250 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
APRIL \7 
that large quantities of it were being 
mported, and we found to our dismay that it 
had to a serious extent displaced our own gen¬ 
uine butter among the masses of the people, 
with the inevitable result of a serious drop in 
* the price of the genuine article. It was dis¬ 
covered, too, that many retail provision deal¬ 
er's were selling it freely as butter, at a price 
with which butter could not possibly compete, 
and we saw then clearly enough that our 
dairy interests wore in immenenfc danger of 
ruin from a competition which no one could 
sa v was honest. 
With you the case was different. You had 
been exporting butter for a long time, and, 
when an imitation article began to be freely 
put on your markets, you at once saw it was 
an interloper where no sufficient cause could 
be given for its appearance at all. We wanted 
it, and you did not; that made all the differ¬ 
ence. Animal fat made up into ft form con¬ 
venient for utilization in cookeries, was no 
doubt a legitimate enough thing, even in 
America, because such fat had to be utilized 
in some profitable manner if possible; but 
when it boldly came out as an imitation of 
butter, it was time that you took notice of it. 
It is not surprising, after all, that it should 
have had its inception in your country, fqr 
you are an eminently original and inventive 
people, great at innovations. Further, your 
petroleum wells were pouring out oil to light 
the world, and candles went out of fashion, 
and almost out of use; so that the fat which 
had aforetime been employed to light up your 
houses at night was no longer wanted for that 
purpose, for you burned paraffine instead. 
We may wonder, indeed, at what price but¬ 
ter would have been sold to-day, if gas had 
not been invented and petroleum never dis¬ 
covered. These two illimiiuants have set fat 
at liberty for other uses, and hence we have 
bogus butter in abundance. 
I consider there is no room to complain of 
or condemn the utilization of animal fat for 
food, when it is not required for light. It is 
in itself a valuable tiling and to waste it 
would "be a crime. To employ it us food for 
the people is also a perfectly legitimate thing 
to do, for it is essentially an article of food, 
and always has been, and always will be, 
among most of the races of mankind. With 
this abstract statement of the case 1 fancy no 
one will be inclined to cavil; as, indeed, no one 
reasonably can. But when it is made up in a 
guise which is, to all intents and purposes, in¬ 
tended to imitate something else, and to im¬ 
pose on the public by means of the likeness it 
bears to butter; when, indeed, it is actually 
sold for what it is not, and a price over and 
above its market vtiJue is obtained lor it by 
means of this misrepresention; then, in the 
name of all that's honest, we have a fair and 
just right to complain. It is, we contend, do¬ 
ing a great injury to dairy funning; but it is 
not for this reason, firat of all, that we take 
up arms against it. The head and front ol’ 
the offending lie in the fact that it does 
this injury, not by moans of what it is, but 
by means of what it pretends to be; not by 
the help of its intrinsic value, the worth el 
which wo freely admit, hut by the simulation 
of something which is better and more attrac¬ 
tive than Itself, 
Wo demand, therefore, not that bogus but¬ 
ter shall he prohibited, not that it shall not be 
made and sold; but that it should never be 
sold except under a name which fully and 
properly and honestly indicates what it is. In 
this demand there is nothing to which the 
bogus butter people can justly take excep¬ 
tion; there is nothing prohibitive in it, noth¬ 
ing retaliative, nothing unfair. All we 
want is, that the public should not he de¬ 
ceived, and that dairy farmers shall not have 
to contend against a dishonest competition. 
Then the butterine manufacturers may make 
and sell as much of it as they can induce the 
public to swallow,and we shall have no further 
fault to find. 
A bill to this end has been introduced 
into the. House of Commons, and there is rea¬ 
son to believe that it will meet with a favor¬ 
able reception. When this hill has become 
law, it will rest with dairy farmers to stand 
or to faff in competition with bogus butter; 
and, in order to stand, it will be necessary 
that they shall produce butter of a character 
superior to a great deal of what is now found 
in the market. 
Surrey Co,, England. 
A FRIENDLY COUPLE. 
About a year ago I bought a cow and her 
calf. We made veal of the calf as soon as 
possible, and the i-ow seemed not to got over 
the loss of her calf all Summer, being restless 
and fretful, so that sometimes 1 turned a 
neighbor’s cow into the yard ut night to keep 
her quint. Lute in the Fall 1 bought a pig, 
some three or four months old, and turned it 
into the same yard, merely for convenience. 
The cow and pig made friends with each other 
r ightaway. and slept in the same shed at 
night, snuggled close as the weather became 
cold. During a severely cold terra not long 
since, the cow dried off suddenly, but the boy 
was directed to strip her for the last drop 
twice a day to bring her back if possible, and 
we arranged to give a little more green food 
to “poor Bossy.” Still no improvement. 
