48 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
■with the idea that they are vastly superior to 
anything else, but we think enough lias been 
shown in regard to them, during the few 
years of their breeding in this country, to make 
them worthy of the attention of those who are 
seeking to improve their stock of swine. 
—- <• * m rnm ^W P -- 
Cutting Food by Power. 
Much has been written concerning the advant¬ 
ages of cutting food for stock, and notwith¬ 
standing the stupid discussion that was held a 
short time ago by the remarkable Farmers’ 
Club, in New York, where the quidnuncs of 
that association were so emphatically snubbed 
by Patrick Quinn, much more will be written, 
and an increasing confidence is sure to be placed 
in the beneficial results of the practice. 
The great objection to the more rapid intro¬ 
duction of fodder cutting among our farmers is 
to be found in the fact, that, even with the best 
liand-power cutting machines, the work is very 
laborious, and the result is but slowly accom¬ 
plished. Many have attempted to adopt the 
system with the aid of hand-machines, and have 
found it impossible to carry it out owing to 
the immense amount of time and labor required. 
By the aid of the horse-power attached to a 
larger machine, this work may be done so 
rapidly and so easily, that the chief objection 
passes away. On all farms on which the num¬ 
ber of animals to be fed is considerable, and 
where the proprietor is satisfied of the decided 
advantages of cutting, it will pay to purchase a 
horse-power, and a horse-power cutting ma¬ 
chine. But those who desire to try the experi¬ 
ment in a somewhat extensive way, without 
the outlay of the two or three hundred 
dollars that the horse-power and the larger 
cutting machine would require, may attach any 
good cutter to the horse-power belonging to 
parties who, during the summer and autumn, 
thrash grain for others. It is a very simple 
matter to take one of these movable horse¬ 
powers, set it up in the barn, and connect its 
belt with the pulley on the cutting box; and 
one good horse or ox may be made to perform 
the work at this season without much inter¬ 
fering with the other uses of the farm team. 
We confidently predict that any one who will 
give this system a thorough trial during a single 
season will find that the value of the food 
saved in feeding from ten to twenty animals 
will be sufficient to make a permanent invest¬ 
ment in a horse-power a very profitable one. 
-— -—•« --- 
Tim Bunker on Carding Cattle. 
“ Things look considerable grand round 
here,” said Jake Frink, one morning, as he 
walked into my new barn, -where I was cleaning 
off my Black Hawk span, getting ready to take 
Mrs. Bunker down to Shadtown, to spend 
Thanksgiving. You see, Sally and her husband 
have generally come home to spend this day, 
but just then thero was a responsibility so 
•r r young that the mother could not venture out. 
“ The Squire is gittin’ so pertikelar with his 
cattle that he’ll be movin’ cm all into the par¬ 
lor pretty soon, I guess,” responded George 
Washington Tucker. 
“Many a poor fellow don’t have sich blankets 
as them bosses,” said Seth Twiggs, as he 
scratched a match and lighted his pipe. 
“ Nor sich bedding,” added Benjamin Frank¬ 
lin Jones, looking at the clean, bright straw. 
“ Planks, I see, arc a little too hard for your 
animals to stand on,” said Deaeon Smith, in¬ 
quiringly, as he poked away the straw and ex¬ 
amined the bottom of the stall. 
“There is three feet of dry muck in there,” I 
replied, “ and the pit is all cemented, so that I 
sha’n’t lose any of the liquid manure. I calcu¬ 
late a horse will half pay for his keeping in the 
manure he makes, if you give him a chance.” 
“lied chestnut for siding to the stalls!” ex¬ 
claimed Jotham Sparrowgrass, as he rubbed his 
hand over the surface. “I declare it looks 
about equal to the pews in the meetin’ house.” 
“ The Squire ’ll be havin’ a parson in here 
preachin’ to his cattle, yet; see if he don’t,” add¬ 
ed Jake Frink, maliciously. 
“ Mr. Spooner would get some hearers here 
that he don’t have on Sunday, I guess,” said 
Seth Twiggs, meekly, with a puff of smoke, that 
made Jake look blue. 
“ What new-fangled consarn is this you’re 
cleanin’ your critters Avith ?”■ asked Uncle Jo¬ 
tham, as he eyed a new India-rubber card that 
I was passing over the legs of the horses. 
“What do you give your cows, that makes 
their coats shine so ?” asked Deacon Smith, as he 
looked at a row of Jerseys on the other side of 
the barn floor. 
“ Oil-meal and carrots inside, and India-rub¬ 
ber card outside,” I replied. 
“ You don’t mean to say that you keerd ’em 
everyday?” asked Jake Frink, whose tangled 
locks evidently had not been astonished by card 
or comb for many a day. 
“ Somebody attends to just this business 
every day, and I think it pays.” 
“Wall, Squire, you’re a bigger fool than I 
thought you was. I’ve sometimes cleaned up a 
boss when I had a trade ahead, but I never 
touched a keerd to a cow in all my life. ’Tain’t 
nature], sartain.” 
“ Then,” I asked, “ what are the spines up¬ 
on a cow’s tongue made for, and Avhy do they 
use them upon one another’s hides so much ?" 
