414 
FEB. 19 
are painful to the Bight. Polled cattle are to 
be commended because they are not dangerous 
to each other or to thoBo having them in charge. 
Cattle with horns are constantly liable to gore 
•ach other aud to produce abortion, which 
would not happen if they were deprived of 
horns. They can be confined closer together, 
thus economizing space, and arc proverbially 
more quiet and tractable in their nature. They 
cannot throw down fences, as they have no 
levers (horns) with which to displace rails or 
to push them over. On this account a slight 
fence is sufficient to keep them in subjection. 
A hornless bull would never endanger life, a 
peril too often caused by others. This consid¬ 
eration is an argument in their favor para¬ 
mount to all others, and gives them a great 
value, as severe injuries ami frequent Iobs of 
life occur with homed bulls. 
They could never bo accused of having 
“horn-ail,” and the barbarous practices of the 
“oow doctor” could not be inflicted upon 
them. Thry would fatten more readily as, 
laebing the weapons for attack and defense, 
they would not be inclined to fight either in 
play or in earnest, aud thereby decrease their 
growth, owing to excitement and severe exei- 
•tse. With all these advantages polled cows 
are fully as good as horned for milk. X. D. c. 
.. - ■» ♦ ♦- 
OUR PRIZE ANIMALS. 
Jersey Dull Slocltwell 3d. 
We present the readers of the Rural with 
the spirited engraving of this famouB hull, with 
the feeling that it is a credit to photographer, 
nrtist and all concerned. One rarely Bees so 
characteristic and excellent a picture of an 
aged .Jergfp bull, and if is seldom indeed that 
an artist has so good an animal to portray. 
Stockwell wap bred by John C. Godfrey, 
of 8t. Saviour’s Parish, Jersey, and dropped 
In 1873, his Eire and dam being of the regit- 
tered Foundation Stock of the Island. He 
was imported by his present owner, lion. 
Ira^tus Corning, of Albany, at the head of 
whose herd he has long stood. He is of a 
■olid gray, fawn color, rather dark, the 
■pots which appear white in the engraving 
are so only in contrast to dark surroundings, 
and becauso they are in a strong light. He is 
•xeeedingly fine in bone, head and horn, veiy 
level above and below, extremely deep and 
thick through the heart, indicating the grand 
•onstitntlon posseted boih by him and by his 
got. His hide is soft and plastic and his eoat 
like broadcloth. He has been exceedingly 
fortunate as a prize winner, haviDg won the 
higheet honors wherever shown, and at the 
last Btate fair, where he was photographed 
for the Rural, winning first and heading the 
prtae herd. See first page for illustration. 
JL..'.-- . . ' ' ' ~ 
Sairg fjuskiiBrg. 
THE DAIRY COW-NO. 35. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Breeding Dairy Cows, 
A dairy eow is an artifleia 1 production. The 
original cow was merely the mother of the calf 
and when the calf was able to oat and digest 
grass the maternal functions of the cow ceased. 
But when the cow became subservient to the 
purposes of the dairyman the maternal func¬ 
tion was only a part of her business. It was 
necessary to produce calves to continue and 
increase the stock; bat the cow was made a 
machine, not only for the production of uu 
improved progeny, but also tor the production 
of milk and butter. She was then necessarily 
brought under the strictest discipline in regard 
to breeding for both these purposes, so that her 
progeny should be made to serve the purposes 
of the most exacting dairymen. By many 
years of careful breeding the dairy cow has be- 
eome a wonderful animal. Her milking capac¬ 
ity has become increased until she is able to 
rear or feed four or five calves in the year in 
place of one, and many cows are regularly 
uaed for this purpose only, another calf being 
given to each as soon as she has reared one to 
we&ning age. Her capacity for prodneing 
butter has been developed to a still larger de¬ 
gree, for it is by no means uncommon for one of 
the best class of cows to give in a season a 
weight of butter almost equal to her own, and 
some cows have even equaled their own weight 
in a year. This has been done by a process of 
long-continued, skillful breeding, by which the 
character of the animal has been greatly 
changed in every respect—in form, in digestive 
and assimilative power aud in secretive capa¬ 
bility, bo that the present well-bred dairy cow 
is made to concentrate all her vital force upon 
the consumption, digestion and assimilation of 
food, and npon the extraction from it of as 
large a portion as can possibly be turned to 
the production of milk and butter, and not 
only this, bat her whole physical structure has 
been remodeled that it may serve the end In 
view In the best manner. 
Bnt wo have by no means exhausted our ef- I 
forts In this respect. On the contrary, there 
are not five cows in ten thousand that come up 
to the desires of the advanced dairyman, and 
notone In a hundred, or in a thousand pex- 
haps, that may be called a really,good cow. 
