TUV nil B A I NEW.YORKER. 
724 
Secretary, and during the subsequent investi¬ 
gations he became firmly convinced of the 
justice of the claims made by the advocates of 
the Guenon system. In this work of 84 pages 
he has given a sketch of M. Guenon and the 
progress of his discovery; some extracts from 
his preface explaining hia vicwb; au ex plana- j 
tion of his system of escutcheon marks; a de- y 
scription of the various escutcheons and their g 
indications of value and quantity, and direc- { 
tions how to practically apnly them, together g 
with the report of the Pennsylvania Guenon { 
Commission. Much has been said and written , 
for and against this system, aud whatever g 
may be the reader’s opinion of it, it is hard ( 
to rise from the perusal of this work without t 
a willingness to comply with the author's re- ( 
quest, that whoever reads his pages will pa- , 
tiently, book In hand, go into the farm-yard ( 
and judge of the value of his stock by the rules < 
here set forth, compare the results with his 
individual knowledge of his stock, and fairly , 
estimate the value of the system. The book is , 
published by J. M. Stoddart & Co., Philadel- ( 
phia, Pa.; price 50 cents. ( 
The Report of Michigan State Board of Agri¬ 
culture for 1878 is before us. It contains a full 1 
report of the condition and work of the several 
departments at the Agricultural College. The 1 
reports of the horticultural and agricultural 
departments are especially instructive. Prof. 
Beal here gives the results of his seed tests, 
which have, for the most part, been published 
in the Rural. But perhaps the most valuable 
portion of the report is that relating to the 
several Farmers’ Institutes that were held in 
various places of the State during the year. A 
large number of the able addresses delivered 
on these occasions, both by members of the 
faculty and by prominent farmers, arc reported 
in full or in part, aud contain, we may say, 
the most advaueed views on agriculture as 
suited to the climatic conditions of the State. 
TheSecrctary of the State Agricultural Society 
fills over 100 pages with bis report, and Dr. 
R. C. Kedzio’s tables of meteorological observa¬ 
tions for the year complete the volume. 
The Illustrated Book of the Dog, by Vero 
Shaw, B. A. Caut., Assisted^ by the Leading 
Breeders of the Day ; Illustrated with Colored 
Plates drawn from Life. This work is got up 
in the same admirable style as Prof. 8heldon's 
“ Dairy Farming.” It will be completed proba¬ 
bly in 30 numbers, price 40 cents each, or the 
whole for the same price as "Dairy Farming.'’ 
Messrs. Cassell, Potter, Galpiu & Co., deserve 
well of the farming world for the superb man¬ 
ner in which they have produced these two 
works connected with ibe agricultural interest. 
Catalogue of Thoroughbred Stock for 
6 ale by Benson. Maule & Co., of Philadelphia, 
for 1870-1880. This catalogue contains Illus¬ 
trated descriptions, prices, etc-, etc., of Jersey, 
Guernsey, Ayrshires aud Short-born cattle; 
South-Down, Cotswold and Leicester sheep; 
Chester White, Berkshire, Small Yorkshire, 
Poland-Cbina, Jersey Red, and Essex swiue, 
together with a long list of various choice 
breeds of poultry, including hens, ducks, geese 
and turkeys. Free to applicants. 
F ar m Drainage. This useful circular con¬ 
tains an essay on Farm Drainage by our occa¬ 
sional correspondent, Prof. G- E. Morrow, 
Dean of the School of Agrieultuie, Illinois Uni¬ 
versity ; aud Important Results from Drain¬ 
age, by Geo. E. Waring, C. K., besides state¬ 
ments of practical farmers giving results 
obtained from tile draining, and a great deal 
of other useful information on the above sub¬ 
ject. Published by the Board of Agriculture 
of Ill.; S. D. Fisher, Sec., SpriugUeid, 111. 
United Status Public Land Laws.— This 
pamphlet of 170 pages is au exhaustive com¬ 
pilation of the laws, rulings, decisions, aud 
late Acts of Congress with reference to the 
agricultural, mining, and other lauds of the 
United States, with the instructions of the 
Commissioner of the General Laud office re¬ 
garding them. The work is very useful to all 
intomliug emigrants, and interesting to others. 
It is published by 1). H. Talbot, Sioux City, 
la. Price 50 cents. 
A. Hance & Son, of Red Bank, N. J., notify 
us by postal card that their stock of large and 
small lruits aud ornamental trees and shrubs 
is superior to that of preceding years; also 
that they offer Mr. Ricketts’s white seedling 
Grape *' El Dorado.” 
