NEW YORK, JUNE 30, 1883. 
PRICE FTVE CENTS 
*2.05 PER YEAR. 
Vol XLII. No 1744. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1883, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the ofllee of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
&I)C i}cv‘Dsmrtn. 
HANDLING UNRULY BULLS. 
VERY man who has had 
the management of a breed¬ 
ing farm where cattle to 
any groat extent were hand¬ 
led and bulls kept for breed¬ 
ing purposes, has at some 
time had trouble with them. 
Either by their nature, 
or, as is more often the 
case, from bad handling and 
misplaced kindness, the temper of the bull has 
been allowed to get the upper hand of his 
herdsman. But where bulls, and especially 
aged ones, are bought and sold, and they are 
obliged to be handled by strangers, it is abso¬ 
lutely necessary that some method should lie 
devised for handling them with outire safety 
to human life. Especially is this the case now 
that Jersey catt le are becoming so popular- 
and it is well known that the hulls of this 
breed are particularly fractious, owing, no 
doubt, to their high spirit and light physique, 
and as a writer says: “their chivalrous spirit 
indissolubly connected with ancient ancestry.” 
Now that the test of jierformance is being ap¬ 
plied to the get of bulls, it is absolutely ueces- 
sary to keep them to greater age than was 
formerly the custom, and as it is at old age 
that bulls usually show their bud qualities of 
temper, the obligation is more imperative of 
finding some method of hamiling them with 
safety when they have become old, ugly, and. 
by the good qualities of their offspring, proved 
themselves highly valuable. 
Bulls that have never been known to give 
trouble owing to careful and uniform treat¬ 
ment, have often proved themselves quite 
vicious when pussed iuto the hantls of uew 
owners, who were not so judicious in their 
management. Many bulls of necessity are 
kept at homo from attending fuirs where they 
would stand good chances to win premiums; 
but owing to their dangerous tempers such ex¬ 
hibitions have to be abandoned. There is, 
therefore, an abundant field for invention of 
some method by which bud bulls may be 
made harmless. 
YVe have found the method shown in the ae- 
eompauyiug cut, Fig, 345, to auswer perfectly 
when properly applied. A new piece of three- 
quarter inch rope (C) is securely fastened to 
the ring in the nose of the bull and passed be¬ 
tween the horns aud along the baek.nud made 
fast around the tail, like the crupper of a har¬ 
ness, This rope is pulled tight until the nose 
of the bull is raised high in the air. A surcin¬ 
gle, or bully-baud (B), made with a broad strap 
having a slot or ring (E) on the Itaek for the 
rope to pass through, is firmly buckled around 
the waist, of the bull. A strap (D) is buckled 
around the horns and over the rope to hold it 
in place. The staff (A) is then attached to the 
ring in the nose, and if everything has been 
projiorly done there will be no danger. 
The point which is to Imj enjoined is to see 
that the bull's nose is drawn tis high in the air 
as it can Ik-, and no mistaken idea of its being 
cruel should allow of its being half done, for 
it is only by lifting his nose high iu the air 
that he is prevented from using his horns. A 
very uew rope is liable to stretch, aud there¬ 
fore a good strap is better, and it may be 
shortened or lengthened at pleasure. The 
whole process is similar to the use of the 
check-rein ou a horse and is no more painful 
to tla« bull, while its use, of course, is only 
temporary, 
—■ 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
Mu. A. E. Gibbs in a late Rural takes no 
stock in hens; lie wants pork for his shelling. 
1 liat is all right, but when he tries to induce 
the readers of the Rural to follow his ideas 
he ought to tell a truthful story; “naught ex¬ 
tenuate aud naught set down in malice.” He 
thinks a 100-pound pig can be fed to 300 
pounds with more profit than with 100 pounds 
of hens. To say that a fanner must begin 
with 100 ehickeus to do this is not true. Sup¬ 
pose he begins with 20 hens weighing 100 
pounds; these 20 hens will consume two quarts, 
or four pounds, ot grain a day; a 100-poimd 
pig will consume about as much, but when it 
is 200 pounds it will consume about twice as 
much, while the 20 hens will still consume no 
more and can easily rear 100 ehickeus which 
at four months old will weigh 300 pounds, and 
that is long before the pig will weigh so much 
aud thej r will uot cost as much as the pig for 
food. 
