n-IE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
35 
why I ask, and seems willing to tell, at least as long 
as I trade with him. Oh, yes ! there were plenty of 
predictions of my failure. “ When the factories open, 
your customers will leave you” ;but they didn't. When 
hot weather came, I cooled my butter over night in 
the spring, put some green grass around it. and started 
off early in the morning. I sell in pound rolls now, 
as the customers prefer that size. I salt IJ 4 ounce to 
the pound by weight, color lightly, and wrap each roll 
in parchment paper. I go every Thursday regularly. 
Of course I try to make a first-class article. What I 
took up one year ago as a makeshift, I now practice 
as a regular business. f. l. b. 
Hamilton. N. Y. 
Three Small Ideas. —(lather leaves without burrs 
or berries, in old grain sacks when slightly damp ; 
store and place one at a time where the hens or ducks 
can pull the leaves out. They enjoy it, and will lay 
better for it. 
Feed those young calves three times a day ; it pays. 
Do not give much at once ; we have tried it and know. 
Make a low box without a bottom for each calf, putin 
leaves or any bedding, then watch them get in it like 
a cat going to bed. It saves bedding, they are more 
comfortable and out of the way. The boxes need to 
be changed for larger ones, as the calf grows. Have 
fine early-cut hay where they can get it to eat. 
Now is the time to get the oats and barley, and peas 
and oats ready for early planting, before the frost is 
all out of the ground, so that they will be ready to 
cut when the rye begins to stalk. They will make 
the milk pail fill up, and make good hay if cut when 
the barley begins to head, and the other 
when the peas first begin to form pods. 
Middlesex County, Mass. a. morten. 
HEIFER OR STEER? 
WHICH WILD BEST PAY FOR BOARD ? 
In reply to a question on page 775, in re¬ 
gard to the relative profits in butter and / 
beef, supposing that we start with two calves \ 
four months old, one for butter, the other for 
beef. At the end of four years, both animals 
are sold to the butcher. Which has produced 
the greater profit ? The conditions given are 
such as to prevent the best results, either for 
butter or beef. Why kill a milking heifer for 
beef at four years and four months old, when, 
if a good one, she would be worth much more 
for a cow ? Why feed an animal for beef 
until he is four years and four months old, 
when there would be much more profit in 
maturing him two years sooner ? 
From calves dropped June 1, we will select 
a heifer and a steer, both good ones, for the 
use to which we wish to put them. As we 
wish them both to do well, we will make no 
discrimination in the cost of keeping them 
the first two years. We will have our heifer 
drop her first calf about the first of June, 
when she is two years old, and will milk her 
a full year up to the time she is three years 
old. Then we will allow her to go dry two months, so 
that she will drop her second calf about the first of 
August, when she is three years and two months old. 
At the end we are to make beef of her. so we will 
keep her farrow and milk her 14 months, that is to 
October 1, when she is four years and four months old. 
What would a Wisconsin dairyman feed her, and 
what would he expect from her ? After she came in 
the first time, June 1, he would allow her only grass up 
to September 1 . From September until grass grew 
the next year, 250 days, he would feed her a daily 
grain ration of three pounds of wheat bran, two 
pounds of corn meal and one pound of oil meal ; with 
1% ton of clover hay, and pasture, the total cost of 
food for the year is $27. As she is to be milked the full 
year, he may reasonably expect that, with these 
rations, she will give not less than 15 pounds of milk 
daily for the first six months, and 10 pounds daily for 
the last six months, or 4,380 pounds at a cost of $27. 
She is now three years old and due to calve the 
second time, August 1; so she will need only grass up 
to September 1 . From that time up to October 1, the 
next year (13 months), fie would give her a daily grain 
ration of four pounds of wheat bra n, three pounds of 
corn meal, and one pound of oil meal. This grain, 
with two tons of clover hay and what pasture she will 
need, will cost $42 here in Wisconsin. As she is farrow, 
he may expect that she will give for the 420 days, not 
less than 15 pounds per day, or (5,300 pounds, to which 
add the product of the first year, 4,580 pounds and we 
have a total of 10,(580 pounds of milk at a cost for feed 
of $69. This 10,680 pounds of milk will make 4!£ 
pounds of butter per 100 pounds or 480 pounds, worth 
at 20 cents per pound $96. The 10,000 pounds of skim- 
milk and buttermilk, are \yorth $ 20 , and the heifer 
herself as she is farrow and grain fed, will be worth 
not less than $35 ; making the value of herself and her 
products $151. From this, deduct the cost of feed, $69, 
and $25 for extra labor for milking and making the 
butter a total of $94 for feed and care, and we have re¬ 
maining $57 for her keep the first two years and for 
profit. 
