1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
79 
Cows and “ Bitter” Milk. 
We have a cow about 10 or 11 years old, 
and each Fall, about two or three months 
before she drops her calf, her milk gets 
very bitter, almost like a ragweed taste. 
When she was younger this did not show at 
all. Last year we let her go dry, thinking 
nothing could be done, but this year kept 
on milking her, and fed her a teaspoonful 
of baking soda once a day, on the advice 
of a friend, but thought in a few days the 
soda taste was worse than the other. This 
taste has largely disappeared, though it is 
several weeks until she will be fresh. There 
is still some taste. I would like to know 
the cause and remedy of this. She is a fine 
milker of the best and richest milk, after 
she is fresh. E - E - E - 
Many cows as they come closer to 
calv.ng give milk with a salty, disagree¬ 
able taste. Some cows are worse than 
others in this respect—the milk some¬ 
times being too bad for ordinary use 
when kept alone. We have never found 
any remedy for it. 
Good Cross for Sheep. 
In The R. N.-Y., page 15, C. H. P. 
wishes to know the best cross, I sup¬ 
pose, for mutton purposes, among sheep. 
He says he has a number of Shropshire 
ewes. If i't is purebred sheep he wants, 
stick to the Shropshire. If lit is cross¬ 
ing for mutton, take Leicester ewes and 
cross with a 'Shropshire ram. He will 
get just what he is looking for. It is 
the best cross that has been tried in this 
section, and is steadily gaining favor. 
The lambs grow fast, and are always in 
good condition under any kind of favor¬ 
able circumstances; there will be no culls 
that the butchers will not take. I would 
not advise raising the half-bred ewe 
lambs, as a second cross has not proved 
as satisfactory where tried as the first 
cross. A great many farmers have the 
idea that a male animal has a good deal 
to do with prolificacy. In my experi¬ 
ence as a sheep breeder it is entirely 
wrong. A female for quantity, and a 
male the greater part of quality. If the 
ewes be thin in flesh in the late part of 
Summer, and the pasture poor, they will 
not be very thrifty, and the conse¬ 
quences will be a small crop of lambs, 
no matter what kind of a ram you use. 
If you want a good crop of lambs, have 
ewes in good thrifty condition when the 
ram is turned in, and you will get all, 
or nearly all twins, or probably odd 
triplets, which is one too many. If the 
ewes are well kept all the time they will 
shear half again or double the wool that 
a flock half starved will. It is a mis¬ 
take to keep more sheep than can be 
kept in nice condition all the time. A 
flock of starved ewes means a small 
shearing of wool, a small crop of lambs, 
and a large number of mouths to feed 
during the Winter. s. b. 
Burlington, Ont. 
Feed for Sheep; Rape Seed. 
I can buy wheat screenings that will aver¬ 
age probably 40 per cent small wheat fcr 
75 cents per 100 pounds; coarse Winter 
wheat bran $1 per 100. For feeding ewes in 
lamb which is the cheaper? Will Dwarf 
Essex rape seed more than one year old 
grow? R - w. 
Mason, Ill. 
For feeding ewes in lamb I would pre¬ 
fer to use the wheat bran. This for the 
reason that it will assist in keeping tne 
bowels in good condition, besides fur¬ 
nishing a more uniform and nutritious 
feed than the screenings. For a general 
sheep feed good screenings are excel¬ 
lent, and I purchase them to a consid¬ 
erable extent. But one is not always 
wise to buy, unless he first sees them 
and knows that they run good in qual¬ 
ity. There is no material difference in 
the dry matter in bran from Winter 
wheat and the average screenings, but 
1,000 pounds of bran will give about 125 
pounds of digestible protein, while 1,000 
pounds of screenings will give about 100 
pounds of digestible protein. So under 
the circumstances I should favor pur¬ 
chasing the bran at the price given. It 
would be difficult to say for a certainty 
as to whether your rape seed will grow 
or not. It depends on the condition 
under which it has been kept. If in a 
good, dry seed room or apartment, it 
should grow a second or perhaps third 
season. The wise plan will be to test 
it. Count out 100, or a given number of 
seeds, and place in a cake pan or some¬ 
thing of this sort, on the bottom of 
which is a layer of Canton flannel on 
sand. Keep the sand and flannel wet, 
and place the flannel so that the seed 
lies between a layer of it like in the 
leaves of a book. Keep the pan covered 
with a pane of glass, and put it in a 
warmish place. The seed should germ¬ 
inate in a few days, if the pan is kept 
moist, though there should be no stand¬ 
ing water in it. c. s. plumb. 
