THE RURAL WEW-VORKEE, 
bred sheep. As this sheep is but little known 
as yet in America, its good qualities, its entire 
adaptation to so large an area, and the useful 
quality of the wool and the mutton render it 
worthy ot' notice by shepherds, especially by 
the farm shepherds who keep a few sheep for 
a domestic supply of meat and a little wool. 
Macon Co., N. C. 
-«♦» 
A Little Flock of Sheep on every farm 
would add millions to the public, wealth. 
Fifty million sheep could be added to our 
present stock of the same number, and would 
be wholly absorbed in the domestic supply of 
the farmer’s homestead. A lamb from the 
Hock furnished an acceptable meal for the 
family of the ancient patriarchs and an hon¬ 
ored guest, and many a modern patriarch sur¬ 
rounded by his rising generation would find a 
lamb agreeably useful, and far more desirably 
than the too common pork or bacon. A sheep 
too could be easily divided—turn about—by a 
few neighbors. The skin, tanned and dyed, 
would furnish the dwelling with mats and 
rugs, and the wool would meet with the read¬ 
iest sale at the stores. 
Sheep Require to be Watched. — The 
rule of the good shepherd is “count the flock 
whenever you see it.” There may be one 
missing, fast in a fence corner, sick, perhaps; 
but immediate help would save it. It is a re¬ 
markable thing about sheep that they are as 
valuable for their indirect worth as for their 
direct contributions to the farm profits. A 
flock necessitates such a culture of the land as 
is the very best for the farm, aud it furnishes 
the richest manure to make this culture per¬ 
fect. So in the act of counting the sheep, the 
habit of close observation and precision is 
formed, and encouraged, and many a thiug 
which might go amiss is discovered aud set 
right in good time, merely because the count¬ 
ing of the sheep makes the farmer keep his eyes 
and wits about him. 
&i)t frjDsm.au. 
COLORADO CONCEITS IN STOCK RAIS¬ 
ING. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
Sacredness of the cow and calf; Colorado 
beef; stock risks on the ranges; sheep and 
horses better than cattle; Alfalfa; its ad¬ 
vantages in the South; its culture; enthusi¬ 
astic about it; the ranchman and cowboy 
“must go _ 
Let us use the word conceit in the sense of 
idea, but an idea gained from experience. 
Thus a cow in Colorado is nearly as sacred 
and safe from the knife of the butcher as a 
cow in India, where she is worshipped as a 
goddess. It results from thus that all beef sold 
by the butchers is from bullocks and generally 
those of three years or more. It is fa r from 
being as fat as cow beef offered in average 
Middle State and Eastern markets, nor has it 
as decided and ageeable a beefy flavor, but it 
is tenderer and juicier in all the eating pieces 
from nose to tail. 
In Colorado and other cattle ranching sec¬ 
tions, ranchmen associate, incorporate into 
companies to buy the steel's.and do the slaugh¬ 
tering on a targe scale, snch a thing as a butch¬ 
er buying steers and doing his own slaughter¬ 
ing being nearly unknown. This is a measure 
of protection on the part of the ranchmen who, 
by keeping a record of t|ie brands of the stock 
they kill, defeat the efforts of the cattle thieves 
who are the scourge of the ranges. 
But veal calves are in some senses held as 
sacred as cows, and when the best cuts of beef 
are sold to hotels aud large boardinghouses at 
11 and 12 cents a pound, veal cannot be con¬ 
tracted for, for less than 18 cents. The cow is 
held in great respect for the calves she will 
bring and the call is held in respect nearly as 
great for the steer or cow it will make. 
It is a pity some of this Colorado conceit in 
respedt to butcher’s stock could not be got 
into the heads aud hearts of butchers and 
meat consumers in the large and small towns 
Of the corn, grass and cattle States, where 
cows, and even cows giving nuik, and other 
cows big with calf, but In a good condition of 
fat and flesh, furnish nine-tenths the beef 
consumed. And as to veal, every calf is 
caught up and slaughtered that can be had, 
and is sold at an advance of not more than 
25 per cent, over beef. To show* the pecuniary 
risks run by ranchmen, who, buying utiac- 
elimated stock from the South, carry, 
or attempt to carry them through the 
Winter on the ranges without grain or hay, 
a ranchman was pointed out to me who had 
recently bought 2,000 head of Texas two-year- 
olds, on the basis that not over 200 would 
survive the Winter. 
