278 
AMERICAN AGRICULTUniST. 
[Jttly, 
grade (three-quaiTers or seven-eiglitlis) Jeraey, fmm a 
really good native cow by a Jersey bull, from good milk 
and butter stock. Such a cow may bii expected to yield 
a pound of butter a day, on an average, for nine months 
in the year, or about 2S0 pounds of butter a ye^r. We 
have had several eucb cows that have done better than 
that. The best dairy book is Flint's Milch Cows and 
Dairy Farming, price $'2.50. For general dairy purposes 
the Ayrshire, Short-horn, and Dutch breed;-, and their 
grades or crosseB are highly valued. 
Ssiles of Short-horns.— The sales of 
Short-horn cattle which have occurred during the past 
month have amounted to 376 head, for aa aggregate of 
$178,300. or the six herds disposed of, four were sold at 
Dexter Park, Chicago, which from its central position in 
the 7icinity of the Union Stock-yardp, has become a fa- 
vorite locality for both sellers and buyers. The sales at 
Dexter Park were not so well attended as former ones. 
The sales were as follows : by 
L. W. Towne 29 cows for $30,095 ; average, $624, 
11 bulls " 2,:i90 ; average, 218. 
J. P. Sanborn 43 cows " 19.950; average, 454. 
10 bulls " 1,6S5 ; average, 168. 
Avery & Murphy 63 cows " 39,140; average. 621. 
12bull9 " 11,045 ; average, 920. 
J. R. Shelby 73 cows " 29,235; average, 375. 
12bul!3 " 1,410 ; average, 120. 
The herd of Chas. Lowder was sold at the State Fair 
Gronnds, Plainfield, Ind., for very low prices. 
46 cows brought $7,700 ; average, $171. 
19 bulls *' 2,045 ; average, $107. 
General S. Meredith & Sons' sale was held at Cambridge 
City, Ind., and very good prices were obtained ; over 2,000 
persons were present. 
42 cows sold for $41,140 ; average, $930. 
11 bulls " " 2,H35; average, 257. 
Two cows, Mazurkas, were bought by an English breeder 
for $5,»i00. Mr. A. J. Alexander, of Kentucky, has sold 
at private sale to go to England, two cows of the Duchess 
family for $35,000, and one Duke bull for $12,000. 
Patent Machines,—" J. T. ,'* La Crescent, 
Minn. No person may lawfully make any patented im- 
plement even for h\a own use, without a license from 
the owner of the patent. 
"Walks and Talks" Correspondence. 
No Pay Required.— "C. A. D.," of Mass., asks me 
several questions, and says: " plea.se answer and send 
price for your trouble,"— The Agricultniist pays me for 
my trouble in answering these questions, and " C. A. D." 
pays the Agi'iculturist when he subscribes for the paper. 
But to the questions: The first is in regard to 
Hens in the Orchard.—" I have got two orch^trds, 
half an acre each, trees 15 to 20 years old. Keep 300 
hens. Would you fence in the orchards and keep the 
grass out, and let the hens run in them ?"— If this was a 
convenient arrangement I should certainly do so. But I 
should not do it airaply for the purpose of enriching the 
land. The food you furnish the hens will enrich the 
land just as much as if it was fed to sheepor swine— and 
no more. The insects which the hens catch on the wing 
would be so much gain, and if the hens pick up worms 
which would otherwise leave the orchard, that is a gain 
also. Otherwise I think the hens are no better manure- 
makers than cows, horses, sheep, or swine. 
Manitre from a Slattouter-Hocse.- " C. a. D." 
lives five miles from a slaughter-house " where they kill 
hogs and make some very good manure. They take the 
ofial and the heads, and cook them for the oil, and what 
is left they sell for $6 per cord. If you were going to 
use it, would you work it up with vitriol f "— I think not. 
I should draw out my barnyard manure in the winter to 
the field where I intended to use it, and draw the slaugh- 
ter-house manure at the same time, and put them togeth- 
er in a pile. Make the pile 7 or 8 feet wide, and 6 feet 
high, being careful to build up the sides straight, so that 
the heap shall be nearly or quite as wide at top as at the 
bottom. If possible finish the heap up to the desired 
hight every day. and not spread it over a long heap where 
it will be likely to freeze before morning. The slaugh- 
ter-house manure will greatly favor fermentation, and 
you can use it in this way to great advantage. Vurn the 
heap when necessary. The soil below the heap will not 
be frozen, and you can dig up a foot or so of this soil 
and mix it with the manure, or put it on top. I have 
been using several large heaps nf manure this spring for 
root crops and for potatoes, which were drawn to the 
field last winter and piled— it was in capital order. But 
be sure and keep the side-' up straight, and not drawn in 
like the roof of a house. In the latter c^se the wind and 
Jrost will go through- tho narrov^ top acd froeze it solid. 
If well built it will ferment slowly all winter, and be in 
prime order for uso in spring. 
"How WOULD YOU USE THE Blood?" — Add it to the 
heap of manure. It is a rich fertilizer, and will greatly 
aid the fermentation of the manure. There is no danger 
from excessive and injurious fermentation in the winter. 
