1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
72t 
ble and expense of privately testing the whole herd, 
besides running the risk of losing the compensation 
for his condemned animals by the attempted fraud, if 
discovered. A lower reaction does not always follow 
a second test. A considerable number of cases will 
give a higher reaction, even when the second test is 
made within a few days. Where accurate results are 
desired, a second test should not be made within three 
or four weeks. A certificate of health cannot safely 
be given to all cattle that do not show a reaction upon 
the first test, in herds that are extensively tubercu¬ 
lous. A few cases are liable to develop in such herds 
after the test, so that a subsequent test six to twelve 
months later, should be made before a certificate of 
health is given. In herds where there is little or no 
disease, the certificate of health can be given after the 
first test, with very little danger that a tuberculous 
animal will escape. f. l. kilborne. 
Cocked Ankle in a Mare. 
E. R., Lamartine, Pa .—I have a mare, five years old, that cocks 
up her hind ankles when she stands, after she is driven fast. She 
does not do it so much when she is worked at slow work. Can 
anything be done for it? Ought she be shod with a high heel or 
a low one ? 
Ans. —If either be used, it should be the high-heel 
shoe, which will relieve the tendons. Being a young 
mare, it would be much better to use her carefully 
for a year or two. By so doing, the ankles may be¬ 
come stronger, and the trouble disappear. If over¬ 
driven now, the trouble may become permanent. 
Bathe the ankles once daily with soap liniment, rub¬ 
bing well in with the hand. F. L. k. 
A Talk About Ducks. 
M. J. D., Thomaston, Me. —1. Are bread and milk fed to the 
youngest ducks, cold or warm ? Do stock ducks need grain or 
soft food, summer and winter ? 3. Do they need shells or gravel ? 
4. Do they need an out-door run in winter ? 5. flow much space 
do 25 require in winter quarters ? 6. Do they prefer the ground 
or bedding to sleep on ? 7. Do they need water other than at eat¬ 
ing time ? 
Ans. —1. They should be about blood warm, and just 
moistened with milk—never wet or sloppy. 2. Soft 
food twice daily ; they may have a small amount of 
grain at noon. 3. By all means, keep plenty of shells 
and grit where they can get them at all times. For 
young ducks, mix a litle fine grit with their feed. 4. 
They should have out-door runs except in severe 
weather with snow on the ground. 5. Twenty-five 
breeding ducks should have a house about 13x25, with 
a three-foot walk for feeding, etc., in which are feed 
troughs with slatted partitions so that the ducks may 
put their heads through to eat, but cannot get into 
the trough. 6. Beat moss makes decidedly the best 
bedding for ducks I have ever tried. 7. In winter, 
they need water only at feeding times; but in sum¬ 
mer, they should have water by them all the time. 
j. E. s. 
Ration for 100 Hens. 
J. E., Chester County, Pa .—Will you kindly give me directions 
for feeding 100 bens through the winter ? I would like the most 
economical ration capable of producing the best results in eggs. 
We have corn, and can procure bran, hominy meal, cerealine, 
and linseed meal. Would it pay to buy meat scraps or skim-milk 
from a creamery ? 
Ans. —For producing the most eggs at the least 
cost, I would make a ration as follows : For the 
morning feed, one part bran, one part hominy meal, 
one part oat feed (which J. E. does not mention but 
can, probably, get, as dealers usually keep it, where 
they keep hominy meal), one part meat scraps, four 
parts cut clover hay, and about one-half of one part 
of ground charcoal, mixed with skim-milk from the 
creamery if it can be bought right. If it should 
cause too much looseness of the bowels, use feeding 
flour in place of the bran. At noon, give what cut 
green bones they will eat readily. At night, give 
them whole grain, corn, oats, wheat, barley and buck¬ 
wheat ; as corn is, most likely, the cheapest, it may 
be used the most of the time, feeding the other grains 
for a change. As there is a large proportion of meat 
and cut bones in the ration, I think that corn will 
answer for the main feed as well as the other grains. 
If the meat and bones are not to be had, I would use 
wheat principally, and the other grains more than 
Corn. J. K. STEVENSON. 
Gas Tar on Shingle Roofs. 
M. L., Little Falls, N. Y .—la gas tar a good preparation for 
painting shingle roofs on barns ? How is it thinned for applying ? 
Ans. —Gas tar makes a good paint for shingle roofs, 
preventing decay of the shingles and filling any small 
cracks that may be present. When applied to roofs 
that have commenced to leak slightly, it will fre¬ 
quently restore them so that water will be effectually 
turned. The gas tar may be thinned with gasoline. 
A small quantity should be thinned at a time, and 
spread on immediately with a kalsomine or white¬ 
wash brush. To about three quarts of gas tar, add 
enough gasoline to thin it to the proper consistency 
for spreading well, and it is ready to apply. Have it 
thin enough so that it will run readily, for, should it 
be too thick, it would fail to penetrate the cracks, 
and the work would not be a success. 
