188 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 1878 



LIVE STOCK. 



How to Cure a Kicking Cow. 



The following remedy to prevent a cow from kick- 

 insT, is communicated by Mr. Henry Kurtz, of Mount 

 Joy, and is recommended by liim as practical and re- 

 liable in its results. It is so simple in application 

 that any one who has an animal addicted to the per- 

 nicious habit of kickinsr, especially when it is being 

 milked, can make the application for himself, and if 

 successful it will be of very trifiina; labor and ex- 

 pense, and will be of more value to him than tlie 

 cost of half a dozen subscriptions to The F.\umer. 



Have constantly, at a convenient place in the cow- 

 stable, a stout strap and buckle, sufficiently long to 

 girth the animal, and about as broad as a common 

 " belly-band." This strap may be made either of 

 leather or heavy " webbing." When the cow be- 

 comes vicious and manifests a determination to kick 

 draw the strap around her loins or waist and buckle 

 it up tight, the more vicious the tighter, and it will 

 be impossible for her to kick. Repeat this every time 

 she shows a disposition to kick, and in a short time 

 she will be entirely subdued. In her first attempts 

 to kick she may throw herself, but after that her 

 kicking spirit will be broken and she will become 

 gentle. The strap paralyzes the kicking muscles. 



Cooked Food for Cattle. 

 Professor Wilkin.snn, of Baltimore, says : "I con- 

 ducted an agricultural school and experimental farm 

 . for eight years, and experimented with feeding 

 cooked and uncooked food of every description used 

 for cows, horses, sw'ne, working and fattening cattle 

 and poultry, and carefully noled the result, which 

 was in all eases very remunerative ; so much so that 

 even with defeciive, inconvenient and cxjiensive ap- 

 paratus used — for want of better — in steaming, 

 manipulation and feeding, I found there was an 

 average profit of at least twenty-five per centum, 

 that is, in feeding the variety of animals named; 

 but in feeding milch cows in cold weather with warm 

 steamed food of every description, there was a profit 

 of over thirty \)er centum when the animals were 

 kept at proper temperature, and fed with proper pro- 

 portions of nutritious food." 



Live Stock in Colorado. 



Probably none of the industries of the State have 

 progressed so favorably, and returned such a per- 

 centage of profit as has the ^rearing of cattle and 

 sheep, and we might add, also, horses and hogs, 

 although the latter interests are indift'erently de- 

 veloped. The returns for cattle have been fully .33 

 per cent, net, taking the business as a whole. The 

 Josses for the past year have been very light, though 

 in a certain limit the losses were vei-y heavy last 

 spring, hut the grand results of the whole State were 

 very favorable. Prices the past season were good. 

 The crop of calves has been extra large, and conse- 

 quently the cattle men are happy. To sum up the 

 ■whole business in a word, it is satisfactory. — Colo- 

 rado Fanner. 



The Cow. 



If civilized people wei*e ever to lapse into the wor- 

 ship of animals, t!ie cow would certainly be their 

 chief goddess. What a fountain of blessing is a cow! 

 She is the mother of beef, the source of butter, the 

 original cause of cheese, to say nothing of shoe horns, 

 hair combs, and upper leather. A gentle, amiable, 

 ever-yielding creature, who lias no joy in her family 

 affairs which slie does not share with m.^n. We rob 

 her of her children, that we may rob her of her milk, 

 and we only care for her that the robbery may be 

 perpetuated. — liovsehold Wonlx. 



Calves. 



The CowUry Geuilfinait. gives the following method 

 of riiising calves without milk: "Boil as much 

 clover hay as can be crowded into the kettle used, 

 for half an hour. Strain the tea, and while hot add 

 a large handful of linseed meal to A\hat is to he fed 

 to each calf, (iive about as much in quantity of the 

 tea as would be given if milk were led. After a few" 

 days the quantity of oil-meal may he doubled. Also 

 feed the calf all the green grass, freshly cut, that it 

 will eat, twice a day. 



^ 



"Weaning Colts. 

 Colts may be weaned at six months old. They 

 require oats and good grass or hay, to make up for 

 their mothei-'s milk. If they are starved at this 

 time they may never recover from its pernicious 

 effects in their future growth. Starvation of young 

 colts will sometimes cause malformation by diminish- 

 ing the growth of some part of the frame and leav- 

 ing the body out of all proportion. 



^ 



Sheep 

 fed upon dry upland pasture are, beyond all ques- 

 tion, the best ibr table, though, for the farmer's 

 profit, the luxuriant grass of the fields pushes them 

 along more rapidly. Feeding them for the market 

 with turnips is highly profitable, as practiced in 

 England, though the flesh is very inferior in flavor to 

 that of sheep fed on dry pasture. 



POULTRY. 



Winter Treatment of Poultry. 



