October 19 
gently and carefully bestowed, is rarely unsuccessful. 
This is the very first time that I have written about 
my own work for publication ; although I have been 
writing for the agricultural press ever since I began 
farming ; thinking it a duty to do what I could to 
help others by detailing what I found helpful to my¬ 
self. It is almost 30 years since I became a contribu¬ 
tor to The Rural New-Yorker, before its removal 
from Rochester to New York. What I like best in 
writing for the press is to answer the questions of 
correspondents upon subjects where I may be able to 
give useful information within the limits of my own 
practical experience. One’s opinions may or may not 
be of value to others ; but the plain results of experi¬ 
ence cannot help being helpful to some, if not to all, 
of those who read, and reflect upon what they read. 
This article is introductory to a short series, in which 
I intend to sketch in outline the conclusions which I 
have drawn from experience and observation. 
T. H. HOSKINS. 
that they had when I bought them. The little fellow 
made a fat, smooth blocky beef, but too light. The 
second made a business-like animal, fed about as well 
as the smaller, and had capacity to use more feed and 
lay on proportionately more flesh. He was also large 
enough to suit the market demand. Both had good 
hams well down and not stringy. But the rough fel¬ 
low was still too coarse, with long, stringy hams, and 
a gaunt belly. A feeder would not need the scales to 
estimate at once that he was the most costly one of 
the lot. He had the smallest capacity for digestion, 
and the poorest assimilation. He would have looked 
better if kept another year. 
We like to pick dp Short-horns. At the State Short¬ 
horn Breeders’ Association, one man said that he used 
to take a horse and buggy in the fall, trot around 
among his neighbors, and pick up 20 or 30 head of 
good, square, young steers. But since the fad for 
Jerseys has filled the country with that stock, the 
bull calves are knocked in the head, or sold to veal 
butchers as soon as possible, and he occasionally finds 
a few half-bloods, peaked, paunchy, and with stringy, 
cat hams, and it is nearly impossible to find a good 
steer calf. He has to go to other counties to buy 
his beef cattle. 
Farmers go largely by estimates, and they do not 
fancy Holsteins. They say that they are too rough, 
and don’t appear to lay on flesh like Short-horns. It 
is true that, if the two, looking much alike, were 
offered for sale, the Short-horn would be the first 
choice. It is safe in buying steers to feed, to learn, 
if possible, how calves from their sire have fed. 
Sometimes a bull is very disappointing in his get. 
One can’t feed against that tendency. The get of 
some bulls don’t show the disposition to fill out and 
take on fat. ’Tis true of mothers, too. If the young 
cattle you are thinking of buying are a little rough 
and thin for lack of care, and you know 
that their parents get good feeders, you 
may stake much on that, for if you take 
care of them, they will come out all right. 
Indiana. 
PLUM GROWTH AND HOMES AT THE SOUTH. 
The R. N.-Y. of September 28, speaks of the phe¬ 
nomenal growth of one of its Japan plums. I have 
one Satsuma set last spring, as a one-year-old, that 
has made an aggregate growth of 49% feet, the longest 
shoot being now nine feet and three inches in length, 
and still growing. An Abundance, root-grafted on 
peach, in the spring of 1894 and not transplanted, has 
made 10 shoots this season, which will average five 
feet each, perhaps a little more. 
In working plum on peach, I prefer root gi-afting 
(whole root) to budding, as it brings the junction 
under the surface, and I find that the borer does not 
work as severely on plum, as it does on peach. 
I was sorry to read Mr. Berger’s pessimistic view of 
the South, and must say that I think he is mistaken 
in thinking that Southeim lands are un¬ 
suited to general farming. If he will 
come down here on Croly’s Ridge, I will 
show him a piece of clover meadow that 
has had two big crops of clover hay cut 
from it this season, and now has a crop 
of crab grass on it, which would pay for 
cutting if the barn was not already full. 
Adjoining it is a crop of corn that would 
stand comparison with any corn 1 ever 
saw in Indiana — river bottoms alone 
excepted. As to fruit raising, it has 
never been intelligently undertaken in 
this part of the South ; but 1 believe 
that it could be made a success, even 
with express rates at (50 cents per 100 
pounds to St. Louis. Many come South 
and begin growing the strictly soft 
fruits, and fail on account of inexperi¬ 
ence, that might make a success raising 
pears and peaches. Another mistake 
made by many, is in going into fruit 
raising to the neglect of everything else. 
My plan is to keep raising stock, corn and 
hay while the orchards are growing, 
thus keeping up expenses. 
That the South has its drawbacks, no 
one will deny, and in my opinion, the greatest is the 
ease with which a bare living is secured. So many 
come from the North loaded to the guards with 
energy, and after a year or two, drop into the happy- 
go-easy way of some of our natives; then, because they 
cannot live as well as they used to do in the North, 
they abuse the country when they are mostly to 
blame. I am a Northern man myself, if being born 
and reared in Ohio, and having served in an Ohio 
regiment during the war, make me one ; but I dis¬ 
like to hear the South disparaged just as much as 
though I had been born here, for it is my home. 
Clay County, Ark. william strang. 
