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VOL. L. NO. 2 175 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 3, i89i 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS, 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
THE HISTORY OF A SCRUB COW. 
Plenty of Good In Them. 
T HE cow of which the picture at Fig. 250 Is a photo- 
K apt], Is a native of the woods of western North 
Carolina, where it may be truly said that agricult¬ 
ure is more backward than anywhere else in the United 
States. The distance from railroads and almost complete 
isolation from the lower world, has kept the people back, 
and acted as a check upon all enterprise. Naturally the 
live stock has suffered from these circumstances, and as 
the breeding has been of the most promiscuous kind, the 
stock always running at large, and no care being given to 
prevent the calves from breeding at the earliest age, the 
progeny has deteriorated about as far as it could among 
wild animals. No better opportunity could be afforded to 
test the question whether it is possible to improve the 
stock by a superior system of feeding, without any in¬ 
fusion of new blood. 
My cow, which I call Nelly, was three years old when 1 
bought her six years ago. On the principle that “ I was 
a stranger and they took me In,” I paid $19 for her, the 
regular price of the best of the cows then being about $12 
to $15. She was a little thing, with a calf of about 50 
pounds’ weight, and three years old; she milked less than 
six quarts daily. Her feed had been browse in the woods 
in the summer and the pickings 
of a corn stubble in the winter. 
She had, in addition, the run of 
the woods in the winter, and 
filled herself with such wild dry 
grass and twigs of the shrubbery 
as she might be forced by 
hunger to consume. She was a 
very good subject for a trial of 
what might be done by good 
feeding. She was put on a grass 
pasture, the best that the farm 
then afforded, which was poor 
and thin, and was given four 
quarts of corn meal daily. She ^ 
gradually mended and in three ^ 
months increased in her milk to ;;0. 
10 quarts a day, which made half ' 
a pound of butter. She was in v 
calf when I got her, and In time — ' 
had a very fair heifer calf. The ’ Y ‘ 1 v 
calf was taken from her and fed ~ ~ '' ^ v> ~ ' 
on skimmed milk. Her yield of • v -x' 
milk was then six quarts at a . • .. - 
milking, and the butter yield > ' •* * 
was one pound per day. The v v „ ' 
feed was then increased to six *•' 
quarts of corn meal daily, with ^ I - 
good clover pasture. This clover ] o y- " ^ ‘ 
was the first grown in this town- V x 1 \\ ’ 
ship, and many people came to see i ~ S' s 
it, believing that clover could not 
be grown here. The cow grew in NELLY THE ‘ 
size rapidly, and became quite a 
fair animal, for a scrub. The growth of the udder, however, 
was the most encouraging feature. It became larger with 
every succeeding calf. Last year her udder measured 42 
inches around at the upper part, and her milk yield was 
22 quarts daily. Of this eight pounds of butter were made 
weekly, besides the cream for table use. All her butter 
was sold at 30 cents a pound, and the account that year 
was $73.20, besides the cream and the feeding of a calf, 
and the rest of the skimmed milk which went to the pigs. 
This year she had a calf on July 1, and is as her picture 
shows her. Her udder is 48 inches round at the upper 
part near the belly, and her milk amounts to 28 quarts 
daily on lighter feed than heretofore, being wholly past¬ 
ure, because I am selling no butter, and her calf, a bull, is 
getting all the milk for the purpose of finding out what 
this feeding will do for it. Since I have owned her she has 
had two bull and four heifer calves, of which three have 
been sold when two years old, each for more than she cost 
me on account of her good character and their good 
quality. One I have which promises to be a still better 
cow than the mother, being at a year old of good size, and 
having a very fine rudimentary udder, and a deep yellow 
skin, especially on the udder, which I consider an excel¬ 
lent indication of a good cow. The sire of this calf is a 
native bull, out of a cow belonging to a neighbor who has 
taken great interest in watching the development of my 
cow, has known her since she was a calf, and has adopted 
the method of feeding which I have followed with my 
cows. He is now running a butter dairy. This is not the 
only cow I have been feeding, having slaughtered two for 
the purpose of studying the character of the udders, after 
three years of good feeding, as compared with that of a 
native cow wholly unimproved. The results of these ex¬ 
aminations I will give to the readers of Thb Rural at 
some future time. I will only say now that they fully 
corroborate my belief—I may say, conviction—that a com¬ 
mon cow is quite susceptible of Improvement by liberal 
feeding, and that a cow is very much what her owner 
makes her, and that the scrub part of her really belongs 
in a great part to the man who neglects her and won’t or 
cannot take the scrub out of her. 
I might add that I have fully proved the truth of the 
statement made in the feeding tables, given in that excel¬ 
lent work by my friend, E. W. Stewart, in which it Is 
said that the undergrowth of the forest is considerably 
more nutritious than the best pasture, as these figures 
show: 
Composition of Pasture and Leaves of Trees. 
Albuminoids. Carbohydrates. Fat. 
Grass before clover. 3.0 13.1 0.8 per cent. 
Leaves of trees . 5.2 1 , 2 15 << 
Red Clover, full blossom. 8.0 8^9 0.6 “ 
I have found this to be the case beyond any question. 
My beef stock that have fed in the woods have come out 
V 
■ . 
