AGRICULTURE 
TERMS, $3.00 PER YEAR.] 
[SINGLE NO. TEN CENT 
ESTABLISHES IN 1850. 
FROM WESTERN TEXAS, 
Uve Men and Improvement Needed— Extent of Western 
Texas—Fine Pasturage— Cheapness of Keeping Sheep 
and other Stock. -Friers of Cattle., Norses, Sheep, die., 
— Fine Woole.it Sheep—Advantage* for Northern Set¬ 
tlers—Industrious and Intelligent White Men Wanted 
— Cumate Healthful - ’Northerners Welcome and Safe 
from Molestation, Etc., Etc, 
[In remitting for tlie Rubai, a gentleman in 
DoWitt Co., Texas, writes us the following in¬ 
teresting letter:] 
Out here in Western Texas we are entirely 
behind the age in all that pertains to farmiug 
and stock raising. With greater natural ad¬ 
vantages than are to bo found elsewhere on 
earth, wo continue non-progressive and stag¬ 
nant. We greatly need some “live” men and 
fresh ideas to stir us up to action and improve¬ 
ment— ami we think an intercourse between the 
headquarters of advancement In Horticulture 
and Stock Breeding, and a region possessing 
every requisite lor success except energy and 
Information, might bo mutually beneficial; at 
the least we are sure we cannot be hurt or Bet 
back thereby. We think, too, that your people 
might find their advantage here in the sale of 
improved breeding stock and the new labor- 
saving farm implements. 
We have In We.*to 
AN OHIO INAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, UTERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE. 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors, 
Bon. HENRY 8. RANT)ALL, LL. D„ Editor ol the De¬ 
partment of Sheep Husbandry. 
Hon. T. C. PETERS, late President N. Y. State Ag’l 
Society, Southern Corresponding Editor. 
GLEZEN F. WILCOX, Associate Editor. 
Ties Rural Nsw-Yohkkk is designed to bo nnsnr- 
passed In Value, Purity, and Variety of Contents. Its 
Conductor earnestly labors to render the Rural a Kell- 
able Guide on all the Important Practical, Scientific and 
other Subjects connected with the business of those 
whose Interests It iwnlonsiy advocates. As a Family 
Journal it la eminently Instrncttvc and Entertaining — 
being so conducted that It can be safely taken to the 
Homes ol people of Intelligence, taste, and discrimination. 
It embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, 
Educational, Literary and News Matter, Interspersed 
with appropriate engravings, than any other journal.— 
rendering It by tar the most complete Agricultural, 
Literary and Family Newsraj-kk in America. 
ra Texas, from the Colorado 
(j o YV ftl® Grande, 40,000 to 60,000 square miles 
of the finest pasturage in tho world, thousands 
of leagues of which are yet open for entry, or for 
the latter or the blending of two which iorms a sale from the patentee at 25 cents to 50 cents per 
roan. 1 Ins race excels the English type of low- acre. The range on three-fourths of it is the 
land CAttle m milking qualities, and can hardly be nutritious Mesquit grass, upou which stock 
called Inferior for beet They mature early, arc keeps fat the year round without a particle of 
gentle, elegant in iorra, and arc more certain ,,ay or other food. A great part of it is pecn- 
breeden. They combine eminently the best liarly adapted to sheep, which require only a 
1>C>ln ^ 0 a owland brecd - break-wind from the Northers during the sever- 
■ est weather known hero. There are perhaps a 
a bunch of matches in a teacup of water over million and a half head of sheep in tho country 
night, then add meal enough to make it stiff named, which, from neglect and injudicious 
dough, uddiug a spoonful of sugar and a little breeding, only yield some three pounds of wool 
lard. Place this around where the rats and to bead, worth hero 10 to 12 cents per pound, 
nothing else will get it. specie. 
