4 
^7~ry hOJAS; 
Yol. xlvi. 
No. 1951. NEW YORK, JUNE 18, 1887. 
_Entered, according to Act of ConKfoas, In the year 1887, toy the Rcral Nkw-Yorkkr, tn the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
81.00 PER YEAR. 
HOLSTEIN BULL DE BRAVE HENDRIK. Fi<u 219 
* 
but rarely more than 20 to 30 head, or as 
much young stock and cows as they can with 
ease carry through the winter on fodder. Ex¬ 
tensive ranging is unknown, although there 
are large tracts of 10,000 acres and upwards 
which could be procured for the purpose. 
Stock farming is better than ranging, uud as 
excellent luud etui be procured for $1,50 to 
$2.50 per acre in bodies of 1,000 acres and up¬ 
wards, the best opportunities for engaging in 
this business can be secured. One acre per 
head in grass or fodder crops, including corn 
and early fall-sown rye for pasture iu Febru, 
ary and March, would supply an abundance of 
feed for the short winter, in which only occa¬ 
sional feeding is required: 1,000 acres of range 
easily carry 150 head through the summer, 
while 150 acres of clover and Timothy, Orchard 
Grass, fodder corn, millet or oats and peas and 
fall rye would supply all the needs of the 
winter. Cattle fed in this way would be worth 
twice as much as the ordinary stock of the 
country, which is fed but little, and that little 
“roughness” during the cold season. 
1 had the past winter 13 head running for 
shelter from occasional cold winds at night 
when for a few hours the mercury sank to 8 
or 15 above zero. The warm, sunny days, 
however, neutralized the not very serious 
hardships of a few cold uights when the cattle 
iu the woods were far better off than many in 
the cheerless barns and stables of the North. 
During February the weather was such that 
an overcoat was entirely unnecessary and 
there was uo snow. The cattle had their usual 
ration of about five pounds of good hay every 
morning, and sal tone* a week, and all kept in 
excellent condition. They feed upon the com¬ 
mon herbage of the woods, tufty grass, called 
Winter Grass, or Texas Blue Grass (Poa 
araclmifora), Red Top, which grows In bunches 
iu the more open woods; the abundant Colt’s- 
foot (Tussilago Farfara) with which whole 
acres are carpeted; the long moss (Tillandsia 
usneoides) which grows from North Catoliua 
to Florida and Texas and which among its 
other valuable properties is a nutritious food 
for cattle and sheep; and the tender shoots 
and herbs of the abundant undergrowth. 
Sometimes for a luxury they peeled the bark 
RANGING STOCK 
IN THE SOUTH. 
HENRY STEWART. 
experiment in a fenced wood lot. They were 
a calf of six months, three yearliugs, four 
cows from two to eight years, and five two- 
year-old steers, and (on March 1) all were iu us 
good order as any farm-kept stock in the 
North, and letter than the majority of such 
stock. They pastured on a Timothy and clover 
meadow cut for hay in the summer, until early 
in January, when a snowfall unprecedented in 
the South for 50 years, covered the ground to 
a depth of 20 inches. Then a light feediug of 
hay at the barn was given once a day and the 
cattle were kept on an adjoining wood range, 
for the rest of their feeding. The warm sun 
gradually melted off the 8UOW in the course of 
three weeks; the springs and running branches 
sheltered by the dense laurel growth in their 
borders supplied plenty of water and excellent 
from young locusts, birches, hickories, and in 
all these ways found ample subsistence, there 
being no necessity for them to gather and di¬ 
gest an excessive quantity of food to sustain 
the exhaustive consumption of vital heat 
caused by a rigorous climate, which does not 
exist here. The young stock made sufficient 
growth to pay for all the hay they ate, and in 
the summer all are increasing in weight sus- 
ficiently to afford a satisfactory profit on the 
investment. There is no thought in winter of 
loss or injury by any eventuality of weather; 
the cattle are as frisky and full of spirits as at 
any time iu the summer, and are sleek of coat 
and robust. Ten dollars per head will pay 
well for all the feeding required to make a 
1,200-ppund steer at three years old, and the 
absence of risk in the wiuter feeding makes 
cattle rearing as 
pleasant a business 
in the South as it is 
profitable. 
1 am sorry that I 
cannot give so satis¬ 
factory an account 
of sheep rearing. 
