JUNE 48 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 403 
tassel and silk at the same time, I venture the 
assertion that there will not be a grain fi.und 
in their progeny exactly like either of the four 
grains planted. I further assert that the 
tassel of no single stalk will feitilize its own 
silk, or, in other words, no corn can be pro¬ 
duced with less than two individual stalks. 
I have made almost every conceivable ex¬ 
periment on corn and have proved the truth of 
such assertion beyond a doubt. By covering 
one ear with muBlin until the silk is fully devel¬ 
oped and then putting the pollen of its own 
stalk upon it, it has in eight different experi¬ 
ments produced no grain at all upon the cob. 
On the other hand, by putting upon selected 
ears a liberal supply of pollen from other 
stalks, ears of the finest type are invariably de¬ 
veloped. Often it is for the want of pollen 
that the lower ears of the stalk do not fully 
develop. Prof. A. E. Blount. 
- 4 » «- 
Wood Reed-grass (Cinna arundinacea).— 
This is a laige perennial growing in moiet 
woods and shaded places, attaining a hight of 
four to seven feet. The panicle is six to fifteen 
Inches loDg, and is well shown in the drawing. 
I removed a small quantity of the roots to dry, 
sandy land which is moderately fertile. The 
grass there grows about three feet high and 
looks rather harsh and of poor quality, some¬ 
what like most of our species of bromus. It 
has not been tested to determine its nntritive 
qualities; but, judging from the way the grass 
is allowed to grow where cattle have access to 
it, I should not place a high estimate on it. 
Prof. W. J. Beal. 
Jam 
A MISTAKEN IDEA. 
A goodly number of people get an idea 
either from reading descriptions of farming 
out West or from a too hasty personal inspec¬ 
tion, that farming can te made a success far 
more easily here than in older and thicklier 
settled States. This may be true in some re¬ 
spects bat in others it is not nearly as true as 
one would suppose. As a rule, Western farm¬ 
ers practice mixed farming, except lu the Far 
West where stock raising and feeding are fol¬ 
lowed exclusively. This is as a general thing 
a necesBiiy, made so by the lack of facilities 
and opportunities for disposing of a large stock 
of any one sort of grain ; and a disposition on 
the nart of the farmer to raise on the farm as 
much as he can of the food of all kinds used in 
the household. With this idea he keeps sheep 
for their wool out of which his wife and 
daughters spin yam and in many cases weave 
the cloth for the coat and pants he wear s and 
which are made at home. He keeps cows for 
milk and butter; geese for feathers ; hogs for 
meat to eat; wheat for flour; corn for stock 
and for meal; for very few Western farmers 
will consent to eat many meals without com 
bread. Oats and hay he raises for stock horses 
to ride and cultivate his land, while he invar¬ 
iably tries to raise sufficient garden truck, such 
as potatoes, beans, turnips and the like for his 
own uBe. He has but little money because he 
needs but little. He raises all he eats and 
wears, and he needs very little money for any 
other purpose. A great deal of what he pur¬ 
chases from the store is paid for in what sur¬ 
plus stuff he has over and above what will 
feed and clothe his family. 
A man unaccustomed to this way of living, 
who has always been in the habit of selling the 
products of his farm for cash and then 
buying from stores what articles are necessary 
to bis comfort, whose wife knows nothing of 
spinning or weaving, thinks the average West¬ 
ern farmer has learned nothing and imagines he 
can come out West and farm j ast the same as 
he did at home and make it a success. He 
imagines he is going to show Western men 
how to farm, and knowing nothing of the rel¬ 
ation of supply and demand and of the differ¬ 
ence in maiket prices caused by being close to 
a good mai ket and being obliged to haul fif¬ 
teen or twenty miles to market, he fails to 
make money as fast as he expected; gets dis¬ 
couraged ; is ready to sell out and go away to 
some other promised Eden. I do not by any 
means claim that in all things Western farmeis 
are perfect; but our experience proves.to us 
that what will do in one section of country will 
not do in another, and the man who comes 
West must expect to find some things differ¬ 
ent from what he left behind. And, most of 
all, he must not expect to farm successfully 
without hard work both physical and mental. 
There is no doubt that to some extent money 
can be made more easily here where land is 
cheap and rich than where land is high owiug 
to competition for it, and poor, owing to long- 
continued cultivation without due regard to 
returning to the soil at least a part of the fer¬ 
tility taken away in the crops. Still more, how¬ 
ever, could be made if the eame pains were 
taken hero to farm closely as are taken iu the 
older States. Simply because a man can make 
a little money by farming in the careless, slip¬ 
shod manner that too many Western farmers 
practice, that is no reason why the farmers 
should not make more, and considerably more, 
by following in many respects the experiences 
of farmers in the older States. 
