breeds. My argument here is that, taking 
any given breed—the Short-horn, for exam¬ 
ple—it will generally be found that a cow 
yielding a fair supply of good milk is equal as 
a beef producer to the cows of the same breed 
that are poor milkers, and I have also ob¬ 
served—what is more especially pertinent to 
the topic treated in these papers—that the 
flesh of good milkers is superior in quality. 
And I have found many instances,in the dairy 
breeds, of carcasses adapted in form to the 
production of good flesh in connection with 
the best dairy excellence. This point was 
discerned by the jury in the cattle de¬ 
partment at the Philadelphia Centennial 
Exposition in 1876. We had one jury to 
award all the honors excepting in the 
Jersey class, where the Jersey Cattle 
Club were allowed to select the commit¬ 
tee. But in talking over the matter of the 
form of the Jersey cow with some of these 
gentlemen, I suggested whether it was not 
practicable to improve the form of her carcass 
without impairing her milking excellence. 
The general drift of opinion among them was 
against this. But when the champion honor 
was awarded, a committee of the Jersey Cat¬ 
tle Club selected the best formed animal of 
the breed, and I think also the cow in the best 
flesh, the selection being governed by a scale 
of points arranged to determine the best dairy 
excellence. 
After this brief statement of the general 
character of the stock likely to be most profit¬ 
able for the production of the best quality of 
beef, I shall, in the next number of the 
Rural, refer more particularly to the system 
of grazing, feeding and management of a herd 
of cattle where attention to the quality of tbe 
beef product is not a matter of subordinate 
consideration. 
Pam} ijiisb.aritin). 
A VISIT TO THE MILK COUNTRY. 
Doubtlkss every reader of the Rural has 
heard of Orange County, N. Y. Years ago 
Orange County butter was famous far and 
wide; now “Pure Orange County Milk” is a 
familiar sign to New York city eyes. We left 
New Jersey with the ground almost bare of 
snow. As we passed further north the snow 
deepened until at Middletown we found excel¬ 
lent sleighing and actual drifts along the 
fences and walls. The country is exceedingly 
rolling and broken. In Northern Jersey the 
hills are a series of ridges with long, regular 
valleys between, but in Orange County there 
appears to be no regularity about the hills 
—they bob up in all directions without the 
least ceremony. The soil is generally fertile 
and yields good crops of hay, w’hieh is at pres¬ 
ent the principal product. The lower lands 
are devoted to pasturage, eked out by supplies 
of fodder corn and other soiling crops. The 
farms are given up almost exclusively to 
milk producing. The best farmer here is the 
man who can turn off the greatest number of 
cans of milk to the 100 acres. The exclusive 
production of milk is carried to such an ex¬ 
treme that 50 per cent, of farmers buy their 
butter. When Western ranchmen with thous¬ 
ands of wild cattle running on the range buy 
both milk and butter, the average farmer can 
find an excuse for such a proceeding; but he 
will have bard work to understand how 
a man who daily handles the milk 
from 50 cows cannot at least make 
butter enough for family use. We have 
noticed repeatedly in various parts of the 
country that farmers who put their whole 
strength into one product like potatoes, grain 
or cattle, and make money at it. are convinced 
that others can manufacture butter, fruit or 
vegetables cheaper than they can. That is, 
they claim that it does not pay the farmer to 
combine a wholesale with a retail business. 
Almost every good farmer in Orange County 
raises one or more colts each year. Good, 
strong mares are bred to first-class driving or 
trotting stallions It costs but little to raise 
these animals and they bring in cash. Gar¬ 
dens and orchards abound and the farmers’ 
tables are plentifully supplied with vegetables 
and fruits of all kinds. This section is a 
great resort for the “summer boarder.” One 
striking feature of Orange County farming is 
found in the large and comfortable barns, 
provided for stock. No section in the country 
can surpass this in provisions made for the 
comfort of milch cows. The majority of 
cattle appear to be grades of the various 
breeds. In one herd, reckoned as a good one, 
wo noted grades of Jersey, Holstein, Dutch 
Belted, Devon, Ayrshire and Short-horn. At 
present the rage is for the introduction of 
Holstein and Dutch Belted blood. It is prob¬ 
able that a majority of the herds will be 
found to contain a bull of one of these breeds. 
Farmers generally‘aim to raise the heifer 
calves from the best cows and depend upon 
“cow sales” for tbe rest. How to supply 
grain feed is the great problem with the 
Orange County farmer. The hay question 
is easier for the vast quantities of manure 
made from these great herds will keep 
tbe meadows up to their full production. 
