21 « 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 7, 
DISHORNINC CALF WITH CAUSTIC. 
I have a calf 10 days old lhat I intend 
to raise, and want to take the horns off. I 
have been told to use a caustic stick. I 
would like to know if you think it w’otild 
he all right to use It, or would it injure 
the calf's growth in any way? f. c. 
Middletown, N. Y. 
A caustic stick or pencil can be used 
to prevent the horns from growing on 
a young calf without any danger of in¬ 
jury to the calf when the operation is 
properly performed. It is performed as 
follows: Place the calf on its side and 
have an attendant hold it securely. 
Clip the hair off the place where the 
horn is starting to grow, wet the caustic 
potash in cold water, and carefully rub 
over the place for a period of 10 or 12 
seconds, being careful not to touch the 
caustic to anything else. Then turn the 
calf over, clip the hair on this side and 
apply the caustic in exactly the same 
manner. By this time the horn first 
treated will be dry and ready for the 
second application, which should con¬ 
form exactly to the first on both sides. 
Operations performed in this way are 
universally successful when the calves 
are not over three days old. With 
older calves it is much more difficult 
The horn must first be filed off or 
shaved with a knife until the blood 
starts, and a little more caustic must 
be used on a calf more than three days 
old, according to its age. With a calf of 
this age, although there is very little 
danger of injuring, there is always 
danger of the horns growing. Some¬ 
times one horn will grow ,and some¬ 
times a crooked stub will appear. In 
case your calf is a bull to be raised to 
head the herd, I would not use the caus¬ 
tic method under any circumstances, but 
would wait until he is one and a half or 
two years old and then saw the horns 
off. He is old enough at this time to 
remember the lesson he is taught—not 
to hook—which makes him a much safer 
animal to handle than he would be if 
dishorned at an earlier age. 
C S. GREENE. 
PUREBRED LIVE STOCK. 
Part II. 
As a means of additional safeguard 
ve are now considering the following 
plan: Require owner to sketch calf 
within five days of birth, and forward 
this sketch at once to the Club office, 
giving date of birth and name of sire 
and dam. This is to be placed on file, 
and the animal can then be registered 
any time afterward, but a sketch is also 
to be required when application is made 
for registry. Most animals whose iden¬ 
tity is mixed are so mixed when young, 
but very seldom before five days old. 
This will not only help keep the cattle 
straight for honest breeders, but will 
help keep in check the dishonest breeder, 
who will register a grade calf in the place 
of one that dies while young and will 
also prevent dishonest breeders from 
ater registering a calf said to be from 
same cow the same year, when perhaps 
the first one was a bull sold for use in 
a grade herd and so never recorded. 
Unless such a sketch is furnished before 
calf is five days old, animal will be 
barred from registration except by a 
special vote of the executive committee. 
Where breeds arc of one color, sketches 
would be of no avail, but a better system 
than the ear tags is an ear tattoo, and 
some now on the market leave a mark 
that is both plain and permanent. Well 
done this mark cannot be effaced and 
will do away with much dishonest chang¬ 
ing, though of course if an animal dies 
another could be given this same brand 
and kept as breeder in place of dead 
one. 
No scheme yet devised will so safe¬ 
guard the registers, but that still the 
matter of the keeping of pedigrees pure 
rests largely upon the honor of the 
breeder, and this being so, more string¬ 
ent laws should be enacted to protect this 
industry. The falsifying of pedigrees 
hould be punished by imprisonment and 
with such laws there should exist in 
each State a live stock breeders’ asso¬ 
ciation, more active than the one in this 
State, that will make it a point to see 
that offenders are brought to justice. I 
would even have it a misdemeanor to 
call a cow a Short-horn unless she was 
registered or at least eligible to registry. 
I once answered an advertisement of a 
man who offered Oxford Down rams 
for sale and purchased two of them. 
Later when I asked for registry papers 
it turned out those rams were nothing 
but grades. No animal is an Ox fore 
Down unless it is registered in the only 
Flock Book recognized by the Govern¬ 
ment for that breed of slice]). A man 
buying purebred stock to take into his 
herd ought to know that he is not get¬ 
ting disease with it, and the breeders of 
purebred stock are and ought td be the 
eaders in the attempt to wipe out tuber¬ 
culosis and other contagious diseases. 
One of the most dishonest things I ever 
knew a man to do was to sell two dif¬ 
ferent people high grade females and a 
purebred sire and tell the purchaser that 
if he used a purebred bull till the fe¬ 
males had four crosses, he could then 
register their calves. One of the buyers 
did not find out for some years that this 
was not true. A better knowledge of 
what registration really is should be 
fostered by the agricultural press and 
our agricultural college till it is impos¬ 
sible to make any man believe such a 
thing. Let us guard most jealously this 
most important branch of agriculture 
until the dishonest breeder is put out of 
business and until every pedigree is just 
vliat it purports to be. 
Wisconsin. ciias. l. hill. 