Miller Co., Mo. N. J Shepherd. 
-- 
MELIL0TU8 AS A GREEN-MANURING 
PLANT. 
0. B. THORNE. 
For several years I have noticed that some 
thrifty plants of Melilotus alba were the sole 
occupants of a plot of clay subsoil as hard as 
the floor of a brick-yard, from which the sur¬ 
face had been washed away, but the peculiar 
significance of this habitat was not impressed 
upon me until during a recent drive over a 
newly made road, I saw this eame plant grow¬ 
ing upon the bare clay of tbe road-side, whence 
the soil had been scraped in making the road¬ 
bed, and where even White Clover was making 
but a scant living although the melilot was 
already twice as tall as the Red Clover on the 
fertile soil of tbe neighboring field. 
This plant—otherwise known as Bokhara or 
Sweet-scented Clover—has become natural¬ 
ized here at a comparatively recent date, but 
has long beeu known as a forage plant both 
for cattle aud bees, being well adapted to soil¬ 
ing, as it makes a growth of four to six feet 
during the season and is said to bear two or 
three cuttings; while its sweet-scented blos¬ 
soms afford a favorite pasture ground for the 
honey gatherers. The German analyses give 
to its hay a feeding value of $15 per ton, 
against $16 23 for “very good" Red Clover 
hay. while its habit of growth is such that 1 
should expect it to yield a much heavier crop 
than Red Clover. 
But without discussing the value of the mol- 
llot as a forage plant, the observations I have 
noted indicate that we may possibly And in it 
a counterpart of the Southern cow-pea as a re¬ 
cuperator of exhausted soils, and at the same 
time find it better adapted to our climate and 
circumstances than the cow-pea. As it grows 
much more rapidly thau Red Clover, whether 
from the seed or from the root, and seems to 
thrive so well on sterile soils, apparently 
growing by preference in such places, it would 
seem well worthy of trial as a green-manuring 
crop. 
A further reason for a more general exam¬ 
ination of the merits of the melilot than has 
yet been made iu this coantry, is the probable 
failure of the Red Clover from the depredations 
of the European clover beetle, which, accord¬ 
ing to the statements of Professor Barnard, 
in the report of the Cornell University Experi¬ 
ment Station, is already threatening the total 
destruction of that crop in some sections of 
New York. 
Ohio State University. 
Itrirsraan. 
FEEDING YOUNG CATTLE. 
PROFESSOR J. M. SANBORN. 
In the East soil feediug is a positive pre¬ 
requisite to successful farming. We have open 
to us two grand sources of materials for soil 
fattening—the animal and the chemical. 
Growing experience and extended inquiry 
lead me to rank very high the influence that 
chemicals exert lu developing the prosperous 
era iu Eastern farming that is on the eve of 
being ushered in, to stay; yet of these two 
sources, that furnished by our domestic ani¬ 
mals is the greater; that is, the better and the 
cheaper source. Both must be used, but the 
better the more freely. I would advocate more 
feeding and better management because in the 
Older-settled States cheap crops rest npou 
cheap manure, cheap manure upon cheap beef, 
aud cheap beef upon skill. The grand essen¬ 
tials in stock breeding for meat products are, 
the right animal, warm quarters, early matur¬ 
ity, a dally sufficiency, and no excess, of each 
constituent of animal growth, and feeding 
rich manure-making foods. 
Feeding the Calf. 
A look into the chemistry of the calf reveals 
the fact of rapid development of muscle and 
bone in the young beast. The foods commonly 
fed by the better elass of farmers to the young 
call are well calculated to supply all its wants. 
