880 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
JUNE 6 
£l)e 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
“HOLSTEIN” COW AMLETO AND CALF AM- 
LETO 2ND. 
A ltbough there has been no “boom” in 
Holland cattle, like that which raised the price 
of Short horns some years ago to such extrav¬ 
agant figures, or that which has of late been 
so profitable to importers and dealers in Jer¬ 
seys, still the indisputable merits of the breed 
have secured for them a high place in the 
esteem of practical farmers who aim to make 
the most profit from their milk, butter and 
cheese, aud these cattle whether known as 
Holsteins or Dutch-Friesians are steadily 
gaining in popularity wherever they are 
known. 
On the first page of this issue, at Fig. 205, 
we present to our readers in the foreground, 
likenesses of the Holstein cow Amleto, 8351 H. 
H. B., and of her heifer calf Amleto 2nd, 
8352, both belonging to the celebrated Maple¬ 
wood herd, owned by Mr. F. C. Stevens, of 
Attica, New York. This is the largest herd 
of Holland cattle owned by any single person 
in the United States, numbering upwards of 
175 head. For five years Mr. Stevens has 
given his entire attention to the breeding and 
importing of cattle of this fine race, aud has 
now accumulated a herd that would be hard 
to beat. Amleto, one of the ornaments of the 
herd, was bred in North Holland; calved 
March 10th, 1870, and was imported by her 
present owner in September, 1884. Her sire 
was Nico, No. 207, N. H, B.; dam, Meitje 2d, 
with a milk record of 44 pounds five ounces 
a day at two years old; gpandam Meitje, 
No. 1302, N. H. B. having a milk record of 
77 pounds per day. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
Mr. Periam, in a late Rural, charges me 
with “a crime agaiust the people.” “There 
are none so blind as those who will not see;” 
and Mr. Periam must be willfully blind. He 
is worse than blind, because to make a point 
against me be distorts evidence. He quotes a 
passage from some notes written some time 
back, and applies it to a distinctly different 
purpose from that for which it was written. 
The intention of the words used were, as was 
plaiuly expressed, that the foreign papers had i 
charged that American cattle were generally 
diseased, bdiI hence that the importation of 
cattle, and especially of hog products were 
forbidden by foreign governments. Will Mr. 
Periam deny this fact? Further I said this 
result was the effect of the excessive and base¬ 
less bother made about contagious diseuses. 
Can Mr. Periam deny this? If be does, let him 
say bow this unnecessary and injurious pre¬ 
judice was caused. Further I said the danger 
has come from the importations of diseased 
animals. Does Mr. Periam deny this too? 
Formerly it was charged that the eastern part 
of the country was reeking with disease. That 
was not true. There was some disease, no 
doubt, and I have pointed out distinctly 
where this existed and the cause of it; and 
I have urged that the hot-beds of the 
disease should be rooted out; and, further, 
that importations of foreign cattle should be 
stopped. This did not suit the purpose of the 
speculators who have filled the country with 
Jersey cattle, by which the disease has been 
spread through the West, aud has realized all 
my forebodings and justified my warnings. 
Who, then, has committed “a crime against 
the people”—I, who have warned the public 
against the danger, or those speculators who 
have spread disease all over the Western 
country, and have started a flame which may 
sweep all over the West and decimate all our 
herds over the plains? I have been taken to 
task by men who said 1 was injuring the Jer¬ 
sey cattle interest. But now that the Jerseys 
have spread the disease over the continent, 
what have the stockmen of the country to say 
of the justice of my efforts to prevent this 
very thing? I agree with Mr. Periam in re¬ 
gard to the enormity of the danger and the 
prospective losses from it, by which I am per¬ 
sonally endangered. But who is really respon¬ 
sible for the results* If there was such well 
defined disease in Eastern herds, why did not 
the Bureau of Animal Industry go to work 
and root it out in the States east of the Alle- 
ghaniee instead of everlastingly investigating 
and writing about, it, and spending its time in 
making elaborate cbromus of the diseased 
organs? And why was not the traffic In dis¬ 
eased cattle prevented? And now, why doe# 
not the Bureau drop all this foolish play aud 
procure the passage of a law making the sel¬ 
lers of diseased cattle responsible for full dam¬ 
ages, as well as liable to fine and imprisonment 
for selling diseased cattle, and spreading the 
disease, and committing “a crime against the 
people?” Is It because if the disease were once 
stamped out in its sources, there would be no 
more work to be done by the Bureau, and 
Othello’s occupation would be gone? It has been 
all along an example of “bow not to do it?” 
