injurious results follow a cross where more 
difference in size exists in the parents than 
theoretically would have been considered 
desirable, it is not reasonable to believe that 
a very violent cross is desirable. There is 
comparatively little use for horses weighing 
over 1,800 pounds ; in fact the demand for 
horses over 1,600 pounds in weight will be 
limited, while for horses weighing from 
1,300 to 1,000 pounds, ubo is found iu a large 
number of cases. Such horses can be obtained 
amount of food, and if this can be turned 
mainly to milk it must make a good show¬ 
ing. The Farmers’ Union of Minnesota says 
that Samuel Deering of St. Paul baa been 
trying to demonstrate the usefulness of 
Short-Horns for the dairy. He has 25 head, 
all of this breed, and nearly all excellent 
milkers. One of these gave 67 lbs. of milk 
(or 33X quarts' and another gave 29 quarts 
per day. He claims that bis native breed 
averages a pound of butter from every nine 
CAKE OF YOUNG CALVES, 
STEAM ON THE FARM 
Says a writer in the Country G -ntleman : 
Farmers should raise enough of the best 
calves, or calves from their best cows, to 
keep their stock fully up. Endeavor to get 
good strains of blood iuto the herd by using 
a thoroughbred bull. Never use a half or 
quarter blood bull If It is possible to obtain a 
full blood. A cow before calving should be 
placed in a warm, dry box stall for the 
comfort of the cow and the safety of the 
calf. The practice of allowing a cow to have 
a calf while confined in the stanchions can¬ 
not be too strongly deprecated. Even if it 
is not desirable to raise a calf, it is an un¬ 
necessary cruelty to keep the cow confined. 
The practice is doubly unnecessary and 
cruel, when the calf is to be raised. If the 
calf comes early in the night, it is apt to lie 
prostrate in water and filth until morning, 
when it is chilled through, and no matter 
how fine a calf it might have been, it is a 
mercy to kill it. 
Therefore, presuming that the cow is in a 
comfortable and convenient place, as soon as 
possible after the calf comes, it should be 
rubbed perfectly dry. Too many precau¬ 
tions cannot be taken to prevent the calf 
from becoming chilled, and it is more apt to 
become chilled while wet. The calf should 
be fed as soon as jiossible after birth, with 
milk freshly drawn from its mother, and 
should have the whole of its mother’s milk 
for at least a week or ten days before it 
receives any skimmed milk. The change 
from new to sldmmed milk should begradual. 
Begin by mixing a little skimmed milk with 
the new milk. Feed regularly three times a 
day all the calf will lake. Keep In a clean, 
dry pen, well littered with plenty of clean 
straw, to Insure cleanliness and good health. 
Remember that if you slight the calf now, 
when it becomes a cow, it will slight you. 
The great progress which the world has 
made in civilization during the last one hun¬ 
dred years is mainly due to the invention by 
Watt of the steam engine. Steam has revo¬ 
lutionized all branches of mechanical indus¬ 
try, enabling a few men to do the work of 
millions, giving all classes cheaper fabrics 
and better modes of living than would be 
possible without it. Tndeed, were it not for 
steam, luxuries now everywhere common 
would be banished and the masses of men 
would be compelled to struggle as they did 
two hundred years ago for the bare neces¬ 
saries of life. That steam power has been 
little used on the farm shows in how rude a 
state present agriculture exists, and the sub¬ 
stitution of steam for horse-power wherever 
practicable is one of the first certainties of 
that era of improved farming upon which 
we are entering. 
Messrs. Wood, Taber & Morse of Eaton, 
Madisou Co., N. Y., have done as much or 
more than any other firm to introduce steam 
power to farmers by making portable en¬ 
gines adapted to farm use. They have re¬ 
cently made two new portable engines, of 
different powers, which are called respect¬ 
ively “Hercules” and the “Rubicon.” of 
which we give an engraving. The “Rubi¬ 
con” will drive a separator as fast as any 
one gang of men can handle the straw and 
grain, while the “Hercules” will drive a 
double separator up to its utmost capacity, 
or as fast as any two feeders with their 
gangs can handle the straw and grain. The 
great advantage in using steam on the farm 
is that the power never tires, costs nothing 
for keep when not working and when run to 
its full capacity needs only a small amount 
of coal—say 200 pounds of coal daily, for 
which it returns a f ill equivalent lu power, 
while much of the food given to horses is ex¬ 
pended in keeping up the vitality, and so far 
as power is concerned is wasted. Our read¬ 
ers will notice that the steam engine costs 
less to begin with than horses sufficient to 
furnish the same jiower. It costs less to 
ran and can at any time be stopped and kept 
indefinitely without expense—all important 
advantages which, when practically realized 
on the farm, will create as great a change as 
the steam spinning jenny has in English 
manufactures. The engines are put on light 
but strong trucks, with spark arresters, 
smoke stacks and automatic lubricators, and 
are useful every month in the year, thresh¬ 
ing, cutting feed, sawing wood and doing any 
work where heavy and persistent straining 
is required. Auy young boy, after a very 
little practice, can manage one of these en¬ 
gines, and nine out of ten average 
boys would jump at the chance to 
take charge of u machine giving 
opportunity lor exercising and dis¬ 
playing mechanical ingenuity. 
"Would not the use of steam, reliev¬ 
ing farm work of much of its 
drudgery, be a good thing to keep 
the boys on the farm, not by com¬ 
pulsion or ad vice ts is too frequent¬ 
ly attempted, but by making farm 
life really more attractive and 
pleasant ? 
