4889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
363 
FROM DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
I was very much interested in the article 
in the Rural of February 2, by Mr. T. B. 
Terry, on his method of feeding clover hay 
and no grain to horses. I am not surprised 
at the general distrust as to the merits of Mr. 
Terry’s method; neither am I surprised at the 
results obtained by such feeding under the, 
conditions mentioned. As a rule, people are 
too distrustful of any new method, that is not 
in accord with their own experience; and 
they rarely study such methods in detail, in 
which case it might appear not only possible 
but practicable. 
The success of Mr. Terry’s plan is undoubt¬ 
edly due to at least three favorable condi¬ 
tions, the failure of any one of which would 
materially change the result. 
X. The Quality of the Clover Hay.— 
The general impression that clover hay, when 
fed to horses in considerable quantity, is lia¬ 
ble to cause heaves.is more than half correct; 
but the resuit is due largely, if not entirely, 
to the quality of the hay, and not to the fact 
that it is clover. We have always fed more 
or less clover hay to our horses with uniform¬ 
ly good results; but only when the clover was 
first-class. Owing to the difficulty in curing 
green clover, there is a large proportion of 
the clover hay that is of poor quality. It is 
this poor clover that causes heaves. 
It is not aa uncommon experience for farm¬ 
ers to keep their horses in excellent condition 
on good pasture without feeding grain. 
These same horses will perform a moderate 
amount of labor, even quite hard work if care¬ 
fully handled. Few farmers would be sur¬ 
prised by the publication of this fact. The 
method adopted by Mr. Terry is quite simi¬ 
lar. Instead of feeding exclusively on grass, 
he feeds clover hay, improved by a small pro¬ 
portion of Timothy. The difference between 
these two methods is not so great as might at 
first appear. If we look at the nutritive 
digestive ratio of the ration given by Mr. 
Terry we find that it is fully up to the aver¬ 
age. The nutritive ratio of best clover hay is 
about one to 4 5. The ratio for the best Timo¬ 
thy hay is considerably higher, being about 
one to five. In pasture grass the average 
ratio is about one to 4.5. The ratio of an aver¬ 
age ration of meadow nay and oats is about 
one to six or seven. We thus find that the 
ration as fed by Mr. Terry is even richer than 
that received by the horse fed on an average 
hay and grain ration. This is due to the dif¬ 
ference in the ratio of the best quality of hay 
and hay of an average quality, the latter 
being one to nine or 10. With such a consid¬ 
erable quantity of grain is necessary to bring 
the ratio down to the required standard. 
2. The Care and Management of the 
Horses. —These are just as important as the 
quality of the feed. No greater mistake is 
made in the management of stock, than the 
plan too often adopted on the principle that 
all that is necessary is that the animals shall 
be well or liberally fed. Horses that are well 
cared for and always carefully used will do 
well on a very ordinary ration; while horses 
receiving no care and that are carelessly or 
severely handled will not thrive on the best of 
feed. 
that in his case it can be satisfactorily done. 
If so, no one should quarrel with him for not 
wanting to sell good clover hay, buy grain, 
and pay transportation both ways. But his 
experience has not proved that the rest of us 
should sell our oats and buy clover hay; or 
that, having both, we should not feed both. 
Mr. Terry is not a horse breeder. Horses 
are a necessity with him. His object is to get 
from them only a moderate amount of work 
with the least outlay for feed. He finds he 
can make his clover hay, which he must raise, 
do his plowing, cultivating, and marketing of 
potatoes; which, I take it, is his real business 
at present. What better could he ask? They 
beat him in China, for they keep asses and 
nrules and feed them on the potato tops; they 
cannot afford even hay. Horses, like men, 
must live on what they can get, not on what 
their fancy may dictate, or their appetite ap¬ 
prove. There is a wonderful elasticity about 
the requirements of the animal body. 
Nor would I be understood to believe that 
Mr. Terry abuses bis horses in feeding no 
grain. Every farmer must have some kind of 
animal to consume his coarse products, save 
transportation, and return the residues to the 
soil. This is usually done by cattle, sheep 
and swine. Mr. Terry chooses to make his 
of adaptation of means to ends, alongside of 
which Mr. Terry’s is pleasing and luxurious. 
On general principles, the horse is not a cow, 
and is not constructed to live entirely upon 
the coarsest feed. In his wild state he lives 
upon grass to be sure, but then native grasses 
are exceedingly nutritious. As we domesti¬ 
cate him, and keep him for his labor, we tax 
his energies more severely than nature does. 
