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Mr. Tuttle I have rarely listened to a paper read before this society that shows so much good sense and practical experience as the paper read by Mr. Peffer. I think we may let that paper go upon our books as perfectly safe to follow. It shows good, practical experience, no theories. It is the result of long continued trial and experience, and it is safe to follow its recommend.

With regard to top grafting; fifteen or twenty years ago, the theory was pretty prominent among fruit men that by top grafting from the Duchess such trees as the Rambeau or the Spitzenberg, we were going to get some valuable fruit, and they would live. I have no question but what they would live longer than one grafted at the roots, but we had a winter that knocked the bottom out of it. You cannot depend on trees grafted in that way. We want a tree with a hardy body, and the tree grafted at the root makes such a body.

There is one practice which nurserymen have followed, and recommend, which I consider one of the greatest humbugs that we ever had in use. That is, grafting on crab roots. All experience east and west is that the crab as a stalk is worthless. There may be varieties of apples that do better. I haven't found any yet. They do well at first, and then dwindle away. If a person wants to get a little fruit right away, he can work them that way, and bring them right into bearing. As an orchard tree, the circulation is improved, and the tree is made tender. It will bear a few apples, and never get any larger.

Mr. Wood-I would like to ask Mr. Tuttle a question. It seems that certain tender varieties can be more successfully grown on top grafted stalks. What should be used for the stalk?

Mr. Tuttle- I would use the hardiest stalk I could get. There is no tree unless it comes from a climate equally as severe as this, that can said to be tested as to its hardiness under fifteen or twenty years.

I was in Kilbourn a few days ago, and a man told me he had a Duchess dying an old tree. I told him it would be a curiosity to see a Duchess tree die an old tree, and I went around to see it. It was a large tree, and when I got to it I saw that the body was a Seedling. The tree was top worked five or six feet

from the ground. The Seedling was just about used up. The Duchess tried to live, and there was some little appearance of life in the top; but the body was so near used up that of course the tree had to go. If I was going to top graft any trees now, if I had Duchess trees that I wanted to put into something else, I would work such trees as the Wealthy. Something that I thought.

would pay. Mr. Hatch Mr. Tuttle

sider it near as

How would fall Spitzenberg do for top grafting?

I think that would do very well. I don't conhardy as the Wealthy.

Mr. Pilgrim—I would ask Mr. Peffer what season of the year he would do his top grafting.

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DEVON CATTLE - THE BEST OF ALL THE BLOODS.

BY DR. E. A. WOODWARD, SUN PRAIRIE, WIS.

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MR. PRESIDENT - In a country extending from latitude twenty-four degrees thirty-five minutes north, to the Arctic Ocean, and from sixty-six degrees forty-five minutes to one hundred and twenty-four degrees forty-five minutes west longitude, embracing every variety of soil and climate to be found upon the habitable globe, we could hardly suggest general, much less special, rules which would apply either to the herdsman or the tiller of the soil.

But when we confine ourselves to the limits of our own state, we are enabled to be more explicit, give reasons for our opinions, and confine our statements more to matters of fact. Let it then be understood that what I may say upon the subject assigned me, and whatever comparisons I am necessitated to make, are in. tended only for the latitude of Wisconsin.

The only things that I regret are that the honorable secretary of the State Agricultural Society did not select a more able representative, and that the time was so limited for the collection of materials to elucidate the subject.

Since the partial, and perhaps I might say general, failure of

the wheat crop, our farmers have been necessitated to change to other and more fruitful sources of wealth; and not the least of these is the breeding and rearing of neat cattle, which is a prehensive movement towards the production of beef and the products of the dairy. Few farmers are either able or willing to experiment with the different breeds of cattle for a term of years in order to ascertain their adaptability to a certain locality, and are forced to select from some one of the different families, which, according to their best judgment, will fulfill all the requisites of a well-paying herd.

In making this selection, the shrewd, economical farmer will take into consideration the peculiarities of the climate, the nature of the soil, the cost of producing the materials for subsistence compared with other states, and his facilities for feeding and shelter; he will then make his selection as he would a partner for life.

A firm constitution, a beautiful figure, an intelligent countenance, a docile disposition, a hazel eye, a white skin, and red cheeks. The breeders of thoroughbred Devons claim that they are better adapted to this locality for general purposes than any other breed.

