Oj a 
AU§, 7 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
,§31112 lusbandrg. 
MILLER'S MEAL-FED COWS AND THEIR 
RECORD WHEN TURNED TO GRASS. 
We have a letter from Mr. L. W. Miller 
of Stockton, N, Y., woo, it will be remem¬ 
bered, has gained some notoriety from his 
experiments in wintering his dairy cows 
upon an exclusive meal diet. He says his 
cows are doing well, notwithstanding what 
his critics have denounced as the “ cruel and 
unnatural treatment of the stock” during 
spring. These cows, ho says, averaged their 
ten pounds of bulter each per week while he 
kept his milk at home, and since sending it 
to the factory the records show an average 
of over six pounds for each cow per day,— 
more than that of any other herd whose 
milk goes to the factory, even though four 
quarts of bran extra are being fed by the 
patrons whose cows approach the nearest to 
Mr. .MIller’s in the irilk product, Miller’s 
cows at the same time having nothing but 
grass. Before turning to grass, Mr. Miller 
says lie fed his cows ns usual,—that is to say, 
giving those in milk two quarts of meal and 
what hay they would eat, and wheu hay 
threatened to run short four quarts of meal 
(two quarts In the morning and two at 
night), with from four to eight pounds of 
hay at noon. The cows did a little better 
upon the last rations than upon the first. 
But he thinks he has made another demon- 
strati m, very remarkable and of great prac¬ 
tical utility. He had in bis herd two farrow 
cows advanced in years, the oldest being 
sixteen and the other fourteen years of age. 
These cows, he expected, would como in 
milk until some time in the spring, and they 
were fed in the same manner as the others, 
simply to carry them well through and until 
turned to grass, no reference being had to 
making them fit for beef. They were milked 
until the middle of January and then placed 
with the rest of the herd upon an exclusive 
meal diet, lu three weeks after taming to 
grass they were fit for beef, the oldest not 
quite so good as the youngest, which was in 
remarkably fine condition. These animals 
were sold about the 8th of June, and he re¬ 
fers to the purchaser by name (Mr. Cary of 
Chautauqua County), who, he says, will 
certify us to their condition for slaughter. 
Thus, ho thinks, he ha* proved that an ex¬ 
clusive meal diet in wintering stock is not 
only well adapted to cows intended for milk, 
but for stock which It is designed to turn 
into early beef by fattening on grass. 
As wo have heretofore given a very full 
account of the manner iu which Mr. Miller 
winters his cows, keeping them ou an exclu¬ 
sive meal diet, Ills system need not be refer¬ 
red to further in tills conuectit n, but it will 
be of interest to our dairy readers to know 
what the result of such feeding is when the 
cows are turned to grass. The facts, there¬ 
fore, in his letter as detailed above go to 
show that the practical working of his theory 
can by no means bo called a failure, as was 
predicted by many who have regarded his 
theory of meal feeding as disastrous to any 
stock upon which it should be tried. 
- +-++ -. 
OLEOMARGARINE CHEESE AND PROF. 
ARNOLD, 
In' common with numerous other journals 
which have been misled by talk against 
adulterations, the American Rural Home of 
Rochester has warmly opposed the use of 
oleomargarine in cheese. But the Rural 
Homo has been interviewing Prof. L, B. Ar¬ 
nold of Rochester, and in its last issue re¬ 
considers the matter as follows : 
We have conversed with the Professor on 
ine subject, and, as we understand him, he 
Joofc at the matter from a scientific rather 
tnan a commercial view-point. He says that 
jt nas been demonstrated, practically, that 
111 e cream may be skimmed from milk and 
. J n . t0 bucter , auil that oil can be ex- 
f !' 0,n the fat of the cow, identical 
JV, Y iat secreted by the cow in her milk, 
and added to the ekiin-miik, from which a 
cneese can be made, rich, delicious, whole- 
frm>?’ " ‘, c 1 ‘ th ?, best of cannot tell 
t, X i - a .Whole-milk c heese. 