All we have gained so far in our breeding of 
dairy cows is a certain improvement, which is 
far from satisfactory, in the general run of cer. 
tain ojasses ot cows, and an approach only to 
perfection in a very few; so that there is a 
vast amount of patient and persistent work 
yet to be done before we can soy that we see 
the beginning of the end in view. It is our 
misfortune that owners of cows either can not 
or will not see their interest in this matter ; 
that they go on year after year violating all 
the rules of good breeding, and neglecting the 
simplest means of improving their herds. They 
do not seem to realize that, it would be profit¬ 
able to them to spend so small an amount as 
five dollars per oow in each herd to double the 
productive value of their cows. The average 
product of a good cow now is about 2.500 
pounds of milk and 100 pounds of butter in 
the season between calves. The average pro¬ 
duct of a cow in a daily kept for milk or but¬ 
ter, tusy be one-half more than this ; and yet 
there are plenty of cows that will double it; 
many that will treble it, and some that will do 
even more. The rarity of the latter kinds of 
cows is so great that mom y can scarcely tempt 
their owners to sail them. And these cows 
are the product of breeding. 
Evcjy dairyman may go into this business of 
breeding and improving his herd, if he will. 
Every owner of a single cow should do it. It 
is not difficult; on the contrary, it is an easy 
thing to do. It requires a system, a plan, and 
persistence and patience in following it out. 
If a dairyman has one or two cows better 
than others, he should select these and begin a 
course of development with them. They 
should be bred to a pure-bred bull, the pro¬ 
geny of as good a pure-bred cow as can be pro¬ 
cured. In selecting this bull, it should not be 
taken at random. Its pedigree should be ex¬ 
amined and scrutinized. Tbe d im and grand- 
dam and the sire should belong to good fami¬ 
lies. When it is considered that one begins a 
life work when he begins to improve a herd, 
and that a false step will ruin all, the be¬ 
ginning should be made carefully and with 
the best judgment. The cows bred to such 
a bull should be managed with care. They 
should be well fed and every effort made to 
stimulate the milking capacity while carry¬ 
ing the calf. Thus the call undergoes 
training before its birth, for It will partake 
of whatever character la given to the 
mother. In laying a basis for Improving a 
herd, after procuring good animals to start 
with, the rearing of the progeny Is of great 
importance. This will, however, be treated of 
in another place; we are now discussing breed¬ 
ing only. But it is not out of place here to men¬ 
tion incidentally that this ia to be well done so 
as to fix a second step in the progress. 
The first breeding of the young heifer is the 
critical point, for it is a fact that this does af¬ 
fect every after breeding to some extent. Now 
if the bull is fouud to be a good one, and the 
progeny promwes to be better than the dam, 
it should be bred to the sire. This would be 
much more likely to fix the good points of the 
parents on the offspring, than to bring iu new 
blood, which might upset all, aud very easily 
too. If the young cow should be found if otter 
than her dam, the same course should be 
pursued ami thereafter the best bull calf from 
the beet cow should be retained to replace the 
the first sire, or, if prej udlco should create an 
objection to this course, a bull may be selected 
that was less closely related td the first sire, 
but, if possible, it should be brought from the 
herd from which the latter came originally. 
In a herd of ten or twelve cows, there will be 
scarcely need to go outside for new blood for 
six years or even twenty; but when this is 
done, great caution should he exercised. Eveiy 
step should be upwards. When an improve¬ 
ment iB secured it should be made permanent 
and another planted upon it. This cannot be 
done without study and observation. The 
breeder must have a standard of excellence of 
his own for his guidance, and ho muBt not de. 
part from it. The best this year must be the 
best next year, aud the next year, or no real 
progress will be made. 
In general, the standard of excellence will 
be the pail and the churn. The handsome cow 
is the one that handsome does, and form and 
color are all subsidiary to the main point—the 
profit. In using this term subsidiary, it 
should can y all that it implies for form and 
color, have a certain value; because when a 
good animal transmits one point it is iikeiy to 
transmit all; so that if one’s best eow has some 
peculiar traits of form, color or feature and 
her calf ha6 these, the calf will be likely to 
have the other good points. This I believe to 
be the only value attaching to the much vaunt' 
ed eecutcheon. 
The profit in the case is clearly seen. If a 
cow gives an average of four pounds of butter 
a week, aDd butter is worth 35 cents a pound, 
the cow returns $30 for the 30 weeks of her 
productive season. If she gives seven pounds 
a week her product will be $52.25. If she 
gives 10 pounds weekly, or 300 pounds in the 
season, her income will be $75 and she will 
cost no more to feed and keep than the four 
pounds cow. The difference in a herd of 10 
cows would be $450 yearly, or the interest at 
ten percent, on $4,500 and taking the U6efnl 
life of a cow at ten years, the herd would be 
worth precisely $4,500 more than the four 
pounds cows, or $450 each. So that if the 
farmer were to pay $225 more for such cows 
than for common ones, he would get his money 
back iu butter alone, with 100 per ceiB. profit 
in 10 years ; and tbe extra value of the calves 
would be a sort of extra dividend or bonus. 