These figures are not fanciful, but are exceeded by 
scores of dairymen of my acquaintance. If any one 
who claims superiority of profit in beef making, will 
take the two-year-old steer, and tell us how to feed 
him until he is four years and four months old, so as 
to realize $57 above the cost of feeding, he will confer 
a favor upon those who dislike to milk cows. The 
steer fed the same ration as the heifer until he was 
four years and four months old, would do ex¬ 
tremely well if he weighed 1,600 pounds and sold for 
five cents per pound or $80, leaving $11 to pay for his 
first two year’s keeping, and profit. 
One reason why a cow will return a greater profit 
from the same amount of food than a steer, is that 
while the first use that both the cow and steer make 
of their food is to maintain their normal condition, 
the remaining nutritive value the cow extracts she 
yields up to her owner every 12 hours in payment for 
food eaten. She pays as she goes. Not so with the 
steer ; the accumulations of to-day he puts upon his 
back, and to-morrow must have an additional amount 
of food to pay him for carrying it. You ask him for 
pay, and he will tell you that the best he can do, is to 
make his will in your favor, by which at his death 
you shall inherit his accumulations, on condition that 
for every pound he puts on, you give him two per cent 
of its weight in additional food for support. If you 
Gx German 
LjC. 
/ nn / £0 X. 
\ f a b - 
I Jj 
P(6 D 
o 
HOW THEY CATCH MOLES IN GERMANY. Fig. G 
fail to do so, he will let what he has already put on go 
to waste. The cow, by daily separating her accumu¬ 
lations from her organism, keeps herself in the best 
possible working order. There is no call for increased 
food of support, and she will continue to work many 
years with increased, rather than diminished, results. 
The steer from the first day he is fed to the day of his 
death, gives a daily lessened product for food consumed. 
Wisconsin. ciias. r. beach. 
A GERMAN MOLE TRAP. 
HOW PROFESSIONALS CAPTURE THE PESTS. 
While the utility of the mole cannot be disputed as 
an exterminator of the white grub, yet the damage its 
earthworks do to our meadows, inasmuch as they im¬ 
pede clean mowing and cause dusty hay, outweighs 
its redeeming points so considerably, that we try every 
possible means to exterminate its race. We pay five 
cents for every mole caught, and have professionals 
who make very fair wages during the spring and 
autumn months catching the little pests. The trap 
used has—while it can be successfully operated only 
on sod—many good points. It can be produced in 
numbers at a trifling cost by anybody able to handle 
a jack-knife, it is dead sure to catch the mole if prop¬ 
erly set; it is not exposed to be stolen if left out, will 
not injure other animals, and no great harm is done 
if it be trodden down by cattle or sheep. 
In setting a trap for the mole, it should be borne in 
mind, that the run or burrow should be kept absolutely 
clean and dark, as the mole that ordinarily makes its 
rounds at a lively gait, will proceed with the utmost 
caution as soon as it finds earth crumbled into the run 
or daylight visible. Between two hills a piece of sod 
one foot square is cut out with a long-bladed knife—a 
spade should not be used—cutting a clean edge down 
through the burrow, the sod lifted to one side, and a 
pit excavated an inch deeper than the burrow. One 
iuch and a-half from the edge of this pit, a cut is made 
across the burrow (see g Fig. 17) reaching down into 
it, through which the wire sling is inserted into 
the burrow. The wire is thin, soft, white annealed 
wire, no steel, yellow metal or springy wire of any 
kind should be used. Ten inches of wire are sufficient 
for one loop ; it is simply a hoop and not a running 
noose (Fig. 1 ).) ; a stout twine connects the top of this 
wire loop with the rod that is to spring the trap. The 
fingers are now inserted into the run and the wire 
loop pressed snugly around the sides and bottom of 
the run into the soft earth, so as not to catch the mole’s 
attention when passing over it (Fig. D.) When this 
has been done, the burrow must be left clean and 
smooth, without indication of having been tampered 
with. 
