134r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[ApRtL, 
Among the Farmers.— No. 15. 
BY ONE OP THEM. 
■What are tlic Best Stable Floors? 
When I bouffhtmy farm I found the stable floors 
laid with cobble stones, bedded in clay. I don't 
know why it was not a tolerably good floor. The 
stones were small ; there was a slight slope to the 
rear ; and it could be brushed out and washed out 
easily — bvit it was distasteful to me. It became 
saturated with urine, and there was some smell of 
ammonia ; I thought it was too hard a bed for the 
horses, and not easy for them to stand upon, and 
that they would pound their feet all to pieces in 
fly time, and so I laid a floor of oak plank. At one 
time, not long after, the horses' feet got very dry, 
and the blacks:nith, of course, suggested earth 
floors. — " Do your horses stand on the ground?" 
— "No." — "I thought not." — That was enough— 
up came the planks, and the horses had "the 
ground." Earth was thrown in and packed hard, 
it was a beautiful floor — to look at. In use, how- 
ever, the horse's stall became an abominable mess. 
I use the word advisedly. I could not then think of 
another cobble stone pavement, and when cold 
weather came on, my perplexity came with it. 
During the summer, farmer fashion, I used to 
pasture the horses a good deal, and most of the 
time, day and night, when they were not at work, 
they were in the pasture, so the bad points of the 
ground floor were not so obvious as when the horses 
were constantly stabled. The result was, that the 
plank floor was relaid, and made more sloping. 
Now-a-days, the horses are keiJt up all of the time, 
and standing on the di-y floors their feet get sur- 
prisingly hard, the farrier's "draw-knife " slips over 
the soles, hardly scraping oS. a shaving, and they 
seem actually harder than the walls of the hoof. 
I did not realize the difBculty until my best horse 
suddenly became lame, and I found that the trouble 
arose from the fact that the soles had become so 
tough and hard that the farrier could hardly make 
an Impression upon them, hence the superfluous 
horn had not been properly " cleaned out " for 
several months, and the shoes had been simply re- 
set. Packing the feet with moist material, which 
amounts to a poultice, has been a great relief. 
Cenn-iit and ColJble Stoiic Floors. 
This has set me thinking about floors. The best 
stable that I know of has a cement floor, sloping 
to the rear, with grooves to conduct liquids to a gut- 
ter and a " bell " trap. Upon this is a floor of 3- 
inch strips, cut so as to lie level from front to rear, 
and laid half an inch apart. This is very nice, easy 
for the horses either to lie or stand upon — easily 
cleaned and kept clean, but dry, dry, dry, which I 
would be afraid of, eveu If the cost were not a bar- 
rier. This packing of the feet is a nuisance ; trot- 
ting-horse men and gentlemen who keep a coach- 
man and two or three grooms to wait upon him 
and two pairs of horses, may indulge in the luxury 
of fancy floors, and packed feet, bandaged legs and 
all the artitieialities of a well regulated stable for 
their horses, but I can not. I incline, however, 
strongly to the old cobble-stone pavement again. 
The front, where the horses fore feet stand, should 
be " of the earth, earthy," the pavement beginning 
just back of the stamping place. The stones 
should he of nearly uniform size, rounded and flat, 
and set edgeways — there being a slight depression 
through the centre to carry ofif liquids — and the 
floor should, of course, terminate in a gutter behind. 
I think that a pail of water and a birch broom, 
used every two or three days, will keep such a floor 
sweet and clean in all seasons. 
Impovt<'€l Cement for li'loors, 
I have just learned about floors laid in Portland 
cement, for use in stables. The cement used is all 
imported, American cement will not stand. The 
horses tread directly upon the floor, which is as 
hard as stoae, and is barely ailected at all by their 
calks. Such a floor can be laid for about S3 a 
square yard, or say $\0 a stall. This seems expen- 
sive, but it is said to be very durable, and cool and 
pleasant to the horses' feet. At no increase of ex- 
pense, a deep basin might be made in the cement 
where the front feet stand, which, if filled with 
clay, or loam kept moist, would give the horses all 
the advantage of "the ground" and of a cement 
floor combined. 
