898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
DEC/27 
Health vs. The Jersey Cow. 
Dr. G. G. Groff, Union Co., Pa.—A 
recent article on the Jersey cow in The 
Rural, causes me to raise some vitally im¬ 
portant questions. The Secretary of our 
Stale Board of Agriculture and for years 
the governor’s agent in investigating an¬ 
imal diseases, says that not only are the 
Jerseys consumptive looking, but that 
very many of them are actually consump¬ 
tive He advises us to shun the Jersey on 
the score of health. I have not had an op¬ 
portunity to investigate the matter since 
my attention has been called to it. Is it 
not of great importance ? 
The Jersey is highly bred, delicate, nerv¬ 
ous. Is she healthy ? Is her milk the best 
to use in the family ? She looks like an 
animal predisposed to pulmonary con¬ 
sumption. Some good authorities say she 
is so predisposed. But would we, on gen¬ 
eral principles, think her milk so good for 
children as that of the less nervous, more 
robust, less cultured Devon, Holstein, or 
other heavier breeds ? In selecting a wet 
nurse for our children, would we select a 
woman with the characteristics of the 
Jersey, or the reverse? I am not prepared 
to answer my own questions. I hope to in¬ 
vestigate in thU direction. At present, on 
“ general principles,” I am avoiding the 
Jersey. 
R. N. Y.—Our own Jersey is as healthy, 
tough and as much of a “rustler” as any 
cow we ever saw. She is thin, wiry and 
nervous, but she is no more consumptive 
than a Short horn ox. It is high time this 
war upon the Jersey breed was stopped. It 
is both foolish and malicious. If we were 
supplying Jersey milk to customers in a 
town where such statements were publicly 
made we would prosecute the speaker 
for damages, and we have good legal 
opinion to the effect that the case could be 
made clear. We have no Jerseys to sell or 
to give away. We know the breed in¬ 
timately. There are undoubtedly cases 
where too close inbreeding has weakened 
the constitution of the animal. This is 
true of all breeds. We can find plenty of 
“consumptive-looking ” Short-horns, Ayr- 
shlres, Holsteins or other animals. To say 
that the Jersey, as a breed, is predisposed 
to consumption is little short of libelous. 
Three weeks ago we gave our opinion of 
the Jersey as a family cow, and we have 
only words of praise to add to it. 
Half-Blood Buffaloes. 
Robt. C. Auld, Livingston County, 
Micii.— In The Rural of May 24 appeared 
an article from D. H. Talbot, on breeding 
buffaloes and their crosses, in which he 
makes certain statements as to his experi¬ 
ments in this line, and also refers to Col. 
Jones, of Garden City, Kan. If he had 
confined his remarks to his own experi¬ 
ments, I would have let the matter pass, 
but as he has seen fit to refer to other ex¬ 
periments in which I have taken a particu¬ 
lar, and almost personal interest, I have 
thought it best to send The Rural the 
following notes: 
Mr. Talbot attributed his failure to ob¬ 
tain what he regards as “abnormal” buf¬ 
falo crosses (though he does not apparently 
see anything abnormal in the cross to 
which he refers between the goat and 
sheep,) ** to the discreditable habits of the 
American workman of to day,” to whom 
he philosophically left the conduct of 
these buffalo experiments 1 I have re¬ 
ceived the following from Col. Jones : 
“ I can show crosses from Galloway, 
Aberdeen-Angus, Short-horn, common 
barnyard cows, and also from the little In¬ 
dian cow of British America. I care very 
little about what Mr. Talbot has to say. 
He has pressed me very hard for all the in¬ 
formation I have about crossing buffaloes, 
but got nothing. What I kuow has cost 
me money, and I don’t propose to part with 
it for nothing, especially when I can make 
it of great benefit to myself in raising half 
and three-quarter-breds. I have obtained 
my knowledge by personal application, and 
have not left this matter to hired help. And 
I make this statement boldly: I can 
breed 100 domestic cows to buffalo bulls 
and save 75 per cent of the progeny, and 
not lose 15 of the cows. This year 55 of the 
calves were saved and 38 of the cows lost 
out of my whole herd, and I have learned a 
volume of knowledge during the season. 
I admit tnat the cows must be looked after 
if they are to be saved. I do not claim that 
everybody can successfully cross buffaloes 
and cattle, yet the violence of the cross 
may be so modified that careful breeders 
will make it quite successfully.” 
That buffalo crossing is not the impossi¬ 
bility that Mr. Talbot, judging from his 
own utter failure, alleges, may be proved 
from many authorities. For instance, 
Prof. J. P. Sheldon, in his Dairy Farming, 
gives instances of it in the Eastern States. 
It must have been common there to get 
into a work published by a British author¬ 
ity. Mr. W. T. Hornaday, Superintendent 
of the National Zoological Park at Wash¬ 
ington, in his report on the Extermina¬ 
tion of the Buffalo, gives instances of it 
also. In Audubon and Bachman’s Quad¬ 
rupeds of North America is an account of 
30 years of such crossings, by Mr. Wickliff, 
in Kentucky. Prof. Packard, M. D., P. L. 
D., of Brown University, in his Text 
book of Zoology, says: “ The American 
bison is known to breed with domestic 
cattle, and it seems to be a well established 
fact that the hybrids are fertile.” 
