Vol. LXIV. No. 2884 . 
NEW YORK, MAY 6, 1905 . 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
SOME PRECOCIOUS YOUNGSTERS. 
Starting Things Early. 
1 hat little hen that serves as a frontispiece for the 
great little book, “The Business Hen,” was a very pre¬ 
cocious pullet, and shows how animals may he developed 
along some certain line. 
We at Laurel Farm have 
also developed some pre¬ 
cocious animals, and as an 
example I submit pictures 
. of a pair of ponies and a 
Jersey heifer and calf. The 
ponies, Fig. 152, are at pres¬ 
ent about 22 months old. 
They are what we call 
Morgo-Shetlands, being a 
cross between purebred 
Shetland mares and a Mor¬ 
gan horse. We tried pure¬ 
bred Shetlands and found 
them to be too highstrung 
for children small enough to 
use them. So we tried the 
experiment of breeding 
large-sized Shetland mares 
to a rather small purebred 
Morgan horse, and these 
ponies are the result. Our 
boys, aged 12 and 14 years 
began bitting and driving 
them around with lines be 
fore they were a year old, 
and last Fall, about Octo¬ 
ber 1, they began driving 
them to a wagon, when they 
were 17 months old. They 
have taken the boys to 
school, a distance of two 
miles, and back, nearly 
every school day since, and 
are now making a 10-mile 
trip Saturdays to deliver 
butter. They -have grown 
finely, and at present weigh 
together 1,000 pounds. If 
there is a younger team in 
the State engaged in every¬ 
day work I would like to 
hear from them. 
The Jersey heifer, Fig. 
153, is Czar’s Lucilla No. 
188154. She was dropped 
November 22, 1903, her sire 
being the great show bull 
Queen’s Czar No. 55573, 
and her dam Nellie of Rock 
Hill No. 118317. She was 
turned to pasture last 
Spring with a number of 
other calves, among which 
was the bull Rissa’s Czar 
No. 69855, dropped August 
25, 1903. As a result on 
March 13 she dropped a 
heifer calf, as shown in the 
picture, being 15 months 
and 21 days old. The heifer 
developed a fine udder and 
has extra long well-placed 
teats. She is taking a good 
ration of feed and is - doing finely. Her calf, while small, 
is very bright and hearty, and we expect to grow h«r 
into a nice cow. 
Now, last of all, let us call your attention to the 
young man who holds the heifer with such solicitious 
care. “Billy’ Allison began working for wages on a 
dairy farm at 12 years old, so that the years when he 
should have been in school and seeking childish amuse¬ 
ment were spent in hard work; yet he has managed to 
pick up a fair education, and is well posted on his fav¬ 
orite stock—Jersey cattle. He is now 21 years old, and 
is a good example of that nearly extinct species, “a first- 
A PAIR OF MORGO-SHETLAND PONIES. Fig. 152. 
- j 
; : ■ I 
JERSEY HEIFER, CZAR’S LUCILLA NO. 188154 . Fig. 153 . 
class hired man” for farm work. j. grant morse. 
R. N.-Y.—Any farmer might be proud cf such young 
stock. Of course Mr. Morse does not recommend bring¬ 
ing heifers into milk so young. It is doubtful whether 
she will make quite so good a cow as though she had 
been allowed more time for early development. 
CAUTION IN THE USE OF CEMENT. 
Good Materials Properly Handled. 
As to the use of cement block or concrete for building 
purposes, while there can be no controversy as to their 
being suitable and very durable materials, when prop¬ 
erly prepared and used, yet 
I fear that many farmers 
will make a serious mistake 
in using them. Unscrupu¬ 
lous dealers will sell cheap 
and inferior grades of ce¬ 
ment, and the farmer will 
employ untrained persons 
to do his work, and an in¬ 
ferior grade of concrete or 
block will be made; or even 
with good materials an 
attempt will be made to 
spread out the cement over 
too large an amount of the 
aggregate, with the result 
that a concrete will be made 
which is pervious, and 
which will absorb water, 
freeze, and crack; in a few 
years be a disagreeable 
looking object, and in a few 
more destroyed. Indeed, 
the advice in The R. N.-Y. 
to determine the amount of 
sand and cement required 
by the amount of water re¬ 
quired to fill the voids in 
the stone or gravel, and the 
amount of voids in the sand 
to be filled with cement in 
the same manner, is a very 
dangerous one, as this 
makes no allowance for the 
moisture in the sand or 
gravel, and supposes an ab¬ 
solutely perfect mixture, 
something impossible of at¬ 
tainment. 
A fairly safe practice is 
to add about 40 per cent 
more than enough cement 
to fill the voids in the sand, 
and about 40 per cent over¬ 
plus of mortar to fill the 
voids in the gravel or 
broken stone. A great deal 
depends on the quality uf 
cement used, and as the 
ordinary farmer has not the 
appliances nor skill neces¬ 
sary to make the required 
tests, if mpch of this work 
is to be done by farmers 
(and with the growing 
scarcity of timber it seems 
inevitable), our State ex¬ 
periment stations should be 
equipped with apparatus for 
cement testing, and manu¬ 
facturers should state on 
the package the fineness, 
tensile strength, time of set¬ 
ting and expansion (or free¬ 
dom therefrom) which they 
are willing to guarantee, and a severe penalty should 
follow any lower than the stated test. I think that you 
advice as to the cement roof would be good as to an 
concrete structure, i. e., paint it so as to prevent its ab 
sorbing moisture. The railroads are protecting thei 
concrete structures by waterproofing. h. j. m. 
