106 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



No butter breed can rightfully claim the 

 highest possible attainments of breeding as 

 long as its grades almost uniformly beat its 

 pure-breds. Tliis is now the cise with Jer- 

 seys ; but under a system of breeding en- 

 lightened by a wider knowledge of direct 

 selection, I presume a standard could be 

 reached within the limits of the Herd Register, 

 upon which a (law in pedigree would as uni- 

 formly mean a reduction in yield. If, on the 

 contrary, a standard should prove linally to 

 be composed of a high mixture ol Jersey with 

 Guernsey, Holstein and native, (after the 

 manner in which the English race horse was 

 formed from Barb, Arab, Turk and native,) 

 the country would be none the worse off. 



The butter cow is the thing that the coun- 

 try wants ; and elevated to the highest stan- 

 dard, and disseminated over the dairy regions 

 of the United States, millions would not 

 write her value. Slie can be bred to that per- 

 fection that, by four crosses of her blood, 200 

 pounds yield per cow can be added to the 

 present annual average of the dairies of the 

 countiy. I am not too sanguine. Then let 

 the toast be : "The butter cow : may she 

 prove a Jersey, but whether a Jersey not — 

 The Butter Co w." 



HANDLING SHEEP. 



A correspondent of the Indiana Farmer, 

 who has had long experience in handling 

 sheep, tlius writes : 



I will start on the first day of September, 

 and give you ray mode of handling one hun- 

 dred ewes for one year, and will apply to any 

 number in the same ratio. Put one buck to 

 each twenty-five ewes^the first of September, 

 and no more ; put each twenty-five to them- 

 selves. Now this number will apply to all 

 long-wool sheep, but one hundred Merinos 

 will do better together than twenty-five long 

 wools. Breeding those ewes as above men- 

 tioned will bring your lambs about the first of 

 February, which is the mildest month in the 

 winter, and if I save seven in ten I am satis- 

 fied. If corn stands up well I put my sheep 

 in the corn field. They will do no harm 

 through September and October, but a great 

 deal of good to some men's corn. This change 

 will give blue grass a good start for winter. 

 Now please prepare a good shed or barn that 

 will hold twenty-five comfortably, say ten to 

 twenty at least ; litter it with good dry straw, 

 and allow them to walk in and out at will. 

 Don't close them in till they commence lamb- 

 ing, then only in nights and stormy days. 

 Feed clover hay in a square box-rack three 

 feet high and three feet wide, running the 

 whole length of the shed, with second plank 

 out from bottom to admit their heads. Never 

 feed corn except in frozen weather ; then half 

 an ear to a sheep, with husk on, is sufficient. 

 This brings us to lambing time. Close them 

 in every night after they commence lambing 

 with good dry straw about knee deep ; give a 

 small amount of salt mixed with sulphur once 

 a week — old Kanawha salt — as all other kinds 

 of salt have a tendency to scour stock of all 

 kinds. I call the attention of farmers to this 

 important fact. I presume this treatment 

 brings us up to the fifteenth day of April, with 

 as many lambs as I have ewes. I now pre- 

 pare for myself a bucket of old-fashioned 

 North Carolina tar, some sulphur and lard 

 mixed, a chisel and a mallet, with a good 

 solid square block to dock on. I select my 

 best bucks fir.st that I intend to save, bring 

 them to the block with their feet down, back 

 them square on this block, set the clnsel on 

 the second joiut, hit it one lick, put a little 

 tar on the stub, a little sulphur and lard right 

 imder the arm-pits to drive away ticks, and 

 you are dene with that lamb till weaning time. 

 At this time I tag the ewes ; make a rack like 

 a saw-buck, line it with thin plank, place the 

 ewes in carefully on their backs, and tag every 

 sheep, whether they need it or not. If you 

 don't they will need it before shearing time. 

