ment whicli is profitable with any kind of dairy 
stock. He added that they are not more liable, 
in his experience, to suffer injury from garget 
than any good cows, perhaps less so than the 
more profuse milkers. Finally, he admitted 
the charge that Jerseys are good feeders, aud 
considered it a merit. They are as hearty 
eaters as the natives, Baid he, and will average 
to make twice as much butter from the same 
feed. 
Increase of Jerseys 111 Vermont. 
Since the above reported interviews were re¬ 
corded, the number and size of Jersey herds in 
Vermont have greatly increased, aud the pro¬ 
gress in this direction continues unchecked. 
I well remember that when the few Jerseys 
present were brought iuto the ring at the Ver¬ 
mont St«te Fair, held in Rutland in 1S73, one 
of the Winslows of Putney, Short-horn breed¬ 
ers, who was one. of the judges, observed, con¬ 
temptuously, ‘‘Well, the scrawnier you get 
them the better you like them, don’t you ?” 
At the two last State fairs the Jerseys outnum¬ 
bered every other breed, and were treated with 
the respect they deserve. Now for some of the 
Practical Results or Jersey Dairying 
In this State. The place where the Jersey 
stock has longest had a footing among our 
dairymen is in North Pomfret, Windsor county, 
where perhaps ten or a dozen farmers have 
had Jersey herds for the past eight or ten 
years. These herds have been mostly grades, 
but have been graded so high—only thorough¬ 
bred bulls being used—that very little evidence 
of native blood is seeu in them at this time. 
Many of the cows are pure-blooded, but merely 
as butter-makers these are not always thought 
to be the most valuable. These Pomfret farm¬ 
ers live among the hills; their farms are usu¬ 
ally less than 100 acres, aud their milking herds 
vary in number from six to fifteeu cows. They 
are intelligent, educated men, yet men who do 
their own work, especially in the case of their 
cattle. They exercise great care in selecting, 
feeding and handling their cows, and in the 
manufacture ol their butter, and they get 
prices considerably above the highest quota¬ 
tions. Some, by making fancy prints of two 
to four ounces for first-class hotels and restau¬ 
rants, have got what might be called fancy 
prices—60 cents and upwards, per pouud—but 
that is not the rule. 
I will take Mr. E. S. Wood as illustrating the 
dairying of North Pomfret fairly iu his prac¬ 
tice. He has his cows come iu at all seasons, 
but mostly in the fall. Duriug the season of 
pasturage they are yarded at night, aud fed 
one or two quarts of corn-meal, according to 
age and condition, before milking, they being 
tied up for that purpose. They are also fed a 
little hay. Care is taken that milking should 
be at regular hours, and as much as possible 
without change of milkers. When the pastur¬ 
age becomes short in the fall, fodder corn and 
green oats, or mown grass, are fed until severe 
frost occurs. Later, the grain feed is increased 
to two or three quarts of a mixture of equal 
parts of meal aud wheat bran. Cows that 
come in in fall aud winter have a larger ration 
of the same while in full milk. Early-cut hay 
and corn fodder are considered good winter 
feed; but Mr. Wood says straw cannot be 
made equal to good hay for milk by any ad¬ 
dition of meal. Dry cows are kept on coarse 
fodder until near calving, when they have good 
hay and two quarts of oats daily. After calv¬ 
ing, for a few days they have light feed, with 
warm water to drink. The stables are kept 
warm and dry. Mr. Wood does not mention 
feeding roots at all, but I believe be raises a 
few, though not enough to make a regular 
ration for all of his cows. In 1877—the last 
report I have—Mr. Wood made 3,788 pounds 
of butter from 13 cows, or an average of 291 
pounds to the cow. This butter sold for 
$1,341.36, an average of $95.39 per cow. 
Other Jersey Herds. 
But by no means are all of our Jersey dairy¬ 
men confined to Pomfret. Mr. Nathan Skinner, 
of Plainfield, Washington county, made in 1877, 
from a herd of 18, 4,842 pounds of butter. Bold 
at an average of 33 cents—269 pounds of but¬ 
ter, or $88.77 in money, to the cow. E. R. 
Skinner, of Tunbridge, Orange county, from a 
herd of five cows, sold, iu 1875-76, 1,077] 
pounds, aud in 1876-77, 2,065 pounds, the aver¬ 
age per cow being 335] and 413 pounds, re¬ 
spectively. 
Perhaps the largest Jersey herd in Vermont 
is that of E. A. Pouks, of Passumpsic, Caledo¬ 
nia county, who in 1878 made, from 24 cows 
and heifers, 6,900 pounds of butter, or 287] 
pounds per head. 
