THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



69 



as are not reciuircd for sei-ding. and for a fow 

 oil-mills. Ill the I'astern portion of the Oliio 

 Valley experinunts are tried with eonniiercial 

 fertilizers by a few projiressive farmers, and 

 the nse of elover as a fertilizer is consideralily 

 practiced there by iniminraids from i\Iarylan<l 

 and Pennsylvania. And here we may stop. 

 The remainder of the eountry has heretolbre 

 practiced the draininj:; of farm-yard manures 

 into creeks and rivers, orlhe removal of barns 

 from their inconvenient accunnilalions; or, if 

 they all have not literally adopted this 

 practice, they have not indicated nnieh faith 

 in the necessity of manuring. And yet thi'sc 

 relnrns show that the lands of Iowa and Min- 

 nesota, and even of Illinois, are made to l)ear 

 an increase of 'JO to :iO jier cent, by a sintile 

 experiment in i^reen-mannrinK. l*houy;litful 

 western firmrrs are seriously iJonderiuL; the 

 economy and [irolit of i)rairie-land fertilization- 



Astoconunereial fertilizers, our correspond- 

 ents (jeuerally appreciatt^ their value for spe. 

 citic uses; acknowledged their utility in sup- 

 plying lacking material for plant growth; ac- 

 cord to thein a jiosilive value in h.astening 

 growth and maturity, but persist in the opin- 

 ion that there is fraud in the maiiii)nlation of 

 some kinds, and thai the genuine are hidd at 

 too high a price. They know that for the re- 

 gular uses of 

 farm fertiliza- 

 tion they can ob- 

 tain the needed 

 elements at a 

 cheaper rate. 



Mai\y exam- 

 jiles are given of 

 the renovation 

 of worn and ap- 

 parently worth- 

 less soils,and the 

 increase of fer- 

 tility in fresh 

 but unpromis- 

 ing lands. l''ields 

 that have been 

 cultivated ex- 

 haustively for 

 twenty and even 

 forty years, Iiavc 

 been restored to 

 original produc- 

 tiveness, not by 

 guanos and su- 

 perphosphates, 

 at -SilOto <f^(iper 

 ton, but by inex- 

 pensive local re- 

 -sources, the 

 cheapest and 

 most reliable of 

 ^yhich is found 

 inclovering. In 

 one case, in But- 

 ler county, Pa., 



a section of thin, gravelly land, on which 

 it was thought no one could secure a decent 

 living, came into possession of (ierman im- 

 migrants at nominal rates. They cleared 

 olf the brush, plowed, cultivated, turned un- 

 der green crops; saved every fertilizing mate- 

 rial available; never duplicated a crop in five 

 or six years' rotatii>n, and that tract is now a 

 garden, and from worthles.sness has advanced 

 to the value of i?100 per acre, and is yearly be- 

 coming more productive. These owners, in 

 some cases, have raise<land educated families, 

 lived comfortably, ride in carriages, and have 

 money at interest. In other instances in which 

 the aid of clover has been invoked, swine-feed- 

 ing in the clover-tieldshas been made a valuable 

 means of soil improvement. In the South, a 

 region which many northern writers on airri- 

 cnlture as.smne most erroneously to be misuit- 

 ed to grass cidturc, and which southern far- 

 mers iiave strangely neglected as a meat-pro- 

 ducing section for obvious reasons, a new era 

 is dawning, and clover and orchard-grass are 

 in many places found to be sources of immedi- 

 ate and heavy profit, and of greatly increased 

 fertility. In light lands, of more torrid tem- 

 perature, the cow-pea performs quickly and 

 inexpensively the work of amelioration assign- 



ed to red clover in argillaceous soils. It is a 

 plant literally wortli millions to the .South; 

 ])ossibly as good an anunoiiia-gathercr as ch)- 

 ver ; perha|is cijually as good Ibr fattening 

 swine, and grown with greater facility in 

 poorer soils. This investigation presents pro- 

 minently three suggestive points: First, the 

 use of fertilizers is becoming more general and 

 more discriminating; .seeoud, few, if any, soils 

 in the eountry are so rich that tliey cannot be 

 made more pro<luctive by judicious fertiliza- 

 tion; third, farm yard manures are the best 

 tor general use; green-manuring is the cheap- 

 est means of soil renovation, and commercial 

 fertilizers are useful Ibr ipiick results aiul for 

 specilic pur|ioses. — U. S. Aijricultufdl D(ji(irt- 

 iiaiit liijtiiiis. 



