2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 1 
THE DAIRY HEIFER’S START. 
HOW TO KEEP IT UP ! 
One of our readers in New York State sends us the following 
question which, we think, is of considerable interest to a good 
many young dairymen: 
“ I-have a Jersey heifer, 21 months old, due to calve about Janu¬ 
ary 1. If I feed her so as to get the largest possible yield of milk 
during the first year, will this be likely to increase her milk-giv¬ 
ing capacity for the succeeding years ? How ought she to be fed ? 
I have clover hay, corn stalks, bean pods, wheat and oat straw, 
bran, corn ifteal and Golden Tankard mangels. Would it be well 
to let the calf suck her for the first month or two ? ” 
Will you be kind enough to tell us how you would treat such a 
heifer if she were in your herd ? 
Keep the Calf Away. 
First, she should he fed on nourishing foods, a part 
of which should be succulent, and all of which should 
be easily digestible. Most of those named are good, 
hut not too much corn stalks, wheat and oat straw 
should be fed. The clover hay, bran, a little corn 
meal and mangels, supplemented by the coarser foods, 
fed liberally, should secure good results. If possible, 
try to keep her from drying up at an early period, 
and feed liberally the first year, unless she become 
too fleshy, whether it pay or not. By no means, let 
the calf suck more than a few times. Keep her warm, 
and see that she is abundantly and regularly supplied 
with water. I. p. Roberts. 
Develop the Milking Habit. 
There is such a thing as the milk habit in cows, 
which 1 take to be nothing but an inherent capacity 
developed by careful and systematic feeding and man¬ 
agement. The first year of milk-giving is the most 
important in a heifer’s life, in determining her future 
usefulness or profit in the dairy. It is not the busi¬ 
ness of a dairy cow to suckle calves, and the less she 
knows about that method of milk-giving the better. 
Remove the calf at birth. Nurse the heifer 
kindly for a few days until she recovers from 
the nervous strain incident to calving, using 
bran mashes, warmed drinking water, and light 
feeds of clover hay. If properly handled pre¬ 
vious to calving, she will readily yield to hand 
milking. 
There are two objects to be attained in feeding 
the heifer during her first milking period; 
first, to develop and fix a large and persistent 
milking habit; second, to make good growth 
and structural development in the animal herself. 
Happily for us, the class of foods that will ac¬ 
complish the first result are, also, the best for 
securing the second. Nothing could be better 
for the bulk of her fodder ration than the 
clover hay which your correspondent has. The 
corn stalks and bean pods may be used as a 
luncheon at noon. Pulped mangels will prove a 
valuable addition to her dry fodder, and may be 
used, up to a peck a day, with good results in 
stimulating milk flow. The bulk of her grain 
ration should consist of bran and ground oats, 
to which a small proportion of corn meal may be 
added, in view of the large amount of muscle- 
makers in the clover hay. IIow much of the grain 
mixture to feed is a question that must be put to the 
heifer herself. But feed liberally, watching her ap¬ 
petite as evinced by a bright eye and clean manger, 
and noting her production as shown by scales used 
daily. Unless extra well developed, it will be wise to 
extend her first milking period and have her second 
calf come in the Fall another year. Under such gen¬ 
eral system of management, many of our heifers pro¬ 
duce 300 pounds of butter in one year with their first 
calves. geo. w. sisson jr. 
Kindness and Corn Meal May Spoil. 
A heifer as young as this one should have had the 
best of care and food before calving, so as to make 
her as large and robust as possible. If she is now 
fleshy. I would give her all the clover hay and stalks 
she will eat, giving more of the more plentiful feed. 
