516 AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. [December, 
so dry is the climate. Secondly—Irrigation 
is a leading feature in the farming of the 
“Arid Region.” The soil is very fertile on 
all the plains and valleys, save where the 
alkalies are too abundant, and some limited 
sandy areas, although a large part of the coun¬ 
try had been called a desert from the lack of 
vegetation. Wherever water can be obtained, 
the apparently barren soil responds in such 
crops of the cereals as are found nowhere else. 
Sixty bushels of wheat to the acre are often 
harvested, and sometimes as many as one 
hundred, as the premium wheat in Montana a 
few years since. In 18691 had the pleasure of 
seeing a field of 55 acres of premium wheat, 
which yielded over eighty-three bushels to 
the acre. Other cereals and the grasses do 
well by irrigation. Potatoes, turnips, cab¬ 
bages, beets, carrots, and other vegetables 
produce remarkable crops, especially in the 
mountain valleys. Thirdly—Fruit-growing 
is another somewhat peculiar feature in this 
“Arid Region.” Apples, pears, plums, cher¬ 
ries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, and 
gooseberries, do well, save in the very high 
altitudes, and in some of the hottest portions. 
Oranges, lemons, and figs yield good returns 
in the warmer portions. Peaches are culti¬ 
vated in the temperate parts ; and the grape 
seems to flourish better in the warm, dry re¬ 
gions than in any other part of the world. 
While the apples, pears, peaches, plums, and 
cherries grow very large, and show bright 
colors, the fruit is much inferior in flavor to 
that of the moister climates of the Missis¬ 
sippi Valley, and on the Atlantic Slope. 
The Northern States, extending from the 
“ Arid Region” to the Atlantic Ocean have a 
system of agriculture well known as the best 
in the country. In the North-Eastern States 
the farms are usually small and devoted to a 
mixed husbandry of stock, farm crops, fruit, 
and vegetables. No farm or “place” is 
worthy the name unless it has its fields, 
meadows, pastures, orchard, garden, barn, 
and stable. The leading feature is the pro¬ 
duction of forage—hay and fodder, and roots 
—for the winter use of the stock. The or¬ 
chard and garden are also notable features. 
But the large amount of fertilizers used is what 
most attracts the attention of western farmers. 
In the Middle-Eastern States the agricul¬ 
ture is very much the same, but the farms 
are larger and the crops more varied. Many 
farmers give their attention to special lines 
of husbandry. Large areas are devoted to 
orchards and vineyards, and the small fruits. 
The Northern Mississippi States have, in 
the main, received their systems of culture 
from the North-Eastern and Middle-Eastern 
States, making such changes as the new 
conditions rendered necessary and reasonable. 
As the tide of emigration spread from the 
East over the West, the emigrants carried 
their domestic animals and farm habits along 
the same lines of latitude to the States of the 
Mississippi Valley. But the new conditions 
incurred many modifications. Land was 
cheap and more was purchased ; the soil was 
rich and fertilizers became obsolete; grass, 
mast, fruits, and roots were abundant, and 
the cattle, horses, and hogs were turned out 
to shift for themselves for a large part of the 
year ; labor was scarce, and the culture was 
extended over large areas, and became less 
perfect; the cost of transportation made it 
impossible to market ordinary farm crops 
with profit, and they were converted into 
cattle, hogs, horses, and mules, which could 
take themselves to the marts of the country. 
But railroads and steamboats have reduced 
freights, and now these States send out 
hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat and 
corn to the markets of the world, so that 
now the leading features of these States are 
wheat and corn (wheat in the northern por¬ 
tion and corn in the southern), cattle, horses, 
and swine. Many farmers give their atten¬ 
tion to specialties—some to cattle and others 
to horses, especially in the south and middle 
portions, many to wheat, as in the northwest, 
where are found the largest wheat farms of 
this section. The Southern States always 
have had a system of agriculture peculiar and 
unique. It was in part the result of slave 
labor, and in part it sprang from the adapta¬ 
tions of the Gulf States to cotton and sugar 
culture. These States have been more de¬ 
voted to special farming. The northern 
division fosters a general or mixed agricul¬ 
ture, while some give much attention to spe¬ 
cialties. Tobacco and hemp, horses and cattle, 
have been the leading specialties in the 
northern parts, and cotton and sugar in the 
more Southern States. 
A Sliding Yoke for Oxen. 
