VOL. XLVII. NO. 1984. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 4, 1888. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
MORE ABOUT DEHORNING. 
At Figs. 31 to 33 we give the first elaborate 
drawings that have ever been made to show 
what the saw passes through in the operation 
of dehorning. The horns from which these 
drawings were made were exhibited at a 
recent meeting of the Westtown Farm and 
Garden Club, Orange County, N. Y. Fig. 
31 is a horn taken from a three-year-old heifer. 
It will be observed that the “pith” or soft 
substance nearly fills the entire horn. Fig. 
32 shows a horn cut from a large Holstein- 
Friesian bull. Here the pith has begun to be 
absorbed, leaving a hollow. Fig. 33 shows a 
horn taken from an old cow. Here the 
wasting away of the pith is almost complete 
and the horn is almost absolutely “hollow” 
to the tip. It is found that most old cattle 
show this wasting away of the pith, though 
some young stock show it more than others. 
If. the cow owning the horn shown at Fig. 
33,’ had been a little dumpish from over-feed¬ 
ing, and had been taken to some quack, what 
a glorious case of “hollow-horn” he would 
have bored for—wouldn’t he! 
In speaking of the “wasting away of the 
pith,” we refer to the change which takes 
place in the horn of a healthy animal It 
appears that the central portion of the horn 
in young animals is composed of cart age 
As age increases and the animal gets its 
growth, this cartilage is changed to true bone 
by the deposition of mineral matters. Those 
who have done most of the arguing against 
dehorning have seen a cow’s horn knocked off 
and noted her evident distress. An exami¬ 
nation of any cow’s skull will show the differ¬ 
ence between knocking off a horn and sawing 
it off. The suture dividing the skull of an ox 
is plainly indicated. When a blow is struck 
on the side of the horn the pain is felt in the 
suture—at the middle of the face. 
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN DE¬ 
HORNING. 
In the Rural of January 24, I read an 
article on dehorning cattle in Orange County, 
N. Y., and it occurred to me that a few words 
from a resident of the Elgin, Illinois, dairy 
country might not be amiss. Dehorning with 
us has got beyond the experimental stage, 
and it will not be long before horned cattle 
will be a rarity. I have yet to learn of the 
first case where dehorning was injurious 
out of the hundreds that have been operated 
upon in this vicinity. It is just as humane in 
my estimation, as furnishing comfortable 
shelter. My herd are as quiet as a flock of 
sheep. When in the yard it is no unusual 
sight to see calves, yearlings and cows at the 
water-tank drinking together, whereas for¬ 
merly there was only room for one at a time. 
If I were fattening a drove of steers for 
market, the first thing I would do would be 
to take off their horns. They would take on 
flesh more easily, and their value would not 
be a bit less in the market. We dehorn at 
any season excepting in fly-time, and in ex¬ 
tremely cqld weather. Let the wound take 
care of itself. There was no shrinking of 
milk in my herd from the effects of the opera¬ 
tion, and this is the general experience as far 
as I can learn. “a. m. l.” 
BREEDING FOR QUALITY IN BEEF. 
HON. T. C. JONES. 
REARING, FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 
Raising of store stock profitable for feeders; 
treatment of calves the first year; price at 
18 months-, immature inferior to mature 
beef; advantages of American cattle rais¬ 
ers; a British butcher's views-, English 
feeding depreciates quality; American 
losses from unjustifiable English restric¬ 
tions on cattle importations; breed , feed 
and maturity the requisites for prime beef; 
the early fattening craze-, blunders of a 
fat-stock show; u baby beef;" the evils of 
early forcing; changes produced in the 
muscular system by fattening; an annual 
physiologist's idea of the best treatment to 
produce prime beef. 
There is a general impression among large 
farmers who graze and feed cattle for beef 
that it will not pay them to breed the stock 
they handle, and for this reason, as before ob¬ 
served, a very large portion of our cattle are 
bred upon small farms. The assumption is 
probably erroneous. It is true enough that 
the large grazier and feeder finds it inconve¬ 
nient to keep cows and breed his own calves. 
Besides the fact that such a practice would 
largely diminish the number, of bullocks he 
would be able annually to send to the market, 
the care needed to manage a lot of breeding 
cows properly would require a large addition 
to the working force’of the farm. But, grant¬ 
ing all this, I think an impartial and careful 
investigation will show that the cattle grower 
who breeds all or a considerable portion of the 
stock he fits for the butcher, realizes^ in the 
long run, more satisfactory profits than 
he who depends entirely upon the markets for 
his store stock. And 1 think the small farmer 
who keeps five or six cows and turns off his 
steers at the age of, say, 18 months, if they 
are of good quality and properly fed a d 
grazed, derives better profits than the larg«. 
cattle-grower who finishes them for the fat 
stock market. How are these calves to be 
reared? The reader will bear in mind that it 
is not the purpose of these papers to explain 
the common methods of live-stock husbandry, 
but only to refer in a general way to such 
matters as have a bearing upon the point sug¬ 
gested by the Rural, to wit, the quality of 
the beef. 
