482 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
ported as having 114,000 dogs, and 55,000 
sheep, the latter gradually decreasing in 
numbers, while the former made a noticeable 
increase. In Ohio the statistics show that 
during the thirteen years, from 1867 to 1879 
inclusive, the number of sheep killed by dogs 
was 459,437, valued at $1,296,398.23; the 
number injured by dogs, was 309,682, esti¬ 
mated worth $497,132.31. In Illinois, in 1876, 
the value of sheep slaughtered by dogs, was 
$30 578 ; in 1877, $63,752 ; in 1878, $43,885; 
for the year ending May, 1879, the loss was 
27,338 head, with a valuation of $2.40 per 
head, or a total of $65,384. Kansas, its peo¬ 
ple being imbued with an appreciation of its 
advantages as a pastoral region, has as little 
partiality for dogs as any State, and strongly 
indicative of this is the returns of the asses¬ 
sors, showing an increase in sheep during 
the year ending March 1st, 1880, of nearly 42 
per cent, and for the year ending March 1st, 
1881, almost 100 per cent; but at the same 
time, this does not signify that there are no 
dogs in Kansas. The State Census of 1875, 
showed an enumeration of 74,696, and the 
assessors found 143,650 in 1881. It is the 
opinion of those who have endeavored to 
make such enumeration in this and other 
States, that through fear of taxation, and 
from other causes, not more than half the 
actual number are returned. If this is a cor¬ 
rect theory, the canine population of this 
new State approximates about 287,000, 
officially reported as destroying in the year 
ending March 1st, 1879, 8,025 sheep; March 
1st, 1880, 4,369 sheep, and March 1st, 1881, 
5,361 of the same useful, harmless, wool¬ 
bearing, meat-producing emblems of peace 
and thrift. In the four counties of Doniphan, 
Norton, Sheridan, and Wyandotte, where a 
million sheep could thrive, the assessors this 
year found 1,377 head, watched and tended 
(presumably), by 4,576 dogs. 
Observing men are of the opinion that an 
ordinary dog—and he is always hungry—will 
eat and destroy in a twelvemonth, the equiva¬ 
lent of that which, if given to a well-bred 
pig, would make him weigh at the expira¬ 
tion of that time, 309 pounds, gross ; 286,000 
such pigs would aggregate 85,800,000 pounds 
of pork, now worth at the home shipping 
station, more than $4,700,000; requiring to 
transport them, more than 2,860 cars, carrying 
fifteen tons each, or a train more than six¬ 
teen miles long. This would represent nearly 
$1,500,000 more than the entire amount paid 
in the State in 1880, for school, township, and 
State taxes combined ; it would build 9,400 
school-houses and churches, worth $500 each, 
or would pay the average wages of 14,000 
school teachers, twice the number now em¬ 
ployed. A condition of affairs, of which the 
above is but a poor outline, is at the bottom 
of what is each year becoming a greater and 
more irrepressible conflict between the wool 
growers and the savage brutes that keep in 
jeopardy, or destroy the flocks that, protect¬ 
ed, would enlarge and increase to the extent 
of producing the wool for which we now 
send so many millions across the seas. If the 
dogs are maintained as a luxury, they are a 
luxury we cannot afford, and should give 
way to something less expensive, and less 
productive of loss and misery. 
A well-known western agriculturist lost 
$300 worth of sheep by theni in one night, 
and in another $250 worth, and says : “ Iowa 
would have, to-day, $10,000,000 worth of 
property in her borders, that she does not 
have, only for dogs ; and the farmers are the 
veriest fools in the world for allowing such a 
state of affairs.” What in this respect is ap¬ 
plicable to Iowa, is equally so to other States, 
and while the great masses of the people are 
so apathetic, or not educated up to the point 
of prohibiting such a curse, the day will 
come when valueless curs will not be per¬ 
mitted to exist as a stumbling block to one of 
the most profitable and pleasurable branches 
of rural husbandry. 
The rearing of better classes of sheep, al¬ 
ways indicates a high state of civilization, 
where intelligence, comfort, and competence 
abound, and no more unfailing sign of ignor¬ 
ance, squalor,and poverty, can be manifested, 
than the presence of a varied and increasing 
assortment of flea-bitten curs, unclean, and of 
low degree. It should not be difficult to choose 
between raising sheep and growing dogs. 
A Small Cow Stable. 
