1895 
TTIF. RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
845 
MEETING OF GUERNSEY BREEDERS. 
THE IDEAL DAIRY COW DISCUSSED. 
The annual meeting of the .American Guernsey 
Cattle Club was held in this city, December 11. The 
club is in a flourishing condition. Ten breeders have 
joined during the past year, making the number of 
certificates of membership issued 142. The volume of 
business has largely increased. About 30 animals 
have been imported during the year, and there has 
been a great gain in the number of animals regis¬ 
tered. There are now 4,291 bulls registered, and 
8,466 cows, a total of 12,757 ; this is a gain of more than 
1,100 over last year, and shows plainly the hold that 
this breed has taken upon the breeding public. The 
club is now in first-class financial condition, a con¬ 
siderable debt having been cleared off during the 
year, all current expenses have been paid, and a bal¬ 
ance is left in the treasury of $441.10. This is very 
encouraging to the members of the club, and to 
breeders of Guernseys everywhere. 
The feature of the meeting was the address by 
ex-Gov. Hoard of Wisconsin, one of the most expert 
of the dairy authorities of the country. Perhaps the 
reason why he is an authority, may be seen in a state¬ 
ment he made, to the effect that, in studying up the 
points that go to make up a good dairy cow, he had 
examined over 3,000 animals in determining a single 
point. There’s investigation for you! He spoke upon the 
scale of points by which he judges dairy cattle, and ex¬ 
plained, as he went along, the reasons for his divisions. 
The scale advocated by him was referred by the club 
to its executive committee, and it is understood that 
it will be adopted later with, perhaps, some slight 
changes. When final action is taken, we shall pub¬ 
lish it. 
Among the most prominent requirements of a dairy 
cow, he mentioned, first, a dishing face, caused by the 
prominence of the eyes. Then the barrel should be 
large and well sprung, giving great food capacity. 
The ribs should be wide apart, not close. The pelvic 
arch should be broad, and the hind legs set wide 
apart, giving plenty of room for a large udder. The 
udder must be large and square, of great length on the 
belly, and the teats set well apart. The udder, too, 
should not be flabby and in a collapsed state when the 
milk is drawn, but well filled out. The spinal pro¬ 
cesses should be prominent, and the withers high, 
projecting above the spine. The skin should have a 
mellow feeling, differing from that of a beef animal, 
and should not be what is known as papery. The 
cow should have plenty of nerve force, be—not ner¬ 
vous, as is generally understood by that term, but— 
nerveful, as was expressed by one breeder. 
In judging the bull, much the same general points 
are used. The rudimentary teats, if wide apart, in¬ 
dicate great milking power in the strain. It isn’t 
necessary for the expert to wait until the bull proves 
through his descendants, his milking qualities ; by 
careful observation of this point, the prospective 
value of young animals maybe shown. A good point 
made was that the bull should have an opportunity 
to work off his surplus energy, and not be confined 
and hampered too closely. A good bull, by the wrong 
kind of handling in this direction, might be made 
ugly and intractable. The bull should be full of 
nervous energy. 
The scale of points advocated, and the remarks re¬ 
lating to them, were well received by the breeders 
present, and all acknowledged the force of the reason¬ 
ing. The carrying out of these ideas can but result 
in still further strengthening the position of the 
Guernsey among the dairy breeds. The ideal here 
established is a strong, vigorous, healthy animal, 
with great heart and lung power, and immense capac¬ 
ity for food. Liberal feeding and good care of young 
stock were urged, but no pampering. Plenty of 
coarse food, but none too concentrated, and especially 
not fattening foods. The dairy cow must not be fed 
like a beef animal, else the tendency will be to lose 
her milk characteristics, and adopt those of the ani¬ 
mals whose purpose in life is to make meat and not 
milk. 
RECUPERATIVE FORCES IN THE SOIL. V. 
Plant food must not only exist in the soil ; it must 
exist in a form, or in forms, which allow the plant to 
take and utilize it effectively. It has long been 
known that tillage—which exposes the soil to air, 
water and sunlight, and breaks up more or less com¬ 
pletely its particles, so disintegrating them as to 
admit of the softening and solution of these particles 
in the water of the soil—is a great promoter of plant 
growth. There is a marked difference between good 
and poor tillage in the results, as seen in crops. YVe 
till to destroy weeds, but tillage shows its effects, 
even in a weedless soil. It opens the soil to air and 
water, and to the fertilizing elements which water 
alone enables the plant to take. It is my belief that 
plant roots are capable, to a considerable degree, of 
actually dissolving, as well as absorbing, both vege¬ 
table and mineral matters in the soil. If this be the 
fact, then we have an explanation of the notable 
effects of tillage, constantly repeated, without refer¬ 
ence to the presence or absence of weeds. Weeds 
stir up the slack farmer to do what the intelligent 
farmer does even in entirely clean ground. They are, 
in fact, God’s police to drive the lazy farmer to his 
work. 