But sheep do better, and if a provision is 
made to feed a flock for 30 days, they may be 
wintered with as little loss as in Illinois or 
Kentucky. In fact, Colorado soil, climate 
aud situation favor sheep, horse, and mule 
raising rather than neat cattle, and to that 
complexion will it come at. last—with the aid 
and assistance of Alfalfa in the irrigated sec¬ 
tions and wherever else it can be grown. 
Still using the word in its original and best 
sense, there is no “conceit” so prevalent among 
Colorado farmers, sheep and horse men, as the 
conceit as to the great value of Alfalfa as a for¬ 
age aud green crop, in one. The yield of green 
and dry forage, the completeness of the stand 
aud its permanence for 30 or 40 crops, (three 
every year) to say nothing of the at tractiveness 
of the deep, dark green of the growth before, 
and its beauty later, when it is a mass of pur¬ 
ple bloom, must be seen to be appreciated. It 
is, in fact the Timothy, Blue Grass, clover aud 
corn of the farther West, aud as such it is not 
too highly valued. 
Tliis brings me to the point of saying to the 
planters and farmers of the cotton belt, If they 
could get into the conceit of growing Alfalfa, 
it would go far to shorten the time one-half, 
till that revolution in fanning all Southern 
men are looking for, would be accomplished. 
The great and crying want iii the South all 
through the cotton belt, is| the scarcity of 
green forage, from July to October. 
Prom this want on the uplands, stock are 
driven to the river bottom, where bad water 
is the rule and malaria universal, and hence 
the prevalence there of charbon. dry and 
bloody murrain, aud many diseases farmers of 
the North have no just conception of. 
Like cotton, Alfalfa is a warm aud dry cli¬ 
mate plaut, and if copiously and properly 
irrigated will produce enormous crops under 
the heat and drought of teiTas callientcs. In 
the cotton belt any good cotton laud will pro¬ 
duce it in a manner satisfactory to the grow¬ 
er; and when sown on really good land aud 
annually fertilized, it will become a bonanza. 
Prepare the land as for a grain crop; but with 
about five times as much labor in the opera¬ 
tion. Sow 30 pounds of seed to the acre, broad¬ 
cast, or, better, in drills, as soon as all danger 
of frost is over in the Spring. The first year 
cut the herbage butonce in the season, and do 
not allow a hoof of stock upon it until 18 
months after the seeding —or, better, not at 
all for a generation. This interpolation is 
what may be thought a sort of apotheosis of 
Alfalfa, and maybe regarded as a piece of ex¬ 
travagance on the part of the writer, but it is 
oue anybody is liable to who has hail the 
writer's experience. 
Quite to my surprise I found in Colorado as 
strong a feeling against “hog butter” and the 
syndicate of money sharks who ivere attempt¬ 
ing to influence Congress and the President, 
as in Illinois. And more to my surprise, I 
found a fart-growing sentiment, that the ranch¬ 
man and his henchman,the cowboy,“must go.” 
The original ranchers made the mistake of 
fencing up the country without the shadow of 
a right to do so, and the worse mistake of at¬ 
tempting to drive the pioneers of small means 
out. Thesejthings have never been forgotten 
or forgiven, and if the sentiment grows as it 
seems to be growiug, the popular estimates 
of the Western farmers for the cattle men, the 
cowboy and the Indian, will be nearly on a 
par. 
Bonus pedigrees have^done much to injure 
legitimate stock breeding. A committee ap¬ 
pointed by the A. J. C. C. have prepared the 
draft of a law which shall prevent further 
trouble. It provides that any. person who 
shall obtain by false pretence from any com 
pany for the improvement of domestic ani¬ 
mals, a certificate of registry, upon convietiou 
shall be punished by imprisonment in a State 
prison lor a term not exceeding three years or 
in a county jail for one year, or by a finu not 
exceeding $1,000, or by both line and Impris¬ 
onment. It is to be hoped that the legisla¬ 
tures of the various States will take hold or 
the matter aud pass suitable laws for carrying 
out this idea. It Is a good one. 
METHODS OF PRO-RATING BUTTER 
VALUE IN MILK OR CREAM. 
Defects of the Fairlamb system now general¬ 
ly abandoned; test churns, and objections 
to them; oil test churn; .with cream and 
milk; its advantages. 
