by Cabeza de Vaca, in 1527, forty-two in number, all of which perished or were otherwise killed. The next importation was also brought to Florida by De Soto, in 1539, which consisted of a large number of horses and swine, among which were thirteen sows, the progeny of the latter soon after increasing to several hundreds. The Portuguese took cattle and swine to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, in the year 1553. Thirty years after they had multiplied so abundantly, that Sir Richard Gilbert attempted to land there to obtain supplies of cattle and hogs for his crew, but was wrecked. Swine and other domestic animals were brought over to Acadia by M. L. Escarbot, a French lawyer, in 1604, the year that country was settled. In 1608 the French extended their settlement into Canada, and soon after introduced va rious animals. In 1609, three ships from England landed at Jamestown, in Virginia, with many emigrants and the following domestic animals, namely, six mares, one horse, six hundred swine, five hundred domestic fowls, with a few sheep and goats. Other animals had been previously introduced there. In 1611, Sir Thomas Gates brought over to the same settlement one hundred cows, besides other cattle. The year following Sir Ralph Lane imported some cows from the West Indies. In 1610, an edict was issued in Virginia prohibiting the killing of domestic animals of any kind on penalty of death to the principal, burning the hand and loss of the ears to the accessory, and twenty-four hours' whipping to the concealer. poultry and swine. Hence it may be concluded that their importation followed soon after the first settlement in 1620. In the year 1629, one hundred and fifteen cattle were brought over in the "Grand Embarkation," besides some horses and mares, several conies, and forty-one goats. In 1750, the French of Illinois were in possession of considerable numbers of horses, cattle, and swine. The present stock of the United States consists of the offspring of the animals first introduced into the country; the crosses of the original breeds with one another, or the intermixture of the progeny of these crosses with those of more recent importation and the pure-blooded animals brought directly from Europe, or the crosses of these with one another. The principal breeds of horses adapted for specific purposes, in the middle, northern, and western states, are the Norman, the Canadian, the Morgan, the Conestoga, or Pennsylvanian, the Virginian, and the Kentuckian. For carriages of heavy draught, the Conestogas are regarded by many as the best. For the saddle, draught, and other useful purposes, the Morgans are highly prized, especially in New-York. For roadsters, the Normans and Canadians are frequently sought. For blood, the Virginians and Kentuckians generally take the lead. Among the various races of cattle existing among us, where strict regard is paid to breeding, with a definite object in view, a preference is given to the Durhams or Short Horns, the Herefords, the Ayrshires, and the Devons. The Durhams, from their rapid growths, earAs early as the year 1617, the swine ly maturity and capability of taking on had multiplied so rapidly in the colony fat, are adapted only for high keeping, that the people were obliged to palisade or to the richest pastures of the middle Jamestown to prevent being overrun and northern states, and those of Ohio, with them. In 1627, the Indians near Kentucky, and other parts of the west. the settlement fed upon hogs, which had The males, when judiciously crossed become wild, instead of game. Every with the other breeds, or with the comfamily in Virginia, at that time, who had mon cows of the country, often beget the not an abundance of tame hogs and poul- best of milkers, and for this purpose they try, was considered very poor. In 1648, have been especially recommended. some of the settlers had a good stock of The Herefords, on the contrary, from bees. In 1657, sheep and mares were their peculiar organization, are better forbidden to be exported from the prov- adapted for poor or indifferent pastures, ince. By the year 1722, or before, sheep and regions subject to continued drought; had somewhat multiplied, and bore good and for this reason they are well suited fleeces. for California, New Mexico, Texas, and other parts of the South. The oxen of this breed are good in the yoke, and the As early as 1629, the Plymouth colony of Massachusetts possessed cattle, goats, Varieties of Sheep, Swine, Cattle, and Horses. cows, when properly fed, give an abundance of milk. The Ayrshires are best suited for a cool, mountainous region, or a cold, rigorous climate. They succeed well in Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, and Vermont, and are highly prized for their tameness, docile tempers, and rich milk. The Devons, from their hardihood, comparatively small size, and peculiar structure, appear to be adapted to almost every climate and to all kinds of pasturage. From their stoutness, good tempers, honesty, and quickness of action, they make the best teams, and in this respect their chief excellence consists. The cows make fair milkers, and their flesh very good beef. They also possess great aptitude to take on fat. The kinds of sheep most sought for are the pure-blooded Merinos, the Saxons, the Cotswolds, the Leicestershires, the Oxfordshires, and the South Downs. The Merinos, including the Rambouillets, the Cotswolds, the Liecestershires, the Oxfordshires and the Saxons, are the most highly prized for their wool. The