After a week or so, one evening the boy came 
to .the house with his face in a broad grin, and 
said that he had caught the pig sucking the 
cow! Mr. Pig was shut up by himself, and 
now the cow frets the same as if it was a calf 
shut away from her. She can sec the pig, 
and there she stands mooing for it till we all 
nearly die with laughter. We have set up 
our cream jar again, and have mush and milk 
for supper occasionally. r. 
&l)t IjcriXsiiiati. 
FROM CALF TO COW. 
Raising calves for milch cows; breeding; 
care of cow and calf of birth; early feed 
of calf; “no crowding;" the '"farmer's eoiv." 
Here is my method of raising calves for 
milch cows; it was practiced by my father 
long before he began raising pure-bred cattle. 
His invariable rules were, first, never to raise 
a calf (bull or heifer) from a pcior or medium 
cow; second, never to breed from a bull, no 
matter how line personally, that was not from 
the best of milking stock. As a result, neither 
he nor I have ever had more than three poor 
cows. An animal should not ouly l>e pure¬ 
bred, but of a superior milk and butter lineage. 
1 would be even more particular of the breed¬ 
ing of a bull than of a cow. The breeder who 
will allow a poorly-bred calf to go from bis 
herd is at least unscrupulous. Fanners make 
a great mistake in using scrub and picked-up 
bulls. At present a finely-bred bull calf can be 
bought for what he will sell for beef in three 
years, so that there is little economy in buying 
anything but the best. 
I take the calf, as soon as born, to a warm 
stall, rub it with dry straw and cloths until 
thoroughly dry and warm; give it good 
bedding, and then if it is active, leave it alone 
for six or eight hours. Meanwhile the cow 
lias been given a pail of water as warm as she 
will drink, and been milked, and the udder 
has been property cared for. if my stable* 
were cold, t should keep the cow blanketed for 
a few days. Many cows fed on ilry feed, 
carry their “cleanings.” To prevent this 
trouble, i feed very little corn meal or other 
feverish grains for several weeks previous to 
calving. For about four weeks, I give the 
COW, mixed with her bran, a small handful of 
uuleached wood ashes one© a day, haviug 
found ashes a great help in cases of abortion. 
When the calf is from six to ton hours old, the 
cow is again milked into a calf pail, and the 
calf is immediately taught to drink. Often¬ 
times it will drink at once, needing not even a 
finger; but generally this must be given two 
or three times. Don’t, give the calf too much, 
or its appetite will nut be good next time. 
Don’t crowd it. at any time if you are breeding 
milking stock. Farmers intending to go into 
thoroughbreds, often start with a few calves. 
The desire is to keep these a little extra nice 
and fat. To them, above all, docs this warning 
apply. Don’t crowd them. If you do, I 
guarantee that in four years you will say that 
it doesn’t pay to raise thoroughbred cows for 
their milk. 1 have seen calves that, when a 
week old, showed indications of turning out 
good milkers, so “crowded” that when a year 
old their nature seemed to hove been changed, 
and they appeared titter for beef than milk 
production. A change of this kind once effect¬ 
ed cannot be undone. 1 have generally given 
my calves new milk twice a day until they 
area week old, then I have substituted sweet 
skim-milk, warmed. From this I work them 
on to sour milk, and from this, if I must, to 
warm water containing a good handful of 
scalded finished middlings. Tins ration is in¬ 
creased to a pint at the age of six months, and 
kept up until they are turned out to grass as 
yearlings. This feed may be changed accord¬ 
ing to the quality of the dry feed given. Let 
the calf have plenty of room for exercise, 
plenty of light, and a warm, dry, soft bed; then 
it ought to prosper. 
I seldom show my calves to people whom I 
do not know to be good judges of stock, be¬ 
cause they have not that glossy, oily coat 
which characterizes a calf bred for beef. They 
are not poor, but are in what we call a good, 
healthy growing condition, and in this con¬ 
dition I strive to keep them until they arc no 
longer profitable us milkers-t ben I crowd them. 
The common fanner wauts a cow that is 
hearty, strong, active, a good milker every 
year and 11 months of the I 2. k uucy cows 
are. for those dealers who, when selling under 
records obtained by inhuman crowding, de¬ 
fraud their customer as badly as any swind¬ 
ling concern in the country, and cause the 
early death of many of the tested cows. 
