board, both in Carolina and Georgia. Apart from their manifest practical aptitude in all these particulars, there is this ultimate value to be considered: a Cashmere shawl is worth from $700 to $1,500. Why is this difference, except in their intrinsic value from durability as wearing apparel? I have socks which I have worn for six years, and are yet perfectly sound.

No naturalist has yet been able to assign a systematic law regulating the acclimatization of animals. The Merino sheep, whenever it has been removed, has generally changed, and in most cases for the worse. Even when first crossed upon the best Saxony sheep, it was a deterioration, but when crossed upon a coarse-wooled animal it improved the fleece; and the cross fixed both the character of the wool and the carcass. This fact is observed in many other instances, demonstrating that the constitution of animals must be connected with location to fix the characters of the wool or the carcass. In fact, the same temperature, but modified by altitude instead of latitude, does not produce the same results. On all of the table mountain and valley plains between Persia and Turkey in Asia, all the animals have fine, long, silken hair, as the Angora cat, greyhound, and rabbits, and I have seen the same in some specimens of the Koordistan horse. To a considerable extent this is the fact on the western part of South America.

In connexion with this part of the subject, I will now introduce the Thibet shawl goat, belonging to the coldest regions. I accidentally came in possession of a pair of these animals, but lost the male. I have a considerable increase from the female, bred with a Cashmere buck. The Thibet goat has, under a long, coarse hair, a coat of beautiful white wool, which, when combed, makes about a pound to a fleece. I had these specimens with me at the Zoological Gardens in London, and in comparing them with a stuffed specimen of a Rocky Mountain goat, I could not discover the slightest difference; nor do I yet see any change of the fresh cross of the Cashmere buck upon my Thibet doe; but in the third cross upon the Cashmere, we may expect a valuable experiment by changing the fine under-wool, or down, into a conjoint and uniform covering of wool.

In regard to the Scinde goat, so called from the province at the mouth of the Indus, he is a gigantic animal, with pendulant ears twentytwo inches long, is used for the table and dairy, and is very similar to the Syrian goat. The Malta milking-goat is also only for the dairy, giving` about a gallon of milk in a day. It may not be uninteresting for me to state a fact observed by me in the malarious sections of the United States and Mexico. In all the similar sections of Asia and the East, they regard cow's milk as being an exciting cause to bilious fevers, as well as to liver complaints, and hence use only goat's milk. The modus agendi I see has been a matter under discussion by the faculty of Paris.

Having given thus much on the subject of goats, I now hasten to the cattle. In referring to the Nagore or Brahmin cattle of India, in Youat's work on British cattle, it will be perceived that they are organized to undergo the fatigues of the hottest climates known, and will carry a soldier six miles an hour for fifteen consecutive hours. brought but one pair to the United States, and, as far as I can learn,

I

my crosses of them upon other cattle are the first known in this country. I crossed this bull upon Ayrshire, Devon and Durham breeds, as well as upon our common cattle. The offspring is considered, by all who have seen them, far the handsomest animal of the cow kind. They are symmetrical and active, and can keep fat when any other cow would starve. I had this half-breed crossed again upon our cattle, but am not yet sufficiently experienced to report of their milking qualities. As evidence, however, that our agriculturists confide in the appearances, my half-breeds readily sell for $1,000 a pair, and the second cross, or half Brahmin, at from $100 to $300 each. Preferring the mixed breeds to the pure, I sold to Mr. Edes, of Kentucky, the original pair for $4,000, as that State would prove a better place to breed and disseminate the stock. As Kentucky is the dependence of the South for beeves, they needed an animal that could come to us in the hot months of summer and remain healthy and sound. They have from this animal a progeny that will travel thirty miles a day in August, and the further south they go the better suited-the great desideratum to the Northern breeder and the Southern consumer.

The Asiatic buffalo, or water ox, is a large, ugly, hardy animal. The cows are good milkers, making fat and good-flavored beef, though coarse-grained, and precisely suited to seacoast marshes, where no other animal can venture, as well as to lands subject to inundation.

