,3AM. as 
to keep silent, as the more horses that are killed 
by this sort of management the bettor market 
there will be, but farmers are humane and they 
have sense enough to see how, in many instances, 
a pretentious coachman would recommend hav¬ 
ing the horses shorn as an advantage to them 
when it was not, but only enabled him to keep 
them clean much easier. This is one of the rea¬ 
sons for clipping and, for ordinary city service, 
the only one. In the country, where horses are 
often put to severe uho, and driven long dis¬ 
tances, it may bo an advantage to denude them 
of their coats, especially if they happen to have 
verydong and thick ones; yet it seems as if they 
would not have a thick warm, coat nuless ( hey re¬ 
quired it. This peculiarity iu some horses may 
bo accounted for by the manner iu which thoy 
were raised when colts. A colt wintered out of 
doors will naturally have a ranch thicker and long¬ 
er coat than one well protected. A natural propen¬ 
sity to grow a thick coat may be established iu this 
w r ay, which in after years is unnecessary owing to 
the care given to it and may bo cut off so that 
tlio animal's condition may roally be equal. We 
never know a thorough-bred horse to have a long 
shaggy coat, aud this goes to show that the 
thick coat is not so much a necessity for a 
horse as it is the natural result of the condi¬ 
tions which surrounded him. If this is so, then 
there is no force iu the argument that a horse’s 
coat is suited to its particular or peculiar tem¬ 
perament and nature. The fact probably is that 
any horse if exposed to the elements when a colt, 
would have a shaggy coat without any regard to 
its tomperament. All animals in cold climates 
have thicker hair or fur. Put one of these an¬ 
imals at work where its temperature is very 
muoli increased, and the coat suited to the frigid 
zone is a burden, so if a horse happens to have a 
thick, heavy coat of hair aud hard work is re¬ 
quired of him, it is woll to remove the burden. 
He will perform his task better. When the 
work is dono or he is left standing in an exposed 
place, he should be immediately covered. The 
practical advantages of dipping horses in the 
country have been found to harmonize perfectly 
with the above theory. Twenty horses have 
this yoar been clipped in this vicinity am^mostly 
owned by farmers. Last year only throe. This 
large increaso demonstrates the practical utility 
of clippiug as against any theory in the minds 
of country people. Hut oue horse in this vicinity 
out of the above number has ever been sick and 
this one took a severo cold The owners of these 
animals insist that their horses oan do more 
work aud do it with less fatigue than before 
they were sheared. They olaim that they eat 
bettor and perspiring b«ss, keep if better con¬ 
dition on the same amount of feed. There is no 
doubt but that with a free evaporation, the skin 
being clean and the body fren from scurf, there 
is less itching and less danger of fever and kin¬ 
dred diseases. One horse which pulled, its 
blanket off after being driven aud warmed up 
because of the itching, after it was shorn never 
disturbed the blanket. About a bushel of hair 
is taken from ouch horse, although some of 
them turn off a bushel and a half. It would he 
a good plan to shear a heavy coated horse early 
iu autumn, and then tho hair would start out 
before winter and with a half coat ho would do 
well. Tho change would not bo so great as if ho 
was denuded of his winter covering just as cold 
weather set in. A liorso when clipped does not 
heat bo much, and not getting so lmt is less 
liable to get a cold. They are a lso not so sub¬ 
ject to scratches. A horse with a heavy coat if 
used every day. will not he dry all winter, as it 
takes from twenty-four, to forty-eight hours for 
the hair to dry. With ft hand machine costing 
eight dollars, a horse cau be shorn iu a half a 
day. With the larger machines requiring two 
men to work them, three horses may bo clipped 
in a day. The general price now is three dol- 
lars for dipping eadi horno. 
Wo have two hull calves which, on account of 
close keeping last spring, became pot-bellied, 
which injured their looks very much. They are 
now Inigo and strong and iu good Condition and, 
except for the excess of stomuch, would be first- 
class in every respect. Three days ago, wo put 
iem up in a box stall and commenced a system 
of dieting which we expect in a few weeks will 
completely chauge their appoarance. In the 
morning they are fed a pock of turnips cut up 
with four quarts of meal. At noon they each 
got a single handful of hay and at night tur¬ 
nips and meal, tlm Hame as in the morning. Tho 
meal consists of two parts of flint corn ground 
10 the ear and one part of wheat bran. They get 
no water as the turnips supply all that is necoi- 
s aiy. Ihoy manifest no discomfort or uuoasi- 
imss, but on the contrary, seem to be quite sat¬ 
isfied with the shortened and condensed rations. 
e like to see a good sized stomach on a cow, as 
it is an evidence of capacity to consume and as¬ 
similate a large amount of rood, but in a male 
i is a blemish, as it destroys tho symmetry aud 
proportion of the body. A cow with a small 
stomach is generally a poor one. 
