726 
October 7, 
A BATCH OF COW NOTES. 
Autumn Care and Feeding. 
SHELTER THE COWS.—Cold nights are now com¬ 
ing on, and it pays to keep the cows in the barn, espe¬ 
cially nights. One of the men coining down this morn¬ 
ing said: “Harter’s cows were all humped up standing 
by the wall this morning, and I don’t believe they were 
making milk very fast.” It had been raining hard all 
night, and no matter if it is a warm rain, the cattle are 
better off'and will give more milk under cover. About 
a week ago it rained very hard half a day, but a warm 
rain. We let out the cows as usual, but the next 
morning there was a shrinkage of 30 quarts in about 
45 cows. That milk is lost forever, and with a little 
care we might have avoided it 
SUMMER HAY FEEDING.—We skipped the Au¬ 
gust drop in milk flow this year. Although the Sum¬ 
mer has been unusually dry until latter part of August, 
and pasture grew scanty, we made up by liberal feeding, 
and July 15 began to feed hay in the barn at night and 
have kept up this feeding of either hay or oats and peas 
or rowen to the present time. The cows are in good 
condition now, and we expect them to shell out a good 
lot all Winter. It looked queer to be feeding hay in 
the middle of July, long before some people had even 
commenced haying, and “What will you do in Winter 
for feed?” but we expect to have plenty now and then. 
We have had a lot of good manure to top-dress the 
meadows and there is no better time in the year to 
do it than now. A good crop of rowen is now waiting 
to be cut where this was done, where for some time 
after haying it looked as if there would be none on ac¬ 
count of the drought. We are glad to say we have 
reached that state where we really like to see cows eat, 
and the more they eat the better we enjoy it, as we 
know that in order to do their best they must have suf¬ 
ficient feed every day in the year. The trouble with 
too many cows is there are streaks of feast and streaks 
of famine through which they pass, and too many of us 
expect the cow to keep right up to top notch all the 
time. Some of us to whom economy and thrift have 
been preached, and its practice made to follow too 
closely in some lines, have really become parsimonious 
in our views on feeding, and rather begrudge the cow 
more than a limited amount of feed. We must raise 
more feed, so that the cows will have sufficient all the 
time. The cows have never come home so well at 
night as since this feeding begun, and they are usually 
at the gate waiting for us when it is time to come home. 
We have found that it doesn’t pay to drive cows that 
are heavy milkers very far to pasture- The nearer they 
can get their feed to the barn the better it will be. 
BARN VENTILATION.—We went through his 
barn not long ago, and it is no wonder the cows, the 
milk and the men are dirty. In planning (?) the stable 
sufficient room was not left behind the cows on either 
side of the barn, and one cannot walk behind the cows 
without stepping continually in manure. This always 
having one’s feet dirty breeds dirt in other things, and 
the workers get so used to seeing and being in it that 
they forget how to be real clean. An extra two feet 
back of the cows would have cost but a few dollars, but 
would have added a good many in cleanliness and value 
to the farm product. Some people seem to think that 
keeping a barn clean doesn’t pay. It does in dollars 
and cents, and also in satisfaction, which is equally 
valuable. Try it. They make milk used in a city hos¬ 
pital, and the cows are tuberculin tested, but when 
we opened the door both of us fairly gasped. The air 
was so thick and heavy that one could almost cut it 
with a knife, as the expression goes. Moisture was 
streaming down the sides of the wall. We asked the 
attendant if there were no ventilators and he pointed to 
four openings (?) in the wall at top of the stable cov¬ 
ered with wire mesh, but these were so covered with 
dirt and cobwebs that they were not working. A loud- 
voiced foreigner was chasing the cows into their places 
with a club and terrific yells. The stables were dirty 
and we came away sorry for the hospital that got this 
certified milk. 
