years. Experience settles nothing, unless it 
is the right kind of experience and the right 
kind of person who receives it. Lots of gray 
heads and bald heads are beaten every day 
by those who are mere tyros in the business of 
butter-making. ITon. Hiram .Smith says he 
can teach a smart boy knowing nothing what¬ 
ever about the business, more about, butter- 
making in 10 days than he can get into the 
head of one who “knows nil about it” iu a 
year 
Many things have been learned about but- 
ter-mak ng within the last few years. One 
thing is how to wash and handle butter, to 
which G. A. 8. refers. Henceforth, there will 
be no two theories or practices about washing 
butter. Some used to think it injured the 
butter by washing the sugar out of it, and 
they would actually add sugar to make up for 
the loss! Some do this even now! But sugar 
is not wanted in butter. It is too unstable a 
compound, and soon decomposes, to enter into 
new combinations and play the mischief. The 
first change is for the sugar to turn to lactic- 
acid, and one of the strongest arguments in 
favor of sour-cream butter is the fact that 
this change occurs, and the sugar is large¬ 
ly disposed of before churning. Washing 
takes out the butter-milk and the lactic- 
acid—composed of the sugar—with it, as 
it does other materials that, will not keep like 
the pure butter fat. This improves the llavor 
and the keeping quality of the butter. This 
is true now and will always remain true. But, 
before this, washing or not washing was 
merely empirical and controlled by whim or 
prejudice, the dairyman not knowing precise¬ 
ly the effect produced by washing any more 
than he did the effect of the sugar upon the 
butter. It is not difficult to establish gener¬ 
al rules (although G. A. »■?. thinks it is/ when 
the facts are known and the principles under¬ 
stood. But there are certain things depend 
ing upon condition, which cannot be gov 
erned by specific- rules, and which, therefore, 
call for the exercise of judgment on the 
part of the dairyman. When we cau dis¬ 
pense with the use of brains, we can dispense 
with the dairyman. 
DOMINIQUES AND PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 
HENRY HALES. 
I have been asked to state iu what respect 
the Plymouth Rock is better than the old 
Dominique fowl. This is a question that re¬ 
quires some explanation to lie fairly under¬ 
stood. The old Dominique is one of the earli¬ 
est American breeds. Although not mentioned 
by Bement in his poultry book published in 
1845, it soon afterwards came to be recognized 
as a valuable variety, and by 1855 was quite 
commonly known and the birds were very 
bighty praised as being hardy, fine for the ta¬ 
ble and good layers; when carefully bred they 
bave generally maintained these qualities. Cer¬ 
tainly as table fowls they stand next to the 
Dorkings and lloudans. They are long lives! 
fowls, strong aud hardy after chiekcuhood; 
but now comes the point: All the old breeds, 
or what are generally termed the small breeds, 
cheap they make good food for stock. They 
are as good for fonr-legged brutes as for hu¬ 
man beings. A calf can be cheaply raised on 
skimmed milk with eggs broken Into it. This 
feeding of calves on “custard” can be made to 
pay, as I well know. One of my horses al¬ 
ways looked better than the others, though all 
were fed on the same food. I watched him 
and found that he stole the eggs which the 
hens laid iu the manger. All my horses now 
consider eggs a great delicacy. In spring and 
summer they make a cheap food. c. w. f. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
Ego Eating Hens. —When hens get to eat¬ 
ing their eggs it is a good plan to make nests 
in nail kegs. Fill them about half full of 
chaff. The hen will fill up the keg so that she 
can’t eat in comfort and she can’t reach down 
from the top. G. w. H. 
Greenville, N. H. 
Ijor.gcmiUL 
Bots. —We hear far less about hots troub¬ 
ling horses than we did twenty years ago. It 
seems to me that this is due to the fact that 
horses have far less time in the pastures than 
they used to have. Before the days of mow¬ 
ing machines and horse rakes, the haying sea¬ 
son was a “soft” time for horses. Iu fact, the 
introduction of labor-saving implements of 
all kinds has enabled farmers to work their 
horses far more steadily than formerly. 
Thus the gad Hies have had less chance to lay 
their eggs. Still they get in their work 
enough. It is generally claimed that bots do" 
a horse no injury. My experience shows that 
old or weak horses often suffer from the work 
of bots. At auy rate it is well worth trying 
to prevent them from getting into the stom¬ 
ach. I clip off the long hairs on the throat, 
breast, and front legs, and bathe the parts 
with soap-suds every day in the hot season. 
