748 
NOV 4 
was turned into the empty cells of a comb 
previously fastened to the shelf in the box, the 
cover should be removed. The bee will soon 
fly, and must be carefully watched. After a 
few circles, each circle bending towards its 
home, the bee will dart off in that direction. 
Boon it will return with others, and as soon 
as the line is made certain, the hunter can go 
a few rods to one side and And another line, 
and of course where these lines meet will be 
the tree. If in the region of a bee keeper one 
must be careful or the lines will take him to 
some one’s hives, and his time will be lost. If 
no bees are found on the flowers, then the 
bees can be attracted to the sweets in the box 
by burning the comb as suggested above. 
When once found it is better to climb up 
and cut the bees out rather than to fell the 
tree, if this is possible. A little smoke and 
the jarring will so frighten the bees that the 
danger from stings is very slight. 
It tabes some experience to line bees quickly. 
Old bee hunters will find bee-trees in a sur¬ 
prisingly short time. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
HOLSTEIN BULL, JACOB 2nd, H H. B.— 
NO. 50. 
This week we present at Fig. 412, an en¬ 
graving of the head of the Holstein bull, 
Jacob 2nd, owned by Messrs. Smiths & 
Powell, Syracuse, N. Y. When three years 
old be weighed 2,700 pounds, and Is now a 
model Holstein bull. He is the sire of the 
bull Neptune, a famous beast, out of the cow 
Aaggie, whose record of 18,004 pounds 15 
ounces of milk in one year has, it is claimed, 
never been equaled by any cow of any breed. 
Her daughter Aaggie 2nd, by Neptune, her 
full brother, has a two-year-old record of 61 
pounds 5 ounces in one day, 1,700 pounds 2 
ounces in 20 days, and 17,746 pounds 2 ounces 
in a year; a milk yield which, it is claimed, 
has never been equaled except by her dam, as 
stated above. Jacob 2d s dam has a record of 
75 5-6 pounds in a day on grass and Aaggie’s 
dam has a record of 76 pounds in a day. Thus it 
appears that this has strong claims to be con¬ 
sidered the deepest milking family known. 
It may be mentioned, in passing, that Messrs. 
Smiths & Powell bought every member of the 
Aaggie family in Holland, and there are now 
but two Aaggies in existence outside of their 
herd. It is a fact worthy of mention that the 
family characteristics, form,style and color of 
all the Aaggie family are strikingly distinct 
and marked. They all show the same won¬ 
derful development of all the milk organs 
and milk forms. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
The cattle gadfly is a notorious pest to stock 
and not only torments them greatly, but it 
damages the hides of beef cattle to the extent 
of several hundred thousand dollars yearly. 
The nature of the insect is very little known 
and many erroneous statements are made in 
regard to it. From a close examination of the 
ovipositor of the fly, which I made recently 
under a microscope of high power, I find the 
fly to be a true stinging insect as much so as 
a hornet or a wasp. The ovipositor not only 
deposits eggs, but it penetrates into the flesh 
through the skin to the depth of nearly half 
an inch; and not only this but it ejects with 
the egg an acid liquid which is precisely the 
same as that of the wasp’s sting, viz: formic 
acid, which is so called because it was origin 
ally distilled from the bodies of ants for use in 
surgery as a blister. 
The sting of a gadfly consists of several 
sliding joints like those of a telescope, and has 
a sharp, boring apparatus at the end by 
which it can make its way through the ani¬ 
mal’s hide. The polBon glands are situated 
• at thB base of the sting and a very pmall 
quantity of the poison taken up by the point 
of a needle and applied to a scratch on the 
skin, is equal to considerably more than one 
hornet or several “yellow-jackets;” at least it 
was to me, and animals are more sensitive to 
pain than men. The effect of the sting then is 
to leave an egg in the flesh of the animal, 
with a quantity of this irritant poison which 
causes severe pain for a time, and then pro¬ 
duces inflammation and pus in the wound, up¬ 
on which the young insect lives until its own 
presence irritates the flesh and continues the 
supply. There is no wonder then that cat¬ 
tle should dread this pest and should be made 
so frantic by its attacks. 
The first public sale of Foiled Angus cattle 
has been held and with remarkable success. 
