This certainly provides a variety and suf¬ 
ficiency of hunting to satisfy any reasonable 
rancher. 
country. Better go slower and give American 
breeders a chance to stock up. “ Stockman’s ” 
check is opportune and wise. If any breed of 
cattle unite beef producing and milk produc¬ 
ing at the same time, it is the Holstein. I 
agree with “ Stockman ” that these opposit 3 
qualities cannot be united in one breed. They 
are too wide apart. There may be big cow’s 
and good ones, but what is the use of keeping 
a big cow—supporting a huge carcass the life¬ 
time of a cow, to get a few hundred pounds 
more of beef when a smaller cow would yield 
as much in the dairy, and cost a great deal 
less for her keep—no use. F. D. Curtis. 
roof may be made with a single slope. The 
door is hung with a pivot hinge so as to sw'ing 
either way and close itself. The lower nail 
tie should be 2x4 inches and used fiat six 
inches above the ground, as this will prevent 
the sows from overlying the pigs. 
In recommending that a stove be used for 
early pigs, I do not mean that hot-house 
treatment is necessary for them; but we are 
so liable to fierce snow squalls and cold, 
penetrating wind in March, that it; is hardly 
safe to have early pigs come without this 
precaution, Rome years it would not be 
necessary to fire up at all, and I do not think 
in any weather pigs would need a fire after 
they were five days old, and two fires a day 
would probably be sufficient in any weather. 
The cost for fuel would be but a trifle, and a 
cheap stove would answer. 
The sows should be placed in the pens not 
less than two weeks before farrowing, and 
should be fed on loosening diet, largely bran 
and some oil meal, unless roots or green food 
can be bad. The sows should be Dandled and 
petted so that they will not fear you or get 
excited in ease it becomes necessary to enter 
the pen to assist them or remove a pig. There 
Is no questioning the superiority of mature 
mothers. Their pigs are stronger aud have 
greater vitality, and old sows are much more 
likely to save their pigs than young ones. I 
have found it profitable to breed twice a year, 
and this can be easily done if the first litter 
comes in March, ns the second will then come 
in September. When 1 breed young sows for 
May litter, if any of them lose their pigs I at 
once breed again for September. These late 
pigs, if kept in small lots with a warm, clean 
bed, and fed some warm slop, will grow as 
well as Summer pigs, and can tie sold to the 
butchers in the Spring, or may be pastured 
one Summer and fattened in the Fall. 1 shall 
devote another short article to the manage¬ 
ment of pigs. 
that first noticed. This investigation, made 
by a close observer, goes to prove that the 
germs of a milk-spoiling ferment can be in¬ 
troduced into the blood and into the udder by 
simply allowing the cow to drink impme 
water. It shows that the cleanliness of the 
dairy must be radical, thorough, and all-per¬ 
vading. No filthy mud should be allowed to 
dry into dust that fouls the pail; no foul 
odors should taint the undrawn milk; and 
the drinking water should be free from the 
little “leaven that leaveneth the whole lump” 
— cow, milk, and all. 
When the French Government after a long 
and persistent investigat ion by a committee of 
experts, gave a large sum to M, Guenon in 
recognition of lus services to the French dairy 
interest, Aud of the value of his discovery of 
the significance of the escutcheon, and when 
the Jersey Cattle Club, which consists of more 
than three thousand intelligent gentlemen and 
farmers and dairymen, give to the escutcheon 
eight points out, of a hundred in their establish¬ 
ed scale of points for judging cattle, and no 
more than eight to ten to the udder, and only 
five to the milk vein, it wont, do for any person 
to try to il j away with the escutcheon, as an 
absurdity and an exhibition of the ignorance 
and stupidity of those persons who think it of 
value, although he may be a doctor mid an 
editor. A man may reasonably say that he 
don’t believe it, just as lie might disbelieve in 
the Pyramids of Egypt, simply because he 
never saw them and cannot imagine how the 
builders got those big stones 450 feet up in the 
air. 
