THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
mittee speak very favorably. They received 
the strongest evidence of the undoubted ad¬ 
vantage of the system for the feeding of daily 
stock. To breeding stock it had been given 
successfully, but in this case it had to be 
judiciously and carefully mixed with other 
foods. For store stock it forms a complete 
and wholesome, food, and in fattening stock it 
compares favorably with roots. The advan¬ 
tage of its use is most apparent in the degree 
to which it enables a farmer profitably to con¬ 
sume straw chaff, rough hay chaff and other 
dry materials, which, without admixture with 
some moist kind of food, would not lie pala¬ 
table or advantageous to the growth of stock. 
A limited proportion of silage mixed with 
other food has been given to work horses with 
satisfactory results. The Commissioners, in 
conclusion, state that they endeavored to dis¬ 
count nil exaggerated estimates, as well as to 
make allowance for a considerable amount of 
prejudice and incredulity which they met 
with, and they add: ‘‘After summing up the 
mass of evidence which has reached us, we can 
without hesitation affirm that it has been 
abundantly and conclusively proved to our 
satisfaction that this system of preserving 
green fodder crops promises great advantages 
to the practical fanner, and, if carried out 
with a reasonable amount of care and efficien¬ 
cy, should not only provide him with the 
means of insuring himself to a great extent 
against unfavorable seasons, and of materially 
improving the quantity and quality of his 
dairy produce, but should also enable him to 
increase appreciably the number of live stock 
that can bo profitably kept upon any given 
acreage, whether of pasture or arable land, 
and proportionately the amount of manure 
available to fertilize it.” 
The reports of the Royal Society’s judges 
are also very interesting and instructive, and 
are equally favorable to the system under 
investigation. The following concise sum¬ 
mary of the experience of the judges of the 
northern division is worthy of production: 
“We ore of opinion that the great question of 
satisfactorily ensiling green crops has received 
ample confirmation. It has been proved to us, 
incontestably, that its success has been mani¬ 
fested in every district. We have seen silos 
of brick, of stone and of wood; we have seen 
old barns and other buildings converted into 
silos; we have seen them sunk into the ground 
and built on the level; we have seen them con¬ 
taining 20 tons aud we have inspected others 
capable of containing TOO tons; we have found 
silos constructed at. a little over £20, and 
others at £400; we have found them filled with 
all sorts of green crops, and we have found 
some sour and some sweet—the latter in by 
far the greater proportion; we have seen them 
weighted with bricks, with stones, with slates, 
with sand, with earth and also with ingenious 
mechanical contrivances; wo have inspected 
some chaffed, and in others the fodder spread 
out and put in whole; iu all cases the practice 
was successful, and in every instance cattle of 
all descriptions did well on the silage, and in 
many instances the opinion was conclusive 
that decidedly more stock could be carried 
per acre with silage than with bay.” 
The report winds up with the following 
verdict: “The chief advantages of silage- 
making against hay-making is its compara¬ 
tive independence of the weather: that the 
fodder is handled, while green, without any 
risk of the tender and nutritious leaves being 
lost on the ground us in hay-making; that the 
resulting silage is succulent and palatable, 
and that on purely grazing farms it is now 
possible to obtain a portion of the grass crop 
for Winter in such a state os to equal the 
effect of summer-fed grass for the purpose of 
the dairy.” 
Halt for Stock.— The National Live Stock 
Journal, noticing a recent communication iu 
the Rural regarding the feeding of salt, to 
stock, mokes the point that water is wholly 
innutritions, adding nothing of substance to 
any structure of the body. It is utterly indi¬ 
gestible, is taken as water, goes the rounds of 
circulation as water, and is finally eliminated 
from the system ns water. All that can be 
said of salt in this line can bo said of water. 
But. does it prove that water is injurious, or 
useless? Does it perform no important office 
iu th© body, although not digested or assimil¬ 
ated? Water is absolutely indispensable. 
Without its neither vegetable nor animal or¬ 
ganisms can exist. It is a medium for dissolv¬ 
ing all foods, and assisting in their circulation 
nnd deposit at the points where needed. Re¬ 
move the water and everything would be but 
crumbling dost, to be blown about by the 
winds. What, then, is the force of the argu¬ 
ment of the “justly celebrated medical writer 
aud practitioner” against salt? He could not 
livo without a certain per cent, of it in bis 
blood, in which it is a constant element. It 
attracts water and keeps the blood fluid. In 
this resect, it undergoes more change than 
water does. Its crystals are dissolved, while 
water remains water still, from first to last. 