One caution should be observed in the use of gaso¬ 
line : Do not allow any fire or light to come near it, 
as the gas from it will be ignited, and a serious ex¬ 
plosion would result. All lighted pipes or cigars must 
be dispensed with during the operation of thinning 
tar with gasoline. If it is not desired to use gasoline, 
then the tar may be heated in an iron kettle and 
spread upon the roof while hot. In thinning it by 
heat, do so at a distance from any building, and have 
a very slow fire. If the tar should come in contact 
with the fire, it would burn fiercely. l. a c. 
Anthony Waterer Spiraea. 
M. J. M., New York .—Who sell the Anthony Waterer spirrea ? 
Ans. —Try Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y. ; 
The Storrs & Harrison Co., Painesville, O. ; Henry A. 
Dreer, Philadelphia ; Peter Henderson & Co., New 
York. 
How to Kill Sassafras Sprouts. 
W. A. M., Croivnsmlle, Md .—What is the best method of getting 
rid of sassafras bushes or sprouts ? I purchased a run-down 
farm two years ago, which had become overrun with them, and 
I have been fighting them by cutting them down, plowing them 
under, grubbing them out, and it all set ms to increase the number 
instead of getting rid of them. 
Ans. —It has never been my lot to engage in a square 
hand-to-hand fight with the sassafras on an extensive 
scale, but I have done so in a small way, and know 
others who have had it by the acre. Digging up and 
cutting down are about alike, futile. Even using salt 
and kerosene on the stubs at the surface of the 
ground, does not seem effective. The only sure way 
that I know, is to cut back all the bushes so that the 
sprouts that come will be low, and then turn in cattle 
or sheep, or both. They like to browse the tender 
branches, and will keep all the leaves nipped off as 
fast as they grow, if the matter is carefully handled. 
A yard may be made of the patch, where this is prac¬ 
ticable, and the stock turned in at night. It is a 
common practice with many to turn out an infested 
field to the commons, where cattle run at large, and 
in a few years, the trees will, usually, be dead. But 
the treatment will not finish them in one year and, 
perhaps, not in two years. Where there are scatter¬ 
ing sprouts in the fields that cannot be browsed, the 
plan of stripping the leaves off and clipping with a 
knife, has about the same effect, and is far better 
than cutting down to the ground. The latter plan 
was first given me by a neighbor in Kansas who had 
a fight with persimmon sprouts, and succeeded by 
stripping the leaves every time he passed by the 
place, and that was very often. Constant, clean 
defoliation is the secret of successful destruction of 
the sassafras, persimmon, and almost any other 
sprouting pest. h. e. v. d. 
Millet Hay; How Much Food for Cows? 
F. R. L., Hampden County, (No State).— 1. If fed to horses, does 
millet hay affect the kidneys injuriously ? Does it render the 
horses liable to founder? 2. I have 12 tons of fine hay mixed 
with Red clover (I have no Timothy hay); 12 tons of oat hay, 10 
tons of millet, 20 tons of dried corn fodder, 50 tons of millet ensil¬ 
age and 100 tons of corn ensilage. With corn meal and bran at 
$13, gluten at $17, linseed and cotton-seed meals at $21, Quaker oat 
feed at $14 per ton, oats at 32 cents per bushel, what need I feed 
to get a balanced ration for a herd of 20 coats in milk, and to keep 
three horses that will have but little work to do through the winter? 
I want to feed in the barn from October 15 to May 15. Can I in¬ 
crease my herd of cows, provided I feed more liberally of grain ? 
How much more grain need be fed for an increase of three cows ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. I. 1*. ROBERTS. 
It is not safe to feed millet hay liberally to horses. 
The seeds not only are slightly poisonous, but the 
chaff may adhere to the coatings of the stomach and 
cause irritation. Our experience in feeding millet to 
horses in the western States, 30 years ago, was far 
from satisfactory. In the transition period between 
the wild and tame grasses, millets and Hungarian 
grass were made to fill the gap. They grew most 
luxuriantly in the warm climate and rich soil, but 
when the animals, particularly horses, were fed liber¬ 
ally upon them, a large number were affected by 
blind staggers caused from stomach trouble, and so 
many horses were injured or died that the cultivation 
of millet was largely abandoned and, so far as I 
know, has not been renewed. 
The 54 tons of hay, including the corn fodder, and 
the 150 tons of ensilage, which should equal 50 tons 
of hay, make, in round numbers, about 100 tons of 
air-dried material. The 23 animals would require not 
far from 600 pounds per day, and the 100 tons would 
last them 333 days, while the period of winter feeding 
would be about 210 days. It would appear that 10 
more cows could be safely added to the dairy. 
It is impossible accurately to compound a ration 
with these materials, because the composition of the 
oat hay, particularly, the ensilage, millet hay and 
corn fodder is not known. These all vary widely 
according to the method of culture and the time of 
harvesting. Most cows in milk cannot be fed more 
than eight pounds per head per day of concentrated 
food to advantage. A few, of course, are able to use 
more than this economically, while it will be found 
that a few cannot even make an economical use of 
eight pounds per day. Mix two pounds of corn meal, 
two pounds of bran, one-half pound of linseed meal, 
one pound of cotton-seed meal and \)4 pound of 
Quaker oat feed. Other things being equal, we 
usually get the best results from feeding foods from 
which none of their valuable qualities has been re¬ 
moved. Linseed and cotton-seed meals are exceptions 
to this rule. This grain ration is narrow, but the 
coarse forage has an abundance of heat and energy 
producers to balance the ration, especially if the 
animals are in warm quarters. 
