not object to one with some body and rich¬ 
ness. 
* * * 
The Editor very properly advises a corres¬ 
pondent to use lime on his muck. I do not 
know whether he lias any preference, bub I al¬ 
ways use shell lime iu preference to stone lime, 
if I can get it. Stone lime sometimes contaius 
a sufficient quantity of magnesia to be hurtful; 
but as this is uot often the case, uobody should 
be deterred from using stone lime when the 
other can not be bad. Still, I think shell lime 
is always to be preferred for agricultural pur¬ 
poses. I am about to use it largely on muck, 
as I have many times before. 
* * * 
The Editor advises the ladies to go slow in 
silk business. This is sound advice in two di¬ 
rections, The ladies do not seem to remember 
that raising silk worms is a matter that has 
already been thoroughly tried in this country, 
and in every instance (except in California) 
with disastrous failure. Even the Cheney 
Bi'otliers, the largest and oldest silk manufac¬ 
turers in the country,have tried it and given it 
up, as did their lathers before them. Mi-. Van 
Nest and many others tried it years ago large¬ 
ly and systematically, aud grew poor on the 
results. It is well, too, to remember the tuul- 
ticaulis fever, which made so many sick unto 
death (financially). + ^ + 
A good many years ago I was present when 
Mr. Rush Cheney was trying to get some native 
cocoons into condition for reeling. Having 
failed in many ways, he tried boiling in a 
strong lye: but still the silk would only come 
away in short pieces, which were injured in 
the fiber aud made useless. The glue in those 
cocoons beat Russian glue out of sight. There 
is none of this trouble with cocoous imported 
from China, Japan, Italy, or even California. 
There are several reasons why raising silk 
worms can not be profitably pursued in this 
country, at least at the North. I have raised 
cocoons in a small way for amusement, aud 
there is something very interesting and even 
fascinating about it; but inasmuch as every¬ 
body thus far has failed to make it profitable, 
it is not too much to ask the ladies, iu the 
kindliest manner, to ponder the subject seri¬ 
ously before going into silk-raising as a busi¬ 
ness for profit. I really wish the field were 
entirely open to them; but, other obstacles re¬ 
moved^ they can uot hope to compete success¬ 
fully with foreign cheap labor. hoKTIC'OLA. 
<*f* 
h vmi 
gliiu, • .c Hurar*Jarra 
FEEDING LAMBS. 
SORTING THE LAMBS, 
v, »en puttim, hem into v inter-quarters, is an 
importau . atinn tha', should by no means 
be neglect A, nor should it be very long delay- 
el. It w i jl be lolly to pot them up promis¬ 
cuously. t!u veak with the strong, or the 
smallc • nee with those older and larger. 
Whi n in good health, there is nothing more 
impat: u t. al leeding time, than a lot of lambs, 
and if the younger be with the older or the 
weak with the stronger, they will be over¬ 
run and crowded away from the trough, and 
if a large number be together the feeder must 
be active, aud look out well, or he will be taken 
off his feet in the rush they will make to get at 
the trough first. 
Anywhere from 18 to 2o will do in a pen, 
the number depending upon its size; but we 
have found about 80 the best number, and 
they should be selected “all of a size,” and as 
they must be seen several times daily, for sev¬ 
eral months, and as every owner will take bet¬ 
ter care of anythiug in which lie takes a pride, 
and as they will look so much better, we recom¬ 
mend selecting those of about the same grade 
of wool for each pen, and if some have black 
faces and others not, by all means put the 
black faces by themselves and the same with 
the white. Very soon after penning, the lambs 
become accustomed to each other, familiar as 
it were, and feed quietly together. It is there¬ 
fore best that they be sorted and bunched, as 
they are to be fed, as soon os possible after be¬ 
ing placed in the bams, and after being so 
placed there should be as little ehangiug from 
pen to pen as possible, and absolutely none ex¬ 
cept in case of sickness or where one for any 
reason fails to thrive, in which case it should 
be removed at once. 