Now the disease is in Missouri, Illinois, 
Texas, and no one can say where, unless, as 
some veterinary person says, or is reported to 
have said, it may be “dry murrain,” and then 
the Bureau will be swollen to gigantic propor¬ 
tions and finally burst aud let out a swarm of 
State veterinary commissioners who will go 
around slaughtering animals at great cost to 
the public and great profit to themselves; and 
five million dollars a year wont pay the ex¬ 
penses. 1 have said that Government Bureaus 
never yet did auy good: ours has not, because 
in spite of it tbe disease lias been brought into 
the country by imported cattle which have 
carried it at. last out into the Plains—or at 
least it is so reported, although I have not 
seen it; and perhaps I may be misled by these 
reports, as Dr, Salmon has said I have been 
previously in regard to other facts(?) 
Now if this disease has its centers east of the 
Alleghanies, let the Bureau go to work there, 
instead of making up agricultural reports 
which are uot read, aud let it slaughter and 
burn up, or boil up every diseased or exposed 
animal, aud make an end of it. 
It is now reported, for some purpose which 
is easily suggested, that the great Western 
ranges are fully stocked, and there is no room 
for more herds. How can this be? Is this 
report circulated to keep new-comers out of 
the business and leave the vast unoccupied 
ranges for the great cattle companies to 
spread over? There is room yet, if a fair di¬ 
vision were made, for millions of cattle. But, 
nevertheless, I am sure that farmers east of 
the plains can make more money by feeding 
cattle in their barns than the herders can by 
grazing the storm-swept plains, without shel¬ 
ter in such Winters as that which is uow hap¬ 
pily past. 
It is clear that Eastern farming—that is, 
east of the Missouri—cannot be made fully 
profitable until cattle feeding, or sheep rear¬ 
ing, is made a much larger part of the busi¬ 
ness. While millions of tons of food sub¬ 
stances are exported every year aud all tbe 
manure involved in tbe consumption of this 
food is lost to us, the Eastern farmer cannot 
hope to make a full profit. There must be 
more stock fed upon farms. I do not look 
for any depreciation in the market value of 
beef and mutton, nor do I think wool growers 
need feel blue while they can get eveu 30 
cents for wool. The point is to make these 
products cheaper by increasing the yield of 
their fields. There is but one way of doing 
this, aud that is feeding stock. 
Farmers need not fear the competition of 
tbe Western graziers. Grazing stock will 
have to be carried on more expensively here¬ 
after than heretofore; aud farm feeding 
caunot fail to be profitable. If I were en¬ 
gaged in farming in the East, I would feed 
all the cattle I could buy in tbe Fall and find 
feed for. The next year 1 could increase the 
number, and so on every year until the farm 
was fully stocked. If by this course I could 
produce 30 bushels of wheat and 80 bushels of 
corn per acre and have a pasture that would 
carry one steer to the acre for three months 
In the Fall, after a crop of hay had been cut, 
I would not fear the competition of Dakota 
wheat growers or Montana cattle men. And 
will some reader of the Rural “go for me” 
if I am wide of the mark ? 
RED POLLED COWS. 
Mr. Harvev Mason, of Norfolk, England, 
writes the Agricultural Gazette, that he 
generally allows his Rod Polled heifers to 
calve when about 24 to 27 months old, and 
milks them till ready to calve again. He 
takes special care to feed well, and although 
this early calving checks tbe growth some- 
w'bat during the third year, the generous 
rations steadily dealt out to them, enable the 
cows to grow up to a good size at the end of 
the fourth year. Mr. Mason thinks he gets 
greater and more persistent milkers in con¬ 
sequence of breeding his heifers so early. In 
the larger races of cattle, however, it is neces¬ 
sary to put off the breeding of heifers till 
they are about three years old. otherwise 
their offspring would soon degenerate in size. 
At the trial of n Red Polled cow at a late 
Agricultural Society Show in England, ou a 
second milking, 12 hours after the first, she 
gave 20 imperial pints of rich milk. This is 
equal to 32>£ pints of American wine measure. 
Her next, milking, 12 hours after this, is not 
stated; but it was doubtless as much more, 
which would mako within a fraction of 06 
pounds per day. When it is considered that 
tho cattle of thi# breed are no larger than 
Devons, and much like them except that they 
are destitute of horns, the above is uncom¬ 
monly good milking. This cow averaged 19 
pounds of butter per week for 14 consecutive 
weeks, which ranks her among the very best 
of dairy cows. 
