1866.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
51 
to their value. Such remarks do sood. It seems 
a small matter, but the oplnious of one's neigh- 
bors have a great influence on the men. If farm- 
ers arc prejudiced, tlie men certainly will be. I al- 
ways feel glad to lend anew implement or machine 
to some good farmer. The men are afterwards 
more willing to use them. 
" Give the cows a little bean straw," I said the 
other day. — "They won't eat it," w.as the reply. 
" Nothing will eat bean straw, except sheep." — I 
had had no experience in the matter, and so I yield- 
ed the point. But in the afternoon the Deacon 
called, while we were cleaning up the beans, and 
remarked that the straw was excellent for milch 
cows. — " But they say that cows will not eat it." — 
" They must be different cows from any I have ever 
kept. My cows eat it with avidity and I think it is 
nearly as good as hay." 
I suppose the origin of the opinion is this : Sheep 
will eat beans, but cows will not ; ergo sheep will 
eat beau straw, but cows will not. The fact is, 
however, that if beans are ground, cows will eat 
rcadilj- cnongh, and there is no grain that is more 
mitritious. But it is more economical probably to 
feed a little corn meal with it. The latter abounds 
in carbonaceous or "fat-forming" m.atter, while the 
beans are exceedingly rich in nitrogenous or "flesh- 
forming" matter. The two together are better 
than either separately. Of course at the present 
price of beans, it would not p.ay to feed them out, 
unless they are unsalable. But peas are very sim- 
ilar in composition to beans, and these, especi.illy 
if buggy, can be fed out with profit. It is, however, 
better to feed corn with them. I give my cows 
corn and peas ground together, and never had them 
(at this season) give as much milk, or of as good 
quality. The cows, too, are getting fat. Some 
people think that a " deep milker" is never fleshy, 
and that a disposition to fatten is a sure sign of a 
poor cow for the dairy. But at this se.asou of the 
year, I like to see cows gain in flesh. It is natural 
for them to do so. Calving is a great strain on the 
system, and nature prepares for it. To starve the 
cow at this season, is as foolish as it is cruel. Give 
her an abundance of nutritious food, and she will 
get strong and fat. And the fat is not lost. 
" I have a cow," said one of our largest dairy 
farmers to me the other day, "that gives thirty 
quarts of milk a day in the summer. It is difficult 
to dry her off; and no matter how fat she gets in 
winter, she milks it .ill off in the summer." 
Now, what becomes of the fat? It is not lost. 
Suppose wo had two such cows, and one was turn- 
ed out to the straw stack and fed barely enough to 
sustain life, while the other was comfortably hous- 
ed and fed liberally. Suppose the latter laid on a 
hundred pounds of fat. If both are fed alike in 
the summer, and this hundred pounds of fat disap- 
pears, what becomes of it ? This fat is turned into 
butter. Tallow and butter are, chemically, about 
the same thing. But the latter, as usually sent to 
market, contains 30 per cent, of water, while the 
former contains little or none. One hundred 
pounds of tallow, therefore, ought to give one 
hundred and twenty-five pounds of butter. The 
tallow is worth, say $1.5, while the butter is worth 
$30 at the prevailing prices. 
This is not mere theory. The farmers in the 
dairy districts have found that nothing pays so well 
.as to feed their cows grain during the winter. The 
cows are stronger and healthier, the calf is fatter, 
and the milk if not greater in quantity, is far richer 
in butter and cheese. 
Last spring I bought a new milch cow. She was 
recommended to me as an excellent milker. She 
proved to be so, but the milk was littlu^better than 
water. She was very poor — in fact lltii^'blse than 
a bag of bones. She has been thin all summer, 
but since we commenced feeding grain, no other 
cow has improved so much. She is getting fat 
though still giving milk. I do not care how fat she 
gets, for I feel assured that I shall get it all back 
next summer in the form of butter. 
" Them's dreadful nice hogs," said neighbor Sloe 
the other d.iyr"and I must have one on 'em." 
" They are certainly very nice pigs," but I told 
Mr. S. that they were not what he wanted. 
" Why, what's the matter with them." 
" TVicij are not thororu/hbred." 
" No matter, a pig 's a pig for ,a' that. Give me 
a pig as good as one of these, and I don't care a 
rush for his pedigree." 
" But you will not get such a pig without resort- 
ing to thoroughbred stock. These pigs are good- 
better probably than if they were thoroughbred. 
The sow is half Yorkshire, .and the boar was a 
thoroughbred Pxince Albert Suffolk. The little 
pigs have the length of the Yorkshire with the 
squareness and symmetry of the Suffolk. They 
are better (for the butchei) than either thorough- 
bred Yorkshire or Suffolk. This is often so with 
the first cross, but it cannot be repeated. You 
must in all cases have a thoroughbred sire." 
" What is a thoroughbred ? " A gentleman at 
Richfield Springs asks me this question. He writes : 
" .\re Chesliire hogs a pure breed, and what is there 
about them to recommend them to farmers at -?7.5 
to $100 e.aeh, at six to eight months old '?" 
In one sense of the term, there are few if any 
pure bred pigs. They have all been more or less 
crossed. The modern English breeds of pigs, such 
as the Essex, the Suffolk, the Berkshire, the Mid- 
dlesex, etc., owe their early maturity and fattening 
qualities to an admixture of more or less Chinese 
or Neapolitan blood. The original hogs of the 
counties whose names they now bear, were large, 
coarse animals, that were difBcult to fatten. By 
judicious selection, and by the use of the Chinese 
hog, the proportion of offal parts has been greatly 
reduced, and a pig obtained that fattens readily and 
m.atures early. But this has been accomplished in 
most, if not in all cases, at the expense of size. 
