33o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 13 
SAFE EXERCISE FOR THE BULL. 
Mr. M. H. C. Gardner, of Orange County, N. Y., 
sends us a sketch of the device shown at Fig. 123 for 
exercising a bull so that he may take his “walks 
abroad ” with perfect safety to the other members of 
the family. A stout wire is securely fastened from 
two convenient points—from the barn to a tree as in 
the picture or from one corner of the barnyard to an¬ 
other. A pulley runs on this with a small chain 
fastened to the bull’s nose-ring. He can thus walk 
back and forth and still is held securely. 
MILK HEIFER FARMING ON CHEAP LAND. 
A NEW SPECIALTY. 
There Is a great opening for some good judges of milch cows to start 
what may be called heifer farms on some of tho cheap lands of the 
East. Start with a herd of good milch cows, and put a Holstein bull 
at their head Beef the steers and raise the heifers for sale—just before 
or after calving—to the milk dairymen In Orange and adjoining 
counties. These heifers could be raised a good deal cheaper back 
from the railroads—too far for shipping milk—than the milkmen 
could raise them, and they could walk off to market. By raising well- 
bred heifers there would always he a demand for the stock. 
The Rural made a good suggestion in the above. 
Such heifer farmers should begin with good native 
cows and raise half-blood Holstein heifers. Experience 
teaches that such a business could be conducted with¬ 
out large capital, and, as The R. N.-Y. has suggested, 
these heifers could be raised in places too far back 
from the railroads for shipping milk, so cheaply as to 
be sold to milk makers at a handsome profit. A few 
weeks ago I went through a portion of western Mas¬ 
sachusetts, where land can be bought at $8 to $20 per 
acre—good land, not entirely smooth, not fully free 
from rocks, but largely productive of sweet pasture 
and bay, where neat stock has been raised success¬ 
fully for generations. These lands lie principally in 
southwestern Berkshire County, Mass., adjoining the 
Harlem Valley in the State of New York, a valley 
famous for its great production of milk for city con¬ 
sumers. Easy drives of two to three days for cows 
will take them from the cheap farms mentioned to the 
homes of milk producers who never raise a cow, and 
are ever ready to buy promising new milch stock. 
This back country is given up largely to the produc¬ 
tion of butter, creameries being numerous. Occasion¬ 
ally an opportunity occurs by which a man can help 
himself still more rapidly to a cheap growth of young 
stock. Such an instance came under my observation 
only yesterday. Conversing with the wealthy owner 
of several of these large creameries employing both 
the gravity and centrifugal processes, he made the 
statement that he would willingly supply the enter¬ 
prising farmer who would contract for his skim-milk 
or buttermilk all the year, at half a cent per gallon 
for the former to one cent for the latter. Here would 
be a daily output of 50 to 500 gallons, according to the 
size of the plant near which the lucky stockman 
might locate. 
Farms can be bought cheaply in the neighborhood, 
so that long-distance hauling would not be necessary. 
Can any one imagine a better cure for the fever to 
seek a distant field of operations ? What an opening 
for the young man in earnest to make a living or 
more ! What herds of fine, sleek heifers, and droves 
of growthy, grass-eating porkers, all within easy 
transportation or even easy driving distance of the 
voracious markets of the East The opportunity is a 
good one in another respect: if mature cows of four 
to six years were found to bring better prices rela¬ 
tively than heifers of 30 to 42 months, ready sale can 
be found for their milk or cream until they attain the 
age desired. The skim-milk before mentioned could 
be fed also with profit to a dairy herd. 
A specialty might also be made of supplying first- 
class family cows. The owner of such a heifer farm 
could with profit keep an advertisement running in 
certain daily or family papers, offering to sell or rent 
to families desirous of having the milk of one cow, by 
the year or a portion of the year, cows warranted to 
be healthy, .docile and well broken. Few farmers 
realize what a boon to a growing family a regular 
supply of fresh milk from a healthy source can be. 
