APRIL 29 
actly eight months and fourteen days old, 
and the dressed carcass weighed 416 pounds. 
A neighbor of mine fed an entire litter of nine 
Cheshire pigs. They were killed when nine 
months and one day old, and the nine aver¬ 
aged 406 pounds. This neighbor is a deacon 
in the Presbyterian Church, and vouches for 
the exact truth of the statement. Everybody 
in this section, where the Cheshire is the prin¬ 
cipal hog raised, knows that they will outgrow 
a Berkshire on the average. 
As to quality of meat, I know of no better 
way to get at the facta in the case than to 
apply to the butchers who are constantly hand¬ 
ling hoth Ctaesli ires and Berkshi res. I, to-day, 
asked Mr. Angel (of the firm of Kenney ft 
Angel, who has constantly been cutting up 
hogs for a great many years, and who has 
handled thousands of both Chesbires and 
Berkshi res) to give me the exact facts in the 
case, a' the same time showing him my former 
article and your comments thereon. His an¬ 
swer was as follows, as nearly as I can word it; 
“ I think the Chesbires have a little more fat 
on the outside of the ham. The Berkshire has 
very thin pork along the back over the ribs, 
which grows thicker towards the belly, where 
it. is thicker than uny where else—a great fault, 
as the pork should be thick over the back and 
thin on the belly. The Berkshire side is not as 
good for bacon as the Cheshi re. For the butcher 
to cut up on I he block, all things considered, 
the Cheshire is much superior. It cuts up meat 
better for retail. The quality of the meat is 
just as good. It must be so, for they are just 
as fine boned as the Berkshire. 7 ’ So much for 
the butcher. 
The fact is simply this—the Chesbires are 
just as fine as the Berkshire, and grow larger. 
Chesbires, on the average, will outweigh any 
breed at nine months. Accept thanks for 
your assurance of future sales if my state¬ 
ments are correct. I will only add, on that 
poiat, that 1 have always been able to sell for 
breeding purposes all I could raise, and could 
have sold last season twice as many as I did 
if I had had them. Allow me to state one fact 
more that I am just a little proud of, which is 
that within five years I have shipped 76 times 
to men I had sold to before, and that I now 
have on hand orders from eight more who 
have had pigs of me. Of course, if my Chesh- 
ires did not answer the description, people 
would uot buy of me the second time. 
Madison Co., N. Y. E. W. Davis. 
THE CARE AND REARING OF LAMBS. 
HENRY STEWART. 
To be a good shepherd one should understand 
well how to care for the lambs. In some 
branches of sheep herding the lambs are the 
most profitable part of the flock, selling for 
more than the ram would, were it ready for 
the butcher. And wherever a flock is kept 
within 24 hours by express of a lurge city 
market, the lambs will bring more than the 
ewes, if they can be brought to market in 
good season and in the right condition. But 
it is the fine art of sheep keeping to rear 
lambs for market successfully, and et, like all 
the fine arts it is very easy to be done when 
one knows how. Although it is too late now j 
for this season, to set about raising lambs for 
market, yet it is necessary to take time by the 
forelock in this business, and to look ahead a 
year or nearly so before one can get into it. 
It may therefore be seasonable to discuss the 
matter while the present crop of lambs are 
being offered up, with the additions of mint 
sauce and Florida green peas, on the Easter 
tables. And the first requisite, of course, is a 
flock of ewes. But something comes even 
before that., and this is a place to keep the 
flock, and this is the thing needful to think 
about just now. 
We want a field in which we can turn 
a score or two of young thrifty ewes 
about next July. A clover stubble is just the 
thing for there is nothing better than a clover 
aftermath for this flock. An oat stubble is a 
good place for them if it is to be left fallow 
and a poor weedy pasture will answer very 
well, if some little extra food, such as bran, 
oats or wheat screenings, can be given in the 
field. And the flock may be selected at any 
time, a few can be picked up and a bargain 
secured. Otherwise the ewes should not be 
purchased until the place and the time are 
ready. Then, three or four-year old, good- 
sized grade Merino, or common native ewes, 
may be picked up as they offer; and a Hamp¬ 
shire or a South Down ram one year old past 
be purchased to run with the ewes. For this 
purpose I would as soon have lambs in 
January or in December as in February or 
March. March is a bad month for lambs to 
come in, the cold, raw winds are worse than 
zero of a calm, sunny January day. A young 
ram a year or less old can be purchased at this 
season, when there is very little call for them, 
or much less money than next Summer, when 
every one wanting one, is in a hurry to supply 
himself. So that this is another preparation 
for the business that can be made now with 
advantage and economy. 
