APRIL 46 
a§4 THE RURAL HEW-YORKEB. 
d the Chicaro stock y aids, -where nothirg bu 
the bard logic of cash is made the test of merit. 
All the sentiment in favor of a hornless beast 
with its powerleseness for mischief and its 
consequent amiabiliiy and general loveliness, 
counts for nothing in the butcher's eyes. He 
buys beef and not beauty, and has an rye to 
loins and chops and twists before quietness of 
disposition. Nevertheless, the drover ba6 a 
word tossy in this regard, and he finds the 
hornless steers are so easily handled and so 
quiet that he would rather have them at a 
little advance on the ordinary rates than the 
horned cattle. 
Viewed then by the butcher’s scale of merit, 
these 80 erose-bred steers at Chicago at once 
took a h gh degree. They were the first that 
had appealed in the yards and some curiosity 
occurred as to how they would turn out. They 
averaged 1310 pounds aua diessed 62 lbs. to the 
100 ; had 140 pounds of fat and 106 of hide 
apiece. The dressed weight is five pounds for 
100 above the average, and equal to that of 
extra beevts. Tnia result is encouragirg to 
those who have spent money and time in in¬ 
troducing this breed as well as to those who 
desire to improve their 6toek. 
Mr. Rt-dfic-ld, ol Batavia, N. Y., is forming a 
herd of these cattle, having procured some 
choice animals from Scotland and from the 
same herd to which the animal belonged 
whose portrait is here given. There are 
many other herds in the country and some in 
Canada, and although there is an unaccounta¬ 
ble prejudice against these hornless cattle, or, 
as they are called in the Scottish vernacular, 
“ doddies," yet. we believe they will surely 
grow in the estimation of breeders both for 
beef and the dairy. For us dairy cows this 
breed has a high reputation. One of the best, 
cows the writer ever owned was a black polled 
beast, with a form and a frame that could not 
be excelled by a choice Ayrshire or Jersey; a 
coat of satiny luster and velvety sofiness 
and, which Is most to the point, a credit of 12$ 
pounds of butter weekly continued for several 
months and upon very moderate feed. The 
absence of horns would remove the greatest 
objection that can apply to cows and bulls. 
There would be none of that conBtaut fear and 
apprehension of damage and injury which 
now haunt the dairyman, especially the one 
who keepB costly cows. Aud it is a question 
worth considering if it would not be wise for 
the owner of a good herd to introduce this 
breed for the put pose of founding a race with¬ 
out horns especially adapted for the daily A 
cross-bred Jersey and polled cow, has been 
exhibited at the New Jersey State Fair for two 
years past, aud in her looks at least, promises 
very well. There can be no doubt that as 
great success could be reached in this direc¬ 
tion as has been achieved with beef cattle. 
The polled Angus is an old aud thoroughly 
well established breed aud has such a strong 
degree of prepotency that its cross-bred proge¬ 
ny at once lose the horns, and acquire the 
character of the polled sires. 
Jarm $Qjncs. 
COMPARATIVE VALUE OF CORN FODDER 
WITH ENSILAGE. 
T. H. HOSKINS M. D. 
There is a good deal of disputing, and evi¬ 
dently a good deal of gross misunderstanding 
on this important subject. Important it cer¬ 
tainly is, when it is a pressing question in the 
minds of so many farriers whetner they shall 
sow ten or twenty acres of Southern corn and 
build a silo this season, or not. Gan ensilage 
be made to replace both roots aud bay for 
neat cattle, either wholly or in great part? Is 
It a cheap as well as a good substitute? Aud 
is It likely to answer as a large and regular ra¬ 
tion for cows, without injury to them, or their 
product in milk, butter or cheese? If all 
these questions cannot be auswered in the 
affirmative, or until they can be so an¬ 
swered, the indebled farmer at any rate 
ought to “go slow." The “fancy” farmers 
often boast of the benefit they are to agricul¬ 
ture in the matter of experiments, aud we old 
stagers and regulars in the business, who have 
seen so many agricultural humbugs rise and 
flourish and fade away, can just as well wait 
for the results in this case as in the others. 
