land, when I have been judge as well as lec. 
turer, and on two or three occasions also in 
England, been much interested in noticing the 
rapt attention which the spectators paid to the 
contests, and the patience with which they 
would wait, many of them standing all the 
time, until the churning was through, the but 
ter made up, and the awards declared. There 
cannot be a doubt that the contests are de¬ 
cidedly tuitional aud at the same time dis¬ 
tinctly technical in character, uot only to the 
competitors, but to all the bystanders. They 
are, in fact, practical demonstrations of skill, 
and opportunities for the display of deftness, 
care and nice art. The practice and method 
followed by the successful competitors, are a 
guide for the future to the unsuccessful ones, 
as well as to bystanders who are engaged in 
dairy work. Many a valuable lesson has been 
carried home from these displays, and in each 
case a benefit has accrued to the careful 
watcher and listener. 
A butter-making contest requires careful 
arranging beforehaud, and as careful ar¬ 
rangement while it is on. First of all, a sufli- 
eieut number of competitors is secured, and 
say a minimum of four. In Ireland we had, 
on one occasion. 28 dairymaids as competitors; 
but this number is inconveniently large, and 
from four to a dozen will be found more easi¬ 
ly manageable. In Ireland the girls were pro¬ 
vided with churns and other paraphernalia 
all alike, and with cream of equal quality 
and quantity, and the greatest care was tak- 
eu that no one was in the least degree handi¬ 
capped in these preliminaries Each one was, 
however, at liberty to follow her own course 
as to the preparation of the churn, the tem¬ 
perature of the cream, the rate of churning, 
and the manipulation of the butter, the test 
of superiority being finally determined by 
the judges, who, for their own and for the 
information of the public, took careful no¬ 
tice from beginning to end of the method 
pursued by each competitor. The cream was 
given out—carefully weighed—to eacth, at the 
same temperature aud time; then its temper¬ 
ature was taken when it was put into the 
churn ; at a given signal the churning began, 
and during its progress the judges repeatedly 
took note of the number of revolutions per 
minute, of the regularity or irregularity of 
those revolutions, aud of the time occupied in 
each case. Next came the manipulation of 
the butter, which was also carefully noted, 
and, finally, the butter was weighed aud 
aud raised again for feeding hay. The boxes 
are made by nailing four square boards to¬ 
gether. The bottom of the manger is shown 
at G, with the stanchions at E. The cows 
stand with their front feet on D, which is n 
gravel floor two feet four inches wide. The 
foundation is of cobblestone with nearly a 
foot of gravel on top, well pounded down. F 
is a double floor; inch boards are laid double 
so as to break joints. It is water-tight. '1 he 
boards are laid on two by four scantlings bed¬ 
ded iu the gravel. This platform has a slope 
of three inches. The manure gutter, G, is 
water-tight, nailed together with 20-penny 
nails. H is a gravel walk next to barn. 
When the feed-box is raised it is fastened by a 
catch held to the studding. 
Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. c. w. Kellogg. 
IMPROVED STOCK FOR THE AVERAGE 
FARMER. 
Many farmers eanuot afford to stock thou* 
farms with such. It is also true that for any 
purpose, except breeding, animals with two or 
three crosses of improved blood are often 
nearly or quite equal to the pure-bred ones. 
This fact makes it possible for the great mass 
of fanners to secure much of the merit of the 
best stock without extravagant expenditure. 
The. persistent use of well-bred and good sires 
is a ready means of improving stock, and open 
to almost alL With the smaller ‘and lower- 
priced stock, as pigs and sheep, the extra cost 
of a pure-bred sire is uot a serious obstacle. 
With horses and cattle the sires may be owned 
by two or more, or their services may be 
hired. 
In multitudes of cases it is advisable to 
purchase at least one or two pure bred females 
as well as a sire. With average good fortune 
a herd or flock can soon be built up in this 
way. On the farms of the University of 
Illinois we have a dozen descendants of a 
Short-horn cow, which gave her first heifer 
calf iu 1881, the sale of bull calves having 
nearly or quite paid the cost of keepiug iu the 
interval. 
It is not advisable that any farmer of mod¬ 
erate means should purchase oven a single ani¬ 
mal at a high price, or attempt to start with a 
large herd or flock. Accidents may happen. 
The results may be unsatisfactory from any 
one of many causes. The estimate iu which 
the breed selected is held may change for the 
worse. There may be deaths or failures to 
breed among the stock. The purchaser may 
prove to be unsuited to the work. On the 
other hand, it is a great mistake to delay year 
l after year any attempt, to improve the stock 
on the farm. In tensors a fair-sized herd of 
cattle, and in less than half that time a good 
flock of sheep or herd of hogs can be had as 
the progeny of only two or three pounds. 