Make any good farmer a present of a cow 
with a record of 20,000 pounds of milk, under 
the stipulation that she shall b&ve the same 
treatment of his other cows, and the chances 
are that she will tail the herd as his poorest 
cow. When record men will truthfully adver¬ 
tise not only the individual yields of butter 
and milk, but also the care and feed tlicir 
stock have had, then we can tell what cow to 
buy. The cow that gives the most milk or 
makes the most butter is not necessarily the 
best cow, but rather the cow that does the 
most from a given quantity of feed. A Hol¬ 
stein would starve on the feed required to keep, 
an Ayrshire in a good flow of milk. Give ex¬ 
tra feed to the Holstein and she distances the 
Ayrshire perhaps. The question now comes 
home; Does the extra amount of milk pay 
a fair per centage of profit for the extra food 
required? d. p. s. 
Auburn, N. Y. 
, RUTABAGAS POOR FATTENING FEED. 
I notice in a January issue of the Rural, 
that Prof. Brown is credited with having said 
that animals cannot be fattened on roots with¬ 
out grain. My experience in feediug ruta¬ 
bagas, the past Winter to fattening cattle, 
confirmed this opinion. I was fattening two 
large oxen and two farrow cows, both giving 
milk and above the average size. From 
the middle of November until about the mid¬ 
dle of January I gave each animal all the 
good hay it would eat up clean, three times a 
day; a certain amount of ground feed, com¬ 
posed of middlings and corn meal, and one 
bushel of rutabagas. The ground feed was 
put on the cut roots. About the middle of 
January my roots were frozen, and 1 discon¬ 
tinued feeding them, but in their stead I 
added two*aud-three-quarters pounds of corn 
meal; otherwise the animals were fed the same 
as before, with what water they would drink 
once a dav: when they' had the roots 1 gave 
water in the same way. The cattle remained 
in the stable continually after I put them up 
in November, The weather for the second and 
third weeks in February was not so favorable 
as before, but they all put on much more flesh 
on the two-and-three-quartere pounds of extra 
corn meal than on the bushel of rutabagas per 
day, fed to them previously, and the cows gave 
more and abetter quality of milk. 
Is it. possible that one bushel of rutabagas is 
not worth as much to feed to fat tening cattle 
as two-aud-three-quarters pounds of corn meal? 
This was my first experience in feeding ruta¬ 
bagas to fattening cuttle; but from reading 
agricultural papers and books, and learning 
what great stress some writers put upon the 
growing of roots, I had concluded that ruta¬ 
bagas must have a feeding value of 15 or 20 
cents per bushel, as compared with grain. 
Hillman, Mich. j. u. s. 
fie It) Crops. 
DRILLING FIELD CORN. 
Satisfactory figures; thorough preparation; 
drilling; cult i vat ion; ear development. 
Last year I planted my corn with a Cham¬ 
pion grain drill. The result was so satisfac¬ 
tory' that I give below an extract from my' 
books. We are in Northern Ohio: 
The entire field averaged 100 bushels per 
acre, meaning a heaped bushel basket, of 
which 1% make a bushel of shelled corn; 
price 45 cents, its value as feed, and less than 
its market price. 
Debit. 
Plowing Kkfe days <<« $3.00.819.50 
“ AS “ ft 3.®). 8.00 
Dragging 5 “ ft 3.50. 17.50 
Pulverizing 1 day Q 3.50. 3.50 
Drilling 1^ " ft “ . 5.25 
Use drII1. 3.00 
Seed corn, five bushels ft $1. . 5.00 
Phosphate, 4,000 pounds ft) l j^c. 60.00 
Seeds, squash, pumpkin, etc. 1,75 
Planting seeds. 3.00 
Replanting, one day. 1.50 
Cultivating, once In row, 2J^ days ft; 83.50 . 6.25 
“ twice In row, 8 ft 2.50.. 20.00 
Thinning, etc,. 12 days ft; $1.25. 15-00 
Cutting 1,513 shocks ft) ljtfc.22.70 
Husking and cribbing 1,498 bushels® IJ^c, 67.11 
Total debit.$259.36 
Credit. 
1.498 bushels ft) 27o. In held.$404.40 
15 acres fodder ft) $5,00. 75.00 
Load Hubbard Squashes.. 2.50 
8 loads pumpkins ft) gl.00. 8.00 
5 “ “ IS B0. 2.5U 
20bushels turnips ft 15.. 3.00 
Total credit...8195.40 
Balauce. $236.10 
The estimates for work ai-e figured at the 
regular rates for labor in this section. The 
history of this crop proves conclusively that 
planting corn irr drills is for superior to the 
old system of hilling. It has also convinced 
me that the most complete pulverization of 
the soil is necessary, and that extra work done 
at the beginning of the season pays well. 