The facts noted above are by no means new to in¬ 
telligent farmers ; but what is rarely if ever noted is 
a like influence exercised by insects in the soil. My 
land is full of what may be called slivers of stone— 
thin, flat fragments—and every one of these is utilized 
by insects which lay their eggs and produce their 
young beneath them. The leading insects in this 
class are the ants of several species. In my land, 
under every stone, is a colony of ants—bushels of 
them in every acre, I would say. These little organ¬ 
isms live but a brief time, and although a single dead 
ant can yield but a trifling amount of plant food, yet 
the millions of them, each one of them with his drop 
of formic acid, which certainly must possess solvent 
power, ought to produce a positive action which, in 
the aggregate, must have some sort of influence upon 
the vegetation. But the ant is far from being our 
only abundant field insect. As we improve and enrich 
the land, the earthworms come in, and though they 
do some mischief, I hail them as a sign that my soil is 
becoming richer. They not only enrich, but deepen 
the soil, and their dead bodies have, at least, a little 
addition to make to the available plant food. Follow¬ 
ing these, and making manure of them, come the 
mice, and after them, the woodchucks, the skunks, 
and various birds and other living creatures which all 
contribute something to the soil ; so that the improv¬ 
ing farmer soon begins to see the truth of the maxim 
that Heaven helps those who help themselves. 
Of course these helps are small in themselves, and 
scarcely to be noted in comparison with others ; yet I 
believe in their reality, and that they are a part of the 
means by which Heaven helps them who help them¬ 
selves. But the great fault of American husbandry 
is a general wastefulness, and an indifference to minor 
savings and small opportunities. Nearly every New 
England farmer (and it is even worse in the West) is 
“ land poor”—that is, he has far more land than he 
can do justice to. The growth of population will, in 
time, put an end to all this, and give a value, often 
not small, to many things which now go unregarded 
by those spoiled favorites of fortune, the farmers of 
America T. h. hoskins. 
NEW YORK’S LATEST FLOWER SHOW. 
THE NEWEST CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND ROSES. 
The past season has brought many successful flower 
shows to New York. The best of all was that held 
by the New York Florists’ Club—the last week in 
November. 
In the notes regarding varieties of chrysanthemums 
shown, it will not be amiss to remember that, to the 
lateness of the season, may be attributed the absence 
of some of the usual sorts. Given the known skill of 
the growers in retarding the blooms until needed, 
however, the above could not account for the fact that 
so very few sorts of former years were shown. Not 
over 10 varieties known five years ago, were strongly 
in evidence, though, of course, this number was 
increased by the banked lots of those in pots grown 
to single stems. Almost the only old favorites now 
on hand, were W. H. Lincoln, Ivory, Cullingfordi and 
Lilian B. Bird. Only one vase of reds disputed the 
right of the good old Cullingfordi to first place, and 
whether the two vases were of the same sort, or 
which was the better, only the man who affixed the 
tags could say, unless he were, indeed, an expert. 
The label named the victor J. Shrimpton. A single 
specimen of a new red seedling, Rhoddy by name, 
very good, and some shades darker than the others, 
made its appearance on another table. 
The favorite reds differ from most of the popular 
sorts among other colors, in that none of them is fully 
incurved, and therefore, none of them shows that 
perfection of form and finish that distinguishes other 
sorts. The very practical reason for this lies in the 
fact that the pure, velvety red lies on the inner side 
of the petals which must be recurved to show its full 
splendor. 
Let no one think, from the above statement, that 
there are no incurved reds. Emily Laden berg, in¬ 
troduced some three years ago, and that exponent of 
darkness well named Egyptian would at once dis¬ 
countenance such an idea. But these are of a dif¬ 
ferent stamp, the “red” being almost a black-purple. 
In shape and depth of bloom, they are fine ; but the 
color, while it gives variety, can scarcely be said to 
be popular. 