The great increase in number Of well bred 
stock of the various classes aud of many 
breeds may prevent the recurrence of ex¬ 
tremely high prices—and it is not certain this 
will be a misfortune—but there is no reason to 
believe that good stock will ever sell as low as 
poor stock. The present depression in prices 
seetns a good reason for investing rather than 
a cause for discouragement. The prices for 
animals of some breeds may fall still lower 
but in the case of a uumber of others—of 
breeds well established aud the value of which 
has been abundantly proven—there is good 
reason to believe the lowest, point has been 
reached. 
I have known of serious losses, mauy abso¬ 
lute failures, by those who have engaged in 
fine stock breeding, but these were always 
when there were speculation and purchases in 
great numbers or at a high price. I do not recall 
one ease of failure or serious loss from a care¬ 
fully considered investment iu a well tested 
breed at moderate prices. 
FLOOR FOR* COW STABLE. 
The way my cow stable is arranged is 
shown at Fig, 25. It is a simple arrangement 
and works well with me. The feed boxes, 
A A, are nailed to the outside of the cover. 
sion to the ideas mentioned, 1 have almost 
daily had Opportunity to observe from 1,000 
to 10,000 fat hogs in the stock-yards and pack¬ 
ing-house pens of the second largest ‘hog- 
market in the world—hogs from nearly all 
sections of country west of the Mississippi, 
from Iowa to Southwestern Arizona—of all 
ages, sexes and “previous conditions of plump- 
titude." From this observation, the facts, as 
they appear at this time and have appeared 
for say, two years hack, are that there is not 
to exceed two per cent of the hogs coming to 
this market ill which the black color does not 
largely predominate; iu fact, there is not 
probably more than one strictly white hog in 
every hundred. 
As to the reds and the impression they have 
made in the seven or eight years their friends 
have beeu specially pushing them into noto¬ 
riety, it may lie said that not an average of 
one red hog iu the hundred will be found 
here, and the per cent, of hogs showing a 
cross, near or remote, from the red stock, 
will not exceed two or three in a'hundred. 
When the black hogs first ..began to root the 
whites'to the rear, .the Berksliires were'uot n 
little in the asceudauoy; in course of^timo 
the Polnud-Chinas had so grown iu favor 
that the proportion of Polands aud Berks 
seemed about even. Now, however, the con¬ 
ditions are changed, and iu every large col¬ 
lection, come from whatever’ section they 
may. a large majority show the Polaud- 
China characteristic; and these, in many in¬ 
stances, show a judicious Tmingfing with 
Berkshire blood, probably making, all iu all, 
the best general-purpose farmer’s hog the 
world has ever known anything about. 
Great, changes for the better have been 
made in the Poland-Chinas, and the observant 
know how they have been bred and improved 
in the direction of the best Berkshire' stand¬ 
ard, until they fully equal, if they do uot sur¬ 
pass, the best English or home-bred stock. 
The shrewdest of the hog-raisers, jmlgiug 
from their practices, argue to themselves 
something like this; “The Berkshire is good; 
the Poland-Chiua is good. A judicious com¬ 
bination of the two is still better than either.” 
1)0 vs email 
THE MARE 
A. B. ALLEN 
In horse breeding, it is as important that 
the mare should be perfect as that the stallion 
should be so. Iu fact, some consider it more 
so, and this is especially the case with the 
horses of the Arabs,who for centuries excelled 
all other nations iu their breed of horses So 
highly do they think of the mare, that they 
count her only iu the records of their horse 
pedigrees, aud iu detailing the pedigrees of the 
progeny, they mention the dams only, while 
“ western ” breeders give more conspicuous 
mention to the sires. In their stealthy forays, 
they prefer her for the mount; but perhaps this 
is because on such occasions she never neighs 
as the stallions are apt to do on a close ap¬ 
proach to the enemy. Like the American In¬ 
dians, it is thejr rule to steal noiselessly on 
their foes iu order the more surely to surprise 
and overwhelm them before they can gather 
together for defense. 
Now 1 emphatically say to our farmers, se¬ 
lect for breeding such mares as are the most 
perfect in form and action: as nearly as possi • 
file of the proper size for the progeny you may 
wish to rear; and, above all, let them be en¬ 
tirely sound in wind and limb; of a kind tem¬ 
per, and yet bold; spirited and plucky. On 
no account breed from an uusound animal, 
especially one unsound iu the wind, legs ami 
feet; for nine chances out of ton this unsound¬ 
ness will crop out sooner or later in her off¬ 
spring, aud thus render them more or less 
worthless. 
Spring is the usual time when farmers in 
general prefer to have their colts dropped; 
but some—aud the number is on the increase— 
who have good barns aud warm staliles, prefer 
the autumn. Their reasons for this are that 
work is much greater and more driving in 
spring, and that the autumn-foaling marc can 
go through it without danger of injury; 
whereas, if a mare is to foal iu the spring, it is 
dangerous to use her ut all; for in so doing, 
she is liable to slink the colt prematurely, or 
cast it dead. In any event, hard work for the 
dam weakens the offspring before birth, aud 
lesseus its subsequent growth and vigor. 
