JUNE <© 
386 
but the indirect co?t of the damage they 
commit ? Over $4,000 were paid last year 
to sheep - owners for damages to their 
flocks by dogs in one county in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. Aud $4,000 is more than all the 
dogs in that county would probably realize 
at a grand combination sale, with a sil¬ 
ver-plated whistle given to the seller who 
made the highest average, thrown in. Here 
is a subject that might be profita 1 >ly taken 
in hand by the new Agricultural Cabinet 
Minister and his statisticians and other offi¬ 
cers, whose business it will be to look after 
our stock interests. 
I would like to have an opportunity of 
enforcing upon stock-feeders of every kind 
and degree the high value of root crops as 
stock feed. When scalawag cattle bring in 
New York markets as much per pound as 
extra brought two years ago, or less, and 
extra sell for the highest prices of war 
times, ways and means of feeding cattle, 
sheep and swine become a most important 
subject for study. Cheap feeding and high- 
flavored and tender flesh are the two ends be¬ 
tween the meeting point of which the profit is 
to be found. Aud if there is any other crop 
that can be made to yield a cheaper fodder, 
or one that is more healthful, and produces 
sweeter and better flesh than roots, let it be 
made known. 
What are the best sheep? This question is 
very often proposed and discussed, but evi¬ 
dence is better than discussion. The United 
States are now producing yearly about 225 
million pounds of wool, and much the larger 
part of this is produced by Merinos and Merino 
grades. The production of long or combing 
wool does not increase rapidly, and were it not 
that the lambs and mutton of these large 
breeds are in demand in the neighborhood of 
large cities, there would be scarcely any of it 
grown. The American Merino has been so 
much improved by skillful breeding that it is 
now the best wool sheep in the world, and it 
is certainly the best sheep for wool in its native 
country. 
A. J. Blakely, of Grinnel, Iowa, some time 
ago reported his experience in crossing Mer¬ 
inos and Cotswolds. It was not favorable. 
He said the pure Merinos averaged 
pounds of wool and the cross only nine pounds. 
The two wools sold for the same price, and 
the cross sheep weighed oue-half or three- 
quarters more than the Merino and there¬ 
fore cost more to feed. This larger size, of 
course, won’t be a disadvantage wheremutton 
is sought. 
The South Downs are to have a pedigree 
record now. If any breed deserves it they do, 
for they are the choicest of sheep, and having 
been bred with great care, attention to pedi¬ 
gree is all the more necessary for the preser¬ 
vation of their present standard. It is to be 
hoped that American breeders, however, will 
give attention more to perfecting our native 
strains and abandon importations. Let us 
have as good an American South Down as we 
have a Merino. 
Shropshire sheep are becoming very popu¬ 
lar, and justly so. Very large prices are 
being obtained in England just now. At a 
recent sale a ram sold for $2,050 and several 
others for little less. It is generally considered 
that the value of a male breeding animal is, 
or ought to be, very much more than that of 
a female; and this should be obvious because 
of its greater usefulness in disseminating its 
herditary good qualities. 
V1)c 5xoin.c-i|crx). 
RECOLLECTIONS OF HOG DRIVING. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
My first experience as a drover was in 1847. 
I was living with my father on Whitewater 
bottoms, fifty miles from Cincinnati, and he 
fattened 400 hogs at home that year, and a lot 
of 50 or more on a farm in Madison County, 
Ind., the latter being about 120 miles from 
Cincinnati. We had a heavy crop of corn 
that year, and began feeding early. We fed 
by “ hogging off,” and it took just an acre of 
heavy corn a day to feed our bogs. I remem¬ 
ber turning the hogs into a fourteen acre field 
of heavy corn on our best bottom land, and 
that two weeks cleaned up the field. About 
the middle of November our hogs were in fair 
condition for market, and a speculator offered 
$3.95 net per hundred for them, and as this 
was a price which would give a large profit, 
father sold 259 of the best, aud the man who 
had bought them put 100 more in with them, 
and we started the drove a few miles on Friday 
evening. Saturday night we overtook a drove 
of 700 that had come from a greater distance, 
and for three days we were never out of sight 
of each other, and stopped together every 
night. The songs that were sung, the stories 
told, and the practical joke3 that were played 
made a strong impression on my boyish mind, 
but I have not space to tell of them here. At 
that day every farmer kept open house, and 
the drover was sure of entertainment where- 
ever night overtook him. The farmers’ wives 
were equal to any emergency, and would even, 
in a small log house, feed 15 or 20 hungry 
men—who after driving hogs from daylight 
till after dark with nothing but a cold bite, 
had appetites that were prodigious—and split 
beds and lodge them on the floor with con¬ 
siderable comfort, for we did not need to woo 
sleep after such a day’s work, for it took us by 
storm and kept us closely guarded till morn¬ 
ing. We had pleasant weather till Monday 
morning, but drove through a heavy rain the 
fore part of that day, and in six days landed 
our hogs safely in Cincinnati. We only loaded 
one hog into the wagon on the trip, and after 
riding one day it walked again without 
trouble. I began to think that hog driving 
was rather pleasant business, but before the 
Winter was over I “cut my eye-teeth.” 
