174 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat,. 
part of the rookery, and ever to be remembered by 
me as the most awful walk I ever bad. The grass 
grew six feet high, matted and tangled, while thou¬ 
sands and thousands of Penguins swarmed between 
the tufted stems. Whenever we stopped to see 
where we put our feet, v;e were instantly attacked 
by a host of infuriated birds, and got horribly 
tweaked and digged at. You can have no concep¬ 
tion how infuriated and bold they are when pro¬ 
tecting their nests, rushing at our legs in crowds, 
and following us, pecking viciously. They were so 
thick that it was useless trying to avoid them, so 
one had just to tramp on as fast as possible, amid 
the deafening brayings, and overpowering stench. 
Suddenly we were stopped by finding ourselves on 
the brink of a low r cliff. This stretch of rock was 
covered with Penguins, one stream coming from 
the grass and putting to sea, and the other stream 
landing and hopping into the rookery. Marvellous 
jumps they made in coming down the rocks, doing 
a jump of three feet and more quite easily, bolt 
upright the whole time. They jump into the sea 
from off a ledge of rock feet foremost, and land 
very cleverly ; as the wave came washing up against 
the rock, they came with it under water, shooting 
out of the depths in shoals, clinging on to the rocks 
by their feet, and when the wave receded the face 
of the rock was plastered with them, and before the 
next wave came they had clambered up in some 
wonderful fashion, helping themselves with their 
bills, but not with their flappers.” 
----- -- 
Among the Farmers.—Mo. 28. 
BY ONE OP THEM. 
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp. 
There is no echo attending the muffled footfall 
of the army, the straggling forerunners of which 
already appear along the highways and in our door- 
yards. Where the tramp hybernates is, perhaps, still 
an undiscovered fact in Natural History. There is 
chance enough in the city, and many a snug corner 
in boiler-rooms, under sidewalks, and in coal-holes. 
I am curious to know, not where or what have been 
the winter quarters of this army, but whether the 
people are any nearer the solution of the tramp 
problem than they were a twelvemonth ago. I 
have the profoundest pity, not to say sympathy, 
for the poor fellow -who is out of work, and can 
get neither work to do nor food to eat; but not a 
particle for the 20,000 able-bodied wanderers of the 
male sex, who make our quiet roads both hideous 
and dangerous. A visitation or two of locusts, 
rouses half the country, and even the General Gov¬ 
ernment, to put them down ; but this visitation of 
“bummers” is ten times as disastrous, and a great 
deal nearer home. So far as 1 am aware, little effort 
has been made to have more stringent laws passed 
in regard to this nuisance, and our people are wait¬ 
ing in apathy to see if the times, or the silver bill, 
or resumption, or some other occurrence, will not 
prevent the same condition of things happening as 
last year. It is very pleasant “to entertain strangers,” 
but tramps are a kind of strangers who are so often 
entertained unawares, and who so often manifest a 
most unpleasant familiarity with your house and 
surroundings, that they are, as a class, in no way 
entitled to be regarded as strangers, any more than 
minks and foxes are. Arrest as vagrants, detention 
at steady labor, with enforced cleanliness and tidi¬ 
ness, and with good plain food, for as long a time 
as the law allows, will do away with the tramp 
nuisance and danger in a very short time. 
How Often to Feed Work Horses. 
There is a conflict of authorities on this subject, 
but writers agree that all horses ought to be fed as 
often as once in about six hours, during the day— 
some say four hours. No doubt, a horse may eat 
his fill and digest it in about six hours, and be 
ready for another ration. They may be managed 
60 as to be ravenous for food all the time, and yet 
eat more than enough—and one set of horses'will 
be in good condition, will do about twice the 
work of another set on half the feed. I have been 
watching the working of an experiment—if so it 
may be called—which furnishes a case in point: A 
long established firm iu New York employ con- 
! stantly, and have heretofore owned, about five one- 
horse truck teams. That is, five horses have done 
their work, a considerable part of the time one hav¬ 
ing but little to do, but necessary in case of any 
emergency. Some months ago the entire stock of 
horses, trucks, stable furniture, harness, etc., was 
sold to an employe, who has, since then, added no 
new horse to the stable, done the same work, done 
the carting for another house—in fact, got nearly 
double the work out of the horses—and yet they 
have been constantly improving in looks and in 
ability to do work. At first the feed was not essen¬ 
tially changed. The horses had better care, and 
the eye of a master, -who was their owner, though 
not their driver. The truckmen, somehow, felt 
more interest in their work and in their horses, and 
this made a difference ; but all things combined 
must have produced their legitimate result within 
two or three months. At all events, matters were 
getting on very well, when the owner decided to 
Cut OJr tfie Noon Feed. 
The horses had been getting about four to six 
quarts of oats during the hour of rest—between 12 
and 1 o’clock—while the men were eating their din¬ 
ner. 1 am not sure that they always got their full 
hour of rest, but they did generally. The result 
has been, a decided improvement in the condition 
of the horses, in their ability to work, and the gain 
of fully half an hour, when it is necessary to take 
it; for now, when work presses, the men are quite 
ready to forego their rest and, taking a hurried bite, 
be off with their trucks as soon as they can be 
loaded. The horses leave the stable at 7 o’clock, 
and return at about 6.30, the year round. Thus, 
they go twelve hours without feeding, and at more 
or less hard work, at a slow gait all the time, ex¬ 
cept when the trucks are being loaded and un¬ 
loaded. When it is practicable, of course, loads 
are taken both ways, and this saving of time is also 
a saving of liorse-llesh ; for no doubt a heavy, well- 
fed horse is quite as much taxed in trotting home 
with an empty truck, as in drawing back a laden 
one. I should add that the horses are not deprived 
of the oats by not getting them at noon, for their 
morning and evening rations are increased, but not 
proportionately, there being a saving of about two 
quarts to each horse on an average. Nevertheless, 
they are now doing better, and looking fifty per 
cent better, as well as doing more work at less cost 
of feed than under the old method. 
