brush—a steel-wire one is excellent—having a 
leather strap across to slip the hand into for a 
holder, is very handy. When a horse’s coat 
shines in the winter the owner’s mind may be 
easy; when it is rough and stands on end the 
horse is suffering. Don’t forget a daily allow¬ 
ance of salt. 
COLTS AND BROOD MARES. 
Oats are the best grain for colts which need 
to have their bony frame-work built up and 
strengthened. Bran is equally good for them 
and for brood mares, and a warmed bran 
mash given to a colt three times a week will 
make a great difference in its appearance and 
growth by the spring. The winter is a good 
time fqgft'aining young colts both in and out 
of the stable, Watch carefully that these 
young animals are not spoiled by teasing. 
Yearlings may be used to harness and do some 
light work about t he barn. It will not injure 
them in the least, and will be useful. A light 
harness and wagon, or sled, may be kept for 
this purpose. A pair of colte well reared 
every year will return more profit than any 
other part of farm work. Along with careful 
attention to the colts, do not forget the brood 
mares, and supply these with frequent messes 
of warm bran. Also carefully avoid all 
rough usage and ice-cold drinking water 
which is dangerous to the expected colt, 
cows. 
Cold shortens the milk first of all. Milk is 
a sort of surplus product after every want of 
the animal has been supplied. Therefore, the 
cows must be amply fed and kept warm. 
Moist food, slightly warm, is provocative of 
milk and highly nutritious. Meal given with 
the hay makes butter. The card should bo 
used at least, daily—twice a day would be bet¬ 
ter. Leisure is pleasant to enjoy in the winter 
season, but it is an evil when it is purchased 
by neglect of work. Be careful to cleanse the 
gutters aud litter them before milking, and 
when cleaning the cows see that the switch is 
not befouled, otherwise the cow delights to 
slap the milker’s face with it as a reminder of 
a duty neglected. Some exercise is needed, if 
only to turn the cows out for water, but on 
stormy days even this may be dispensed with, 
and the cows will do better in their comfort¬ 
able stalls. Water troughs hung on pivots at 
the ends, and which can be turned over when 
not in use, are very serviceable. Tt is a waste 
of feed to throw it upon the ground for the 
cows; racks, if only of a few short rails 
crossed, should be used. Croat care is to bo 
observed to avoid slipping and falling on icy 
places or wet floors. A heavy fall on such a 
place may ruin a good cow, cause the loss of 
a calf, or fracture the hip bone or the pelvis. 
The too common practice of watering cattle 
at a hole in a stream ora pond is wholly a bad 
one and exceedingly dangerous. 
Young cattle should be kept growing. 
Good hay is amply sufficient if given liberally. 
A pound or two of bran and corn meal mixed 
will, however, he always profitably used. 
Provide separate feeding places for the year¬ 
lings and calves, and see that the weakest get 
their share. When a calf becomes pinched 
and hide-bound across the hips, it is losing 
money for its owner. Avoid costiveness—a 
sure sign in the winter of unthrift—by giving 
a pound of linseed-oil meal two or three times 
weekly. A thorough carding all over is bene¬ 
ficial to the youugliugs aud is a discipline for 
the heifers, und accustoms them to the hand¬ 
ling which will coino by and by. A lot of 
calves will keep very comfortable iu a well 
littered pen by themselves. 
SHEEP. 
* There will always bo an ailing sheep or 
two in every flock, and those should lie separ¬ 
ated from the others and well cared for. A 
small allowance of linseed-oil meal daily is 
excellent for sheep. A great aid to success 
with a flock is a perfect means for controlling 
them without driving them and liarrasing 
thorn; a flock is more easily led than driven. 
A run in a corn stubble will bo useful, and 
they will enjoy stripping the stalks of any 
stray leaves or husks. But ou no account are 
they to lie permitted in an orchard, especially 
a young one. If there is a cabbage patch or a 
turnip lot handy, the sheep may be turned in 
for exercise, and will enjoy chewing the 
stumps. It does them good. 
Lambs must be kept warm; their fleece is 
not sufficient protection against zero and a 
snow-storm. Ample room is indispensable, and 
care is to be taken to see that all have a full 
share of the food. When grain or meal is fed, 
it is better to give this before the hay and at 
a regular hour, or the flock is uueusy. Rcgu 
larity is most Important in the management 
of sheep; also a watchful eye is indispensable, 
aud the first indication of anything wrong is 
a warning to be prompt with the remedy. 
Costiveness is the worst trouble to be dreaded 
at this season. Don’t forget a regular supply 
of salt. 
