448 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. MAR7 
QL\)t 
CHOICE FOWLS AT THE NEW YORK 
POULTRY SHOW. 
In no department of farm stock has there 
been greater improvement in the past half 
century than in the poultry yard. In our 
younger days there was not in this country such 
a thing as a pure breed or an improved breed 
of fowls, and the chicken that wonld turn the 
scale at more than three pounds was literally 
a “rara avis.’’ 
Every barnyard rivaled in colors the rain¬ 
bow, and the little gay-plumaged fellows were 
allowed and expected to look for their own 
living, and were clubbed or dogged if in find¬ 
ing it they happened to stray into the garden 
or grain field. What those little fellows 
lacked in size they made up in agility, and it 
was hard to build a fence so high they could 
not scale it at a single flight. 
But with the introduction, some forty years 
ago, of the large Asiatic breeds more attention 
was given to this important branch of stock, 
till to-day it is the exception to find a farm 
that has not a stock of some of the large and 
improved breeds, and it is as difficult to find a 
mature fowl weighing under asit was former¬ 
ly to find oue weighing over three pounds. 
We were led to these reflections by a brief 
visit to the fine collection of fowls a short 
time since gathered at the third annual show 
of the New York Fanciers’ Club, hel 1 in this 
city. At this show there were of fowls alone 
nearly 600 entries, comprising some 1,500 
specimens, and every breed from the monster 
Cochin and Brahma, weighing nearly ascoreof 
pounds each, to the miniature little Bantam, 
which felt as large as though he weighed a 
ton. In addition to the arn yard fowls were 
turkeys, pea fowls, Guinea fowls, ducks and 
geese, as well as pigeons and all sorts of pet 
birds. In all, there were nearly 1,000 entries of 
the feathered tribes, and some 2,500 individual 
birds. 
Our artist was on the scene and sketched 
what suited his fancy, and on our first page 
we give a group of birds and the heads of 
some of the birds ou exhibition. In the center, 
at the top, is a sketch of a chick that had got 
tired of the show and was just yawniDg, as 
our artist caught him, showing somewhat of 
an open countenance. In the upper left-hand 
oval he shows a Black-breasted Red Game 
cock and a pullet’s head. In the upper right- 
hand oval is shown a Coebiu ben and the head 
of a Hamburg cock looking around from 
the back. In the lower left band oval is a 
Cochin cock; and in the right-hand lower 
corner oval, is the long tailed Pbomix cock, 
with the pullet's head showing over his back. 
Occupying the center between the ovals are a 
pair of Errainettes, and on either side of them, 
a Houdan cock and a pullet’s head. In the 
center, at the bottom, is shown a head of a 
Laugshan, and on the lower corners are the 
heads of a cock and hen of the little Silkie. 
We have the sketches, and hope hereafter to 
show the portraits of some of the finest of the 
fowls on exhibition, separately. 
POULTRY NOTE. 
I AM glad the Rural, among other things, 
gives the poultry business a fair and impartial 
test. I have never kept Wyandottes; but 
your*reports of this breed are interesting, and 
afford needed information. The farmer should 
keep pace with all improvements, as well as 
the manufacturer, aDd should adopt the best 
in everything, and the only way we can tell 
which is best is by comparing notes, and if the 
Wyandottes prove the beet general -purpose 
fowls I shall surely adopt them. My flock this 
Winter comprises four old Brown Leghorns, 
three old Plymouth Rocks, and 61 Plymouth 
Rock pullets, making 88 in all, and from Feb¬ 
ruary 1st to 16th inclusive, they have laid 816 
eggs, an average of 19% per day. Of those 
gathered last night, seven weighed a pound. 
Thinking 1 might have selected the largest, 1 
weighed all (21) which weighed 46>£ ounces. I 
am quite confident the entire product of the 
Winter would average one pound to seven 
eggs. Your suggestion to cross the Wyan¬ 
dottes and Plymouth Rocks I think a good 
one, and will try it. T. b. h. 
Wellsville, Pa. 
<£l)e perils man. 
A PROTEST. 
PROF, G. E. MORROW. 
