LIVE STOCK NOTES FOR DECEMBER. 
HORSES AND MULES. 
“ The melancholy days have come, the sad¬ 
dest of the year” for a large proportion of the 
live stock of the farm, which are pinched with 
cold and too often with hunger. Horses, how¬ 
ever, usually fare better than other stock, aud 
yet in many oases their condition might he im¬ 
proved. Feeding should not be suspended be¬ 
cause there is not much work to he done; but 
should be sufficient to keep the animals in good 
order and avoid losing flesh. Good hay is am¬ 
ple feed for horses that are not worked regu¬ 
larly through the Winter. Rye or oat straw 
cut up fine, wetted aud mixed with from four 
to eight pounds daily (in two meals) of mixed 
corn and oats finely ground, will be quite suf¬ 
ficient for a horse at ordinary work. A feed 
of hay should be given at noon. Ram is 
worse than dry cold; a tight roof is 
better than tight walls; it keeps in the 
warmth and keeps the horses dry. Tn the 
South, where the Winters are mild, mules suf¬ 
fer most from the cold, heavy rains. South¬ 
ern farmers should thiuk of this and give their 
mules protection from the rains, especially at 
night. 
The horse’s frog is a natural provision 
against injurious concussions of the sensitive 
inner part of the foot. Hence, it should not 
be cut away. It also prevents slipping up- 
ou ice, having the adhesiveness of rubber in 
such a case. It is necessary sometimes to use 
sharp, high calks for road horses; and when 
those are used never have the frog cut or even 
pared. If it projects beyond the shoe so as to 
reach the ground, so much the better for the 
horse. 
For wounds with calks, which are apt to oc¬ 
cur early in the season, apply an ointment made 
of four ounces of lard, one ounce of resin, one 
of turpentine melted and stirred together, with 
half an ounce of acetate of c <>1 >per. Exposure 
to snow, or mud which hardens upon the feet 
and legs, is apt to cause mud fever. To avoid 
this, wash the legs of horses coining in from 
the road with warm water, and rub them dry. 
If the heels and legs become inflamed and sore 
the above ointment isan excellent application. 
It is not advisable to blanket a horse while iu 
the stable. It makes him feel cold when he 
comes out. This is the time to use a blanket, 
if at all. A blanket to a horse is the same as 
an overcoat to a man. Aud above all things, 
a horse heated with driving should not be left 
standing exposed to a piercing cold wind. The 
custom of using a chest protector when a 
horse is at work is a good one. and will length¬ 
en the life of the animal. It is a kindness to a 
horse to keep a stock of axle-grease on hand 
and use it. A useful mixture is made as fol¬ 
lows: one pound of tallow melted, a pint of 
castor-oil and four ounces of black-lead (stove 
polish.) in powder, the mixture to be stirred 
until cold. It Is cheaper and better than any 
purchased axle-grease. 
COLTS. 
Keep colts in stalls by themselves. Provide 
strong leather halters and teach them to be 
tied. This is their first lesson. Yearlings 
should have a quart of corn and one of oats 
twice a day if they are expected to grow. 
Thrifty yearlings should grow four iuehes tall¬ 
er this vViuter. but they won’t do it unless they 
are well fed. Mule colts eat but a little at a 
time, and should be fed three, t imes a day. 
Watering twice a day is necessary, V ery cold 
water is apt to give a fit of the colic, and when 
a colt shivers after drinking iey water a day’s 
growth is taken out of him. 
This is a good time to begin training colts to 
lead or to drive. Deal gently with the young 
things aud teach them patiently. Remember 
how long it took you to learn your first lesson. 
A few roots or cut potatoes are excellent for 
colts and for horses too. Brood mares are 
much benefited by them. Carrots are the 
best, but mangels and sugar beets are very 
nearly as good. Southern farmers may feed 
sweet potatoes sliced to then- colts and note 
how they will be relished. They are whole¬ 
some and nutritious for horses aud mules as 
well. Give a warm bran mash to all the horse 
stock twice a week. Don’t forget a handful 
of salt three or tour times weekly. In wet 
weather, braid the tail and gather it iu a 
bunch and tie it out of the way of the mud. 
Clip the hair from the heels and pasterns aud 
keep these well greased. Provide clean litter 
in abundance aud never let the animals stand 
in wet manure. 
CATTLE. 
Warm water is certainly a good thing for 
the cattle. Two pailfuls thrown into a water 
trough filled from a well will takeoff the chill 
and add considerably to the milk of the cows 
as well as to the fat of beef cattle, aud will be 
very pleasant for the calves. Save the oat 
chaff from the thrashing for the cows; it will 
show in the milk pail. To throw good, clean, 
sweet straw under cattle seems to be a waste 
of what was made to be eaten and turned into 
flesh, milk, or meat, 
Oxen that are worked on the road should be 
shod. Ready-made shoes can be procured for 
a dollar a set—16 shoes for the pair of cattle. 