Qur cattle are large and fine looking, and fur- 
On erics for the Clnb. uish fine oxen, and the Mesquit-fod beef is partic- 
II. A. P., Niagara Falls. Can any of your ularly sweet and nutritious; but they have not 
readers inform me whether there is any law reg- the qualities which are desired by the butcher or 
ulatiug miller’s tolls ? Having examiued care- the dairyman. As to horses they have run down 
fully, and lailing to find any, I conclude that to 14 hand pouies, with many excellent qualities 
each one iB a law unto himself, and takes as in the way of hardihood, sure-footedness and 
much as he chooses, stamina, but hard to sell at 4 or 5 yearn old for 
I would like the opinion of your readers $30 to $40. 8tock cattle, which includes cow, 
about wheel plows. From my observation and calf) yearling, two-year oldB and some three-year 
experience, and the fact that these wheels are olds, can be had at $2.50 to $3 per head round, 
generally taken oil' and laid aside by farmers in Stock horses, say marcs, colts, yearlings and all 
this region, I think they arc only necessary for sorts unbroken, are offered at from $7.50 to $15 
tho lazy and unskillful, a head; some choice herds with a large mixture 
A Desideratum,—A light portable steam en- 0, '« 0ud blood rni « ht brin K $20 to $25. Sheep at 
gineat about half the price of those generally cents to <•> cents lor Mexican mixed; $1 to 
used (say $800) to drive our thrashing machines, * 150 for Merinoes. Cotswolds and South 
and thus supersede the cumbrous and expensive Dowtld > degenerated from neglect, at about 
ten-horse team now generally in use. By the Goate i 35 cents to 50 cents. Beef cattle, 
use of hose ail danger of tire may be avoided. which weigh 500 to 700 neat, can be bad at $8 to 
_ $12. From these prices you will iufer that the 
Finns for Farm Buildings. business of stock raising as earned on here, is 
Mr. A. W. Foote, Grand Rapids, Michigan, not very profitable; yet, as the range costB noth- 
writes us as followsSome two years since I ln S> and therc 18 neither food nor shelter to be 
had a large farm barn burned, and wishing to provided, our people manage to make a liv- 
rebtiild have decided to adopt your first pre- ' nj ? at **'• 
rnium barn, published some years since, and -Now what we greatly need is a branch of one 
republished April 15, 1865. Tiie first number l of y° ar Wientiflc stock farms—aud especially a 
loaned to a neighbor and it was lost. The 1865 concern that makes line woolcd Bheep a special- 
number I sent away last winter to a draftsman il >'- Bcin « personally interested In the sheep 
for specifications, which never reached its desti- business, aud it being evident that that culling 
nation. Can you send me the plan and speclfi- wiL1 BOon bu( -' omc tho main business of the 
cations, or direcFme where I can procure them?” country, I would state that we have very few fine 
This sample letter shows the estimation and bu cks in the country, ami that no one makes the 
value placed on good designs for farm buildings misiu £ of Gicm for sale his particular business, 
by the readers of the Rural. For the benefit Consequently we get the best we can, and pay 
of new subscribers we shall probably republish $ 10 to $3° P Cr head for degenerate beasts that 
the above mentioned plan (unless we can find a ba Y® lost aU the characteristics of their auecs- 
better one) before another spring. tors. I lately saw $100 in specie paid for ton 
__ yearling bucks, called Merinoes, but without a 
Prospering in si New Country. particle of wool on their legs, and not mnch 
One of onr subscribers writing from Clark elsewhere. 1 am confident they would not clear 
Co., Iowa, thus sketches a neighbor:—“ He has ''‘v pounds a head. These were turned into the 
a section of laud all fenced in, has over one dock, a,ld " in a niontk or so will be taken out and 
hundred acres of small grain, and, I think, as 801110 attempt made to keep them separate ■ 
much timothy meadow, and over fifty acres In I jroba,d ^ 1 1U *' * u a lcnccd pasture to remain till 
corn. He has just completed a stock barn | ' vanbjd next fall, but in the meantime they will in- 
oue hundred and four feet long by seventy-five I ovitably tlud a gap do wu or a hole to creep through 
feet wide. He deals largely In stock, having , aild wander oil to some flock to get a batch of 
over sixty fit steers on hand. He is a man that lambs to come in midsummer or at Christmas, 