“They haint much else to du,” said Jake, 
hesitatingly. 
Now, I hold, Mr. Editor, that all our bovine 
animals carry a clean bill of rights to carding in 
their tongues, and the best card is the one that 
comes nearest to the original, which is moder¬ 
ately sharp, fine, and flexible. Women’s rights, 
about which folks are making such a fuss, don’t 
begin to be so clear as this matter. I Avish you 
would get up a revolution, and put on a strong 
editorial team to advocate the divine right of 
our domestic animals to be kept tolerably clean 
and comfortable. It would not pay, perhaps, 
to put them all into a warm bath every day, as 
Deacon Smith’s Eliza serves her lapdog, but it 
will pay to use the card and brush every day. 
They have an organization very like our own, 
and the skin is all the time throwing off dead 
matter, which lodges under the hair, unless 
some pains be taken to get rid of it. If left free, 
you will see them using their tongues upon every 
part of their body that is accessible, and getting 
help from their neighbors for those parts they 
cannot reach. They will rub their necks and 
backs against posts, and fences, and trees, to 
start this dead matter and clean their skins. In 
the summer they will wade into the streams, 
and stand for hours in the running Avater, to 
keep themselves clean as Avell as cool. There is 
no mistaking these acts. They show the in¬ 
stinct of cleanliness just as clearly as the comb, 
and brush, and wash-basin show it in man. 
Now, Avlien avc take these creatures into our 
care, and confine them in stalls and stables, avc 
come under some obligation to treat them ac¬ 
cording to their natures. We have no right to 
torment them by withholding what they so 
strongly crave. They Avant food and drink, 
and the means of cleanliness and comfort, and 
they arc generally profitable to us just as Ave 
provide liberally for their wants. To keep them 
in the filth in which many farmers compel them 
to Avallow is as shocking and cruel as it is unprof¬ 
itable. Just look at Jake Frink’s stables. 
There is not a curry-comb or brush in them, and 
has not been for a dozen years. He says he 
“ never touched a keerd to his cows,” but there 
is a card upon the buttocks of his oxen an inch 
thick, that certifies to Jake’s nastiness, as if it 
were written in letters of ink. Is it any wonder 
that his neglected oxen get so weak that he has 
to hire his plowing done in the spring, and that 
his cows have the “slink fever,” and his horse 
dreads the sight of crows ? I wish Ave had your 
Mr. Berglr out here in the country. There is a 
great deal more need for a society to pre¬ 
vent cruelty to brutes than in the city. There 
are many more of the brutes, and the men who 
torment them Avith slow torture do not have all 
their neighbors looking at them, nor a policeman 
to step in and regulate their abuse. I hold that a 
man is demoralized by the abuse or neglect of 
his cattle. The farmer that Avill let his oxen lie 
in their own filth, from the beginning to the end of 
winter, Avithout any effort to bed them or clean 
them, makes himself brutish, no matter Iioav he 
stands in church or State. lie can’t fail to groiv 
hard toward his fello-ws, as Avell as toward 
his cattle. But there is a right as well as a 
Avrong Avay of keeping your cattle clean, as there 
is in doing other things. Some of the cards 
and curry-combs are fit only to scrape the hide 
of a rhinoceros. I have tried pretty much every- 
thing in the market, and have come to the conclu¬ 
sion that there is as much difference in cards and 
curry-combs as in other things. Here is a card 
Avith the teeth set into the wood, as stiff as so 
many sliingle nails. Put this into Patrick’s 
hand, and upon the back of a thin-skinned and 
nervous horse, and it is a terrible instrument of 
torture. No wonder he shrinks from Pat’s ap¬ 
proach, and learns to kick and bite. He is in a 
proper school to become vicious. Here is a cur¬ 
ry-comb, cut out of a brass plate, Avith sharp 
saw teeth, and as unyielding as a saAV. Think 
of such a tool going over bones not too thickly 
covered with flesh, and ripping up old sores! 
Is it at all strange that there is a chronic state 
of bad feeling between Pat and the poor brute, 
that is literally harrowed every day under the 
mistaken notion of cleaning ? The old-fashioned 
wool card, with small brass teeth, inserted in 
leather, had some flexibility when carefully 
handled, answered a good purpose, but AA'as 
rather too stiff. The card with an India-rubber 
back, fitted to the hand by a strap, is the latest 
and best invention in this line. It adapts itself 
perfectly under the hand, to all the little ine¬ 
qualities of the skin, and gives gentle friction 
Avithout tearing. With a good brush, nothing 
better is needed. If the horses and cows could 
have a convention, I have no doubt they would 
pass a vote of thanks, or make the inventor a 
Justice of the Peace. It certainly promotes 
peace between man and beast, and makes the 
daily cleaning a luxury, instead of a torment. 
My animals come around me for their regular 
cleaning, with as much interest as they come 
for their fodder. They certainly understand 
the difference between hatcliels and cards, be¬ 
tween harrowing and cleaning. They thrive 
Avell under this treatment, and though it takes 
considerable time, I doubt if it could be spent 
more to their profit or mine. 
Hooker town, Dec. ^ Yours to Command, 
15, 18GS. 1 Timothy Bunker, Bstj. 
