VOL. XXXVIII. No. 30.1 
WHOLE No. 1539. f 
NEW YORK. JULY 26, 1879. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
§2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the Rural. Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Contrreaa at Washing-ton. — Entered at the Post-Office at New York City, N. Y., as second-clasB matter.] 
fjfrirsmaiL 
GEADE JEESEYS. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
A Town Converted. 
It took eight years to do it. The first Jer¬ 
seys were laughed at and considered more 
than worthless. “The idea of making beef 
out of such cows!" “The poor, scrawny, 
spindle-legged things won't weigh anything." 
“ What can they be good for ?" “My old Line- 
Back is twice as big,” says one. Says another: 
“There’s my old Brindle; she will give more 
milk than any one of them, aud dress double." 
“Give me the Short-horns. There’s Esquire 
Myers, he has a Short-liorn bull which will 
weigh more than 2,500 pounds. That’s the kind 
of cattle for me." “ When you kill one of them 
you have got something." “ Did you ever see 
Jones’s cow? Her last calf weighed'most a 
hundred pounds when it was born.” “That 
is a model cow.” 
Such were the remarks and the reasouings 
when the Jerseys, first came into town. Cows 
are kept here to make butter, and this was the 
kind of philosophy their owners indulged in, 
sitting on the nail kegs in the store, or where 
neighbor chanced to meet neighbor, and neigh¬ 
borhood affairs were gone over. All men are 
not fools; all men are not full of prejudicej 
all men are not bigoted. Some men think for 
themselves; some men reason. So some men 
said: “ Wc will try this new Jersey blood, and 
if there is any good iu it, we shall have the 
benefit." “We can afford to pay a dollar for 
a calf if it is auy improvement, and the owuer 
of the full-blooded bull ought to have pay for 
his outlay and trouble." “’Tis true, we can 
get the use of native bulls for nothing ; but if 
these Jersey cattle are what they are said to 
be, ‘a better breed,’ that is what we want.’’ 
“ We keep cows to make butter, not for beef; 
let the West do that.” “It is true old Hose is 
a good cow aud hard to beat, and so are old 
Brindle and Line-back, but they never had a 
heifer calf as good as they are." "It Is hap¬ 
hazard business trying to get good cows from 
our best natives, all the rest of our cows are 
only middling.” The farmer with good jndg- 
meut and forecast said: “I will try a couple 
of my best cows, anyway, aud see what i can 
get. I don’t believe much in new-fangled no¬ 
tions, but then other folks know a thing or 
two as well as I do, aud all of this talk in the 
newspapers and these big prices for Jerseys, 
must mean something more thau mere faucy, 
for that would die out unless there was some¬ 
thing behind of actual value." 
There were less than a half-dozen heifer 
calves raised the first year, half Jersey. When 
two years old, they were cows. Old Rose, 
Brindle and Line-back looked at these symmet¬ 
rical and modest little Intruders with wonder¬ 
ing eyes, and felt sure of their luurels. They 
filled the pail brimful, while the delicate-look¬ 
ing little missionary Jersey stopped at “ half 
full.” The housewife, had to admit that the 
“half-pailful" looked the richest. The milk 
was yellow. After a while she thought it fair to 
strain the Jersey milk by itself to see what It 
would do. The cream was “awful thiek." The 
old favorites’ milk was put alongside. It made 
quite a row of pans; but after standing twelve 
hours longer than the Jersey’s, so that the 
cream would all get up (it takes longer), the 
Jersey’s was much the thickest. In due time 
both sets of cream were churned, and the 
Jersey's came out ahead. “ We will see,” says 
the old-fashioned housewife, “ what a week 
will do." There was a trial of a week, and 
the Jersey was ahead, aud she has kept ahead, 
beating the native as a rule every time. 
Seven and eight pounds of butter a week 
are a good yield for native cows, but a number 
of grade Jerseys make ten, and more. They 
are hardy, and some of them are as hand¬ 
some as the pure-bred. Every farmer can 
not afford to buy thorough-breds, but every 
farmer can afford to breed his cows to 
thoroughbred bulls and to raise the off¬ 
springs. Such cows now command ten and 
twenty dollars more in this town than the best 
natives, and are worth it for practical use. 
The beef notion in a dairy cow is getting out 
of the heads of our dairymen. More sensible 
and liberal ideas prevail. Croakers croak no 
more. If one begins, he is laughed at. Facts 
are thrown at him right and left. Ten pounds, 
eleven pounds, twelve pounds, twelve and a 
half pounds a week of solid golden butter, 
which sells for five to ten cents a pound more 
than the best from natives. These facts shnt 
him up. They come from the converts—the 
old doubters. They are full of zeal, and want 
more Jerseys. They come from twelve miles 
away. 
The butchers say the calves make the nicest 
veals. They are always fat, aud dress white. 
The beef is tender and juicy, aud of the best 
quality. A good Jersey bull, of undoubted 
pedigree and promise, a year old, can be 
bought for $75 to $100, of breeders who are 
uow veterans in improving this breed. A bull, 
carefully fed and handled, will answer for a 
whole neighborhood, and will add hundreds of 
dollars to the batter product in a few years. 