A correspondent, in addressing us on the subject, 

 says in brief, that each fowl ought to produi'C 100 

 eggs a year; that in winter warmth is indispensable ; 

 that the fowls must have some of the food they find 

 at other seasons when at large ; that they must have 

 plenty of room in their house, and it and the laying 

 boxes kept clean ; that they must be fed with corn, 

 barley, oats, have a box of sand, oyster or clam 

 shells pounded up, or old mortar, or hones dried and 

 pounded fine ; that mashed boiled potatoes and corn- 

 meal are excellent ; that fatty matter of any kind, 

 fresh beef, oi' pork scraps, Ac, must form a portion 

 of their diet ; that hens are fond of vegetable mat- 

 ter during winter and will eat cabbage, &c.; and 

 that they must be kept free from vermin, which 

 nearly always follows entire cleanliness. In case, 

 however, vermin should still make their appearance 

 there is nothing so efi'eelive in removing them as 

 rubbing the top of the head, under the wings and 

 upon the back with lard. These suggestions we have 

 made time and again ; and have only to add now, 

 that all who desire complete success, and of course 

 satisfactory profit from poultry raising, must adopt 

 them. — Genitaittoti'it. Telegraph. 



Composition for Hen Roosts. 



A correspondent of the Ponltry Yard recommends 

 the ibllowing method of making perches for fowls ; 

 Make a trough for the roosts by nailing lath on both 

 edges of a piece of scantling or board three inches 

 wide, projecting upward half an inch or more. Fill 

 this trough with mortar, into which has been put to 

 one pail of mortar half a pound of sulphur, half a 

 pint of crude carbolic acid (liquid) and half pint of 

 kerosene. If you want the mortar to set quiekl}', 

 add one pound calcined plaster, such as dentists use 

 for casts. Mix thoroughly. The mortar can be 

 knocked out easily, and removed once or twice a 

 year. Have these roosts loose, so they may be turned 

 over bottom side up in very cold weather, to guard 

 against freezing the fowls' feet by contact with the 

 cold mortar. Poultrymen will find this much more 

 effective than patent eggs, etc., as the whole fiock sit 

 on the roost ten or twelve hours every day, instead 

 of a part of them a few minutes, when they are lay- 

 ing. The above is neither expensive nor troublesome 

 to make, and should be used by everybody who 

 keeps fowls. 



Good Fowls for Laying. 



A noted writer on fowls says ; "For laying hens 

 select large, strong, healthy birds of the Leghorn 

 varieties; with large, square bodies, without regai'd 

 to fine points, such as pure white flat ear-lobes, or 

 very yellow legs, or combs with just five points, or 

 plumage that is perfectly white in the white variety, 

 or withf)Ut a white speck in the brown. It is not fliat 

 these points are any detriment to the health or the 

 vigor of the birds, but that constit?)tion has been too 

 often sacrificed to them, which often results in a 

 strain of enfeeljlcd tliough handsome fowls. The Leg- 

 horns are acclimated American breeds, which oiigi- 

 nated from birds brought from the Mediterranean, 

 and they have been improved in this country by cir- 

 cumstances that have given them a pre-eminent po- 

 sition for the farmer, when birds, such as are above 

 recommended, are selected." 



Charcoal in Turkey-Feeding. 



An old turkey-raiser narrates the following ex- 

 Ijei'iment : Four turkeys were confined in a pen, and 

 fed on meal, boiled potatoes and oats. Four others, 

 of the same brood, were also at the same time eon- 

 fined in another pen, and fed dail}' on the sjime arti- 

 cles, but with one pint of very finely pulverized 

 charcoal mixed with their food — mixed meal and 

 boiled potatoes. They had also a plentiful .'supply 

 of lu'oken charcoal in th- ir pen. The eight were 

 killed on the same day, and there was a difference 

 of one and a half jiounds each in favor of the fowls 

 which had been supplied with charcoal, they being 

 much the fattest and the meat greatly superior in 

 point of tenderness and flavor. — the Cultivator. 



Poultry Hints. 



A hen may be calculated to consume one bushel of 

 corn yearly, and to lay twelve dozen or eighteen 

 pounds i f eggs. This is equivalent to saying that 3.1 

 pouuds of corn will produce, wlien fed to this hen, 

 one pound of eggs. A pound of pork, on the con- 

 trary, requires about \\\e and one-third pounds corn 

 for its production. When eggs are twenty-four cents 

 a dozen, and pork is ten cents a pound, we have the 

 iTushel of corn fed, producing S-.88 worth of eggs, 

 and but -SI. 0.5 worth of pork. 



DuvxEss during the spring, when we oftentimes 

 have heavy showers, is an import.i,iit requirement in 

 the poultry-house. Diseasesoften originate through 

 dampness produced by a leaky roof. When fowls 

 are confined in a close, wet apartment it is impossible 

 to keep them in a healthy condition. 



LITERARY AND PEROSNAL. 



The Labor Side of the Great Sugar Ques- 

 tion. — By a workingman. New York. 1K78. It 

 appears that the Cuban sugar kings, and the Ameri- 

 can middlemen, agents and importers, are desirous 

 of Congress placing a specific tariff of 2'^ cents per 

 pound on all sugars up to the sixteenth grade of 

 quality ; and they have formed an organization and 

 created a large fund to carry the measure through. 