There is no doubt 
that sheep could be 
made as profitable 
here as cattle; or 
horses or mules; 
which are as easy 
to rear and feed as 
cattle; but the dogs 
forbid it. Constant 
harrassing by the 
dogs in the summer 
and fall and early 
winter had so worn 
down my flock in 
March that one half 
were dead and when 
lambs came, the 
ewes were too weak 
and poor to feed 
them. Were it not 
that the cattle are 
furnished with ef¬ 
fective weapons to 
protect themselves 
against these savage 
and voracious 
brutes, I would 
advocate dehorning 
them; but to do 
this would soon 
give the dogs the 
mastery over them, 
and wo should have 
them hunted down 
and devoured by 
packs of those fero¬ 
cious beasts. Otherwise and in isolated locali¬ 
ties sheep might be made very profitable, kept 
on the same system of partial feeding as 
the eattle, in spite of low prices of wool: 75 
cents will easily pay the cost of a two-year-old 
sheep, ami I have sold my wool here to pay $1 * 
per head per year. 
Macon County, N. C. 
DEHORNING AGAIN. 
In the Rural report of the N. Y. Dairy 
Show', some ideas are given in regard to de¬ 
horning cattle. “Prepotency,” “cows mild and 
gentle enough uow;” “Jerseys wouldnot be Jer¬ 
seys;” “horns of no use“we would if others 
would;” "where will they be five years from 
now,” etc., are some of the thoughts brought 
out. As to this question of “prepotency” I 
have settled it to my own .satisfaction. I had 
a Jersey bull on my place, which I dehorned 
seven years ago. He died four years since, 
yet his marks are to be found among my 
Short-horns to-day. I have kept dehorned 
bulls for years and I know there is nothing 
animal perishes from stress of weather in the 
open range which affords shelter from winds, 
and where the temperature never falls so low 
as to cut off the supply of abundant water, and 
the forests furnish at least sufficient food to sup¬ 
port life. Aided by a small quantity of fodder, 
equal to 300 or 400 pounds of hay or other feed 
for the season, a cow or steer will pass the win¬ 
ter comfortably and come out in good order in 
April, when the abundant undergrowth of the 
woods will supply sufficient feed, and t he luxu¬ 
rious growth during the summer will quickly 
bring the stock into the best condition for the 
market, and in October or November leave 
them in the finest order for sale or for finish¬ 
ing on corn. The forest ranges of the South, 
however, are quite undeveloped. Some of the 
farmers have bunches of cattle on the range, 
The enormous loss¬ 
es among the herds 
of cattle and tiocks 
of sheep in the West 
and Northwest the 
past winter, through 
stress of weather 
and want of food, 
have been appall¬ 
ing: 25 per cent, is 
mentioned ns the 
least unfavorable 
result of the rigors 
of the season iu 
many sections, 
while in some cases 
whole herds have 
been swept out. of 
existence. The 
Texas Bureau of 
Animal Industry 
estimates the losses 
the past season all over the ranging territory 
as equal to more than 4,000,000 head. This is 
simply nu unusually largo loss, and by uo 
means an isolated circumstance, for every 
year since cattle have been herded ou the open 
ranges, there have been losses large enough to 
become an object of anxiety to the stockmen 
and a source of pain and even horror to per¬ 
sons of ordinary humanity. The results of 
the past. Season’s experience, however, will 
probably go far to bring about a change of 
method iu this business and compel owners of 
cattle to provide some means for sheltering 
und feeding their herds 80 as to avoid the ruin¬ 
ous looses. The strong expressions of public 
animadversion against a system which is in¬ 
herently subject to these risks are also having 
Considerable weight and are tending to this 
required change. 
But while this condition of things obtains iu 
the Western ranges, few stockmen know of the 
condition of things iu the Southern ranges 
where the climate is more favorable aud disas¬ 
trous losses among cattle are unknown. Indeed 
it is rare to hoar of a single case in which an 
(L\)( ijiuiXsiiuiii, 
HOLSTEIN BULL DE BRAVE HENDRIK. 
HE fine animal shown at Fig. 
219 is owned by Edgar Huide- 
koper, Meadville, Pa, Do 
Brave Hendrik is the great 
prize bull of Holland. In 1882 
-’84 he won four first prizes. 
In March, 1883, the Committee 
of Agriculture selected 50 
bulls in Holland, and from those 50 selected 
and designated Do Brave Hendrik as the first 
and best bull io stand iu North Holland. He 
comes from a great milking family, and his 
good qualities are 
transmitted to his 
sons aud daughters 
in a marked degree. 
The popularity of 
the Holstein cuttle 
has been well sus¬ 
tained. They have 
always been famous 
as milkers or cheese 
producers. Since 
Clothilde’s great 
victory at the late 
N. Y. Dairy Show, 
they have taken a 
new prominence as 
butter cows. 