Our Illustration above gives a very 
fine front view of Earl Bective's admirable 
bull, the Duke of Underley. a side view of 
which was published iu our issue of the 
13th Inst. Both have been reproduced from 
the Agricultural Gazette which is doing good 
work for stock raisers by presenting from time 
to time very excellent likeuesses of animals 
which have won well merited reputations. 
|otiltrg garli. 
THE TEUTH ABOUT IT. 
Artificial Hatching and Rearing Chickens. 
Everybody seems to be looking out for a 
“royal road” to success in his favorite pur¬ 
suit. Perhaps the most attractive idea at 
present prevalent is the artificial hatching 
of chickens and their rearing by means of 
“mothers” and cramming machines. A sensa¬ 
tional story, at first published about three 
years ago, is still going the rounds. It was in 
reference to an enormous establishment, where 
thousands of fowls were said to be prepared 
for market every season. As might have been 
expected by any practical poultry-keeper, this 
concern turned out to be a disastrous failure 
in a very short time; but still the story of its 
institution goes the rounds to delude and mis¬ 
lead, and no notice whatever seems to have 
been taken of its collapse. So with the several 
different methods of hatching eggs iu incuba¬ 
tors ; a great deal has been said about them 
and their wonderful possibilities, but yet they 
are all very much the same as the dream of the 
young female in the ancient story of the child 
who counted her chickens before they were 
hatched. 
The truth of the matter is, that while there 
Is no difficulty at all iu hatching eggs, or 
chickens, (whichever may be precisely correct, 
I say not) there is a great difficulty in rearing 
the young thlugs wlieu they come into the 
world. At the same time, it is a remarkably 
patient, persevering and knackful person who 
can succeed in artificial hatching. One in a 
hundred or a thousand might do it, if he or 
she gave the whole mind to it. The neglect 
of an hour, nay, of one minute, one mistake, 
one accident, one error of judgment, and tbe 
whole batch is spoiled. A lady who thought 
she could succeed had an incuoator made 
(thereby infringing a patent-right), and, with 
singular ill judgment, put 340 eggs in the ma¬ 
chine at the first trial. Everything went wel 
up to the time when there was a promiscuous 
peeping from nearly all the eggs, and the ope¬ 
rator’s hopes ran high. Almost the last day, 
. the manure heap got into a tremendous heat 
and sweat—possibly it was tryiug to make a 
sure thing of it, too—the thermometer went 
up to 120 degrees, or perhaps higher (it was 
found marking that), aud the prospective 
chicks were baked before their time. Another 
batch of 20 dozen eggs was procured, another 
load of manure was heaped around the machine, 
aud a second attempt was made. About the 
middle of the operation the manure cooled 
down, and, in spite of liberal kettles of hot 
water to warm it up again, the heat could not 
be brought back, and auother batch was lost. 
The husband suggested how much cheaper it 
would have been to have bred with one dozen 
eggs instead of 20 dozen, but "men's ideas are 
so narrow." etc. If it had only succeeded, 
there would have been at least 200 chicks; at 
least 150 of these wonld have come to broiling 
age and brought 50 cents each; $75 would- 
Alas! it is the old, old story: “the girl gave 
her head a toss, the basket of eggs came to the 
ground," and there was an end of all her grand 
figuring. 
The truth of it is, in poultry-raising, as in 
all other productive pursuits, there is no royal 
road to success. There must be work, and 
this must be done with knowledge and skill. 
A living organism brought into existence ab¬ 
normally and unnaturally, must be nourished 
and nursed in the tenderest and most precise 
manner. It is not enough for us to say the 
Arabs and the Chiuese have done this thing 
with success for ceuturies. Who, that knows 
how the business of these people is done—the 
days and nights spent in fetid, filthy, over- 
poweringly odoriferous and heated under¬ 
ground dens, called ovens —would assume 
their horrible operation for their reward ? It 
cannot be done by civilized creatures without 
the expenditure of at least 150 cents’ worth of 
trouble and bother for every dollar gained by 
it. If this is not the truth, let us hear from 
some one who will show to the contrary. In 
the meantime, all those persons who are anx¬ 
ious to try their skill or their luck with an 
incubator, should make up their minds not to 
count their chickens until they are hatched. 
Hen-ry. 
- 
CONFINING P0ULTEY IN SUMMEE. 
Small farmers and fruit-growers make a 
great mistake when, for the reason that roving 
fowls do a groat deal of harm, they put them 
in close confinement. Of course, if they are 
allowed to roam at will, much mischief will be 
done to garden crops, iu money value far ex¬ 
ceeding the worth of the chickens raised, but 
it is a short-sighted policy to shut up the heus, 
—better shut up the garden. A few movable 
shutters, if there be no fence arouaid the gar¬ 
den, can easily be made of half-inch stuff, cost¬ 
ing but little for time and material, and these 
fastened with light pickets driven in the 
ground, will prove an effectual barrier. Or, if 
there is already a fence, a few additional slats 
will generally reuder it fowl-proof, and allow 
the hens and broods to range the farm with 
Impunity. Another plan that I am success¬ 
fully trying this year, is to put the garden stuff 
out of reach of the chickens at some spot as 
remote as convenient from the hen buildings. 
If fowls are moderately well looked after iu 
the way of providing food for them, they are 
not disposed to roam a great distance from 
home, and if in their wandering they come 
upon our patches of cabbages, tomatoes, etc., 
