18o8. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
183 
if all the farmers were to go into fattening cattle and i 
sheep like me, there would be no market found for 
them. There is one thing the Doctor may be sure of; 
we can fat no more cattle and sheep than are in the 
country. If we fat them all in one year, and there is 
no market for them, the young ones will pay well to 
keep one or two years longer. For instance, my 22 
months steer would in all probability have paid for 
keeping two years longer, and if I had not got a re¬ 
munerating price, I would have kept him. I have 
more like him, which I well sell if I can, getting pay¬ 
ing prices; if not, I will hold them over for another 
year. It is but little cost to keep a fat animal , com¬ 
pared to making a lean one fat. 
Let Dr. Lee look at Great Britain. He must know 
that for many years past, (at least sixty,) they have 
been fatting all the cattle and sheep they possibly could; 
raising immense quantities of turnips for that purpose, 
and importing all the oil cake and other cake for feed¬ 
ing purposes, they could procure, and after all they 
had to open their ports to fat stock from the Continent 
of Europe, and still their beef and mutton is very high. 
I notice in my last paper from there, that sheep, (mut¬ 
ton,) in Liverpool is from 8d. to 8|d, (16 to 17 cents) per 
lb., sinking offal. True, when disaster in trade and 
manufactures takes place, prices rule low, but when¬ 
ever these revive, butcher’s meat rules higher than ever 
before. Stock of all kinds, both here and in Great 
Britain, have of late beeen higher than I ever knew 
it, and that is more than half a century. Dr. L. takes 
a too contracted view of the stock trade. I have no 
doubt that on the revival of trade and manufactures, 
beef and mutton will be as high, if not higher, than 
ever, and I intend to keep up to a full stock in faith of 
that. 
My manured wheat looks very promising. 
The weather is everything we farmers could wish, 
and our prospects good. 
I weighed 8 two-year old steers to-day for Mr. Swan. 
They gained from 120 to 200 lbs. each since the 12th 
of last Nov. They were fed hay and one quart of oil¬ 
cake meal each daily, since the 17th of Dec. They 
are good beef now, but if turned to good pasture, either 
to sell the end of June, or to keep over for next spring 
market, they will be as fat as pork by 1st July, and 
gain greatly in weight. One of them gained 75 lbs. 
in the last 54 days. I weighed then, and weighed now 
It was the largest gain I ever saw in the time, at least 
in a steer of his size, being now 1,100 lbs. He was 
thought not doing so well as the others, and was fed 
better the last three months. John Johnston. 
-<*-♦-*- 
Training Heifers and Unruly Cows. 
Judging from the number of wild and unmanageable 
cows about the country, the efforts of those who annually 
initiate the young recruits into the service, do not always 
result successfully ; the end desired—a hardy, gentle cow 
—is not always attained. Why is this so? We think be¬ 
cause the method of training is a faulty one, and a friend 
who has had considerable experience in the matter, allows 
us to communicate his ideas on the question. 
In ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, cows are wild 
and ungentle from defective breaking at first. The usual 
method of cornering by the fence, or holding by the horns, 
is just calculated to produce such cows—cows which must 
be followed to the fence, find them where you may, or be 
held or tied, before they will stand for milking. 
Higher views of the intellect of cattle should prevail. 
The secret of training heifers to be gentle, lies in educat¬ 
ing them aright—in appeals to their intelligence—in giving 
them habits of gentleness and confidence in man while 
young. Heifers can be learned to stand still through the 
process of milking very easily, if fed from the hand, and 
petted and tamed, before the hour of service arrives. But 
if this has been neglected, and the animal, full of spirit, 
tear and strength, was given over to break for milking, we 
should advise as follows : 
Let the animal be turned into a yard some 20 or 30 feet 
across—a strongly fenced yard, from which she will not 
attempt to escape, remember—and then proceed to tame 
her—gently and patiently tame her, by feeding from the 
hand, by rubbing, coaxing and patting her, as carefully as 
a huntsman would a ‘‘blooded pup.” We should never 
coax a heifer to stand to be milked by giving her a pail of 
slop or other bribe, but seek to teach her the habit of 
standing wherever we come up to her, and there submit¬ 
ting to the milking process. To this end we should avoid 
cornering her, or any appearance of it, but continue by gen¬ 
tle words and acts, to subdue her fearfulness—to show her 
our power over her—and to fix the habit of obedience. In 
this way the wildest heifer can be tamed in a few days. If 
quite unmanageable at first, she should be kept in the yard 
spoken of until she manifests more pleasure than fear at 
your approach. To bring about this, allow her to eat and 
drink only from your hands, visit her often, and each time 
with some palatable morsel, all of which would aid in ce¬ 
menting the confidence and friendship which should sub¬ 
sist between the cow and her milker. 
For old cows which have bad habits, the yard alluded to 
is valuable, and every dairyman will do well to provide 
one. opening from his barn-yard or other milking place. 
We believe that the “most tormenting old vixen that ever 
kicked and run,” can be broken of their tricks in such a 
yard, by patient perseverance—at least we have never fail¬ 
ed in several trials of our skill. If they continue to kick, 
put a chain around the body just back of the fore legs ; if 
this does no good, loosen it so as to twist in a lever, and 
give it turns enough to teach them they must submit. Let 
this mode of training heifers and unruly cows be tried with 
the same patience a boy manifests in training his fifty cent 
cur, and we believe all who do so will be able to report de¬ 
cided success. 
-a~e-«- 
To Prevent Foxes Killing Lambs. 
Messrs. Editors— In looking over the back vols. of the 
Cultivator, I find in vol. 4, 3d series, p. 219, the correspon¬ 
dence which passed between us and our friend, D. East¬ 
man, on the above subject. This reminds me of my expe¬ 
rience the two past seasons, and for the benefit of your 
readers I quote a part of his letter, and give a farther re- 
. lation of facts. 
“ I take a red woolen flannel string, say three-quarters 
of an inch wide, saturate it with sulphur and grease, give 
it a slack twist, and tie it around the lamb’s neck. Thus I 
serve the whole, and turn them out until shearing, when I 
take the strings ^,11 off. By this simple mode I have saved 
hundreds of dollars, and have never lost a lamb when I 
have practiced it.” 
In communicating the above to you about shearing time, 
(1856,) I stated that I had tried friend Eastman’s remedy, 
and that I believed it had thus far proved perfectly effec¬ 
tual. 
I would now say that at “ shearing I took the strings all 
off,” put some sulphur and grease on each lamb, and yet, 
notwithstanding this precauti@n, (which is similar to the 
“never failing” remedy of “A Wool Grower,” as pub¬ 
lished on p. 222 of same vol.,) the foxes afterwards took, 
as I think, sixteen of the above lambs, and those, too, 
which were strong and healthy. 
Last season I tied strings on nearly every lamb, and let 
them remain until about the 1st Sept., and think that I did 
not lose one by the foxes, although they were about the 
lots as usual. At shearing time I feared that the strings 
would become too tight, and we lengthened out a few of 
them, but I now think there is no need of it, if they are 
tied quite loose at first. D. G. Williams. East Dorset, Vt . 