Grain food of some kind is necessary and it 
will not pay to raise it all at home. The. 
ensilage system has been somewhat slow to 
work in here, though some farmers use silage 
successfully. Brewers’ grains are largely fed, 
and “Dried Buffalo Grains,” said to be the 
refuse from glucose factories, just now are 
sold in large quantities. 
The graiu problem is as important to the 
Orange County farmer as is the fertilizer 
problem to the Long Island gardener. An 
effort is being made by many good farmers 
in this section to work slowly into peach cul¬ 
ture. The idea is to diversify farming and, 
if possible, in such a way that the yield of 
milk, the cash product, will not be diminished. 
A fair-sized peach orchard, well cared for, 
seems the best step in this direction yet 
thought of. 
The main object of this visit to Orange 
County was to examine the work done by the 
Westtown Farm and Garden Club at dehorn¬ 
ing cattle. This club is composed of some of 
the most progressive farmers in the county. 
They are all milk farmers, depending upon 
the milch cow for a living. It may therefore 
be supposed that they would be very slow to 
recommend any operation that would prove 
injurious to milch cows. At the club meeting 
a good-sized table was covered with horns of 
various sizes and shapes. The following re' 
port was unanimously adopted after consider¬ 
able discussion: 
“The numerous serious and fatal accidents 
that are continually occurring throughout the 
country, and in our. midst, by being tossed on 
the horns and gored by angry bulls have be¬ 
come a matter of serious import and alarm. 
Bulls that were supposed to be trusty and gen¬ 
tle, so that no precautions were taken, have 
suddenly, and without a moment’s warning, 
turned upon their master or some member of 
the family and very seriously maimed them or 
sent them to untimely graves. The Club, 
having learned that dehorning is quite exten¬ 
sively practiced in the West, and that it is a 
humane way of depriving an animal of his 
formidable weapons, sent to Professor H. H. 
Haaff, the originator of dehorning, for the ne¬ 
cessary tools and instructions. Mr. Waiter- 
Manning invited the Club to dehorn a vicious 
cow. The horns were quickly removed, and 
she betrayed no pain whatever after the oper¬ 
ation. The blood she shed did not exceed 
one-half gill. She was at once putin a box 
stall, and all present were amazed to see her 
feed as though nothing had happened. This 
cow was in milk and is doing well. J. B. Hal¬ 
sey shortly afterward had a vicious cow de¬ 
horned, with the same result. She is now the 
gentlest cow in the dairy. The Club then met 
at M. H. C. Gardner’s and witnessed the de¬ 
horning of a valuable Holstein bull, and an 
ugly cow, which was especially so when child¬ 
ren were Dear her. They bled nothing to speak 
of. ate feed immediately, and showed no pain 
whatever afterward. Those present were ju¬ 
bilant at this success. Gideon C. Lain then 
had his fine Holstein bull dehorned aud the 
bull ate feed at once. The same day E. V. R. 
Gardner had his registered Belted bull de¬ 
horned, with the same results as the others. 
Messrs. Lain and Gardner report, after a lapse 
of two weeks, that their bulls are doing splen¬ 
didly, and they would not have their horns 
back for any reasonable amount of money, 
and such also is the report of all the owners 
of the dehorned cattle. And now your com¬ 
mittee in view of the above investigations, 
will cheerfully assert that dehorning is safe 
aud humane: that horns must go, particularly 
those on bulls and vicious cows.” 
An examination of the dehorned animals 
satisfied the writer of the truth of the above 
statements. The wounds were healing well 
aud there was a noticeable change in the ac¬ 
tions of the animals. The implement used in 
dehorning is a narrow, fine-toothed saw some¬ 
thing like that used by a butcher. A strong 
gouge for use on the small horns of a calf 
was also exhibited. The point was made at 
the club meeting that most dairymen would 
consider a dehorned animal imperfect, as 
public taste at present looks upon horns as a 
necessary part of a cow. All the dairymen 
present declared that horns would have noth¬ 
ing to do with the sale of a good cow for busi¬ 
ness purposes. An animal with a good full 
mouth and large udder would pass muster 
without a thought as to her horns. For the 
present, members of the club will content 
themselves with sawing the horns from bulls 
and all ugly cows. There appears to be no 
disposition to operate upon all the animals in 
a herd. The club members appear to be sat¬ 
isfied to learn that the operation can be safely 
and humanely performed so as to lessen the 
danger from all unruly animals. These de¬ 
horning experiments are the most elaborate 
that have yet been carried out at the East. 
It is indeed strange that farmers should have 
gone on for hundreds of years in the belief that 
the “pith” of a cow’s horn was as sensitive as 
the “quick” of the finger nail,only to find that 
they knew nothing at all about it. 
Surely it looks as though “horns jnust go.” 
THE PERFECT COW. 
JOHN GOULD. 