1st. Because they are more hardy, more remarkable for longevity, retain their powers of reproduction much longer, and have attained to their present excellency with constitutions as unimpaired as when roaming upon their native hills.

2d. They are more symmetrical in form, possess more beauty and grace of movement, are more docile in disposition, and produce a larger quantity of flesh for the amount of feed consumed.

3d. They have never been equalled in this country by any other variety of full bloods for their milking qualities and general purposes of the dairy.

4th. They have been bred for their intrinsic value, and less for speculative purposes, and are sold at less prices according to their worth than either Short-horns or Jerseys.

Let us spend a few moments upon their history. The Devons are one of the oldest races of domestic cattle known to history, and the distinction between a race and a breed is defined as follows:

Races are varieties moulded to their peculiar type by natural causes, with no interference of man, and no intermixture of other varieties, that have continued substantially the same for a period beyond which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.

Breeds are such varieties as were originally produced by a cross or mixture, and subsequently selecting the best specimens for breeding purposes. There seems to have been three races of ancient cattle in England, to wit, the long horned, the middle horned, and the polled the middle class representing the cattle of Devonshire. Youatt says: "The native inhabitants were proud of their country and prouder of their cattle than choicest professions." When their country was invaded by enemies, they fled to the mountains, taking with them their cattle, and by occu pying places that were invulnerable, both were preserved; the races of cattle in these districts remaining the same from time immemorial. The improvement of this ancient race of cattle which has resulted in the perfected breed of Devons, was commenced about one hundred and seventy years ago.

Foremost in this work of improvement was Mr. Francis Quartly, of the county of Devon, England, and his unprecedented success is shown by the fact that nine-tenths of the pedigrees of the present herd in Davy's herd book are traced directly back to the old Quartly stock. Twenty seven out of twenty-nine of the prize bulls mentioned in that work are descendants of "Forrester" (46), and twenty-nine out of thirty-four prize cows mentioned are descendants of the cow "Curly" (92), both bred by Mr. Quartly. The first importation of improved Devons into the United States was in 1817, six heifers and one bull, "Tamus," presented by Mr. Coke, then Earl of Leester, to Robert Patterson, Esq., of Baltimore, Maryland. "Tamus" "Tamus" was purchased by Mr. Coke when less than one year old for fifty guineas.

Messrs. S. & L. Hurlbut, of Winchester, Litchfield county, Connecticut, commenced their herd in 1819 from a pair procured of Mr. Patterson - Holkam " (115), and " Fancy" (709).

The system of breeding Devons has not been of a hot-bed nature; while others, by being forced to early maturity, have reached their zenith, the progress and improvement of Devons has

continued steadily onward, not only retaining all the estimable qualities for which the early herds were noted, but are to day exhibiting proportions that astonish even the breeders of Shorthorns.

"Banister" (734) weighed at eight months old six hundred and thirty pounds.

Barefoot (732), bred by the Hon. James Buckingham, Zanesville, Ohio, weighed at two years old fourteen hundred and twenty-eight pounds.

Betty 2d, bred by I. S. Newton, Esq., of Verona, Dane county, Wisconsin, two thousand pounds at four years old.

The Devons do not mature as early as the Short-horns, but are much more remarkable for longevity, it being not an uncommon occurrence for a cow to retain her breeding and milking qualities until over twenty years old. The circumstance of their not maturing as early as the Short-horns, proves them better adapted to this locality. The old adage "Soon ripe soon rotten," seems to be literally true of the latter. The common course which the farmers of Wisconsin pursue to produce beef is to graze in the summer, in the winter feed simply hay and straw until two and a half or three and one-half years old; they are then fed with a suitable amount of grain with hay or straw for six months, making them marketable for beef at three or four years old. To explain this position better than by any language of my own, I read from the Cyclopædia Britannica, article Agriculture, page 388: "The distinguishing features of the Short-horns are that when properly treated they get sufficiently fat and are remunerative at or even under two years old; if they are kept lean to that age their excellence is lost; they then cost more money, consume more food, and do not fatten more rapidly than bullocks of slower growing and more compact breeds." Lest I weary your patience I hasten to consider the 4th proposition, to wit: They have never been equalled in this country by any other variety of full bloods for their milking qualities and general purposes of the dairy. "Beauty" (523), bred by Messrs. S. & L. Hurlbut from "Fancy" (709) and "Exchange" (197), produced sixteen pounds of butter per week through the month of June, 1850.

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