We have our pasturage and our meadows, 
which we know give us- good and healthy 
feed for our cows. We can raise corn, and 
feed both stalks and grain dry. We can 
buy and feed oil meal m shorts, or grow and 
feed oats, peas and clover to increase the ni¬ 
trogenous ration; and we can grow iootB. 
There is no trouble about having good feed 
and plenty of it, if we never build a silo. There 
is no urgency or need ol hurry in the case. 
There are serious objections to both corn 
fodder (the stalks of a crop grown for the 
graiD) aud fodder corn (corn stalks grown 
thickly for forage). In either of these forms 
the crop is a heavy one to handle, a difficult 
one to cure, is Dot so well relished by cattle 
as to be eaten clean, and it will not, when 
fed alone, like good early-cut hay, give 
a full yield of rich milk that will make first- 
rate butter. It is decidedly a second-rate feed¬ 
ing mateilal for dairy cows, yet it is exten¬ 
sively used throughout IheNortheastern States. 
On the other hand, there is no crop that will 
yield anything like-as much feed to the acre, 
especially upon light soils, as corn. To the 
farmer of a few sandy acreB, corn offers the only 
feasible feed with which he can compete in 
dairying with the owners of “natural grass 
land.” It is this class of farmers, particularly, 
who are most interested in the subject of en- 
eilage. The man wbOBe pastures will Carry a 
cow to every two acres, and who cuts an aver¬ 
age of two tons of hay per acre in his mea¬ 
dows, is impregnably a dairyman if he choose, 
ensilage or no ensilage, grain or no grain. 
These two questions do not vitally interest him. 
Are the acknowledged defects of dry corn 
fodder and fodder corn as feed for dairy cows 
corrected by ensilage and not replaced by others 
equally great ? Tnis is the problem before oar 
llgbt-soil dairymen. They know tbatgreeD fod¬ 
der corn. especially when supplemented with* 
a well balanced grain and oil-meal ration, will 
make about as good butter as the beet pastur¬ 
age. But when it has to be brought into com¬ 
petition as dry fodder with good hay, notwith¬ 
standing all that has been and can be fairly 
suid in ns favor, the prices of the two kinds 
of butler will invariably tell the story—"give 
me two tons of good hay and take my five tons 
of fodder.” For milk alone—market milk—the 
difference is not so great; yet I know of no 
way in which as much, or half as much, milk 
can be made from fodder as from hay, uo mat¬ 
ter how you fix it. 
There is good reasou why this should be so. 
In the first place, analysis shows that the food 
is not there.—that chemically the value of 
dry corn-stalks is not equal to that of dried 
grass such as we make our cow hay of. In 
the next place, even if chemically aB good a 
feed, it is not as palatable to the cattle. No 
matter how well It is cured or prepared they 
will not eat it clean, aud if fed alone it will 
dry them off almost as quick y as straw. My 
com fodder is hard led with the utmost care, 
and stored upright in a large, airy shed loft 
with a sparred floor, where it cures peifeetly 
without a particle of mold. I cut it fine, put 
it in a large tight box, wet it with hot water, 
sprinkle it with a bushel of mixed meal to 
every 16 bushels of cut fodder, and then 1 have 
to give the cow6 the choice of shrinking in 
their milk or wasting one-fourth of the feed. 
With early-cut hay and the same meal I get 
full messes and everything is eaten clean. 