Thanks to Mr. S. Ott, of Aiken, S. C., for a 
box of beauiltul rose buds; to Mr. John B. 
Moore, of Coucord, Mass , for a specimen vine 
of Moore’s Early Grape; to Mrs. Annie L. 
Jack, for a pair of Muskoka ducks. 
American Pomologjcal Society, address 
of Marshall P. Wilder at the Seventeenth Ses¬ 
sion held at Rochester, N. Y., Sept. 17, 18, 19, 
1879. 
Catalogue of Select Fruit aud Ornamen¬ 
tal Trees, Shrubs, Roses, etc., for sale by Fred. 
W Kelsey, Rochester, New York. 
Botanical Index, an illustrated quarterly bo¬ 
tanical magazine published in Richmond, Ind. 
Cibculab.— Ricketts’s New Grapes. Ad¬ 
dress James H. Ricketts, Newburgh, N. Y. 
jfatm (grottom 
SPREADING MANURE IN WINTER. r 
* - 1 
In looking back over old numbers of the 
Rural to find seasonable hints for the early . 
winter months, 1 have just come upon an ] 
article by William J. Fowler in the Rural f 
for January 535th last, on the subject of ( 
spreading manure in winter. Therein he re- j 
commeuds the hauling and spreading of man- ( 
ure in winter on the snow or otherwise, aud { 
says that its fertilizing properties cannot 
evaporate and must leach downward, and that ^ 
the soluble parts will not wash away. To this | 
doctrine and the practice founded upon it, al- j 
though they have many advocates, I must enter . 
a strong protest. According to the old adage, 
‘‘Seeing is believiDg,” with me at least ( 
generally it is—and having frequently seen 
the purple Hood running from fields treated in 
this way, I cannot believe that the practice 
causes no material loss of the fertilizing ingre¬ 
dients of the manure. 
That under some circumstances, on certain 
kinds of soil and where the lay of the land 
will not permit undue leaching, the practice may 
be followed without much loss, I do not deny; 
but to advocate the method as a rule here in 
Western New York, where the soil is often 
frozen from two to three feet, and snow banks 
often rise to the higlit of from five to teu feet 
and more, while a large proportion of the 
subsoil is clay, seems to me to be the result of a 
rash theory rather tliau of practical experience. 
Iu this connection allow me to relate ray 
first experiment made many years ago. I drew 
a pile of. say, 50 loads of choice manure iu 
winter on to a level piece of clay land. There 
was no snow of auy consequence on the 
ground ; the laud was seeded to grass aud was 
frozen. Now for the result. Spring came, a 
heavy rain followed, and I had the curiosity to 
go aud see how my experiment worked. On 
reaching the place a purple flood met my view, 
running from my laud ou to neighbor P’s., aud 
thence down to Black Creek. I was fully 
satisfied with one experiment of this kind. 
From observation where such a practice has 
prevailed, I am forced to the conclusion that 
frozen soils, solid clay subsoils aud rolling 
ground unfrozen, will take up very little of 
the soluble portion of the best manures during 
heavy rains, or during the melting of the 
snows in a winter like the last, when the piled 
mass rose from three to twenty feet. While 
most soils iu spring or fall will absorb largely, 
it does not follow that a frozen or a clay soil 
can do 60 , as they are both impervious to a very 
great degree, aud every school-boy knows that 
in case of a heavy rain or freshet the surplus 
water goes to the brook as quickly as possible, 
carrying with it much of the soluble substances 
it may find on the surface of the ground it 
travels over, and not always avoiding the barn¬ 
yard as at present constructed. 
I, for one. shall oppose the risks of such 
practices, and would as soon think of pur¬ 
chasing costly commercial fertilizers and cast¬ 
ing them upuu the snow banks, frozen soils or 
hill-sides, as of submitting the treasures ot the 
barnyard, pig-pen and the stables to a similar 
risk of loss. However plausible au agricul¬ 
tural theory, the careful farmer will not large¬ 
ly embody it iu his practice until it has been 
satisfactorily tested by practical experiments 
under various conditions. D. R. Pkindle. 
Genesee Co., N. Y, 
--- 
BEET SUGAR MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 
We have a beet sugar factory here which is 
doing well. Five years ago it was removed to 
this place from Alverado, about a hundred 
miles north of us, not far from San Francisco. 
The reasons for its removal were two :—first, 
the laud here was better adapted to the growth 
of beets, and, second, by the chauge a great 
saviDg iu the item of fuel was effected. Here 
wood is used, which can be obtaiued cheaply ; 
there coal, which was much more high-priced. 