It occurred at Chicago (Dexter Park) and the 
prices realized were no doubt satisfactory to 
those who have led the boom. The averages 
were 8761.43 for cows and heifers and $409 for 
bulls. One two-year-old heifer brought $1,555, 
which is certainly doing very well as things go. 
The speculation in stock, and stock ranges 
QL\)t JJflultnj J)urlr. 
THE SWITZER APPLE. 
Mutton is becoming a popular meat, and 
the rearing of sheep for this purpose promises 
to be a very satisfactory business, when it is 
well managed A flock of mutton sheep is 
not well managed unless 150 lambs are reared 
for each 100 ewes. This is possible, and has 
been done in this country, although few here 
do as well as the English farmer who reared 
400 lambs from 200 ewes out of a flock of 320. 
This would give 500 lambs from the whole 
flock, leaving 20 to make up for accidents. 
Accidents in Btock keeping are unnecessary. 
They result from want of care and foresight. 
“Bad luck” is only another word for neglect. 
And a very little neglect will cause a very 
great loss in a flock of ewes. I have knbwn a 
case in which nearly every lamb in a flock was 
cast and several ewes died, by feeding one 
meal of frozen roots. That was, of course, a 
case of bad luck. 
THE HOUDAN FOWL. 
The Houdan Cock.—Fig. 411. 
significant and I am by no means jealous 
about it. Here is a Kansas City stock-broker 
who advertises and offers an assortment of 
$5,000,000 of ranches stocked to suit all pur¬ 
chasers, varying in price from $70,000 to 
$650,000, and a New York advertising paper, 
in which all sorts of frauds tempt the public, 
has continually numerous advertisements of 
herds and flocks and ranches to be sold and 
which are promised to yield 40 to 50 per cent 
annually with the greatest ease. Perhaps not 
many readers of the Rural, may be tempted 
to buy a $650,000 ranch, but the “popular” 
system of the joint-stocking business is adapted 
to it, and some persons might be deluded into 
taking $1,000 or so of stock in some bogus 
affair. “Hinc iUcc lacri/tncefl 
A friend of mine who is interested in Al- 
pbea Jersey stock, writes me to ask if I would 
advise him to breed an inbred Alphea cow to 
her own son, 18 months old. I certainly would 
not, and for the following reasons. The 
Alphea family is all very closely inbred. 
Now, if a whole family possessed a peculiar 
trait—as a family—it might be desirable to 
keep on breeding in line. But when it is 
only in an occasional and accidental way 
that the peculiarity shows itself, and no more 
in this particular family than in another, I 
would rather take an out cross of some other 
that the most valuable results have been at¬ 
tained in breeding, and I would rather pay 
$2,000 for a bull of this sort than $500 for a 
cow, because it is very clear the bull would 
do the most for the money. 
I have frequently spoken of the Devons as 
being very greatly underestimated and neg¬ 
lected as dairy cattle. I well remember when 
a herd of Devons which I kept several years 
ago, proved themselves to be remarkably fine 
dairy cows; for beef and for the yoke it goes 
without saying that the Devon steer is unsur- 
Therk is always an unsatisfied inquiry for 
the best fowl. Perhaps this desire may never 
be satisfied by reason of the impossibility of 
finding any one thing which is the best un¬ 
der all circumstances, because the require¬ 
ments of these vary so much. An excellent 
fowl for all purposes should have the fol¬ 
lowing good points, and no bad ones: It 
should be of good size and quick growth, of 
good shape and form, plump and meaty as 
to flesh, and small and light as to bone; a 
tution, not restless in confinement; easily 
controlled, and having a good bearing and 
handsome plumage. Now what fowl is there 
that comes up to all these requirements, or 
indeed approaches nearly to them! If a dis¬ 
interested expert in poultry were asked this 
question, and be did not at once say it was 
the Houdan, he would hesitate some time at 
least before he would say it was not, and 
perhaps would refuse so to say after all, for 
the Houdan is a remarkably handsome bird, 
and beauty with many persons is the first 
consideration. It is square and plump in form, 
with short legs and small bones, and it is 
quite equal to the Dorking in regard to size of 
breast and other good points of a first-class 
table-fowl. Its eggs are large and white, 
and if it does not lay as many as the smaller 
and poorer-fleshed Leghorn, it certainly ex¬ 
cels these in the weight of eggs produced. It 
is hardy and easily managed, and if the 
seeker after profit in poultry is not satisfied 
with the bill of particulars, it is difficult to 
say where a better or a fuller one can be 
made up. The most conspicuous feature of 
the Houdan is the crest cr top-knot and the 
rnuflle or beard. These consist of black and 
white feathers, and almost entirely cover 
and hide the head and face. The antlered 
comb, well shown in the engraving, Fig. 411 
is another well-marked point of this breed. 