Cement Humbugs. 
There is a vast deal of patent humbug about the 
cenjent pavements, and imitations of stone, which 
have come so much into use of late years. "Rights" 
are sold to farmers, and to people in rural villages, 
which are utterly valueless. The fact is, any one 
who can do so, may use and lay the cement walks, 
cellar floors, etc. ; but it must be considered that 
it requires real skill, and not a little knowledge of 
the materials, to do the work so that it will last. 
For Dairy Floors 
nothing 1 know of is equal to this. I had learned 
to distrust cement floors, after seeing them not 
only undermined by rats, but apparently no barrier 
to them, for rats go through floors grouted and 
laid in American cement in the usual fashion, 
wherever they please. But where floors are prop- 
erly laid, with the best imported cement, it is abso- 
lutely impossible for them to go through. The 
floor is as hard and solid as if of blue stone, and 
vastly pleasanter and more cleanly. 
Different Kin:ls of Millet. 
Considerable interest has been recently taken in 
" Millets " of various kinds as forage crops. Some 
new varieties have been introduced ; and such sea- 
sons as the last at the East, and that of 187.5 at the 
West, set farmers on the look-out for something to 
supplement the hay crop when it is a short one. 
Indian corn and turnips are the stand-bys, for this 
purpose, but the former needs good soil, as well as 
much manure, and though turnips produce much 
food, yet it is not of the nature of hay and cannot 
be substituted for it. Millet of all the ordinary 
kinds needs dry soil, in good tilth, but not neces- 
sarily rich. A very light top-dressing of fine ma- 
nure, harrowed in with the seed, suflices to ensure 
a crop in most seasons. Last summer I sowed five 
different kinds of millet, namely : Common Millet 
(Fanicum miliaceum), " Italian Millet " (Setaria 
Italica), " Hungarian Grass " (a variety of the same 
botanical species, but usually called Setaria Gcr- 
manica), " German Millet," and " Golden Millet," 
which proved to*e the same species, and belonging 
to the genus Setaria also. This last, like the others, 
seems to be afflicted with several aliases. It has 
been recently introduced into our agriculture, and 
has taken very well at the West, where it is called 
" German MiUet," a bad name, for it belongs 
properly to another plant, if to any. The oommon 
millet is called German Millet sometimes, as well 
as English millet, and the botanical name of the 
Hungarian Grass, if translated, would entitle it to 
be called " German Millet," so I was glad to find 
that among some of our best New York seedsmen, 
the appropriate name "Golden" was given to it. 
After sowing, the season was so dry that nearly six 
weeks passed before I could see the rows, for they 
were sown in drills on a small scale. Then, after 
one or two light showers, all came up, and for a 
while grew rapidly. The " Common Millet " was 
by far earliest, the "Hungarian" next, the " Italian" 
next, and the "Golden" latest. The first is ex- 
ceedingly leafy, but with rather coarse and harsh 
foliage. Cattle and horses are both exceedingly 
fond of it, and it produces well, tillering abundant- 
ly, and when it is sufficiently mature, throwing up 
a loose head from the top and from every joint. I 
had never sown it before, and was much pleased 
with it. The "Hungarian Grass" I have known 
and valued for years ; it makes capital hay, being, 
when sown thick, much finer and hardly less leafy 
than the for^ oing. The " Italian " is like it, but 
heavier ai ter, bearing a much heavier and 
larger head o seed where it grew thin, but when 
crowded, groiving much like the "Hungarian," but 
with more of stalk and less of foliage. 
