296 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
meat. There is too much food used to support 
the vital functions, and too little to produce 
meat and wool. We must induce the sheep to 
eat more food. This cannot be done at once. 
It must be accomplished by years of breeding, 
keeping this object steadily in view. 
We cannot now go into this matter. But 
there is one fact connected with Bakewell’s im¬ 
provement in the Leicester sheep that striking¬ 
ly confirms my idea on this subject. Bake well 
was undoubtedly a very skillful breeder, but I 
imagine lie was, after all, somewhat of a quack. 
He made a great mystery of his operations, as 
quacks always do. He pretended to be able to 
put flesh on any part of the sheep desired. This 
was done by selecting those sheep showing a 
tendency to development jn this direction, and 
continuing to breed year after year from those 
having the desired points. But the ground of 
his success, whether he knew it or not, was in 
furnishing his builders, the sheep, more bricks 
and mortar than they required. They were 
obliged to put the extra bricks somewhere, and 
when one of the sheep put it in the right spot 
he selected him for breeding. This ability to 
select the right sheep has been considered won¬ 
derful ; but in point of fact, the great skill shown 
was in providing the sheep -with the extra brick 
and other building material. This was done by 
liberal feeding. But the one fact about his 
breeding which interests me most is this: his 
sheep had little inside fat. Why? Fat is stored 
up in the animal to furnish the means of sub¬ 
sistence during periods of scarcity, just as bees 
store up honey during the summer for subsist¬ 
ence in winter. But BakewelPs sheep soon 
found that with them there was no period of 
scarcity. They had abundance of food every 
day during their lives, and they soon adapted 
themselves to this state of existence. There was 
no necessity for laying by a supply of fat, and 
so they used their daily food for their daily 
growth, and having a liberal allowance, they, 
of course, grew with astonishing rapidity. I 
take it that this is the secret of Bakewell’s won¬ 
derful success in sheep breeding. 
How often do Cows Drink? 
The intimate connection between the amount 
of water which a cow drinks, and the quantity 
of milk she gives is so well known that we will 
not argue it. It is very important that milch 
seen in the engraving, is made to open and more 
water flows in. As soon as this reaches a cer¬ 
tain level, the floating-ball by the same opera¬ 
tion closes the faucet, and thus maintains the 
Fig. 2. —BALL FAUCET. 
water at its level. The engraving, fig. 1, rep¬ 
resents wooden troughs and pipes; iron may be 
used equally well. Figure 2 is an enlarged 
view of the floating^ball faucet, showing how 
the rise of the water will close the cock, and its 
fall will open it to cause more to flow in. 
-—.-- 
Warbles— CEstrus bovis. 
Almost all of us are famllar with the fact that 
large grubs live during a considerable part of 
the year in the backs of neat-cattle, coming out 
Fig. 1. —CATTLE WATERING APPARATUS. 
cows should drink often. They cannot do this 
without great inconvenience when in the sta¬ 
ble, unless by some automatic arrangement wa¬ 
ter is always before them. We have a very 
good barn in mind in which a trough about 5 
inches wide runs across the front of all the man¬ 
gers, conducting constantly a stream of fresh 
water. This is easily arranged if there is an 
abundance of water. A better plan is to have 
the water conducted in an iron or wooden pipe 
from a reservoir trough or barrel through the 
mangers. Small troughs or basins being set in 
connection with it at the same level with the 
reservoir. The accompanying engraving (fig. 
1) shows this arrangement. When an animal 
drinks from one of the small troughs the water 
in all the small troughs and also in the reservoir 
trough, is lowered. But a floating-ball valve, 
Fig. 1.— OX GAD-FLY—ENLARGED. 
in midsummer. These are the larvae of the 
Breeze, or Ox Gad-fly, which causes the cattle of 
some sections much annoyance late in the sum¬ 
mer. The insect (fig. 1) is of the size of a large 
horse-fly, being nearly an inch in length, and is 
the largest and most beautiful of its kindred. 
The head is white and downy, the thorax is 
yellow in front with four black lines in the mid¬ 
dle, black and gray behind, and the abdomen is 
ash-colored with a white ring and yellow hairs. 
