THE BUBAL HEW-YOBKEB. 
giving milk or a fattening steer. Twenty to 
25 pounds of silage, half as much hay or straw, 
and 12 pounds of cotton seed fed to an average 
grade Jersey or grade Holstein cow give us 
from 12 to 1(1 ounces of butter during the win¬ 
ter months. Our butter has sold at 80 cents 
net per pound from last September to the pre¬ 
sent time. With this ration the butter is not 
of first quality. It lacks color, and is too 
hard, but after coloring it sella on the markets 
at the price giveu, which is equal to the price 
of the best Western creamery in our Southern 
cities. Cotton seed costs $0 per ton, silage 
about $1.50 per ton, and hay from $2 to $5, 
delivered in the barn, the hay and silage being 
grown on the place. 
We find the above proportions give good 
results in feeding for beef or feeding to young 
stock. We have fed since the first of Decem¬ 
ber, ’80, 5,500 bushels (01 7-10 tons) of cotton 
seed with silage and hay to pure-bred llol- 
steins, Herefords, Galloways, and Devons, 
grades of these breeds, Jersey grades and 
native cattle of all ages, cows in calf and giv¬ 
ing milk, feeding to fattening cattle and to 
cows in full milk as much cotton seed as they 
would eat, just as we have been doing for the 
past five winters, and our belief is that, not¬ 
withstanding all that has been said about the 
indigestible cotton seed hulls, excess of oil, 
etc., cotton seed, fed as described above, is 
not surpassed by any grain or concentrated 
feeding stuff for making quantity of milk, 
butter, beef, and growth, aud lor keeping 
cattle in vigorous, healthy conditiou. 
Agr’J. College of Miss. 
Testing Fertilizers.— Experimenting in 
a small way is the salvation for farmers who 
use commercial fertilizers. It is folly to de¬ 
pend entirely on ono brand for all soils. The 
only way to find out what certain soils need 
is to try various fertilizers in a small way. I 
generally get a bag of every new fertilizer and 
give it ft fair trial on different fields. If it 
does better than others I have used before, I 
get more of it the next year. If it falls be- 
hiud 1 let it alone. 1 often find that a fertil¬ 
izer does better on one field thau on another, 
while some other fertilizer does best where 
the first one is poorest. I would be foolish 
indeed to continue using the fertilizer where 
it does poorly and equally foolish not to use it 
where it does well. Yet. this may be just ex¬ 
actly what farmers do who never experiment. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. n. s. J. 
EXPERIMENTS IN CALF RAISING. 
Professors Henry aud Armsby, of the 
Wisconsin Experiment Station, have been 
making a careful and elaborate series of ex¬ 
periments in stock feeding. Among others 
was one in raising 16 common calves picked 
up iu the dairy districts, that would have been 
deaconed if they had not been reserved for a 
better purpose, aud a butter-making farmer, 
by examining the facts iu the case, can see 
how he can make most money from his calves 
by raising them, without interfering with his 
regular dairy business. Prof. Henry gives us 
the facts covering four periods iu the year 
and the weight of the growth in each and the 
cost of live meat during each. 
The first period, embracing 14 weeks, ended 
with the calves weighing 4,494 pounds. We 
will suppose they cost. $2 each, or $82. They 
were fed $ 28.80 worth of ground oats, corn, 
wheat and liar ley, brnu, shorts, hay, corn fod¬ 
der, gross and pasture, together with 20,045 
pounds of thoroughly skimmed milk. If they 
were then worth five cents on foot their value 
was $324.70. Deduct the cost of them at $2 
each, aud the value of the grain and forugo, 
and we find $108,00 remaining to pay for the 
milk, which would show it to be worth 70cents 
per 100 pounds. Take another view, that of 
charging the calves 25 cents per 100 pounds of 
milk; add that toother costs, and we find there 
was $7.01 net profit iu feeding each eulf. Com¬ 
pute the meat at four cents, expenses the same, 
aud we find there was a not profit of $4.21 ou 
each calf if 25 cents per 100pounds ait' charged 
for the skim-milk, and it would make the milk 
worth 57.0 cents per loti pounds if no sum is 
assigned as profit for calf. Culves thus fed, it 
would seem, could hardly fail to tie worth as 
much us four cents per pound auywhero, aud 
more than that iu Eastern cities. 
