1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



649 



though before the application it did not yield 

 one ton per acre. It did not act so quickly as 

 manure, but was more lasting. — Rural Home. 



FAT BREEDING ANIMALS. 

 Mr. W. H. Southam of Chicago, formerly 

 of England, a great writer for Western pa- 

 pers, and an advocate of the Hereford breed 

 of cattle, who seems to rake much pleasure in 

 stroking the fur of Short-horn breeders 

 against the pile, criticises, in the Michigan 

 Farmer, the Short-horn stock exhibited at the 

 late Illinois State Fair at Du Quoin : — 



The whole of the Short-horns came to show 

 with as much flesh as they could carry — not 

 one of them but was extra Christmas beef, 

 but no prospect of milking or raising calves. 

 I am convinced that but very few of them 

 would produce a live calf, and if so, not a 

 healthy one. 



This example was set in England, and 

 would have died out long ago had it not been 

 for Americans and Australians going there 

 with more money than judgment, to buy fat 

 animals, called breeding ones, and made so to 

 hide their numerous faults. English breeders 

 had seen the error of their ways, and were 

 coming to a proper sense of their situation, 

 when foreigners came in with their "almighty 

 dollars," to outbid Englishmen. The demand 

 for fat animals received, and enormous prices 

 were given for fancy stock, far beyond the 

 reach of a practical man who understood the 

 art of breeding, and was calculated to produce 

 such as were suitable for butcher, consumer, 

 and the dairy. Grand titles were placed upon 

 their heads, and a promise to pay in "bank 

 bills" hanging at their tails. Thus the battle 

 went on — Americans with their almighty dol- 

 lars, the Australians with their pounds, shil- 

 lings, and pence, had to contend against the 

 fancy men of England, such as Mr. Betts, 

 and the kid glove men of confectionary noto- 

 riety, Capt. Gunter, Col. Townley, of fancy 

 Butterfly fame, Mr. Thornton and Mr. Staf- 

 ford, as middle men, and many others of more 

 money and less judgment, urging each other 

 on to fame and notoriety, from the extrava- 

 gant prices they paid. Many animals bought 

 to-day at very fabulous prices died to-morrow 

 with disease, and others who did not breed 

 went to the butcher, or died with a heart en- 

 cased with fat. Such was the fascinating 

 system of fancy men of money ; but where 

 did the profit lie ? Where would such men 

 have been, had they had nothing more than 

 their breeding establishment to support them ? 

 In that case their moneyed prodigality would 

 have found them out. 



from the West which feed the eastern part of 

 the United States are grade Short-horns ? 



Remarks. — If the case is as bad as repre- 

 sented by Mr. S., how happens it that so 

 large a proportion of all the beef animals 



HOUSING STOCK IN AUTUMN STORMS. 



The care of stock during the Winter which 

 is rapidly approaching, is a matter which caus- 

 es unusual anxietj' to the farmer, on account 

 of the short supply of forage and the low price 

 and light demand for stock, which puts it out 

 of his power to reduce the numbers of the lat- 

 ter to correspond with the size of his hay mows 

 without submitting to a very great sacrifice. 



Under these circumstances, the only alter- 

 native left to the farmer is the pra<;tice of rig- 

 id economy in the use of the supplies he may 

 have laid up for his cattle in Winter. Many 

 a farmer to-day looks forward with gloomy an- 

 ticipations to the long New England Winter, 

 seeing no way, even by close feeding, to carry 

 his stock through in a condition to be of any 

 value in the Spring. 



There is one precautionary measure, too 

 often neglected, which will be found to assist 

 materially in the difficult task the farmer has 

 in hand. It is the saving of condition and 

 vigor of animals which may be made by a lit- 

 tle extra pains in protecting them this Fall. It 

 is a well-known fact that stock coming to the 

 barn in vigorous health and fair condition, is 

 carried through more easily and cheaply, and 

 comes out heavier and better than if it is in 

 low condition and vitality at the opening of 

 AVinter. Exposure to storms in the Fall is 

 more injurious to stock than farmers are wil- 

 lling to admit. The effects of such exposure 

 this Fall will be more than usually prejudicial 

 because Fall feed is scanty, and farmers have 

 not the usual surplus of winter feed with which 

 to overcome the injury which may be sustained 

 before the stock comes to the barn. The few 

 pounds of flesh which may be lost by an ani- 

 mal which is forced to remain without shelter 

 in storms of cold rain or sleet, is very slight 

 compared to the diminution of tone and stam- 

 ina. 



We think it good economy, short as the hay 

 crop is, to house and feed farm stock at the 

 barns through cold storms, — Vt. Record and 

 Fanner. 



Bran for Poultry. — A correspondent of 

 the Oermantown Telegraph says, "that the 

 best food to make hens lay is a mixture of 

 bran and middlings. His mode of preparing 

 the feed is to mix about five parts of bran 

 with one of middlings. 'In the morning,' he 

 says, 'I wet up with water about four quarts 

 of the mixture in a large tin pan, taking pains 

 to have it rather dry, though all damp. This 

 I set in a warm, sunny spot, south of their 

 shed, and they walk up, take a few dips, 

 don't seem to fancy it like, but they soon re- 

 turn to it, and continue to feed from it at 

 intervals during the day.' " 