I would, also, give her from one to two pecks of the 
mangels with a peck of wheat bran daily, to be fed 
twice a day. The quantity of mangels should be 
governed by the condition of her bowels, which should 
be kept loose, but not too much so. If the heifer is 
thin. I would give her a small quantity of corn meal, 
say not to exceed four quarts daily at the very most, 
and this on condition that she be very thin. The bean 
pods, wheat and oat straw mentioned are, also, very 
good—to give the heifer a nice comfortable bed, and to 
keep her dry and clean. Do not be afraid to feed the 
heifer before calving, for a heifer with the first calf 
never has milk fever. If her udder become full and 
inclined to cake, give it plenty of rubbing with the 
hands, and if necessary, milk her; it will do her no 
harm. Do not let the calf suck for a month or two 
tinder any consideration ; better not let it suck at all, 
she will behave much better, and will give just as 
much milk to the milker as she would to the calf, if 
she does not know anj' difference. After the swelling 
of the udder subsides, I would begin to add a little 
corn meal to her feed, and increase it as the case seems 
to demand. No one can tell how much or what kind 
of feed a cow can stand unless he feed her and watch 
the result. It is true that the cow is a machine to 
convert feed into milk or beef; but these machines 
are all made on a different plan, and one must run his 
machine a little before he can tell how much steam it 
is safe to generate, or he is liable to blow it up, or in 
other words, he is liable to get his cow “ off her feed ”, 
when he will find that he is not getting as much milk 
as if she had been only sparingly fed, and the cost is 
much greater. 
I would not breed the heifer again until after six, 
or even nine months, and would milk her, at least 
a year, if possible. This plan gives the heifer more 
chance to grow, and at the same time, induces her to 
form the habit of holding out well with her milk. In 
regard to keeping the heifer in condition, it is bad to 
let her get poor, but it is a great deal worse to let her 
get too fat. I find that, as a general thing, where 
there is a large dairy, there is not much danger of 
heifers getting grain enough to hurt them : but where a 
man has only one or two cows,it takes such a small quan¬ 
tity of grain for them, that he is very likely to spoil 
them with kindness and corn meal. If the heifer get 
beefy, let up on the feed, even though she is giving 
only a small amount of milk. The appearance of fat 
is the sign that she has reached her limit, or that her 
feed is of too fattening a nature. It is much better 
for her to do fairly well on ordinary feed, than to spoil 
her with too much. j. grant morse. 
Use the Scales for Testing. 
I would feed clover hay mornings—what she would 
eat readily; at noon, a feed of corn stalks, straw or 
bean pods ; the last named food I have never had any 
experience with : at night, clover hay. For her grain 
ration, I would feed largely of bran with the mangels, 
being careful not to overfeed or to distend the udder 
to excess ; also, see that she is not too laxative ; there 
is not much danger of the last-named trouble, espec¬ 
ially just before calving. After she has dropped her 
calf, let it remain with her not over one week, and 
perhaps it would be better to take the calf from her 
the second day, but if possible, let it be in reach of 
her, but let it suck only when the owner wishes. I 
would let it suck but twice a day, that the heifer may 
soon be accustomed to what is expected of her. 
As soon as she is in condition to increase her feed, 
that is, when the fever has left the udder, if she has 
any fever, I would begin by adding a little corn meal 
to the grain ration ; meantime, keep close watch and 
see whether she assimilates her food and does well at 
the pail. Weigh every milking, keep record daily, at 
the end of every week, compare notes and change the 
ration to see whether she could be made to increase the 
number of pounds of milk. Aim to give a variety of 
foods. Be sure that everything given in the shape of 
feed is eaten clean at each feed. I would not, for the 
future good of the cow, feed more than one pound of 
grain to 100 pounds’ weight of cow, unless it was all 
bran. I do not think that the heifer will be impaired 
for future usefulness if fed as described. Much de¬ 
pends upon the animal ; she may not have capacity 
for food enough to make her do her best, and again, 
she may be of a large capacity, and what I have recom¬ 
mended may not be feed enough for her. However, 
if the owner of the heifer will, if he has not already 
the conveniences for weighing every milking, pur¬ 
chase them immediately, and keep a record, he will 
find it one of the greatest helps to know just how he 
is feeding. Every dairyman wants to know just how 
to feed to the fullest capacity : the scales and record 
will tell him, if he has interest enough in his work to 
make some experiments for himself. a. n. raker, 
FROM WHEAT 10 FRUIT. 
CHANGES IN DELAWARE FARMING. 
Varieties and Methods of Culture. 
Part II. 
“You need to fertilize heavily on your light soil, I 
suppose ?” 
