AMERICAN AGKRIOULTURIST. 
55 
18 W.] 
They are satisfied with even less fruit than he wil¬ 
lingly devotes to them, and altogether they are a 
joy and a blessing to him. Well—if he can civilize 
and mollify this barbarous immigrant from the 
Old World’s civilization, we may hope even for the 
regeneration of the slums of New York. Flocks 
of a hundred in the buckwheat fields were not un¬ 
common last fall. Soon, I presume, we shall be 
netting them by the hundred at a cast, during the 
autumn, and there is one satisfaction connected 
with them, they are at that season as fat as balls of 
butter, and are said to be excellent eating, and 
nearly equal to reed or rice-birds. If all mankind 
are mistaken in supposing that they drive away 
other birds, we shall all be delighted, and give due 
honor to the discoverer of the fact. At all events, 
that they eat rose-bugs is sufficient to make any 
one regard them with friendly feelings, at least in 
June. For two years now we have had 
A Fair Crop of Grapes. 
A fact that I attribute solely to the absence of the 
rose-bugs. Some of the entomological people 
must have investigated the parasites of this insect, 
I think, but I have seen nothing published about 
it. The sudden disappearance of insect pests, 
when accounted for, is usually, perhaps always, 
found to be due to the attacks of some parasitic 
insect, which propagates itself in the body of the 
perfect insect, in the larva, or pupa, or which actu¬ 
ally attacks and devours the pest in one or the 
other of its three forms of life, after it leaves the 
egg. If I knew this little benefactor, I would 
plant one grape vine in its honor, if not an acre of 
vineyard. 
Dairy Shows. 
Our Dairy Show at the Centennial was, by all ac¬ 
counts, as near a failure as mismanagement could 
make it, but the London Dairy Show at the Alex¬ 
andra palace was a great success. Is it not worth 
while for our dairy people to make a move soon to 
have a June show of dairy products, processes, 
milch cows, and other milch animals, goats at least. 
I have spoken about it to a number of gentlemen 
interested in dairy matters, and find great unanim¬ 
ity in their wish that some such thing might take 
place. The American Dairymen’s Association is 
really the fittest body to originate the movement 
and carry it forward. 
Feeding Corn Stalks. 
I have never, until now, been able to account for 
the different values various practical people put 
upon corn stalks. True, there is a great difference 
in different kinds of corn, in the way it is fed, etc., 
but after all, the great variation in value is caused 
by its dryness. That which is cured somewhat 
moist, even if more or less moldy, is greatly pre¬ 
ferred by the cattle, to hard, dry, brittle stuff, 
which has lost almost all of its flavor, and doubt¬ 
less a good deal of its nutritive qualities. Simply 
sprinkling the portions of stalks to be fed next, so 
that they will have a few hours to absorb the water, 
helps a great deal, but still it is not at all like having 
naturally moist fodder. If the water used to soften 
the stalks be salted, and flavored with a few hand¬ 
fuls of bran, this will make a great difference. No 
doubt the best plan to feed corn fodder, is to cut 
and steam it, with such additions of roots, bran, 
cotton-seed meal, etc., as are desirable. Few can 
do this; many, however, follow what is perhaps the 
next best plan—to cut the corn-fodder, and mix it 
with bran, then to pour scalding water in abund¬ 
ance over the mass, and cover it up with rubber 
sheets, or rubber army biankets, or place it in a 
box with a close lid, so that it shall have a good 
soaking and “ sweating.” In whatever way it is fed, 
it should be cut—the finer the better; but even if 
it be cut in foot lengths, every farmer will find his 
account in it. A large part of dry-fed stalks is re¬ 
jected, and gets into the manure, where it is a great 
nuisance, first in getting it out, and then in clean 
culture. Those of us who can not afford to cut our 
corn-fodder fine, to have it “chaffed,” as the Eng¬ 
lish say—can at least be tidy enough to have it cut 
in six-inch lengths with a broad ax or a hatchet. 
Reversion.—“ Freaks of Nature.” 
A farmer showed me a curious instance of what 
he termed a “freak of nature”—as if nature had 
freaks. He had allowed a pure white Musk drake 
to run with some Aylesbury ducks, which had, of 
course, no colored feathers in them. The progeny 
were the most piebald, and the ring-streaked-and- 
speckled-est flock of “ mongrels ” that I ever saw. 
The cross brought out the hidden color, and was as 
clear a demonstration, as one needs to have, of the 
fact that there were black or colored ancestry on 
one or both sides. In quite a similar way we get 
sometimes most unexpected results in breeding— 
not freaks of nature—but according to laws which 
perhaps we do not always understand, and which 
form a most important subject of study. Is there 
a college in the land, agricultural or other, that has 
as yet an established chair of “ Zootechny ? ” The 
principal European schools are establishing such 
professorships, to teach the laws of life and of 
breeding. What is more important, practically, to 
our country ? The live stock interest is the most 
important one connected with our agriculture. The 
sale of raw products is directly exhausting to the 
land. The sale of beef, mutton, wool, horses, and 
pork, indirectly so, but vastly less so. And the 
arts of propagating fish, oysters, and everything up 
to Short-horns, are too important to be left to the 
empyrical practice of unscientific men. The field 
seems to me to be as inviting as chemistry was 
fifty years ago, and as little worked. 
Stock for Butter. 
BY CHARLES S. SHARPLESS, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
The time is rapidly approaching when the quality 
of Jersey stock, as determined by the butter yield, 
must be put on record. By the butter, because a 
large yielder of milk may be small of butter, but a 
large yielder of butter can not be small of milk. In 
this view, the most important feature of the herd 
is, the butter quality of the bull. A bull whose 
daughters will yield 7 lbs. of butter (on grass alone) 
at two years old, is good; one whose daughters 
will yield 8 lbs. is better; one whose get will yield 
9lbs., is the best; but one whose daughters will 
yield 10 lbs., is to be classed as “A. 1,” and should 
be secured without regard to color or black points. 