 To give color to the necessity for such a measure a 

 part of the policy is to r,aise the cry of "fraud," 

 "extortion," "adulteration," "protection," etc., &c., 

 against the sugar refiners of the country, who give 

 employment to a large number of laboring men, and 

 upon whose inilustry l.'iO.OOD of all ages and sexes 

 depend for support. Such a specific tariff' would 

 enable the Cubans to erect refineries on that island, 

 and by the aid of their slave labor to throw out of 

 employ all engaged in the refining business in this 

 country and close up their establishments. Of course 

 we know practically little or nothing about the mat- 

 ter, but the very fact that foreigners, backed by im- 

 mense wealth, are so very anxious lor such legisla- 

 tion, evinces that there is much "milk in the cocoa- 

 nut," which they desire to tap. We commend the 

 perusal of the above 8vo. pamphlet of 'llj pp. to the 

 reading public as a very cleverly stated "labor side" 

 of the question, a/tj/Aoii), whatevr may be the final 

 result. 



Butterflies and Moths of North America, 

 with full instructions for collecting, preparing, classi- 

 fying, packing for shipment, etc. A Spmplete syno- 

 nyinieal catalogue of Macrolepidoi'TERa, with full 

 bililingrapliy, to which is added a glossary of terms, 

 and an alphalictical and descriptive list of. localities. 

 By Herman Strecker, life member of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; member of the 

 American Entomological Society, and various other 

 scientific associations. " Time at last sets all things 

 even." Press of B. F. Owen, Heading, Pa., Is78. 

 -83 pages royal octavo, and sent by mail for $2.00. 

 Address the author, box 111, Reading P. O. We 

 regret exceedinglj- that we have unavoidably omitted 

 to notice this excellent work before, for we think it 

 worthy the patronage of amateurs and students in 

 entomology, as well as those who may be deemed 

 veterans in this branch of natural science, and espe- 

 cially Lepidopteristx . Mr. Strecker has devoted his 

 life's best energies, and a large amount of his pe- 

 cuniary means to this specialty, and we believd'.there 

 is not a man in the country that is better qualified to 

 get up such work in all its practical details than he. 

 He possesses the largest collection of butterflies and 

 moths in America, numbering 40,000 specimens, and 

 makes this branch of enfomofogy his exclusive study. 



How TO Destroy Insects, on plants and flowers, 

 in the garden and the house. Published by Henry 

 T. Williams, N. Y., I'-TS. Price thirty cents. A 

 square iL'mo. of 100 pp. This seems to he a compila- 

 litin of "good, bad and iuditierent" remedies for the 

 destruction of insects injurious to green and succu- 

 lent vegetation mainly, such as usually infest green- 

 liouscs, window plants and gardens — remedies that 

 have been floating around in the newspapers of the 

 country for longer or shorter periods, during the 

 past dozen years or so. We recognize in it many 

 good lliiugs, some neni things, and perhaps none that 

 are &ac^, in the ordinary sense; but certain!} many 

 that may be only indiflerent. The good things alone, 

 however, are worth more than the price of tlie book. 

 There is, however, one feature that stands out very 

 prominently throughout the whole work, and that 

 is an apparently mawkish ignoring of all scientific 

 names, in many instances involving us in doubt as to 

 what species of insects, or other animals, are meant. 

 This, in the present relations between liorticulture 

 and entomology, we deem important. The scientific 

 names should by all means be there(in brackets), no 

 matter lor whom the book has been written, or how 

 jiopular it is intended to be. 



The .\1ontulv Floral and Fruit Ma(;azine, a 

 demi 8vo. of 10 pages. D. S. Custis, editor and 

 proprietor. No. 1012 Pennsylvania avenue, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. This is a standard journal, neatly 

 printed, compactly formed, and for "its inches" 

 contains a large amount of excellent reading matter 

 pertaining to fruit and flowers, and only costs $1.00 

 a year. The sth number of volume 1 is before us, 

 from whicdi it will he seen that it is comparatively a 

 new enterprise. We sincerely wish its success, and 

 from the contents of the November number, we do 

 not hesitate in saying it richly deserves it. 



Solid Silver Plated Txm.E Ware.— The cai-sU, 

 of Douglas Silver Plating C(im]iany in another 

 column will attract the attention of every reader, 

 and we take pleasure in saying the silverware sold 

 by this firm is a superior quality and gives everyone 

 full satisfaction. We can suggest lor a Christmas 

 present nothing more agreeable or gratifying. — 

 AmcricaJi Christian Review. 



S. R. Wells & Co. 's new terms to agents and 

 premium list for 1S79, pulilishers of the Phrenologi- 

 cal Journal, 7.7 Broadway, N. Y. Very profuse and 

 very valuable. Send for lists au < circulars and avail 

 yourself of their advantages ; you can't well do 

 better. 



