7o4 
OCT. 3 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Live Stock Matters. 
THE LIVE STOCK AT “ LAKESIDE. ” 
CALF CARE; COWS AND HORSES. 
Feeding calves from, scales; comfortable quarters for 
calves; short rations for scours; good care makes 
Mg calves; no inferior calves from superior parents; 
fly paper for blankets; a record book thins out cattle; 
Syracuse the rival of Kalamazoo. 
I suppose every intelligent reading farmer has heard of 
Lakeside, the home of Smiths & Powell’s famous Holstein 
herd. It is located on the western shore of Onondaga 
Lake, about three miles from Syracuse. The place Is a 
small village in itself, being a flag station of the Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and containing a num¬ 
ber of comfortable houses for the accommodation of the 
help. 
The calves are allowed to suck the cows for two or three 
days, and are then all turned over to one man who has 
entire charge of them afterwards. The time they are left 
with the cows depends on their condition. If they do 
well, two days are considered sufficient, but if they seem a 
little delicate in any way, the time Is extended. As soon 
as they are taken from the cowrf they are fed skim milk as 
It comes from the separator. Sometimes it is warm and 
sometimes cold. 
Fed to a Scale. 
The calves are fed three times a day, and the utmost 
care is taken to feed them at regular Intervals and with 
regular rations. A scale hangs in the hall between their 
pens, and every feed of milk Is weighed out to each indi¬ 
vidual calf. It should not be inferred that a cast-iron rule 
is made to give each and every calf exactly the same 
amount of milk. There Is a little brain matter worked in 
with the hard metal of the scale spring, and the mixture 
seems to be able to get just about the proper weight of 
milk for the calf. The amount, of course, depends on the 
demands of the animal. 
The use of scales in the matter of weighing milk for 
young calves ought to be a valuable suggestion to some 
farmers. I have seen calves huddled together in a corner 
of a field or in a crowded stall, and fed in a trough which 
was just long enough to allow the calves to stand up close 
to one another and drink. This is a very good arrange¬ 
ment for the strong animals as they hustle the weaker 
ones aside, and take all the milk themselves. This, of 
course, works a double injury, as the strong calves get too 
much, while the weak ones do not get enough. 
No Scoured-Out Calves Here. 
I asked the attendant if he ever had any trouble with 
scours. “ Oh, yes,” he replied; “ we do have trouble with 
scours, and some very bad cases, too. but we find no 
trouble in curing them. We can cure the worst cases 
without any medicine. We never use any for this trouble. 
We simply shut off their milk. When we have a mild 
case we just give one half the usual quantity. If that 
does not do we reduce it still further, and in some of the 
worst cases we have fed as little as four ounces of milk a 
day for several days.” 
I asked him if he ever went back to feeding new milk to 
a calf while scouring. 
“Never,” he said. “We feed the skim-milk just the 
same, only in less quantities, and I can’t remembar that 
we ever lost a calf from scours.” 
The calves get nothing but milk and a little hay, until 
they are about three months old. Then they are fed oats, 
shorts and glucose meal. The glucose Is not fed because 
it is considered the best, but because it is cheaper than 
some other feeds, and answers the purpose very well. 
“Do you ever turn young calves out on grass?” I 
•filfpd. 
“No,” said he. “In the first place we have no conven¬ 
ient place for them, and, again, we think they do better in 
the stables.” 
I want to make it plain, however, that the calves at Lake¬ 
side are not stowed away in a corner of the cow stable 
behind the drop; nor in a corner of a cold, windy barn 
floor; nor yet in a low, poky little shed, with wet and mire 
up to their knees. They are, on the contrary, located by 
themselves in a large, airy, well lighted stable In roomy 
stalls that run along each side of the building and there is 
a hall through the length of the latter. The stalls are 
kept dry and clean and the calves are provided with a com¬ 
fortable bed. As a result they are strong and healthy, 
and many of the spring calves are now as large as ordinary 
yearlings. Under this care and treatment they develop 
naturally, and the result is apparent in the uniformity of 
the many young bulls and heifers that are coming to milk 
and service. 
I asked Mr. Smith what he did with inferior calves. 
