h 
1R. 
up and put in wheat again; the balance of 
the field yielded something over two tons of 
hay per acre. __ c. p. mce. 
HOW USED?—WITH MANURE? 
I used manure with salt in some places on 
both sandy and clay land. It seemed to be 
of the most benefit where manure was used 
with it on both kinds. p. o. p. 
I do not necessarily use manure with salt- 
but the effect upon very rich land well- 
manured is to make the grain stand up better, 
and fill better—land may be made very rich 
and if 1% bushel of salt is sown with the 
grain the grain will stand and fill well. 
N. E. A. 
We make all the manure we can from our 
farm of 175 acres, feeding all our grain. We 
grind or crush and grind corn and cob, cut 
all our fodder, and consequently make a large 
amount of manure; but I have never used it 
on the same field with the salt the same year, 
but manure one year a field, then follow with 
salt, although I am sure it would pay largely 
if we had the manure. r. l. h. 
Springfield, Ohio. 
I never let salt interfere with the use of 
manure. I use all the manure I can make— 
from 800 to 1,000 loads a year. I think salt 
increases the crop on manured land, both in 
quantity and quality. On potatoes salt sowed 
at the rate of 200 pounds per acre, will carry 
them through a dry spell, increase the crop, 
and the potatoes will not be scabby or worm- 
eaten. _ c. P. MCE. 
VALUE IN DRY SEASONS. 
Salt makes the best showing in dry seasons. 
The results are then very plainly seen. No 
one can doubt the good effects of salt while 
looking at a salted crop while growing in 
dry weather. I had a field in pasture. The 
soil was rather light and thin, and the dry 
weather of last year burnt it so badly that it 
did not recover, so I concluded to put it in 
corn followed by wheat and seed it down 
again. I had no manure to cover it, so I 
mixed 200 pounds of superphosphate with 400 
pounds of salt and applied the mixture at the 
rate of 250 pounds per acre, at a cost of SI.87 
per acre. All through July and August with¬ 
out rain it stood green and hearty, while my 
own and inv neighbor’s corn that had not been 
salted, burnt up and amounted to nothing Or 
almost nothing. My salted corn yielded 75 
bushels of good, sound corn, while the salted 
went about 25 bushels of miserably, poor 
corn to the acre._ c h. mce. 
Salt will help in dry seasons, if not too dry, 
as its tendency is to keep the land moist; but 
if the weather is dry, as it was in this State 
the past summer,it is not much use nor is any 
thing else. No rain for two months of hot 
weather. N, e. a. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
I think the effect of salt will remain for some 
time. I noticed that a field in grass where I 
sowed salt three years ago remained green 
throughout the dry weather, whereas the grass 
on other fields was dry and brown. 
c. P. MCE. 
It will pay farmers to use salt once in three 
or four years, but in less quantities after the 
first year of application. On rich land I 
would, from my experience, prefer to use 
salt in place of manure, as the salt has always 
teuded to stiffen straw while manure frequent¬ 
ly causes small grains to lodge. p. o. p. 
I would rather make a small application 
every year, from one to 1% bushel per acre, 
than in any other way, and always before the 
crop is planted. If salt comes directly in con¬ 
tact with vegetation it will surely kill it. I 
have seen it sowed on wheat in the spring, and 
it destroyed every vestige of it. r. c. w. 
It can be drilled with a fertilizer drill, but 
we generally sow it broadcast from the tail 
end of a wagon, one man driving, two sowing, 
throwing both ways. We sow most of ours 
just before harrowing the last time. It is of 
great value to incorporate in a compost heap. 
Halt and lime work well together, causing 
vegetable matters to decay quicker than salt 
alone; r. L . h. 
I have used salt for 20 years. I had been 
sowing plaster for clover, and then turning 
the clover sod and sowing to grain. The 
grain would grow too rank, and the straw 
was limber. The grain would fall before fill¬ 
ing. Since using salt I have had no trouble. 
1 have found it most useful upon lands upon 
which grain habitually grows rank and lodges. 
It is particularly good on clover sod upon 
which plaster has been used the previous year. 
I like to sow from a roller. I fix a platform 
at oue end of the roller, upon which a man 
stands with a tub of salt. A seat for the driv- 
f i is fixed at the other end. By this means 
two important kinds of business can be done 
at one operation. 
N. E. A. 
DEHORNING CATTLE. 
