THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
capacity is large and rich, 18 to 28 quarts a 
dav being a common yield. They fatten very 
easily, and will yield from 700 to 000 pounds 
of dressed beef. This breed is more interest¬ 
ing to us because it has been introduced here 
for some years past and has met with consid¬ 
erable favor in New England, Pennsylvania 
and other localities. The conditions of climate 
and topography, however, are so different 
here from those prevalent in Switzerland, 
that it must be expected some change at least 
will occur in the character of the cattle which 
have been imported, although we cannot say 
that this may not be for the better quite as 
easily as it might be for the worse. 
It should not be forgotten that the winter 
care of these cattle in Switzerland is quite 
different from that in the Summer; for as 
Winter approaches they are brought down 
from the mountains to the villages in the val¬ 
leys, were the pastures are fresh and smooth, 
and where, in the colder weather, they are 
fed in warm stables upon the sweetest of hay 
and some additional food. Here the milk is 
largely used for condensing, for which there 
are extensive factories upon the American sys¬ 
tem (American ways and methods penetrate 
everywhere.) This condensed milk is sent 
abroad where it competes with our product, 
and it has even made its appearance in Ameri¬ 
can cities, On the whole, the Swiss cattle 
may not be a very valuable acquisition 
here, but at any rate we might easily go very 
much further and fare very much worse in 
getting a good herd of cows than to chose the 
8rh wytzers, if we did not pay too dearly for 
them. 
On the first page. Fig. 292. we present a group 
of Swiss Cattle, the property of John 13. Eld- 
redge. Middle Falls, Washington Co., N. Y. 
Iu the center is the cow Eva Burgi, imported 
by her present owner on J une 1, 1885; d ropped 
Ma y 20, 1880, and bred by O. Burgi, of the 
Canton of Schwytz. Her record number is 
248 in the first volume of the Brown Swiss 
Cattle Breeders’ Association of America, On 
the right is the heifer calf Jennie Burgi, 
calved January 5,1885, imported in her dam, 
Eva Burgi, 248. Her number is 204 in the 
second volume of the above Swiss herd record, 
not yet issued. On the left is the heifer calf 
Maggie Burgi, 202, imported in her dam, May 
Burgi. She was dropped Sept. 2, 1884. 
LEADING STAFF FOK BELL. 
Mr. A. C. Carpenter, of Dakota Co,, Minn., 
sends us the design for a leading staff, shown 
at Fig. 294. A staff should always be used in 
handling an unruly bull. It is folly to do 
JV Af-r 
Fig. 294. 
without one. Too many lives have been lost 
iu the attempt. The staff is made of hickory. 
The iron used to attach the harness to t he 
hame is fastened to the wood as shown. To 
this is fastened a snap that can be easily 
caught in the bull’s ring. Cheap, easily made 
and strong, is the best description we can give 
of this staff. 
FAULTY CONCLUSIONS FROM MILK 
COMPETITION. 
The London Live Stock Journal (Eng.) 
gives the annual report of the British Dairy 
Farmers’ Association on the milking com¬ 
petition of some of the dairy breeds at the 
show of 18S5, and the analyses of the milk, iu 
which the “dairy” Shortehorn, the Jersey, 
and the Guernsey are reported as follows: 
lbs. of milk 
per day. Solids. Fat. 
55 Short-horns..,. 42S9 12.SS 3.(i2 
18.67 4.52 
55 Short-horns..,. 42.89 
42 Jerseys.... 'J7-84 
23 Guernseys. 2i.48 
The above-named paper then comments on 
the facts from the milk-yield stand-point per 
cow, and shows this conclusion, speaking of 
the Short-horn: 
“Certainly no other breed in the country 
possesses such a record, and it goes far to 
prove this race to be the most profitable for 
the dairy farmer.” 
I am disposed to disbelieve conclusions when 
the statistics do not prove them, and so do a 
little figuring with regard to the above:— 
Premising the generally-conceded facts in 
cattle-feediug—to wit, that bovine animals 
consume food according to each 100 pounds of 
live weight, and especially so when they are 
devoted to the same work or purpose; and 
assuming that an average lot of cows of the 
breeds named weigh, Short-horns, 1,200; Jer¬ 
seys, 800; and Guernseys, 950 pounds each, we 
have our data to proceed with, and see by the 
table that 100 pounds of Short-horn cow pro- £ 
duces, per day. 3.57 pounds of milk; the Jer- c 
sey 3.81 pounds; and the Guernsey 2.88pounds. 
