i89i 
543 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
planted, now 12 years ago, has rather excelled any other 
entire bed in Its healthy growth and good yield. It has 
had little culture except m Ichlng and a prying out with 
a heavy narrow mortising chisel—handle and all 16 inches 
long—of all old and suparfluous plants directly after bear¬ 
ing. This is done so freely that sometimes an area a yard 
or so across becomes barein that case a plant of the 
same sort—the Cumberland—Is set in to occupy the spot. 
This is In my garden of about a quarter of an acre, tended 
by arms that are hardly able to do heavy work. Some¬ 
times a mattock is used, but as the eyes as well as the 
arms are feeble, better selection can be made by kneeling 
and so getting close to the work. The plants hoisted out 
remain In place as a contribution to the annual mulch, 
and as shelter and food for the few plants left. Where it 
is desirable that some runners should root, an old plant is 
merely lifted loose, and the earth is not shaken from its 
roots until the runners have established themselves. A 
strong pair of sharp-pointed shears then serves to sever 
the runners and to lift out any weeds that may be growing 
here and there or redundant strawberry plants which are 
practically weeds. G. w. 
Tyrone Co., Pa. _ 
Live Stock Matters. 
The English Suffolk Sheep Society Is the first to apply 
for a special mark or patent. The registered mark and 
flock number are to be tattooed insile the left ear of each 
sheep. This system of marking is said to be largely prac¬ 
ticed in Germany. 
The Prince of Wales is a breeder of Short-horns—of 
dairy families too. On his estate at Sandringham he es¬ 
tablished a “ Boudoir Dairy ” and chose Jerseys for dairy 
stock. Recently some Kerry cows have been introduced 
and these bid fair to divide honors with the Jerseys. The 
Kerry is a little “ rustler.” 
Suffolk Ewe Lambs.—T he lambs pictured at Fig. 197 
Feeding Percheron Colts.— At the Maine Experiment 
Station three grade Percheron colts, 18, 16 and nine 
months old respectively, were fed to determine the feed¬ 
ing value of oats as compared with other commercial 
foods. The grain selected to compare with the oats was a 
mixture of pea meal and wheat middlings. There were 
three feeding periods, averaging about 50 days each. In 
the first the daily ration for each colt was 15 pounds of 
hay and eight pounds of mixed grain ; for the second, 14 
pounds of hay and seven pounds of oats, and for the third 
12 poum's of hay and six pounds of mixed grains. The 
result showed no superiority for the oats; in fact a little 
better gain in growth and weight was made with the peas 
and middlings. This gain was in growth— the effect upon 
the animal’s strength or working ability was not consid¬ 
ered. The peas were costly food, and were used merely 
because they gave a safe nitrogenous ration. Director 
Jordan assumes that gluten meal and wheat middlings 
would have answered equally well. Gluten meal and 
middlings would provide a ration costing 11 cents a day, 
while the oat ration would cost 16 cents—at present prices 
for these foods. The lesson from this experiment is that 
to put growth on a colt a Maine farmer could make money 
by selling oats and buying coarser waste products. 
CATTLE IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 
Good Cattle Will Again Pay. 
I believe it possible to largely increase the output of cat¬ 
tle from the far West, using that term in a broad sense. 
The remarkably large shipments of Texas cattle this 
season afford an illustration of the fact that, in a country 
of enormous extent such as ours, it is possible to have 
enormous supplies. But I do not think it probable there 
will be a rapid or great increase in the next few years. 
The losses met with by many of the ranchmen, and the 
settlement of large tracts formerly occupied by cattle 
will tend to discourage special efforts to greatly expand 
the business. 
East with grass beef and utterly ruined all of the corn 
feeders of the central West, who were not sharp enough to 
see what was comiug. Bub now there are not wanting 
signs of a marked change. Observing farmers of the 
central West are beginning to see that ere many years have 
parsed there will be money in raising and feeding cattle at 
home. The business will not, however, be conducted on 
the wasteful, haphazard system that formerly prevailed. 
Then cattlemen bought everything that could be called a 
steer. To them a steer was simply a steer. Breed was 
scarcely thought of. If the animal appeared to have a 
good capacity for corn, that was all that was necessary. 
They would fill him out and make beef of him. 
I have seen lots of 100 to 700 steers kept in large, open 
yards, exposed to all sorts of weather, for months, and fed 
shock corn by the ton. Droves of hogs followed them and 
rooted the slush over for the grain that was scattered or 
had passed through the steers undigested. The animals 
were culled over from time to time and the best shipped 
to market. Some of them would fatten readily, and the 
feeder would realize a profit on them, while others were 
like sieves, and the longer they were kept the greater the 
loss to the feeder. But these were considered matters of 
minor importance. Numbers were supreme. The man 
who fed and handled the largest number was the biggest 
gun. In the latter part of this era many feelers lost their 
hogs by cholera, and in many cases the cattle had to be 
sold at a great loss, and, naturally, the feeder went to the 
wall, and all of his belongings were sold by the sheriff. 
