's needed for good than for poor fanning; but a 
strong purpose and a grind head are essential, 
and a few years of patience. The rich only 
can afford a low type of farming. 
Humanity says shelter will pay. Shelter for 
100 cattle and 100 hogs will cost, say, $3,000, 
or $250 a year in interest, repail’s and insur¬ 
ance. I do not allow full rate of interest, as a 
farm with a barn on it is scarcely taxed any 
more than one without, and the net value of 
the money only is to be charged. 
Shelter makes a ninefold saving, to wit: in 
food, growth, manure and earlier maturity, 
as well as in the amount of food leached from 
the stack, wasted in the stack when eaten, and 
injured in the stack by rains, and also in the 
poaching of fields by cattle pasturing, and by 
opportunity to combine aud handle all of the 
foods of the farm to the best advantage. Will 
not all these savings pay on 200 cattle and 
hogs $250 yearly, and the extra cost of care? 
Beyond a doubt they will. 
In the following estimate. I have made my 
figures within the truth, or less strong than 
they can be safely made. While I do not 
give the data upon which I make my figures. I 
wish it distinctly understood that all of the 
more important estimates are based upon ex¬ 
perimental data obtained either by myself or 
by others. 
Saved I pounds of hay dally for 1411 days for 100 
cattle; hay $6 a ton.. $168 00 
“ 1.17 pounds com “ “ “ hogs.com „ 
28c. a Dushel... K2 00 
“ On o per cent, death rate of hogs.. . 25 tX) 
« *• l “ “ •• cattle.. 30 00 
“ “ tiualiry and early marketing by constant 
winter growth.ICO Oft 
“ " that would be leached from a stack by 
rains... 115 00 
“ *' 20 per cent, (estimated) that would be 
trampled under root when eaten from the 
stack .. 180 00 
•• ■’ 32 acres of com fodder aud straw on a 160 
acre farm, by housing, will keep 20 steers 
more thau If eaten off m the field.. .. — 240 00 
f “ “ 400 tons of manure (liquids and solids) at 
I 50cents. 200 00 
I This manure will be the most profitable saving 
l of all. 
Total savings (excluding some minor savings 
to balance any possihle over-estimation).1,140 00 
SHELTER. DR. 
Extra cost of housing 150 tons of hay.$50 00 
“ " " 48 tons of straw and corn fodder 80 00 
“ care of stock. 100 00 
Drawing out manure. 100 00 
the'animal may have possessed unusually good 
hoofs. But he leaves us without a single bit 
of evidence as to the successful use of unshod 
horses in the city busses, in drays and in agricul¬ 
tural work. 
There can be no doubt that the existing 
methods of shoeing, and the people to whom 
that delicate operation is entrusted, stand in 
need of improvements. In drawing attention 
to this latter circumstance, Mi’. Wood has 
rendered a public service, but he has not res¬ 
cued the advocacy of unshod horses from the 
region of the “fads.” 
London, England. 
an explanation of the anatomy of the hoof 
of the horse and of the prevalent methods of 
dealing with it. In view of the importance 
of the hoof, the space devoted to the consider¬ 
ation of that subject is not so disproportionate 
as might at first sight appear. The old adage 
“no foot, no horse,” is becoming more and 
more verified as the breeding of this faithful 
servant of man becomes better understood. 
It is certainly a most remarkable circumstance 
that all the trouble of the breeder should be 
imperiled by handing over the animal to an 
untrained class of artisians who are allowed 
to work their will on the hoof. There is no 
more pressing need of the present day than 
the establishment of schools of farriery in 
which the men who are to be entrusted with 
the adaptation of the horse's hoof to modern 
needs and requirements may be taught the 
anatomy'of this marvelous piece of mechan¬ 
ism, and how it can best be fitted for uses to 
which it was not originally designed. 
