course, or even in common use, for, talk as much as you please of the endurance of the thorough-bred horse, the average Morgan will endure an 5 130 State Board or Agkicui.ture, &c. arnoiuit of every day work for years, that will soon use up and render unsound the average thoroughbred. Blood will tell, no doubt, and I should fear, if I bred to a thorough- bred stallion, with long, round, unsound legs, a high-strung, irritable, vicious disposition, 1 should find I had a colt that was skittish, that, after I had got him harnessed, would not want to wait until I was ready to g©, and, after I had got ready, would look around at me with an assurance that he was not then ready, and, if I had mucli of a load for him to draw, would not be ready, anyhow ; for drawing loads, and such like useful work, was not what he was made for ; and, if I persisted in exacting it of him, he would break down, as his illustrious ancestors had done before him. To expect a horse, useful for all work, to result from breeding to one bred and used for ages for the one special purpose of runrilng a mile, or even four miles in a very short time, and at a gait almost never used in every day, useful life, is about as sensible as to. expect a mastiff to spring from the loins of a rat-and-tan terrier. In England, if they want a horse to take his master over fields, hedges, fences and ditches, to endure the fatigue and perils of the hunt, they do not take the unmixed thorough- bred, but cross him out on to something with more sub- stance and strength. Blood will tell, no doubt, but is it not more sensible to make it tell in perpetuating good, useful qualities, instead of handing down useless, or worse than useless characteristics ? The great value of blood cannot be disputed successfully, but it may prove a curse rather than a blessing ; it certainly will if it is not used with cau- tion and judgment. And here we find the great value of Horses for Vermont. 131 the Morgan blood. There was not only enough of it to assert and engraft its characteristics, descending, as it did, from Arabian blood, but it had, for generations, flowed through the veins of animals that had been used for practi- cal, active, every day work, whereby all their parts had become strong and durable ; not overstrained or vitiated by some occasional extraordinary performance ; consequently it followed that its introduction proved a practical benefit. It not only gave the above desirable improvements, when mingled with the blood of the thoroughbred, but when it was united with tlie heavy, cold, spiritless Canestoga or Pennsylvania horse, scattered over so much of the West, it quickened it into life ; so that the animals resulting from the cross, with much less dead weight, possessed much more nervous energy and power, and a free, open, easy gait, and a proud carriage ; in fact, giving horses tliat were much increased in value, and adapted to such uses as demand a higher type, and much better remunerate the raiser. Another race of horses that has been crossed very exten- sively with the Morgan is the French Canadian, a race made up of a number of different elements. This horse, though not an exalted idea of a driving horse, or even of a horse of all work, lias, nevertheless, some excellent quali- ties, one of the chief and best of which is, great hardiness. For generations his ancestors have been taught that to exist at all, they must live under many and discouraging difficul- ties. While young, his short summers have been spent among pastures liardly fair, large or luxuriant, and his long and terribly cold winters among deep snows, with a scanty keep of not very nutritious fodder. At a very early age 132 State Board of Agricultuuk, &c. lie lias l)eeTi taught by practical ex[>eri'ence that he had inherited a lot of severe toil, for which he must not expect much return, in the way of care or generous keep ; and if he thrived at all, thrive he must on poor fare and neglect, and be exceedingly thankful if he escaped positive, brutal abuse. To many of his race, also, came the lesson that whatever he was coninianded to do he must do or die, no matter how inadequate he was made by nature for tho task imposed, Altliou0 or better, in 1874. These twenty-six were sired by eight dif- Houses ^"OK Ykrmoxt. 141 ferent stallious. Asjainst this I have been able to make up a list of thirty-tour Morgans tliat trotted in 2:;)0 of bet- ter, in 1874:, and these were sired by twenty-eight ditterent Morgan stallions. This last fact I consider a very important one, as it proves that the speed quality is universal among the Morgans, and is not as much confined to a few particu- lar families or sires, as among the Hambletonians. I also think it indicates that the chances for speed are quite as great when breeding to Morgans as to Haml)letonians. I would now like, as briefly as possible, to show a few cases to prove a position taken heretofore in this paper, and that is in regard to unfairness towards Morgan horses, in not giving the full benefit of their meritorious characteristics and performances. The first case I shall name is the per- sistent efi:ort of the New York Sjjirit of the Times, and other parties about New York, to keep them in the back ground, and not give horses of this blood their true posi- tions when they had won them ; and in this I claim that they have shown more disposition to sustain their own theo- ries and favorites than they have to record facts, and, in some instances, to absolutely steal credit that belonged to that blood. The first instance I shall name is that of Flora Temple. I have no means of showing absolutely that Flora was of Morgan blood, but, to me, the probabilities are very strong that she was. In the first place her sire, at one time, had Morgan attached to his name. I cannot now recall exactly how, but I believe his name was Hunter Morgan ; if not, it was Morgan Hunter ; either way the name, as applied, was indicative of Morgan blood. If there is abso- lutely no foundation for this theory, then there must have 142 State Board of AoRicui/ruHE, &:c. been Morgan blood in the dam, for any one that will find a picture of her in late years, since slie has been breed- ing, and has not liad her legs regularly clipped, cannot but see that in all her features she not only shows Morgan blood, but indicates, almost certainly, the line or family through which the blood descended. The head, neck, l)ack, hips, the short, broad, hairy legs, all show, if not Morgan blood, something exactly like it, and decidedly as unlike the thorough-bred blood claimed as is possible. I have the impression that tlie mystery that so long hung over the blood and origin of " the little bay mare,'' was a Morgan mystery that did not suit her historians to clear up, until they could present it to the public in some shape that would credit some other blood than the Morgan. In the history of Ethan Allen we Und another case. If we searcli the records for the best double team time, we shall find that Lantern and running mate stood as the best, without question, previous to the time he met and was beaten by a Morgan horse ; and only a day or two before that event, the editor of the Spirit of the Times (I think Porters), while evidently laboring under the delusion that the New York horse, Lantern, would certainly win on th;it occasion, stated that they expected that their next issue would contain the best double team time ever recorded. So long as the credit of this time was to redound to the glory of one of the New York families, it was a perfectly fair record, Init when it was found that this record was to give glory to the Vermont Morgan blood, some excuse must be invented for not making it ; and the next issue, instead of placing the time then made on the records, contained the Horses for Vermont. 143 annouiiceuient that they had discovered that it would not be fair to make it. So, still lat.er, the persistent efforts to belittle this kin:ht an averao;e of $144 61 At Mr. Thorn's sale, thirty -three Hambletonians brought an average of $170 15 The average of the three, in the aggregate, is $188 05 Against these, the sales of those with Morgan blood stand : At Mr. Dorsey's sale, twenty-three of his Gold- dust stock, whose grand-sire was Vermont Mor- gan, the average was $468 47 or more than twice as much as the average of the other sales, where the blood was claimed as so nnich more proiitable than Morgan blood. At Colonel E-ussell's sale, fourteen Fearnaught yearlings, whose grand-sire was Young Morrill, lirought an average of $580 71 or more than three times as much as the average of the three other sales. The average of the two last sales is $509 32 148 State Board of Agriculture, «S6C. or a ii'ood ueal more than twice as iiiuch as was realised l»y Mr. Fuller, win* obtained luucli the hi^liest averao;e of the the tirst three sales. If we analyze these sales more closely, we sliall hnd the highest price obtained at each to l)e : At Mr. Fuller's, of Mambrinos, $750 Go At Messrs. Belmont *Sc Lorrillard's, of thorough- l)reds, $280 00 At Mr. Thorn's, of llambletonians, $425 00 At Mr. Dorsey's, of Golddust Morgans, $2,000 00 At Colonel Russell's, of Fearnaught Morgans, $1,075 00 And the lowest at each sale to be : At Ml-. Fuller's, $100 oO At Messrs. Belmimt ct Lorrillard's, $80 00 At Mr. Thorn's, $50 00 At Mr. Dorsey's, $130 00 At Colonel Russell's, $310 00 These sales and ])i-ices are actual facts, and I ask, in all seriousness, is there anything in them to convince you, far- mers of Vermont, that other races and bloods are more proiitalde to raise for market than Morgans t In view of all these facts presented, it would seem to l)e an easy matter for Vermont farmers to decide what course in breeding it was for tlieii' interest to j)ursue. But, ha%'ing decided the question, some practical difficulties may arise to embarrass the farmers in pursuing the course it is so plainly for their interest to follow. It may be easy to decide to Ijreed to Morgan stallions, luit where are the stallions ? It is true too many of the best ones have been sold and taken away, to improve the horses elscAvhere, but Horses foe Vkrmont 149 some tiiK' ones are yet left, aiui no true \'ernioiiter r-lxtiilii let a matter of a few miles, or even a few hundred miles,, deter liim from sendino; Ins mares to the best Morg-an stallion witliin his reach, especiallj if his mares are of Mor- gan blood, or of some otlier good l)lood suitable to cross- with the Morgan. One thin<): it will be very necessary for Yermonters to do, if they wish to attain the hio-hest excellence in breedino- horses, and maintain the best reputation for their stock, and that is, to reserve their best to 1 treed from, rather than to- let what may often seem to l)e a liigh pri(te tempt them to part with such, and breed from their poorest. Such a course is always a penny wise and pound foolish one for any breeder to pursue, who has a reputation to make, or who wishes to make tlie most money in the end. The Ticonderoga farmer, who refused tive Imndred dol- lars for a three year old tilly, and put her to breedings f(jund that tive hundred a bettei- investment than an/ other he had ever made. Few farmers derive as large an income from their entire farms, as did Mr. Baldwin from the mare in (piestion. Farmers of Vermont, save and clierish eveiy" drop of Moro'an blood von have left. Breed to the best Morg-an stallion you can tind, save and breed from the best progeny only, and you have a certain prospect of profit in tlie future. 150 State Board of Agriculture, &c. THE COMING HORSE- BY Col. E. S. STOWELL, OF CORNWALL. Ladies and Gentlemen : By the courtesy of the Secretary of the State Board of Agricnltui-e, Manufactures and Mining, and at the request of several of your prominent citizens, I present you my views upon the subject announced, viz. : THE COMING HORSE FOR VERMONT. Whether this request comes as a compliment to me, my system of breeding, or merely for tlie purpose of hearing this side of the question, I cannot say, and I don't know as it much matters, if what I do say commends itself to your better judgment. Five years ago, come June, at a meeting of tins Board at Brandon, I read a paper upon sul)stantially tlie same subject. Tlie experiencee of these five years have in no way changed my views ; peculiar for a Yermonter, though thought at that time, and subjected to much criticisi;i by those wlio were interested in another system. Time lias vindicated the correctness of my words, and taught multitudes that farmers are unfitted to raise the small trotting horse ; and that the business of raising trot- ting horses for speed alone is unprofitable, uncongenial, Thk Coming Hokse. 151 and demoralizing for farmers and farmers' sons, as I, my- self, am. It has been said that " criticism is the work of a literary failure," and if I pass this subject with the remark that the principle applies well to the criticism of breeders' experi- ences, and history-like repeat myself, by drawing somewhat upon facts, statements and deductions then presented, that have shown themselves sound by these five years' later tests, I trust I may be pardoned. That Vermont has enjoyed an exceeding high renown for her horses, that the Yermont Morgan was, before the age of steam, when people travelled by their own convey- ances, and rode da}^ after day, up hill and down hill, weeks at a time, or when the United States mail coaches ran their daily lines over the hills and through the vales of ^'^ew England, truly a valuable and, I may say, an almost indispensable assistant, no one will deny. His courage, docility and indomitable pluck, his compact- ness of form, and short, quick step, admirably fitted him for, and gave him position as, a first class stage horse and roadster in Ids place ; that he held long by the excellence of his achievements, and the roughness of the fields upon which he lal)ored. He was bred for a purj)ose, and admirably fulfilled it. This is not an isolated case of l)reeding to meet the wants of a people, or the necessities of a locality. In Virginia they have bred runners for years, because the state of their roads was such, and is, to-day, more or less, as to require saddle horses for rapid and easy loco- motion. 152 State Board of Agkicultuuk, &c. The same mav be said of Kentucky, Ohio, and othei-s of the AYestern States, only tliat their comparatively level sur- faces gave opportunity, in addition, to another type of sad- dle horse, to wit : the single footer or racker. "Witli the opportunity, tlie demand ; with the demand, man's intelli- gence ; and hence the race of Kentucky pacers, knowii all over the West, and eagerly sought for for long horse-l)ack journeys, as they are fine sized, good couraged, strong in the back and (piarter, of great endurance, and can carry a man far in a day. and with comparative ease. It is from tliis blood, in part, Pocahontas being an illustrious type, whence ■como tliose remarkable trotters of the West: Smusffler, Graf ton, Mambnno Patchen, Mambrino Bertie, Blackwood, juid the Golddust stock. As roads became good, and towns grew up, and business men desired wagon horses, by judicious crossing and train- ing the pacer has emerged a trotter of most wonderful ■i^'apacity. Again, the long stage lines of New York State demanded teams to do their work in from ten to twelve miles an liour, iind lo ! those w^onderful silver-gray Messenger teams, of the Slierwood lines. A writer in Wallace's Monthly^ speaking of Bush Mes- senger, says : " The glory of his life and memory is in the great number of incomparable stage horses with which he ?ind his sons and grandsons supplied the great route from Albany to Buifalo.^' There were, doubtless, other sons of Messenger that con- tributed, more or less, to these magnificent teams, but Bush The Coming Horse. 153 Messenger did more in thi.s direction, per]ia])S, than all lii?* otlier half brothers pnt together. Thej were of fine size, mostly grays, and wonderful trav- elers. When steam superseded the stage coach, the stock was pushed into Ohio, and farther West ; and one of the- leading proprietors in that business in Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois and Iowa, has often talked to the writer of the niag- niticent gray Messenger teams that were pushed out to them from Central New York. He spoke of it as an easy matter to select teams that would trot oif with a coach load, a mile in four minutes, or twelve miles an hour, and for durabil- ity, as well as speed, there were none equal to them. These illustrations could be nndtiplied indetinitely, and reference made to other families of the animal kingdom ; as the ponies of the Shetland and the Western Isles ; the donkey of the Alps ; the pack mule of the Andes and Cor- dilleras ; the ship of the desert, the camel of Sahara, etc., etc. But sufficient for the point, that the necessities of time and place give demand, and it is for man to learn- what that demand is, and how to meet it to reap a large and al)undant reward. This, man's intelligence will ultimately do, thouoh when great revulsions ensue, as the inroad of steam locomotives, it will be accompanied, and oftimes preceded, by mistakes and blunders, akin to disasters, even, fi'om various causes : fi'om great haste to meet the new demands ; connnenciug in tlie wrong lines ; aided by the representations of inter- ested parties, they go astray ; and it takes time to re(;tif j breeding mistakes ; the prejudice of the people ; theii* pre- dilections for certain families ; their formed tastes, and dis- 154 State Board of Aoriculture, &c. position to follow in the ruts ; all of which are causes of many losses and cruel disappointments. AVedded to one idea, reasoning tliat because a certain line has ])een remunerative, that it will always be so, is not good policy, is not good judgment. It is that which has borne so long disastrously upon the Spanish nation, and brought them from tlieir proud eminence in the days of the Spanish Armada, to the ignoble position of the present, subjects of the commiseration and pity, and offers of medi- ation by the nations of the earth, because unable to suppress a minor rebellion in her province of the Isle of Cuba ; to say nothing of her Cai-list insurrection. To use a crotched tree for a plow, l^ecause the fathers did, is certainly a very poor conmientary uj)on the intelli- gence and progressive improvement of any people ; and for Yermonters to breed Morgans, after the circumstances that gave rise to them and rendered them in demand have passed away, even if they possessed the material to do it, which they do not, except in a limited sense, argues a condition almost or quite as repreliensible. With tlie advent of steam power, old modes of travel passed away. The mail coach and the family carriage for journeys were as things that had been, l)ut now out of com- mission, and condemned to act as tenders, as it were, to the puffing, hurrying railroad train, that, " Rumbling over bridges, Tumbling thro' the vale," caused the people to exclaim, " Bless me ! this is pleasant, Riding on a rail." The Coming Horse. 155 Tlie pi-evriiliug sentiment wms haste. Railroad trains were not fast enough, thongli running faster, as a rule, than at tlie present time. With unlimited steam power, no liors» to tire or reek with sweat, why should they not go fast, yea, faster f Their haste commenced at the door step, even, and the poor horse was hurried to the depot so fast that drawing the old fashioned carriage was so evidently to his distress that lighter vehicles were demanded, until they became little else than extenuated cobwebs. Faster horses, too ; speed ! speed ! was the cry, until all else seemed swallowed up in the one quality. We were told that only little horses were fast, or could live with tlieir speed. Once we believed this and bred them. It is true that many fast horses are small. Why should they not be ? They were bred in that direction. It is also true that a large majority of the very fastest on the turf, for the past ten years, have been above medium size, and many even large, fifteen hand horses and over, tine, large carriage horses, as American Girl, Lucy, George M. Patchen, Old Put, Palmer, Fullerton, Gloster, Gazelle, Rolla, Golddust, Gill)ert Knox, Rhode Island, Ericson, Blackwood, Smug- gler, Pocahontas, Grafton, and a liost of others of the stars, as you may say, of the trotting and pacing world. The experience of railroads has been that " fast to run is fast to wear," and that great speed requires great substance; and of horsemen that, although the little horse, with light bone, tine style, and highly wrought nervous temperament might trot fast in a fifty pound sulky, on a good track, with nothing to excite him, for a mile, yet for long, fast drives, and in nmch exciting company, that business men take on 156 State Board of Agriculture, &c. the Boiilevaivl and Harlem Lane, in New York, the Xeck tind out to Brighton, in Boston, and to otlier popular resorts in other cities, for their recreation, thej want size, ]>one, •courage, endurance, and, a1)ove all, stead-mess, combined ; and that same steadiness, or, in horse parlance, level-head- edness, to judge from the answer of Dan Mace, wliose abil- itv as a trainer and race driver amounts to i2:eiiius, to an amateur, who told him that he owned a young horse that could trot in 2::iG and repeat, and tliat he proposed to enter liim in the great Northern Trotting Circuit, is quite as •essential on the I'ace track, if not more so, as any where else. " Is that all your horse can do V says Dan. " Whist more is required than speed and endurance ?" was the interrogatory. " Why," replies Mace, " you must not only train him in company, but when he can trot three heats •close together low down in the twenties, and come down the home stretch under the wliip, if necessary, at every stride, witli a i-unning horse at his side urging him up to the last fraction of his courage and speed; and all the grooms are strung out down the course and at the ju.dges' stand, hallooing, beating tin pans and making all kinds ■of f]-ightening noises, and yet the horse comes on steadily, without making a break or a nustake ; then, and not till then, have you a reliable trotter that can win at Buffalo oi- Cleveland." In Maine, in New Hampshii-e, in Massachusetts, in Rhode Island and Cr)nne(;ticut, the same general conclusion lias been arrived at, that the breeding: of trotting horses distinctively as a source of [)rofit, is a failure ; yet when speed is connected with other qualities, for general use and The Coming Horse. 157 taste, such as color, size, style, etc., there is no donht about its vsilue and prolitahleness ; and they have introduced large animals, from tlie most distinguished trotting and pacing families, as crosses for the smaller, more compact and more active ones, that size, Ijone, and an enlarged scope may l)e added to the many excellencies already possessed b}" them. A wise people will present for use what tlie wants and needs of their customers demand and will pay the most for, all tilings l)eing; equal. Wlio are the customers that we of Vermont are to breed horses for '. Truckmen, with their fourteen, sixteen, or eighteen hundred pounds draft horses % No ! they are contra to our genius, contra to our taste, and can ])e raised clieaper upon the broad western corn tields. City rail car corporations \ No, the western competi- tion is too strong. We cannot afford horses at prices they are furnished them for by this same western colossal com- petitor. We must furnish speed with our horses, for speed brings money. For sporting men I Oli no I They are too few, and the rate of speed too low down in tlie twenties for US to even ch-eam of successful competition with those having so mucli better conveniences than we, and so much more time to develop their colts before presenting them for the inspection of the public, and for the bids of purchasers. Few of the average public know the amount of labor that is required to grow up a trotting colt and present him fitted for a race. The careful feeding, watering, shoeing, exer- cising, speeding, scraping, rubbing, cooling, grooming, they require day after day, week after week, for months and years, only those who do it fully understand. Farmers 158 State Boako of Agriculture &c. have soinething else to do ; either tliat must be neglected or the colt, and neglect ruins him. What tlien ! We must hreed a class of horses with a good natural turn of speed, especially a fast walk, of good style, fine carriage, good color, and of a size sutficient not to be dwarfed by a top wagon with tlie top ujp^ and that can draw it and its driver, and perhaps a friend wdth him, from twelve to fourteen miles the hour, wdth occasional bursts of speed to get away from dust, or dvcep company with friends, or for the fun of going fast ; and, by the way, I know of no exercise more exhilarating, of a mile in three minutes or better. If of uniform colors and make, so as to match easily, and are large enough for carriage horses, with plenty of style, a little less speed will do, and yet bring price enough to richly pay their cost. In other words, the little horse will do for the race track if fast enough ; if not, for no other jjlace. The large horse, with the same conditions of speed, for the race track too ; but withal the road, with or without great speed. But few horses arrive at the point of great value "foi- rac- ing purposes. The great mass are required for the road. The percentage of trotters of this value is exceedingly small in the best of families. Some writers say five per cent,, others less, make trotters of especial value ; at the best five trotters, ninety-five not trotters, in the huiuli-ed. The breeding of the five, remunerative to the breeder if he is horseman enough to develop their speed hi7nself ; otherwise some lucky or dishcest dealer or tramer gets the profits of the fast colts, and the breeder the expense and chagrin of finding himself burdened with a lot of trash, if The Coming Hokse. 159 lie lu'eeds small stock, rather than a promising lot of salable horses, at mature age, suitable for the road, the carriage or tlie pknv, that are certain to give him par value witli a handsome margin, if he breeds size. A good sized, rangy, stylish, open gaited and enduring horse, of a good color, bay, for instance, from fifteen and one half to sixteen hands hio'h, weio-hinp- from one thousand to eleven hundred and fifty pounds, will always bring a good price, and can just as well be bred, and bred fast, as smaller sizes and indiffer- ent colors. Tliere has been a growing demand for horses of this char- actei' for years. It comes from the merchant princes and business men of our cities and large towns. " Confined between four walls during business hours, and forced to breathe the foul smells of crowded streets, they thirst for a breath of the comparatively pure air of the suburbs. The siiburljs are l)road and wide, and far from business centers, and only horses of great ability are comforts to their o^^^l- ers or can long stand the work required of them. What families in New York have the ability to stand this work and do it satisfactorily ? Morgans ? No, not speed enough. Black Hawks ? No, not stamina enough. Ethan Aliens ? Not substance enough. Descendants of the old stage line Messengers, Hambletonian, and espe- cially Clay crosses, are the ones that have proven them- selves quite up to the line. Hiding up and down the drives of New York every day for a week or more, not long since, with a gentleman of large horse acquaintance, an associate of the Bonners, the owners of Fullerton, Lulu and Gazelle, and other noted men 100 State Board ok AGuicui/rtKE, &c. of the road of New \ ork, quite often lie would point out to nie H horse with the remark, '' that has been on the road six yeai-s. that eight years, that ten," and so on, " and can take a. forty clip or better any day in tlie week, and is per- fectly sound in wind and liml)," and would reply almost invariably to the question what blood ( ''OJiI that's a Clay." That rai-e coterie of distinguished horse critics from ]^ew York at our last State Fair at Rutland, Messrs. Charles Backman, David Bonner, Dean 8age, Shepherd Knap}), Colonel Phife, J. B. Alley and L. H. Packer, were unani- mous in their declarations that unquestionably the l>est and most popular cross in breeding, in and around New York to-day, waw the Hambletonian and ('lay; the forward, quick stroke of the Clay balancing and (juickening the tendencv to too long strides and dwelling of the Hami;»letonian. Herk Comstock says of Mr. Backman : " The ascendency of his own mind in the formation of his plans is well deiined in the fact that he early adopted strains of blood in great disfavor at that time, but which have since proved signally successful. Noticeably among these we lind the Clay fam- ily, from wdiich, under opposition, lie selected several brood mares, got by his chosen favorite sire of the line, Sayre's Henry Clay. Among them we tind Hattie Wood (dam of Gazelle), Mary Grinbey (dam of Loadstone), and Green Mountain Maid (dam of Storm, Electioneer, Prospero, Dame Trot and Miranda)." Aside from Mr. Packman's success with this once condemned l)ut now fashional)le strain, we have notable instances of its value in Bodine, St. Julien, George M. Patchen, American Girl, Lucy, Orient aTid many others. Hiram Woodi'uif savs of one of them : The Coming Horse. 