But some farmers now have lambs on their 
hands and want to do the best they can with 
them. Some do loo much and so effect very 
little good, for a lamb cannot be forced with 
food very safely or successfully It can 
digest the ewe’s milk best, and that is therefore 
the best food, so that to feed the lamb the 
shepherd must feed the ewe, and thus increase 
and enrich the lamb’s natural food. When a 
lauib is completely disowned and abandoned 
by t.he ewe, it may be raised to a good sheep 
by means of cow’s milk, but a fat market 
lamb was never, or hardly ever, thus raised. 
The best lamb ever sent to the market by the 
wi iter was one that was a general robber, 
stealing up to the ewes, behind, and sucking 
them, the ewes quietly grazing all-oblivious 
of the substitute n, until, suspecting something, 
they would turn suddenly and send away the 
thief. A ewe that has lost her lamb may be 
made foster-mother to one or even two or 
three, and lambs so fostered will grow amaz¬ 
ingly, and become very fat and heavy. It is 
even a risky thing to begin feeding bran or 
oats to a lamb before it is two months old lest 
the unwonted food should disorder the dlges 
tive functions, and the lamb go back instead 
of forward. But if done very cautiously the 
lamb may be benefited. The habit of the 
writer lias been to take some of the finest of 
the clover hay, specially put aside for the 
lambs and their darns at this period, and cut 
it into chaff, wetting it and spriukling a little 
flue bran and corn and oats very finely ground, 
over it., and mixuig it evenly; when the ewes 
are fed, a little of this fodder is put into a 
small trough outside of the ewe’s pens, where 
the lambs cau get through u small opening to 
it. By and by they find it and begin to nibble 
a little and soon w ill come and take a feed 
several times a day if it is provided for them. 
A quart is enough at first for 1U or 12 lambs, 
but in a week or two, after getting used to it, 
each one will eat a pint a duy of the mixed 
food. This is very useful to them when on 
fresh grass, as it prevents the tendency of the 
grass to scour the lambs. This Jood should 
also be coutiuued for the ewes as the young 
gra-s aud herbuge eaten by them will have 
the same effect, through them, upon the lambs. 
Every threatened disorder of the digestive 
organs should be watched lor aud anticipated, 
for one day’s sicknets will require a week of 
i ecovery and may easily knock off five pounds 
from the weight of the lauib when it goes to 
market. Over-feeding is the great aud ever¬ 
present danger. The lambs are doing well, 
aud one is so upt to think a little more feed 
will make them do a little better; aud a iittlo 
more yet will do yet a little more. But the 
verge is overstepped all at once and the lambs 
ure off their feed, or their ears droop and they 
hang their hesds and look rough and harsh. 
Then the feeder’s little profit has gone and all 
his care and trouble have come to naught. 
“Let well enough alone,’’ and “ Make haste 
slowly,” will apply very forcibly to this 
business. 
If tee lambs are to be kept, all this care and 
trouble may still be profitably spent upon them 
excepting so far as that they do not require to 
be kept fat. But a grow ing lamb of the right 
kind will get fat, aud if it is thin, it is in a 
poor way; and if we want good sheep we must 
make good lambs to begin with. A lamb of 
40 pounds at three months, will, if it goes on 
as it has begun, make a 150-pouud sheep at 
two years,and where the lambs cannot be con¬ 
veniently sold, the next profitable thing to do 
with one is to make a heavy two-year-old of 
it. 
A word or two in regard to operating on 
lambs. Market lambs do not require docking 
or castration. But those to be kept should be 
operated on when a week old. The tail is 
then easily cut, the bone bei ng soft and cartil¬ 
aginous, and the vessels bleed very little. 
Indeed the Jambs at that age don’t seem to 
care in the least for the operation five minutes 
after it has been performed. The operation 
is best performed by two peisons; one holds 
the lamb under his arm and taking ihe tail in 
both hands, draws the skin upwards as far as 
he cau, the other with a pair of sharp sheep 
shears, or other shears, clips the tail through 
at a stroke about two inches from the rump. 
