FES 24 
<£l)c i^eritisnuiu. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
THE AYRSHIRE BULL, BRAW LADDIE. 
(Sec pane 121.) 
The Ayrshire bull Braw Ladilie was calved 
on April 27, 1878. He was bml by his present 
owner,Chas. K. Harrison,Pikesville, Maryland. 
He has only been shown at one exhibition, and 
then won first prize at the Maryland State 
Fair in 1881, and headed the herd that bore oil' 
first prize the same year. His dam. Miss 
Meilde, won four first prizes in Scotland, and 
was second at the Highland Society's Show at 
Dumfries. She has also won four first prizes 
since her importation to this country. Braw 
Laddie was sired by the celebrated imported 
bull Pride of the Hills, out of the great Bar- 
roe ban Maid, a winner of the silver challenge 
cup at Stirling, open to all Scotland, and also 
winner of the first prize at the Highland So¬ 
ciety’s Show iu 1870, and many other prizes. 
♦ ♦ ♦- 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
The purchase and transfer of the Short-horn 
Herd-Book from the late publishers to the 
Short-horn Association, has been made and 
completed, The sum paid, 425,000, is quite in¬ 
adequate as compared with the valuable serv¬ 
ices which Mr. Allen has given to the Short¬ 
horn interest. But it was manifest destiny 
that this change should occur. No single indi- 
vidual can satisfy everybody, and it is a clear 
necessity that the breeders should control the 
registry of their stock themselves. How they 
may succeed in doing this we shall see. When, 
more than a year ago, in these Notes I at¬ 
tempted to show the inevitableness of this 
change and how it could not long be resisted, 
some unfavorable criticism was evoked. The 
result which I showed would lie sure to hap¬ 
pen has occurred, and my prediction has been 
verified. _ 
But l hazard the new prediction that no bed 
of roses awaits the new managers of this Hard 
Record. If thev have as much trouble as the 
managers of the Jersey Cattle Club Register 
have had in their history, the prospect is not 
all lovely and serene for them. But associa¬ 
tions, like corporations, have no souls, aud 
where blame is launched against an association 
it glances from one to another individual, like 
lightning from the immovable crags of a great 
mountain, and sticks to and hints no one; aud 
an association may dare and do what no single 
individual can do aud survive. 
How much more money is there iu a horse 
than a steer? Looking over market reports one 
may see that a fairly good working horse at 
five years old will sell very readily for 17 1 , to 
20 cents a jxmud live weight; while a carriage 
team will bring from 50 cents to 41 a pound. 
The hoof thus beats the horn by very great 
odds, aud, moreover, it costs no more to bring 
it to maturity. A yearling colt of ordinary 
kinds is ousily sold for 475, which is twice or 
thrice the value of a yearling steer, yet the 
former costs no more to raise. A work horse 
four or five years old brings 4150 to $175, and 
good teams have recently brought, in Ken. 
tacky all the way from 41,250 to $5,500. 
There was a time when Vermont horses were 
in request, but it seems that the “ Green Moun¬ 
taineers” have neglected their opportunities of 
late. In the even apportionment of the live¬ 
stock business, horses, clearly, cannot be profit¬ 
ably neglected. 
Here is nn excellent note for a dairyman or 
any other man who is interested in cows. 
When you have a good cow, keep it; when you 
see a good cow, buy it; when you have a poor 
cow, sell it. This is warranted to lx> as effect¬ 
ive aud sure a way of getting rich us any of 
the old maxims of “ Poor Richard.” 
The noise made about pleuro-pneumonia is a 
veritable "fuss” aud a force. Here Is u ease in 
point: A few miles outside of New York city 
is the quarantine station for cattle alongside of 
the railroad, at a place called Garfield. Here 
imported cattle are kept 9(1 days, as an assur¬ 
ance that they have no pleuro-pneumonia about 
them; they are then sold, at the station 1 Ixv 
lieve, aud thence are scattered over the whole 
country. Now it is a fact which I can persou- 
ally vouch for. that all around Garfield there 
is a hot-bed of cattle disease and scores of cows 
have died, whole herds having been destroyed 
quite recently. Every air of hoav en is a blast 
of death or may be to the cattle supposed to be 
quarantined ns a security against importing 
pestilence. But here they arc iu the midst of 
it. and any curious Jersey fanner who wants 
to set> the cattle, may just as likely as not carry 
the infection into the station, while every cattle 
train passing it might have the infectious virus 
scattered all through it. 