The above is enough to prove that gen¬ 
erally buffalo cross-breeding is quite suc¬ 
cessful, and that Mr. Talbot’s individual 
failure must be attributed to the want of 
care and proper conduct on the part of the 
experimenter. Anybody interested in the 
business would have given Mr. Talbot 
valuable information about it, had he, like 
a true scientist, been willing to afford 
others an opportunity for investigating 
what he called his plan. When he began 
to be known I received one of tne circulars 
he was scattering broadcast, invitiDg those 
to whom they were sent to visit his place 
and investigate his operations. Acting on 
this cordial invitation, I made a long, tire¬ 
some and expensive journey from Detroit 
to Sioux City, for the special purpose of 
seeing his wonderful Cosmos Park, which 
seemed such a Mecca for the curious. 
Imagine my dismay and indignation when, 
on reaching the point where expectation 
reigned supreme, I received a point-blank 
rebuff, without apology but with marked 
discourtesy. On inquiry from respectable 
business men of Sioux City, I found that 
they felt ashamed that strangers should 
receive such treatment, for it was a 
common experience with others. Mr. W. 
T. Hornaday, then in the government 
service, received similar treatment, as he 
described in a letter to me. To sum up : 
1. We have the testimony of men of un¬ 
doubted integrity covering a period of 
nearly 200 years as to the ready crossing of 
the buffalo with domestic cattle. 2. 
Against this is the single voice of an ex¬ 
perimenter whose conclusions no one has 
indorsed, or could indorse. 
What’s In a Name? 
“ Hayseeder,” Essex County, N. J.— 
I have got to regard The Rural as the 
headquarters for horticultural knowledge. 
I am in a quandary. I like to call things 
by their right names. Some years ago we 
wrestled with the Kieffer—the pear, as 
well as the name. Our msthetic, kid-gloved 
tree agents ignored the i and insisted on 
telling us it was the Keefer, while the hay¬ 
seed cultivators as persistently ignored the 
e and told us it was the Ki fer. To settle 
the matter an appeal was made to the 
neighbors of the introducer after whom the 
pear was named, as to how he spelled and 
pronounced his name. He being a German 
or of German descent, said it was Kf-effer, 
giving the accent on the i. That settled it, 
and the hayseeders were correct. 
A like difficulty now exists in regard to 
Michel’s Early Strawberry. If my memory 
serves me correctly this comes from the 
South or Southwest, and the above was 
the first name under which I noticed it 
announced. Since then I have seen it cat¬ 
alogued as Mitchel’s Early and, later, as 
Michael’s Early. After the next evolution 
it will probably have a Saint attached to 
it as a handle. Which is correct ? and 
does the first form of spelling indicate a 
different pronunciation from that of the 
others ? How does the introducer or origi¬ 
nator pronounce his name ? The nomen¬ 
clature will hardly affect the character of 
the berry in any way, but I feel anxious to 
be correct. Can The Rural help us out 
of our dilemma ? 
R. N.-Y.—We received plants from C. P. 
B luer, Judsouia, Ark., who gives the name 
as Michel’s Early. 
Grapes and Strawberries for the 
South. 
A. W. Smith, Sumter Co., Georgia — 
Large quantities of grapes are shipped here 
from the North in five and ten-pouud 
baskets, and as I am fond of them I have 
tried the list, and with one accord I and 
the rest of my family place Brighton first, 
Diana (very thick-skinned) second, Dela¬ 
ware third, and Martha, Catawb i, Niagara, 
Concord, Isabella and Salem in the order 
named. Of Diana I have never seen a de¬ 
cayed or damaged bunch, and if I were 
planting to ship I would place this first on 
my list. I notice in the enumeration of 
strawberries the omission of the best ship¬ 
ping berry grown and one which when 
fully ripe is as good as one can wish, while 
in size it is here equal to the Cumberland, 
and that is the Hoffman Seedling. Indeed, 
after having tried, side by side, over 20 va¬ 
rieties, embracing the Henderson, May 
King, Crescent, Jucunda. Parry, Sunapee, 
Bidwell, Manchester, Sharpless, Cinderella, 
Cornelia, Kentucky and many others, I have 
discarded all except Hoffman and Cum¬ 
berland and if I had to choose another 
would take the Cinderella. 
Making Pork Rapidly. 
JohnM. Jamison, Ross County, Ohio.— 
On page 773 this question is asked : “How 
can a farmer, without a dairy, breed March 
pigs and put them on the November mar¬ 
ket weighing 275 pounds ?” 
Pigs can be made to reach that weight by 
giving them, from the time they begin to 
drink till they goto market, slops made 
of bran, shipstuff, middlings and oil meal. 
All need not be used. Bran and oil meal 
make an excellent slop. Shipstuff can be 
used alone. Middlings are often too rich 
for growing pigs, and make a better slop 
if mixed with bran. The pi: s should have 
the run of a grass lot as soon as they will 
eat a bit of the grass. The exercise will 
lessen the risk from thumps. Food rich in 
fat-forming elements should not be used 
except with much care during the first four 
months of the pig’s life. A limited quan¬ 
tity of corn should be fed, and if the pigs 
have slop and grass, it is not necessary to 
(Continued on next vuge.) 
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