300 
AMERICAN - AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
by treading out with horses, with the flail, or 
the thrashing machine. It is frequently thrashed 
in the field, by making a bed of cleanly swept 
ground and beating the swept surface as hard as 
possible with a rammer made of plank. The gavels 
are placed in a circle, upon the bed thus prepared, 
the heads towards the center, and to a depth of two 
feet. A pair of horses are ridden around over the 
bed until the straw is freed from the grain ; when 
it is removed and a new bed is laid down. When 
the whole has been thus trampled out, the straw is 
raked off, the fanning mill is brought out, aud the 
grain cleaned up at once. When the grain has been 
cleaned, it cannot be safely put away until it has 
been well dried, or it will heat and spoil. It should 
be spread upon a dry floor in an airy shed or barn, 
and turned over repeatedly until it is dry, and then 
it may be stored in bins or in the granary. A dry, 
breezy day should be chosen for the thrashing. If 
the thrashing machine is used, the concave should 
be removed, and a piece of smooth plank put in its 
place, else much of the grain will be broken and 
lost. If the straw is at all damp, it should be fed 
into the machine slowly, otherwise it is apt to wind 
around the cylinder and give trouble. The grain 
should be cleaned from the chaff soon after 
thrashing, as there is much danger of heating and 
moulding, by which the quality and yield of the 
flour will be greatly lessened. The first buckwheat 
flour in the market brings the best price, and it is 
not unusual for the price to fall one half in a few 
days, after the first demand for new flour has been 
met. It is a crop to dispose of as soon as possible, 
at least as regards that portion intended for sale. 
When taken to the mill for grinding, a dry windy 
day should be chosen, as the best quality of flour 
can be made only in such weather; indeed, few 
millers will grind this grain, unless obliged to do 
so, in any other weather than that described. 
Among the Farmers.—No. 43. 
BY ONE OP THEM. 
Injury to Cows by allowing: Calves to Suck. 
There is no truer thing in my experience, and I 
believe in that of hundreds of others, than that al¬ 
lowing a calf to suck is an injury to the cow. This 
injury is more or less permanent according to how 
long it is continued, and doubtless depends largely 
upon the vigor and digestive powers of the calf 
and the quantity of milk given by the dam. The 
udder of a young cow, thus treated in the full flush 
of her yield, loses capacity to hold a large “ mess ” 
of milk, if it ever had it, aud older cows becoming 
accustomed to the steady lialf-liourly drafts of the 
calf, fall off in their yield rapidly after the calf is 
sent to the market. Calves, it is true, usually fat¬ 
ten better on the cow than as fed, in general prac¬ 
tice in this country, but our practice is certainly 
wrong, and I am by no means sure a calf may not 
be just as well fattened off, as “on the cow.” In 
fact I have once or twice fattened a calf so well 
“on the pail,” that the butcher complimented the 
veal, saying that any one could see that that was no 
skim-milk calf, whereas, after the first three days 
of its life, it had had no milk which was not 
skimmed. The loss of cream was made up to the 
calf by as much scalded linseed-meal cake as was 
judged good for it, and it always had a wisp of 
sweet hay, or bite of grass in its season, to nibble 
upon. All calves are not alike in this respect, but 
where milk is the principal thing, veal is secondary, 
and so we are willing to sacrifice something of the 
excellence of the veal to the good of the dam. 
When a deep-milking cow has two calves put 
upon her, their thrift will often indicate an enor¬ 
mous milk secretion. I presume no harm comes 
from such practice, commenced after a cow is four 
or five years old, but thousands of good heifers are 
spoiled every year because, not being pleasant to 
milk, their calves are left to run with them. Their 
udders never becoming distended, they lack capac¬ 
ity to carry their milk from one milking to another, 
and when their calves are taken away, not only do 
the teats leak, but the discomfort caused by the 
unusual distention of the udder results in a de¬ 
crease of yield. Whereas, had the distention oc¬ 
curred when the whole system was in the plastic 
condition in which it is just after calving, when the 
udder is naturally swollen and more or less painful, 
it would have become for life adapted to the cir¬ 
cumstances and would be of increased capacity. 
A very sensible article is going the rounds of the 
papers, showing that it is just because wild cows 
have their calves running with them that they never 
give much milk. It seems folly for farmers who 
want milk to follow the course, which they can see 
in nature produces just such results as they do not 
want. See how it is with mares. I was surprised 
to find that a good mare gave 14 quarts of milk in 
a day, and yet most mares will sustain in good or¬ 
der a larger auimal than a big calf, and one which 
grows much faster. This fourteen quarts of milk 
was given when the colt was weaued. What, is it 
fair to assume, was given by the mare during the 
period soon after foaling, the time when cows yield 
most? In cows, of course the decrease of milk is 
not observed until the system of milking twice a 
day is adopted. So long as the calf takes its ra¬ 
tions as often as it can digest what it takes, the flow 
keeps up—but it renders the cow more or less inca¬ 
pable of carrying the milk produced, and of pro¬ 
ducing more than she can comfortably carry. 
Feeding: Calves from the Pail. 
The desirableness, therefore, of promptly remov¬ 
ing the calf from the cow is apparent. It is in fact 
demanded by every motive of economy. A calf is 
easily taught to drink, and will empty a pail of milk 
in a very short time. The usual practice is to leave 
the calf with the cow three days, and then remove 
it, because the milk may then be used. It is better 
never to let the calf suck, unless the condition of 
the udder be such that the butting aud, so to speak, 
manipulation, of a hungry calf, are needed to re¬ 
duce swellings and cakey masses within the udder. 
