1891 
263 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
buying it. In the past few seasons more water than it 
can use has been freely poured upon the farm. Mr. J. got 
tired long ago of buying water. He has paid for cars of 
manure that were flooded with water after being loaded 
in order to add to their weight. Sell all the water you can, 
but buy as little as possible. It is a telling lesson to those 
who do not comprehend the fact that there are differences 
in manures and that a small amount of one needed ele¬ 
ment may be used with stable manure to make it such a 
powerful combination that loss may be turned into profit. 
The Result of Thoughtful Effort. 
This little farm grows richer and the crops grow larger. 
It is no accident. It is simply the carrying out of a natural 
law. Mr J. went at his strawberry crop just as he selected 
his Leghorns. He wanted the berry that would produce 
firm, large fruit on his wet soil. Many berries that were 
famous elsewhere failed with him. They were soft and 
watery. The Great American, a berry that fails in most 
places, proved just suited to his soil and he has grown it 
ever since. The Crescent also does fairly well, but the 
Great American is the mainstay, and so carefully is it 
nursed and tended that could our Indiana friend who wants 
somebody to tell him how to raise $500 worth of fruit on 
an acre go to Lincoln Park in picking time, he would 
come away very thoughtful. 
This article has reached such length that an account of 
the strawberry and potato culture will be reserved for 
another issue. 
MERCIFUL STANCHIONS; A SILO. 
In reply to the request of A. D. S. (page 153), for informa¬ 
tion concerning the Smith swing stanchion, I will give my 
experience with it. We have had it in use since Novem¬ 
ber, and find it a very good stanchion. It is strong and 
durable, and the animal is unable to get loose, as it is 
likely to in many of the patent fasteners, either by pulling 
or using its horns. We have four different fasteners in use 
at present—the Newton cattle tie, the Scott swing stan¬ 
chion, the Smith, and the Warringer chain hanging stan¬ 
chions, and I consider the Warringer the best. 
The Newton tie consists of a large wooden bow, the 
ends of which are fastned to the front of the manger at 
either side, the bow extending back over the manger, with 
a chain in the middle, fastening around the animal’s 
neck. The principle is excellent, but the construction is 
faulty. A year ago I had 24 of them put in our dairy barn, 
and now only half of them can be used, and they have all 
been patched up more or less. Then, an objection to it is 
that, by turning its head to one side and putting it under 
the bow, the animal can get its feet Into the manger, 
which is the very thing the tie was designed to prevent. 
The Scott, like the Smith, swings, or more properly, 
turns on a peg at the top and bottom. It fastens with a 
latch at the top, and, if the cow has an upward turn to 
her horns, she will soon learn to lift this, and get loose 
It is supposed to be a self fastener, but in all our experience 
with it, we have bad to fasten the animal ourselves. 
The Smith stanchion is better and stronger than either 
of the others. There is no danger that the animal will get 
loose, and so far as I can see. it has but one fault—it allows 
of no backward or forward motion. If one 
will notice a cow when she gets up, he will 
see that she lurches forward several inches 
in doing so. Now, if her shoulders come 
against a solid stanchion when only half 
way up, she will strain and struggle some 
time before she gets on her feet, and if she 
is he ivy, and the floor at all slippery, she 
is liable to serious injury. 
No.v, the Warringer stanchion (see Fig. 
92) being hung on a short chain at the top 
and bottom, slack enough to give several 
inches’ play in any direction, allows the 
cow to rise in an easy and natural manner, 
gives her as much freedom and comfort as 
is possible and keep her in place, and is as 
strong as, and much neater in appearance, 
than the others; and I would get it in 
preference to any I have ever seen or used, 
if I were to fit up a new stable. 
The width of the stalls will depend on 
the cattle; 3X feet is, perhaps, a good aver¬ 
age width ; Jerseys and the smaller breeds 
may do with lesr, while the Short-horns 
and Holsteins may need more. The same 
is the case with regard to the floor; taking 
4>£ feet as the average length, make the 
gutter 8 inches deep and 14 inches wide, 
then the manure will not cause trouble. 
Our mangers are 16 inches wide at the bot¬ 
tom, two feet at the top and three feet 
deep, with a door in front, so that they can 
be easily cleaned out. The three-cornered 
pieces, shown at Fig. 92, are toe-nailed to 
the 2x4 and the 4x6 posts, to prevent the hay from work¬ 
ing back. 