With regard to shoes aud shoeing, the ob¬ 
ject of the shoe is to benefit the horse by pro¬ 
tecting the hoofs against the hard, artificial 
roads of civilized countries. It is alw ays as¬ 
sumed that such protection is neccesary be¬ 
cause, although the horse might do very well 
without these appendages in its native pas¬ 
tures, it must need shoes when it is brought 
under such different conditions, and has to 
traverse stone-paved roads, w r heu it carries a 
rider, or draws a vehicle. Mr. Wood does not 
concede the accuracy of this assumption ; but 
for argument’s sake he passes in review the 
various systems of shoeing, that have been or 
are in use—such as the Japanese which con¬ 
sists of shoes made of straw and worn like san¬ 
dals, and the “ parfleche ” shoes employed in 
North America, Then he comes to the multi¬ 
tudinous variety of iron shoes nearly every 
one of which he, as I think correctly, con- 
cream raised in this way? One of the main 
reasons why winter butter is inferior to sum¬ 
mer is because all the operations of making are 
carried on in an atmosphere loaded with im¬ 
purities. In the Summer, there is better ven¬ 
tilation, aud no one tluuks of setting milk iu 
the kitchen. It is much better, if no other 
room is to be had, to make use of some of the 
modern devices for raising cream with the 
milk shut in from all possible contact with the 
air in the room. Then churn in the sweetest 
place in the house, even if it is the pai'lor. 
You can easily see that the big cow needs 
more food than the smaller one. So does the 
cow giving milk want more food than the dry 
one standing by ber side. Yet you feed all 
alike, great and small, the workers and the 
idlers. This is all wrong. Use a little common 
sense, aud feed each individual cow according 
to her needs. This will also be economy. 
Be sure that your cows have a fail’ amount 
of succulent food and all the salt they want, 
and it will do very much to obviate difficulty 
in churning. Proper attention to temperatures 
will also help. Do not freeze and thaw your 
cream, but keep it at an even temperature of 
about 60 degrees, and churn at that tempera¬ 
ture. 
con amt) 
WINTER CATTLE FEEDING IN THE 
WEST.—NO. 4. 
A correction; shiftlessness in Western farm¬ 
ing an undesirable inheritance; higher 
fanning alone generally profitable; nine 
savings by sheltering stock; convincing 
figures. - 
In No. 3 of this series I say: “Winter feeding 
of cattle is bound to decrease until the relative 
values of winter and summer-fed beef grow 
wider apart,, and summer beef increases in 
value in accordance with the decreased per cent, 
of winter-fed cattle.” I should have said, in 
place of ‘‘summer beef increases,” “winter 
beef increases.” 
Having pointed out, as I believe, a method 
within the reach of Kansas farmers, by means 
of w hich they can do better than sell their 
corn for 30 cents a bushel, or at least better 
than the common method in vogue, I will 
now exercise my prerogative and advocate a 
system which my questioner assures us is be¬ 
yond the reach of his neighbor’s. Basing my 
PIG DIET. 
COL. V. D. CURTIS. 
Grass the foundation; necessity of cooling 
with heating food; overfeeding; a little 
and often; oats for pigs. 
The foundation for pig growth should be 
grass, as it should be the foundation for the 
growth of all stock. It is the cheapest food 
given to us and the most natural for domestic 
animals. Pigs when only three weeks old 
will begin to eat grass, and they will live on 
it when three months old. When they have 
the range of tender grass or clover, they may 
safely be fed on any kind of other food. They 
will stand com in abundance, having the 
grass as an antidote and additional food. The 
grass is cooling and life-inspiring, aud a com¬ 
plete food. Give me a farm of grass; grass 
iu ubuudatt.v, ttljUVe all Oklici things, Cool¬ 
ing and relaxing foods must be given to 
young pigs along with the heating and consti¬ 
pating foods, or there will be trouble. This 
is no mere theory, for a whole litter of dead 
pigs are the silent evidence. Their first 
trouble is scours—the first, and often the last 
trouble with young pigs. If they pass this 
ordeal, which is the result of dyspepsia—yes, 
hogs too, have it aud sometimes get rid of the 
cause by vomiting,a human expedient—then the 
next thing is either constipation or dysentery. 
