AUG <e 
EDUCATION OF FARMERS’ SONS. 
RICHARD GOODMAN. 
It is too late for those of us iu the middle of 
life to be re-educated, though our education is 
being extended if we are at all attentive to 
the lessons given its by the agricultural press, 
addresses from scientific and practical far¬ 
mers and the object-teaching at the fairs. 
But do we desire that our boys shall staid in 
our calling handicapped as we have been by 
the want of that knowledge which underlies 
all our work, and which alone can make them 
not only agriculturists of the first class but 
men prominent in the community as citizens. 
One-half of the adult male population of the 
country are engaged in the vocation of farm¬ 
ing, aud their votes turn the elections for or 
against the political candidates, and it seems 
of the greatest importance that this class 
should be as intelligent us any of the others. 
In the early days of the commonwealth the 
agricultural interest predominated every¬ 
where; it furnished presidents and governors, 
statesman and politicians; but as the manu¬ 
facturing and commercial classes increased 
and became affluent, they absorbed the high 
places, filled up the schools and colleges with 
their sous, aud the fanners were left out in the 
cold, and it is only recently that they are com¬ 
ing more to the front and seeking to be re¬ 
stored to an equality at least with their com¬ 
peers. The General and State Governments 
have recognized their claims aud have appro¬ 
priated money and lands and erected institu¬ 
tions where the industrial classes can receive 
an education better suited to then’ needs than 
elsewhere, and it only remains for one to re¬ 
alize this and give the boys a chance, and 
another generation will surpass the present in 
all the practical and scientific knowledge 
which in these days of intensive and competi¬ 
tive agriculture has become a necessity. We 
are realizing in our day that to make farming 
pay in the older settled portions of the country, 
we must devote our energies to some one 
special crop or breed of cattle or single de' 
partment which shall bring the profits; that 
the efficiency iu the production even of crude 
commodities in the best, condition, depends on 
the use of methods fitted to the respective 
natures of such commodities, or an adequate 
kuowledge of their physical, chemical and 
vital properties, and we regret that an educa¬ 
tion in the line of our calling has been so 
limited that we cannot grapple with the tests 
involved as we should like to do. How much 
do we feel we owe to the scientific men, the 
State. Board meetings, the agricultural news, 
papers, for the information ami hints we are 
contiuually getting aud without which we 
should remain far behind the growing class of 
competitive fanners who are alive,like the old 
Greeks,to everything new, and take advantage 
of it to attain their ends. 
Let us then.knowing our own deficiencies,give 
our boys a chance to attain a better education 
than we have had, and encourage their study of 
the natural sciences at school, of chemistry and 
other knowledge which may benefit them in 
their business at the scientific and agricul¬ 
tural colleges, and when they go with us to 
the fairs let their attention be called to the 
new implements, the improved seeds and pro¬ 
ducts of all kinds, the various breeds of cattle 
and let them bring home some remembrances 
besides those of the horse-races. “The child,” 
as Wadsworth said, “ is father of the man ” iu 
some senses, but in the matter of education, eu_ 
couraging to study and appreciate learning, 
the man is the true or false father of the son, 
and upon his precept and example the boy be¬ 
comes intelligent «r the reverse, just as he be¬ 
comes an attendant upon one church instead 
of another, or votes for the Republican or 
Democratic candidate. If we wont en¬ 
courage the boys to study and become 
educated in their calling, don’t let us dis¬ 
courage them and become stumbling-blocks in 
their upward path. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Rural, July 14.—“Ten thousand dollars’ 
worth of water” sold as milk in New York, 
daily (p. 437)! A good deal of water. More 
popular as a beverage thus than most people 
think. 
Where in this world lived the dairyman 
“when we were little boys” that, buying 
cows, thought it useless to inquire whether a 
cow was “along milker or a short milker’’ 
(p, 438). It is a good while since 1 was a “ little 
boy ” on a farm, but it was a very important 
question then—away down East in Maine, too. 
Once tbe world was too fond of praising the 
old times; now, it seems to me, it is too fond of 
dispraising them. There were farmers who 
knew a good cow more than 60 years ago. 
I was glad when my friend Hibbard of the 
Farmer’s Review (p. 438) called for the name 
of that fraudulent seller of “golden-yellow 
colored Jerseys,” but very sorry when 1 found 
that ‘ ‘ Stockman’s” authority was only an 
anonymous correspondent of another journal. 
Such rascalities ought to be publicly exposed 
every time, aud the perpetrators be debarred 
from Herd Books. 
