The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-11-08


station all by himself; and a minister
who can average such potato crops as
he does must be a minister worth lis
tening to, whether preaching Christian
ity, or agriculture. We wish we had
more correspondents like him. Read
his potato experiences carefully, for
there is money in them for you all, and
good farming behind and underneath
them,-yes, and clear through them.
WE have been, and continue to be,
much astonished at the interest man.
ifested in our articles upon orcharding
and tree fruits, by readers of this de-
partment of the paper. We have, in
all these years, been very reserved in
speaking of our own particular branches
of farming, as it laid us open to the
charge of interested purpose in sc do
ing. Being urged by several readers,
we again reprint some more of our or
cbard experiences, this time from the
Stockman Dc Farmer of Pittsburgh,
Penn.
The Morgan horse has attracted
great attention at Chicago. A writer
in Rural Life says, on this subject: =" A
separate class was provided for Nor
CANS at the Worlds Fair horse show,
and naturally enough many friends of
this popular family of horses were in
tertsed in seeing what kind of an ex
hibit this class would call out. My
opinion of the ring has been asked. /
have always been a strong admirer of
this spirited and exceedingly service
able little horse, and have hoped to see
his qualities perpetuated in a modern
Morgan of little more size and
strength. The first thing that struck
me, in which l was greatly dsap-
pointed, was the lack of uniformity of
type. But few animals in the ring con-
formed to the generally-accepted type
of the Morgan horse, and it was soon
apparent that the Judge had little favor
for these, as he passed them by and
gave first places to horses that would
be properly classed as Inferior trotters.
A preference was shown for this type
throughout the judging, and the reason
assigned was the possession of more
speed, although speed was tested in
most cases at the halter; only few
were driven, and those very moder-
ately. In accounting for the lack of
more uniformity in type, Morgan
breeder said that horse didn't need 10
have much Morgan blood in order to
get into the Vermont register. If the
Morgan family is to be perpetuated, 1t
will have to be along. the line of the
true old Morgan type with increased
size and endurance, and not based
upon speed at the expense of the Nor
gan quality. Take away this quality,
and you have nothing left. If standard
performance be made the only stand
ard, as it would appear that some Nor
gan breeders are doing, we had better
60 at once TO the better families of
American trotters. That the true Nor
gan possesses considerable speed has
been repeatedly demonstrated by race
records and by the Morgan strains en-
tering into the pedigrees of much of
our best performing trotting stock at
the present time, but it has always
been known that mere speed at the
trot has never been distinguishing
characteristic of this family. Judged
as trotters, the Morgans will have to
take a subordinate rank; judged as
practical, well made, servceable horse
of the highest utility, they are unsur-
passed by any horse of their size. The
breeders who have gotten away from
the old type in search of speed don't
seem TO have secured a type indicating
either utility or speed in any marked
degree. The effort being made to re-
establish the Morgan family is COM
mendable and worthy Of encourage
ment, but let the modern Morgan be
the type demanded and suited to an
swer practical need for driving, car
riage and saddle purposes"
SOME Of the agricultural college pro-
fessors are really learning their business,
and taking an interest in it. Professor
John A. Craig, of the Wisconsin school,
is right up with the ideas we b ave so long
put forth in these columns. He says:
81 am certain l shall be pardoned if /
make more extended reference to
some lines of my own work to indicate
the extent to which we endeavor to
help the student to learn by DOING
One of the features of my work is in
struclion in the judging of live stock.
In imparting that, representative ami
mails are used and the students are
given score cards to enable them to
III lol e