If this is not a brilliant example of “how not 
to do it,” I would like to huve a better one. It 
THE RURAL (NEW-YORKER. 
is no use disguising the truth. I have not 
much fear of a serious epizootic of pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, because I believe our climate is 
not favorable to it as it is not to epizootic aph¬ 
tha. But. I do like to sec consistency, and if 
the disease is really to be dreaded it should be 
destroyed in its cradle, and its cradle should 
not be made a quarantine ground for its sup¬ 
pression. 
The agricultural interest “docs well to be 
angry” and the live stock men may well sit 
upon their haunches and howl. All their re¬ 
monstrance, petitions and demands made to 
Congress have l teen treated with neglectand con¬ 
tempt aud their industry, upon which the food 
of the world depends, is threatened if not en¬ 
dangered; still no help is giveu. But w hen the 
whiskey distillers, whom the world could very 
well spare, ask to have their taxes remitted or 
extended, or, let us say at once, abolished, for 
no other reason than that they have foolishly 
and recklessly for the purpose of speculation, 
made more whiskey than they can possibly sell 
for several years, a bill is brought into Con¬ 
gress aud actually passes the Senate without 
delay to relieve these people from their j ust 
taxes. Aud yet i'ariueiN constitute fully one- 
half of the population, while the whiskey dis¬ 
tillers are abut a few score! 
THE BEST VARIETY OF HORSES FOR 
GENERAL PURPOSES. 
A. B. ALLEN. 
On farms of a rich soil, or even of moderate 
fertility, I should say of English horses the 
Cleveland Bay, as now bred, would bo one of 
the best for general use ou the farm and road, 
and also one of the most profitable to breed and 
rear for sale. They are from 10 to 10J^ hands 
high and sometimes a little more, and weigh 
from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. This gives suf¬ 
ficient size for a pair to do ordinary plowing 
even on a stiff clay soil, aud also work the 
farm implements of increased weight, which 
are now Iteiug manufactured and rapidly in¬ 
troduced as more efficient—such, for example, 
as the sulky and two-share plow; various clod 
crushers aud pulverizing harrows; the com¬ 
bined reaper, ruker and binder; horse powers, 
thrashing machines, etc. 
The choicest Cleveland Bays have a fine, 
smart action, are of handsome form aud very 
suitable in pairs for the gentleman’s carriage, 
or single, for the coupe. They are of the 
brightest and most beautiful shade of bay 
color, with black mane, tail and legs. This, 
with their general uniformity of size, shape 
aud gait, makes it easy to match them. Tiius 
the farmer does not have to go off his own 
premises to do this, which lessens his expenses 
and trouble no little when ho wants to make 
up a handsome match for sale at a round 
price, which gentlemen w illingly pay for such 
superior horses. They are sufficiently strong 
at two-and-a-haLf to three years old to put 
to light, work on the farm, which may be 
gradually increased to five or six veara of age, 
and then they can be taken to cities where they 
are sure of a quick sale at a large profit, on the 
cost of rearing. 
But the farmer will say that to procure 
Cleveland Bays from England to breed to at 
home is very expensive, and that lie cannot 
afford it—only the most wealthy among them 
having latterly attempted this in a few in¬ 
stances. I grant his premises and can assure 
him there is no necessity of his importing, for 
he has the material now at home in tolerable 
abundance to make horses just as good as the 
Cleveland Bay, excepting that lie could not in 
all instances produce them of the Cleveland 
beautiful shade of color— although it. may often 
be the case. Well, it will lie asked, how is 
it done? Why simply select good-sized mares 
of the best constitution, sliupo, action and 
temper you can pick up. aud cross these with 
a stout Thoroughbred or trotting stallion of 
large size. You do not want more than a third 
or fourth-rate one of them for speed, for the 
slower ones are as stylish aud handsome, aud 
just a* good as, and perhajis better than, faster 
ones for the pur[ioses of getting choice offspring 
for the combined purposes of the farmer and 
citizen. Much slower stallions can be had at. 
a moderate price, thus enabling the single 
farmer or a combination of them, to obtain 
them for their breeding. 