These reports are none of them from breed¬ 
ers of Jerseys for sale or from fancy stock. I 
thiuk few if any of them are registered, and 
many are only high grades, thongh there are 
more or less pure-bred cows among them. The 
parties are plain fanners, who keep the Jer¬ 
seys for iheir value simply as large producers 
of fine butter that always sells above the mar¬ 
ket in Boston, when properly manufactured 
and neatly put up for sale. Our good farmers 
perceive plainly that the day of “middling- 
good” dairy products is over, and that a small 
yield per cow will not pay for the keeping. 
Therefore they are seckiug earnestly for the 
right cows, and the best methods of manufac¬ 
ture and preparation for market. I believe 
that the decline of price for dairy products is 
a scarcely disguised blessing, the prompt result 
of which is to be such an improvement in our 
stock and methods of feeding, care and manu¬ 
facture, as in five years will increase the aver¬ 
age product of our dairies fully fifty per cent, 
in quantity, aud absolutely eliminate the lower 
grades of butter and cheese from among the 
products of our State. It is “root, hog, or 
die,” among our dairymen at this time, and by 
“rooting" or “dying”—by improving their 
method or abandoning the business—our dairy¬ 
men will soon reach a level far above the high¬ 
est aspirations of a few years ago. And the 
Jerseys are a great help in the work. 
(Tbr foitltu) jpart. 
SILVER-SPANGLED POLISH. 
A. M. HALSTED. 
The Polish class of poultry consists of seven 
varieties—the Golden-spangled, Silver-span¬ 
gled, White-created Black, White-crested 
White, Black-crested White, Buff, and Blue 
Polish. 
The Black-Crested White are supposed to be 
extinct, none having been seen for many years. 
Numerous attempts have been made to develop 
a new strain of them, but thus far without suc¬ 
cess. The Buff aud Blue varieties are very lit¬ 
tle known in this country, and comparatively 
rare, even in England. The Silver spangled— 
the subjects of our illustration—are probably 
Silver-Spangled Polish. 
the most common aud best known of any, and 
about the largest, the weight of the cocks be¬ 
ing from six to seven pounds, and of the ben 
from four to five and a-balf. The ground color 
of the plumage i» silvery-white ; the ends of the 
feathers having clear, distinct moon-shaped 
black spangles. The hackle aud saddle-feath¬ 
ers of the cock are white-edged and tipped 
with black : the tail feathers, clear white, end¬ 
ing in a clear black spangle. Tbe wing cov¬ 
erts should also be marked with black, so that 
tbe spangles form two distinct bars across tbe 
wings. The eveuer aud more perfect these 
bars, the more the bird is valued. The breast, 
also, should he evenly spangled with black, 
not so close together as to appear black, which 
is a fault. The feathers of the crest are black 
at both base and tip, the middle of the feathers 
being white or gray, white bciug the color 
most sought for. The crest should be even aud 
regular in shape, not hollow in the center. 
The ear-lobes are small and white .The wattles 
are wanting iu tlic bearded varieties : iu the 
others they are small and regularly-shaped. 
The feathering of the bens is almost exactly 
like that of the cocks. In the crest, which 
should be full and globular in shape, the 
feathers should fit in so closely together that 
the appearance is that of a round, spangled 
ball. In both sexes, white feathers frequently 
appear iu adult birds after the second molt. 
These are regarded as very objectionable though 
not a disqualification. Silver Polish are good 
layers of medium-sized eggs, and of fair quali¬ 
ty for the table. They are non-sitters, very 
quiet, aud readily become attached to those 
who take care of them. They do not attain 
their fullest development of plumage and 
beauty uutil the third season. 
The objections to them are: the danger from 
hawks—their overhanging crest so obstructing 
their sight, that they do not see hawks until 
too late to escape ; and their tendency to roup 
and coltl. They must be kept dry, both young 
and old ; the crest gets saturated with rain or 
dew aud as the bird cannot dress that part of its 
plumage, it remains wet aud produces roup or 
cold. It is useless to try to raise them in low, 
damp localities. They need high, dry yards 
and ample shelter from the weather. 
The young chicks while Hedging need stim¬ 
ulating food ; the great quantity of feathers 
which they have to develop is very exhausting 
to the system, and unless the chicks are sup¬ 
plied with meat or scraps, in addition to the 
usual grain diet, they are not apt to thrive. 
Stale bread soaked in sour ale is excellent for 
both young and old. English breeders say 
that the young should never be given to a large 
hen, the top of the skull being very thin, they 
are much more liable to fatal injury under a 
heavy hen than under a light one. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
cfarm ®nnwmp. 
BULK OF FOOD AND DIGESTION. 
