1884 .] 
AMEEiOAIf AGEIOUETUEIST. 
543 
Among the Farmers. 
Hew Series.—Ho. 8. 
BT ONE OF THEM. 
One of my good neighbors has a small family of 
excellent cows which he has bred for four or five 
generations. They have been the especial care of 
an old farm hand whose heart would have been 
broken if he had been supplanted by another. The 
old man died, and the milk began to increase. 
The cows had very little ground feed at any time, 
but have been tethered on a piece of fine mixed 
grass and clover, Ihe latter predominating, and at 
night were fed cut clover or corn fodder. The 
increase amounted to four to six quarts a day from 
three cows, none of which were fresh. There was 
no change in the feed, at least no essential change; 
but every thing now goes on like clock work. 
They are milked at the same hour, watered regu¬ 
larly, turned out and brought in on the minute, 
and the result is what I have stated. It is rare that 
one has so complete a demonstration of a fact 
which we all know, but to which we rarely give 
sufficient heed. A cow giving milk offers thus a 
means of ascertaining the effect of regularity and 
care by its increased flow. This can be conveniently 
measured and is almost sure to attract notice. 
Good results of the same kind follow a similar 
system of regularity and good care in feeding and 
watering horses, but we have no such measure. 
I have often noticed, however, both with my 
own and my neighbor’s horses, the effect of a 
change of hands. Poor grooming and irregularity 
will pull down a horse very fast, while, with 
exactly the same feed, good grooming and regu¬ 
larity will bring a horse rapidly into condition. 
Who of us has not experienced the effect <jf 
irregularities of living ? Many a man if he goes 
two hours beyond his regular meal time without 
eating something, will have a headache. Some 
persons, if deprived of rest or of their usual 
beverages, for example, coffee for breakfast, have 
their enjoyment of life seriously interfered with. 
No doubt similar causes produce similar results 
with our domestic animals, and as good digestion 
waits on placidity and quietude, and as milk, flesh 
and condition depend primarily on good digestion, 
breeders and feeders ought especially to study the 
conditions which contribute to these results. 
Getting Horses into Condition. 
“Condition” in horses is not fat—far from it— 
it is hard, tough, elastic muscle, which may be 
actively worked without tiring the horse, without 
sweating, and without exhaustion of the vital 
forces, unless the exercise is utterly excessive. A 
horse out of condition is exhausted by a half mile 
or a mile trot, comes in puffing and breaks out in 
a sweat, while one in condition returns all the 
fresher in appearance for having his blood stirred. 
What makes the difference ? Proper feeding, good 
grooming and regular work or exercise, and 
enough of it. All exercise tires the muscles brought 
into play—a tired muscle needs feeding. The feed 
for the muscle is digested food. After any muscle 
has been taxed it is for some time in a condition to 
appropriate from the blood the proper elements to 
buUd itself up and increase its strength. When a 
horse is fed immediately before labor, the food re¬ 
mains undigested until labor ceases, and then is 
liable to do harm. All horsemen know that a horse 
should not have a feed of grain when warm or 
until he has cooled off, yet when they start a horse 
off to any kind of hard work or road work before 
his food has time to digest he is liable to be 
injured by it. After labor, as soon as a horse 
cools off and is rested, the blood, which the use of 
the muscles drew to the extremities, returns and 
is ready to take active part in the work of diges¬ 
tion. Then is the time to feed. 
To get a horse rapidly into condition, he should 
be well worked or exercised according to his 
strength ; when brought in, vigorously rubbed off 
■and down, and when dry, cool and rested, fed. 
His food should be good hay when Ms appetite is 
sharpest, followed by grain (oats) which in quality 
should be unexceptionable, and in quantity gauged 
according to the work he does. Pat will sweat off, 
muscle will not. A fat horse is liable to indiges¬ 
tion, sun-stroke, cold, flatulence (colic), and ever 
so many other ills, which a horse in condition is not 
only free from, but if properly fed, and cleaned, 
and worked, is not liable to get. It is usually poor 
economy to reduce either food or exercise. 
Connecticut Farming. 
I took a run up into Litchfield Co., Connecticut, 
a few days ago. It is always a pleasure, though an 
aggravation, to be whirled by rail through a well- 
tilled country. One gets a series of dissolving 
views of the farming—I wish they could be photo¬ 
graphed. The waste lands held by speculators 
near the city soon gave place to land occupied by 
lawns and pastures, and the surroundings of the 
country places of business men and gentlemen 
from town. Then came the farms—com, cabbage 
and onion fields, alternating or more or less ming¬ 
ling with the villas. The onion fields are a marvel 
of cleanly culture. Clean cultivation has involved 
much labor this year. Weeds have sprung up and 
grown on farms which are usually nearly free 
from them. I see every day cornfields, which by 
reason of the wet season, have grown more weeds 
than corn; in fact, some in which the corn has 
been choked out. Not so among the onion raisers; 
even the corn and potato fields were clean. On 
some of the fields the onions still lay in windrows, 
but where they were harvested the land had been 
smoothed off, leveled and rolled flat or plowed in 
ridges, and so left for the winter. Then we came 
into the proper milk district, where the pastures 
are not over-stocked and the cows were making a 
business of eating grass, with good roomy bams 
behind them, not taking exercise for a few hours, 
when let out of the swill-milk stables, or the sheds 
where brewer’s grains are their chief food. And 
so gradually we are whirled away where real 
country scenes alternate with busy towns and 
manufacturing villages, a few dignified with the 
name of city—absurdly enough in some cases. 
