right in one sense, but wholly mistaken in an¬ 
other, as we have learned since the nature of 
these diseases has been understood. There 
was indeed—had it been realized rightly—a 
willful and wicked neglect of proper sanitary 
precautions through which these lives were 
uselessly sacrificed. Now when cholera, diph¬ 
theria, typhus, influenza, and other such fatal 
disorders prevail, w'e know something is very 
wTong about the wells, the cellars, the cess¬ 
pools, the drains, or our personal habits, and 
we go to work and provide the proper reme¬ 
dies. 
laying some bundles down lengthwise for the 
others to rest upon so as to get the desired 
slope. The stack is thus carried up w ith care 
to push the butts of the outer rows out, a fev r 
inches beyond the ends of the bundles under 
them, so as to widen the stack for about eight 
or ten feet up as shown at Fig. 503. This throws 
the drip from the top of the stack entirely 
off from the lower part and completely pre¬ 
vents even the ends of the fodder from be¬ 
coming w r et and damaged. 
small trench 6x12 feet in the same manner. It 
was opened October 3. The fodder is about 
three feet in thickness and it is as perfectly 
preserved as any other fodder cut in small 
pieces. I think there is leas heating, and one 
thing is very certain, namely, that four or five 
days may be taken to fill the pit with no heat¬ 
ing to iujure the fodder, as is the case when it 
is chopped. 
Two things are to be observed—to keep the 
sides of the deposit plumb, and to put weight 
enough on the tup—two feet of dirt are 
ample.” 
parts, the smaller containing the rejected 
fragments of the food, the larger cavity serv¬ 
ing instead of a cocoon, wherein the insect un¬ 
dergoes its transformations. Before turning 
to a chrysalis it gnaws a small hole through 
the hull and sometimes through the chaffy 
covering of the grain, through which it 
can easily make its escape.” This insect is 
said to have been very abundant at one 
time in the western part of New York and in 
Northern Pennsylvania. 
Pulaski Co., Va. H. L. Wysor. 
There is a close analogy' between these hu¬ 
man diseases and those of our domestic ani¬ 
mals. In fact, they belong to the same class, 
are produced by' the same causes, and are pre¬ 
vented by the same precautions. We have had 
Congressional Commissions and investigations 
enough, and to spare, were it not that these 
draw the public attention to the matter. The 
truth is, that no Commissions or other cum¬ 
brous devices of the Legislatures will reach 
the root of the matter. The owners of live 
stock must themselves go to work and use the 
very same methods to save their stock as those 
by which they save themselves. 
STACKING CORN FODDER. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
The scarcity of fodder and its certain high 
price with a correspondingly high value of all 
the products of fodder, make it advisable to 
use every means for saving every kind of feed¬ 
ing stuff in the best condition. Cora fodder 
and fodder corn are rarely saved as well as they 
might be. Considered as coarse feed, * ‘ rough¬ 
ness” is the term usually applied to it. It is 
treated as though it were fit for nothing bet¬ 
ter than to be cast out and trodden un¬ 
der foot, as it is, for the greater part. But 
Short-horn Cow Matchless 5th. 
In this country Short-horn cattle are prized 
almost wholly for the rapidity as well as 
economy with which they lay on an un¬ 
usually large quantity of beef, and that of a 
superior quality, with an unusually small 
amount of inferior meat as well as of offal 
either at an unusually early age or whenever 
in later life it is desired to turn them off. It is 
not often that they are used here for dairy 
purposes, although there are some excellent 
dairy herds of this breed in Vermont, New 
York, Illinois and Iowa, and grade Short¬ 
horns are still coimnoncr in dairy sections; 
but other breeds, particularly the Jersey's, 
Ayrsbires and Holsteins, are generally pre¬ 
ferred for butter, cheese and milk. In Eng¬ 
land, however, Short-horns, generally pure- 
breds, but frequently high grades, constitute 
the majority of the dairy herds and are 
especial favorites with those who supply 
towns and cities with cream and milk. 
The readiness with which they fatten when¬ 
ever for any cause it is desirable to turn them 
off for the butcher, is a strong recommenda¬ 
tion to this class, in addition to their deep¬ 
milking capacity', which has been preserved 
and developed in England much more care¬ 
fully and generally' than in this country. Ac¬ 
cordingly the dairy prizes at all the great 
English shows are generally won by represent- 
atives of this breed, a fine specimen of which 
we here present to our readers in the cow 
M atchless 5th, which at the late dairy show in 
London, England, took the Champion prize as 
the best dairy' cow' in the yard. She is the 
property of Mr. C. E. Tisdall who has long 
been prominently' identified w ith the English 
Dairy Association. She was bred by Mr. 