The shoes save the cattle from soro feet and 
the owner from wasting time and a sore 
throat. Try and drive oxen quietly and with¬ 
out shouting so as to be beard half a mile 
away. It can lie done. If not, drive them 
with ropes to the horns. Cut feed is better 
for cattle than long fodder and economical 
for the owner. One ounce of salt is a neces¬ 
sary requirement for each head of cattle every 
day. Water troughs should be provided in 
the yards, aud as many as will give ample 
room and avoid crowding and fighting. One 
should be placed away off, for the weaklings, 
where master cattle will not trouble them. 
The owner should see, himself, that every cow 
and calf has its full supply of water every 
day; once at least. W hen cold rains are fall¬ 
ing the cattle should be turned oiit, for a few 
minutes only, aud when brought in, if will 
be well to rub them dry. It is troublesome, 
but it is profitable. Racks for feed are ns 
necessary as water troughs, and plenty of 
them should be provided. They save a good 
deal of fodder from beiug wasted. In fine 
weather the mid-day feeding should he given 
in the yard, and sufficient racks to insure that 
every animal gets its share should be furnish¬ 
ed. Consider what convenience can be pro¬ 
vided to sa ve labor aud time in feeding aud to 
economize the fodder. A little brain work 
may save hand work and spare feed. Drain 
the yard well, so that the feet of the cattle are 
dry and the manure is not washed away. 
Don’t forget that the calves will be pleased, 
aud benefited too, with a thorough good card¬ 
ing occasionally. 
SWINE. 
Crowd the fattening pigs. As loug as they 
will cat another ounce of corn and it is not 
given to them, time is lost, and time is money. 
The more quickly an animal is made fat the 
cheaper the meat is, for the less food is con¬ 
sumed. A good fire soon heats the kettle; but 
one may use the whole supply of fuel in keep¬ 
ing up a little fire without warming the water. 
It is much the same in feeding pigs. The 
right, heat, for the water for scalding hogs is 
ISO degrees. If the beat is greater the hair 
does not come off’ so freely. Where a large 
number of hogs are to be dressed, some regu¬ 
lar system should be provided for handling 
them, so that two men can do all the work. 
It is quite necessary to keep fattening swine 
as clean as others; it is even more necessary; 
filth will flavor the pork; it. can even be 
smelled in it. The filthy pens teud to make 
the meat unpopular, and cleanliness pays in 
many ways. 
Keep young pigs warm. There is no better 
bed for growing pigs than a clean, earth floor, 
in a partly underground pen. If necessary 
provision is made for them, pigs are very 
clean auiinals, aud their sleeping place is al¬ 
ways kept clean when they can do it. Hence, 
they should have a chance. 
Food that is somewhat acid, but not very 
sour, is better for store pigs than quite sweet 
food. The best and cheapest pork we ever 
made was fed with potatoes aud co n ears 
boiled together, uutil the former were soft, 
wilen the Whole was mashed and cooled and 
reduced to a thick mush. Give the brood 
sows, that are in-pig, a few cabbage or man¬ 
gels, Sows thus fed never molest or destroy 
the young pigs when they are born A bright, 
light pen with a dry, eurtheru floor, iu which 
they can root and roll in the warm sunshine 
from some large, south window, is the very 
best lodging for growing pigs and sows. An 
outer yard and feeding place besides this are 
necessary. 
SHEEP. 
Protect heavy-wooled sheep from cold rains. 
The weight of the water held in the wool will 
sometimes prevent them from rising. It chills 
the ewes, and lambs are lost by it. An excel¬ 
lent feed for ewes and yearlings is a mixture of 
corn, rye and buckwheat in equal parts. 
When the farmer owns his own feed-mill, this 
grain should bo ground as fine as possible ftml 
the meal given dry—four ounces daily are 
enough for a ewe to keep her in good condition, 
A grain-mill is a good investment where 100 
or 200 bushels of gru n are fed yearly. It is 
not the saving of the 10 per cent, charged for 
grinding so much as the time in running back 
aud forth to the mill, that counts for the profit. 
In feeding our sheep last Winter on grain 
ground at home, we fouud them to do bptter 
than previously on whole grain, although it is 
generally believed that sheep do their own 
grinding very well. Separate feed troughs 
for feeding meal were also found preferable to 
bay racks and grain troughs combined. 
Every sheep shed should be provided with 
cave troughs to carry off the rain water, aud 
keep the shod and yard dry. 
Lookout for the *‘stretches” which will be 
known by the sheep spreading its legs out aud 
stretching itself. It is constipation caused by 
dry feeding. The remedy is some bran mash 
and an ounce of raw liuseed oil. Keep a close 
watch for anything wrong, find the reason of 
it and right it at once. Delays are dangerous 
with a flock. 