Tile Golflen Millet 
I liked very much ; though it did not mature well, 
as in fact, neither did the others — they were all 
kept back so by the dry season — but it showed its 
good qualities by yielding an excellent crop of 
forage. The stalks were abundantly clothed with 
rather coarse, harsh, broad leaves, and the whole 
plant was sweet, succulent, and tender, not woody, 
when cut and dried. I examined two or three 
fields of millet, probably " Hungarian Grass," in 
this vicinity, some on upland, as was mine, and 
other upon low ground. It was all so affected by 
the drouth that it did not make half a crop. I have 
never known this to happen before. Millet will 
generally produce a fair crop under almost any cir- 
cumstances. The " Golden Millet " stands up well, 
and I think I shall like it better than " Hungarian " 
on that account, for I have had the crop of the lat- 
ter greatly injured by lodging, being beaten down 
by wind and rain, and getting full of grit from the 
rain spattering the soil upon the prostrate plants. 
I am led particularly to think of these experiments 
with millet, because I am confident we will be, at 
least in my vicinity, short of hay next year, as all 
the grass seed sowed last year failed, though it 
started well and looked promisingly enough in May, 
every spear over whole acres was burned out before 
August. Our plan is to give the land two plow- 
ings, and a light dressing of manure, and to sow 
millet, seeding down at the same time, as early as 
as the first of June, though this is a month earlier 
than is usually recommended. If we do not let the 
millet mature seed, it will not exhaust the land, 
and I am by no means sure it is not a more profita- 
ble crop to seed down with than oats. 
Making Butter in Winter. 
We had two cows come in, one in November, the 
other in December, last year, and so have been 
making butter all winter, which is unusual with us. 
We have milked Jersey cows, usually, with one or 
two grade Jerseys, or perhaps a common cow, and 
our system has been to have them go dry one after 
the other during the winter, giving us just about as 
much milk as we needed for home use, and to sup- 
ply a neighbor or two while their cows were dry. 
This makes work lighter, both in the stable and in 
the house, and where farmer folks do their own 
work, this is of course a point worth considering. 
I have taken such a fancy to Guernsey cows that, 
as my Jerseys were not registered, I bred them to a 
Guernsey buU, and the two heifers which have 
been fresh this winter, are a Guernsey and Jersey 
cross. They have been fed hay and corn-stalks — 
nothing else until quite recently, when they have 
had a little bran daily. The butter has come solid 
and well every time, of a fair yellow color, by far 
better colored than ever before, and with none of 
the usual cheesy, crumbly characteristics of winter 
butter, except that it has not the flavor of mountain 
pastures and Sweet-scented Vernal-grass. The good 
texture and ease of churning, and general good 
quality of the butter, may no doubt be accounted 
for by the fact that two of the three cows milked 
were fresh, but the color, I think, is due to the 
Guernsey blood. There is no need of coloring this 
butter for people who know anything about but- 
ter and about cows. It is a delicate tint, positive 
enough, and yet nothing like grass butter from or- 
dinary Jersey cows, though it has just about the 
color of much summer butter from common cows. 
My neighbor. Wood, has long made the claim for 
his Guernseys, that they carried the color of their 
butter the winter through, but I attributed it to his 
carrots and mangels, and to the extra green-cut 
hay, and to the liberal feeding of corn-meal, but 
now I am convinced that it is the Guernsey blood. 
l*a\vn Clippings for Coloring Batter. 
Among all the varieties of fodder tried to keep 
up in cows the ablhty to produce yellow butter 
throughout the winter, I know of none equal to 
this, and yet I do not know that it has been thor- 
oughly tried. A single case of marked effect fell 
under my observation. Late in January, after the 
Jerseys of a friend of mine had paled down, as to 
their butter after the usual fashion, in feeding, a 
layer of hay made from lawn clippings was reached 
in the hay mow, which for a week or more consti- 
tuted an essential proportion of their food. That 
week the butter brightened up in color to a very 
noticable degree, and on investigation, the above 
facts were developed. It is an experiment that 
is well worth thoroughly testing at any rate. 