Ocean Co., N. J. j. s. green. 
R. N.-Y.—The injury due to bots depends 
on their numbers and the part of the stomach 
aud'canal to which they fasten themselves. 
In the throat they produce chronic sore throat 
aud a discharge from the nose. In the left 
half of the stomach, which is covered with an 
insensible cuticle, they do no harm. When 
attached to the highly sensitive right half of 
stomach, and quite numerous, they seriously 
interfere, with digestion, causing the animal 
to be weak aud easily sweated and fatigued 
and sometimes causing sudden and fatal 
attacks of indigestion. This is especially 
liable to occur in spring or early summer; 
when the pests in passing out in great num¬ 
bers hook themselves here aud there to the 
coats of the sensitive bowels, sometimes accu¬ 
mulating iu such numbers as to block the pas¬ 
sage. Asa preventive trim off the hairs of 
the jaws, In-ca-.t, shoulder and fore limbs, and 
apply a little oil daily to prevent the eggs 
from adhering; or brush off the eggs with 
soap-suds daily before they have time to hatch 
in the sun. There is no certain way of get¬ 
ting rid of the bots in the stomueh, as they 
will resist any treatment that will not kill or 
greatly injure the horse. 
exclusive of the Asiatics, arc tender to raise 
compared with the strong, tough chicks of 
Asiatic blood, und this was more severely felt 
in our cold Eastern States aud people were 
not slow iu noticing how many more chicks of 
the Brahma and Cochin breeds and their 
crosses survived, but as the pure bred Asiat¬ 
ics were too slow in maturing, crosses were 
found more profitable for market fowls, espe¬ 
cially w ith the Domiuique, as they grew tast¬ 
er, feathered earlier and were freer from ail¬ 
ments. These facts soon suggested the idea of 
haviugapure distinct variety of fowls that 
would combine the good qualities of the Domi¬ 
nique with the hardiness of the Asiatics. As 
to what particular breed of Asiatics the Plym¬ 
outh Rocks ore descended from, there is little 
room for doubt but that the Black Java was 
one, and so, in all probability, was the Dai 
Brahma. Several different types appeun 
w hen the “American Standard of Excellent 
established certain points to aim at in brcc 
mg, and which brought about a uuifonuil 
of this variety. Now the question is, wh 
has been guiuod in this breed over the Don 
niquef First, size; second, hardiness of chic 
eus; third, quick maturity of broilers. Iu n 
experience 1 am unable to add more. I kej 
Dominiques for years, and found them got 
layers. After keeping Plymouth Rocks si 
years 1 did not llud that they gave more egg 
but 1 did find them more inclined to sit the 
the Dominiques. They are not us good tab 
fowls When matures! as the Dominique, an 
they are much shorter-lived, appearing agt 
at two or three years old, while the Dom 
liiquo is then iu its prime. 
Eggs as Stock Food. —When eggs are 
£if til Crxrps. 
SOME GOOD WHEAT YIELDS. 
YIELD PER ACRE IN VARIOUS SECTIONS; 
PREPARATION OF SOIL; PREVIOUS CROPS, 
MANURES USED, ETC. 
FROM H. T. FRENCH. 
The best yield of wheat over auy large ex¬ 
tent of ground of which we have record was 
iu 1882—8-4.7 bushels per acre of the Clawson 
variety. This is for the entire field which 
contained 23.15(3 acres. The soil was a clay 
loam. U e had a rather wet season, especially 
about harvest time. The previous crops were 
oats, two crops of corn; ami grass two years. 
Our rotation is grass two years; corn two 
years; then oats followed by wheat and seed 
dow n aguiu m this crop. Our manure is ap¬ 
plied before the second crop of corn, and is 
the only manure in the rotation. We use 
no commercial fertilizers. In preparing the 
soil for wheat we plow stubble ground after 
oats are harvested, about seven inches deep; 
harrow the ground thoroughly witha smooth¬ 
ing harrow, aud if lumpy use the “Acme” to 
pulverize the soil. Wo sow from one to one- 
and-a quarter bushel per acre with the 
“Roller Drill.” The wheat was harvested 
with a cradle, and raked by hand. We could 
not use a maching on account of down gram 
aud soft ground. The wheat was cut when 
in a stiff dough or when it would crush dry 
between the linger uails. The yield of oats 
taken off before the wheat crop was 50.7 bush¬ 
els per acre. 
Agricultural College, Mich. 
FROM J. A. GROSCLOSE. 