Yet one may injure himself by an excessive 
use of water, as he may by an excessive use of 
salt; and if he gets iuto water it will drown 
the life out of his body. Possibly he might 
smother himself in salt. But salt is nothing 
like as dangerous an element to deal with as 
water. 
The Men who Succeed with Sheep.— 
Scattered as they are, all over the country; 
addicted, of necessity, to diverse systems of 
management, nevertheless the men who have 
made a success of sheep husbandry, says the 
Breeder's Gazette, will be found to possess 
certain uniform characteristics. They are 
intelligent, experienced, prudent, persevering. 
Intelligent enough to appreciate their own 
surroundings, and to know the type of sheep 
best suited thereto, sufficiently experienced to 
know that their business is not necessarily a 
failure because prices for its product are not 
uniformly high. Prudent enough to escape 
the panic which periodically seizes their weak- 
kneed co-laborers, and to profit by the mis¬ 
takes of those who persist in selling when 
sheep are low and buying when, as a result of 
such folly, prices again advance. Persevering, 
with faith iu that average of results which 
has made for sheep husbandry as good a record 
for profit as can be shown for any other agri¬ 
cultural specialty. These are the men to whom 
those younger ones who think of becoming 
flock-owners should look for lessons, rather 
than to that class of talkers and writers who 
at times occupy the public attention, taking to 
themselves thu credit for successes and blam¬ 
ing others -with adversities. The road to suc¬ 
cess iu sheep husbandry is the plain, simple 
track leading to success in other callings. 
The man who achieves his ambition must, 
start right; must keep right; depending 
more upon his own efforts and judgment 
than on those of any other man or set of men. 
He must meet low prices with economical 
management and meritorious products; must 
keep his face to the wind, whether it blow 
high or low; keep head and heart wheu others 
quail; advancing only when sure of his 
footing, and never voluntarily taking a step 
backward. 
Points for Cattle Breeders.— Our friend 
Prof. Shelton of the Kansas Agricultural 
College, said, at a Missouri Farmers’ Institute, 
that he never heard of anyone getting any¬ 
thing useful out of color in stock, yet nine 
farmers out of ten will not look at a Short¬ 
horn that is not red. So. many will condemn 
an animal because its horns have not the pe¬ 
culiar turn they fancy. Let us be sure that 
we do not base our selection upon some trivial 
matter that has no money value. All the val¬ 
uable points of au animal may be divided 
into two classes; first, those that are iu them¬ 
selves useful; second, those that point, to or 
viudicate the possession of useful qualities. 
Why do careful judges place such a high value 
upon touch—the texture of the skin? It is of 
no value in itself, but it indicates a long list 
of qualities that are indispensable. If the 
touch is hard and the skin hard and inelastic, 
lookout for a hard feeder and an animal that 
is slow and late in maturing. So, the flank is 
of little value in itself; it is a boiling piece of 
low market value. Yet the good judge knows 
that an animal with a long,deep flank will be a 
good feeder, with thick flesh aud good consti¬ 
tution. The crop, again —the region just 
back of the shoulder—is generally ranked high, 
although it indicates nothing, but is itself a 
part of great value. The question is often 
asked: IIow can minor defects in a herd, or 
individual auimal, be corrected? The advice 
generally given to correct such defects is to 
use a sire that is well develop'd in parts where 
the cows are defective. There arises this 
difficulty, however, in attempting to correct 
one fault—we are quite likely to develop de¬ 
fects of another kind. The best way is to em¬ 
ploy moles whose general character is good. 
Select, as u sire, an animal that is well de¬ 
veloped, not merely in the region where the 
cows arc defective, but in all other points; 
thus you will correct the evil of which you 
complain, and not fall iuto other errors. 
Sweet and Sour-Cream Butter.— John 
Gould says, in the Practical Farmer, that ever 
since Professor Voelcker announced why 
sweet cream butter was best, and if made 
understanding!)' was by far the best keeper, 
the churning of less acid cream has been re¬ 
garded with more and move favor. P. McCon¬ 
nell, of England, the first dairy lecturer of 
that country, says of the two plans, sweet and 
sour cream butter: “By the former method 
the cream is used fresh, mul it is ]xissibla to 
milk a cow, separate the cream, and churn it 
into butter in less than an hour, the product 
having tho finest delicate flavor and the best 
keepiug qualities, iu the other system the 
cream is kept for several days to allow a cer¬ 
tain amount of acidity to develop, this boiug 
sometimes further aided by the addition of a 
little butter-milk. The cream is churned 
more easily, and the butter is of a stronger 
flavor, but will not keep so long.” This is very 
important testimony, but it does not relate, 
after all, to one very important point. Why 
does the butter made from the cream of the 
cabinet creamery, churned sweet, lack in fla¬ 
vor? The answer to this is that cream needs 
air to bring out flavor, and the closed cans 
preventing this, the cream must needs be left 
to sour. Professor Arnold, after long experi¬ 
ments, has concluded that flavor in butter is 
the result of the union of the oxygen of the 
air and the essential oils of the butter 
fats; but at the same time he would avoid 
souring the cream by long standing, aud ripen 
it by heating it up to about 75 degrees as soon 
as it is removed from the milk, stirring it fre¬ 
quently until that point is reached, and then 
setting it aw,ay to cool down to somewhere 
about 60 degrees, and then he would churn at 
the appearance of acidity. This does in a few 
hours, and to a certainty, what would other¬ 
wise take 24 to 36 hours to accomplish, and 
gives a certain uniform result that cannot be 
attained by “chancing it” with the uncertain¬ 
ties of the atmosphere. 