He has not the stomach of the ruminant, and 
I question if evolution in that direction 
would be desirable. Hay-fed horses would 
find labor very arduous on some of our large 
farms, and in the Michigan lumber woods 
would undoubtedly prove a failure. It was 
not that sort of a team that drew 30,068 feet 
of pine logs at a single load. In general, so 
far as albuminoids alone are concerned, good 
clover hay is about equal to the same weight 
of oats; but it contains only half as much of 
the fats and starches. But one-tenth of oats 
is crude fiber, while such fiber constitutes one- 
third of clover hay. Clearly under severe 
labor and heavy feed, some of the less bulky 
foods are desirable in order to secure the 
greatest amount of labor to the 100 pounds of 
horse. Whether feeding such fodder is cheap 
or not will depend in every case, as in Mr. 
Terry’s, on circumstances, of which every 
AN ENGLISH BARN YARD. Fig. 140. 
4. The Work Required of the Horses. 
—The work required of Mr. Terry’s horses is 
moderate, and can be, probably always is, 
performed at a moderate pace. If the horses 
were to be driven at a rapid pace on the road, 
or wore required to do continuous hard draft 
work of auy kind, a grain ration would un¬ 
doubtedly be desirable if not necessary. 
Another very important point is the fact 
that all horses are not adapted to the same 
kind of treatment. The individuality of Mr. 
Terry’s horses may have much to do with the 
success of his method of feeding. Some horses 
are very easily kept, aud will do a moderate 
amount of work, and at the same time, keep 
fat, on a ration that would barely keep the 
skin and bones of another horse together. No 
general ration can be given that will suit all 
cases. To secure the best results the needs of 
each individual horse must be carefully noted 
and his wants supplied. While the method of 
feeding on clover hay is practicable, and may 
even be desirable in special cases, it is not suit¬ 
able for general purposes. It is, moreovor, a 
method requiring much skill to carry it out 
successfully. A method that proves a success 
in the hands of one person, is very often a 
complete failure in those of another. 
FROM E. DAVENPORT. 
The Rural asks what I think of Mr. 
Terry’s plan of keeping horses without grain. 
Briefly, under his circumstances he has shown 
admirable tact in adapting means to the end 
iu view. He must raise clover. He does not 
wish to raise corn or oats. His farm is small. 
He practices intensive agriculture. His team¬ 
work is moderate. He frankly owns that he 
was desirous of keeping his horses without 
grain, to save buying it, and he has proved 
horses do this, and it does not seem that they 
suffer thereby. I might remark, in passing, 
that it is often overlooked that this is the 
proper office of animals in the economy of 
the farm, unless the farmer be a breeder, or 
a dairy farmer, when all else must be subor¬ 
dinated to the well-being of his stock. 
We should do Mr. Terry justice. He does 
not say to every man “Gk> thou and do like¬ 
wise;” neither does he say that clover hay 
alone is the best food, all things considered, 
nor that it is the best for the horse, nor that 
more labor can be obtained from a clover-fed 
horse each day than from one given an al¬ 
lowance of grain. If he should say these 
things I would say frankly that I do not be¬ 
lieve them. They haven’t been proved. He 
is non-committal, and does not assert them. 
He has proved that he has gained his end suc¬ 
cessfully. Facts are hard things to theorize 
away, and no sane man will for a moment 
question the financial soundness of Mr. Terry's 
practice under his circumstances. 
Milk is a perfect ration for man, and he 
thrives exceedingly well upon it in his young¬ 
er days, but for a grown man to perform a 
full day’s labor upon a diet of milk is a physi¬ 
cal impossibility. In Belgium, butter-milk is 
the national diet helped out by potatoes, and 
supplemented at rare intervals by bits of ba¬ 
con. There, too, the family cow eats all the 
weeds of the farm, and horses are not kept at 
all under “/a petite culture." of which I am 
speaking, for there is not enough to be done 
to pay for their keeping, even on hay. So 
the cow that eats the weeds, aud, perchance 
the wife that eats the butter-milk—to save it 
—do the plowing—another shining example 
man must be judge in his own case. Either 
extreme should be avoided, lest our domesti¬ 
cated horses become grey-hounds upon the one 
hand or cows upon the other. I shall still 
feed grain to horses and expect to get more 
labor from them and with greater comfort to 
the animals. 
Ingham County, Michigan. 
Slrclj.Utxtu.i't', 
A QUEEN’S BARN. 
