1889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
757 
This, however, does not detract from the 
credit given to the scrub cows. I dislike 
that word “scrub.” It is too much akin 
to the terms “the common people,” “the 
working classes,” “the lower orders” 
used by so many to distinguish those people 
who are not rich. It is alleged to be a fact 
that there are more virtue, more goodness in 
general among these persons than among 
the so-called higherclasses; and how would 
the world get along without them ; for to 
their labors we owe everything, even the 
wealth which makes some people feel like 
gods among us. So with the scrub cows. 
I respect them and sympathize with them : 
but I do them strict justice and treat them 
precisely in the same way as I treat my 
pure Jerseys and Ayrshires. 
“Papa thinks the care of cows is more 
important than the breed ” says Miss Leah 
Allen, and the young lady with grade Jer¬ 
seys and native cows (scrubs) takes a first 
prize for her butter. No gilt-edged, high- 
pedigreed, blue-blooded Jersey could have 
better treatment than Mr. Allen's cows get. 
You are right, Mr. Allen, and your exam¬ 
ple is worthy of constant rumination by 
every one who makes butter. 
My cattle are the common native breed, 
says Mr. Fear. The herd of Mr. Goodrich 
is two-thirds grade Jerseys and the rest are 
common natives. One herd only is of Jer¬ 
sey cows, whether pure or not Mr. S. does 
not say. A most useful lesson to be derived 
from the narratives given by the prize¬ 
winners is this: that with good feeding, 
clean keeping and milking, good care of 
the milk and cream and good churning, it 
matters not what kind of cows; what churn, 
or system of milk-setting may be in use, 
the prize goes to the skillful person. 
But Why Use Coloring ? I used to 
some years ago, but it was in deference to 
the taste of my customers who desired a 
high color. For seven years I have not 
used any coloring and my butter sells as 
well as it ever did. It has brought 30 cents 
per pound all the summer in a market 
where the common country butter sells for 
six to 10 cents. With good pasture in the 
summer and green (in color) clover hay and 
corn-fodder, well saved and cured, and the 
right grain food—yellow corn-meal for the 
bulk of it in the winter—the butter will be 
yellow enough to please any taste that has 
not been spoiled by ill-usage. Instead of 
coloring, the practice of feeding for the 
right color as well as flavor must soon have 
leading and popular demand in the dairy 
business, because it is the only honest, 
truthful method. 
Few contributors to agricultural jour¬ 
nals have written more about scab in pota¬ 
toes than I, and I have always associated 
the use of fresh stable manure with this 
disease or defect in the tubers. Mr. Terry’s 
experience verifies this idea. “I am done 
with that kind of business,” says Mr. T. I 
have been done with it for 10 years, at least, 
when, for experiment, I planted plots of 
potatoes with fresh manure, old manure, 
poultry manure, wood ashes, no manure 
and artificial manure, and had scab in pre¬ 
cisely the order given up to no manure and 
then I had none, the fresh-manure plot be¬ 
ing wholly damaged without one clean po¬ 
tato. I don’t care so much for the cause of 
any evil if I can prevent or avoid it; al¬ 
though I like to learn the ins and outs of 
everything; and if we can avoid the potato 
scab, what does it matter if the cause is a 
disputed question. From the first. I have 
felt confident that it is due to a mechanical 
injury by some living creature, and not to a 
fungus, and the association of the scab 
with fresh manure is clear, evident and 
reasonable; whatever attracts wire-worms 
is accompanied by scab. 
The picture of Mr. Terry’s tools will afford 
matter for rumiuation among the readers 
of the R. N.-Y. for a long time. The West¬ 
ern lady who wants to see Mrs. Terry’s 
household tools would, no doubt, be satis¬ 
fied ; for she has no doubt everything need¬ 
ful in that line—a washing machine, sewing 
machine, carpet sweeper, labor-saving 
range, oil stove for summer use, hot and 
cold, water through the house, stationary 
wash-tubs, drains, bath-room and water- 
closet, and by and by she will have electric 
lights through the house, with a heap of 
other smaller affairs which might be group¬ 
ed, like Mr. Terry’s small tools, in the bar¬ 
rel. “First make it fit for thyself in the 
field and then furnish the house.” “The 
value of this lies in the applicatiuu of it.” 
