704 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
OCT. 23 
time comes, if it is not now here, when a Bteer 
is wanted which will lay on fat and flesh 
enough on grass alone, between the first of 
May and the first of November, to make number 
one beef, without the. aid of corn. One or two 
years’ feeding on corn, when corn is worth 
about 30 cents the bushel, is apt to result un- 
profitably, and feeders are finding it out, and 
coming to rely on grass more. The Herefords, 
Mr. A. has examined were no doubt open to this 
objection, " that they are apt to drop from the 
“ huckle-bones to the tail, and here aud in 
“ the hind quarters, they are not generally 
“ equal to the Short-horns,” but l think if he 
had seen some of the best Herefords of Mr. 
Culberstone’s herd, exhibited at the Illinois 
State Fair, he would correct, his estimate, at 
least so far as hind-quarters are concerned, 
and especially in the case of the bull at the 
head of Mr. C.’s herd, which was remarkably 
good on that point. But the rivalry in breed¬ 
ing is not confined to beef cattle. It has invaded 
horsemen, and a strong rivalry is already 
showing itself between the Normars aud the 
Clydesdales, in the matter of draft horses. 
Within ten years the Clydes have been increas¬ 
ing in popularity, but something like a rage is 
being developed for them now, of which no¬ 
body can anticipate the outcome. 
Jiainj gtisbaiitin). 
THE DAIRY COW-NO. 12. 
HENRY STEWART. 
MILK-CKLLAR8. 
No dairy is well furnished unless it is pro¬ 
vided with a good milk-house. The quality of 
the butter made depeuds greatly upon this, 
and even if the best appliances—such as have 
been described—are used, their couveuience 
and economy are in proportion to the good or 
bad arrangement of the milk-house. 
The first requisite of a milk-house is even¬ 
ness of temperature. In a building that is not 
cooled by ice or warmed by a stove, the most 
regular temperature is secured in a cellar. The 
common receptacle for milk Is a cellar, because 
every house is supplied with oue, or should be, 
aud it is the most convenient place for it. For 
a family dairy the cellar will be the appro¬ 
priate place for keeping milk ; aud if it is not 
fit for this particular purpose, which requires 
absolute cleanliness aud purity, it is not fit for 
human beings to live over. If it is not fit for 
tbi6 purpose, it should be made fit by thorough 
cleansing, and draining, if necessary; laying 
a floor of cement, moderate lighting and ven¬ 
tilation, and the protection of the windows by 
wire gauze. A slatted outside door is very 
suitable for a milk-cellar, and this should be on 
the north side and opened at night. The walls 
should be closely pointed and whitewashed 
Inside. The common practice of protecting a 
cellar from frost by heaping litter from the 
stable around it. is very objectionable. Nor 
should turnips or potatoes be stored in a cellar 
in which milk is kept, unless it is divided by a 
tight partition and the root cellar abundantly 
ventilated. 
Ventilation for a cellar may be provided by 
carrying a tube or spout from the floor to the 
ceiling, and through the wall out of doors 
where it should be protected by fine wire 
gauze. The arrangement is explained in the 
illustration, in which the cellar wall is shown 
with the spout fixed against it. The outlet is 
divided in the center, and one half communi¬ 
cates with the spout which reaches to the bot¬ 
tom of the cellar, and this furnishes an inlet to 
fresh, cold air. The other is connected with 
the short upright spout outside, through which 
the warm, fouled air escapes, as shown by the 
arrows. This arrangement has been found 
very useful both for purifying and dtying the 
air of a cellar: for the cold air coming in at 
the bottom is drier than the warm air passing 
out, and the moisture of the cellar is continu¬ 
ally absorbed and carried off so long as any 
warm air flows out of the upper spout. The 
spouts are provided with slides by which they 
are^closed when.it is necessary. The cellar , 
should be well celled with lath and plaster, 
otherwise dust will be dropping from the rooms 
above; aud in any case this 5s advisable, for 
if no other means of ventilation are provided, 
air will pass up and down through the floor 
over the cellar and it may be bad for the milk, 
and for the occupauts of the rooms above as 
well. The ceiling not only preserves cleanli¬ 
ness, but regularity of temperature at the 
same time. 
MILK-CELLAR—FIG- 838. 