Thousands of city families, many of them in good 
circumstances or even wealthy, are dependent for a 
daily supply of this live-giving fluid, upon the careless 
or dishonest services of a milk peddler ; and if they get 
no worse milk, are always served with mixed milk, 
which sometimes threatens tuberculous, or other 
contagious diseases. Many families who spend their 
summers in the country would be only too glad to 
avail themselves of the chance to buy a cow warranted 
to do a certain specified degree of work, or to hire 
such an animal during their stay of three to six 
months. Of course such a transaction would imply 
that the owner of the cow must be protected by a 
guarantee that she be returned in good order and 
free from vices. He must also charge enough for such 
use of the cow to pay for insuring her in one of the 
live stock companies, besides giving a profit above 
what he could obtain by milking her through the 
period named. There are unlimited possibilities along 
these lines for judges of good cows who will make use 
of the cheap lands of the East, so near the densely 
populated and numerous seaboard cities. “A milch 
cow is worth seven stall-fed oxen,” it has been said, 
and truly, for family sustenance and health. 
HOLLISTER SAGE 
“ A LOSING SPEC ” WITH HENS. 
Last fall a friend of mine confidentially informed 
me that he believed he’d “ struck a good spec!” He 
said he had carefully looked into the matter and had 
become quite satisfied that he could make some money 
by keeping a lot of hens in a warm place, feeding 
them warm food, and selling the numerous eggs they 
would be certain to lay at big winter prices. “There’s 
money in it,” said he, “ and I’m going to get it out ! ” 
Accordingly he made arrangements with a poultry 
dealer by which he was to have the pick of all his 
purchases during September at two cents per pound 
above market prices. He then set to work and erected 
a winter palace for his prospective flock. It was 14 
x 24 feet and seven feet high inside, with an open door 
to the south. The walls were made of straw pressed 
in between a framework of poles and were 18 inches 
thick. The roof was made of straw and “ shingled ” 
with long slough grass raked smoothly down and 
bound with slats held down with strong cord. Along 
the south side was a shed eight feet wide, the ends 
being walled up with straw and the front inclosed 
with woven wire. Perches were arranged along the 
back of the room, and nest boxes along the ends. Al¬ 
most any person would pronounce it an ideal winter 
house for laying hens. 
By November 1, he had gathered together 05 nice- 
looking, large-bodied hens and pullets and installed 
them in their new quarters. He then began to feed 
them a warm mash of cooked potatoes, turnips and 
cracked grain every morning, and whole wheat, oats 
and corn in the evening, with oyster shells, bone, 
etc., for appetizers. They were allowed the run of 
a large orchard and seemed to be as happy as pigs in 
clover—so happy, in fact, that such trivial matters as 
laying eggs entirely escaped their attention. 
When the middle of December came and the price 
pa , my hfeid \LtVit}. M*y 1 
tyour jme comU 
of fresh eggs was soaring, my friend gathered but two 
or three per day, and it made him feel sad. Then it 
occurred to him to slaughter one of the flock and see 
if he could learn why eggs were not forthcoming. 
He found her interior lined with fat, and some indica¬ 
tions that she was likely to begin laying in about two 
months. He then reduced their feed about one-half 
and waited for eggs, but they came not. As February 
approached the output of eggs increased to five or six 
per day. During that month cold, rainy weather set 
in and the walls of the poultry house becoming satu¬ 
rated, the flock was attacked by roup and in a short 
time reduced to 19. I knew nothing about his trials 
until a few days ago, when I asked him how the ex¬ 
periment had panned out. 
“ It was a losing spec! ” said he. Then he gave me 
all the details. 
‘ ‘ What mistakes did you make ? ” I asked. 
“ My first was that straw house. It was good enough 
for dry, cold weather, but rain made it a death trap. 
That open door was another mistake. The chilly 
south winds blew in and whirled about the perches at 
night, making the hens as uncomfortable as they 
would have been outside. Buying hens of all ages 
and conditions was another mistake. I didn’t know 
when they were hatched how they had been kept 
or whether they were professional layers or natural 
loafers. They were strangers on my place and to each 
other, and didn’t get settled down to laying before 
winter set in and so never began. I fed them too 
much at the outset and they became too fat to lay, 
and then starving did more harm than good. I should 
have bought young pullets in June, raised them on 
my place, got them to laying by December 1 or earlier, 
housed them in a place free from dampness and drafts, 
fed them steadily and no more than necessary to keep 
them in good condition and they would have paid me 
well. I lost money, but I gained some knowledge ! ” 
Christian County, Ill. feed, grundy. 