161 " When everytliing is considered, I am of the opinion that George M. Patchen was the best horse that Flora Temple ever contended with and that, therefore, their names must ixo down linked too-ether as those of the best mare and the best stallion that have yet appeared." The struggle to keep up the reputation of Vermont horses has been long and arduous. Men there have been who, catching an inspiration as it were, or a glimpse of the truth, have imported foreign blood such as Harris' Hamble- tonian (by Messenger), Megg's Abdallah (by Abdallah, by Messenger), Cock of the Rock (by Diiroc), Ber- nev Henry, and the like, to increase the size, lengthen the stride and raise the standard of Yermont horses ; but peo- ple have patronized them with extreme caution, and only found out their value when they had passed away or, per- haps, not at all ; when their stock became brood mares from which Morgan stallions made their reputations, the product of which was Morgan, Black Hawk or what not, as the case' might be, always accredited for whatever merit it might possess to the stallion that sired it, from whence it took its name. In the mares thus obtained there were elements of great success, but the traditional love for the Morgan was held so tenaciously in our hearts that we ignored their influence and fell back upon the Morgan, as exemplified in the Black Hawk to the second and third generations, greatly to our detriment. Black Hawk found many good mares in Yermont, descendants of these foreign horses, and Photo, Addison, 6 162 State Board of Agriculture, «fec. Pathfiiide]-, Rockwood and his son, General Knox, among stallions ; Belle of Saratoga, Lady Sherman, Lady Litch- field and Boston Queen, among mares, and m'any others were their produce, and their product was excellent ; for the beauty, symmetry, and general usefulness of colts bred from such mares were a wonder to all. But as these old mares passed away, and the stock interbred with other Black Hawk stock without common maternal strains, the Black Hawk predominated, standing two to one, and the results were to decrease size and bone, and utterly destroy their reputation, thus fastening upon us a small sized, cliubbj, rugged little horse, to be sure, but degenerate and without the power of recuperation, unless by slow and tedious pro- cess of careful and discriminating selections of proper ani male, liaving the stronger blood in common, for long series of years, too long, 1 think, for Yankee patience to endure. With sheep in flocks of hundreds, and mares in a harem of fifty or more, like Robert Bonner's or Charles Back- man's, ten years' experience in breeding (I might almost say one,) is more than a life time with the number of mares that we individually are able to keep. M}'^ experience in sheep has taught me that like does not produce like exactly, but intensifies characteristics and especially peculiarities. Now then, breeding small horses with small horses, or those having common strains of blood of small horses, that blood predominates, and the product is smaller than either of the parents, and, if pursued, will go on generation after gene- ration from little to less, growing finer and smaller, like the Arab, the Mexican Mustang or Indian Pony. If breeders would provide themselves with such mares as The Coming Horse. 163 were common in the days of Black Hawk in Vermont, or such as those old Winthrop Messenger mares that Greneral Knox found in Maine, or those Abdallah and Trustee, Mes- senger and Mambrino mares that Young Morrill found at Boston, or the Mambrino, Abdallah and pacing mares that Golddust found in Kentucky, small, fast stallions would pro- duce equally good and even better stock thau was and is produced then and there. For I have no doubt but we have stallions equal to any the world has ever produced of that class. But will they ? or can they ? Does not small stock pre- vail among us ? and is not the tendency of nearly all to breed from what they have, especially if rendered unsala- ble by hard work, accidents or strains ? Every one knows that his old mare, that has been so long in the family and done such faithful service, is a little bet- ter than his neighbor's. Of course, this is the ten- dency, and this is the practice, to a great extent, and it is .not so very destructive, after all, as we have sometimes thought, if care is used not to breed mares having heredi- tary ailments, j^rovirfe^ a judicious selection of stallions is made ; for it is no doubt true that the close built, round muscled, little Black Hawk or Morgan horses have very many qualities that we cannot afford to lose, and we need not lose them. In the last few years there has been a growing opinion in the minds of most intelligent horse breeders of our land, that the old theory of large female, small male, though good, must give place in a measure to the absolute facts as they arc developed from day to day and year to year : that 164 State Board of Agrk ur.TUKE, &c. the fastest and best horses, those showina; the best staving and enduring qualities, are being produced bj breeding the small, fine boned, enduring, cheerful, courageous female to the coarser boned, larger sized, heavy trotting horse, the produce taking their bottom, their nerve and their indomi- table courage from the dam, and their square trotting, long, low, sweeping stride from the sire. It was such mares that brought the Hambletonians, the Abdallahs and the Henrys of Vermont in olden time, and we stand higher to-day, a long way, in the estimation of judges, as a horse breeding State, for those and their descendants than for any other. Not long since, Mr. W. W. Comee, of Boston, a man that stands high as a dealer in fine horses, and as a critic of large opportunity and excel- lent judgment, while looking over my stock from Mani- brino Patchen and Landlord, remarked that they reminded him of the Henrys that he used to see in this and neighbor- ing counties years ago, and that he was exceedingly glad to see such horses here, as he knew of no place where they would be the means of so much improvement, and he would rejoice again to see the day he could come here and get up the magnificent bay team.s he used to do. Such has been the result in Kentucky, from crossing that coarse old horse, Mambrino Chief, with their fine boned thorough-breds, and Lady Thorn, Mambrino Pilot, Boy Chief, Bold Chief, Ericson, Mambrino Bertie and many oth- ers, well known to horsemen, are the products. Such has been the result in a marked degree, in Orange County, New York, and vicinity, crossing Rysdyk's Ham- bletonian, that double son of Old Messenger, through Ab The Coming Horse. 165 dallah and Vermont Hambletonian, with American Star mares, the renowned descendants of the old four niiler, Henry. Hiram Woodruff says : The Messenger cross gives the Stars size, strength and bone, and counteracts their hereditary tendency to contraction of the feet.'' We may sav that any cross that would produce a Dexter, Georo^e Wilkes, Major Winfield, Aberdeen, Startle, Socrates, Happy Medium and so on to almost unlimited extent, was a good one, but when we consider that these Ci'osses not only give as large a per cent, of fast trotters and larger than any other, but also to the everyday breeder a sure thing in size, in style and good, slashing, open gait, so that led out at four years old, to the halter, by any farmer's lad that can run fast enough, they would easily bring highly remunera- tive prices to the breeder, not only for the five in a hundred but the ninety-five withal. We have reached the point long aimed at, a class of horses in which each and every one will be worth all he costs ; a class of fast horses, suitable for the track, the road in light or heavy hitch, for the wagon or the plow. This result is within easy reach of you all. The Morgan Black Hawk, Ethan Allen and Lambert mares you have, and there are none better of their class. The Hambletonian and Clay stallions have been brought into the State within the past few years, and most excellent ones they are and of easy access. Let liie urge you to take up the abundant material already made to your hand, profiting by your own experience and that of the great number of excellent examples of successful breeding in the land ; breed intelligently ; study your sub- 166 State Board of Agriculture, &c. ject, and labor to add to the weak points and take off from the too prominent ones. Remember that hke intensifies characteristics, and breed the short stepping, close Morgan or Black Hawk to the looser made and longer striding Ham- bletouian ; the longer gaited, lighter boned, nervous Ethan Allen or Lambert to the hea\der boned, forward action of the steadier Claj or Mambrino stallion, and soon reach the acme of your ambition, the well balanced^ perfect gentle- man's driving horse, combining the beauty and agility of a Lambert with the toughness and docility of a Morgan, the size and stride of a Harnbletonian, the action and sub- stance of a Clay, and as much speed as any (jlass of horses in the world. Such is the coming horse of Vermont. It rests with you, gentlemen, and your compeers, whether in the near or more remote future ; whether you take up the elements thus offered, or those that come after you ; the event is certain, and whoever is its instrument will reap a sure and abundant reward. The Mokgan Horse. 167 THE MORGAN HORSE. BY J. F. HEMENWAY, OF CHELSEA. It seems very appropriate that at a meeting of the far- mers of Orange County, this subject should receive its share of attention, since it is the home of the founder of the best family of horses in America, which appeared in Randolph, A. J). 1795, and was owned by a poor singing teacher. As this horse was but fourieen hands high he was passed by in contempt, and had lived out nearly the days allotted to the life of a horse before his value was known ; and when we think of the odds against him and his final triumph, we can come to no other conclusion than that he was the most remarkable horse of which we have any history. In the first place we wish to see what class of horses are best adapted to Vermont, to the purposes for which horses are used in the State (which now in these days of labor sa- ing machinery is a very important item), and for the sur- plus to receive the most money according to the cost oi production. It is a settled fact that we cannot raise large horses for the team and carryall, they can be so much more cheaply raised on therich prairies of the West, and by cheap transportation, flood our Eastern markets ; but stylish, enduring roadsters, trot- 168 State Board of Aguicultuke, &c. ters and gentlemen's drivers, standing; from fifteen to fifteen and one-lialf hands liigli, and weighinglrom nine Imndred to ten hnndred and fifty pounds, have not been so successfully pro- duced elsewhere, as in the invigorating climate and upon the sweet feed of the green hills of Northern New Eng- land. These are the horses for which there is the o-reatest demand, and for which the highest prices are paid, and this is the size that nature has associated with the most perfect physical organization, that is, the medium size, or, in the words of Linsley : " We believe it is a fixed and unyielding law of animal life, that in medium size we shall find the greatest activity the best constitutions, the greatest power of endurance and the most courage and vital energy. " In the human race how strikingly is this law illustrated! It is the men of close, compact figures and medium height that possess the best constitutions and are most active and enduring. The athletes of the amphitheatre are men of medium size, with close, compact, nuiscular figures. Mark the men who live to the age of ninety or one hundred years. They too are of medium stature, with swelling chests and close knit, vigorous forms. "Large cattle are slow in their movements, and the heavy Durham or Herefordshire cannot compete with the low, compact and hardy Devon in action, speed and endurance. The largest varieties of the dog are quickly conquered by the small, 'out active and vigorous terrier. And the tall, heavy Cliinese fowls are speedily overpowered by the smaller, but nimble and high tempered gamebird. " The horse is not an exception to this general law ; and The Morgan Horse. 169 the breeder who fancies he ean produce a chiss of tall, heavy horses, possessed of the activity, the endurance and nervous energy that belong to animals of a smaller size, will find upon trial that he has underrated the difficulties of the undertaking." Havins decided vs^hat stvle of horses can be reared to the best advantage in our State, our next enquiry is, from what family of horses can this class of stock be most successfully produced { I unhesitatingly reply, the Morgan, and pro- ceed to give my reasons : First, the Morgan is tlie strongest blooded family of horses in the country, and can, therefore, be bred more uni- formly than any other breed ; secondly, they possess the grandest combination of beauty, tractability, speed and endurance ; and lastly, his thorough acclimation and adap- tation to our soil and uneven country, I having no doubt he owes as much to our bracing climate and the nutritious grasses of our rough pastures as to the blood of that world renowned old horse — Justin Morgan, a description o*f which I take from a work entitled " The Morgan Horse " : " The original, or Justin Morgan, was about fourteen hands high, and weighed about nine hundred and fifty pounds. His color was dark bay, with black legs, mane and tail. He had no white hairs on him. His mane and tail were coarse and heavy, but not so massive as have been sometimes described. The hair of both was straiirht and not inolined to curl. His head was good, not extremely small, but lean and bony ; the face straight ; forehead broad ; ears small and very fine, but set rather wide apart. His «yes were medium size, very dark and prominent, with a 170 State Board of Agriculture, &o. spirited but pleasant expression, and showed no white round the edge of the lid. His nostrils were very large, the nuiz- jde small and the lips close and firm. His back and legs were perhaps his most noticeable points. The former was very short ; the shoulder blades and hip bones being very long and oblique and the loins exceedingly broad and mus- cular. His body was rather long, round and deep, close ribbed up ; chest deep and wide, with the breast bone pro- jecting a good deal in front. His legs were short, close jointed, thin but very wide, hard and free from meat, with muscles that were remarkably large for a horse of his size, and his superabundance of muscle exhibited itself at every step. His hair was short, and at almost all seasons soft and glossy. He had a little long hair about the fetlocks and for two or three inclies above the fetlock on the l)ack side of the legs ; tlie rest of the limbs was entirely free from it. His feet were small but well shaped, and he was in every respect perfectly sound and free from any sort of blemish. He was a very fast walker. In trotting his gait was low and smooth and his step short and nervous ; he was not what in those days would be called fast, and we think it doubtful whether he could trot a mile much, if any, Mnthin four minutes, though it is claimed by many tliat he could trot it in three. Althougli he raised his feet l)nt little, he nev^er stumbled. His proud, bold and fearless style of movement, and vigorous, untiring action, have perhaps never l)een sur- passed. When a rider was on him, he was obedient to the slightest motion of the rein, would walk Ijackwards rapidly under a gentle pressure of the bit, and moved sideways almost as willingly as he moved forward ; in short, was per- The Morgan Horse. 171 fectly trained to all the paces and evolutions of a parade horse, and when ridden at military reviews (as was fre- quently the cabG,) his bold, imposing style, and spirited, nervons action, attracted universal attention and admiration. He w^as perfectly gentle and kind to handle and loved to be groomed and caressed, but he disliked to have children about him, and had an inveterate hatred for dogs, if loose always chasing them out of sight tlie instant he saw them." I have given you thus a minute description of this famous horse, V)ecause I consider him, in most respects, the perfect type of a Vermont horse, and the fountain from which all the famous stock horses of New England drew their blood. It is a fact that New England has never had any stock horses aV)le to perpetuate their name and fame save those of Morgan blood. The following was taken from " Murray's Perfect Horse." I have two reasons for presenting it to you ; the first is, to show you what eminent horsemen outside of Vermont say of the Morgan Horse ; and the second is, it is the most truthful and logical statement of the excellencies of the Mor- gan stock for breeding purposes that I have seen. He says: " I claim for the Morgan horse a few things which make him the most desirable horse on which to base experiments in crossinor that anv man ever had. The first of these peculiarities is this — the power of transmitting Ms excel- lencies to his oifsjoriiig. " The second excellence for which the Morgan is noted is beauty. Twenty years ago speed was everything. If a horse could go that was enough. We have lived beyond that period. Beauty is demanded now in .the markets, and 172 Statk Board of Agriculture, &c. paid for handsomely, and the questions with evorv l)reeder therefore necessarily are, What is the cross by which I can add beauty to speed ? Where can I get the fine, rich coat, the spirited face, tlie quick ear, the arched tail, the small, black hoofs, the flat, wiry legs, that shall cause men to con- tend for tJie possession of my colts ? That is what Mr. Taggart, Colonel Russell, Mr. JJorsey, Mr. Nevins, and Colonel Sprague wished to know ; and that is why they all went to the Morgan family for stallions, to head their respective stables. I ask any man to select in all the coun- try six other stallions of sucli striking beauty as Taggart's Abdallah, Fearnaught, Young Fearnaugiit, Ethan Allen, Rolla Golddust and Lambert, all direct descendants from Justin Morgan, and strongly marked with the Morgan char- acteristics. For beauty, give me in breeding a Morgan horse for a sire and a well bred mare for a dam. With such a cross, I know what I shall get, so far as beauty goes at any rate ; and beauty is gi-owing to be wortii more and more in greenbacks every year. " The third characteristic of a Morgan horse is their docility. ' You can teach a Morgan colt anything,' is a proverb among the people ; and the j>roverbs of a people always blossom out of facts. And it is a fact that the Mor- gans are teachable. They are amiable as a race and of a very affectionate disposition. They love to be petted and caressed. They will do as much for a word as for a blow. They are never tricky. That they are high strung and frisky w^e admit; but their playfulness is always good natured, never vicious. Even in their wildest antics they are never destructive, but are careful and yield readily to- Thk Morgan Horse. 173 rebuke. If speedy they can be trained without difficulty, it you will let the wdiip aloue, and will do all that in them lies at the word of the driver. The Morgan horse is beautiful ; he is also docile ; and these characteristics he transviits^ — three steps, at least, that lead to the equine throne. " The fourth characteristic peculiar to the Morgan horse is endurance. A hardier race of horses was never bred. In powder to do hard work a7id keej) on doing it, month in and month out, the Morgans stand at the head of the col- umn. In lung power they are simply perfect ; in feet and limbs faultless ; in muscular formation marvelous ; and in connection with this was a nervous or vital force that seemed to be equal to every effort, and appalled at no emergency. Years did not appear to lessen their power or dampen their ardo". At twenty they were as young as members of other families at ten ; and at thirty, their eyes had not lost their fire or their action its boldness. Now this iron like quality is what breeders nmst put into their colts. We can get speed easy enough but we must have speed and the power to keep it up, mile after mile, and hour after hour. Endur- ance is what we must have in our horses ; and this is pre- cisel}^ what the Morgan blood gives. It is pre-eminently the heirloom of the family, and is handed down from sire to son in undiminished integrity. " The last characteristic of the Morgan family that I shall mention is sjjeed. It is said by some that the Morgan fam- ily has no speed. If this were true, still there would be such great excellencies of form, temperament, color and style, that it would remain a most valuable family with which to cross in breeding. But it is not true ; for the fact 174 State Board of Aoricultukk, cfec. is, all things being candidly considered, I believe every one will admit that they have produced more trotters than any other family in the world. To his beauty, docility and endurance, his friends may add the word speed, and l)ide, with cheerfulness, investigation and comparison. The far- ther I push my inquiries in this direction, the more I am astonished at the evidence," The number of fast horses lineally descended in the male line from Justin Morgan surprises me. There are forty- nine lineal descendants of Justin Morgan that have trotted as follows : Forty-nine better than 2:36 Forty better than -2:30 Fourteen better than 2:26* Now I wish to inquire what other horse has New Eng- land ever had with such a list of descendants ? Where is the " Bush Messenger " family to which New England is so much indebted ? Will some one please men- tion the Hambletonian trotters ? If I write earnestly and strongly, I do it, be it remembered, in defence of a family of horses suffering from a most unjust impeachment, and in vindication of a great truth that it is for the interest of every New England breeder to know, viz. : that the family of horses which has been distinguished by and embodied the four great essentials of the perfect horse — beauty, docility, endurance and speed, is the Morgan. * This was in 1872. lu 1874 the records show that the ^lorgans had more horses that came below the charmed circle of 2:30 than any other family. TiiK Morgan Horse. 175 But after all this, and it is admitted that they are the best liorses for all work in the country, that they are the most capable of performing the various labors of a horse in New England, the fashion is for a tall, rangy horse, and the Mor- gan is not as tall as some other families. Ah, here is the point ; the shoddy aristocracy of New York have set the fashion. They well knew their favorites could not compare with the Morgan in the grand combina- tion that goes to make up the horse of all work ; but their horses were taller, therefore by setting the faslrion for tall horses the Morgans would bo left out in the cold. In reply to this, I protest against New York dictating the fashion of our horses, and I protest against our being such consuuunate fools as to try to follow. This fashion has been the great stumbling block in the way of our breeders, leading them to neglect the useful points in their anxiety to rear a sixteen hand horse, to suit the fashion of the hour. How strikingly is tins illustrated in the history of the horse business in this State. When we were breeding the purer Morgan of twenty years ago Vermont stood at the head of the list in the production of fine horses. But the attempt to rear a tall, rangy horse to hit this fashion has had a damaging effect upon our horses. They were no more adapted to our surroundings than the rank growing, late maturing corn of the prairies is for the hills of Ver- mont. It is a self evident fact that the perfect size for a horse is the size nature has lavished the most gifts upon that pleases 176 State Board of Agi{iculture, &o. the eye the most, and is best able to perforin the labors that devolve upon hira. We have shown this to be the medium size, and the Mor- gan the best family to breed him from. I look forward to a good time coming when he shall be measured by his accom- plishments, and not by a fictitious, arbitrary standard of fashion. Then will the Morgan be appreciated, and Vermont take the place that nature gives her as the producer of the finest horses of America. Sheep and Sheei" Husbandry. 177 SHEEP AND SHEIT HUSBANDRY. BY A. E. PERKINS, OF POMFRET. Mr. Presii>ent, Ladies and Gentlemen : My subject on this occasion is Sheep and Sheep Hus- bandry. I deeply feel my inability to do justice to my sub- ject on this occasion, for the sheep is one of the most useful and meritorious of our domestic animals, though humble it may be. I have time to give l)ut a mere outline of the merits of some of the families of sheep, and some of the essential and too much neglected points in good sheep hus- bandry. According to the most reliable authority I can obtain^ the present number of sheep in the United States is about 37,000,000, yielding an annual clip of wool of 150,000,000 povmds. The number of sheep slaughtered for mutton yearly is about 7,000,000. The capital invested in sheep and sheep husbandry in the United States is over §250,000,000. The annual product of these sheep is about §90,000,000. Tliis is not a large exhibit for ,-; country of the size and population of the United States. Brazil has in number 70,000,000 sheep. Tlie total number of sheep in the Brit- ish Islands is 34,500,000. England is the greatest sheep 178 State Board ok Agriculture, &c. producing countn' in the world in jiroportion to its culti- vated land. The Spanish proverb, which is '' The lioof of the sheep is gold," is true with the British, for they receive annually for their sheep the sum of 1150,000,000. . The pracitical questions for us of New England ans, which sell readily, when arrived at maturity, at from four to ten dollars per head. Those persons engaged in sucii sheep husbandry as this, believe in sheep, and cai-e but little about the talk we sometimes hear about the chea]) sheep husbandry of California and other like places superseding our raising sheep. The foregoing answers are intended to apply to the keej)- iug of grade sheep. It also pays to keep the various kinds of thorough-lu-ed sheej) wliich shear annually a valuable fleece and which raise lambs which, when they arrive at maturity, sell at Sheep and Sheep Husbandry. 