The milk of each cow, multiplied by the per * 
cent, of fat the chemist found in it, shows that 5 
the Short-horn made 1.29 pound of butter per 1 
day; the Jersey 1.58; and the Guernsey 1.30 s 
pound. y 
Applying the test according to weight of 1 
cow and weight of food, it shows that 1,200 i 
pounds of Short-horn cow made 1.29 pound t 
of butter per day; 1,200 pounds of Jersey cow 1 
made 2.87 pounds; and 1,200 pounds of Guern¬ 
sey cow 1.04 pound. These are the cold facts 1 
from the table, as made by the officials, con- s 
cerning 120 cows, and computing the breeds 
of cows at the average weight they are known 
to be. In giving the above figures it must be 
remembered they represent the butter oil of 
the chemist, and should have 15 per cent, of 
water added to each to represent butter as it 
is consumed. 
Should not the Loudon Live Stock Journal 
amend its conclusions, and wrestle with the 
conundrum whether it would rather have 3.81 
pounds of rich milk, iti pint cups, or 3.5< 
pounds of low-grade milk iu quart measures, 
at the same cost of food; or 2.37 pounds of 
butter on a small plate,or 1,29 on a large plate ? 
This talking about so much yield per cow, 
regardless of the weight of the cow or of the 
weight of what she eats—though a mighty 
common thing with dairy writers and breeders 
of large cows—it is just as absurd as to com¬ 
pute the cost of potatoes, per bushel, by the 
size of the farm. Dairy farmers have been 
fooled by such stuff long enough. 
It must be noticed that the cows in the 
competition were dairy Short-horn; those of 
the pronounced “milking strains,” the bovine 
goddesses before which John Bull goes down 
upou bis marrow-bones to worship; and pre¬ 
sumably there are none of the breed better; 
but the pick of 55 show animals gave milk 
of which it took 28.90 pounds to make a pound 
of butter, even after 15 per cent, of water is 
added to the fat of the chemist. Such milk 
would be called skimmed at the American 
creamery or cheese factory; or if pro-rated 
with “scrub milk,” the manufacturer or own¬ 
ers of scrub cows, would be robbed by the 
owners of Short-horns of such a “milking 
strain.” badger. 
A JOINT-STOCK CREAMERY. 
The Clayton Creamery, at this place, is 
owned by the farmers of the community. 
There are 400 shares, with a face value of 810 
each. Five directors arc. chosen every year by 
the stock-holders. In the six months ending 
May 31 the creamery received 2,050,72(5 pounds 
of milk, or 11,2157 pounds per day. From this 
88,975 pounds, of butter were made, or 4 1-3 
pounds per hundredweight of milk. For this 
milk $34,592.10 were paid out, making $1.20 
per hundredweight, or three cents per quart. 
All the expenses of the creamery, exclusive of 
milk, came to £2.839,00. Separators are used 
with satisfaction. Skim-milk is sold to patrons 
at one-third of a cent per quart. It is found 
better to have patrons bring their milk to the 
creamery than to gather the cream. There is 
less ehnuee of adulterating the milk than the 
cream. A lactometer is used to detect the 
watering of the milk. For every degree that 
the milk test falls below the standard for the 
month one cent per hundred is deducted from 
the price of the milk. More cows are now 
kept by nearly every farmer. The house-wife 
is relieved of a great labor. Farmers learn to 
milk, and the sons relieve their mothers and 
sisters. Fields and meadows become more 
fertile. More attention is paid to breeding. 
Stick creameries open a way to more profit¬ 
able farming in many communities. They are 
to be preferred to private parties. They may 
not, under all circumstances, be preferable to 
other means of dairying, but in some places 
they succeed admirably. Grain raising be¬ 
comes more and more unprofitable. Good 
farmers say it costs one dollar to raise a bushel 
of wheat that must be sold for 95 cents or less. 
Have any of the RURAL readers tried to seed 
down their fields with a crop ol' oats) If it is 
possible to get a good “catch,” would it not 
pay to raise corn—a silage crop—oats and hay 
in rotation, and let wheat go as long as we 
have to pay five cents or more per bushel for 
the fun of raising it) Is such a plan feasible? 
Let us hear from others. naditor. 
Clayton, Pa. 
- » » ♦ - 
A NOTE OF CORRECTION FROM MR. HENRY 
• STEWART. 
