150 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



t October, 



tion. When the horses go to water his equine 

 majesty drives them to the creek, stands over 

 them while tliey drink, quenches his ovrci 

 thirst, and then leads tlie band back to their 

 accustomed feeding-grounds. He also brings 

 the bmich up to the salting-place, keeps the 

 closest watch over those intrusted to his 

 guardianship, and when all have received 

 their quota of salt the chief circles and leads 

 them back as before. Heiding or di'iving by 

 the cavallard horse exhibits the sagacity of 

 the animal. In case of either of the mares, 

 colts, yearlmgs, or two-year-olds wandering 

 or running off, the attendant promptly fol- 

 lows, circles, or promptly runs around the 

 estray, and, with ears well set, puts his head 

 near the ground on the side opposite to the 

 direction in which he desires them to go ; and, 

 understanding his nod, usually yields willing 

 obedience and starts back to the ranch, or 

 wherever the cavallard may be. Should the 

 mares become rebellious the stallion picks and 

 bites them until they become obedient and 

 placed under complete subjection. The su- 

 preme command of this horse, and the auto- 

 cratical manner in which he shows his au- 

 thority, is delightful to behold. He is a verv 

 severe disciplinarian, a most careful and com- 

 petent, guardian, and as kind to those under 

 him as a mother can be to a babe. When by 

 chance two cavallards hajspen to meet, the 

 stallion representing each will advance and 

 commence to battle. It is generally sharp 

 and decisive. The bunches, when their lead- 

 ers begin to fight, move off to the right and 

 left, every step widening the distance between 

 them. The stallions run up and down their 

 respective columns with more anxiety, and 

 exercising even greater surveillance, than a 

 faithful colonel at the head of his regiment. 

 When the engagement terminates, and quiet 

 is fully restored along the entire line, the 

 stalUon takes his accustomed position in the 

 rear. When on the move for better grass, 

 and it is found, and it is necessary for the 

 bunch to step, the stallion selects the ground, 

 and, running ifbrty or fifty yards ahead, puts 

 his ears back, his head down, and comes to a 

 halt, facing those under his charge. The 

 bunch will instantly obey this signal and go 

 to grazing. Branding the colts is the work 

 for October, November and December. The 

 bunches, or cavallards, are driven into a pen 

 or corral, when the herdsman and two others 

 enter. A lasso is then thrown over the head 

 of some colt by one of the men, while the 

 other expertly ropes the colt's hind legs. 

 When this is done the colt is thrown to the 

 ground. While the first one plants himself 

 on the colt's neck the second lariats the fore 

 legs ; the third, with branding-iron, red-hot, 

 proceeds to apply the brand in exactly the 

 same manner that is used in branding cattle. 

 The profits on horse-raising are not so large 

 now as they were a few years ago. At present 

 they will possibly not exceed 30 per cent. 

 There are about 2,000 head of horses raised 

 in Parker county annually, and each year 

 now adds to the number. Every farmer 

 raises all he has facilities for attending to, 

 and considerable rivalry is going on between 

 many of them in the production of improved 

 breeds of horses. — American Stockman. 



GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF 

 THE WEST. 



During the closing session of the American 

 social science association at Saratoga, on 

 September 12, Mr. Eobert P. Porter, of the 

 Chicago Inter-Ocean, read an interesting paper 

 on the growth of the West. The immigra- 

 tion at the West, and especially in Kansas 

 and Minnesota, he said, exceeded anything 

 known in the past history of the country. It 

 is not altogether nor chiefly an immigration of 

 foreigners, but also a movement of the agri- 

 cultural population of the States east of the 

 Missouri and Mississippi, their places being 

 rapidly filled up by a population less exclusive- 

 ly of the farming classes, and who are pro- 

 moting the general industrial development of 

 the sections into which they are moving in an 

 unexpectedly rapid way. The centres of the 



great industries and manufactm-es are travel- 

 ing westward, and Massachusetts and Penn- 

 sylvania discover that they can no more retain 

 the monopoly of the handicraft industries of 

 the country than New York can hold a 

 monopoly of its import and export trade. 

 This movement is an entirely natural one, 

 and therefore wholesome. While it deprives 

 sundry sections of the monopolies secured to 

 them by the combined forces of legislated 

 protection and aggregated capital, it in turn 

 induces these sections to rely upon their 

 strong natural resources. It teaches Phila- 

 delphia the folly of depending upon a home 

 market exclusively, and sends commercial 

 travelers from that city to every port in the 

 West Indies and South America to sell goods 

 of American manufacture, and should do the 

 same with Baltimore. Mr. Porter contributed 

 a glowing analysis of the resources of the 

 great West, and of its capacity for reproduc- 

 tion and its energy in self-development. The 

 great corn belt of the Northwest, with 

 the adjacent subsidiary areai-s, produced 

 in 1877 8225,000,000 worth of corn. The 

 wheat fields of the Northwest the same year 

 grew crops yielding $208,000,000. The graz- 

 ing lands fed cattle the same year the produc- 

 tive value of which was 1125,000,000, Be- 

 neath these purely agricultural resources lies 

 a subsoil teeming with the potentiality of 

 manufactures of illimitable variety and ex- 

 tent. Illinois alone contains a seventh of all 

 the known coal on the continent. In Mis- 

 souri, throughout whole broad districts, the 

 iron ore has been piled up by nature into 

 mountains, while Wisconsin and Michigan 

 can still furnish timber in practically inex- 

 haustible quantities. The growth and de- 

 velopment of manufacturing centres in the 

 West may be inferred from the surprising 

 fact that while in 1860, in a total population 

 of 18,000,000, 72 per cent, was rural, against 

 28 per cent, urban, in 1870, total population 

 23,000,000, the rural population was 66 per 

 cent, and that of the cities and towns was 34 

 per cent. The census of 1880 will probably 

 show a much larger diversion of population 

 from farming to manufactures in the great 

 Western country. Labor in the West, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Porter's figures, is more re- 

 munerative, in proportion to the scale of liv- 

 ing and general expenses, than it is in any of 

 the other great sections. In Illinois, Indiana, 

 Missouri and Michigan "manufacturing," he 

 says, "can be carried on cheaper, and labor 

 paid better, in proportion to the cost of living, 

 than in the Middle and Eastern States. Lots 

 are cheap in Western towns, and the careful, 

 industrious mechanic soon has a home of his 

 own and he becomes identified with the city 

 in which he lives." As a Rockford (111.) 

