country schools do well now in giving a fair 
general education, but they go no farther 
than this, and it is rarely that they instruct in 
any special line. Since, as I take it, the coun¬ 
try school educates mostly those who are to 
become farmers, there certainly can be no ob¬ 
jection to instruction being there given in this 
special work, and I am certain the most hap¬ 
py results would follow such an effort. 
All over our country are many townships 
that have, conveniently located, a so called 
“town-house” in which, at certain times, the 
township elections are held and other public 
business transacted. For these purposes it is 
used only occasionally, and for the rest of the 
year it stands empty. For a sum of probably 
$200,a specialist—preferably a student of some 
of our industrial colleges or some one specially 
qualified—could be employed to arrange and 
instruct in a three-month winter course of ad - 
vauced work. There are those in every neigh¬ 
borhood who have the time in winter to go to 
school and who are anxious to do so only that 
they cannot get what they want in the advan¬ 
tages at their command. They spend their 
winters restlessly at home or go a long way to 
some high school, when they would be only too 
glad.to attend a near-at-home township school 
giving opportunity for advanced work in 
those things they particularly desire. 
It is proper here to out-line a course of 
study for such a winter term, but everything 
so depends upon local circumstances that I 
dare only suggest. Of course, the needs of 
that majority who will only attend for a 
winter or two before going into the practical 
work of life, must be first consulted. As 
much of the sciences as is of practical appli 
cation to agriculture should be taught. In¬ 
struction in chemistry, physics and plant and 
animal structure and physiology should be 
given in regular lectures. Lectures upon soils 
and the various topics of practical agricul¬ 
ture should also be given. A plain, simple 
farmer’s book-keeping will properly take the 
place of mathematics, although of mathema¬ 
tics and the amount of language and literary 
work to be put in a course much would de¬ 
pend upon the wishes of those who attend. 
For those who wish to continue in advanced 
work an arrangement of studies could be 
made aiming to connect with the course of 
some college. 
In what I have said, I think the plan is 
roughly but sufficiently outlined. That it is 
not at all impracticable I am sure a candid 
opinion will allow; that it would produce 
good results there is no question. It can be 
made (and this appears to me one of the 
most promising methods we can employ), one 
of the stepping-stones to that education 
which will place the farmer on an equal 
footing in every way with those in other 
professions. By means of such schools may 
we not hope to supply our industrial colleges 
with the agricultural students they are so 
loudly crying for, and here again add a link 
to the chain which will forever firmly es¬ 
tablish the cause of agricultural education? 
In conclusion, I beg of those who are inter¬ 
ested in and directing farmers’ institutes this 
winter to give this matter a thought and a 
word, for is it not worth the while that when 
we are thinking of all that relates to better 
culture and work on the farm, we should not 
forget a duty we owe to the better training of 
the farmers of the future? 
MANUAL LABOR AT THE MICHIGAN 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
For years all of us in the faculty have re¬ 
garded very highly this feature of our college. 
We believed we saw in it a factor—and in¬ 
deed an important one—in influencing so 
many of our graduates—more than 50 per 
cent.—to make farming or horticulture their 
life's work. We have put no light estimate on 
the real educational value received by actually 
handling the things of the farm and garden. 
This feature we expect to become more and 
more important. We have thought tho 
earnest character and .manly deportment of 
our students in some degree due to the full 
employment of their time. The exceptional 
robustness and good health of the students 
of this college, we believe come in con¬ 
siderable part from the physical ex¬ 
ercise in the field and garden, hence 
it is that all our professors have been 
loyal to the core to our labor system. Pro¬ 
fessors in the literary department, graduates 
from classical colleges with all the rest have 
voted and aided in every way to sustain and 
foster this system. In all my 21 years at the 
college I have known hardly a man in our 
faculty who has not been a warm advocate of 
this system. 
