imal, or it is given in excess, the muscular 
fiber actually decreases by reason of natural 
waste, and the fat is deposited in masses under 
the skin, on the intestines, around the kidneys 
and inside of tbe abdomen: while if well bal¬ 
anced food is given, such as peas or bran, or 
these mixed with corn, potatoes, and other 
starchy food, or linseed aud other oil meals 
which are rich in albumen as well as fat, tbe 
flesh is improved in quality, and tbe fat is 
mixed with it as well as deposited upon it. It 
is this judicious and healthful feeding which 
makes the “marbled” meat, so juicy, rich and 
tender and full of nutriment, while the exces¬ 
sively carbonaceous food produces fat only 
and leaves the lean reduced in quantity and 
quality. 
But expediency forces men to do the best 
they can, and the shortest way is often the 
longest. As a neighbor’s house maybe 130 
rods distant in a straight line, but half a mile 
by the road, so a man may have to feed his 
animals with what he has, and do the best he 
can with them, although it. may not be the 
most effective. Hence farmers feed their 
corn to their fattening stock, although it is 
not the best fat-making food. Then they 
must vary their practice from the scientific 
point of vic-w, and give with the corn such 
other food as will gel the best possible results 
from the mixture. Thus clover hay contains 
what may he called the complementary ele¬ 
ments to corn, and when vmxed with the coni 
furnishes a healthful food which supplies the 
elements needed to maintain tbe vital heat of 
the muscular system aud make fat, or instead 
of clover hay, pea-meal, beau-meal, ppa-straw, 
new-process linseed meal or cotton-seed meal 
may be given to supply the needed matter for 
maintaining the muscular system, ntnl if pos¬ 
sible for adding to it, along with the corn to 
make the fat. • It has been found in practice 
that straw, which is a very poor food, becomes 
very useful in feeding fattening cattle when 
it is mixed with one tenth of its weight of 
cheap molasses; not only because with the mo¬ 
lasses it provides useful nutriment, but be¬ 
cause it fills the stomach and bowels and so 
assists in the healthful process of digestion. In 
the same way it has been found that the whole 
corn, ground with the cob into fine meal, lias 
made a greater yield of fab, weight for weight, 
than the clear meal free from the cob, when 
both have been fed to pigs as a test of tbe rel¬ 
ative value of tbe two feeds. 
An auiinnl cannot live long upon wholly di¬ 
gestible matter. We cannot with all our 
skill feed animals successfully upon such ra¬ 
tions of food as will be wholly used up in the 
nutritive process ami none be ejected as waste. 
Therefore a provision in excess of tbe actual 
known needs must be given to animals, and 
this excess may be as cheap as can be pro¬ 
cured, A certain portion of crude fiber is 10 - 
quired; it may be given as straw or coarse 
bay, but if it is not given, the highly fed ani¬ 
mals will chew boards, corn-cobs, or othei 
coarse, indigestible matter, to supply the 
craving of the system for it. This fact ac¬ 
counts for the habit of fattening swine to eat 
charcoal, stone coal, etc., or to gnaw the rails 
or boards of the pen, and it should betaken 
into accouut when the animals are put up to 
fatten. 
Norseman 
CARE OF WORK HORSES. 
A SHARP CRITICISM. 
I wish to review an article published under 
the above heading, in the columns of a paper 
which claims to be a first-class agricultural 
journal. It is an anonymous epistle to the 
ignorant farmer, and is in two sections: the 
first, intended probably as an introduction, 
tells how farmers do, and it is truly amazing, 
if true. The second or “body of the effort,” 
tells us how we ought to do, aud the directions 
if followed would speedily wreck every 
farmer both in health aud pocket. 
He. says: “Farm horses eat all the time and 
look lean and wire-coated.” Everybody 
knows that, neither assertion is correct. Farm 
horses labor more than they eat, and as a rule 
are not “leau and wire-coated.” He says, 
further, that coniiug in from work they are 
allowed to drink all their exhausted systems 
crave, aud are then turned to pasture or put 
iu tbe barn to eat a “carelessly prepared ra¬ 
tion,” and the “remainder of the night is 
passed iu stamping and fighting insects,” and 
that they are “never judiciously boused or 
clothed.” 
If these assertions were true there would 
not be sound horses enough to draw off the 
dead ones. He has taken the exception for 
the rule. Farm horses are not allowed to 
drink all they want, and quite often they 
have comfortable lodgings. Furthermore, 
insects that trouble horses do not work iu the 
night-time, unless my locality is especially 
favored. 