Mr. M. M. Day, York Co., Maine, writes : 
“I send you a plan of my cow stable. My 
cows are tied in stalls, 2 in each, with chains. 
There are stanchions on each side as seen in 
figure 1, a, a, being the stanchions, b,b, cribs; 
walk 
PUMP s 
WATER TROUGH 
B 
B B 
a e 
A A 
« 9 
A A 
TRENCH FOR MANURE, 
WALK 
Fig. 1. —A PLAN OF A COW STABLE. 
there is a watering trough, about 15 inches 
long, before each cow. 1 keep water in the 
trough all the time, the cows will lift the 
cover witli their noses, and drink when they 
want to, after which the cover drops back, and 
keeps it covered. My pump is in the walk 
beside the trough ; I feed under the trough, 
in front of the cows, out of the walk. The 
manure-trench behind the cows, is 20 inches 
wide, 6 inches deep. My stalls are 6 feet 10 
inches wide, which is sufficient for two cows, 
and then they are always tied at the head of 
Fig. 2. —SIDE VIEW OF THE COW STABLE. 
the stall, so there is no need of shifting cows 
if you get a strange one. My floor is 4 feet 
6 inches long, and there is no trouble in 
keeping the cows clean. There is one stall 
floor, 4 feet 3 inches long for small cows. 
Figure 2 is a side view of the stable; a, is 
the trough, the dotted line represents the 
cover lifted; b, is the crib with a slanting 
front to slide the hay under the trough. The 
crib is 22 inches wide to slanting board. 
Trough 12 inches high from bottom of crib 
to under side of trough, 7 inches deep and 9 
inches wide. The stable is lined up inside, 
and is so warm that the manure does not 
freeze during the winter, and there has not 
been any ice formed in the trough, except on 
two nights, and that was not thicker than 
window glass. The ventilator is open all 
winter; I believe in warm, well ventilated 
stables, good care, and a plenty of good food, 
and then the cows look well and make a 
good report of themselves in the milk pail.” 
Birds and Canker Worms. 
BY 8. A. FORBES, DIRECTOR ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY 
OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
The most serious losses of the farmer and 
gardener, due to insects, are not consequent 
upon the ordinary and uniform depredations 
of those species whose numbers remain near¬ 
ly constant, year after year, but upon ex¬ 
cessive and extraordinary depredations of 
those, the numbers of which are subject to 
wide fluctuations. Vegetation has become 
so far adjusted to our crickets, ordinary grass¬ 
hoppers, etc., that the foliage which they eat 
can be spared without injury to the plant, 
and the damage done by them is commonly 
imperceptible. It is far otherwise, however, 
with the vast hordes of the Rocky Mountain 
Locust, the Colorado Potato Beetle, Chinch 
Bug, Army Worm, and many other species 
which occasionally swarm prodigiously, and 
then almost disappear. The injurious spe¬ 
cies are therefore chiefly the oscillating ones, 
and the dangerous species are those which 
show a tendency to oscillate. Anything which 
tends to limit the fluctuations of an oscillat¬ 
ing species, or to prevent the oscillation of a 
stable species, is therefore highly useful ; 
while anything which tends to intensify an 
oscillation, or to convert a stable species into 
an oscillating one, is as highly pernicious. 
Acting upon these facts, the writer has 
undertaken, as a part of the investigation of 
this subject, to determine, for a definite area, 
the influence which birds may have* to limit 
and reduce the destructive oscillations of in¬ 
sects, from whatever causes arising. For 
this purpose every opportunity has been used 
to secure as many birds as possible from 
situations where any kind of insect was un¬ 
usually abundant, with the intention of mak¬ 
ing a careful study of their food under such 
conditions. As an example of this investiga¬ 
tion, I have selected a study recently made 
of the effect of birds upon the multiplication 
of the Canker Worm in a large orchard in 
Tazewell County, Illinois, which has been for 
four or five years badly infested by this 
pest. An assistant was sent to this orchard 
in May., where he remained two days, care¬ 
fully observing the birds in the orchard, shot 
a large number of them, and also collected 
as many carnivorous beetles as he could find. 
He reported the birds to be more abimdant 
here than he had ever seen them before in 
the State on so small an area, not even ex¬ 
cepting the period of active migration. On 
his return I made a searching and exhaustive 
examination of the stomachs which he 
brought back, and give here a general report 
of the result, without going into detail. 
The birds shot were fifty-five in number, 