The Tribune and Farmer reminds waiters 
that they forget that every peach tree : old by 
a nurseryman is a seedling, so far as the stock 
goes. Surely the inserting of a bud is not 
going to make the stock less likely to live, 
provided it is of a hardy sort, of which there 
are plenty. Those who plant trees for the 
purpose of marketing the fruit, want certain 
kinds, to ripen at, desired periods, and these can 
only be had by having budded kinds set out. 
Perhaps a tree budded where a seed sprouted 
might do better than a tree shifted about 
several times. 
WALDO F. DROWN. 
In this article I have no reference to breeds 
for, whatever variety of hogs the fanner may 
raise, the same general treatment will be re¬ 
quired. Taking it for granted, then, that the 
fanner has selected his breeding stock judi¬ 
ciously, the first point I would make is that 
he should keep a record of the time e. ch sow 
is bred. I believe that more pigs have been 
lost from neglect of this precaution than from 
anv one cause. The period of gestation in 
swine is 112 days, and they vary but little 
from this. I have never known a sow to go 
over 115 days, and a young sow will often 
farrow in 100 aud has been known to do so 
in 100 days, and save her pigs. In making 
the record of breeding I always also enter 
the date at which the pigs may be expect¬ 
ed, as follows:—“ Spotted sow Bess, bred De¬ 
cember 20; expect pigs April 17.” 
From the Mark Lane Express we take the 
following, setting forth the advantages of 
taking an agricultural paper:—In short, the 
worse a farmer is oil - , the greater is his need 
of taking an agricultural journal. .... 
The business of a farmer, they say, is never 
completely learned, and the greatest adepts 
at it are little more than beginners. These 
are not the men who think themselves too 
wise to read an agricultural paper. They 
know that a single useful hint has been many 
a time worth enough to pay for the cost of 
their paper for a life time. Wo are “never 
too old to learn,” and the wisest of men may 
often get a useful hint from one who has much 
less general knowledge than he has. A great 
deal of the discredit thrown upon agricultural 
writings has been caused by the ignorant or 
indiscreet dogmatism of enthusiasts. 
I feel that, it is unnecessary for me to make 
more than a few brief remarks with reference 
to “Notes by a Btoclnuan” in the Rural of 
the 4th iust., wherein he criticises an article 
on polled cattle written by me and published 
on page 857 of the last volume of the Rural. 
I was induced to write that article on account 
of a previous assertion by Rtockmau that 
polled cuttle as a race were totally unfit and 
unprofitable for dairy purposes. 
1 know from my own experience and the 
experience of many others that this is not 
true of a very considerable portion of the 
polled cattle now in existence. From the pos¬ 
itive and emphatic manner in which the 
statement was made, without proof and with¬ 
out exception of any breed or strain of these 
cattle, others as well as myself naturally in¬ 
ferred that the writer was making a vicious 
attempt to defame the milkiug strains of 
polled cattle, and to injure the property of 
their owners, hence the decision to place be¬ 
fore the readers of the Rural a plain state¬ 
ment, not only of some of the advantages of 
having cattle without horns, but also of some 
facts with regard to the superior dairy quali¬ 
ties of many of them, and which can be read¬ 
ily verified by parties desiring to do so. In 
the later remarks of Stockman on this subject 
be still persists in ignoring these facts aud in 
classing all polled cattle with the Polled An¬ 
gus as adapted to the production of beef alone. 
In my first article I stated that 1 had often 
heard farmers remark upon the almost uuiver 
sal excellence of the native polled cow for the 
dairy. After the introduction of some legal 
lore, we are now informed by Stockman that 
this remark is more often applied to the brm- 
dle cow, all of which would appear to be en¬ 
tirely irrelevant to the subject under consider¬ 
ation, but 1 supp se we are to understand 
that the remark is not applicable to the "poo?’ 
n rule}/.” 