179 from twenty to thirty dollars per head, and occasionally extra ones for one hundred (hollars a])iece. This is not a fancy sketch Init a correct statement of facts, as to tlie present worth and value of the hest flocks of Men'ino and Southdown sheep. I will l)riefly call your attention to the merits of two families of thorough-bred sheep, namely, the Merino and the Southdown. If antiquity- is a merit, the Merino sheep have tliat merit, for they are a relic of the civilization of ancient Greece and Rome. The ancient Romans clothed themselves with garments manufactured from wool. The prices paid fo]- tine wool sheep in those days were sometimes as liigli as a talent apiece, which sum, in the Greek, is equal to ahout twelve hundred dollars of our money. This sum, yon Avill understand, was paid for sheep per head in the good old hard money times — there was no discount upon paper then. The merits of tlie Merino sheep of to-day are that they produce a large proportion of the clothing wool of the world. They also produce the greatest amount of wrol in proportion to their size and cost of keeping of any family of sheep. A large pi'oportion of the nuitton consumed in tlie United States is from slieep that have more or less Merino blood in tlietii, and we do not hear any complaint as to its quality wlien Avell fatted. The greatest value of the Merino sheep is in the improve- ment they make when bred to other sheep in the increased quantity aud in tlie (juality of wool without increasing the e.xpense of keeping them. In this respect they have added 180 State Roakd ok Agriculture, &c. millions to the wealth of tliis cDiiiitry. The wants of the times demand a sheep tliat shall combine the best quali- ties of wool and mutton ; and in this respect I have not any fears but that the improved Mei'ino will be one of the successful competitors. The production of any superior commodity, or the pro- duction (jf any superior kind of stock, cannot possibly be overdone ; as Webster said, there is always plenty of room in the upper story. The Southdown sheep, as their name indicates, originated fi'om the Downs in England. Tliey iiave been bred with n view to develop the best mutton qualities of a sheep. They are large in those parts of the body where their flesli is the most valuable for mutton, and small in tliose parts where it is of the least value, as in tlieir necks, Szc. They have been bred with a view to dispense with everything practicable that did not contribute to this one idea, vvz.., superior mut- ton. Tlieir wool has been a matter of secondary impor- tance. It is said of them that a carcass of Southdown mut- tr>n has twenty per cent, more of edible meat than the other varieties of mutton slieej). Tliey are a hai-dy, robust, docile- sheep, which are easy to keep and fatten. They are pro- line breeders. A flock of ewes will sometimes raise one hundred and thirty per cent, of their nund)e]' of lambs. The average weight of improved Southdown she.p, when arrived at maturity, is one hundred and iif ty pounds. They will shear a fleece annually of seven pounds of unwashed wool per liead. Their wool forms an intermediate link between the coarse wool and Merino sheep. When bred with the Merino the result is a sheep that combines, to Sheep and Sitkep Husbandry. 181 some extent, the good qualities of botli, and are a hardy, robust sheep, and will withstand neglect Ijotter than most kinds, and are cidled the best negligent farmer's sheep. There are somo essential qualities in the Meriiio sheep that they shoidd alwavs have. The first is a o'ood constitu- tion, which means a hardy, healthy, robust, strong sheep, to which should be added good size and sliape, witli good l>one. We may have a sheep that is straiglit Atwood, straight Hammond, and a pedigree beyond question, and it may have all the fancy points, and if it lacks a good consti- tution we have a poor sheep. This is a fact that will apply in the main to all families of sheep. After constitution, the next essential quality is the fleece, which should be of good quantity and quality, of a long and strong staple of wool, which should, so far as possible, be evenly distributed over the body. The improvement most needed in the Southdown sheep is in increasing the quantity and improving the (piality of their wool. With this improvement they will make one of the best varieties of sheep for the wants of the times. The practice of buying wool at an average price per pound, without regard to its quality and condition, is paying a premium for and encouraging the growth of poor and dirty wool, for grease and filth cost but a trifle per pound compared with choice and clean wool. Wool growers who raise wool above the average, as to quality and condition can do better than to sell it at an average price by sending it to a reliable commission merchant, where it will be sorted and sold according to its merits. This is a safe and satis actory way to sell good wool. It is not to be expected 182 State Board of Agriculture, , according to the age and sex. The age of the sheep is generally readily determined by their teeth. AVhen they are about one year and a half old they shed their two cen- tre teeth of tlie incisors, and two wide ones grow out and take their place. The next yeai- the next two are shed, and when the sheep is three years old the four central teeth are fully gi-own. At four years they liave six teeth, and at five years the teeth are perfectly developed. This is one year before the horse Or ox can be said to l)e full- mouthed. This rule for the age of sheep will hardly ever fail in ewes ; luit will sometimes in the case of rams. If not too old their age may be determined by the growth of their horns eacli year. The difference caused in the shed- ding of their teeth may be by the numner in w]ii(;h the sheep are cared for. If well fed and kept in a thriving condition they will shed them faster, and vice-versa. Some Sheep Husbanduy, 189 !?lieep with the full mouth will hold tlieii- tet'th mucli lon- ger than others. The natural age of sheep is about ten years, to which time they will thrive and breed well. Youatt, in his work on sheep, states that there are instances of their breeding at the age of fifteen years ; but I think that I can safely say, that our sheep have been so nnich improved, that the average may be placed from twelve to fifteen vears, and 1 have known of instances of their breedino- at twentv-one years of asje and over. I bad one in my flock that bred at twenty-one years of age. She had a broad chest, fore legs wide apart, heavy fold about the neck, round shoulders and hips, deep bodied, strong in the quarters, folds about the tail, strong limbs This form of sheep, possessing strong constitutions, is what nuuiy of our best breeders are breeding for at the present day. This old ewe had one peculiarity, which uiay prove that such sheep are better mothers. She would own ev^ery land) that was dropped, and would drive away the mothers of the lambs until she had one of her own. The skin of sheep is composed of three textures. Ex- ternally is the cuticle, or scarf-skin, wdiich is thin, tough, devoid of feeling, and pierced l)y innumerable minute holes, through which pass the fibres of the wool, and the insensible perspiration. It seems to l)e of a scaly texture. This is plain to be seen when the sheep have the seal). Below this is the rete mucosum, a soft structure, its fibres }ia%'ing scarcely more consistence than mucilage, and being with great ditiiculty separated from the skin beneath. This seems to be placed as a defence to the terminations of the 190 State Board ok Agriculture, &c. blood vessels and nerves of the skin, and these nw, in a manner, enveloped and covered h\ it. Beneath is the cutis, or true skin, composed of innumerable mimite fibi'es cr»^ss- ing each other in every direction, highly elastic in order to fit closely to the parts beneath, and to yield to the various motions of the body. Judging from the mixture of wool and hair in the coat of most animals, it is' thought by some that the primitive sheep had a hairy covering. It is said that there are at the pi'esent day varieties of sheep that are clothed outwardly with liair of different degrees of fineness, and underneath the external coat is a softer, shoi'ter and closer one, that answers to tlie description of fui-, but whic^li re- ally possesses all the characters of wool . It is therefore higl dy improbable that the sheep, which has now become, l)y cul- tivation, the wool bearing animal, sliould, in any country, have ever been entirely destitute of wool. Sheep of almost every variety have at tiines ])een in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, but there has not been one on which a portion of crisped wool, although exceedingly small, has not been found at the bottom of the hair. The filament of the wool has scarcely pushed itself through the pores of the skin, when it has to penetrate through another and singular substance, whicli, fi"om its adhesiveness and color, is called the yolk. It is found in greatest quantity about the bi-east and shoulders, the very parts that produce the best and most abundant wool, and in proportion as it extends to any considerable degree over other parts, the wool is then improved. It differs in (piantity in different breeds ; it is very abundant in the Merino. The yolk being a true soap, soluble in water, accounts Sheep Husbandky. 191 for tlip comparative ease with Avhicli tlie slieep that have the natural proportion of it are washed in a running stream. Tlie fibre of the wool Imvang penetrated the skin and es- caped from the yolk is of a circular form, generally larger toward the extremity, and also toward the root, and in some instances very considerably so. When the animal is in good condition, and the ileece healthy, the appearance of the iibre is brilliant, but when tlie state of the constitution is bad. the fibre has a dull appearance, and either a wan, pale liglit or sometimes scarcely any, is reflected. As a general rule, the tilament is almost transparent in the best and most useful wools, whether long or short. When access to srood city markets is convenient, and on high priced and high tilled farms, where sheep are kept in limited numbers, as part of convei'table Imsbandry, im- proved mutton sheep may be bred very profitably. In in- terior situations, remote from such markets, the Merino, or fine wool sheep yield the best return. I think the best varieties of improved nuitton sheep are the Cots wolds, being the largest and most prolilic, and the improved South- downs, the mutton of which has sole} in England for years for three and one-half cents per pound more than other mutton. The Southdowns are the oldest established short wooled improved mutton sheep. It is said of the Cotswold ewes that they are better mothers, and furnish a valuable combing wool ; choice flocks averaging about eight pounds of wool per head. In England Mr. Spooner says that the wethers fattened at the age of fourteen months weigh, dressed, from fifteen to twenty-four pounds per quarter, and at two years of age from twenty to thirty pounds per 192 State Board of AoRicuLTrRE, &c. quarter. We have flocks in tliis State that Avill do even l)etter than tliat. But of the improved mutton slieep that have found most favor in the United States, of the long- wools, are the Leicesters, Cotswolds, and New Oxford- shires. Of the short and middle wools, Sonthdowns, Hampshire Downs, Shropshire Downs, and the Oxford- sliire Downs. Of these varieties agriculturists and sheep breeders gene- rally give the Cotswolds and Sonthdowns tlie preference. Merino Sheep. — The original importation of sheep into the United States, from England, France, and Spain, in- cluded all of the best varieties. Tlie Saxon and Silesian Merinos are of later importation. History tells us that in Spain, over two hundred years ago, it was a crime pun- ishable with death to allow a Merino sheep to pass its bor- ders for another nation. And the Merinos to which Spain yielded up her title, were those procured by Augustus Frederick, Elector of Saxony, in 1765, which event wa& the beginning of the revolution of the wool trade of the world. After lifty years' l:)reeding of these sheejj, which were of the Escurials, came the Saxon Merinos. The flrst Merino sheep imported into this country M^ere two pairs, sent from France by Ilo1)ert R. Livingston, in 1802. The same year a much larger number was imported l)y CoL David Humphreys, of Connecticut. Wm. R. Jarvis, of Yermont, made importations in 1809, 1810, and 1811, which probal)ly laid the foundation for many of our l>est flocks. And here, in old Vermont, the Merino sheep has found a home, where the Creator has provided all that is necessary to the progress and improvement of this most Sheep Husbandry. 193 useful animal. A great variety of grasses, pure water, high pasture hinds, good sliades, and all the varieties of movement wliich the sheep has to make to procure its food climbing our mountain sides, has helped much the develop- ment oi a most perfect animal ; while our cold climate has given, by the aid of its breeders, a hardiness and constitu- tion l)y far superior to the imported sheep from which our sheep (^f to-day have descended. Of the original Spanish families of sheep imported into this country, are the In- fantadoes, Escurials, IS^egrettes, Monticos, and Paulers. These families include all of the best varieties of sheep wliicli have been imported into this country from Spain, England, and P'rance. Of all these importations, l^ut two have been bred pure to the present day, and those are the Inf antadoes, and Paulers ; and the great reason tliat these two families have thus been preserved is, that they were found to possess more good qualities than tlie others, and nmch credit is due to the sons of Vermont for the applica- tion of their talent to this calling. Mentioning first the late lamented Edwdn Hammond, who was honored by the title of king among sheep breeders, and then Messrs. Deans, Sanford, Cutting, Rich, Stickney, Wright, Roljin- son, Stowell, Binghams, Clark, Burwell, Gushing, Gleason, Bissell, Williamson, Cliehrino, Fuller, Perkins, Benedict, Townsend, and a multitude of others which time and apace will not allow me to mention. Improvku Infantadoes. — These sheep have been pre- served pure to the present day. Tiiey are a fourth, if not a tliird lieavier than tiieir Spanish ancestors, and are the 7 . 194 Statk Board of Aouiculture, &c. largest family of American Merinos. Some of them weigh one hundred pounds and some as high as one hundred and thirty pounds. Tliej are much ronnderin the ribs, broader and fuller in the quarters, shorter limbs, and stronger boned than the original Spanish sheep. They are models of fine wooled sheep in compactness and beauty of form. Their abil- ity to travel is not as great as the original imported sheep. In the place of tliis useless ability to travel has been bred aptitude to take on flesh and grow wool, so giving by bet- ter breeding, better constitutions, and while easier kept, are longer lived, more prolilic and more hardy. " They will thrive where mutton sheep would fail to find subsistence," says an eminent writer on sheep. The improved Paulers are naturally a little smaller sheep, consume less food, and, perhaps, can better endure deprivation of it. Tliey aretho poor man's sheep. Tliey have the same improved points as the Infantadoes but are shorter bodied. As breeders and nurses they are equal, and their fleeces arc equal in fine- ness. Some breeders have crossed these two classes witli remarkable success. The first thing to look at by a breeder should bo consti- tution, as v»'ell in the sheep as in any otlior animnl. JSTotli- ing can look worse and more worthless tlian an old sheep's pelt carried around on the skeleton of a sheep. A lireerler of sheep should not endeavor to breed to any extreme, sucln as great length of staple or a great amount of yolk, nor try to breed too large an animal ; a medium is better. Extreme wooliness of all parts causes the sheep to be smaller, and weaker constitutioned. But let the breeder aim to get a fair sized sheep, breeding for a staple of avooI not to exceed Shekp Husbanouy. 195 two and a half inches, full chested, the fore limbs far apart, thus giving place for a better pair of lungs ; then have the shoulders well rounded off, as well as the hip strong Jown on the quarters, with round ribs and a good depth of body. Tlie character of the Merint) and its fleece is improved in point of thickness by heavy folds about the neck, and a broad, wi-inkled tail. The folds of the neck give the sheep a hold appearance ; not extreme wrinkles all over the body, such a ewe, almost without fail, is a poor mother, giving but little food to her offspring. Good ewes may have heavy necks with folds, and good flanks with wide tails. The breeder should also breed for a fine haired nose, with a lustre to the hair ; a thick, velvety ear, free from any dark spots ; strong limb witli large bone ; well wooled, equal length and thickness of wool on the belly of the sheep as on the side or shoulder ; also a sheep that holds a bold, high head. It has been said by good breeders that there is no animal that has so many points to breed for, consequently requir- ing the more study. The sheep breeder, to be successful, should possess a good share of common sense and practice it. The laws of nature, to a sheep breeder, are the rules to abide by, and witli these he may produce wonderful results. No longer are the principles and rides of sheep husbandry a secret, for the generous spirit which prompts our sheep breeders of to-day enables the en(|uirer to obtain almost any knowledge l)y conversing with them. To illustrate how much improvement has been made, I will say that, the original imported sheep sheared from two to four pounds per head, while whole flocks of to-day, with ordinary care. 196 State Board of Agricut.ture, &c. shear on an average from ten to tifteen pounds per head. Some extreme cases of heavy shearing in which ewes have sheared nearly twenty pounds, and our best rams from twenty-live to over thirty pounds. I can hardly believe that the breeders of former times expected to meet with such grand results. We learn from facts derived from investigation that our sheep formerly possessed from 5,000 to 5,500 wool hairs to the square inch ; of the fourth and fifth generations about 18,000 ; of the twentieth generation 27,000 ; showing a rapid progress. Our sheep of to-day have from 40,000 to 48,000 wool hairs to the square inch. Mr. Jeppe remarks in his report on wool, at Munich, Bavaria, in 1844, that upon a heavy fleeced animal he counted, on one-sixteenth of a square inch, 2,618 wool hairs, and on a thin fleeced animal 1, 018,and the wool was equally fine in l)otli .fleeces. I am told that the past year has brought men from more parts of the country than ever before, which shows an increasing demand for Vermont sheep. I will give a few statistics of the sheep and wool productions of the principal countries in the world There are over 289,000,000 sheep, which produce nearly 1,000,000,000 pounds of wool, worth $302,660,000. And the United States produce 117,- 000,000 pounds of wool, and have over 32,000,000 sheep, whose wool is wortli over ir.70,000,000. These amounts of wool are annual. In 1870 there were 2,891 woolen estab- lishments, furnishing employment for 80,053 people. Ver- mont has sixty-five woolen mills. These statistics show the extent of this business throughout the world. Sheep Husbandky. 197 And ill closing- let jne call_yoiir attention to the success of one l)oy, who curly showed a liking for sheep. At the age of ten years he had the care of his father's flock of graded sheep, which, thongh often losing its best members by being sold, reached quite a high standard, averaging nearly eight pounds of washed wool. This boy raised a large flock of turkeys one year, sold them, and with the money bought a rifle. But the love of sheep was too strong for tlie rifle, for when an opportunity was offered to exchange the rifle for a full blooded Merino sheep, he yielded up the rifle. Having one full blooded ewe gave a still stronger d.esire for more, and purchasing ten bare faced, bare legged, inferior old culls, he struggled along, making other small additions, until, at the age of twenty-one, he found himself twelve hundred dollars in debt ; but with constant study of his sheep and using all the good stock animals to which he could gain access ; finding that heat propa- gated growth, also that sweet apples were well adapted to grow the carcass and fleece ; keeping his breeders in good condition ; giving his flock all the needed attention ; con- stantly raising and improving and selling from his flock ; taking tlie laws of nature as liis rule ; feeding according to the most natural demands of the sheep ; giving a variety of food, the sweet apples taking, in a measm-e, the place of green food, in five years he found liimself out of debt, and witli more money in the bank than his first indebted- ness, besides a fine flock of sheep. Sheep from his flock have been sold into almost everv State in the Union. He salts his sheep twice a week ; shears the first week in May ; 198 State Board ok Agriculture, &c. his lambs come in April. He selects breeding stock pos- sessing all the possible points ; weans lambs the last of July or first of August ; feeds the lambs, when fii\st weaned, a few oats every day ; begins housing the other sheep (except breeding ewes,) about tlie first of August, up to which time they run on the mountains. His success has been gratify- ing to his friends and most encouraging to himself. Merino Shekp Industry. 199 MERINO SHEEP INDUSTHY- BY Col. E. S. STOWELL.OF CORNWALL. The time has been when one would need to apologize for introducing the subject of Merino sheep, even in Vermont, most noted for their impi'overa^t and culture in the United States. But that time has passed, and the many are as anxious now to hear, as they were then opposed, and I only feel to apologize that I should be the one to introduce it. It seems so much like advertising ray own wares that it is in a measiu'c distasteful to me, and it is only through the per- sistent urging of my friends and a certain sense of respon- sibility, that has overcome my reluctance, do I consent to do it at all. This industry is peculiarly subject, more than any other to sudden and enormous fluctuations. The market value of Merino sheep has, at different periods oftlnir history, shown the most remarkable variations of any product of the land. So much is this the case that in the minds of many it lias become almost, or quite a reproach. But this should not be. It is rather a commendation, for these variations, these hot and cold stages (as they may be called), are result- 200 State Board ok Agriculture, &c. ant from the anequalized capacity of sheep for rapid increase and large profit. The cold stages, the seasons of depression, have always been traceable to direct causes, either from lack of knowl- edge or change in the wants of consumers by fashion or otherwise. To trace out some of these causes, and to learn from oth- ers' mistakes how to avoid our own, was the primary object of this history (if it may be so called), necessarily con- densed and incomplete to be within the limits of such an occasion as this ; and my only fear is that il: is not now con- densed to within the limits <*f your patience, which virtue I bespeak in the outset ; for, believe me, had it been possible to have done justice to this very important interest in one- half the space, I should have been only too happy to have done it so. From the earliest period of the world's history sheep have been domesticated and appropriated to the wants of man, and have ever stood in the foremost rank of essentials to his comfort and prosperity. He has been food and raiment, the type of man's salva- tion even, in the gift of the " Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." " Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them." " Abel was a keeper of sheep, and brought the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof as an offering unto the Lord ; " and if, as Merrill has it, there is no authority for supposing that the flesh of the sheep was used for food until after the flood, the Divine permission was given unto Noah, " even as the green herb have I now given you all things " Meuino Siikep Industry. 201 {for food) ; and even stronger unto Moses : " then shalt thou kill of thy herd and of thy flock which the Lord hath given thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after ; '" and there is every reason to suppose that the milk of the ewe was eaten very earl}^, as it has since been in various parts of the world, and is even now by the nomadic tribes of the East. " And He made him to suck honey out of the rock, * * * butter of kine and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and bulls of the breed of Bashan." Burlxhardt giv^es the following account of the manufac- ture of butter from ewe's milk by the Syrian Arabs : " The sheep are milked during the three spring months morning and evening. They are sent out to pasture before sunrise, while the lambs remain in or near camp. About ten o'clock the herd returns and the lambs are allowed to satiate them- selves, after whicli the ewes belonging to each tent are tied to a long cord and milked one after another. The same process occurs at sunset. From a hundred ewes the Arabs expect in common years about eight pounds of butter per day." But it is ijot really of the milk or meat producing quali- ties of sheep, but of sheep as a wool bearing animal that I purpose to speak. I have made these references to show that we have Divine authority for putting a high estimate upon them as sheep ; for even He shall set the sheep on his right hand. The art of weaving and dyeing was understood in early days. Job says : " My days are. swifter than a weaver's shuttle,'' and Joseph had a coat of many colors. 202 State Boakd of Agriculture, &c. A writer on ancient inanutHCtures says : " Modern histo- rians h?-'c united in tracino; the invention of weavinsi: to the Egyptians," not of wool but of flax. The banks of the Nile were as unfitted by tlieir overflow and their soft bot- toms for the keeping of sheep then as now, and sheep, no doubt, were as unfitted for that kind of pasture ; but tliongh unfitted for sheep, they were eminently fitted for the produc- tion of flax, from which then and now the fine linen of com- merce is manufactui-ed. But are the claims of the primitive shepherds fairly con- sidered ? The cultivation of sheep, as we have seen, was coeval with the expulsion from Paradise; and when Abra- ham sojourned in Egypt with his family and his flocks and his herds, how easy lor him to have imported their skill, thouo-h he saved his wife, his silver and his ijold. The comparative histories of the primitive shepherds with the Eastern nomads of to-day, show so many points of resemblance and, withal, such tenacity to the traditions of their fathers on the part of the Arabic sheplierds, whose customs are almost identical with those of the patriarchs, that it is fair to su])pose them entitled to the credit of invent- ing the very simple process by which tlie Arabic. women [uau- ufacture from the wool of their flocks now. Burkhardt thus describes the loom at present found among the Arabic shepherds: " The Arabic women use a vgxj simple loom ; it is called melo^i, and consists of two short sticks which are stuck in the ground at a certain distance, according to the desired breadth of the shauki, or piece to be worked ; a third stick, is placed across over them, and over the two horizontal cross sticks the woof. To keep Merino Siikep Industry. 