It was December when we went to Madison 
County for the hogs that had been fed there, 
and we fouud that we had a kind of animal 
to deal with different from the Union County 
hogs. They were regular “ elm -peelers” some 
of them, with the speed of a race horse and as 
much fight to the square iuch as a catamount. 
The whole neighborhood turned out to help us 
and we started out on a crisp, cold morning 
with 40 men and boys and half as many dogs. 
We drove through a short lane and then fun 
began, for half a dozen of the leaders broke 
for the swamps. A detail of men, boys and 
dogs followed each one. The worst hog we 
had, an old stag with terrible tushes, father 
followed on horseback accompanied by one of 
the best of the men aud dogs, and after a race 
of more than a fourth of a mile they causht 
him, broke off his tushes and led him up. But 
as he was still determined to break for the 
swamps, and it was impossible to drive him, 
the halter was taken from the horse and put 
on the hog, and tied to the pummel of the 
saddle and the bog led (?) back to the drove, 
though if the truth must be told he was 
dragged on his side most of the way. On 
getting back to the drove we found that all 
the rest had been brought in, but after going 
through another short lane the ?ame trouble 
occurred. Our old pioneer said, “ This will 
never do, we will have to sew their eyes up.” 
We thought he was joking, but sure enough 
at the first farm house we came to the bogs 
were driven into a close lot, and six of the 
leaders caught and their eyes sewed up, and 
this ended our trouble for that day, for these 
hogs could hear the others and followed along 
with the drove. 
We stopp?d that night on the north side 
of White River and the next morning, with 
the mercury near zero, we attempted to 
drive the bogs across, but found it impossi¬ 
ble to make them take to the water. After 
two or three hours’ trial we gave it up ( 
and after huddling the hogs on the hank, 
carried rails and built a pen round them, and 
then father and one of the men got in and 
took the hogs by the ears, one at a time, and 
waded with them to' a gravel bar in the middle, 
slid them across a strip of ice ihat had formed 
in the still waters on the other side of it, and 
then they would go out on the south bank. It 
Was after dark when the last hog was over, 
and then in the darkness not half a dozen of 
them could be found. But supper and hot 
coffee were what we most needed, and these 
we found at the nearest farm house. After 
supper, finding that the full moon was 
up, we started out to hunt the bog and finally 
tracked them into a “devil’s lane,” by which 
is meant a narrow lane where two farmers 
had quarreled and would not join, fences, but 
each one built as near the division line as be 
could. The hogs had wound through this lane 
into a piece of woods where there were plenty 
of leaves, and had made comfortable beds and 
laid down for the night, aud so we did not 
disturb them. The next morning we found a 
lively litter of young pigs aud the men were 
about to kill them when father suggested 
taking them into the wagon. We did so, and 
for the next two or three days, while the cold 
snap lasted, they were a great comfort; for 
they kept the driver’s feet as warm as a foot 
stove would have done. 
-» ♦ » 
CARE OF SWINE. 
In looking over the valuable pages of the 
Rural, my eyes naturally turn to the 
swine department, that being of first in¬ 
terest to me as a hog raiser aud breeder. 
1 see several interesting items from the 
pen of Colonel Curtis, that coincide ex¬ 
actly with my views in regard to giving 
bogs coal ashes, etc.; but mj miud inadvert¬ 
ently moves on to contend still further for the 
comforts of that most of all neglected among 
domestic animals—the hog. I not only give 
my hogs coal ashes, but cover my feeding 
places with coal ashes or cinders, as they are 
commonly called, obtained from the paper 
mills near-by. They make a better feeding, 
foundation than gravel, and have the two-fold 
advantage of being dry and nice to feel on 
and also very healthful for them to eat a little 
of as they are taking their usual feed of corn. 