Let us take the calves at the oud of the sec¬ 
ond period—after 12 more weeks—and we find 
they weighed 0,180 pounds, which, at four 
cents per pound, would he $245.50. Deduct 
the actual cost, including milk at 25 cents per 
11,0 Pounds, UIR i there is a profit of $77.54, or 
$4.*1 per calf, or 05 cents per 100 pounds for 
all the skim milk fed iu 26 weeks—if we call 
for n profit on no other food. From that time 
on no milk was fed, aud wo flud the calves 
weighed at tile end of 12 weeks more, 7,021 
pounds, and at four ceuts per pound they 
would be worth §304.84. Cost up to that time 
$249.21; net gain $55.63 or $3.47 per calf. This 
computation allows 25 cents per 100 pounds for 
all the skim-milk eaten. 
At the end of six weeks more, the calves 
weighed 8,137 pounds; which, at four cents 
would make them worth $325.48; and it hail 
cost. $48.10 to feed thorn for this period. Adding 
all the costs, we find them $292.37, leaving 
$33.11 or $2.07 per calf, net gain for feeding 50 
weeks. 
The lesson in this, is, that the time to have 
sold the calves was at the end of the second 
period, ending Dec. 21sfc, or probably a little 
carlieiin the fall; for it seems that absence of 
milk, and presence of cold weather, made the 
growth of the last 13 weeks cost $44.43 more 
than the gain would sell for. Keeping them 
18 weeks iu winter gnawed that much into the 
profit of keeping them 20 weeks—during the 
first and second periods. The butter-making 
farmers will see that the time to make money 
at calf-feeding is when the calves are young, 
when they have milk, and when the weather 
is warm. The warmth they can give in win¬ 
ter at small cost, if they have the young calves 
and the milk. The “boss” lesson is, "Don't 
‘deacon’ the calves, even if they are not fed a 
drop of milk.” I have no doubt that feeding 
sweet whey insteud of the sweet skim-milk, 
would have made itshow up fully half as valu¬ 
able as the milk. j. a. smith. 
Ozankee, Co., Wis. 
Feeding Calves.— No doubt the best calf 
feeder is a pail, aud I agree entirely with H, 
B G. in his opinion of calf-feeders. I have 
been in the habit of weaning calves from 
birth; that is, not permitting them to stick the 
cow at all, but removing them before they 
have had time to suck. In the majority of 
cases the calves can be taught to driuk from 
the pail iu one lesson, especially the calves of 
cows which have been retired in the same 
way. The present year I am rearing calves in 
North Carolina, where the habit is to permit 
the calf to suck the off side of the udder while 
the milker takes the milk from the near side. 
This is a very poor practice. One Hue native 
cow I am now milking has a calf a few days 
old, which is weaned, aud drank from the pail 
readily the third lesson. That calf is past all 
trouble and it is a simple matter to feed it. 
The cow, however, has been spoiled by this 
bad system. The off side of the udder gives 
no more than half the milk given by' the near 
side, and the teats on the off side are smaller 
than the other two. This seems to be caused 
by the sucking of the calf. I never canto 
across a case like it before where there was no 
disease in the udder. The common system 
here is very troublesome. The milker has to 
fight off the calf, and to get the milk safely', 
uses a small pail held in one baud while milk¬ 
ing with the other By' having a pen for the 
calves, divided into separate apartments, one 
for each calf, a small door for the calf to put 
its head through, and a bench with a hoop or 
frame to set the pail in, there is no trouble 
whatever iu feeding the calves. A most im¬ 
portant odvuntage is that a calf fed iu this 
manner never gives any trouble by sucking 
the cows afterwards, as those do which are 
used to the calf-feeders which they suck. 
Macon Co., N. C . _H. STEWART. 
Roots for Winter Feed.—I found out 
long ago the value of roots for winter feeding 
of cattle. When I fed dry' hay and stalks aud 
dry feed the cattle would turn up at the eud 
of a long winter dull and constipated. When 
they got to the pasture they would scour so 
that it was a week or so before they did good 
work, IV hen 1 fed roots right along they 
kept iu better condition. They did not turn 
up iu spriug guawing boards and old wood or 
boues as I have known plenty of cuttle to do. 
Meu who work in the pine woods often come 
out in the spring dull aud heavy. Their work 
iu the open air ought to leave them in fine 
condition, but the steady diet of fried pork, 
beans and bread, without fruit or many vege¬ 
tables throws the system off the truck. It 
seems to me that this is the condition that cat¬ 
tle get into after a long winter on straw, 
stalks aud other dry feeds. They may look 
fat and hearty, but their foot! does not do 
them the good it ought to. Roots and sil¬ 
age keep cuttle in fine trim. To my mind 
they are to be classed as foods about with 
fruits and oanued vegetables in the winter 
diet of a man. s. h. barnks. 
Kent Co., Mich. 
