iflinmw‘ uu ^^= 
Vol. XLV. No. 1894. 
NEW YORK, MAY 15, 1886. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1886, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
composed of water and of such low nutritive 
value, can we not substitute water to good 
advantage by wilting or soaking the dry food? 
We have received many letters of late, of 
which the above gives fairly the gist. We 
have by far too much respect for science and 
the agricultural chemists to belittle in any 
maimer the one or to slight the deductions of 
the others, and yet we must be excused if we 
say we would much rather have the practical 
results of feeding a half dozen sheep with aud 
without roots to the closest deductions of any 
chemical tests. The chemist when he analy¬ 
zes the hay made from the growing grass, 
tells us that it contains, in a concentrated 
form, all the growing and feeding value of 
the grasses; but we all know that an old cow 
More than 30 people have asked these questions. 
Lot us consider the answer:—We raise, each 
year, from six to ten acres, and we have very 
seldom had a crop yield less than 1,000 bushels 
per acre, and we have had over 1,000 bushels. 
We think 1,300 no more than a fair average 
yield on good land, so that if we can raise aud 
harvest the crop for *00 per acre, we get the 
roots at five cents per bushel. The way we 
secure such a crop is as follows:—We prefer a 
good, strong loam, and a one-year-old clover 
sod is first-rate, though a piece of corn or 
potato ground answers a good purpose if it 
was manured for the crop the previous year. 
We had a fair crop last year on a clover sod, 
and we shall plant this year on the same kind 
of fitting. In the Fall or early Winter we 
England and charge from 20 to 35 cents per 
pound, the price varying with the variety. 
By using an extra two pounds the extra cost 
is from 40 to 50 cents per acre, and we would 
need to get from eight to ten bushels extra 
in the crop to pay this; but by using so much 
seed we insure a full stand and get from one 
to several humtred bushels more. About one- 
fourth of our crop is of the Mammoth Long 
Red: the rest of the Yellow Globe or Golden 
Tankard. The Mammoth Long Red is a good 
yielder, aud is in good feeding condition 
earlier than the others; but the others yield 
fully as well, are less troublesome to harvest 
and keep much better for later feeding. 
As soon as the rows can be nicely seen, run 
a hand cultivator (we prefer the Planet, Jr. 
WATERLOO DUKE 84073. 
« HE fine Short-horn bull shown 
at Fig. 308 is owned by Prof. 
A. J. Cook, and is held for 
service at his stock farm near 
Owosso, Michigan. 
Waterloo Duke was bred by 
the Canada West Farm Stock 
Association of Brantford, Can¬ 
ada, Ontario. He was sired by imported 
Fourth Duke of Clarence, and is out of Ox¬ 
ford’s Waterloo 5th. He is half brother to 
Clarence Kirklevington, the premium steer at 
mm 
WATERLOO DUKE 34072. Fig. 208. 
the Chicago Fat Stock show of 1884. He is a 
wonderful stock getter, his superior excellence 
being transmitted to his progeny.. His present 
weight is 3,500 pounds. The Waterloo tril>e is 
famous in Short horn literature, being con¬ 
sidered one of the best of the Bates tribe. 
The picture is token from an inferior photo 
graph and is a tritte faulty in the fact that it 
makes the animal appear lighter iu the hind¬ 
quarters than ho really is; otherwise the like¬ 
ness is excellent. Prof. Cook is to be con¬ 
gratulated on securing this tine animal to head 
his excellent herd. 
Sljcqi Ijusboruinj, 
Notes from the Western New York Farm. 
LAMB FEEDING. 
ARE ROOTS A NECESSITY? 
When chemistry shows roots so largely 
will make much more milk and butter when 
eating the succuleut grass, though really bik¬ 
ing much less actual nutriment. This is true, 
eveu though the hay were to be cut, soaked 
und steamed. There is some peculiar iuttu- 
ence which this succulent food exerts upon 
the animal’s mechanism, of which the chemist 
as yet can take no account, but \fhieh every 
feeder has, time aud again, proved to be real. 
We have on many occasions fed different pens 
the same dry ration and, one with an¬ 
other, without roots, and in not a single in¬ 
stance have the roots failed to produce a bet¬ 
ter result, many times over pay iug the cost of 
production. Not only this, but as we luive 
before said, the liberal use of roots will enable 
the sheep to eat and digest, profitably, a much 
larger proportion of dry foruge and grain. 
If roots are mostly water, wo would almost 
as soon think of keeping our sheep aud lambs 
without forage as without a liberal supply of 
roots. 
MANGELS AT FIVE CENTS PER BUSHEL. 
Cau they be raised for this, aud, if so, how! 
apply 15 loads of our rich barn manure 
spread from the wagons or sleighs. As soon 
as the barley and oats are sown—or sooner 
if in proper condition—this should be 
plowed anil at once rolled aud harrowed to 
preveut its becoming lumpy. In a couple of 
days, more or less, it should be again culti¬ 
vated, rolled aud harrowed until the surface 
is smooth and fine aud the under soil fairly 
compact. The seed should bo sown at once, 
—the earlier the letter, after May Isb—with 
a commou grain drill, using every fourth or 
third tooth, as they are seven or nine iuches 
apart, thus placing the rows 38 or 27 inches 
apart. In sowing, we apply 300 pounds of 
some good brand of superphosphate per acre, 
lotting it all bo distributed by tho tube sowing 
the seed and the one on either side of it, which 
should be so tied as to run within five or six 
inches of the one sowiug the seed. It is the 
poorest kind of economy to scrimp iu the seed. 
The books all say, sow four pounds; we never 
sow less than six. We buy our seed of a hard¬ 
ware firm here, who import it directly from 
as close to the rows as possible; if this is pro¬ 
perly done, not more than an inch-and-a-half 
wiil be left uncut. In a week give a workiug 
with a horse and cultivator; aud a couple of 
days afterwards go over them again with the 
hand cultivator and then “chop out.” This is 
douc with a common hand hoe ground sharp'. 
Leave six iuches of the row and cut out oue 
foot, and again leave six inches, thus leaving 
hills six inches along the row and > tie foot 
apart. As soon as the leaves of f V voir to 
mangels are thi-ce iuches long the should be 
weeded and thinned. Induing this, use lie 
hoe and fingers, and leave from r. to live 
plants in each hill. l'hisgi\csa greatly 
creased yield aud prevents the MvLsir.it 
becoming so very large and coarse, as hey 
will when thinned to single plants. At er 
this they should he cultivated often, and any 
strong weeds that have been left should be 
pulled. 
HARVESTING. 
In this latitude it is uot safe to leave the 
mangels in the ground later than October 15, 