I wisn Col. Curtis joy of his experiments iu 
lengthening the teats of cows (p. 438) by 
“stretching them every time the cow is 
milked.” Most milkers do that, but though a 
heifer’s teats increase in size until she becomes 
a mature cow, I never thought ot' attributing 
it to the stretching, I once knew a vouug 
lady who tried that ou her “tip-tilted” nose 
a good while, but without manifest result. 
Did you ever know a calf to have longer ears 
when t he other calves sucked them, Colonel ? 
1 have kuown it to shorten them in cold 
weather. 
It is a pity this country has not more 
“ visionary enthusiasts” like “M. B. H,” of 
Mississippi (p. 4311). There never was a 
greater mistake than that of thinking any 
part of the Atlantic coast too far south for grass¬ 
growing and stock-raising. They simply had 
the same problem to solve for grass that we of 
the “ cold North ” have had for fruit—to find 
the kinds that would succeed there. And they 
certainly had the experience of southern 
Europe to sustain them. Go on, brave 
Mississippians, you cau grow beef as well as 
Texas, aud horses as well as Kentucky, if you 
only take hold right—more profitably than all 
cotton, too. 
Sorry to say that my Souhegan Black-caps 
are no earlier rhau, and not so large or prolific 
as Doolittle. Fay’s Prolific Currant 1 do not 
find, as the Editor does (p. 444), earlier than 
Red Dutch; but iu every way it seems, on 
three year-old plants, to do all that was pro¬ 
mised for it. It can be gathered about three 
times as fast as Red Dutch, aud will of course 
sell much better. The plants Mill pay a big 
iuterest ou 81 apiece, besides allowing for an 
ample sinking-fund to replace them and in¬ 
crease the plantation. 
Rural, July 21.—What a magnificent first 
page picture is that cattle group! As to Mr. 
Dancel’s theory (p. 453), I guess he puts the 
cart before the horse. It is not the big 
drinkers amongst, tbe cows that are big mi Heel’s, 
but the big milkers that are, necessarily, 
big drinkers; else we could make a big 
milker by feeding salt liberally. But I in¬ 
dorse tbe “ woods pasture ” idea, and have no 
sympathy with the dairyman who cut all the 
trees iu his pasture because, as he said, the 
cows wasted their time lying under the trees 
when they should have been eating. 
A. L. Curtis (p. 454) recommends a way of 
loading hay that is none the worse because it 
is uot new. In fact it would be hard to in¬ 
vent a way that has uot before been tried by 
the ingenious boys on our New England 
farms. 
Prof. Sanborn, in what he justly says 
(p. 4.55), about well-bred seed deteriorating iu 
the farmer’s hands, says no more than what 
cau lie as truly said of well-bred stock. An 
unskillful or slack fanner can do no good with 
either. When u man finds what is good seed 
at first, “ running out in his hands, he has 
warning that lie does not undestand his busi¬ 
ness. A fairly good farmer will keep liis seed 
good. A first-rate fanner will keep it im¬ 
proving. 
My neighbor, O. E. Rkyther (p. 455), voices 
the almost unanimous feeling of Vermont 
dairyman in favor of stanchions. And it is a 
fact, though they appear cruel, cows do not 
suffer in them when they are rightly made. 
But there a re stanchions and stancliious. 
Mr. Parnell (457) says a good word for 
green-tipped strawberries, but they are worse 
than worthless for commercial growers—they 
are an unmitigated nuisance. I sec he grows 
the Hovey, and I would like to hear what he 
and other growers think of that old variety. 
Its producer still upholds it as the liest straw¬ 
berry in the world for commercial as well us 
amateur growers, aud even as the largest of 
all varieties. With me it is simply an im¬ 
possibility, tender and unproliflc, though of 
good quality. I did not suppose the Agricul¬ 
turist remained in existence, but I see Mr. 
Parnell has it. 
Prof. Brown of Ontario may be right 
(p. 457) In his comparative tests of Swede tur¬ 
nips versus ensilage, although I doubt it. But 
no dairymen would think of feeding Swedes 
to cows iu milk as freely as ensilage is fed, if 
at all, and there can be no doubt that ensilage 
is much more easily grown, handled and fed 
than any root crop. 
Dr. Thurber’8 hens (p. 457) may eat purs¬ 
lane, but mine wont, and I think it would 
take a lot of it to make a hog fat. I used to 
find it make good growers in Kentucky, but in 
Northern Vermont, though it grows as plent-y- 
fully and as rankly as anywhere, we find it 
much less tender aud good. It is uot half as 
bad a weed as lazy gardeners think it. nor 
difficult to kill if taken at the start. 
