4 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
January  2 
must  confess  it  is  not  easy  to  get  a  man  of  his  own  ac¬ 
cord  to  do  this  work  properly.  Some  morning  whefl 
the  thermometer  is  10  or  15  degrees  below  zero,  you 
will  find  a  few  barrowfuls  wet  and  frozen  solid.  In 
this  case  by  examining  the  pile  you  will  see  some  chim¬ 
neys  where  the  steam  is  escaping.  Fork  away  some 
of  the  manure  and  make  a  hole  big  enough  to  hold 
the  lumps  of  frozen  dung.  Put  them  in  and  cover  them 
up  with  the  warm  manure  thrown  out.  It  is  but  a  few 
minutes’  work  and  a  little  attention  of  this  kind  will 
make  all  the  difference  between  success  and  failure. 
Putting  the  Pile  in  Apple-Pie  Order. 
The  pile  should  be  about  five  feet  high,  less  or  more 
according  to  the  rainfall.  The  more  rain  or  snow  the 
higher  should  be  the  pile.  In  my  own  case,  especially 
if  there  is  much  horse  and  sheep  manure,  the  pile  is 
much  more  likely  to  be  too  dry  than  too  wet,  and  a 
heavy  rain,  which  the  advocates  of  keeping  manure 
under  cover  so  frequently  allude  to  as  something  to  be 
dreaded,  would  be  welcome.  When  the  pile  is  high 
enough,  start  another  alongside.  In  doing  this,  es¬ 
pecially  in  cold  weather,  take  a  quantity  of  hot  manure 
from  the  old  pile.  If  there  is  any  accumulation  of  ma¬ 
nure  in  the  sheep  or  pig  pens  draw  it  out  and  spread 
it  on  the  pile.  Break  up  the  hot  manure  from  the  old 
pile  and  mix  it  with  the  fresh  manure.  This  hot-fer¬ 
menting  manure  is  full  of  the  microbes  that  act  as 
•‘yeast”  and  cause  fermentation. 
Do  you  turn  over  the  pile?  Sometimes,  and  some-' 
times  not.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  do.  It  mixes  the 
manure,  breaks  up  the  lumps,  and  starts  fermenta¬ 
tion  afresh.  If  the  manure  is  to  be  used  on  a  pile%ome 
distance  from  the  barnyard,  I  draw  it  oiit  from  the 
piles  in  the  barnyard  and  make  it  into  piles  in  the 
field.  This  is  best  done  when  the  ground  is  frozen  or 
there  is  sleighing.  It  saves  much  hard  teaming  in  the 
spring  when  we  are  busy  and  need  the  horses  for  other 
work.  In  the  field  make  the  pile  about  five  feet  high 
and  five  wide  and  of  any  desired  length.  In  making 
the  new  heap  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  we  are 
“turning  the  pile” — the  object  of  which  is  to  mix  the 
manure  and  get  it  uniform  and  induce  it  to  fresh  fer¬ 
mentation.  In  the  old  pile  the  outsides  will  not  be  fer¬ 
mented.  Some  layers  that  were  put  qn  in  very  cold 
weather  will  be  cold  and  raw  while  others  will  be 
warm.  Pains  should  be  taken  to  mix  these  all  together. 
Another  important  point  is  to  build  up  the  pile  square 
on  the  sides  and  ends  like  a  hot-bed,  and  not  sloping 
like  the  roof  of  a  house.  Do  not  think  this  work  will 
be  done  properly  without  attention  on  your  part  or  the 
most  explicit,  emphatic  and  oft-repeated  directions.  The 
ordinary  farm  men,  and  so  far  as  my  observation  goes, 
the  hands  employed  by  the  nurserymen  and  gardeners 
who  draw  manure  from  the  cities,  have  a  tendency  to 
throw  the  manure  in  a  conical  heap.  The  result  is 
that  the  top  freezes  or  di*ies  out.  It  is  the  worst  possi¬ 
ble  form,  as  the  greatest  proportion  of  a  given  quantity 
of  manure  is  exposed  to  the  atmosphere,  while  if  care¬ 
fully  made  into  a  square  heap,  a  less  proportion  will 
be  exposed.  Again,  the  heap  needs  water,  and  the 
sloping  sides  carry  it  off. 
Stop  All  the  Safety  Valves. 