English sovereigns have always been more 
or less interested in agriculture. The ruling 
king or queen has always in modern days 
made it a point to conduct several farms in 
J different parts of the kingdom, and under 
{ different conditions of soil, climate, etc. 
| These farms have been in one sense experi- 
jj inent stations—they have not generally been 
| conducted on a money-making basis, but 
| rather for pleasure and instruction. The 
following adaptation from Ben Jonson seems 
to Englishmen very sensible: 
“Princes that would their people should do well, 
Must at themselves begin, as at the head: 
For men, by their example, pattern out 
Their Imitations, and regard of laws; 
A farmer Queen, a world to farmlug draws.” 
The present English queen is interested in 
several farms. One of these, called the Flem¬ 
ish Farm, is the subject of the present sketch. 
The Flemish Farm received its name from 
George IV, who established it at Windsor for 
the purpose of illustrating the Flemish system 
of farming. It consists of 400 acres of land, 
of which 160 are in pasture. The soil was 
originally very poor for general agriculture, 
being cold and stiff. It has been carefully 
drained at a cost of $15 per acre, and no ex¬ 
pense has been spared to bring it to a high de¬ 
gree of fertility. As a result of this care, it 
is stated that the farm is made to produce 
from 36 to 40 bushels of wheat, and from 60 
to 80 bushels ot oats per acre, and large crops 
of mangels, clover and beans. Plowing is 
done entirely by steam. Hereford cattle are 
kept at the Flemish farm, it being the custom 
of the royal farmers to keep but one breed of 
cattle on each farm. The horses are a cross 
between the Suffolk and Clydesdale. 
At Figures 139 and 140 we show the barn 
plans for this farm. These buildings were 
erected at a cost of $30,000, and are regarded 
as the most complete set of farm buildings to 
be found in England. Fig. 139 shows an end 
of the main structure; while Fig. 140 shows 
the plan of the building arrangement. It will 
be seen that the English believe in having 
their work well under cover. The drawings 
are re-engraved from Bell’s Weekly Messenger. 
A COMPACT HOUSE. 
The house shown at Figures 135, 136, 137, 
was built by Mr. Richard Cronsberry, one 
of our Canadian subscribers, from plans de¬ 
signed by himself aided by several ideas he 
found in the Rural. The two longest sides 
are 20 feet; the other six are 13 feet each. 
The house is built on a stone foundation, 
walls seven feet in the ground with a wall in 
the center of the cellar. It is concreted and 
brick-clad. The cost was $1,500. One great 
point about it is the number of windows, (w.) 
As seen in the drawings, there is plenty of 
chance for sun-light. There are also plenty 
of closets (c). It is proposed to build a wood¬ 
shed at the back of the house, so no window 
was made there. 
faxm Camcrimj. 
SCUFFLE HOE. 
At Fig. 138 we show a picture of a hoe 
used by many gardeners. It is intended for 
shallow work, scraping or slicing. It is very 
useful for cutting off weeds or grass just be¬ 
low the surface of the ground. The R. N.-Y. 
is trying a cultivator attachment that works 
on mu.'h the same principle. This is made 
by G. Hauschild, of Topeka, Kansas. It con¬ 
sists of a narrow cutting-bar about a foot 
long, so attached to the cultivator teeth that 
it runs at any depth desired,cutting the weeds 
off below the surface. We tried it once last 
year, in stony ground, without the best of 
success. This year we are to try it in a gras¬ 
sy corn-field that is free from stones. 
TRIMMING A GRINDSTONE. 
In the Rural of March 2 I notice an arti¬ 
cle from George O. Gilbert showing how to 
trim up an old grindstone; to this 1 wish to in¬ 
troduce an amendment. 
Inclosed find a rude sketch (see Fig. 134) 
showing the proper way to proceed with such 
a job. Instead of making the hole for the 
crank shaft in the center of the block, find the 
center of the stone in its present form, mark 
the point on the block and bore the hole there. 
First, draw the line £ F across the origin¬ 
al center; next a transverse line A D. On 
this line find the center (from side to side) and 
make the bole there (at c.) This is the cor¬ 
rect center of the stone in its present shape; 
and from this it can be turned by wasting 
only one-half as much of it as must be wasted 
if it were turned in the manner which Mi*. 
Gilbert suggests. 
p. h. wait. 
NEW WAY OF SHUCKING GRAIN. 
If there is one piece of farm work that the 
writer feels he knows how to do, it is putting 
grain into shock rapidly and well, so that it 
will successfully* resist all ordinary accidents 
of wind and weather to which our crops are 
exposed. I tried many* methods before,I found 
a satisfactory one. This is perfect, and as I 
never saw any one who had ever heard of it 
except the man who taught it to me, I want 
to tell the Rural readers how it is done. 
If our wheat had been shocked in this man- 
