JULY 22 
Father’s losses were heavy, but he deter 
mined to retrieve them, and so made a con¬ 
tract to deliver 500 stock hogs on or before 
the fifth of February, He stopped but one 
night with his family, and was off again for 
Madison and Henry Counties, Indiana. Farm¬ 
ers were needing money and the woods were 
full of hogs living on mast, and he had no 
trouble in buying the 500 hogs in a few days 
and took up the line of March for Cincinnati 
again. The second day on the road it began 
to rain again and in 24 hours all the streams 
were past fording. We were obliged to wait 
for some of them to run down, while on some by 
driving up or down from ten to twenty miles 
we could find a bridge, and the result was that 
it was utterly impossible to deliver the hogs 
before the time specified in the contract had 
expired. When he finally, after “ hard trials 
and great tribulations,” reached the city, the 
time had passed and the men refuse ’ to take 
the hogs, and as the market was thoroughly 
demoralized he had to sell them at a loss, and 
all he had to show for a Winter of severe 
hardship was broken health and heavy finan¬ 
cial loss, and as I, though a mere boy, was 
obliged to take the management of the farm 
on my shoulders, I have always since had a 
horror of speculating in hogs and of hog 
driving. Waldo F. Brown. 
Butler Co., Ohio. 
l)rrIsmail. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
Flint, in his excellent work on Dairy Farm¬ 
ing, mentions the Oakes cow, which won the 
first premium at the Massachusetts State Fair 
in 1816. [The accompanying likeness of the 
O \kes cow's,Fig. 227, isreilngraved from Flint’s 
Milch Cows and Dairy Farming,” for the pur¬ 
pose of illustrating the remarks made here. 
Artistically, of course, the engraving has lit¬ 
tle merit.—Eds.] Thiscow', judging of the pic¬ 
ture given of it, was a grade Devon; but she 
gave 467]^ pounds of butter from May 15 to 
Dec. 20, or in a period of seven months. Her 
largest milking was ii% pounds daily, or 20 
quarts, while she was giving 20 pounds daily 
at the end of the time mentioned. This cow 
deserves notice just now in comparison with 
the noted baker’s dozen of Jersey cows which 
do better than she. The proportion is about 
even, for we have at least a dozen times as 
many dairy cows in the country now as in 
1816. The truth is, the solid reputation of the 
Jerseys is built up upon the performances of 
the unheard-of and useful cow t s in dairies and 
not upon the sensational reports of extraor¬ 
dinary animals, just as the useful character of 
Short-horns is based on the meat actually pro¬ 
duced and not upon the show animals. 
It does not seem that this Oakes cow left 
any remarkable progeny' behind her, and it 
will hardly do to say that this failure was due 
to her want of breeding, and that had she 
been prize-bred she might have founded a 
wonderful family of milk-producers and but¬ 
ter-makers. The fact is that the claims of 
breeders, upon which the enormous prices 
given for certain popular animals are based, 
are very weak and are wholly unsupportable 
by facts. “ Like does not produce like” indi¬ 
vidually, but it is a general attribute of a race, 
and one quite common-place Jersey or Short¬ 
horn, or horse, even, may produce a phenome¬ 
non more easily than the phenomenon can 
reproduce itself. 
Pertinent to the above, I would refer to a 
statement made by a noted breeder of Short¬ 
horns, Mr. Wm. Warfield, in a Western stock 
journal, to the effect that “ any peculiarity is 
prepotent over a long-established type.” The 
remark that this is widely admitted by the most 
prominent students of biology and compara¬ 
tive anatomy “is too palpably mistaken to 
require contradiction.” It was a fancy of the 
late Mr. Darwin and is a foundational belief 
of those persons who believe in the doctrine 
of evolution; for this prepotent influence of 
peculiarity is the very basis from which this 
idea of evolution is evolved. And now conies 
another eminent Short horn breeder who says 
the observation of Short-horn breeders is uni¬ 
versally opposed to this statement of Mr. 
Warfield. Generally it is the case that the 
more startlingly novel and questionable anew 
discovery in biology or metaphysics may be, 
the more furiously it is supported by a certain 
class of scientific men. Aud so it is with this 
theory of the prepotency of peculiarity in an¬ 
imals of a long established type. Any pecu¬ 
liarity that may appear may become engrafted 
upon the race by persistent management and 
culture, no doubt, but it is only secured and 
made permanent by the most skillful efforts 
of the most gifted breeders through a long 
lapse of years. Thus, if the phenomenal Jer¬ 
seys could be brought together into the hands 
of one capable breeder and he were to devote 
a lifetime to the work, weeding out every an¬ 
imal that fell below his standard, as Mr. Bates 
did with his Duchesses, he might at the end of 
30 years find a dozen or so animals in exist¬ 
ence that equalled or surpassed the one he 
started with. In the meantime the services of 
those members of the improved family which 
had gone out of bis hands might have done a 
great amount of good in elevating the race 
generally to some extent. 