“ We don’t have any,” he promptly replied. “ That is,” 
he explained, “ except a very rare case of unnatural birth. 
If we had a cow that produced inferior calves, we would 
kill her. But our herd has been so carefully bred up that 
we have no trouble In that direction.” 
A Plague of Flies. 
Many of the cows were In pasture and seemed to be in a 
good condition for making milk and paying their way. 
Others were in the stables, and among them I saw some of 
the noted prize winners and record makers of the Aaggie, 
Netherland, Clothilde and other noted families. The cows, 
though covered with light blankets were suffering from 
the attacks of hordes of small flies. They are somewhat 
smaller than the ordinary cow fly and very decidedly more 
vicious. They attack the animals on the fore shoulders 
and draw blood through the blankets. How to dispose of 
them seemed to be a difficult question, but remembering 
the Jerseyman’s method of poisoning mosquitoes, which 
was to catch the pests and poke the poison down their 
throats, they concluded to use at least part of the prescrip¬ 
tion and catch them. Large sheets of “ tanglefoot ” and 
“ stick’em tight ” were pinned on the blankets over the 
cows’ shoulders, and flies were entrapped by the million. 
Live flies were getting to be a scarce article around there. 
Ensilage: The Cheapest Grain Food. 
I asked Mr. Smith how he liked ensilage for cows. 
“ We like it,” he said. “ We are ensilage men. It is un¬ 
doubtedly the cheapest food that can be used.” 
“ Do you make ensilage of any other product besides 
corn f 
“ No; not now. We used to make ensilage of everything, 
but it doesn’t pay.” 
“ What kind of feed do you use ? ” 
“ Well, we use the kind that comes the nearest to suiting 
us for the money,” he replied. “ We don’t like gluten 
meal very much, but other feeds are so dear this year that 
we use it to some extent. It makes a great deal of milk, 
but the quality is not so good as from other feeds. We like 
ground oats for milk, but they are too dear this year. Old- 
process oil meal makes a good feed when fed in proper 
quantities. We are feeding one-eighth oil meal now. 
This is a heavier proportion than usual, but we are using 
bulky food with it. Ground oats, bran and linseed meal 
make an excellent combination for milk, and a mixture of 
corn makes the ration all right for butter. I would use 
equal parts by weight of oats, bran and corn with about 
one twentieth of linseed meal.” 
Keeping Milk Records; Dairy Fixtures. 
The arrangement for keeping the Individual record of 
every cow is very simple. In a little room just off the 
stable hangs a pair of scales so adj usted that the weight of 
the pail j ust balances them. Each pail used in the milking 
stable is of the same weight, so that the scales will always 
balance any of them. Each milker, as soon as he milks a 
cow, steps into this room, weighs his milk, and marks the 
weight on a ruled board on the wall opposite the name of 
the cow, and In the column headed with the date. At the 
end of the week this Is copied Into a book by the foreman, 
and sent to the office, where the monthly and yearly 
records are made up. In this way the people can ieadily 
tell how each cow Is doing from day to day, and also what 
she has done for the year. If this simple little matter 
were praticed by every dairyman in the State of New 
York for one year, I venture to predict that it would re¬ 
sult in the slaughter of 50 per cent of the cows in the 
State. A man will often feed a cow at a loss when he is 
not quite sure that she is paying her way, but when he 
becomes sure that she is a losing investment, he is likely 
to look around for a butcher shop. 
I didn’t see the dairyman, but I saw enough of the dairy 
house to convince me that it was run on a principle com¬ 
mensurate with the other branches of the business. In 
the first place it is clean—the word ought to make some 
dairymen blush. Unfortunately one half the dairymen 
don’t know the full meaning of that little adjective. A 
general state of cleanliness won’t do in a dairyhouse; 
every little crack and crevice and corner of every imple¬ 
ment from the churn to the dipper must shine like a new 
silver dollar before we can apply the word to the dairy. 
It is in this sense that I say the Lakeside dairy is clean. 
