624 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SEPT. 21 
ns is sold wrapped in paper and canvas at an 
actual price, to the customers, of about 25 
cents a pound, wrappers included. The re¬ 
turns from these seven pigs made nearly $90, 
and the sow was left. She had eight pigs the 
next fall, and when these were weaned, she 
was turned into pork, and made $20, at a cost 
of less than $2 for corn for finishing. The 
chestnuts and acorns in the woods made near¬ 
ly all the meat without any cost at all, and 
the corn was really unnecessary. The pork 
was quite half lean, very tender and sweet, 
but lank and thin, the hams being broad, and 
not more than four inches thick in the most 
fleshy part. This meat is of precisely the 
same kind as is sold in Europe at a high price 
as Westphalia hams and bacon, which is 
esteemed a delicacy for the flavor and sweet¬ 
ness contributed by the nuts and roots upon 
which these forest-fed pigs live. I have now 
the young pigs and a sow which I bought for 
$2 last winter, and as the mast will be abund¬ 
ant this season, they will get fat enough 
to eat without a gram of corn. They are 
now getting the waste milk of two cows and 
the small and half-rotten potatoes fed for 
experiments as to their safety. They will 
make considerably over 1,000 pounds of pork. 
If one will figure up the cost of all this pork, 
I think he will estimate that it is not quite 
two cents per pound, including some charge 
made for the waste milk and the man’s time 
in carrying it to them, which is about 10 
minutes daily. 
Now there is no reason why nearly every 
Southern farmer could not do this. He has 
plenty of wood-land for a range ; he has some 
waste milk or may have ; he can grow peas 
and sweet potatoes ; he has old fields with 
grass and weeds which the pigs will eat, and 
his sows are prolific and intelligent enough to 
save all their pigs, never eating or crushing 
them, and defending them with the ferocity 
of a tiger from all enemies. He has plenty of 
corn-meal screenings, and if he will not suffer 
the pigs to starve on pine roots when the 
mast is not in season, or when it is scarce, by 
having some food grown for them, he can 
grow' all his pork and have some to sell with¬ 
out being able to put his finger on one single 
hard dollar he has laid out for it, instead of 
getting this provision from the stores at 12 or 
15 cents a pound on credit, at two per cent, a 
month and paid in cotton or corn at 25 per 
cent, less than the market rates. These “ pint- 
ers” might be useful to many Southern read¬ 
ers who might do as i have done ; viz, talk to 
their neighbors about it and show them how 
they can save money by growing their own 
pork at a trill lig cost, and utilizing neglected 
opportunities-, not to speak of the advantage 
of affording some means for their pigs to ex¬ 
hibit the natural intelligence which they cer¬ 
tainly possess. The Southern farmer is per¬ 
haps slow and a good deal behind his Northern 
and Western brethren in aptness and knowl¬ 
edge, but be can see a hard dollar when it is 
shown to him, although it may not be in the 
form of a light-weight silver coin. 
Macon County, N. C. 
DAIRY NOTES FROM A DAIRY 
RANCH. 
NO. III. 
THE HERD, AND OUR WAV OF IMI’ROVING IT. 
Stalling and improving a dairy herd in 
Coloi ado ; profitable sale of culls ; milk and 
butter dairying: profits from a pure bred 
bull ; how and why Holsteins replaced Jer¬ 
seys; advantages of thoroughbreds over 
scrubs ; praise for Holsteins\ care of a 
dairy herd. 
Ten years ago it was a difficult matter to 
pick up 50 fairly well-broken milch cows in 
Colorado. Cattle running on the range then 
represented largely the cattle interest of the 
State, consequently milk and especially nut¬ 
ter were at a premium. On the river bot¬ 
toms were to be found now and thtn dairy 
ranches; also in the mountains. I bought 
out a dairyman and found myself in posses¬ 
sion of 20 cows of do particular breed, whose 
recommendation w'astbat with good care they 
would each give some milk five or six months 
of the year. With these to start out with, I 
commenced dairying. Whenever a cow that 
promised well could be found, I added her to 
my herd and sold all the butter I could make 
at 45 and 50 cents per pound three-fourths of 
the year, the price never falling below 22 
cents. Having plenty of milk for the calves, 
I raised them all “by hand” and during the 
summer let the yearlmgs “rustle” for them¬ 
selves on the public feeding ground after the 
manner of the Western cattleman. 
