1884.] 
AMEEIOAS" AGRICULTURIST. 
243 
much can she be made to eat ? Princess 3d “beat 
the record ” as a feeder, as well as a yielder in a 
week’s test. She ate one hundred and forty-two 
pounds, all told, of clover hay, roots, bran, oats, 
Indian and oil-meal daily, in order to make her 
twenty-seven pounds and odd ounces of marketable 
butter. She cost her owner four thousand eight 
hundred dollars, and as such cows are selling now, 
was worth at the beginning of the test, at least 
six thousand dollars. As a race-horse is often dis¬ 
abled in a race, or in training for one, such a test is 
too often fatal to the cow from the after effects. 
In this case, by the mistaken kindness of a visitor 
to the stable, who fed Princess some apples, she 
nearly died during a sharp attack of colic. These 
risks must be taken—guarded against if possible— 
but the results involve the hazard. In regard to 
this cow, her wonderful constitution, and recuper¬ 
ative power, is shown by the fact that the very day 
of the colic, she gave three pounds of butter against 
four and a fraction on preceding and subsequent 
days. Mercedes, the so-called Holstein cow, that 
made that wonderful test last summer, is dead, 
doubtless from indiscrete handling after her test. 
So is Nancy Lee, a famous Jersey cow. 
It is fair to say, their owners sustain a loss of 
hardly less than ten thousand dollars each, and it is 
to guard against such results that these cows 
must be surrounded with every appliance in the 
stable and out of it, that can promote their health 
and comfort, while their attendants must be men 
of great discretion and trustworthiness—fearless 
feeders, but of good judgment. Such men are 
hard to find, and when found are worth good 
wages, and get them. Men in charge of such 
cows, must have their employers’ interests so sin¬ 
cerely at heart, as to be practically incorruptible, 
for there is no telling what temptations may be 
presented to them. It is unsafe for a dishonest 
man to have anything to do with the test of a great 
cow for butter; he is liable to deceive even him¬ 
self, as well as his employer and the public. Such 
a man is quickly found out as a rule, so that on the 
whole, I think there is reason to place full faith in 
the astonishing tests which are now from time re¬ 
ported. There is not one of them so far, which has 
not received and home well, the severest scrutiny. 
Sweet Stables. 
I saw Mary Anne, of St. Lambert, a few weeks 
ago, as it happened, the very day of the completion 
•of the three hundred and ten days, during which 
she has made eight hundred and thirty-eight pounds 
eleven and a quarter ounces of marketable butter, 
and she and her kindred certainly stand in the 
sweetest cow stable I ever was in. It is made so, I 
think, by the daily application of air-slaked lime to 
the floors and passage-ways, in front of, and behind 
the cows, forming a complete coating to those 
parts of the stable, not unlike thick white-wash. 
The floors of the stalls, and the gutters behind 
them, are not thus treated. Just enough dust 
arises from this application, to purify the air, while 
it is otherwise imperceptible, except when the floor 
is swept, or fresh lime scattered on. It seems to 
be an excellent plan. No damage comes to the ma¬ 
nure, for scarcely any lime comes in contact with it. 
When visiting the farms of Messrs. Burnham and 
McCready, famous for the cows of the Coomassie 
family of Jerseys, I saw a barn very well altered 
ovei-. An old bam with its big floor open to the 
ridge pole, and rows of stalls on one or both sides, 
is a cold place for fine cows in full milk, during our 
severe winters. In fact, cows will not stay in fuil 
milk long, no matter how well fed in such a place. 
What is needed is warmth and ventilation. Mr. 
McCready secured this by boarding up the sides of 
the hay bays, and putting a ceiling over the floor, 
allowing plenty of room for a load of hay to be 
driven in. In this ceiling are three doors that will 
slide over one another, to give ventilation, and 
may be easily lifted off when getting in hay. The 
space which they cover is large enough to give 
plenty of room to unload, and the result, with 
double siding, was a most comfortable cow barn, 
tit for twenty-pound Jerseys. The cows were very 
hard to beat, and have kept up their flow of milk 
and yield of butter, as if it had been warm weather. 
The Narrow-Leaved Laurel—Lamb-kill. 