This vice is quite prevalent among birds 
during the spriug and early summer. Both 
farm poultry and cage birds are addicted to 
it. Birds are frequently seen g*ung about 
with their breasts denuded of feathers. A 
feather eater will uot only strip itself, but will 
practice on its companions and spread the bad 
habit. Feather eating originates in a craving 
for animal food, and is induced by idleness 
and lack of exercise. It appears to be most 
prevnleutin tbespriug, in poultry yards where 
little or no meat has been fed. The wisest and 
quickest way to cure a common hen of the dis¬ 
ease seems to be to make meat of her at once. 
Many cage birds, like parrots, strip themselves 
almost entirely of feathers. Parrots seem to 
be the chief offenders. They are generally so 
valuable that an effort is made to cure them. 
In many cases a cure is impossible, and the 
victim continues a self-mutilator to the end. 
A wide tin collar is sometimes used. This is 
made wide enough to keep the beak away from 
the breast. It is not satisfactory. Bathing 
the feathers with a bitter solution of aloes or 
some other drug, is recommended. It is about 
like bathing a cow’s teats with some bitter 
drug to cure her of sucking herself—works 
well in theory hut not in practice. The most 
reasonable treatment appears to be that re¬ 
commended by Dr. Green, an English author¬ 
ity. He puts the culprit iuto a large space 
where plenty of rotten wood, bones and other 
articles which the bird can bite and tear 
are placed. A diet of grain and green food, 
without salt, is given. Dr. Green would give 
no animal food. The parrot in its wild state 
is chietly graminivorous. Dr. Green thinks 
that feather eating in cage birds is often in¬ 
duced by high feeding upon animal food, 
with small chance for exercise. The disease 
is analogous to hysteria, so frequently met with 
in the human subject. 
FIVE YEARS’ EXPERIENCE WITH 
POULTRY. 
For the past five years I have devoted a 
good share of my time to poultry keeping. 
I have not learned all about the business to be 
sure; but here are the results of my experi¬ 
ence for the hem'(It of Rural readers: 
My favorite breeds are the Plymouth Rock 
and Wyandotte, between the merits of which 
I can see no difference. Last spring I built a 
house 12x25 feet, making three pens housing 
40 fowls. Some think that when the biddies 
are sheltered from the wind that is all that’s 
required: but they do best when the thermom¬ 
eter is kept at 40 u . If their bouse is warm¬ 
er than that they will uotexerciseand beeome 
too fat; whereas if the place is too cold the bad 
results are the same. My house is heated with 
an oil stove with a heater drum, and there is 
no trouble in regulating the temperature as 
required at a cost of one gallon of oil a day. 
Under each roost there is a shelf to catch the 
droppings, and these are hoed up every second 
day and put into barrels, and dry sand is 
sprinkled on the shelf. For a dust bath I put 
ashes in one pen and in the other two, dry 
sand. 
Morning feed: boiled potatoes or turnips 
with two parts of bran and one part of corn- 
moalscalded and a liberal supply of salt; with 
beef scraps two or three times a week. Noon, 
oats strewed on ground. Evening, equal parts 
of wheat and cracked corn, strewed as at noon. 
This makes them exercise, keeping up health 
and vigor. On very cold days I feed a little 
Cayenne pepper and I also keep before them 
plenty of oyster shells and ground bone. 
Fowls want water in winter as welt as iu sum¬ 
mer. I keep a fresh supply free from ice 
where the biddies can get at it. The tempera¬ 
ture of the house should be regulated by means 
of a thermometer, and we must bear in miud 
that a warm house saves feed Two years ago 
l was troubled with feather-pulling and was 
advised to use salt as a preventive; so next 
year stilt was fed, and there has been no 
feather-pulling since. I do not think it will 
stop the habit after the fowls have once prac¬ 
ticed it; but if it is fed iu the fall it will pre¬ 
vent it. 
From a pen of 30 Plymouth Rocks I receive, 
on an average, 15 eggs a day, allowing 10 
square feet to each bird; in the new house I 
allow but seven square feet. Here is a pen of 
six VVyandottes, with 10 square feet to each 
bird, aud their record shows an average 
of four eggs a day—the more room the better. 
Sitting hens also want a warm room—some¬ 
where about G0«, well ventilated and the nests 
should bo set in the darkest place, for then 
they are not inclined to leave. Always move 
them to the setting-room after dark. As soon 
as the chicks are hatched I raise them with a 
brooder until warm weather, and then let one 
hen have two broods. As soon as the birds 
dress 2>£ pounds I take them to market and 
receive from 30 to 40 ceuts per pound. As 
soon as possible I give the chicks full raugo of 
the farm, until late in the fall, aud then kill 
all two-year-olds, making room for pallets. I 
do uot think there is a fortune to tie made in a 
year, but with care there is a profit. 
