ESTABLISHED IN 1S50 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AS OHIGIXAL weekly 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FA1HLY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With a Carp* of Able Aju-Utnnt* and Contributor*. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL, D., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry, 
X3T Fob Terms and other particulars see last page. 
VARIOUS TOPICS DISCUSSED 
Is Salt Necessary for Stock! 
A correspondent of the Massachusetts 
Ploughman argues, lu a letter to that journal, 
against the use and necessity of salt for stock. 
There might be considerable Bald pro and con on 
this topic. Animals have a greedy appetite for 
salt, and it always exists, to some extent, in the 
animal system. Hence, it has been Inferred that 
it is a necessity. But many minerals and ele¬ 
ments are found in the animal system, which arc 
never used n6 articles ol' diet, but are taken in 
combined with the daily food. Salt is a natural 
constituent of most of the food of both animals 
and mankind, and it enters largely into the com¬ 
position of the grasses. The question is 
whether the natural supply thus furnished Is 
What do our readers 
20-29 
''■-.vWl 
sufficient for animals, 
think ? We will give in this connection the ex¬ 
perimental factB of the Ploughman's correspon¬ 
dent :—I had a chance uud did try keeping cattle 
one year without giving them any salt, fifteen 
miles from the ocean, which w’aB the nearest, 
suit water of any account, and although all my 
cattle, and one of my horses, had, 1 suppose, 
always been in the habit of receiving their weekly 
rations of salt, yet, at the year's end, I was 
unable, as were my neighbors, to see but that 
my stock did as well as they formerly did with 
a supply of salt, or as well aa my neighbors’ 
stock which were all supplied with it. G. H. 
Ambrose, in a letter to a New York Medical 
Journal, dated Lexington, Mo., March, 1804, 
says:—“I have raised stock lor fourteen years 
past without the use of Balt, and with satisfac¬ 
tory results. I know of several tribes of Indians 
in Oregon, w r bo occupy the country bet ween the 
Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range, who 
have raised extensive herds of fine fat cattle as 
one would wish to look at, without the use of 
salt. Reared in that manner, stock will not use 
it, which proves conclusively that it is an artifi¬ 
cial and morbid appetite. Any one who has 
lived in Oregon, in its early settlement, can bear 
testimony to the fact that stock was almost uni¬ 
versally raised without salt. I regard the exper¬ 
iment of stock raising iu Oregon as conclusive 
and satisfactory. I have seen thousands of head 
of stock raised lu that country without 6alt, and 
when grown up they would not use it, and were 
as large, thrifty, fat and sleek, as any like number 
of stock to be fouud anywhere. I have not writ¬ 
ten this for publication, but to call your atten¬ 
tion to the fact that stock do quite us well if not 
better without the use of salt than with, — at 
least my experience so teaches me, and I have 
tested it in Oregon for seven years, and in this 
State the same length of time, and all Lhe time 
owning several hundred head of cattle.” 
setting on of the tail; and the tail at right 
angles with the back,. 1 
19. Tail fine,... 1 
20. Tail hanging down to the hocks.•... 1 
21. Hide mellow ami movable, tmt not too loose, 1 
22. Hide covered with" tine and *hort hair,....,, 1 
23. Hide of a good color,. .1 
24. Fore legs short and straight,. 1 
25. Pore-arm large and powerful, swelling and 
full above the knee, and fine below It. 1 
26. Hind-qttarters, from the hock to the point 
of thu rump, long nud well tilled up,..1 
27. Flind logit short and stru: dit, (below the 
hocks) and bones rathe • fine,...1 
28. Hind lugs squarely placed, and not too close 
together when viewed from behind,.,.... 1 
29. Hind legs not to cross in walking. 1 
30. Hoof* small,. . 1 
81. Growth,.... 1 
32. General appearance,. 1 
38. Condition,. 1 
Perfection,. 33 
No bnll awarded a prize having less than 27 points, 
tie in this country, especially for the dairy, many [ 
of our readers will be interested in learning the 
established points. We therefore give the above 
fine portrait of a Jersey bull, with illustrations 
showing the Scale of Points for Bails—and will, 
in a future number, publish the portrait of a 
Jersey cow with the Seale of Points for Cows 
and HeiferB. By reference to the corresponding 
figures above the reader will readily understand 
the following 
and No. 4 finishes the shingle bolts. If the 
tree is largo, however, so that these bolts are 
wider than it is practicable to make the shin- 
gles, they can be further subdivided. The split- 
ting may be done rapidly with the ax and a 
light maul, drawing the ax first carefully along (gr 
the longest lines, and tapping it lightly with the ^ 
maul, until the block is “ checked,” when a blow 
or two on the ax placed in the center, will open the mall 
it as desired. The bark should next he removed win be too short, and t 
from the holts, and they should he piled under timber wasted. The 
cover so that the Bun and wind will not ‘‘season block, end for end, 
check” them. and work carefully. 