Morses’ Habits in Lying- Mown. 
One thing more about horses. I don’t know why 
a horse should not be as much rested and benefited 
by lying down as any other four-footed beast. A 
horse often sleeps standing up, and so does an ox. 
I know that j t was claimed for a gray horse once, as 
a special merit, that he would not lie down unless 
his stall u-as well littered ; consequently all expense 
of bedding might be saved, as no doubt it had been. 
Horses are peculiar about lying down. It seems as 
if they knew their helplessness when in this position, 
and were bound never to expose themselves to 
danger. Athough many may be lying down, every 
horse in a stable is on his feet at the slightest 
noise. It is, besides, almost universally regarded, 
and usually truly, as a sign of ill health, if a horse 
is found lying in the day time. I have recently 
come to the conclusion, however, that if horses are 
perfectly easy in their minds, they will take as much 
comfort in lying down as cattle do, and I can point 
to one stable, not my own, where spirited well-fed 
horses may be seen lying down at almost any time 
of the day or night, and it comes from the perfect 
confidence they have in their groom. 
Chances for Farming. 
"With an overstocked labor market, and wages 
very low ; with thousands of acres of farming land, 
which have been lying fallow,or rather running wild, 
for fifteen years, more or less, in every direction 
within fifty miles of New York, returning to the 
hands of the original owners, or to mortgagees, and 
with the best fertilizer in the world, the dung of 
well-fed horses fairly “ going a-begging” for some 
one to buy and use it, I see no reason why we can 
not again become a farming community. We have- 
been in the habit of raising crops which would not 
bear long transportation—hence were adapted to 
the home market, which we could watch and take 
advantage of. Gradually steam communication, 
with southern ports has made it almost as easy to 
send peas, potatoes, and parsnips, from Virginia 
or the Carolinas, as from Monmouth Co., N. J. 
Nevertheless, we have a great advantage in our 
ability to get city stable-manure. For this, Long 
Island is still the great market, yet transportation 
by boat to the Connecticut ports along the Sound, 
and up the Connecticut River as far at least as 
Hartford, for the use of the tobacco-growers, has 
been in vogue for some years. This year the 
tobacco men have no heart, and are turning their 
land to the raising of crops which can be consumed- 
on the farm, or sold in the vicinity, and are buying 
no manure. The market gardefiers of Long Island 
are so short of money, on account of the immense 
cabbage crop which went to waste last fall, that 
they are buying but little, and if railroads running- 
through farming districts were as awake to their 
interests as is the Long Island Railroad, we should 
have a fertilizer at hand, which would make the 
waste land and old farms wave with wheat, and 
smile with potatoes. The Long Island road favors 
the farmers not so much in the matter of cheapness 
of transportation, which is not cheap, indeed, con¬ 
sidering that the manure which they carry enables 
them to move sundry other articles of produce, and 
many passengers to and from the city, as in their 
willingness to accommodate those who live along 
their lines. They will throw off a car-load of ma¬ 
nure at any point where it is most convenient to 
the buyer, if he will only set up a modest board with 
his name or “mark’’upon it. Other roads ought 
to do the same thing, and besides should erect 
such cranes or derricks as can most conveniently 
move the manure from the boats to the cars. 
Tine Supplying; of Milk, 
in the immediate vicinity of a large city, is certainly 
one_ of the most profitable branches of farming. 
Were farmers properly seconded by the city authori¬ 
ties, they would have no difficulty whatever in af¬ 
fording, at current prices, or say at six and eight, 
cents a quart, as much pure milk as the citizens of 
New York will pay for. The close proprietorship 
of “milk routes” is one difficulty. The citizens 
have little idea that they themselves, and their chil¬ 
dren, are bought and sold like the very cattle whose 
milk they drink and get sick upon. A swill-milk 
stable, and its milk route, are sold together, and the 
route is just as much tangible property as the cows.. 
Any farmer, or the agent of a company of farmers, 
who would undertake to sell, or even exhibit, pure 
milk along one of these established routes, would 
be mobbed ; his cans would be emptied, or pierced, 
and the milk let out; or the milk -would be drugged 
and so curdled, or in some way spoiled. These 
things have occurred so often that the effort has 
been given up. The children pine for milk, which 
may be had in abundance if the City Government 
would only see fair play. What we need is 
Free Trade in Milk. 
As it is, it hardly pays to raise milk and sell it at 
three cents a quart, where land is worth more than 
8100 an acre; and as that is all, or more, than we 
can often get for it of the milkmen, it follows that 
the milk business has been given up by ourfarmers 
to a great extent, and that now milk is brought 
from a great distance, or produced in the stables 
which abound in the immediate suburbs. A new 
impulse would be given to farming and stock-rais¬ 
ing if farmers could dispose of their pure milk in 
the city. They would willingly submit to any sani¬ 
tary restrictions, and their milk to any tests which 
v'ould demonstrate either the presence of water, or 
any impurity ; and the present seems a very favor¬ 
able time to make an effort for free trade in milk. 
In connection with this abundance of manure, and: 
the possibility of our being able to sell milk to com¬ 
pete with the watered and sickly stuff which drives 
people against their will to use condensed milk, 
instead of the natural product, I am led to think 
favorably of the effort now being made, with 
some success, to introduce the production of 