The best yield of wheat that I remember to 
have made is 25 bushels per acre. The variety 
was the Lancaster bearded. The soil was 
very poor white flint gravel. We had a dry 
fall aud a wet. spring. The soil was in briars 
and weeds and considered too poor to produce 
much of either. It was plowed at odd times 
(luring July and harrowed three times. On 
part, of the field stable manure was scattered 
and harrowed ia. On the whole piece I 
drilled iu a heavy dressing of “soluble boue.” 
The best yield was obtained on the part 
where both kinds of manure were used. 
Smyth Co., Va. 
FROM PROFESSOR W. C. LATTA. 
The best yield we have had has been 36 
bushels. The variety was the Egyptian. 
The soil was a dark heavy loam naturally 
drained, and of medium fertility. The season 
was favorable as all our varieties did well. 
The previous crop was oats preceded by corn. 
The soil was plowed deeply aud early and 
thoroughly pulverized. No manure was used. 
This wheat was cut with the cradle, as the plot 
was small. It, was in the doughy stage or 
perhaps a little beyond it. Taking one year 
with another, we prefer Velvet Chaff Wheat 
to the Egyptian—it is more hardy aud will 
give a better average yield. Our varieties are 
nearly all good this season as we had a mild 
winter. It is not an unusual thing for half 
our wheats (about 50 in alb, more or less, to 
be damaged by the winter. Las-t year the 
Rural New-Yokkeh noted that we had a 
bearded Velvet Chaff and “sighed” for a uni¬ 
form nomenclature. Permit me t.o say that 
we have four distinct types of Velvet Chaff, 
two bearded-white chaff and brown chaff, and 
two smooth. I leave the nomenclature with 
the R. N.-Y. 
Purdue University, Iud. 
FROM e. davenport. 
The best yields of wheat were raised some 
20 years ago on summer fallow, cross-plowed 
just before seeding. The only implement 
used, besides the plow, was a square-tooth har¬ 
row. Thirty to 40 bushels to the acre were 
often attained without manure. Now the best 
yields—about 30 bushels—are obtained from 
summer fallow prepared with a two-horse cul¬ 
tivator and smoothing harrow, drilled and 
given a top-dressing of tine barn-yard manure. 
As go oil as u summer fallow >s a crop of 
clover turned under, then treated as stated. 
Our own method does not raise the largest 
crops as it follows oats and we seed with it. 
The self-binder is used aud the wheat is cut in 
the dough. 
Barry Co., Mich. 
FROM J. M MITCHELL. 
On three acres of land I raised 136} bushels 
of wheat—thrasher’s measure. The land had 
beeu in Hungarian Grass. This was cut for 
soiling in July and August. Previous to this 
crop t he soil was covered with au old sod. On 
this, in March, stable manure at the rate of 
SO loads per acre, was broadcasted. This was 
plowed under iu May. After the crop of 
Hungarian was removed the land was turned 
over September 1, aud 15 loads per acre of 
cow manure were broadcasted after plowing, 
and worked in with au Acme harrow. The 
seed—six bushels—was broadcasted aud 
worked in with the Acme. The manure was 
from daily cows fed ou brewers’ grains, wheat 
bran, middlings, corn meal, cotton seed meal 
and oil meal. The season was moderately dry 
—what might be called a fair growing season. 
The wheat was cut by band with a common 
grain cradle 
Morris Co., N. J. 
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PRAI¬ 
RIE PASTURES AND MEADOWS. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
Steady deterioration of pastures and mead¬ 
ows; inferior grasses ousting superior; 
prime beef to be made in the corn and 
grass States, instead of the ranges; phos¬ 
phoric fertilizers indispensable for reeu- 
2 >eration; "eloverntg" useless; causes of ex¬ 
ha uslion . 
For years past, steadily and gradually les¬ 
sening iu yields of grass, both iu amount and 
quality, the maximum of deti ioral iou has been 
reached the present summer, when the aver¬ 
age meadows on the black soil iu Illinois have 
not returned over one ton of good hay to the 
acre, while at this date—July 20—the average 
pasture is so brown that there is no greeu 
thing ou it, and so bare of even dry herbage 
there is not food euough for one steer ou five 
acres. To be sure, this is a year of severe 
drought for the whole State, as last year 
was for the western and southern portion of 
it, and of course this exaggerates the situa¬ 
tion. Still, it is nevertheless true that if there 
was no Jack of raiufall, the average pasture 
would uot be equal to the stock drafts made 
upon it and would call loudly for the adop¬ 
tion of a general system of improvement. 
