THE ILLINOIS F^IIM:EII. 



847 



the premium of $3,000 was offered. 



They therefore wisely compromised the 



matter by giving him $1,500, which, it 



is to be hoped, will prove a auffieient sum 



to encourage the inventor in the prose 



ciition of his labors, until he shall be able 



to present a machine that will fulfill •the 



wants of our farmers. So mote it be. 

 «•» 



Cotswold Sheep. 



Col. J. W. Wiire, of Virginia, writing on 

 the question, *' Are Sheep or Hogs the most 

 profitable Animal to Fatten V to the Genesee 

 Farmer, says: 



"Of all sheep, I prefer the Cotswold, from 

 experience. They mature early, are large, 

 hardy, and take on fat easy. During the 

 summer and fall that they are one year old, 

 (not fed on grain,) no mutton can be more 

 delicately flavored, juicy and tender. Over 

 two years old, many muttons are better, as 

 they then tallow too heavily for the appe- 

 tite; but the butcher will then give almost 

 any price for them ; and what prudent man 

 wishes to keep muttons to four years old, 

 when he can sell them at one year old at 

 much better prices than any other sheep at 

 four ? I have rarely, if ever, sold my mut- 

 tons of this breed, the fall after one year 

 old, under $10 each, and have sold older 

 ones much higher; and never sold them at 

 the same age under §8 each, without having 

 fed grain at all ; and the fleece amply pays 

 the keep. Can any breed of hogs show 

 such cZeay profit and in so short a time ? and 

 they have no wool to pay the cost of keep ? 



«•> 



Osage Orange oa Bottoms. 



Editor of the Farmer : 



I desire to ask a few questions of the 

 cultivators of the Osage Orange on the 

 bottoms of our rivers and creeks, where, 

 perhaps once a year the ground is flood- 

 ed for a short time ? If there is among 

 them one who has such experience, he 

 would confer a great favor on others be- 

 side myself to give his experience in the 

 Illinois Farmer : 



Generally, the soil on the bottoms of 

 our creeks and rivers is of a character, 

 porous and rapidly becoming dry, when 

 not covered with water. The soil con- 

 tains a larger portion of mud than the 

 upland, and is quick, warm and strong. 

 !No one can doubt but such soil will rap- 

 idly grow the Osage Orange. The 

 question simply is, can the Osage orange 

 be covered or partially with water in the 

 floods of May without injury. 



I have no idea that the Osage Orange 

 can be grown advantageously on land 

 where the roots always stand in the wa- 

 ter. The proposition I present is, I re- 

 peat of an entirely different character 

 from this. Bottom lands are dry eleven 

 months out of the twelve, always. 



A. W. 



from New Mexico. It is of a very I 

 coarse grade, and cost something like 7 | 



and 10 cents, per lb. New Mexico can j 

 be made a great country for sheep — 

 when the Indian robbers are driven off". 



-«€»- 



"Wool. — Large quantities of wool are 

 being brought to St. Joseph's, Mo., 



Rarey Taming a Vicions Borse. 



He entered the ring, neighing fear- 

 fully, snorting and rushing sometimes at 

 and sometimes away from the professor. 

 Now he pawed the ground with impa- 

 tience, and then flung out a hind hoof 

 with a force which suggested to standers 

 by the expediency of keeping at a civil 

 distance. His case was a perfect lesson 

 and was listened to with intense interest. 

 Mr. Rarey at first approached his in- 

 tractable pupil slowly, gently, but with- 

 out fear, lecturing as he went along, 

 and explaining the course of " gentle- 

 ness," by means of which his proud 

 spirit was soon to be brought to a state 

 of submission. His left hand was on 

 the strap, which peeped unobtrusively 

 from his coat pocket, and his right — ex- 

 tended in the most conciliatory manner, 

 in. readiness for the prelirainai'y caress. 

 Cruiser the second looked puzzled, then 

 frigntened, reared as if he meditated a 

 sudden visit to the reserved seats, and 

 then stood perfectly motionless. The 

 master's eye was upon him, and his own 

 quailed under the mesmeric influence. 