How many farmers have not seen hogs fed, 
every day for a month, in mud and slush six 
or eight iuehes deep, so that when the corn 
was thrown over to them it would instantly 
sink out of sight, and have to be resurrected 
by them after great difficulty,and then scarcely 
more than half of it could be found at that. 
How much more profitable it would be (not to 
say anything about the filth) to have some 
well protected place to feed in, formed either 
of the coal ashes, as before alluded to, or of 
gravel, plauk or whatever is most accessible. 
Should you live near a factory of any kind 
where coal is used, 1 would advise you to give 
the ashes a trial ; they are generally given 
away. 
I wish also to speak of shelter in this con 
nection. When I speak of shelter I don’t 
mean a rail stack up in one comer of the 
fence with a bunch of straw behind it, or, 
what I consider still worse, having them in 
the yard with the cattle around the straw- 
pile, burying themselves in the smoking ma¬ 
nure. But I do mean a shelter made, in some 
easy manner, of lumber, and conveniently 
arranged both for brood sows and feeding 
purposes. This need not necessitate the out- 
layof much capital. Itisnot necessary to build 
large, showy structures, with cupolas and 
dormer windows, supplied with cold and hot 
wats r; but something that can be built with 
but very little outlay beside the cost of mate¬ 
rial, which need not be expensive, and on a 
plan that will admit of its being closed up 
tight to protect small pigs from rough Spring 
weather, while it should be capable of being 
opened to admit the warmth and sunlight of 
brighter day§, as this provision is very im¬ 
portant to those o F us who raise swine for 
breediug stock and want them as large as pos¬ 
sible early in the Summer for shipping. I 
have found by actual experience that this 
protection to brood-sows will in one year 
almost pay for its cost by saving young pigs 
when they are very easily chilled. 1 some¬ 
times hear the remark, “OhI I am having no 
luck at all with pigs; only r saved three out of 
two litters,” and so on, when the facts are 
their bad luck was all owing to bad manage¬ 
ment in not providing proper shelter. And 
this I have mentioned is only one instance out 
of scores that occur in every community 
almost every year. 
Middleton, Ohio. F. J. m. 
-- 
BERK3HIRES vs CHESHIRES. 
I would say a few words in reply to Mr. 
Davis’s articleon this subject in the Rural of 
April 29, page 285. Mr. Angel, the butcher 
from whom he quotes as saying, “ the Berk¬ 
shire has very thin pork along the back and 
over the ribs,” must have been very unfortu 
nate in the specimens which he handled. I 
suspect they were not full-bred, or if so, they 
had been very ill-bred, sadly degenerated and 
not well fattened. I have seen in years past 
some thousands of Berkshire swine, and bred 
a considerable number myself, all of which 
were particularly broad in the back and hams, 
and full and round in the body. Iu fact, well 
bred ones are more distinguished in these 
points than any other race of swiue 1 know, 
and assuredly I have seen a great many of the 
different sorts, both iu America and Europe. 
The old, unimproved Berkshires were espe¬ 
cially celebrated for broad, round backs, and 
the .Siamese the same, with the boars of which 
they were improved. Hence came the pres¬ 
ent fine race of animals bred in England for 
about a century past, and in America for 
half that time. 
Mr. Davis asserts that “ the Cheshires on 
the average, will outweigh any breed at nine 
months.” I can assure him they will not ex¬ 
ceed, if they equal, the Large Yorkshire, from 
which 1 suspect they may be derived; and I 
presume that Colonel Cnrtis (see same page of 
the Rural) can match them with Red Berk¬ 
shires, or Duroc and Jersey Reds, as they are 
also called. “a.” 
Clrboriailtiirfli. 
WOODS PASTURES A DELUSION. 
DR. JOHN A. WARDER. 
(Special Article.) 
The maguifleent country so well known as 
the Blue Grass region of Kentucky has become 
famous for its cattle and its pastures. Nature 
has there provided a very fertile soil, derived 
from the slow processes of long-continued de¬ 
cay and solution of portions of the limestone 
rocks that have left a residuum of earthy 
matter constituting the basis of the soil. 
When first discovered by the white mail who 
invaded the land in his hunting expeditions 
after the buffalo, much of the country was 
covered by a dense growth of magnificent 
timber of kinds that indicated great fertility of 
soil To the i n tell igen t obse r ver trees are good 
indices, and always show him the capabilities 
of the land. 