There is surely sufficient inducement in the 
probability of soon reaching such a profitable 
improvement in a dairy herd to attract the at¬ 
tention aud enlist the interest of all owners of 
dairy cows. 
Jatra tupics. 
THE CARBON UNIVERSAL MANURE. 
The abounding charity manifested by the 
people of Eugland has devised, among othei 
excellent measures, County Societies for aiding 
tire industrious, by procuring, near large cities, 
portions of land divided into allotments of 
various sizes, for growing vegetables, etc., 
and by supplying good seeds, manure, im¬ 
plements, etc. on convenient and easy terms, 
These truly beneficial societies have been in 
operation now manj' years, aud aro perhaps 
not exceeded in real deep and wide usefulness 
by any, unless by some later ones which go a 
step further by inducing the utterly idle aud 
diseolute, or those tendiug to become so. to 
take up with independence, self-reliance, self- 
respect aud self-sustenance. 
The Hereford Society for Aiding the Indus¬ 
trious was established in 1841, and soon be¬ 
came prosperous. In 1848 a steam Hour mill 
was built, in patt with borrowed money, iu 
order that the poor might get the means of 
making their own bread from their own small 
grists, of good quality and without delay. 
This also prospered. The debt was paid and 
no more contributions were solicited. The 
managers of the society receive no remunera¬ 
tion but the satisfaction of success in a line of 
great good to a great number. They now let 
out above 500 allotments annually near the city 
of Hereford, the population of which doe6 not 
exceed 25,000. 
Some years ago they entered upon a promis¬ 
ing line of economy, which proved a disap¬ 
pointment aud a great Iosb, It was resolved 
to undertake the cultivation by spade-hus¬ 
bandry and with earth-closet manure. This was 
when the late Rev. Henry Moule’s iuvention, 
iuvaluaole iu a sanitary point of view, was ex¬ 
pected to bring soil-culture in Eugland up to 
the same measure of great productiveness 
with as little outlay as that of China. It 
was not found until later that whereas the 
Chinese—who depend almost wholly npon tbe 
waste of their own houses to feed the soil— 
apply this powerful means of fertility in a fresh 
and liquid state, the dry and porous earth aud 
lapse of time that apply to the Houle system, 
allow of such oxidatiou as locks up and rend 
ers Inert, at least for immediate profit, the 
6ama matters desaieated by dust and ashes. 
A capable gardener was appointed superin¬ 
tendent of this culture of the seven acres, and 
he did all he could to secure the success of the 
undertaking. He died about two years after 
being appointed, and auother year’s trial prov¬ 
ed what was already seeu—that the scheme 
was a failure, owing to the manure proving far 
less valuabie than was expected. Au agricul¬ 
tural and sanitary chemistof established repu¬ 
tation, Mr. G. A. With, was then engaged, and 
a laboratory and study provided with appar¬ 
atus for investigation and a plot of land for ex¬ 
periment. It was proved that the Moule sys¬ 
tem failed as to mammal results, aud the aim 
then was to discover what other available 
means of manure could best be used. The in¬ 
vestigations and trials led to the composition, 
by Mr. With, of what iB called the Carbon Uni¬ 
versal Manure, which baa been used success¬ 
fully on the society’s ground and elsewhere 
for three years, and for which Mr. With first, 
and the society next, generously publish the 
formula, viz.: 
, .. Pounds. Cost. 
Sifted dry earth.l.tJiHi $o 75 
Sifted coal ashes.1,100 70 
Kaioit. finely jioundod. HO 1 0 U 
Mitmto of sod», finely pounded. so s uu 
Best Peruvian ruuuo . 200 7 00 
Bone rneai....,. 150 a on 
Pure dissolved bone. 325 7 25 
Stitiorphoaphate of lime. loo i 50 
Ooprolite, or phosphorite powder. 120 120 
3,735 $25 -15 
The proportions are to be strictly udhered to. 
The cost, including the labor of breaking, mix¬ 
ing, Bifling, etc., is set at about $15.80 per ton, 
and the manure is said to be far superior to 
anything of the kind purchasable at present 
for $38 80 per ton. It will keep, without de¬ 
terioration, in a dry place for any length of 
time; is free from any unpleasant effect in 
handling; does not exhaust the land, but, on 
the contrary, adds to its fertility, and is adapt 
ed to all forms of vegetation. Apparently it 
fully restores the capability of the soil for a 
crop of the same kind as has been continued 
year after year—potatoes, for instance—until 
the soil can no longer produce it. It advances 
the germination of 6eeds and the growth of 
tbe plant from the first. 
