interested in the manufacture 'of butter color, 
and, therefore, not elegible. The other mem¬ 
bers sent in different reports, one being in 
favor of Wells, Richardson & Go's' well-known 
Perfected Butter Color, and the other of a 
WeBteru preparation. This being an equal 
division of the Judges, the Executive Commit¬ 
tee appointed a new committee of Judges, 
consisting of Mr. John Ellsworth, Mr. Howard 
Murphy and Dr. Marquis. This last commit¬ 
tee, unlike the first, made careful comparative 
tests of each color exhibited, and were unan¬ 
imous in awarding the prize to Wells, Richard¬ 
son & Co. 
This statement is made to show your readers 
the errors made in a statement printed in your 
columns a short time since, and signed by 
John Stewart, of Anamosa, Iowa. To those 
readers of the Rural New-Yorker who know 
Messrs. Wells, Richardson & Co., or Mr. V an 
Patten (a member of the firm) who represented 
them at the Dairy Fair, the statement that 
they used, or attempted to use, any undue 
influence with the Judges will be known to be 
wholly without foundation, and can only re¬ 
flect on the writer thereof. 
One Who Knows. 
Desman. 
GREAT SALE OF JERSEY CATTLE, 
On May 26, the first of two sales of Jersey 
cattle under the management of Messrs. Peter 
C. Kellogg & Co., took place in this city, and 
was remarkable for the high prices obtained 
for some of the animals. The attendance was 
unusually large and the bidding extremely 
spirited. The chief purchaser was Mr. Lawson 
Valentine, of Houghton Farm, Orauge Co., N. 
Y., who seemed determined to obtain a fine 
selection of these choice cattle for his Experi¬ 
mental Farm. One of the most notable inci¬ 
dents of the sale was his purchase, for $600, of 
the bull calf of Col. Hoe's famous cow Alphea, 
whose large yield of milk produced quite a 
sensation in 1871, aud whose descendants have 
since well sustained her reputation. Later 
$1,000 was offered for the calf, but declined, 
nor would the owner name any figure at which 
he was willing to sell it. The cows Lass Edith 
and Myra II. were of very similar strain being 
full of the blood of Alphea aud her full brother, 
Jupiter, and, moreover, both had been tested 
very high for milk yield duriug the current 
month, both which facts will account for the 
high prices they brought. The following is a 
full account of the prices got for each con¬ 
signment aud the average price brought by 
each lot. 
A. B. Daring’s lot.—Ramapo, 4,679, bull calf, 7 
months old, out of Eurotas, Lawson Valentine, 
Mountain vine. N. Y., $0*10. 
Cornelius Wellingtons lot—Worombo, 4.61'J, bull 
ealt, 6 weeKs old, Jersey Bello of SCltuate strain, 
Moulton Brothers, Vermont, $185; Koina, 9,908, 
heifer, 4 mouths old, same blood, same buyers, 
$ 240 ; Superb, s.554, heifer 21 months, In calf to 
Black iKdlanoe (iloubio grandson of Jersey Belle 
of Scltuate), r. Thorne, Dutches* Co.. N. Y., $2- r >f); 
Miss M unfit, 9,907. heifer, is mouths, in calf to 
Black Defiance, John I. Holly, Plainfield, N.J., 
$400. Total for four head. $1,075. Average $268.75. 
John T. Foote's lot.—Little Ethel, 5,864, cow, 3# 
years, Thomas Barbour, Paterson, N. J., $176. 
F. H. Fallc’s lot.- Butter Boy, 3.242, bull, 3 years 
out of Oak loaf, Lawson Valentine, $160; Wlngiet 
I, 230, cow, 13 years, Imported, Ell Barnett., Long 
Island, $85; Myrlta, 2,819, cow. T years, by Mer¬ 
cury, W. Crazier, $176; Trudle 11., 4,084, cow, 5 
years, Moulton Brothers, $100; Myra, II., 6 . 289 , 
cow, 4 years, L. Valentine, $1,400; Lass Edith, 6,290 
cow, 4 years, L. valentine, $1.425; Tasuia, 7,200, 
heifer lx. milk, v years, James Stillman, New 1 ork, 
$485; Lass Edith II., 10,036, holler, 14 months, 
Moulton Brothers, $325; bonnabel. 10,037, heifer, 
14 months, J. Stillman, $sio. Total for nine head, 
$6,05». Average, $672.78. , ,, 
John D. wtrig’s lot,.—Babylon. 4,723, bulk 22 
months, dam Echo, II.. J. N. Borland, New Lon¬ 
don, conn., $lio ; Maple Blossom. 7,357, heifer. In 
milk, 27 mouths with heifer calf at root two days 
old, Thomas Barbour, $680 ; Kmpressa, II., 7,362, 2 
years, by Ixrrfl Lawrence, with belter calf one daj 
old, Thomas Barbour, $835; Uodlva II., m,o&4, 
heifer is months, by Nlobe Duke. T. Barbour, $325; 
Timid, 10,095, ih months, by Nlobe Duke, T. Bar¬ 
bour, $ 200 . Total for live head, $2,050. Average, 
$410. 