I am unprepared to say anything practically of my other importations, but will continue to report my experiments, and believe many of them will become matters of history.

DAIRIES.

CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

Statement of T. L. HART, of West Cornwall, Litchfield county, Connecticut.

The average quantity of cheese per cow in this region is about 300 pounds; of butter, about 200 or 250 pounds. Much care is requisite in the amount of salt given to cows, as it has lately been found that large quantities eaten at any one time will prevent the milk from coagulating. This is a fact known to but few, and was discovered by trying good rennet upon milk which had failed to coagulate on the first trial. A second trial had the same effect, and the cheese did not come. If milk fails to coagulate, the dairy woman suspects at once that the fault is in the rennet, whereas it may be in the milk.

Butter has sold this year in New York from 17 to 25 cents per pound, and my cheese brought, in Philadelphia, from 10 to 12 cents per pound.

Statement of ANTHONY M. HIGGINS, of Wilmington, New Castle county, Delaware.

A large quantity of butter is annually made in this county and sent to the neighboring cities, especially Baltimore, where it has, for a long time maintained the highest reputation as to quality, bringing from 25 to 37 cents per pound. Our dairies comprise from fifteen to seventyfive cows each. The Holstein, Durham, and Devon infusion makes an excellent grade with our common stock, as respects size and milking properties. The first named is preferred by Major Reybold, who kept a large dairy for many years, as they have larger frames, a greater depth of udder, and yield more milk; they require, however, good keeping.. A son of this gentleman informs me that he has two dairies of fifty cows each, and that he annually manufactures about 15,000 pounds of butter. The stipulated price the year round is 25 cents per pound. He calculates that the net revenue from his two dairies amounts to $3,600 per annum.

Some proprietors of dairies rent their cows to a dairyman, at the rate of from $22 50 to $25 each cow per annum-the former furnishing the provender. There is not enough young stock here to keep up a supply. Western heifers are annually brought in at a cost of about $22 a head.

Statement of MICAJAH BURNETT, of the United Society of Shakers, Pleasant Hill, Mercer county, Kentucky.

The dairy business, though much favored by soil and climate, has not been put forward with a view to export its products. Every farmer liberally supplies his own family with milk and butter, and has enough to spare to supply the home demand. The business, however, is receiving increased attention, and may, with proper care and management, be made, a source of great profit when we have better facilities for getting to market. The Durham cows, which have been gradually increasing in number since the year 1817, are, by those most familiar or conversant with them, acknowledged to be better adapted to the dairy than those of any other breed ever introduced into this section. The dairy cows of this society, about one hundred and fifty in number, being all Durhams-some thorough bred, others with a slight strain of the Patton breed-are unsurpassed in the quantity and richness of their milk. They will give for the first three or four months after calving, while on grass alone, from 30 to 68 pounds of milk daily; and from experiments made in the early part of October, 18 pounds of milk will make a pound of butter. Some of these cows do not go dry during the year; others are dry a longer or shorter time, but rarely exceeding eight weeks.

We never soil our milch cows, but believe it much better to have them run at large in the pastures day and night, except in the winter season, when they are kept in the stable, tied each in her own proper stall, from five o'clock in the evening until eight in the morning. They are driven up, however, and stabled morning and evening during the balance of the year while they are milked, and then turned out to

range. From early in the spring until late in the fall they subsist on blue-grass and clover pastures, and are only fed during the remainder of the year, morning and evening, with sheaf-oats, cut fine, made wet, and mixed with meal or "ship-stuffs;" also, occasionally with, slops from the kitchen, pumpkins, small potatoes cooked for the purpose, and hay at will during the night. In this way they are kept fat or in fine order from year to year.

Good dairy cows, mixed from one-half to seven-eighths Durham, are worth from $40 to $50 each; common stock, from $15 to $25. Butter is worth from 12 to 15 cents per pound; cheese 10 cents. The price of milk, from its abundance, scarcely nominal. The Kendall churn is reputed the best of any proved by the society.

Statement of WILLIAM H. COOKE, of Howard, Warren county, New Jersey.

