iifnn 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
NEW YOKE; AUGUST 25, 1883 
Yol. XLII. No. 1752 
[Entered according to Act of CoiigresB, In the year 1883, by the Rural New-Yorker in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
Hi )t ijmlsman. 
A RURAL SCENE. 
Of how many of us can it not be said that 
we have eyes yet see not ! How nwuy beau¬ 
tiful and marvelous things tire constantly 
around us, to whose charms we are insensible! 
What is customary, is, with most of us, com¬ 
mon-place. Those who dwell from the cradle to 
the grave among scenes whose grandeur or 
picturesqueuess attracts vkitox's from distant 
regions, are often blind to the beauties that 
awe or delight the rest of the world. It 
is the. visitor to the city who sees all the 
sights, not the dweller therein. How much 
pleasanter would not life be if we learned to 
homes to the feathered songsters, as well as 
shade from the summer sun and shelter from 
the winter blast. How many picturesque 
scenes like that here depicted waste their 
charms on unappreciative eyes in country 
places. 
RAISING HEIFERS. 
COL. F. D. CERTIS. 
There is a practice among farmers quite 
too common, which worries me. There is such 
a want of good judgment ahout it and lack of 
forethought; a kind of ‘‘penny-wise and pound 
foolish” act, it seems strange that it should be 
so common—I mean the custom of selling 
young heifers for slaughter. 
There is always a demand for good cows; 
they will bring the cash auy time, and that is 
motive which induces a farmer to sell his 
heifers. 
Let us look at the figures involved in this 
transaction. A heifer at two years old may 
bring for beef &2o or $30. In a locality where 
a heifer would bring such a price, cows would 
be worth from $50 to $60—double the price of 
the heifer. Now if the heifer should be allow¬ 
ed to become a cow, when two years of age she 
would have a calf which could be made to 
bring at least five dollars, and she would be 
a poor animal indeed if she did not pay her 
way through the Summer and do something 
towards her keeping through the Winter. 
When three years old, the heifer will certain¬ 
ly pay for a year’s keeping, and at this age or 
when a year older she would be ready to sell 
as a cow, and bring a price which would af¬ 
ford a large profit aud more than pay the 
make it a rule to raise the heifer calves for 
cows, we may reasonably expect that there 
will be more attention paid to their breeding. 
So long as the custom prevails of turning them 
off for beef at the first offer, it is hardly 
supposable that there will be any great pains 
taken in their breeding. Calves should he 
reared for a purpose, and their breeding and 
treatment should be with reference to the 
purpose for which they are designed. If for 
beef, then there should he a larger frame to 
insure greater growth and such liberal feeding 
from the start as to insure a continuous and 
rapid gain all the time. When rearing calves 
to make cows a different system should be fol- 
■ lowed. The calves should be kept in a thrifty 
condition, but not fat, and this can be done on 
less expensive feed, requiring not halt'as much 
milk as would be needed to raise steers. 
THE HERD IN THE WOODS.-From a German Periodical.-Fig. 426. 
see and to prize the beauties of the ordinary 
objects aud scenes among which our days are 
passed, aud who can derive greater pleasure 
from such contemplation than those who live 
ainoug God’s own works in the country, llow 
many subjects of ail miration present them¬ 
selves to the appreciative eye, from the tiny 
flower half hidden among the swaying grass 
to the majestic trees w hoso tops are in the heav¬ 
ens, whose brawny roots clutch the solid earth, 
and whose branches spread abroad, affording 
not all, they will pay their way. A farmer wil 
never get any poorer on account of his cows- 
The cows may get poor if he doesn’t feed them 
enough, and the income may he poor; but this 
is not the fault of the cows. It should be the 
aim of every farmer to try to keep more cows 
on the same land, and this is a degree of suc¬ 
cess which is easily attained; but it is uot bused 
ou such a kind of foundation as selling heifers, 
which embodies the principle of simply pro¬ 
viding for the present. This is probably the 
interest on the money invested. What folly it 
is, then, to sell young heifers because a butcher 
covets them. A steer will pay much better to 
raise for beef, because at the same age it 
would naturally weigh a third more. 
I like the idea of fanners making and sell 
iug beef; but as profit is the object it would 
be much wiser to make beef from the steers 
aud raise all the heifers for cows. If a heifer 
proves to be unprofitable for a cow, she can 
then be turned off for beef! When farmers 
The saving in costly food and the saving in 
other foods, as between the rearing of a heifer 
aud a steer, reduces the cost of heifers so much 
that it is a fact that in all localities where cows 
are in demand, which would embrace all the 
older States, the rearing of heifers for cows 
can be made more profitable than steers. Here 
is then an almost unlimited field for the mani¬ 
festation of enterprise and intelligence on the 
part of farmers, the discussion of which wil 
be reserved for another article. 