B. F. Ttowditch’s lot.—Mattette, c.ssi, cow a# 
years, Edwin Thorne, $180; Nix, 6,800 cow, 
years, L. M. Kutherford, Hackettstown, N. J. 
$125; Nlopo, 7,494. heirer, 22 months, John Taylor, 
Bayslde, L1., $260; Nigeria, 7,895, bolter. 23 months, 
J. Stillman, $u,f>; Nitrate, 7,896, heifer. 22 months, 
L. M. Rutherford, $ 200 ; llulla, 7,8*8, heifer, 20 
months, K. Thorne, |2or>; p.lbt, 7,989, heifer. 20 
months, Y, Barbour, $225; Nllot be, 7.697, heifer, 
21 months, K. Thorne, $200; Uuxtila, 7,900. heifer. 
19 months, W. M. OlltTe, Mott Haven. N. Y„ $270. 
Total for nine head- $1.820. Average, $202.22. 
J. L. &. Cl. B. Hpofford’s lot Lottie Pearsall, 2,- 
052. cow, 8 years, by Southey, Hoover & Co., Col¬ 
umbus, Ohio, $ 130 ; J.ndy Lurgan 3,r>8L cow, 6 
years, same sire, E, Thome, $K»o- Sunlight, 4,- 
349, cow, 4 y, years by Trusty, T. Barbour, $3io; 
Lady Adelaide 4,350, cow, \y, years, by Sooty 
Pioneer, T. Barbour, $250; iloneydrop, 10 ,032, 
heifer, 3 years, by Guy Warwick, In calf by sly 
Boots, A B Darling, $006. Total for 6 head, $1,- 
395. Average, $276. 
J. M. Mack lea lot.—Gray Hebe, 4.907. cow, com¬ 
ing s y ears old. J. Stillman. New York, $130; l’tne 
CHIT Grand Duchess, 0,769, heifer In milk, 28 
months, L. M. Rutherford, 185; HandHome llebe, 
6,763, cow, s years, 4 months. L. M. Rutherford, 
$180; Bene of Barrington, 5,830, cow, 3 years 9 
months. 1) C. Waterhouse, New Haven, $ 206 . Total 
for 4 head, $650. Average, $162 50. 
Charles U. iharlty’s lot—Roselle or Ridgewood 
7,192cow, 3 years and 3 months, by Duke of Bur¬ 
lington (a son ot Favorite of the Elms) W. 8. 
Wickham, $ 100 ; liosedale, 2,935. cow, 6# years, 
T. H. Katie. $181. Total for two head. $231. Aver¬ 
age, $ 116 . 60 . 
D. F. Appleton’s lot.—Pearl of Ipswich, 5,682, 
cow, 4 years, by Agawam; T, Barbour, $ 200 ; Han¬ 
nah of I., 3,923, cow, 6 years and 4 months, same 
sire, J. I. Holly, $330 ; Amy of T„ 6.583, cow, 3 years 
and io motiihs, by Briton, Hoover & Co., $190; 
Girl s Duchess, 6,r,K9, cow, 3 years and 4 months' 
by Royal Duke of Ipswich (son of C. L. Hharpless, 
Duchess, lot) .1. Stillman, $220; Bright Eyes of I., 
9.214. heifer, 9 months, by Duke, Jr„ T. Barbour, 
$100 ; Diamonds of I., 9.215, belter, 8 months, same 
sire, J. 1). Wing, $90. Total for six head, $1,130. 
Average. $188 33. 
Cream Cottage stock Farm lot (John Vasseur, 
Manager).—Imogene, 4,552. cow, 4K years, J. C. 
Besson, Hoboken, N. J., $so; Blackle, 9,370, heifer, 
12 months, J. D. Wing, $30. Total for two head, 
$ 160 . Average, $ 80 . 
J. C. & D. Pennington’s lot—Ocean Queen, 1,405, 
cow. 9 years. Imp., Hoover A Co., fioo; Creole 
Louise, 9 , 271 , heifer, 2 years and 3 months, T. Bar¬ 
bour. $175; Asplraute. 9,272. heifer, 2 years. Hoo¬ 
ver & Co., $170; consort, 9,273, heifer, 13 months, 
D. Collaruore, $16; Borgere, 9.274, heifer, 12 
months, T. Barbour, $120. Total for 5 head, $640. 