These Red Polled cows of Suffolk and Nor¬ 
folk Counties, are an uucient breed, and have 
been long celebrated for excelling in the dairy. 
Mr. John Kirby, of Wickham Market, in his 
work called tho Suffolk Traveler, written in 
1732, 3 and 4, speaks of them, and says they 
have been long known for the great quantity 
of their milk, exceeding, on an average, any 
other breed in England, if quantity of food, 
and size of the animal are taken into consider¬ 
ation, their lire weight being only about 700 
pounds each. In June, they give eight gallons 
of milk per day, and a yield of six gallons is 
common among many for a long part of tho 
season. 
Considering their size, this is fully equal in 
flow to that of the Holstein or other Dutch 
cows—24 to32 quarts per day, which we must 
recollect ure English beer quarts, over 22 per 
cent, larger than the American wine quart, 
by which we measure milk. 
At this early date, Mr. Kirby speaks of the 
color of these cattle as varying from a light 
yellow to deep red, and some were said to be 
a brindle, which we should probably call a red 
roan. They are a highly valuable race of 
cows, and I wish there were more of them im¬ 
ported Into our country. A. b. allen. 
<Tl)e Sunnc-ijiri). 
PIG SET-BACKS. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The first set back a little pig gets, is to be¬ 
come too fat and then to get the thumps. 
Thumps, or heaving of the sides, is caused by 
palpitation of the heart, and this unnatural 
and spasmodic action is the result of an accu¬ 
mulation of fat about the ventricles, and the 
want of tone or vigor to this organ. Tbe little 
pigs, especially if the weather is cold, nurse 
and huddle up in a pile and sleep and never 
move about. If the sow is a great milker, 
they gorge themselves with milk and then lie 
and sleep the balance of the time. When pigs 
are born iu cold weather, or over-fed, they are 
very liable to tiro thumps or to scours. Over¬ 
eating causes indigestion, and the stomach 
making an effort to clear itself, ejects the 
food, and it passes off either in vomit or ex¬ 
cessive and unnatural discharges from the 
bowels. No rule of feeding sows with pigs 
can be made to apply to all. Many cases are 
exceptional. Some sows have such a large 
development of mammary glands and organs 
that they produce a large amount of milk. 
Such sows should be fed lightly when the pigs 
are young and before they are born. If fed 
food calculated to make a great deal of milk 
before parturition, they are liable to have 
milk fever, or at all events, to so inflame the 
udders that they will not let the pigs suck; or, 
another effect—the fever will dry up the milk. 
The stomach of the sow should be filled. If 
she feels the pangs of hunger, she may de¬ 
vour a pig or two. Coarse bran is good to 
fill her up, or a lot of raw roots. More pigs 
are set back by over-feeding than by under¬ 
feeding. Again, it will not do to starve a sow 
before she farrows, or she may not have any 
milk at all. Here the one rule will not apply 
again. If a sow lias a small development of 
udder, she must be well fed, aud vice versa. 
“Enough” is a good rule, aud tho owner’s 
brains must determine when that has been 
given. If a sow is running out to grass, she 
will be all right. Grass is just the thing. The 
pigs will do the best tbeu. The little pigs 
must be made to stir about. VV hen the mother 
is feeding in the pasture, they do this, and 
everything works all right. When confined 
in a pen, they do not, and things go wrong. 
It doesn’t take a very great stretch of wisdom 
to see a remedy here, iu the form of a preven¬ 
tive—which is tho best kind of remedy—and 
that is exercise. Time must be taken to make 
the little fellows run around the pen. A daily 
exercise of this sort will save a great deal of 
loss. Twice a day would be better. Of 
course, this trouble need not be taken if the 
weather will admit of turning them out of- 
doors. Borne men imagine the pigs out dirt, 
and this cures tho thumps. It is the working 
off of the fat, und tbe getting up of a health¬ 
ful and perfect circulation and action of the 
heart. A drop of extract of Digitalis (Fox¬ 
glove) every four hours, will help to give tone 
and a stronger action to the heart. It hardly 
pays to have pigs come in cold weather unless 
there is a dry basement for them to live in, 
where it will not freeze. 
SOMETHING ABOUT PIGS. 
PROF. S. A. KNAPP. 