E. W. STEWART. 
In the proper nutrition of all classes of our 
domestic animals, this question of bulk needs 
careful attention. Numerous attempts have 
been made, iu feeding horses, to disregard the 
necessity for a given proportion of fiber to be 
mixed with the grain ration; but the result of 
feediug concentrated grain, or fine meal ground 
from it, alone, has brought numerous diseases 
of stomach, and often death to the animal. 
The theory, often expressed by physiologists, 
that the stomach required filling to a certain 
bight to stimulate the secretiou of the gastric 
juice, is probably faulty in not noting the ne¬ 
cessity for the food to be in a porous state, so 
that the gastric juice cau have a free circula¬ 
tion through the contents of the stomach. Fi¬ 
brous food cannot be compressed iuto a solid 
mass, and when meal is fed iu connection with 
hay or other coarse fodder, the fibrous food 
separates the particles of fine meal aud leaves 
a free passage for tbe gastric juice throughout 
its whole bulk, aud thus digestion proceeds 
simultaneously through the whole contents of 
the stomach. Now, if the concentrated meal 
is fed alone, it will form iuto a compact ball, 
like the housewife’s dough ; aud it is easy to 
see that the gastric juice cannot penetrate and 
circulate through this solid mass In tbe same 
way as through the porous bulk of liay aud 
meal. And the turning aud rolling about of 
food in tbe stomach by its muscular action, 
described by animal physiologists, cannot 
cause a bolus of meal to become porous so as 
to facilitate its permeation by tbe gastric 
juice; for, as is well known, the mass is too 
plastic and adherent to be so easily separated. 
Fine, concentrated food alone, taken iuto the 
stomach of a bovine, is not raised and re- 
masticated, but passes on to the true or fourth 
stomach in its concentrated state; and, may 
we not suppose, from its compact condition, 
often remains undigested lor so long a time as 
to engender fever and other stomach com¬ 
plaints ? 
Nature has furnished for all our most impor¬ 
tant domesticated farm animals—(horses, cat¬ 
tle, sheep and swine)—bulky food—the grasses 
and other forage plants. Aud, is it not reason¬ 
able to suppose that when we feed fine meal, 
or concentrated grain alone, wc do violence 
to the nature of the animal ? It is simple 
hcedlessness, neglect of the proper study of 
the uatural wants of our animals, that leads 
us to feed concentrated food without due ad¬ 
mixture with hay or coarse fodder. Mr. Mil¬ 
ler has even become a strenuous advocate of 
wintering cows on corn-meal alone, and be¬ 
cause he has been able to keep cows six or 
eight weeks in an abnormal condition on corn- 
meal, be thence infers that the ordinary course 
of nature may be set at naught with impunity. 
But, although be commenced this course of 
feeding some eight years ago and found it very 
cheap, compared with hay, yet he lias never 
carried his cheap feeding through a whole win¬ 
ter season, as might naturally be expected after 
he had discovered its great economy. We 
know that animals may, for a time, be kept in 
an ubuormal condition, aud on return to tbe 
ordinary ration go on without any serious dis¬ 
turbance of health. Men have been gradually 
accustomed to the use of deadly poisons and 
survive their use for many years ; but it is not 
thence argued that this would be a proper 
regimen to put the whole race upon. It has 
been fouud that men may not long be healthy 
upon very concentrated food without the use 
of bulky vegetables, aud yet the human stom¬ 
ach is especially adapted to the use of concen¬ 
trated food. 
An excellent illustration of the necessity of 
coarse fodder to the health of cattle is fouud 
in the practice of feediug large numbers of 
cattle iu distilleries upon the refuse of corn 
after usiug the largest part of the starch iu the 
manufacture of spirits. The food is not lack¬ 
ing in albuminoids, and if coarse fibrous food 
is not necessary to health, these cattle might 
be fattened upon the refuse alone. But the 
universal testimony is that not less than five 
pouuds of hay per day to each animal, will 
suffice to maintain health aud allow profita¬ 
ble progress in fattening. One experienced 
feeder, who fed a 1000 head per year, stated 
the hay absolutely necessary to economical 
feeding to be eight pouuds per head. The 
writer made special inquiry into ten eases and 
found the amount estimated as necessary, to 
range from five to ten pounds per head. It 
will also be noted that tbe general testimony 
was that the quality of the hay was not ma¬ 
terial—that it only required some fibrous 
food for rumination and to keep the bowels 
in proper condition. 