Macon County, N. C. 
Illinois Farming.— My specialty is 
dairying on a 90-acre farm located 35 miles 
southwest from Chicago, six miles west 
from Joliet. My butter from full-blood 
Jersey cows is contracted by the year at 25 
cents. In addition I raise a few Shropshire 
lambs for Easter markets which are also 
contracted to a Joliet butcher. Timothy 
hay is baled in early fall to make room for 
corn-fodder, and sold to stable-men in 
Joliet usually; occasionally I ship a car¬ 
load if an unusual demand or better prices 
are noted in other markets. Corn is shelled 
next May and held in readiness for a good 
market and usually sold when the new crop 
is assured. Oats are harvested at the earliest 
possible date, thrashed from the field in 
July and sold immediately. Nine seasons 
out of 10 the first good white oats delivered 
in market bring a much better price than 
those sold later or until the following 
spring, when an account of waste must be 
added to the cost of production. Hogs are 
marketed twice a year, about June or De¬ 
cember, and are always sold at about nine 
months old. Clover seed is consigned to a 
Chicago commission house. 
How do I keep posted? 
I have weekly quotations from Chicago 
commission firms, and market reports by the 
R.N.-Y., Ohio Farmer, Farmers’ Review and 
Hoard’s Dairyman, also crop conditions in 
all parts of the country through the above pa¬ 
pers. The law of supply and demand doesn’t 
govern as formerly. Failure of crops in one 
section doesn’t mean higher prices in an¬ 
other section more favored. My determin¬ 
ation to sell or hold a crop is always based 
on, first, the cost of production, second, the 
price offered, third, the condition or yield, 
local and general, of the crop under consid¬ 
eration or of sympathizing crops. It is un¬ 
safe to speculate on future prices of our 
staple crops. If I am offered a good margin 
on the cost of production I sell at once. If 
the price offered leaves me no margin and 
the conditions warrant no immediate ad¬ 
vance I sell and put the money to the best 
use possible, and go to figuring to produce 
the next crop at less expense, but, of course, 
there is a limit and I believe it is almost 
reached in some lines. P. H. M. 
Plainfield. 
(Urn (where. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Iowa. 
Des Moines, Polk County, October 2S.— 
Since my last report from this section, the 
weather has been very dry, and there are 
no prospects of any fall rain as yet. Our 
weather is fine for work—clear and cool— 
and the fall work is progressing finely. 
Potatoes are all harvested and corn-husk¬ 
ing has begun in earnest. Our late potato 
crop was not first-class in ’yield or quality, 
though in some sections the acreage was 
unusually large, so that our market is 
glutted with potatoes which are a dull 
sale at 15 cents per bushel. \Ye have an 
abundant crop of almost everything and 
everything is cheap. Winter squashes, late 
cabbages and turnips are the only crops we 
are short in. Our weather has been too 
dry for these crops as they are mostly 
made in the fall. We thought that our 
onion crop would be short, but plenty seem 
to be offered and they are dull sale at 40 
cents per bushel. There is an abundant 
supply of good winter apples and the mar¬ 
ket for them opened at 30 cents per bushel; 
but they are now worth 50 to 75 cents per 
bushel. Corn is selling at from 12}^ to 15, 
and oats are worth 15 cents per bushel. 
Cattle plentiful and cheap. Hogs are 
scarce and bringing good prices. A great 
many of our farmers are selling out; some 
to go West and some to get clear of their 
indebtedness- for surplus stock and farm 
implements. Property at these sales is sold 
on 12 and 14 months time, and usually 
brings a good price, though these sales are 
beginning to get dull and the crowds who 
attend them are not nearly so large as 
formerly. I see no hope for prices on farm 
products to be better here soon. F. s. w. 