Average, $128. 
H. C. R. Watson’s lot.—Councillor, 4,468, bull, 26 
months, sire Imp. Tormentor, Moulton Brothers, 
$ 100 . 
William Watson's lot.—Ninette, 4,291, cow, 5 
years, 8, B. Smith, Roxbury, Conn., $iso ; Young 
Kitty, cow, 3 years, imp., T. Barbour, $105. Total 
for 2 head, $285. Average. $142 50 . 
Total for66 head. $16,366. Average, $292 25. 
Tns Jersey Cattle Club.— The adjourned 
meeting of the American Jersey Cattle Club to 
receive the report of the committee t.o whom 
was referred the subject of a new constitution 
for the government of the club, at the last an¬ 
nual meeting, April 21, waB held on Tuesday 
at the St. James Hotel in this city. The com¬ 
mittee appointed to act in the matter consisted 
of Messrs. D. F. Appleton, John D. Wing, H. 
M. Howe, S- J. Sharpless and F. A. Potts. Be¬ 
sides these there were present our esteemed 
contributor, Mr. R. Goodman, Lenox, Mass., 
and Messrs. George E. Waring, Jr., Newport, 
R. I.; T. H. Maloue, Nashville,Tenn.; Dr. Alsop, 
Mass.; W. T. Taylor, N. Y.; T. J. Band, Sing 
Sing, N.Y.; P. F. Blllinger, Herkimer, N. Y.; 
Samuel Gaile, White Plains, N. Y-; Benjamin 
Swan, Jr,, Oyster Bay, L. I.; Beujamin Kit- 
tredge, Peek skill, N. Y. The committee pre¬ 
sented its report and after a somewhat lengthy 
discussion of some of its features, it was 
adopted. The object of the association is to 
advance the breeding of Jersey cattle and to 
publish a Herd Book for the registration of 
pedigrees. The association has now over 15,- 
000 animals registered in its Herd Book. The 
officers of the club are:—R. Goodman, Pres.; 
Thos. J. Hand, Treas.; George E. Waring, Jr., 
Sec.; Executive committee, T. H. Malone, H. 
M. Howe and W. S. Taylor. 
Controlling the Sexes op Animals. —Mr. 
D. D. Fiquet, of Houston, Texas, in a letter to 
the Country Gentleman says, be has repeated¬ 
ly done this, and is confident he can continue 
it indefinitely, by food alone. When he wishes 
to obtain a heifer calf, he feeds the cow light, 
cooling food for some days before putting her 
to bull, at the same time he feeds the bull with 
rich, heat-producing food. When he wishes 
to obtain a bull calf, he reverses the system. 
He experimented on 18 cows of his own and 
three of his neighbors, all of which bore calves 
of the sex he desired. He appends certificates 
of his neighbors as to the truth of his state¬ 
ments. 
For years past we have heard of many sys¬ 
tems of controlling the sexes of offspring, all 
of which were confidently believed in by their 
discoverers, but every one has failed when put 
to a general trial. If this of Mr. Fiquet should 
succeed, it will prove a great boo^ to stock 
breeders of all kinds of animals; for it is a 
matter of great importance to them to be able 
to control the sexes of their produce. Some¬ 
times they are in want of females from certain 
of their animals, at other times of males only, 
and their success or failure in their business, 
often depends upon whether they do or do not 
succeed in this. 
gttshitkjr. 
SHEEP. 
Perhaps no branch of profitable stock grow¬ 
ing lias commanded so little systematic effort 
here as sheep raising. Almost every farmer 
has kept a few—say one to three or four dozen 
as a home necessity, while a very few make 
sheep a specialty. But the present favorable 
price of wool, and the growing deunud for 
mutton, are creating a *’ boom ” in the sheep 
business. While the motive, in the main, is 
profit from buying and selling, I think the 
result will be a forward movement towaru a 
profitable business, to which this part of the 
country is surely adapted—systematic sheep 
husbandry. As evidence of sueh result, far¬ 
mers talk of “ going into sheep.” Many have 
increased small flocks by purchase, and ex¬ 
press an intention to breed up, by the use of 
blooded bucks. This, to my mind, is the poor 
man's best method of obtaining a paying 
flock of improved sheep. Let him buy what 
good young native ewes he can pay and care 
for, and then breed them to the best bucks ob¬ 
tainable. 
That sheep will succeed in this Ozark moun¬ 
tain range, is suggested by the healthfulness 
of small native flocks without more care than 
stock cattle get—liberty to care for themselves. 