The other day wo called over to neighbor Yan- 
guyslixos and found him halting between two 
opinions. It was a question of lightning-rods 
and shade, verms dirt and sunshine. Three 
tall and handsome Locust trees stood so near the 
lioufie that they wero natural protectors agaiust 
lightning, and at the same time shaded a consid¬ 
erable portion of the [bouse, as the branches 
Htrotoherl out ovor the roof and reached beyond 
the ridge boards. On the other hand, the blos¬ 
soms in early summer and the loaves in autumn 
filled the e&ve troughs with dirt, which was car¬ 
ried into the eisteru. I( 0 bad come to the con¬ 
clusion that snusbino on the house was more 
healthful thau shade, and tho only doubt in his 
mind was whether the dirt from tho trees was 
not so much of a nuisance that it more than off¬ 
set tho protection which lie might have from the 
lightning by the lofty trees which reached so far 
above the house. Tho dripping from tho trees 
stained the clap-boards and siding, and so they 
were condemned. We regretted tho conclusion 
and thought how much better it would have 
been it these noble trees had been sot a little 
farther off. Wo have made tho same mistake 
ourselves in planting trees in not taking into tho 
account the fact that when they grow larger 
thoy will be much nearer together aud much 
closer to a building than when thoy are small, 
there are several orchards in this vicinity in 
which the trees are so close together that the 
branches interlock, and the trees are not more 
than half grown, every other row will have to be 
cut down. IIow many gardens are spoiled, too, 
by planting so many trees in them. As soon as 
they grow up they shade the ground and its use¬ 
fulness as a garden is destroyed. We have made 
this mistake, and had to abandon one garden 
entirely. Last spring wo had to choose between 
several Rogers’ grape-vines and a favorite apple 
tree. That law of natural philosophy learned 
in our youth that “two bodies cannot occupy the 
samo space at the same time," comes bade to us 
with practical force, and the apple tree was cut 
down. In thinking whore to set new trees, all 
these things must bn considered, or else iumany 
instances just as they begin to bear the fruit wo 
have waited for, they will havo to be destroyed, 
or as they grow up they will destroy other plants, 
or damage the buildings. Every treo wants the 
sunshine and plenty of it to do well. 
da nit (btouomn. 
THOUGHTS ABOUT WINTER FEEDING. 
WM. J. FOWLER. 
How long shall we feed fattening animals? 
At what time during the fattening process is 
there the greatest gain for tho food consumed? 
ThoHQ are important questions, and deserve 
much more attention than they generally get. 
Quite often farmers do not regard them at all. 
They feed till their surplus grain is exhausted, 
and then they kill, or else feed till a certain date 
which they had decided on as butchering day. 
Very often, by Ibis loose method of doing busi¬ 
ness, animals are kept long after the date 
of profitable feeding has passed. Sometimes, 
though less frequently, they are scut to the 
shambles too soon. 
Wlu-u tho animal is fairly fat, the gain from 
further feeding will rarely pay the extra ex¬ 
pense. Tho increase iu gain falls off rapidly as 
tho animal becomes thoroughly fattened. For 
homo use, this is not all loss, as the very fat beef, 
or mutton, or pork, is richer and better than that 
only partially fattened, which contains a greater 
proportion of water, aud thus wastes iu cooking. 
But in tliis country the buyer rarely makes any 
difference iu price. English consumers havo 
learned the difference, and they demand tho very 
best. As onr foreign market for American beef 
and mutton increases, farmers and stock feeders 
must learn to adapt their wares to English tastes 
and English markets. 
One of the greatest wastes in fattening is in 
tho use of soft corn or nubbins, thrown in the 
ear to fattening hogs. It is a slow, wasteful 
and costly mode of fattening pork. Too often 
these nubbins are looked upon as valueless, and 
if the farmer gets his year’s supply of pork from 
them, he easily fancies that it costs him nothing. 
In fact, much of the corn thus wasted is ripe 
and sound, and needs ouly to ho well dried to be 
ready to shell and grind, and thus be worth, for 
feed, at least three or four times as much as the 
farmer makes from it. If really unripe, it should 
bo fed early to cattle which will eat cob and corn 
together. In its green state, there is considera¬ 
ble nutriment in the cob, and if any corn passes 
through the animals ouly partly digested, it can 
be saved by having store hogs kept in tho samo 
yard. There is great advantage iu feeding green 
corn early. After freezing weather comes, tho 
nubbins become hard as ice from frozen sap. and 
nuke the ammaiswhich eat them, sore-iuouthod. 
Feeding of any kind of animal should begin 
early, and bo well advauood before cold comes. 
In this way the greatest amount of flesh and fat 
can be laid on at least expense for food. Hogs 
especially, should bo got out of the way early. 