Hobbs, of Maisey Hampton, Gloucestei'shire. 
who writes of her to the English Farmers’ 
Gazette, from which her likeness has been 
re-engraved, that w'hen newly calved she pro¬ 
duced 20 quarts of milk per day, and yields a 
good supply through the whole season. The 
judges appear to have looked on her square, 
well-shaped udder as indicative of a good milk 
producer, although her last calf was dropped 
Nov. 1, 1880. She is by a bull of the Gazelle 
tribe. Of the engraving the Gazette says that 
though it fairly represents her, yet the lack 
of deep shadows and surroundings has given 
leas impression of the depth and mass of the 
body than was produced either by the photo¬ 
graph or by looking at the liviug animal, 
CORN STACK.—FIG. 503. 
The stack is then drawn in gradually' and 
the center bundles brought more nearly up¬ 
right so as to get a good slope to the outer 
bundles to cause them to shed water. It is a 
good plan to push a few sharp-pointed, small 
poles dowm into the stack when it is two-thirds 
built, as this binds it and prevents it from lop¬ 
ping over as it settles. When the top is nearly 
reached the central bundles should be bound 
with straw-bands and at the top this is done 
very firmly, the butts beiug spread out so as to 
cover well the tops of the bundles under them. 
A few sheaves of long rye straw should be 
spread and bound at the top to finish it off. 
This is a very important point, as, if water 
enters here, it will go through the whole 
stack, and y-et. there is no place so easily se¬ 
cured against the entrance of rain. When 
the stuck is built, one should go over it with 
a long handled shoved or a heavy pole and 
beat down the outside so as to pack it well 
that the rain may run off easily. A ladder 
should be used in building the stack near the 
end of the work. 
The wonderful and mysterious principle of 
life is the same in mankind and animals. It 
is touched and affected and destroyed by the 
very same influences in each class. But with 
our stock it fs a question of dollars and cents. 
It ought to be made a question of humanity 
and morality. ‘ 1 The righteous man regardeth 
the life of his beast.” The converse being true, 
he who disregards it is unrighteous. Let us 
seriously think of this obligation w liich apper¬ 
tains to our higher position as holding “ do¬ 
minion over the beasts of the field ” and make 
our rule humane and kindly. This is our duty 
and cannot be avoided without criminal re¬ 
sponsibility. 
Just here, I would ask the hundreds of per¬ 
sons who profess the moral obligation to be 
kind to the dumb beasts, w hy they misquote 
the above* line and w rite 44 the merciful man is 
merciful to his beast." There is no such sen¬ 
tence, except as it is misused so frequently. 
The misquotation appears on the ambulance of 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals and a cruelty is inflicted upon every 
person who reads the misquotation and knows 
how wrong it is, and has his sense of the fit¬ 
ness of things outraged. 
FOUNDATION.—FIG. 500. 
where com fodder, or stover—as its right 
name should be—is justly estimated, its value 
is held to be but little less than that of 
“meadow' hay” which is the mixed grasses 
usually found growing on old mow ing land. 
Its relati re value is taken at eight dollars a 
ton when meadow- hay' is $10. Now no farm¬ 
er at any time can afford to waste feed worth 
eight dollars a ton, much less now, when mea¬ 
dow hay Is worth $15 in many' localities, 
There is waste in feeding corn fodder, no 
doubt, even w'hen model at fly fair economy 
is practiced in the using of it, but there is 
little care given to the saving of it. and poorly 
saved fodder is always wasted in using, be¬ 
cause it is damaged more or less. 
Cheap Ensilaging. 
In reference to Mr. Bennett’s communica¬ 
tion under the above caption in our last issue, 
Dr. W. L. Faxon, Superintendent of the 
National Sailors’ Home, Quincy, Mass,, writes 
us under date of October 13: 
“ I think the result of rny field silos very 
satisfactory. The one of last year was made 
in October just after the first frost. The 
trench was S4 feet long, 10 feet wide and IS 
inches deep; posts were placed at intervals of 
six feet along the sides, and beginning the de¬ 
posit of com fodder on the bottom of the 
trench, the sides and ends were laid up with 
rough hemlock boards as the deposit increased. 
No especial care was taken to make good 
joints. The com stalks were laid all length¬ 
wise and tramped as hard as was convenient. 
To keep the sides from sloping outward they 
were banked with ea rth as the filling increased 
in depth. One, and the chief, object of making 
a trench was to keep the sides plumb as v-ell 
as to obtain dirt easily to bank with. When 
the pile inside the posts was five feet deep it 
was covered with Eel Grass and about 18 
inches of dirt were thrown on top. 
Besides, it does not put our duty' upon the 
high plane it ought to rest upon. It is not a 
question of mercy but one of righteousness 
and therefore the responsibility is greater. 