oil«interesting in a scientific view, and 
are not certain but man may yet succeed 
seinhimr^t mUlc » .chemically, so' nearly re¬ 
ef the ^ 'he article formed by the organs 
hfltj. cow tbat discriminating men and 
eS' e .Y na y ) i0t b « able to tell the differ- 
to m!t V,,faen selfish, grasping men come 
* be K y5tem into practice, will they 
from 'r£i tQ iW Their cupidity to depart 
brW I rt U ? be ?^ standard, and thereby 
put/ hut H 1J y the counterfeit into disre- 
' throw such a suspicion on the 
lestrmf to greatly depress, If not 
un-af/tn i'^ butter uud cheese traffic ? It is 
8 e to encourage adulterations. 
the danger, then, as above very fairly 
presented, Is not from the use of oleomar¬ 
garine per se, but only that selfish and grasp¬ 
ing men will use an inferior article ; in other 
words, that men will become dishonest. We 
really can’t see how this difficulty is to bo 
1 obviated without a more radical change in 
hntnan nature than we have any reason to 
hope for. As the question has thus been 
1 changed from oleomargarine to the doctrine 
of total depravity, its discussion would seem 
! to naturally belong to the religious rather 
1 than to the agricultural press. We may, 
1 however, suggest that abolishing oleomar- 
’ garine is not a sure way to rid the world of 
depravity in general, or of frauds and cheats 
in cheese-making in particular. May we not 
also truthfully add that in the substitution 
of a cheaper fat in place of butter for making 
cheese, those who avowedly make such a 
change would be especially careful to use 
only the purest and best oleomargarine, 
which Is now conceded to be “identical In 
composition with that secreted by the cow 
in her milk ? ’ On the other hand, may not 
some of those who make the chief outcry 
against oleomargarine be less particular 
about the quality of the fatty substance iu 
their cheese so long aa it comes directly from 
the cow’s rnilk ? Every one knows by sad 
experience that terribly poor cheese long 
ante-dates the use of oleomargarine, and 
that some at least of that made from whole- 
milk is Inferior in palatableness and whole- 
someuess to cheese made from milk that 
contains scarcely any fatty substance what¬ 
ever. It is comparatively cheap and easy 
to declaim at wholesale against “adultera¬ 
tions” of any kind, but the more important 
reconstruction of human nature needed to 
do.away with cheating is less frequently re¬ 
ferred to. It is certain that oleomargarine 
cheese must, for a long time at least, 
bo sold upon its merits. Consumers will 
probably find, so long as tills is a fact, that 
it is a better guarantee of quality than can 
be had in cheese whose strong point, some¬ 
times very strong, is that only fat from cows’ 
milk is used in Its composition. 
♦ ♦ +- --- 
DIRECTIONS FOR PACKING ROLL 
BUTTER. 
The following circular is from a produce 
merchant in Montreal, as given in the Canada 
Farmer: 
“I offer the following directions to my 
friends, which, if fully complied with, will 
cuablo them to realize the highest market 
quotations for their butter, instead of the 
lowest, as is most gonerally the case, which 
Is not the fault of the consignee. There is 
nothing ao unsalable as badly packed roll 
butter ; but on the contrary, if packed nice¬ 
ly, it sells readily, and generally from two to 
five ceuts per pound more than the same 
quality packed solid in firkins : 
“ Use none but the very best new barrels, 
and be sure that they are not burnt or dirty 
inside. The end you Intend for the head you 
should turn down ; then fake ouj; the bottom 
head and cut a piece of fine white muslin, 
the size of the head, and place It on the bot¬ 
tom of the head of the barrel (which will be 
the head when opened). Commence to pack 
your finest and smallest rolls first, being sure 
to pack each roll on its smallest end. Be 
careful and select rolls that will pack snug, 
so that there will be no apace for tlie rolls to 
shake about. Continue packing ill tills way 
uutil the harrel is almost full, then shake the 
barrel wflll (to settle the rolls), and then fill 
it as snug as possible. In packing the last 
one of the layors, pack all of the rolls ou their 
ends, if possible, but if there is no room, it 
will not matter if they are packed on th'eir 
sides, if they will pack snug and make a full 
barrel. The- groat object is to have the rolls 
close and tight, so they will not shako and 
break. 