When green fodder corn is so good, why is 
dry fodder corn so poor, compared with the 
meadow grasses, green aud dry ? The rea¬ 
son is not far to seek. We diy our meadow 
grass into hay so quickly that the sugar and 
6tarch are very thoroughly retained without 
change. If on account of bad weather we fail 
to do this, we know the consequence—poor 
hay. It takes two months of the most favora¬ 
ble weather (and under cover at that), to dry 
fodder corn 60 that it can be piled horizon¬ 
tally without molding. In all that time the 
nutritions elements are undergoing‘‘retrograde 
metamorphosis in plain language, changing 
for the worse. The sugar and slaich will fer¬ 
ment, and escape into the atmosphere from 
which they were taken by the growing plant. 
A similar change takes place in the albumin¬ 
ous elements though to a less extent. Bat, tak¬ 
ing both together, the value, judged either by 
analysis or feeding, is lessened from one-third 
to one-half, and often more. Corn may be as 
good as meadow grass when green, but (at 
least without artificial heat) you cannot dry 
it quickly enough to make anything like so 
g®od hay of it. 
Now comes the question—is ensilage a rem- 
dy for this evil, aud one coming to ub with no 
evils, or much slighter evils, of its own ? The 
analyses that have been made of well pre¬ 
served ensilage (and I think experiments 
have sufficiently proved that such preservation 
is easily practicable) show some little loss of 
sugar aDd starch by transformation into alco¬ 
hol and acetic acid. This loss is well balanced 
by the action of the Bame fermentation in 
rendering the woody fiber more digestible. It 
is possible that a very slight amount of alco¬ 
hol and acetic acid in this feed may, as is claim¬ 
ed, promote digestion, favor assimilation, and 
thus iucrease the secretion of milk. But as 
only a little ib needed for that purpose, and 
as much is certainly had, I think we should 
aim for a minimum of fermentation in ensilage. 
Fine cutting, thorough treading and strong 
compression will secure this in a properly 
constructed silo. We may calculate, with 
safely, that ensilage in the silo will cost 
no more than fodder corn In the bam. It will 
cost no more to feed it out. It will need no more 
meal to be fed with it lor a full flow of milk. 
All testimony shows that it will be eaten up 
clean. These are certainly great advantages. 
What are the drawbacks as we see them now ? 
First the cost of the silo. If the farmer must 
borrow money for this purpose, then X would 
say “ Don’t—Wait.” If he is out of debt with 
money on hand. I would say, "begin small." 
Make a small silo (but a good one), and try 
one or two acres of corn to begin with. Lsarn 
the art, and try the feed on your cows one or 
two years first, before making up your mind 
to feed chiefly on ensilage. Shun everything 
like excitement over this matter. Take no 
stock in statements of 40 60 and 80 tons of 
fodder on an acre. Twemy-five tons areagood 
crop, only to be got on good land with care¬ 
ful tillage. With Buch a yield and good cal¬ 
culation the crop may be got into 6ilos at a 
cost of not Icbb than two dollars a ton every¬ 
thing counted in. Do not reckon the value of 
this feed too highly. Many enthusiasts call 
two tons of it equal to one ton of hay. 8o 
some men call one bushel of carrots and one 
bushel of oats equal to two bushels of oats for 
a horse. But it is only in a special and lim¬ 
ited sense that this is true. And so of ensi¬ 
lage. As a variety food, like roots, in small 
quantities in Winter, it might replacehay when 
fed in the proportion of two to one. But as 
a steady, regular main ration, the propoi- 
tion of four to one would be much the safest 
to reckon upon. This, with a 24-ton crop, 
would give the equivalent of six tons of hay to 
the acre at a cost of fifty dollars. This does not 
mean wealth untold, or butter at ten ceuts a 
pound,but it is very much better than our Bandy- 
land farmers can realize in any other way, aud 
therefore it is worthy of a careful trial by 
those who wish to follow dairying on that kind 
of land. 
-- 
DRIVEN WELL8-H0ME-MADE FER¬ 
TILIZERS. 