And now for the encouragement of farmers 
in this attempt, 1 will tell them that till the 
year 1850, or perhaps a little later, the Cleve¬ 
land Bays were much like the common English 
dray horse of the present day. They were 
of large size, coarse in all their points, and 
of sluggish action that, of au old cow rather 
than of a smart goer as at present. But they 
were strong, healthy and long-lived. Thus 
the females were a good foundation to work 
upon, and for the improvement of their future 
progeny a few of the more enlightened, enter¬ 
prising horsemen of the Cleveland District, 
iu Yorkshire, procured stout, pony-built 
Thorough bred and also what is called high¬ 
bred stallions ft-s a l»ay color to cross on their 
best selected mares; and the female offspring 
again of these, with other stallions of the same 
class as at first. In this way the greater part 
of the second cross with the subsequent produce 
make up the powerful, enduring and handsome 
improved Cleveland Bay of the present day. 
Spring is now approaching when the farmer 
must look out for a stallion to breed to his 
mares. Let him be careful as to his selection, 
and see especially that it is a sirnuil one in all 
respects, and of kind, eren temper. As to 
size, he must choose in accordance to his soil 
and situation, for these vary greatly in our 
broad country, ami each one should judge 
what is best, for himself individually and a 
future sale if the latter also is his intention. 
farm (Cconcmu). 
FARM CON VENIEN CIES. 
The farm conveniences represented at Fig. 83 
I have found very convenient and saving of 
time and labor. Fig. 1 represents the top of 
my feeding-box for feeding grain or meal. Two 
pieces like those shown at Fig. 3, arc secured 
inside and a handle. Fig. 2, fits in the slot in 
in Fig.3, d slides back to allow' room to use the 
scoop, Fig . 8, which is made from paid of an 
empty 14-pound corned-beef can; it makes a 
good scoop, being flat on the bottom. The 
Farm Conveniences.—Fig. 83. 
sliding handle is much better than a boil to the 
box. At Fig. 4 is a side view of my cut hay 
aud fodder fork. It can lx? made of a size, to 
fit the strength of the user. Mine has teeth of 
ash, about three feet long, and will carry about 
two bushels of cut hay. For shoving the cut hay 
from the cutting-box it is superior to any other 
device l have soon. Fig. 5 shows the back of 
the fork, and Fig. 7 one of the teeth. Fig. 5 
shows a strip screwed on the teeth to strength¬ 
en them and hold the cud of the handle. Fig. 
9 shows my spring gate-latch, which, so far, no 
horse, cow or pig has succeeded in opening. 
Fig. 10 is a piece of three by four-inch scantling, 
with a one-inch hole bored in the three-inch 
side to hold the spring—a piece of coiled brass 
w ire. At the end of the Ixdt, Fig. 11, a screw 
or wooden pin, driven in the bolt just inside 
tlu stile of the gate, holds all secure. The 
scantling is halved out and nailed between aud 
on two of the gate bars, and a hole is bored or 
mortised through the stile opposite the hole in 
the scantling. It has given me more pleasure 
than any gate-latch 1 have ever used, and my 
fodder fork has paid for itself over aud over 
in one Winter’s use. a. l. c. 
Barbed Wire as a Supplementary 
Fence, 
The Rural, ou page 6. tells us that in the 
West the railway offices are inclined to give up 
barbed wire fences aud resort to good hedges. 