Pure atmosphere and dry range are favorable 
to the health of sheep. We have both here. Blue 
grass, perhaps the sheep’s choice of all grasses, 
only wants oppor tunity here, and theu as faBt 
as this occurs by failure of coarser grasses, it 
grows spontaneously as though some Ken¬ 
tuckian had passed this way, broadcasting the 
public pastures—prairie und woodland on 
every baud. 
The price of stock Bheep has wonderfully 
advauct d in the last 18 months. Good young 
native ewes then cost $ 1.25; now, $4. 
Springfield, Mo. m. 0. t. 
foultrg |arti. 
CHICKEN CHOLERA. 
Pasteur, the great French chemist, has 
made public, through the French Academy of 
Sciences, the result of his study of cholera in 
fowls. He declares that chicken cholera is 
caused by a microscopic parasite—“ le mi¬ 
crobe”—and so carefully has he studied it that 
he knows what it feeds upon and can produce 
and kill it at will- It finds its food in the body 
of the fowl, and when the microbes have eaten 
all of this, they die of hunger, and the broods 
are afterwards proof against the disease, but, 
unfortunately for them and their owners too, 
before they reach this happy condition they 
generally die. The experiment by which he 
proved the truth of his theory is the most in¬ 
teresting part of the discovery. 
Of eighty healthy fowlB, which had never 
had the disease, twenty died immediately alter 
being inoculated with the cholera poison in a 
virulent form. The poison was then very 
much reduced in strength, and a second score 
of the fowls were inoculated with it. They alj 
suffered from the disease in a slight degree, 
hut they all recovered, and, when afterward 
inoculated with poison of full strength only 
eight of Ihe twenty died. A third lot of twenty 
was then Inoculated twice with the weaker 
poison, and only five died when they were 
afterward tested with the stronger “mixture.” 
The final score of fowls were inoeulated four 
times at regular intervals, and thereafter it 
was impossible to give any one of them such a 
dose of microbes as to cause its death. The 
conditions of the experiment arc said to have 
been such as to leave no room for doubt as to 
the results obtained. Consequently, it appears 
that chickeu cholera must be added to the 
number of diseases preventable by Inoculation. 
Pasteur thinks there is a relation between 
chicken cholera and the disease called “ sleep¬ 
ing sickness,” common among the negroes of 
Senegal, which is said to be caused by eating 
fowls alllicted by a certain throat disease. 
Some sanguine men see in the discovery of 
this relation between man aud the brute an 
analogy to that made by Jenner, 80 years ago, 
of the relation between small-pox in the hu¬ 
man subject aud cow-pox in the brute; while 
others see afar off in it the possibility that 
cholera, and even yellow fever may be placed 
beside smaU-pox in the list of preventable 
diseases, by the use of the virus from some one 
of the lower orders of creation. 
gulls Crop. 
HAY AND HAY-MAKING. 
HENRY STEWART. 
If one were asked what is hay, he would be 
apt to reply “ dried grass.” But this is a very 
incomplete definitiou ; he might as well say 
that bread is a mixture of flour, water, a little 
salt, and 6 omc yeast, quite ignoring the chemi¬ 
cal changes which occur in the fermenting and 
the baking of the bread, and upon which much 
of its nutritive quality and the whole of its 
healthful digestibility depend. 80 with hay ; 
it is grass, not only dried, hut cured, and in 
the proper curing a considerable change oc¬ 
curs in its condition, which adds to its nutri¬ 
tive value and its digestibility. I do not know 
if accurate analyses have been made of well- 
cured hay as have been made of green aud dry 
grass. I have met with none; but 1 know 
that a very nutritious drink may bo made fiom 
hay, and that Ihe value of the decoction de¬ 
pends altogether upon the manner in which 
the hay has been made. The testB to which I 
have been used, are cows, the milk pail, aud 
the churn ; and mauy others have made ob¬ 
servations in the same laboratory, with the 
same result, viz.: that there are great differ- 
tmees in hay, all depending upon the time of 
cutting and the manner of curing. 
While these tests are satisfactory in practice, 
it is desirable that some accurate analyses 
should be made of hay as found in the farmers 
barns, made from g;ass and clover, or clover 
alone, cut when fully ripe, roasted in the full 
BUU and carried, all brittle and parched, to the 
barn ; and that made from grass or clover, or 
both together, cut just past the blossom or in 
full blossom, and cured in the cock, without 
exposure to the scorching sun, and with the 
usual fermentation which occurs under these 
circumstances. It would be of great interest 
to know precisely in what respects the feeding 
value of the hay is increased in the curing in 
6 uch a manuer as to affect not only the yield 
of milk, but the production, quality, and color 
of the butter. Professor Storer has given us 
some exceedingly interesting papers in the 
Bussey Institution Bulletins, and he would add 
to the obligations which the agricultural pub¬ 
lic owe to him, if he would investigate this 
subject of hay the comiug season and explain 
these points. 