But the heus meanwhile are paying in eggs 
at least twice os much as the cost of their food, 
and thej- will make as much manure as a pig, 
and the manure will l»e more valuuble. Here 
is a statement of the cost and income front 20 
hens from January 1st, to May 31st, which 1 
will match against the profit from any 100 
pound pig living. [Isn’t it from dead pigs the 
profit comes? Eds.] And the flock has been 
much neglected too and might have doue 
better as many readers of the Rural will say; 
but it is true. 
Dr. 
Cr. 
Jan. 
Corn. 
....*1.85 
83 
eggs. 
..*1.92 
Feb. 
Corn 
aud wheat..5.00 
170 
it 
...5.00 
Mar. 
— 
292 
i c 
...6.08 
Ap’l. 
Cr’k’ 
corn.. 
.1.25 
272 
ti 
...6.50 
May 
Feed. 
_2.80 
200 
u 
.. .4.90 
*10.90 
*24.40 
20 chicks_54 pounds. 
55 “ half grown. 
39 eggs setting. 
once. It is a strong dose, and purges violent¬ 
ly, but such a solution has been found suffi¬ 
cient to kill the germs which produce this 
disease. 
This disease is very infectious. Like the 
same disorder in swine, it will jump from farm 
to farm and therefore no one, however careful 
he may be, is safe from it so long as his neigh¬ 
bors may have it about their premises. As the 
remedy is the more effective the more prompt¬ 
ly it is administered, every poultry owner— 
and l would say swine owner—should have a 
supply on hand. It is sometimes called bi¬ 
sulphite and is not the sulphate, which is 
Glauber salts. 
I notice a eurreut statement to the effect 
that the Department of Agriculture has an¬ 
nounced that cholera is entirely obliterated in 
the West aud that difficulty is encountered iu 
procuring virus for experiments. This is 
rather contradictory. If hog cholera has been 
completely destroyed and it is only a conta¬ 
gious disease, as some would have us believe, 
why are any further experiments required. 
This statement is what Hamlet called a “flat¬ 
tering unction:” and nothing but a delusion 
aud a snare. This disease is not one of this 
kind. It is “ not dead but sleepeth,” and by 
and by will sweep agaiu through the herds 
with its usual virulence. In a myriad placets 
the poisonous germs lie ready to infect new 
victims as soon as the requisite conditions exist. 
Hogs are now at pasture aud running in 
: fresh grass. This is a wholesome condition for 
I them. The fresh grass cleans the blood; acts 
favorably upou the liver and frees the system 
A Crupper Strap For Unruly Bulls.—Fig. 345. 
These figures are actual cash expended aud 
received, eggs used being counted us sold at 
the same price. The 20 chicks can lie sold to¬ 
day for broilers at 25 to 30 cents a pound, but 
iu a month, they will weigh thrae-und-oue- 
lnilf to four aud-oue half pounds each and will 
sell for 20 cents per pound; by the 1st of July 
1 shall have—but that is the old story aud 1 
will stop with the verdict of the Dutchman 
“uuf sed,” and only half the season heard 
from and food iu stock for a mouth more. 
Let some of the Rural family beat my 
record; no doubt many a Rural housewife 
cun do it and put Mr. Gibbs to shame with “300 
pounds of pork next Christmas”—perhaps! 