South Downs are particularly esteemed for the excellence of their flesh, and their wool is valuable for many purposes, on account of the facility with which it can be wrought. The prevailing breeds of swine in the middle, northern, and western states are the Berkshire, the Leicestershire, the Suffolk, the Essex, the Neapolitan and the Chinese. From these and other varieties, various crosses have been produced, the more important of which are the Byfield, the Woburn, the Bedford, the Grass and the Mackay. The Neapolitans are particularly well adapted for a Southern climate. In 1627, the plantations on James river contained about 2,000 head of horned cattle, goats in great abundance, and wild hogs in the forest without number. In 1639, there were in Virginia 30,000 cattle, 200 horses, and 70 asses; and in 1648, there were 20,000 cows, bulls and calves, 200 horses and mares, 50 asses, 3,000 sheep, 5,000 goats, swine, both tame and wild hens, turkeys, ducks and geese innumerable. There were exported from Savannah, in 1755, 48 horses and 16 steers and cows; in 1770, 345 horses, 30 mules and 25 steers and cows; and in 1772, 136 steers and cows. In 1820-1, there were exported from the United States 853 horses, 94 mules, 5,018 horned cattle, 11,117 sheep, and 7,885 225 swine; in 1830-1, 2,184 horses, 1,540 mules, 5,881 cattle, 8,262 sheep, and 14,690 swine; in 1840-1, 2,930 horses, 1,418 mules, 7,861 cattle, 14,639 sheep, and 7,901 swine; in 1850-1, 1,364 horses, 2,946 mules, 1,350 cattle, 4,357 sheep, and 1,030 swine. According to the census returns of 1840, there were in the United States 4,336,669 horses and mules; 14,971,586 neat cattle, 19,311,374 sheep, and 26,301,293 swine; of 1850, 4,335,358 horses, 559,229 asses and mules, 28,360,141 horned cattle, (including 6,392,044 milch cows and 1,699,241 working oxen,) 21,721,814 sheep, and 30,316,608 swine. HORSES. In the tables of 1840, horses, mules and asses were returned together; in those of the last census, the number of horses is given in one column and asses and mules in another. The increase in the aggregate number of these three classes of animals, during the ten years, was 559,053. It is presumed the greatest increase has occurred in the number of mules. Many suppose that the great extension of railroads has a tendency to dispense with the use of large numbers of horses; but one very good reason for the small apparent increase in the number of horses exists in the fact, that the enumeration of 1850 omits all in cities, and includes all or mainly such as are employed in agriculture or owned by farmers. In New-York, where there are less than a thousand mules, there appears to be a decline in the number of horses and mules together of 26,566; in Pennsylvania of about 13,000; in New-England of 17,000, or more than twenty-five per cent., while in all these states rail-road conveyance has almost superseded the use of horses for traveling purposes. On main routes we would more readily attribute the apparent diminution to the omission to enumerate the horses in cities and towns than to any superseding of horse-power, which the opening of rail-roads would often bring into requisition in various other operations. In Ohio, and the new states of the Northwest, the increase of horses has kept pace with that of the population. The four and a quarter millions of these noble animals in the United States constitute a proportion of one to five of the inhabitants. New-York has one horse to seven persons; Pennsylvania, one to six and six-tenths; Ohio, one to four; Ken tucky, one to three free inhabitants. The number of horses in the United States is more than three times as large as that in Great Britain. agriculture. The only schedule in which the live stock of the country could be enumerated, were those used for obtaining the agricultural products of farms. From this fact the schedules for population and manufactures being alone used in cities, their live stock was not included in them. BUTTER AND CHEESE.-The census of 1840 furnishes us no statistics from which we can accurately determine the quantity of butter and cheese then produced. The value of both is given under the heading of value of the products of the dairy, at the sum of $33,787,000. It is presumed that the marshals made their returns in accordance with the prices governing in their respective districts, which would differ so widely as to render any assumed average as mere conjecture. New-York is far in advance of any other state in the productiveness of its dairies. They yield one-fourth of all the butter, and nearly one-half the cheese produced in the Union. Pennsylvania, which makes 40,000,000 lbs. of butter, is less prolific in cheese than many smaller states. In this latter article, Ohio is before all other competi ASSES AND MULES.-As mentioned in the preceding paragraph, we find in the tables of 1840 no basis of comparison in regard to the raising of asses and mules. By the last return it is shown that the number of these animals in the Union is 559,070, of which all but 30,000 are found in the Southern States. For various employments, the mule is far better adapted to that region than the horse. Extreme and long-continued heat does not enfeeble him, and the expense of his subsistence and general care is much less, in comparison with the service he is able to perform. In some Northern States a considerable number formerly were reared for export, and a brisk trade was kept up with the West Indies in this kind of stock. What are now exported from the points which formerly monopolized this branch of traffic are brought from the South. Tennessee is the leading state in the production of mules, the number in that state, in 1850, having been 75,303; Kentucky was next, having 65,609. In New-Mexico tors, except New-York. the number of mules was 8,654, greater by nearly four-fifths than the horses re- of dairy products exported from the turned for that territory. Much atten- United States for several years past.