VOL. L. NO. 2181. NEW YORK NOVEMBER i 4 , i 89 i. pr S’per year ts * 
STOCK AT “SHADELAND.” 
A PROPHET HONORED AT HOME. 
Shadeland is the celebrated live stock establishment of 
Powell Brothers, and Is located in the northwestern part 
of Pennsylvania, in Crawford County. It is a station on 
the Shenango and Lake Erie Railroad, and also on the 
Erie and Pittsburg road. Messrs. Powell Brothers have 
every advantage in the way of shipment, travel and 
communication with the outside world. Their business 
offices combine all the advantages of a post office, money 
order office, telegraph office and railroad station. Mails 
are received and despatched several times a day, and the 
telegraph wire is ready at any moment to hasten com¬ 
munication with correspondents, if haste be needed. 
This is certainly the largest institution of the kind that 
I know of, and I am told 
that it comprises the largest 
variety and collection of fine 
live stock in the world. It is 
simply a whole neighborhood 
of farming industry under 
one management. There are 
over 100 employees on the 
place, all told. These Include 
blacksmiths, carpenters, 
clerks, horse trainers and 
farm hands. Married men 
are provided with homes, and 
a hotel, which sells no 
whisky, is run to board the 
single help and accommodate 
guests to the farm. Shade- 
land comprises about 1,500 
acres, and this area not being 
sufficient to support the 
stock, several farms are rent¬ 
ed in the neighborhood with¬ 
in a radius of 10 miles, for 
grazing purposes. 
The number of acres, how¬ 
ever, gives one no idea of the 
extent of the place. I visited 
it in early September, and as 
I stood at the modest little 
railroad station no less than 
a half dozen barns were in 
view, and these were filled 
with fine animals and the 
material with which to feed 
them, besides the hundreds 
roaming about the great 
pastures and under the trees. 
Mr. Watkin G. Powell, one 
of the firm of Powell Broth¬ 
ers, informed me that he had 
always been a reader of The 
Rural New-Yorker, and 
that his father had been a 
subscriber to it when he was 
a boy. He also said that he 
had files of The Rural of 
30 years ago in the house. 
“ How long have you been in the live stock business, 
Mr. Powell?” I asked. 
“All my life time,” he replied, “and my father was in it 
before me. We have been importing the best grades of 
stock for 20 years.” 
“ What breed of horses do you import and keep,” I asked. 
“ We keep everything a man wants in the horse line,” 
he replied, “ from a Shetland pony to a Clydesdale horse. 
We have the Percheron and French Coachers, English 
Shire and English draft horses, standard-bred trotters and 
Hackney horses. We have saddle horses, trotting horses 
and draft horses. In the pony line we can furnish the 
Welsh, Iceland or Shetland. Our idea is to keep the 
greatest variety, and the largest possible selection so that 
a customer cannot fail to find what he wants. If one 
breed doesn’t suit him, there are many others. If one 
strain doesn’t suit his fancy, he can choose another. If 
one individual of the family or strain doesn’t come up to 
his ideal, he has a dozen others to choose from.” 
“ What else do you keep in the stock line ?” 
“ Holstein-Friesian and Devon cattle, and Highland 
black-faced sheep. We also handle considerable real 
estate.” 
“Do you sell many horses to cooperative companies ?” 
I asked. 
“Yes,” he said, “we have sold a great many, and the 
practice is generally successful. Sometimes a foolishness 
among the stockholders makes a little trouble, but the 
most frequent occurrence Is that those on the inside find 
it a good investment, and want to get the others out. 
The great advantage is that it creates a good supply of 
one grade of horses in the neighborhood, and a good sup¬ 
ply always creates a home demand.” 
“ Of course, you raise a great many colts,” I suggested. 
“ Yes, a great many.” 
“ Do you ever lose many ?” 
“ No; not now. We used to.” 
“ What was the trouble ?” 
“The trouble usually came from over-zealous attendants. 