ABOUT THE “COLORADO DWARF CHERRY.” 
The liability to err in “ guessing ” what a certain 
fruit is, that we have never examined, is forcibly shown 
by the letter of Mr. Cusick (page 249) in The Rural. 
He “ thinks ” the “Dwarf Rocky Mountain cherry 
is l’runus demissa, the Choke cherry, as though the 
foothills here are not full of this astringent fruit. The 
two varieties are as unlike in almost every character 
as it is possible for cherries to be. The Choke cher¬ 
ries are upright in habit, broad in leaf, with the 
flowers in racemes and the fruit astringent; while the 
other is sprawling in habit, small in leaf, with flowers 
on stems like the Morellos; the fruit is not astringent 
and is larger than the Early Richmond and not so 
tart. Neither in tree, bark, blossom nor fruit has it 
any resemblance to the Choke cherry. I have no in¬ 
terest in the sale of the trees (bushes they really are) 
whatever; but write only in the interest of truth. 
Fort Collins, Colo. J. s. mcc. 
On page 249 there is an article on the Rocky Moun¬ 
tain cherry in which William B. Cusick describes the 
Choke cherry of this coast very perfectly. I know of 
my own knowledge that there is a dwarf-growing 
cherry indigenous to the western slope of the Rocky 
Mountains. It must be very hardy, as I found it 
growing in a very exposed position in British 
Columbia. The tree grows very much like the Kent¬ 
ish cherry, and the fruit was ripe in J uly and was very 
similar to the Kentish in flavor. It would be an im¬ 
provement on that variety in this respect that it does 
not send up sprouts from the surface roots like the 
other, that is, as far as my observations went. 
Oakville, Ore. R. L. s. 
Give Wild Plants a Chance. 
I want to lift up my voice in defense of the “ Col¬ 
orado dwarf cherry ” which was well described on 
pages 121 and 138 and illustrated in Fig. 40 of The 
R. N.-Y. Our friend Cusick thinks it hardly probable 
that it can be other than the Choke cherry, although 
admitting he has never seen it. Now, it is not only 
possible, but quite probable that an altitude of 0,000 
to 8,000 feet and surrounding conditions may produce 
a fruit or vegetable quite different from anything Mr. 
Cusick has seen in Oregon. I have traveled exten¬ 
sively through the mountains on this coast and Col¬ 
orado, and have never seen anything like the “dwarf 
cherry ” except in Colorado, and even there its range 
is somewhat limited. Choke cherries are quite plen¬ 
tiful in Colorado, but the dwarf is quite a different 
fruit. I don’t think I saw a bush over four feet in 
height, and I should say the cherry was five-eighths 
of an inch in diameter, nice, fat and delicious-looking, 
and it is a very enjoyable fruit, either to be eaten 
fresh or for preserving. I have procured a few roots 
from Colorado and am trying to grow them here, but 
it is yet a question whether they will thrive in this 
mild, damp climate. 
There is also a natural plum found in Colorado (but 
specimens are very scarce) that is an exceedingly rich 
and beautiful fruit, and also a wild or natural rhubarb, 
or pie-plant, growing at an altitude of 9,000 feet or 
more very luxuriantly, and of a peculiarly delicate, 
rich flavor, certainly equal to the cultivated plant. 
In the Wahsatch range in Utah I saw a most mag¬ 
nificent growth of natural or wild hops. The vines 
grow strong and rank and the hops (I was informed) % 
were very superior for any domestic use. I saw no 
signs of the hop louse or other destroying insect on 
them. Instead of casting suspicion and doubt over 
any supposed new discovery of fruit or vegetable, I 
am strongly in favor of encouraging efforts of this 
kind, for proper care and cultivation may develop a 
valuable acquisition to the orchard or garden. 
Portland, Ore. w. h. p. 