The oil test churn is now a part and parcel 
of the cream-gathering system of butter mak¬ 
ing in several of the Western States. It is 
about 10 years since the system hud a pro¬ 
nounced start, aud was first known as the Fulr- 
lambplan, aud was conducted fora time with 
the use of a patented cun of peculiar construc¬ 
tion and uniform size and shn]>e. The theory 
was that 113 cubic inches of cream, raised by 
the rules given for managing the can, would 
yield one pound of butter, and a guage to show 
the cubic inches above the cream line on auy 
can filled with milk, and standing till full sep¬ 
aration had taken place, was a part of each 
can. The owner of the milk and the cream 
gatherer looked at the “guage,” and deter¬ 
mined the amount of butter the cream would 
make, and the assumed facts went on the ree- 
oid and determined the weight of butter the 
patron should be paid for. A factory was 
projected and operated one Summer in ac¬ 
cordance with the plan, and the belief ob¬ 
tained with the inventor and many of the far¬ 
mers that a way to justly prorate the value of 
the butter in the milk of all sorts of cows had 
been discovered. The writer very well re¬ 
members the first public appearance of the 
can, and of the inventor, now deceased, at a 
Western dairy convention the following Win¬ 
ter, and the troubled anxiety there was on the 
brow of the latter,when upon sounding several 
of the dairymen and manufacturers he was 
most anxious to have believe, he found them 
not only.skeptical,but some of them pointed out 
the radical defect that has led to a pretty gen¬ 
eral abandonment of the whole “ guage’’ the¬ 
ory; for though the method had a great run, it 
was soon proved that from the cream taken to 
the same factory 113 cubic inches would make 
from one half pound to one and a half pound of 
butter, showing it was uo reliable measure of 
value at all, of a miscellaneous l<»fc of eream. 
The half pound man got another half pound 
that belonged to a neighbor; aud the IV. 
pound man lost a half pound that was passed 
over to the first named. 
This kind of work could not last, aud so 
test-churns came upon’the stage. These were 
small glass jars, holding two quarts, into 
which one quart of each patron’s cream was 
put at each gathering, aud then churned at 
the factory, and the value of the cream taken 
at the farm was computed from the actual 
butter yield of the specimens separately 
churned. Thousands of such test jars are in 
use now, and quite accurately determine the 
butter value of any body of cream. The ob¬ 
jection to them is the great waste of product 
and the cost of the skilled labor it takes to 
make the tests fairly certain and satisfactory. 
Then came the oil-test churn, which was 
operated in very much smaller glass jars Or 
tubes—10 inches long and only seven-eights of 
an inch inside diameter. Each of these is 
filled just half full with a sample of ouch 
man's cream, to a mark on the tube, and theu 
all are churned at once, or from 50 to 200 at 
Once, according to the number of patrons of 
the factory and the capacity of the test churn 
used. The tubes are then plunged in water at 
150 degrees, when the butter fat rises to the 
top, and a scale and rule determine with es¬ 
sential exactness the weight of butter in the 
cream taken from the farmer on the day cor¬ 
responding, by the per cent, of fat in the spe¬ 
cimen. The test is so exact and reliable that 
all criticism is substantially superseded. It 
decrees justice be tv een rich and poor milk, and 
makes skimming to make bulk simply a loss of 
skim-milk. It leaves each owner at full 
liberty to exercise his choice of breeds, and 
gives exact pay for the butter contributed to 
the pool. 
Later on has come the oil test churn in 
which in tubes of the same size milk is used in¬ 
stead of cream. With these the butter value 
of milk can lx? determined as it is delivered at 
factories for making cither butter or cheese. 
In the latter case the cheese-making value of 
milk is determined from the butter value 
(which is near enough), though both might be 
determined, for the caserne is separated as well 
as the fat. In using milk in the tubes, they 
are filled the same as when eream is tested, 
and then set in ice-water till a full separation 
of the cream is effected, which is theu churn¬ 
ed the same as when cream is used. Of course 
there is less butter than from the same bulk of 
cream, but so fine aud exact are the scale and 
rule that essentially the same answer is ob¬ 
tained touching the butter value of the milk, 
as when cream is taken for the test. A novice 
could hardly believe it, still it has been proved 
that the samples of milk told the amount of 
butter from about 4000 pounds of milksoclose- 
ly that one-lourth ot a pound added to, or 
substracted from,each patron’s credit for but¬ 
ter, would make a greater variation than the 
test made between the report and the actual 
weight of butter us packed in the tubs. There 
is no waste of product through the oil-test 
churn, because the amount taken is so small 
that it can be returned to the eream vat as 
soon as the rule has been applied, and It has 
uo appreciable effect on the quality of the 
mass of butter. IV hen the large jars were 
used, and the butter from each was weighed 
separately, it bail to be packed as a lower- 
grade article. The milk-testing method is 
now so exact thut it was relied on to test the 
cows that were exhibited at the late Minne¬ 
sota and Iowa State Fairs. badgek. 