The most prominent stand of chrysanthemums in 
the hall called forth many exclamations and adjec¬ 
tives, even from those more expert than the general 
public. The sorts here shown were Maud Dean and 
Ada H. Le Roy in pinks; Queen and Niveus in whites; 
Eugene Dailledouze, and W. H. Lincoln in yellows— 
12 long-stemmed specimens in each vase. For enor¬ 
mous size and perfection of form and finish (includ¬ 
ing sheen of petals) combined, the equal of this stand 
has not been shown in New York before the present 
season. Another stand, almost a duplicate of the first 
named, had Pres. W. R. Smith as a companion to 
Maud Dean. Other fine sorts were Golden Wedding 
(which, though as fine as ever, is in such a galaxy of 
beauties no longer able to create a sensation) Blush 
Queen (not shown equal to its white sister. Queen), 
Mrs. Jerome Jones and Helen Bloodgood. The last- 
named two sorts present quite a contrast as to style, 
Mrs. Jones being unexcelled as to foliage, form, 
width of petal, depth of flower; the other being 
filled with a narrower, elbowing crowd of petals. 
The hold which W. II. Lincoln still has shows that 
even the greater size and more finished form of newer 
sorts, are not all that is desired by grower and ex¬ 
hibitor. The public may wonder at the long-con¬ 
tinued appearance of this sort ; but its many good 
qualities suit the grower, and its form gives variety. 
The last item shows one reason for the continued 
popularity of the graceful, though Peony-like Niveus. 
But it cannot be denied that the amateur who 
essays to grow these tempting, but tender sorts, 
courts many a failure, one most practical reason for 
which is that the larger number of them are too late 
for outside work. A sensible push is now being made 
to interest amateurs in the hardy, perennial pompons 
for outdoor growing. Improvement in these sorts 
will follow, as a matter of innate necessity. Some 
indication of the growth of interest in this movement 
may be noted in the catalogue of one prominent firm. 
Two years ago, the book showed a list of about 20 
sorts. This year 100 varieties were offered by the 
same firm. The colors range from white, through 
lilac and the shades of pink to carmine, crimson, 
claret and purple-red ; through straw and the deeper 
yellows to golden-bronze. Some are fringed ; some 
are barely a half inch in diameter, though well clus¬ 
tered ; some above two inches. A very good display 
of these was made at this show ; but two years hence 
we shall expect one that shall be better. 
MYRA V. N0RY8. 
(To be continued.) 
Along the lower Mississippi River, in the States of 
Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, lies a tract of 
the richest and most productive land in the country. 
Before the War, it produced vast quantities of cotton, 
but was considered unhealthful for whites inconse¬ 
quence of the overflow from the river. Dykes and 
levees now hold the river back, and ditches have 
changed the character of the soil so that most of it is 
well drained and healthful. In spite of these 
changes, the negroes have practically monopolized 
this section. The white population is steadily de¬ 
creasing in number, while the blacks are increasing 
with marvelous rapidity. The farming is now done 
almost entirely by negroes, the whites being chiefly 
merchants, professional men or overseers. The south¬ 
ern j eople generally consider that this concentration 
of negro population on these rich lands is a bad thing, 
and they have considered many plans for inducing 
white immigrants to settle there. They cannot get 
white settlers from the North, or from northern 
Europe; but they now seem hopeful of securing 
Italians. One colony of about 1,000 Italians has 
already been located, and if they prosper, many 
others will follow. It seems to us like a thoughtful 
thing for people to consider if this country must im¬ 
port lower-class Italians to neutralize the influence of 
American negroes. Is it not possible to train and 
educate the negro so that he will make a better 
citizen than the Italian ? Has this ever been fairly 
tried ? The South may be making a great mistake in 
going to Europe for its future skilled farm labor— 
with the present crude material already on hand. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Incubators, brooders, and all kinds of poultry supplies are 
offered by the Peerless Incubator and Brooder Co., Quincy, Ill. 
They send their catalogue for four cents in stamps. 
The Dairy Calendar, by Prof. Woll, Assistant Agricultural 
Chemist, University of Wisconsin, is jiublished by John Wiley <fc 
Sons, 53 East 10th Street, New York City. They will send descrip¬ 
tive circulars. 
When snow comes, you need a sleigh, and you can turn your 
wagon into one with a set of Schofield’s steel runner attachments 
which will fit any wagon, and may be arranged for either wide 
or narrow track. Send to Duane H. Nash, Millington, N. J. for 
circulars. 
Every winter comes up anew the problem of how to kill insects 
in stored grain. Weevils and other insects often do great dam¬ 
age in grain bins, as well as in beans and peas. The best 
remedy is to put bisulpnide of carbon on a plate or saucer at the 
top of the bin, and cover it over air-tight. Some people find them¬ 
selves unable to buy sulphide of carbon at a reasonable rate near 
home. Edward R. Taylor, Cleveland, O., sells it. Write him for 
circulars and prices. 