203 the upper and under woof at a proper distance from each otlicr, a flat stick it placed between, A piece of wood serves as the weaver's shuttle, and a short gazelle's horn is used in beating back tlie thread. The loom is placed before the mohorrum or women's apartment, and worked by the mother and her daughter. The distafl* is in general use among them, and among the Kibby Arabs all the shepherds mannfacture wool." It is probal)le that the covering of the primitive sheep was a mixture of hair and wool, very closely akin to that of many varieties now occupying extensive districts where the patriarchs wandered, northward and eastward, through a great part of Europe and Asia. Says Youatt : " It is highly improbable that the sheep, which has now become, par excellence^ the wool bearing animal, should, in any country, at any time, have been entirely destitute ot wool, but covered externally with hair and underneath with a fine, short, downy wool, from which the hair is easily separated." Partially by temperature per- haps, but mainly by breeding and cultivation, this hair has been caused to disappear and its place occupied, yea, more than occupied, by soft, clean wool, once of but few ounces, but now of many pounds. In the palmy days of the Roman Empire the Italian sheep surpassed all others in the fineness of their fleeces. The sumptuous Roman was clothed in woolen fabrics of the finest texture, and fortunes, even according to the ideas of today, were often expended for his toga. " The best wool of all others," says Fliny, " is that of Apulia and Tarentum, which is of very short staple, and 204 State Board of Agriculture, &c. especially in request for cloaks and mantles." Thisindin;ed that extreme assiduity in perfecting the matej-ial for its man- ufacture. Says Youait : " Although the old Tarentine produced a wool unequalled in early times, they were not without their defects, and very serious ones too. They were called l)y the agriculturists of those d-dja pellitte, from the skins and other clothing with which they were covered ; also 7/ioles, not only for the softness of their fleeces but from the delicacy of thcii- constitutions and the constant care that was required to preserve them from injurious vicissitudes of heat and cold. The care bestowed upon the fleece was great. It was frequently uncovered, not only to ascertain its condition, l)ut for the refreshment of the animal ; it was drawn out and parted and combed if beginning to n)at ; it was frequently moistened with the finest oil and even wine ; and was well washed three or four times in a year. The sheep houses were gorgeous and kept with the greatest care, being daily and almost hourly washed, cleansed and fumi- gated. " The introduction of silk and cotton fabrics from the East, bettor adapted to the climate of Italy, caused the flocks of Apulia and Tarentum to disappear, to be succeeded by a larger, coarser but more profitable race, better suited to the time and place. "InA. D. 41, Coluniella, a distinguished agriculturist, introduced many of the Tarentine breed into Spain. They had gradually spread from Syria and the Black Sea into Italy, and arrived at eminence. They bore a red fleece and were superior to all others in fineness. The Algerian sheep was white with an occasional out-crop of black ; larger and Merino Sheep Industut 205 coarser, and with an open fleece, much like the native Mex- ican of the present." The Tarentine are considered to be the foundation of the Merino race, bred larger and to the white type, and the occasional occurrence of a red ear or red spots or red legs in the best of our flocks at the present day, would be some- what corroborative. In the eighth century the Moors conquered a portion of Spain, and " found it fruitful in corn and pleasant fruit, and glutted with sheep.'' This warlike and enterprising race were distinguished for their luxurious habits, and a fine and expensive wardrobe. In tlie thirteenth century Spain became renowned for her woolen manufactures, Seville alone containing not less than sixteen thousand looms. Woolen manufacture became a source of great wealth, and sheep culture was exalted to the highest position of the land. The Merinos of Spain were of tw'o classes: the Estoutes, or stationary, and the Trous hu mantes or migratory. These latter were superior, probably from the weeding out process the Spanish shepherds had adopted from the Ro- mans, as tliey did also their custom of keeping the sheep always in equable climate, and of subjecting them to a sweating process before sliearing, to soften the crust formed on the end of the wool, and to make the whole fleece soft and pliable. The practice of killing all lambs not possessing the proper characteristics, the ratio of which was probably not less than ■fifty per cent, the remainder having the benefit of two moth- ers, and the long journey of four hundred miles taken twice 20G State Board of Aoricultujjf, &o. a year, in the spring to the pastures of Cervera, Navarre and the Pyrenees in the nortli, and in tlie antnmn to the con- fines of Estremadnra, Andalnsia and Now Castile in tlie south, tended to select only the strongest and best, and much of the noted hardiness of tlie Spanish Merino and its descendants is, no donbt, owing to this treatment. So highly were sheep esteemed, and so powerful became their owners that they were able to force upon the people a most oppressive code, by a tribunal called the Council of the Royal Troop. This code established a right for sheep to graze on all open and common land that lay in their way ; it claimed, also, a path ninety yards wide through all enclosures and cultivated fields, and it prohibited all persons, even foot passengers, from travelling on the roads while the sheep were in motion. As the migrations were made at a season of the year when the crops were liable to injury, the dam- age must have been inestimable, and the prestige of the flockniastcr unlimited. In 1576 there were annually exported from Spain to France about forty thousand sacks of wool, at forty-five dol- lars per sack, and to Italy a finer sort at one hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents per sack. But the Spaniards, in their bigotry, expelled many tliousands of the Moors, industrious people, artisans ; indeed, six hundi'cd thousand in three years, and Seville's sixteen thousand looms dwindled to sixty. The glory of the Saracen had departed, and with it the woolen industry of Spain, and her sheep soon followed, Spain saw too late her fatal error, and France, Germanj Merino Sheep Industrv. 207 aud the UniLed Slates took advantaj^c of it, although in dif- ferent degrees. Naturally it would be supposed that France, from her proximity, would be first to avail herself of the superiority of the Merino, and early been second to none for the beauty and value of lier sheep and wool. Indeed, measures were in progress, at the opening of her sanguinary and sweeping rcvolutioD, to secure the prize, but that so far distracted the attention of the government and people that the only suc- cessful effort of national importance was the flock known as Kambouillet. This flock gradually increased in numbers and quahty, fostered by tlie government and that fine care whicli has made the French system so renowned ; the average weight of fleece being raised from six pounds nine ounces in 1791 to nine pounds in 1801, a period of ten years, and to fourteen pounds for rams and ten pounds for ewes in the next twenty, and in softness, fineness, length and strength of fibre it was second to none. From. that time to the present the strides of sheep, wool and woolens of France, fostered by a discriminating and enliglitened policy of the government and people, have placed her high in the scale of excellence among the wool nations of the earth. " To notliing," says Mr. Hayes, Secretary of the National Wool Manufiicturcrs' Association of the United States, in an address before a convention of woolen manufticturers and wool growers, " is France so much indebted for the beauty and brilliancy of her woolen fabrics as to the perfection of 208 State BoaRd of AGiiicui/rum:, &c. her M'ool fibre, secured by the skilled breeders of Merinos, under the protection of a discriminating govei-nment believ- ing in a ' rautualitj " of interest between wool growers and woolen manufacturers." 1 am not here for the purpose of promoting the interest of French sheep in this country. Mens mene tekel uphar- sin has been written on the w^all over against them iu time past. I believe them to have excellencies, however, and a modification of their (characteristics by experience and skill, or, perhajis, a change in the Amej'ican system of keeping, may serve to erase the verdict now standing against them. What France lost by delay Gei'many gained. In 1764 the Elector of Saxony obtained, by special negotiation, a grant tor two thousand Merinos to be taken out ot Spain. They were accompanied by Spanish shepherds to instruct the SaxT)ns in their care and management. A commission was appointed to supei'intend and direct the concerns of the sheep establishment ; to spread all the information they could obtain before the public; and, by every means in their power, to induce the sheep owners of the country to improve their ilocks, even to compelling the tenants of the govern- ment domain to purchase y earl}' afew fine bred Merinos. At first there was much prejudice, and improvement was slow ; but " when the commissioners had exercised their functions ten years, the call for young rams was so great that they resolved to petition government to make another importa- tion of ewes and rams from Spain." M'errell says : " The invaluable properties of pure Saxon wool, and the consequent demand for its manufacture into fabrics, the fineness of which the world has never before Mekino Sheep Industuy. 209 produced, is the cause of the liigh vahie of Saxon sheep and their s])read over so Large a portion of Europe and remote parts oi' the world.'' No other breed were so highly prized on the Continent, and none commanded such enormous figures. " In- dividual sheep, of nncontaminated blood, often brought from one hundred and forty to two hundred and fifty dollars ; a flock was purchased, destined for Russia, a few years since, for wliich the average price paid exceeded five hundred dol- lars ; and latterly rams have been sold at the almost incred- ible price of from one hundred to near three hundred guineas per head. The cause of these extravagant prices has been stated ; and so long as there exist grades in society, and. the liighest of these covet a wardrobe of the finest text- ure, and no substitute is found, as in Italy, the breed will -continue to be appreciated and sedulously cultivated." It would expand this paper too much for me to detail the introduction of Spanish Merinos into tother parts of Ger- many, Prussia, Austria, etc. Sufiice it to say that many •districts rival Saxony ; Prussia, especially, fosters her flocks, and not only by premiums bestowed by lier agricultural societies, but by that enlightened policy of p'.'otection to domestic industry which so truly characterizes that govern- ment, even to the prohibition of manufactured goods imported, and tlie export of their raw, unmanufactured wools; and, probably, in no one thing, not even in. arms, has Prussia advanced more durini; tlie last twentv years than in her wool and woolen interests, under tlie most suc- on the whole system of breeding Merinos ; the wool growers, instead of aiming at the highest degree of fineness, have now a greater quantity of wool in view. Mkrino SiiKK.p Im)usti;y. - "211 " Finally came the tiftli stage which had for its object to produce not only the finest and softest wool, but in i>;rcat quantities." And for aught I know the Prussians have since added in the sixth stage, what their sheep, when last heard from, lacked to be a practically good sheep for the American market, (when our upper classes sustain their manufacturers in wanting fine wool,) to wit : form, and an animal that will stand a moderate degree of exposure with- out vanishing like the mori.ing dew. The first importation of sheep of any importance into tlie United States were French, in 1802, by Chancellor Livings- ton. American Minister to France. They bore but little resemblance to the modern French, and were probably gen- uine Spanish Merinos before changed in form and constitu- tion by the French system of breeding and keep. So suc- cessful was Mr. Livingston that he sold ram lambs of liis own breeding, in 1810, for one thousand dollars each, and sheared from a full blooded ewe the enormous fleece, for tliose days, of eight pounds and ten ounces, and from a yearling ram of his own breeding, eleven pounds and nine ounces of wool in tiie grease, nearly three pounds more than from the heaviest shearing of his imported stock. Later in the year 1802 Colonel Humphrey, American Minister to Spain, brought home to this country twenty-one rains and seventy ewes, purchased for him in the cabanas oi Le(mesa Trauslm montes of Spain, supposed to be Lifanta- does. These cabanas, or families, such as Infantado, Pau- lar, Gaudaloupe, I^igrette, Escurial, Aiguerras, Monterco, Arriza, etc., were snl)divisions of the choice " Ti'aushu mon- ies.'" or travelling sheep of Estramadui-a, New Castile and 212 State Boakd ok Agriculture, &c. Leon, and presented characteristics indicative of the peculiar 'tastes and skill of their owners and breeders, from whom they took their names. " In 1809 and 1810," says Randall, ''Mr. Jarvis, Consul at Lisbon, Portugal, taking advantage of the offers of the Spanish nobles, bought and shipped to different parts of the United States about three thousand eight hundred and fifty sheep. About thirteen hundred of these were Aiguerras, two hundred Lscurials, and two hundred Montercos. The remainder consisted of Paulars and Nigrettes, mostly of the former." At this period Merino sheep bore a very high price, as has been before remarked of Chancellor Livingston's. One hundred dollars per head was not uncommon, and one thousand dollars occasional. Andrew Cock, of Flushing, Long Island, in ISII paid to Richard Crowningshield, importer, eleven hundred dollars per head for two ewes of the Escui-ial Cabana ; but the major part of his flock were from the Paular, and purchased at from fifty to one hundred dollars per head the same year. In 1815 the treaty of Ghent i-emoved the embargo, re-opened commerce, checked by our war of 1812, with Eng- land, admitting cheap labor manufactured foreign goods free, thus destroying, at one fell sweep, the infant manufacturing industry of our own country, and with that, as in Spain, away went sheep. Randall says : " Such revulsion ensued that V)efore tlie (;lose of the year full blooded Merino sheep were sold for one dollar per head," and wool at almost nothing. " Wool did not materially rally in j)rice for the nine sue- Mkrino Shekp Industry. 213 ceeding years, and during that period iiiaiiy of the full blooded flocks of the country were broken u}) or adid- terated." The woolen tariff of 1824 gave new life to the produc- tion of fine wool, and for a few years Saxon Merinos were largely imported into the United States. " As many as seventeen hundred were brought into the port of Boston, and nearly or quite as many into other ports. Some of them, selling as high asfi'om four hundred to four hundred and fifty dollars per head, were of fine blood, but very many were low " grade," and the great majority miserable " stop sale sheep," as they were called in Germany, and brought along with them scab and foot-rot, and, from all accounts, about all the ills the Merino race are heirs to. These sheep sheared a fleece of fine, downy wool, of from one and one-half to three pounds, but so destitute of oil that the ordinary exposure of the country would cause it to " cot " on the sheep's back, and the ends to become dead and di-y. Such wool " flies" and wastes in the manu- facture, indeed becomes worthless, often, for other purposes than mats or saddle blankets. I remember, when a boy, of seeing one of tliese " cotted " fleeces, as they, were called, that liad been used for years as a " sheep-skin " under the saddle, and there was no appearance then of its " felting " power relaxing. Boys on the shearing floor used to have great fun haulino- one another about the floor in their vain endeavors to pull one of these tenacious fellows apart. In 1828 the fine wool tariff' " excited a mania," and every producei- strove to obtain the finest wool j-egardless of every other consideration. Mamifacturers went through 214 State Board of AGiiicuLTriRE, &g. tlie conntiy offerins; large prices for iine wool, drawing bright pictures of the l)rilliant future of those who had to do with the growing or manufacturing of it. Owners of Spanisli Merinos were over-persuaded, and many who had carried along tlieir pure sheep under every discouragement yielded now, and fell into the mad torrent of Saxony sheep, and rushed along down the stream with the rest. There was an " ignorance of the knowledge of fine wool breed- ing,'" and of the demands of the Ainerican market for wool- ens. We had no large upper class " to covet a wardrobe of the finest texture," and our manufacturers were not sus- tained ; and failing to get that support they had fondly anticipated from home, and re(;eiving no foreign orders, were unable to pay the prices they had led growers to expect. A reaction took place after the crash of 1837, and culminated in the final overthrow of Saxony sheep in Amer- ica witli the horizontal ad valorttn tarift of 184f>. " In 1813 Stephen Atwood, of Woodbury, Connecticut, bought a Spanish Merino ewe, of Colonel Humphrey, for one hundred and twenty dollars. This ewe he bred to Humphrey's rams, or rams he knew to be of pure Hum- phrey blood, until 1830, when he bred from his own flock." At tliis time pedigrees of the old fashioned Merinos received very little attention. Mr. Atwood alone, in his respect, we might almost say veneration, for the Humphrey sheep, having once lived with Colonel Humphrey, and formed liis taste from his flock, adhered to them in oppo sition to the opinion and practice of every other sheep breeder that was then, or has since come prominently before the public, except Hon. Charles Rich, of Shoreham, Ver- Mkkino SiiKicp Inuustuy. 215 itiuiit. He, with Leonard Bed(;ll, of the same town, pur- chased, in 1828, of Andrew (^ock, of Fhishin*;-, Long Island, a flock of Paular Merino sheep ; and the liieh sheep have, undoubtedly, been bred pure since, although thej have taken crosses of Jarvis and Atwood rams. In 1840, the downfall of Saxons being assured, an account of stock showed the following results : The Jarvis sheep had been largely crossed wdth Saxons ; a small })art i-emained in which the line families, originally imported, had been mixed, the greater proportion l)eing Paulars, although, for the purpose of accommodating the manufacturers, and also following out the leading idea of the day, Escurial rams had been chiefly used, and the sheep bred "in a contrary direction from the type of the darker colored and yolkier families." Tliey were, therefore, light colored, rather rangy sheej), many having the thin, high shoulders, Roman nose and bare fa(;e and legs of tlie Ger- man, and, barring legs and face, the Silesian. "These slieep," says Randall, " are now represented in pedigrees of many excellent, pure bred flocks, ]mt as a distinct sheep they have been mostly merged in the Paular and Atwood families. " Tive Raulars, in 1840, were heavy, short legged, broad animals, full in tlie quarters and strong boned, with thick, short necks, and coarse heads. The ewes had deep, plaited dewlaps, and folds of moderate size about the neck ; the rams had larger ones. They were darker externally than tlie Jarvis sheep, but not so nuich so as the Atwood. Tlie wool was lon,869 pounds. We can thus sec at a glance that the wool inter- est of California in 1870 was no small item ; and to-day it is doubled and, perhaps, more, I know not ; but this I know, that the call for Spanish Merino sheep is loud and strong, and that already the traditionary struggle for supremacy is rife, and the eyes and hearts of the California flock masters are turned towards Vermont for that improvement that others have found here, and can find sciil. True they are looking for a little larger sheep than experience has shown best for others, and it is not to be wondered at ; our fathers fell into the same error ; but the experience of the last twenty years, and the testimony of the Hammonds, the Stickneys, the Sandfords, the Randalls, the McConnels, the Flints and the Hoyts all go to to show that the best pastoral sheep for our broad Western fields, our Eastern hill sides and Southern slopes, is the improved Spanish Merino of the Atwood or Paular families, and " Vermont type." The American Merino of to-day, as we breed them in Vermont, present the excellencies combined, sought out b}' the necessities of former people, and brought out by the art of their time. Thus we have the white sheep of the primitive shepherds; the fine sheep of the Roman empire ; the hardy sheep 8 22G State Board of Agriculture, &c. of the Spanish Troushu monies ; the even sheep of Prussian Silesia ; the wiinklj^, well covered sheep of the Taintor importation, and Panlar cahan; with the fine style and free oil of the Atwood, a sheep that needs no cov- ering, no oil or wine to lubricate its fleece to render it soft and pliable or protect it from the " cotting" so detrimental to the Saxons, the Silcsian or the French, under exposure ; in fact, an American sheep for the American manufacturer, to meet the wants of the American citizen, in one grand " commune " and " mutuality " of interest. Feeding Sheep for Market. 227 FEEDING AND FATTENING SHEEP FOR MARKET. BY HENRY LANE, OF CORNWALL. There are somewhat over one million tons of haj har- vested in Vermont annually. Of this amount, there are fed to horses kept in the State for road, di-aft, or farm pur- poses about 200,000 tons. To the cows kept for family or the various dairy purposes, nearly 400,000 tons. To neat cattle and sheep, for breeding or the growing of wool, about 200,000 ; leaving from 200,000 to 300,000 tons of hay to be disposed of annually, as t'lo producer may think, when each crop is harvested, will bring him the most mbney. Over large portions of our State the sm"f ace is so un- even that many if not most farms have more land suitable for pasturing than mowing, can summer more stock than they can winter. Along some of our streams, the inter- vals, and especially in the Champlain valley, the lands are suitable foi- mowing ; and farmers that have good natural meadow lands generally think such lands more profitable kept for hay than pasturing, and cons'^quently cut more hay than they need to keep the stock summered on such farms. I am wne of this class of farmers ; I can keep about twice tlie stock in the winter that I summer. "This class of fai-mers, at the close of each haying season, ask themselves 228 State Boakd ok AoKirm.TUKK. &r. the question, How can I turn my surplus of hay into the most money ; sell it in the market of om- large cities and manufacturing towns, or purchase some kind of stock in the fall, winter it, and sell in the spring ? The high price of liay in tlie market, previous to the past two years, has drawn tlie most of the surplus hay out of the. State. The amount shipped for the past few years is numbered by the thousands of tons, wliere but hundreds were taken twelve or fifteen years ago. A farmer following mixed farming, as I do, should look beyond the innnediate cash return from a crop of hay. Man- ure I must hav^e, to succeed in my mode of farming. The special fertilizers, scattered througliout the State in abund- ance, are high in price, and very imcertain in value. The question with me (and I think it should be with most farm- ers,) is not, shall I sell my hay, or feed it to stock, but what stock can I purchase in the fall, feed my hay and grain, and make me the most and best manure. And for a term of years, I find my best average returns are from feeding sheep, for nmtton, for the city market. By feeding cattle, for beef, I could not get the value of ''my feed ; by feeding sheep, with a single exception, I have received full value, ;.nd, in most cases, a little profit, besides the manure, which to me is the same as money (and I find manure made from grain fed animals the very best). I tried raising, or feed- ing, thi-ee classes : early lambs, lambs coming one year old, and full grown wethers. Ages between one and four years old are not good feeders, unless some of the long wooled or mutton varieties. In deciding which of these classes to feed, the farmer must le governed by circum- Fkkdinii Shkep for Market. 229 stances. Early lambs, to l)ring the best price, should be <^ropped as earl}'^ as February. In this climate, one must have very warm sheds, if he expects to succeed. Then, again, lambs require more time and care, which should be taken into the account. One must be willing at all times, aven if it i^ to lose part of a night's rest, if necessary, during the lambing period, to attend to the various and mm^ierous duties that require his care, and generally he must have the care himself. There are but few hired men that it would be safe or profitable to trust it with. Early fed lambs require more shed room. For tifty ewes it requires a slied 20 by 60 (or an equal spacs), two-thirds of this room for the ewes, one-tliird for the lambs, to feed by themselves after they are two or three weeks old. The same shed room will accommodate one hundred yearlings, or eighty full grown wethers. Yearling sheep require nearly as much grain as full grown wethers, but will consume but al)out lialf as much hav. All these thins^s must be taken into consideration, together with the prospective market, when one decides wliat class of sheep to feed. F.or breeding ewes for early lambs, I prefer the grade Merino, avoiding the wi-inkly, short, gummy wooled ones, select- ing those of a vigorous constitution, broad, wide hipped, short legged, tendency to early maturity, prolific breeders, and good milkers, of an age not less than three or more than six years. Such a selection requires good judgment. To serve the ewes, I prefer a Southdown ram to either a Leicester or Cotswold. Rams should be put witli the ewes in September, that the lambs may be dropped in Febru- ary. It takes about ninety days to make a lamb of suf- 280 State Boaod of Agriculture, &c. ficient size and fatness for market. At tins age, should weigh sixty Ihs. When the lambs are two or three weeks old, they should have part of the shed partitioned off, nailing pickets just wide enough to let the lamh in anrFRs. 