But not only is the yield of grass lessening in 
quantity, it is deteriorating in quality, for the 
poorer grasses are coming in to crowd out the 
better. Where Timothy and clover were or¬ 
iginally sown, after some time Blue Grass 
came iu aud took possession, and after the lat¬ 
ter had been fed bare to the ground for a doz¬ 
en years or more, Red Top appeared cm the 
scene and dominated to the exclusion of all 
else, and especially in low land pastures in 
wet seasons. Similarly 40 years ago the Blue 
Grass region in Kentucky aud Tennessee cov¬ 
ered nearly twice as much territory as at 
present, Blue Grass having beeu driven out as 
the soil became impoverished, and Broom 
Sedge came in and took its place. As between 
the two, Red Top is preferable to Broom 
Sedge, but it is probable that when Red Top 
has had its day Broom Sedge may follow and 
the pastures ami meadows of the black soil 
prairie carry as red aud brown a burden of 
this favorite of impoverished soils, from July 
to April, as nine-tenths of the entire area of 
waste land in the upper and middle cotton 
belt. But I do not wish to have it understood 
that there are not deep-herbaged pastures and 
heavily grassed meadows in Illinois, even in 
the summer of severe aud protracted drought; 
meadows that yield two to 2 'j tons of good 
bay to the acre aud pastures that will carry 
three steers to the nine acres from April to 
April again. These, perhaps, are 10 or 15 per 
cent, of the wliole.and iu what they have been 
made, aud are and w ill continue to be, we 
have the example of what the remaining 80 
to 85 per cent, may be made by a judicious 
course of handling aud fertilization. 
It is coming to be understood that in con¬ 
sequence of largely overstocked ranges, in 
the near and remote West and Southwest, and 
the liability to heavy losses caused by exces¬ 
sively cold winters and severe droughts, the de¬ 
mand for export steers for foreign markets, 
and to supply the Eastern calls for No. 1, beef, 
must in future bo largely supplied from the 
corn aud grass counties of the prairie States. 
Cattle may, perhaps, be profitably bred and 
fed to two years old on the ranges West, but 
they must be finished off for the market on 
the Timothy, Blue Grass, and grain, of the 
corn and cattle counties in the Mississippi Val¬ 
ley. With this view of tlie stock situation of 
the future, it becomes important that the 
prairie pastures and meadows should be res¬ 
tored aud renovated. Red Top and Broom 
Sedge must be driven out, aud Timothy, Blue 
Grass and Clover be so sincerely invited to 
stay that they will make the black soil prairie 
aj»ermaueut home. 
Some weeks since, iuvitiug the concurrence 
of a gentleman of large acquaintance, and 
much influence in the agricultural world of 
the West, it was suggested that a campaign be 
opened, having for its object the improvement 
of prairie postures and meadows by the use 
of the manufacturies of fertilizers on an en¬ 
ormous scale in Chicago; but not a tenth of 
which goes back to the laud they were drawn 
from. His reply so nearly embodies the 
common objection to the use of fertilizers 
that I give a portion of it. He says, "1 can 
uot see my way clear to advise farmers of the 
prairie States to use high priced fertilizers; 
certainly not till they have reached a better 
method in the use of others now already avail¬ 
able, such as feeding products off the farm, 
careful saving aud use of manure, aud fre¬ 
quent clovering, with crop rotation. When 
farmers avail themselves iu auy large degree, 
of these means of retaining or restoring the 
laud, already at hand, then we cau go a step 
farther aud advise the use of conmier *ial fer¬ 
tilizers.” 
Now the fact is, that so far as Illinois farm¬ 
ing and feeding are concerned, seveu eighths, 
if not uine-tenths of the manure made, is spread 
upou the laud, and if the portion uot used 
'vore put to the best advantage, crops would 
show but little appreciable improvement. In 
the Illinois prairie soil, there is at present 
enough huiuusor vegetable matter, and enough 
nitrogen, its associate, to supply all crops will 
need for years to come. What is wanted is 
phosphoric acid, and that, tlosh and boue and 
rock fertilizers only supply. The trouble 
with our corn crop is, not that there is not 
stalk aud leaf growth enough; but that the 
ear and grain are lackiug, and the phoshates 
must be present to produce them. 
As for clovering, clover simply makes the 
phosphates of the subsoil available; not that it 
increases them, nor arrests, but rather hast¬ 
ens impoverishment aud iu time renders laud 
clover-sick, aud practically worthless after¬ 
wards. There is no successful contrivance by 
which funnere can be perpetually taking the 