Col. Curtis has said so mauy admirable 
things about pigs that I am more inclined to 
say, “Hear! hear 1” than to express any doubts 
about such orthodox doctrines. Occasionally 
some statements have not agreed with my ex¬ 
perience, and, yet, he may be correct. Two 
points occur to me now: while the import¬ 
ance of green food for swine, and especially 
for growing pigs, can scarcely be over-esti¬ 
mated, it has not been my experience that it 
is generally best to make it the sole depend¬ 
ence. A fourth of a ration of grain, given once 
daily (always late in the evening) has, with 
me, had the following effects, as compared 
with an exclusive grass ration: 
1st, It enabled the swine to digest and as¬ 
similate more grass than when limited to an 
exclusive grass ration. This was proven by 
their making, when the grain was added, a 
gain in pounds, impossible to result from 
grass alone. For instance, wb?n the swine 
were making no gain in pounds ou clover 
pasture, though possibly adding somewhat to 
the frame, the addition of a small ration of 
corn meal and wheat shorts, in the form of a 
slop at night, gave a gain of 25 aud 30 pounds 
for each bushel fed. 2nd, On grass alone I 
have always found a per cent, of losses in pigs 
and even in mature hogs. The feeding of a 
little grain materially reduced these losses and, 
in general,prevented them entirely. 3d, With 
the small grain ration iu addition to grass, 
clover or peas, hogs over one year old were 
ready for market at all times without expen¬ 
sive after feeding. 
When a small grain ration is fed once per 
day, it most l>e given late in the evening, 
after the day’s grazing is done, to secure the 
best results. If fed in the morning, the hogs 
will wait for it and frequently delay in going 
into the pasture till it is too warm; if called 
in to take food early in the evening, they 
are liable to remain at the pens aud forego 
further grazing; but when it is given late, the 
added graiu is so much extra taken as a des¬ 
sert. 
Hogs enter a very strong protest against 
cutting their noses or defacing them with 
jewelry, and the pig is right. lie knows 
what is best for him. If pigs are kept free 
from fever, they are not apt to root the pas¬ 
ture much, except early in the Spring and late 
in the Fall, when they can be kept in a yard 
for a few days. Suppose they do root some¬ 
what, a harrow and a little clover seed will, 
in a few hours, re-seed all they’ have rooted in 
a year. Occasionally hogs pull large quanti¬ 
ties of clover roots in the Fall. This greatly 
disturbs the farmer. 11 should not; clover roots 
cost very little per ton, especially where the 
hogs harvest them. No other root of equal 
value can be raised so cheaply. Red Clover 
is mainly a biennial and a majority of the 
roots would die during the ensuing Winter, if 
the hogs did not pull them. Practically, pigs 
in the best condition do very little rooting, 
hence the rule should be: Never riug hogs. 
If they root too much, give larger pastures, 
sow more clover, feed more roots and wheat 
bran. 
Ames, Iowa. 
Offinj J^itsbarutoj. 
CHEESE-MAKING.—NO. 11. 
T. D. CURTIS. 
PRESSING AND CURING. 
It is not safe to put a curd to press at a 
temperature much above 80 deg. A degree 
or two might not do much barm in cool 
weather, or in a cool press room, but in warm 
weather it is safer to go below than above 80 
degrees. If the curd is too warm, there is 
danger that tbe cheese will heat and taint in 
the center, especially if lactic fermentation is 
not much advanced, or completed, before the 
curd is put to press. As a rule, I think it bet¬ 
ter to give plenty of time for acid fermenta¬ 
tion to take place In the curd before pressing. 
But much depends ou circumstances and the 
character of the caring-room. With curing- 
rooms, whose temperature ranges up and 
down with the thermometer outside, it is 
absolutely necessary that tbe acid fermenta¬ 
tion should be completed, or far advanced, 
before tbe curd is put to press. But with a 
curing room in w hich the temperature can be 
kept steady where wanted, one can do about 
as he pleases, aud put the curd to press almost 
auy time after it is firm enough, regardless of 
the stage of lactic fermentation. I have seen 
a cheese of excclloui quality and sufficient 
firmness made from a curd that was put to 
press perfectly sweet and cured in a steady 
temperature of fit or 05 degrees. Had this 
cheese been put Into an ordinary curing-room, 
it would have swelled badly, from the rapid 
generation of gas by fermentation, and gone 
all out of shape, besides soon going off flavor. 
But as it was, shape aud flavor were retained 
perfectly at tho end of three months, and 
there was no sign of huffing at any time. 
Where the temperature of the curing-room is 
high and changeable, the curd should be al- 
