84 
FEB. 5 
THE BUBAL MEW-YORKEB 
the hay eliug as far in advance of the horse- 
fork as the horse fork is iD advance of the 
hand-fork. 
Cornell University, Ithaca. N. Y. 
for the increase which has occurred in the 
dairy and in wheat and corn growing might 
reasonably have happened with the sheep, and 
instead of eighteen million pounds of w 10 I 
being produced, there might have been nearly 
fifty millions and much mutton and lamb be¬ 
sides. And all this loss is chargeable to the 
dogs. 
But what are you going to do about it ? To 
complain seems to be like "the voice of one 
crying in tbe wilderness." To put the loss in 
figures, as has been done in this report, and to 
keep pegging away at the subject, are about 
all that can be done in the matter. 
preservation of the butter. If it is ill-ma^e, 
of timber with a bad odor, or worm-eaten so 
that the moisture of the butter will soon dry 
out and air will get in, the butter will soon spoil 
and become rancid. In the family dairy the 
package is to be considered as much as in the 
business da ; ry, because there are limes when 
a surplus product needs to be put away for 
use when the supply falls off or is suspended 
altogether for a time. 
IN-AND-IN BREEDING AS EXEMPLIFIED 
IN THE DUCHESS SHORT-HORNS. 
JONATHAN TALCOTT. 
In asking “ Stockman," in the Rural of De¬ 
cember IS, to give the number of animals of 
the Bites Duchess family now in existence, in 
order that farmers might j idge of the theory 
of in and in breeding as advocated by him, my 
desire was for information, and I had no idea 
that he would take the course he has taken in 
order to avoid an answer ; for, either through 
prejudice or iguorauce on my part, I can look 
at his replies in no other light than as shifts to 
avoid a direct answer in one way or another. 
I did not ask tu how many herds of cattle was 
the blood of the Duchess tribe of Short-horns 
intermingled, but how many aud where are 
the descendants of Duchess of 1804, also of 
Duchess 1st, purchased as a two-year-old at 
Mr. Charles Ceiling's sale of cattle in 1810. 
Mr. Bates bred them in-aod-iu all he thought 
be6t, no doubt; aud if that is a successful 
method of breeding, there should be thousands 
of that family to-day in Eugiand and America. 
But if that is not a successful method of breed¬ 
ing, the breeders of to-day should know it. 
At Mr. Thomas Bates’s sale in 1850—40 years 
after he had purchased the two-) ear- dd heifer 
at Mr. Colliug’s sale—there were eight females 
sold of the Duchess family aud six males. 
These were all descendants of Duchess 1st, 
purchased at C. Coding's sale as a two-year-old 
in 18i0. Ketton the Is is the only animal 
noticed in Bell's History of Improved Short 
horn Cattle as descended from the Duches- of 
1804. If there was any breeding cow or heifer 
of the Dnchess family sold by Mr. Bates during 
his life, 1 wish "Stockm&n" would tell the 
readers of the Rural New- Yorker when it, or 
they, were sold, and to whom. I do not know of 
any one having been sold by Mr. Bates to any 
other breeder duriug his life ; if not, then cei- 
tainly the number at the 6ale was very small 
for 40 years’ breeding of the Duchess family. 
Mr. Bates himself resorted to some out- crosses 
in his life, in Norfolk (2 377) and Belvedere 
(1,706); the first bred by Mr. Whittaker and 
the second by Mr. 8tephenson. The last-named 
bull gave the Duchess family by his get on 
them their greatest excellence, and the great 
mistake of Mr. Bates was in not selling the 
Duke of Northumberland (1,940) to some other 
breeder, to whom his services no doubt would 
have been of great value on other herds not in- 
bred, and in not having kept B Ivedere as hmg 
as he was useful as a sire. He was the sire of 
the best animals Mr. Bites ever bred, while 
the Duke of Northumberland, from his near 
relationship to Mr. Bates’s herd, was of little 
value to him es a sire. 
Suppose welook after the Biles Dachess fam¬ 
ily now, and see whether they are as numerous 
as “Stockman ” intimates, i say "intimates ” 
Page 52 of the report aforesaid is a melan¬ 
choly exhibit. Permit me to give the figures 
as follows: 
ANIMALS DIED FBOM DISEASES IN 1879. 
Hoprs .152,f»S>o 8S4*uS$50 
Sheep. 69,44(1 179.HI3 50 
Cuttle. 18,818 860 3*4(1(1 
Horses. 10,074 677.198 00 
Total.240,920 $1,761,228 00 
Here is a self-inflicted tax of enormous 
amount levied upon agriculture in one State, 
and that one of the least suffering iu this re¬ 
spect. Brought up on a farm and a farmer 
for 25 years. I have never yet had any animal 
larger than a hen die from disease, and this 
erempiiou from loss has been due to constant 
care. I venture to assert that 75 per cent, of 
all the losses which occur throughout the 
country might be prevented, if only the own¬ 
ers would learn how to exercise common sani¬ 
tary precautions, and knowing how, would 
use the requisite care and caution to prevent 
them. 