POULTRY. 
Fat turkeys are best marketed for Christmas 
and New Year's. For this purpose the birds 
are put up to feed at once. Three weeks 
are required. Corn meal in sweet skimmed 
milk, mixed thick, makes the sweetest and 
whitest flesh, Coarse corn meal given in 
water fattens ducks well. All fattening fowls 
should be kept iu darkened coops, so they will 
not fret to get out and will rest and sleep. 
The coops for fattening birds should have a 
low door behind, through which the floor may 
be cleaned with a scraper. After cleaning, 
spread dry sand or sawdust over it. 
Look out for lice, fleas and mites iu the 
poultry house. Go in at night and handle a 
few of the birds, ami you will quickly learu if 
there are any vermin about. If there are, use 
crude petroleum or grease and kerosene oil 
freely on the roosting poles. 
-- 
THE CHICAGO FAT STOCK SHOW. 
(rural special report — continued.) 
Cattle, exhibits; a Hereford the champion; 
curly-haired cattle; breed and family 
typer; horse exhibits; carriage horses; 
sheejj; swine; an unprecedented corn exhi¬ 
bit; a poor, uninstruct ive dairy exhibit; 
test eh urns; boy iis butter in the fore-front; 
beef-dressiny contest. 
This is a success in the number, variety 
and quality of exhibits in the cattle, sheep, 
swine, horse, poultry, butterme, corn aud 
dairy implement departments. All classes of 
live stock were indeed fat, many horses too 
much so, and the butterine contained a great¬ 
er percentage of fat tliau any animal exhi¬ 
bited. One hundred and eighty cattle are 
shown, consisting of 66 Short-horns and 
grades, S3 Hereford* and grades, 20 Devons 
aud grades, 10 Aberdeen-Angus and grades, 
eight Hoisted ns and grades; the rest were 
nurse cows aud calves. The grand sweep 
stakes prize has been given to a Hereford 
steer that weighs something over 1,500 
pounds. Ho is of the celebrated “Rudolph” 
strain, has a thick coat of silky hair rhat lies 
in a curly mass uot unlike the wool often 
found on a light, glossy-fleeced Cotswold 
sheep. His body is nearly a parallelogram— 
uot a sigu on his deep-meated carcass of the 
fat lumps so common to “ripe” cattle. Every 
Hereford, or grade Hereford, in the show that, 
has the long, silky, curly coat approximates 
closer to the prize steer than do any of the 
sleek, short-haired ones. An Englishman 
just in from the Plains says: “You Americans 
won’t buy the curly-haired Herefords, and 
there’s where you make a mistake. When the 
snow falls on them they shed it like a sheep.” 
The Short-horns present the same variation 
in hair, though uot nearly so markedly. They 
are, perhaps, of more uniformly high quality 
than any breed exhibited. The Aberdeen- 
Augus are very compact, mature very young 
(several yearlings were marked as weighing 
over 1,000 each), have great width of chest and 
are superior in the hind-quarter. 
A Nebraska ranchman says of them: “Com¬ 
ing as they do from the North of Scotland 
(No, Aberdeen and Forfar or Angus Hhires are 
in about the center of Scotland on the east¬ 
ern coast, facing the German Ocean), they arc 
at home in a cold climate, and l find them 
great ‘rustlers.’ ’ A ranchman sets store by 
an animal in proportion to its ability to 
“rustle”—to fight against starvation in snow 
aud cold. Standing by the side of the prize 
Hereford are two steers half Hereford and 
half Aberdeeu-Angus, crossed in oppo¬ 
site* directions. The one sired by a polled bull 
is hornless, and has the sire's color aud con¬ 
tour, with the white Hereford face, The one 
got by a Hereford bull has the horns, white 
face aud outline of a Hereford, but the body 
is black. 
The Devons, a good lot, are evidently infe¬ 
rior in combination of qualities to either of the 
foregoing. The few Holsteins show the coarse 
bone characteristic of the breed, and are in 
no way remarkable. 
A fat stock show is subject to too many con¬ 
tingencies to decide which is the best beef 
breed. An equal number of animals of each 
breed, of the same age, raised under the same 
conditions of climate and feed and selected 
from the same class in their breed, (an impos¬ 
sible thing) should bo compared to form a 
just conclusion. By the “same class” I mean 
that the family type in a breed is of nearly 
as much importance as the breed type. A 
►Short-horn from the best strain is better than 
a Hereford from a poor strain, and vice versa. 
If thorough-breeding means anything it 
means painstaking in selection of points or 
traits and fixing them so strongly that they 
become hereditary — both bail and good. 
