pipe either in twelve or eighteen feet lengths, 
so ns to avoid waste in cutting for posts, (as 
six feet are about the right length.) “ Lay off ’ 
the distance between the posts, and where the 
posts come, make a hole, say a foot or so deep, 
but do not “ throw over” the bar and make a 
funnel-shaped hole. It is a good plan to drive 
a hard-wood plug into the hole in the end of 
the pipe that enters the ground. Drop the 
pipe in, ami then drive it down from three to 
six inches, the hight of the fence detennin 
ing the length of the post in the ground. 
When the line of pipe posts is “fixed,’ 7 mark 
off the spaces on the posts so as to know where 
the wires wiil cross them. Mark with chalk 
so that the places can bo readily seen. Then 
tako a rather heavy hammer anil a cold 
chisel; place the latter upon a mark at a down¬ 
ward angle of, say 45° ; give a smart blow 
that will cut an “under lip” which will make 
a shoulder just broad enough to lay the wire 
into it. 
that which he does not know how to use— 
money. 
in a strong, healthy condition to digest the 
food that under these conditions Ls taken with a 
relish. It is best to feed poor grades of fodder 
the first in the morning or the last at night, 
and give the best in the middle of the day ; 
but with mileb cows reverse this and never 
give any more at once than is eaten up clean. 
Stock fed in this way will eat with a relish 
almost any thing you can give them. 
Warm Water for Milch t ows. 
Warm water is an excellent thing for cows 
giving milk ; I think it is as good as two or 
three quarts of monl u day ; but if you mix 
meal and shorts with it cows must be allow¬ 
anced as they will drink too much—enough to 
diminish the flow of milk. The quantity will 
vary with the character of feed and the cow. 
A little good judgment is a nice thing here 
as everywhere else. 
“ Shelter is Cheaper Than Pood.” 
Physiology teaches that warmth is equal to 
a certain amount of food, and no less true is 
it that the long, cold Winters of all the more 
Northern States detract largely from the pro¬ 
fits of the dairy and stock 
petrators of such cruelties make for themselves 
is that “ the cattle don’t suffer so nmcr. as one 
would suppose,” end, to judge by the argu¬ 
ments advanced by such people, it is only re¬ 
fined human beings who can have real sensi¬ 
tiveness to pain. Reasonable and unpreju¬ 
diced people, however, will maintain, with the 
great dramatist, that— 
'“The poor worm wo tread upon 
In corporeal sutT'rnni - " feels a pong as groat 
As when a giant dies.' 
“If some of the brutal operators were de¬ 
nuded of tbeir finger and toe nails, it might 
give them a taste of something like what the 
the poor, dumb, defenceless animals have to 
suffer, and nothing thort of some rm.nt lines 
is ever likely to teach men so far removed be¬ 
low total depravity the practice of hu¬ 
manity.’' 
I am willing to leave this whole question 
with American farmers, breeders and ranch¬ 
men; in fact, it rests with them to decide the 
future of the polled cattle in this country, and 
I feel assured their verdict will agree with 
that of the Scotch farmers when they have 
had equal experience. But I do not expect 
the same cruel evidence from our entile men 
lx localities when there is no home market 
for tobacco, after it has been grown and prop¬ 
erly handled it may be shipped to commission 
merchants in the larger cities to be sold by 
them, usually with sat isfactory results. In the 
larger tobacco growing sections, sales are 
usually made directly to dealers (jobbers or 
manufacturers), or their agents, who come to 
visit the crops in view of making purchases. 