The factory the past year turned out about 
70 centals, or 8£ tons daily- Directly and iu- 
direetly, about 160 men obtaiu employment 
through the ruuniug of tins establishment, 
aud about $75,000 are paid out iu this county 
by *it. The company has ©250,000 invested, 
which pays a good dividend- Tim market for 
the beet sugar this year is as good as the 
average. The mill is running at full eapaclty. 
Five thousand tons of beets were raised iu 
Pajaro Valley for the factory. Pajaro is 15 
miles below here; the beets were shipped by 
rail. The land in that valley seems especially 
adapted to this culture, in some cases yielding 
as high as 25 tons to the acre aud averaging 
30, all round. At ©4.75 per ton, the price 
paid cultivators the past year, the average re¬ 
turn from the land in this crop has been $95 
per acre. The land is so rich down there that 
Borne of the beets grow too large; but that 
can be obviated by planting more closely. This 
year the price of beets is $5 per ton. The 
sugar is very nice, sweet and white, and can¬ 
not be distinguished from cane sugar. Only 
one quality is made—fine crushed. M. p. o. 
Soquel, Santa uruz Co. 
EXPERIENCE WITH 80RGHUM. 
Thenew variety of sorghum, Amber Liberian, 
spoken of in my last, published in the Rural 
of Oct. 4, has more than fulfilled Its promise. 
When tested by the polariscope, it showed 14J 
per cent of sugar, 11 Baunie, and when fully ripe 
it went up to 14Baume. It granulates readily. 
I am now working the regular Liberian lor 
sirup, as I am not prepared to make sugar for 
customers, being forced to grind by steam, 
having 200 ton8 of cane in the yard. This sort 
of cane has been more exteusively grown here¬ 
abouts for sirup than any other, as it is thought 
more productive than any of the older kinds. 
It is not so good for sugar, however, the grainB 
being too fine to swing well; but it might do 
better, if boiled in a vacuum pan. The Hon¬ 
duras is our latest and largest variety here, 
and is still standing in the field, hut ripe 
enough to be cut now. As a whole, this has 
not been a good season for cane. The late 
rains, coming after a very dry summer, made 
it sucker badly, which detracts much from its 
yield, and causes more trouble in defecation. 
Madison Co., Ill. C. M. Schwarz. 
Otlje Hcrtsmira. 
LARGE vs. SMALL COWS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
It is a question worthy of very serious con¬ 
sideration to the dairy farmer, at this time, 
whether a herd of large or small cows is the 
most profitable for him to keep, supposing 
that he can make as much butter from tbe 
small ones, per head, a» from the large ones. 
It has been stated, as a general rule, that a 
quantity of good hay equal to three per cent, of 
her live-weight, is required by a cow in milk 
to keep up her condition and maintain her 
flow—this, ii respective of the size of the ani¬ 
mal. On the other hand, a few experiments 
have been published, teudiug to show that an 
equal quantity and quality of feed will yield a 
more valuable product of milk from large cows 
than from small ones. Both of these state¬ 
ments appear problematical to me. It seems 
more probable that a small cow would require 
more feed, relatively to her weight, than a 
large one, to produce equally iu milk, since a 
larger surface proportional to weight, is ex¬ 
posed to the atmosphere, aud small cows are 
commonly more active than large ones. On 
the other baud, more feed must be required to 
replace waste of tissue iu the larger animal 
than iu the smaller one. These points need 
the elucidation of vastly more numerous and 
more accurate testings than we yet have record 
of. 
Pending these, I wish to state the result of 
some actual comparative observations made 
with tbe view of solving this problem. Look¬ 
ing over the best butter herds in Vermont, I 
find Mr. Douglas, of Whiting, reports an an¬ 
nual average of 200 pounds each from 34 Short¬ 
horn grades; H. C. Cleveland, of Coventry, 
224 pounds each from 20 Short-horns, mostly 
thoroughbred; Mr. Crampton, of Swantou, 
gets an average of 275 pounds from 21 selected 
common cows. Mr. Wood, of North Pouifret, 
gets 291 pounds each from 13 cows of Jersey 
blood, and the averages of five other herds of 
Jerseys, in the same time, range from 250 to 285 
pounds per cow. 