It has the fifth toe, which is also possessed 
by the Dorking, and the legs are white 
mottled with black, or of a slate color. 
good family than continue to breed in and-in. 
The greatest value, to my mind, of a close- 
bred family is to produce bulls for crossing 
upon other stock. As a rule, it is in this way 
constant and prolific layer of good-sized eggs, 
a good mother when brooding, but not a per¬ 
sistent brooder, having sweet-flavored flesh, 
in its youth and maturity, hardy in consti¬ 
Holstkin Bull, Jacob 2d.—F ig. 412. 
(See Illustration, page 749.) 
The Switzer is one of the apples imported 
from Russia by the United States Department 
of Agriculture in 1869-70. The tree is a vigorous 
grower, upright and spreading, and an early 
and abundant bearer. The young sboots are 
dark brown (black walnut color) with not very 
continues to grow. The old men are quietly 
sliding out and letting in the new-comers. 
They will “wait a wee” until the inevitable 
reaction comes and quietly slide in again at 
less than half what they Bold out for. The 
fear is that the very certain losses which the 
new-comers must meet by reason of their in¬ 
experience and over-sanguine expectations, 
may produce an actual scarcity and cause 
prices of beef to again advance. It may be 
thought that I am looking with the “green 
eye” upon this subject, but the signs are too 
sister and Mercury and Europa were also 
brother and sister, so that Sarpedon had the 
pure Saturn and Rhea blood without any in¬ 
termixture. Alphea stock, so-called, has 
been bred very closely to this blood. The 
chief end of in-breeding is to fix a family 
characteristic, and this was intended to be a 
large butter product. Now has this cloBe 
breeding produced a high-producing butter 
family! It is very certain that it has 
not, for Europa produced (if I remem¬ 
ber aright) but one cow as good as herself. 
out to their milk long enough. Now, there i* 
never a fault that cannot be cured in some 
way, and the way to cure this only fanlt of 
these beautiful cattle is to breed it out. 
At the Minnesota State Fair, recently held, 
a prize was offered for the herd which pro¬ 
duced the richest milk, to be tested on the 
grounds. Now, one would suppose that the 
Jerseys would have a walk-over, and win in 
such a competition with ease. But it won’t 
do to be too sure in such a case when the Dev¬ 
ons are brought “to the foi e,” and it does not 
surprise me in the least to fiad that the Dev¬ 
ons carried off the prize, beating the best 
Jerseys on exhibition in the proportion of 
cream and butter to the milk given. And 
there are Jerseys and good ones in Minnesota. 
The bull, Sarpedon 930 is an instance, and 
his pedigree is as follows: 
Sarpedon \ 
Mercury 
Europa 
p“pH!& ra 
Whoa jSSST 
(M-he. isss* 
Jupiter and Alphea were thus brother and 
passed except for weight and size, and these, 
too, depend somewhat upon feeding. But 
few want to have monstrous Devons. Their 
compactness and agility make them tho most 
desirable for a billy country where the pas¬ 
ture Is light. But I found the oowb then to 
give a large quantity of milk when fresh; 20 
quarts a day were quite common, and the 
butter was rich in color, hard and well grained, 
And of the finest flavor. But they do aot hold 
many, bat very distinct white dots. Fruit 
medium to large, very smooth and fair, round¬ 
ish-conical. Skin almost covered with bright, 
broad splashes of different shades of crimson, 
somewhat after the style of the St. Lawrence, 
but not so dark. No bloom. Stalk medium 
in size and length, rather deeply inserted. 
Calyx partially closed in a shallow, smooth 
basin. Flesh white, soft, juicy, and of re¬ 
markably fine, rich flavor for a Russian apple. 