Take three 2-year-old heifers, the get of three dif¬ 
ferent bulls, and place them in the same field, all 
having the same food. One allows the food to pass 
through her, without abstracting either fat for the 
ribs, or butter for the udder ; the second becomes 
fat, while but little butter goes to the udder, hut 
the third inherits a quality that enables her to ab¬ 
stract from the food, not fat for the ribs, but but¬ 
ter for the udder, from 7 to 10 lbs. per week. 
These latter constitute the butter strain; it can ex¬ 
ist in a cow and disappear in her daughter; it can 
be wanting in a cow and appear in her daughter; 
in both cases caused by the quality inherited from 
the sire. Hence the absurdity, without regard to 
quality, of solid color or black points; we must 
have butter first, and fancy points afterwards. 
The opposite course has been productive of the 
many wretched failures everywhere apparent. It 
is in these respects that we see the necessity of re¬ 
liable records of butter yields. The horsemen have 
meetings of 3-year-olds, and 4-year-olds, and the 
opportunity is afforded the public cf timing them. 
As to heifers and cows, we have the statements of 
cow-men and owners, sometimes sworn to before 
Justices of the Peace, as to yields ; some feeding 
grass only, some having 4 to 6 quarts of meal per 
day, some feeding all the meal the cows will eat, 
and some saying nothing about the feed, and none 
ever stating the weight of the animal. 
What we need is, that the American Jersey Cattle 
Club shall select some reliable man, whose farm is 
centrally situated, to whom all Jersey cows com¬ 
peting for a record, shall be sent for trial. That 
all trials should be on grass alone ; that the weight 
of the cow shall be stated, and her yield of butter 
per week shall be published in her Club Record. 
This would tend to the increase, and spread of, 
the best butter animals, and to stop the perpetua¬ 
tion of the indifferent and worthless. It would 
save thousands of dollars, directly and indirectly, 
to the public, and specially to those who are willing 
to, and can economically pay large prices for ani¬ 
mals, if assured of their butter quality. 
I take as a high standard for 2-year-olds, 9 lbs., 
for 3-year-olds, 10j lbs., for 4-year-olds, 12 lbs., for 
5-year-olds, 13 lbs., and for 6-year-olds, 14 lbs., on 
grass alone. I know such animals can be forced 
beyond those yields, and'where larger yields have 
really existed, such forcing has taken place. But 
there can be no comparison so fair, so uniformly 
reliable, and so little calculated to injure the cow, 
as that based on grass alone. There is another 
point, very important, viz : the butter yield, say six 
months after calving. The cow that is a large yielder 
when fresh, but whose yield decreases rapidly, may 
be of less value than one whose yield is smaller at 
first, and falls off but little. A fair proportion to de¬ 
crease in the first six months, would he, say one- 
third, so that a 12 pounder might fall to 8 pounds, 
or a 9 pounder to 6 lbs., in this time. 
The percentage of cream increases rapidly as the 
yield of milk is reduced ; therefore, when the per¬ 
centage of cream is stated, with it should go the 
Lumber of quarts of milk per day. 
Now as to weight; 10 lbs. is as much butter for 
a cow weighing 700 lbs., as 15 lbs. is for one weigh¬ 
ing 1,050 lbs. Jersey cows vary from 700 to 900 lbs., 
there are a few that, no doubt, would weigh 1,000 
pounds. We must ever keep in mind that, other 
things being equal, the 1,000 pound cow will re¬ 
quire more feed than the one weighing 700 lbs., 
perhaps as much more in proportion, as the differ¬ 
ence in weight would indicate. A lengthy, ap¬ 
parently large cow, sometimes will weigh no more 
than one apparently smaller, but with more capa¬ 
cious body. The most economical cows are those 
on short fine legs, with neat heads and necks, but 
with large, full-ribbed, capacious bodies. Such 
have good constitutions, are easy keepers, and re¬ 
cuperate quickly from a reduced condition, and 
such, other things being equal, are the greatest 
butter producejs for a given amount of feed. 
Hoeing Wheat Crops. 
In Europe, the wheat crops are always hoed, 
either by hand or by horse-hoes. There labor is 
cheap, and the hand-hoeing and weeding of an acre 
of wheat costs cut a trifling sum, while the return 
in the increased crop is very considerable. The 
average yield of wheat in England, for instance, is 
twenty-five bushels per acre, or equal to our best 
crops. The largest crops reported in England ap¬ 
pear fabulous to us ; 64 to 68 bushels per acre being 
looked for by the best farmers, as a fair yield, and 
anything less being considered a poor crop. Upon 
our richest land, the crop is much lessened by weeds, 
which we can not afford to destroy by hand, and wo 
TRAVIS’ WHEAT HOE. 
have no horse-hoes. A partly effective remedy is 
found by harrowing the wheat early in the spring, 
but when the growth has reached a certain point, 
the harrow can no longer be used. Hoes could be 
used, where the wheat has been sown in drills, long 
after the time for harrowing has passed. It is now 
certain that we must use every possible appliance 
to increase our crops, or else our profits must di¬ 
minish. The tendency of values, all over the world, 
is still downwards, and the era of high prices 
seems to have passed away for the present. The 
period of its return can scarcely be predicted from 
present appearances, and an interval of many years 
of moderate prices may elapse, unless some unfor- 
seen event may occur to hasten it. In the mean¬ 
time, we have a large scope for the improvement of 
our methods of farming, and increasing the yield 
of all our crops, but especially of the wheat crop. 