FAMILY BUTTER PACKAGE —FIG 4T. 
The staple trade package is the firkin which 
holds 100 pounds. This is the most desirable 
for shipping. It should be made of the sound¬ 
est white oak aud hooped with round hoops, 
fastened with tinned nails. No iron or copper 
nails should be need in butter tubs; but, if any 
should be used, they should never be driven 
through to the inside. The half tub, which 
holds about 30 pounds made precisely like a 
firkin cut down to about one-third of the 
bight, and covered with a head nailed down 
on to the top, is a desirable package for the 
private dairy and ie greatly in demand by the 
retailers. The 50-pounds pail, of which the 
old fashioned Orange Oouuty pail is the orig¬ 
inal type, is an excellent package. The best 
of this kind is oue called the "Return Butter 
Pail " made of white oak, with galvanised iron 
hoops, and smoothed and varnished outside. 
The cover is made to fit closely aud is secured 
by clasps which can be keyed tightly. If well 
packed and covered with paraffine paper and 
then with dry salt, aud this with a piece of 
white muslin and the cover forcibly pressed 
down and secured, the butter may be kept 
perfectly well for a year, if it was as good as 
it 6hould have been whf-n it was packed. 
two not Dukes. No one of the females would 
be put anywhere near the top of the herd. 
Ihese seem the simple facts, judging without 
regard to pedigree.” 
Now I wish to ask “ Stockman ” where, if 
any, is the encouragement for the breeders 
of tbe present day to follow in and-in breed¬ 
ing by the example of Mr. Bates with his 
Duchess family, as shown in this letter. If, 
however, 1 have erred in the statements made, 
will he please to show wherein the error, or 
errors, consist. I have eudeavored to be can¬ 
did and to give a correct statement; If I have 
not done so, the misstatement is not intention¬ 
al on my part. If “Stoekman" wishes to ac¬ 
cuse me of being prejudiced, I shall not deny 
the accusatiou, but simply claim that all man¬ 
kind are subject to the failing. 
In regard to the Bates families of cattle, so- 
called, I freely admit that I have been strongly 
in their favor, and had I had the wealth of 
some or the earliest importers of Short-horns, 
I should have purchased of Mr. Bates and 
brought to America a Duke and Duchess long 
before his death, if he would havesold them to 
me, and, with a different course of breeding, 
that family might now have been healthy aud 
prolific breeders. I am not vain enough to 
thiuk that I should have done any better than 
other breeders have done, but the bull in those 
early days would have been valuable on what 
is called plainer-bred Short-horns. There is 
no doubt but the ioug-zontinued in-breediug 
has deteriorated the bulls of that family as 
sires very much more than many Short-horu 
breeders will admit. Had Mr. Bates combined 
the Duchess with the Old Daisy and Princess 
families—as at his commencement in 1810 lie 
might have done—aud then added the Matehem 
Cow afterwards, as he d'd, he would doubtless 
have added greatly to the good he did the pub¬ 
lic iu his career as a breeder of Short-horns, 
aud at his death have left a herd of vastly 
more real value than was the case, from their 
increased hardihood and greater fecundity. 
Rome, N. Y. 
The more we know of diseases of animals, 
the more we know that they are caused by 
want of the commonest sanitary precautions— 
by neglect and filth, in fact; and they are, 
therefore, avoidable. 
Another valuable contribution to agricultu¬ 
ral knowledge is the report of the Commis¬ 
sioner of Agriculture, Hon. Win. G De Due, 
fox 1879. This contains an exhaustive report 
on the contagious diseases of the domestic 
animals, elaborately aud beautifully illustra¬ 
ted, and which ie of ths utmost value to every 
stock owner. This report will fully bear me 
out in the above judgment as to the possibility 
of avoiding these destructive diseases, for the 
numerous examples given of the arrest of 
disease, as well as of the spread of it, by care 
on the one hand and by neglect on the other, 
completely sustain this view. 
When in one State a million and three quar. 
tera of dollars' woith of stock die of disease in 
a year, there ought to be a great field for the 
employment of veterinary surgeons. And yet 
this field is at present almost wholly unoc¬ 
cupied. 
BUTTER MOLD.—FIG. 48. 