As the statement made by T. D. Curtis in 
j his Dairy Notes (page 430) to the effect that 
Prof. Stewart “bus advocated the use of pulver- 
. iued sugar with salt in making butter,” may 
be credited to mo by many readers of the 
i Rural, who have read articles of mine upon 
dairying, I beg to disclaim the credit of it, at 
i least iu the sense in which Mr. Curtis makes 
> use of it. “Good wine needs no bush,” and 
good butter needs no sugar; but I remember 
on one occasion, in describing the process of 
“milling” store butter for market, that this 
mixture of one-fourth part of white sugar 
with the salt was mentioned as being comm on¬ 
ly used. “Necessity makes us acquainted with 
strange bed-fellows” as Trineulo said, and so it 
works the mischief in making up the mixed 
mess called store butter, which is gathered up 
in country stores from farmers’ w ives who 
trade it out. Some way of disguising the sour¬ 
ness, rancidity and overpowering want of 
sweetness in this various and varied butter is 
needed to make it salable, and no doubt tbe 
sugar, salt, pepper and other flavorings are 
justified. But merely mentioning the fact is 
not recommending it, and I l>eg Mr. Curtis to 
absolve me from any possible or supposed 
wrong-doing in tins direction. 
THOROUGHBRED POULTRY. 
The growing interest in thoroughbred poul¬ 
try is by no means sectional, East, West, 
North and South having the same awakening 
to this pleasant and profitable business. I 
believe the United States have many advantag¬ 
es over other countries for the maintenance of 
poultry, yet the large amount of poultry pro¬ 
ducts annually imported shows the need for the 
farther development of poultry raising, and 
the Rural shows commendable enterprise in 
promoting the work. Why should uot every 
farm, village and suburban home be supplied 
with eggs from its own hennery) It is the 
small flock that gives the large profits. Poul¬ 
try in large numbers are profitable, but not 
proportionately so. The man who can make a 
large flock yield in proportion to one of say, 
10 to 25 in number, will be one of the most 
fortunate benefactors of the age. 
Is there any specific for poultry diseases? 
Yes; cleanliness. It is a panacea for nearly 
every disease common to fowls; the ounce of 
prevention is worth a ton of all the remedies 
recommended for then- cure. Of good breeds 
there are many, hut he who ventures to name 
the best is certain to bring upon his head the 
wrath of many who are justly wedded to other 
varieties. After an experience, however, of 
upwards of 10 years in the care and manage¬ 
ment of poultry, with an eye ever open to the 
good qualities of the various standard breeds, 
I will name my favorite, aud briefly state my 
reasons for believing it to be pre-eminently the 
practical business fowl of to-day. M hilt* a 
few may challenge my opinion, there are 
hundreds who will come to my support aud 
bear willing and emphatic testimony to the 
high qualities of my choice. 
That fowl is the Plymouth Rock. It is 
hardy—a quality that cannot be overestimat¬ 
ed, yet one that is lacking in many breeds. In 
size the fowls of this breed area happy medium 
between the over-large Asiatics aud the small, 
restless Leghorns and kindred varteties. Their 
meat is juicy, and they take on flesh easily, so 
that they art' well suited for table use. They 
bear confinement well, aud possess in a high 
degree, that quality that forms three-fourths 
of the real worth of any fowl, being remark¬ 
able, often phenomenal layers. They are ex¬ 
cellent for crossing with other varieties, their 
progeny always showing the marked charac¬ 
teristics of the breeds. I believe them to be 
fully entitled to the high position they have 
attained. A - c - K > 
Cobleskill, N. Y. 
irm 
CORESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Last Winter Salem, Mcrrimac, Diana, Al- 
vey, Triumph and Jefferson Grapes were 
killed to the ground, when left on the trellis. 
Goethe, Norton’s Virginia, Concord, Per¬ 
kins and some other very hardy sorts had much 
wood and many fruit buds killed. The Ives 
aud some of the Riparia family were left in¬ 
tact. Herbemout, Alvey and other semi- 
tender sorts, laid down iu the Fall and simply 
weighted with a stone or brick—not covered 
in any way—did not lose a fruit bud. For 
strawberries, Cumberland, Longfellow and 
Sharpless were fine. Henderson is best of all 
for quality. w. L. du l*anky, 
Warren Co., Ky. 
The quoted Japanese method of planting a 
tree by first filling the hole half fidl of water 
and then filling with soil, is not peculiarly 
Japanese, It is an old practice here, although 
perhaps less common thuu it deserves to be. 
It is often ustri by gardeners in setting out 
vegetable plants, strawberries, etc., iu dry 
weather. But its advantages are not so much 
due to the supply of water to the feeding 
points of all the roots just where wanted, us 
to the floating of the fine soil into every 
interstice so as to completely prevent cham¬ 
bers of still air for the generation of destruc¬ 
tive mould, and to the ojam condition of the 
surface soil, which is not compacted by sur¬ 
face watering—a practice which prevents the 
necessary entrance and circulation, in moder¬ 
ate stream, of health and growth-sustaining 
air. w. 