The “ general-purpose ” cow a humbug ; milk 
and beef-producing properties antagonis¬ 
tic, sire and dam must possess the desira¬ 
ble qualities ; dairy and butcher beasts con¬ 
trasted 4 , no such thing as a cow specially 
adapted for butter or cheese p>roductioyi\ 
neither breed nor feed specially productive 
of either cheese or butter; amount of sol¬ 
ids in her milk and proportionate economy 
of her feed the future criterion oj the value 
of a cow a small coiv therefore better than 
a large one ; how to perpetuate desirable 
qualities. 
That the perfect cow has been discovered, 
is very doubtful, for it would imply a general- 
purpose cow, and all the qualities essential to 
the requirements of animal husbandry cannot 
be wrapped up in one hide. The dairy and 
tbe beef qualities are so essentially different 
and the results of such totally different func¬ 
tions, that the perfect cow, considered as a 
dairy animal, must always be classed as a 
‘type” distinct in purpose from the beef-pro- 
duemg stock. No single breed has given us 
uniformly excellent cows of high perform¬ 
ance, but in all dairy breeds there is a type of 
form and performance, which, if recognized 
and singled out and perpetuated by heredity, 
may result in something like a perfect dairy 
cow. When we find this type, it may be per¬ 
petuated, if in breeding we recognize the fact 
that the sire must be given equal credit not 
only in transmitting essential qualities, but in 
confirming the type as well, and I do not 
hold to the assumption that merit can be found 
only in purity of the existing breeds. That 
the grade may be a good dairy cow is estab¬ 
lished; and if we breed from dairy types and 
they are based on performance, the observing, 
painstaking farmer may raise his own cows. 
The dairy cow’s mission will be to produce 
butter and cheese, and hence she will not be a 
large animal as measured by the beef stand¬ 
ard. The giving of milk makes the dairy cow 
a creature of beneficence, returning to her 
owner, in milk and cheese and manure, with 
nothing held back but actual bodily support, 
all the food consumed; while the beef cow, 
with habits fixed by breeding, is “a miser,” 
storing away as largely as possible the better 
elements of her food for fat, flesh acd bone 
forming, and only yielding it up on the 
block; so that milk and beef qualities must 
contend for mastery if bound up in one ani¬ 
mal. and the result must be disappointing. 
That the beef element is antagonistic to the 
milking habit is a noticeable peculiarity. The 
truly beef cow is a small and brief milker, 
often failing to give support for her calf, and 
the ultimatum is reached when the beef type 
actually undermines the function of mother 
hood, and promises the obliteration of a beefy 
family; while motherhood, in its broadest aud 
most complete sense, is the predominant trait 
of the dairy cow. So I think milk and beef 
will never be combined, with favorable re¬ 
sults. 
Whether the “perfect cow” will be recog¬ 
nized as a butter cow, or an animal for milk, 
I think admits of no distinction. Milk is val¬ 
uable only for the solids it contains in fats, 
cheese, and sugar, and the cow that produces 
butter has no power (nor can it be bred into 
her) to furnish milk in which the fats largely 
predominate over the cheese element, or vice 
versa. No analyses covering any considera¬ 
ble periods of time or of the milk of any dairy 
breed fed upon the rations generally furnished 
dairy cattle at large, have ever shown that the 
ratio of butter value by weight, was in excess 
of tbe normal proportion of caseine by weight; 
and in the case of any herd the normal milk 
will be as valuable for cheese as for butter, 
the price of either or the feeding value of 
the milk not being considered, and the rich¬ 
ness of milk is due to the absence, to a greater 
or less degree, of the usual 88 per cent, of 
water that makes the bulk of milk. 
Neither is the bulk or weight of milk any 
criterion of its value, and the value attached 
. to the size of a cow in the future will be reg 
ulated by the amount of solids in her milk, 
i. e., the small cow that puts as much solids in 
her 25 pounds of milk per day, will be held as 
having superior value over a large cow whose 
50 pounds of milk contain only an equal 
amount of solids. Unless the large cow can 
show a better performance in actual butter, 
and cheese on proportional ratious, the small 
er cow must win, as her smaller body calls for 
a correspondingly less consumption of food 
for bodily support. 
