VOL. XLIX. NO. 2108. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 21, i89o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
PROM SCRUB TO JERSEY. 
On page 285 of this year’s R. N.-Y., Mr. J. S. Woodward, 
in reply to a question sent by one of our subscribers at 
Jasper, N. Y., gave an account of his experience in feeding 
farrow cows for beef. Mr. Simpson, the man who sent the 
question, has succeeded in collecting a good herd of dairy 
cows at a comparatively small expense, and the R. N.-Y. 
has secured a picture of his herd which is shown at Fig. 
133. Mr. S., writes as follows : 
“ The article on page 192 did not really apply to my cattle, 
as I have bought them within the last two years at an 
average price of §23.50 per head. I commenced in a small 
way, like Mr. Woodward, buying farrow cows in the fall; 
but having only a few, I could not sell them for as much as 
the best ones were worth for milk. I had turned a bull 
with them so that they might come in in September. I 
think a shortage in butter yield is due to a lack of 
feed and care rather than the inability of the average cow 
to produce more than 125 pounds of butter in a year. I.do 
in the spring I feed some grain while they are at pasture ; 
but to cows that calve in the fall I do not give any grain 
the following spring. As soon as the pasture fails I begin 
to feed peas and oats, and, later on, corn grown for ensilage 
—State corn sown with a drill in rows 32 inches apart, 
half a bushel of seed being used to the acre. When the 
nights begin to be cool, I put the cows in the stable, and 
feed silage—about 25 pounds a day—and what clover and 
grass hay they will eat clean, and from four to eight 
pounds of grain—corn-meal, middlings and cotton-seed 
meal in about equal proportions. I try to give every cow 
all she will eat up clean. My stable is a basement in which 
the mercury does not fall below freezing point. I find my 
cows give more milk when the thermometer stands at 50 
degrees, than they do when it is below 50 degrees. I think 
the warm stable in which they are kept has a great deal 
to do with the amount of butter they make in cold weather. 
For a long time during the past winter the 11 gave 30 
gallons of milk and made only 10 pounds of butter a day ; 
amount of butter in the milk. He is also correct in saying 
that too much corn-meal will prove unsatisfactory for 
feeding dairy animals and that silage, roots, or some other 
succulent foods are needed. 
DOES WHITE INDICATE WEAKNESS. 
“Does a white color in the hair or plumage of any an¬ 
imal indicate weakness or a lack of the full hardiness of 
the breed or species to which the animal belongs ?” 
Arguing From Short-horn History. 
In estimating the effects of color on the hardiness of 
animals I have an experience of nearly 70 years of pretty 
close observation. 
The great snow or white owl of Northern Canada 
which sometimes winters in this vicinity, latitude 43 de¬ 
grees north, is a very hardy bird, showing that its color is 
not indicative of inability to withstand a rigid winter. 
“FROM SCRUB TO JERSEY.” THE BASIS FOR A GOOD DAIRY HERD. Fig. 133. 
not think I ever saw any cows so poor that they would 
not make more than 200 pounds for such men as Mr. Wood¬ 
ward. I found by watching my Jerseys that they would 
make more butter for the feed consumed than the common 
cows could make; while my common cows ate one-third 
more than the Jerseys and did not give any more milk and 
not as much cream. In looking over my books, I find I 
have sold, since last June, 2,650 pounds of butter. I expect 
to make 250 or 300 pounds this month, and I do not think 
we use in the family less than 250 pounds, making, in all, 
3,150 pounds from nine cows in the first six months, 
and from 12 in the last six. 
For the cow marked 10 in the picture I paid §40 in Feb¬ 
ruary, 1889. She calved on March 20. Six weeks after 
calving she made 14 pounds in one week before she had 
any grass. She did not shrink in her yield for the first 10C 
days. I fed her what grain I thought she needed. In 
August she made Vfi pound daily, while the temperature 
was at 70 in the shade. I carried her over, so that she will 
come in in the fall; thus she gave milk a whole year, and 
at the end of it made one pound of butter daily. She is a 
half-blood Jersey. Nos. 4, 10, and 12, are half Jerseys: 
No. 5 is a full-blood and cost §35; Nos. 6, 7 and 13 are full- 
blood Alderneys; Nos. 1,2, 3and 11 are common stock; No. 
9 is a three-eighth Jersey calf, six months old. No. 10’s best 
mess was 36 pounds, and at the end of the year she gave 14. 
As to the feeding of my stock: To cows that are fresh 
I tried to make them do better, and fed too much corn- 
meal, and dried them up just one-third, and could not get 
them to yield as much as formerly. I fed them a ration 
composed of three-fifths corn-meal and two fifths mid¬ 
dlings.” 
The herd as represented in the picture will form the 
basis for a superior dairy herd. This is a good way to 
establish such a herd, provided a man realizes three im¬ 
portant things. There are external marks that character¬ 
ize a superior butter cow. A good judge of cattle can go 
to any of the stock-yards where cows are offered for sale 
and find animals held for almost the same price, one of 
which can be made to produce nearly twice as much butter 
as another. The man who desires to start a dairy herd in 
this way, must know how to pick out a good cow to start 
with. Again, he must fully understand that the only bull 
worth having on the place is a good one, an animal whose 
ancestors, on both sides, have proved themselves strong in 
butter-producing ability. In a herd of this sort, the bull 
is more than “ half the herd,” and the money saved by 
buying the cows at beef prices may well be spent on the 
bull. Another important point is that concerning the 
care given the animals. The R. N.-Y. believes more and 
more, the longer it studies the matter, that the surest way 
to produce inferior calves is to neglect the cows while they 
are in calf. Mr. Simpson is right in his observation that 
the first effect of cold on dairy cows is to reduce the 
White domestic fowls—turkeys, ducks, geese and chickens 
—are as hardy as darker colored sorts. The same is the case 
with swine and also neat cattle and horses. The most 
popular breed of cattle introduced into our country in the 
earlier years of this century—the Short-horns—have been 
bred in Great Britain for centuries and have been of all 
colors from snow-white to deep red; but the prevailing 
colors have ranged from clear white, to white and red in¬ 
termixed with roan of lighter and deeper shades called 
light or red roan, as one or the other hue predominated. 
Again, some of the cattle are red and white, each color pre¬ 
vailing in separate clear patches over the body. The Brit¬ 
ish herds from which our American importations have 
been drawn, are chiefly from whites or roans, there being 
seldom a purely red one among them, and they are now bred 
in Britain without particular regard to color, the quality of 
the animal making its value to the breeder-or purchaser at 
home. Down to 30 years ago the American importations 
were nearly all white and roan, there being very seldom 
pure red, and they were bred among us without preference 
or selection so far as color was concerned. Within the 
past 20 years, however, an absurd prejudice has grown up 
among our Short-horn breeders in favor of full red and 
white, and light roans have been ruled out as unfashion 
able. Indeed the latter, both in public and private sales, 
have been discarded by the purchasers or bought only at 
very low prices, as not buyable at all, whereas in point of 