For three years 1 managed in this way. At 
the end of that time I bought a ranch on the 
river and moved near town to take up the 
business of selling milk. To buy this ranch, 
I bad to include in the purchase a small herd 
of very fair Jerseys, eight or 10 in all. Cat¬ 
tle sold readily then and my young range 
stock found a purchaser at $15 per head. I 
had 00 of these and half a dozen or so fat 
cows for the butcher at $30 each. The Jer¬ 
sey bull and several of the cows that came 
with the farm were registered in the Worces¬ 
ter herd book. Now that 1 was selling half 
of my milk I could raise only the choicest 
heifer calves. It was no uncommon thing for 
a man to kill the calf of a common cow, if he 
wanted the milk needed to feed it, provided 
he could not give the little thing away. But 
here I reaped the benefit of a blooded bull. 
The calves sired by him sold readily when 
less than a week old for $2 to $5 apiece, the 
heifers bringing the latter price. These were 
the grade calves from tne “ scrub” cow’s. 
Prices of beef cattle began to fall anti it no 
longer paid to raise Jersey steers, they were 
not beefy enough. I decided to try the larger 
breed of Holsteins, and have something that 
would be worth raising for beef if it could be 
turned to no other profitable account. 
Isold seven Jersey cows and heifers for 
$100 each, keeping the grades in my herd, 
which was already much improved by my 
method of culling and selecting. If a cow did 
not return appreciative thanks at the milk- 
pail for the care aud food she had received, 
she was straightway fattened; so my 100 
milch cows were much above the average. 
The Jersey bull showed a decided determina¬ 
tion to light, so he was last seen as dressed 
beef entering a bologna sausage establish¬ 
ment. The returns on him were very light. 
I then bought two bulls and two heifers of 
the Holstein breed (yearling®) for $1,000. The 
calves of my common cows now sold readily 
as soon as dropped for $5 to $15. I still raised 
a few of the best, but this way of improving 
was too slow, and a car-load of high-grade 
two-year-old heifers, was shipped to me from 
Elgin, Illinois, at a cost not exceeding $40 per 
head. The first calf from this purchase was a 
bull aud brought at six months old, $80; the 
other bulls sold for prices varying from $25 to 
$75 according to the markings of the creatures. 
I raised all of the heifers myself; the sweet 
skimmed milk from the Cooley Creameis 
making this an easy thing to do. 
As my heifers came in I had cows to sell, 
aud although beef creatures were low, good 
milch cows sold at from $50 to $75 each. As 
my old cows became.fresh, I found purchasers 
for them and gradually found myself in pos¬ 
session of a Holstein herd; for among the 
changes, 20 thoroughbred, imported Holstein 
cows had been added to my stock. Now 
prices on dairy cattle began to decline, aud I 
sold my registered bulls for the same price I 
had received two years before for high grades 
—$70 aud $80 per head. 
The grade heifers I had ra : sed aud expected 
to receive $75 jer head for, sold by the car¬ 
load at $50 each. There was no loss abom 
that; it had cost not one cent more to raise 
those heifers than it would have cost to Lave 
raised scrubs that would not have brougi t 
over $15 per head, with a chance that a pur¬ 
chaser could not be found at any price. 
Now I had thoroughbred heifers to take all 
the milk I could spare and the high-grade 
calves were sold at the prices half-breeds 
brought at fiist. In the general dullness of 
the times, milk aud butter commanded a flow 
market, in my immediate neighborhood. As 
my supply of milk for butter-making depend¬ 
ed upon the whims of the milk trade, I could 
not agree to supply a certain amount of but¬ 
ter without risking to be ovei-burdeued 
with dairy products, so I sold half of my im¬ 
ported cows. These cows had proved very ex¬ 
cellent; each cow left in my possession a val¬ 
uable calf to fill her place in a year or two 
Despite the falling oil' in prices, the cows sold 
for all they cost me. The bulls have more 
than paid their first cost by service outside of 
my herd. 
It is hoped that this paper has shown that 
no man can afford to keep a herd of “scrubs” 
without constantly improving them. If an 
accurate debit and credit account had been 
kept, no doubt the increase of the Holsteins in 
the four years I have owned them would 
much more than pay the first cost of every 
cow bought. Nothing has been said of their 
superiority os milk and butter producers. 