Common and Contagious Garget. 
How can I tell the difference between 
common garget and contagious garget In 
its first stages, and what is the remedy? 
Hanover, Mass. a. h. m. 
Contagious garget, as compared with 
garget as generally understood, is not 
garget at all. I am unable to give any 
good reason for calling it by that name. 
It is a germ disease, having a first 
growth on the end of the teat; usually, 
if not immediately checked, follows the 
teat and closes the passage. After it has 
secured a foothold in the teat, cure is 
most difficult. We have used a remedy 
given us by Dr. C. D. Smead with suc¬ 
cess in most cases. This success will 
depend upon effectually using the rem¬ 
edy at the first appearance. Mix equal 
parts of carbolic acid, crystal, with 
glycerine; an emulsion is produced 
which will readily mix with raw lin¬ 
seed or sweet oil. Use one part of the 
emulsion to five parts of oil. Apply to 
the end of the teat, and if necessary in¬ 
ject with a glass syringe into the teat. 
As precaution is better than cure, be 
sure not to milk a cow after the af¬ 
fected one without washing the hands, 
and apply the remedy to the teats not 
diseased. Common garget is a disease 
of the system, showing in the udder, 
and, of course, must be differently 
treated. These two diseases are in no 
wise associated, or responsible one for 
the other. h. e. cook. 
An Experiment in Feeding Stock. 
On page 30 of your issue of January 
11, A. P. asks for information. As I 
have had considerable experience with 
just such feeds as he is using, I venture 
to give him my opinion. He is prob¬ 
ably feeding too large a proportion of 
carbohydrates. Two quarts of bran and 
a small quantity of skim-milk will not 
balance a full feed of silage and Tim¬ 
othy hay. I am feeding 40 pounds of 
silage, eight pounds of Timothy hay, 
three pounds of bran and three pounds 
of cotton-seed meal per day. As A. P.’s 
cows will soon be fresh, they are milk¬ 
ing, and at the same time furnishing 
bone and blood for the calf. I do not 
think he is feeding anything like enough 
protein for the work the cows are doing. 
They should each have at least a peck 
of bran a day, and a pound of linseed 
meal if it can be procured. He does 
not say how he is feeding the skim- 
milk. The only way that I have ever 
been able to feed it is from a bucket, 
then to scald the bucket out after each 
feeding. If it is fed on, the long feed 
the feeding troughs soon become foul 
enough to ruin any cow’s digestion. 
After these cows are fresh the addition 
of two or three pounds of cotton-seed 
meal to the bran ration will, I think, 
make a profitable yield, and keep the 
herd in a healthy condition. Bran is 
certainly high, but I do not see how a 
farmer or dairyman can help his 
finances by cutting down the protein in 
his rations. As you lessen the protein 
you lessen the net profit proportion¬ 
ately. As a pound of cotton-seed or lin¬ 
seed meal contains about as much pro¬ 
tein as 1 y 2 pound of bran, at the pres¬ 
ent market prices it will pay to feed at 
least half of one or the other of them, 
and the other half bran. j. h. j. 
Brighton, Md. 
GAIN ACRES 
Catalog FREE. 
charingttiathtunipy piece 
land •’THE HERCULES 
Puller pulleanyHtuinp 
Save« tiooe. labor and money. 
Hercules Mfg. Co., Dept PS Centerville, low*. 
Driving Lamp 5 
IT is the only perfect one. W 
IT throws all the light straight ahead A 
from 200 to 300 feet. m 
IT looks like a locomotive headlight. A 
IT gives a clear white light. ,,—^ ^ - Vi 
IT burns kerosene (Coal Oil) 
It wiH not blow nor jar out 
SPECIAL OFFER. 
CUT THIS ADVERTISEMENT OUT 
and send It to us and we will send 
book describing our lamp, and will agree to send you one single lamp or 
a pair at our wholesale price (very much less than the retaii price). 
R. E. DIETZ COMPANY, 87 Laight St., New York. 
Establish?,./ 1840. 
NEVERSLIP CALKS. 
These small cuts show the patterns 
which are most used. We have 
them adapted Ibr every kind of work 
which a horse docs. 
All shoers and owners of horses 
should study carefully the conditions 
under which their animals work, 
and make life easier for them by 
using 
Neverslip Cadks. 
Your horseshoer has them or will 
get them. Drop us a postal for our 
catalogue. 
NEVERSLIP MFG. CO., 
New Brunswick, N. J. 