Runnells, Polk County, October 26.— 
We have had a beautiful fall. Corn is 
about half cribbed; yield not as good as 
expected—about 40 bushels per acre. Po¬ 
tatoes good except early varieties. They 
are selling at 10 cents per bushel. Corn is 
16 cents; oats 12 to 14; wheat of poor 
quality and a small yield and worth 50 to 
60 cents. Upon the whole, it is very dis¬ 
couraging to farmers, especially when it 
takes more than the price of a bushel of po¬ 
tatoes to get one bushel to market, say, 300 
miles away. The inevitable is coming as 
fast as the wheels of time roll round, when 
labor will receive its just reward. 
J. K. w. 
Nebraska. 
Takamah, Burt County, October 26.— 
We have had three unusually dry seasons 
here. We have had enough rain each sea¬ 
son to make a fair crop; but the ground is 
drier to-day to a greater depth than it has 
ever been since the country was settled. A 
great many wells are giving out. There is 
every indication that things will freeze up 
in this condition. Things froze up very 
dry last fall, and although the winter was 
one of the mildest known, yet small fruits 
and especially grape-vines suffered badly. 
All crops are fair : corn is good and potatoes 
are very good; no potato rot here. Potatoes 
are selling as low as 10 cents per bushel de 
livered ; but a great many were sold for 15 
cents. Beef cattle are worth about \% 
cent per pound. Money is very scarce. 
Hogs are about 3cents on foot with a 
good deal of cholera in the neighborhood. 
T. H. G. 
New York. 
Eminence, Schoharie County, October 
26.—Our money crops are chiefly butter and 
hops. The former is made at home; almost 
all have creameries, some Cooley’s others 
Reid’s. Hops were not a large crop, but 
what we had were of fine quality. Oats 
and buckwheat are fair crops. Potatoes 
very poor—about one-third of a crop. 
There were but few apples. Almost every 
farmer keeps a few sheep. J. c. T. 
Pennsylvania. 
New Bloomfield, Perry County, Octo¬ 
ber 30.—There is little or no clover seed, so 
far as I can learn, in this county. In this 
immediate neighborhood there is none. 
As compared with previous years it is a 
total failure. The potato crop was ser¬ 
iously injured by too much wet weather 
and the rot. It will not be half a crop. 
The corn crop is unusually good—much 
better than the average. Wheat that was 
sown early looks very well: but many 
farmers were delayed by the wet weather, 
and some of the wheat is only now coming 
up. C. A. B. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the writer to insure atten¬ 
tion. Before asking a question, please see if it 
is not answered in our advertising columns. 
Ask only a few questions at one time. Put 
questions on a separate piece of paper.! 
COTTON-SEED-MEAL AND LINSEED-MEAL 
USED AS FEEDS. 
H. 0., New Canaan, Conn .—In a late 
R. N.-Y. Mr. Henry Stewart said : “ Cot- 
ton-seed-meal is not a healthful food for 
pigs.” On page 677, under the head of 
“Tough Pork” I find this : “ The use of 
carbonaceous food as corn, oil-meal, etc., is 
necessary to the finishing off of any animal 
used for meat.” In the same issue an ad¬ 
vertisement says: “ Use with your other 
feed one-third linseed-meal.” Just before 
reading the above I had told my man to add 
from two to three quarts of linseed-meal to 
a cooked half-barrel of potatoes, apples and 
corn, for pigs whose fattening for the 
butcher had just been started. What is 
the explanation of the apparent discrep¬ 
ancy in the above remarks? 
ANSWERED BY DR. HENRY STEWART. 