The appearance of one or more of these flies 
throws a whole herd into a 
paroxysm of fear. The fly, -when 
about to deposit an egg, lights 
upon the back of an animal 
within a few inches of the spine, 
and at the same instant in¬ 
flicts a terrible sting, the skin 
being pierced and the egg deposited at one 
operation. The egg contains a little grub so 
I 
JWj 
near hatching, that it comes out so soon that 
the egg has never yet been seen in its place of 
Fig. 2.— LARVA OF GAD-FLY—ENLARGED. 
deposit, so far as we know. Either a fluid is 
contained in the egg, which, as it breaks, is let 
out into the cavity, or some poison is injected 
with the egg, which causes the intense pain the 
animals seem to feel, and the swellings which 
follow. On these occasions cattle seek the pools 
and streams, and will neglect the richest pas¬ 
tures to stand in the water. Oxen stung in the 
yoke are often hard to control, and a single fly 
will often stampede an entire herd. The flies 
select animals whose skins are soft and pliable 
—such as are called good handlers by the butch¬ 
er. Hence it is that the presence of “ warbles,” 
as the sores on the backs are called, are regard¬ 
ed favorably by the butchers. They make, 
however, bad spots or holes in the hides. The 
little maggot thrives on the pus formed in the 
sore, and causes little or no inconvenience to 
the animal in which it has its dwelling. As 
summer approaches, it increases in size, see fig. 
2; and a little past midsummer works its way 
out, and if not picked up by birds, falls to the 
ground, where it soon assumes the pupa state 
tind remains thus for several weeks, when it 
breaks out through a little lid in its hard shell 
and commences its work of reproduction. 
If farmers would be careful to kill all the 
warbles in the backs of their stock during the 
winter or spring, we would soon be entirely rid 
of them. The grubs may be killed in winter 
or spring by simple pressure. They may be 
killed by being pierced with a hot needle, or by 
injecting minute quantities of some mineral 
poison into the holes which remain open. 
Water—Management of Flowing Water. 
There is available water in almost every dis¬ 
trict, which may either be collected in reser¬ 
voirs, or taken directly from springs at high 
levels, and conducted to the premises of indi¬ 
vidual farmers, or distributed among several. 
We were lately applied to by a subscriber in 
the central part of the State of Hew York, to 
advise him in regard to bringing water from a 
spring 100 feet higher than bis bouse, to be 
“ reservoired” at about 25 feet above the bouse, 
and thence distributed to garden, stock-yards, 
barns, dairy, and dwelling. 
Several kinds of pipes are available. First, 
wooden ones, which are objectionable, because 
liable to leak under such a pressure, and their 
liability to rot and to become filled with con- 
fervoid growth called moss, or frog-spittle. 
Second, leaden ones, which are objectionable, 
because many waters act upon lead, dissolving 
just enough to act as a slow poison upon men 
and animals. Third, there is the tin-lined lead 
pipe, or “ patent pipe,” as it is called. This is 
free from the objections named to lead pipe, 
as the tin is not acted upon, and the water does 
not touch the lead. It is, we suppose, some¬ 
what more liable to bruise and flatten by rough 
usage than lead pipe of the same strength, but 
with reasonable care, this is not a serious objec¬ 
tion. Both lead and tin-lined pipes are likely 
to be flattened. Any pipe so flattened cannot 
be opened again to its normal diameter, but 
the “goose-knee” must be cut out and the ends 
united by soldering. Fdtirth, we have the gal¬ 
vanized, wrought and drawn iron pipe, which 
is coated inside and out with zinc. This pipe 
comes in long sections which screw together. 
The zinc protects the iron from oxydation, but 
is, to a considerable extent, worn off and acted 
upon, producing in many cases, insalubrious 
effects, but not so dangerous as lead. Iron pipe 
rusts rapidly, and lasts usually but a few years. 
Fifth, glazed earthenware pipes are some¬ 
times used, and are especially agreeable as con- 
conductors of water for drinking purposes; for 
though at first soft water will be hard, it will 