SWINE. 
If the fattening pigs are not out of the way 
by this time, no time should be lost. Store 
hogs will he benefited by a run in a wood lot 
or a corn stubble. They will suffer if kept 
wholly confined iu pens, i he practice of keep¬ 
ing them in manure cellars is not to be recom¬ 
mended, or indeed passed without reprobation. 
Sweating in manure heaps produces disorder's 
of theskin, and chills the mi minis. Good food 
—not dry corn—is needed for the best growth 
of store pigs, but especially for brood sows. 
A bushel of bran and one of finely ground 
corn meal and buckwheat mixed together, 
put into a barrel and made into a thin mush, 
with boiling water, is a good basis for a regu¬ 
lar feed. To this add the skimmed milk, but¬ 
termilk, etc., and let it get a little sour. Re¬ 
plenish, as required, with more bran and meal. 
Comfortable litter and eleau pens are a duty 
we owe to our hogs. 
- « » « — 
SHEEP NOTES. 
My friend, II. B. Id., of Medina, N. Y., 
writes me: “I have my last spring lambs, 
which I am fattening in warm basement sta¬ 
bles; would you advise shearing them soon t 
I never did such a thing aud hesitate to do itf” 
This is only a sample of many letters which I 
am now receiving aud shows both a distrust 
of the sincerity of what l have written and 
the extreme difficulty of getting people out of 
the old ruts. In the first place, in detailing 
my practice, I tell just what I do and no more, 
and would scorn to write just for effect or for 
the compensation offered; and what I do my¬ 
self I certainly would advise others to do, pro 
viding they will give the same cure in carry¬ 
ing out the details essential to success. I cer¬ 
tainly would not advise the shearing of lambs 
unless they can be kept in warm, dry stables, 
entirely free from strong currents of cold air, 
and well ventilated, and for the first one or 
two weeks the temperature should bo kept at 
from 50 to 55 degrees Fa hr.; after that a grad¬ 
ual cooling down to 40 or 45 degrees will do 
no harm. Under the above conditions they 
will do at feast a quarter better with the wool 
and ticks taken off. 
* * * 
We have about 200 lambs in our barns, and 
700 ewes, and are shearing the whole lot. We 
commenced on the lambs and shall go over 
the whole as fast as two good and careful 
shearers can do it. 
* * * 
In shearing pregnant ewes the shearers can 
not be too careful in handling them so as to 
avoid all struggling as much as possible, and in 
turning them about the utmost gentleness 
must be used, otherwise the mother or off¬ 
spring or both may be injured or destroyed. 
By this it. must not be Inferred that the Iambs 
may bo treated harshly; although less suscep¬ 
tible to injury from harsh usage or quick 
movements, even with them a jerk or cuff 
will surely knockoff a pound of flesh, and that, 
costs money. J. s. woodward. 
To Remove Warts on Cattle. — I read 
this recipe for killing warts ou a cow's teats 
in an old paper. I tried it with success aud 
can recommend it to others, to T. M. H., page 
827, iu particular: Take fresh butter (uu- 
salted) add an equal amountol sharp vinegar; 
simmer together and apply with a brush, 
cloth or hand. Tt will kill them so effectually 
that they will drop off in a few days. Warts 
on cattle, however large, may be removed by 
this process, without any injury. 
Orange, N. Y. a friend. 
Vctfvinan). 
HOOF “DISTEMPER” IN COWS. 
This is a most distressing complaint in the 
dairy, and a milking cow attacked with it 
will about go dry and become almost entirely 
disabled aud greatly reduced in flesh. All 
sorts of remedies arc used—spirits of salts, 
spirits of turpentine, fish brine, blue vitriol, 
etc. Once in a while a cure is effected, but 
often the disease goes on from bad to worse, 
and a season’s milk Is lost even if the cow re¬ 
cover. 
A number of .veal's ago 1 adopted a simple 
treatment, and in five cases out of six one ap¬ 
plication is effectual. 1 pound blue vitriol 
fine, and mix it with uu equal quantity of salt. 
This mixture is kept in a wide-mouthed bottle, 
so as to have it ready at short notice. Now 
put the animal in the yokes or stanchions, take 
a 12-quart pan, or low tub, aud put. in a quart 
or so of wood ashes and add luk< -wurm water. 
Put. the foot, in gently and soak it; almost all 
atiiuiuls enjoy this after a moment. Then add 
hot water until the animal becomes uneasy, 
ami with the hand keep the water moving, so 
as to create a current t hrough the hoof. Keep 
adding hot water as it cools for about 15 min¬ 
utes. This soaks the corrupt ulcer all loose. 