 Keep them on the same pasture till shearing 

 time, and smear all their noses with this good 

 old tar. It is the most healthful thing in the 

 world for sheep. Don't shear till the first of 

 June. By this time the eke will be melted 



and mixed all through the wool. It will 

 weigh heavier and give it more life. I wean 

 my lambs the 1st day August, sell off my 

 surplus and make a calculation on the profits. 

 My profits on 100 ewes the last year was $680 

 for wool and lambs. I sold eighty lambs at 

 S4 per head, and twenty yearlings at $8 jier 

 head, to Mr. Oakley Purcell,of Marion county. 



I am buying No. 1 Cotswold ewes at ten 

 dollars per head. I have an ambition to 

 have one hundred of the best Cotswolds 

 in Rush county, but I doubt whether I 

 can make 100 per cent, on the ten dollar 

 ewes as easy as I did on five dollar ones 

 last year. The most and quickest money on 

 sheep is on common ewes with a thorough- 

 bred buck. I am testing four kinds, and will 

 soon be able to to give the results. 



As to the gad fly — bore holes with a two- 

 inch auger in logs or stunijis and fill with pure 

 pine tar, put a little salt on top the tar, and 

 you can smear a hundred sheep's noses in five 

 minutes. 



'Xo feed sheaf oats, make a running noose 

 in a twine string, put it around three or four 

 sheaves, hang on a nail or peg just high 

 enough to reach in cold days, nothing better. 



Sell the sheep that lag behind when you 

 call them up. Give them all access to water, 

 summer and winter. 



Select when you buy, and select when you 

 sell ; you never can keep a flock up any other 

 way. 



Learn to tell their ages by their teeth ; no 

 man can be a successful sheep handler till he 

 learns this. 



THE LUMBER TRADE. 



The fine pine and oak lumber, which was 

 once to be found in great abundance on the 

 hills and mountains along both branches of 

 the Susquehanna river and tributary streams, 

 is fast disappearing, not only under the lum- 

 berman's axe, but in consequence of the great 

 fires which almost every year sweep through 

 the woods in which fine young timber is 

 growing. Col. Noyes, the recent State Treas- 

 urer, who has been in the lumVjer business in 

 this State since 1847, states that when he first 

 sought the lumber region on the North Branch 

 of the Susquehanna, the finest kind of timber 

 was to be found in Tioga and Bradford coun- 

 ties, and along the Chemung and Tioga 

 rivers, and Pine Creek, flowing into the West 

 Branch at Jersey Shore. At that time the 

 product throughout the region amounted to 

 about 250,000,000 feet of lumber per year. 

 The mills were located along the streams 

 where the timber was easily to be had, and 

 all sawed into boards and rafted during the 

 freshets, principally to Columbia, Pa., and 

 Port Deposit, Md., the two great distributing 

 markets. 



When the boom was erected at Williams- 

 port in 185.3, and a few years later at Lock 

 Haven, a change took place in the business. 

 Instead of great rafts of lumber being floated 

 down the river, logs were pushed into the 

 stream, each having the owner's mark upon 

 the end, and were caught by the booms, and 

 were subsequently sawed into lumber in the 

 great mills that were erected at Williamsport 

 and Lock Haven for the purpose. These 

 booms have received annually for a number of 

 years past about 300,000,000 feet, and, after 

 sawing the logs, shipped the lumber by rail 

 and canal to various parts of the country. 



When it is stated that at least 100,000 

 acres of woodland have to be gone over each 

 year to obtain this large quantity of lumber, 

 it can readily lie seen that not many years are 

 required to go through the entire lumber re- 

 gion, but, of course, the land is not entirely 

 stripped of trees. When the woodman enters 

 the virgin forest, the best and most accessible 

 trees are cut, and in a few years the same 

 land is gone over again, and the remaining 

 trees are felled. 



The best timber now cut is found in Clear- 

 field, Indiana, Cambria, Clinton, Cameron 

 and Potter counties, and in Clearfield, In- 

 diana and Clinton the best square timbers are 

 obtained. The business of sending square 



timber to market is distinct from the other. 