If properly kept, they will be half fat all the 
time, which is only good, thrifty, growing con¬ 
dition, after which a few weeks' feeding on cook¬ 
ed corn meal will complete the fattening, and 
make the flesh firm and solid. If possible, havo 
thorn butcherod as early as December, as cold 
weather rapidly diminishes the capacity to lay 
on fat. 
It may bo urged that early slaughtering will 
glut the market. But there is no need for sell¬ 
ing pork as soon as butchered, especially when 
tbe price rules as low as now. Money is usually 
made by pork packers, else they could not con¬ 
tinue the business. The farmer who has grown 
and killed the pork is better able to hold it than 
any one else can be, and ho may as well have the 
profit as anybody. Very often several barrels of 
well-kept pork may be sold in the farmer’s neigh¬ 
borhood to those who failed to provide a supply. 
Pork iu the barrel gains iu weight by the salt it 
absorbs, thus making a double profit in keeping 
it. At present low prices of pork, farmers who 
have facilities for packing it, may do so with 
little or no danger of loss. 
Tho only kind of stock which it is profitable to 
fatten in cold weather is sheep. If kept dry 
they will thiivo, no matter how low thetompera- 
tnre, and with plenty of water and good feed, 
they will Oat more heartily in severe weather 
than when it moderates. In a barn basement or 
a close shed, a flock of fattening sheep will usu¬ 
ally keep tho temperature above the freezing 
point. 
-- * •» ♦ -- 
NOTES FROM MAPLEWOOD FARM. 
HECTOR BERTRAM. 
It i 9 poor policy to endeavor to raise early 
lambs when you havo no warm, sheltered place 
for the ewes, away from tho rest of the flock. 
True, early lambs bring fancy prices for early 
mutton, yet a farmer who has no suitable place 
for them during tlio cold storms of March, can¬ 
not raiso them to advantage. We have known 
men to Jose two-thirds of their lambs from no 
other cause than that they had no suitable quar¬ 
ters for them. When lambs are not dropped 
until warm weather fa'rly sots in, they thrive 
much hotter, and thcro is scarcely ever a loss, 
provided the ewes have received suitable care. 
Sheep, especially breeders, should have ground 
grain through the winter and in the spring, 
when the lambs come late. Some years ago. we 
were on - ,o of tbe family of a Michigan 
farmer who, every morning, gave a flock of forty 
sheep the meal from about twelve quarts of 
corn, dry. They ran out through the day, aud 
at night wovo shut up in a warm stable and sup¬ 
plied with plenty of good hay. This hay and 
meal constituted the entire feed each day, save 
what they could pick about tho stack pen, vet I 
never saw finer sheep, and at any time during 
the winter any or all of the tiock were in first-rate 
condition for mutton. A WtU- grain is of more real 
benefit to sheep than to any other animal; aud 
speaking or ground gram, it is, in onr opinion, 
injudicious to feed whole grain to any animal. 
A neighbor’s fattening pigs, fed on corn iu tho 
ear, shrunk materially tbe last few weeks that he 
kept them, simply because their teeth became 
so sore, from eating the hard grain, that it was 
impossible for them to grind a sufficient quan¬ 
tity to koop them iu condition for butchering. 
Cooked, it might be better; but ground aud 
then cooked, yon get the fnll benefit of its fat¬ 
tening qualities. Every farmer should havo a 
largo kettle or steamer iu which to cook grain 
for all his stock, horses not excepted. A warm 
feed of meal would he far more acceptable to 
them, during the cold weather, than the hard, 
flinfc-liko corn and hairi-shelled oats that many 
feed. In our last article, we spoke of beans as 
the best grain Tor sheep, aud stated that the use 
of them would “ increase the quantity and qual¬ 
ity ’’—of tho wool, of course, wo meant, not of 
the sheep. Much cruelty is inflicted upon lambs 
by leaving them for castration until they are 
two or three months old. Tho operation should 
bo performed immediately after birth, removing 
tho eutiro scrotum with a sharp knife. This, to 
some, may seem more Cruel than the other, but 
we do not so consider it. Too rnauy inferior 
sheep aro kept by farmers. They are not profit¬ 
able. It costs no more to winter's, fine grade 
than a mongrel, and it is much more encouraging 
to remove from a sheep a tloeee of seven or eight 
pounds than oue of two or three. Some may 
say uone but a fancy breeder can obtain this 
result. Wo can refer such to a farmer of this 
locality whoso flock of fifty sheep averaged seven 
pounds to tho fleece during the past year. They 
were fine sheep, however, aud handled with con¬ 
summate care. 
Wo have a few acres of land that, for several 
years, has been bungled over and half worked, 
until it has become so poor wo can think of only 
one crop to apply tho coming season, namely, 
buckwheat. Where buckwheat will not grow 
there is no use sowing any other grain, yet, like 
other cereals, it does tho best on good ground. 
