THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 22 
114 
yearly milk records which averaged over 16,000 pounds, 
and weekly butter records averaged about 20 pounds. 
This sire stood at the head of a herd of cows whose 
milk and butter records were equally as good. The 
result was watched with interest. Thirteen of his 
oldest daughters—all that had been tested—finished 
their two-year-old yearly milk records last season, 
averaging over 10,000 pounds, and 14 of his daughters, 
all two-year-olds, made weekly butter records which 
averaged over 12 pounds. These were all two-year- 
olds, and all that were tested. These are only a few 
of the hundreds of illustrations that could be given, 
showing the value of proper methods of breeding for 
the dairy. 
We must not depend on the records of the dam and 
dam of the sire alone, to insure the results we desire 
in the offspring. We must go further back on every 
line, and be sure that all the ancestors are up to 
the standard we have made, for each ancestor has an 
influence, in proportion to its relationship. For in¬ 
stance, each animal has two parents, and carries 50 
per cent of the blood of each ; four grandparents, and 
carries 25 per cent of the blood of each ; eight great- 
grandparents, and carries 12 % per cent of the blood 
of each, and the influence of each-may be, as a gen¬ 
eral rule, estimated on this basis. Of course, the 
stronger prepotency of certain animals would change 
this ratio, and this very fact makes it all the more 
important that every ancestor, for several generations, 
be of such excellence that, if reproduced, we would 
still have satisfactory results. 
There are also certain freaks of Nature—we call 
them freaks, for want of a better name, which the 
most intelligent breeders have not yet been able to 
understand or control, but they are so rare as not 
greatly to affect the general average. By intelligently 
following the lines suggested in breeding, by improv¬ 
ing our methods of feeding and care, by discarding 
the inferior, and securing the best animals within 
our reach for breeding purposes, the average products 
of our dairies can, in a few years, be doubled, and the 
balance on the credit side of the ledger at the end of 
the year, providing the balance is now on that side— 
be very greatly increased. 
One dairyman in this vicinity, a few years ago, com¬ 
menced to improve his native herd, by selling the 
poorest, and breeding his best cows to the best pure¬ 
bred bulls within his reach. Before the third genera¬ 
tion produced by such breeding had reached maturity, 
he sold to the Syracuse Milk Association an average 
of over 10,000 pounds of milk per cow, for his entire 
herd. What he accomplished can be repeated by 
others, with the exercise of equal care and good 
judgment. Had the dams at the start been equal to 
the sires used, the quantity produced would have been 
still larger, and, therefore, when purebred females 
can be bought at present prices, they will pay, even 
for the dairy, providing the best class of animals can 
be secured. 
Asa starting point for the improvement proposed, 
I would recommend every dairyman to buy the best 
set of spring scales to be found, having them in the 
most convenient place in the stable, adjacent to a 
properly-ruled blackboard, on which should be plainly 
written the name and number of each cow. Have the 
milk pails all of the same weight, and the scales so 
adjusted as to give the weight of the milk, without 
the pail. He is now prepared to learn which cows 
are paying for the keeping, and which are not. Be¬ 
fore spending more time or money, he should decide 
whether he will breed pure, recorded stock, or grades, 
and what breed will, all things considered, pay best. 
Having decided these important questions, he should 
commence weighing each milking from each cow, and 
keep a careful and accurate record of the amount 
given each day. He should secure a Babcock testing 
machine, arrange with some one to make tests of 
samples, or send samples to his State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion for that purpose. He will then, at the end of 
the year, be able to tell just how much milk each cow 
has given, and also the value of the product for butter. 
If butter is the object, add to that production the 
value of the skim-milk for feeding purposes, and the 
value of her produce, and he has her total produc¬ 
tion. Deduct the cost of keeping, and he can readily 
tell which cows are profitable. Having reached this 
point, he is prepared to breed intelligently and under¬ 
standing^, whether he decide to breed grades, or pure 
bloods. In either case, the sire is half the herd, and if 
as strongly bred as he should be, he is more than half. 
The sire, therefore, should be in either case pure 
blood, and of the very highest possible breeding. 
The Illinois Experiment Station has just set a com¬ 
mendable example in this respect, by sending to this 
State, and selecting a bull, whose 17 nearest female an 
cestors (extending back in every line to importation) 
have made milk records which average for the whole 
number 16,808 pounds 2 ounces in a year, and 21 pounds 
of butter in a week. This is the class of bulls to 
breed from, for if the descendant is a duplicate of 
any ancestor within the first four or five generations, 
he will be what is desired. With such a sire, crossed 
with cows of similar breeding, the results are almost 
as certain to give descendants of equal merit, as a 
certain variety of seed corn, planted in good soil, and 
well attended, is to produce a crop of the sa me variety. 
In the one instance, good care, and proper, liberal 
nourishment, with favorable environments, are as 
necessary, yes, as indispensable, as in the other, if 
the best results are to be insured. This subject of 
breeding from producing ancestors, has been carried 
to such an extent that, in at least one instarce, a 
young bull has been produced whose 30nearest female 
ancestors have made weekly butter records which 
average 20 pounds 2 ounces, and the 35 nearest have 
A FARM BONE GRINDING HOUSE. Fig. 41. 
made milk records which average 15,447 pounds 12 
ounces in a year. If such animals be selected for 
foundation stock, how surely and readily can a great 
producing herd be established ! kdward a. powe,ll. 
A FARM BONE MEAL FACTORY. 
A cheap ton of fertilizer. 