In a few seconds Mr. Rarey was at 

 his shoulder, the strap was on his fore 

 leg, and the lesson commenced. The 

 struggle that followed was probably as 

 exciting and extraordinary an exhibition 

 as was ever witnessed in a public thea- 

 tre. There was no sham, no stage trick, 

 no spell, no phiUer; it was a regular 

 stand up fight between the horse and the 

 man, between strength directed by cour- 

 age, and mere brute force having only 

 its sheer bone and muscle to depend on. 

 Sometimes the maddened animal reared, 

 and seemed as if about to crush the pro- 

 fessor ; sometimes he sank prone upon 

 his crippled fore leg, with head stretched 

 out, blew up columns of sawdust by the 

 violent respiration from the nostrils. 

 Then he would make another desperate 

 effort to rise, but only to be followed by 

 another and more helpless prostration. 

 He sweated, he panted, he quivered, his 

 skin rose and fell in waves under the 

 strong agony, and his haunches were 

 marked with deep corrugations as he re- 

 peated his frantic attempts to break his, 

 to him, mysterious bonds. But it was 

 of no avail. The tamer all through 

 clung so close to him as to seem a part 

 of himself. He never got excited, never 

 lost temper, never missed a single oppor- 

 tunity of describing to the audience what 

 he was doing, and why he did it. 



His gripe and pressure were as slow, 

 regular, gradual, but as inexorable as 

 fate, until, at last, the poor animal sur- 

 rendered at discretion, stretched himself 



at length upon the arena, and seemed to 

 experience an exquisite sensation of re- 

 lief as the reward of his entire and un- 

 conditional submission. The panting 

 now gradually ceased, the muscles all 

 became relaxed, and the limbs lay help- 

 less in the professor's hands, as he 

 knocked the hoofs together or placed 

 them successively on his own head, to 

 show how perfect was his confidence in 

 the subjection of the horse. After a few 

 minutes rest the straps were taken off" 

 and the pupil allowed to rise, when it 

 was curious to observe that at first he 

 kept his fore legs contracted, under the 

 impression that the terrible ligatures 

 Still remained in their places. When he 

 had completely recovered his equilibrium 

 Mr. Rarey mounted upon his back, and 

 rode him slowly out of the ring, amid 

 loud and general applause.- — London 



JVews. '■ . . '-■-:"- 



' — «•• — — ■ 



Cooking Food for Swine. 



A Kentucky farmer has been making 

 experiments in feeding several lots of 

 hogs, changing them from raw to cook- 

 ed, and from ground to unground food. 

 The results of these several trials are 

 communicated to the New York Tribune, 

 from which we give the general estimate. 



One bushel of dry corn made five 

 pounds and ten ounces cf live pork. 

 One bushel of boiled corn made fourteen 

 pounds and seven ounces of pork. One 

 bushel of ground corn, boiled, made in 

 one instance sixteen pounds seven ounces, 

 in another nearly eighteen pounds of 

 pork. Estimating corn at ninety cents 

 a bushel and pork at eight cents a lb., 

 we have as the result of one bushel of 

 dry corn, 45 cents worth of pork ; of 

 one bushel of boiled corn, ^1 15 worth 

 of pork, and of one bushel of ground 



corn boiled, §1 36 worth of pork. 



««. — ■ 



Training Oxen. 



The following sensible remarks upon this 

 important, but neglected branch of farm 

 operations, is furnished to the Neic England 

 Farmer, by Charles A. Hubbard, of Con. 

 cord, Mass. It is better to have a good 

 team than a poor one, and a good team de- 

 pends upon good management aud careful 

 usage : 



A. word on training oxen. I have found 

 that by far the best time to train steers is 

 when they are calves, say the first winter. 

 Oxen that are trained when quite young, 

 are much more pliable and obedient, and 

 this adds much to tlieir value. Steers that 

 run until they are three or four years old, 

 are dangerous animals to encounter. They 

 are always running away with the cart or 

 sled, whenever there is a chance for them, 

 and often serious injury is the result. I 

 would not recommend working steers hard, 

 while young, as it prevents their growth ; 

 I there is a difi'erence between working thoiu 

 ' and merely tiainiiig them. I liave observed 

 that very little attention is paid by our far- 