From what has been already said, it will be 
borne in mind that to insure the production 
of desirable quality, we must breed from cows 
that are of the best character and descended 
from ancestors of the same excellence, and it 
is especially essential that the sire we use 
should be not only of approved quality but of 
pure blood. If the cows are of fair merit as 
milkers, the calf will do well on half the milk 
of its dam for, say, the first five months of its 
existence, provided it has, as it always should, 
an abundance of the best and most nutritious 
grass. A little meal or mill-feed should be 
given before the milk ration is discontinued, 
and for some time thereafter, and through the 
first winter, meal or shelled corn (if more con¬ 
venient), feeding good bright hay, which may 
be partly clover, until there is a good bite of 
grass in the spring. The next summer all the 
young steers will require will be good pastur¬ 
ing with regular salting. At the age of 18 
months such a steer w'ould fetch, in any of the 
32. 
States of the Upper Mississippi Valley, not 
less than $35. A few years ago these figures 
were paid for first-class steer calves not more 
than eight or ten months old. Steers reared 
in this way are in a condition to make beef of 
the best quality, provided they are properly 
grazed and fed to maturity. 
Much is said in advocacy of getting stock to 
market at an early age, and tables are pub¬ 
lished to show the difference in favor of feed¬ 
ing young animals as respects the profits; but 
it must be remembered that the flesh of these 
young things is never equal in flavor and 
juiciness to that of matured cattle. We have 
improved breeds that mature at a much 
younger age than the old unimproved sorts, 
cattle that with proper grazing and feeding 
will make beef of fair excellence at the age of 30 
to 36 months, and beef of tbe very highest ex. 
celience at three years and a half. 
The farmers in the great agricultural States 
of America are more favorably situated for 
growing beef of this character than farmers 
in any other part of the world. We have 
grass of the very highest excellence, and are 
able to afford it at cheaper rates. And for 
winter feeding we have the Indian corn with 
wonderful fattening properties, while it in no 
wise impairs the high flavor and rich juiciness 
imparted by the superior grasses of our fer¬ 
tile valleys, I was forcibly reminded of the 
great advantages we have in these’particulars 
by an incident I witnessed when in Britain 
seven years ago. While standing upon the 
landing assigned, at London, to cattle im¬ 
ported from countries that were scheduled on 
account of the existence of contagious dis 
eases, a fine lot of bullocks, just unloaded 
from an American steamer, passed when I 
chanced to be in conversation with the super¬ 
intendent of the yards and a well-known 
butcher of the Metropolis. 
The steamer had encountered no rough 
weather and the cattle came ashore in excel¬ 
lent condition, and scampered playfully by us 
as if they had just beeh let out of their sheds 
at home. 
“Them be noble beasts,” the butcher ex¬ 
claimed. “Very much the same as you have 
here,” I replied. “No sir” said he, “we have 
not got ’em; we cannot make’em.” “Why 
can’t you make them?” I asked, “you have 
the same blood.” “But, sir, we have not the 
grass, and have not the time to make ’em.” 
That is, grass is too scarce in Britain, and it 
costs too much to graze cattle to maturity as 
these magnificent roan bullocks had been 
grazed until 3X years of age. This, as my 
practical friend observed, they could not af¬ 
ford to take the time to do; and, besides, if 
cattle are fed through the winter in Britain 
they are given turnips and oil cake which 
impair the flavor of the flesh. This was men¬ 
tioned to me by the steward df the Duke of 
Fig. 33. 
Westminster when I was looking at a lot of 
West Highland bullocks grazing in the park 
at Eaton Hall, with the deer, which I was told 
were intended for slaughter at the holidays, 
when the Duke and his'friends came down 
from London. These fine animals were I sup¬ 
pose about four years old, and in fine condi¬ 
tion. I inquired how they were fed, and was 
told that they had only grass in summer and 
winter, except that in very severe weather 
they got a little hav—that they were net al¬ 
lowed turnips because the latter would im¬ 
pair the flavor of the beef, while oil cake 
would be still more objectionable in the same 
particular. 
The excellence of the best American beef 
was never fully appreciated in England until 
we were able to place before its connois¬ 
seurs such living specimens of our meat-pro¬ 
ducing animals as the American bullocks 
which awakened such enthusiastic commen¬ 
dation from the London butcher at the Dept¬ 
ford landing, on the occasion I have men¬ 
tioned. But the advantage thus derived is 
limited by the restriction placed by the Brit¬ 
ish regulations upon our live cattle trade, 
which compels their slaughter at the yards 
where landed, within ten days. If we only 
had the privilege, as the Canadians have, of 
selling in the open market, or driving them 
inland, and allowing them to run at grass 