In spring the mare is turned to grass, which 
at this time is quitolush, aud does uot make so 
nourishing a quality of milk as she yields in 
auturun and winter when her ration of hay 
and wheat, bran and grain, is drier aud richer. 
She ought then to have a roomy stall, with a 
dry yard well littered, in which both she aud 
the colt can exercise iu mild weather; or, 
what is about as well except iu a severe cli¬ 
mate, she should have for a stable a tight 
boarded shed, open only to the south. The 
floor of the stable must be of dry earth or 
sand, for if the colt stands on plank, stone or 
brick, it will be very liable to ringbone, mak¬ 
ing it nearly worthless to rear. 
The colt should be taught to eat, as soon as 
it will, a pint or so of oats with a quart of 
wheat bran daily, and this ration should be 
gradually increased with its age, till it can 
take double the amount night aud morning. 
Wheat bran is excellent for worms, and colts 
that are fed with a moderate quantity of it 
daily are scarcely ever troubled with these 
pests. 
When the colt is fed its ration of grain, this 
should be placed in a box by itself, a little dis¬ 
tance from the mare, and her head should be 
tied up with a halter so far away that she can¬ 
not reach the grain. The colt can then eat 
the whole of it slowly ami without disturb¬ 
ance, which is highly important to bisdiges- 
DAIRY NOTES, 
Oleomargarine Again.— The Rural gave 
us arguments on both sides of the oleomargar¬ 
ine question; but I think a word more can be 
said. It appears to be granted that “ oleo” in 
its best condition is not detrimental to health 
or morals. It was only necessary to provide 
a law that would prevent fraud and properly 
regulate the sale of the stuff under its true 
name and character. This I understand is 
all the Euglisb and Dutch laws provide. The 
tax is likely to produce more harm than 
good. The principle of the thing was wrong ? 
and I do not see that it has helped butter 
makers or anybody else. The money was not 
needed to enforce the law,for the Government 
has already an enormous surplus. The tax 
was clearly class legislation, and all such leg. 
islation, which arrays one business against 
another, is wrong. If Congressmen voted 
against the “oleo” bill because they were op¬ 
posed to that class of legislation, aud uot be¬ 
cause they opposed the interests of farmers 
especially, should not their names be taken 
from that “black list ? 11 jayh awker. 
[R. N.-Y.—Iu spite of all that Is said by 
those interested in oleomargarine, we believe 
the law has already been a benefit to dairy 
men. A few weeks ago we gave comparative 
prices showing how butter had increased in 
value since the passage of the act. As we 
have stated dozens of times, the fight against 
oleomargarine was made uguiust. a fraud and 
a cheat. The stuff was sold as butter at but¬ 
ter prices. The manufacturers have made 
thousands of dollars by the most bare-faced 
fraud. As to a tax upon the stuff, wo d not 
see how the sale could be regulated aud esti¬ 
mated without it. As to the “black list” the 
Rural urges its readers to support men who 
will favor their business interests. Oleomar¬ 
garine, sold us butter, injured the business of 
the dairy mini, u nd no man could truly repre¬ 
sent. farmers who befriended it in any way. 
Men are not sent to Congress to exercise pet 
theories of their own, but to obey the wishes 
of their coustitueuts. When they fail to do 
this, they are better left at home. 
BUTTER MAKING COMPETITIONS, 
gross in countries I am acquamrea wnn, ana 
because I am convinced that, once fairly 
started, these competitions, interesting and 
instructive ns they emphatically are, would 
do much good and would soon become very 
popular among your people. In Ireland they 
are or were very popular, but the country is 
too much disturbed on the land and Home 
Rule questions to take much interest in butter¬ 
making displays. Iu England, at the dairy 
shows, they have attracted much notice, but 
they have uot yet become populur in the coun¬ 
ties. This is, I think, because we are very 
cautious and slow in taking lip a new thing, 
and because our farmers' daughters are shy at 
making a display in public. Once this shyness 
could be set aside, l fancy butter-making com¬ 
petitions would become pretty numerous at 
our leading shows. 
I have an impression that such competitions 
would soon win the public favor in A meriea, 
for your people are quicker thau ours iu tak¬ 
ing up an innovation, and, once they become 
popular with you. I would venture to predict 
that they would, next to the trotting matches, 
form one of the most attractive features at 
your State fairs, and at your agricultural fairs 
generally I have on various occasions iu lre- 
SOME RECENT CHANGES IN SWINE, 
F. D. COBURN, OF KANSAS, 
This cover, or front, can be letdown by means 
of the hinges, B B, when grain is to be fed, 
Some six or seven years ago the writer very 