Hence we have in the same breed of cattle, 
distributed among its several families, all de¬ 
grees of quality for either milk or fat. Let 
the young breeder rest Ot utent with the best 
type of an inferior breed till he can get an 
equally good type of abetter one, no matter 
what kind of stock lie is breeding. 
Two hundred and thirteen horses were ex¬ 
hibited. French draft, 61; English draft, 75; 
Cleveland Bay coachers, 15; French coachers, 
five; ponies, St; and runners and trotters re¬ 
presenting favorite strains. 
The French aud English draft horsesaretoo 
well known to need description. The Cleve¬ 
land Bay aud French coach stallions are of 
comparatively recent importation, and but 
few of their get are old enough to show what 
prepotency these breeds will exert when 
crossed on native mares. The Cleveland Bays 
are very uniform in size and color, have black 
points, average about 16 han Is and give great 
promise of producing the size aud style de¬ 
manded for ' oach and coupe. The French 
coach stallions are both bay and sorrel; have 
an occasional white stocking, arc more of the 
running horse type except the neck, which 
shows a trace of the Percherou arch. They are 
of lighter bone and have more spirit than the 
Cleveland Bays. Several specimens of both 
breeds are deficient in knee action, and some 
of the Cleveland Bays bugged their tails close. 
It is safe to say that there are among the re¬ 
presentative trotting families many stallions 
that excel the imported coacher iu style, are 
his equal in size, and much faster. 
One hundred and eigbty-oue fat sheep are in 
the pens, mostly South Dow us aud their 
grades. There are also prime Oxford Downs, 
Cotswolds and Leicesters and Merino grades. 
The fattener of sheep has over the cattle man 
an advantage that he is not slow to appreciate, 
viz: the length of wool permits sufficient trim¬ 
ming to make the most ungainly animal sym¬ 
metrical. 
The 106 porkers that, like poet Lowell’s pig, 
are “most too fat. to snore,” are about equally 
divided among Bcrkshires, Yorkshires, Poland 
Chiuas and their grades. Ten Essex, seven 
Duroc and nine miscellaneous completed the 
list. 
The poultry department comprised 350 coops 
which contained 1,000 specimens. Light 
Brahmas led with 108 birds; Plymouth Rocks, 
195; Wyandottes 181. Most other breeds were 
represented. The show was chiefly by Illinois 
breeders with a sprinkling from Indiana and 
Ohio. The novelties were Rose-comb Black 
Spanish, Rose-comb White and Brown Leg¬ 
horns; White Plymouth Rocks, and White 
and Golden Wyandottes—too many new breeds 
which iu reality are simply “sports” and of 
very questionable value. 
The corn exhibit is probably superior to any 
previous one in the whole country. Illinois 
leads with 5 * clusters of yellow dent and 24 of 
white dent. Nebraska shows 66 clusters; low'a 
41; Kansas 32; Indiana 20; Ohio 10; and Mis¬ 
souri shows 11. The exhibits from other 
States not named comprise 61 clusters of dent 
and flint. A pretty effect is obtained by the 
artistic grouping of pop-corn ears and freaks 
of corn growth. Each cluster eoutaius 20 
pounds of ears, making a total of 6,580 pounds, 
exclusive of several interesting exhibits not 
bunched. 
The dairy exhibit consisted of only about 
70 cheeses, 75 tubs of butter, some 20 small 
packages in stone jars and wood and tin pails, 
three refrigerator and three glass case exhi¬ 
bits of prints, nine jars of granulated aud a 
few fancy designs, including a medallion of 
Washington, Every arrangement conveyed 
the “touch not, taste not” idea, ami conse¬ 
quently nothing could really be learut from 
the display. The only information tendered 
was by the refrigerator, salt and butter color 
manufacturers. 
The dairy implement department was replete 
with the usual variety of churns, coolers, salt, 
etc. The novel features were n simple method 
of churning samples of cream in glass tubes, 
and a cream separator on an apparently new 
principle. 
The most artistic arrangement in the build¬ 
ing was that of bogus butter, which was shown 
together with the crude materials by live 
manufacturers. The process was exhibited at 
every stage. Every one hud a chance to taste 
aud also take away a sample inclosed in a neat 
box, like those used for wedding cake. 
In the cattle killing contests in one end of 
the exhibition building, the auimal is knocked 
senseless, and then bled by sticking like a pig. 
The head is skinned and removed, the fore legs 
are skinned to the knee and cut. off, one hind 
leg is skinned to the hock and cutoff, the other 
is not touched. The oniuml is thou on its back, 
and time is called. The contest ends when the 
carcass is skinned, mixed, split, and washed. 
Each contestant has a helper who kills the ani¬ 
mal and gets it ready for the start. He also 
hoists the animal us it is beii g split, and saws 