One would hardly believe what might be 
said of thorn unless he had at some time been 
intimately acquainted with a fine herd. Given 
a good cow, it is the feed that makes the ex¬ 
tra cow. Not only is plenty of good feed 
needed, but regularity in feeding, too. The 
time is coming when the stock man will not 
allow his young creatures to be stunted in 
their growth; when he will crowd them with 
good feed, the heifers especially, so that when 
they are cows they can bear heavier feeding 
than they otherwise could. c. n. 
Greeley, Colorado. 
IN A MARIN DAIRY. 
Marin County, California, is a very 
famous dairy region. The county lies 
north of San Francisco Bay, fronting the 
Pacific. It is beautifully diversified—con¬ 
sisting of valleys, ridges, canons, hills, for¬ 
ests, streams and some very wild country. 
Most of it is owned by the dairymen. The 
Redwood forests stretch well into the coun¬ 
ty, and the remains of old logging camps 
are found in many places. The hill-sides 
and glens are full of wild flowers and such 
fine shrubs as the California lilacs and aza¬ 
leas. In the illustration, Fig. 237,page623, the 
cattle sheds have been built partly around 
a tan-bark evergreen oak. In the back¬ 
ground are a few Redwoods. The milk¬ 
maid, the cattle and the whole scene are 
very characteristic of California dairy life. 
In the course of a day’s travel through the 
Swiss dairies of the coast one will see a dozen 
or more milking yards in just such situa¬ 
tions, and early in the morning the milk¬ 
maids at their work. c. H. s. 
REPORTS ON RURAL NO.2 POTATO. 
Seney, Plymouth County, Iowa.—I dug 
my R.N.-Y. No.2’s on September 6. 1 plant¬ 
ed one small potato cut into four pieces, 
two in a hill. I put on about a double hand¬ 
ful of fine bone and phosphate. It was 
quite late with me. I have 20 tubers, all of 
good size. They weigh 75 .7 pounds. 
.1. P. V. 
Fair Grove, Greene County, Missouri.— 
1 cut my small Rural No.2 Potato in two 
pieces and planted them on April 8, ac¬ 
cording to the trench system. Each piece 
yielded 14 potatoes—28 in all, 24 of which 
were merchantable; total weight eight 
pounds. The largest two weighed \Y% 
ounces each; the remainder were uniform in 
size. They were dug on August 9. I am well 
pleased with the result and will give 
the variety another trial next year. r. s. 
Little Falls, Passaic County, New 
Jersey.—I planted the R. N.-Y. Potato No. 
2 on April 10, cut into five pieces; only two 
came up, the others rotting. I dug t hem 
on September 9, and got seven potatoes 
weighing three pounds and two ounces, the 
largest weighing a little over 14 ounces, and 
the smallest three ounces. They are of 
good shape and smooth. G. N. E. 
Natural Bridge, Jefferson County, 
N. Y.—I planted the Rural No. 2 Potato on 
May 10, and dug my crop on September 4, 
after t he vines had been dead two weeks or 
more, with the following results: 27 pota¬ 
toes; weight eight pounds six ounces; 18 
marketable tubers weighing seven pounds 
seven ounces. The largest tuber weighed 
12 ounces, the largest two one pound six 
ounces. In planting I followed the Ru¬ 
ral’s trench method. 1 cut my sample 
into four pieces, with two eyes to a piece, 
with the exception of one piece which had 
lmt one eye. I planted the pieces about 
two feet apart. F. E. A. 
OuAQUAGA, Broome County, N. Y.—No. 
2 Potato sent me was a rather inferior sam¬ 
ple, but was cut into five pieces and planted 
in as many hills. They all started vigor¬ 
ously and were hoed once when the frost 
cut them down. One hill never came up 
again. The vines began to die from blight 
on August 1, and I dug them on August 19. 
There were 23 sound tubers which weighed 
seven pounds. Of these five were small, 
but none was as small as the sample seed. 
Three good-sized potatoes were rotten, 
making the yield 20 tubers in all. The 
effect of t he freeze reduced the size of the 
tubers materially. I am well pleased wit h 
them and will be able to plant a nice plot 
next season. M. J. W. 
Cornwall, Orange County, New York. 