I wish to enter my protest against the tone 
and some of the statements of “Stockman” in 
many of his articles. Freely according to 
him the rightto hold and express his opinions, 
I protest against continued assumption of 
superior wisdom; agalu9t carping, priggish 
criticism of others; against insinuations or 
charges of unworthy motives or selfish pur¬ 
poses on the part of officials or others who dif¬ 
fer from him. Borne thiugs have led me to 
suspect that “Stockman” is a gentlemau,many 
of whose articles I have read with interest and 
profit; but l do not know who he is and can 
not besupposed to have any personal hostility 
to him. My protest is based on the belief 
that his articles often do barm—harm to the 
good influence of an admirable paper, aud 
harm in that continued dogmatic asseition or 
criticism of others has au influence in form¬ 
ing public opinion. 
The barm done is the greater because of the 
fact that, as a rule, the statements made by 
him are not absolutely false. Statements 
partly correct and partly incorrect often give 
a wholly false impression. I do not wish to 
go into details, but especially do T protest 
against “StoekmauV’ treatmeut of questions 
connected with diseases of auimals, and of 
well known aud respected veterinarians. Re¬ 
peated statements and insinuations against 
the Bureau of Animal Industry, or against 
Dr. Salmon, Prof. Law and others, I pro¬ 
nounce ungenerous and disingenuous, especi¬ 
ally when not made over the name of the 
writer. 
The large majority of the most intelligent 
stock breeders in the Central West accept the 
judgment of Dr. Salmon concerning disease 
in animals as vastly more worthy of accep¬ 
tance than those of any unknowu writer. 
They accept the evidence as conclusive that 
contagious pleuro-pneumonia did exist in 
some of the Western States last season, and 
they thank Dr. Salmon for his efforts to pre¬ 
vent its spread. They have yet to learn that 
he has been mistaken in his judgment as to 
the existence or character of any case of dis¬ 
ease he has investigated. They know, also, 
that many thousands of hogs have died of 
disease in the last few mouths, or iD former 
years, and ihey do not take very kindly the 
statements made by “Stockman” and others 
to the effect that there has been little disease, 
and that little might easily have been prevent¬ 
ed. There is a pretty strong feeling on the 
part of some Western readers of these articles, 
that they have had quite as ranch experience 
and success in stock breeding and raisiug as 
has “Stockman,” aud that their opiuions aud 
practices might be treated with something of 
respect by any unnamed writer. 
Champaign, Ill. 
♦ * * - 
BABY BEEF. 
An old and valued friend of the Rural 
writes us privately as follows: “I do not al¬ 
together agree with what Stockman says in a 
late Rural about “baby beef.” I recollect 
that, when a boy, an ox was not considered of 
a suitable age to fatten till it was eight or ten 
years old. After Short-horus were imported, 
and their grades began to be fattened, it was 
found that they were fully matured and ripe 
when six years old. This age, with higher 
grading, was, after a while, reduced to four 
years, as "Stockman” has it; but now many 
graziers, both in America and England, say 
that their Short horn bullocks can be suffi¬ 
ciently matured for the most profitable 
slaughter at two years old past “Stockman" 
says that iu consequence of these premature 
beasts having extra feed, it costs just as much 
to rear them as it does to rear the four-year- 
olds. Now this is absurd. All know that it 
takes a certain quantity of feed to keep the 
animal alive, or, better, in statu quo —all 
that is given beyond this goes to make growth 
and flesh, and I contend the cost of keeping up 
the status in quo of the bullock for the extra 
two year’s, until he is four years old, is more 
than equal to the outlay for the extra feed 
given to ripen—force, if you please tocall it— 
the two-year-old to equal in weight the four- 
year-old. and in this opinion I am backed by 
numbers of experienced graziers at the West, 
who know a great deal more about the matter 
than “Btockmau” does. But suppose a two- 
year-old does cost just as much to feed as a 
four-year-old, there is a gain of two years in 
the use of the capital, interest on the money 
engaged in the business, and a decrease of two 
years in the risks of death by accident or 
disease. 
Now follows another thing that many do not 
understand, aud thpt is, Short horn cattle 
are so precocious that they can be ripened iu 
one-half to one third of the time required by 
most other breeds. I will illustrate this with 
the case of apples: Some mature iu from throe 
to four months after the tree has blossomed, 
while it takes eight to ten months to mature 
others. I have just seen the letter of a cor¬ 
respondent in the London Live Stock Journal, 
saying that in visiting Leamington, Warwick¬ 
shire, he was induced in passing a butcher’s 
shop, to stop and examine some fine carcasses 
of lambs, only 10 to ll months old, hanging up 
there. They were of the Shropshire Down 
breed and weighed, net, 00 pounds, dressed. 