— tion has been given to the improvement of mules in some of our Southern States, and those sent from Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, to be employed in army transportation in Mexico, were often not inferior in height to the horses of that country, and were at all times superior to them in strength, endurance and usefulness. MILCH Cows. Under the general term of neat cattle were embraced, in the Sixth Census, the three descriptions of animals designated in that of 1850 as milch cows, working oxen and other cattle. The aggregate of the three classes in 1840 was 14,971,586; in 1850, 18,355,287. The increase, therefore, between the two periods, was 3,383,701, or about twenty per cent. They appear to be distributed quite equally over the Union. The amount of butter gives an everage of something over 49 pounds to each milch cow. The average production of cheese to each cow is 16% pounds. As with horses, the same allowance must be made on account of the omission of cows, except in connection with The following table shows the amount 1820-21.. 1840-41 1842-43. Butter, lbs. Cheese, lbs. Value. $190,287 .1.728.212.... 1,131.817. 264,796 .3.785,993.... 1,748,471. 504,815 .2,055,133.... 2.456,607. 385,185 .3,408,247 3,440.144. 508.968 1843-44. .3,251,952. 7,343,145. 758,829 ..3,587,489.... 7,941,187. 878,865 .....3,436,660.... 8,675,390....1,063.087 .4,214,433....15,673.600....1,741,770 2,751.086....12,913,305....1,361,668 .3.406,242....17,433,682....1,654,157 1845-46.. 1846-47. 1877-48. 1849-50.. 1850-51.. .3,876,175....13,020,817. .1,215,436 3,994,542....10,361,189....1,124,652 We SHEEP. There was, between 1840 and 1850, an increase of 2,309,108 in the number of sheep in the United States. It will be useful to observe with some closeness the progress of sheep breeding in different parts of the country. perceive that in New England there has occurred a remarkable decrease in their number. There were in that division of the Union, in 1840, 3,811,307; in 1850, the number had declined to 2,164,452, being a decrease of 1,646,855, or 45 per cent. In the five Atlantic Middle StatesNew-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland-there was a Value of Live Stock-Imports of Wool. 227 decrease from 7,402,851 to 5,641,391, It is a very gratifying fact that, though equal to 1,761,460, or about 22 per the number of sheep has increased, in cent. In Pennsylvania there was a ten years, but twelve per cent, the aggain, however, during this period, of gregate weight of their fleeces has aug155,000 sheep. mented forty-six per cent. We see that while there has been a positive diminution of 3,408,000 in the states above named, there has been an augmentation of 5,717,608 in those south of Maryland and west of New-York. Ohio has gained most largely, having been returned as pasturing, in 1840, 2,028,401; and in 1850, 3,942,929: an increase of 1,914,528, or nearly 100 per cent. In each of the states south and west of the lines indicated, there has been a very large proportional increase in this kind of stock, and there is reasonable ground for the opinion that the hilly lands of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and the prairies of Illinois, Iowa, and Texas, will prove highly favorable for the rearing of sheep for their wool and pelts. New-Mexico has the extraordinary number of 377,271 sheep, more than six to each inhabitant, proving the soil and climate of that territory to be well adapted to this description of stock, and giving promise of a large addition from that quarter to the supply of wool. The importance of fostering this great branch of national production, is shown by the fact, as assumed by an intelligent writer on the subject, that our population annually consumes an amount of wool equal to 7 pounds for each person. If this estimate be even an approximation to correctness, we are yet very far short of producing a quantity adequate to the wants of the country; and it is equally clear that we possess an amount of unemployed land adapted to grazing sufficient to support flocks numerous enough to clothe the people of the world. In 1840, there were 19,311,374 sheep, yielding 35,802,114 pounds of wool, equal to 1 84-100 pounds per head. In 1850, the average weight of each fleece was 2 43-100 pounds, from which it would appear that such an improvement had taken place in the various breeds of the American sheep as to increase their average product about thirty-two per cent throughout the United States. And a critical analysis of the returns of sheep and wool proves not only that our breeds are capable of such improvement, but that it has actually taken place. In Vermont the greatest attention has been given to sheep breeding; time, money and intelligence have been freely applied to the great object of obtaining a breed combining weight and fineness of fleece. These efforts have succeeded so well, that although the number of sheep in that state had declined nearly half in the period from the sixth to the seventh census, the yield of wool remained nearly the same. The average weight of the fleece in this state, in 1840, was 2 1-5 pounds, and in 1850 it had increased to 3 71-100 pounds; the gain being equal to almost 70 per cent. In Massachusetts also, where strenuous exertions have been made, though not on so large a scale as in Vermont, to improve their sheep, a correspondingly beneficial result has been obtained, and the average weight of the fleece has been increased from 2 to 3 1-10 pounds. The State of New-York produced 226,000 pounds more wool, in 1850, from 3,453,000 sheep, than from 5,118,000 in 1840, showing that the weight of the fleece had been raised from less than two to nearly three pounds. Our imports of wool during the past ten years have varied as follows: 1841. VALUE OF LIVE STOCK.