The fact remains, however, that hay is as it 
is made, good or bad ; and it is made or marred 
in the cutting and curing. Ripe grass will not 
make good hay, because in the ripening the 
soluble or digestible portions are converted, in 
part, iuto insoluble woody fiber; as, for in¬ 
stance, in red clover in which the difference 
makes a loss of nearly one-third of the albu¬ 
minoids and carbohydrates, and an iucrease of 
more than a third in the crude indigestible 
woody fiber, as shown by the tables of Wolff and 
Knapp. Notwithstanding that this fact is well 
known, the idea is prevalent that hay should 
'tie made of well ripened grass, and more than 
half the crop is thus made, with a loss of one- 
third of its feeding value. Another loss is 
made in the usual system of curing. The 
grass is cut and lies in the swathe until it is 
dried; when it is at once raked up and drawn 
to the barn or stack. The two losses together 
cannot be less than 50 per cent, of its value; 
and, in fact, in feeding sueh hay after haviDg 
fed that made as it should be, I have found the 
shrinkage of milk to be fully one-half, unless 
the deficiency has been partly made up by an 
extra allowance of meal. But it cannot wholly 
be restored even then. Let us follow a crop of 
hay from the field to the barn and recount the 
process as it should be. 
Whcu the clover is in full blossom, and here 
and there one may see a brown head, is the 
time to cut it? If timothy has been sown with 
the clover, that is hardly yet m blossom, and 
then,one has ’'Hobson’s choice”—eithertospoil 
the clover by delay or lose something by cutting 
the timothy too early. But the latter is prefer¬ 
able: the loss is one of the disadvantages of 
mixing this grass with clover. I prefer orchard 
grass to timothy, because that and the clover 
are in prime order for cutting together. The 
mower is started as soon as the dew is off, and 
if there is not help to turn the cut grass in three 
hours after it has heen cut, the cutting should 
cease and all hands go to turning. If one has a 
hay tedder, so much time will be saved in the 
bay-makiDg aB will go a great way towards pay¬ 
ing for the implement in one season. As soon as 
the grass which has been cut—aud which will 
have been about one acre per hour with a fast¬ 
walking team and in good grass—has been 
turned (the time will depend somewhat on the 
weather), the horse rake should be put to 
work, aud as the hay is gathered iuto windrows, 
it is put in cocks of about 200 pounds, which 
will be about four to five feet iu diameter aud 
five or six feet high. These should be put up 
carefully aud the sides raked down to shed 
rain if a shower should come on. When clover 
alone is grown, the cocks should be made 
somewhat smaller, about four feet wide aud 
high, and they should be opened after two 
days, turned and put up again ; or left longer 
in the windrows. Glover bciugmore succulent 
than grass, needs more careful drying, but it 
may be more easily spoiled by over-drying. 
Hay caps are very convenient to have, and 
cost about 18 cents each. They are squares of 
brown cotton Bheetiug, 48 to 54 inches wide, 
with short twine loops at the corners and a 
hickory peg a foot long, tied to the loop with 
a piece of twine also a foot long. These will 
he completely water-proof if steeped in sugar 
of lead solution aud dried. Ten of these will 
cover a ton of hay aud make it safe against a 
week's rainy weather if need be. The caps 
are thrown over the top of the cocks aud held 
down by thrusting the pegs through the loops 
into the hay. To be safe against a sudden 
thunder storm is to be happy, in haying time 
and one may rest easy when the thunder lolls 
at night, if the hay is cocked and capped. 
As soon as the hay is raked, or sooner if 
there is a spare horse, the mower is started 
again, and cuts until night. This process is 
repeated until all the hay is made. The cocks 
will heat and sweat, and it Is this fermentation 
which improves the hay, and by which the 
cellular fiber )s, in part, changed to starch, or 
at least is mude more digestible ; the starch is 
changed iu part to gum aud possibly iu the 
ripening process which goes on, BOiue sugar 
may be formed. This may be, if it Is 80 or 
not, no one knows, that I have been able to 
learn of, whatever may he thought or believed; 
and this is a point which should be investi¬ 
gated aud set at rest by some competent per¬ 
son. The fact is that this curing and ripening 
in the cock is a very important part of hay¬ 
making ; some farmers have it done in a 
fashion in the barn, by putting away the hay 