For the past few years our numbers have so 
rapidly increased that it has been difficult, es¬ 
pecially on the farm, to employ all the stu¬ 
dents; thus, much of the time students were 
excused each alternate day, and thus many 
students were unoccupied during work hours 
This not only tended to demoralize the stu¬ 
dents at work, but was not conducive to the 
best improvement of the students thus re¬ 
lieved. For a long time many of the depart¬ 
ments have wished and greatly needed more 
time for laboratory work. It is desired in 
every department that each student should see, 
handle and as far as possible describe and il¬ 
lustrate by drawings everything mentioned in 
the lecture room. At the beginning of last 
year it was arranged that this laboratory 
work should supplement the manual labors on 
the farm and garden. The good results of 
this scheme are manifold. The students are 
°U kept at work and are greatly pleased and 
benefited by the added amount of laboratory 
work. Thus we have it now arranged that 
each student shall have his time in garden 
ar.d farm, from which no student is excused, 
and this is supplemented by manual work in 
shop and laboratory. Thus we believe we 
have solved the difficulty of sustaining our 
manual labor system, even though we had 
500 students, which will surely be the case as 
soon as we can accommodate them. Let me 
add in conclusion that our students are almost 
unanimously favorable to this labor pro¬ 
gramme. And were the vote taken among 
the students to-day, I think 90 percent, would 
vote to retain it. 
Ag’l College, Lansing, Mich. 
DAIRY IDEAS. 
QUESTIONS. 
1. “ What is the best condition for dairy 
cows to go into winter-quarters? When do 
you begin extra grain feeding to get them 
in this good condition?' 1 ' 1 
2. “Do you feed your poorest quality of hay 
early in the season or later?'" 
FROM A. L. CROSBY. ‘ 
1. I never like to have my cows in the 
condition called “fat.” I want them always 
in good “order,” about in the condition of 
steers which men buy for “feeders”—better 
than “stockers” but not fit for beef. This, I 
think, is the best condition [for the cow to be 
in all the time, and 1 am pretty sure it is best 
when she is due to calve. I try to keep my 
cows always in this state by feeding grain 
more or les9 every day of their lives; more, 
of course, in the fall and winter, than in the 
spring and summer when the grass is good. 
2. I don’t feed the poorest quality of hay at all 
to the cows. When cowscome off of grass the 
change to dry feed is apt to reduce the quan¬ 
tity of milk ; if they go from grass to poor 
hay the quality as well as the quantity is af¬ 
fected, and when the quality of the milk is 
lowered it is an uphill business to restore it; 
so I [begin with my best hay and feed it all 
winter, and if I have any hay better than the 
best I like to save it for “just before grass” 
time in spring. The poorest hay I feed to 
youns stock and idle horses and try to make 
things even for them with bran and linseed 
meal. But if I had no young stock and had 
to feed my poorest hay to the cows I should 
begin as usual with the best and taper off 
down to the worst, and as the quality of the 
hay ran down the quantity of the meal would 
run up. 1 should, of course, reserve enough 
of my best hay to finish off with in the spring. 
I feed my cows for butter, and I am never 
alarmed if the milk yield gets low, provided 
the churn reports the butter yield all right. 
It costs less to carry from the cow stable 10 
pounds of milk with a pound of butter in it, 
than to carry 20 pounds with the same amount 
of butter, and if the milk is too rich to drink 
I can put water in it much cheaper than the 
cow can. It costs money to put the water in 
the milk through the cow. It costs money to 
turn the best of hay into milk through the 
cow; but the money is well invested in this 
instance, with big interest pr ?mptly paid, and 
the principal always “on call.” 
FROM JOHN GOULD. 
The best condition for a cow to go into the 
winter is in medium flesh, not fat, but the re¬ 
sult of a generous feeding all through the sea¬ 
son. The dairy cow should never be fat. Ex¬ 
tra food should, beyond life-support, go to 
milk, and the flesh of a cow should be red 
meat, not fat. Extra feeding should begin as 
soon as the flush feed of June is over, and be¬ 
fore the shrinkage of milk commences. Noth¬ 
ing has yet been devised better than bran and 
oat-meal for the summer extra food of a cow. 