I do not believe that it would be necessary to in¬ 
crease the grain ration above that which is given 
above, although as many as 10 cows were added to 
the present herd. After discovering the effect of an 
eight-pound concentrated ration, it would be well to 
raise it on some of the cows which were giving a 
large flow of milk, and note the results. In order to 
do this, the milk of the cows should be weighed twice 
daily and recorded. 
Some years since, we were feeding a grain ration 
of about seven pounds per day per cow. We added 
one pound of bran to each ration per day, and noted 
the results. With milk at four cents per quart, $40 a 
ton for the extra bran fed was secured. Another 
pound was then added, and still the increase of 
product compared with the extra cost of the food 
was such as to indicate that a third pound of bran 
could be added. The results showed that the extra 
flow of milk was slightly more than equivalent in 
value for the cost of the bran. On this 10-pound 
ration, some of the cows appeared not to have reached 
their most profitable food limit, while some gave evi¬ 
dence of having passed it. 
Descriptive Book of Fruits. 
J. L. II., Shelbyoille, Ind .—Is there a book published giving the 
varieties of fruits, their markings, color, vigor and hardiness? 
Ans. —Downing’s Fruits and Fruit Trees of America 
will give about all any one desires to know about 
fruits, with the exception of the very latest introduc¬ 
tions which are not yet found in descriptive books. 
Bound in cloth, $5, prepaid from this office. 
Making a Pasture on the Lake Shore. 
Lakeside Farmer, Ontario, N. Y.—l find that, owing to the low 
level of Lake Ontario, several acres in front of my farm are now 
dry. The land is level and, at present, quite above the water. 
It is composed chiefly of quicksand blown and washed from high 
bluffs. There is a good deal of vegetable matter decomposed in 
it, however. None of it can be plowed before the time for set¬ 
ting tomatoes, because the water is then higher. Tomatoes do 
well on it, as do potatoes. Can you advise any grass that would 
grow there, and make good pasture for cattle ? Do you know any 
that would be likely to survive the winter ? Of a row of Sagha- 
lin growing there, about one-half was winterkilled, while some 
growing on high land proved quite hardy. Do you think that a com¬ 
plete fertilizer is necessary on such soil ? If not, what element is 
more likely lacking. 
Ans. —It will be difficult to get a satisfactory seed¬ 
ing of grass on the reclaimed land until you have put 
it in better condition by culture and fertilizer. It is 
most difficult to prescribe a course of treatment for 
such land without knowing more about it. From the 
description given, it is, without doubt, wet and cold 
during the early part of the season, dry during the 
summer, and wet and cold again early in the fall. 
The supply of humus, or organic matter, is deficient, 
and this is one of the first things to require attention 
before attempting permanent pasture. 
If dry enough so that you can do so, plow at once 
and sow rye, harrow in lightly and roll the ground 
well. As soon as dry in the spring, plow the rye 
under. Then plant either to corn or potatoes. If to 
corn, use some commercial fertilizer relatively rich 
in phosphoric acid. If to potatoes, use a fertilizer 
with a high grade of potash. Whichever crop is 
planted, give it the most intensive culture. It is this 
frequent culture which will do more toward fitting 
the soil for grasses than anything else. By the stirring 
of the soil, it is aerated, plant food is set free, nitrifi¬ 
cation will go on rapidly, the soil underneath will be 
compacted, which will enable it better to hold mois¬ 
ture during the summer. At the last cultivation, 
which should be about the middle of July, sow Crim¬ 
son clover seed at the rate of 10 pounds per acre, and 
cultivate it in with some fine-tooth implement. By the 
time the crop is harvested, the Crimson clover should 
have made such a growth that there will be a mat of 
green over the entire field. Should the Crimson 
clover fail, sow rye in the fall. Let this remain on 
the ground during the winter. The Crimson clover 
will, probably, die in the spring, but it will already 
have served its purpose, and when plowed under, will 
add nitrogen and humus to the soil. Fit the land as 
early as possible in the spring and sow two bushels 
of Red-top (Agrostis vulgaris) seed, one peck of clover 
seed, and one peck of Timothy seed to the acre. The 
Red-top will, no doubt, give the best results, as it 
will grow and make a strong sod where the ground is 
wet, is able to endure winter freezing, and if the 
clover and Timothy should both fail, enough Red-top 
would have been sown to cover the ground. During 
the summer, give a light top-dressing of barn manure. 
Should the water come so near the surface of the 
field that a crop of potatoes or corn could not be raised 
wit a any profit, then all that can be done is to fit as 
well as possible, and sow the grass seed as recom¬ 
mended above. l. A. c. 