While on the subject of poultry 1 wish to 
say that hyposulphite of soda iu a dose of half 
a level teaspoouful of crystals dissolved in as 
little water us will make a solution, and 
poured down the throat of a hen which has 
the cholera, will euro it. In each of three 
cases which have occurred in my flocks, the 
present season, this medicine has cured at 
from the excess of carbon accumulated by the 
Winters corn feeding. By ami by when the 
hot weather eoiues and the sloughs and water 
holes become foul tunl the freshness of the 
grass aud t be earth has gone and filth abounds, 
then the cholera \\ ill bo around again, tind 
when corn feeding time arrives and the system 
is disordered by the excessive carbonaceous 
matter of the food, then this disease will be 
just as bad as ever again and the old history 
will be repeated. 1 hope this note will be 
noted, because l want all those concerned to 
view this disease as one that is entirely pre¬ 
ventable, although it is incurable by medical 
skill. When this view is generally accepted 
and precautions needed arc observed, the 
country may indeed be free from the disease 
but uot before. 
An agricultural (?) monthly which once en¬ 
joyed a goodveputatiouof knowlug something 
of agricultural matters, recently declared that 
19 out of 20 Devon cows would make 20 pounds 
of butter a week. This is So axtremely absurd 
and ridiculously false that it is a wonder how 
imagination even could lead any one so much 
astray. It is an excellent Devon cow which 
will give nine or ten pounds of butter in a 
week. The Devons have their valuable uses 
and fill them well, as fair dairy cows, the best 
i of work-cattle and very good beeves, but to 
set them ahead of the Jerseys is a stupid 
blunder. 
There is a good deal of opinion one way or 
another in regard to the cause of hog cholera 
and I will say there is a good deal of foolish¬ 
ness current about it. It is said that it is a 
contagious disease aud never occurs spon¬ 
taneously ; that improper feeding has nothing 
to do with it. Well it is said now to be extir¬ 
pated, eradicated, stamped out, abolished, and 
the country is free from it. Then of course 
there can be no source of contagion hereafter. 
If, however, in the Fall we shall hear of 
cholera here aud cholera there, what must we 
think about the cause. Your contributor John 
M. Stahl, of Ohio, 1 know to be a level-headed 
mau, He grows pumpkins for his bogs. He 
says his hogs are accustomed to clover in the 
Summer and when he has no clover he mixes 
pumpkins with the corn to fatten his hogs. 
He further says freding hogs exclusively on 
corn leads to derangement of the digestive and 
assimilative organs. Precisely. There is the 
whole case iu a nut shell. The liver is the 
great digestive and assimilative organ, and 
feediug too much corn disturbs this great 
organ; the blood is poisoned; the system is 
inflamed with fever, the intestines are wholly 
disturbed; a favorable condition is produced 
for the increase of vegetable germs in the 
blood: these very soon take complete possession, 
appropriate all its oxygen, aud then this vital 
principle being abstracted the animals perish. 
Now I would like to ask Mr. Stahl if he finds 
his hogs, fed on clover and fattened ou pump¬ 
kins, dying of hog cholera as those do which 
are fed on com—corn aud coni - all the time. 
farm (Topics, 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Profit in Cows. 
We keep our cows through the Winter at a 
heavy cost for what they may return to us iu 
the Spring and during the Summer. Their 
wintering is considered a kiud of necessary 
sacrifice, ami what may be eked out of them 
during Summer, as clear gain. They are 
turned to posture as soon as possible in the 
Spring and usually brought up before night¬ 
fall to be milked, remaining in the barnyard 
ail uight and perhaps t ill late the next morn¬ 
ing. As a rule, no effort is made to supple¬ 
ment with any extra food the pasture, which 
may be light in the early Spring and always 
washy and weakening. The same manage¬ 
ment continues through the Summer, although 
dry weather and poor feed may intervene be¬ 
fore the time for feeding corn fodder arrives, 
which, by the way, with many farmers never 
comes. Is this wise? Is this profitable? It is 
ueither. To depend upon w hat a cow may 
gather for food during the hot hours of th 
day, while she spends most of her time iu the 
barnyard, to obtain a profit on the w intering 
and all the labor connected w ith her, leaves a 
very slim margin. The greater part of the 
limited amount of food which she obtains is 
required to maintain life and locomotion. 
There is scarcely anything remaining to con¬ 
tribute towards the contents of the pail. The 
above facts are so patent to my mind that I 
have begun a new system in the management 
of the cows in order to obtain a better income. 
