190 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
June, 
as nigh doubling your capital in a litttle over four 
months, and the manner in which it was done, without 
exaggerating, and I will give up that fowls can be 
equalled, but not beat as to profits. S. O. Cross. 
Kingsbury, Washington Co., April 7, 1849. 
Yoke for Unruly Sheep. 
Eds. Cultivator —To prevent sheep from becom¬ 
ing unruly, I would recommend good fence; but as they 
will sometimes get out and subject their owners to 
much damage and great inconvenience, I will state the 
mode that I have adopted and found to be good, after a 
trial of two years. 
Take a stick about two or two and a-half inches in 
diameter, and two and a-half feet long, bore a hole 
with a three-quarter inch augur about two inches from 
each end, and from five to seven inches from them, bore 
another hole. Then take a hickory sprout large enough 
to fill the hole, put one end in and nail it; bend the 
other end around the sheep’s neck and insert it into the 
other hole, draw it up just far enough to prevent the 
animal from slipping its head out, but not so tight as to 
be uncomfortable, and nail it. Then fasten the other end 
of the yoke to another sheep, in the same manner, and 
you have a yoke of sheep. In a day or two, they will 
learn each other’s motion, and will remain quiet through 
the summer, and without any risk of accidents. I 
would advise to have the bows bent some few days be¬ 
fore they are wanted. Take a stick of suitable size, 
and about eighteen inches long, bend it to the right 
shape, and confine the ends until it becomes dry. A 
Practical Farmer. 
A rod of iron with a swivel in it, is much better than 
a stick of wood, for yoking sheep in the manner above 
described. The swivel prevents the sheep from twist¬ 
ing each other’s necks. But as our correspondent says, 
it is better to have such fences that no hampering will 
be necessary. Eds. 
Cost of making Fork. 
Eds. Cultivator —Having been a constant reader 
of The Cultivator for some time past, and being anx¬ 
ious to know the cost of making pork, I have looked 
with anxiety for articles on that subject, which would, 
in some measure, solve the problem; but as yet I have 
found none. I think the only way by which the farmers 
can demonstrate it, is, by experiments with various 
kinds of grain, and on different breeds of hogs, and by 
preparing the food in various ways, to ascertain what 
way it will yield the most nutriment—that is, make the 
most pork. In hopes of inducing some of your nume¬ 
rous subscribers to make experiments, and publish the 
results, or to publish some already made, by which 
something may be elicited that will, in some measure, 
solve the above, I now give the result of feeding 100 
bushels of good peas to sixteen hogs, of various mixed 
breeds, as found in this section. The peas were boiled 
until fine, making what I call thick soup. After hav¬ 
ing fed the hogs on the same kind of food for two 
weeks, I gave them their morning feed, and weighed 
each one separate noting the weight. Twelve of 
them were about eighteen months old; one was a three 
years old sow, and three pigs were seven and a half 
months old when weighed. I found their total weight 
4267 lbs., and after consuming the above amount, 
which took forty-two days, I weighed them again, and 
found that they gained 1358 lbs, and on the supposition 
that as they gained in flesh they shrunk in offal, I esti¬ 
mated their net gain to have been fourteen hundred 
pounds. Their drink consisted of ten pails of whey per 
day. It was allowed to stand forty-eight hours and 
the cream was skimmed off. 
I find that there is a great difference in breeds of 
hogs. The three year old sow was small framed, and 
pretty full-fleshed, weighing 504 lbs. Her gain in the 
forty-two days was 66 lbs. The three pigs were from 
her, and showed traces of three distinct breeds of hogs. 
Their first weight and gain were as follows:—the first 
weighed 253 lbs.—gain, 97 lbs.; the second, 218 lbs.— 
gain, 75 lbs., the third, 171 lbs.—gain, 46 lbs. When 
butchered, the smallest one was the best pork, being 
the fattest. Two of the most inferior of the hogs gain¬ 
ed one and a half pounds per day. Six, a mixture of 
the Berkshire, (I should think about one-fourth,) gain¬ 
ed 1® lbs. per day. Three of the common stock of 
our country, gained 2^ lbs.; and one of a superior kind, 
weighed 318 lbs., and in the forty-two days, gained 
134 lbs. They were weighed on the 20th September, 
the first time. They were kept confined in a close pen, 
except once a week, I let them out. for exercise, and to 
wallow, for the most part of a day. I fed them all 
they wanted to eat, without any regard to fear of cloy¬ 
ing. Philip Wing. Farmersville, C. W., February 
2, 1849. 
Fattening Calves. 
Eds. Cultivator —Allow me through the medium 
of your valuable paper, to say a few words to the 
dairy-men of eastern New-York and Massachusetts, 
respecting the relative advantages of fattening, fit 
for the butcher, or of destroying (their usual prac¬ 
tice,) at four or five days old, their calves, for which, 
with a little attention, they might realize a handsome 
item in the yearly receipt for their agricultural pro¬ 
ducts—leaving the inhumanity and barbarity of the 
practice of deaconing them, (as killing young is term¬ 
ed,) out of view. The increasing demand for meats 
of all descriptions in our markets, points, in my opi¬ 
nion, with unerring certainty, to the course which will 
bring the most money, with the least labor and expense, 
into the farmer’s pocket, viz.: to make the most and 
best meat possible, of every animal suitable for the 
butcher, that he wishes to dispose of. I believe it is 
a well settled fact by dairy-men generally, that March 
and the first part of April is the best time for cows to 
drop their calves. In these months the farmers have 
leisure to bestow upon them the increased care required; 
the cows are stronger and more likely to do well than 
during, or just after a change from dry to green food; 
they are less liable to have inflamed udders and milk 
sickness than later in the spring. They shed their old 
hair better and earlier and go into the pastures strong¬ 
er. The milk is worth less for butter and cheese, and 
nearly as much for making veal. There is ample time 
before your cows go to pasture to fatten every calf, and 
get for them from $3 to $5 per head. This course 
saves the trouble of milking in dirty yards or stables, 
and the dairy-woman from the onerous labor of making 
butter, or cheese, or both, at this unpleasant season 
of the year, when labor taxes their powers much more 
than in a later period of the spring. Let, then, every 
dairy-man procure a good bull of some of the improved 
breeds, at least two years old, give his cows good shel¬ 
ter with a little grain, (barley and oats ground toge¬ 
ther are best,) confine his calves in a pen kept entirely 
dry and clean, adjoining his cow stables—so situated 
that he can open a door and let them out to suck after 
the cows are tied up, with a trough nailed up on one 
side of the pen and kept well supplied with provender 
ground from barley and oats, and occasionally sprinkled 
with very little fine salt, and my word for it, which he 
can easily prove, he will realise, with less labor, more 
pleasure and more cash, than by the old barbarous 
practice of deaconing his calves. B. A. Hall. New 
Lebanon, N. Y. } May 12, 1849. 
