THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
seeks for the number of pounds of pork in a 
bushel of corn by the usual method. Fed with 
grass, it becomes difficult to credit the share 
due to the corn in the result. Crediting the 
entire gain to the corn, we get 9J£ pounds of 
live pig for a bushel of corn. But from many 
trials in pig-feeding, both on grass and corn 
and on other foods, I conclude, by a rough 
approximation (that is from a surface survey 
of my data, that might be in a small measure 
modified by a detailed study of them) that 69 
pounds of this'gain is fairly credited to the 
corn. On this basis, 6.5 pounds of live pig 
are made from a bushel of corn. This, at 
the present price of pigs here (three cents per 
pound), would bring but little for corn after 
care, risk, and first cost is taken out. 
In my balance sheet above, I have regarded 
the average value of a live shote as four cents, 
which is above the present rates. 
ably expected from one bushel of corn as hogs 
are usually fed in this country ?" 
I answer the last question asked first; first 
describing the usual method “in this country.” 
It is to have the pigs dropped some time in the 
late Spring or in Summer, and allow them to 
follow the sow to grass until she weans them. 
In the Fall they will get some mast if in wood¬ 
ed sections; or, if on the prairie, an irregular 
supply of corn; but almost invariably the sup¬ 
ply is limited; intentionally the pigs are forced 
to gain the major part of their living upon 
grass, or sometimes, though not frequently, 
upon a clover field designed for their use. In 
Winter they follow cattle that are fed with 
whole corn, and their only food is the corn 
found in the excrement of the cattle. Where 
cattle are not fatted for the market, they are 
fed corn in the ear upon the snow or ground 
as often as in a trough. In the Spring they 
will tip the scale at about 100 pouuds, and will 
pass as a fair lot. They then get the run of 
the pasture and woods until, as Fall approach¬ 
es, they get an ear or two of corn at first and 
gradually more, until from October to Decem¬ 
ber they go to market at from 200 to 250 
pounds. Some do better than this; but almost 
every one keeps his hogs through the Winter. 
A POOR SHOW IN FEEDING. 
While I am utterly opposed to the system 
as irrational, I will, in entire candor, assert 
that the system does not admit of a satisfact¬ 
ory calculation of the value of a bushel of 
corn as a factor in feeding. I will, however, 
make some figures that are fair approxima¬ 
tions: Cost of pig at early fall weaning, $1.50. 
Average weight to Dec. 1 will be about 62 
pounds after weaning; upon which weight 
about 2)4 per cent of grain to live weight 
will be given with grass for 100 days to Dec. 
This is Goldsmith 391, and he is now eight years 
old. The London Live Stock Journal (from 
one of w'hose fine series of animal portraits our 
illustration has been re engraved) says he was 
not exhibited at any show until he was nearly 
five years old, when he appeared at the South- 
era Counties’ Show at Tunbridge Wells, aud 
was placed third, but on meeting the same 
bulls at the Royal Show at Derby, he won the 
first prize, afterwards maintaining his posi¬ 
tion by being placed first in all competitions 
during 1882, 1883 and 18S4, including two 
firsts at the Royal and the champion prize 
given for the best bull of any breed at the 
Royal Counties, Show at Winchester. This 
year, at the Bath and West Show at Brigh¬ 
ton, in the class for bull and progeny, of all 
breeds, he won the second prize, an honor of 
considerable value as the competition was very 
strong. He also made a good stand at South¬ 
ampton against the champion Hereford bull. 
It is greatly to his credit that during his long 
show-yard career, and at present, he is as 
sure a stock-getter as any young bull. 
are as orge as Greenings. But Baldwins, 
while of bigb color and fair size, are not as 
large as usual. This fact seems to show that 
different apples require a different season to 
develop their highest excellence; that while 
Greenings and Roxbury Russets,and still more 
the Newtown Pippin (of which we have a few 
trees, and which were never nicer than this 
year), reach their highest excellence in a cool, 
damp Summer, Baldwius require more heat 
and less moisture. We are going to pay the 
orchard for this bountiful crop by giving it 
a heavy dressing of bone dust and muriate 
of potash, putting on the bone at the rate of 
400 pounds and 200 pounds of muriate to 
the acre; the former we shall apply this Fall; 
the latter in the Spring. 
8USSEX BULL, GOLDSMITH 391. 
Of the various English breeds of cattle, the 
Short-horu, Hereford, Devon and Polled Nor¬ 
folk and Suffolk are undoubtedly the best and 
most profitable, the first for beef and milk, 
the second for beef, the third for beef, 
milk and work, and the last for milk and beef, 
but of the other breeds, the Holderness and 
Long-horns, once so promising, are steadily 
disa] peariDg; the Somerset, Lincoln, Glam¬ 
organ and Anglesea have^never spread 
much beyond the countries from which they 
took their [names, and even there, they are 
yielding place to better breeds; but the Sussex 
cattle seem to hold their own, or even to be 
gaining a little In public favor. This breed 
holds an intermediate place between the 
Devon and Hereford, haviDg much of the 
activity of the first, of the 
strength of the second, and 
of the propensity to lay on 
beautilul, fine-grained flesh 
of both. In color, Sussex cat¬ 
tle are very like the Devon, 
a deep, rich, solid red; and 
in form too, they are much 
the same, except that they 
are somewhat coarser and less 
symmetrically proportioned. 