241 the best the first year. If any of the non-setting breeds are kept, some other breed must be kept to raise the chickens. If any breed but Plamburgs is selected, the ohl stock must be replaced ever}^ year with early hatched pullets. This is very important, foj- we must have eggs in winter to make a good profit. Much depends upon the feed, both in quan- tity and quality. What we want is the greatest amount of meat and eggs for the food consumed. There is no danger of over feeding, but much danger among farmers generally of not feeding enough. We can lay down no rule hs to quantity. The safest guide is, give them as much as they will eat eagerly. Never give them more than they will eat up clean. The best plan is to feed twice a day. Give warm dou2;li in the mornino- and whole grain at night. It is well in very cold weather to give a light feed of something warm at noon. Scatter the whole grain among the leaves on the liooi", at least an hour before the hens usually go to roost. Always give as much of a variety as possible. For general feed use shorts, tine feed, corn meal and barley meal. A good feed is corn and barley meal or shorts, equal parts. Feed more corn in cold weather, but not too much, as corn is not a good feed for eggs. In warm •weather let the feed consist largely of shorts with buckwheat ■or oats and barley. Buckwheat is the best grain 1 ever fed to stimulate the production of eggs. Wheat is also one of the best, but is generally too costly. It is necessarj' to have some animal food in the winter. This is best supplied by ground scraps, but be careful not to feed too much. I feed scraps every other day, mixed with the dough at the rate of a spoonful to each hen. They must have green food all the 242 State Board of Aguicultuke, &c. year round. Raw turnips, cat into thick slices and tlirown on tlie floor, are the best of anything in the winter. Keep plenty of sand, gravel, oyster shells or cracked bones by the hens ; and do not forget to give thetn plenty of fresh water. I use the " Dougks Mixture " nearly every day. It is made as follows : To one-half of a pound of sulphate of iron, dis- solved in one gallon of water, add one ounce of sulphuric acid. Use a spoonful of this mixture to each pint of water that the dough is wet up with. I generally use a little cay- enne pepper in cold weather. Last winter I tested a small package of " Imperial Egg Food," put up by L. H. Sher- wood & Co., of Hartford, Connecticut, and it had a won- derful effect. It will keep the hens in good condition, and greatly increase the production of eggs ; I shall use it again this winter. The house nmst be kept clean, and should be whitewashed once a year. Wash the roosts with fish brine once a month to kill lice. A cheap and sure remedy is this : take a tin tube and a pair of old fashioned bellows ; load the tube with tobacco ; put in a small piece of red hot iron and the nozzle of the bellows, and blow the smoke into the feathers when the hens are on tlie roost. It is sure death to the lice, and does not injure the hens. The manure must be saved ; clear hen manure is fully equal, pound for pound, for most crops, to any phosphate I have ever used. Most breeds of hens, if kept laying all winter, are ready to set when wanted. They should never be set in the same room with laying hens, as they are apt to get into a domes- tic row over the eggs, and most of them will be broken. It Pour.Tjjy Kkeimn<; von FAinnajs 243 is best to have a warm room on purpose for setting hens. The best phm is to take a Jot of old flour barrels, saw them in halves, and make a nest in each half, of moist earth covered with straw. That from an old straw bed is the best. When you fliul a hen on her nest at night, let her stay on one or two nights, so as to be sure she means business. Then carefully move her in the night, and put her in one of the nests ready prepared in the setting room ; give her a few old nest eggs, and cover the barrel so tliat she cannot get out. The next day let her off to eat, and put her back carefully. In a day or two she will go back of her own accord. Then give her from nine to thirteen eggs, accord- ing to the size of the hen and the weather. If it is cold nine are enough. See that the hen comes off every day to eat and drink. Let her stay off from ten to thirty minutes, if it is not too cold. Keep ashes in the room to wallow in, and sprinkle the nest with sulphur to kill lice. Sprinkle the eggi> with water warmed to blood heat, two or three times the last ten days the hen is setting. Always feed whole grain to setting hens. Corn is the best, but give a change. I have had hens set seven weeks and come off in good condition. Let the chickens etay in the nest the first twenty-four hours unless the hen is very uneasy. It is best to coop the hen. and let the chickens run until a few weeks old. Put the coop in a dry, sunny place. Do not have a floor to your coop unless the ground is wet and cold ; but if a floor must be used, keep it covered with dry ashes or sand, and be sure and keep it clean. Feed the chickens often ; at first feed every two hours, 244 State Board of Agriculture, &c. from dayliglit to dark, and give only wliat will l)e eaten up clean at one time. I feed corn meal and shorts mixed, curd^ boiled potatoes and, after they are a few weeks old, a few scraps, and the last feed at night of cracked corn. Give a little bone meal in their dough, say a Spoonful to a pint of meal, once a day. Keep fresh water by them, and do not forget the " Douglas Mixture." And liere let me remark that skimmed milk is one of the best feeds, or rather drinks^ for either chickens or laying hens. The chickens must have a good range, and plenty ot grass. When old enough, let the hen out of the coop after the dew is off. The chickens must have a chance to eat away from the grown hens. Make a rack of laths, or board sides and top will do ]'ust as well, and have the end laths run up and down, pist far enough apart so that old hens cannot get through ; two feet is high enough. The size of the rack can vary with the number of chickens raised. Keep cracked corn by them, and feed four times a day with dough, after the chickens are five weeks old. The cockerels should be sold for broilers when large enough, if possible. They should be sold early at any rate, as they bring a good price,, and it saves feed. If kept until fall, the cockerels should be separated from the pullets when about twelve weeks old, the age depending somewhat on the breed. Keep over only the best pullets. Many farmers sell the largest and earliest because they bring more. Any number of fowls may be kept, always remembering that twenty are enough to be kept in one flock In locali- ties where hawks and foxes do not trouble, small, movable houses, such as I have described, can be scattered over the Pot'i.TKY Keei'Inc; Kih FAi;An;i{S. 245 farm. Use no yards, but give the fowls tlieir liberty, and they will thrive and pay a good protir. Hens do well in an Oi'chard, and will almost pay for their keeping by destroying insects. I know of an orchard of five acres, in Hancock, New Hampshire, that bears very heavy crops, and the fruit is remarkably fair. The owner says it is because he keeps hens in the orchard. He has small, cheap houses, and keeps twenty hens in each flock. I think he has five houses in this orchard. We must always remem- ber that the nearer we imitate nature in the care of our fowls, the better they will pay. We must use system. Be regular in feeding, and neither over feed nor starve them, but giv^e them enough every day. As I have said before, fowls will not bear neglect. They require constant care. It will not do to give them a large feed in the morning, and forget them at night. I have not had much experience with diseases. I have never had a case of roup, cholera, or any of our prevalent diseases. If fowls are well cared for — not croM'ded into filthy houses — and the " Douglas Mixture " is freely used, disease will be almost unknown. The profits will vary, depending somewhat upon the loca- tion, breeds and care. To get the most profit a good mar- ket is requisite. Good fresh eggs will always sell in large vilbiges, and when a farmer gets his reputation established, he can always sell to hotels and private families much above the market price. It costs about the price of a bushel of corn to keep a hen If the hens have suitable care they will pay from one to two dollars profit each, counting the manure to pay for the care. Some of my neighbors clear more than two dollars from each hen. 24G State Board of Agkicui.tukk, &c. Farmers should use more eggs and chickens at liome. They arc hixuries in too many families, that cannot be afforded except on extra occasions. I believe in more chick- ens and less pork, especially in warm weather. Every far- mer should raise all he needs for home use at least. It is not best for a beginner to go in too largely. Let him begin with a few, and after he has had experience enlarge his flock. Take the papers, by all means, and j)lenty of them. A good work on poultry and one or more poultry papers are absolutely necessary. It always pays to profit by the expe- rience of others. Many farmers do not find time to care for their fowls. It would be a good idea for such men, and, in fact, all others, to give their boys a few good hens, fix a place to keep them in, and let them have the profits, after paying, in eggs and chickens, for the keeping. Teach them to keep an account with their hens, so that they can tell just what it costs to keep tliem and how many eggs they lay. You will find that they will take a wonderful interest in " hen farming, " and more of them will be willing to stay on the farm. I believe boys have rights that we are bound to respect. I do not recommend the keeping of poultry to the exclusion of other farm stock, but I believe in making the most of everything kept on the farm. If we give our poultry the same constant care, and take as much pains to improve our breeding stock as we do our cattle and sheep, we shall find that hens, although little things, give large profits, and will wonderfully help to make our year's profit on the right side. PouLTRT Keeping fok Farmkks. 247 If farmers would give poultry keeping a fair trial, they would wonder at their neglecting such a source of income for so many years. You cannot cheat your hens. Deal fairly with tliem and they will do the same by you, and you will have no reason to sing the usual song of farmers : " Hens don't pay." 248 State Board of Agricultuke, &c. BEE KEEPING. BY DR. F. BOND, OF CORNWALL. In presenting a paper on the subject of bee keeping before this Board, its author felt constrained, in opening, to defend himself against the charge of being in small business. I trust there is, on this occasion, no such necessity, as the claims of bee keeping are being more generally conceded, and especially as the subject has been discussed in this place, before a former nieeting of this Board, by the most successful apiarian in Vermont, and T think I could most truthfully say, in New England. In assigning me the honeyed subject of this meeting, I am gratified to have it in its broadness as bee keeping, and having such liberty, I propose to improve it in the efiibrt to awaken some degree of interest on the part of those who have hitherto given little or no thought to this sadly neg- lected interest. It has become a standing query among New England far- mers : How, with our feeble resources, are we to sustain ourselves against the powerful competition of the West ? The West, including California, has taken quiet and undis- puted possession of the honey markets of the East, so that, as you are doubtless aware, tlie larger markets of this vaL ley are supplied with California honey, and this, too, in face Bke Keeping. 249 of the tact that the honey resources of Yeririont are not made available in the proportion of one to one thousand. A lengthy paper, read before this Board a year or two ago, upon the sugar interest of Vermont, the second maple sugar State of the Union, reports a year in the past, when Vermont produced about nine and three-fourths millions of pounds of nuiple sugar, or about one hundred pounds per square mile, which is really something to be proud of. The State of New York boasts of producing 25,000 pounds of honey from a tract of twenty-five square miles, and the ter- ritory not fully stocked. We are told, on the authority of the editress of the Anerican Bee Jouimal^ — high authority on all matters of bees and honey, — that the province of Attica, in Greece, embracing forty -five square miles, kept 20,000 hives, which averaged thirty pounds per hive, or 13,320 pounds per square mile, for the whole province ; and, on the same authority that the province of East Friesland, lying contiguous to the North Sea, in Holland, and embrac- ing 1,200 square miles, maintained, for a period of twenty years, 2,000 colonies of bees per square mile ; the amount of yield not given, but at the moderate estimate of twenty- five pounds per hive, we have the enormous amount of 50,000 pounds per square mile, or nine hundred tons for a township of six miles square, which would produce, at the unheard-of price often cents per pound, $180,000 for a ter- ritory of the size of one of our townships. Do you ask what those Dutchmen do with so much honey ? They eat what they want and export the balance, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of it coming to the United States in a single year, as our statistics of commerce 250 State Board of Agriculture, &c. will prove ; and the West Indies, Mexico, and even Africa, join in to eke out the supply ; all of which is like carrying coals to Newcastle, for probably no country on tlie globe has the resources for supplying her people so abundantly with honey as ours. In spite of all these facts, no people are probably worse provided than ours, not one in twenty of whom taste honey from one year's end to another. We could vie with Switzerland, which boasts her honey against the world, and sets it before the traveller wherever he eats, in public or private, if we would conserve the Heaven dis- tilled nectar that God diflfuses over all the surface of our broad land, almost as universal as the air we breathe. But the fact is patent that we do not do it. Well, what can bo done about it ? The discoveries made within a few years of the nature a,nd proper management of bees, has made the practical solution of this question comparatively easy. Movable comb hives remove most of the difficulties of old time beo keeping. Instead of destroying the bees for their honey, as is still done in some parts, the colony can be perpetuated indefinitely, and so directed in their increase and labor, as to render results not only comparatively certain, but immense, as compared with the products of former times. The theory and practice of bee keeping upon modern principles is so fully taught in books and periodicals of so easy access, that whoever will may not lack the means of knowledge, and it hardly seems proper, in a meeting like this, to inflict upon those who have no aspirations after honey in " the natural way," the details and minutias of the process. I shall therefore pass rapidly to a close, simply Bke Keki'ing. 251 naming some of the prominent featm-es of the business necessary to success. First of all, we nnist have good bees in a good liive. By good bees I do not mean any particular strain, but vig- orous, industrious and amiably disposed bees of whatever color and name. Experienced bee keepers, by general con- sent, give the yellow or It;ilian bees the preference, but there is no doubt that good black bees are preferable to poor Italians, and any judicious apiarian will tind occasion to encourage and extend some families, and change others, with reference to all the conditions named above. I think there is even more difference in the actual value in different colonies of bees, aside from their number, than in the different cows in our dairies. By good hives, I do not mean hives of any particular name, but such as are adapted to the location intended, tlie skill of the operator and his special purpose — whether of obtaining fluid surplus or comb surplus in small or large boxes. The next object is to get the good hives full of the good bees, and, so far as practicable, to keep them in that condition. To this end a vigorous and prolitic (|ueen or mother bee is indispensable, with plenty of room for brood ; also, either supplies in plenty on hand or a good range. A nice point is to keep just so much comb free from honey as is needful for brood. Valuable stocks are often crip- pled, if not ruined, when honey is flush, by allowing the workers to fill u]) the brood combs, thus preventing the amount of brood necessary to repair waste, for it must be borne in mind that the waste of bees during the active season is very great. The remedy in this case is either the 252 State Board of Aoriculture, &c. extractor or tlie excliange of full combs for empty ones, placing them in the midst of the brood nest. I think it best done at evening, thus ;illowing the qneen more time to deposit eggs in it. In estal)lisiiing new swarms, whether natural or artificial, it is of great importance to give the new swarm as much comb as possible, that brood rearing and honey gathering may go on vigorously from the start. If the swarm is started with combs at the connnencement of the honey sea- son, it will often make the difference between forty and fifty pounds, and even more, of surplus and none at all. If one has no combs, (no comb should be rejected on account of age or color,) I would recommend to others wliat I intend to use myself, the newly devised comb founda- tions, for, though much inferior to natural combs, they must forward the operations of the hives much and aid greatly in securing; straio-lit com})s. Attention to securino; straight combs and confining drone cells to very small spa(;e will be richly compensated in both convenience and profit. Surplus honey should be removed from the hive as fast as the boxes are filled, as the combs become dingy l)y the bees passing over them — and, too, swarms that have a large amount of honey in the hive will not work when honey comes in tardily like those that are a little short. When the frost has closed the honey season, the condi- tion of all swarms should be definitely ascertained, and those that have more than is needed share of their abund- ance with those that are in danger of deficiency. Relaiion ok Bkks to Fruit Cur/ruRR. 253 THE RELATION OF BEES TO FRUIT CULTURE. BY JAMES E. CRANE, OF BRIDPORT. I have chosen as the subject of this essay, "The liela- tion of Bees to Fniit Culture" and general agriculture, and shall attempt to explain the part these insects take in tlie fertilization of flowers and their relations to certain fruits ; and, if I may tlirow some light u2:)on the minds of those persons, otlierwise well informed, who regard the presence of honey bees as injurious to their crops of fruit or fields of clover, lest they shoidd visit their flowers and rifle their sweets, I shall feel" repaid for this effort. This belief of many tillers of the soil, that injury is done by the bees in extracting tlu^ sweets from flowers, is no new thing, but has cropped out now and then during the last five hundred years, producing as much consternation among the ignorant as the sight of a comet or an eclipse of the gun. And, not unfi-equently, has this um-easonable preju- dice been so rabid and wide-spread in its demonstrations as to constrain the almost total abandonment of bee culture where fruit raising bore sway. Nor has this prejudice died out with the centuries, but is, to-day, entertained by large numbers in our very midst, and we are scarcely surprised 2f)4 State Board ok Agricultuue, &c. when we hear of persons imputing- the loss of tlwir fruit crop to the bees. Some time since, a good woman <;ame to her neiiijhbor, who kept a do/en colonies of bees, and asked him to shut up ] lis hives as • his l)ees were taking all the sweet out of her liowers and it made her currants sour- Within the past year, even, a somewhat celebrated natural- ist in our own country has advised the wholesale destruc- tion of bees by feeding them with sweets mingled with poison. It is not the object of this paper to discuss the morality of such advice or its effects upon good neighbor- hood, but rather to show that the interests of the fruit grower and honey producer and general farmer are, and must ever be, mutual. To the superficial student of nature, its processes often seem contradictory and unaccountable, wliile, to the more careful observer, all is order and harmony. Few are the pei'sons who do not kno^^', at least theoreti- cally, the injurious effects of what is called in and in breeding among animals. The same is true, to a great ex- tent, among birds and insects, and even plants are subject to the same law. In order that seed may be produced, it is necessary that the grains of pollen from the stamens should come in contact with the stigma of the flower. In very- many specimens of plants the stamens and pistils are found in the same flower, but they are not unfrequently placed in such a position that it is next to impossible for the dust from the stamens to drop upon the stigma of the same flower ; and, where it can, it has been shown by Darwin, Gray and other eminent botanists that such dust has less fructifying power than that from the blossoms of other Rki.ation of Beks to Fruit Cur.TrKE. 2o5 plants of the same species. Tlic flowers of some species matui-e tlieir stamens first, and slied theii* dnst before the stigma of the same flower is sufliciently advanced to receive it, while others produce blossonis in which the pistil is first developed, and the process of fecundation is complete be- fore tlie stamens drop their vitfd pollen. In some plants we find the stamens and pistils separated from each other and located some distance a])art, yet upon the same plant ; while in otliers we find one individual producing stamens alone, and another producing pistils. The question now very naturally arises, How can tlie proper fertilization of plants be accomplished, or how shall this fructifying dust pass from flower to flower ? Are not plants imperfectly formed to be, thus of themselves, incaj> able of the production of seed, and so perpetuating their re- spective species ? I answer, not at all. Kature is a unit. True we see the necessity of some agent to assist plants in carrying this life-giving dust from one to another, and we also see a great variety of bees and other insects ready and eager for the work, for the sake of the food tlie plant may give them. Let us for one moment examine the common honey bee. We find it of the proper size and shape to visit the larger portion of the flowers of the most valuable plants in this latitude. The color and fragrance of the flowers attract them. The flow of honey is proti'acted for several days, thus securing continued visits. We find the body of the bee covered with hairs, like a l)rush, with which to secure and hold the pollen as it flies from flower to flower. The nectar produced by the flower proves just the food best 256 State Board of Agriculture, &c. adapted to its wants, and in tlie superal^undance of ])olltHi^ when mingled witli lioney and water and partiallv digested by nnrsing bees, just the food best adapted to the wants of their young. Further, the instincts of the bee teacli it, when on a for- aging expedition, to visit only one species of plants, as is proved by the pellets of pollen on its legs as it enters the hive, and also to lay by in seasons of abundance for that season when no flowers are found, that its existence may be perpetuated and repay man for its care ; and, lest some lesB industrious but stronger creature should appropriate their sweets, they ai-e provided with a weapon, tiny, but powerful, to defend their stores. The plant is without power to curry the fertilizing dust from one to another ; the bees have this power, and the plant repays them for their labor hy furnishing them with jdl their food. The great object for which the l)ees were formed in the economy of nature, it seems to me, was to act as agents in carrying this fecundating powder from one plant to another, and this nectar and superabundance of pollen to supply them with food. Let us here introduce a few facts to corroborate these statements. In 1T74, Count Anthony, in Bavaria, President of the Academy of Science at Munich, proved by oflicial family records that, a century earlier, when bees were kept l)y every tenant on the estate, fruit was abundant, whereas then, when only seven kept bees and none of these kept more than three colonies, fruit was scarcer than ever among his tenantry. Some years ago, a wealthy lady in Germany established a green-house at considerable cost, and stocked it with a great variety of Relation op Bkes to Fuuit Culture. 257 uativo and exotic fruit trees, expecting abundant crops in due time. As time passed on her trees produced a great abundance of flowers, with only a little fruit. Various plans were devised and adopted to bring the trees into bear- ing, but without success, until it was suggested that the blossoms needed fertilization, and that by means of bees the work could be accomplished. A hive of bees was intro- duced the next season. The remedy was effectual. There was no longer any difficulty in producing abundant crops of fruit. The bees distributed the pollen, and the setting of the fruit followed naturally. Similar statements come to us in regard to the orch- ard house of Stephen M' Esq., near Pliiladelphia, where" peaches are grown by the bushel in fifteen inch pots and eighteen inch tubs ; the gardener attributing much of his success to the agency of bees in fertilizing the blossoms. He places a hive in the house as soon the flowers begin to open, and it is kept there until the petals fall. A large fruit grower says that his cherries are a very uncertain crop, a cold northwest storm frequently prevail- ing when his trees are in blossom. He had noticed, how- ever, that if the sun shone only a couple of hours the bees secured him a crop. We have the authority of Darwin for stating that twenty heads of white clover, unprotected from insects, produced 2,290 seeds, while twenty other heads, that w^ve protected, produced not one. Also, twenty heads of red clover, unprotected, produced 2,700 seeds. The same number, protected, produced not a single seed. Indeed, he believes 9 258 State Boauu of Aeing gathered, while others remain liquid for a long time. A still greater difference is found in the flower aroma and the quality of honey, which seem always to partake more or less of the nature of the plant that produces it. Nearly all honey undergoes some change after l)eing gathered by the bees before it is sealed in the hive — a pro- cess that is called by apiarians " ripening."" Our clovers produce a pure, rich flavored honey ; the basswood a much liigher flavored honey, but much more liable to sicken those who use it ; that from our fruit trees is all choice, while that from the raspberry is very superior ; that from the dandelion, like the blossoms, is yellow in color and has a rank flavor ; that from the onion partakes too much of the nature and fragrance of the bulb to be a favorite until well ripened in the hive ; while that from the thorough- wort proves altogether too bitter to be of any conunercial value. Orange l)lossoms produce a delicious honey. Nearly all leguminous plants produce honey of an excellent quality. The various species of golden rod, wild asters, maples, heart's-ease and many other plants produce honey in con- siderable quantities, of whose qualities I have not space to speak. Some kinds of plants produce honey that is poison- ous, such as the mountain lam-el and, I believe, the tobacco Relation ok Bkes to Fucit Culture. 263 plant also. For commercial purposes tlie mint family pro- duces the finest honey of all, and from the wild sage of Southern California, a plant very nearly allied to our domestic sage, is produced large quantities of honey, rival- ing any other produced in this or, I believe, any other coun- try, surpassing even the justly cele-brated honey of ancient Hymettus, which was produced largely, so fai- as I am able to learn, from the heath family of plants. I will not dwell longer upon the differences found in honey from different species of plants. Sufficient has been said to show that it varies with the nature gf the plant that produces it. And I believe that this nectar, usually called a secretion, is an excretion instead — a something that the plant has no further use for and which, in the economy of natm-e, is excreted during the time of bloom by the flower for the purpose of attracting insects and thus secm*- ing healthful fecundation. In some plants we find the blossoms insufficient for ridding the plant of this superflu- ous nectar, which seems to be produced by certain atmos- pheric conditions as well as certain conditions of the soil, and the leaves of the plant take on the extra function of excreting it, and then it is called " honey dew." So abundant is tliis excretion in some countries that people gather it by setting vessels under the ti*ees and shaking them. This must not be confounded with the saccharine sub- stance often excreted by the aphides upon the leaves, and Mat?l a Fertilizer? 271 FERTILIZTAIOK. IS SHELL MAHL A FERTILIZER? BY HENRY MILES, OF MONKTON. To assist us in this inquiry we have a few important points well established, viz. : No soil is productive which does not contain a consider- able proportion of carbonate of lime. A productive soil may be reduced to barrenness by abstract- ing its lime by incessant cropping. An unproductive soil may, in many cases, be rendered productive by the addition of lime. We have a large amount of carbonate of lime in the sev- eral deposits of shell marl distributed over the State, and this costs nothing but the labor of digging and drawing. It is not an " Emma mine," that promises much and yields but little. Many working farmers adhere to the old maxim : '• Early rising and hard work are the chief things in the improve- ment of agriculture." We do not reject this as wholly untrue, neither can we insist that hard work injudiciously applied will produce the desired improvement. The intelli- gent farmer knows that there is no real conflict between 272 State Boaud of Ar.TJi(^ui;n:i!K, &c. science and labor. The belief that those two agents niaj and should work together^ lias laid the fonndation of every agricultural college in tlio land, and that this belief is takiug a deeper hold on the minds of workiug farmers, wo have renewed evidence from year to year, and rejoice at it. We know that there is a wide diti'erence between the fer- tility of new and of worn out farms ; we may entertain a full conviction of this and 3^et be unable to define exactly the ingredient that is needed to restore the impoverished soil to its ]>i'imitivc fertility. At this juncture, men who have paid more exact attention to the subject, and have a chemical apparatus at their disposal, offer their suggestions ; several valuable papers on this subject have been read before the Board, and the most of them have spoken highly of lirnt in some form, as an important agent in restoring fertility. On this subject Professor Peter Collier says : * * " Mineral fertilizers are applied to the soil, and often with most beneficial results, though often the theory of their action is a matter of conjecture. Of these lime and plaster, or gypsum (a compound of sulphuric acid and lime), may be mentioned." (Page 432, first report.) The question pro- posed by E. E, Towle, Esq. (page 131), may have drawn from Professor Collier the above reply. On page 1:27 Professor Collier also says : " These anal- yses show further, that of the sixty-five elements existing in the earth, plants select for their food but a small number ;" * * * and on page 432 : " Lime, in some form, occupies a prominent position among needful earths ; bring- ino- this in contact with carbonic acid we have carbonate of limeP And thus, also, we happily find Professor Collier Is SiiKi 1, Maim- a Feutimzick ? 