Rut in localities where tobacco growing is not 
-Many young men there are who succeed in 
making a good livelihood by growing tobacco 
on shares upon another’s land. The method 
adopted in some sections is as follows : The 
land-owner furnishes land, buildings, manure 
and implements for cultivating, also the use of 
team and wagon for drawing the tobacco to 
the curing barn and to market. Ho also plows 
and harrows the ground. The tenant usually 
marks and ridges or “ spats” the ground, does 
the cultivating—famishing his own horse for 
this work and all the other labor bestowed up¬ 
on the crop. The land-owner usually furnishes 
boxes for casing the tobacco. As the partners 
share equally in the dividend and the product 
yields on an average, in the seed leaf-growing 
sections, from 1800 to $400 per acre, it is plainly 
seen that for the industrious tenant who ex¬ 
ercises good judgment and economy in his 
business there is profit. For the farmer, too, 
who has land enough to occupy his attention, 
there is economy in the method described, as 
a tobacco crop would greatly interfere with 
the working of tiie other parts of the farm. 
Chemung Co., N, Y. n n. m 
raising, so what¬ 
ever saving in food can be made by providing 
warm winter-quarters is equal to so much 
shortening of the Winter feeding season that? 
is so much against us. Many bains, where this 
paper goes and many more where it does not 
go, are set upon blceks or stones, and with a 
generous crack between nearly every- board 
give a good circulation beth under and 
throughout, so that of th9 two the inside is the 
colder side and justifies that proverb “As 
cold as a barn.” s. o. p. 
POLLED CATTLE AT A DISCOUNT. 
I have observed recently in the columns of 
the Rural the signs n-brewing of something 
new—of a desire to create a big Loom in 
what is eaptivatingly styled the “Polled 
Angus or Aberdeeu Cattle.” I will here 
state, for the benefit of Rural readers who 
are likely to catch the “ era*?,” that they can 
save a vast deal of money if they will only 
come to Virginia to be supplied with this 
would-be renowned breed of cattle, familiarly 
called here by the ownera “ Ole Nohorns." We 
are anxious to sell choice specimens of this 
breed of cattle for the smallest—nay, any 
prieo you may offer. Yet, many of them 
can bo found, which by no means will com¬ 
pare unfavorably with the specimens seen 
from time to time adorning the pages of the 
Rural, fancifully grouped, with the burly 
herders on the left, and the “lairdly ” own¬ 
ers showing themselves in the back ground, 
filled with admiration. The advocates of this’ 
breed tell us of the marvelous meekness 
ANGUS POLLED CATTLE. 
I am prompted to write a few lines on read¬ 
ing “ Notes by a Stockman ” in the Rural of 
January 7. Stockman asatmes too much when 
he says the whole tone of my article, to 
which he refers, indicates that I claim the ab¬ 
sence of horns as the most desirable charac¬ 
teristic of the Angus cattle. It is beyond qites 
tion that the Angus are one of the most val¬ 
uable of the beef breeds. This was fully uem- 
Keeping Seed Beans and Peas, 
i have saved my seed beans and peas for the 
last two y ears from the weevil by shelling 
out the seed and putting it in empty baking 
powder cans along with small b'.ts of gum 
camphor. Before I tried this remedy, I lost 
near.y all the seed I saved; but since then I 
have had no trouble, Three pieces the size of 
a bean are sufficient for a pint can, one in the 
bottom of the can; one in the mid-Re, and 
one on top. By the way, I find these empty- 
baking powder cans very handy and conven¬ 
ient for keeping seeds. I have a number, and 
by labeling them and having a shelf made to 
hold them, I find them very necessary, for by 
their means I cau tell at a glance just 
what is in each can, and they keep the seeds 
dry and unexposed. A little care in saving 
them us fast as emptied will prove quite con¬ 
venient in saving seed; and by taking paius 
always to save the best and earliest produce 
for seed one is sure of good, pure seed, be¬ 
sides saving considerable expense every year 
in purchasing what one might save with very 
little trouble. N. J. Shepherd. 
Miller Co., Mo. 
[A, post; b, lip ; c, cold chisel with right 
slant to cut lip ; d, wire lying in lip secured 
by the twist; e, wire used to secure cable to 
the post.] 