1 have no desire to recall any of my previous 
statements, but, on the contrary, am prepared 
to prove the truth of them. I admit that 1 am 
very much .uterested in these cattle and only 
ask that they may receive fair treatment aud 
representation before the great American ag¬ 
ricultural public. I should be very loath pub- 
Hog Cholera iu the West. 
^ “ In Notes by a Stockman ” in the RuuALof 
December 31, 1881, I read the remarks on 
“ Hog Cholera,” in which the writer attrib¬ 
utes the ravages of the disease in the West 
to the Western farmers’ ignorance of the les- 
- sons of experience us to the evil effects of un- 
=. clean surroundings. Does the writer know 
|M what he is talking about? I have known, per- 
■ sonally, a whole herd of 200 shoats to die of 
cholera, running on a clean clover pasture, 
watered with clean well water and fed with 
sound com. Our money, to a great extent, is 
fli hogs; we take the best of care of our hogs, 
keeping them on clover pastures and feeding 
the best of corn; in wet seasons when feeding 
hogs are confined in small yards (muds) they 
frequently get the yards in a fearful condition : 
but they very rarely die. It is not this class 
of hogs that we lose by cholera. Four to eight- 
months-old shoats are the 
duced, and more economical ways of doing 
work are planned as time goes on; and he is 
not a w ise farmer who does not consider 
whether it is to his advantage or not to try one 
or more of these novel lies. In a well conduct¬ 
ed agricultural paper the introduction and 
trials of all novelties are recorded, and ad¬ 
vice as to their use is frequently given. 
The present writer can recall many a valua¬ 
ble lesson learned through reading agricul¬ 
tural papers, which he would not have learned 
so soon, if at all, from any other source. For 
instance, he noticed the profitable results of 
growing Squarehead Wheat, as recorded in an 
agricultural journal, and he tried the variety 
on his farm. The variety was not then culti¬ 
vated in the district in which he resided: but 
the result of his trial was so successful that it 
has since beeu cultivated extensively. The 
extra profit iu the first trial, beyond what 
would have been obtained from the sorts of 
wheat previously grown by him, was sufficient 
to have supplied him with all the agricultural 
papers in the world for the re°t of his life. 
Similarly with respect to t he selection of ma¬ 
nures, poultry, garden plants, and implements 
great advantages were obtained by the read¬ 
ing of agricultural papers. 
come in in May. The risk of losing the pigs 
from cold will be touch less; the sow will not 
be so likely to eat her pigs, as grem food 
will be abundant and she will not be in 
danger of getting in the costive, feverish 
condition which is the causo of this unnat¬ 
ural act. For the same reason she will give 
more and better milk, and be likely to give 
her pigs a better start. If the farmer is 
raLiug fancy breeding stock, or intends to 
make pig pork and sell bis stock when from 
eight to ten months old, he should breed so 
as to have his pigs come by the middle of 
March; and in this case, if several sows are 
kept, it will pay to arrange a house so as to 
heat it. It is a great loss and disappoint¬ 
ment, after having kept a valuable sow for 
a year, to lose her litter, and the risk can 
be greatly reduced at a small cost by ar¬ 
ranging a house for fi re heat. The house may 
l>e made very cheaply; if no loft is made 
overhead the sides need not be more than 
four feet high. A room 18 feet square will 
give a tier of three peus on a side, 6x0 feet, 
and a hall four feet wide through the cen¬ 
ter, where the stove can stand and a few 
ban-els of meal and a swill barrel be kept. 
Such a building would take but a little over 
1,000 feet of lumber aud a little less than 
3,000 shingles, and could be put up, all com¬ 
plete, for less than $40 if no floors were laid, 
and these would not be needed. All the 
partitions should be made movable, so that 
when not in use for the sows and pigs, the 
house could be used for storing fodder, sta¬ 
bling stock, or any other purpose. 
For sows that come in Jater, or as shelter 
for these early litters after they are turned 
out in the fields, I have never seen a pen 
which I liked as well as the portable pen of 
which the cut. Fig. 37, gives a good idea. 