H. H. HAAFF. 
No “boom," but steady progress in the prac¬ 
tice; as advantageous for dairy as for beef 
stock; will save feed and promote gentle¬ 
ness: all. sorts of dehorned cattle can be 
fed “loose;" an experiment suggested. 
The perusal of the letter of a correspondent 
of the Rural, in a late issue, entitled, “A 
Visit to the Milk Country,” presents to its 
readers the great subject of dehorning cattle, 
in a most favorable light, and it is all that my 
most ardent wishes could desire. If the sub¬ 
ject is one of actual merit, it is just as well 
a boom about it hasn’t started all over the 
country at once. It is now at least eight 
years since, in a very poor and humble way, 
I first began to dehorn my own cattle, and it 
was not until my trial by the Humane Society 
of Chicago, that the practice received any¬ 
thing like a boom or the marked attention 
which its merit really deserves. 
Now that we are fairly launched upon the 
sea of actual practice, and now tbat here at 
the West scores of men have dehorned their 
thousands, and in many individual cases as 
high as tens of thousands, the question may 
recur, why, if the practice is a good one 
among the cattle raisers of the West, ought it 
not to be proportionately beneficial to the 
dairymen of the East? Of what earthly use 
are horns to cattle in the domestic state? Who 
can give an excuse for their retention at all? 
Of what value are they to either the eye of 
the owner or his pocket or to the brutes them¬ 
selves? They are a continuous source of dan¬ 
ger to human beings and to live stock, and a 
fertile cause of irritation and bad temper. 
Really, come to think about it, why have we 
tolerated them at all during the past genera¬ 
tion? I answer, simply from force of habit. 
The make-up of the horn, on examination, is 
found to be of such a character that God 
Himself, it may be reasonably presumed, ex¬ 
pected that man would dehorn his cattle, for 
He has most certainly provided in the head of 
every bovine the proper place at which to per¬ 
form the operation with little pain,.with little 
hemorrhage and with little risk to the animal 
when properly done. 
And now while there is neither time nor 
space for entering into a discussion of the 
merits of this practice affirmatively, I wish, 
in passmg, to call attention to two or three 
matters not generally understood ; First, the 
horn must be removed at the proper point; if 
cut above that point, a stub horn will surely 
grow ; if cut below that point, the orifice in 
the frontal boue is liable not to close over 
those among the Rural readers who have 
read my little work will recollect that it is 
stated that the operation can be performed at 
any time except in fly time and when the 
thermometer is at zero. But I wish to say 
here that cold weather cuts no figure, aud is 
indeed a desirable time if the animais are 
well housed or have free access to a good, 
warm shed. I do wish some reader of the 
Rural, who is feeding a car-load of steers, 
more or less, would try this experiment and 
reportjon his success: 
Dehorn a lot of cattle, steers or cows, now 
being fed for market, which are kept tied up 
or confined in stanchions ; then turn them 
loose in any kind of a room or shed and con¬ 
tinue their present system of feeding while 
loose, and tell us at the end of two or three 
months how they act with reference to each 
other, how they thrive, and whether there is 
any apparent diminution in the quantity of 
food used. 
I know that here at the West, on a lot of 
cattle running loose outside (as ours usually 
do, and we usually feed in open bins or table¬ 
like troughs), there will be a saving of at least 
ten per cent, of the grain. I do not know 
what the result of the experiment might be 
in the East, but I am firmly of the opinion 
that better results would follow than by the 
plan of confining cattle to feed them. There 
is need of exercise aud this method of feeding 
furnishes the chance to get it. 
I had a recent visit from a Colorado cattle 
man and some cattlemen from Cbebanse, Ill. 
After examining for half an hour or so my 
specimens of horns, they remarked at parting: 
‘‘Well, we thought we were considerable de- 
horners, but we don’t know much about it,” 
and it is evident that our friends at Westtown, 
whose experience is described in a late Ru¬ 
ral, have something yet to learn. They now 
propose to dehorn only the bulls aud the un¬ 
ruly cows. Let me tell them here the expe¬ 
rience of one farmer. Says he, in a recent 
letter: “I had about 100 head of cattle. I de¬ 
horned the old bull first, for I didn’t care 
whether I killed him or not. I turned him 
loose among the other cattle, but I had to re¬ 
move him presently or they would have killed 
him. I then dehorned about a dozen ugly 
ones—boss cattle—and I had to turn them by 
themselves also to prevent damage from the 
others. In less than two weeks’ time I found 
another set of boss cattle which were just as 
savage toward the smaller ones and toward 
the dehorned cattle as the old bosses bad been, 
so I next dehorned all except the calves, the 
yearlings and two-year-olds. After a few 
weeks I found the two-year-olds knew how to 
play master as well as any of the rest; then I 
dehorned them all, but one eight-month-old 
calf. And,” said he, “would you believe it? 