SAVE THE MANURE.—The reason given by a 
good many farmers as to why they do not raise more 
and better crops is that they do not have enough ma¬ 
nure to use, and cannot afford to buy fertilizer. Yet 
I believe I am justified in saying that not 10 per cent 
of our farmers save all the manure that is made on 
their farms. The bulk of it does get on the land some 
time, but there is a great waste, especially on farms 
where it is needed the most. If one can make sufficient 
manure to top-dress the mowing land yearly and for the 
bulk of the crops save perhaps potatoes (which we 
think are bette. ’grown with fertilizer alone) the farm 
will be found to be growing richer and larger and better 
crops will be the result. I believe in getting the manure 
on to the land just as soon as possible, and by a little 
forethought there need not be much break in the plan. 
The supply may be considerably increased by planning 
to save all- None should be allowed to weather save on 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
the fields where needed. Especial care should be taken 
to save every drop of the liquid manure, as it is equally 
as valuable as the solid. I believe in “drops” back of 
the cows, and the use of absorbents in the ditch. If 
the cows are plentifully bedded, and this pays in com¬ 
fort and cleanliness alone, and horse manure and other 
substances used that will absorb the liquid there need 
be no waste A little land plaster sprinkled daily in 
the drops and nearby will be found to be quite a help, 
and will pay for itself in increased saving of manure. 
Now is the time, if you have not already provided it, to 
see that the Winter’s supply of bedding is put in. Many 
A FAMOUS OLD OAK TREE. Fig 308. 
things can be used for this. Dry sawdust is good. 
Shavings we like better, as they do not cling to the 
cows, and keep them somewhat cleaner. Dry leaves 
are good, and can be gathered in large quantities in 
some localities. Swamp hay is good, but should be cut 
up, as it will absorb more and handle better in the ma¬ 
nure, and there is much less waste with the cut hay. 
Dried muck and some kinds of road dust make good 
absorbents. Straw is available on some farms. This 
should be used cut for same reason as hay, but most 
eastern farmers either sell their straw or use it for 
feeding. There is a much more comfortable feeling 
when Winter’s winds and snow begin to blow to feel 
that we have a sufficient stock of good bedding on 
hand both to keep the animals clean and comfortable 
and add very largely to the manure pile. 
GREAT CORN CROPS.—We have never seen such 
corn as has been grown in our section this season. Our 
own crop is immense, but there are plenty of others 
in a similar boat. We picked a couple of stalks off 
the top of a load the other dav. and thev weighed 17.9 
pounds, and these were not single exceptions by any 
means. The corn averages 13 to 14 feet in height, and 
four and five stalks running through a No. 16 cutter 
fill the lags of the carrier, which means some corn. 
We are daily hearing the complaint that “we can’t get 
all our corn in silo and have had to stook a lot of it.” 
This means a good deal to many farmers who have a 
short hay crop on account of drought. I have also 
heard several farmers mourn the fact that they raised 
no corn this year, as season had been too poor for two 
or three years, and they hadn’t faith to hold on. Short 
hay and no corn makes a blue farmer. I have seen 
some fields that will run 30 tons to the acre, and know 
of one farm where there are 15 acres that will surely 
cut 225 to 250 tons. At a recent dairymen’s meeting 
held at the farm of A. J. Pierpont, New Haven 
ORPHANS AND THEIR NURSE. Fig. 309. 
County, I made a statement referring to a nearby corn¬ 
field, that it would run 25 tons to the acre. Right after 
the meeting a good farmer came up and said: “Where’s 
that corn that will cut 25 tons to the acre? That won’t 
cut over 15 tens.” I went out with him, measured off a 
piece, weighed same, and figured out acre yield on that 
basis, and it was 84,000 and some odd pounds per acre, 
a little over 42 tons. He had qne three-acre piece of the 
finest corn that any of the large party there had seen, 
14 to 16 feet high: a stalk every six inches, and of uni¬ 
form large size. Mr. Pierpont started this farm a few 
years ago $8,000 in the f ‘hole.” He has got well out of 
the hole, but says if it hadn’t been for this kind of corn 
he would still be back in it. If farmers will only use 
right kind of grain with this cheap feed there ought to 
be some profit in milk making this Winter. 
H. G. MANCHESTER. 
IS CROSS-BREEDING USEFUL? 
A striking feature of the Year Book of the U. S- 
Department of Agriculture for 1904 is the number of 
articles devoted to hybridization or cross-breeding. 