 The logs are cut in lengths from 40 to 80 feet, 

 then squared and rafted to market, the princi- 

 pal points being at Lewisburg, Northumber- 

 land, Millersburg, Harrisburg, Middletown, 

 Columbia, Philadelphia and New York. The 

 timber is principally used for the manufacture 

 of cars, ship work, coal chutes, &c. 



In addition to the pine lumber sent to mar- 

 ket great quantities of hemlock are being cut 

 into flooring boards, girders, joists, &c. There 

 are still many tracts of land on which hem- 

 lock grows in great abundance, but the waste 

 here is also very great. The establishment of 

 large tanneries in these regions makes a great 

 demand for bark, and in some places the tim- 

 ber is cut down, the bark stripped from it, 

 and the log left to rot upon the ground. 

 ^Vith this waste, together with the large 

 quantities cut every year, as well as the de- 

 structive fires, it is not difficult to see that 

 but few years will elapse before Pennsylvania • 

 will be stripped of its fine timber. — Philadel- 

 phia Ledger. 



A FIERCE COMBAT BETWEEN A CAT 

 AND A RATTLESNAKE. 

 About three weeks ago, during the beauti- 

 ful sunny weather we have had, which in- 

 duced the trees to bud and bloom, I was 

 walking in my garden one morning, thinking 

 about preparing for an early start of spring 

 vegetaljles, when I saw a large rattlesnake 

 sunning. My first impulse was to go to the 

 house, get a gun and kill it, but looking 

 aroimd I saw a very large house cat cautious- 

 ly creeping upon the reptile. Anticipating a 

 fight, and equally desirous of getting rid of 

 the cat, which killed chickens, I concluded to 

 witness his attack upon the snake. The cat 

 crawled upon his stomach, pulling himself 

 along on its feet, whisking its tail from side 

 to side, and every now and then stretching 

 its neck to view the snake. Wnen about 

 eight or ten feet off, the snake suddenly coiled 

 up, sprung its rattle, faced the cat and darted 

 its forked tongue out rapidly. The cat com- 

 menced a rapid circle around the snake, so 

 fast in fact that the eye could hardly keep up 

 with it. At last it got near enough and made 

 a dart at its enemy ; through providential 

 reasons it went high above the snake, which 

 also struck at the cat, thus breaking its coil. 

 The cat went too far and by the time it had 

 turned to face its foe, the reptile was again 

 coiled and ready for the attack. The same 

 method was adopted and carried on for four 

 or five times, occupying at least half an hour. 

 The cat wished to catch the snake, but 

 seemed aware that if it missed the neck it 

 would be certain death. At the sixth assault 

 they met, and instantly the snake was wrap- 

 ped in several folds around the body of the 

 cat, which used its sharp claws with deadly 

 effect. The cat had been bitten on the head 

 and neck several times, and both continued 

 to fight. The snake was torn nearly to 

 shreds, but did not unloose its coil around its 

 victim. The poison was swift and deadly, 

 but before the cat died it caught the snake's 

 head in its month and crushed it, and fighting 

 they died, the snake enwrapping the cat in its 

 coils. The snake measured four feet eight 

 inches, and had thirteen rattles. — Americus 

 (Ba.) Republican. 



^ 



The value of the whole export of wheat from 

 the United States for the ten months ending 

 April 30, aggregates »157,382,000, against 

 $108,918,000 for the same period of last year, 

 showing an increase of $48,464,000. The av- 

 erage price of Western wheat at seabord points 

 has averaged $1.25 per bushel for the period, 

 against 11.07 for the same time of 1878-79— 

 showing an increase in price of 18 cts. per bus. ; 

 while California wheat has averaged $1.15, 

 against *1.03 the preceeding year, a rise of only 

 12 cts. per bus. Western flour has averaged 

 $5.94 per barrel against $5.27 the preceeding 

 year— an advance of 67 cts. — while the rise on 

 California was only 21 cts. The rise in flour, it 

 will be observed, has been in the same propor- 

 tion as that of wheat. 