No such extravagant, wasteful system of feeding cattle 
will ever again prevail in the central West. Cattle will 
be kept in smaller lots in well sheltered yards and fed 
carefully and without waste. In buying a steer the first 
consideration of the feeder will be the breed. Scrubs will 
be passed by and only well bred animals will find their 
way into his yards. The coming cattle feeder will not be 
quite so pompous and whisky-free as was he of the past. 
He will be wiser, a closer observer and more painstaking, 
and he will know every steer he owns and very nearly 
won a number of prizes at English agricultural shows. 
Our picture is drawn from a plate that appeared in the 
London Live Stock Journal. The Suffolk sheep are gain¬ 
ing in popularity in England. At the last Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Show an excellent exhibit of these sheep was made, 
so good, in fact, that instead of being regarded as a local 
strain or family of “ Down ” sheep, they were recognized 
I believe it will pay many farmers in the central West 
to again give much prominence to rearing and feeding 
good cattle. It seems reasonably certain that, for a few 
years at least, we are to have more satisfactory cattle 
markets than we have had for five years past. There has 
been a noticeable improvement this year in comparison 
with prices in recent years. 
what it is doing for him. He will realize a greater profit 
on his herd than did his father, but it will not number 
so many animals by a good deal. Breed and care will be 
regarded as of more importance than numbers. 
It is a fact that the central West is—in comparison with 
former times—nearly bare of cattle. Almost every farm¬ 
er has sold down to a few milch cows. The close observt r 
as a distinct and useful 
breed. The Suffolks are large 
and quick growing sheep- 
well suited for mutton or 
for early lambs. The head 
is long and narrow and al¬ 
ways as black as jet. This 
exceedingly black face and 
head are a characteristic of 
the Suffolk breed, and give it 
a marked individuality. In 
size and shape the Suffolks 
are much like other Down 
breeds. The breed is very 
prolific, twins and triplets 
being quite common. A 
number of these sheep have 
been brought to America 
and efforts were made last 
for importing others. 
rflrt 
year to form an association 
t is noting the signs of the 
brighter prospects ahead, 
however, and is preparing to 
><r,<■■■-< ].b'< 1 \ reap his reward by tecuring 
,i *■ , y}M cows of the best beef breeds 
. ? f i> mM -' ' -.Ufl and using No. 1 bulls. It 
iL)¥'lijfjdkf} f\< 'iiBtr f Myf seems to me the indications 
CWiiWWttMf W M timC <d m W «• pU. that iu the near 
\u. ' j ' i, future careful farmers in the 
•~7~; Ir-'-TiLrlf---rv-- •- ■( .>■-/. central West will find ths 
raising and feeding of cat' la 
•’ ' * ully as P rofitable as it was 
7 ’ \ift4rhs $ before the barons of the 
W** ” P ,4ta8 ruined the business, 
tv 1"- H {/* What they will need to most 
SUFFOLK EWE LAMBS. FI*. 197. brewer 
and feeder who makes a great 
The farmer in the great corn and grass producing re- success of the business will be the one who does not at- 
gions of the central West, who either retains a good beef tempt to raise or feed more than he can safely handle. 
SUFFOLK EWE LAMBS. Fig. 197. 
Breeders of polled cattle are certain that the dishorn- herd or who purchases carefully selected animals at priees Christian Co., Ill. 
FRED GRUNDT. 
ing crusade has given the black Scotch and Red Polled 
breeds a tremendous boom. While dishorning is a nec- 
sary operation, it is not at all a pleasant one. It is bloody 
business at best. It Is agreed that those who do not like 
the butchery of the practice and still hate the horns will 
prefer the polled bull to the saw. Prob ably no cattle sell 
more readily just now than the polled Durhams. In Eng¬ 
land Red Polls are becoming very popul ar. 
The American correspondent of an English paper tells 
of cross-bred buffaloes that yield 200 p >unds of “hump ” 
steak worth 50 cents per pound, besides the rest of the car¬ 
cass and also a robe worth $300. What nonsense In view 
of what The R. N.-Y. has stated about buffalo cross-breed¬ 
ing I The hides of good Galloway cattle are becoming 
much sought for as substitutes for buffalo robes. Some 
breeders are attempting, by selection and exposure, as 
well as by feeding cotton-seed meal an 1 similar foods, to 
add to the weight of the “coat” at the expanse of the 
dairy qualities. Such cattle would pay on those aban¬ 
doned New England farms that are being turned into 
parks and “game preserves.” 
There is a great demand for tame deer to be kept as 
pets. In the suburbs of Paterson, N. J., there are many lit¬ 
tle parks and inclosures in which tame deer are kept. Like 
Shetland ponies, tame deer are always salable at high 
figures. This is another animal that would pay well all 
through the northern part of the country. 