—The R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potato was planted 
about May 1. I cut it into six pieces with 
one eye each. These I planted in the gar¬ 
den in a trench 12 inches apart and four 
inches deep. One piece had a sprout about 
25 £ inches long. This I planted so as to bring 
the top of the sprout nearly to the surface 
of the ground. It came up and was nearly 
two inches high before the others appeared. 
This was the strongest plant of the six the 
whole season. On September 9tli, I dug the 
tubers; there were 33 in all, which weighed 
eight pounds nine ounces. The hill in 
which the sprout was planted turned out 
eight nice tubers which weighed three 
pounds seven ounces; the largest weighed 
12)£ ounces; one weighed 12 ounces and one 
1IX ounces. They are a very fine lot of 
potatoes. Those who have seen them pro¬ 
nounce them first-rate. c. s. 
Phelps, Ontario County, N. Y.—The 
Rural New-Yorker No. 2 Potato, sent me 
last, spring, was cut into four pieces with 
one eye each, and planted in the garden, 
where potatoes had been grown for years. 
The yield was nine pounds. There were in 
all 35 tubers—27 large and 8 small, the lar¬ 
gest weighing 11 ounces. ,J. L. 
Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. 
—I planted the R. N.-Y No. 2 Potato about 
April 15. It was the size of a hen’s egg and 
had 10 eyes. I cut it into pieces of one eye 
each; all grew but one. I dug them on 
September 6, and the yield was remarkable. 
There were 28Lpounds,all good-sized tubers. 
The largest weighed one pound and seven 
ounces. There were seven that weighed 
over one pound each.. E. w. 
BAYARD, Columbiana County, Ohio.— 
Jty R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potatoes died off before 
they had properly matured. From the one 
small tuber 1 got 18 marketable potatoes. 
I planted four acres of potatoes last spring. 
We had so much wet weather that I find a 
good many rotten. I have not dug yet, but 
on examination I find the Early and Late 
Rose the most affected. I think the rot 
will not affect what are sound. The Poten¬ 
tate is the least affected. The blight affect¬ 
ed the Burbank; there may be half a crop, 
but I am not able to state positively. 
I. S. T. 
Manchester, York County, Pa.—My 
small Rural No. 2 Potato I planted on May 
2. It was cut into four pieces, and planted 
in a frame made of boards wit h sides about 
eight inches high, the box being 32x34 
inches. The ground was deeply \vorked 
and enriched with hen manure and ashes, 
and occasionally a liberal sprinkling of to¬ 
bacco dust was applied to kill the wire- 
worm. The crop was dug August 14; re¬ 
sult, 11 pounds 10 ounces, all of large size 
except six small ones. The largest one 
weighs to-day—10 days after it was dug— 
185£ ounces; another weighs 17,'a ounces 
and two others 16 ounces each. The rest 
are all large, smooth tubers. I think the 
result is very satisfactory. The frame or 
box was filled up with soil from time to 
time as the stems increased in size, so that 
the potatoes when dug were about six 
inches under the ground—a little in the 
order of the R. N.-Y.’s trench system. 
E. B. G. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Town Insurance.— Since the formation of 
a farmers’ club in our town tJan. 19, 1889) 
the subject of insurance has been strongly ag¬ 
itated, and as a result a mutual farmers’ 
insurance eompauy was organized on Fib. 
22, to which property to the amount of over 
$225,000 has been offered for insurance. The 
by-laws prohibit taking risks withiu corpo¬ 
ration limits of villages, or on property any¬ 
where within 60 feet of other buildings unless 
all are covered by one policy. The policy 
costs $2 for any amount under $7,000 which 
is the highest amount that is allowed to be 
covered by one policy. There are no other 
charges unless a loss is incurred. Then each 
policy-holder is assessed a sullicient per cent, 
on the face of his policy to cover tho loss. 
The term of insurance is live years. Insur¬ 
ance in these companies is the saf 
est aud by far the cheapest that can be ob¬ 
tained—safe because the capital stock is in 
sight and held by tutu known by all iusured 
as every man iusured becomes a stock¬ 
holder aud is liable for the face of his 
policy as soon as he is insured in this com¬ 
pany: cheaper, for fires in the country are 
rare, aud seldom large, for generally quite a 
distance separates the house aud barns, or 
should, at least, for health as well as safety. 
Several towm around us have town insurance 
companies and in one instance where a com¬ 
pany had been in operation 11 yaars the cost 
had betn only one-tenth of one per cent, per 