The field on which this crop was grown had 
been cultivated seven successive years and 
fertilized only with bone and superphosphate, 
though a clover sod lnul been plowed down 
once in beginning. The season was late and 
most unsatisfactory. The corn was not 
among the earliest varieties and was not 
planted until June 4th, as I delayed planting 
rather than give up a last dragging. After 
plowing and dragging thoroughly, the pulver¬ 
izer was put. at work and the soil completely 
reduced for the drill. 
A common wheat drill was used, adjusted 
so as to drop more than four kennels to the 
hill, in row's three-and-a-half feet apart, each 
way. The fertilizer was deposited through 
three hoes of the drill for each row of corn, 
the seed being drilled into the middle row. 
This gave the plant a wider feeding ground, 
more nearly approach iug the plan of broad¬ 
cast distribution of plaut food. Before the 
corn came up, a heavy rain formed a hard 
crust on the surface, which prevented the ger¬ 
mination of the vino seeds; consequently a 
small crop of squashes and pumpkins resulted. 
To abate this trouble, the soil was diligently 
worked with a wing cultivator, running close 
to the rows, which had boon made as straight 
as possible. Thinning was carefully' carried 
out. This leads me to introduce what I con¬ 
sider one of the chief arguments in favor of 
drill culture. My observation goes conclus¬ 
ively to prove that fully 25 per cent more 
stalks will produce ears when the stalks ai-e 
sullieicntly apart than when they are crowd¬ 
ed together in bills. In facts it was a rare excep¬ 
tion to find a stalk without at least one fully 
developed ear. Our aim should be to get one 
perfect ear to a stalk, before trying for mo'/e. 
Every variety of coru l have ever observ >d, 
produces, in embryo, one perfectly developed 
ear at each of four or five of the joints from 
near the ground up. And these miniature ears 
can be observed, by divesting them of their 
miniature husks, at auy time before any 
ears have appeared above the enveloping leaf- 
sheaths, perfect in every particular, except as 
to maturity. Hence, it is safe to conclude 
that if we are to expect extra development of 
ears, wo are to look for it through the med¬ 
ium of better cultivation, and such a seeking 
out of food rations for the growing plant as 
shall enable it to develop tho possibilities 
which every stalk of corn displays. A further 
foot in this connection, is that such varieties 
as have been brought to produce a multiplicity 
- of ears, rapidly deteriorate unless the best of 
methods are adopted in cultivation. It was 
a close shave for my' crop to mature the sin¬ 
gle ear jier stalk, in time to escape frost. 
Cllgfthoga Co., O. A. W. RUSSELL. 
. NEW ZEALAND GRASS FOR THE 
SOUTH. 
Why can we not utilize or reclaim the old 
Broom Gross fields of North Carolina and Vir¬ 
ginia? I have had five years’ experience there 
as a farmer, and I find peculiarities about tho 
soil, which conviucc me that there Ls a good 
starting point to make it an important cattle 
or sheep country. Clover will not do well 
except on rich spots. It will not “catch,” or 
it will bloom at four inches high and “starve 
out.” Wheat and corn are poor crops. To¬ 
bacco very uncertain. My opinion is that 
some grasses can be imported that will revo¬ 
lutionize farming at the South. It is useless 
to toll a practical fanner vhut crops of grass 
signify—beef, mutton, hogs, wheat, corn, 
mills, immigration without solicitation, fac¬ 
tories of all kinds, roads, fences, railways, 
good homes, education, tall church spires, in 
short, every comfort in life. My seven y'ears’ 
experience in New Zealand convinces me that 
the common Prairie Grass saved and made 
the country. Though ns tough as wire, a 
horse goes a hundred miles a day on it better 
than on oats. I tended a flock of 25,000 sheep 
on it, and a flock near us numbering 100,000 
never ate a bite of anything else in their Jives. 
Why not try it here? If not successful, ran¬ 
sack the whole earth fora grass that euu feed 
on the elements yet left in tho soil. It only 
needs a little enterprise and a very small out¬ 
lay by n few men to gain the prize. Try Aus¬ 
tralian Grass, Tasiiiauiun, New Guinea, or 
any ot her that can lie found. One will surely 
befouud that will grow- as well as Broom 
Grass which is almost useless, but might be 
utilized for manure, or if cut up fine for chop¬ 
ped feed with meal. j. c. 
Petoskey, Mich. 
farm (Topics, 
i 
WHO? 
The number of words in the English lan¬ 
guage is enormous, and the expression of the 
same meaning by different words is a stumb¬ 
ling block to foreigners who attempt to learn 