“Each roll must be wrapped in a piece of 
white muslin or cheese capping ; be sure and 
have it large enough to cover the roll en¬ 
tirely. The muslin should be soaked in 
strong brine before using and put on the roll 
wet. It is impossible to send rolls to market 
in good order without wrapping them in 
muslin, and po matter what the muslin will 
cost. It will more than repay the outlay in 
the increased price the rolls, thus packed 
will bring. * ’ 
“Before heading up the barrel, pour on 
two quarts of strong pickle. Co/er the last 
layer with a piece of muslin iu the same 
manner as you do the head. 
“Nail up the barrel. Be sure to drive 
three nails into each hoop. Then turn the 
barrel over two or three times, so as to let, 
the brine you hare poured iu work between 
the rolls. 
“Mark the top lu plain letters, “Roll 
Butter, also the gross weight, together with 
the tare of the ban-el, address of the party 
to whom you send it and the initials of the 
shipper, 
“ Rolls should be made In the oblong shape I 
and not weigh over two to four pounds ” 
JWmjr Hushitdrw. 
DIPPING LAMBS. 
We have just been dipping the lambs. We 
finished shearing last week, and, as usual, 
the ticks from the sheared evve 3 soon got on 
to the lambs. I only dipped my ewes once 
last summer. They apparently were so free 
from ticks that we did not dip them last fall. 
I suppose this is the reason why we had so 
many ticks on young lambs this spring. I 
took two gallons of soft soap, about six 
pounds of grease, half a pound of white helle¬ 
bore and one quart of crude carbolic acid, 
and boiled the whole together for half an 
hour in eight pailfuls (say eighteen gallons) 
of water, until the grease was all dissolved 
and thoroughly mixed with the water. To 
this wo added six pailfuls of cold water, or 
sufficient to reduce the temperature of the 
dip to about blood heat. I have a two-inch 
plank watering trough, ton feet loug, two 
foet wide and sixteen inenes deep, with a 
partition in the center. We put tho fourteen 
pailfuls of liquid into the trough, and raised 
one ehd of tho trough until the liquid was 
within a fow iuches of the top at the other 
end, and put blocks under to hold it In tills 
position. I have used this trough for dipping 
lambs and sheep for some yoa-«, bub have 
always used moro liquid, and never before 
tliougnt of the plan of lifting up one end of 
the trough. It worked admirably. We had 
sixty iambs to dip, many of them nearly ns 
large ns common Merino she“p. We dipped 
the largest first. When we got through 
there were only about five pailfuls of liquid 
left, but as the lambs were smaller, there 
was nearly enough to cover them, and by 
turning them over in the liquid, ovt-ry part 
of the body except tho head was immersed. 
One man caught the lambs uud two dipped 
them, and I stood by and held the lamb by 
tho nose ao as to be <uiro that none of the 
liquid got Into his moul h or nostrils. Tt look 
a little over one hour to dip tho sixty lambs. 
Every tick seemed to be almost instantly 
killed. An hour afterward wo examined 
several of the lambs. Wo found hundreds 
of dead ticks but not a single live ouo, I 
never hiul a dip so entirely satisfactory and 
effectual. None or the lambs showed any 
symptoms of sickness, and tho noxt morning 
they wci o fri; king about as happy os before 
tho owes were sheared. 
“You have omitted one or two points,” 
said the deacon. “ You put the hind quaucra 
of tho lamb in the deep water and the head 
in tho shallow water toward the center of 
tho trough. Thun, after the Iamb had been 
iu tho water about twenty seconds, you lift¬ 
ed him out and let him stand iu the upper 
part of tho trouth, and there pressed the 
liquid out of the wool and let It run back 
through a hole iu tho partition, 1 never saw 
you have anything so well arranged boiore ; 
I certainly never saw ticks so easily and so 
surely killed.” 