FODDER CORN FOR OREGON. 
I had fairly good results last Summer 
or Fall with sweet corn (Country Gentle¬ 
man) for feed only. For same purpose, and 
in this locality, which would you recom¬ 
mend the coming Summer, Country Gentle¬ 
man, Western Queen, or Wonder Forage 
Plant, of which 1 know nothing? I should 
simply grow for feed on a small patch. 
Oregon. i. l. 
If the sweet corn had given us fair 
results we should depend on it until we 
were sure of something better. We 
should plant the sweet corn for main 
crop and try the others in a small way 
until we were sure of them. Stick to 
old friends until the newer ones prove 
themselves. 
Husband's Legal, Interest. — In a re¬ 
cent editorial you referred to a husband’s 
Interest in his wife’s property. It appears 
11 i a 1: In New York this Interest is quite un¬ 
important, hut in some of the New England 
States 1 lie case is decidedly different. In 
Now Hampshire the law provides for the 
husband’s rights as follows: The hus¬ 
band’s right of courtesy corresponds with 
and is the same, practically, as the wife’s 
dower In the husband’s estate; and the 
same Is true of the homestead right of each 
In the other’s estate waiving the pro¬ 
visions of the will, if any, and conveying 
the right of dower, or courtesy as the case 
may he; then the right of homestead lakes 
one-third of the estate in fee if there are 
issue, and one-lmlf in fee if there is no 
issue. However, if the wife dies without 
issue, whether sin* dies testate or intestate, 
tin* husband will lie entitled to the whole of 
tlie estate if it does not exceed $1,500, and 
will be entitled to $1,500 if it exceeds that 
and does not exceed $5,000. If the estate 
exceeds $3,000, then lie will have one-half 
(lie estate in fee. it therefore appears 
that in tills State it is fully as important 
that the husband join with the wife In a 
conveyance of her property as it is that 
the wife join with the husband when he 
sells any of his real estate. E. M. s. 
North Hampton, N. II. 
Trucks for Hinders. — Replying to 
C. E. K., page 112, let me say that when 
we bought: our new binder we asked for a 
tongue-truck, feeling the pressing need for 
one. The sales people replied, “We can sell 
you one, but we make no claims for it. We 
don’t know how they work.” We have used 
it now for three seasons on land so steep 
that: I he driver has had to ride on the 
wind-hoard at times to keep from tipping 
over, and we And It takes all the weight 
off the horses’ necks. It permits the horses 
to turn the machine to the doubletree in¬ 
stead of by the neckyoke, a boon in soft 
ground or hilly. 11 removes all the side 
draft, and permits Hie machine to be set as 
close to the standing grain as one wishes 
without putting the horse in the grain. It 
is quite tis much of a necessity on the road 
or during transportation as it is in the 
field. It places the team a little farther 
away from the machine, possibly one foot, 
than the old hitch, but this is overcome by 
Its many advantages. It holds the plat¬ 
form or knife at practically the same 
height whether going up hill or down. 
Pennsylvania. chas. j. wolfe. 
SWEEPING 
THE FIELD 
What the New 1908 
De Laval Cream Separators 
Are Doing*. 
Reports are arriving in every mail from 
Maine to California and Canada to 
Florida, telling of how the new improved 
De Laval Cream Separators are sweeping 
all would-be competition aside. 
C OW OWNERS and separator users every¬ 
where cannot say enough in praise of 
the new De Laval. Even competitors 
are admitting its vastly increased superiority and 
marvelling at its many conveniences, perfect 
skimming qualities, ease of running, great 
simplicity, durability and beauty of design. 
The new De Laval is ten years in advance of 
any other separator made to-day. Nothing like 
it has ever been produced before and to have 
done so now is only possible after three years of 
constant experimenting by the world’s best 
engineers and mechanical experts backed up 
by our thirty years of experience in the manu¬ 
facture and sale of nearly a million separators. 
Improvements have been made in every feature 
and several brand new styles and capacities 
introduced. There is a machine for every size 
dairy from the smallest to the largest and at a 
price that will fit every pocket, while you may 
buy for cash or on terms so liberal that the 
machine will actually pay for itself. 
If you own one or more cows you can make 
no more profitable investment than to purchase 
a De Laval machine at once. It will save its 
cost in less than a year and after a week’s use 
you will prize it as the most valuable implement 
on your farm. Ask for a free demonstration at 
your own home and send for our handsome new 
catalogue illustrating and describing De Laval 
machines in detail. Your only regret will be 
that you didn’t do so sooner. Write to-day. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
42 E Madison Street 
CHICAGO 
1213 & 1215 Filbert St 
PHILADELPHIA 
Orumm & Sacramento Sts 
SAN FRANCISCO 
General Offices: 
74 CORTLANDT STREET 
NEW YORK. 
173-177 William Street 
MONTREAL 
14 & 16 Princess Street 
WINNIPEG 
107 First Street 
PORTLAND, OREG. 