Now, open your ears, you ignorant fanners, 
and hear how to treat your horses. He says: 
“In summer farm work should begin with the 
rising of the sun and cease at noon. ’ Further 
on, he alludes to “eight hours’ work” iu the 
forenoon. He would have you begin work, 
thcD, at four o’clock in the morning. Now 
let us see: if the dear horse is properly cared 
for, and tbe man who works him is to have 
any breakfast, tbe family must rise an hour 
and a hall before this time, or at half-past, 
two. Is this to be the new order of things? 
But never mind the comfort of the family if 
the dear horse can be made comfortable. 
Let ussee what must be done on coniiug in 
at noon. He says—iu substance: “Strip off 
the harness, wash out. the eyes and nostrils, 
wash off the harness marks and rub well with 
a ‘wbisp.’ Then give two gallons of blood- 
warm gruel, containing a pint of oatmeal or 
linseed meal well steamed, after which allow 
the horse to eat slowly, from the floor, a little 
of last year’s hay.” Must one watch him to 
see that, he eats it “slowly?” Right here he 
throws in a perenthesis to the effect that “hay 
is not fit for a horse the year it is cut.” 
Let me in my ignorance ask, why not? But 
to resume:“Now feed some crushed oats mixed 
with cut bay, and observe perfect quiet till 
four o’clock,” when the horse can, if necessary, 
do two or three hours’more work. Now the 
first question that occurs to me is when is the 
man to have his dinner? I don’t want to inter¬ 
fere with the welfare of the dear horses; but I 
had my breakfast at half past three, aud it 
will be one o’clock at least before I can do all 
these things, and my soul yearneth for din¬ 
ner. When shall I have my supper—before 
four or after seveu or eight? What shall be 
done with the pigs and the cows, and when 
can I goto bed? I say “fudge” on such bare¬ 
faced nonsense. Every man knows that such 
things are practical impossibilities ou the 
farm, even if any man should be fool enough 
to try to practice them, for many kinds 
of work cannot he done at. those hours. I 
have read many articles iu the same journal 
much like this one, but this caps the climax. 
Barry Co., Mich. eugene davenport. 
HORSE NOTES FROM THE ILLINOIS 
STATE FAIR. 
Whirr it would be unwise to attempt to de¬ 
termine tbe relative popularity of different 
breeds of farm animals by the comparative 
number or excellence of the exhibits of each 
at any fair, or to accept the decisions of the 
awarding committees as showing the popular 
judgment, there is much to be learned from 
such au exhibitor horses as was made at the 
recent Illinois State Fair. Depression iu 
prices and “hard time” among farmers 
have not lessened the zeal of importers, breed¬ 
ers and dealers, nor weakened the interest 
among farmers in good horses. 
No one breed of heavy draft or carriage 
horses,has any admitted majority of admirers. 
There appears to be an increasing willingness 
to recognize merit in the different breeds. I 
heard three very competent judges, all inter¬ 
ested in the British breeds of draft horses, 
speak of a Rerohenm stallion as one of the very 
finest, horses they had ever seen, and the 
leading importer of Perehorons pay a high 
compliment to a Shire stallion. 
1 do not remember at any former fair to 
have seen such general recognition, by exhibi¬ 
tors and committeemen, of soundness, symmetry 
and good action as contrasted with mere size. 
In mauy riugs each horse was required to be 
moved both on a walk and trot: often the feet 
were lifted, the legs carefully examined, and 
some very showy horses were rejected appar¬ 
ently because of blemish or unsoundness. In 
the case of the Clydesdale and Shire classes, I 
noticed no prize-winner with the excessive 
growth of hair or “feathering” on the legs 
which is considered so important a point by 
some importers and breeders. 
While some of the prize--winners were very 
large, it was not. the rule that they were the 
largest shown. Probably no one animal at¬ 
tracted more favorable comment than did a 
three-year old Shire mare, not remarkable for 
size, but of unusual elegance and gracefulness 
in form and movement. Tbe day for popu¬ 
larity for coarse, awkward, clumsy, “lum¬ 
bering” horses has brobably gone by. 
The close resemblance between the Clydes¬ 
dale and the Shire, aud between Fercheron 
uud the “French Draft” horses was again well 
illustrated. -There were considerable differ¬ 
ences iu type, but these were found between 
horses of tbe same breed in as marked a de¬ 
gree us between those of the breeds compared 
above. That there has been much crossing 
bet ween the English and Scotch breeds is well 
known, as is the fact that thore is often little 
difference In the breeding of horses shown 
under the two names by which most of the 
draft horses imported from France are known. 