How do the black lambs appear among 
white flocks ? Here is a question which bothers 
many owners of sheep, and the same thing in 
another form bothers many others who have 
got the false theorem of the breeders, that 
“ like produces like” by heart until they be¬ 
lieve it. American Merinos are a pure breed, 
and they are white. Jet black lambs among 
them occasionally appear, as they do among 
South Downs and other white breeds. And a 
black ram in a flock gets white lambs and but 
few black ones, and the black ewe has a white 
lamb nearly always. This is going back, 
“avatism,” as Mr. Darwin calls it. I don’t 
pretend here to explain it, but I should be glad 
to hear from those who will. 
How can we get permanent grass for past¬ 
ure ? This is a thing we long have sought and 
mourned because we found it not. I have 
been trying for some years to find a grass that 
promises to be permanent. The quite too 
common—generally co isidered—Quack Grass, 
“Creeping Wheat,” as the Rural calls it, is 
well known to be a most persistent grass, and 
if it is found to be a useful feeding grass it 
might fill the bill as far as permanence is con 
cerned. Two years ago I transplanted some 
roots of Quack into a small plot and sowed 
Clover, Timothy and Orchard Grass in near¬ 
by plots. The Quack has grown up so thickly 
that it is pale at the bottom of the stems, and 
the stems are thin and very leafy. The other 
day I cut a basket of Quack, one of Clover, one 
of Timothy and one of Orchard Grass, and 
laid them side by side in the feed-trough of a 
stall in which one of my experimental cows, a 
pet, is kept. This cow knows her business, for 
in three years past she has had more or less of 
every known feeding-stuff for the purpose of 
experiment as regards milk and 1 sitter- When 
she was brought into the stall she smelled over 
the fodder, then ate the Clover, then the Quack 
Grass, mixing it partly with the Clover; then 
the Timothy, and last of all the Orchard Grass. 
But the last was considerably nearer ripe than 
the others, being fully two weeks ahead of 
them. Quack is well relished by cattle and 
horses; it is good for green fodder and for 
hay; but to give it a fair chance it should be 
grown os other grasses are. 
I HAVE read Prof, Sanborn’s articles with 
great interest, and beg to compliment him on 
the service he has done in drawing attention 
to I he questionable value of the German tables 
of feeding values of fodders, etc. Tnese have 
been extensively used and quoted, but I have 
long felt convinced that the conclusions 
reached through them are mostly faulty and 
partly absurd. The frequent quoting of and 
comment upon some of the figures by persons 
entirely ignorant of the art of feeding, and— 
I was going to say—of common sense, have 
given rise to beliefs among readers of some 
papers which pretend to be “agricultural’’ 
that corn-cobs,marsh weeds and glucose waste 
need only the addition of a little cotton-seed 
meal to become equal to the best of hay and 
corn for feeding cattle and sheep. But truth 
will always prevail, although for a time a 
scientific man or two may sit down upon it 
very hard. 
-- 
STOCK NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
JONATHAN TALCOTT. 
Beef Animals. 
In your issue for July 1 Stockman makes 
some excellent remarks on the different 
breeds of live stock. His remarks about our 
beef animals, their scarcity and the future 
prospects for those persons who are engaged 
in their production I consider very appro¬ 
priate, and both producers and consumers 
would do well to pay more than a passing at¬ 
tention to such well-timed remarks. When 
the losses on the Western plains were report¬ 
ed as unusually severe in 1880, many persons 
persisted in denying that fact, but now in the 
Spring of 3882, when the fact makes itself 
doubly sure in the scarcity of beef, all are 
forced to admit what many refused to believe 
at the time of the fatality to the stock-breed¬ 
ers of the West, and until sufficient numbers 
of cattle are raised to again furnish the mar¬ 
ket as usual, it seems to the writer that meats 
must rule high, and it is very probable that 
the profit of exportation will be less than 
heretofore from the fact that the home mar¬ 
ket will Day the best for our live stock for 
market purposes, 
JERSETS. 
I think Stockman has raised the question 
fairly in regard to the value of the Jersey 
cow as a dairy animal in regard to the fancy 
prices recently paid for what are called fancy 
animals, or, in other words, for some of those 
cows or families—as Jersey breeders prefer to 
call them—that have had records of 14 
pouuds of butter per week or over. Stock¬ 
man’s remarks about the high prices of un¬ 
tried heifers from animals whose ancestors 
were, some of them, excellent for the dairy, are 
well-timed; so is what ho says of the small 
number of progeny of Jerseys cows that have 
given 14 pounds of butter or over per week, I 
for it is seen too plainly that but very few 1 
of the descendants of such c^ws equal their 
ancestors. However, the breeders of Jersey 
cattle are now reaping an abundaut harvest. 
