172 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
that comes in March 1st — both to be milked 
until they go dry. We intend to weigh all our 
milk next year, commencing October 1st, and 
we are in hopes to prove that we can make as 
much per cow (and as good butter) in Illinois 
as can be done in the old dairy regions at the 
East. Our neighbor, Mr. 0. S. Tamner, bought 
40 cows in the spring of 1873, commenced 
delivering milk March 1st, and in one year he 
delivered us 7,212 lbs. of milk per cow, his 
cows going farrow however." 
In their former letter these gentlemen state 
that they feed their cows" eight quarts of corn 
and oat-meal (mixed) per day for every day that 
they give milk. In winter we give them every 
day, in addition to the meal, a large load of 
corn in the shuck, also what nice early cut hay 
they will consume." 
The foregoing is a very explicit and exact 
statement, and there is no reason to question 
its accuracy. 
Supposing the 84 fresh cows to produce, as 
is stated, from October 1st to April 1st, 4,550 
lbs. of milk, yielding about 198 lbs. of butter, 
we need not strain the point very far to credit 
them with 102 lbs. for the other half of the 
year, when they would be mainly at grass, and 
would each have eight quarts of rich grain feed 
per day in addition. Mr. Tamner's 40 cows, 
being left farrow and fattened for the butcher, 
produced, according to the statement (at 23 lbs. 
milk for one pound butter), an average of 313 
lbs. of butter within one year. 
Such a forcing system of feeding is of course 
hard on the cows. More than one third of the 
Boies cows failed to get with calf, and with the 
Tamner cows there was no effort to get them 
with calf. This process of butter and beef 
making is closed to those who raise their own 
stock, but even these may take a hint (to be 
followed with judgment) from the mode of 
feeding described. 
And what feeding it is ! " What nice early- 
cut hay they will eat" (and hay so good that 
when purchased hay is fed the cows fall off 
materially in their yield); eight quarts of oats 
and corn-meal per day; and a large load of 
corn in the husk, which must amount to at 
least 10 lbs. of shelled corn per day for each 
cow — -considerably over a peck of grain per day ! 
No wonder they give large yields of butter and 
come out at the end of the year beef fat. 
There is, too, much more than a hint for 
Western farmers, who are now groaning under 
the oppressive charges for the transportation 
of their corn to the sea-board markets. Why 
send it at all, you who can feed it at home? 
Why not make butter or cheese, and from the 
refuse of the food, and from the skimmed milk 
and whey make pork, and so put your gross 
product into a net form? You will get as 
much for the dairy products and the pork as 
you would for the corn from which they are 
made, and will save the cost of transportation 
on the greater part of your crop. 
You will save something else, too — the enor- 
mous amount of valuable manure which your 
corn now makes here at the East and in Eng- 
land. The day has fortunately gone by when 
an agricultural writer need hazard anything of 
his reputation by asserting that in Illinois, as 
well as in all the rest of the world (old or new), 
the manure question is henceforth to be the 
question, and that a universal recognition of 
the value of manure among Western farmers 
Is of the greatest importance to the permanent 
interests of the country, which depetid so much 
on Western prosperity. 
A friend in Maine, writing to congratulate 
me on the results of my dairying as set forth 
in the March number, says: "I observe with 
surprise the large percentage of abortions in 
your herd — seven out of thirty — and you make 
no allusion to it as an unusual occurrence. It 
would be considered so here, and in fact a sin- 
gle abortion is unusual in all this region. In 
my own herd, varying from twelve to twenty, 
there has not been an abortion for many years. 
Is it common with you and in your vicinity, 
and to what cause is it attributable? If the 
cause is not certainly known, what are the spe- 
culations on the subject ?" 
Abortion has been common here, but fortu- 
nately it is decreasing, and seems to have left 
my own herd altogether. The speculations on 
the subject, so far as they have come to my 
notice, seem to be of no value whatever, and, 
after the costly investigations that have been 
bestowed upon it during the past few years, 
there has been no theory developed which 
seems to fit the conditions under which it oc- 
curs; neither has any effective preventive been 
suggested, unless it be the one prescribed by 
Mr. Sam. J. Sharpless, and published some 
time ago in these 
papers, and which 
is worth repeating. 