As it is money that the farmer wants to rea¬ 
lize from the consumption of so much food by 
his dairy, fashion or sentiment must give way 
in the end to performance, and we must find 
out whether or not there is any extra cost in 
maintaining a large cow as compared with a 
smaller one, to obtain only the same results in 
fats and cheese, and we must also learn 
whether the excess of water in the milk of 
90-pound cows costs food, and, lastly, can 
the milk of these cows of great milk perform¬ 
ance, by any line of breeding and feeding the 
animals, be made to exhibit the due propor¬ 
tionate amount of solids. Until the large cow 
with a copious flow of milk can show, on pro¬ 
portionate rations, a greater yield of butter 
and cheese, it is folly for the dairj man to de¬ 
lude himself with the idea that quantity of 
milk is profitable dairying, unless he, per¬ 
chance, is a city milk vender, and when the 
law shall compel him, as it will in the very 
near future, to furnish a milk with 3% per 
cent, of fats, his ideas will change, and he will 
demand a cow that can furnish quality 
of milk as well as quantity, and the 
medium-sized cow with perfect diges¬ 
tion and with great powers of assimilation 
of food will be in demand. Unless the large 
cow can make her milk as valuable in solids 
the farmer will be compelled, I think, 
largely to breed the cows for his dairy, for by 
this plan alone can he fix a type, and it can 
be accomplished only by the powers of 
heredity. Not alone must the mother’s side, 
but the sire’s also be of prepotent milk type, 
and thus doubly impress the qualities desired. 
This blood once made conspicuous, must.not 
be diluted by the undesirable qualities of 
“scrub,” or the antagonistic cross of a beef 
family. By selecting some of the most noted 
of the milking families of native stock, and 
crossing them with some well-known dairy 
breed that has a quality of milk to give it 
value, and then perpetuating the cross by 
careful selection, based on performance, and 
“holding fast to the good,” there is no reason 
why an intelligent, observing farmer who 
reasons from cause to effect, and is guided by 
paying results, may not obtain at small cost, 
valuable dairy stock. 
p.omolo^kal. 
THREE. 
A CHOICE OF FRUITS BY LEADING AMERICAN 
POMOLOGISTS. 
Estimates by Pres. P. Barry, W. C. Barry, 
C. A. Green (N. Y), Pres. T. T. Lyon 
(Mich.), Pres. Parker Earle (III.), Pres. P. 
J. Berckmans (Ga.), Ex-Gov. R. W. Fur¬ 
nas (Neb.), Com. N. J. Colman (Mo.), Dr. 
T. H. Hoskins (Vt.), Judge Parry, Sec. E. 
Williams (N. J.), P. M. Augur, J. H. Hale 
(Ct.), W. G. Waring (Pa.), Pres. T. V 
Munson (Tex.), P. Gideon (Minn.), Mrs. An¬ 
nie L. Jack (Province of Quebec), Sec. G. 
W. Campbell (Ohio). 
(Concluded ) 
FROM PRES. T. V. MUNSON, TEXAS. 
The following are my selections for the 
latitude of North Texas: 
Winter Apples: Ben Davis, Winesap, Ken¬ 
tucky Streak (or Kentucky Red) 
New Winter Apples: Gano, Loy, Arkansas 
Black (or Bradford’s Best). 
Fall Apples: Jonathan, Carter’s Blue, 
Bledsoe. 
Summer Apples: Red June (or Red Astra- 
ehan), Fanny, Gravenstein. 
Summer Pears: Clapp’s Favorite, Howell, 
Bartlett (Le Conte for the South). 
Fall Pears: Beurrd Superfin,Buffum,Anjou. 
Late Fall Pears: Duehesse d’Angouleme, 
Louise Bonne, Kieffer. 
Early Plums: Caddo Chief, Lone Star, 
Marianna, or Wild Goose. 
Late Plums: Weaver or Miner, Golden 
Beauty, Waylaud and Kelsey. 
Simon, Ogon and Botan promise well. 
Early Peaches: white flesh: Alexander, 
Mamie Ross or Early Rivers or Hynes and 
Mountain Rose. 
Early Peaches: yellow flesh: Yellow St. 
John or Pansy Pabor, Gov. Briggs, Elberta. 
Later Peaches: white flesh: Mrs. Brett, 
Stump the World, Ringgold Cling. 
Later Peaches. yellow flesh: Wheatland (or 
Oldmixon Free), Salway (or Princess of 
Wales), Henrietta (or Levy). 
Very Late Peaches for South: Bonanza, 
Crimson Beauty, Yellow Cobbler, Lonoke. 
White Grapes: Martha. Empire State, Nia¬ 
gara (where ic does not rot), Triumph. 
New White Grapes: Campbell, Olita, Bell, 
Samuel Miller, Old Gold, Onderdonk, wher¬ 
ever Herbemont succeeds. 
Red Grapes: Delaware, Poughkeepsie, 
Brighton (where there’s no rot), Perkins, 
Ulster. 
New Red Grapes: Brilliant, Red Bird, 
Striped Ruby, Meissner. 
Black Grapes: Worden, Ives, Early Victor, 
Moore’s Early. New: Denison, (or Concord), 
Early Market. 
The new grapes are of my own origin, and 
constitute, 1 think, a better list than the old 
varieties. I could name many more of great 