Now from the moist earth excavated, a ball is 
pressed by hand the size of a man’s fist; this is gently 
pressed against the open burrow so as to exclude day¬ 
light and serve as a buffer for the mole to strike its 
nose against. The mechanism of the catch consists 
of three bits of pine wood ; the peg a. the latch b and 
the catch c (Fig. A B and C) a is made 10 inches long 
and knocked into the ground in the pit to one side of 
the earth ball with its shoulder standing up to half 
the height of the earth ball. The latch b may be 
seven inches long tapering towards the catch c and 
with one yard of common twine fastened to it near 
the peg as in Fig A ; c the catch is made seven inches 
long or more pointed at one end. which is pressed into 
the earth on the side of the pit (see Fig. C) 
with a slight upward slant, so that when the 
point of the latch is brought under, it will 
require but the bump of the mole’s nose 
againt the earth ball to free the latch from 
under the catch, and spring the trap. To 
operate, first excavate the pit and plant the 
\ hazel rod of Fig. B and C, cut the slit for the 
\ wire loop, form the earth ball, ram down the 
\ peg a, insert the wire loop through the slit g, 
and clean the burrow. Place the earth ball 
on the mouth of the burrow, bend down the 
top of the hazel rod, and fasten the latch 
string to its end. Keep the top of the bent 
rod in your left hand, and with the right 
press the catch into the side of the pit to the 
required position to meet the end of the 
latch. Set the latch across the earth ball 
(Fig. A) so that it will go off like the hair 
trigger of a rifle. Ultimately take the twine 
of the wire loop and fasten it also to the same 
end of the hazel rod, winding it around until 
all but an inch or two of slack is taken up. 
The mole is quick and no time must elapse 
between striking its proboscis and the action 
of the sling. 
The spring power of the rod should not be 
excessive, but merely sufficient to keep the 
mole pressed to the top of the burrow until 
strangled, and not so great as to roust the 
peg out of the ground, should it soften by 
rain, or to tear the trapped mole through the sod and 
hurl him into the air. Generally two traps are set in 
the same pit (Fig C). It takes about eight minutes to 
set a couple of these traps, and when properly done, 
they will work like a charm. j. f. sarg. 
Germany. 
“MANURIAL VALUES” OF A RATION. 
CLOVER HAY THE DAIRY STANDARD. 
It must be evident to any fair-minded man, that The 
R. N.-Y. is willing to give “even the devil his due” ; 
but I cannot help feeling that neither The R. N.-Y. 
(page 828) nor the owner of the Jersey cows, is 
giving them their dues. They are certainly entitled 
to the full value of their by-products as much as the 
mill is to its by-products. True, H. B. W. places the 
value of their manure at $4. Justice has nothing to 
do with how he manages the same. If he lets half of 
it go to waste, he has no more right to blame the cows 
than if he were to spill half of the milk. Now let us 
see what it is actually worth, by examining the 
manurial value of the food consumed, depending on 
the Government “ Digest” (Bulletin No. 15) for our 
analyses : 
Pounds. Nitrogen. Phos. acid. Potash. 
Fodder. 
..2.100 
21.84 
6.09 
29.40 
Hay (mixed). 
..2,100 
29.61 
5.67 
32.55 
Bran. 
.. 900 
24.03 
26.01 
14.49 
Hominy chop. 
.. 900 
14.67 
8.82 
4.41 
Mangels. 
..1,800 
3.42 
1.62 
6.84 
Totals. 
.. .7,800 
93.57 
48.21 
87.69 
Value per pound. 
0.15 
0.06 
0.04 >4 
Separate values.. 
14.03 
2.89 
3.95 
Total value. 
820.87 
Now it takes pretty good digestive organs to deprive 
a given food of 50 per cent of its manurial value. Let 
us consider these cows capable of doing so, and we 
will still have to credit them with $10.43 for their 
manure, or a fraction over $2.08 per cow for the month. 