In the Southern and some Western SlateB 
the houses are not provided with cellars. 
Where an outside cellar is desirable, in these 
and other cases, an excellent arrangement is 
as follows: See illustration. A cellar is dug 
13 feet deep; the walls are built of stone, con¬ 
crete or brick. A sub-cellar at least eight 
feet deep, is made by throwing a floor over the 
cellar four feet below the surface. An out¬ 
house or shed is built over this as a protection 
and is lighted by a sash in the roof. A sash is 
placed over a raised frame in the floor, as 
shown, which lights the sub-cellar. Steps are 
provided for access to each cellar, The sub- 
cellar is furnished with shelves and a bench 
and in such dry soils as will admit of it. a cel¬ 
lar of this kind is one of the best possible for 
a small dairy or, indeed, for household pur¬ 
poses. It is light and cool and the temperature 
will not vary from about 60 degrees, or some¬ 
what less, the whole year. It should be kept 
whitewashed, by which the light is well dif¬ 
fused about it. It may be found convenient to 
use the upper portion as a churning room and 
for storing milk utensils. 
Cellars are apt to be damp. In this case the 
air may be dried by means of a peck of fresh 
lime placed in a box or tub in the cellar. Twen¬ 
ty pounds of lime (one peck) will absorbabout 
seven pounds of water, and to take seven pints 
of water from the air of a cellar will make it 
very dry. The lime will simply fall to a pow¬ 
der and may be then used for many useful 
purposes, or he added to the garden compost 
heap. 
Where the cellar cannot be used on account 
of the wetness of the soil, an above-ground 
cellar must be provided. This may be partly 
6unk in the ground, but if there is any danger 
ot water soaking into it, it should be wholly 
above the ground. It becomes then, properly, 
a milk-house, and the description of such a 
house will be undertaken in the next chapter. 
- -♦ » ♦- 
WAUPACA CO., WIS., DAIRYING. 
This county lieB just south of the latitude 
of Green Bay. It is intersected by the Wis¬ 
consin Central Railway and the Milwaukee, 
Lake Shore, Western and Green Bay and 
Minnesota Railways and by Wolf River which is 
navigated by steamboats. It is just now in a 
state of transition from lumbering to agricul¬ 
ture. The soil is greatly diversified ; there are 
tracts of sandy laud, well dotted with pine 
stumps, of little seeming value, yet being fast 
settled by foreigners who seem to thrive where 
Americans would starve. There )6 also a large 
extent of oak openings, varying from sandy 
to clay loam, but for the most part the coun¬ 
try is very good farming land yielding fine 
crops of clover, corn, potatoes, rye, etc. There 
are also large tracts of Btrong, fertile, loamy 
land originally covered by a heavy growth 
of oak, maple, basswood, ash, ironwood, 
butternut, hickory, etc., that produce excel- 
ent crops of the cereals and grasses, and seem 
to possess a permanent fertility. 
Blue Grass, White Clover and Red Top are 
indigenous to the land and to the oak open¬ 
ings. These grasses form a perfect sward and 
grow so luxuriantly as to exclude weeds. It 
is doubtful if our pastures will need renewing 
for a life-lime, some of them having steadily im¬ 
proved in quality and yield for a term of years. 
Mr. L. Hayward, of Royalton in this county, 
informed me that he had mowed ihe same mea¬ 
dow fifteen years successively, and still had 
good crops. Many of our farmers have un¬ 
dertaken to compete with the prairies in the 
production of grain, wool and meats. Beaten 
and disheartened in this unequal struggle, 
they long to join the rush for Dakota or Kan¬ 
sas, and their farms can usually be bought at 
about the cost of the improvements. Others 
of keener discernment and many from the 
dairy regions of New York and New England, 
have discovered that in soil, grasses, waters 
climate and abundance of fuel and building 
materials, Fox River Valley is as unrivaled 
for the dairying interest as for its water power 
and manufacturing adaptability. These men 
have built up our creameries and cheese fac¬ 
tories which have already won sweepstakes on 
butter and cheese at some great fairs. I need 
onlj add that the prices of feed per ton are:— 
bran, from $6 to $10; middlings, $7 to $14; 
corn-meal, $13 to $18. It would not surprise 
me to see, at an early date, an exodus of East¬ 
ern dairymen from their worn-out farms aud 
moss-grown pastures settling upon these virgin 
soils, and rejoicing in the good things that 
nature’s God has so richly deposited in this 
favored region. t. w. r. 