If there is that superiority in the Jersey cow 
over the native or grade cows of the country 
that is claimed for them, then a benefit will 
be gained; on the contrary, if there is not, 
then some persons must lose by their invest¬ 
ment in them. 1 have been making inquiries 
of late from Jersey breeders as to the real 
value of the Jersey cow over the common 
cow of the country. I have visited some 
herds of Jerseys; the information so far is not 
greatly in their favor. Some letters from 
distinguished breeders say the vast majority 
of the Jerseys give very little milk; some say 
they don’t give more milk than a goat; some 
persons tell me their cows are dangerous, es¬ 
pecially to women as milkers, soon after 
calving; others that they are more wild and 
restless than other breeds of cattle, while a 
few of the cows are remarkable as milkers 
and butter producers. I think within two 
years past Peter C. Kellogg wrote to the 
Country Gentleman that probably 25 cows 
and bulls of the Jersey breed were worth 
more for breeding purposes than all 
the others in America, taking, of course, 
such cows as Eurotas, Alpheu, and Pansy, 
and some of the remarkable milkers and 
butter-producers at that time. If such 
animals could transmit their extra but¬ 
ter-making qualities to their progeny, 
no doubt such would bo tho case. What 
I learnt by my inquiry went to show 
to my mind that there were a great many 
poor cows of the breed, and that the best only 
stiould be used as breeders, a practice which 
breeders of all breeds of cattle would do well 
to imitate. 
BREED ONLY FROM THE BEST. 
The rock on which so many improvers and 
breeders of fine stock get stranded is their 
failure to cull out enough of both male3 and 
females of all breeds and send them to the 
shambles, keeping only the best for breeding 
purposes. The Jersev breeders now appear 
to be on the right track if they will only dis¬ 
card all their poorest animals as soon as they 
do not prove valuable for the dairy, and keep 
as breeders only the best butter cows, and bull8 
selected from such extra cows, castrating all 
other bulls, or making veal of them. Success 
will attend such efforts. What would now 
have been the condition of the herds of cattle 
in this country if for the last 50 years only 
the best male animals had been used for breed¬ 
ing purposes, instead of the indiscriminate use 
of such as could be had for tho least money 
or such as were nearest at hand when wanted 
for service? Is it too much to say that the 
value of the animals would at this writing 
be at least from *5 to $10, each greater than 
at present? I think not, and this increase of 
value would have added a vast sum to the 
wealth of the nation, while retained in the 
pockets of the owners of live stock. When 
shall we begin to heed the lesson? 
GAIN OF 100 POUND3 A MONTH! 
I notice what A. M. Williams, of Onondaga, 
County, N. Y., says in a late Rural, in re¬ 
gard to the remark of a member of the Onon¬ 
daga Farmers’ Club, 1 that a calf should weigh 
as many hundred pounds as it was months old.’ 
Another member said, “You have no such 
calves.” The first answered, “I have many 
of them; come to my house and I will show 
you the register of their ages, and we will 
place them on the scales." “And he would 
have proved his proposition beyond a doubt, 
for he is a man whose word is always good,” 
Mr. Williams says. This is an extraordinary 
statement, aud the ques’iou arises how such 
results are obtained, 
I wish to know who the man is who raises 
all his calves so they will weigh 1,200 
pounds when 12 months old. I never saw 
such a lot, and would go as far as Syracuse 
or anywhere in Onondaga County to see that 
breeder and his stock. If Mr. Williams will 
inform me who he is and where he lives I shall 
be much obliged for the favor. 
At the Fat Stcck Show iu Chicago last 
November a sw'eepstakes prize was awarded 
to the yearling steer of Messrs. Potts & 
Son, which was called a remakable animal in 
every way. He was of large size and in high 
flesh for his age, weighing 1,565 pounds; age, 
11 days less than two years, being 23 months 
and 19 days old, and being credited with 2.17 
pounds daily from birth, without counting 
the weight of calf at birth. One other ani¬ 
mal in the show showed a greater gain as fol¬ 
lows: Age, 872 days; weight, 1,935 pounds; 
daily gain, 2.21 pounds. The daily gain of 
Short-horns, Herefords and Devons to three 
years old and under, would bo about one-aud- 
one-half pounds per day, us presented in tho 
table of ages and weights given in the Breed¬ 
ers’ Gazette for December 1. Now if calves 
should weigh as many hundred pounds aB 
they are months old, and a breeder in Onon¬ 
daga County can grow them to that weight ( 
his method and manner of feeding ought to 
be known. In the present scarcity of beef if 
a farmer can raise a calf that will weigh 1,200 
pounds when one year old, the market cun 
soon be supplied with fine meatand at a remu¬ 
nerative price to the producer. From my o * n 
observation aud an experience of over 50 
years in feeding and the care of stock, also 
from reading about many remarkable ani¬ 
mals—their age, weight, etc.—I cannot be¬ 
lieve such results can be obtained with any 
breed of cattle now before the public. That a 
few calves can be made to weigh 100 pounds 
for each month for a few months, I do not 
doubt; but that any breeder can take a herd 
of 20 cows and raise the calves from them 
yearly, and have them average 1 200 pounds 
Oakes Cow.—Fig. 227. 
Short-Horn Cow, Matchless.—Fig. 228. 