In less than a month’s time that calf was the 
boss of the whole herd and would drive any 
animal all over the yard if it came in his 
way.” 
This is what our Orange County cattle 
friends will come to. I have said before, and 
I repeat it, I would very much like to meet at 
one or two meetings of farmers’ conventions 
a company of Eastern representative dairy¬ 
men. I have had meetings of this kind in va¬ 
rious States, and I know that it pays to start 
this thing properly. 
The yearling head should be shaped in de¬ 
horning, and the calf’s head must be proper¬ 
ly operated on or there will be trouble. As 
the next best thing to a personal demonstra¬ 
tion, I am about to issue a book to be called, 
“Every Man His Own Dehorner,” and thereiu 
every branch of this great subject shall be 
fully described and illustrated by proper cuts. 
Pain] 
VERMONT DAIRYMEN’S CONVENTION. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
Jersey cows best for Vermont ; good experi¬ 
ence with ensilage; an editor on commer¬ 
cial fertilizers : forming a dairy herd; 
waste of the dairy: rapid improvement of 
dairy herds; raising such ; facts as to feed¬ 
ing dairy cows. 
The Dairymen’s Association of Vermont 
held a very successful meeting at Montpelier 
on January 18—21. Jersey cows were dis¬ 
cussed, following a paper on their merits and 
faults, by Wm. Chapin of Middlesex, Vt., 
member of the Board of Agriculture, one of 
the largest and most successful farmers of the 
State. The breed was not found to be fault¬ 
less, but the meeting unanimously voted it to 
be the best for the State, and that to it main¬ 
ly is to be attributed the great increase in the 
quantity per cow, and improvement in the 
quality of its butter product. 
L. T. Hazen, of Hazen’s Mills, N. H., also a 
very extensive dairyman, handled the sub¬ 
ject of ensilage on the basis of his own ex¬ 
perience in feeding 1,200 tons of it annually, 
to his large herd of Jerseys and Jersey grades. 
He plants thinly, and allows the crop to ma¬ 
ture as fully as the season admits; then cuts 
by power into his six-celled silo, not hurrying 
the process beyond his convenience. He 
covers first with straw, and then with muck, 
partially dried, filling the silo with it as it 
settles; and he feeds and beds with the two 
very profitablv. 
A. W. Cheever, editor of the N. E Farmer, 
discussed the use of commercial fertilizers on 
the farm, holding that they could be used 
most successfully in bringing up a run-down 
farm, by the immediate production of large 
quantities of feeding material for stock, and 
afterwards as a supplement, on quick-growing 
crops, to the manure made, which is best em¬ 
ployed for the growth of grass. This view of 
the subject seemed to meet the views of most 
of his hearers. 
William Sessions, Secretary of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Board of Agriculture, gave the re¬ 
sults of his 30 years’ experience in forming a 
dairy herd. He has disregarded breed alto¬ 
gether, getting the best milking cows he could 
find, and breeding them to the best dairy 
bulls, having great regard to the milk and 
butter records of their ancestry. By this 
piactice Mr. S. claimed that in six genera¬ 
tions a farmer will get what would practic¬ 
ally be a thoroughbred herd of dairy cows. 
He keeps a strict record of the milk and but¬ 
ter production of every cow, and is guided by 
it in his breeding. The results have been 
satisfactory, and he regards this as the only 
practical method for the common farmer to 
build up a dairy herd successfully. 
