58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
acute angles, triangles, squares, circles, diamonds, 
and all sorts of designs answer the purpose; 
and very often a stack of hay will be seen with¬ 
in the shelter, and sometimes a spring of water. 
With these suggestions, our readers on the 
Plains will be able to erect for themselves, with 
such material as they may have at hand, suffi¬ 
cient shelter to prevent the loss of their-sheep 
during even the heaviest and longest continued 
itorms that may occur; remembering that 
sheep can not exist on shelter alone, and that 
a supply of hay should always be at hand. 
Importing Prize Pigs. 
Our advice to a young farmer who contem¬ 
plates importing some prize pigs from England 
is, don't. Buy the brothers and sisters of the 
prize pigs, if you like, but not those fed for ex¬ 
hibition. Sidney, in his edition of “Youatt on 
the Pig,” says: “ Prize pigs are usually over¬ 
fat, even at a breeding show, and are fed on 
everything that is good, including new milk, 
rum, apples, and London porter. A bottle of 
port-wine is sometimes used to restore tone to 
an exhausted boar after a long journey.” This 
is English testimony. We would advise our 
young friend to buy pigs from some of our 
American breeders, rather than to send to Eng¬ 
land for them. We have been importing pigs 
for many years at a great cost, and it. is time we 
had as good pigs in this country ns in England. 
If we have not, we should ascertain the cause 
of our failure. Until this is done, it is useless to 
keep on importing. Wo are only doing what 
lias been done over and over again for hal.f-n- 
centuiy. If you import pigs, do not select 
those that have taken prizes. The English 
agricultural societies require no pedigrees, and 
the prizes are more likely to be taken by cross¬ 
bred pigs than by those of an old and thor¬ 
oughly established breed. The prize cross-bred 
pigs owe their success at the fairs to the pure 
blood. And this is what you' want—not the 
prize pigs themselves. It is time this matter 
was understood,. 
How to Learn Farming. 
A “Young Man” would know how and 
where he can learn to be a farmer. Now, this 
question is one that is often presented to us, and 
in part it is one easily answered. Farming is 
an art which can be learned only by practice. 
A young man must learn to bo a farmer with 
plow and harrow and manure-fork, mower, 
reaper, and constant hard work and close ob¬ 
servation. He can not learn it in an office, nor 
in a study, nor by books, nor without all these. 
He may by plodding industry become a good 
laborer, lmt it must beby head-work, and study¬ 
ing what others have done, and wha’ it is pos¬ 
sible for him to do, aiid the nature of the mate¬ 
rials he works with, that lie must become a true 
farmer. This is how; where, is not so easy to 
point out. It is most probable that a young 
man would learn most by hiring with a good 
farmer until he learns to handle tools and stock 
properly, and thoroughly understands the rou¬ 
tine of farm work; and it matters nttle in what 
locality he works if he only secures an employer 
who knows his business, and carries on mixed 
farming in which stock and the dairy have a 
share. An intelligent young man needs only 
this, with study of good agricultural papers— 
we would recommend the American Agricul- 
of course, or we should belie our fitness 
as an instructor for the farmer—and a small 
library of standard agricultural works of refer¬ 
ence, to be able to succeed iu farming, and to 
secure as abundant reward therein as in any 
other branch of industry fittingly entered upon 
and industriously followed. If it is not possible 
for him to do this, or undesirable, and he would 
rather be his own teacher, let him procure a 
farm mostly in grass, stock it with a few sheep, 
cows, and hogs and a pair of mares, and the 
first year raise only a crop of corn, with a few 
potatoes, and a field of oats or corn-fodder. In 
the mean time, he should go around amongst 
his neighbors and see what_they do, and not be 
ashamed to ask for information, nor to show 
that he knows less than they, and thus learn 
his business from them, nor be disheartened by 
first failures, but persevere until success comes. 
There is nothing in the practice of farming- 
more difficult to learn than the driving of a nail 
in a proper manner, and a man that can learn 
this will be able to overcome that in full in 
course of time. It is to be hoped that before 
long our agricultural colleges will have so per¬ 
fected their systems and have so far cleared 
their way to success, that it will be only neces¬ 
sary to say to a “young man,” or any other, Go 
thither, to the nearest or to the most convenient, 
and-you will find a school of agriculture where 
you may learn what to do, and how to do it, in 
the shortest time and in themost completeman- 
ner. At present, with some hopeful exceptions, 
it is impossible to say this. 
