Vol. LIV. No. 2395 
NEW YORK. DECEMBER 21, 1895 
$1.00 PER YEAR. ■ 
A TALK ABOUT SHORT-HORNS. 
WHY THEY SHOULD HE KEPT. 
How They Are Made Comfortable. 
I recently visited the celebrated Short-horn herd of 
James McCune at Riverdale. Mr. McCune’s cattle are 
a striking- example of what applied science in 
feeding and breeding, will do for stock. These 
departments are under the direction of Fillmore 
Young, M. D., who has given up a lucrative medi¬ 
cal practice for the more congenial occupation of 
stock-raising. 
I first went through the barns. The home barn is 
a basement building, 40 by 90 feet, with a capacity of 
100 cattle, besides several horses. The temperature 
within the building was 20 degrees above that on the 
outside. The basement, where the cattle are kept, is 
connected with the feed bins above by spouts, so that 
by pulling a plug from the spout, one can get any 
kind of feed desired. .At the ends of the barn and 
part of the sides are windows, kept cleaner than a 
good many house windows are, making the stable as 
light, almost, as 
the outside. The 
stable floors are 
all cemented. I 
asked Dr. Young 
how it was done. 
“It was leveled 
with cracked lime¬ 
stone, similar to 
that prepared for 
macadamizing 
roads; this was 
tamped down solid 
We then poured a 
mixture of one 
part cement and 
two parts sand, 
with water enough 
to make mortar 
over it, and leveled 
it with a trowel. 
There is one-half 
to one inch of ce¬ 
ment on the floors 
over the limestone; 
it was put in sev¬ 
eral years ago, 
and there is not 
yet a calk mark 
on it.” 
“Do you con¬ 
sider it better 
than board or 
earth floors ? ” 
“Yes; for one 
reason at least. All the urine is retained in the 
manure, so that, in fermentation, it does not burn 
clear away, as drained manure is likely to do. I con¬ 
sider it cheaper than lumber flooi*ing.” 
“I presume the cement mortar must be handled 
quickly when applied ? ” 
“Not necessarily, but it must be kept constantly 
stirred in the bed; if it once ‘sets,’its value is les¬ 
sened, if not destroyed.” 
“If you were building another basement barn, 
would you cement it ? ” 
“Yes; or a pigpen, or anything that would have 
manure in it.” 
“ Is the noise made by breeders of other stock dam¬ 
aging the sale of Short-horns ? ” 
“ No, on the contrary, it is doing them more good 
than harm; the more competition they have, the 
more clearly are their virtues apparent by contrast, 
and the Short-horn business was never in a more 
prosperous condition than it is to-day.” 
“ What ought an average three-year-old Short-horn 
steer to weigh ? ” 
“Two thousand pounds.” 
“ What is the average gain of a steer from birth to 
one year old ? ” 
“ The average ought to be from 90 to 95 pounds per 
month. By experiment, I have had them go up to 
100 pounds per month, and, in one instance, with an 
unusually promising calf, I made a net gain in one 
month of 120 pounds, or exactly four pounds per day.” 
“ What ought they to average from one year old 
till two ? ” 
“ Fifty pounds per month.” 
“ Is there any money in scrub cattle at three cents ?” 
“There is some profit, but good ones pay better, as 
they command from % to 1% cent per pound more.” 
“ IIow do the Short-horns stand in the milk 
business ? ” 
“They are as good general-purpose cows as any. 
The Short-horn dairy cow came in second at the 
World’s Exposition, and one of ours, ‘ Cherry,’beat 
Mr. Jewett’s $1,600 Jersey at the Zanesville (O.) Fair.” 
“ How are they as feeders ? ” 
“They will winter on as little, and look as well in 
the spring, as any of them.” 
“ How would you advise a man with limited means 
to start a Short-horn herd ? ” 
“That would depend; if he could afford it, he 
might buy a cow or two, but if he could not, he could 
probably buy some calves and wait for them. The 
cows, however, would be cheaper in the long run, as 
he would save nearly two years. By breeding them 
to the best bulls, he can get a good herd in a few 
years, if he knows how to breed them to advantage, 
which, by the way, is of more importance than most 
stockmen seem to think.” 
“Is the raising of stock from mongrel cows and 
purebred bulls a profitable practice ? ” 
“Better than not to breed at all; but if a man 
purposes to stay in the business any length of time, 
it is better to have both sides pure, that is, if he is 
prepared to give the care that good cattle deserve.” 
“ Can you explain why the Short-horns are prefer¬ 
able to Ilerefords ? ” 
“ The Ilerefords are a little heavier at the neck and 
brisket, thus putting flesh where it is not the most 
profitable. The Short-horns, on the contrary, have 
light necks, while the beef runs well back to the hind 
quarters.” 
“ Will you give me a summary of your cane-feeding 
experiments ? ” 
“ We planted about three acres at the same time we 
did our corn. Part of it was Ohio seed, and part came 
from Kentucky. We cultivated it about the same as 
corn, except that we allowed 10 to 12 stalks in a hill 
to keep down the size. I have no hesitancy in saying 
that we got more good, nutritious food out of those 
three acres than we did out of 12 acres of the best 
corn on the place ; but it must be fed moderately, not 
over one hill being given per head. It is sweet, hav¬ 
ing a good fattening quality. We shred it, and mix 
bran and oil meal with it for barn feeding. It should 
be cut before it freezes, as 30 degrees develops its 
cathartic properties, and, unless watched, severe 
purging may fol* 
low its use. 1 not 
only suggest, but 
strongly r e c o m- 
mend, that stock- 
men give it a trial; 
it is easy to raise, 
and does more 
good per acre, so 
far as my experi¬ 
ence goes, than 
anything I have 
tried. In dry sea¬ 
sons like the past 
one, it is a good 
substitute for pas¬ 
ture, and is, upon 
the whole, more 
nutritive.” 
Fig. 271 shows 
Mr. McCune’s 
great show bull, 
Lord of Linwood 
93476, an ideal 
Short-horn. Dr. 
Young is holding 
the animal. D. 
R. N.-Y.—Some 
one has said that 
you can’t abstract 
fertility through a 
concrete floor. It 
is true. Drainage 
away from a ma¬ 
nure pile indicates 
a lack of brainage. It is hard for some farmers to 
understand that the liquid manure contains all the 
digested portions of the food that are passed by the 
animal. These digestible parts are soluble, and not 
only quickest in their action as plant food, but easiest 
to run away if not jailed by a concrete floor. As 
Dr. Young says, any place that is to hold manure, 
should be floored with concrete if possible. It is a 
wise provision of Nature that man has this power of 
grinding up concrete, and then molding it to suit his 
will into artificial stone to cover any desired surface 
with a water-tight covering. This wonderful action 
is as useful in its way as is the chemical action of 
fire. It is one of the things placed in our hands with 
which to prevent a loss, and there are few losses so 
serious to the farmer as the loss of fertility. With 
concrete floors and plaster for an absorbent we may 
add much to the value of manure, not alone by saving 
the fertilizing value of the liquids, but by retaining 
moisture in the pile. 
A MOUNTAIN OF BEEF ! SHORT-IIORN BULL, LORD OF LINWOOD 93476. Fig. 271. 
