1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
221 
to hear from any of our breeders who are ac¬ 
quainted with this disease and know of a remedy. 
Over Fattened Meat. 
It is possible that breeders and feeders of beef, 
mutton, and pork, are not aware of the enormous 
waste which occurs in the consumption of their 
products. Of late the tendency has been to pro¬ 
duce so-called improved animals which are bred 
for early maturity, and are inclined to an exces¬ 
sive deposition of fat. Fat is not the most valu¬ 
able part of the meat; a certain proportion, inti¬ 
mately mingled with the lean, in a manner known 
as “marbling,” is desirable, and tends to make the. 
flesh tender, juicy, and digestible. But when the 
meat consists of a small portion of lean, surrounded 
Fig. 1.— LOIN OF OVER-FATTENED BEEF. 
by enormous layers of fat, it is neither agreeable 
nor healthful food, nor is it economical in use. So 
long as such meat as this is purchased, though at a 
great loss, by the consumers, breeders will produce 
such cattle; but it is not a fact that consumers de¬ 
sire such meat, or patiently suffer such waste to be 
inflicted upon them. The patience of the American 
citizen is well nigh inexhaustible ; he submits to 
that of which he disapproves without more than 
a murmur, because he dislikes the trouble that 
would grow out of a remonstrance. But the Eng¬ 
lish consumer is proverbially a grumbler, even 
when he is well served, and he is now complaining 
that he is getting too much useless fat with his 
meat. As we have followed the English fashion in 
6tock breeding, and have bought largely of their 
improved breeds at enormous prices, so we are al¬ 
ready producing meat such as theirs, to which Eng¬ 
lish consumers object as wasteful; and we may 
well take a lesson from our neighbors in this mat¬ 
ter. The “Agricultural Gazette” (England) has 
recently instructed its readers in this respect by 
producing copies of photographs of joints of meat 
from ordinary good, and highly improved animals. 
One of these, fig. 1, is an illustration of a piece of 
LOINS OF PORK. —Fig. 2. GRADE BERKSHIRE.— Fig. 
3. IMPROVED BERKSHIRE. —Fig. 4. IMPROVED ESSEX. 
a loin of beef from a highly bred Shorthorn. It is 
seen that the lean, shown by the dark shading, is 
very small; and is surrounded by an enormous 
quantity of fat, which seriously diminishes the 
value of the meat for the consumption of any one 
but an Esquimaux or a traveller in the polar re¬ 
gions. Figures 2, 3, and 4, respectively, illustrate 
cuts from the loin of pork ; the first being from a 
grade Berkshire pig, the side of which weighed 68 
lbs. This may be taken as an excellent sample of 
pork or bacon; the second is a cut from a 6ide, 
5.— JERSEY RED HAM. 
weighing 74 lbs., of an improved Berkshire, which 
had the generally desired and fashionable qualities 
(among breeders) of shortness, roundness, and 
thickness. The improvement in this ease consists 
in substituting fat for meat. The third is a cut 
from an improved Essex pig, which is seen to be 
nearly all fat. The side 
from which this last was 
taken weighed 70 lbs., 
and the lean in it was 
reduced as low as is 
perhaps possible, and 
yet to give the ani¬ 
mal sufficient muscular 
power to carry its 
load of fat. Figure 5 represents a cut from a Red 
Jersey ham taken from a 10 months’ old pig which 
weighed 280 lbs. When cut up for use, this pork 
had so little lean as to be uneatable, and of the 280 
pounds gross weight, 263 lbs. was rendered into 
lard, only 17 lbs. of lean meat being saved for 
use, and this was intermingled with sufficient fat 
to cook itself in the pan. The comparison between 
a Berkshire or other pig, in which the sides are deep 
and the lean is in fair proportion with the fat, and 
a pig of the fashionable roundness and shortness 
in which the lean exists in such remarkably small 
proportion, is very great, and suggests the ques¬ 
tion, if we have not gone as far in growing fat as 
may be profitable, and if it would not be desirable 
to cater more for the economical consumer of 
meat than for the tallow or lard-rendering kettles. 
Plowing with the Swivel Plow. 
Notwithstanding many attempts, which have 
been more or less successful, to improve the swivel 
plow, this useful implement is still far from satis¬ 
factory. The chief objects sought in improving 
this plow have been, the smooth turning of the 
furrow slice, and the perfect clearing of the mould- 
board. Whether or not these can be secured in 
any reversible plow, is still a question. A certain 
form of plow is absolutely necessary, and a form, 
too, which is unfavorable to the objects sought. 
Nevertheless, there are many patterns of these 
plows which do passably good work; and the 
great advantage of being able to reverse the plow, 
and work back and forth in consecutive furrows, 
instead of plowing in lands, renders some form of 
swivel plow very desirable, especially in preparing 
for corn or for fodder crops. For these purposes 
the swivel plow is almost indispensable. In plow¬ 
ing for corn, the planting may go on with the 
plowing and harrowing ; the ground that is plowed 
to-day may be harrowed and planted to-morrow. 