Mr. Geo. L. Clemence, of Massachusetts, solved the 
problem of how to work up bones on the farm for 
fertilizing purposes, for himself, some years ago, by 
fitting up a plant for steaming and grinding them 
into bone meal. His plant consists of a small build¬ 
ing with a basement in which is located the power 
and machinery for grinding the steamed bone. The 
raw bones, 1,500 pounds to a charge, are steamed in 
an upright cylinder tank about 18 inches in diameter, 
made of boiler plate, and so placed as to extend up 
about three feet through the floor for convenience in 
charging, and some five or six feet below, the lower 
end being about three feet above the basement floor 
NEW LIFE PEA. Fig. 42. 
See Catalogue Reviews. Page 120. 
for convenience in removing the steamed bones. Both 
ends of the tank are fitted with movable hoods, held 
securely in place with bolts and nuts. The steam is 
piped to the tank from a portable boiler that stands 
near by, which also furnishes the steam power for 
grinding the steamed bone after it is dried. It re¬ 
quires about seven hours of steaming to soften the 
raw bones sufficiently for grinding. 
On the south end of the building, the basement is 
extended some 10 feet or so, with a glass roof like a 
greenhouse ; under this glass roof the steamed bones 
are spread on racks to dry, when taken from the tank. 
The liquid from the steamed bones is composted and 
used for fertilizer. After the steamed bones are 
dried, they are about as brittle as chalk, and are easily 
ground into a coarse meal in an ordinary corn-crusher 
such as is in common use in this vicinity for cracking 
ear corn for grinding into meal. 
Mr. Clemence buys his raw bones of local soap 
peddlers and others at from $12 to $15 a ton, and 
figures the cost to him of the bone meal at $22 per 
ton. The work is done by himself and help in winter, 
when other work is not pressing. His soil is of two 
kinds, part is a stony loam, underlaid by gneiss rock, 
the gradual wearing down of which has furnished the 
soil. The other part is a well-drained bowlder clay. 
He has now been using ground bone for some 12 years. 
When he first began the use of bone, it was his 
practice to apply 1,000 pounds to the acre; but now 
that his tillage soil is well filled, he uses a less amount. 
Muriate of potash, 200 pounds to the acre, and nitrate 
of soda, 150 pounds, are also used for fertilizers in 
connection with the manure from a herd of milch 
cows. The nitrate of soda is applied to grass land 
only. 
Mr. Clemence believes that he gets well paid for the 
use of bone meal, notwithstanding that some of our 
agricultural chemists claim that all bone meal should 
be treated with acid in order to be profitable to the 
farm. The entire plant cost about $800, but the 
portable boiler and engine, and the shafting and pul¬ 
leys are used for cutting ensilage, and other purposes 
about the farm. 
For a farmer who already has a steam plant, the 
principal cost for fitting up for reducing bones in this 
way, would be fora steam tank and bone mill, which, 
at the present time, ought not to cost more than $150. 
And if future experiments prove beyond doubt that it 
pays to treat bone with acid in order to make the phos¬ 
phate fully available, the man who has sufficient brains 
to care for a boiler and engine, ought to have suffi¬ 
cient to treat the bone meal with acid at a profit, too. 
The picture, Fig. 41, shows the building, which 
stands on a rocky bank—facing to the east. Inside, 1 T 
is the steam tank running through the first floor ; 2 , 
the portable boiler and engine ; 3, the bone grinder, 
and, 4, the glass-roofed drying room. The steam tank 
is in the corner of the building, with stairs to the 
upper floor back of it. f. a. putnam. 
Massachusetts. 
R. N.-Y.—We do not believe that it will pay to use 
acid on steamed bones. Prepared as here described, 
they are in good condition for use. 
WHAT SAY? 
Tar for Grubs. —Have any of TheR. N.-Y. readers 
had any experience in immersing seed corn in coal 
tar as a preventive against the cutworm ? If so, 
what was the result ? Do they use the tar full 
strength ? a. h. c. 
Covert, N. Y. 
Evergreens in Kansas. —Which are the best ever¬ 
greens, all things considered, for beauty of foliage 
(dark green preferred), fine shape, and dense foliage 
—about three or four varieties ? Is the Irish Juniper 
a long-lived tree ? Which is the best arbor vitae for 
hedges? Which is the best-chestnut for Kansas, on 
high, dry, sandy or gravelly clay ? g. d. p. 
Manhattan, Kan 
Rye for Cows.—Is rye a proper food for cows gi ving 
milk? How should it be fed? What .other feed 
should be given with it to produce the greatest 
amount of milk ? a. j. l. 
Binghamton, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—Can any of our readers give any experi¬ 
ence with rye as cow feed ? We would prefer to feed 
it to horses—mixed with corn, and would not buy it 
for cow feed. 
$10 Worth of Fertilizer. —Given $10 per acre to 
apply to grass land after breaking up and harrowing, 
what fertilizers, or what mixture of chemicals for 
home preparation, will be likely to afford the best re¬ 
sults ? No grain to be sown. Land a clay loam in 
fairly good heart, but now producing coarse hay. 
Winslow, Me. g. s. p. 
R. N.-Y.—Here is a first-rate chance for discussion. 
What would you use in such a case ? 
What Tools Needed ?—I have three acres of tough 
Timothy sod that I wish to plow and plant to potatoes 
the coming spring. What tools must I use to make 
the soil so that I can furrow it out with a single¬ 
shovel plow, four or five inches deep, the same as old 
ground ? The soil is black timber clay, on the edge 
of the prairie, with no stumps. The subsoil, for at 
least six inches, can be brought to the top without 
any harm. s. J. E. 
Canton, Ill. 
Potatoes for Stock. —Will the readers of The R. 
N.-Y. give their experience in feeding potatoes to 
cows ? For putting on flesh, and also for milk, are 
they better cooked and fed with grain, or raw ? I 
cook mine, and mix with corn and oats ground to¬ 
gether. I feed 12 quarts per head of the mixture, but 