The loose skin returns over the stump, a pinch 
of powdered hlue stone applied cauterizes the 
wound, and the lamb will be skipping about 
very soon afterwards. Castration of a week or 
10-duys old lamb is as easily performed. The 
lamb is placed upon its back on the operator’s 
kuees, the scrotum, very small at this time, is 
held between the fingers and thumb aud clipped 
off bodily with a pair of shears. A pinch of 
sugar is the best to apply to the wound and 
if a plaster of cob-web is laid upon it the 
bleeding will very quickly stop. Persons who 
have practiced this method for years never 
lost a lamb, while a three or four-months old 
lamb suffers excruciatingly from the opera¬ 
tion and its bleating and complaining give a 
sore heart to the tender owners of these gen¬ 
tle creatures. A considerable proportion of 
emasculated older lambs are lost by neglect of 
the precaution of ojiening the scrotum at the 
very bottom and of putting a little plug of 
wool into the opening to keep it free and clear 
of the suppuration. 
Grading- up a Flock. 
Some five years ago, in accordance with 
the advice of the Rural, I obtained a few fine- 
wooled sheep at a very low price. I then 
bought a pure-bred Cotswold ram, the best I 
could find, and I had to go a good many miles 
to find one, for the most of the sheep about 
here were of the scrub kind. After crossing 
with this ram for three years I then sold him 
for a good price and bought a better one than 
the first. I bought him when a lamb, and at 
one year old he sheared fourteen pounds of 
clean washed wool of very fine quality. I 
now" have one of the finest flocks in this part 
of the country. The man who bought my 
wool last Spring said he had bought wool for 
tw enty years, and my flock averaged the most 
pounds per head of any whose clip he had ever 
bought. I took premiums in five classes at the 
last county fair. The cost of improvement 
has been very little, while the money gained 
in the present value of the flock and the sales 
from them, has been enough to pay for the 
Rural as long as I live (and then have some 
left), and it is to the Rural that the credit 
is mostly due. Henry Wood. 
Otsego Co., N. Y. 
-- 
My Experience with Sheep. 
I commenced w'ith sixteen of the native 
sheep that did not average over 2% pounds of 
wool per head, but soon increased my flock to 
25 or 30 head, wit h an average w eight of more 
than 8X pounds of wool, without goiug out of 
the flock to do it. lu the first place, 1 selected 
the best lambs to keep, killing off the poorest 
(contrary to the usual custom), and from the 
Fall, when 1 took them up for Winter, I kept 
them iu the yard until the grass got a fair start 
in the Spring. I never kept the buck from 
them, but had the lambs come as early as they 
chose. I fed a small mess of outs three or four 
times a week in addition to their hay, and 
when they began to drop their lambs I gave 
them a feed of rutabagas daily, in addition to 
their other feed. My lambs came along strong 
and hearty; to lose a lamb was of rare occur¬ 
rence. w. s. 
fy Slpiarixm. 
BEES. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
The name of Grimm is very familiar to . 
American apiarists. If we except the grand 
trio, Langstrotb, Quinby and Wagoner, there 
is no one more worthy to be remembered with 
the warmest gratitude and admiration than 
Adam Grimm Like the great Quinby, he 
pointed out the possibilities of apiculture aud 
the way to its successful practice, and, what, is 
better, he actually demonstrated, as did 
Quinby, that more than he said was actually 
true. 
I have lately had a very interesting visit 
from Mr. George Grimm, son of the late Adam 
Grimm, who has so fully donned the mantle of 
his father that, uuly twenty two years old, it 
has seldom been my privilege to meet a more 
sensible and intelligent apiarist. As much of 
the experience of Mr, Grimm is of general 
interest, and well worthy to be copied by 
others, I will send a brief chapter of it for the 
bee keeping readers of the Rural. 
Mr. Grimm may be classed with Hnrbison, 
Captain Hetherington, D. A. Jones and James 
Heddon, who keep bees, not by the tens or the 
scores, but by the hundreds. And to quote his 
own language, “ I am like father; 1 keep bees 
not for the fun, though there is nothing else I 
like so well, not for the study and research 
into the scientific aspect of the business, 
though I recognize the value of such study 
and research, aud flud iu it exceeding pleasure 
whenever my time permits me to indulge in 
this direction, but for the money.” Like his 
father, his aim and attempt is not a vain one. 
Unlike most bee keepers of the country, Mr. 
Grimm came through the Winter of 1880 and 
18SI with almost no loss, aud so entered on the 
season of 1881 under excellout conditions. 
His sales last season were upward of 12,000, 
and this Spring will be even greater, and still 
leave him more bees than he had at the open¬ 
ing of the Spring one year ago. Notwith¬ 
standing these startling results, he gave less 
than half of his time during the year to his 
bees and at no time had more than two men 
engaged to help him, and only a few weeks 
had he more than one man to help him. Of 
course, uot every man could do as well us this. 
Mr. Grimm has the valuable prestige of being 
the son of a very successful father. This not 
only helps his sales, but the excellent meth od 
of his father were learned so young and so 
impressed by every-day practice, that he 
teight almost be said to have inherited them. 