Wliat is wautod to secure a perfect aud re¬ 
liable barrier at least cost or future trouble is 
to combine the two. With even a single line 
of wire, barbed or not, there is a much wider 
choice of eligible hedge plants, for the wire 
effectually prevents the larger animals from 
pushing through even a weak line of slender 
and ill-armed sprouts, while any shrub that 
has the habit of renewing itself freely from 
the base will soon become so thick below as to 
stop all the smaller creatures. Human tres¬ 
passers w'iil go a good way round rather than 
undertake to cut a way through a hedge 
thorny in itself and inclosing in its heart a line 
of barbs. The extreme stiffness and thorniness 
of the Osage Orange and the Honey' Locust are 
not necessary when a wire is used, and there 
is great saving of annual labor of tri mmin g 
when some of the less strong but more naturally 
hedgy plants are used, such as the Barberry, 
the Frivet, the Buckthorn, the Sweet Briar, or 
the Purple Willow. None of these are harmed 
by cattle or insects; they are entirely hardy, 
quickly grown and renewed and enduringly 
permanent. Each excels the others in some 
individual point of merit. w. 
Recipe for Salting Meat. 
In the Rural of Jan. 13 is a recipe for salt¬ 
ing beef which I take the liberty to criticize. 
In the first place all lean meats can be salted 
too much. If beef is salted too much, so as to 
require freshening, it takes away T so much of 
the sweetness of the meat. The least salt on 
beef or ham or any lean meat, that will pre¬ 
serve it, the better it tastes. I have a recipe for 
corning beef and hams which I have lists 1 for 
15 years, and like it first-rate. To every 100 
pounds of meat take eight or nine pounds of 
salt, four pounds of sugar, or two quarts of 
molasses, and two or four ounces of saltpeter: 
put the mixture in a kettle with water enough 
to dissolve it and boil it, and skim it if any¬ 
thing iises. Pack the meat iu a barrel, weight 
it down and cover it with this brine when cool. 
When hot weather comes you may theu 
have to scald the brine and put in a little more 
salt aud sugar. E. Clinton. 
OPINIONS OF CHARLES DOWNING, M. P. WILDER. 
J. J. THOMAS, THOMAS MEEHAN, et al. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
FROM CHARLES DOWNING. 
You ask what is now my opinion respecting 
the Kerffer pear. It is still unchanged as to 
the quality of the fruit as 1 saw and ate it from 
the original tree, but here it has not proved as 
good, and I am inclined to think it requires a 
warmer climate, and no doubt it will be eveu 
better south of Philadelphia, but time and ex¬ 
perience are necessary to decide fully. 
Newburgh, N. Y. 
FROM MARSHALL P. WILDER. 
The Keiffer Pear tree is vigorous and pro¬ 
ductive; but thus far the fruit, which we have 
seen in Massachusetts, is not up to our standard 
for "good." Iu the South it must be better or 
else it has been over-appreciated. 
Dorchester, Mass. 
FROM JOHN J. THOMAS. 
What knowledge I have of the Keiffer pear 
is derived from the specimens from New Jersey, 
from Rochester, and from trees grown on my' 
grounds. The tree is a remarkably fine and 
vigorous grower, and great bearer. It is prob¬ 
ably not so subject to blight as most other 
sorts, but I find it uot entirely free. A very 
important character 1 have uot named—the 
quality and flavor of the fruit. Specimens 
from New Jersey were simply' “gixxl,” with a 
very slightly bitter taste. Those grown at 
Rochester and ou my grounds, were very poor 
in flavor, with the bitter taste much increased. 
The fine growth, and great and early' pro¬ 
ductiveness of the Keiffer. doubtless led its 
early disseminators to hope it would prove of 
great value. It may be a good market sort, 
for canning, ote., but I think if good enough 
for the table, it will be only in favorable local¬ 
ities and under special treatment for ripening. 
But we must uot decide any point hastily— 
years are required to establish the position 
of any' fruit. 
Union Springs, N. Y. 
FROM THOMAS MEEHAN. 
I have hud specimens of the Keiffer pear the 
present season, that were in the fullest sense 
of the term delicious. 1 have had others that 
were I might say inexpressibly poor. But 
there is no mystery about this. I do not know 
of any pear that is not poor when it is permit 
tod to overbear. Side by side with a Keiffer 
tree I have growing, is a Rutter pear. I know 
of no pear more truly desirable than this when 
the fruit is properly' thinned. With me it has 
so many fruit ou, as a general thing, that the 
branches arc like “ropes of ouious.” 1 have 
had branches to break with the weight of fruit 