They bad not been forced at all, but merely 
judiciously fed from birth to slaughter. The 
writer says he ordered a leg of this muttou for 
his table, and found it of “high cousumiDg 
value—not too fat—and every scrap of the 
carcass was salable,’’ and better mutton he 
did not expect to get. Now only a few years 
ago Shropshire Down mutton was not con¬ 
sidered fit for consumption till two to three 
years old past—what a gain then to get it when 
from 10 to 11 months of ago I At the late 
London Fat Cattle Show last December, lambs 
11 to 12 months of age took first prizes over 
wethers twice their age, or more. Some say 
“baby beet” is mere veal. How can this be 
so when the calf is weaned when about six 
months of age, and then fed till slaughtered 
when 24 to 20 months old, precisely as an older 
bullock is. In consequence of this, does it not 
stand to reason that the flesh from the same 
food should be just the same in one as in the 
other ? It is nonsense to say that age makes a 
difference in precocious Short-horns. I cannot 
think so, for both have been growing all the 
time, but the one twice as rapidly as the other 
owing to superior breed, efce.” 
- n » ■ —- 
HOGS FENCED IN. 
“Stockman” says (on p. 54), “This is an ex¬ 
ample cf what we may see in the w hole of the 
United States ” He was speakiDg of pigs and 
hogs running at liberty aud the enormous 
expense entailed on the owners of gardens 
and farms in building fences to keep them out 
of their crops. The statement will not hold 
good for any part of Minnesota that I have 
seen, except, perhaps, the Big Woods, and 
there crops are fenced in and stock fenced 
out. In other places the aifimals are kept in 
pens aud yards all their lives. The statement 
does great injustice to Minnesota at least. 
E. N. H. 
<£!)e 0wmui)friJ. 
PIG JUSTICE. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
A great many breeders of the Poland- 
China hogs seem to think there is no other 
breed but their own. They will scarcely ad¬ 
mit that other breeds have any merits, and 
they roll their pet terms “early maturity” and 
“improved breed" under their tongues, as 
though they had au inherited monopoly of 
these terms, which could not therefore be ap¬ 
plied to other breeds. It is a fair interpreta¬ 
tion of their view of the term “early 
maturity,” to say that they must meau stuff¬ 
ing as much fat as possible within a certain 
amount of skin, aud doiug it iu the shortest 
space of time. They talk a great deal about 
profit in this connection: so they include turn¬ 
ing this “lard-o’-corn-crib” into money as soon 
as possible. Some people have called this 
food, but the statistics of this country, as well 
as my own observations, show tbatthere are 
lots of people who don’t take to it. 
Now, my idea of “early maturity” is to put 
as much common sense into a pig as it will 
take, and to put common sense into a herd of 
pigs. I wautp gs which may be fattened at 
any age, aud there are other breeds besides 
Poland-Chiuas with which this can be done; 
and among them is tho Duroe Jersey. At the 
same time, I do not want to keep a pig always 
in this fattened condition. I want it to grow 
all the time, and to grow all over and all 
through. I want every part to lie developed 
and filled out, not simply filled up with fat 
with no muscle, bone, sinews or tissues, or 
comparatively little; but I want a goodly 
proportion of the other parts along witli the 
lard. This sort of a pig is fit to eat. The 
reason why I prefer the Duroc-Jerseys is lie- 
cause they are blessed with strong appetites, 
and will eat coarse and cheap food—gross, 
roots, clover, apples, potatoes and such 
things—and grow well on them; aud come to 
the corn-crib with a healthy body, strong in 
muscle, bone, sinew, and unfoverish and pure 
blood This is the kind of improved bog I 
like, as it will make desirable food and can 
stand up in transit on the cars, and can safely 
endure all the fortunes or misfortunes of the 
stock yards. There will never be much mus¬ 
cle in pigs “shoved,” or, to use better Euglish, 
in pigs so filled with food all the time, that 
they will not stir about and exercise. This 
absence of exertion helps to make obesity, aud 
so obesity helps obesity, and this is called 
“early maturity.” It is not the weight of a 
pig when slaughtered, or the amount of fat in 
it that makes the profit, but the actual cost of 
producing tnat weight. The pig which costs 
the least will be the best food, because grown 
under tho most natural condition ■<. Figs should 
be bred to make the most lean meat, and this 
is not what “early maturity” by the stuffing 
process is doing. If the butchers grew the 
pork, it would be better, as they know what 
the people like. They want meat. 
dural topics. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Rural, Jan. St.—As I do not expect to get 
down to New Orleans this Winter, I am great¬ 
ly pleased with the Rural’s excellent reports 
on the Exposition. I hope they will be kept 
up as long as it is open. 