273 indirectly expresses his agreement with Sir Ilninphrcy Davy, of Enghind, Professor James F. W. Johnson, M. A., F. R. S. L. & P>., of Scothind, Edward Hitchcock, LL. D., and his associates, in their Report on the Geology of Ver- mont, and other writers on agricnltnral chemistry. The statement of Dr. Hitchcock is as follows : "First and most important of all, we think we have discovered the reason why Vermont so excels all the other New England States in the agricultural capabilities of her soil. It is the existence, in almost all of her rocks, of lime in such a state that natural pi'ocesses bring it out in just about the quan- tity needed by vegetation. This is the case in many parts of the State where the inliabitants hardly suspect the exist- ence of lime, and those parts of the State most fertile are just the places where lime is most abundant and decomposa- ble. This is a treasure which Providence has hidden in the earth, and provided for its elimination at the right time and quantity, and it is of far more value, in my estimation, than all the other sul)terranean wealth of the State.'' (Page 15, Prelimiiuiry Report.) The testiuionv of Professor A. D. Hag-er is in the same line ; he says : " Were the soil deprived of lime entirely, large tracts of country, now supporting luxuriant vegetation, would become desolate and barren wastes." (Page 747.) As a general rule, we may gladly accept the above state- ments, as we bear in mind the fact that repeated cropping and carrying off the products of our farms, without returning their equivalent in some form, does absolutely diminish their fertility. Every cultivator of the soil can point to more than one farm ou which this decreasing fertility is percepti- 274 Statp: Board ok Agricultuue, &c. ble, although not wholly deprived of manure. T»jearno8s to a railroad and a good market for hay puts temptation before some men that is not easily resisted. They little suspect that in every ton of clover hay they carry off there are fifty pounds of lime, and other varieties of liay contain more or less according to the kind. A crop of oats also carries off a large percentage of lime. It is granted, say some, that the fertility of some farms is decreasing ; how can it be restored ? Copious answers to this question appear in the publislied reports of the Board. Among them we find Professor S. W. Johnson, of New Haven, Connecticut, who says: "The reason of the truth of the old saying, that ' if you can start clover you can grow anything else,' is apparent. Its groat value as a fertilizer is accounted for in the vigor with which it appro- priates food, botli from the soil and from the atmosphere. It brings up, by its deep growing roots, the mineral wealth of the subsoil, and leaves it in a place and condition to be easily reached by the roots of suc(;eeding (irops." And Pro- fessor Johnson refers to a table which shows that the weight of the roots and stubble of clover is about three times that of oats or wheat ; showing two lumdred and forty-six pounds of lime in the ash of clover, against eighty-one pounds in oats and seventy-two pounds in wheat, on one acre of land. This method of brino-ino- the fertilizino- agent from the subsoil all farmers are familiar with, and the use of the sub- soil plow points in the same dii-ection. But what is the chief mineral fertilizer that is brought within the reach of the roots of other crops? It is carbon- ate of lime, seventy-five per cent, of which is found in shell Is SiiEij. Mart, a P^ki:tii,i/.kr ? 275 inal; and of tliis 300,000 cords, accoi'ding to the estimate of Professor C. B. Adams, lie unused in Moidvton Pond. Bv referrinif; to pages i')97 and 698 of tiie Report on Geology, it will be observed that in the analyses of the seve- ral sain}>k'S of shell marl from different parts of the State, the proportion of carbonate of lime runs from 89 to 72.9 per cent. ; water and vegetable matter from 5.5 to 13,5 per cent. As this marl absorbs a large quantity of water and parts with it very slowl}', two samples from the same deposit ma}' exhibit a considerable difference on this point, resulting, of course, from the various means used for remov- ing the water. The sample that came under the notice of Prof. Adams was probably the one he obtained by using this, an instrument, a sort of probe attached to the end of a long pole, which was thrust down through the upper stratum, without filling, and drawn from a much lower one, that is more compact. The sample before you was pro- cured from Monkton Pond by the same instrument, attached tC) the end of a ])ole not more than seven feet long. This sample was procured about the 1st of December, by cutting through one foot of ice, and dropping the probe through two feet of weeds in water, and three feet of marl ; from the low- est stratum that I could reach this pint cup was filled. Its contents weighed twenty-one ounces ; after standing two weeks in a favorable place for dr^'ing its contents weighed seven ounces — losing two-thirds of its volume and weight. It presents now the appearance and condition whi(;h it repches after exposure to the sun and air during several weeks of summer. One or two years before Professor Adams examined this 27G State Board of Agriculture, &o. deposit, my neiglibors, Roderick Baldwin and the late Me- dad Ilurlbnrt, and myself, drew several sleigh loads of this marl and spread it on meadow land that was easily reached, as an experiment, and without taking notice of the many other sources of lime from which the soil could draw its supplies; the result was like the " going-it-hlind " application of gypsum. The soil on which it was spread already con- tained its measure of lime, more than that it was not pre- pared to receive, and our gratuity did neither good nor harm ; and no farther experiments were tried by us. Some persons might be inclined to infer from the result of our experiment that shell Tnarl was in all cases useless ; this would be no more correct than to say that as gypsum occa- sionally fails of producing the desired result, gypsum is useless. The writer can call to mind an experiment tried by a far- mer in Kent County, thirty miles south of London. He had one tield whi(;h received much of his attention, but the crops he gathered from it were not equal to his expectations. Near by was a limekiln in which chalk was burned ; the broken lumps, too nearly ground to powder to be thrown into the kiln, were gathered and spread on a strip through the middle of the field, and when the next crop made its appearance, the line between the chalked and the nnchalked soil was plainly to be seen. The chalk contains ninely-tivo per cent., shell marl seventy five per cent,, of carbonate of lime. We must fall back upon om* own convictions. We know- that lime in some form, especially the carbonate of lime, is needed. We know that at a great cost per hundred pounds Is SiiETX Maul a Fkrtilizici? ? 277 we restore lime as a sulphate or phosphate in a small meas- ure compared witli the amount we carry away, and we may know that shell marl would, in many instances, return car- bonate of lime at less than one quarter the cost of far-fetched fertilizers. Chemical analyses will tell us on what soil to apply it ; Vermont perseverance will convey it to its needed place ; and we may cherish a feeling of thankfulness that Provi- dence has placed within our reach such a mine of fertilizing materials. 278 State Boakd ok Aguicui.tuke, &c. THE ANALYSIS OF EERTILIZEIIS, BY HENRY M. SEELY, OF MIDDLEBURY, The analysis of plants has shown their relation to the soil in which they are anchored and to the atmosphere in which they spread their green parts. The larger part of the plant comes directly or indirectly from the atmosphere and goes back to the atmospiiere through burning or decay, The little residue or ash has come from the soil. Analysis has further shown that out of the fifty-three ele- ments composing the atmosphere and the earth, plants select but few for food. Chiefly among these are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon and chlorine. Other ele- ments are sometimes found but their presence is thought to be accidental rather than necessary. These elements in some combined or co mpounded form are taken and appropriated by the plant. Quoting from Prof. kS. W. Johnson we have the following facts in regard to the nutrition of plants : " In regard to the food of plants, it has been settled that potash, lime, magnesia, iron, phosphoric acid, and sul- phuric acid must be furnished to all agricultural plants through their roots and by the soil, in order to their growth The Analysis ok Fi:rtilizkr.s. 279 It has also been shown that soda, silica, and chlorine are not needful for the early growth of grain crops, but that chlo- rine is essential for the perfection of the seed, and that silica is probably necessary to uniform blossoming and ripening. It is farther proved that water must enter crops through theii^roots; that carbon, which constitutes more than half their weight, is superabundantly furnished by- the air; that air and water together yield the materials out of which fully ninety to ninety-eight per cent, of crops is built up ; and that the soil has to give for their nourishment but the two or eight per cent, of mineral matters which remain as ashes when they are burned, and the one-half to two per cent, of nitrogen which they also contain. It is likewise definitely settled that nitrates in the soil are the chief natural source of nitrogen, while the ammonia of manures, as well as a variety of substances containing nitrogen, and found in urine or formed in the decay of dead animals, likewise supply veg- etation with nitrogen." All the earthy ingredients of plant food must be present in every productive soil, and chemical analysis has shown that the majority of these are so abundant that so far as they are concerned the soil is inexhaustible. Some however are found in our ordinary soils in comparati"cly small quanti- ties. It is noteworthy that most of the cultivated plants require large quantities of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. Compounds of calcium are usually abundant in the soil, the others are there in limited quantity. The compounds of potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen are drawn away rapidly by cultivation. In rare cases soils will yield year after year undiminished crops. But these are the 280 State Boaku ov Agiucui>ture, &c. exceptions. In general l)y the ordinary cropping soils diminish in their yield and in a comparatively short time the condition is reached at which cnltivation is no longer renm- nerative and the land is said to be " worn out." Fortunately our soils in Vermont are never actually exhausted, though tlicy may for the time have reached the point at which they make no adequate return for the work- ing. The rarer ingredients of a fertile soil so far as they are immediately available have been exhausted. Time will avail for the restoration of the fertility. The original con- stituents are still there in considerable quantities but bound up in the coarser or finer fragments of rock and tlie par- tially decayed vegetable matter forming the soil. Frost, and water, and the atmosphere, by tlie process known as " weathering " will unlock the treasured ingredients and change them to such forms, that dissolved in water they may be appropriated by the roots of plants. As stated time will avail to bring back the lost fertility. But with the proper method of cultivation the " worn out " condition of land need never be reached. The soil is to be regarded, not as a bank from which unlimited resources can be drawn, but rather as a manufactory by means of wliich crude materials may be converted into valuable products, and that the amount of converted products will be according to the amount of raw material furnished, and the skill used in the manipulation. To maintain constant fertility plant food must be added to the soil as fast as the crops take it away. Farmers in our older states at least are recognizing this fact and are acting upon it by saving and applying such manures as can be col- The Analysis ov Fkrtiuzers. '281 lected on their homesteads or gathered in their vicinity. But the demands of liigh farming cannot be met by the return to the soil of the coarse and scant materials left over after the great bulk of concentrated products has been sold aAvay from the farm. The home made manures wlicn care- fully husbanded will go far to delay the exhaustion of the soil ; but for the highest and most profitable results, some adjunct representing the crops and stock carried away must be added. The results of the analysis of soils and plants and of experiments regarding plant food point out the fertilizers to be sought and used. Compounds of potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen in the form of potash, phosj^lnjiic acid, and ammonia or nitric acid, have been shown beyond all ques- tion to be the most efficient in the restoration of the fertility of the soil. Such being the acknowledged power of these ingrc/'-ents of plant food, it is not a wonder that substances rich in one or more of these are more and more sought after. The increasing demand has brought into requisition materials gathered from many sources. Let us for a little look at the source of supply. Potassium Compounds. — Wood ashes have until recently been the source of enrichment of tlie soil in potash. The supply however has always been limited; perhaps never more than 30,000 tons have been gathered in all the coun- tries in a single year. But the demands of the arts have drawn away a large portion of this, and only a small part has found its way back to the soil. But the mines of Stass- furt, Saxony, have put a half u million tons of potassium 282 State Board of Agkioultuke, &c. salts yearly upon the market, and from tliis apparently unlim- ited source both agriculture and the arts can hope for an abundant supply. Already these Stassfurt salts are going wherever advanced agriculture demands them. Phosphorus Compounds. — The supply of phosphorus compounds used to come almost wholly from the bones of animals, and these continue to be a great source. So the bones of domestic animals are gathered up to meet the demands of commerce Bat t'lis supply is quite too limitel and the bones of other than domestic animals are souo;ht for. The prairies of Kansas and the West are gleaned over for the buffalo bones that have been accumulating upon them ; and it is said that battle fields have been explored and the relics of human victims have been called upon to do humanity a further service. But the bones of animals of whatever sort tail to con- tribute enough fertilizing material for the demands of an advancing agriculture. Supplies haffe been sought from the rocks with success. The fossil excrements of extinct rep- tiles — coprolites as called by tlie geologist — have been found a source of commercial wealth so that the privies of old time animals have been cleaned out in the interests of agri- culture. Still greater sources of phosphoric acid have been demanded and the demand has been met by the discovery of what promises to be an inexhaustible supply. Phos- phorite, calcium phosphate confined to no particular geo- logical formation, appearing now low down and now high up in the stratified rocks, has been discovered in many places and in many countries. In our own country the deposits The Analysts of Fkrtiijzers. 283 of South Carolina are especially abundant along the rivers whidi empty their waters into the Charleston Harbor. On our borders supplies come from the Province of Onta- rio, Canada, while several of the smaller islands of the West Indies are peculiarly rich in phosphatic rock. Britain has been working away for years on her deposits of copro- lites and now as estimated raises 200,000 tons annually. Phosphorites are abundant in Spain, France, Germany, and especially in Russia. From these sources is derived the raw material that is wrought up into phosphatic fertilizers. Nttrogen Compounds. — The sources of the compounds of nitrogen used for agricultural purposes are more various than those of potassium or phosphorus. At the head of the nitrogenous fertilizers stands Peruvian guano, the partially decomposed exuvia of sea birds ; valua- ble not only for its content of nitrogen l>ut furnishing as well phosphoric acid and potash, the former in considerable the latter in small quantities. Soda, saltpetre from Chili or Peru, ammonia salts produced from the destructive distilla- tion of bituminous coal and organic matters, bone meal, fish scraps, and slaughterhouse refuse, are other materials used in the preparation of nitrogenous fertilizers. These substances named above containing compounds of potassium, phosphorus or nitrogen or all of these, some used without, but more with previous chemical prepara- tion have been crowdini; themselves into the notice of con- servative farmers in Britain and Germany, and have estab- lished a reputation for restoring the impaired or lost fertil- ity of their fields. 284 State Boakd ok AcxKICUltuke, &c. And wliat they arc doing for arable land tlicy seem capa- ble of doing for soils hitherto given np to barrenness and desolation. Prof. S. W. Johnson states : " About the middle of last century, a liglithouse, known as tlie Dunston Pillar, was built on Lincoln Heath, in Lin- colnshire, England. It was erected to guide travelers over a trackless, barren waste, a very desert, almost in the heart of England; and. long it served its useful purpose. The pil- lar, no longer a lighthouse, now stands in the midst of a fertile and rich farming region, where all the land is in high cultivation. For twenty-five years no barren heath has been visible, even from its top. Superphosphate of lime, a cJiem- ical invention, first applied to land by the British chemist Murray, and brought to the notice of reading farmers by Baron Liebig, has been the chief means tlirough which this great change was effected." Superphosphate over great stretches of English soil makes, or once made, the turnip cix)p. Turnips there support sheep, and with sheep the English farmer knows how to get rich on the poorest light lands. Liebig, in 1840, called attention to the chemical compo- eition of the guano of Peru. That very year a few (;ask8 were imported into England as an experiment. The next year 2,000 tons were brought, and in sixteen years its aggre- gated sales in Great Britain amounted to $100,000,000. Now Britain, Germany, France and our sea-board States cannot get enough of it. With such results it is not a matter of wonder that these commercial fertilizers are winning their way into all our older States where a wasteful agriculture has impoverished Tin-: Analysis of Feutii.izeks. 285 a once fertile soil. In spite of the uncertainty of their com- position, caused by a lack of knowledge, a lack of care, and ii lack of honesty the demand for concentrated fertilizers is on the increase. The fertilizers offered in market mostly go under the name of " superphosphates," the insoluble calcium phos- phate or " bone phosphate" having been treated with sul- pluiric acid and so rendered more or less soluble. We have perhaps no trustworthy data on which may be based an estimate of the quantity used in our own country. But the amount is enormous. Fair estimates for certain States and towns wo have and from these we may form some idea of the amount demanded by the present system of agriculture. The State of Georgia is officially estimated to expend annually $10,000,000 in the purchase of fertilizers. Secre- tary Flint states that many of the towns of Massachusetts are yearly paying from $25,000 to $45,000 for concentrated fertilizers. Prof. Johnson says that single towns in Con- necticut expend annually from $30,000 to $50,000 for guano, phosphates, etc., besides using large quantities of home supplies. Number if we will the towns in the sea- board States and use this number as the multiplier of the above sums, and we get a glimpse of the amount of money paid for fertilizers by the farmers of the older States. And wc may hope that the manufacture and sale may go on and increase until as an adjunct of the home gathered manures they may restore our fields to their original productive power. This is to be noticed in this connection : it is not by the 286 Statk Board of AoRiour/ruRE, &,c. gross ton that the fertilizing value of these manures is to be reckoned, but by the actual amount of fertilizing material present, and the condition in which it exists. As previously shown the materials from which the commercial fertilizers are prepared differ widely in source, in composition, and in value. In addition to this the processes of manufacture are variable and too often imperfect. The i-esults are just what should be expected from the nature of the case. The char- acter of these fertilizers is diverse, and they range from the excellent down to the worthless. Some test whose accuracy cannot be disputed must be sought, one that will set at rest the question of tlieir actual worth. Among the most valuable contributions made by science to the agriculturist is the knowledge of the true char- acter of the conunercial fertilizers offered by importers and manufacturers. Opportunities for falsification are many, means of ready detection few. A chemical analysis is the only test practicable. Ag"icultural societies and boards early saw the necessity of helping the farmer in determining the value of the fertilizers he was to buy. The oversight which such bodies have exercised, has no doubt saved the country thousands and thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been sunk in the purchase of worthless articles. In the manufacture and sale the general result has been most satis- factory. Articles of no value have been driven from tlie market. Fair minded and honest manufacturers are more careful in their methods and endeavor to give an article of uniform composition, frequently ofi'ering with the sale to> guaranty their wares. The Vermont State Board from the beginning appreciated The Analysis of Fertilizers. 287 the necessity of (controlling as far as possible the chai-acter of the fertilizers put upon sale, being quite unwilling that the valueless, falsified, or deteriorated materials rejected bj other States where oversight is had, should find a market here. Though the individual members of the board have been wholly changed, still a uniform course has been pur- sued and the good work has gone steadily on. Under the direction of Professor Collier, the former secretary, they have from time to time gathered from various sources the different fertilizers offered for sale within the State, and liave submitted these to chemical analysis. No better evi- dence of the wisdom of this course is needed than that afforded by the fact that the average value of the fertilizers now offered in market is over thirty-three per cent, greater than when the first analyses were undertaken. These care- ful analyses by Professor Collier have been of more value than can well be estimated. The improvement in the char- acter of these fertilizers is largely due to the scrutiny to which they have been subjected. The inducement to put upon the market an article of no value is largely removed, as the attempt to do so is liable to be detected at the outset. It is thought it will be a timely service to the farmer to put before him in a condensed form the excellent w^ork of Pro- fessor Collier, that at a glance he may know the value of the different fertilizers as revealed by chemical analysis. These results have been published at different times in a little different form, a part, the first series in the report for 1872, the second series in the State agricultural papers. Other ingredients than those mentioned below have 288 State Board of Aguicultuue, etc. manurial value, particularly potash and gypsum ; the first is usually present in too small quantities to be regarded, and the second is too cheap to be estimated as an ingredient of a high priced fertilizer. The ammonia and the phosphoric acid are the chief ingredients of value in these compounds^ and accoi-ding to the amount of these in any given sample, so will its actual value be. The condition wliicli the phosphoric acid is in, whether soluble in water and so ready to be used at once by the plant; or reverted, that is, having once been soluble, but on its way back to the opposite condition, and yet soluble in some alkaline salt; or insoluble, that is, not soluble in either of these, but soluble in acids, will also determine to a great extent their worth. Upon the amount of actual or potential ammonia, and upon the amount and condition of the pliosphoric acid, the following values are calculated, and upon a ton of -^,000 pounds. The market value of these substances in other forms will be a guide in estimating tlieir value in a manure; and there is a pretty uniform basis upon which agriiuiltural chemists have settled the price of these rarer ingredients. Professor Collier in the first State Report, that of 1872, adopted the following estimation of values, which is adhered to here, as it will aiford a good means of comparison with the results of the more recent analyses. This scale of prices, as the Professor has recently said, is manifestly too high, as equivalents can now be purchased in the mui-ket at less rates. In the first part of the second series the reverted and insoluble pliosphoric acid were not separated, and both are reckoned together as insoluble. TuK Analysis of Fertii.izeus. 289 Soluble Phosphoric Acid. . . .16 1-i cents per lb. Reverted " "... .13 1-5 cents per lb. Insoluble " " . . . . G cents per lb. Animouia 25 cents per lb. Potash : 7 cents per lb. The avei'.'igo value calculated from the analyses of the twenty-six fertilizers of the first series was §4-5.01 per ton, while the average of the last half of the second saries, those last made, is $58.95, an increase of thirty-throe and one-third per cent. This result is in perfect keeping with similar cases the conntrj' and countries tlirough ; wherever the fer- tilizers sold have from time to time been subjected to chem- ical analysis, the quality of the fertilizers has steaM'y improved, the good growing better, and the comparatively worthless dropping oat of the market. n 290 State Board ov Agriculturk, &c. Tabulated Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Values. I, Serica 1872. Name. Percent, conip. Falcs' Fer; ilizer, Miles & Co.'s, Bradley's XIj Bradley's B D, Bratlley'sB D, Bradley's Patent, Bradley's Patent, Bradley's Patent, Enofh Coc's, E. Frank Coc's, Russell Coe's, Canada Superphosphate,.. Canada Superphosphate,.. Green Mountain, Green Mouniaiu Ammon... Paddock & Dean's, Brighton Phosphate, Brighton Phosphate, Brighton Tobacco Grower, Wilson's Superphosphate,.. Wilson's Tobacco Grower, Bower's Manure , Union Fertilizer, Cumberland, Cumberland, Watson & Clark's, Grafton Mineral Fertilizer, Slovens' Mineral Fertilizer, ■2 ^ a. - .64 8.59 5.95 4.85 5.29 4.53 1.49 6.40 9.76 7.85 6.K) 7.23 12.96 14.46 18.68 .35 3.48 8.38 .69 3.86 3.45 2.73 .00 5.55 5. .35 6.06 .00 .00 w O o - ci n. 1.15 .00 .55 1.05 2.84 2.63 4 5(1 2.75 1.37 5.76 6.28 .22 1.46 .00 .00 1.81 8.69 6.55 10.79 5.05 3.69 8.08 .01 3.78 4.86 2.60 .00 .00 -2 5 ci '5 1? 2 u a > Ucccived from 5.39 2.58 S21.49 Burlington. .41 2.88 42.81 Xorthfleld, Mass. 5.30 2.96 41.95 Boston, Mass. 6.81 2.93 41.35 Boston, Mass. 7.01 2.13 44.47 St. Johnsbury. 7.2' 3.25 46.66 Boston, Mass. 0.89 2.17 3.T.84 Hartford. 3.40 3 01 47.32 St. Johu.sbury. 1.10 2. 89 51. :i Burlington. 4.60 3.05 61.49 Essex Juuction. 2.75 1.36 46.79 Middlebury. 3.07 1.93 37.41 Charlotte. 5.56 2.17 04.69 Charlotte. 8.43 .00 73.37 Burlington. 8.(9 1.03 75.57 Burlington. 2.71 1.49 16.62 Lunenburgh. 