Mr. M. O. Lanfair, Franklin County, Mass., 
favors us with a plan of a sliding yoke 
for oxen that have formed the habit of 
“crowding,” when working on the side-hill 
Fig. 1. —THE TOP OF THE YOKE. 
in deep snow, or even on the level road. This 
yoke has been used by the maker for four 
years, and is claimed to be a sure cure for the 
habit above mentioned. The arrangement of 
the parts of the yoke is shown by the en¬ 
gravings. Figure 1 gives a view looking from 
above, and figure 2 shows a side view of the 
yoke. It will be seen that the main piece of 
the yoke is a straight stick of timber, in which 
two large slots are made for the sliding bows 
and their attachments. Mr. L.’s yoke has 
the following dimensions : Length, 58 inches; 
width, 6 inches ; thickness, 2 l /t inches. The 
slots are 21 inches long and '/i inch wide. 
The pieces that fit into the slots and carry the 
bows are made with caps and are securely 
fastened to the jointed iron rods, which con¬ 
nect them. The middle joint of the rod is 
bolted to the ring-bolt of the yoke. 
Frozen Plants.—In a collection of win¬ 
dow plants some will be more severely in¬ 
jured by a slight freezing than others. Even 
very hardy plants, if in a growing state, will 
have the tender, succulent, newly formed 
shoots injured by frost. Every precaution 
should be adopted to prevent freezing, but if 
such an accident does occur, the only thing 
to be done is to allow the plants to thaw 
gradually. Do not handle the leaves while 
they are frozen, as they are readily injured, 
Remove the plants to a room where the tem¬ 
perature is but a few degrees above the freez¬ 
ing point, and thus avoid sudden changes. 
A Food Ration for Milk. 
BY PROF. G. C. CALDWELL, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 
One of the most useful results of the Ger¬ 
man feeding experiments, is that which shows 
the importance of protein or albuminoids for 
milk—that fodder rich in protein gives the 
most good milk. To be sure, with the many 
who care more for themselves than for the 
public good, the aim of their feeding is not 
to get the most good milk, but the largest 
possible yield without regard to quality. But 
the time may yet come when, as has already 
been the practice in at least one locality in 
Germany, every city or village milkman’s 
milk shall be analyzed from time to time, 
with the publication of the results through 
the daily press, or in some other manner, and 
when he can never know when the quality of 
his wares will be laid before his customers ; 
and when other corporations than the Ayles¬ 
bury Dairy Company of England shall offer 
prizes for the best milk delivered by their reg¬ 
ular patrons, then those who make quantity 
the only aim will be pushed to the wall until 
they learn new lessons in feeding. Only those 
who feed for quality, too, may find profit in 
what we have to say now. 
Hay is not rich enough in protein for the 
best production of good milk, the addition of 
roots only makes the matter worse; com 
meal, while improving the ration somewhat, 
cannot alone with hay make it what it should 
be. The best ration is not, of course, neces¬ 
sarily precisely the same for all cows, and for 
all conditions ; that which would be profitable 
feeding in one case might not be so in another. 
But for a guide to work by, until we have 
one that is proved to be better, we may as 
well take the standard ration given on the 
high authority of Emil Wolff, and based on 
the results of careful experiments, even if we 
shall not in this way always be led to the best 
results, it will be better than no guide at all, 
in trying new methods of feeding and of sup¬ 
plementing the fodder produced at home by 
importations from without. By this standard 
a cow in milk should have, per day and per 
1,000 lbs. live weight, 24 lbs. of organic mat¬ 
ter or vegetable substance estimated as per¬ 
fectly dry, containing 2.5 lbs. of protein, 0.4 
lb. of fat, and 12.5 lbs. of carbohydrates, all 
reckoned as digestible, that is to say, all fod¬ 
der contains some indigestible protein, fat, 
corbohydrates, and other matters, but these 
are counted out in this make-up of the ration. 
Three important bye-products of manufac¬ 
turing processes, in common use as concen¬ 
trated fodder, perhaps on the whole the three 
most important ones to the American far¬ 
mer, are wheat bran, cotton-seed cake, and 
brewer’s grains. A portion of all the nutri¬ 
ents that these articles contain is indigesti¬ 
ble, and therefore without feeding value. We 
buy them, of course, only for their digestible 
nutrients, and the larger the proportion there¬ 
of that they contain, the more they are worth 
to us. In the following table an approxi¬ 
mately correct statement is given of the com¬ 
position of the digestible portion of Ameri¬ 
can hay of mixed grasses,'clover, cotton-seed 
cake meal, bran, and brewer’s grains; it is 
only approximately correct, because the num¬ 
ber of digestion experiments that have been 
made with all, except the hay, is small, and 