The writer has never found any serious 
difficulty in feeding a proportion of very con¬ 
centrated food to colts after weaning, such as 
corn aud oats, or peas aud corn, or rye and 
oats grouud fine together, if tbe same was 
mixed with cut hay, in the proportion of two 
of hay to one of meal iu bulk, or better still, 
equal parts by weight. It does not answer 
to feed the meal and then give the buy; they 
must both be fed at ouee, moistened so that 
both must be eaten together. This causes the 
masticated food to go iuto the stomach iu 
such a porous condition that no ill effects can 
arise from the meal. Too much grain must 
not be fed. but a proper amount, given with 
cut bay, will no more injure a colt than a grown 
horse. 
This matter of bulk in tbe food of our 
animals is so important that every feeder 
should thoroughly understand and apply it. 
• » »- 
VITAL PRINCIPLES IN AGRICULTURE. 
W. B. DERRICK. 
TnE fertility of the soil must be sustained 
in some mauner, as every good farmer knows, 
or it will soon become exhausted and barren. 
This fact has been exemplified perhaps more 
fully and clearly in “ the fertile West” than 
in any other section of the country. The deep, 
rich, black soil of the prairies, containing all the 
elements requisite for the production of bounti¬ 
ful crops of wheat, rye. oats, barley, flax, corn, 
potatoes, etc. seemed inexhaustible. It appeared 
as though the bottom could never be reached, 
and that it would never become' ‘poor” or sterile. 
The native prairie-grass had been burned off an¬ 
nually, from time immemorial, just as it is 
yet on our unsettled domain ; and so long as 
the land remained unbroken and uncultivated, 
those vast sweeping prairie fires did much good 
iu clearing away the surplus vegetation find 
helping to keep up the fertility through the 
addition of alkaline matter. In those days, 
before the white mau encroached upon this 
goodly land and commenced to “subdue it,” 
it had nothing to do but to rest and recuper¬ 
ate after its natural production of vegetation, 
the most of which was immediately returned 
to it, so there was nothing lost, but instead of 
depletion, a constant accumulation of rich 
vegetable mold. The pioneer came and com¬ 
menced a system of slow but sure robbery 
of the soil, by cropping it successively from 
year to year without resting or renewing it iu 
anyway. Concentrated crops of grain were 
produced aud removed, aud the straw piled 
up aud burned, as those early prairie farm¬ 
ers had but little live stock, and were more 
desirous of getting rid of the straw by burn¬ 
ing it than of turning it into manure. By such 
improvident farming they were injuring and 
killing “ the goose that laid the golden eggs.” 
For a number of years, the “‘rich” prairie soil 
continued to honor the heavy drafts made up¬ 
on it, but at last its resources began to weaken 
aud show signs of failing. Spring wheat was 
one of the principal crops grown in ibis region, 
aud it seldom failed at first, but after years of 
successive production, it began to be unprofita¬ 
ble from frequent partial failures. Chinch 
bugs, rust aud various other pests, were the 
apparent causes of failure, but back of all 
these, was the great prime cause of causes, 
viz: the exhaustion of those ingredients in 
the soil requisite to the growth aud health of 
the wheat plant. 
How to Renovate the Soil. 
is now the all-important question with many 
of our Western farmers, but they are learning 
aud becoming wiser as they grow older. We sel¬ 
dom see huge bonfires now from burning Btraw 
stacks, though there arc still a few. I moved 
from Eastern Ohio to this part of Northern 
Illinois in 1869. and among the first strange 
and unseemly sights that attracted my atten¬ 
tion was the burning of straw to he seen in 
every direction over these beautiful prairies. 
I am now glad to note a marked improve¬ 
ment within the past uine years, as the farm¬ 
ers are giving more attention to mixed hus¬ 
bandry, the rotation of crops, aud to the rais¬ 
ing of live stock. It is a well established 
principle in philosophy and uattire that there 
is nothing lost. Things may tie misplaced, 
scattered, demoralized aud rendered incapa¬ 
ble of right action, but never annihilated. Stolen 
treasures may be restored, or their places sup¬ 
plied with others of a similar kind. So, too, 
iu agriculture, the boU that has beeu robbed 
of Us fertility, may again be recouped by ju¬ 
dicious management and the requisite appli¬ 
cation of manure. It takes both hard study 
aud labor to do this; but it will pay better than 
money at iuterest; aud the time spent by the 
thoughtful farmer in reading agricultural 
papers and books, is the most remunerative 
and valuable of bts life, as it adds both to his 
mental and his pecuniary wealth. The suc¬ 
cessful farmer must be intelligent and well in¬ 
formed on all things pertaiuing to his calling 
or “profession;” “for knowledge is pow¬ 
er,” and it will help to drive the plow, as well 
as govern in matters of commerce and legis¬ 
lation. We have great hopes of the prosperity 
of this country, as knowledge is increasing aud 