PORTABLE STEAM POWER FOR THE FARM. 
of them giving 2 lhs. and even by a first cross, and very readily by a 
ifore deciding absolutely second cross, without the use of such exces- 
experiments we should sively large stallions as many seem to prize 
ize of these large milkers most highly. 
eed they daily consume. For a meat-pi oducing animal, early matu¬ 
red to bring a quart of rity and latge size are desirable, and these 
crino'S cows than from can be secured even by processes which 
Ayrshlres, or more feed tend to injure the ability of the animal in 
Jerseys or natives ? If other directions. But the things winch very 
p one breed specially for high feeding tend to produce are just the 
dged to be superior for things not desirable in an animal for labor. 
In such we need some activity, ability to 
endure exertion, health and soundness in all 
parts. Rather than very great size, we 
should consider it desirable that a draft 
stallion of either breed named, should pos¬ 
sess a good disposition, good eyes, good 
breathing apparatus, clean and not beefy 
legs, round joints and sound feet, as well 
shaped as is practicable. 
THE BUFFALO GNAT. 
Rural readers East as well as "West will 
be interested in knowing more of the Buffalo 
gnat which has proved so destructive to cat¬ 
tle and horses in the Southwest. Tli© Atlanta 
(Ga.) Constitution gives the following de¬ 
scription of their habits and appearance : 
“These gnats of the Southwest are very 
small—perhaps about one-half the size of the 
universal horse fly. They come in the air in 
countless numbers; the air is full of them 
when tney appear, and their appearance is 
always sudden and overwhelming. They 
forthwith settle upon every horse, cow, mule 
or four-footed animal in sight. They literally 
cover an animal, owing to their immense 
numbers ; and the animal that is so attacked 
—say at night—will be dead in the 
morning and swelled to an enorm¬ 
ous size. Their bite is very poi- 
sonous, causing the wound to fes¬ 
ter almost as soon as made. They 1 
attack, as we have stated, wild and 
tame animals indifferently; but j ■ 
singularly, they have no appetite 
•no,u fnv hnmmi blood. Their 
CLYDESDALES AND NORMAN HORSES 
TnE Western Rural discourses upon Clydes¬ 
dales and Normans from a Western stand¬ 
point, but its remarks may be found sug 
gestive to people of other localities. It 
says: 
The Normans have been decidedly the 
most popular heavy draft horses in Illinois, 
as is shown by the large number of stallions 
of that breed imported during the last few 
years. Of late there seems to be a somewhat 
increased demand for Clydesdales. Several 
high priced imported stallions of this breed 
are now owned in different parts of the 
State. In Wisconsin, while the number of 
VENTILATION OF STABLES 
Proper ventilation does not consist in 
wide cracks In the doors, nor holes in the 
walls, which let in a stream of cold air upon 
the animals. Unless there is ample space 
above, to allow the impure air to escape, the 
stable is filled with eddies and currents 
below, which are injurious to cattle. Venti¬ 
lation should be by means of many small 
spaces, which admit numerous small streams 
of fresti air. If there is an open space above 
the cattle, these small streams intermingle 
without causing any perceptible draft of 
cold air. Proper ventilation consists in hav- 
whatever for human blood, 
home is in the swamps and low¬ 
lands, but this season they have 
swarmed out of their ancient ma¬ 
larial strongholds and spread them¬ 
selves over the hills and elevated 
plateaus. If any one encounters a 
mvriad of small jet - black files, 
each of them having a hump-back 
or Blioulders like the buffalo, then 
he may know that the genuine Buf- 
ffalo gnat has arrived. If it should 
appear let the ears, flunks and other 
exposed parts of exposed animals 
be well coated with tar or grease, 
and if that cannot be done, let fires 
be started in the stock lots. The 
insects do not, relish tar, grease 
or smoke.” 
NELLIS’ HARPOON HAY FORK 
The illustration of “ Nellis & 
Co.’s System of Hay Stacking 
by Horse Power,” given herewith, 
will interest farmers at a season 
when the securing of the immense 
grass crop of the country is in 
order. The apparatus represented 
—consisting of Nellis’ original 
Harpoon Hay Fork and Fixtures— 
has been greatly improved by 
recent patents, and is now claimed 
to be the most complete and per¬ 
fect machinery of the kind obtain¬ 
able. In their catalogue A. J. 
Nellis & Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., 
(whose advertisement is given on 
page 406.) thus describe the opera¬ 
tion of their apparatus: — “The 
cut represents Nellis’ Patent 
Stacker, which requires four poles 
—poles A, A, about 35 feet in length ; poles 
B, about 25 feet. Fasten together at small 
end by rope of chains, G, G ; fasten swivel 
pulley and 2-wheeled pulley at E, first pass¬ 
ing rope through same, raise poles B, and 
secure in an upright position by means of 
guy H and pin 1; then tie pully at F. Pass 
hoisting rope through the fork pully then 
through dead-eye pully C, which is tied at G, 
on long pole3.” 
NELLIS & CO’S SYSTEM OF HAY STACKING WITH HARPOON FORK AND HORSE POWER 
Pos- full bred horses of either class is not large, I ing the air within in exactly the same con- 
80 there is a much more equal division in num- dition as it is without ; pure, fresh, abundant 
.be »er of the two breeds. In low. the Nor- EESfc SESSS 
ilk. mans have taken the lead in numbers. It that which flows about their feet and legs. 
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