The system of allowing calves to drink from the 
pail is an evil one in every respect, except merely 
that it is better for the cow that they should drink 
rather than suck her. The practice of feeding 
calves, by means of what is termed a “calf feed¬ 
er,” is a growing one in England. This is a pail 
arranged with a close fitting top and a rubber teat 
upon the top of it, which is connected with a tube 
having a simple valve at the lower end, which lies 
or is fastened in the bottom of the pail. I put this 
apparatus (shown in section in figure 1) in use this 
year, getting up one for a neighbor who was 
unfamiliar with its construction, aud the results 
have been most satisfactory. 
The objection to a calf drinking from a pail is, 
that by this means no saliva of any account is 
mingled with the milk. The effect of this fluid in 
aiding digestion is well known, and it is a fact, also 
well known by every farmer, that calves fatten much 
more rapidly, and bet¬ 
ter, as a rule, upon the 
cow than upon the pail, 
even if they get a pail¬ 
ful of new milk fresh 
and warm from their 
dams morning and 
night. A good many 
calves become “ pot¬ 
bellied’’from drinking 
rapidly, and I have no 
A CALI_FEEDEK - doubt are thus per¬ 
manently dwarfed. I am by no means certain 
that skimmed milk taken slowly by the operation of 
sucking, will not prove of more real benefit to a 
calf than whole milk drank rapidly. In the home¬ 
made calf-feeder above alluded to, the contraction 
of the larger tube is effected by placing, for a short 
distance, a small one inside of it. This secures 
slowness of flow, and enforces sucking and mouth¬ 
ing necessary to a flow of saliva. 
Permanent Label and Halter for Cows. 
A few weeks ago Mr. J. P. Haines, of Cranmoor, 
N. J., showed me a necklace for cows which he 
finds so convenient that he has adopted it for his 
entire herd, and had his stables built with reference 
to it. To me the plan has much to recommend it. 
Strong galvanized-iron' twisted-linked chain is cut 
into suitable lengths to go easily around the necks 
of the cows—in fact of all cattle which are to re¬ 
main permanently in the herd, the chains being of 
These are bound with 
leather being tightly 
drawn around the links. 
Brass plates, like heavy 
trunk checks, (of which 
I send you a sketch), 
are provided also—and 
the Scandinavian locks 
now so common, are 
found to be just the 
things to carry the label 
and lock the ends of the 
chain strongly together. 
This neck gear, (shown 
in figure 2,) when once 
put upon a yearling r 
need never be changed, 
unless she grows be¬ 
yond all expectation, 
and then it is easily 
changed. The cattle 
are fastened in the 
stable by means of the 
common frog and loose 
ring fastening, running 
upon an iron rod. The leather is not worn by the 
fastening, which always rests upon the bare links 
and padlock. When iron rods are used there is a 
good deal of noise in the stable. For my own 
part I should decidedly prefer wooden upright rods 
or posts upon which the stable fastening should run. 
The label has stamped upon it: “ Cranmoor Herd, 
No. —, J. P. Haines ; ” it is, as seen in the engrav¬ 
ing, of oval form, and measures 2K by IK inches. 
Grades or Cross-bred Fowls. 
I have not been able of late to give much atten¬ 
tion to fowls, in fact never have found very much 
profit in raising pure-bred ones. At one time, how¬ 
ever, our Light Brahmas were very good, and we 
could sell all that we thought were fit to go as 
breeders at $3 to $5 each—which certainly was 
profitable. The fancy breeds need much attention 
or they run down. Several yards must be kept or 
one finds suddenly that some cross has “knicked ” 
badly, and he has a lot of unsalable fowls, which are 
no better than dunghills for use or for market, if 
indeed as good. Of late years we have always had 
full-blooded cocks, and also a few pure hens 
of their breed, but sometimes none, so that our 
chicks have all been grades. We find that for har¬ 
dy chicks, good motherly hens, and real satisfac¬ 
tion in fowl-keeping—pleasure in seeing the young 
ones grow—and the gratification of having always 
an abundance of fresh eggs, there is no system like 
it. We have used in succession, Light Brahma 
cocks, White Leghorns, Dorkings, aud Plymouth 
Rocks. These last we have had for two years, and 
have them booked for the third. Chicks never 
seemed hardier—never grew more rapidly. We 
have never had steadier layers, better setters, more 
gentle, quiet, careful mothers, and this without 
noise, without fighting, without flying over fences, 
or any other annoyance. I do not think that they 
lay as many eggs as the Leghorns, but they surpass 
the Dorkings greatly as layers, equal the Brahmas 
as winter layers, are yellow-fleshed, make large, 
quick growing, juicy broilers and roasting birds. 
The grade Plymouths, in the same brood with pure 
Asiatics, surpass them in growth and early maturi¬ 
ty, and they weigh more at any time before they 
are 9 or 10 months, or perhaps a year old. After 
that, the Asiatic breeds, if they do well, will grow 
larger because they grow longer. As to ease of 
keeping, I can not say exactly how much or little 
they will eat, but when not layiug or sitting, they 
are always in condition for the table. I refer to 
grade and cross-breds with particularly well marked 
Plymouth characteristics. If a cross-bred takes 
after the other breed, whatever it may be, as some 
of them will, they are counted as mongrels, and 
not as Plymouth Rock grades. The progeny of 
the grades show the P. R. cross very strongly. 
When to Cut Fence Posts. —“Experience 
teaches.” It is difficult to prove by argument why 
fence posts or timber cut for other purposes, in 
August, will be more durable than if cut at any 
other season. But it is well known to many who 
different lengths to suit, 
leather, hand-sewed, the 
Fig. 2.— A HALTER FOR 
cows. 