These are the statements published by the so¬ 
ciety, which ouly manufactures enough of the 
mixture to supply its poorer tenants. The re¬ 
port of a committee of the managers of the so¬ 
ciety, who inspected comparative growths of 
various thingp with and without this manure and 
with substitutes, gives a highly favorable ac¬ 
count of its effects. The only allusion to the 
amount used is that, as the average cost of a 
top-dressing of artificial manure for one acre 
is 32 shillings, the carbon manure made by 
the farmer himself would cost but 12 shillings. 
Tyrone. 
PRACTICAL ENSILAGE. 
Our contributor. Professor E. W. Stewart, 
has sent us the following ac,c®unt of prac¬ 
tical experience with a silo, sent to him by Mr. 
B. A. Avery, a progressive farmer, who keeps 
100 cows, of which about 80 are constantly in 
milk :— 
Prof E. W. Stewart:— The interest you 
huve always manifested in everything that per¬ 
tains to agriculture, and especially the friend¬ 
ship you have shown toward me, prompts me 
at this time to write you in relation to an en¬ 
terprise I entered into last Summer—with not 
a word of encouragement from any farmer, 
aud with not a few sneers and almost universal 
prophesies of a complete failure from tbe 
whole community, except from my friend and 
neighbor in Syracuse, Hon. Daniel Bookstaver, 
who gave me the benefit of his reading and 
thinking on the the subject, aud a considerable 
amouut of supervision after the work was iu 
progress. 
1 constructed a silo for ensilage, following 
as nearly as I could the instructions as given in 
the book written by Mr. Goffert. The silo is 
70 feet long, 12 feet deep and 12 feet wide, 
with a second silo on the side of this 30x12x12. 
I had prepared specially for this purpose be¬ 
tween 11 and 12 acres of fodder corn, drilled, 
which was very thrifty, reaching, on an aver¬ 
age, about 12 feet high and very thick on the 
ground. On the 3d of September I commenced 
cutting the coin with one team, and hauling it 
a distance of abont 80 rods to the silo, where I 
had a stationary steam eugine and two Daniel’s 
cutters so arranged that it took six teams con¬ 
stant y to supply material to the two machines, 
with two men at each. The stalks were cut, 
on an average, into about half-iuch pieces, aud 
dropped into the silo, and then spread over the 
surface as evenly as possible. The lengths 
were tramped down by men and boys the first 
day; but, fearing that it was not sufficiently 
packed, at the suggestion of my friend 1 put a 
pair of mules in the pit and kept them con¬ 
stantly treading and packing thecorn as it was 
spread, until the work was done in an entirely 
satisfactory manner, the close sides and ends 
where the mules turned having been trodden 
down by men as well as it could be done. 
Afler the silo was filled I covered with planks 
and weighted the covering heavily with large 
boulders as the most convenient source of 
pressure then obtainable. Some wise men, v)ho 
(kink they know all about farming, gave me 10 
days, some, nmre charitable, gave me 30days, to 
see it all rotted and fit for the manure heap, as 
they said. But Bookstaver, noticing the pit 
weekly, was still more and more confidtnt of 
success, and I must say uever for a moment 
from the day the silo was filled imtil it was 
opened by me, on the 1st of December, did he 
doubt its perfect success. He always an¬ 
swered every objection which was thrown at 
me with—“It has succeeded in France ; it will 
succeed here,” “ Somebody must have nerve 
aud enterprise to try it, aud you are the man 
to do it.” “ You will succeed.” 
Now for resultsOu the 1st of December 
last I opened the silo and commenced feeding 
my cows and horse.6. The food was fresh, 
green, with only a slight alcoholic smell, aud 
all my stock ate it at once with the greatest 
avidity, and seemed to grow more fond of it 
the longer they ate of it. There Is none wasted, 
and all my cows have averaged over a quart of 
milk more per day since the food was given 
them, after the third day, aud I am still look¬ 
ing for even a better yield. The cattle do ex¬ 
cellently well on it, aud I am well repaid for 
the experiment after listening to all the croak- 
ings of those who dare not step from the beaten 
path, and I can now laugh to a good purpose 
when I see tbe increase of rnilk of my herd of 
80 cows aud witness their enjoyment of the 
food which I hope all farmers’ cows in a fe\y 
years will enjoy. 
Now you will naturally ask, “ Does it pay ?” 
Well, I will give what the cost has been to me, 
and you con judge for yourself. The silo cost 
me, ready for filling, just about $100. I had 
only one concrete wall to put up, on account 
of having the walls of the barn already on 