Our silo is 20 feet long, 10 feet wide and 16 deep, with a 
division in the middle, so that we can fill or empty one- 
half without disturbing the other. It is built of wood ( 
with double walls one foot thick. The inside wall is of 
matched pine, covered with a heavy coat of coal tar, with 
a layer of building paper under it. Then comes a double 
row of studding 14 inches apart, and an air-space of six 
inches between the rows, and then an outside covering like 
the inside wait, except the tar coating. Our ensilage is in 
fine condition, and not only is it a splendid feed of itself, 
but it tones up the system, so that the cattle fed on it 
assimilate other food better, and we shall never be without 
it in the future. Not only does it make an excellent feed 
for dairy cows, but one would be surprised at the way 
steers and young cattle will lay on flesh and get smooth 
coats if given a liberal feed of it. Our steers get 20 pounds 
a day, and the cows 30. We feed the grain and ensilage 
together, and the hay last, and we think the animals 
digest it better when fed in that way. w. F. cash. 
Indiana Experiment Station. 
HORSE BREEDING IN ENGLAND. 
Number of horses more uniform than of other animjjAs; 
great notional Improvement in all breeds; increase of 
stud books, societies and general interest; severe re¬ 
jection of unsound and unfit breeders; points sought; 
growing popularity and value of Shires; Hunters 
and Hackneys to the front; present and praise for 
an enthusiast; the Prince of Wales a leader in -pop¬ 
ular improvements; propit ious prospects. 
The number of horses in the rural districts of the British 
Islands, as will be seeu later, has remained fairly constant 
during the past 10 years, but is larger now than at the 
A Merciful Stanchion. Fig. 92. 
commencement of the period. As indeed may have been 
surmised, it has fluctuated less than that of cattle, sheep, 
or pigs. Many abortive efforts have been made to induce 
the people of this country to regard and accept horse-flesh 
as an eligible article of food, and no doubt a good deal of 
it has been unconsciously consumed in that way ; it Is no 
doubt certain that if the efforts bad been successful, there 
would have been a much wider fluctuation in the number 
of horses from year to year than has been the case. 
Horses, indeed, being used only for breeding their kind 
and for work, are kept as long as they are fit for either one 
purpose or the other, after which there is very little value 
left in them. It is hardly worth while to transcribe the 
figures for each year since 1880, when there were 1,929,680, 
but by giving them for 1885, when there were 1,909,200, 
and for 1890, when there were 1,964,911, enough will have 
been done to show the variation that has taken place. 
These figures, it must be borne in mind, refer only to 
horses kept on farms, or in the country districts, and do 
not comprise the large number that are used in towns and 
cities, quite apart from agricultural pursuits. A complete 
census will show a much larger aggregate total. In my 
article of a week ago, on cattle, sheep and pigs, I gave 
some statistics, showing the decrease of cultivated land, 
and the increase of permanent pasture and meadow, and 
it will have been noticed that we have an increase of live 
stock corresponding with, or collateral to, the increase in 
permanent grass land, though the live stock increase is 
not entirely an equivalent. The result is that we have a 
large stock of hay in the country, and cattle, horses and 
sheep are consequently in good demand. 
During the past 20 years a great and constantly increas¬ 
ing Interest has been taken in horse-breeding. This grati¬ 
fying revival has permeated the whole country, and is now 
well established. The subject is better understood by the 
rank and file of our farmers than it ever was before. Stud¬ 
books of the different breeds are annually published, and 
numberless articles have appeared in newspapers and 
magazines. Societies have been formed, some of them 
national and many of them local, for the improvement of 
Shire horses, Clydesdales, Suffolks, Cleveland Bays, Hun¬ 
ters and Hackneys, and the improvements already accom¬ 
plished are striking and almost universal. 
One of the leading objects of these societies has been to 
impress upon farmers everywhere the prime necessity of 
breeding only from Worses in which no hereditary debility 
or unsoundness exists. This, indeed, is the only way in 
■which our different breeds of horses can be permanently 
improved. To ba “sound in wind, limb and eyesight” is, 
or should be, a sine qud non in all horses, both male and 
female, that are permitted to breed ; but it Is not all that 
is wanted. Formerly it was the custom to breed from any 
sort of ramshackle beast that would breed at all, but now 
a great system of “weeding out” unsuitable animals is 
in progress. A great deal still remains to be done. There 
is good work for the societies to persevere with for half a 
century. The careless customs of centuries are not easily 
uprooted, and their effects are not obliterated in one gen¬ 
eration. Absolute soundness, therefore, is what we are 
aiming to establish, combined with beauty and symmetry 
of form, vigor of constitution, muscular development, flat 
and “flinty” bone, strength, agility, good temper and so on. 