Now take a rope or strap and tie it around the 
foot and draw it Back to a ring or post as far 
as she can possibly kick or reach; then she 
will become fairly quiet. Then, with a sharp 
stick or knife thoroughly remove all rotten¬ 
ness, so the flesh is red and clean. Now, with 
a little paddle apply the mixture thoroughly 
to the sore, then untie the foot and let the 
cow stand for part of a day, and unless it is 
an unusually virulent cose it will require no 
more attention. 
This manner of treatment is simple and is 
not cruel like drawing a rope through’the 
hoof, which drives a cow nearly to distraction 
with suffering. I have given this manner of 
treating distemper to my neighbors, and they 
all report the same success. 
Orange Co., N. Y. m. h, c. Gardner. 
<Ti)C Pmtilni ljrtvi). 
A GOOD CROSS-BRED POULTRY REC¬ 
ORD. 
The Rural does well to speak a good word 
for cross-bred poultry. T have raised fancy 
poultry for over 20 years. 1 never exhibited, 
but my birds have taken first prizes at N. Y. 
shows. I could not keep up my stock of cross¬ 
breds without thoroughbred cocks. The 
poultry papers and shows ignore everything 
that is not in the "Standard.” I sent the fol¬ 
lowing record of my so-called mongrels to a 
poultry paper, hut it was not noticed: 
Pedigree, first, Hamburg cock toLight Brah¬ 
ma hens. The next year I ran my liens with a 
thoroughbred Dorking cock. These 1 crossed 
with a Leghorn. January 15, 1885, SO degrees 
below zero, my pullets began to lay aud 
there was not a day until January 28, 1886, ou 
which 1 did not gather some eggs. I kept a 
daily record.and on January 15, 1886, I found 
my 45 chicks had laid 5,040 eggs, or an aver¬ 
age of 112 eggs to each hen. They also raised 
185 chicks. 1 sold of these chicks 438.71 
worth. The remainder at the same price were 
worth $16. The eggs averaged, market price, 
one cent each, or 450.40 (less the number set,;) 
or $84.25 for care and food of the originals. 
Corn was worth 20 cents a bushel; wheat, 00 
cents. For an all-purpose hen, give me a ju¬ 
dicious cross. Of the poultry men of whom 1 
have obtained eggs, I give preference to P. 
Williams for L. B., and to Preston of Bingham¬ 
ton, N. Y., for Wyandot,tes. Averaging one 
year with another, my thoroughbred stock, 
from eggs I buy, cost me 42.07 when they are 
hatched. T. H. V. 
Alexandria, Dakota. 
The It unit's driven well; a good suggestion; 
artichokes; puddling the roots of plants 
to be, transplanted, etc. 
If the Rural's driven well is only 17 feet 
deep and the distance to the kitchen is 10 feet, 
making 27 feet in all, the trouble, I should 
say, was in the meshes of the “ point” becom¬ 
ing choked up with tenacious clay; if so, and 
the pipe cannot be drawn up to be examined, 
1 should attach a heavy iron box to a rope, and 
by dropping it, down the pipe try to knock 
out the malleable Iron plug at the bottom so 
as to allow free ingress to the water. Of 
course, iu doing this one runs the risk of loos¬ 
ening some of the joints of the pipe, making it 
worse than ever, but if the Rural is going to 
give it up, it, might pay to risk it. If 1 am 
wroDgin guessing at the distance to the kitchen 
(If) feet perpendicularly), or if the pipe makes 
many turns, the whole distance may exceed 
the limit, at which water may be lifted with 
ease. As for the proposed new well with ce¬ 
ment bnrrel pipes, 1 should make every joint 
as tight as possible, aud the top I would cover 
perfectly tight with the exception of a hole 
just largo enough to let the working parts of 
the pump through, and have the flange at 
thq bottom of the pump fit as snugly as possi¬ 
ble. Then it will be a perfect well and one 
that, ought to last, forever. 