THE LAMBS SHOULD BE SHORN 
as soon as they have become thoroughly famil¬ 
iar with their quarters, and accustomed to 
the change of food. If we fairly demonstrated 
the necessity of shearing in the case of ewes 
for winter lamb-raising, every reason then 
given, is greatly intensified in the case of the 
lambs, and that it will pay, and pay largely, we 
have demonstrated by six years’ expeerience, 
with never a failure. A good lamb carries a 
fleece of from five to eight pounds of wool, aud, 
as we have shown in the case of the ewes, to 
get the largest growth for the feed consumed, 
they must be kept in a uniform temperature 
of from 55 degrees to 65 degrees, and this 
heavy fleece often causes them to be too warm 
and to perspire very freely; it also makes 
them bulky and able to get about in the pens 
less easily; and where one happens to be lying 
down, the others are liable to stand on its 
wool, thus pulling so severely as often to 
make sore and inflamed places under the skin, 
and again, all the ticks on any flock at “shearing 
tune” will be found on the lambs, and by 
shearing them, 90-100 of these pests will be re¬ 
moved with the fleece, the few remaining can 
be more easily killed. Few people are aware 
how many ticks a lot of lambs that have 
not been treated with au insecticide, 
ai-e carrying; and a dozen ticks on each 
lamb are enough to eat and worry it to a point 
that is fatal to any profit in feeding. Thous¬ 
ands of lambs die annually of the so-called 
“grub-in-the-head,” where the real cause is an 
abundance of sheep ticks. This is no guess¬ 
work, as we have made repeated examiua- 
tions. We ouce sheared a flock iu which was 
one “little rant” weighing less than 20 pounds, 
that carried, by actual count, over 2,000 ticks, 
and when shorn and freed from these, it made 
a fine lamb, w eighing, in Spring, when sold, 
over 75 pounds, whereas if left unshorn, and 
with the tides, it would have perished long be¬ 
fore Candlemas Day—“eaten up alive.” So it 
is not only humane but profitable to shear 
the lambs. We usually commence to shear in 
December, the time depending much on when 
we get the fall work all out. of the -way, and 
we finish shearing as soon as convenient. 
When shearing, and for a few- days afterward, 
of course, the barns must be kept a little 
closer and warmer than at other times, aud 
then be gradually cooled by ventilation till at 
the end of a week there will be no further 
danger of their taking cold. 
TREATMENT AFTER SHEARING. 
It is also a good plan, a few days after 
shearing, to give them a good carding and 
brushing, treating them at the same time with 
a mixture composed of lard, or lard oil two 
parts, raw linseed oil one part, kerosene (or, 
better, crude petroleum! two parts, the whole 
colored with burnt umber and well mixed. It 
should be used as hot as it can be borne by 
the hands, and can be applied with a sponge, 
cloth or brush and well rubbed into the wool 
and skin. This may seejn to be a disagreeable 
thing to do, but if two pei-sons dress them¬ 
selves in old clothes and have two dishes of t he 
mixture and a kerosene stove in a convenient 
place to heat one dish as they are using from 
the other, the operation can bo very rapidly 
performed aud it will kill every remaining 
tick, cure any eruption or skin-disease with 
which the animals may be troubled, and 
stimulate the wool to an even, rapid growth, 
and, withal, it gives the whole flock a uni¬ 
form, nice color, which alone would be worth 
the trouble. 
JOTTINGS. 
It will be remembered that when we were 
raising the new barn, the neighbors thought 
it was so large it would never be filled. But 
on a farm on which stock is largely winter fed 
and much food rich iu nitrogen aud phos¬ 
phates is brought and consumed, and the 
manure is judiciously applied, it is very 
difficult to have barns large enough to hold all 
that is grown. The result has been we have 
our barns full to overflowing, and two stacks 
of straw out-of-doors, which, though looking 
like pigmies beside a barn 90 feet long and on a 
nine-foot basement and with 20-foot posts, are 
each large enough to fill a barn 30x40-feet with 
16-foot posts. 
We are always son-y indeed to be obliged to 
put straw in stacks. Good straw, well saved, 
for feeding to fattening stock, which eat 
largely of oil meal, cotton-seed meal, bran, 
etc., is worth half as much as clover hay, and 
ts a very necessary component of feed, and it 
is impossible to put it into stack without a 
great loss even iu the best of yeai’S; but in a 
Fall like this, it is worth no more than half as 
much as if well housed. It pays to build 
sfraw bams even! 
WHAT ABOUT THOSE POLAR SHEEP. 
Lieutenant Greeley in an address at Pitts¬ 
field, Mass., says that during his long arctic 
explorations he passed through a district of 
country in which were numerous droves of wild 
sheep. They had large heads with horns like cat¬ 
tle; their tails resembled that of thehorse. Their 
fleeces were of the finest and thickest wool 
equaling, if not surpassing, that of the Mer¬ 
ino. Now if these sheep are a reality, why would 
it not pay some enterprising citizen, or the 
Department of Agriculture to make tin effort 
to introduce, and if possible acclimatize them. 
If they can live and thus thrive in that inhos¬ 
pitable country, there may be great possibili¬ 
ties in breeding them pure, or crossing with 
our domestic sheep. Who knows ? 