-The very large amount representing the value of live stock in the United States cannot be considered extravagant in view of the immense number of animals returned. It is an item of agricultural capital Years. which affords a good indication of the wealth and prosperity of the country. WOOL.-Analogous to the uses for which it serves to cotton, wool is a pro- 1846. duct of only less importance to the prosperity of the country than that leading staple of our agriculture and commerce. 1842. Quantity in Pounds. 15,006,410.. .11,420,958. 1843 (nine months).... 3.517,100. 1844. 1845. Value. .$1,091,953 797,482 245.000 1848. 1849. 1850. 1847. By this statement it is shown that the from regions where sheep are reared quantity of wool brought into the coun- without care or labor than to produce try, of late years, amounts to almost it at home; but there is no country in one-third part of that produced in it, the world in which sheep may, by juwhile at former periods, as from 1841 dicious treatment, be made a source of and 1845, the quantity was nearly one- greater wealth and comfort to its inhabihalf. The largest proportion of this im- tants than the United States. ported wool was chiefly from Buenos Ayres and the neighboring states on the Rio de la Plata, and is of a coarse and cheap variety, costing from six to eight cents per pound. It will be always cheaper to bring this kind of wool The importations of wool in 1849 and 1850 exhibit a remarkable increase over the preceding or any former year, amounting in quantity to 32,548,693 pounds, and to the value of $3,800,000. ART. V.-DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF REPORTS OF CASES ARGUED AND DETERMINED IN THE SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA. BY HON. F. Z. MARTIN-TWENTY VOLUMES COMPRISED IN TEN, WITHOUT ABBREVIATION, WITH NOTES OF DECISIONS UP TO SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORTS, AND REFERENCES TO THE AMENDMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND CODES. BY THOS. GIBBES MORGAN. NEWORLEANS J. B. STEEL. [IT is not our purpose to review this great work, but simply to refer to some of the traits of Judge Martin's legal character, and to the circumstances under which the reports were first prepared, as we find them in the memoir of Judge Bullard, drawn up several years ago. We make a few extracts.] "Seven years before the period of which and was composed of three judges, any I am speaking, (1809,) Louisiana was a one of whom formed a quorum; and as Spanish province; governed by a system the several judges then sat separately in of laws written in a language understood the different districts, each could proby only a small part of the population, nounce a judgment in the last resort. and which had been forced upon the There was no means of establishing unipeople at the point of the bayonet by formity of decision: no publicity had O'Reilly, and which superseded the an- been given to the decisions, and the pubcient French laws by which the province lic was without any guarantee for their had been previously governed. Upon uniformity. The law was wholly unthe change of government the writ of settled and in a state of chaos. The habeas corpus, that great bulwark of Court of Cassation in France had begun, personal liberty, had been introduced, together with the system of proceedings in criminal cases, and the trial by jury, according to the principles of the common law. In 1808 was promulgated the digest of the civil laws, then in force in Louisiana, commonly called the old code. That compilation was little more than a mutilated copy of the Code Napoleon. But instead of abrogating all previous laws and creating an entire system, as had been done in France by the Code Napoleon, superseding the discordant customs, ordinances and laws in the different departments, our code was considered as a declaratory law, repealing such only as were repugnant to it, and leaving partially in force the voluminous codes of Spain. The Superior Court had already been organized for some years, it is true, to fix the interpretation of their code, but the rules applicable to ours were obviously different in many respects, in consequence of the manifest difference in their creating and repealing clauses. It became necessary to study and compare the French and Spanish codes; and although the Roman law never had proprio vigore any binding force here, yet in doubtful cases, or in cases in which the positive law was silent, it might well be consulted as the best revelation of the principles of eternal justice, and, as it were, an anticipated commentary upon the code. "Judge Martin felt at once the difficulty of the task before him, and he determined to commence without delay the publication of reports of cases decided by the Superior Court. He was induced to un |