In all open spaces where the light of the sun 
could penetrate the -e sylvan shades, the sur¬ 
face of the ground was clothed with a rich 
covering of the luxuriant cane, the native 
grass of the country, which furnished the nu¬ 
tritious pastures of the bison, and these, in 
turn, attracted the Indians, who here had long 
hunted the buffalo which now attracted the 
new hunters from beyond the mountains, who 
.•ame to dispute the possession of the land; 
they came as hunters, however, rather than 
as fanners. The Indiaus had been in the habit 
of burning over the surface at stated periods, 
which encouraged a new crop of the cane but 
destroyed the youug growth of trees, so that 
open tracts of land abounded in many places, 
which even then gave the land the appearance 
of a sylvan park, that must have been very 
attractive, as it is to-day, when the clearing 
away of the natural forest over wide-spread 
tracts, and the intrjduction of the European 
grasses, under the feet of the European race of 
men, has changed the dense forests into shaded 
pasture fields, covered with European cattle 
of improved breads. This combination of agri¬ 
cultural elements constitutes the great charm 
of Kentucky’s rural character. But already 
the condition of the timber lands of the region 
has greatly changed, and in wide regions there 
begins to be felt a want of more wood land. 
The clearings, too, have been carried on in 
regions of a different geological character, 
and the out-crops of the overlying shales and 
other rocks, in their decay, have not furnished 
so fruitful a soil; hence it is but a question of 
time, not very far off either, when such lands 
must be relegated to forest growths. Those 
knobs should not have been cleared at all, or 
only in limited areas of the deeper and richer 
soils, in their pockets and valleys. 
Mr. M. M. Linnev, iu the geological report, 
says, in speaking of the shales: 
“This soil will not produce Blue Grass; and 
when it has been uncovered down to the shale, 
it seems to In impossible to form soil with it 
again.” He cites, in illustration, Knob-Lieke, 
near Danville Junction, a tract of one hundred 
acres: “Bare of all vegetation save a few 
lichens and mosses, the soil is all gone, and the 
shales gullied down through the whole thick¬ 
ness (about one hundred fee-), it is a miniature 
desert, and a striking illustration of what 
Kentucky knobs ai e to become when they 
have been entirely denuded of vegetable cov¬ 
ering.” * * * “ These knobs should never 
have been cleared, and as the old trees are 
removed the young ones should be encouraged 
and protected.” 
The success attending stock-farming in the 
Blue Grass region induced its extension in 
many places which were not so well adapted 
to this system of agriculture, aud even to tracts 
that shoulJ never have be-n cleared at all, or 
which should have been at once replanted with 
trees. But let us look at this plan of at¬ 
tempting to procure two crops coetaneously 
from the same laud, even under the most fa¬ 
vorable circumstances, and we shall find that 
the position taken in the opening of this arti¬ 
cle is well founded, and that the woods-past- 
ure, with all its beauty, is a delusion in agri¬ 
culture and a snare in forestry. 
In the place of its most common application 
on the fertile limestone soils of a portion of 
Kentucky, the native trees and the introduced 
grass find their favorite plant-food with aeon- 
genial climate that has heretofore enabled 
them to reach the highest results possible to 
them. The forest trees iu a state of nature 
were magnificent, and many of them were of 
the most valuable species. It was soon dis¬ 
covered, however, that in other regions the 
soil was equally favorable to the growth of 
the Poa pratensis, and that in much of the 
prairie lands, where it first appeared, in the 
tracks of the pioneers, so soon as well estab¬ 
lished, the pastures wholly unshaded by the 
uubrageous trees of the famous woods past¬ 
ures, were really more productive of milk, 
beef, mutton, wool and mules, than the famous 
Kentucky lands themselves—they w ould carry 
more stock to the acre. 
The same practice of clearing up the woods 
and laying them down to grass has been exten¬ 
sively practiced in other States than Ken¬ 
tucky, and with varying success in the result¬ 
ant pasture, but everywhere, sooner or later, 
with similar disastrous results as to the un¬ 
healthy condition of the tree?, showing that 
we cannot expect to have the two crops con¬ 
temporaneously from the same land—one or 
the other must suffer, or both. 
As to the plants themselves, it is a common 
observation that many of the noble trees are 
failing in their tops—they sicken and die and 
are sadly thinned out iu the older pastures. 
To the intelligent forester there is nothing 
wonderful in this, except indeed, it may be, 
that any of the original plants should have 
survived so great a change in their foresta 