When the posts are thus prepared, string the 
wire. To do this, get some annealed No. 
it on wire, cut it into lengths of about live 
inches. After straining a strand of wire, one 
man places the wire in its place, and another 
takes one of these short pieces, bends it in the 
form of a letter U, slips it about the wire and 
post, and with a stout pair of pincers, twists 
it up so as to draw the wire of the fence close¬ 
ly into the lip. Then proceed to the next post 
and so on until the wires are all up. After 
the feuce is up, it might bo advisable to drive 
a plug of some kind into the top end of each 
post so as to exclude water. 
I think the weight of these posts issix-and- 
one-balf or seven pounds, costing six-and-oue- 
ha!f cents per pound. The fence was strung 
with four Buffalo cable wires costing uine- 
and-a-half cents per pound, making the cost 
of one of the nicest and seemingly most dur¬ 
able wire fences in this section, about eighty- 
three cents per rod, besides labor. 
There is only one trouble that I see with 
these posts. In wet weather they are not held 
from springing by the surface of the ground, 
liiis I believe the gentleman purposes to 
1 emedy by driving an oak stake 2x4 inches and 
eighteen inches long down beside the post, and 
luuum a view co some specialty —some 
for milk, others for beef. No one cau c.rccl 
in more than one of the above lines; therefore 
when a breed takes a leading position in its 
own particular department, it is certainly all 
that can be reasonably expected of it. I will 
not for the time being even claim fitness for 
the “oleomargarine dairy." But the posi¬ 
tion I intended to take in the article referred 
fc) by Stockman was based solely on the ab¬ 
sence of horns, leaving the question of merit 
out simply Jor Hie sake of argument. For 
this purpose only I was wiping, for the time, 
to call the honors easy between the Angus and 
the other beef breeds. Arguing from the same 
standpoint, 1 w i-Ti to give a short extract from 
the Dundee (Scotland) Advertiser of Decem¬ 
ber 2(ilast. If there is anyone part of the 
world where the real advantage of the absence 
of horns should be known it is in the home of 
the polled cattle in Scotland. For generations 
the Scotch farmers a ud breeders have been 
able to compare the hornless with the homed 
animals. What stronger evidence, then, of u 
verdict on this question could be given than 
the cases of barbarous cruelty we hear of 
where the horns are sawed off from full-grown 
horned cattle, in that home of polled cattle, 
that the horned animals, c-ven at the expense 
( of such terrible suffering, may be made to 
’ possess the advantages of those bom without; 
horns ? There is no question that this prac¬ 
tice of dishorning cattle has been quite fre¬ 
quently followed in Scotland, and laws have 
been framed to prevent it. The extract I give 
furnishes a case in point. It is as follows:— 
“ cruelty to animals. 
“To t-he Editor of the Dundee Advertiser 
“ Sir: Humane people will have read with 
interest the report of the annual meeting of 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals, which appeared in the Advertiser ol 
to-day. Those people in Dundee who have 
animals tinder their care are, in const quencG 
of the action of this Society, willingly or by 
force, progressing tow ard a higher humanity. 
It would ben good thing if cases of cruelty in 
the county were as rat'.* as they now appear 
to lie in the town of Dundee. About four 
months ago, in a field in this district, I saw 10 
largo bullocks — Irish three-year-olds they 
looked like—from which the horns had just 
been cut or sawn oil. The animals appeared 
to be suffering intense {min; their heads were 
bleeding profusely, and altogether the specta¬ 
cle was such as every well-constituted mind 
would have naturally revolted against. This 
“homing” of grown cattle,than which nothing 
on this earth cnu.be more barbarous and inhu¬ 
mane, is still frequently practiced in the coun¬ 
try, and, passing strange as it may appear, 
oftentimes by parties who would spurn the 
eharge of “ cruelty, ” with indignation. The 
only excuse which I have ever heard the per- 
She 
CARE OP STOCK IN WINTER. 
omy io me animal, but to the owner as well. 