Homer W. Vail, of North Pomfret, and the 
Board of Agriculture, made an address upon 
the wastes of the dairy, inculcating the abso¬ 
lute necessity of stopping all leaks, and open¬ 
ing all paths to profit. The improvement of 
cows, consequent upon careful selection and 
feeding, has raised the average butter product 
per cow, on many farms, from 125 to 300 
pounds aunually; and not only so, but those 
who get the largest yield get it at the least 
proportional cost, and sell it at a higher aver¬ 
age price. Mr. Vail agreed with Mr. Sessions 
as to the necessity of careful selection of 
sires, but believes it best to profit by the work 
of others who have lived before us, and he 
would begin with the Jersey rather than 
wait to develop a breed of his own. He held 
that great skill and care should be exercised 
in raising the heifer calves, which, no matter 
how well-bred or promising, will not realize 
their promise without the most judicious 
handling. The feed of the cow is also most 
important, and should be both sufficient, and 
properly proportioned, but not excess’ve. He 
cuts all his coarse feed, wets it, and mixes it 
with grain, giving to cows in full milk two 
feeds daily, the ration being 20 pounds of si- 
lage, 12 pounds of cut and moistened hay or 
corn fodder, or both, two pounds of cotton¬ 
seed meal, and seven pounds of a mixture of 
bran, corn, cob, and barley meals. His cows 
in winter are turned into the yard on fair 
days from ten to three, but not fed there, and 
the water is warmed to blood heat. Mr. Vail 
is not a very extensive farmer, but he is one 
of those who is well-known for the excellence 
of his butter, for which he gets the top price. 
He holds that the first qualification for a 
dairyman is to know what good butter is. 
The flavor is most important, but great care 
has to be given to texture, salting, color and 
way of marketing. 
Prof. Cooke, of the State Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Station, and Secretary of the Board 
of Agriculture, gave an elaborate statistical 
lecture upon the principles of feeding, as ap¬ 
plied to dairy cows, which will not admit of 
condensation, it being as compact in its 
structure and as close'in its logic as though sub¬ 
jected to hydraulic pressure. This lecture 
seems to the writer to be the best thing of its 
kind that has yet seen the light. It is based 
upon a large collection of facts gathered 
amongst the farmers, and is remarkable above 
everything for the close coincidence of these 
facts, when classified, with scientific probabili¬ 
ties. The sum “proves” correctly. In fact, 
Prof. Cooke has, without the least strain, 
reconciled science and practice in dairy feed¬ 
ing in a very remarkable way. His paper, 
when printed, must have a wide reading, and 
will constitute a definite and solid advance in 
dairying science. t. h. hoskins, m. d. 
DISCUSSIONS OF A CLUB FOUNDED 
ON A NEW PLAN. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
Expenses paid by collections instead of fees; 
the utmost liberty allowedi milk for mar¬ 
ket: good and better cows; ensilage discus¬ 
sion. 
The Duchess and Ulster Farmers’ Club, 
which was organized at Poughkeepsie-on-the- 
Hudson some weeks ago, starts out on a new 
plan, so far as the formation and financial 
management are concerned, aud it will be in¬ 
teresting to note the result. Any person who 
attends the meetings is a member of the club. 
There is neither constitution nor by-laws, no 
initiation fee, or annual dues.. There is no ad¬ 
mission fee to the club meetings; all are in¬ 
vited to attend, and take part in the discus¬ 
sions. When any expense is voted, a collec¬ 
tion is taken on the spot to defray it. The 
club has no treasurer, but the money is at 
once paid over to whomever it belongs, by the 
committee in charge. The idea is to make 
every farmer and each member of his family, 
male and female, feel entirely free to attend 
all the meetings. No semblance of restraint is 
permitted. Edgar Knapp is the president, 
and a very energetic,efficient and enthusiastic 
presiding officer he seems to be. The other 
officers are a recording and a corresponding 
secretary, a first vice-president, a vice presi¬ 
dent at large and a vice-president from each 
town and city in the two counties. 
At the first regular meeting held the other 
day there was a large attendance. A general 
discussion on milk-producing, and the value 
and curing of silage were leading features. 
The farmers of Eastern Dutchess are now 
largely engaged in the production of milk. 
The four towns along the Harlem railway 
produce about 80,000 quarts per day. Most 
of it is sold to the Wassaic Condensing Com¬ 
pany, which paid these farmers over $35,000 
during December, and expects to pay them 
nearly 840,000 for milk delivered in February. 
This milk is obtained from about 5,000 cows, 
an average, Mr. Putnam said, of eight quarts 
per cow, which he thought might easily be 
exceeded. Never buy a poor cow at 845 when 
you can get a good one at 860. Nine quarts 
a day for 300 days for five years give a total 
of 135,000 quarts. This at three cents, 
amounts to $405 Now take an ordinary cow; 
six quarts is a large estimate for her; that 
brings $270 for the same time—see the differ¬ 
ence? Buy the good article every time and 