Much has been said about the value of roasted cotton¬ 
seed. The Mississippi Station has just tested it in com¬ 
parison with steamed seed. The seed was roasted in a 
wire-cloth cylinder turned by means of a crank over a fire 
in an ordinary brick arch. One man roasted 10 bushels per 
hour. A “feed cooker” was used that cooked 25 bushels 
per hour. The steamed seed made the better showing. 
The Mississippi Station also fed Timothy hay, brought 
from the North, against Bermuda Grass hay grown in 
Mississippi. The Timothy cost $20.80 per ton, and the Ber¬ 
muda, $12 50. For milk and butter the Bermuda hay gave 
better results than the Timothy. This might have been 
expected. Timothy is about the least economical grass for 
dairy feeding that can be found. We would like to have 
the station people try Northern-grown clover instead. At 
the same time we are glad to see experiments that show 
the feeding value of home-grown grasses. 
now prevailing has good grounds for expecting fair profits 
from rearing and feeding good fat cattle. As a rule, I 
believe it will be best to make this a part of a somewhat 
diversified system of farming, rather than to make beef 
making a nearly exclusive business, as was formerly done 
by many. 
One year with another one branch of farming with an¬ 
other it seems to me certain there is to be only a moderate 
margin for profit in our farming in the near future, but 
the production of good beef by economical methods has as 
good a prospect as almost any other line of farm work. 
The University of Illinois has kept up Its herds of Short¬ 
horn and Hereford cattle during the years of great depres¬ 
sion. At times there has been much discouragement in 
the outlook. The expected advance in prices and increase 
in demand have been long deferred, but I believe both are 
coming. We will feed more cattle this year than for three 
years past. 
University of Illinois. [prof ] g. e. morrow. 
The Demand Is Mightier than the Herds. 
Judging from the tenor of the best and most reliable 
reports we can obtain of the condition of the cattle busi¬ 
ness in the far West, I think it has reached its limit in 
production. Farmers seeking homes under the Homestead 
and other acts in that region have taken up most of the 
best grass lands, and naturally crowded the big cattlemen 
and their herds further back into the sections where 
droughts render cattle raising on an extensive scale a 
rather precarious business. These settlers are raising 
some cattle, of course, but not many more than they need 
and the villages that have sprung up among them are 
consuming. 
The cattle baron and the cow-boy are rapidly becoming 
things of the past. Men who raise cattle on a large scale 
out there will soon be compelled to fence their lands, pay 
taxes, and assist in improving the country, and then the 
“ bonanza ” part of the programme will disappear like a 
mist before the morning sun. They will continue to ship 
quite a number of cattle East for some years to come, but 
these shipments will show a steady decrease, as the coun¬ 
try becomes settled and cultivated, towns increase in size 
and manufactories are started. 
When the barons had full swing over millions of acres 
of as fine grass lands as the sun ever shone on, they car¬ 
ried things with a high hand. They fairly deluged the 
The Limit is about Reached. 
I think the far West has reached its limit in raising 
cattle, because the settlers are occupying considerable 
areas of the land which the cattlemen usel to occupy. 
The country is being settled more and more, and every oue 
who secures a home takes so much away from the cattle¬ 
men. I think it will pay us to raise and fatten No. 1 
cattle ; but not scrubs. No. 1 cattle that weigh 1,500 or 
1,600 pounds, will bring now in Chicago six cents per 
pound, live weight. That would be nearly $100 per head. 
They certainly pay at that price. We used to think it 
paid pretty well when we got 4X to 5 cents per pound, but 
six would be better. There are getting to be a great many 
rich men in this country who do not care much what a 
thing costs so long as it is nice and just suits them, so 
that farmers who are wideawake will try to furnish the 
products, whether beef or butter, apples or potatoes, or 
any other article in order to catch the fancy prices. Cattle 
are not nearly so plentiful here as they were eight or ten 
years ago; I think there are not more than one-half or 
two thirds as many now as then. They have been so cheap 
that everybody wanted to get rid of them. But now the 
tide is turning, and I think the future looks encouraging. 
Harlan, Ind. s. M. 
ARTIFICIAL MILK FATS FOR CALVES. 
What Shall We Add to Sklm-MIlk? 
THE QUESTION. 
“I would like to have some one tell me how to raise as 
good calves with skim-milk as the main part of the ration 
as when the calf sucks the cow.” D. c. c. 
Jasper, N. Y. 
Oat Meal and Linseed Jelly. 
The man who on skim-milk and “something else” 
could raise a calf as well as if it sucked the cow, would 
be a great herdsman. No feed is as good as whole new 
milk drawn directly from the udder of the cow, but oth a r 
feed can be made to serve pretty nearly as well. At the 
end of a week wean the calf off on to new milk, and if you 
can get it, procure a patent calf feeder, so that in feeding 
the little thing will secrete more saliva to promote diges¬ 
tion. Then make a gradual change from new to skim- 
milk by mixing, and as the new milk decreases, make its 
place good by a jelly made of linseed meal. Gradually in¬ 
crease the amount of meal until two pounds are fed with 