1.57 1.86 45.43 Boston, Mass. 2.57 2.42 67.62 Boston, Mass. 1.45 1.87 41.82 Boston, Mass. 1..50 3.40 44.67 Northflcld, Maaa. 1.01 2.25 33.41 Northfield, Mass. 12.67 .69 48.83 St. Johnsbury. 1.05 .88 6. 38 .St. Johnsbury. 4.92 3.07 49.17 Newport. 3.18 2.49 46.49 Hartford. 3.46 .75 34.01 Philadelphia, Pa. .00 00 2 Lunenburgh. .00 .00 2 Newport. The Analysis op Fertilizers, 291 Tabulated Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Values. II, Series 1875. Name. Ura i.ley's buiierijliosphate,. . Peruvian Guano, Complete Manure, Brighton Abattoir, , Bay State Suijerphcsphate,.. Quinnipiac Fertilizer, Wilson's Amnion. Superphos Bradley's Patent, Animal Dust, Lister's Supcrphospliate, — Brighton Abattoir, Upton's Superphosphate, — E. Frank Coe's, Bratlley'sX L, Peruvian Guano, Cumberlaml, , Bradley's Patent E. Frank Coe's, Cuuibcrland, Euocb Coe"s, , y. or 1 7.93 2 6.19 3 .46 4 .82 5 11.60 6 8.38 7 1.71 8 8.42 i) .78 10 11 65 11 .72 12 2.54 13 9.37 14 3.14 15 5.19 1(3 5.3;-. 17 5 25 18 in. 71 19 5.97 20 9.4 Per cent comp '/) o: 4.01 10.80 2.93 3.49 7.60 7.99 2.85 .31 .93 3.02 .62 13 74 .73 8 19 3.91 4.19 11.83 6.92 7.64 2.95 7.05 5.56 1.17 4.43 2.11 .62 6.94 .31 2.88 .62 c < 3.45 S43.77 11.73 95 26 .42 3.42 6.72 46.09 2.72 55.99 4.90 56.71 1.91 29.3 2.50 48.47 8.51 54.25 1.97 51.25 7.31 57.94 4.46 65.74 3.40 56.59 4.70 48.24 13.85 10S.71 3.06 54.55 3 40 49.9: 2 68 49.40 2.89 40 23 3.74 58.22 Received from Ludlow. Boston, Mass. Gaj'svilie. Boston, Mas3. Boston, Mass. Brattlcboro. .Morristown. Barrc. -Montpeller. Philadelphia, Pa. Brattleboro. Hartland. Harlland. Windsor. Eiirlington. Mid debury. Middlebury. Bra tleboro. Ludlow. LutUow. 292 Static Board of AGRicui.Tcm:, tt;c. GRASS CULTURE. A PLEA FOR GliASS CULTURE. BY J. C. SnERBURNE, OF POMFRET. Travellers tell us that the ruins of Eastern cities, whoso names are famous in ancient history, are found in tho midst of deserts, whose barrenness su2:>ports only the scan- tiest vecretation. While we are wonderin2; how cities could exist and flourish with a totally bai-ren country surround- ing, how their vast population could possibly be fed out of such leanness and barrenness, the philosopher in agricul- ture comes in Mith (his explanation — the exhaustive system of husbandry practiced, the eontinup.l drafts made upon tho soil wliich came of C3rtainty from grain raising, co:nplotcly absorbed all fertility from the soil, which at first, in order that the multitudes might be fed, must have been wonder- fully productive. All about us, on tho hills of Vermont, and year by year creeping slowly but surely downward into the valleys, aro found the utter and irredeemable ruins of homes and farms. Standing by tlieso broken walls and looking upon the sheep as they nibble the vegetation so sparse that a A Plica von Gija.-s Culturb. 293 liundred acres is liardlj sufficient for an equal number of sliccp, we ask the question, How could tlie fatliers possibly from sucli soil manasre to feed themselves and their house- ful of children ? and the oldest inhabitant iinmediatelj steps forward and says he luis seen growing on tlie very spot and all around, year after year, enormous crops of all kinds of grain ; and we iind that tlie history of tiiousands of years ago is repeating itself to-day, so far as it relates to agriculture. The continual western movement of men and families .comes in a great measure of something closely resembling the instinct observable in the rats as they desert a sinking vessel. It matters not from what sources or how fre- quently come the exhortations, " Don't leave the old place," *' Stick to the farm, young man." Starvation sure and ultimate is never welcome though the years go by befor its final and complete triumph. We affirm that the giving up of farms to pasture lands witnessed all around us (and there is no pleasure in the eight) comes chiefly of the nearly complete exhaustion of all fertility of the soil l)y the ruinous practice of grain growing. The continuance of homes among these hills, the interests of the farmer and the welfare of the State demand a ilifferent system of agriculture. Whatever else mnj be given up, or whate.ver else may be purchased advantage- ously in the markets of the world, Vermont, next to her own men and women, must raise her own grass. Grass is the commonest of all vegetation, in itself a thiug of beauty, growing in all soils, ranging througli every conceivable degree of luxuriance and sparsoness. § 294 State Boakd of Agriculture, &c. It is almost as common as the air, and tliis very connnon- ness may, in some measm'e, account for the lack of atten- tion which it receives. It receives less direct culture than either corn or potatoes or oats, yet, in market value, it exceeds the combined aggregate of all agricultnral prod- ucts. The announcement that " All flesh is grass " is doubtless intended to convey lessons respecting the brevity of human existence, yet we have no occasion for dispute with the man who read:., "All flesh is grass," and accepts the bare, literal statement. The soil of Vermont is particularly adaj)ted to the growth of grass ; as a grazing State it ranks lirst among the States of the East ; as practical proofs of this may be mentioned the reputation wdiich comes of Vermont horses, the excellence of lier dairy products, and the unequalled notoriety of Vermont sheep. Grazing in this latitude implies an abundance of forage for the winter's use, of at least six months' duration. But the conservative farmer will object to the direct cul- ture of grass to an extent corresponding to its importance, compared with other held loroducts, as such implies special farming. Specialty is an outgrowth of an advanced civili- zation, and it has a close connection with comfort and refinement. It is clearly observable in manufacture, in trade, and in the professions, and more and more in agri- culture. I have somewhere read this sentiment : '' Look out for the man with one idea — he is irresistible." Grass readily responds to generous treatment ; unlike other field products, it may be grown upon the same soil year after year, indefinitely, without deterioration. It A Plea for Grass Culture 295 draws very lightly upon the fertility of the soil ; it is the least exhaustive crop with which we are acquainted. A thorough preparation of the soil is sufficient for several years ; it requires no attention while growing, and, with the improved machinery for haying, securing the hay crop, if commenced in season, is the pleasantest work of the farm. Ask the farmer who represents a very large majority of his class, how much grain he intends to raise the coming season, and he will invariably answer all he can ; implying that he wall have as many acres under tillage as possible, limited only to a certain extent by the fertilizing accumu- lations of the farm ; and objection is made to the direct culture of grass, as thereby the amount of grain that would be raised would be largely diminished. Let us examine this objection. Grain growing requires constant care throughout the season ; it involves a large expenditure of man power. Upon these hills, the planting, the husking, the cribbing, the shelling, must all be done by hand, and whatever is done by hand nowadays is done slowly. Dnrino- the o;rowino; season the farmer is the busiest of O o o all business men ; work presses in every direction ; before one thing can be completed other things have an unpleas- ant way of demanding immediate attention. The last hoeing, which cannot be neglected, is performed when the whole force should be vigorously engaged in the hay field. Under the present arrangement nearly the en- tire hay crop has to be secured at an unreasonable time, for the farmer, like " Don Feniaudo, Cannot do inoie than he can do." £9G State Boakd of Agriculturk, &c. From careful observation in my owm experience I am satisfied that a ton of liaj, secured on the first day of July, fed to dairy cows in milk, lias a value of several dollar* over an equal amount secured two weeks later, or on tlio fifteenth of July. With the exception of wheat, of which comparatively little is raised, a very small amount of all other grain is used for food in the family ; with the exception of what is consumed by pigs and poultry, it is fed in connec- tion with hay. After careful consideration, knowing the unsurpassed excellence of early cut hay, I make this state- ment without hesitation : If the entire hay crop of tho State could be secured at the best possible time, its value, when fed, would exceed the worth of the hay now obtained together with all the irrain raised in the State which is fed in connection with the hay. Again, objection is made to giving up some portion of grain raising for grass culture on the ground that grain raiding is largely profitable. It is claimed that the corn crop is the best crop raised. Statements are frequently made, and occasionally find their way into the public prints, that corn hereabouts is produced at a total cost of tliii'ty, forty and fifty cents a bushel. Such statements may 1)0 matched by the assertion, equally reliable and worthy of confidence, that the best of English hay may be grown and secured in the barn at a cost not exc^eeding five dollars a ton. These figures, if they prove anything, prove too much, and arc admirably calculated to mislead, for, when tho leading field crops can be produced at a cost of less than half their market value, the question, " Does farming pay ? " will be satisfactorily jmtwercd for :dl time. In A Pi.KA FOii (tkass Ci:i,Tuni:. 297 » ascortaiiiing tlie exact cost of our farm products there aro questions involved lool;Lring out and replenishing was coatinujd around every old shell of a build- 302 State Board ov Aghicui.ture, &c. ing on the place, until each became odorless. Thid accumu- lation was used as a top-dressing for grass, being spread on evenly the next fall, and it provcdof great benefit. During four _years my cows were stabled at night, summer as well as winter, and the trenches and cellar were supplied with sufficient absorl)ents, loam, muck, scurf, leaves, sawdust, straw, anything at hand, maldng about as much manure in summer as in winter. Nor was the hog-pen forgotten, the swine making as much value of manure, by means of absorb- ents, as they themselves were worth when dressed. After stabling my cows at night in this manner for four years, and top-dressing the mowing, the grass crop had increased in it so that tlic mowing and pasture were very unequal in their production of grass. Although the pasture contained three times as many acres as the mowing, the feed in summer was not sufficient for the stock required to eat the hay in winter. I therefore determined to try and improve the pasture by turning the cows out at night, not forgetting to give them a little more meal every day. This item of meal I consider a very efficient means of increasing the grass crop, and think that the produce of the pasture has nearly doubled since adopting the foregoing method. I have much more faith in meal than I have in commercial fertilizers, as I have always found it true to kind and true in its operation. Another item of importance is to cut the hay green, an the manure made from feeding early cut hay is much more valuable than that which is made from late cut hay. Never use the mowing for grazing purposes, either in fall or spring. Inckeasing TiiK Grass Ckop. 303 "When the feed n a broken root not cut back as directed tliere will be found a dead stub, one, two or three inches in length, as the case may be, which will, of course, affect the tree more or less ; wlicreas, if tlio root has been cut away as directed, a callas Mill be fo:-mcd and rootlets thrown out at the edge of tlie cut, and the whole root will be in a sound, healthy condition. The top must be pruned. And why ? Primarily, to shape the tree, for the shape of an apple tree is of a good 318 State Boa.ud of Agricdlturk, &c. deal of importance. Secondly, to restore the balance be- tween the top and roots. In the growing tree there is a proportion between the roots and branches ; if we destroy a large number of roots, as we always do in transplanting trees of much size, this balance is destroyed, and must, to produce the best results, be restored. The larger the tree, the greater the loss of roots, and consequently the more severe must l)e the cut- ting l)ack of the top, thereby destroying all the advantage which we expect to obtain from extra sized trees. After the tree is properly pruned, it is well to wet the roots before setting. This, too, may seem a small matter, but the affairs of life are made up of small matters. By simply wetting the root the fine particles of soil will adhere thereto. Tlie earth can be more closely packed around it, consequently there is less lial)ility to diy np. On this sim- ple process, it seems to me, sometimes depends the life of the tree. Now, everything being ready, place the tree in the hole upon a small mound, so that the roots will spread out in their natural direction. Then, holding tlie 'tree perfectly upright, fill in around it with the richest soil which it is pos- sible to obtain, taking care to place no manure in immedi- ate contact with the roots. I wish to emphasize this point. Use the very best and richest soil wliich can be obtained ; work the soil among the roots so that no space will be left unfilled. Don't be afraid of dirt, but get down on vour knees and work with a will. The farmer who is too proud or too lazy to get down upon his knees in setting trees is not fitted for the business of fruit raising. Shake the tree Apple Culture. 3l9 occasionally while tilling, and, after the roots are well cov- ered, press the earth firndj down with the feet. The ground should be left a little crowning, so that after set- tling the tree will stand at the same depth as in the nur- sery. After the tree is well set it should be mulched, which is a process of covering the ground for some distance around the tree with straw, leaves, saw-dust, coarse manure, or any material which will keep the ground moist and prevent its drying and baking, and obviate the necessity of watering the newly set trees, which process is of doubtful utility at any time. It is a principle in natural philosophy that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time ; it is also an agricultural fact, susceptible of demonstration, that two crops cannot be grown upon the same soil at the same time without detriment to one or the other, unless plant food suf- ficient to supply the needs of both is furnished. In orchard culture the plant food will after a time become reduced by the growth and product of the trees, and must . be re-supplied in order to produce full crops. This exhaus- tion of plant food will be accomplished much sooner if, in addition to the trees, the soil is occupied by graiu or grass, two of the worst crops which can be grown among fruit trees. Hence the folly of sowing to grain and seeding down to grass the soil of a newly set orchard. The correct method, it seems to me, is this — to continue the cultivation of the soil with hoed crops and heavy manuring, or to keep the ground entirely clean by the use of the cultivator, dis- pensing with all crops except the product of the trees, and 320 State Board of AGnicuLTuiti;, &.c. giving an occasional dressing of manure as the trees require it. In orehard culture it must be remembered thattl)c reots fill the whole surface of the soil. That the small fibrous roots whicli take up ])lant food are at a great distance from tlic body of the tree. Consequently the ap])lication of manure about the trunk of the tree can do but little irood. Fertilizing material should be apjdied broadcast over the \vliolc surface, and worked in with the cultivator. In culti- vating an orchard, extreme care must bo exercised that the roots are not injured by deep plowing, or the bodies of the trees mangled and bruised by the carelessness of the work- men. Pruning is a portion of the sul)ject upon which there is an almost endless variety of theories and practices. All admit that pruning is necessary. But consult fruit growers, or men who have written upon the subject, and note their replies. The first will tell you to prune any time M'hen your saw is sharp, never when it is dull. This advice has the advantage of being partly right, for we never should prunu with a dull saw. The next will tell you that there are fifty-two days in the year on which tree pruning should not be done, viz. : the fifty-two Sundaj-s. One will advise to prune in the fall ; another in March; another in June; 60 that there is probably no month in the year that has not been recommended I)y somebody as being the the vci-y best time to prune fruit trees, and each has given his I'casons. Now in view of all this diversity of pra(;tice and contradic- tion of theory, it is not strango if the novico finds himself in a haze of bewilderment, and from fear that he \\ill go wrong, leaves his ])i-uniug entirely undone. Apple Culture 321 In order to clear up this matter a little, I will give my own method, founded on several years' experience and observation. There are several objects to be attained in pruning. The tirst which we shall consider is to give the tree its proper form, which is that of an umbrella inverted, with the branches sufficiently spread to give free access to the air and light, which are essential to the full perfection of the fruit. This also being the form which gives the best facilities for gathering the fruit. The young tree may be pruned into this shape when first set, which can then be easily done. Starting right, then but little pruning will be required at any one time, but this little must be attended to closely, and may be done at any time when the jack-knife is sharp, and consists simply in removing by cutting or rubbing off such shoots as may start up in places where they will not be wanted. If this is done in season, no large limbs need ever be cut, except it may be occasionally to remove a dead one. This kind' of pruning may be done at any season of the year, and , theoretically, no implement but the pruning-knife and shears will be required ; but practically, on account of neglect in attending to it in season, the saw may sometimes be necessary, but never upon any occasion, except to cut it down, use a hatchet or an axe about a fruit tree. Different varieties of apples have cHfferent habits of growth, and in order to prune intelligently and preserve each tree in its proper shape, some knowledge of these dif- ferent habits is necessary. Let us now give om* attention to an orchard that has 11 322 State Board of Agriculture, &c. been thorouglilj neglected, that has been aJlowed to stand in the grass with no care whatever, the ground hav- ing been cropped every year and nothing returned, the trees being left entirely free to make what little growth they could in their own way until each tree is nothing but a mass of moss, rough bark, tangled brush and dead limbs. This is no fancy sketch. There are hundreds of just such orchards all over the country, and the treatment which they require is what the surgeons would call heroic, both as regards pruning the trees and cultivating the soil. As regards time of pruning, any time would prove better than no time — l:)etter prune any month in the year than let it remain in its present condition. In managing such an orchard I should prune either in November or in midsum- mer, at the time the new wood is forming, when tlie wounds will soon heal up, doing the tree but little injury. Would never prune in early spring, at the time growth first commences, for the reason that the cut does not heal over readily, soon decays, leaving an unsightly wound, and because pruning done in the season of rapid growth tends to check the vitality of the tree. AYriters object to prun- ing at this season of the year because of the flow of sap, but my own ol)servation has led me to mistrust this idea, and I am of the opinion that the flow of dark, unhealthy sap that we often see, causing a black, cankerous stripe wherever it touches, is due more to the condition of the tree than to the time of pruning. I would, in connection with the pruning, plow the soil, turning a light fmTOw, apply a liberal amount of fertilizing material and then pro- ceed as recommended with a newly set orchard. Apple Culture. 323 Pruning should be done with a sharp knife or saw, leav- ing a clean, smooth cut. At the juncture of the ]>ranch with the trunk of the tree or with a larger branch there is a small projection or shoulder; cut as near as possible on a level with the limb pruned from, and at the shoulder; if a ■ stub is left it will never heal and suckers will start, thereby defeating the object of pruning. On the other hand, if the limb is cut too close, it will leave a large wound difficult to heal. There is sometimes a diseased condition of the body of the apple tree, and which usually destroys the whole tree, caused by the sun's rays striking the exposed trunk. This is obviated by such training as will cause the body of the tree to be shaded by the foliage. There is another class of trees which demand a moment's attention — those which have come up of themselves in the fields and pastures. They have been neglected, perhaps, and are rough and scraggy ; but, at the same time, many of them are hardy and healthy, and, wherever this is the case, fii'st class trees can be made of them and good fruit obtained much sooner than can be obtained from such as are set fi*om the nurserv. The owner of such trees should lose no time in causing them to be grafted. If the trees are of bearing size and the work well done three years vnW. be sufficient to give him a good crop of fi-uit. The proper method with such trees is to graft the whole tree 9,t one time — and any healthy grafted tree which is a shy bearer or which produces inferior fruit may be treated in the same way. Some recommend grafting but a portion of the tree at once, and consequently being two or three years in going 324 State Board of AoxRICUlture, &o. throuo-h the whole. If the work is done as it should be, care being taken to graft none but small limbs, none more than one inch in diameter, the work can safely be all done the same year. No pruning more than is necessary to do the graftino; should l)e done at this time. The sprouts which start around the scion should be rubbed off during the summer, but no other pruning should be done until fall, when about one-half the remaining natu- ral branches should be taken out, and the remaining one-half allowed to grow another season, when the whole may be taken away, leaving the scions in sole possession. Many procure their grafting done, and neglect the absolutely necessary after pruning until tlie natural growth has com- pletely choked and starved out the scions, rendering the work of grafting of no avail. Yakieties. — In the selection of varieties, choose only those which are adapted to the locality. It is one of the sins which tree peddlers will have to answer for, that they have been crowding upon the people a great many varieties which can never be made profitable. In raising apples for market the fewer varieties growTithe better, and in the selection of those varieties be guided by the experience of the most successful fruit growers in the immediate vicinity rather than by the picture books of tree agents. The distance of but a few miles will sometimes change a variety from a heavy bearer to just the reverse, so that it is impossible to give a list suitable for general cultivation. For my own locality the Baldwin is far the most profitable market variety which can be grown. With my present experie^ce I should next choose the Hubbardston Apple Cultuke. 325 Nonesuch. Tlie Rhode Ishmd Greening, in many locali- ties, is a profitable variety, but with us is rather a shy bearer, and should plant but sparingly for market. For tliose who are near a large village which alTords a home market, the selection of varieties will vary from those who must depend upon a distant market — the latter must raise winter apples almost wholly, while tlie former may devote more space to earlier varieties. For home use a greater variety is needed, and should be fio selected as to insure a full supply of apples from the very earliest to the latest. For this purpose would recommend, first, the Red Astrachan. This is one of the handsomest of apples, an upright grower, vigorous and very produc- tive. The Early Harvest is also a very fine variety. Wil- liam's Favorite is a very good apple, the tree said to be hardy and productive. The Sweet Bough may be set for an early sweet apple. Tliese four varieties or their equiva- lent will be found suflicient for early summer use. Next in order comes the Garden Royal, than which in its season no better apple grows. Next, the Porter, which should be mainly relied on as an autumn variety, as it is a great bearer and the fruit of first rate quahty. The Fameuse is a popular variety, coming to maturity a little later than the Porter, very hardy and adapted to cold local- ities, doing well where other varieties would die. The next in order would be the Twenty Ounce, or, as it is called with us, the Blessing, a large late fall or early winter variety, productive and valuable for cooking. Next in order of time of ripening is the Hubbardston Nonesuch, a first rate fruit, which can be recommended for both home and 326 State Board of Agriculture, &c. the market. Next in order would come the Baldwin, then the Rhode Island Greening, and close the succession with the Northern Spy. This last is a fine variety, retaining its fine flavor to the last, but is very tender skinned [and must be handled with extreme care or it will soon decay. The tree requires considerable age before coming into bearing. A good supply of sweet apples is also desirable. The following varieties will make a succession, viz : Sweet Bough, Golden Sweet, Bemis Sweet, Pound Sweet, Sweet Russet, Tolman Sweeting and Ladies' Sweet. The foregoing list gives a good succession of both sweet and som' apples, but can be varied to suit the locality or the taste of the fruit grower. As a late keeper some might recommend the Roxbury Russet in place of the Northern Spy, but the Ivusset is a very shy bearer and lacks quality, the flavor, I should judge, being something like that of dried pumpkin soaked in poor vinegar. The Yellow Belleflower is an excellent variety, but in many localities utterly refuses to make itself profitable, and so of very many of the best flavored varieties. Horticulture and Fruit Raising. 327 HORTICULTURE AND FRUIT RAISING, BY E. E. ANDREWS, OF BERLIN. To talk pleasantly upon this subject may be quite easy, but to write profoundly is far more difficult, and to thor- oughly succeed in impressing the hearts of the multitude with the utility of horticulture, would require far greater experience than most of us possess. The most I can hope to do is to stimulate others to do better than I have done — others who not only recognize nature's laws but also the abihty of man to co-operate with Him whose right it is to establish law. In the beginning, when God had created all things, and after pronouncing all that He had made " very good," He gave man dominion over all that He had made, and placed him in a beautiful garden called Eden, (not in Northern Yermont but farther East,) to dress and keej) it. The first and only place, at that time, where horticulture had been introduced by the Great Husbandman. I speak of this merely to show the utility of this noble calling, and the necessity of rendering assistance to nature's laws in the greater development of her resources. And had God intended that nature should have perfected her own work without the aid of man, then had Adam been thrown out of employ- ment and lost his titled honor of both keeper and cultivator 328 State Board of Agriculture, &c. I have sometimes been amnsed at the novel idea suggested by some of our farmers of the impropriety of pruning, shap- ing or fashioning our fruit or ornamental trees, for fear we, should rob nature of her high privilege of adorning herself in her own style and beauty. And to adhere strictly to these false notions, not of unfrequent occurrence, would be to divest man of reason and sound connnon sense, the very endowed elements ot our nature. To leave the plant unaided by the help of man, to be controlled only by nature's laws, would be to allow its deformity to become obnoxious to man, as well as to Him who established these laws. With equal propriety might we leave the children of our care to their own inclinations, without proper training, with the view that God created them and therefore we must not meddle with His works, lest we be found sinning against Him by undertaking the task of finishing up that which He had left incomplete. But we take a broader and a more elevated view of God's creation, and believe He had a wise and holy purpose in the formation of man,- to be placed here to pssist nature in carrying out these fundamental prin- ciples that underlie all hope of success, both in the vegeta- ble and animal kingdoms. Allowing the above suggestions to be true, man by com- pulsion is thrown under weighty responsibihty for the faith- ful discharge of his duty, not only for a 'thorough cultiva- tion and training of his ofispring in liis own house, but for a tliorough cultivation and training of both plant and tree ; the latter of which, if properly done, will not only beautify the home of every laboring man, but will furnish food and Horticulture and Fruit Raising. 