396 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 10 
about here nearly dead with it, and as nothing 1 is done 
with them I shall soon have to root mine all out. As 
to the curculios, I have no faith in the theory that 
hens will cestroy them ; I would just as soon put them 
in the cellar to rid tlie attic of bed bugs as to put 
plum trees in a hen yard to rid them of curculios and 
black knot. p. l, x. 
East Pepperell, Mass. 
Thinks Hkns Killed Them. —I have now growing 
in my poultry yards plums, quinces anri peaches and 
they are all much healthier than some on other parts 
of the farm. The fowls are certainly very useful in 
destroying the curculios for I have never seen any 
trace of the pests on any of the trees, h. m. ea.rle. 
Manager Fordhook Farm. 
JERSEYS AT LINDEN GROVE. 
A HERD THAT MAKES ITS MARK. 
[EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.] 
Silver for a Gilt-Edged Herd. 
“ Now we will go over and look at the Jerseys,” said 
Mr. T. S. Cooper after dinner, and after I had been 
shown some beautiful silverware received by him as 
prizes. The first was a massive and elegantly wrought 
hand-made cup valued at $300, presented to him by his 
associate breeders in recognition of his having received 
the highest average price obtained for five Jerseys of 
his own breeding, sold at Kellogg’s combination sales, 
in New York, May, 1888. The other was a berry dish 
and spoon of elaborate design, which was offered by 
A. B. Darling as a special prize at the New York Dairy 
and Cattle Show, 1887, for the best bull with four of his 
daughters. This was taken by Pedro, 3187, and his 
four daughters, Bliss, Pedro’s Marjoram, Eurotas of 
Riverside, and Skipover. Mr. Cooper treasures these 
very highly, not so much on account of their intrinsic 
value as on account of their being won in such a close 
contest. 
“How long have you been breeding Jerseys?” I 
asked Mr. Cooper. 
“ About 16 years. Up to that time I had never seen 
a Jersey that I cared to own, but I came across Old 
Lady Mary, and was so impressed by her appearance 
that I purchased her for $300. She was a grand cow 
with none of the weakness seen in some Jerseys. She 
was the dam of Marius, the sire of Signal. She died 
finally of milk fever.” 
Mr. Cooper’s house is hung with pictures of sheep 
and cattle, among the latter Khedive’s Primrose, which 
he sold to Mr. Shoemaker for $5,100, and Lady of Ivas- 
sassin, sold to Col. Russell, of Boston, for $2,300 
Where The Jerseys Board and Lodge. 
The dairy barns are across the highway from the 
dwelling and sheep barns, and are something like the 
letter T in form. The upright part contains the cows 
and bulls, in a double row facing a wide central alley; 
the left of the cross contains the calves and young 
stock, with a room at the outer end containing water 
tanks, a steam generator, etc. The opposite end con¬ 
tains the silos. The cows stand in roomy stalls, sep¬ 
arated by short partitions, two cows in each, with a 
manger in front, and next this a water trough cov¬ 
ered with a lid when feeding so as to keep out the 
litter. 
“ I see that you don’t have stanchions; don’t you 
believe in them ? ” 
“ No; no animal can be perfectly comfortable in 
them, and that is what we aim for. Even the swing 
Btanchions, and other improved kinds, although a 
great improvement, are not satisfactory. When the 
cows have eaten, and are lying down, a natural posi¬ 
tion for them is with the heads thrown around on 
their sides. Is seems to be the most comfortable posi¬ 
tion. They frequently want to lick themselves, too; 
none of these things is possible with even the best 
constructed stanchions, and it is cruelty to animals 
to keep them continuously in such contrivances.” 
“ I notice that your bulls are mixed up with your 
cows; what is your idea in keeping them that way?” 
“ That is the natural way to keep them. If you put 
a bull in a close pen, and peep at him through cracks 
and knotholes, and act generally as if you were afraid 
of him, he will be pretty certain to get ugly. I always 
keep bulls right alongside my cows, and never have 
any trouble with them. Here is Pedro ; he is 14 years 
old, and as gentle as you could wish,” and, indeed, for 
all his appearance, as well as several other bulls 
scattered here and there, veritable old cows couldn’t 
have behaved better. 
“ How long have you had Pedro ? ” 
“ Ten years. I paid $10,000 for him, but more than 
got my money back at the first sale of his progeny in 
I\ew York, lie is a grand breeder. Here is a mag¬ 
nificent cow, Marjoram 2nd, dam of a $15,000 bull.” 