They are always anxious to sever the natal cord, and 
separate the mother from the colt. We don’t allow this 
any more. The colt should be allowed to get all the 
nutriment it can have, and it will separate itself In due 
time. Then we sometimes have trouble from constipa¬ 
tion among the colts. In some nature does not seem to 
develop the muscles of the bowels regularly, and consti¬ 
pation is the result. For immediate relief, we give in¬ 
jections of warm water. Sometimes the young things 
strain and suffer and are apparently going to die, but in 
five minutes after giving them the injection, they are 
relieved, and feel all right again. Then we don’t believe 
in weaning colts too soon. They should not be weaned 
too young. We think it objectionable to wean them be¬ 
fore they are five months old or more. Before this age 
the stomach is not developed to handle the ordinary food 
given them. It becomes distended, the colt grows pouchy 
and is likely to have impaired digestion. After weaning, 
we like to give them cows’ milk for a while. They soon 
learn to drink it. With this we give them ground feed- 
half and half by weight of corn and oats, and this is 
mixed with equal parts of bran. This, we think, makes 
an excellent feed. The corn gives heat, the oats muscle, 
and the bran bone material. In this matter I give the re¬ 
sults of many years’ experience.” 
“ Have you a silo ?” 
“ Yes, we have fed a great deal of ensilage. We haven’t 
been quite sure of the desirability of using it. We have 
had some trouble with indigestion while feeding it and 
felt inclined to charge it to the feed. However, we are 
not prepared to say that it did cause the trouble. We do 
not feed ensilage to horses.” 
“ How many head of horned cattle do you keep ? ” 
“About 400 head of Holsteins and Davons.” 
Shadeland Holsteins have made some remarkable re¬ 
cords, and individuals of the herd have at times stood at 
the head of the milk and butter records of the world. 
Shadeland Maud, that died of milk fever about three 
years ago, was one of the finest cows in the country, and 
had a consecutive milk record 
for a two, three, four and 
five-year-old that placed her 
at the head of the milk pro¬ 
ducers of the world. When 
six years old she gave 113 
pounds four ounces in one 
day, and 730 pounds 12 ounces 
in one week. She was never 
dry after dropping her first 
calf, and at the time of her 
death was considered one of 
the most wonderful milkers 
In the world. Another re¬ 
markable cow in this herd is 
Shadeland Boon, which In 
1888, stood at the head for 
butter record, and, I believe, 
yet stands at the head for a 
consecutive record covering 
several years. In the spring 
of 1888 she produced in one 
month 125 pounds 12 ounces 
of unsalted butter from 
I.772X pounds of milk. This 
was an average of about 14.09 
pounds of milk for one pound 
of butter, and an average of 
about four pounds of butter 
per day. In some of Shade- 
land Boon’s subsequent rec¬ 
ords she has made four 
pounds 14 ounces of butter a 
day for two days, only 11.18 
pounds of milk being re¬ 
quired for a pound of butter. 
She is yet in the herd, and 
with such strains it is not 
strange that the herd has 
become famous for great per¬ 
formers. 
The accompanying illustra¬ 
tion, Fig. 283, gives a good 
idea of what Shadeland can 
show in the line of horse 
flesh. This is a typical animal 
and the unqualified work 
of the artist has scarcely done him justice. But It would 
be useless to speak of the individual merits of these ani¬ 
mals. One can scarcely visit one of these stock farms and 
view such noble animals without becoming more or less 
enthusiastic over the possibilities in careful breeding. 
Shadeland is well supplied with fruit. The pears were 
especially fine and plentiful; one orchard of five acres is 
devoted to pears alone. The varieties seemed to be Clapp’s 
Favorite and Bartlett. A large and beautiful park on 
the hill-side is open to visitors, and picnic parties from 
neighboring towns and the country around often frequent 
the place and at the same time visit the stables to see the 
fine horses and other animals. 
I met a neighbor a short distance from Shadeland, and 
found the proprietors were not without credit even in 
their own land. “The Powell Brothers,” said this neigh¬ 
bor, “have done a great deal of good in these parts. They 
have made it possible for us to raise better stock, and we 
would have made more money had we taken their advice 
and followed their example before.” 
It is not always that a prophet has credit in his own 
country, but Messrs. Powell Brothers seem to be a favored 
exception to the rule. j. j. d. 
FRENCH COACH STALLION "INTACT.” Fig. 283. 