It is supplied withaDeLwal separator, a large revolv¬ 
ing churn, and a steam engine for power. The butter is 
sold to a firm in Syracuse, and brings 30 cents a pound for 
the greater part of the year, and 25 cents in the flush 
months of summer. It is packed in small earthen jars 
provided by the purchasers. 
“ What brand of salt do you use t ” I asked. 
“The Genesee salt. We believe it is the purest, the 
cleanest, and the best salt on the market.” 
“ You surprise me,” I said. 
“ Well, we were surprised ourselves when we tried it. 
But we gave it a thorough test and now don’t want to use 
any other.” 
Other Stock and Nursery Interests. 
It would be an endless task to undertake to note the in¬ 
dividual merits of the animals in this herd. In the young 
stock, however, I could not help to note the uniformity of 
excellence. Beautiful heads, fine horns, and escutcheons, 
slender tails with rich yellow aides and a gentle disposi¬ 
tion are criticisms that will apply from one end of the 
stalls to the other. The heifers, too, show a remarkable de¬ 
velopment of udders, and early signs of great milkers. 
Mr. Smith told me that they never allowed the heifers to 
calve until they are about 30 months old. Early breeding, 
they think, makes the animals diminutive and stunted, 
and they never attain their natural size when bred too 
y °Lakeside, however, has become scarcely less famous for 
Its horse flesh than for its Holsteins. The horses comprise 
the finest specimens of French Coachers, Clydesdales, 
Percherons and standard bred trotters. The French 
Coachers are an exceptionally fine lot. They have evi¬ 
dently been selected with great care, and bred with un¬ 
usual success. They are of good size and style and show 
up lively trotting gait and the much sought for knee ac¬ 
tion. They run very uniform iu style and desirable feat¬ 
ures generally at Lakeside, but this is a characteristic of 
the French Coacher in general. The object at Lakeside is 
to breed the best animals of the different breeds, so that a 
purchaser will have a choice of breeds as well as of indi¬ 
viduals. The purpose is to sell the stock young, and with¬ 
out training or development, for breeding purposes. 
Besides the live stock business, Lakeside comprises one 
of the largest nurseries in the country. One can ride 
through the grounds for miles and see nothing but nursery 
stock of every conceivable description, and in all stages of 
growth. With this extensive assortment of stock and 
liberal feeding, barnyard manure is plentiful and is used 
liberally in growing nursery stock. The firm is now ex¬ 
perimenting with celery. It is doing well, and the busi¬ 
ness in this line will be increased another year. The soil 
and conditions seem favorable to the growth of celery, and 
Syracuse may yet rival Kalamazoo or Tecumseh in the 
pioduction of this table luxury. ? J. J. D. 
A DANISH FARMER’S PIG DAIRY. 
In 1886 there settled in our vicinity a Dane, a man who 
spoke very poor English. He bought a farm of 160 acres, 
paying or agreeing to pay $40 an acre—$6,400 in all. He 
had ready money to pay $400 down, and gave a mortgage 
for $6 000 at six per cent interest. He also had enough to 
buy an old pair of mare3, two cows and 10 shoats—all sows. 
His family consisted of wife, one daughter eight years 
old, and two little boys six and four. On the farm 140 
acres were cleared and 20 in fine beech timber. He was in¬ 
dustrious and all the rest of the family showed they were 
willing to lend a helping hand down to the smallest boy, 
who worked as diligently as the mother, in the onion bed 
near the door. The farmer got his crops in early and well 
and was on hand when they needed attention and had 
made arrangements for taking care of them. He would 
exchange work with his neighbors in haying and harvest or 
during any hurry and they were always glad to make the 
exchange for he was an extra man at anything he took 
hold off. 
His neighbors all wondered when they saw him breaking 
up two acres of flue meadow after heavily manuring it, 
and then fitting it and sowing it to turnips. “ What will 
B. do with two acres of turnips ? ” was the question. His 
crops were good. He cut about 60 tons of hay. He rented 
his pasture to a butcher aside from what he required for 
his horses, cows and hogs; for this he received $140. He 
sold what hay he could spare—45 tons—f>r $8 per ton at 
the barn, he to draw it to the railroad station four miles 
away after it was pressed. At the right time he went off 
to a neighbor and bought a thoroughbred Berkshire boar, 
and turned him in with his 10 sows as they came in heat. 