Now when the object of crossing with the Chinese 
and Neapolitan races had been .attained — when a 
hog possessing the right shape, with little offal, and 
with early maturity and r.apid fattening qualities, 
had been secured, the gre.^t object was to keep up 
the standard. The breeder rejected all hogs not 
possessing these qualities. By breeding in this 
w.ay for a number of years — by selecting the best 
animals to breed from, carefullj' rejecting all that 
showed the slightest tendency to degenerate, the 
breed became established — that is, it had character- 
istics of its own, and these were uniform. 
As I understand the matter, this is all that is 
meant by pure blood as applied to pigs. We need 
not go back to their origin. The only questions 
we need .ask in regard to any particular breed of 
hogs are ; { 1) Have they the shape, size, quality of 
meat, early maturity, hardiness and fattening qual- 
ities that we want ; and (3) has the breed been rais- 
ed long enough to eradicate all tendency to run 
b.ack, or is it, in other words, fully established ? 
If it is, it is a pure breed. If not, it is a mongrel 
breed that may give us a good pig, or may not. 
" Are the Cheshires the pure breed ? " I do not 
know. In a case of this kind, much depends on the 
character of the breeder. A pure bred animal, of 
desir.able qualities, does not come by chance. It 
requires great care, perseverance, close observation, 
and a rare combination of qualities to establish a 
new breed of animals. There are few such men in 
any age or country. I do not say that the Chesh- 
ires are not a pui*c breed. Specimens of this Iireed 
(if it is a breed) have been exhibited at our State 
Fairs for several years, and have attracted notice by 
their immense size. The first time I saw them was 
at the State Fair .it Watertowu, in 1S61, where one of 
these big pigs was shown that weighed 700 pounds. 
It was then said to be a cross between the Y'ork- 
shire and Chesbii-e, At the next Fair, held in 
Rochester, another big pig was shown, probably 
the same, that weighed SOO pounds; and at the 
State Fair in 1863, at Utica, a "Cheshire" was 
shown, probably the same, which weighed, or was 
said to weigh 1,100 pounds ! 
These Cheshires are undoubtedly the largest 
hogs in the United States. They have also many 
good points. They are long bodied, broad on the 
bade, white and handsome, and altogether a very 
attractive looking pig. But are they p^re ? I am 
inclined to doubt it. They have qualities, how- 
ever, which could be turned to good account in the 
hands of some one who had the right capacity, 
perseverance, and patience, to establish a breed. 
Until this is done, however, it is hardly worth while 
to give high prices for these pigs. There is uo 
certainty in regard to them. 
Hot-bed Sash and Frames. 
Ill marl;ct gardening, much of the success 
depends upon the earlincssof the crops; hence 
many plants are forwarded in hot-lieds, and the 
skillful gardener lias liis tomatoes, cabbages, 
etc., ready to set out by the lime his slower 
neighbor is about to sow his seeds in the open 
ground. It is of no small iiuportauce in the 
family garden, to be able to add a month or 
more to the enjoyment of its products, and 
knowing that but very few out of the whole 
number of our readers avail themselves of arti- 
ficial aids in tlieir gardens, we often point out 
the way in which they can forward their plants 
and have earlier vegetables than if they kept on 
in the same old round. On page 61 some ex- 
cellent advice is given upon sowing seeds in 
window boxes. This, in man)' cases, will answer 
every purpose, but often one lias not convenient 
windows, or his operations are on too large a 
scale to be satisfied by this, and lie must try 
frames. The choice lies between a cold frame 
and a hot-bed. The apparatus required is in 
each case the same. Both require attention and 
will fail under neglect, but of the two, the hot- 
bed needs the closer watching. The hot-bed 
will give plants earlier than the cold frame, and 
the cold frame will aff'ord them much in ad- 
vance of the open ground. But our present ob- 
ject is to describe the frames and sash rather 
than to give the management of tlicm. Next 
month will be quite early enough for starting 
plants for the fiimily garden in all northern lo- 
cations. It is more convenient to have sash of 
the proper size, made for the purpose, but one 
can make old window sashes answer nearly 
as well. One great objection to window sash 
is, that cross-bars run in both directions, and 
thus form compartments which hold water. 
This can be obviated by cutting a piece out of 
the cross-bars down to the level of the glass, 
opposite the centre of each pane, and also out 
of the frame at the lower side of the sash, and 
thus form channels to let the water oiF. If sash 
are to be made, five or six feet will be a con- 
venient length; the width must be governed by 
the size of the glass to be used. Four rows of 
8 X 10, or five rows of 6 x 8 glass may be used. 
The sides of the sash are 3 inches wide, with 
bars running lengthwise only. The glass is bed- 
ded in soft putty and fastened in by tins, no 
putty being required upon the upper surface of 
the glass. Each pane overlaps the one below 
it, about a quarter of an inch. If the glass 
overlaps too much, there is danger of its break- 
ing by the freezing of the moisture which col- 
lects in the joint. The dur.ability of the sash 
v,'i]\ be much increased by strengthening it by 
means of :i rod of *-inch iron put across the 
middle. This rod should have a square liead 
at one end, and a thread and nut at the other, 
so that it can be screwed up tight, Both the 
head and nut are countersunk, sq as not to in- 
terfere with the frcb sliding of the sash. The 
sash should be tlnn-oughly painted. The frame 
is made of a width corresponding to the lengUi 
of the sashes, and long enough to accommodate 
two or three of them. It may be a foot high in 
front and two feet at the back, the end-pieces 
having a ren;u!ar slope from rear to front. 