Capital specimens of the Cleveland Bay and 
the French coach horses were shown. It is 
doubtful if any horses win favorable com¬ 
ment from a larger percentage of visitors at 
Western fail’s thau do the best specimens of 
these breeds. Attractive in color, form, car¬ 
riage and action, they have abundant size and 
weight for any ordinary use aside from heavy 
trucking. There were, however, horses of 
American breeding, shown in the “general- 
purpose,” classes, which covered the query 
whether wc have not at baud the material for 
producing as good “coach horses” as those 
imported from England and France. 
The weather was very unfavorable for show¬ 
ing horses in harness, i saw but few of the 
roadsters, saddle horses, or of fast trotters or 
runners. There were good horses ot all these 
types. 1 doubt if in any other country could 
so excellent a display of so many distinct 
breeds aud differing types of horses have been 
made. u, k. morrow. 
TREATMENT OF A COLT. 
It will pay to raise horses in the East, 
though too many farmers, blind to their own 
interests, think not. Such farmers pay £150 
to $.i00 cash for their horses. Let them take 
their best horses and serve them to good stal¬ 
lions about the first of April or May. In this 
way the colt will be three or four weeks ohl 
before the time cornes for heavy work. 
Put the colt iu a box stall, give him n little 
sweet hay and oats, and feed the mare plenty 
of oats and sweet hay; uo other grain, but 
about every other day about six quarts of po-> 
t a toes or carrots, with a little salt upon them. 
Be careful not, to give too many,as they would 
have a tendency to scour the colt. When the 
mare comes iu the stable do not let the colt 
suck until she has been watered and fed. Let 
him stay by her until you want to'go to work. 
There is now in the city of Schenectady a pair 
of black horses that were raised in this way. 
It is claimed that they make the finest team in 
tbe city. They arc coal-blacks and are worth 
about #S00. The man who raised them worked 
the mares nil the time, and he is a first-class 
farmer. You would think so if you could see 
his cows and sheep, hogs and poultry and 
farm. 11c makes a great deal of manure and 
that is our best bank. I find it, so. The more 
manure, the more grain aud hay. and then the 
more colts to sell to one’s neighbors. 
There is a very mistaken idea around hero 
among the fanners. They want to wear a 
mare out aud then put her to a stallion uud 
raise colts. That does not pay: she has nut 
life enough left to raise a good colt, uo mat¬ 
ter how good the stallion is, and then people 
will lay all tin* fault to the sire. A stalliou 
should be worked while he is serving mares so 
that his muscles may hestroug: he will be surer 
and his colts will be strong when they come. 
I work my stallions all the time they are serv¬ 
ing mares. a. m. lagrange. 
Albany Co., N. Y. 
Sljccp ijiisbnnt'n). 
SHEEP LETTING. 
Letting out. sheep on shares is one phase of 
an important industry that is rarely discussed 
in stock journals, aud which has not nearly as 
much attention as it deserves. There ore ar¬ 
guments for and agaiust, the practice, yet the 
decis on which any farmer will reach in the 
consideration of it, will be influenced by his 
circumstances, financial and otherwise. To 
begin w ith, iu my opinion,a flock of sheep cor¬ 
responding in size to that of the place, should 
be kept on every form. The character of soil 
ami situation will undoubtedly have much in¬ 
fluence in determining the breed kept and ra¬ 
tio of sheep to the acre, but there should be 
sheep ou every well-regulated farm that is 
not used for market-gardening or some other 
special purpose. This I have always argued 
to farmers, and, furthermore, 1 have always 
admitted that it is better and more profitable 
that they should own the flocks they keep. On 
the other hand, L have always held that when 
a farmer is in debt and does not want to bor¬ 
row more money in order to stock bis farm 
properly, it was better to take sheep on shares 
than not to have them nt all. There are 
many farmers tu this exact situation in these 
Western Htates—young men, perhaps, just 
beginning to farm, who have not. sufficient 
money to purchase work horses ami farming 
implements. 