To plant upon the fresh, mellow soil, is an obvious 
advantage, and it also helps much in the forward¬ 
ing of the work. The swivel plow is a great con¬ 
venience when crops are grown for soiling pur¬ 
poses. If the fodder is cut, either by the scythe or 
the mowing machine, in narrow strips, across or 
along the field, the plow can follow from day to 
day, and the ground may be re-sown at once, with¬ 
out waiting for enough to be cleared to make a 
“ land,” and it will not be cut up with frequent back 
and open furrows, but be kept smooth and level. 
The action of a plow with a clogged mould-board 
is not always objectionable. In using an old- 
fashioned swivel plow, we find the effects of the 
clogging to be such a mellowing of the soil and 
such a smooth laying of the surface, that the seed 
may be sown or drilled-in without any use of the 
harrow. When the plow scours, and the mould- 
board is kept free, it is only by a packing or press¬ 
ing of the furrow-slice by which it is made com¬ 
paratively solid ; and before it can be sown or 
planted, the ground must be harrowed. While 
the swivel plow as now constructed may not be 
exactly suited, as yet, for its work, nevertheless it 
is an implement that could be used with advantage 
in a much larger variety of work than it now is. 
I.arge and. Small Cows.—The desire for 
large animals is not always judicious. With cows 
it is questionable if the largest are the best, when 
the cost of feeding is considered. There are cases 
in which a dairyman’s fancy for large showy ani¬ 
mals may be justified, and it may be granted that a 
stable well filled with large, showy Dutch, or Short¬ 
horn cows, is a very pleasing exhibition. But when * 
we come to figure up the cost of the product, it may 
be a question if the same amount of food were ex¬ 
pended upon an equally good looking herd of Ayr- 
shires, the milk might not be more cheaply produced. 
Where the final end of the cow is considered, and 
the amount of beef is an object, that of course alters 
the bearings of the question. But bigness in cows 
is not always best either for beauty or profit to the 
owner. The same remark will apply to horses. 
How to Lay Out and Shape an Ox Yoke. 
O. H. Leavitt, Androscoggin Co., Me., sends the 
following method of laying out and making an ox 
yoke. Every ox owner or driver knows, or should 
know, that upon the shape of the yoke and the fit¬ 
ting of the bows depend much of the ease and 
effectiveness of the working of the cattle. Mr. 
Leavitt’s method is as follows: Elm of the toughest 
kind is the first choice for timber. For oxen of 7 
feet girth, or 3,000 lbs. to the pair, the stick should 
be 6 feet long and 12 inches in diameter. The side 
of the log that will be the top of the yoke is hewed, 
and marked at the center, and 15 inches from the 
center each way for a 2-inch bow hole, and 12 inches, 
further from the center for the second bow holes. 
A chalk line is snapped lengthwise in the center of 
the timber, and where it is intersected by the former 
marks the bow holes are bored. These holes must 
be bored exactly perpendicular and true, and one 
will be better able to do this by standing over his 
work, and after the auger is started, to step aside 
and notice if it is straight in every direction. Care 
should be taken to have the log level. The yoke 
is then marked 4 inches thick at the center where 
the band for the draft ring comes ; 10 inches thick 
midway between the bow holes; and 6 at inches 
Fig. 1.— TOP OF YOKE. 
from the outer holes, 5 inches thick for the ends, 
measuring these distances so that the chalk line is 
in the middle. These marks are then connected by 
a regularly curved line, and the outline of the top 
of the yoke is made as at fig. 1. Then lay the stick 
on the side and mark out the hollows for the neck 
3 inches thick at the center between the bows, and 
4. at the end, as at fig. 2. The center is hollowed 
3 inches from the straight line at A. The position 
of the staple and ring depends upon the work for 
which the yoke is to be used; for drawing a wagon 
or cart, the ring should hang low ; for plowing, the 
yoke should not be so deep on the under side, and 
the ring should hang high. The hollow for the 
neck should be marked out by drawiug the line, 1 
(fig. 2), in the center between the bow holes down 
to the lower edge of the yoke ; the line 2, one inch 
nearer the end, and the line 3, half an inch the 
other way from the line 1. The line A, B , is 3 
inches from the top. A pair of dividers is set as 
wide as the bows, and with one foot at 1, a curve 
is marked towards the staple for the under side of 
the hollow; then move to point 3, and make the 
curve for the under side towards the end. Then 
from the point 2 make the curve from the top of 
the yoke to the end for the upper side. The bows 
are shaped as shown in fig. 2,10 inches between the 
insides on the line of the holes; 9 inches at the 