This x> n is made of light pine, and may be 
moved on a small sled, with a horse, or a 
board may be nailed across each end, with 
tho ends projecting for handles, and four men 
can walk right along with one of them. For 
large sows they should be made 5xfi feet, 
and require about 150 feet of lumber each. 
The short slope of roof shown in the cut is 
designed for a row of glass, so that the sun 
will heat up the interior; but unless for very 
early pigs this will not be necessary, and the 
ones most likely 
to die of the disease and nobody pretends to 
keep such pigs shut up in close yards. In 
nine cases in ten, where large losses are sus¬ 
tained the animals are in clover pasture, and 
well cured for. “ Stockman ” says “ The 
nature of the disease is so well known, etc." 
Now the facts are these: In [a herd of 100 
pigs, all smart and active to-day, 50 are 
likely to be dead tbe next morning! We know 
the bogs are dead and that the balance are 
likely to die any day, and that is the most 
that is really known. We are overrun with 
hog doctors with prescriptions for sale for 
five or ten dollars each, but they aro humbugs. 
We have yet to experience the delight of see¬ 
ing a man who doctored a hog sick with 
cholera, and cured it. 
Delaware Co., Iowa. J. M. Barry. 
The Secretary of the British Goat Associa¬ 
tion admits, in the Live Stock Journal, that 
the flesh of tho male goat is rank, but he says 
that the meat of the she-goat is extremely 
good, while that of a sucking kid is simply de¬ 
licious, and quite equal to lamb in flavor, 
though the joints are smaller and less plump. 
He has frequently deceived friends at his 
table, who, when partaking of it, were under 
the impression they were eating lamb. As to 
the milk, it was only on rare occasions that 
any different taste could be detected between 
it and cow’s milk, though far richer than the 
latter both in cream and general nutritive 
properties; while at the same time, strange to 
say, it is much easier of digestion than cow’s 
milk. That in the vast pastures of the United 
States goats might be profitably kept for the 
sake of their milk, for the manufacture of 
Roquefort and the favorite (in France) Mont 
d’Or, be quite believes, and would be glad to 
hear of such a step being taken; but the goat 
is none the less the poor man’s friend. 
V'.-o 
“ Stockman ” is right about muleys. They 
have the same dispositions as other cattle, but 
they are not so dangerous, because they can¬ 
not poke a horn through you, but they can 
punch you with the top of their heads, and 
knock the breath out of anybody. I had three 
“ mule}- ” cows at onetime, and they used 
to fight, in their way, just as much as other 
cows. They will bunt fearfully, and knock 
a man down, and they will also strike a 
heavy blow with the crown of the head. It 
is all right to tell of their good qualities; but 
as “Stockman” remarks, it is possible to brag 
too much, or as he puts it “ prove too much.” 
Who is going to make any money out of it? 
Why, the Scotch breeders who are alreudy 
set up by this tidal wave of “ muley ” praise, 
and tw o or three breeders, or rather import¬ 
ers iu this country. If they were only breed¬ 
ers it would not be so bad; but I do not like 
the idea of filling the public mind with gilt- 
edged notions, w r hich take money out of the 
Professor Law, of Cornell University, 
says the London Mark Lane Express, finding 
the cream on his milk to be ropy, examined 
it with a microscope, and found it infested 
with living organisms. On investigation, he 
found that the herd from which his supply 
came drank the water of a stagnant pool 
located in a muddy swale. The microscope 
The Duke of Wellington takes it for 
granted that the milk of the goat is better 
thau that yielded by tbe cow, especially in the 
case of disease. But there was one thing that 
had to be overcome, and that was the existing 
prejudice against goat’s milk, lie experi¬ 
enced great difficulty in induciug cottagers in 
his neighborhood to taste it, although it was 
taken by himself and the Duchess, as well as 
by the clergyman, the doctor and the school¬ 
master. His Grace hopes that efforts will be 