Oedarburg, Wisconsin. 
Slj t SxumdjtrD. 
PIG PARTNERS. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The way for the small fanner to make 
money out of his hogs is to take them into 
partnership. This can be done in a number of 
ways. At first they will take the sour milk 
and turn it into money in the most profitable 
way it can be done. Experiments have shown 
this. The kitchen slops, which often defile the 
back door, can also be used by t he active part¬ 
ner, and, if strengthened a little with mid¬ 
dlings, they will rapidly turn into cash. Theu 
come the weeds. I have found out what the 
most of them grow for—to feed pigs. Those 
that they won’t, oat will make good manure, 
and here the pig is a partner worth having. 
There are lots of things which litter up the 
grounds and make them look rough and uu- 
kept, which the pigs wilt help to get out of tilt- 
way. Thu only vehicle ueecssury to do the 
business of the firm is a wheelbarrow. It can 
be loaded both ways, taking weeds to the pig¬ 
sty and going back w ith manure for the crops 
in the garden. Nothing like hog manure out 
in the lot where it was plowed under for the 
fodder corn. The stalks are twice as large as 
they are where the barnyard manure was put. 
It is so every time. The pig will turn the 
plantains, the purslane, and the lawn grass 
to the best account. A friend had a field full 
of wild raorniug-glories, and they ran the crops 
out so badly that it hardly paid to cultivate 
the land. Ho got a hint from Kirby Homes- 
stead, and bought’up a lot of s boats, took them 
as partners and turned them into this field. 
Every flay some shelled corn was scattered 
about and the hogs ate it aud rooted around 
for more and so got a taste of the roots of the 
morning-glories, and they kept rooting for 
them until the field was entirely cleared. 
Another bad a large lawn full of live-for¬ 
ever, and it defied all cutting, hoeing und 
salting. The despised pig was turned in aud 
fed just enough to keep it keeu and smart, 
and it went to rooting. The door yard did 
not look very inviting that seusou, aud pass¬ 
ers-by wondered at the taste, but the pigs 
cleared out the iivc-for-ever so thoroughly 
that not a vestige remained, and the next 
Spring there was the clean ground to make a 
smooth and handsome lawn. Pigs will worry 
thistles awfully in the same way, and all other 
foul stuff. The land always welcomes their 
presence, judging by the expression after¬ 
wards. 
Where pigs are kept there will always be 
good crops. Pigs should be taken as perma¬ 
nent partners, but the location should be 
changed frequently. Two years is long 
enough to carry on business in the same place. 
For this reason portable shelters are a good 
thing, or it may be so arranged that the shelter 
shall be stationary, but the feeding place 
should be all around. 
ijofsemnn. 
GENERAL PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
HORSE-SHOEING. 
F. L. KILBORN. 
Usual method of shoeing faulty; how often 
to shoe; judging by the hoof; form, size 
and weight of shoe; calks injurious; pre¬ 
paration of hoof; the sole , frog and bars; 
putting on the. shoe; preserve-the surface 
horn. 
As generally practiced shoeing, instead of 
being a source of comfort and security to the 
horse, has been and continues to be a source 
of great discomfort and misery. lu fact, the 
diseases of the limbs and feet of the horse ore 
largely due directly or indirectly to faults iu 
shoeing. A successful farrier should be famil¬ 
iar with the general anatomy of the foot, um! 
with the rational principles and practice of 
shoeing both in health and disease. 
As to the frequency of shoeing, uo definite 
rule can be given. Young animals require 
shoeing more frequently than old. A very 
good general rule is to shoe every month. 
Rarely young animals with very rapidly grow 
ing hoofs or t hose that wear the shoe unevenly 
require shoeing of tuiei*. Too frequent shoeing 
is likewise to be avoided, because it necessi 
tab's the driving of bo many nails which are 
always, unavoidably, more or less injurious to 
the hoof. Horses working daily on hard pave¬ 
ments may require shoeing us often as every 
week. Old animals may frequently be al¬ 
lowed to go two mouths, but rarely can a val¬ 
uable horse be safely allowed to retain a shoe 
longer. As a general rule, however,one month 
is much better than two. The too common 
practice with many farmers of allowing the 
shoes to remain until accidentally lost or en- 