329 nourishment for the indwellers of every home circle through- out Vermont and the wide world. Nevertheless i't is aston- ishing to every experienced person, that so little attention is paid to this important branch of agriculture. To say nothing of the profits to be derived from the horticultural department, there is an untold satisfaction in the propaga- tion and cultivation of fruit and flowers that makes them attractive, and adds much to the happiness of the domestic circle. For want of adaptation but very few among our far- mers become experts in the horticultural department of labor ; and yet among the vast many who pay but little attention to this important branch, there are some even whose taste and skill would be fully adequate to such a posi- tion, were it not for the hard pressure of business in other departments of agriculture. And here, in my opinion, comes in one of the grand mis takes to whicli farmers subject themselves ; for of all the crops that farmers raise upon their farms, let fruits of the choicest varieties be the last to be neglected. For no crop, in my opinion, among those that furnish food, is more remu- nerative to the common farmer than well selected and well cultivated fruit. Furthermore, it is conceded on all hands, and especially are physicians agreed that among tlie various products of the farm, none are more healthy or more nutri tious tiian the fruits we raise. And amono- the fruits the apple takes the first rank. It is said by good authority that the apple contains a larger amount of phosphorus than any other of the ordinary fruits or vegetables, and as this is one of the most important elements in the nourishment of the brain, and especially necessary to those who work with the 333 State Board of Agriculture, &c. brain, the bcibitual use of apples as an article of food is greatly to be recommended. Anothei" substance so desli-able to promote health, found in the apple, is the acid it contains valuable to rouse the liver from its sluggish condition. Thus, while the brain is the all important organ with those who are known as ^reat thinkers, it is of the first importance to this class to make use of all the means within, their power to preserve in health and vigor this essential organ. Therefore fresh fruits, of the several kinds which are adapted to our climate and locality, and which can be so easily and so readily raised by the farmers of Vermont, should constitute an important element in the daily fare of all mankind. And we believe it to be within the means of nineteen-twentieths of all the farmers in Vermont to raise the necessary amount of fruit for home consumption, with scarcely the slightest embarrassment. A few hints in regard to the variety of fruit and the man- ner of cultivation may be in place. The selection of trees may be varied according to locality. And here, let me state,, comes in one of tbe greatest mistakes among orchardists, as well as among our common farmers, and which has had a tendency to weaken, if not to destroy the confidence of the majority of farmers throughout Vermont. They have been so frequently imposed upon by fruit tree venders, that their courage is nearly exhausted. By those agents whose mission it is to coin as many dollars as possible, with the least expense to themselves, many varieties have been introduced which are as useless to the farmer, here in Central Vermont, as June bugs are to a winter squash, or the modern pest to the success of the currant. How few among the vast number Horticulture and Fruit Raising. 331 of farmers iu the United States but would be exceedingly- glad if they could easily raise sufficient fruit for the con- sumption of their own families. And who among this vast number may not, with due prudence in selection and proper cultivation of the trees, succeed in thus doing ? I am san- guine in the opinion that there are few who may not. I have in my own orchard the following varieties : Rhode Island Greening, Jewett's Red, Baldwin, Jewett's Best, Roxbury Russet, Blue Pear main, Ben Davis, Andrew's Favorite, Northern Spy, Bethel, Fameuse, Red As- trachan, Porter, Sops of Wine, Gordon Apple, Winter Pip- pin, Tolman Sweet, Hayward Russet, Honey Sweet, Hamp- shire Sweet, Foundling, Twenty Ounce, Munson Sweet, Northern Sweet, King of Tompkins County, Calvert, Kes- wick Codlin, Fall Pippin, Early Harvest, Pelleflower, Golden Russet, Gravenstein, Tetofsky, Duchess of Olden- burgh, Haas, Wolf River, Alexander or Emperor and Pewa- kee. I have several other seedling varieties that originated on my own farm, some of excellent flavor and good bear- ers, which I will not mention here. Among the above named varieties, there are but few that 1 would recommend to our Vermont farmers. The Rhode Island Greening and the Baldwin are classed among our choice varieties, and while I have some very fine trees of those kinds, I have some that show signs of decay, and the opinion is quite gen- eral that farmers in Central Vermont as well as in the Northern part, cannot successfully grow those varieties. The Blue Pearmain is a good bearer ; the fruit is handsome and very pleasant ; it is a late keeper and the tree is hardy ; it is not quite tart enough to suit all tastes, but with some it is 332 State Board of Agriculture, &c. a great favorite. The Jewett's Best is a good variety of winter apple, a good grower, and a medium bearer. The Ben Davis is a fine winter apple ; good size, constant bearer ; the tree not a rapid grower but apparently hardy. The Northern Spy is a winter variety ; fruit excellent, tree handsome and hardy ; but in order to enjoy the fruit one wants to live to a good old age, unless he should be so for- tunate as to inherit the property of a past generation. I would not, however, discourage our farmers in setting two or three trees of this variety, for if they do not live to enjoy the fruit themselves, it is barely possible that they might leave grand-children to enjoy it after them. The Bethel is a fine winter variety, much resembling the Blue Bearmain in shape and color, and, though more tart, it would suit more tastes than the former. The tree is a fine grower and hardy. The Fameuse is a late fall or early winter varietj^, and is one of the finest and most profitable apples raised in Central Vermont. The fruit is handsome, deep red splashed with green ; a constant bearer and hardy. The Red Astra- chan is an early fall variety, and forms a handsome top. The fruit is handsome, rather tart but fine flavored, and the tree hardy. The Borter should occupy a prominent position among the choice varieties. With me this tree is hard}^, the fruit excellent in flavor, straw color, of good size, is a good bearer, and on the whole is a fine marketable fruit. The Sops of Wine is an early variety, ripening in August, of fair size, reddish color, not very tart nor very juicy, a good bearer and hardy. The Tohnan Sweet is a winter variety, good keeper, fruit of a greenish color,, medium size, good quality, a constant bearer, and should be HORTICULTUUE AND FrUIT RaISINO. 333 found on every farm in Yermont. The Honey Sweet is a seedling variety, originated on my own farm. It is one of the sweetest apples that grow, of medium size, a constant bearer, and wins favor with all lovers of sweet apples ; the tree is hardy. There are none in the market for sale, but should be both for luxury and profit. The Munson Sweet is a very fine apple, of medium size, straw color, a great bearer ; the tree apparently hardy and profitable for this locality. The Tetofsky and Duchess of Oldenburgh are fall varieties, and are in good repute. I cannot speak from experience, as my trees of these varieties have not yet come into bearing. The Haas, Wolf River, Alexander and Pe- wakee are Western varieties, sent to me from Wisconsin, with the highest recommendations as regards quality of fruit, their keeping quality, and the hardiness of the tree. They have proved themselves, thus far, fine growers, and with the high recommendations with which they come to me, I intend to grow them for the market. I would say, how- ever, that the Alexander or Emperor has not so fine a flavor as some other varieties, but is termed the king of apples on account of its size. It is said to be a good bearer and hardy. The Andrew's Favorite, a seedling originating on my own farm, is among the handsomest if not the handsomest of the apple family, and of the finest flavor. In regard to the har- diness of the tree, I have only to say that my father (who is now living on the old farm,) says he helped set the orchard when he was fifteen years old, and he was eighty-eight last May, making the old tree seventy-three years of age where it now stands hale and hearty, and bids fair to celebrate its centen- nial, with but few of its companions. A friend of mine, in 334 State Board of Agriculture, &c. Nortlifield, says he remembers distinctly of eating fruit from it^over sixty years ago. My young trees are very hardy. All this speaks much in favor of this variety. A fruit grower in Wisconsin to whom I sent a few samples of the fruit wrote me thus : " I suppose you are anxious to know all about the An- drew's Favorite. I remember you wrote me that it would keep well until January, but I shall set it down as a late keeper, for I kept one of those you sent me until yesterday, April 21, and it had retained its flavor beautifully.'' In regard to the crab varieties 1 am sorry to say that a great many of our farmers have been deceived, and those that have more than one tree have got too many, and those thai have not one have not enough. Every fanner should be the owner of one good Transcendent Crab, and as they are constant bearers it would furnish a supply for any family of ordinary size. The Hyslop was highly recommended but a few years ago, and is one of the handsomest crabs that grow, but is not worth harvesting when grown. In regard to the cultivation of fruit, much has been said and more written. Nevertheless, there are many foohsh notions still existing among our farmers in regard to this matter. Lest I weary your patience, I will endeavor to be brief in stating my views in regard to it. The plat of ground on which to set your orchard demands careful con- sideration, and either extreme of too dry or too wet should be avoided. For the good of the tree the ground should be heavily manured, plowed and cultivated certainly two years before your trees are set, thoroughly and deeply working the soil each year, allowing your manure to entirely decom" Horticulture and Fruit Raisikg. 335 pose in the soil, thus causing no injury to the voung roots of the trees. In choosing your trees I think you would be well paid, when it is convenient to do so, to visit the nur- sery from which they are to be taken, selecting none others than your experience has taught you are both hardy and productive, and when you see a tree of two summers' growth that stands superior to those of its companions of the same age, that is the tree for you, as you may be assured that its root is liealthy. In regard to the distance we should set our trees from each other, I find a great diversity of opinion. But my views are to set them about twenty feet apart each way, giv- ing the limbs a chance to expand ten feet in each direction, before coming in contact with each other, which will give a very fine top. I would encourage the cultivation of the soil but very few years, say five or six at the most, with due caution never to get too near the young tree with the plow or cultivator ; but let the soil near the tree be stirred with the hoe. At tlie age of five or six years I would seed the land, but continue to keep the soil loose near the tree for a space of five feet in diameter until the trees are old enough to bear fruit. In setting the tree much care should be observed in open- ing a space sufficiently large and deep so as not to cramp the root of the tree, but give it plenty of room, so that each root shall occupy its natural position in the soil, taking par ticular pains that the fibrous roots are not laid in a mass together. I think it a fine thing to use all the waste bones at hand, placing them at the extremities of the roots. Oys- ter shells may be used with equal propriety, all these having 336 State Board of Agriculture, &c. a tendency to keep the soil loose and to furnish food for the trees. Never put manure about the roots of your trees when setting, unless you mean to kill tliem. Bring in your finely pulverized soil carefully among the fibrous roots, leav- ing your tree a trifle lower in the soil than where it stood before, and never mass a pile of dirt up around the trunk of your tree, as some have recommended, until they can tell you wherein lies the benefit, and be sure you understand their philosophy. Allow me to say just here that, in my opinion, as a pre- ventive against mice no remedy is more sure than thor- oughly treading the snow about your trees, especially if the ground is frozen. Other applications, such as are often recommended, like staves or tarred paper tied around the tree just above the ground may be good, but are attended with greater expense and labor. After your trees are properly set jow will find it no loss of money and but little of time to use all your waste suds about yom* young trees. It contains more or less alkali, one. of the best ingredients for tree nourishment, in my view. And I would also recommend, as I have previously done, the washing of yoiuig trees from the ground as far up into the limbs as can be done without injury to them. Let the wash be one quart of soft soap to five or six quarts of water, applied with a coarse cloth, rubl)ing the body of the tree sufiiciently hard to remove every particle of scurf or moss from the bark, which you will find to give the tree a beautiful green appearance, and looking as though you had given it a coat of varnish. It certainly does no HOKTICUT.TURK AND FrUIT RaISING. 337 injury to the tree, and 1 am quite sure is a benefit, as also a preventive to the pests that infest our orchards. A few words in regard to the training and pruning of our trees. Let this be a study from the time of setting to the time of fruiting, for, among all the mistakes to which we as farmers are subjected, none seem to me more sad than the want of sound discretion in the proper heading of our trees. In the first place, let us consider how high we would head our trees. I am very much in favor of low limbing. I would never limb or head a tree more than two and one-half feet from the ground, and would, under or- dinary circumstances, head them two feet instead of more. My reasons are that low limbing protects the body of the tree from the sun and renders it much more conven- ient for gathering the fruit, while the fruit is less liable to injury from bruising. To sliape the head of your tree, follow upon the spiral . stock to the height you would wish the head to start, and with a sharp knife cut from the opposite side of the bud from which you wish to start the upper limb of your tree, slanting the knife upward, making a smooth gash near the bud. Then allow three or four buds to grow, to make the proportion of the tree to correspond with your own taste, nipping all other buds in their early start. We should al- low our imagination to carry us on in the progress of our trees for several years. Then, starting with the three or four branches,* as above named, we may easily watch their progress, and when, as they naturally Mill, a bud puts forth in the formation of a limb that, in our imagination, will interfere witli a well balanced head in future years, we 338 State Board of Agriculture, &c. should be sure to remove it at once with a sharp knife, cut- ting closely to the limb from which it starts. And in case two limbs should be inclined to come in contact with each other and you wish to turn one of them in an opposite direction to fill a vacancy in your tree, you will please fol- low up on the one you wish to liave change its course, and when you get to the spot where you would like the change to be made, after finding a bud on the side next the open space, place the knife, as before, on the opposite side and cut with a slant toward the end of the limb. Thus watching every progress of all the branches you may form a shapely head and fashion it according to your own fancy, taking particular pains to leave the centre of the tree sufficiently open to admit the sunlight and the dew. With proper care from the early start of your tree up to tlie time of fruiting, you may avoid the necessity of cutting large limbs from the tree, for there will l)e none to cut. But, where trees have been neglected, as they too often are, it becomes necessary to prune and cut away large limbs. In which case use a fine saw, after which smooth with a knife, and apply soft wax, if you are choice of your tree, to the wounded part, thus preserving the wood and causing the new growth to heal over smoothly, leaving but a small scar. Never use pruning shears in any case, for it is impossible to make a smooth cut with them on a limb of any size, but they will invariably leave the limb shattered and rough. I would like to say much upon the cultivation of other fruits. A few words, however, and I close. I am of the opinion that pear culture in Central and Northern Ver- HoRTicur.TUKE AND Fruit Raising. 339 raont can not be attended with profit. Only for tlie sat- isfaction of groM-in^ them would I ever recommend their culture in . this locality. And the same opinion of the grape. This class of fruit can be bought in market much cheaper than we can raise it. If our farmers could man- age to devote a little. more time to the raising of the several kinds of garden fruits it would add very much to their enjoy- ment,and also to their health, and I am inclined to think it could be attended to without financial loss. The strawberry, which affords a luxury for every man's table, is within the means of all or nearly all. The raspberry, so freely grown by nature upon nearly all our farms, hardly need be cultivated by us. The blackberry may be successfully grown from our common variety, and will thrive much better by culti- vation than in its natural state, and requires but small amount of labor. In conclusion, let me m*ge upon all farmers in Vermont the necessity of beautifying and endearing the old familiar spot — dearest of all on earth — home, with those luxuries that shall enable our children and our children's children to look back with profound gratitude, and bless and rever- ence the da}^ that gave them birth in a land of fruit and flowers. ^ 340 State Board of Agriculture, &c. RURAL ARCHITECTURE. FARM BUILDINGS. BY HENRY SAFFORD, OF QUECHEE. The high nature of man was, as declared by the Psahnist, " created but a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor." As distinguished from the brute, he has a will and mind to control the nature of his surroundings, and is, in a sense, sovereign of his own destiny, and has rest- ing upon him the high command to subdue even the earth. How must a man rise in his own dignity who feels him- self intrusted with such responsibilities ! ISo mean shed, barely sufficient to cover himself and family from the storms and the extremes of heat and cold, will answer his higli condition. The language of the Bible exliausts itself in its attempts to portray what has been done for the soul. " Eye hath not seen nor ear heard," is its language. " In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you." If, then, so much has been done for the soul, surely something should be done for tlie body. The farmer is not confined to some little strip of land like the denizens of our cities or villages, not large enough for our Farm Buildixos. 341 door-yard, and whose utmost limits are counted by the foot. Our motto may be that of the old M'nrrior: " No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, The whole boundless continent is ours." The house should be located, like Burns' Montgomery, " Where summer first unfolds her charms, and where she longest tarries." While we think of it, can there be a more desirable situation than a family thus located ? Perhaps the plac3 made sacred by its having bean the residence of " parents^ passed into the skies." In a country where each man can own his own farm and till the farm that he owns it cannot be expected that his buildings will be as pretentious as those of the lord with inherited possessions too large for his own inspection even. The house should be located as near, the center of the farm as circumstances will admit. A given amount of room can be more cheaply had in a two story, upright house than in any other form. Many reasons . could be given in favor of the two story, upright house. First, the chambers are more desirable in summer. The attic is a protection from the scorching heat of the sun, and in winter, the roof, being at a greater distance from the more heated parts of the house, is not troubled with the snow meltino- and ao-ain freezino; at the eaves, forming: a dam to turn the water back again into the house. How many houses have been half ruined in this way, to say noth- ing about inconvenience and vexation. The rooms most in use should be in the sunniest and most pleasant part of the house. The kitchen should have every convenience that modern ingenuity can suggest ; just large 342 State Board of Agriculture, &c. enongli in which to do the work of the place but not large enongh for a dining table, and furnished with an abundance of good water. Adjoining the kitchen should be a roomy dining room, and opening into this should be a sitting (or living) room, furnished with a good library, and as many papers as the family can read and not neglect the books, with a well winnowed selection of the literature of the day. Do you say this is too much ? Only think of the rainy days and the lone; winter evening-s. If a dairy is to be the leading interest, a milk house, sep- arate from every room of the house (except the ice house), should be attached on the shady side ; and if for butter, the large pans are indispensable, if for no more than eight cows, such is the economy of labor. In a paper of this kind, every convenience and appendage of a farm house cannot be enumerated, but the deep gravelled or brick walk, the pro- jecting veranda, and the portico should not be forgotten, nor the spacious yard, giving room for the flowers and shrubbery. Connected with the house should be the most perfect drainage. It is a reproach to the country and a burning shame that typhoid fevers (more to be feared tlian the yel- low fever of the South because more fatal,) are so frequent, and it is a recognized fact that the more perfect drainage of our cities throws the percentage of fevers against the coun- try ; and when our dear ones are stricken down from this cause, how impious to charge it to a mysterious Providence who gives us all the broad heaven witli its free air ! Pages could be written upon this subject, but I must turn to the other adjunct of the farm, — the barn, and I will say Farm Buildings. 343 iu the start tliiit in no case should tliis be ioined to the house for reasons above mentioned, and for ;j;reater security against fire. AVhat is a constant stream of tainted air to a few steps and a free view ? As nuich thought and skill should bo bestowed upon the barn as the house. Horace Greeley once said that his stone barn at Chappaqua, which he had built, would speak of him when all else he had done would be silent. In this, like the house, greater economy of room and con- venience can be had in one large upright structure than in many smaller ones. If possible, I would locate it by-a bank that could be made available for a drive-way for taking hay and fodder to the loft above the 'beams. In our crowded hay season and with labor expensive, such is the economy of labor in mowing that it amounts to days in a single season. I would have the sides tightly boarded, and the stables large enough that every thing that walks on four legs about the building may find shelter beneath its roof How much is lost in growth of stock and in food, in our Northern lati- tude, for want of warm shelter ! I think it pays (and I speak from demonstration,) to lay brick edge-wise in mortar entirely around the stables, so that the animal heat from the stock will prevent freezing, even in the coldest weather. This is consistent with the best ven- tilation. I much prefer the wooden stanchion to any other method of fastening. A platform, four feet six inches long for large cows, two inches shorter for smaller ones, a drop of six inches, a trench sixteen inches wide, and a walk ele- vated two inches, with sawdust, dry muck, or even clean sand, every whit, both of liquid and solid manure can be 344 State Board of Agriculture, &c. saved, and you will have pure air, sweet milk, and a clean stable. Opening from the stables should be a root cellar. This, too, can be made proof against frost by a double brick wall, leaving an air space of two inches between the two walls. The inner wall, like the lining of the stables, may be made with the brick edge-wise. No farmer can afford to raise young stock or keep milch cows without an abundance of roots. I speak from twenty years' experience in root raising. Under the stables should be a cellar, or, for want of this, a lean-to or shed, for storing manure. The horse stable and piggery should be in clos^ proximit3\ I^^ ^ recent discus- sion, in our county, upon the wastes of the farm, was enumerated with great truth the heating of horse manure. This can be wholly prevented by using this manure, with its accompanying litter, as an absorbent in the pig-pen, with its stone floor, and thus a fertilizer, containing nearly as much ammonia as the famous Peruvian guano, can be made at home at little cost except in the arrangement of our buildings. Every yard should have its water. Somewhere in the barn should be a place assigned for grain that is to be threshed, and in the floor beside it a place for a thresher, propelled by horse power, and a loft beyond for straw. No one but those who have tried it knows how much can be gained by threshing before husking, so that the straw can be used in alternate layers with the corn fodder ; thus one can be saved in good condition, and the other doubled in value for feeding purposes. Even the tops of turnips and mangels can be preserved in tliis way, to be fed out in the winter, to our sheep and young stock. As is the Fabm Buildings. 345 case with the house so with the barns. All the conveniences for cattle and sheep pens, for shelter for tools, carts, &c., cannot be enumerated here. I am quite well aware that we all, to some extent, are supplied with buildings, and it is not the purpose of this paper to advise the plan of the individ- ual of unenviable notoriety in Scripture, to " pull down and build g;*eater," but as our buildings are constantly needing repairs, and the increased fertility of our farms demands addi- tional room, can we not, as those changes are required, approximate to our ideal of what a farm home should be ? Who of us, as we have visited our large cities, and have viewed with admiration, mingled with a feeling of not so gentle a name, the splendor obtained by the unequal traffic with the country, ha