Ilaving the bolts in the shop, next proceed to j 8 the proper tliicknes 
split them into rough shingles with the mallet 
and froe. /7J) 
WHERE THE BOLT SHOULD BE SPLIT. / 
The engraving shows the proper 
way of splitting a bolt. First, ~K 
iwjJljSuRirA split it at the line, A; this should Jjn 
take off a piece thick enough for ZSSl™ 
four shingles. Next divide this 
r piece through the center as shown SHAVING be 
1 M|HII by the line B; the pieces are then Shave the hut-end 
1 | each wide enough for two shingles, will require but a str 
I i n I© These are split through the mid- of the desired thickm 
Ml |.| die, which finishes them. If you edge the shingle on th 
If |i||J |L| undertake to split oil' each shingle most convenient, takJ 
j [ill| m | separately from the side of the all of the sap wood, 
ij (.1 j" M bolt, they will almost invariably gle, shave both sides, 
j I' I' “run out,” and the timber be the but-end to the top 
uj 1,4 . wasted. and it is finished. A 
J j 'j A large-sized shaving-knife, and out and shave one the 
a shaving - horse or bench, are The shingles shoul 
necessary to shave and complete the shingles. lapping them as in tl 
The froe is formed of a heavy steel blade, wc see 1 ~ or 5ale ’ anti P 1 
eight or ten inches long and two wide, having a atu * ^ sighted do 
dull edge, and a handle a foot long, and project- P r( >per shape until sei 
ing from one end of the blade at right angles 
with it. When the blade is driven into the bolt Heaves in Horses 
and partially splits it, the handle can he forced per day, says an cxcha 
over to one side with the hand, or by a blow of heaves in horses, 
from the mallet, and the leverage force thus grain one-third, and 
exerted, splits off the shingle. In this opera- place, and your horses 
tion skill and practice In the art come most into enjoy fine spirits, loc 
use. If the check or split runs out, the shingle to perform full work, 
gles may be made by the farmer and bis men in 
the shop, during bad weather in the winter and 
spring, and he will not feel the expense. 
The varieties of timber adapted to making 
shingles are few. A wood is required that will 
split easy and true, and one also that when 
exposed to the weather on the building, will not 
warp from its place or “ curl ” up. The dura¬ 
bility of the timber is a secondary consideration 
—shingles wear out more than they rot — and 
the varieties which would be least subject to 
these changes, might, for good reasons, not be 
at all suitable for roofing purposes. Pine Is 
doubtless the best, but hemlock, cedar and 
chestnut arc excellent. Thu trees should not 
have passed their prime when cut, hut should 
be vigorous in growth and sound at the heart, 
so that the wood will not be “ brash.” 
The first work to be done when we commence 
shingle making is to get out the bolts. Saw the 
trunk of the tree with a cross-cut saw Into sec¬ 
tions, each one of the length you intend to make 
the shingles. Sixteen inches is sufficient length 
for any easy splitting wood, and if it be tough 
or “ brasby,” twelve will do. The shorter the 
shingle, the less space you can lay to the weath¬ 
er, and the more time and nails it will take 
to make them into a roof. These sections of 
the trunk may then be set on end and split Into 
bolts. 
HOW TO MAKE SHINGLES 
Broom Corn. 
In answer to an inquiry lately inserted in 
the Rural, Mr. Peter Wykoff sends us the 
following communication relative to the grow¬ 
ing, management and profits of Broom Com in 
Central New York: 
“ Seeing au inquiry in relation to broom corn 
1 will give my views, having had something over 
twenty years experience with its cultivation, &c. 
Trv the seed so as to know what proportion will 
grow; select a good chance for Indian com — 
green sward is best because cleanest — plow the 
ground north and south, and plant in drills the 
same way, with towb about three and a half feet 
apart. One peck of seed will plant three acres. 
Thin out the broom com so that there will be 
one plant every four inches, or three to the foot; 
stir the ground often, keep it clean. At first it 
looks small and very spindling, and it is some¬ 
times three weeks before it shows itself above 
ground, but if the soil is good it will neverthe¬ 
less come. In this latitude (Central New York,) 
it should be planted from the 10th to the 15th of 
May. If there is a large crop grown, and but 
Shingles, the most common material used 
for roofing in this country, are yearly becoming 
scarcer and costlier. The greater cost of labor, 
and the expense of long transportation from 
the now remote forests where the timber from 
which they are made in large quantities abounds, 
are the chief causes of these enhanced prices. 
One of the heaviest items in building at the 
present time, Is the roofing material; and many 
an outbuilding is permitted to remain for years 
with a leaky roof, to the detriment of the frame 
and floors, and frequently to the damage by wet 
of crops stored therein, because the owner has 
not the means to spare from other uses, or 
shrinks from incurring the expense necessary to 
procure a new covering. Yet these same farm¬ 
ers may have in their forest, or can procure at 
small comparative cost of their neighbors, a 
sufficient amount of suitable timber to make all 
the shingles they require, A very few trees 
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