Rural, July 28.—“ Stoelo^h ” gives us one 
of the best of his always souud aud eornmon- 
seuse “Notes” on (p. 470). “It wont pay” to stop 
the liog cholera or pleuro-pncumonia by proper 
sauitatiou and protection! No, it wouldn't 
pay our Southern friends to set their black 
bondsmen free. They went through fire and 
blood to prevent it, only to find after all that 
they could make more cotton with free labor 
than with slave! It always pays to do right, 
aud cruelty to animals is as sure of its reward 
as cruelty to meu, for it is the cnw( heart that 
holds the sin which must be punished to be 
saved. 
Will “ H. A. W.” tell us how he keeps one 
apple from striking aud bruising auother in 
his method of shaking them into a sheet, as 
described on (p. 4711 ? 
Does not the narrow, exclusive, unsym¬ 
pathetic Anglo Saxou temper speak out in 
Leon’s objection to un fenced grounds upon 
the streets of rural villages (p. 471). I do not 
mean tin's as persoual, of course—we Auglo- 
Yankees all inherit these characteristics, aud 
I feel and have to fight against them myself; 
but I see something better in a broader fellow¬ 
ship of mail with man. Every way of doing 
has something about it that cau be objected 
to, but I believe in open yards and a church 
the members of which do uot object to being 
acquainted with one auother. 
Thanks for F. D. C’s. cure for gapes in 
chickens (p. 473). I believe it will tfc “ worth 
a year’s subscription” to your poultry-rearing 
readers. The Colonel is a “ star contributor ” 
when it comes right down to practical matters. 
What a glorious thing it would be if the 
world would only adopt the suggestion on 
(p. 473) and make hot milk its only stimulant! 
Drop your pure old Bourbon, Kentucky 
farmers, aud fall back in good order upon 
this cup which cheers and strengthens, but 
certainly wont inebriate. Fresh milk, blood 
warm (100 degrees), is the true tipple for 
farmers. 
£l)f ijer^snuin. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
Col. F. D. Curtis must have a very poor 
opinion of my mental capacity when he says I 
“seem to have concluded that there is consid¬ 
erable coloring done among the Jerseys, be¬ 
cause some newspaper tells of it.” Now. 1 fear 
I have a bad reputation quite tlie other wuy, 
being considered a very incredulous sort ol per¬ 
son and even going so far at times as to set 
my judgment contrary to the opinions of the 
very highest, authorities. I have, iu fact, lit¬ 
tle faith in anything I read unless it consists 
with reason, and when my own knowledge is 
opposed to it 1 am ready to fight on the in¬ 
stant. Now I know of my own kuowledge 
that, this coloring“is done. Further, 1 have 
seen escutcheons iu course of training. I have 
seen switches dyed aud horns stained. Fur¬ 
thermore, 1 have the very best company in 
my denunciations of these tricks that are vain 
because they are only deceptive for a short 
time and are always found out—but too lute 
for the victims—for a well-known expert in 
Jerseys has denounced in print this cow-jock- 
eyiug which be says is as comrnou as horse- 
jockeying. 
Again the Colonel does me injustice when 
he says that 1 “delight in striking the Jerseys, 
und that I cross lots to get a whack at them,” 
or words to that effect. Now, if any person 
shows that I ever wrote or said a word con¬ 
trary to my belief that the Jerseys are tho 
best butter cows in existence as well as the 
most beautiful and attractive of all our do¬ 
mestic animals, I will take my words back; 
and that will be the first time I have ever hod 
occasion to do such a thing. But I am op¬ 
posed to all sorts of humbug and deception, 
and I think it is u humbug and a deception to 
make believe that any cow or bull is worth— 
to a farmer or duiryman or stock breeder—in 
any possible business sense any such sum as 
91,0U0 or even less than that; and if Col. Cur¬ 
tis will show that 1 am wrong I will change 
my opiuion. A rich mau may very justly and 
properly give $10,000 for a cow, just, as he may 
pay $1,000 for an old picture or a piece of 
crockery, and a speculator aud dealer iu Jer¬ 
seys may very properly buy ami sell them at 
these figures. But my friend the Colonel wdl i 
not dare to SHy that the very best Jersey that 
ever lived is actually worth any such money 
to him for his dairy, for milk aud butter. The 
fact is that this speculation is depriving farm- 
era and dairymen of opportunities to improve 
their herds, by taking these animals out of 
their roach, and leaving them only the poorest 
for their use, and there are some very poor 
Jerseys, too. Consequently hundreds of farm¬ 
ers are not prejudiced in favor of Jerseys by 
any means. And I sympathize with the farm¬ 
ers and the dairymen who have to live by 
their labor, and would like to sec them spend¬ 
ing that on t he best materials, rather than to 
see wealthy meu monopolizing the best stock 
and making it a means of speculation and 
money making to the disadvantage of the 
working farmers. 