Cotton-seed-meal is cotton-seed-meal, 
and oil-meal is commonly understood as 
linseed-oil-meal. The two substances are 
entirely different in regard to their action 
upon the digestive organs and the bowels 
of an animal. The cotton plant has some 
medicinal qualities which seem to be con¬ 
centrated in the root and the seed. The 
root has a well-known effect upon the nerv¬ 
ous system which is connected with the 
uterus and causes abortion, and the oil of 
the seed has a similar effect. The meal 
produces costiveness, and its highly nitro¬ 
genous properties have a very active effect 
upon the kidneys as well as upon the cir¬ 
culation. It cannot be safely given to preg¬ 
nant animals or to hor.-es and pigs because 
of its highly stimulating properties. In 
these animals it causes congestion of 
the brain,—what is commonly called 
blind staggers. The less highly organized 
ox tribe may be fed safely with it if it is 
given moderately, but while steers and dry 
cows may not suffer from six to 10 pounds 
of it daily for a short time while they are 
fattening, yet cows in milk are very liable 
to be injured by even so small a quantity as 
four pounds daily, being often attacked by 
garget (inflammation of the udder) or by 
premature delivery of the calves. Linseed- 
oil-meal, on the other hand, is a bland, diges¬ 
tible substance ; it is laxative and soothing 
in its effects. Its nitrogenous properties 
contained in the albuminoid substances 
exert no injurious effect; they are digesti¬ 
ble and are assimilated healthfully ; while 
the fat (of the old-process meal) is absorbed 
into the blood without any unfavorable ac¬ 
tion upon the circulation. The new-process 
linseed-meal contains very little actual fat, 
but about 32 to 40 per cent, of nitrogenous 
matter with nearly 40 per cent, of carbohy¬ 
drates other than fat, among which is a 
large quantity of gum and mucilage. 
These facts are mentioned to show that oil- 
meals vary considerably in character, and 
cannot be considered in the light of food as 
at all similar in their uses and effects, and 
they should be chosen with special refer¬ 
ence to their fitness and with a good un¬ 
derstanding of their different characters. 
The feed mentioned as given to the pigs is 
wholesome and good. It might be men¬ 
tioned, to avoid a mistake, that the whole 
cotton seed is fed liberally to mules in the 
South without any ill results. The hulls, 
however, act as a dilutant to the oil of the 
seed and the digestive ability of a mule is 
far greater than that of any other animal, 
except perhaps a beaver which lives well 
upon bark and the twigs of trees, and the 
mule cannot be made a standard by which 
other animals are to be judged. 
KEEPING FROZEN MEAT IN WINTER. 
R. B., Montreal, Canada .—What is the 
best way of keeping frozen meat (beef, 
pork and poultry) through the winter ? A 
farmer whom I know, who grows lots of 
peas, packs his frozen meat in peas, and 
any thaw that comes does not injure the 
meat in the least, but we don’t all grow 
peas. 
Ans.—O ne of our neighbors keeps meat 
all through the winter by packing it in 
snow. A beef animal is killed in early win¬ 
ter while the weather is cold, and while 
there is plenty of frozen snow. The beef is 
cut into proper sizes, and strong barrels are 
taken for holding it. A layer of frozen 
snow is put at the bottom, then a piece of 
the frozen meat, then more snow and so on 
until the barrel is filled. The whole is 
pounded down into a compact mass, and 
left in the barn where the sun will not 
reach it. The meat is taken out as requir¬ 
ed for cooking. In ordinary winters, the 
meat will keep in perfect condition. Some¬ 
times a very warm spell melts the snow. 
In this case, the meat must be removed 
from the barrel, and placed in brine, or it 
will soon spoil. We have read of farmers 
who pack such meat in wheat or other 
grain, but have never seen it done success¬ 
fully. 
SENSE OF TASTE AND SMELL EN HENS. 
Several Subscribers .—Have hens any 
sense of taste or smell ? It occurs to us 
that they have not. 
ANSWERED BY P. H. JACOBS. 
There is no doubt on my part that a hen 
possesses all of the five senses. She will re¬ 
ject ammoniated bone-meal and readily 
accept odorless bone-meal, though both 
may, in appearance, be alike. The hen has 
shown her partiality for spices, and she will 
readily detect any changes in her food be¬ 
fore touching it with her bill. But for the 
senses of taste and smell she would be un¬ 
able to select her proper food, and in hun¬ 
dreds of instances I have known hens to 
accept or reject certain substances, and this 
could have been done only by the aid of the 
two senses mentioned. A hen will swallow 
hard, odorless substances, but even then 
she will often drop them and attempt to 
detect their nature before swallowing. She 
depends principally on sight, as do all 
birds, but I have kuown blind hens to show 
a preference for foods that could be selected 
only by smell and taste. I have known 
them to avoid filthy food and odors, and 
also greedily to accept food slightly sea- 
HtisccUanfous Advertising. 
“Her brand" Fifth Wheel for Buggies. 