There are five of these articles which may be described 
shortly as follows: Relation of Plant Physiology to 
Agriculture; New Citrus Creations; Sugar-Beet Seed 
Breeding; Tobacco Breeding and Animal Breeding. 
There are also numerous references to the general sub¬ 
ject in other parts of the book. The article on Citrus 
creations dwells on the fact of increased vigor of true 
hybrids over that of their parentage. The article on 
sugar-beet seed breeding affirms the superiority of 
American-grown seed over imported seed. It says that 
the products ol American-grown seed have shown in 
sugar content, purity and yield marked superiority over 
the products of foreign grown seed. The article on 
animal breeding opens with a reference to an appro¬ 
priation of $25,000 by the Fifty-eighth Congress to be 
used for the production of American breeds of animals. 
We learn from it that tire Department has selected the 
Iowa Experiment Station to develop an American breed 
of sheep and the Colorado Experiment Station to de¬ 
velop an American breed of horses. All of the work 
thus outlined presupposes more or less cross-breeding. 
And yet almost every agricultural journal we take up 
discourages cross-breeding. Why is this? Is our U. S. 
Department of Agriculture being misled? 
s. HOXIE. 
R. N.-Y.—It is one thing for our experiment stations 
to spend pubb’c money in cross-breeding animals and 
quite another for a practical farmer to spend private 
money in mixing up his flock and herds. It will re¬ 
quire years perfect these “new” American breeds, 
and there could be but little profit in the animals while 
the work of selection is going on. The vast majority 
of the animals that pay taxes and mortgages on Amer¬ 
ican farms are “cross-bred”; that is, graded stock with 
more or less pure blood from the sire. It is wise for 
the Government to experiment, but we think the prac¬ 
tical farmer should breed as closely as possible to the 
type he has in mind, and thus select male animals of one 
breed and definite character. 
NEGLECTING THE HOME MARKET. 
The following article from Texas Farm and Ranch 
ought to be printed in large letters and hung in thou¬ 
sands of farm homes. It applies not only to Texas, 
but to every State in the Union. We may safely say 
that there is no place on earth where the local or home 
market has been filled. From Mexico to Canada there 
are small places where farm produce can be sold to 
advantage, and many of them are now supplied from 
a distance. 
.“It was our pleasure a few days since, to sit at table 
in a Texas home, on which a tasteful variety of foods 
was spread. There was crisp lettuce, delicate cauli¬ 
flower, firm, red tomatoes and fresh roasting ears mak¬ 
ing up a delightful vegetable dinner. We remarked 
on the perfection of these vegetables, and were in¬ 
formed that each and every one of them came from 
California in refrigerator cars. We were curious as 
to the cost of these imported items and were told that 
each dish represented an expenditure of only five cents 
at the grocer’s. The table seated six persons. 
“Further investigation showed that these vegetables 
were grown under irrigation in far-away California. We 
pondered the facts. Why should Texas be a Summer 
market for California vegetables? There -must be 
10,000 Texas families in towns and cities to-day eating 
from the same fields on which grew these vegetables. 
How can a Californian, on $200 land, buy irrigation 
water, grow a crop in midsummer, pay freight and re¬ 
frigeration for a 1.500-mile shipment and sell his pro¬ 
duct through retailers to consumers at reasonable 
prices? Here is certainly skill in growing; but most 
of all the system of distribution and marketing strikes 
one with peculiar force. The commercial instinct has 
been developed in connection with the growing of 
these California products so that the world’s markets 
are conquered by the very cheapness of the goods 
offered. If Texas had no irrigation water, no Sum¬ 
mer rains, no market gardens, no railroads for dis¬ 
tribution of perishables, we could easily reconcile the 
conditions and the facts. But why is it that her 
gardeners persist in their habit of overlooking home 
markets and glutting foreign cities which serve as 
points of concentration? In justice to Texas we must 
state that the fresh meat served by our hostess on that 
day, was grown, fed and slaughtered in the State and 
the salt used was from a Texas mine. The butter 
was from Kansas, coffee from Brazil and sugar from 
the beet fields of California;” 