In September and October I have had fine suc¬ 
cess with silage corn, planted thin so as to de¬ 
velop ears, and I have found it not only a 
good promoter of milk, but it puts the cows 
into winter-quarters in good form. Winter 
dairying, largely practiced hereabouts, up¬ 
sets all old ideas about this, for the cow gets 
in good condition by going dry in August and 
September, and comes into the dairy in Octo¬ 
ber at her best, and the feeding to establish 
and maintain tho milk flow leaves no work of 
special fixing up for winter necessary, and this 
is the correct method of dairying, for winter 
dairying means a uniform ration of mainten¬ 
ance for seven months at least, and the full 
grass feed of May, June .and July gives her a 
new start that makes milk-giving and flesh¬ 
forming a possibility for three months, 
longer, so that the dairy cow, winter milked, 
has no need of being fitted to do nothing but 
eat for five months, and is instead paying 
for not only her keep but the labor of taking 
care of her. Then her (10 days of idleness come 
in^the late summer, and she gets in good con¬ 
dition on her own hook ready for another 
ten months’ campaign in the dairy. 
2. There is no need in this day and gener¬ 
ation of hay crops, hay barns, and improved 
machinery, of having a poor quality of hay. 
Early cutting and less sun-drying obviate 
this, but if I did have any poor hay I should 
feed out some of it each day, and make it 
good by a small extra ration of oil-meal, or 
the like. It never pays to starve or force a 
dairy cow to eat poor feed. The subsequent 
loss has to be made good in some way, or lessen¬ 
ed profits make the ecomony look niggardly. 
The good dairy cow is an animal of benefi¬ 
cence, paying back with generosity all acts 
of liberal provision, and so I should prefer to 
feed poor hay, with a compensating grain 
ration, to steers, colts and mules rather than 
to a dairy cow to which I looked for profita¬ 
ble dairying. 
Portage Co. O. 
FROM N. S. HOWELL 
1. I want my cows to go into winter-quar¬ 
ters in fine order,[good enough for beef, and 
I would feed grain or fodder corn, with the 
ears on, at any time when the pasture is in¬ 
sufficient. 
2. I would feed the poorest quality of hay 
early in the winter, or before March: but 
most of it I would give to dry cows, and I 
would try to have as little of it as possible by 
cutting early, and if some must be fed to cows 
in milk, let it be in connection with some of 
the best hay, giving about three-fourths of 
what good hay the cow would eat first, then 
all of the poorer sort she may want at the 
same foddering. By doing so, the cows will 
eat the poorer hay with better relish, and the 
mess of milk will not diminish as much. 
Cut your hay early. 
Washingtonville, N. Y. 
FROM A. H. LIBBY. 
1. Cows should be in good flesh but I do not 
want a cow fat at any time until I wish to dis¬ 
pose of her for beef. As soon as feed gets 
short in midsummer, I feed some green fodder 
as long as I can keep it ; then if I do not have 
roots to feed, I begin to feed grain. I always 
make it a’point to feed enough to keep up a flow 
of milk. If you do that and do not over-feed, 
cows will always be in good conditon to[go in¬ 
to winter-quarters. I use grain only when I 
cannot get something cheaper. 
2. I begin to feed straw about the first of 
January, when I wish to dry off the cows, i 
then also stop feeding grain. After the straw 
is fed I commence on the poorest hay. If 
I have much straw and poor hay, after a little 
I feed some grain with it. I do not think cows 
should be fed too high for milk ; it is like try 
ing to do more with a machine than was in¬ 
tended ; it will soon wear out. 
Answers to the questions; Under what condi. 
tion did you raise your best crop of rye? 
How was the land treated? How much 
seed per acre? Why do you prefer rye to 
wheat? Do you sow grass seed with rye? 
Fertilizers? Do you drill or broadcast the 
seed? 
FROM COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Rye, like any other crop, responds to rich 
soil and thorough culture. Rye grown on ! 
sandy or light loam land is of whiter and of 
better quality for flour than when grown on 
hard land. It does best, like wheat, when the 
land is top dressed with fine manure and 
superphosphate is also put in with the grain. 
My best crops of rye have followed spring 
grain with the surface well manured and the 
seed sown early in September. The land 
should be well prepared. Rye is a grosser 
feeder than wheat aud hence will do very 
well when the land is poorer or not so well 
prepared, but it rosponds to painstaking as 
well as wheat, but this is not so essential. 
There should be two bushels per acre of seed. 