works and attends strictly to business; coming | will get little or no attention, and proba- 
into this country some thirteen years ago with , Gio (logs will kill some and tho screw worm 
no means save good heal th and plenty ot energy • * r0m wounds in lighting will kill more, and 
(the best capital for a new country,) he has far j when needed a third to a half of their number 
outstripped many with larger means. This is a ! be missing. In this county (De Witt,) there 
great county for stock raising, as we have plenty are abou t 100,000 sheep, and the above is only a 
of range and good grass.” fair account of the management in regard to 
SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF WIN 
TER FOOD FOR ANIMAL8.—No. Ill, 
We portray this week 
family which derives il_ 
of Normandy in France, 
its ] 
and has many points c 
Horns; some eminent 
advanced the opinion that 
a cow of the breed or 
its name from the province 
, — !< It is a lowland nice, 
progenitors probably coming from Holland, 
raon to the Short- 
idors, indeed, have 
the Holland is the 
pu.em, oreea oi the Short-Horn as well as of 
other lowland types that are found on the conti¬ 
nent. Color is the most striking difference 
between the Normandy breed and the Short- 
Horns, that of the former aju •, always prevail¬ 
ing iu spots, haviugsharp, distinct outlines, very 
rarely showing the uniform colors so frequent on 
DOES IT PAY TO COOK FOOD? 
Tins question is the all important one; for If 
it does not pay a balance over the expense, then 
no profit cau accrue from its practice. We have 
endeavored to bring this question to the test of 
accurate experiments, and have found that six¬ 
teen pounds of hay cut and steamed is equal to 
twenty-four pounds of the same hay uncooked. 
The animals fed upon the steamed hay im¬ 
proved, while those fed upon the unstcamcd 
barely held their own. We have stated that 
hall hay and half straw mixed and cooked iB 
But wc think our ex- 
ooy on the average, two and a hall hours per 
day to cut, mix and steam the food for them. 
Vc estimated the labor, including the feeding 
“ eqaal to ten hour » Per day for one man.’ 
Alter the food is cooked the labor of feeding is 
less than in the ordinary way. It took ten 
°/ two feet, or five cords of four feet 
ie 6easou, worth 
_.-a expense of 
equal to hay uncooked, 
pertinents will warrant the statement that one- 
fourth to one-third hay and two-thirds to three- 
fourths straw, well steamed, is equal to the 
same quantity of hay uncooked. While fatten¬ 
ing cattle wc tried an experiment with ten 
head, feeding them for two weeks uncooked 
meal. The ten head were given three bushels 
of meal upon 6teamed hay per day, which they 
easily consumed. Then we took a bushel and a 
half of meal, made it into a thin pudding, 
Btirred in six bushels of short cut hay, cooked 
it all thoroughly in a large kettle, and fed this 
amount daily to the same ten steers, with what 
other hay they would eat, for two weeks. This 
seemed to satisfy them even better than the 
three bushels uncooked, and they appeared to 
gain faster. This same amount was cooked and 
fed them afterwards for three months, when 
they were ready for the butcher, and were pro¬ 
nounced as well fattened as some other animals, 
which we learned had been fed eight months on 
larger quantities of uncooked meal. 
Mr. Geo. Geddes, who has fed pork exten¬ 
sively, says cooked meal is worth double for 
feeding hogs. Geo. A. Moore, who has experi¬ 
mented with sheep and cows, says, “I think 
cutting and steaming combined insure a gain to 
the feeder of at least thirty-three per cent.” 
Mr. Mason of New Jersey found that pork fed 
upon raw corn cost 12% cents per pound, and 
that from cooked corn i% cents. James Buck¬ 
ingham, as detailed in the Prairie Farmer, 
found that a hog fed one and three - fourths 
bushels of raw meal gained nineteen pounds, 
and another fed one bushel of cooked meal 
gained twenty-two pounds. Mr. Wm, Bibnie 
of Massachusetts, who has cooked the food for 
a milk dairy of some fifty cows for years, re¬ 
gards the gain by cooking as more than thirty- 
three per cent. Prof. Horsfall of England, 
who has kept cows for milk, and experimented 
on different methods of preparation, says, “ I 
cooked or steamed food for several years, and 
my experience of its benefits is such that if I 
were deprived of it I could not continue to feed 
with satisfaction.” 