The fore-quarters, too, arc 
more strongly developed, the 
bones are larger, the dewlap 
is more developed, as in the 
Hereford, and therefore there 
is a larger proportion of less 
valuable meat. The resem¬ 
blance between the Devon 
and Sussex is, however, so 
great that there is little 
doubt that one is an offshoot 
of the other, or that both 
are descended from the same 
original British stock. Like 
the Devons, the Sassex have 
in the past been bred mainly 
for draft purposes; but of late ; 
years the breeding has tended . 
more and more to beef and 
milk. While the southern 
breeds of cattle in England, 
like the Hereford and Devon, 
were formerly bred principal¬ 
ly for work and beef, those 
of the more northern countries, 
Short horn .and Holderness, were bred chiefly 
for beef and milk, and breeding in this 
direction is now practiced as the most profit¬ 
able in all parts of the country; for although 
oxen are still extensively used for draft pur¬ 
poses in the southern and western counties, 
they are yearly becoming less valuable for 
this purpose; while the demand for milk and 
beef is constantly growing in the towns and 
cities. 
The Sussex cow is a poor milker, however, 
and truly a poor beast in every way in com¬ 
parison with the Sussex steer. Indeed, so 
inferior is she in appearance that one might 
easily suppose that she is of a different race. 
As in Youatt’s.day, she is so little valued for 
butter, milk and cheese that “almost every 
mongrel finds its way into the dairy in prefer¬ 
ence to her.” She is used almost entirely for 
breeding purposes and for beef, for when dried 
off, she fattens more readily even than the 
steer. Great pains are now being taken to 
breed smaller bones and more flesh in Sussex 
cattle, and with such good results that while 
improvement in the other breeds has, been 
hardly noticeable of late years, that in 
Sussex cattle has been really remarkable. 
True, no member of this breed has ever borne 
off the Blue Ribbon of the Smithfield Show, 
but it improvement continues at the late rate, 
one is pretty sure to do so one of these days. 
Had the subject of our illustration, Fig. 
477, been made a steer, fattened for exhibi¬ 
tion and shown at that great yearly contest of 
fat stock, he might have done so; for he is 
acknowledged to be “one of the finest bulls of 
the Sussex breed ever seen, being remarkable 
for wealth of flesh, usefulness and activity." 
CHEAP YET COMFORTABLE POULTRY 
QUARTERS. 
THOUGHTS BY THE WAY. 
While riding out in the country a few days 
since, the sight of numerous old straw stacks, 
and of that which so gladdens the farmer’s 
heart, the thickly standing corn shocks, sec 
me thinking how such material could be 
utilized for the comfort of poultry. Instead 
of the killing cold, and usually open shed, 
what delightfully warm quarters at little if 
any expense, could be constructed therefrom, 
and how cheerfully would the old hens shell 
out their eggs during the cold day s of Winter 
to repay the builders of such 
jD shelters for their trouble and 
kindness. In my mind’s eye, 
I bad built a comfortable, if 
not beautiful winter bouse for 
the fowls of each farmer as I 
passed along. 
The more I thought of and 
worked out the idea, the bet¬ 
ter I liked it, and but for the 
fact that my own fowls al¬ 
ready possessed a good, com¬ 
fortable, paper lined home, I 
would have put the thought 
iuto practical use at once. 
As it is, I cannot refrain from 
telling the multitude of read¬ 
ers of the Rural how. in my 
mind, I constructed the 
HOUSES FOR MY NEIGHBORS 
trusting that they may find 
some good therein, and that 
the doing of it may prove of 
- - -j—— benefit to their feathered pets. 
Selecting such a sit* as I 
thought best suited for each 
ss~: location—generally a nice, 
sunny knoll facing the south 
—I set up four strong, heavy 
posts (either in square shape 
or like an inverted V), about 
six feet in bight, and as far 
apart at the bottom, with 
good, strong forks at the top, 
In these forks I placed poles so 
as to forma top, planking up the south front 
(double), filling in (save at door anti window) 
with chaff or leaves. 1 then covered this struc¬ 
ture (except the south front) with straw, so as 
to make quite a stack, placing iu the interior 
the necessary roosts, nests, dust box, etc. 
Upon the ground, at the east and west ends, 
before piling on the straw, l placed a long, 
open-ended box, opening into the main room, 
aud extending beyond the straw when stacked. 
Before these openings (for any required dis¬ 
tance) I set other forked posts, about four feet 
in bight, upon which poles were laid, and 
against which fodder was placed so as to leave 
a A shaped opening, thus forming an open and 
covered run, connected with the main room, 
In which the fowls could run, and beyond 
which they would seldom go except in good 
weather. 