Rye will live and produce a crop on thinner 
soil than wheat, and it will also stand the ex¬ 
posure of winter better, aud the drought of 
summer. This is because it is naturally a 
ranker plant aud coarser in its absorption of 
plant food. For these reasons it will be a 
fair crop where wheat would be a total 
failure. It is largely sown for these reasons 
as a seeding crop. It is tho best crop with 
which to seed with grass seed. It can be sown 
so early that Timothy and other smaller 
grasses can be put in with it and get a good 
start in tho autumn, which is not the case 
with wheat, as it must be sown later, and 
after a frost, to prevent the ravages of the 
weevil and fly. 
Rye will yield, on an average, 12 to 15 
bushels per acro]on fair land; on extra good 
land, 20,[busheis per acre or more. It will 
furnish from one to two tons of straw per 
acre, according to the growth, and as a rule 
this straw will sell for more per ton than 
good merchantable hay. This makes it a pro¬ 
fitable crop with the benefits of seeding,except 
that it is au exhausting crop when all sold; 
as a ton of rye depletes the land of nitrogen 
34. pounds; phosphoric acid, 16 pounds; pot¬ 
ash 10. 6 pouhds, and a ton of straw takes away 
14.6 pounds of nitrogen, 7.4 pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid anl 20.2 pounds of potash. These 
combined would make an average reduction 
per acre of fertilizing elements of about $4 for 
a crop. It is a fact, which has come under 
my observation in many instances, that land 
is rapidly depleted in fertility by selling rye 
crops from a farm. Rye is valuable food to 
mix with oats for cattle aud horses. It is ex¬ 
cellent mixed with bran and oil moal to feed 
cattle for fattening, and also for fattening 
hogs; or mixed with bran for growing pigs. 
I have fed it mixed with bran to sheep with 
gratifying results. In all cases it should be 
ground entire. Our object in raising rye is to 
sow the Timothy in the autumn and to give it 
such a good start that it will not kill out the 
next summer. The clover is sown generally 
in the early spring. Most farmers sow rye 
with drills and at the same time put in tho 
fertilizer and Timothy. I sow^broadcast as 
in this way I get the ground better covered. 
Saratoga Co. N. Y. 
FROM J. J. MITCHELL. 
My best crop of rye I raised on ground where 
oats had been the same season. The ground 
was plowed about September 15, say five 
inches deep, with a Syracuse chilled plow. 
The seed was sowed about September 20. The 
ground was thoroughly harrowed with the 
Acme harrow after about 20 loads of stable 
manure per acre had been put on it. Then the 
seed was sown and the ground harrowed and 
rolled. Two bushels per acre of seed were 
used. I prefer rye to wheat for several rea¬ 
sons. In the first place, rye is about a certain 
crop, while wheat is very uncertain, and if the 
wheat does well one cannot get flour fit to use 
made at our mills, and the straw is not worth 
much; while the rye is always useful for feed¬ 
ing purposes on the farm, ground, with corn 
and oats, or one can always sell it if one 
wants to. Then comes the straw which al¬ 
ways finds a ready sale at almost Timothy hay 
prices, and with the long-straw thrasher It 
is soon got ready for market. In comparison 
with other grain crops rye stands 
ahead, I think. I sow grass seed with 
it, although, if the rye is a very 
heavy crop, I sometimes think the grass 
does not do as well as I would like to have it. 
As to fertilizing it, that depends upon what I 
have on hand. If stable manure, I use it. If 
one is going to use any commercial fertilizer, 
he must be his own judge, for all kinds of soil 
will not do the same with one kind of fertilizer. 
Here is where farmers make a great mistake 
in buying their fertilizer. They must study 
the wants of their own soil and buy accord¬ 
ingly, or, in other words, experiment a little 
with different kinds until they get something 
that gives a good crop, then use the fertilizer 
that produced it. I have always sown rye 
broadcast, but I think perhaps drilling would 
do well: but I would not drill the fertilizer 
with the grain. I think that should go on 
broadcast, as rye has quite long roots, and it 
should be fed all the time. Drilling, I think, 
gets the fertilizer too near the grain. Rye is 
a sadly-neglected crop. It can be made use¬ 
ful by feeding it green in early summer, or 