I have 6een all of these herds except that of 
Mr. Crampton. No two of them are fed ex¬ 
actly aliKe, though the manner of feeding with 
all the Pomf ret farmers is similar. The Short¬ 
horn men claim that they feed little or no 
meal. They have large and rich farms, which 
yield uu abundance of the best feed, both for 
hay and pasturage. The Jersey men have 
smaller, and generally hill farms, where the 
pasturage is short, but rich, and the hay-crop 
not usually adequate to winter all the stock 
which the pastures will carry through most of 
the grazing season. Consequently they feed a 
mixture of com and oatmeal, or of corn meal 
and shorts, during the winter, with occasionally 
Bmall quantitieBof the same where the pastuies 
are short, or where there is not enough green 
feed grown to eke out in a dry time. It is 
plain that the elements of an exact comparison 
do not exist here. Mr. Crampton feeds his 
herd of natives (averaging but little more than 
Jerseys in weight) meal and mill-feed the year 
round, in addition to grass and hay. His 
pasture, however, is poor. As nearly as I have 
been able to judge from my own observations 
and the statements of the parties, the value of 
feed given to each cow iB no greater for the 
small cows than for the large ones. Few of 
the owners of the former would agree that it is 
as great. Certainly all these herds are well- 
fed, the object being to make as much butter 
as possible. The product of the small cows in 
pounds of butter is decidedly the greater, and 
the price received is also more. The parties 
all seem to be reasonably satisfied, but Mr. 
Douglas admits to a growing belief that the 
JerBeys are tbe most profitable. I find that all 
the Jersey men believe that they have the best 
and most profitable cows iu the world for but¬ 
ter. So I leave the question, hoping for more 
numerous and exact statements and tests here¬ 
after. 
Jnkstrial Implements, 
THE BRADFORD UNDER-RUNNER MILL, 
illustrated this week, is a portable mill, with 
recent (1876) patented improvements that 
adapt it to the farmer’s aud miller’s use for 
grinding corn, feed, middlings, wheat, and, in 
short, anything susceptible of pulverization 
between buhr-stones. Its claimed advantages 
are partly comprised in au iron bridge-tree 
with center-lift step and oil box that are ad¬ 
justable with set-screws and check-nuts, sup¬ 
ported on a wrougbt-iron lever; a hammered 
wroughUron spindle, with an adjustable 
driver that drives equally on both ends; a 
cast-iron back on the runner in connection 
with the eye bush, both being east iu one 
piece, which overcomes the chance of the 
driver-box gettiug loose in the stone. The 
iron bridge and bush supporting the collar of 
the spindle, under the running stone, have 
three adjustable followers, also held in place 
hy set-screws aud cheek-nuts. The lrabr- 
stones used are of the best quality (usually in 
one block). The upper one is stationary and 
strongly attached to the frame, which, it will 
be seen, is of solid timber, well bolted. The 
upper stone, by a hinged device in the frame, 
is easily turned over for purposes of dressing, 
and, in fact, all parts that it is necessary to 
inspect are conveniently arranged for that 
purpose. While it is not desirable to run the 
mill at too high a rate of speed, yet it w'll not 
choke in feeding, no matter what the speed. 
In short, the mill is constructed of the best 
materials, after Improved patterns, and is 
claimed to be as good as can be made. The 
company has had an experience in manufac¬ 
turing and supplying mills aud milling acces¬ 
sories for upwards of 86 years, and to-day it 
is oue of the leading bouses in the business. 
Address the Bradford Mill Co., Cincinnati, O., 
for particulars. 
A NEW FEED CUTTER. 
Mr. David Lawton, of Racine. Wis., is 
making a feed cutter that has excellent poiuts. 
There are four sizes with a capacity ranging 
from twenty-five to twelve hundred bushels of 
cut feed per hour. (The larger quantity is cut 
by power ) In this machine, which is very 
strongly aud solidly built, the cutting knives 
are attached to a large wheel which revolves 
with great rapidity and force at the expense 
of but little power. The cut is clean, sharp 
and true, tbe fodder being severed in four 
lengths, ranging from one-third of an inch to 
two inches, at the optiou of operator. The 
change iu cut is made very easily and quickly, 
there being no substitutions of parts, extra 
wheels, etc. A very important feature is a 
revorse lever and gears that can be made to 
stop the feed iustantly and set the rollers re¬ 
volving backwards. This is a perfeet safe¬ 
guard in case of accident, or in the event of 
any foreign substanee passing through the 
cutter with the chaff. While the feed is 
stopped, the power is not. the momentum con¬ 
tinuing ready for application to the work as 
soon as the cause of the stoppage is removed. 
The cutting capacity is said to l e greater than 
that of any machine of the same cost. As this 
cotter is so highly spoken of, it may be to the 
advantage of our readers to give its merits 
more careful consideration than we are enabled 
to do in a brief mention. M B.-^— 