“Good for you, Deacou.” said I, “and 
suppose 1 tell them what a mistake you made 
about the quantity of liquid we should 
need?” The Deacon said we should not 
have half liquid enough, as “this long wool 
will hold a great deal of water.” 
We found it was precisely the other way. 
The grade lambs, and especially those with 
only one cross of Cotswold blood, had short¬ 
er, thicker and finer wool, and we wore all 
astonished at the great amount of water 
which, the fleeces of tlieso lambs held—on 
the principal, I suppose, that a flue sponge 
holds more water than a coarse one. It 
shows that if afine-woolcd lamb should get 
soaked through to the skin in a heavy rain, 
the fleece would not dry so soon after the 
rain Is over as a loDg-wooled lamb.—“ Walks 
and Talks,” in American Agriculturist 
- — v * »-- 
SCAB IN SHEEP. 
It is clearly ascertained by scientific men 
that tho scab in sheep, like the Itch in the 
human being, iscouuectcd with and propa¬ 
gated by certain minute injects belonging to 
the class of acari, which inhabit pimples or 
pustules. But the question naturally arises, 
How came it first into existence? This 
problem is very difficult of solution, and puz¬ 
zles the most eminent physiologists. But, as 
I have already said, 1 have never known it 
to break out spontaneously among a flock of 
sheep, properly managed, during thirty 
years’ experience as a shepherd in pastoral 
districts. Various and conflicting opinions 
exist as to what extent the disease is infec¬ 
tious. Some affirm that It requires sheep to 
come in contact with the disease before it 
can be communicated, while others maintain 
that the disease is propagated by the mere 
traveling on the road, such as a public drove 
road, from largo markets or Fairs. I, how¬ 
ever, do not think the disease is so catching 
as the latter advocates affirm. For example, 
I acted as shepherd for sixteen years, on 
various farms, where the drove road from 
Falkirk to the South passes through the 
sheep pasture, and every year some of the 
lots of sheep were more or less affected with 
scab, and during all that period not a single 
sheep of which I had charge caught the dis¬ 
ease, 
I ho cure ot scab lies in the destruction of 
the Insect, but the important question is, 
What is tho best composition or infusion for 
that purpose ? The remedies that are com¬ 
monly applied are numerous, hut the most 
effectual, with the least danger of injuring 
the animal, that I have ever soon applied, is 
common spirits of tar; and, if properly ap¬ 
plied, will penetrate and destroy the insect 
concealed in the pustules, or buried beneath 
the skin, Tho quantity applied may vary 
according to the condition and age of tho 
sheep, but for hill, or ordinary breediug 
stock, one bottle of spirits of tar, mixed with 
twelve times the quantity of water, is suf¬ 
ficient for twelve sheep, or one common 
wine glass of the spirits of tar, mixed with 
twelve times the amount of water, is suf¬ 
ficient for one. if mixing for a hundred, six 
gallons of water with six pouuds of common 
soda ought to be wanned to the boiling pitch ; 
then add the spirits of tar .—From Highland 
Agricultural Society. 
- - » » --- 
GROWING MUTTON AND WOOL IN THE 
SOUTH. 
i J. 8. Gob, an esteemed correspondent of 
the Rural New-Yorker, writes as follows 
from Brownsville, Pa., to riie Southern 
Farmer. His advice will be valuable to our 
Southern readers : 
“ Please tell your planters that they can 
gnw good mutton at a less cost per pound 
than they oaii either beef or pork The prices 
of the three make mutton more profitable, 
for with it is the annual fleece, whichis * orth 
more than die tie sit of either. Here our land 
is much higher iu price, our wittier* are very- 
much longer and so cold that we are com- 
pcll. cl to look closely after the cost, of our 
products, while your genial climate makes 
you move cardens, and thus we get the ben¬ 
efits. The old notion thatnNorthern ciftnute 
is more favorable to fine wool growing is all 
a delusion. The same care South or South¬ 
west will grow just as good Merino sheep 
and Merino woo’, as is grown in the North. 