[Thanks. It is proposed to connect the 
pump iu the kitchen with the well by lead 
pipes running through the stone foundation of 
the house.—E dk.1 
Wm. Falconer writes of his good crop of 
Jerusalem Artichokes; will he please tell in 
the Rural how to cook them. I am very 
fond of them raw, but. do not know how they 
ought to be cooked; have tried them boiled hut 
do not like them that way. 1 had this year 
about, one-eighth of an acre of them, and 
when in full bloom they were a gorgeous 
sight. I notice two kinds among mine—the 
red and the white-skinned. The latter has 
not po much of the artichoke flavor as the 
former, and it grows a little differently, the 
tubers being smoot her and rarely “ sprangled ” 
like the red ones. * * * 
My Golden Tankard Mangels vary the same 
way this year; some are of a beautiful orange 
color inside, while others are pur e white. I 
like the colored ones best, they look richer even 
if they are not, * * * 
I don't like E. F. E.’s suggestion to work 
cows. If the cow is? a good one, she does 
“ work ” enough in giving milk and raising a 
calf every year. Give her the extra meal E. 
F. E. recommends by all means, and you will 
get the “work” to pay for it ; but I don’t see 
how a man can work his cow all day in the 
yoke and then sit down at night and milk 
her. * * * 
T. Greiner objects to puddling plants, and 
speaks of the risk of having plants “choked 
to death by a coat of clayey paint impervious 
to air and water.” If lie will use good garden 
loam instead of his clay, he will run no risks 
of having his plants choked to death or injured 
in auy way, and it will keep the roots from 
drying much longer than water. In planting 
with a dibble the roots are necessarily jammed 
tightly together, but I never kuew that they 
were injured by it, aud eveu if the plants 
were puddled with clay the roots are immedi¬ 
ately put in moist soil before the clay has time 
to harden and become impervious to air and 
water. I would sooner have them wet with 
clear water alone than to lie wet and then 
sprinkled with dry soil or dust, as Mr. O. 
recommends to those who must puddle, as the 
dust must absorb about all the water aud fall 
off by very little handling,aud the plant would 
be worse off than before. As to the inconven¬ 
ience of handliug puddled plants, if they are 
properly prepared before putting in the basket 
the planter need get little or no dirt ou his 
hands. a. L. crosby, 
Baltimore Co., Md. 
taxxc 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS' 
Away with Middlemen. —In our orchard 
In Michigan we raised, the past season, some 
200 barrels of apples. They brought, us a tri¬ 
fle less than 50 cents per barrel, not counting 
our labor. Hero, we find just such apples 
selling at retail at $ 8.00 per barrel. Where 
do the 42.50 go ? Farmers must find some 
way to avoid the vast army of middlemen. 
They must learn to deal more directly with the 
consumer. As with apples, so with all pro¬ 
ducts. The farmer supplies the world, but 
thousands of hungry months nibble at the pro¬ 
fits as the supply passes them. The farmer 
finds his prices growiug lower from year to 
year, while the mechanic finds no such reduc¬ 
tion in the cost of living. We of the West 
must follow more and more the example of 
the Eastern formers of selling more directly 
to the consumer, or we shall see our small 
farms eaten up by the capitalists,and ourselves 
and children becoming day laborers. 
Richmond, Ind. D. w. j. 
That “Model Hired Man” must lie a rara 
arts, I thought we had usually had pretty 
good hired men, and I think so still; but 
we certainly never hud one who did a tenth 
part of the chores around the bouse that J. W. 
B. says he does. I have never thought my¬ 
self at all disgraced or hurt in any way by 
cooking, washing, bodmaking or mending for 
hired meu. Most of our hired men are un¬ 
married and they must have a place some¬ 
where to hoard; so if some enterprising wo¬ 
man thinks to turn an honest penny by board¬ 
ing these men, is she degrading herself ( Sup¬ 
pose the man is married, Is his wife degrading 
herself by cooking, washing, etc., for him i 1 
own it is pleasanter to have uouo except our 
own family when we come to sit down, but I 
like it much better if the hired man’s tastes 
are enough like ours to make him willing to 
sit down with us and talk or read, instead of 
going to the corners and sitting in the stores 
every evening. In my mind it depeuds alto¬ 
gether on the person, and not ou his occupa¬ 
tion, whether he is an agreeable mau to be 
taken into our families or not. 
Groton City, N. Y. G. h. 
Good for “Crops and Markets!”— During 
the early part of last summer, the Rural re¬ 
peatedly urged its readers to hold their wool 
for higher prices. I took its advice and it put 
money enough into my pocket to pay for sev¬ 
eral years of the Rural. If I had not read 
the Ru ral I should have sold my wool, as my 
neighbors did, at 24 to 25 cents. As it is I sold 
for JO cents. I an glad to testify thus to the 
value of your advice. a. q. mcdougall. 
Washington Co., N. Y. 
Anti-fat. —I raul recently of a new “anti, 
fat” cure. The fat man is placed in a box 
like a dog-power. An endless ladder runs 
around a wheel and the patieut keeps stepping, 