Now just at this time the frost has touched 
vegetation which is decaying and filling the 
air with a sickening odor in all low places and 
meadows. The nose is an instrument of warn¬ 
ing, and scents danger afar. And there is 
danger in this frosted vegetation and decaying 
herbage. Myriads of germs of disease are 
rioting iu this decaying substance, filling the 
air and water with poison. And soon we 
shall hear of cattle dying; of sheep pining; of 
hogs sickening; and the disease itself becomes 
a source of infinitely greater danger by the 
spread of the contagion. 
W ater is bad and unwholesome; wells are 
low and streams are partially stagnant. Dairy¬ 
men are complaining of bad milk which is to 
be looked for under these circumstances, and 
this danger affects persons who use the milk. 
If wc wish to prevent loss and fulfill our moral 
obligations, we must look to every source of 
disease and avoid it. Every farmer should 
make a study of the nature of these diseases, 
so that he may be prepared to act with under¬ 
standing and reason. 
Doubtless many an honest dairyman (do not 
smile, gentle reader, for there are as many 
honest men among dairymen as arnoug other 
classes) has keen brought to grief by that de¬ 
lusive test of milk, the lactometer. I w-ouid 
guarantee to show any' reasonable jury by a 
few- tests in their presence, how skimmed milk 
may appear better than rich milk, and the 
richer the milk the poorer it shall seem to be, 
w-hen tried by the lactometer. But a curious 
case of an honest milkman recently came to 
light. He had a cow. This cow was peculiar 
and gave very' poor milk. The cow-’s milk on 
testing, w'as declared to be watered and the 
man was fined. But, like a brave man, he 
fought in his dofouce and appealed against the 
! verdict. A chemist analyzed the milk taken 
in his presence directly from the cow aud 
proved it to be abnormally rich -iu water. 
The man proved his innocence and esea|>ed 
Ids unmerited punishment. No doubt many 
similar oases have occurred in which men 
have borne undeserved disgrace and have been 
unjustly convicted by the lactometer and the 
prejudices and ignorance of a jury. 
FIG. 501. VENTILATOR. FIG. 502. 
It is supposed to be difficult to save corn 
stalks in good order; that either they must be 
moldy from too close stacking or packing away 
in the mow, or dried and tasteless from too 
open stacking to let in the air to prevent 
molding. But they may he saved perfectly 
well, if but moderate care is taken with them. 
Stacking is by far the safest method, and 
good -sized stacks the easiest and least trouble¬ 
some. There are three requisites for keeping 
the stalks in good order: one, is good bottom 
ventilation; another is thorough central ven¬ 
tilation; the last is such an arrangement of the 
bundles in the stack that rain or snow can¬ 
not penetrate hut must run off as the 
rain runs off from the roof of a shingled I 
house. The following devices have been found 
perfectly successful in saving coni fodder and 
fodder corn in the very best, the driest, 
greenest, and sweetest condition. 
First; a foundation is made for the stack. 
This consists of six blocks or short posts, or 
large stones, set in the ground as shown at i 
Fig. 500. Poles or rails are laid from one of these 
to another, and other rails are laid crosswise to 
hold the bundles of fodder. This provides the 
required bottom ventilation. Second, some 
short pieces of rails, or light poles or stout 
laths or strips are made into triangular frames 
about 18 inches wide and four feet long as 
shown at Fig. 501. These are made sufficiently 
wider at the bottom than at the top, so that 
one will fit over the end of the other as shown 
at Fig. 502. 
These beiug provided, the third and last 
part of the business is to build the stack as 
follows. A section of the ventilator is placed 
in the center of the foundation and a second 
one is fitted on to it. A lot of bundles of 
stalks are ranged on end sloping towards the 
center around the ventilator. Other bundles 
are laid on these, sloping still more and so on 
to the outer edge of the stack, the bundles 
lapping on each other, as shingles do on a 
roof. The center of the stack is built up by 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
A timely question for study is, can we pre¬ 
vent contagious diseases of live stock ? Every 
SHORT-HORN COW, MATCHLESS 5TH.—FIG. 504. 
The mass settled about one-third. The pit 
was opened December 1, and the fodder was 
found in good order. The last was fed out 
some time near the 10th of March this year. 
No rotting or molding was observed. 
The 9th of last month (Sept.) I prepared a 
year we lose millions of dollars through these 
diseases. Some years ago many thousands of 
human lives were lost by the same class of dis¬ 
eases, and men believed them to be visitations 
of Providence mysteriously inflicted upon the 
world for some evil doings. This was partly 
This story has a moral, which is, that every 
dairyman should test his own cows by the 
cream gauge, as well as by the lactometer, so 
that he may Know his bad and his good cows, 
and understand how to defend himself if un¬ 
justly accused. 
in 
n 
