528 
AMEEIOA]sr AGKIOULTUEIST. 
[Decembee. 
A New Departure in Mule-Raising. 
An industry that heretofore has not attraeted 
the attention in the trans Mississippi States its 
prospective profitableness would justify, but which 
of late has gradually been coming into favorable 
notice, is that of mule-raising. The ease with 
which mules can be reared, owing to their hardi¬ 
ness, is greatly in their favor. They can live, if 
not thrive, on the scant or coarse food that will 
maintain a mountain goat, while performing the 
year round an amount of drudgery really astonish¬ 
ing. These qualities are likely, in the future, to 
bring mules into a 
prominence which 
they have not here¬ 
tofore enjoyed. 
Stockmen, noting 
the prices quoted 
from day to day in 
Kansas City, St. 
Louis, and other 
markets, for young 
mules, and the con¬ 
stant demand always 
greater than the sup¬ 
ply, are arguing 
to themselves with 
much cogency that 
there is money in 
mules, and propose 
to have some of it. 
One basis of their 
calculation is, thav. 
the cost of raising a 
mule or a steer to 
the age of one or 
three years, is about 
the same ; that at ruling prices a yearling steer is 
worth thirty dollars, and a three-year old steer sixty 
dollars, while, the yearling mule, if a reasonably 
good one, (of as good breeding as the grade steer), 
will command sixty to seventy-five dollars, and the 
three-year-old from one hundred to one hundred 
and thirty-five dollars. In other words, if the profits 
on rearing the steer are from fifteen to twenty-five 
per cent, the profits on the young mule, of but little 
greater cost, will be from thirty to forty-five per cent. 
As the outgrowth of such thinking and calcula¬ 
tion, a considerable number of farms are being 
stocked with the best class of low-priced mares 
obtainable, (mainly from Colorado and northern 
Texas), and these will be bred to superior jacks 
from Spain, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, 
On this account the trade in jacks is becoming 
greater than ever before known in the West, and 
some establishments are making a specialty of the 
importation, rearing and supply of jacks. The 
demand during the past year has been very active, 
and greater than the supply, at prices ranging 
from five hundred to one thousand dollars, and 
Fig. 1.—“ WIGWAM ” FOR PIGS. 
even as high as fifteen hundred dollars each. 
To start in the business of rearing mules re¬ 
quires relatively more capital than to begin rearing 
a like number of cattle, that is for the original 
stock ; but for land, fixtures, feed, labor and 
taxes, the expenses will not essentially differ or 
will the per cent of increase; in fact, many think the 
probabilities in this respect are in favor of the 
mules, owing to their being less susceptible to 
diseases, and to the fact, as one writer states it, 
that “ the mule comes to stay, and after he has 
once stood upon his feet and sucked, nothing 
short of a Gatling gun, a howitzer, or a stroke of 
lightning can upset him.” The indications are 
that the better the mule is known the more will he 
be respected, and the higher the appreciation 
of his long-suffering patience and modest worth. 
Why Capons? 
Where there are many young cockerels which 
are to be sold, it will pay better to make capons of 
them, for the simple reason that capons not only 
attain a much larger .size, but the flesh is far more 
desirable and palatable, while the price is greatly 
enhanced, frequently doubled. The demand for 
capons is much ahead of the supply, and likely to 
be so for a long while to come. A number of 
breeders of thoroughbred fowls, now make capons 
of all the cockerels which are not pure enough for 
breeding stock, and they would not continue to do 
so if it did not pay. It would take much space to 
describe the method of eaponizing. Those who 
sell eaponizing instnimeuts, send full printed and 
illustrated directions for using them. One who 
is familiar with instruments, can soon learn how 
to use these successfully, and the percentage 
of loss will be but small. It is generally best 
to operate on a few dead birds, using those 
killed for the table. When the anatomy of the 
fowl is well understood, living specimens can be 
caponlzed with a reasonable assurance of success. 
How to Prevent Milk-Fever. 