 manufacturer is reported as saying : " Our 

 firm have aimed to keep the hands partly em- 

 ployed through the hard times, and now that 

 we have started up in full blast again I find 

 hardly a new face in the shop. We have 

 tided the men over because they have become 

 part and parcel of the city of Rockford." 

 They stood by their employers and now the 

 latter stand by them. The rate at which the 

 West is growing in manufactures is very sur- 

 prising. Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and 

 Kansas, with hardly any water power, last 

 year produced upwards of 30 per cent, of all 

 the railroad iron produced in the United 

 States. Missouri and Kansas produced one- 

 seventh of all the rolled iron. The iron ores 

 of Missouri and Michigan, owing to their 

 freedom from phosphorus, it is claimed, must 

 soon become the standard ores in the manu- 

 facture of steel, and steel will shortly sup- 

 plant iron in all the more important branches 

 of this great industry. Chicago has already 

 outstripped Pittsburg in the production of 

 Bessemer steel rails, and as for furniture, that 

 city supplies all the country west of Grand 

 Rapids. The population of Missouri, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, and the six Northwestern States, 

 exceeds that of New England, New York, 

 New Jersey and Pennsylvania by more than 

 300,000 ; at the same time the growth of the 

 former States is more than twice as rapid, and 



their public debt and local taxation but little 

 more than half so much as those of the East- 

 ern States enumerated. Mr. Porter's paper, 

 of which we have been able to give but the 

 barest abstract, neglecting many important 

 particulars, has only to be read by the ob- 

 servant to make them appreciate fully what 

 is meant by the term, "The Great West." 

 And yet the Middle States of the East present 

 attractions for successful industry and comfort 

 in living which few equal and none surpass.— 

 Baltimore Sun. 



PRODUCTION AND KEEPING OF 

 EGGS. 



Oftentimes it is a matter of importance to 

 keep eggs for a time. When prices rule low, 

 they may be preserved in comparative fresh- 

 ness for several weeks, even in July and Au- 

 gust, if care be taken to place them on end as 

 soon as brought in from the nest. One not 

 accustomed to the handling and care of eggs 

 can form no idea of the shortness of time 

 required for the yelk of an egg to settle on 

 one side, where it adheres to the shell and 

 quickly spoils in warm weather. Always 

 place the egg on the big end. I have tried 

 both ends, and have decided in favor of the 

 former position. Eggs should be gathered 

 from the nest every day, and where there are 

 many hens kept, twice in a day. It matters 

 not for what purpose we desire eggs, the hens 

 that produce them should always be young 

 and healthy. Eggs that are to be kept for 

 any length of time should always be those 

 from young hens, or if two years old, only 

 from those in perfect health. If this rule is 

 closely observed by breeders who export eggs 

 for hatching, from one locality to another, 

 there will be better satisfaction given. It is 

 of much importance that the eggs have per- 

 fect shells, and a hen not in perfect health 

 may drop her eggs regularly, yet the shells 

 may possess imperfections that render them 

 unfit either for keeping or hatching. 



A hen in perfect health will not drop an 

 egg daily for more than three days in succes- 

 sion. Fowls that are conftsed in narrow en- 

 closures for any length of time cannot be in 

 perfect health. They are forced out of their 

 natural habits, and the restraining of nature 

 tells on the system, sooner or later. Eor im- 

 mediate use, their eggs, perhaps, are as good 

 as any. With increasing age the egg-shells 

 grow thinner, and some drop them with no 

 shells at all. Strength and stamina of the 

 system, supported by good wholesome food, 

 produce the shell. It is a calcareous sub- 

 stance that forms around the egg after it is 

 perfected in the oviduct. The completed egg 

 consists of several component parts, each one 

 of which draws on the vital energy and 

 stamina of the bird, which is so formed that 

 its body performs its natural functions in 

 regular order when in health. We must con- 

 'sider that they are forced out of their natural 

 order when we feed them up for great egg 

 production. Did any one ever hear of a wild 

 bird that dropped a soft egg, or ever see a 

 shelless egg that was dropped by a wild bird? 

 We have produced poultry that do not sit. 

 Nature intended the hen to sit on her eggs 

 for three weeks, and afterwards to nurse and 

 run with her chicks for four or five weeks 

 longer. In this interval the system gains tone 

 and strength. It is an entire change ; a di- 

 vision of labor, and the fowl gathers strength 

 and tone for future egg production. The 

 regular sitters seldom drop more than sixteen 

 eggs in a clutch, and then comes broodiness. 



Our non-sitters are the result of successful 

 breeding from fowls which had manifested 

 little desire to sit. It was a great achievement. 

 They are a manufactured race, and must be 

 cared for differently from the old common 

 breeds much giving to sitting and little lay- 

 ing. Many years back perpetual layers were 

 unknown, as well as the production of eggs 

 in winter. Among the birds of the air there 

 is one species known as "cow blackbird," that 

 never sits, but perpetuates its kind by drop- 

 ping its eggs into the nests of other birds, by 

 which the young are brought up. Generally 