Taking it for granted that the business is 
legitimate, here is ft common method of let¬ 
ting sheep in Michigan at present. The old 
method was for each of the contracting par¬ 
ties to have half of the receipts, i. <’., half the 
wool and half the lambs. Some took sheep to 
return double the number in three years. The 
objection to the former method is that all the 
profit goes to the man who lets the sheep; the 
latter method is objectionable because, in or¬ 
der to return the proper number.the farmer is 
obliged either to start with less sheep than he 
can handily keep, or have more ou hand the 
third year than he ought. By allow ing the 
man who takes the sheep to keep two-thirds 
of the wool and two-thirds of the lambs, both 
of the above objections are avoided. These 
are the terms upon which T have let sheep for 
several years. 1 agree to furnish ewes that 
are satisfactory aiul a ram of any kind or 
quality. I require in return that the number 
of sheep be kept good, wliicli insures them 
more constant ami careful attention When 
a loss occurs—and it often does in the best of 
flocks under the best of circumstances—if the 
flockniaster has done his duty 1 settle at his 
own terms. 
The success whicliany one will attain in this 
occupation will depend largely upon his own 
resources. He must study his man; judge by 
the looks of his farm and livestock whether or 
not he will take cure of a flock ami deal with 
the owner honestly. I furnish good sheep and 
then make frequent visits to see that they are 
properly housed and fed. Another thing that 
one must do in order to succeed is to keep the 
flock properly culled. In the fall when I 
gather up my share of the lambs, I sort over 
the whole (lock, examine each slice]) separately 
aud decide whether it is fit to lie bred auother 
year or not, anil by yearly turning off these 
old sheep the flock will soon become well 
graded and in good condition. If this is not 
attended to the profits will bo materially les¬ 
sened by the losses of old sheep. 
Berrien Co., Mich. O. c. howe. 
(*.S).c poultry jOirnX 
SOME HINTS ON RAISING Y'OUNG 
CHICKENS. 
Sound breeding stock essential to success; 
the best incubator; coops in time; first 
feed; feed for fattening; rapid growth. 
The first requisite towards successful poul¬ 
try raising is sound and mature breeding 
stock. Without this all your care aud labor 
bestowed afterward will result in disappoint¬ 
ment. Having secured the proper mating, 
the next thing in order will be to hatch the 
eggs. As a rule, this is best done by means of 
Nature’s incubators. If one exacts to raise 
poultry on a large scale, the foregoing ic- 
mark, of course, does not apply; but as this 
article is intended mainly for farmers and 
their families—those who wish to raise poul¬ 
try in connection with general farm work—1 
insist that the old hen is the best aud cheapest 
hatcher in existence. Every poultrytnftu and 
farmer who expects to make poultry-raising a 
success, should provide himself with coops 
beforehand, so as to be ready for the chicks as 
soon as they are ready to leave tbe nests. I 
do not remove them from the nest, until they 
are 24 hours old, unless there is danger of 
their being crushed; in which ease I remove 
them to the kitchen, covering them with a 
woolen cloth iu a small box or basket. As 
soon as the chicks are all strong enough to 
leave the nest, remove the hen to a coop, 
which should he rat aud weasel proof, but at 
the same time furnished with sufficient venti¬ 
lation tu keep the air inside from becoming 
foul. Chicks <io uot need feed until they are 
n day old. 
After proceeding thus far, the question of 
feed presents itself, and to a beginner the pros¬ 
pect must look anything but encouraging. 
Oue man recommends giving water. Another 
says: “Water will kill young chicks just as 
sure as you give it to them.” One says: 
“Chicks must have sand.” Another says: "I 
killed a lot of fine chicks by giving sand.” 
One says: “Feed corn meal.” Another says: 
“Iu no way can chicks bo raised except by 
giving them bread the first two weeks.” Now, 
I will give you my plan of feeding for what it 
is worth, hut every reader must remember 
that some originality is required to make a 
success of chicken fcoiling, just, the same as 
of anything else. Don’t do just as I do be¬ 
cause I do sq, and expect the same results. 
The first feed mv chicks receive is corn meal 
wetted just, enough to make it doughy—not 
mushy. 1 also give clean, sharp sand and al¬ 
ways have water before them. .Just as soon 
as the little things can swallow it, l give good, 
sound wheat, uud after the first two weeks, I 
think dry, whole grain is the best food they 
can have. In addition to their grain ration 
(always before them) I give milk—thick sour 
milk is the best. T also keep a vessel of 
crushed bone within their reach, aud have uo 
difficulty in making thorn attain a good heavy 
weight atan early age. ('ockerels at St.. mouths 
old hftVJ weighed eight pouuds each. Of 
course, chicks raised On a bill-of-faro as re¬ 
commended by some, can bo made to grow 
rapidly, but the profit comes iu getting good 
heavy weights with the least outlay. By my 