When  fermentation  sets  in  there  is  always  a  tend¬ 
ency  to  form  chimneys  This  shows  that  fermentation 
is  more  alive  in  some  portions  than  in  others.  Steam 
will  issue  from  these  chimneys.  It  is  desirable  to  stop 
it ;  not  because  it  carries  off  ammonia,  but  because  it 
carries  off  heat.  We  want  to  get  the  heap  uniformly 
warm,  as  this  favors  fermentation.  The  chimneys 
should  be  stopped  by  trampling  down  the  manure  and 
putting  some  from  the  outside  of  the  heap  into  the 
holes  and  tx-eading  it  down. 
If  the  manure  is  very  rich,  or  you  have  mixed  with 
it  bone  dust  or  other  animal  or  vegetable  matter  rich 
in  nitrogen,  or  a  considerable  quantity  of  hen  manure, 
there  may  be  danger  of  too  rapid  fermentation.  In 
that  case  the  best  remedy  is  to  saturate  the  heap  with 
water  ;  and  it  would  be  an  excellent  thing  to  mix  some 
superphosphate  with  the  water;  say  a  pound  to  a  pail 
of  water.  If  this  cannot  be  conveniently  done,  the 
heap  should  not  be  made  over  three  or  four  feet  high. 
Just  as  much  rain  falls  on  a  heap  one  foot  high  as  on 
one  five  feet  high,  and  consequently  a  ton  of  manure 
in  one  heap  would  get  as  much  water  as  five  tons  in 
the  other.  In  farming  and  gardening  no  iron-clad 
rules  can  be  laid  down.  We  always  have  been,  and 
probably  always  shall  be  dependent  on  the  weather. 
We  must  exercise  our  best  judgment  and  run  our 
chances.  It  may  be  remarked  that  driving  over  the 
heap  or  even  trampling  it  down  with  the  feet  will 
check  excessive  fermentation.  Joseph  Harris. 
Heavy  Fleeces. — The  heaviest  fleece  cut  from  an 
American  Merino  ram  in  the  State  of  New  York  sheared 
in  public  was  41  pounds  6  ounces  ;  the  heaviest  ewe’s 
fleece  was  2Gpounds  8  ounces;  and  the  heaviest  recorded 
weight  of  a  ram,  200  pounds.  According  to  a  recent 
report,  a  Merino  Ram  “Baby  Lord,”  owned  by  Reynolds 
&  Daniels  of  Kansas,  cut  52  pounds  of  wool  from  one 
year’s  growth — the  heaviest  fleece  yet  reported  in  the 
United  States.  j.  hobatio  EARLL. 
The  Guernsey  Cow. 
A  Bold  Plan  for  Proving  Her  Value. 
Address  of  the  President  of  The,  Overmen  Cattle  Club. 
This  club  was  organized  in  New  York,  on  February 
7,  1877,  and  of  the  11  gentlemen  who  attended  the 
meeting  and  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  club, 
eight  are  still  active  members  and  a  majority  of  the 
original  members  have  been  present  at  every  annual 
meeting  since  held.  The  members  number  100.  The 
first  number  of  the  Herd  Register  contained  the  names 
and  pedigrees  of  465  animals,  now  the  records  include 
8,648  animals. 
Many  comparative  tests  have  been  made  at  numerous 
State  fairs  and  by  several  of  the  State  Experiment 
Stations,  to  show  the  relative  merits  of  the  different 
dairy  breeds.  In  all  of  these,  the  Guernseys  have 
fully  sustained  the  claims  of  the  members  of  the  club, 
that  they  are  among  the  best  of  the  daii-y  breeds. 
Correct  pedigrees  of  animals  are  as  necessary  as  clear 
titles  to  real  estates  ;  purity  of  blood  is  thus  guaran¬ 
teed.  In  this  manner  the  results  of  the  intelligent 
thought  and  labor  of  one  generation  of  breeders  are 
transmitted  to  their  successors;  without  such  records 
any  progress  in  breeding  would  be  impossible.  If  not 
printed  in  book  form,  only  those  with  rare  memory 
and  great  industry  could  make  use  of  the  knowledge 
gained  by  experience.  These  records  being  secure,  let 
us  turn  our  attention  to  the  best  method  for  attaining 
a  still  higher  average  in  the  breed.  We  must  learn 
how  to  breed  so  that  we  may  more  rigorously  elimi¬ 
nate  the  worthless  beasts  from  our  herds.  Those  which 
come  in  spite  of  our  knowledge  of  pedigrees  and  of  the 
laws  of  good  breedings  we  should  have  the  courage  to 
sacrifice  to  the  butcher,  instead  of  sending  them  to  other 
markets  to  increase  and  multiply  inferior  animals. 