One of the remarkable and frequently fatal ail¬ 
ments of cows is milk-fever. No closely related 
disease is known among other animals. It occurs 
at calving time, hence is called puerperal fever, 
which is really a human ailment. It is also 
called parturient fever, which means about the 
same thing, but is more correctly applied to ani¬ 
mals as being a fever occurring at the time of 
bringing forth young. Milk-fever in cows is a 
parturient fever associated with apoplexy. It rarely 
or never—so far as we know—attacks heifers with 
their first calves, and rarely occurs before the third 
calving. It happens usually in summer, and rarely 
in cold or cool weather. It comes on before the 
flow of milk is established, and is supposed to re¬ 
sult from the blood, which for months had flowed 
for the nourishment of the calf, not readily taking 
the course to the udder, where it would be indi¬ 
rectly elaborated into milk, but being thrown back, 
so to speak, upon the vital parts, causing general 
disturbance and high fever with a determination to 
the brain. It very rarely attacks cows which are 
simply great milkers. Its victims are rich milkers 
—butter yielders. Cures are rare when the attack 
is in summer. They are effected by the exhibition 
of active purgatives with stimulants, “ salts” with 
ginger and ale, with bags of broken ice upon the 
head and applied along the course of the spine. 
It is surprising that breeders of discretion, 
knowing the danger they run every time a great 
butter cow calves, should ever be willing to have 
them “ come in ” in hot weather. We believe that 
three simple practices will almost do away with the 
danger that milk-fever may take off our noblest 
cows. The milking of the cows up to calving— 
even though the milk be worthless for the last 
fortnight, except for pigs. (It is not necessary to 
milk clean out, or every day at the last, but 
simply to keep the udder coustantly in a condition 
to make milk). Make sure that either by bran, 
roots, fresh grass, or other succulent food, or by 
medicine (oil or salts), the system is relaxed and 
cool. See to it that the cow calves in cool weather. 
Perhaps there have 
been great butter 
cows, milked up to 
calving, which died 
of milk-fever, but we 
have yet to know of 
one. This long milk¬ 
ing is no serious det¬ 
riment to the cow. 
After danger is over 
she quickly recuper¬ 
ates, and with good 
food will soon yield 
as much as ever. 
The calf is the chief 
sufferer, as its nu¬ 
triment is decreased. 
Still there is plenty 
of room in the world 
for it to grow,and no 
one need fear even 
that a little “ runty” 
calf, if healthy, will 
not make a good 
sized cow, if it has 
suitable feed and proper care, if it do not,^in¬ 
deed, grow to be a large one, as is often the case. 
Keep the Pigs Warm. 
As has been shown in recent articles, warmth is 
essential to keep swine growing, or to have the 
food increase their weight during cold weather. 
“Anything is better than nothing,” in this case 
surely. Mr. Jesse Cowen, Vernon Co., Wls., sends 
us a sketch and writes : “ Having tried many plans 
for keeping hogs comfortable in cold weather, we 
have struck on no other one so cheap and effec¬ 
tive as this. Set a lot of rails or poles in the 
ground, deep enough to hold them steady, with 
the upper ends brought together like a wigwam 
skeleton, figure 1. Then pitch on straw all around 
them a foot deep, and throw on soil enough to keep 
out the cold, leaving on the south, or sunny side, an 
opening, figure 2, large enough for the swine to go 
out and in, and for ventilation. Try it; it will save 
feed and put money in the owner’s pocket from the 
day it is completed.” March, and even April, are 
Fig. 2.— “wigwam” completed. 
cold enough in many latitudes to make the build¬ 
ing of such inexpensive protectors highly useful. 
What to do with the Cabbages. —If you can 
sell them so as to net one-fourth to one-half cent 
per pound on the farm, let them go. If not, feed 
them out to the cows, sheep, or pigs. Better bury 
them and keep them until spring; you may get a 
larger price, and at any rate the milch cows, or 
ewes and lambs will turn them to good account. 
A correspondent in Pennsylvania says he can get 
only a cent and a half a head. We cannot tell 
what they are worth to feed out, because we do not 
know the weight. They are worth at least five 
dollars to eight dollars per ton when properly fed. 