Early, but gradually changed from new milk 
to skim-milk, supplemented by easily digested 
mixed meals in small quantities, it makes a 
cheap growth, and may even be thus fed till it 
has attained a weight of from 300 to 400 pounds 
and kept fat aud fit for the market. In the mid¬ 
winter of 1870. I grew two calves in this way 
on skim-miik and grain after they were three 
weeks old, and in 87 days they had attained a 
weight of 355 pounds at a cost of three cents 
and one-fiftieth of a cent per pound, while 
they were salable at four cents per pound for 
veal. I call attention to this because to raise 
calves in this wsy iB more profitable than to 
keep them on new milk till four weeks old and 
then sell them for veal. It is not my purpose 
to discuss here the best methods of feeding the 
young calf, but I wish to insist that for tie 
best profit, the Spring calf must come to tt e 
barn with a minimum weight of not less than 
400 to 500 pounds. Iu order to do this, the cal f 
must be kept near the house in a special lot 
where It may receive either skim-milk or 
grain, not corn-meal, however. It is general¬ 
ly after passing out of early calfhood and into 
older age, and as one-yeai-ulds and two-yeai- 
olds, that the belter class of farmers (those 
most likely to read a paper devoted specially 
to agriculture) make the mistakes that inter¬ 
est me now in writing this article- I constantly 
meet good farmers Interested in feeding prob¬ 
lems, that feed grain according to the weight of 
the animal; that is, I find many who are try ing to 
make straw, swale hay and com fodder equiv¬ 
alent to good hay by adding food rich in fieah.- 
mukera, and in doing so they would give to a 
two-j ear-uld nearly twice as much as to a yaar- 
old, and feed an ox at rest in the stable upon a 
little better hay than that given to those grow¬ 
ing and a little more grass. This practice is 
all wrong. From a table compiled by Wolff and 
given in Prof. Armsby’s Manual of Cattle Feed¬ 
ing, facts are stated as follows: 
Stesr. Calf. 
Fat. ss.s 13.1 
Pruteine. 13.7 15.3 
A»U . 3 9 4.o 
Water.-. ,.4.1.6 60.1 
Contents of Intestines and stomach. .13.0 7.8 
Tbeoiiziug, one would say Irom this table that 
the younger the animal the larger the ration of 
albuminoids, or flush-formers, required m the 
food. Theories invite, but facts force belief. 
German feeding trials find for the calf a ratio 
of one of albnmiuoids to five of carbbydra'ea, 
varying from this standard according to weight. 
As the age and size Increase, the ratio re¬ 
quired widens until one to twelve is found to 
answer for a mature ox at rest. The translat¬ 
ors of Wolff’s tables report a requirement of 
one and one quarter pound of digestible albu¬ 
minoids daily for a 500- ound steer; 1 4 ponnd 
for a 700-pouud steer; 1 36 pound for an 850- 
pound steer, and seven pounds for a 1 000- 
pouod steer at rest. I have before me an an¬ 
alysis, by Prof Collier, of corn fodder that I am 
feeding to animals varying in weight from 500 
io 1 000 pounds each- Tne 500 pound animal I 
find, will actual y consume from 10 to 12 
pounds daily of this corn fodder, that will fui- 
n sh .36 ponnd of the digestible albuminoids 
actually needed. I am feeding, as a comple¬ 
mentary food, cotton-seed meal whose analysis 
I know, and to furnish the theoretic amonnt of 
albuminoids still needed will require, in addi¬ 
tion, 26 pouuds of this meal daily. My 700- 
pound steer will cou6ume 15 pounds of com 
fodder, giving .46 pound of digestible albu¬ 
minoids. To make up the theoretic amount 
he will want three pounds daily ot the meal. 
The 850-pound steer coa-umes 18 pounds 
dully, givlDg .55 pound of digestible albumi¬ 
noids. To complete the amount required will 
call for only 2 6 pouuds of cottou-^e^d meal, 
while if we were to consider Ihe l 000-pi>und 
steer to represent an ox at rest, such as many 
farmers practically have in the Winter, the 
com fodder would alone very nearly supply 
the muscular waste going on; or, if he was 
growiug, he would still require ouly substan¬ 
tially the same amount as the growing calf or 
one-year-old. 
Practically, in feediug, animals of dif¬ 
ferent ages and weights require subtantially 
the same amounts of concentrated food for 
growth. The saving of the better hay from 
older stock and feeding it to one-year-olds or 
two-year-olds is the reverse of the correct pro¬ 
cess. The older animals require a relatively 
large amount of carbbydrates, as seen by an. 
alysia and practical feeding trials, and the 
poorer classes of food, like straw, swale hay 
and corn fodder, are relatively rich in these 
materials. Our chief concern in feeding 
young animals when these poorer foods are 
given is to furnish rich flush-formers within 
the ration given. I have decidedly come to 
the opinion—bnt it is Hardly more than an 
opinion—from what facts I have gathered iu 
experience, that the ratios for this country, 
with its cold Winters, need hardly be so nar¬ 
row as those found necessary in Germany. If 
It should prove so, then it would give more 
emphasis to the points to which I call atten¬ 
tion. If environment affects animal growth, 
then we have a cold dim vie, and our natural 
fodder, the grasses, aualyze veiy much wider 
ratios than do German grasses, as though na¬ 
ture was anticipating cold Winters, and pro- 