Mr. J. S. Woodward in a late Rural, ib 
writing about the water supply or farms, men¬ 
tions “ dug aud bored” wells. They are both 
good—and expensive in comparison with a 
"driven well." I " drove” a well this Winter 
and it has given me Buch a large supply of 
water at such a small cost, that I think if 
farmers generally knew of this plan, there 
would be fewer cattle driven long distances to 
water next Winter. My well, including a good 
force-pump, cost me exactly $21 50 in money, 
and the labor of two farm hands for, say, half 
a day each; depth of well, 30 feet. In this 
style of well the only danger iB in striking a 
rock, in which case the pipe must be pulled 
up and you must try again. I used 1^-inch 
pipe; but 1} inch would do; but the former 
gives such a good supply of water and the 
additional cost is so light that I would advise 
its use. Tbe pipe cau be driveB with a 25- 
pound Bledge, or heavy maul. At first—the 
time varies—the water will be very muddy 
until all the fine particles among the sand or 
gravel at the lower end of the pipe have been 
pumped out. After the reservoir below has 
been freed from all matter that can be pumped 
through the strainer at the bottom of the pipe, 
the water will be as clear aB any well water. 
Mine, although driven over two mouths, Ib 
still throwing up great quantities of mud ; but 
I hope soon to have it all rigtit. For watering 
cattle it does well enough, as ihe mud settles 
iD the trough very quickly, much more quickly 
than ordinary soil mixed with water would do, 
[Probably the " filter section" of our friend’s 
pipe is partly sunk in a mud layer, and tbe 
water would Boon become clear, if he either 
sank it a little lower or pulled it up a trifle. 
Experiment would show which should be done. 
Farmers should remember that the “Driven 
Well" is still covered by Green's patent, and 
one of his ubiquitous agents is likely to call for 
royally upon all owners of “driven wells” who 
have put them down without license.—Eis.] 
I think you hit the nail squarely on the 
head when you advised an inquirer in a late 
issue to feed purchased food to cattle and 
make bis own fertilizer. It is my idea exactly, 
and I aui working it out this Wiuter, aud if 
your inquirer could go into one of my cattle 
stables and smell the ammonia made from 
cotton-seed, linseed and "corn-Beed” meal, he 
would prefer that kind of fertilizer to any 
other. You can’t preach too much on that 
subject. Feed everything yon can on the 
farm, and if you don’t get quite a6 much 
money as you would by selliug, you will flod 
the account more than balanced by the saving 
in fertilizer bills; besides, as you say, one 
ought to get full value for home-grown food 
as well as for that purchased, In the Iucrease 
in growth or fat of his cattle.” 
Baltimore Co., Md. A. L. Crosby. 
--- 
To Preserve 8hingles — Referring to a 
late inquiry on this topic in the Rural, a cor¬ 
respondent writes to us from Hot Springs, 
Ark., that an excellent preservative of shin¬ 
gles is a strong solution of salt and lime. Make 
this in a water-tight box or other receptacle, 
never mind how rude, and steep the shingles 
in it for a few hours, and they will last much 
longer for the treatment, will be nearly fire¬ 
proof, and will give no bad taste to the water 
from the roof when collected in a cistern, 
Jiftti Crop, 
WHAT SHALL BE OUR BEST WHEAT 1 
HUGH L. WYSOR. 
I put the question in this form because it 
affords an opportunity to inquire what quali¬ 
ties iu a variety of whcatshali constitute it the 
beet. In general terms, the answer might be, 
that ie the best which shall please both miller 
and farmer. To please the farmer, it must 1. e 
certain and prolific; to please the miller, it 
must be a good yielder of a high grade of 
flour. Looked at in this light, our beet wheat 
either does not exist, or is not yet offered for 
sale The three essential things, then, which 
the coming wheat must possess are these:— 
Certainty, which Includes earliuess, power to 
resist rust and winter-killing; prolificness, 
which includes tillering power; and flour- 
making qualities. 