Worcester Co., Mass. e. Herbert. 
LANGSHANS. 
If the Rural does uot refer to the Laugshaus 
as inferior birds it says they are indifferent 
layers. This latter statement is contrary to 
my experience with them. For the last 20 
years, I have had Black Spanish, White Leg¬ 
horns, Light Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks and 
several other breeds, and have never been able 
to get eggs to any satisfactory amount, except 
in mild and open winters, until the past 
ono. My fowls have always been lodged in a 
low but dry shed, having a good air circula¬ 
tion, and an earth bottom for half its area, 
covered with a good layer of hay or straw, so 
that rny chickens were bedded down as careful¬ 
ly as fine stock of any kind. Before this 
winter I had always fed liberally, hut with 
corn, oats, bran, some vegetables, and the 
waste of the kitchen, taking care at thn same 
time uot to deny my fowls gravel and hone, 
and with the above result—few eggs in cold, 
and none in very cold weather. I ought, per¬ 
haps to say that for this and the last winter, 
the birds had a dry and sunny shed to 
stay in in day-time and were fed there and wa¬ 
tered ; this winter I have enlarged if not im¬ 
proved the food ration—oats in the morning, 
corn at night and for a luoeh between, raw 
potatoes chopped fine one day or two days in 
succession, followed the next day by a full 
meal of pork cracklings that had previously 
been soaked so as to be soft. Further, the 
fowls have been lavishly, supplied with 
bone, burned in an anthracite coal grate, and 
unlimited ashes of soft coal. The result has 
been as many eggs this winter, when the 
mercury has been steadily at or below zero, 
as formerly wheu it was in the neighborhood 
of 32 u . How much of this egg production was 
due to breed and how much to feed, I shall 
not undertake to say decidedly. I am rather 
inclined to give the larger amount of credit to 
the Langshans. b. f. Johnson. 
Champaign, Ill. 
Good for tue Leghorns.— There seems to 
be a contest going on among Rural readers 
to see which can show the best laying flock of 
hens. I have only 19 Leghorns. From 
Jan. 1. to April 1. these laid 71 dozen and five 
eggs. They only had a poor board house for 
shelter, and ran at large in the day time. This 
is the first year I have tried to keep any count 
of the number of eggs. After this I shall con¬ 
tinue the record. h. sleight. 
Scioto Co. Ohio 
R. N.-Y.—An egg account pays well. It fur¬ 
nishes a basis upon which to figure for profit. 
It also develops more care in the regular farm 
accounts, aud'helps to bring larger operations 
down to business methods. 
We are frequently advised to use fresh 
wood ashes as a dust bath for hens. I ques¬ 
tion the wisdom of such advice. My experi¬ 
ence is that wood ashes will take all the gloss 
out of feathers. It gives the hens a dingy, 
dried-out appearance that is not pleasant. 
Good dean sand with a little sulphur mixed 
with it will make as good a dust bath as is 
needed. q. h, w. 
Plymouth Co., Mass. 
Potatoes as Poultry Feed.— Feeding 
fowls entirely upon potatoes is bad business. 
They do not do so well as when fed grain. 
Scientists tell us that the potatoes contain 
“top much of carbohydrates to be a perfect 
food. I am, like most farmers, uot exactly 
clear as to what carbohydrates are, but I 
know that when hens are fed almost entirely 
upon potatoes ami meal they get fat and lazy 
sooner than they do when fed all they want 
of a mixture of potatoes, oats, wheat, meat, 
etc. VV ith no potatoes or green food hens will 
uot do well. With too much they do still 
worse. It is the mixture that does the most 
S°°d- j. w. R. 
Bucks Co., Pa. 
My way to prevent trouble about trespass¬ 
ing hens would be to fix nice nests on my place 
near where they do the damage. You will 
get lots of eggs, and ‘if your neighbor has any 
sense at all he will soon learn to keep his hens 
at home. l. h. 
Louisville, Ky. 
Pomotoijkfft. 
FERTILIZE THE TREES. 
DR. 0. A. ROBINSON. 
Some years ago I bought an orchard of 100 
trees of an agent. Before buying I took him 
to the place where I intended to plant the 
trees and asked him what he thought of it. 
He remarked that it was “just the place;” 
that I would get the benefit of the northern 
slope on the north half and a southern slope 
on the soutli half. The site was an old clay 
field that had been cultivated for years and 
had never been manured, so one can’ imagine 
how exceedingly sterile it was. I took his ad- 