Again, he knows his business, and, perhaps 
best of all, he attends to everything in season. 
Like all of our successful apiarists who do 
things on ?o laree a scale, Mr. Grimm has sev¬ 
eral apiaries, and practices moving Lis bees so 
ns to utilize to the fullest extent the bee-forage 
in the region about him. 
Mr. Grimm prefers a simple Langstioth 
hive, wdth the loug shallow frame preferred 
by Mr. Langstroth, the large portico, and an 
immovable bottom board. He has tried the 
Gallup frame, and thinks it excellent, but for 
an apiarist who does things on the extensive 
scale that he does, it is not the hive. To move 
the bees as frequently ns he does, it is all-im¬ 
portant that preparation for moving be re¬ 
duced to the shortest possible time. His bot¬ 
tom board is already fastened. To ventilate, he 
has only to cover the large portico with wire 
gauze. His frames rest on notched rabbits, 
and set into a notched piece which runs along 
on the bottom at the 000161 ' of his hives, so 
they are always secure against movement, 
even though the hive is roughly handled, 
when the bees are being moved. With this 
arrangement the only thing required to pre¬ 
pare bees for being moved is to nail the wire 
gauze on to the portico, and nail the top. 
Where bees are to be moved as Mr. Grimm 
moves them, the above arrangement has ob¬ 
vious advantages. Mr. G. finds it necessary, 
with his Langstroth frames, to keep special 
nucleus hives of small size, but be considers 
the advantages named more than sufficient to 
compensate for these extra nucleus hives. 
With such frames as the Gallup, which are 
about a foot square, the hives and frames are 
admirable for queen rearing, and so the apiar¬ 
ist does not have to supply any special hives 
for queen rearing. 
Mr, Grimm is a firm believer iucellar winter¬ 
ing, and with good reason, on the principle 
that “the proof of the pudding is iu the 
eating ” There can lie no doubt that the safest 
and most economical method for wintering 
bees is to use a good cellar. Many condemn 
cellar wintering, on the ground that they have 
failed to winter succe-sfully by this method. 
But successful wintering, even in a ceUar, 
demands more than a cellar; it demands a 
cellar so made as to preserve a uniform tem¬ 
perature. Let the temperature fall too low, 
or rise too high, and remain so for uny con¬ 
siderable time, and the bees are sure to die. 
Such ventilation is required, too, as will pre¬ 
serve the atmosphere in a sweet condition. 
Mr. Grimm looks to these matters and he 
succeeds. 
Mr. Grimm clips the wings of the queens. 
It is strange that every one does not do so. 
This secures against loss of colonies, and 
makes it far easier to hive colonies when they 
swarm. Lastly, Mr. Grimm owns two farms 
in whiehhe has a lar larger investment than 
in his bees, and yet he says that the cash 
proceeds from the bees far exceed the income 
from the farms. 
(I'nlomoloiRcal. 
WIRE-WORMS AND CUT-WORMS. 
What is commonly known as the European 
wire-worm is the larva or grub of the Spring 
Beetle or Elater, and is not to tie confounded 
with what some entomologists call the Ameri¬ 
can wire-worm. The latter is a species of 
Juius (Packard) or lulus (Harris), better 
kuowu as the Millipedes, so named from its 
numerous feet. The European wire-worm 
has but six feet, and is said to live in the 
larval state not less than five years, during 
which time it carries ou its work of destruc¬ 
tion. 
The common “cut-worm” is also sometimes 
confounded with the wire worm, though the 
former is the larva of a moth belonging to a 
group called Agrofcidlans the m 'mbers 
of which, like the true wire-worm, are the 
enemies of wheat, rye, oats, grass, and vege¬ 
tables. The difference iu appearance aud 
size of the common cut-worm and the wire- 
worm is so great that but a brief description 
of the two is necessary. The former varies 
from an inch to an inch andaffm If iu length, 
is of dark ashen-gray color, with a brown 
head, a horny, black plate on the first and 
last rings, and black spots on all rings 
and may be characterized as a thick, 
greasy - looking caterpillar. The latter— 
the wire-worm—is long, cylindrical, hard¬ 
bodied and generally of a buff or a yellowish- 
red color. It has only six legs, appended to 
the thorax, and a slight prop-leg on the last 
ring of the body. 
The wire-worms are exceedingly destructive, 
livlugon the roots of different grains, and on 
potatoes, turnips and other garden vegetables. 
The eggs are deposited, to the greatest extent, 
in old pastures and in soil that is not often 