In fact the difficulty with cow manure is to get it to fer- 
ment at all, and to keep out the frost from the heap. 
More Grass and less Wheat.— This is what a young 
farmer in Cumberland Co., Pa., wants. He has bought a 
farm of 150 acres, two miles from a railroad station ; 
large bank-barn and other buildings, for $5,000. The 
land was all limed 12 years ago. lie can buy lime at 8 
cents a bushel. The rotation previously adopted on the 
farm was. 1st., corn on two or three year-old clover sod. 
2d., oats. 3d., wheat. 4th., wheat again. 5th., clover. 
Average yield, wheat 10 to 12 bushels, oats 20 busheU, 
com 20 to 25 bushels per acre.— This will not do at all. 
There ia no profit in such farming. Lime and clover 
must be the basis of improvement. Give up the second 
wheat crop. If the land ia foul, I should try how it 
would answer to "fall-fallow" a clover sod and sow it 
to oats the next spring, and seed down with clover. Bar- 
ley would be better than oats, and with lime so cheap, it 
would seem not a difficult matter to raise barley on a 
fall-fallowed clover sod dressed with 100 bushels of lime 
per acre. Such treatment ought to give 40 bushels bar- 
ley per acre, and a grand crop of clover afterwards. A 
clover sod, pas^tured until June, or July, might be broken 
up, and the surface soil thoroughly worked afterward 
four or five inches deep, with a cultivator and harrow. 
Then lime it and sow wheat, and seed down with timothy 
in the fall, and clover in the spring. If the land la 
thoroughly worked and limed, I should not only expect 
a fair crop of wheat, but a good crop of clover after- 
wards. Clover sometimes fail? on clover sod, but it is 
generally because the land is not well worked. By rais- 
ing more grass or clover, you c^n keep more stock, and 
If you get good stock, you can afl"ord to buy bran and 
oilcake, and thus make rich manure, and then you aro 
through with your difficulties. 
Clover for Hogs. — '• T. A.,'' Hawk Point, Mo., 
writes: "I have six acres of clover and six acres of oats. 
Will this keep 30 pigs, which are intended for fall mar- 
ket?"— I suppose Mr. A. intends to let the pigs pasture 
on the oats as well as on the clover. I have had no ex- 
perience with oats as a pasture for pigs. I .'should think 
it would be better to confine the 30 pigs to the 6 acres of 
clover, and feed them corn in addition. The corn should 
be fed regularly, say morning and night— and always at 
the same hours. If fed irregularly, the pigs will be look- 
ing for it all the time, and will not eat much clover. If 
you feed the corn in the ear, I would take it to difi"erent 
parts of the field, and not feed every day in the same 
place. The corn would be better, I think, if shelled and 
soaked in water for 24 hours before feeding. 
Sending Stock bt Express.—" D. S.," Ind. The 
express companies charge more for carrying live stock 
than for ordinary merchandize. For a box of pigs weigh- 
ing less than 100 lbs., they charge double the regular 
rates ; for a box weighing over 100 lbs., one and a half 
the regular rates. Thus from Rochester to Indianapolis, 
the regular rate is $3 per 100 lbs. For a pair of 2-months 
pigs, weighing, with the box, 85 lbs., the charges would 
be $5.10. For a trio of pigs weighing 115 lbs., the ex- 
press charges would be $5.17. Sliced mangels make ex- 
cellent food for them on the journey, as they furnish 
both food and water. I have ghipped several hundred to 
diflferent parts of the country— some to Texas, Louisiana, 
Arkansas. Mississippi, etc., and never lost a pig on the 
journey, I have no fault to find with the express com- 
panies, except that they charge more for stock than for 
dry goods. For a year or more the American Express 
Co. carried my stock at the same rates as ordinary mer- 
chandize, but the U. S. Co. objected to their doing so, as 
being contrary to an agreement between the two compa- 
nies. Both companies now charge alike, there being no 
competition ; but they take excellent care of the stock, 
and carry them through on their fastest trains. The 
stock often reaches its destination two or three days be- 
fore a letter mailed at the same time. On the whole we 
have not much to complain of. 
M.iiP OP A Farm.— John Landreth. Manitowoc, Wis., 
in answer to some questions of mine in regard to his 
farming operations, sends me a printed map of his farm. 
It is a capital thing to have. The fields ar.c all numbered, 
and the length and breadth are noted on the map, with 
the number of acres. 
Getting out Stones, —Mr. L. is trying, like myself, 
to free his land from stones. He draws them four miles 
to the harbor at Manitowoc, getting pay for thom, and 
drawing back a load of manure. This is a good thing to 
do. too. Mr. L. tells mo of a plan which I sliall try to 
get adopted on my own farm. He says: "In plowing 
last fall we strapped on each plow handle pieces of shin- 
gles two inches wide, and where a stone was f^tnick. and 
could not be moved by the plow, a shingle was stuck in. 
marking the spot, and a man with spade and bar follow- 
ed at intervals and brought them to light. In thia way 
our land to-day is clean, and not a stone or stump to be 
seen on 110 acres of last fall's plowing, and our gang- 
plow, drill, and other labor-saving implements can be 
safely used." 