“ Have you entered any cows in the dairy contest at 
Chicago ? ” 
“ No, but some of those entered were bred by me ; I 
shall have some young stock there, however.” 
“ Do you keep cows in the stable all the time ? ” 
“Yes, during cold weather. You see the stable is 
comfortable and well lighted I believe in plenty of 
light for cows. In summer all the milch cows are 
kept in a dark stable during the day, and turned out 
to pasture at night. You ought to see them come 
into the stable in the morning to get away from the 
flies. We can hardly get the door open quick enough 
for them.” 
“ Do you feed them then in addition to the pasture? ” 
“ Yes, we give them ensilage with which we mix a 
ration of wheat bran and corn meal, also at times 
white middlings, just according to the price of the 
latter.” 
“ How many times a day do you feed in winter ? ” 
“ Twice, beginning about 4 A. m. and 3 p. m.” 
“ What ration do you feed ? ” 
“ Ensilage, with no hay, except a little to some dry 
cows. We give more grain to the fresh cows. I 
regulate the feeding by the appearance of the drop¬ 
pings. I can tell from them if an animal needs a 
change of feed, or is being fed more than it can as¬ 
similate.” 
“ Do you warm the water for your cows ? ” 
“Only as it is warmed by standing in the troughs. 
It comes from the spring, and by being let in and left 
to stand, it warms up to the temperature of the 
stables, about 60 degrees.” This in the coldest weather 
in winter. 
“ How is your stable floored ? ” 
“Under the cow’s fore feet it is clay; the rest is 
slag from the iron furnaces pressed into flat tiles, 
which make an excellent floor.” 
Something New In Manure Handling. 
“ How do you handle the manure ? ” 
“We mix the horse, sheep and cow manure together 
so as to prevent its heating. We would draw water 
on it rather than to have it heat. We do not let the 
manure accumulate in the barnyard, but draw it to 
the fields as often as we can get at it. Our cow man¬ 
ure is nearly clear droppings, as we cut all the straw 
with our ensilage cutter, and bed with that; it makes 
a nicer and better bed and much better manure, be¬ 
sides saving lots of straw, of which we are always 
short.” 
“ Do you plow in your manure ? *' 
‘‘No; we get better results by putting it on top of 
the seeding. I use the Kemp manure spreader, and 
would as soon think of giving up my binder as of 
doing without it. We usually apply the manure di¬ 
rectly after sowing the grain, or at any rate before 
the grain sprouts or we have rain. For years we had 
great trouble in getting a catch of clover, but with 
this plan, with the manure on top, we have a grand 
catch. We have tested it in the same field with the 
best results, for both the grain and clover. I think 
that the manure shades the young clover and also re¬ 
tains the moisture.” 
“ Do you top-dress your meadows ? ” 
“ Yes ; I think we have been plowing them up too 
much. By top-dressing with the spreader we can put 
on any desired amount evenly, and it gives excellent 
results. I have often put manure on an old pasture 
late in the fall, and it has given us an excel'ent crop 
of hay the following year.” 
Ensilage, Cream and Irrigation. 
“ What kind of corn do you grow ? ” 
“For the grain, the old yellow field corn grown 
here for years. For ensilage, Southern Horse-tooth 
is the most profitable, giving the largest yield. Stow- 
ell’s Evergreen makes ensilage of the best quality, 
but it doesn’t yield so well.” 
“ What cutter do you use ? ” 
“A No. 19 Smalley cutter, run by a 10 horse-power 
engine. These cutters, which are made by the Smal¬ 
ley M’f’g Co., Manitowoc, Wis., are excellent ma¬ 
chines : They are well made and do good work. They 
are the ones used to fill the silos at the Chicago Expo¬ 
sition.” 
“ What length do you cut your ensilage ? ” 
“One-fourth inch, and then it will pack down more 
closely and keep better. The trouble with much of 
the spoiled ensilage is that it isn’t packed sufficiently.” 
“ Do you sell your milk, or make butter ? ” 
“Neither. My object is to raise young stock, so I 
want the skim-milk for the calves. I sell the cream 
in Philadelphia, as this gives me most profit. I make 
very little butter now. I can make better butter 
than the creamery butter, but couldn’t get a cent a 
pound more for it. We have made some butter in the 
past. Our butter kept better than creamery. The 
latter is generally worked by power workers, the 
buttermilk is not taken out completely, and it soon 
gets strong. In working butter we take up the brine 
with a sponge in a cloth, which is effective with- 
out so much working, and doesn’t injure the grain of 
the butter.” 