HOW TO PUT UP A WINDMILL. FIG. 217. 
and ashes, thoroughly mixed and pulverized by the 
spading harrow. After much deliberation, we thought 
that it was specially well adapted to onions and 
squashes, and we put in about five acres of each. The 
squashes produced extraordinary vines, but no fruits, 
and were a total failure. The greater part of the 
onions, after coming up and living from three to six 
weeks, died in the row without any apparent cause. 
About one-third that survived, have matured good 
onions. The corn, potatoes and carrots were a fair 
crop. The cabbages will yield 20 tons to the acre. 
The peas, oats, buckwdieat, millet, Red-top and Tim- 
E. H. COLLIN8. 
A FARMER’S JERSEY BULL 
HE IS BUTTERING THE NEIGHBORHOOD. 
At Fig. 218 is shown my Jersey bull. 
Napoleon, No. 37890, 
He comes from a 
remarkable family of butter producers ; 
his mother last winter with ordinary 
farm care, made over 00 pounds of butter 
in the month of January, and his grand¬ 
mother at the age of two years, made 14% 
pounds of butter in seven days. Al¬ 
though coming three years old, he is 
perfectly docile. Notwithstanding the 
fact that he is owned in a community 
where Short-horns and Holsteins have 
had the preference, and where Guern¬ 
seys and Aryshires have quite a foot¬ 
hold, since October 1, 1894, he has been 
used in service for 158 cows. 
When I look at our herd of cattle 
now, and then look back about 10 
years and think of the kind of cattle we had then, I 
hardly wonder that I used to dread milking time. 
Milking then was like using a chain pump with 
worn-out buckets. Now we have what I consider 
a good lot of cows ; we certainly would not trade 
them for any herd of the same number of which we 
know. I own but one thoroughbred cow, and she is 
a Short-horn. Most of our cows are high-grade Jer¬ 
seys, Guernseys and Ayrshires. 
My ideal cow is a cross between a Jersey bull and 
an Ayrshire cow ; we have three such and they are all 
good, heavy milkers, taking in a good degree the 
quality of the Jerseys and the quantity of the 
Ayrshires, and having more stamina than the Jerseys. 
It has cost considerable to get up a good herd. 
We have used nothing but thoroughbred sires for 
several years. When we get a poor cow on our 
hands, we do not sell her to a neighbor, but fat¬ 
ten her and sell her to a butcher as soon as possible. 
During the past year, we have purchased eight cows 
that were recommended as extra ; six of them were, 
and the other two we converted into beef, also three 
others that we previously owned, making in all five 
we have culled out the past year. 
I believe that the way to succeed in dairying is to 
take an interest in it, study the needs of each indi¬ 
vidual animal, breed to a thoroughbred bull every 
time, provide a good warm place in winter, feed a 
well-balanced ration and a plenty of it, too, summer 
and winter, and above all, be kind to the cows. What 
would you think of an engineer who would put only 
just enough coal in his engine so that it could barely 
move itself, and then couldn’t tell why it wouldn’t 
draw the train ? Many a man, though, is wondering 
why dairying doesn’t pay, when he hardly gives his 
cows enough to sustain life. He wonders that they 
A JERSEY BULL THAT BUTTERS THE NEIGHBORHOOD. Fig. 218. 
otliy were the finest for which a farmer could wish. 
The fall seeding of Timothy failed, and we had to 
reseed in the spring. We cut from 10 acres of spring- 
seeded Timothy, 23 tons of hay. This tract would 
yield a light second crop that would pay for cutting, 
but we prefer to let it stand as a shelter to the ground, 
to prevent injury to the roots by the thawing and 
freezing of the ground in the early spring. 
Notwithstanding the great damage done by the fires 
in destroying much valuable timbers, and more than 
3,000 acres of cranberry vines, the result would have 
been a great gain to the land owners of the district, if 
they had availed themselves of the opportunity to 
seed these lands to grass, and ditch them so as to pro¬ 
tect them from future excessive rainfall. The greater 
part of the fire-swept uplands might have been con¬ 
verted into good grazing grounds for the mere trifling 
expense of shaking grass seed over it after the fire. 
Wisconsin. gaynor Bros. 
LESSONS LEARNED FROM A MARSH. 
A few of the most important things we learned this 
year were in the cultivation of marsh and swamp 
lands. During the past three years, this county has 
suffered from a drought unparalleled in the history of 
the State. Marsh and forest fires have swept large 
districts. The great marsh lying west of the Wiscon¬ 
sin River in the counties of Wood, Jackson, Monroe 
and Juneau, covering an area of 300 square miles, 
was heretofore valued solely for the cranberries and 
wild hay it produced. In 1890, it yielded over 60,000 
barrels of cranberries, nearly all grown from the 
wild, native vines. Successive fires have swept over 
these lands, and wiped out 90 per cent of the cran¬ 
berry vines, the tamarack and spruce swamps, and 
burned the sod so deep on most of it, that even the 
wild grass has disappeared. “ Fire weed,” Ilelian- 
thus, and young poplar trees, grown from the seed, 
have generally taken the place of the cranberry vines, 
“ sage brush,” and tamarack. A large part of this 
territory was floating marsh, and is.now hard land. 