Inflammations of the stomach, liver, kidneys 
and bowels are diseases consequent upon feed¬ 
ing pigs too rich food, or food in such a con¬ 
densed form, as corn. 
The most trouble iu caring for young pigs 
is, that they get too much food into the stom¬ 
ach at one time. This is wrong when it is 
concentrated, as the mass is indigestible, and 
it is deleterious when thin and bulky, for then 
it produces a distended aud unnatural size in 
the stomach and puts the pig out of shape. 
Pigs wall stand a great deal more nutritious or 
rich food if it is given to them iu small quan¬ 
tities and every two hours. They have natur¬ 
ally a strong and quick digestion, when it is 
not clogged or over-crowded. The way to 
keep up their stamina is to feed little and 
often, aud always iu a clean trough, and to 
give them the run of a pasture. The earth is 
au appetizer—the fresh, clean earth, aud not 
a mire hole—and pigs sick all the way through, 
will often get well if allowed to dig in it and 
live on it. 1 do not think there is any single 
grain equal for young pigs to oats fed dry, the 
pigs being allowed to eat all they wunt in con 
nection with their mother’s milk. It is a 
waste of time aud toil to pay for grinding the 
grain, for to do this is simply amusement for 
the little fellows, which become adepts at the 
business of grinding, swallowing the “meats” 
aud spitting out the hulls at the sides of their 
mouths and looking w ise and happy at the 
same time. 
Total cost 
Net gain. .310 00 
It will be seen that I would house cattle, save 
all of the straw’ aud corn fodder, and use the 
manure systematically. We have but touched 
the possibilities of over-farming. 
Ag’l, College, Columbia, Mo. 
PROFIT IN FEEDING WESTERN STEERS. 
I certainly must protest against the rough 
handling given to us Western farmers and 
cattle feeders by Professor Sanborn. 
In the Rural of Dec. 5th he figures up the 
loss on a steer by wrinter feeding. I will take 
his own figures aud pro ve there is a fail* profit, 
for these hard rimes. Before he made up his 
account he said that corn was worth, in his 
county, only 20 cents a bushel; but in hisac- 
couut he figures it iu at 30 cents; now there 
would be a saving of $0. Again he charges $5 
for one ton of hay. I never knew a feeder who 
fed more than One-third of a ton per steer in 
100 days, and some, instead of hay, feed straw 
which otherwise would go to waste: *3 must 
be deducted ou this account. Then again, he 
figures interest and risk on shoates. Pshaw! 
Just as if every farmer does not have his own 
shoates, aud wouldn’t the risk lie there if he 
did uot feed r So drop 00 cents here. And, 
finally, he charges $1.50 for care, sales and de¬ 
livery, just as though it would not cost five 
times as much to haul that 20-eent corn 8 or 10 
miles to market as it costs to feed it, and drive 
the steers to market. In his table he figures 
a loss of $1.43. 
Difference of 10 cents per bushel on 50 bushels 
of corn. $5 00 
“ on " “ hay.. 800 
Risk and Interest on shoates. 0 60 
Care, sales and delivery. 1 50 
New Pear Dr. Reeder. Fig. 8. (See p. 1.) 
observations upon experience of a decided 
sort and upon wide observation, I most em¬ 
phatically dissent from the view that lack of 
capital need confine men, as a rule, to a vicious 
system of farming; and. furthermore, I us 
strongly dissout from the quite prevalent opin¬ 
ion that waste and unthrift in farming are 
unavoidable at the West. I have no contest 
upon the probable necessities of pioneer farm¬ 
ing here, but believe that the view’s now held 
on this point by Western farmers are in the 
nature of an undesirable inheritance that 
should be shaken off. 