Long-horn Cattle.— Bell's Messenger des¬ 
cribes one of the few remaining English herds 
of Long-horn cattle. This favorite old breed 
of Bakewell's is seldom mentioned now. The 
more fashionable breeds, like the Short¬ 
horn and Hereford, have crowded it out. The 
herd described in the Messenger belonged to Sir 
J. H. Crewe, and was brought together more 
as a novelty thau because of any superior ex¬ 
cellence on the part of the cattle. Long-horns 
are picturesque and look well on a lawn or in 
a park. They are described as a handsome 
dark briudle in color, with a sheet of -white all 
down the back and white spots at the thighs. 
They are well ribbed and deep and compact in 
form, with a high quality of skin and flesh. 
They have noble heads, a large proportion 
with tapering wheel-horns encircling the neck 
itself. Few breeds can rival the Ixing-horn 
for hardihood, constitutional vigor and 
longevity. They are excellent dairy animals. 
The milk is not large in quantity, but, like 
that from the Jersey, is exceedingly rich. In 
a test made some years ago, six Short-horn 
cows gave 152 ]X>unds of milk and six Long¬ 
horns gave 135 pounds. The milk from the 
Short-horns made but 14 l <j pounds of curd, 
while that from the Long-boms made 
As beef animals, the present, Long-horns do 
not excel. They have never been heavily fed 
from calfdom. Their principal points of 
merit are their toughness, their dairy qualities 
and their picturesque appearance. 
WORTH NOTING. 
Cheese is a muscle-making food; and, in 
Europe, it is used hy the peasant and working 
classes to an extent that has no general paral¬ 
lel here, says the Orange County Farmer. «To 
people who work, and who cannot buy meat, 
it is almost a necessity; and the quantity a 
laborer can eat of it with impunity, where 
meat Is forbidden by its high price, would sur¬ 
prise one who simply takes a crumb occasion¬ 
ally with the final course of an excellent din 
ner.............. 
Why milk should net the farmers about 
Philadelphia, three cents per quart while pro¬ 
ducers in Orange Co. N. Y., get from one-and-a- 
half to two, is one of these latter-day problems 
which the local farmers cannot understand. 
To our minds, it is in both cases, the result of 
organization — compact aud strong. Near 
Philadelphia it is the farmers who are thus 
organized. In this section, it is the Milk Ex¬ 
change. not the fanners, and the result is seen 
in the different prices that prevail... 
It is a pretty sure sign of a good fanner 
when we see a field of green rye from which 
daily cuttings are being made in May, says the 
New England Farmer. . 
The Farm Journal—the little monthly that 
has a lot of imitators but no equals—says that 
there is no way a farmer can improve a field 
faster than by seeding it down and pasturing 
hogs in it—unless it is to sow peas in a lot and 
then let the hogs eat them on the ground. A 
pint of corn fed to a hog every day iu a clover 
pasture will make it lit for killing before cold 
weather. Two quarts of middlings a day wet 
up and fed to a hog, wintered over, iu con¬ 
nection with good pasture, will make it ready 
for the market in the Autumn. Iu this cheap 
way the hogs may bo fitted for market early, 
and the land fitted for a good crop of corn 
the next year. The shut-up system of making 
pork, is'raighty poor economy. The hogs will 
do a good deal tor us if we only give them a 
chance..... 
A writer in the Fruit Recorder pours a 
pint of kenosene upon a barrel of coal ashes, 
mixes aud uses it the same as he would lime or 
plaster. The smell of kerosene keeps all in¬ 
sects away from squashes, melons, etc.. 
41? 
How much farther can we go in the direc 
tion of breeding for specialties before nature 
will give an imperative command to halt, 
asks the Live Stock Journal. We have run 
some of the beef breeds to the point of bar¬ 
renness, if not of a diseased tendency to lay 
on fat. We have done the same with the hog, 
and in some instances bred off the snout, 
which nature intended for a purpose. 