■ - 4 - t ~ 1 iff* r -y- ■ ■ - 
The Percheron Horse. —After extended 
trial, the Percheron horse is found wanting in 
the most desirable qualities that would fit him 
for general use on the farm. In the Western 
States he has been tested thoroughly, and found 
deficient in speed, soundness, spirit, and intelli¬ 
gence. He fails in those points where failure 
is fatal to profit and usefulness, namely, the feet 
and legs; for a horse unsound in his feet is 
practically a dead horse; and the heavy bodies 
and soft bones and yielding tendons and muscles 
of this class of horses predispose them to dis¬ 
ease. The Clydesdale has been found preferable 
to the Percheron, where heavy horses are de¬ 
sired, as being hardier and of better constitution ; 
but our climate, rendering, as it does, lightness 
and activity of body; good wind, spirit, and en¬ 
durance indispensable, at the same lime renders 
the slow, ninvieldy animal quite unfit for our 
needs. The lliorough-brcd crossed on our best 
and largest native mares will give us exactly 
the qualities w t o need for the farm or for the 
road, and will produce an animal that will out¬ 
work and outlive twice over any of the large 
imported stock. 
Profit from Dairy Cows. 
Mr. O. A. McFarland -writes us from Colo¬ 
rado : “ I notice statements in the Agriculturist 
in regard to the profit of a dairy farm per acre. 
That will do for the States, but not for Colorado. 
I have thousands of acres of good pasture free 
for seven or eight months of the year, and I can 
procure hay at four dollars per ton. Grain for 
cows is here out of the question. Roots can be 
raised as cheaply as with you, but must be fed 
raw for want of fuel. Butter is worth 25c. in 
summer and 40c. to 50c. per lb. in winter, or 
35c. for the year. The native hay here is better 
than timothy. Cows are worth from $40 to $60. 
Calves, $8 to $12 in the fall. What is your 
opinion, with these facts, of the probable suc¬ 
cess of a moderately well-managed dairy, keep¬ 
ing in mind that the profit must be counted 
per head, and not per acre?” 
In such circumstances, if we could be sure 
that calves would continue to be worth $8 to 
$12 per head, and cows $40 to $60, we should 
devote our attention principally to raising stock. 
This would pay better than making butter at 
25c. per lb., with hired help. 
With good hay at $4 per ton, we should not 
spend much time in raising roots. They would 
not pay for the labor. Better be content with 
what the cows will produce from the grass iu 
summer, and let them go dry for two or three 
months in winter. 
The dairy might be kept for the double pur¬ 
pose of raising calves and producing butter. 
The calves might be given new milk for a week, 
and then part new and part fresh skimmed 
milk for three or four weeks, and for another 
mouth or so skimmed milk alone, skimmed be¬ 
fore it sours. We presume a good average yield 
of butter per cow in such circumstances would 
be 100 lbs. a year. The number of cows that 
could be kept would be limited only by the ac¬ 
commodations for wintering them, and by the 
number of milkers. A dozen or fifteen cows to 
each milker would be about the average. Blessed 
is the man who has a good wife to attend to the 
butter, and three or four stout boys to help to 
milk and take care of the cows. There is profit 
in the business to such a family, but an unmar¬ 
ried man had better turn his attention to some¬ 
thing besides dairying. He had better keep 
sheep, or raise cattle, or, better still, get him a 
good wife—and do what she thinks best. 
The Selection of Turkeys for Breeders, 
The rule among the great majority of farmers 
is to breed only from yearling turkeys, and these 
generally are birds of the second litter. As we 
try to get at the reason of this practice, diverse 
old wives’ fables are offered in explanation. One 
is, that large gobblers are apt to crush small 
liens. If large hens are suggested as a remedy, 
we are told that large hens are apt to break the 
eggs. If it is shown that the eggs of large tur¬ 
keys are larger and stronger, and likely to fare 
quite as well as small eggs under a small hen, 
li-c are told that it is not as well to breed from 
a cock the second year, or from two-year-old 
hens. When pressed to relate their experience 
in that line, they have none, but they have heard 
of somebody that used an old cock, and the 
eggs were addled. The real reason of breeding 
from young birds, in most cases, is that, the far¬ 
mer grudges the few extra pounds of poultry 
that he has to feed through the winter. The 
difference between a dozen good birds fit for 
breeding and a dozen of the second litter, is some 
sixty or seventy pounds—worth twelve dollars 
or more. If he markets that poultry he is sure of 
the money. The cost of keeping large birds in 
good condition is also more. So he tries to be¬ 
lieve that the keeping of the refuse of his flock 
is good policy. This we know to be a very bad 
practice. Nothing on the farm pays better than 
poultry, and turkeys stand at the head of the 
list, if they can have a good range, and not dis¬ 
turb the crops of neighbors. Turkeys do not 
reach their full size until their third year, and 
we believe we can get larger and stronger birds 
from full-grown stock than from yearlings. In 
the year 1871 we bred from a large Bronze gob¬ 
bler, a late summer bird of the previous year, 
weighing twenty-five pounds, and from yearling 
hens with few exceptions. The gobbler was 