Rolling Coulter Plow.— Mr. L. speaks very highly 
of the large-rolling Coulter Plow, and also of Croseley's 
Gang Plow. I am not acquainted with either, but have 
never yet had a Gang Plow that was satisfactory. I 
have one which does not draw true, and the result is that 
the last plow takes a very naiTOw furrow. It is made of 
cast-iron, and there is no way to change the line of draft. 
Growing Ruta-Bagas.— " A. F. G.," Barry Co., Mich., 
has eight acres of land, two of wliich are occupied with 
the house and gardens. Of the other six acres, one acre 
is good strong land, and the rest sand and gravelly clay. 
He finds rula-bagas and onions his be^t paying crops, 
and he wants me to tell him how to manage to grow 
ruta-bagas. Last year he sowed three acres and kept the 
land clean, but owing to the drouth had only 100 bushels 
per acre. He can buy 50 loads of manure in town, and 
keeps one horse and one cow. — Onions will do well every 
yuar on the same land, provided it is well manured and 
kept ckan. But ruLa bagas do better in rotation with 
other crops, Siill, they can be grown year after year. 
In such a case, I should plow the land in the fall after 
the turnips were ofi", and draw out tlie manure in the win- 
ter and pile it in the field, and to each load or ton of ma- 
nure add 100 lbs. of bone-duift scattered on, or slaughter- 
house manure, or, instead of this, sow 300 lbs. of euper- 
phosphate of lime in the drills at the time of sowing the 
seed. If you must confine yourself to these two crops, 
onions and turnips, I think it would be well to make the 
land very rich for onions with well-iotted manure, and 
then sow turnips on this land the next spring, using 300 
lbs. of superphoj-phate to the acre— and if possible drill 
it in with the seed. The superphosphate will give the 
young plants a rapid start, and soon push them out of 
reach of injury from the little black beetle. You ought 
to raise from SOO to 1.000 busiiols per acre. Sow in rows 
20 inches apart, and thin out to 10 or ]2inchee in the row. 
Value of Bran for M.^nure.— " A. B. F.," Coluni- 
bia. Conn., writes : " When speakini; of bran in ' Walks 
and Talks,' what quality do yon mean ? We have in our 
markets a very coarse quality called 'shorts' ; a very fine 
grade called ' white miitdlings,' which is nearly or quite 
as heavy as corn-meal, and costs the same. Then there ' 
arc intermediate grades, difi"ering in fineness and price. 
There is one grade which looks like shorts, ground over 
and made fine. [This is precisely what it is.] What I 
wish to know is which of these grades you mean when 
you say bran in speaking of the value of manure made 
from diff'crcnt kinds of food?"— Mr. Lawes gives the 
composition and value of these different grades of wheat- 
bran as follows : i 
Whe;it r.ran 
86.0 
66.1 
S(i 
8.-..0 
Coarse Pollard 
Wheat 
as.o 
84 5 
Pens 
Clover Hay 
Wheat Straw 
St.O 
34. 11 
83.0 
89.0 
Decorticated Cotton 
Cake 
Seed 
Tkb Cknt. 
' -e; = 
11.60 
6,30 
5.60 
l.TO 
2 
I.: 
3.40 
50 
00 
7.00 
6.44 
1.8; 
1.17 
1.13 
1.80 
1 •& 
0.5.1 
4.92 
,8.00! 7.00 
1.4- 
1.49 
1.46 
0.50 
0.50 
O.Si 
0.96 
1.30 
0.6.1 
1.65 
3.12 
3,55 
2..'3 
3.60 
l.sO 
2.00 
l.W) 
3.40 
50 
0.60 
4.75 
6.50 
$14.59 
14.36 
1.S.53 
7.03 
7.70 
6.65 
13.S9 
9.64 
1 2.68 
U.7i 
It will be seen from the above that there is little differ- 
ence in the mainirial value of the different Icinds of bran. 
Tiie wheat itself is only worth about Imlf as much for 
mannre as the bran, and wheat fionr wonid be still less 
valuable. Wheat has been so low the past winter, and 
coarse grainsand bran so hi.i;li, that th* millers have been 
making "white middlin^ja" with an unusually large 
quantity of flour in them. These would not be as valu- 
able for manure as theordinary shorts, canaille, shipstuff, 
and other grades of bran. As a rule, the feeds best for 
manure are not the most nutritious — at least I think bo. 
Some people would have us believe that bran ie more 
nutritious than flour, but such is not the case. It is, 
however, far better for manure. •** "When speaking 
of cotton-seed meal, do ycui mean that which is decorti- 
cated, or that which contains all the hulls ? "—I mean the 
former, unless otherwise stated. The manure from a ton 
of cotton-seed ilsclf, after being ground and sifted, ia 
worth $13.'ii5 ; Ih.at from uudeeorticated cotton-seed cnlco 
$15 75. In g; inding cotton-sccd and sifting it for food, 8 
per cent of busk was removed. Mr. Lawes found it a 
rich and valuable food for sheep, in connection with 
fodder, etc. For the soke of comparison, I have included 
some other common foods in the table above. 