On the south side of the fodder ricks, an 
occasional opening should be left for light, 
where the birds could lie and scratch to their 
hearts’ contont on sunny days, sheltering 
themselves iu the interior from the rain and 
cold blasts of W inter. To my thinking this 
was a jolly old home for the fowls, and if it 
could be built in such position that a pipe 
leading from a spring could be passed iuto 
und again out of the main room, it would be 
perfection for winter purposes. Feed would 
then be the only remaining necessary for their 
comfort. Such a comfortable shelter most 
farmers can easily and inexpensively con¬ 
struct with what can be picked up about the 
farm. Properly built, such a structure would 
last for years, the fodder being fed out iu the 
Spring and replaced in the Fall. If the spring 
is uot come atable, a barrel with a pipe at¬ 
tached could be buried in the interior of the 
STOCK FEEDING IN THE WEST.—NO. 1, 
PROFESSOR J. W. SANBORN. 
WHY THE ARTICLES ARE WBITTKN. 
I am asked to respond to the following let¬ 
ter of inquiry, which I do with reluctance, but 
in accordance with a fixed habit of answering 
all letters. To this rale I have made no known 
exception. Disinclination in this case arises 
from the fact that the inquiries limit the re¬ 
sponses to information upon a system of feed¬ 
ing and of farming that is wholly discordant 
with my views and experience of what is the 
best policy, and even of what is necessary, 
From the standpoint of personal experience. 
SUSSEX BULL, GOLDSMITH, 391. Fig. 477. Rc-cngravcd from the London Live-Stock Journal 
1, which at 80 cents per bushel (weight 100 
pounds), would be 82 cents. From December 
to May, 3)4 pounds of corn per day will be 
used, without rain, $3.00, May to Septem¬ 
ber, pasture and 190 pounds corn (weight of 
pig, 100 pounds), $2.17. Basis—Steer $1 per 
month for pasture. As pigs eat much more 
for pound of live weight, and is not so well 
prepared to digest grass, I call a pound of 
pig equal to two pounds of steer iu draft on 
pasture. Fattening from Sept. 1 to Nov, 25, 
450 pouuds corn, (weight of pig 250 pounds), 
$2.41. Ten per cent risk from Winter deaths 
and other causes, 57 cents. Care, $1. Total, 
$11 50. Cr. by 350 pounds of live shot*, at 
3% to 4 cents, $8.75 to $10. To this cost 
should be added the profit to which every 
business is entitled that employs capital and 
brains. As such a system does not involve 
brain power, little should be expected iu re¬ 
turn for this factor of the business. But the 
farmer that carries on such a business sinks 
himself and business from his higher privi¬ 
leges to the level of very poorly paid drudgery 
that will not yield $1 a day for his labor, 
while bis capital is sterile. 
If any one can make out of the average sys¬ 
tem of feeding in the Westauy better showing 
for the pig, I should be pleased to see it, or, 
if exaggeration exists in my figures, I hope 
that it will be pointed out. If any one feels 
aggrieved at my plain statement of views, I 
beg to say that I am anxious for the best good 
of our agriculture, and for the facts as they 
are. 
APPROXIMATE VALUE OF CORN IN FEEDING 
PIGS. 
But it will be observed that I have not 
answered, directly, the question asked, which 
I firmly hold that circumstances do not force 
a stout heart and strong head into a system 
of management, whose course is strewn with 
wastes, not only of materials, but of soil. 
The letter sent to the Rural from Jewell 
City, Kansas, is as follows: 
“1 highly appreciate the Rural, especially 
the department devoted to live stock. I 
would like to suggest, however, that if it 
could be done without too much inconven¬ 
ience, some contributor to its columns should 
write a series of articles on feeding stock, 
as it is ordinarily done at the West—in open 
pens—the article to cover the following points, 
viz.: How many pounds of beef can be made 
from one bushel of corn, the cattle being in 
the open field with only a wind-break for 
shelter? How many pouuds of pork can rea¬ 
sonably be expected from one bushel of corn 
as hogs are usually fed in this country. 
Here we have everything to make, conse¬ 
quently the barns with their comforts and 
conveniences are, as yet, in the future, for 
most of us are unable to build them; and if we 
knew how much beef aud pork we can make 
out of our corn without them, the information 
will help us in no small degree towards getting 
them; for then we should know whether it 
were better to sell our immense crop of corn 
at thepreseutlow price, or feed it to the stock,” 
No one can answer the above questions “ac¬ 
curately”; for the conditions of the feeding 
problem, as given, are uncertain, being nearly 
those of nature, which are .fluctuating aud 
sometimes, in their cold rains aud damp 
ground, more than in their blizzards, disas¬ 
trous to profitable feeding. 
HOG RAISING IN THE “WEST.” 
“How many pounds of pork can be reason¬ 