That winter bsech nuts were plentiful In the woods for 
the hogs. A warm log she i banked around with earth 
and nearly full of leaves was prepared with a trough 
extending Its whole length. Each day you would see Mr. 
B. with a large barrel of warm, boiled turnips with some 
meal (oat) mixed with them going to his hog shanty. The 
beech nuts and warm feed kept the animals in fine con¬ 
dition. As the time approached for them to drop their 
young, they were taken to the barn where he had prepared 
a basement warm and airy. The result was that by April 
15, Mr. B had 180 fine young pigs, which at four weeks old 
were sold readily for March pigs at $3.50 each, and for 
April pigs at $3; of the formsr he had 102, which brought 
$357; and of the latter, 78, which fetched $234, or $591 in all. 
He had received for hay, grain, pigs and all produce sold 
$1,377. His payment was only $500 a year with interest— 
making a total of $860. He made his first payment and a 
second of $500. 
That year he added to his indebtedness the expense of 30 
cows, at an average of $40 a head, a moneyed man loaning 
the money, taking a chattel mortgage on the cows. He 
took his milk to the creamery, and received enough to 
enable him the first season to pay for his cows. Next year 
he increased his “ hog dairy ” to 30 head and with hogs 
and cows, he paid for his farm five years before the time 
expired, and had a comfortable home to leave at his death 
for wife and children. Here was a practical, thoughtful 
workingman who diverged from the common routine to 
be laughed at, but to succeed. He always raised a pair of 
colts from his work team of mares, another source of profit. 
Chautauqua Co., N. Y. H. A. w. 
NOTES. 
The longer we milk and observe cattle the more thor¬ 
oughly are we convinced that two thirds of the “ disease 
germs” found in milk could be caught in a good strainer ; 
in other words, “ disease germs ” are dirt I 
Chicken Lice on Horses.— “A man who came here to 
buy a horse several years ago,” said Mr. John W. Akin, 
of Scipio, N. Y., to a Rural man recently, “gave me a 
little bit of information that was worth more to me than 
the profit on the horse he bought. By some accident hens’ 
lice had got on my cattle, and I was not able to get rid of 
them. The gentleman told me to sift on water-lime, giv¬ 
ing two applications, one to kill those on, and another, 
later, to destroy those subsequently hatched. I did so, 
and had no further trouble from hen lice.” 
Breeding Coach Horses.— The organ of the American 
Trotter Association, very truly says: “ In the great breed¬ 
ing sections and horse markets of America the most diffi¬ 
cult harness horse to secure is the model coach horse; when 
such an animal can be obtained at an exorbitant price the 
still more difficult undertaking is to secure a respectable 
mate for him at any price.” This statement cannot be 
disputed by any one who has observed the market in our 
large cities. How is this desirable animal to be obtained ? 
The Trotter Association proposes a cross of the Trotting 
sire on the Thoroughbred or running mare. A more satis¬ 
factory plan, for farmers at least, would be to breed the 
stallions of the coach breeds—French, English or German 
—on their best mares. For the great majority of Eastern 
farms such a colt would prove the most profitable that 
could be raised. 
Feeding Bark to Cattle.— A Connecticut subscriber 
asks this question: “ Is it a fact that bark is fed to cattle 
in England with the results claimed ? ” We read consider¬ 
able in the English agricultural papers about this matter. 
It appears that considerable powdered or finely ground 
bark is fed to cattle, mixed with other foods. Bark from 
elm, pine and oak seems to be most generally used—partic¬ 
ularly the first named. After the trees are cut the bark is 
stripped as in preparing hemlock bark for tanning. When 
dried it Is ground to a fine powder, and mixed with the 
grain food in the proportion of one to five or thereabouts. 
It is also used in a larger proportion with more concen¬ 
trated foods like cotton-seed meal to give “ bulk ” to the 
ration. Very many of the English “ patent ” foods are 
said to contain this bark with refuse molasses. With 
cheap sugar or molasses and ground slippery elm bark the 