To show the effect on the maiket value of 
the butter by such a package and such pack¬ 
ing I might mention a case which occurred 
once with myself. I had been sending butter 
to a New York dealer in the common blue- 
painted Orange County pails, and had been 
getting 40 cents per pound, when I heard, 
through au advertisement, of the YVesieott re¬ 
turn pail aud sent for a sample lot, aud one I 
put away in the cellar. The one sent out sold 
at 50 cents a pound, and I got an order to pack 
all my product in the sumo kind of pails and 
secured a regular contract, which continued 
for three, years, and until 1 removed from the 
locality to another farm. Tne second pail was 
opened u year afterwards in perfect order, and 
was shipped with a lot of fresh ones. Just here 
I might remonstrate against a very unfair at¬ 
tempt made sometimes by dairymen to deprive 
their commission agent of the just fruits of 
his labor. Whan a good customer is found by 
the agent for a particularly good line of but¬ 
ter, the purchaser will often liud out the dairy¬ 
man and induce lilui to makea contractdirectly 
with him, uuknown to the agent, at lower 
prices, saving the commission. This is a des¬ 
picable meanness aud a cheat. The dairyman 
who does such a nefarious act, without the 
knowledge of his agent or without compensat¬ 
ing him for his trouble in securing the cus¬ 
tomer, is dishonest. These arc plain, but true 
words. If such a favorable business transac¬ 
tion should be made, the dairyman would do a 
very uusafe thing to carry it out in an under¬ 
hand manner, for, taking into account the 
risks of the retail grocery trade, he might very 
easily get into trouble and lose considerable 
money by the failure of the grocer to pay his 
bill. It is better to be safe than sorry, aud oue 
is generally sorry after having done a mean or 
dishonest action. Yet such an action is by no 
means unknown in the experience of the much- 
abused aud much and often unjustly ma¬ 
ligned " middlemen,” who do both seller and 
buyer a valuable service. 
To return to our packages—a large business 
is done with private families, either directly or 
THE DAIRY COW-NO. 24 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN 
HENRY STEWART 
Your very intelligent contributor, Mr. W. I. 
Chamberlain, of O/iio, has already done excel¬ 
lent work in his office as Secretary of the Ohio 
State Board of Agriculture. His report is the 
most useful document of the kind I have ever 
read and is worthy of careful study. Those 
parts of the report which may be pertinently 
mentioned in these notes are those which refer 
to the sheep interest of Ohio and to Lhe losses 
by diseases of cattle. In 1876. Ohio produced 
24 844 601 pounds of wool from 7,623.495 sheep, 
but in 1879, only 18,67 L.427 pounds of woo 
from 4 267 261 sheep. Two things are note 
worthy here—the decrease iu sheep and the in 
create in the weight 
of fleece per sheep. 
O-jiobas lost 40 per 
and has raised the 
average weight of j_T. ' 
the flcec ; from a lit- L- - _ 
lie over three pounds H _T-•— 
each to nearly 4J H -- 
pounds. This in- mb — — 
crease in fleece is | 8 ~ 
doubtless due to the 
more general use of 
pure - bred rams. 
But what is the cause of the loss of sheep ? 
Dogs !—There is enough to every sheep 
owner iu that one word to make this note 
complete without another. 
I maintain that no other farm stock will pay 
so well as a flock well chosen and well kept. 
But here in O/iio, which is eminently a dairy 
and a sheep S'.ate. 28.700 sheep were injured 
and 23 629 were killed by dogs in 1879, with a 
money loss of nearly $ 140 000. The loss to 
the State by the prevention of a profitable bus¬ 
iness may be readily estimated at $16,000,000; 
Butler PailmgeH. 
The marketing of butter is an important 
part of the dairyman's business. A good deal 
of money is lost by mistakes in this respect. 
Good butter is thrown away when put up in 
ill looking, frowzy, unsavory and repulsive 
packages. A good package will often sell 
butter of doubtful quality. Buyers are very 
much impressed with the sight of what they 
buy. To judge of butter requires a delicate 
sense of taste aud smell, and but few persons 
arc so expert in this way as to decide about 
the quality of what is shown to them, on the 
instant they touch a Bainple to their palate. 
DAIRY TABLE.— FIG 46 . 
But if any hesitation or doubt is felt, the sight 
of an unexceptionable package will hi lp to de¬ 
termine this In favor of the butter. Jt is very 
much in this respect as a person is judged by 
his clothes—a well dressed man aud one with an 
agreeable presence is treated with more con¬ 
sideration by a stranger than one who comes 
in shabby dress or unclean person. The dairy¬ 
man who ie desirous of opening new outlets 
for his product must be very particular as to 
his packages, so that the first impression 
create d by his goods may lead to a closer ex¬ 
amination. 
The package, too, has much to do with the 