SHARPIES 
Cream Separators 
Have Tubular ISowla, 
use no disk8, easy to run, reliable, 
durable an d effective. Catalog JXi3 
and treatise, ‘‘Business Dairy lng ,r 
free. Th e best dairymen eay they are 
I the best separators. 
Sharpies Co., P. M. Sharpies, 
Chicago, ill. West Chester,Pa. 
5 Tkf: 
[IfclalSI] 
ImMh 
The REID Hand 
Separator 
is the closest skimmer, as 
well as the easiest running 
and most economical sepa¬ 
rator made. 
Very Simple and Durable. 
Capacity 150 to 3501 bs per* 
hour. Prices S60 to SI00. 
Hand separator circular 
and illustrated catalogue' 
of dairy supplies free 
A. H. REID 
30 th and Market St. t 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Sent 
any¬ 
where 
on 10 
Days’ 
Free 
Trial 
For close skimming and 
quiet and easy running the 
National Hand Separator has no 
equal among hand separators. We are 
ready to prove this at your home by 
sending a 
NATIONAL 
CREAM SEPARATOR 
anywhere on 10 days’ free trial, to be 
placed in competition, if you liko, with 
any other separator. If itdon’tback up 
every claim we make you can return it 
at once at our expense. Prices aston¬ 
ishingly low. For particulars, write ta 
NATIONAL DAIRY MACHINE CO. 
Newark, N. J. 
Save$ 10 per Cow 
EVERY YEAR OF USE. 
De Laval Cream Separators 
Prices, $50 to $800. 
“Alpha" and "Baby"sty/es. Send for Catalogue 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO , 
Randolph and Canal Streets, I 7f Cortlandt Street. 
CHICAGO. | NEW YORK 
HAWKEYE GRUB AND STUMP MACHINE 
uunitu«> MACHU»« 
4 * 6 iVorks on either Standing Timber or Stumps. 
4 Makesa Clean Sweep! 
4 of Two Acres at a Sitting. 1 
j A man, boy and a horse can 
2 operate it. Jto heavy chains 
J or rods to handle. You can- 
4 not longer afford to pay tax- 
4 es on unproductive timber 
4 land. Illustrated catalogue 
4 Free, giving prices, terms 
Pulla an Ordinary drub In i l A Minutes. I 
land testimonials. Also full | 
iinformation regarding our j 
I. X. L. GRUBBER, j 
IRON QIANTGRUB <1 I 
STUMP MACHINE. 
2-HORSE HAWKEYE 
and other appliances for ] 
clearing timber land. 
\MILNK MFG. CO., SO P 8 th St., Monmouth, III. Address Milne Bros. forSHETLAND PONY Catalogue, ► 
LEAN’S steel HARROWS 1 LAN D ROLLER S. 
Made throughout of specially forged steel and tempered under 
our own process. Light weight and light draft combined with 
greatest strength and rigidity. All working parts are placed 
within an outside frame. The position of the teeth can be 
instantly adjusted by steel lever to any posi tion or cleared 
of rubbish without stopping team. In pre¬ 
paring ground for seed or for harrowing all steel 
kinds of crops there is nothing that will equal Lean's. L.nd 
Roller 
OUR 
STEEL ROLLERS 
are so constructed that all parts are inter¬ 
changeable and if any part should break, can 
be repaired at home at small cost. W e want to 
tell you more. Why not send for our catalogue? 
Send for 
Illustrated 
catalogue to-day. 
RODERICK LEAN MFG CO. MANSFIELD.OHI0. 
Will Plow Your Hard Dry Ground 
The Hapgood-Hancock Disc Sulky 
Double,Triple and Quadruple Gangs, 
s great an improvement over the Mould-Board Plow 
as that Plow was over the crooked stick. Revolution¬ 
izes the method of plowing as the Twine binder did 
the method of Harvesting. You would not believe 
half we could tell you. We want you to see it in the 
field. We guarantee to do more, mill better work 
with 8-Horse* on u (lung, cutting 24-Iriehes, or 
4-llorse* on u Triple (lung cutting ISP-ltiohcn 
than you enn with nny other Disc or Mould-Board Gang cutting Si t Inches and with 4-Horses. 
Will plow hard dry ground where no other plow will work. We want your help to introduce this 
Plow, and will give special discounts on the first Plow in a neighborhood. Agents wanted. Writs 
now. The only Plow Factory in the World selling direct to the farmer. HAPCjOOD 1*1.0 W CO., 
Ex clusive Agents and Mfrs. for two-thirds of the United States. Box 1 > Alton. 111. 