The farmers are happy in having markets at their 
very doors for nearly all they can raise upon their 
land, and their surplus is greedily sought after for 
the great city a hundred miles, more or less, away. 
Ox Teams. 
Here we come to the region of ox teams At a 
little Litchfield County Fair, a few days ago, the 
combined “string” numbered two hundred and 
thirty yokes. Almost all high-grade Devons, deep 
red with broad white horns, broad loins, deep 
bodies, a beautiful sight which I was just too late 
to see. I greatly enjoy fine, well-broken cattle, 
and as part of my errand was to buy a pair, I saw 
several noble teams, all Devons, and so well broken 
and gentle that I think they could have been 
driven with a com stalk, an umbrella, or a rye 
straw as well as with a ten-foot “gad.” I . found 
what I wanted, and was even more successful than 
I had hoped to be. I am a great admirer of 
Devon oxen, and think them the best in the world 
for ordinary use. True, the cross of Devon and 
Shorthorn are much heavier, proportionately 
slower and more powerful, and are very handsome; 
the Herefords and their grades and crosses are 
magnificent, but also heavier than Devons and 
have slower gaits and much less spirit and vivacity. 
On my way home I fell in with an old friend, a 
farmer of West Hartford, and an old Jersey 
breeder. As I carried a long ox-whip our talk 
naturally was about oxen of various kinds. 
Jersey Oxen. 
My friend praised Jersey oxen to the skies. He 
has used them for years, and finds them docile, 
easy to match, strong for their weight, heavy 
enough, good workers and handlers, and quick 
feeders as beef cattle. I have occasionally seen a 
pair and cannot dispute him. We shall probably 
soon see more Jersey oxen, for the ten-dollar fee 
imposed by the Jersey Cattle Club for the regis- 
tratiou of bulls, will not only cause considera¬ 
ble full-blooded Jersey veal and beef to come 
to market, but Jersey oxen will not be rare. 
TTseful in Every Stable. 
Every farmer should be able to administer a 
clyster easily and promptly. The old-fashioned 
syringe is objectionable on many accounts. The 
best apparatus is a tin pipe a foot long, with a knob 
of solder on one end, to prevent injury to the deli¬ 
cate membrane. This is attached to et rubber tube 
three or four feet long, which fits upon the spout 
of a large tin funnel. The water or other fluid is 
poured into the funnel, and when it is held up 
high the pressure is sufficient to cause the dis¬ 
APPABATUS POB A OLTSTEE. 
charge of its contents. It is rather awkward to 
hold the funnel up, and there is danger of its con¬ 
tents being wasted. This may be remedied by 
punching three holes in the edge of the funnel, 
putting in wire rings, tying strings to these, to 
unite in a single cord, which passes over a hook, 
secured into a beam overhead, as shown in the 
engraving. By drawing the cord, the funnel may 
be raised or lowered at will. It is well for far¬ 
mers to bear in mind the fact, that probably 
more horses die of flatulent colic than of any 
other disease, and that the prompt and free use of 
water, given asan injection, is, we believe, a certain 
cure. Three or four quarts of water is usually 
sufficient to give free vent to the imprisoned wind. 
A Convenient Assorting Table. 
An ingenious home-made apparatus, for assort¬ 
ing oranges, apples and other round fruit, into 
lots of uniform size, is shown in the engraving. It 
consists of a board, a, four feet long and eight inches 
wide, with a slit sawed nearly the whole length, 
four inches wide at the lower end, and narrowing to 
two inches at the upper end. This assorting device 
is provided with four legs as supports, two being 
AN ASSOBTING TABLE. 
short in order to give it the proper inclination. 
The fruit to be assorted is placed on the board at 
the upper end, and rolls downward until the open- 
is large enough to allow it to pass into the basket 
beneath. To obtain a particular size, dividing 
boards, &, 6, are placed at any point desired in the 
slit. Two, three, four or more sizes may be ob¬ 
tained as readily as one. The accuracy and rapidity 
with which assorting is done with this table is 
surprising. An inclined table, with ledges on the 
sides, is convenient in preparing gooseberries, 
cranberries, etc., for market. The fruit being 
poured upon the upper end of the table, will 
roll down, leaving sticks, leaves, etc., behind. 