The average yield of butter per cow with us is 120 pounds, taking a number of cows together, though some of our dairymen make 160 pounds from a small number of cows extra well kept.

The average price for butter this year has been 25 cents per pound in the New York market. The value of good dairy cows is from $30 to $35 in the fall. The usual price of a two-year-old heifer is $20. Steers are about the same price.

Statement of P. W. GILLETT, of Astoria, Clatsop county, Oregon.

Clatsop plains are the only parts of this county which produce any considerable quantity of butter and cheese; and I must say, that where the business is properly attended to, I never saw better articles anywhere than are made here. The average price of butter here is 62 cents per pound; cheese 50 cents.

Statement of ISAAC R. EVENS, of Harrisville, Butler county, Pennsylvania.

Dairy husbandry is beginning to attract the attention of a number of farmers in this section. The average product of butter is about 125 pounds to the cow; of cheese, from 250 to 275 pounds. Market value of butter, 16 cents per pound; of cheese, 8 cents per pound. The value of dairy cows in the spring is from $18 to $20; in the fall, $5 less.

Statement of JOSEPH BOWDITCH, of Fairfield, Franklin county, Vermont.

We have some of the improved breeds of cattle, so called, such as the Durham, Devonshire, and Teeswater. The Durham ranks first for the butcher. The Devons are beautiful in color, symmetrical in form, and are quite good milkers; yet our farmers seem to be satisfied with our common stock for the dairy. The cows average 150 pounds of butter, or 400 pounds of cheese, the season. Butter is worth 18 cents per pound, and cheese 8 cents. It costs $10 a head per annum to keep cows well.

Cows should be fed with meal or roots in the spring, commencing a short time before they calve, and continue until there is a full supply of

grass in the pastures. There is no animal that pays better and more promptly for being well fed than the cow. She does not ask you to "trust," but "pays down." Cows fed with hay only, will decrease in milk in four or five days after calving, and will not give so much after being turned into the summer pasture as though properly fed previously. We allow the first to calve in March; and for the dairy it is desirable to have them all come in by the first of May. We feed them with hay six or seven months. Young cattle, sheep, and colts are fed from five to six months in a year. It is deemed the better way to shelter all our animals during the winter in warm stables, and feed exclusively in the barn, only throwing into the yard the refuse that is taken from the stables. Our winters being long and cold, at least one-third is saved by feeding within doors. The hovels should be cleaned twice every day, and littered with straw or leaves from the forest, giving the cattle sufficient time to drink and exercise, and in calm, pleasant days let them spend one-half of the day in the yard.

Our farmers keep from 5 to 225 cows each. Some raise young cattle and colts, keeping sufficient cows for the use of the family; others keep cows exclusively. At least three-fourths of our income is the product of the dairy. Some kill their entire lot of calves, strip off their skins, and add the carcasses to the manure heap; others select the most perfect ones, (red is preferred for color,) and kill the rest. By selecting our best calves we are improving our breed. I have a neighbor who has taken 200 pounds of butter to the cow this year, from those of his selecting when calves. They had no extra feed. Some dairies make butter exclusively; others cheese about 100 days, and butter the rest of the season. Many employ horse-power for churning, using the old-fashioned dasher churn, which is placed in the basement of the dairyroom, where the cream and butter in warm weather are kept, and the horse outside of the building, where a band running in through the window puts the dasher in motion. The dairy-rooms, and everything used about them, are kept perfectly sweet.

It costs $15 a head to raise cattle to the age of three years. They are worth this year $25 each. Some extra matched steers are worth $80 per yoke.

HORSES, ASSES, AND MULES.

The first horses imported into America were brought to St. Domingo by Columbus in his second voyage, in 1493. The first introduction into any part of the territory at present lying within the United States, were landed at Florida by Cabeça de Vaca, in 1527, being forty-two in number, all of which soon after perished or were otherwise destroyed. The next importation, which consisted of a larger number, was also brought to Florida by Ferdinand de Soto, in 1539.

Horses were brought to Acadia by M. L'Escarbot, in 1604. In