The piece referred to is situated ou the summit 
of a steep bill, making it, not impossible, but 
quite impracticable to enrich the land with barn¬ 
yard manure. Wo propose to seed thick with 
large clover, and clover alone. We shall prob¬ 
ably' got buckwheat onough to pay for plowing, 
and the clover will form a valuable coat of ma¬ 
nure, the roots even of the growing plant serv¬ 
ing to enrich the land. We think farmers make 
a mistake in sowing ro much timothy seed. 
Nearly every one of our neighbors ia seeding 
uses timothy alone. When asked iheir reason 
for so doing, they answer:—“ Wo cannot sell 
our hay as well if onr customers fiud clover in 
it; we know that it is injurious to tho ground, 
but in order to sell onr bay at anything like the 
usual price, we must sow timothy alone.” Now, 
we cannot consider this the best of reasoning. 
Is it profitable to raise grass which wo acknowl¬ 
edge is an unnecessary drain on the productive 
properties of onr land, when it will only bring 
six and eight dollars per ton ? Really, is it prof¬ 
itable to sell bay at all ? Many claim that tim¬ 
othy possesses more nutriment than clover. 
Perhaps, bulk for bulk, it may, but then wo 
cannot produce as much from tire acre of tbe 
former as of tho latter. Usually wo sow eight 
quarts of timothy and four of clover. This gives 
hay of good quality for feeding, and our land is 
not impoverished by the crop. Some may dis¬ 
sent from the remark that timothy aloue will 
steadily draw T the richness of the soil until it is 
unfit for any crop. These have only to see the 
lands iu this vicinity that havo been “ timothyed 
to death,” to be convinced. 
Fall plowing for oats iB most essential. There 
is no grain, probably, so much affected by being 
sown on laud turned in the fall, aud left exposed 
to the action of frost, as this. They require 
early sowing, and by plowing in the fall this oan 
be accomplished much sooner in t he spring, than 
when left implowed until seeding time. Our 
heavy, hill lands dry out much quicker, if this 
plan ia followed. A few years ago we began 
plowing a field of six acres, going around the 
whole. The frost came too soon, aud stopped 
our plowing for that fall, when we had cnly 
about one-third of the piece done. In the spring 
we commenced where we had left off, and finish¬ 
ed tlio piece. The whole was harrowed once, 
with a sharp-toothed harrow', before sowing, and 
twice after sowing. Mark the result: The crop 
on tho whole field was very abundant, yet that in 
the center, or on just so much as we had turned 
iu tho spring, lacked nearly a footrin bight at 
harvest, and was not noarly as well filled. We 
believe that we would lose uuthing by plowing in 
fall, and crossing in spring. At least, a shovel- 
toothed cultivator should be applied before seed¬ 
ing. The seed-bed must be light and mellow, 
if we expect full remuneration for our labor. 
Whatever grain we raise, w t o must study the 
peculiarities of that particular grain, iu order to 
be successful in its production. A neighbor has 
always calculated, every spring, to sow a certain 
number of acres, at all events; as a consequenoe, 
his farm is completely worn out. 
Mr. Cot,e informs ns that he has raised, the 
past year, fifty bushels more oats, from three 
acres, than bo has over raised on the same 
ground before. The reason ho ascribes for this 
success is tho fact that the ground was all sub¬ 
soiled. No doubt, on heavy land this practice 
would prove most beneficial. A subsoil attach¬ 
ment hits been used by some successfully, though 
we think the draft must be rather heavy for a 
light team. Many do not plow their land nntil 
seeding time, and then think they have no time 
for subsoiling, as it requires twice more time 
than the usual way. Ou some land it will pay 
to subsoilon others the result would he doubt¬ 
ful ; while, there is no doubt, that ou others it 
would be pernicious. 
--. 
REMOVING ROCKS FROM TILLED FIELDS. 
TlIERE is not usually much profit in grubbing 
big stones and rocks from the farm ; by which 
remark I mean to say that the profit lies rather 
in getting laud whore such work is not needed. 
But if a good farmer lias a few such nuisances 
disfiguring bis cultivated fields, by all means let 
him have them out as soon as ho can. It will 
pay him a good percentage above the money re¬ 
turn in tho satisfaction of being able to plow 
aud reap and mow without encountering these 
old-time enemies to good tillage. The work can 
be done at seasons when labor is cheapest and 
thus may bo really almost no money expeuso. 
The hole which a deep-lying rock has occupied 
may be filled to within two feet of the surface 
with smaller stones, thus doing two good jobs 
at once. The digging and stirring of tho soil 
around the rock required to move it, are also 
beneficial. T have often noticed that such 
places show the good effects on the crops for 
years after. w. j. f. 