The recent Shire Horse Show at the Agricultural Hall, 
London, is said to have been the best of the series. The 
champion stallion, Vulcan, the property of the Earl of 
Ellesmere, won the Elsenham Challenge Cup for the sec¬ 
ond time, and it is now the Earl’s for good and aye. This 
grand horse is considered by good judges to be about as 
nearly perfect as we can hope to see a horse, take him for 
all in all, and he is probably the best horse of his kind on 
this mundane sphere. Compact, symmetrical, active, 
with grand feet, pasterns, bone and hair, he supplies a 
model toward which all breeders might well direct their 
efforts. He was bred by Mr. Whitehead, of Medlar Hall, 
in the Fylde country of Lancashire, a district which has 
produced a number of famous Shire horses. 
The Shire mare, Starlight, winner for the second time of 
the Lockinge Challenge Cup, is regarded as the best mare 
of her breed in England. She was sold two months ago— 
along with 47 other animals of the Shire breed—at the sale 
of Mr. Sutton-Nolthorpe’s stud, for 925 guineas, or just 
about 5,000 dollars,—the highest price yet made by any 
mare of the breed. The 48 animals averaged £198.17.3, or 
about $1,000 each. If the popularity of the Shire breed 
goes on increasing in this way, we shall ere long have 
them at the big figures which famous Short-horns used to 
command. This mare, Starlight, is of course superb in all 
respects, having fine action, and excellent feet, bone and 
hair. She also was bred in the Fylde of Lascashire, by Mr. 
Williamson of Garstang. The two counties of Lancashire 
and Derby are regarded as the chief homes of Shire horses, 
but there are others, to wit, Chester, Stafford, Leicester, 
York, etc., where the breed flourishes. 
The Shire Horse Show was followed by 
that of Hunters and Hackneys, which was 
also an eminent success. The counties of 
York and Norwich are preeminent for Thor¬ 
oughbreds, Hunters and Hackneys, but 
these ornaments of the equine world are 
found throughout the whole country. 
This show was made memorable by the 
presentation of a portrait of himself, in oil, 
to Mr. Walter Gilbay, to whom, more than 
to any one else, belongs the credit of encour¬ 
aging the revival which has taken place in 
horse breeding. The subscriptions to the 
testimonial were limited to one guinea (five 
dollars), and 1,200 men testified their ap¬ 
preciation of Mr. Walter Gilbey’s services. 
The Duke of Portland presided at the pre¬ 
sentation, making some remarks highly 
complimentary, and the Prince of Wales, 
having also spoken most favorably of what 
Mr. Gilbey has done in the interests of 
horse breeding, unveiled the splendid por¬ 
trait and made the presentation. In re¬ 
turning thanks for the testimonial Mr. 
Gilbey said that although we possessed the 
foundation of the finest breeds of horses in 
the world, there was a danger lest they 
might be deteriorating. Happily that 
danger was now past. The societies which 
have been established have struck their 
roots so deeply that they may be regarded 
as national and permanent, and we are 
entitled to say that we are now breeding 
not only more but better horses than at any 
other previous period of our history. 
To the Prince of Wales himself belongs, indeed, great 
credit for what, in his exalted position, and with his un¬ 
equaled influence, he has done to encourage not only 
horse breeding, but many other pursuits of the people 
over whom he will presumably one day preside as king. 
Many noblemen and gentlemen of wealth and position are 
also lending their influence to horse breeding, and we may 
fairly expect that in 20 more years an improvement still 
greater than that of the past 20 will have been accom¬ 
plished. Producing better horses all the time, we shall 
hope to secure a continually increasing demand for them 
from America and elsewhere. [PBOF.] J. p. shkldon. 
Surrey, England. 
“ When we find a -paper that has back bone enough to 
tell the TRUTH, let us have back-bone enough to help it 
along.”—i, w, lightly, 
SHIRE MARE HORBLING FANCY. Fig. 93. 
Re-engraved from London Live Stock Journal. 