Last Spring I found the horns on a pair of 
very strong young oxen came to my aid most 
opportunely when it was proposed to fasten 
a rope around the horns and then to a solid 
post where the unruly young oxen were made 
to stand for three or four days, at tl e end of 
which time we found no more troubte in 
putting them under yoke. Now, as to the 
use of boras to. the animal himself: several 
times recently have I seen these s:twe oxen 
above mentioned making use of their horns 
(long ones too) to relieve themselves of trouble¬ 
some itching upon the top front part; of 
their shoulders, when it was entirely imprac¬ 
ticable to have done so by the longue, • hich 
is usually resorted to when italu-g occurs on 
any other part of the body. V,\re it ueces- 
sury, I could go on and multiply, almost 
without number, the instances where and 
when these (worthless appendages ns some 
would have us think) horns have come to aid 
bath the owner as well as beast itself. Nature 
never plays “ bliudman’s buff ”—but all her 
works are for some purpose. 
It is only necessary, (to show to what straits 
the admirers of polled cattle are forced) to 
mention one sample of thoir argument; to wit, 
that they take up less room in railway cars 
This argument is only too thin; unless it can 
be established that the horns of an ox occupy 
entirely a solid cube of space equal in size to 
the distance between the tips of the horns. 
^ a - “Rodophil.” 
Listening the two together with a rough and 
clinch staple. John Gould. 
Feeding. 
The matter of variety or change is sadly 
overlooked by many in feeding stock at the 
barn. W hen they are running at large in the 
pasture, Summers, they have a chance to se¬ 
lect for themselves, but not so in their Winter 
confinement. Farmers generally have con¬ 
siderable coarse, poor fodder that they feel 
obliged to use, and thatshould be fed out. Now 
the usual course with many is this: first they 
feed the poorest grade all out ; then the next 
poorest, and so on up to the best. The result 
of this course is that stock fed continuously 
on iiny one poor grade of food gc-t sick of it, 
eat it with great reluctance, about half starve, 
grow poor and much of the food is left and 
wasted. 
It is the belief of many that to get poor 
hay or straw eaten up there must be no 
good bay fed during the while, as the stock be¬ 
ing fed will not eat the poor after tasting the 
good. Now this is a mistake. An animal's 
body is a complicated machine composed of 
many different kinds of materials and neither 
oat straw, meadow buy nor corn fodder, when 
fed alone, will supply these different materials 
or l tm the machine in good order ; but, on the 
contrary, different parts of the animal body 
are not supplied with the proper materials— 
t hey beeomo weakened or disordered and the 
creature runs down or grows poor. The ap¬ 
petite i* the voice of the body calling for proper 
elements of food to supply its imperative 
wants. Oat straw will supply some of these 
wants ; meadow hay, some; corn fodder, 
some, and good hay, roots, corn and cotton¬ 
seed meal and shorts, others. When such a 
variety or combination of food is given as to 
TOBACCO GROWING NOTES. 
Desi'ite the prejudices and conimeuts often 
expressed against the culture of tobacco it 
cannot be denied that the industry has proved 
a great and lasting benefit, in a pecuniary 
point of view, to hosts of farmers. I could 
mention the names of a number in my own 
acquaintance who have been saved financially 
by admitting tobacco among their farm crops, 
bi one section where tobacco growing is anew 
industry, quito a percentage of the farmers 
were in debt and many of them would have 
been visited by the sheriff but for the timely 
introduction of this remunerative crop which 
has in many cases aided farmers to again re¬ 
gain a perfect title to thoir farms and make 
themselves and families more happy by the 
improvement subsequently made in homes 
and surroundings. 
Bur in tobacco growing, as in all other 
mgs, there is danger of carrying it to ex¬ 
cess. On some farms where this crop is made 
a specialty the “car waits” of fact are 
' id bio on oil sides, Pool' fences, dilapidated 
| ml dings and neglected fence comers tell 
plainly that the owner is overrun with work 
mul is so attached to his tobacco that other 
things suffer for want of attention. This 
should not be so and is not except in cases 
" here the farmer is avaricious und seeks only 
L 