NELLY THE “SCRUB:” A NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN COW. Fig. 250 
idder, however, fatter than those pastured on good grass and clover, and of fairs and < 
me larger with mules and horses do the same, while sheep produce the that no record 
sr measured 42 finest mutton I ever ate in this or other countries. The it is recognize 
milk yield was excess of fat In the forest feed, is especially noticeable, and breeding purp 
tter were made the increase of butter from the milk of cows fed in the the various t 
All her butter woods goes far to prove that the fat in the food does really chance; and i 
iount that year find its way into the butter. When the cows have fed in returns! 
ading of a calf, the woods the increase of butter is very soon noticeable. Macon Co., ] 
ant to the pigs. The fine climate here, cool in summer and mild in win- 
as her picture ter, so that cows can pasture nearly every day in the R. N. Y.—W 
d at the upper winter, and have the cheapest feed in the summer, on land of the milk c 
its to 28 quarts that costs only $5 or so per acre, without any cost for sow- might know i 
g wholly past- ing; the cold springs which break out on every hand, and the milk. On 
' calf, a bull, is the entire absence of mosquitoes and troublesome flies, all could percept 
ding out what make this as yet undeveloped country, a very desirable The only way 
led her she has dairy region. The Southern country affords the best mar- was to make t 
ch three have kets for dairy produce, and a company of dairymen with was given tin 
j than she cost their creamery or cheese factory would find here many milk; the ext 
id their good locations for the profitable pursuit of their industry. I not richer mi 
>e a still better have no interest personally in saying this. I have a good- Scrub ” give 
good size, and sized little farm—three in fact—with some woods around quality ? In i 
a deep yellow them ; but not one acre to dispose of. There are thousands crease the pr< 
isider an excel- of acres, however, awaiting industrious owners who may readily increas 
>f this calf is a make this beautiful and pleasant region verdant with farmers claim 
ghbor who has meadows, and musical with the bleating of sneep and never seen any 
opment of my lambs, and the lowing of cows. And the native stock is a did this cow “ 
I has adopted good one and cheap to start with. “ scrubs” are 
This is not my first experience In the improvement of 
the native cows. I have been working at it for more than 
30 years, although in that time I have owned a good many 
purebred cows. But I have always taken Interest in the 
Door scrubs, and have often taken occasion to resent the 
undeserved odium which has been cast upon these 
necessary animals, and urged their better treatment, 
knowing how they may be made profitable to those farm 
ers who have no other stock, and no hopes of ever owning 
any other. 
Finally, I may say that had this cow been kept as she 
was first raised, she would certainly have been no better 
than the general run of the common cows of which 
she is a specimen. She would have been a scrub, just such 
a one as was figured in The Rural some time ago, and 
which caused me to feel sorry that a noble beast should 
have been so degraded by her owner’s neglect. She would 
have been a scrub no better than the others of her race. 
The lower animals are no worse and no better than the 
higher human race. We are all of one blood in this 
respect. Let a boy be neglected and starved, the manhood 
in him be undeveloped, and his appearance will show it as 
clearly as that of one of the lower animals shows the same 
treatment in its case. It is thus the coarse hoodlum of 
the city is produced, and if there is a scrub in nature, h 
is one. Feeding makes or mars 
l a man. The half-starved tramp 
Is a scrub, but he might have 
been a man had he been well fed 
and lodged, and the undeveloped 
' good in him been thus brought 
out. And thus it Is, I am con- 
^ mTiBbT^Ii i vinced, with regard to all our 
domesticated animals. The in- 
fluence is not only physical but 
moral. It affects the intelli- 
gence, and it cannot be denied 
' that animals have Intelligence 
% to be developed as well as physi¬ 
cal properties. 
My experience is not at all 
different from that of others. 
Prof. Stewart, in his work 
above mentioned, gives an in¬ 
stance of a herd of 20 native 
; ' fecows which were kindly and 
j ' ■ well cared for, whose product 
a ■ was 302 pounds of butter apiece 
k . for the year. The despised—by 
v *' ! ' * - some—native cow, makes nearly 
■> the whole of the butter and 
». : r n cheese of this great country, 
; , v >V '•' . and does she not deserve to be 
'''• encouraged and improved as 
~' J ' v much as may be possible ? That 
under favorable conditions she 
is capable of remarkable per- 
M. Fig. 250. formances at the pail and in the 
churn has been shown at scores 
of fairs and dairy shows throughout the country. Pity 
that no record has been kept of such feats, simply because 
it is recognized that it is impossible to boom the scrub for 
breeding purposes, and records are kept mainly to boom 
the various breeds for this object. Give the scrub a 
chance; and she will, in most cases, make satisfactory 
returns. henry stewart. 
Macon Co., N. C. 
R. N. Y.—We wish Mr. Stewart could have had analyses 
of the milk or exact weights of butter made that we 
might know if any changes occurred in the character of 
the milk. On page 526 the scientists told us that no food 
could perceptibly change the “richness” of the milk. 
The only way, they said, to make cows give more butter 
was to make them give more milk. No matter what food 
was given them, they kept on giving the same kind of 
milk; the extra food given simply resulted in more and 
not richer milk. The better feeding made “Nelly, the 
Scrub” give more milk, but was that milk of better 
quality? In our own experiments we have failed to in¬ 
crease the proportion of fat in the milk though we can 
readily increase the total quantity. We know that many 
farmers claim to have fed fat Into the milk, but we have 
never seen any exact figures to prove it. Another thing : 
did this cow “hold out” with her milk yield ? As a rule, 
“ scrubs ” are not long milkers, but dry off easily. 
■Mr 