“ How do you raise your cream ? ” 
“By c^ld, deep setting. We strain it into these 
narrow, deep pails, set them into these tanks of water 
to cool off for a time, then put them in the ice tanks 
outside. In here you see we have hot water and 
steam always ready for cleansing milk utensils, warm¬ 
ing milk, or for any other desired purpose.” 
As Mr. Cooper was driving me back to the station, 
we passed a low-lying meadow, which is so situated 
as to be irrigated. “ We mow that three times a year,” 
said he, “ and get a heavy crop of hay every time.” 
Near the station is a large building, in which all im¬ 
ported stock was formerly quarantined, but this work 
is now done at the government stations, rear the port 
of entry. 
Mr. Cooper’s stock showed the effects of careful and 
intelligent handling, but the business requires hard 
work. He told me that he thought he was going to 
bed early if he went before 11 o’clock, and that he 
was oversleeping if he wasn’t out soon after three. 
“ There are so many things to be looked after,” said 
he, “and hired help, though of the best, are not 
always to be depended upon. A sheep which is lamb¬ 
ing, if not properly attended to, may lose her lamb, 
or a cow her calf, and these losses eat up the profits.” 
Still I believe that any man who burns the candle at 
both ends after this fashion, and deprives himself of 
needed rest and sleep, is making a great mistake. “ Is 
not the life more than meat ? ” f. h. v. 
A FARMER TALKS ABOUT “ EMPTIES.” 
In the last number of The R. N.-Y. is an article on 
the return of empties, which I cannot let pass without 
comment. In this article an “ old commission mer¬ 
chant ” gives his views why empties should not be re¬ 
turned. He says that “the system is dead;’ but I 
doubt whether he will live to see the end of it. Farmers 
are perfectly willing to let some packages go with the 
produce such as goes a long distance and sells for high 
prices; vegetables from Florida and fruits from Cali¬ 
fornia, for instance. The return freight on these 
would be as much as the cost. Besides, when potatoes 
bring 25 cents per quart, the grower can afford to 
throw the packages in ; but it is a different thing 
when they bring 8 to 10 cents per basket. It costs 7 
to 8 cents per basket to take truck or fruit from the 
farm to the commission store after it has been grown. 
Very often it sells for this price, and, if the farmer 
has to throw in his basket, any one can see that the 
loss must either drive him out of the business or 
bankrupt him. 
I once saw 300 baskets of cantaloupes sell for one 
cent per basket. Let us examine this transaction on 
the old commission man’s plan. He received $3 for 
the cantaloupes. He deducts his commission of 30 
cents and sends the farmer $2.70. It has cost the 
farmer $20 to put them in the market after they were 
grown, and the baskets cost $24, or $44 cash outlay 
besides the expense of growing the product. Deduct 
$2.70, the proceeds, and he is left $41.30 in debt by the 
operation. Now let us see how the commission man 
w»uld fare. The cart boys emptied the cantaloupes 
into their carts and stacked the baskets up. The com¬ 
mission man would have 30 cents commission and 300 
baskets worth at least $24. Is it any wonder the com¬ 
mission men are in favor of this change ? Is it any 
wonder they join hands with the grocers to force this 
nefarious scheme upon the farmers ? Any one walking 
along the streets where produce is sold can see thou¬ 
sands of empty Southern berry crates piled up in the 
stores and on the pavements. These are sold at 20 to 
30 cents each, and are eagerly bought by nearby 
growers. It would be interesting to know how much 
of the money received for these empty crates finds its 
way back to the pockets of the Southern growers. 
The whole scheme is a conspiracy on the part of cer¬ 
tain commission men to increase their perquisites at 
the expense of the farmers. Let any farmer go to 
these same men and purchase a few bushels of pota¬ 
toes and see how promptly he will be charged 20 cents 
each for the bags. I can well see that it would be a 
great deal less trouble for the commission man not to 
return empties, but it will not do for the farmer to 
study too much the commission man’s comfort. The 
question with him is, can he afford to lose these 
empties ? There are thousands of farmers who are 
barely making a living now, and if they were com¬ 
pelled to give away their empties with every shipment 
they would be in the sheriff’s hands in short order. If 
the task of returning empties is too arduous for the 
present race of commission men, it will be necessary 
to replace them with fresh blood: and I would ask 
them to look around them and see how many of their 
successful members have come from the farm, called 
out by some such emergency as this ; and I would 
remind them that there are plenty more left behind 