Painj J^wslwmtJn}. 
IOWA STATE DAIRYMEN’S CONVEN¬ 
TION. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS.) 
Slim attendance; slight interest among 
dairymen; burdens and pleasures of wom¬ 
an's life on the farm; leisure hours on the 
farm; food adulteration; corn fodder for 
milk; better farming needed; profit and 
loss in dairying; book-keeping on the form. 
The twelfth annual convention of the Iowa ; 
State Dairymen’s Association opeued in Bel- j 
videre on the afternoon of December 9, aud 
continued until the afternoon of the 11th. The 
attendance at the day sessions was quite mod¬ 
erate, aud mainly composed of people from a 
distance who had something to advertise. The 
evening attendance was larger, owing to the 
presence of the citizens of Belvidere. This does 
not speak well for the interest which the dairy¬ 
men of the State feel in advancing the welfare 
of their own calling, which seems at present to 
demand then - special attention. The admis¬ 
sion was free, so there could be no excuse on 
the score of poverty, unless the dairymen are 
too poor to pay railroad fare, which was re¬ 
duced to one-half for this occasion. Those at¬ 
tending the sessions were sufficiently attentive, 
and earnestly participated in the discussions. 
The President, in his opening address, reviewed 
the situation, using hopeful language and call¬ 
ing for united effort to suppress counterfeit 
daily goods and to improve the quality of dairy 
products while reducing the cost of manufac¬ 
ture. 
Mr. J. C. Lambert pointed out the many 
burdens and pleasures of woman's life on the 
farm, aud how by careful attention these bur¬ 
dens may be lightened and the home life made 
pleasanter and more beautiful. It is not all 
drudgery that brings the best reward. There 
must be plauning and system for lightening 
the labors of the household, and to give time 
for recreation and reading. It is uot always 
the hardest worker that does the most work. 
The brain and muscle tliat have proper rest 
and reeuperatiou are much more effective than 
those that are al ways kept iu a jaded condition. 
There is sometimes real economy in rest. 
Prof. C. E. Mann showed how the leisure 
hours on the farm could be spent pleasantly 
and profitably, making a general survey of 
the whole and picking up or bringing up the 
little odds and ends here and there, much as 
an artist puts the finishing touches to his work 
and thereby produces a master-piece. It is 
not necessary for one to spend his leisure hours 
in idleness iu order to secure the best results 
to body and mind. A little gentle exercise 
and clear, calm thought are much more recu¬ 
perative and beneficial. 
Dr. Joseph Tefft enumerated many articles 
of food and their inode of adulteration, in 
these degenerate and grasping times, and ex¬ 
pressed the opinion that the-increase of insanity 
iu the United States is largely due to the 
effects produced by the adulteration of food. 
A man may be poisoned and yet no immedi¬ 
ate symptoms may appear; but from the 
constant eating of poisonous ingredients their 
effect becomes cumulative, and the man in the 
end as surely dies from poisoning as if he at 
once took a dose sufficient to produce death. 
He thought we ought to have some sort of 
effective legislation to suppress counterfeiting 
and fraud in the manufacture and sale of all 
kinds of human food. It is much more injurious 
to assail a man’s health than to assail his pocket. 
Prof. W. A. Henry, of the Wisconsin Uni¬ 
versity Farm, has found corn-fodder a very 
valuable article, when fed in conjunction with 
some more nitrogenous food, in the production 
of milk. His corn-fodder was well cured in 
the “stout,” and then cut very fine by running 
through a powerful cutter. There is about 
one-third waste, in feeding corn-stalks whole. 
When cut fine, they are all eaten. The Pro¬ 
fessor is making experiments with fodder- 
corn, both cured and ensilaged, and expects it 
to prove a valuable food in both tonus. 
Mr. T. D. Curtis called for a halt iu exhaus¬ 
tive fanning, the cultivation of less acres and 
nil increase instead of a diminution in the 
productiveness of the soil. Our public lands 
are nearly all taken up, and the time is not 
far distant when we shall have a greater home 
demand for food and raw material than we 
shall be able to supply by our present methods 
of farming. He pointed out the enormous 
wastes from uot saving the cona-stalks and 
straw on the Western farms, and from the 
lack of shelter for farm machinery and live¬ 
stock; also from the unscientific methods of 
feeding. 