Weyauwcga. 
btfg fuslmiitnri) 
♦ 
ROCKY AND PARTIALLY BARREN LANDS 
FOR SHEEP PASTURES. 
There are millions of acres of such lands in 
the United States and Territories, and where 
It is not more profitable to keep them in forest, 
they may be utilized as pastures for the sup¬ 
port of sheep. They ought to be owned in 
tracts sufficiently extensive to maintain flocks 
large euough to afford keeping a shepherd, 
with traiued dogs to attend them constantly 
Two or three of these dogs for his companions, 
make it an easy task for a single man to handle 
a large flock, and keep any from straying or 
getting lost; and they are a protection to the 
sheep from vicious dogs by day and night, a9 
they invariably attack aud drive off any such 
that approach. 
Sheep may be pastured here in Summer, and 
then be sold off or taken to better lands to 
Winter. But it frequently happens that nar¬ 
row valleys are found winding between rocky 
bills, snrticiently fertile and free from stones to 
be easily cultivated for various crops. Where 
this is the case, the Euglish system may be 
pursued of seuding the sheep on to the hills 
for pasture during the day, and hurdling them 
on the growing crops in the valleys at night; 
or these may be cut and soiled to them in 
racks, if preferable. A succession of crops 
must be cultivated for this purpose, commenc¬ 
ing in the Spring with rye; and continuing 
during Summer and Autumn with other pro¬ 
ducts, which are too well known to our readers 
to require enumerating here. Folding the 
Bheep at night on these, enriches the land ade¬ 
quately to bear good crops the ensuing year ( 
and thus it may continue to be cultivated in- 
d-finitely. 
In England these soiling crops are inclosed 
with shifting hurdles, in squares of about an 
acre each, aud the sheep, when driven down 
from the hills at night, are divided into bands 
of 100 or so, and each band folded on to a sep¬ 
arate division. An acre of clover usually feeds 
100 sheep during the early evenings and morn¬ 
ings for a week, and other crops do the same 
in proportion. No better preparation can be 
made there for a succeeding wheat crop than 
this, if it be qvor desired to grow one. 
In such a system of sheep pasturing and 
soiling, they can be made sufficiently fat for 
market to be drawn from early in Summer, 
and thus continue on for repeated drafts till 
cold weather sets in. If the valleys are large 
enough, forage can be raised there, not only to 
fatten off all the Bheep desired from the flocks, 
but also to winter over what i8 required for 
breeding and store purposes the following 
season. This is one of the most easy and 
profitable systems of farming that can be fol¬ 
lowed in our country, and it only requires to 
be duly considered by flock-masters, to induce 
them to adopt it as rapidly and extensively as 
cheap lands can be obtained. 
Sheep for such lands should be of medium 
size, compact form, early to mature, hardy 
and active. The South-Down breed, or its high 
crosses are usually adapted for this system 
of feeding and fattening in England, and we 
think they would bo the most suitable breed 
for American flock-masters. Richer, smooth¬ 
er, and more level lands are better adapted for 
the larger Down breeds, and particularly for 
that of the Oxford, the biggest of all. Still 
richer lands aud more abundant feed are 
requisite fortbeCotswold, the Lincoln, the Lei¬ 
cester, andother long-wooled breeds,as they ex¬ 
cel in size, and are not so active to range in 
pastures and work for a living. 
In my article in the Rural of the 2d inst., it 
escaped me to say that there have been re¬ 
peated importations of Herefords for years 
past into the State of Maine, where from their 
large size, great muscular power, hardiness 
and endurance, the pure-bred and even grade 
oxen are in high favor for general farm work, 
and more especially for lumbering. The forest 
trecB of Maine are of exti a girth and bight 
turning out the heaviest class of logs. It con¬ 
sequently reqnires extra-powerful cxen to haul 
these to the river banks, to be floated down to 
a market on the breaking up of the ice in 
Spring. Notlrng is superior to the Hereford 
for this purpose; and although the loaded 
sleds may glide easily over the compact, snowy 
paths, still it requires a big (earn and a strong 
one to hank the formidable sticks of timber 
which the forests of Maine have grown up 
so profusely. 