And thus, all who have giveu cooking a fair 
trial, put the gain at from thirty-three to one 
hundred per cent. The testimony is uniform, 
and must carry conviction to the unprejudiced 
mind. 
COST OF COOKING. 
Next, let ns see what it costs to cook food, 
that the reader may determine whether it pays. 
When cooking for forty-eight head of cattle aDd 
six horses, we found that it took two men and a 
hemlock wood to steam for tAi — 
about $20. We regarded the extra 
labor, over common feeding, at $6U, added to 
the wood makes $80 as the whole extra expense. 
The amount saved could net have been less 
than $10 per head, or $540. The saving in 
amount of food alone would equal this, besides 
being able to use much coarse fodder, that 
would otherwise have been wasted. 
APPARATUS FOR COOKING. 
We promised in onr last to describe, in this, 
the proper apparatus. Our space Is limited, but 
in e will do something to assist our readers iu 
this matter. A wrought iron hollow cylinder, 
one-eighth of an inch thick, thirty inches in 
diameter, four to six feet long, with quarter- 
inch iron heads, hand hole in front end to cleun 
it out, secured by iron stopper with rubber 
packing, also a stop-cock in this end from which 
to draw hot water; a one Inch steam pipe coup¬ 
led to the top of boiler, reaching over the brick 
arch down to the bottom of the steam box, en¬ 
tering the side near the center; also a short pipe 
on top with a stop-cock through which to fill 
the boiler with a tunnel. It should be filled 
about two-thirds full of water. The boiler must 
strip of Indlu rubber put on the rim, holding 
the tub down with a shore. A Cheap Steamer 
may also be made by taking a sheet of No. 18 
iron about three feet wide, seven or eight feet 
long, or two sheets riveted together if more 
work is to be done, making one fourteen feet 
long; then make a box of two-inch plunk, one 
inch narrower and shorter than this sheet of 
iron, plank about two feet wide; nail this sheet 
on the bottom with double rows of five-penny 
nails, one inch apart in rows, breaking joints, 
and bend up the sheet whore It projects. Set 
this on a brick arch so that the bottom shall 
lap four inches on the wall on each side, with 
a chimney a little longer than the arch. This 
will do for boiling grain or vegetables, but to 
cook hay, Ac., you must have a talse sheet iron 
bottom, with small boles to let the steam up, 
raised an inch or two above the real bottom. 
This will keep the hay from burning on the 
bottom. It may be supported by strips of 
wood laid on the lower bottom, which, being 
in water, will not burn, 
With a cover on this 
box yon Lave a cooking apparatus without any 
pressure, and very cheap. And lastly, if you 
wish an apparatus already made to your hand, 
to which yon only have to attach a steam-box 
to be ready for use, for all kinds of cooking, 
you can get D. R. Prindle’s Agricultural Cal¬ 
dron and Steamer.— e. w. s. 
RURAL FARMERS’ CLUB 
How (o Trap Rats. 
C. N. O., Prentice, Mich., sends us the follow 
ing directions for catching ruts: Where rats 
water, aim spnnKie on a lew quarts ol bran, or 
auy light substance that will not sink—covering 
the water completely over, and placing a box so 
that it will be all bandy for them to get to the 
top of the kettle, One after another will jump 
down on the feed and go under, and as they 
cannot climb up the kettle, must be drowned. 
It is a good plan to let them have the feed alone 
in the kettle a couple of nights, as they are gen¬ 
erally a little shy at first. When I find them 
around hog-pens aud com-criba, I always get 
rid of them by shooting a lew of their number, 
after which the remainder will go away. To 
catch them in steel-traps, set the traps In their 
holes or runways, and spread a brown doth or 
paper over them. If you want to poison them, 
there is probably no easier method than to soak 
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