In January last (page 32) we gave a description 
of a plant so poisonous to calves, that in some lo¬ 
calities it is known as “Kill-calf.” Some of our 
correspondents have confounded that shrub (Leu- 
cotlioe racemosa), with another, which has long been 
known as poisonous to sheep, and properly called 
Lamb-kill, and Sheep Laurel. By comparing the 
engraving given in January, with the one here pre¬ 
sented, the differences between the two shrubs will 
be seen at a glance. The Lamb-kill is Kalmia an- 
gustifolia, and belongs to the same genus with the 
showy Mountain Laurel {K. latifolia), but is a 
much smaller shrub, rarely growing over two feet 
high. It has a wide range, being common on hill¬ 
sides, and in rocky pastures, from Canada to the 
Carolinas. Its long, narrow leaves are opposite, or 
in threes, whitish on the lower surface, and pale- 
green above; the flowers are light-crimson or pur¬ 
plish, and of about the size shown in the engrav¬ 
ing. The experiments of Doct. Thomas F. Wood, 
of North Carolina, given in the American Agricul¬ 
turist in January, 1883, show that the plant is de¬ 
cidedly poisonous to sheep, but the animal with 
which he experimented would not eat it voluntar¬ 
ily. His observations were made in autumn, when 
the conditions are quite different from those in 
spring, the time sheep are usually poisoned. After 
having had only dry food all winter, they are at¬ 
tracted by the evergreen legyes of the plant, often 
the only green thing to be seen, and at that time 
eat enough to poison them, though they may avoid 
them later, when green food is abundant. Warm 
milk and molasses given in sufficient quantities to 
cause vomiting, is the usual remedy. This Laurel 
is suspected of yielding poisonous honey; this is a 
point that bee-keepers should investigate. It seems 
to be well established that the honey of some re¬ 
lated plants produces narcotic effects, and if that 
afforded by this species is also poisonous, it will 
furnish another reason for destroying it. 
The Sportsman in Camp. 
r.OBEBT BARNWELI, ROOSEVELT. 
A stove is a convenient thing to have, but not an 
easy one to carry, if it is not too heavy and does not 
occupy too much room it is sure to be too dirty af¬ 
ter it has once been used. A makeshift can be ex¬ 
temporized wherever flat stones can be had, and 
will be found infinitely preferable to the ordinary 
open fire. All that the traveller will have to carry 
with him, will be two lengths of common .stove¬ 
pipe, the rest is built at the camping ground, and 
can be erected in so short a time that the trouble 
of moving house will not be serious. Having se¬ 
lected the flat stones, lay them up in the shape of a 
horse-shoe, the sides being about three feet long, 
and about nine inches apart inside, that is, the fire 
place will be nine inches wide, or more if desirable. 
At the further end, the bend of the horse-shoe, the 
pipe is inserted; it can be held in place by wires to 
neighboring trees, and a stone placed on top will 
serve as a damper. All chinks between the stones 
have to be well filled with clay or mud, or earth 
banked up against the outside, or what is better 
yet, the entire affair can be lowered by having a 
place dug for it. Large flat stones must then be 
laid over the top and the work is done. One trial 
will make any person an adept in building it, and it 
will be found a luxury, that to appreciate, needs 
only to be tried. This stove can be erected within 
the tent, if the trench is dug to the outfside and 
covered with boards, and if there is a hole in the 
top for the escape of smoke ; instead of stones 
sheet-iron may be used for the stove cover. 
The angler will often on his lucky days take 
more fish than he can turn to account, but which 
he will probably find use for before his trip is over. 
These can be salted, and of a morning nothing is 
better than a salted lake trout or blue-fish. Those 
who have only eaten cod and mackerel, do not know 
what a salt fish is. Split them, and cut off the 
head and tail and take out the back bones, bones 
do no special harm, and are excellent things to buy 
at twenty cents a pound for the good of trade, but 
when you are doing your own curing it is as well 
to leave them out, or keep a separate place for 
them. Pack the fish, cut to a proper size, in a half 
barrel or pail, flesh side down, so that whatever of 
dirt may be in the salt will not get into them, but 
will remain on the skin. Upon each layer of fish, 
lay a thin layer of salt, rock salt will answer, or 
common table salt can be used. Proceed in this 
j way until the fish are all in,or the receptacle is filled, 
taking care to put enough salt on top to prevent 
its melting off when it turns to brine and leaving 
the fish bare so that they will spoil. That is the 
only risk in tlie operation; put down in this man¬ 
ner, they will keep in the hottest weather for weeks. 
Where the sportsmen intend to remain in one 
place, the most convenient way of living will be to 
put up a regular house, either purchased ready to 
set up with a few boits, or built by the party out of 
boards taken for the purpose, if any one is suffi¬ 
ciently skilled in carpentry to direct. Doors and 
windows are a luxury, although the open tent’ is 
considered by some as the more healthy. The 
“Hoffmire” house, as it is called, is admirably 
adapted for transportation, and is constructed by 
persons well acquainted with the necessities of 
woodsmen. Such extravagances are the exception, 
not the rule of “ summering ” in the wilderness, 
and it is our general fate to be without them. We 
must sleep in the tent, must cook at the open fire, 
fight mosquitoes and black flies as well as we can, 
without nets to keep them out, must endure wet 
and cold, and learn to rough it and have a good 
time with the aid of our own resources. Among 
the principal of these will be a knowledge 
of some of the simplest rules of the cuisine. 