All yon want is the same material to work 
lip and the same skill, anrl you will reach the 
same ends that we do. Do not let Your farm¬ 
ers work OUt tee idea thatl only want to sell 
Merinos, for I flud ready sale fur all t nat. I 
eftu gr »w and at better prices than I have 
ever sold at in your State. 1 have shipped 
many Merinos through your State to points 
tar South of it, and at much bertor prices 
than the Tow that l h.ivosold to citizens of 
Tennessee. 1 have often thought t would 
like, if we had as genial a climate here and 
lands ut the same price, l o greatly enlarge 
tlie number ol' Merinos, and would grow wool 
that would clot ho a large number of the 
human race Here It requires a good slieop 
to pay for its winterin’..—with you a good 
sheep would pay many times for its Winter¬ 
ing, and you could thus realize three times 
as much for your giaiu and grut>s as you 
now do. I grow most of my hayand pasture 
and buy most of my grain—chore you require 
but little hay and grain, 
SPECIMENS OF FINE MERINO WOOL. 
Inclosed with the following from an es- 
teemed co- respondent, John S. Goe of Penn¬ 
sylvania, we find two specimens of merino 
wool of the very best quality. The weight 
of the fleeces speaks well for the profitable¬ 
ness of tills breed of sheep, and we scarcely 
wonder that our friend is enthusiastic iu 
their praise : 
Fleecre at wool thorn during the. taut week of May, 
1875,/ran* the Pure Uvanbth Mtsnoo Slwuii owned 
by JoitN 6. Goh, near Brownsville, Fayette Co., 
Pa.: 
One ntm’fl fleece. 32 lb*. 8 oz.: 2 Co. Co..20 lbs. eiioh.j 
1 do. do., 27 lbs.; I do. do., Is lbs. 10 oz.; ;i do. do.. 17 
lbs. !i oz. to 17 lbs. II oss.. lochia!vc : 8 do. do.. 10 lbs 8 
<>z. to lfl li>«.ti oz.. inclusive: 20do. C"., 12 lbs. to li> 
lbs. IS oz.. 1 a<11151 ve, i effo’s Hl-ol-o, 25 los. u or.; I 
<10. do., 25) lb-. It oz.: Ido. do.. 72 lbs. 2 oz.; 1 do. do., 
21 tbs.; I do. do.. 2! ibs. fi o'..; l do. do., 2 ii lbs.; 1 do. 
do., 20 lbs. 3 oz.; 1 do. do., 20 lbs, II oz.; 0 uo. do., 19 
lbs. 2 oz. to 19 lbs. 15 02.. Diffusive; 9 «l«.d«.. ISlbs. in 
18 lbs. 15 uz.. Inclusive; 9 do. do., 17 lb*, to 17 lbs i t 
oz . Inclusive; ,3 do. do., 12lbs. to 15 tbs. 15 oz,, In¬ 
clusive - i wetfler’s fleece, 15 tba. 
-, - 
LONG WOOLS, AGAIN. 
Eds. Moore’s Rural Allow me to say 
that the Long Wools came here from some 
of the prominent breeders. Many of them 
were really good of their kind ; others not 
more than ordinary. Parties gathered up 
some of these at low figures and shipped to 
Maryland and Virginia. As to a comparison 
with others, permit rne to say that some of 
these were equal to any Long Wools 1 have 
seen at any of the fairs or elsewhere. Num¬ 
bers of them were shipped on orders sent 
direct to breeders. There were many good 
selections made. Excellent care and plenty 
of feed were furnished, but iu every case 
failure was experienced, and we do not know 
why. Pennsylvania. 