On another point Col. Curtis is right; that 
is, when he says cows’ teaks cau be made long¬ 
er (and the udder cau be made larger, too) by 
manipulation. But he is wrong again when 
lie turns a promising heifer out to be milked 
by calves. It will lie the ruin of the cow. The 
calves-will keep sucking several times a day. 
The udder w ill never get filled and will shrink 
in size and become quite srnaU. This frequent 
milking, too, tends to lesson a cow’s milkiug 
capacity, (hie may dry up a cow by milkiug 
her often and leaving a little milk in the ud¬ 
der; and as the calves begin to feed, they' will 
care less for the milk and produce the very ef¬ 
fect that should be avoided in training a heif¬ 
er. No doubt ibis heifer will make au excell¬ 
ent. cow if she is milked iu the usual maimer. 
I have a cow of this cross (Ayrshire and Jer¬ 
sey) which looks like an Ayrshire, which has 
a glossy, soft aud mellow hide, but full-sized 
teats and a large, square udder and whose 
first week’s churning, when two years old 
made over 12 pounds of butter. I believe this 
cross to be the best dairy cow possible. 
The live stock business reacting. The 
speculation is producing s usual fruits. 
“There are 25 per cent, more cattle ou the 
plaius thau ever before” is the common re¬ 
port. Thousands of calves have been brought 
from tbe East and the middle region, and have 
been turned iu to swell the numbers of the 
herds which have been sold to foreign capital¬ 
ists. The old stockmen have got out aud the 
capitalists have got in, It is the old story over 
again—the mau with money joins the man 
with experience. After a time the former lias 
the experience aud the latter has the money. 
And now the new men will experience a great 
difficulty iu getting out whole, while, as usual, 
the public will gain by the lessened price of 
meat. Nevertheless, there will always lie con¬ 
sumption enough to make beef cattle profita¬ 
ble even as a branch of ordinary farming iu 
the. East. 
Still the enormous transactions in live 
stock and grazing lands go on. The following 
reports arc current: Downs & Alien, of Mon¬ 
tana, have purchased 8,000 head. Sparks & 
Tinnin, of Nevada, have bought out a ranch 
and stock for $900,000. Charles Goodnight, of 
Texas, has gradually accumulated 40,000 head 
and owns a million acres of land. Cou Kohrs, 
of Montana, has bought a two-thirds interest 
in 12,000 head for 8206,000. And many more 
of the same kind might be gathered as cur¬ 
rent news. 
At the same time a vast improvement is be¬ 
ing made in these cattle aud a brisk business 
is done in shipping pure bred bulls to the herds 
on the Plains. To supply this demand a single 
importation of over 300 head of pure Here¬ 
ford s has recently been made from England 
by one Illinois breeder. 
An important business has been begun iu the 
shipment of American Merinos to Australia. 
It is some years ago that one of the largest 
Australian shepherds first procured a speci¬ 
men ram from this country aud adjudged it to 
be the best sheep ho had seen. Now our Meri¬ 
nos are becoming so popular that two shij>- 
ments of rams have heeu made recently—the 
last of 116 rams and eight ewes—to Australia, 
while Mr. A. M. Garland, President of the 
Nutioual Wool-Growers' Association, is now 
on his way to that far-off country for the pur¬ 
pose of cultivating this growing and profitable 
demand for American sheep. It is an exam¬ 
ple of the sure and certain success which 
comes of getting a good thing und sticking to 
it; and is a lesson to those who are always 
changing from one kind of stock to another 
and are always out. when the good times come. 
- • w * - 
GETTING GOOD STOCK CHEAPLY. 
P. K. MORELAND. 
The farmer who does not appreciate a well 
bred animal is uu anomaly indeed. I have 
never mot him. Tho farmer who thinks he cau 
invest money in such stock is aluiost as rare. 
Perhaps it would not pay every farmer owning 