Of all the varieties which have been intro¬ 
duced to the public notice with great blaBt of 
trumpets within the last twenty years, only 
three have proved generally popular. These, 
in the order of their introduction, are—Bough- 
ton, which goes under various names (Tappa- 
haDnock, New York Flint, and perhaps, also 
the Early May, of the South) ; Red Mediterra¬ 
nean, with which might be included the Lan¬ 
caster, as they can scarcely be told apart; and 
the Fultz. 8orae might ssy lbat I ought to 
include the Clawson in this list, but, until 
within the last year or two, the Clawson has 
never been vety extensively sown or proved 
very successful outside of its native State— 
New York. Of the three, the Boughton, as 
grown here, has never been equaled and can 
never be surpassed in its Sour making quali¬ 
ties ; the Red Mediterranean is the most cer¬ 
tain, and the Fultz the most prolific. The 
wheat of the future must be looked for, if 
anywhere, among crosses of these three. It 
will be useless to produce a variety of wheat 
with long ears, even if they be afoot long, and 
with spikelets containing three and four ker¬ 
nels, if a good crop cannot be produced from it 
except in favorable seasons or oue in evefy 
three or fonr yeai'B. For this reason, notwith¬ 
standing the favorable opinion which tbe edi¬ 
tor of the Rural has expressed of it. there is 
nothing to be hoped for in the Silver Chaff, or 
in the Winter Defiance, for they both, have one 
fatal failing, if no other— they are ten days too 
late. In a period of ten years, the Red Medi¬ 
terranean, which has never, or seldom, been 
known to exhibit more than two kernels to 
the spikelet, will have yielded as much grain 
as the Fultz, which frequently exhibits four; 
for the former will have given a fairly good 
crop every year on all sorts of exposures, 
northern as well as southern, while the latter 
will have given only three unusually good 
crops out of the ten. I give below a llitle ta¬ 
ble which by means of figures, taking five as 
the highest grade of merit in any particular, 
shows the comparative merits of some of our 
varieties. 
• 
Name of wheat. 
Certainty... 
U Ijj.N1 
a § 
3 ■S* 
1 Is 
3 
3 
4 [ 5 
Ked Mediterranean. 
5 
3 4 
4 
Clawson .. 
3 
4 3 
Kultzo Clawson........ 
4 
4 ’ 
Stiver Chaff... 
2 
5 1 * 
•Not known. 
It is a little remarkable that just as the Ru¬ 
ral has concluded that the Fultz is a better 
and more prolific wheat than the Clawson, the 
people of this State have come to the opposite 
conclusion, as I learn from the report of the 
Virginia Commissioner, who sa>s that num¬ 
bers of fanners all over the State have dis¬ 
carded the Fultz, which they have been grow¬ 
ing for six or seven years, aud are sowing iu 
place of it the Clawson, believing that they 
will reap better crops from the latter. 
Golden Grains—Blaek-Bearded Centennial. 
I have no personal knowledge of either of 
these two wheats, not having tried them. The 
Black-bearded Centennial is said to have orig¬ 
inated in Australia, and was distributed in the 
Fall of IST^by the Department of Agriculture, 
From this source the Virginia Commissioner 
received half a bushel, which he says was 
sown rather late. The yield was nothing re¬ 
markable, being only about five bushels of a 
quality inferior to that received. Of the Golden 
Grains 1 have received a 6atuple from Messrs. 
Burpee & Co., who have it for sale Messrs. 
Bliss & Sons, Gregory, and Laudreth also offer 
it. Alt of them, except Landretb, say that the 
introducer effirs $50 for any white wheat 
which will equal it, and then say on their own 
authority that he Is perfectly safe in making 
this offer, for the kernel is fnlly three times as 
large as that of our best common wheat. Why 
these gentlemen should say this puzzles me 
not a little, for I know them all to be honest 
and reliable men. The Red Mediterranean, as 
I have said above, is one of our most common 
wheats, and a kernel which should be three 