Some  of  our  rivals  have  attempted  to  establish  the 
superior  merits  of  their  favorite  breed  by  individual 
churn  tests  conducted  by  the  owner  or  by  an  em¬ 
ployee.  By  this  plan  a  few  cows  have  secui-ed  much 
free  advertising  and  the  tester  has  gained  more  reputa¬ 
tion  as  a  skillful  feeder  than  as  a  successful  breeder. 
As  the  reported  yields  in  these  tests  have  gone  up,  the 
prices  of  the  breed  have  gone  down,  so  that  while  good 
feeding  and  good  breeding  must  go  together,  the 
results  of  this  plan  of  popularizing  a  breed  have  not 
been  successful.  The  method  is  too  vexatious  and 
costly  and  imposes  too  great  a  tax  on  the  credulity  of 
the  people.  In  view  of  past  experience,  I  do  not  hesi¬ 
tate  to  recommend  the  general  adoption  among  Guern¬ 
sey  breeders  of  the  chemical  method  now  used  by  the 
more  enterprising  creameries,  and  the  Babcock  or 
some  similar  apparatus. 
If  we  could  adopt  measures  that  would  secure  every 
month  for  one  year  a  butter  fat  test  of  every  Guernsey 
cow  in  the  United  States  registered  in  our  Herd 
Books,  we  would  soon  add  to  our  block  of  knowledge, 
as  well  as  to  the  comparative  value  of  the  individual 
animals  of  our  own  breed  more  than  we  have  gained 
in  the  entire  history  of  our  club  by  the  study  of  pedi¬ 
grees  alone. 
For  myself,  I  believe  the  experiment  stations  of  the 
several  States  should  test  every  cow  of  all  the  milking 
breeds  ;  in  fact,  every  cow  of  each  State  monthly  for 
one  year.  What  a  revelation  this  would  give,  and, 
what  is  better,  it  would  create  a  revolution  in  the 
dairies.  This  would  not  be  very  expensive  or  difficult. 
One  of  the  Granges  in  Camden  County,  N.  J.,  a  few 
years  ago  induced  the  New  Jersey  Experiment  Station 
to  chemically  test  the  milk  of  all  the  cows  of  twelve 
herds  monthly  for  one  year.  This  was  by  the  old  pro¬ 
cess,  and  entailed  much  labor,  but  it  was  freely  under¬ 
taken.  A  committee  from  the  Grange  collected  the 
milk  and  forwarded  it  to  the  station  monthly.  The 
cows  were  mostly  common,  with  some  grades  of  vari¬ 
ous  kinds,  with  the  exception  of  one  herd  mostly 
Guernseys ;  the  results  were  published  by  the  station 
in  a  special  bulletin  and  also  in  the  annual  report. 
The  sale  of  Guernsey  and  Jersey  milk  was  increasing 
in  the  Camden  market,  and  the  Guernsey  milk  had  be¬ 
gun  to  attract  great  attention  on  account  of  its  high 
color  ;  in  fact  many  of  the  farmers  believed  the  color 
to  be  artificial,  and  doubted  whether  the  milk  posses¬ 
sed  corresponding  richness;  this  undoubtedly  prompted 
this  test.  I  attribute  the  great  change  in  the  selection 
of  bulls  among  the  dairymen  of  Camden  County  to  the 
knowledge  they  gained  by  this  effort;  for  whereas 
prior  to  the  test,  there  was  a  Guernsey  bull  only  in  one 
herd,  now  such  bulls  are  found  in  scores  of  herds.* 
Prior  to  that,  bulls  were  selected  from  droves,  the 
refuse  of  adjoining  States.  The  adoption  by  the  club 
of  some  effective  plan  by  which  all  registered  Guernsey 
cows  could  be  tested  for  butter  fat  would  impart  a 
knowledge  through  which  the  selection  of  good  bulls 
would  become  easy  and  sure.  The  quantity  of  milk 
which  a  cow  gives  cannot  well  escape  the  attention  of 
her  owner  ;  he  measures  or  weighs  it  daily  ;  combine 
quantity  and  quality  and  you  have  the  cow  which  is 
worthy  to  be  the  mother  of  your  bull,  provided  she 
possesses  a  good  constitution  and  is  the  offspring  of  a 
parentage  equally  good.  The  day  for  careless  and  in¬ 
different  breeding  of  even  purebred  cattle  is  past.  No 
breed  will  meet  the  future  demands  of  the  intelligent 
and  progressive  dairymen  of  this  country,  unless  it  be 
skillfully  and  honestly  handled.  Even  now  we  art 
called  upon  to  select  25  cows  for  the  coming  Columbian 
Exposition,  during  which  one  of  the  severest  tests  and 
greatest  exhibitions  of  dairy  cattle  ever  known,  will 
be  made  in  Chicago.  The  Guernseys  must  be  repre¬ 
sented  at  this  show,  and  every  member  of  the  club  and 
every  Guernsey  breeder  who  owns  a  cow  pronounced 
good  enough  by  a  committee  of  the  club,  should,  when 
she  is  wanted,  unhesitatingly  offer  her  to  the  club. 