I aoi not content with the reluctant admis¬ 
sion that high farming may pay. The truth 
is that a higher type of farming is the only 
kind that will pay the great bulk of our farm¬ 
ers. By dint of the highest genius in farm 
mechanism, and cheap transportation, we have 
by spoliative farming controlled the markets of 
Europe. We are now facing a new’ order of 
events, and OUT genius must be turned from 
mere mechanical farming into the deeper 
problems of the farm that in their relations all 
center towards higher products. I believe that 
l can give a young man of our great West no 
better advice than to throw off every tradition 
or habit that binds him to waste and soil rob¬ 
bery, and lay broad and deep a conserving 
system of farming whose yearly steps shall be 
up the ladder of greater fertility, growing 
more and more intensive with accumulating 
means, until the pleasures and profits of con¬ 
structive farming have passed, as an inheri¬ 
tance. to the children. The West will make 
its way in fanning in the future against the 
world, through better farming. Thorough 
knowledge of modem agricultural thought,and 
common sense, will make recuperative farm 
ing pay from the start in the West, and will 
swell in volume year by year. No more capital 
demns, his censure of the use of calks being 
particularly well deserved. 
If the horse must have a shoe (which Mr. 
Wood denies) he believes the Charlier sort 
complies most nearly with the condition of 
interfering least with the natural growth aud 
action of the hoof, it being extremely narrow 
and very light, while its essential excellence 
lies iu the fact that it is not nailed upon the 
hoof, but is counter-sunk into the horn so as to 
be flush with ttie natural edge. He considers 
that a quarter shoe is all that is required. It 
should be four inches in length and one-eighth 
of au inch in thickness. 
••A littleart,” he says, “is required iu attaching 
this shoe. Round the edges of the hoof a groove 
is cut, and into the groove the shoe is suuk. 
The groove should be fully as deep as the thick¬ 
ness of the shoe, and even should it be a little 
deeper, no harm will be done. 
There is no difficulty in cutting the groove, 
as in all place* where the Charlier shoe is sold 
a special knife is supplied. This knife is a va¬ 
riation of the ordinary draw knife, and is 
furnished with a movable guide by which the 
dimensions of the groove are regulated. The 
guide can bo set to any |H>int, and fastened by 
a screw so that oven the most careless operator 
can hardly make a mistake.” 
The hoof must be fitted to receive the shoe, 
and I uni not quite sure that the process is so 
simple as Mr. Wood endeavors to make out. 
Still, the danger is undoubtedly less than by 
fixiug on clumsy iron shoes with long nails, 
and the Charlier pattern has its great recom¬ 
mendation iu not interfering with the various 
functions of the organ. 
The author advances some half-dozen cases in 
which home have been successfully used with¬ 
out shoes, but even as to these, there is not suffi¬ 
cient proof to establish his contention, because 
Clear gain per steer 
Woodbine, la. 
GRAPES, PICTURES AND PEARS. 
orseman 
G. W. CAMPBELL. 
Pictures to represent possibilities, not reali¬ 
ties; an exceptional specimen; an excellent 
error; clusters on old larger than those on 
young vines; examples; the miserable Kief- 
fer , and wretched Comets Lawson. 
In noticing the ISth Report of the Ohio 
State Horticultural Society, the Rural foal’s 
most people will be disappointed who plant 
the Empire State Grape, expecting it to equal 
the illustration. The remark is doubtless just 
as applied to “most people,” and I may say 
SHOULD WE SHOE OUR HORSES? 
J. SINCLAIR. 
Need of a school of farriery; the object of shoe¬ 
ing; the best shoe; putting it on; unshod 
horses unfit, for hard roads. 
This is really the question discussed by the 
Rev. J. G. Wood, in the interesting book 
entitled “Horse and Man,” which has just 
been published in London. The book extends 
to 338 pages and of these 197 are occupied with 