Tyrone, Pa. _ 
For years my cabbages were spoiled by 
worms. Last season, ’85, when tbe pests made 
their appearance, I put among the young cab¬ 
bages a broad-mouthed fruit jar partly well 
filled with sugar aud water. The millers 
went into the bottle, so that in 24 hours 125 
were caught. I killed, perhaps, a dozen 
worms which had got on the plants before 1 
put the bottle there, hut scarcely one after 
that. I had good,-clean cabbages for the first 
time for years. This season my bottles are in 
I 4 -he garden getting filled with millers aud 
rasps and my cabbages are clean. 
Braintree, Vt. L. H. spear. 
This has been an extraordinary year for 
>lant lice. The uncommon plum leaf aphis 
las swarmed <>n every plum tree. The cherry 
ree plant louse has badly injured cherries. 
The apple-peel fungus has covered everything, 
frees that are struck with the blackened, 
lurnt-up appearance have little or no fruit. 
Those with fairly healthy foliage are better, 
frees that did not blossom did not escape a 
■ertain amount of the leaf attack. Trees hlos- 
soniing the latest of all hold their fruit best. 
Clyde, N. Y. _ w. x. 
People here ore in no danger of starving 
because they can’t sell bait to the Yankees. 1 
have lived here 58 years and never knew any¬ 
one to starve yet. People go to the “States” 
to make money or because it is too “hot” for 
them here, but I never knew them to go be¬ 
cause they eouldu't get enough to eat up here. 
We are not compelled to sell bait in order to 
keep alive. D - s - 
Manchester, N. S. 
I agree with the Rural that the Mikado 
and Turner’s Hybrid Tomatoes are the same. 
I have them from both houses, and there is no 
difference. I also see very little difference 
between the Stratagem and Pride of the Mar¬ 
ket Peas. F. S. WILSON. 
Des Moines Co., Iowa, 
I have an orchard of 1,300 fruit trees. 
Have good peaches. My trees came from 
Alabama and from Southern California. Those 
from Alabama are by far the best. We are 
5,000 feet above sea level. Three years ago I 
started a carp pond: I procured small fry, 
two inches long, from the Texas State Fish 
Commissioner. We have now fish weighing 
from five to seven pounds and thousands of 
smaller ones. We find them equal to any fish 
for eating purposes. Johnson Grass makes, 
iu my opinion, the best hay for my horses ami 
cattle, better even than Alfalfa. Stock do 
not care much for it green, but they will quit 
grain for the hay. G. a. hremer. 
Presidio Co., Texas. 
Some of our best farmers about here are 
making big monev raising English Blue Grass 
and flax. The two are sown together in the 
Spring. The llax is sold at $L25 to £1.40 pei- 
lmshel on board cars. The Blue Grass seed 
brings £2 per bushel, while the straw is a fair 
cattle feed and the stubble will support stock 
long after the prairie grass has died. 
Lyons Co., Kansas. w. n. b. 
You can judge a farmer by his scare-crows 
about as you can by his cattle or dog. Iu a 
recent trip through New England I found the 
fields tilled with these would-be objects of ter¬ 
ror. The most common object is a human 
effigy—“a live man stuffed with straw. 
These “men” vary from a fair representation 
of the genus homo , with hat and boots com¬ 
plete, to an old shirt bung on a stick. I doubt 
if crows ever mistake these objects for human 
1 beings. Some fanners put twine all around 
s tbe field and tie pieces of cloth to it. I noticed 
a toy wind-mill with pieces of glass so ar¬ 
ranged that they sparkled in the sun. Any- 
’ thing that will make a noise, like a bell or 
1 clattering sticks, will prove effective. A dead 
r crow tied by the legs to a pole so that he will 
^ swing in the wind, will carry I right to the 
* hearts of his companions. Early rising and a 
good shot-gun will prevent serious damage 
without uny scare-crows. Tarring corn seems 
a to have gone out of style. I doubt whether 
r it pays for the trouble. If the present bird- 
y slaughter goes ou, the scare-crow question 
jj will surely be settled, for there will he no 
crows left to scare. The most ill-tempered 
corn-grower would rather lot the erow steal 
y some corn than to have him exterminated. 1 
j, think the damage done by crows is largely 
£ over-estimated, yet it takes a very patient 
^ man to admit this when he finds part of his 
■y corn pulled up. For my part, 1 like crows 