The  milk  standard  is  now  regulated  by  law,  12  to  13 
per  cent  of  solids  being  required  for  pure  milk  within 
the  law.  This  is  equivalent  to  3%  to  4  per  cent  of 
butter  fat.  The  average  Guernsey  milk  will  test  from 
13M  to  15  per  cent  of  solids  and  from  four  to  seven  per 
cent  of  butter  fat — exceptionally  rich  cows  have 
reached  nine  per  cent.  The  dairy  standard  of  the 
Guernsey  should  not  be  lower  than  14  per  cent  of 
solids  and  five  per  cent  of  butter  fat,  with  an  ambition 
to  exceed  these  figures  as  much  as  possible,  consistently 
with  a  liberal  flow  of  milk.  Proper  feeding  and  good 
breeding  will  enable  us  to  place  the  standard  higher 
than  is  possible  with  other  breeds. 
There  are  no  more  milk,  cheese,  butter  and  beef 
breeds.  Investigation,  study,  thought  and  careful  ex¬ 
periments  have  proved  this  old  classification  delusive 
and  misleading.  According  to  the  best  lights  now 
illuminating  the  daix-y  interests,  the  more  correct  di¬ 
vision  consists  of  dairy  and  beef  cattle;  this  I  believe  to 
be  a  natural  and  scientific  classification  according  to 
temperament.  The  one  organizes  to  put  fat  in  the  pail 
and  the  other  on  the  body.  I  notice  that  one  or  two  of 
the  dairy  teachers  at  the  New  York  institutes  still 
timidly  continue  to  make  a  separate  class  of  the  milk 
cow ;  they  appear  to  think  that  if  the  milk  is  good, 
there  will  not  be  enough  of  it  to  satisfy  that  class  of 
farmers  who  regard  quantity  as  the  only  important 
factor  in  the  cow.  They  admit  that  there  is  no  pro¬ 
priety  in  a  separate  class  for  butter  and  cheese,  Now  it 
is  equally  clear  that  there  are  only  two  classes  strictly 
speaking — one  'dairy  and  the  other  beef.  The  Guernsey 
is  undoubtedly  the  best  of  the  dairy  breeds  for  all  pur¬ 
poses  for  which  a  dairy  cow  is  needed.  This  fact  we 
admit  is  not  so  generally  understood  by  the  public  as 
it  should  be  ;  it  is  the  pi-incipal  part  of  our  business  at 
this  stage  of  our  existence  to  make  it  known  to  others 
as  well  as  it  is  known  to  us.  It  is  an  important  part  of 
our  work  to  so  manage  this  club  as  to  eliminate  from 
the  breed  all  cows  and  bulls  falling  below  a  high  stan¬ 
dard,  more  especially  every  animal  that  is  a  producer 
of  inferior  offspring.  For  the  attainment  of  this  end 
I  would  suggest  that  some  plan  should  be  adopted  to 
secure  a  general  butter  fat  test  of  all  registered  Guern¬ 
seys  and  that  records  be  made  and  published  by  the 
club  so  that  individual  owners  may  receive  the  adequate 
reward  of  their  enterprise  and  intelligence.  The  bull 
calves  of  all  pedigreed  cows  whose  records  for  butter 
fat  were  six  per  cent  or  more,  would  undoubtedly  be 
registered  for  use  as  sires  and  if  the  granddaughters  of 
such  calves  have  equally  good  records  they  would  com- 