“ Yes, yet we have many advantages in this respect 
that greatly reduce the cost. For example, our Crim¬ 
son clover will supply humus and nitrogen very cheap¬ 
ly and, in most seasons, we are sure of a good crop.” 
“ But would you use Crimson clover under all cir¬ 
cumstances ?” 
“ There is some cause for complaint against this 
clover in bearing orchards. The excess of nitrogen 
sometimes makes wood and leaf at the expense of 
peach buds, and when an orchard of peach or plum is 
in full bearing, I would hesitate to use Crimson clover 
more than once in two years. It, no doubt, pumps up 
some potash and phosphoric acid from the lower soil, 
but not enough of these to go with the immense sup¬ 
ply of nitrogen it furnishes. I have observed that 
fruits grown in orchards where this clover was used 
continuously, lack color and flavor. One grower had 
an immense crop of Elberta peaches grown in such an 
orchard, but he could hardly sell them owing to their 
lack of color. In a young orchard not in bearing, or 
one badly neglected and not in good fruiting condi¬ 
tion, I would use all of this clover that 1 could possi¬ 
bly get into the ground. On open grounds, you can¬ 
not possibly use too much of it. as the soil will surely 
improve from year to year. Some growers sow it in 
both blackberry and raspberry patches, with fair 
success. We do not use it in these situations, because 
we believe that the sooner in the spring we can begin 
cultivation, the better for us, and with this clover you 
cannot cultivate early enough.” 
“ Most farmers in the North find the fertilizer 
question a complicated one. How is it with 
you in Dela ware ?” 
“ Very simple, indeed. We use what we think 
our crops require, and either mix our goods 
at home, or have them mixed for us in local 
factories Every town has *wo or three fertilizer 
factories with a supply of the different chemi¬ 
cals constantly on hand. We can determine 
what our soil needs, and then go to the factory 
and have our mixture put up, just as we would 
go to the grocery store and have our provisions 
put in a basket. For most crops, we can use 
potash and phosphoric acid on our clover and 
cow peas, and then, possibly, use nitrate of soda 
and tankage or fish the following season. In 
our fruit culture, most of the nitrogen should 
be used in an organic form, and this the clover 
and ground fish will supply.” 
“ You said that nitrate of soda has a bad effect 
upon some varieties of strawberries.” 
“ That has been my experience, but I have not 
found that organic forms of nitrogen affect 
them in that way. The great secret of suc¬ 
cessful fertilizing is to know about what 
your soil contains, hence what you need to 
apply. I once used 100 pounds of nitrate of soda on 
wheat, that cost $3 an acre, and as wheat was selling 
then at $1.25 a bushel, this gave me a gain of $7 an 
acre, which is about as much as the Dakota farmer 
can hope to make on a yield of 40 bushels. Of course, 
if the soil had not contained plenty of phosphoric acid 
and potash, this application of nitrate alone would 
not have given such a result. Hence, I say that we 
must know the needs of our soil in order to fertilize 
intelligently.” 
“ Are your peaches in south Delaware superior to 
those grown in the the upper part of the State ? ” 
“ In the upper counties, peach trees grow larger in 
the same length of time, and bear larger crops of 
fruit, but the fruit is not of so good texture or quality 
and not so highly colored or sightly as where the soil 
is sandy.” 
“ What soil would you prefer for peach growing ?” 
“ One not too stiff, as I would prefer to fertilize with 
chemical manures, rather than to have it naturally 
rich. One grower has land that produced 25 bushels 
of wheat per acre ; yet on land that would not produce 
five bushels of wheat, he got his finest peaches. On 
heavy land, while the trees are full of foliage, the 
fruit does not color properly. I believe that the re¬ 
flection from the light sand helps to color the fruit. 
The late Gov. Beggs, who was, at one time, the larg¬ 
est peach grower on this peninsula, always held that 
sassafras was the best indication of peach land, and 
he always selected sassafras land so far as he could 
when desiring to set out new orchards.” 
“ Would it be desirable to lengthen the peach season 
in Delaware ? ” 
“ In some respects, it would be a good thing if we 
would produce varieties so early that we could begin 
to ship two or three weeks earlier than we now do, 
and also varieties so late that we could continue ship¬ 
ping later in the fall. On the other hand, there are 