After working the oxen till they are seven 
to nine years old, they are usually turned out 
to a rich grass pasture in June, to fatten 
during the Summer, they being admirable 
grass-feeding beasts. In Autumn they are 
either sold for slaughter, or taken up and 
stall-fed a while, and then sold during the 
Winter for the same purpose. The flesh laid 
on during this time, being nearly all new, is 
as tender, sweet and juicy as that in the two 
to three-year-old Bteers at the West, which 
have, been well fed from birth and never 
worked in the yoke. Herefords and their 
crosses are also used to some extent as work¬ 
ing oxen, and for fattening in some of the 
New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts 
districts and are found among the most profit¬ 
able aud valuable of cattle. A. B. Allen. 
---- 
THE GOAT IN ENGLAND. 
The English people of fashion have taken 
up the goat; an animal proverbially significa¬ 
tive of general wickedness. They have labored 
long and arduously to make it popular as a 
dairy animal aud as a substitute for the gent¬ 
ler sheep for the production of mutton and 
lamb. With this intent the British Goat 
Society recently held the first of a series of 
kid dinners at the Alexandra Palace. One 
hundred and thirty-two members have en¬ 
rolled themselves as admirers, supporters and 
defenders of the British goat. Earls, dukes, 
baronets, and one baroness, an estimable lady 
whose Dame—Burdett-Coutts—is connected 
with every charitable and pbilanthropic pur¬ 
pose. are numbered among the vice-presidents. 
Tbis -ought to give the British goat social 
standing at once, and easily reconcile an irate 
housekeeper who has detected the hair on the 
shank of her last quarter of lamb, to this 
delinquency of her roguish butcher. Fifty 
distinguished persons sat down to eat goat and 
kid prepared by a skillful chef-de-cuisine. 
Swiss scenery with pictures of mountain goats, 
adorned the bill of fare; and on the whole the 
banquet was considered as settling all doubts 
as to the beauty and excellence of the goat not 
only as a source of mutton and lamb, but 
also of milk and butter ; for all these helped to 
furnish the menu. 
A British Goat Herd Book is already estab¬ 
lished, and goat exhibitions are held and well 
patronized, as, of coursp, they would be when 
earls and dukes are exhibited at the same time. 
Here in America the way of the goat is hard. 
He is despised and rejected, and is a subject of 
derision to the small boys, and a source of 
trouble and annoyance to the poster of ^land- 
bills, not to speak of his raids upon the pro¬ 
perties of the laundry-women whose lighter 
articles of attire so soon become the prey of 
his uncontrollable apnetite. Not even the high¬ 
bred Angora can hold hia owu in this country; 
and the farmer who has been rash enough to 
purchase a pair, “ to get into the stock,” is 
tired of climbing on to his barn roof to 
gather them in from their elevated roosts 
every evening. 
It is all in association. The present low and 
vulgar tastes of the American goat, prevent 
his rise in society, and as we have no earls or 
dukes here to introduce him to high life, there 
seems to be no encouragement to hope for his 
recovery from his present depraved and de¬ 
spised condition. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this heading is not so 
much to deal with '‘hum buffs" as with the many un 
conscious errors that creep into the methods of daily 
country routine life.—E ds.] 
PROFESSIONAL EXHIBITORS. 
"Hippodroming” is known as the practice 
of carrying around a herd or flock got up for 
show, to take premiums at agricultural fairs. 
It is an objectionable practice. It is a foreign 
and imported fashion and is failing into well- 
deserved disrepute in its own home. The 
English people are setting their faces against 
It, and the judges of Borne of the prom¬ 
inent exhibitions are instructed to pass over 
those animals which are fed, fattened, shorn, 
shaved, trimmed and otherwise prepared to 
catch the popular eye and sweep away the pre¬ 
miums from more useful and deserving cattle. 
A notable example oeeured at tho recent in¬ 
ternational sheep exhibition at Philadelphia. 
A noted dealer in cattle Imported a number of 
sheep, which had taken first premiums at Eu¬ 
glish shows, for the purpose of exhibiting them 