Rapid milking is an advantage, says the 
above journal, if it is done without hurting 
or irritating the cow and she is milked clean. 
If not milked in a reasonable time, the cow 
refuses to “give down.” If made to feel com¬ 
fortable, she just stands and “pours out” the 
milk. The rapid milker has the advantage. 
How long ought it to take to milk a cow? 
Ordinarily about six minutes. A good milker, 
with good cows having uo impediment in the 
way of rapid milking, ought to milk 10 cows 
in an hour. Some can not milk over eight, 
while others can milk twelve. 
White Wyandottes. it is said, will have a 
boom as soon as the breed can be fixed and 
multiplied. But what advantage they will 
have over the original Wyandottes remains 
to be seen... 
Crocks of butter to be kept for several 
months, says the TT. S. Dairyman, should 
never be placed upon the cellar bottom. This 
causes two degrees of temperature in the crock, 
which will be at the expense of the quality of 
the butter near the top. The crocks will keep 
their contents far better if placed at least a 
foot from the cellar bottom, upon a bench and 
a thick woollen cloth thrown over it.. 
The Science News mentions that a crock of 
butter, was lately taken out of a well where it 
had lain 50 years, and found to be solid and 
sweet..... 
The Dairyman quotes Prof. Sweet as re¬ 
commending that butter be salted with a 
mixture composed of one pound of white 
sugar to three pouuds of fine salt, using one 
ounce of this mixture to a pound of butter... 
Dr. Vasey. Botanist of the Department of 
Agriculture, says that a hand-book of North¬ 
ern farm grasses will probably be issued at 
Washington during the coming Summer or 
Fall. lot. us pray, says J. B. Olcott, that some 
observing farmer may have a hand in it. 
A writer in the London Ag. Gazette gives 
the cow her dues. The Hindoo worships the 
cow. and the Irish peasant lives with her on a 
footing of social equality. She is the friend 
of man in every zone, a peace-offering from 
Nature to the human race in all climes.. 
The cow converts millions of tons of herbage 
ever)' year into the richest food for man. Al¬ 
though the scale of animal existence is almost 
infinitely graduated, the cow is the chief con¬ 
necting link between human life and the earth 
that supports it. She is man's forager and 
nurse after he quits his mother's breast- till he 
drops into the grave. Her patient churning 
mouth is always going as if she was aware 
that millions are depending on her for their 
most wholesome luxuries, as well as for nearly 
half their sustenance... 
Rest a short time after eating, and the hot¬ 
ter the weather the longer the rest. Eat slow¬ 
ly and masticate the food thoroughly. It 
does not so much matter what we eat as how 
we eat it. Do not eat too much... 
Mr. Halladay says, in the Poultry Keeper, 
that there are a few persons who sell knowingly 
Black Cochins for Langshaus, but there are 
more who sell the same through ignorance, 
having purchased in good faith what they 
supposed to bo Langshaus.. 
Mr. P. M. Springer and Mr. D. L. Thomas 
are engaged in a discussion as to whether hog 
cholera is or is not contagious. The latter in 
proof of his belief that it is not, publishes the 
following letter from M. W. Smith: 
CoLcxnrs, Isa. Jan. 20. 1 SW. -I bare been engaged 
In rendering dead animals for fifteen rears, and I am 
proprietor of three factories located at different 
points. Since I commenced the business not less than 
300.1X0 to 400,000 hogs and pigs have been rendered as 
my factories. They died from all hinds of diseases 
that hogs are afflicted with. In the meantime I have 
kept hogs and raised pigs each year, and they ran In 
the lots that Inclosed my factories and had free access 
to the offal and ate tee liver and lungs of hogs that had 
died from every variety of disease: and during all 
that time I never had a case of "hog cholera” among 
my stock: but my hogs have always been uniformly 
atul uncommonly healthy. They have every possible 
chance to contract swine diseases, but have escaped. 
Scores of men living near my factories will attest 
these facte... 
Prof. W, A. Henry wisely tells the farm¬ 
ers of Wisconsin that train loads of bran 
cross that State from Minnesota to be fed out 
on the Eastern farms. It should be dropped 
on W isconsin farms, fed to cattle and thus 
changed into beef, butter, cheese aud uiauure. 
Dakota and Minnesota will grow poor from 
this constant grain production, but Wisconsin 
by tapping this stream of bran can grow in 
wealth and fertility .. 
The pi'esentv of any thoroughbred cow in a 
herd has a most remarkable effect upon tbe 