It is this: Abor- 
tion is accompanied 
by, whether caused 
by or not, a rather low 
condition of vitality, 
and it seems to be 
arrested by stimula- 
tion of the digestive 
organs — by tonics, 
that we have used, and 
which we think has been effective, is a powder 
consisting of : 2 oz. suphate of iron, powdered ; 
8 oz. ground ginger ; 8 oz. fenugreek ; 8 oz. 
caraway; 4 oz. gentian. Dose: A heaping 
tea-spoonful daily with bran or other feed. 
Mr. Sharpless gives this to his whole herd, 
and during much of the season of pregnancy. 
We have used it much more sparingly, but 
with apparent good results. If a cow shows 
by the swelling of the bearing, by the laxity of 
the cords at the side of the tail, or by a ten- 
dency to spring-bag, that she may be preparing 
to lose her foetus, we separate her from the 
herd, give her the powder at once, and give her 
somewhat stronger food. In every case where 
we have tried this, for a year past, the indica- 
tions have disappearad, and the cow has gone 
regularly on with her pregnancy. The cases 
have seemed clear enough to show that the 
powder does good, but it is possible that the epi- 
demic (according to its habit) had run itself out 
Fig. 1. — SEAT SPRING. 
The form of tonic 
Fig. 2.— SEAT ATTACHED TO BOX. 
and disappeared of its own accord — >&unys- 
teriously as it came. 
There is abundant indication of the fact that 
a change is coming over the minds of dairy 
farmers on the subject of Jersey cattle. In 
spite of hard times, farmers are making active 
inquiries about them, and actual sales are iu- | 
creasing every year in numbers and in price. 
A few years ago bull calves could be bought in 
plenty for $25 each at six months old, and for 
not much more at twice that age. The price 
now runs for good animals at from $50 to $100. 
I am not now speaking of the demand from 
breeders of thoroughbreds, who pay even as 
high as $300 for young bulls of unmistakable 
pedigree and quality, but of that from dairy 
farmers. I have recently sent two bulls into 
New York State, one for $75 and the other for 
$100 (express charges being in each case about 
$30), both sold to dairy farmers in districts 
where Jersey- cows are almost unknown, and 
where they are to be used only on native cattle 
and for the improvement of the herds of 
butter-producing farms. For another, which 
I advertised at $50, I had seven applica- 
tions within two weeks. Three years ago I 
should not have had probably a single one. 
The meaning of this is that butter-makers 
are awakeuirg to the knowledge that the 
superiority c[ the Jersey breed for the but- 
ter dairy ic an established fact — not a mere 
fancy of rich men running after a fashion. It 
has been sufficiently demonstrated that an in- 
fusion of Jersey blood into a herd of native 
cows will materially increase their product of 
butter, and will make it easier of manufacture 
and better in quality. This it does without 
increasing the size of the cows, and without, 
therefore, causing a greater consumption of 
food. Such being the fact, it is not at all to be 
wondered at that intelligent dairymen who are 
awake to their true interests should be quick 
to find it out and be anxious to take advantage 
of the proffered benefit. The good that is to 
be done to the country by the dissemination of 
Jersey bulls to be used for the improvement of 
common cows is of far more consequence than 
is that of the extension of the use of pure 
Jersey cows, for the reason that this latter will, 
at least for a long time to come, be confined 1 to 
a comparatively few of the better farmers, 
while one bull in a neighborhood will make a 
lasting amelioration of all the well kept herds 
for miles around. This is an improvement, 
too, which is sure to extend and increase the 
more the sterling qualities of this race become 
known, and it must lead eventually to the 
wide extension of the pure Jersey cow, which 
stands in relation to the half-breed as gold 
does to silver. 
An Easy "Wagon-Seat. 
It is somewhat difficult to adapt a convenient 
spring-seat to an ordinary wagon with the 
appliances generally at a farmer's hand. We 
have, however, recently been shown a spring- 
seat which seems to combine all the requisites 
of convenience, portability, ease, and cheap- 
ness, which would make it desirable for a 
farmer to possess it. It is shown m the an- 
nexed engraving. Fig. 1 shows the spring to 
which the seat is attached. The spring, a 
strong spiral steel one, is contained in a strong 
but light wrought iron frame. The frame is 
provided with two hooks, by which it rests 
upon the edge of the wagon-box — outside of it 
and out of the way of a load — and is so made 
that it may be slid along with ease from one 
part of the box to another. The seat is bolted 
to the upper part, in which there are two 
holes made for this purpose. Fig. 2 shows 
the seat complete, affixed to a wagon-box. 
This seat is patented, and is made by B. F. 
Wells of No. 47 Dey street, New York. 