Mr. Henderson is quoted (p 78) as saying 
the lands called exhausted never were good. 
Doubtless mauy originally poor soils have be¬ 
come poorer und er crops, but even these are 
not truly exhausted. There are, apparently, 
no poorer lands than the “exhausted” pine 
plains or “barrens” near the New England 
coast; and yet immsnse crop3 of corn (some 
of the largest reported) are constantly grown 
upon these lands with profit, by the use of sea 
weed aud artificial fertilizers. Mr. Hendersou, 
as a gardeuer, has unquestionably found a 
vast difference in the quality of soil8 for that 
business. Their selection is a question of life 
and death (in the business sense) to the market 
gardeuer, when competiton is sharp. But 
there are few kinds of land, not too wet or too 
rocky, that cannot be made to pay well, in 
Some ways for agricultural purposes. Not 
only coru, but the small grains, clover and 
grass, can be made profitable (when there is a 
good, near market) on naturally poor, thin 
soils, by those who have learned the right 
way. The county of Norfolk, Eug, is nlainly 
a swamp}' sand bauk, yet the farmers are 
among the most prosperous in Great Britain. 
The Rural says (p. 751, “We consider the 
Soubegan (black-cap) a very slight improve¬ 
ment on the Doolittle.” Judging by my own 
experience, if I had had Souhegan as long as 
I have had Doolittle, and should then 
get the Doolittle, I should consider the 
latter a great improvement. But as I 
havo had to say the same of Mammoth 
Cluster and Gregg, it may be a mere matter 
of soil and locality. The Doolittle is the hard¬ 
iest, the most productive, has the best color, 
the best flavor, and with proper culture is 
large enough. It is also the best shipper. 
There has been, in fact, no improvement on 
the Doolittle yet for me. 
Rural, Feb. 7. Again the Japanese Per¬ 
simmon (p. 85). I have a notion that this is 
to prove a valuable addition to our Ameri¬ 
can market fruits. 
H. H.’s remarks on Nava Scotia apples (p. 
85) are well worthy of atteution. The orchards 
of Maine aud the Maratime Provinces are go¬ 
ing to put the orchardists of the rest of the 
country to their trumps in the production of 
first-class shipping apples for the European 
market. 
Elm’s observations, in the matter of pinching 
back the melon vines (p 86), agree with my 
own. 1 have never seen any good in it, nor 
in the same practice with the tomato or the 
squash. 
There is truth in "solid chuuks” in Col. Cur¬ 
tis’s observations on “the kind of pigs” (p 86). 
This breeding to “chunkiness” and lard is 
spoiling the swine of the country. I do not 
breed swine, but I have got to buying my pigs 
of the men who have the least to do with 
fancy kinds. It is the only way I can get any 
lean rneut. 
Would it not have been well to repeat that 
experiment in selecting seed potatoes (p. 88) 
three or four times, under differing conditions 
of soil, season and fertilizatiou.before laying it 
before the public? I have lately been looking 
over the early volumes of the Mass. Ag. Re- 
pox ts, and l tind a considerable number of ex¬ 
periments reported there,that seemed to prove 
thiDgs which we now know are not true. We 
have been hoping that the agricultural col¬ 
leges aud stations would do these things in a 
more conclusive way, Bec't’y Flint, iu one of 
these reports, rnoaus aud laments over the 
fatuity of people who persisted in thinking 
that manure might not give its best results 
when plowed in. Like the carpenter, when 
buying a spirit-level, we want to try these 
things oue way, reverse them, and so on, until 
all possibilities of error are eliminated, that 
the conditions will admit of. 
How true are the Weekly Press’s remarks 
(p. 88) about the stupid, prosy papers iutiicted 
upon our agricultural and horticultural meet¬ 
ings! These papers should all he first submitted 
to a committee, aud arranged upon the pro 
gramme iu the order of their value. Then 
the best ones would be read first, and the 
poorest would rarely be reached. 
And about indexing the reports, too. Every 
day I have it forced upon me how small is the 