, Mr. W. R. Hostettler finds that profit and 
loss in dairying depend upon the greater or 
lees amount of skill und judgment manifested 
by the dairyman. Careless, slip-shod mauage- 
i ment can never make dairying profitable, and 
, , even the neglect of any essential must mate¬ 
rially injure the 'product and depreciate its 
value. From the most general management to 
the minutest detail, everything must be done 
in proper time and in a thorough manner. 
Mr. E. L. Lawrence was of the opinion tliat 
bookkeeping on the farm is but another name 
for systematic and efficient farming. He had 
not found the farm account books peddled by 
agents as satisfactory as a pocket memoran¬ 
dum book for the entry of every item, of 
whatever character, to be posted at the earl¬ 
iest convenience under its appropriate head in 
a common ledger. The agent’s farm account 
book is based more on theory than practice, 
and is too complicated, or runs too much into 
small details, for the use of the ordinary 
farmer. t. d. c. 
DAIRY NOTES. 
T. D. CURTIS. 
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF AS¬ 
SOCIATED DAIRYING. 
While associated dairying has its advan¬ 
tages—among which the educational are not 
the least—it also has its disadvantages. It is 
difficult to make patrons conform to the neces¬ 
sary rules aud regulations to secure uniformity 
of product of the highest quality. Dairies, 
farms, feed, care and the quality of milk differ 
so much, that it is next to an impossibility, to 
say the least, to secure justice among the 
patrons. The poor milk counts for just as 
much, pound for pound, in making dividends, 
as the good milk. Then, owing to the im¬ 
possibility of controlling all the conditions in 
producing und handling the milk delivered at 
the factory, neither butter nor cheese of as 
good quality can be made there as can be 
turned out by the private dairyman who under¬ 
stands bis business and has everything under 
his immediate supervision. Hence, I am no 
surprised to see it announced that a majority 
of the premiums awarded at the dairy exhibit 
made in con junction with the late Chicago Fa 
Stock Show, were awarded to private dairy¬ 
men. 
FUEL CHEAPER THAN FOOD FOR HEATING. 
Dairymen who are studying economy will 
find fuel cheaper than food for heating pur¬ 
poses. It is better to have warm stables, oven 
if artificial heat has to be resorted to for the 
purpose of keeping the temperature above 40 
degrees, Fab., than to put extra feed into cows, 
every cold snap, to keep them from shrinking 
in their yield of milk, because more of the food 
goes to sustain the proper amount of animal 
heat. It is always a great waste to burn food 
for heating purposes, and in no way can 
it be done so wastefully as iu the animal sys¬ 
tem. Not only is the consumption great, but 
the animal organism is over-taxed and de¬ 
ranged by compelling the animal to eat an 
extra amount of food to keep warm. But 
where there is exposure to cold, extra food 
must be consumed or the tissues of the animal 
are drawn upon for fuel. This causes decline 
in flesh and makes too heavy a draft, ou the 
vital forces. It is therefore economical, as 
well as humane, to keep cows in a warm 
stable, where they will uot stand humped up 
and shivering. 
VENTILATION IN THE STABLE. 
See that your stables are properly ventilated 
as well as warm. Impure air is inimical to the 
health of all animals—as much so to the bovine 
race as to man. Besides, nothing will so soon 
give a “eowy” flavor to milk, or the smell of 
the stable, as the breathing of an atmosphere 
reeking with the exhalations from the bodies 
of the cows and from their droppings. Venti¬ 
late, but avoid direct drafts. 
CLEANLINESS IN MILKING. 
Do not let filth drop into your milk-pail on 
the supposition that the strainer will take it 
out. Much of it will dissolve, contaminating 
the milk aud injuring its flavor. Now that 
cold weather makes it necessary to keep cows 
mostly in the stable, it is all the more impor¬ 
tant to pay attention to the subject of cleanli¬ 
ness. 
SPECKS IN YOUR BUTTER, KH? 
Why do you set your milk in an atmosphere 
so dry that the surface of the creaui becomes 
tough and wrinkled? How do you expect the 
hard lumps are going to he churned? If all the 
cream is kept limpid, where do you suppose 
white specks could come from ? Are they not 
unchurned lumps of cream? 
MILK AN ABSORBENT OF ODORS. 
The kitchen is uot the fittest place in the 
house for setting milk. It may be warm on 
the rack, or on the shelf next to the ceiling. 
But do you not know thut foul air, when 
warm, rises and that cream has a stiong atliu 
ity for odors? If the milk is cooler than the 
atmosphere in the room, the temperature 
having gouo down during the night when the 
fire was low or out, it will surely take iu Hie 
kitchen odors. These are not unproved if there 
is smoking in the kitchen—as there often is. 
How can good-flavored butter be made of 