THE CATTLE INTERESTS OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



Increase in aptitude to fatten and in average 

 weight has lieen continuous and marked dur- 

 ing the last half century. Sinc'c ISlT thercf have 

 been imported into North America nearly, if 

 not tjuite, one thousanil well-bred animals 

 for stock improvement, maiidy the bei'f- 

 yielding .short-horn ; biit also many of the 

 best specimen of the Ayrshire tor ipiantily of 



SECOND DUKE OF HILLHURST. 



milk, the .lersey and its congeners of the Chan- 

 nel Islands, for richness of cream and quality 

 of butter, the black and white Dutch, Devons, 

 Ilerefords, and other breeds, notexce))ting the 

 fat cow of Brittany. So great has been the 

 success of this attempted improvement, that 

 the cattle of the central iiortions of the West 

 liave become high-grade short-horns of in- 

 creased size and superiority of llesli, with a far 

 smaller prop(n-tion of olfal. Instead of degen- 

 erating, the th(U'ougli-breds have been im- 

 proved by the skill and care of our wideawake 

 breeders," until one family of short-horns, the 

 Bates stock, has been for years exiiorted to 

 England at prices commencing at §-2,000 to 

 .?:i.0ilO each, advancing in a year or two to 

 87. Olio, as appreciation abroad was intensified, 

 and culminated la.st season at the magiiifieent 

 figmes of S40,0IMI for an elderly cow, amid the 

 excitement of eonipetilion l)etween the two 

 most skillful breeders of two continents. 



The average weight of imi)ortations two and 

 a half centuries a-jro, probably did not exceed 

 '500 ))Ounds; in 1720 the averagi' in the I/ondon 

 market had been reported at :i7(l pounds; at 

 the beginning of the |)resent century the Lon- 

 don average had advanced to about .")00 pounds, 

 and now the ollicial average is 000 pounds for 



British, and .^)00 for imported beeves. The 

 stock of this countiy, not including that of 

 .Spanish blood, is now nearly up to the British 

 standard of weight. 



A FAMOUS SHORT-HORN. 



The engraving gives a fair repri-sentation of 

 the Second l)id«' of Ilillhurst I'.'.S'.i:!, ;il three 

 years. He was sired bv Sixth Duke ol'tieneva 

 7,'.»:{:i, out of Duchess 07111, property of \V.M. 

 S. Kino, esip, of Lyndale, near Miuneai)oli.s, 

 Minnesota. 



This ainmal is a jiim Bnkc, and, without a 

 doubt, the finest specimen of a short -horn bull 

 this coiuitrv has ever ])roiluced. He was the 

 last bull at'thehead of the " I.yndale Herd," 

 and, as is iirobably well-known to livi' stock 

 fanciers over the whole country, was sold at 

 the great Chicago sale to M. 11. Coiiikaxk, of 

 Montreal, Canada, for .'?14,0i)(), gold. His sire, 

 the Sixth Duke of (leiicva, was sold tr) Lord 

 Dunmore, of Kngland, for 81 "i,!!!!!), gold, and 

 Ills dam. Duchess 07th, was inipi>rte<l to Can- 

 ada by M. II. Cochrane, es(i., ami also resold 

 to Lmd Dunmore on account of her high pedi- 

 gree and intrinsic value. Both she and the 

 Sixth Duke of (Jeiieva were at onetime owm-d 

 by Col. King, and the result was the Second 



Duke of Hill- 

 hurst. His dam 

 was bought 

 when ;i h<dfer 

 of Captain (iiin- 

 ter, of E n ff - 

 land, for So,00(), 

 gold, by Mr. 

 Cochrane. His 

 last purchaser, 

 however, failed 

 to raise the 

 money, and, 

 therefore, he is 

 retained in jios- 

 session of Mr. 

 King, ;is above 

 stated. The sub- 

 ject of thorough- 

 bred live stock, 

 of all kinds, is 

 becoming one of 

 absorbing inter- 

 est to our farm- 

 ing population. 

 And well i t 

 ' should, for al- 

 though the ori- 

 ginal outlay is 

 very considera- 

 ble, yet the re- 

 sults are always 

 more satisfacto- 

 ry than raising 

 common and un- 

 profitable stock. 



Stew.VRT, in his prize essay on fattening 

 stock, says time is<iften a matter of importance 

 to the feeder. Sometimes a month gaine(l is 

 equal to -20 ])er cent greater weight at a later 

 lieriod. Cooking food renders its constituents 

 more solulileand iligestibli'. therefore entering 

 on llesh and fat. As a condiment and appe- 

 tizer for fattening animals, inolas,ses has no 

 equal. A small (piantity of sweet uiKin hay will 

 eau.se a larg<r quantity to Ije eaten with a re- 

 lish. We have ol'ten tried inohus.ses upcui i>oor 

 iinimals with great satisfaction. A poor horse 

 will show a change in condition in a few daj's. 

 The molasses is not only an excellent condi- 

 ment, but an excellent food; being so soluble 

 and assimilable that it i)roducesan innnediate 

 effect upon the condition of the animal. Three 

 pints may be fed to fattening animals jier day, 

 l)Ut to cows and breeding stock it must Ix' fed 

 sparingly, and not more than a pint per day to 

 a cow, as too much sweet will iirevent their 

 breeding. AVhen necessary to use straw in fat- 

 tening stock, the use of mohw.ses, cUluted eight 

 to ten iiio|)ortions of water to wet the straw 

 before steaming, will be fomid to render it very 

 palatable, and cause it to lie eaten, incorpora- 

 ted with other fattening food, as readily as haj'. 



