1'2H 
advised milk from the Dutch cow. He at once pur¬ 
chased a large Holstein cow and fed the babes on the 
milk she produced, and they began to grow from the 
start. The father soon became a large breeder of 
black-and-whites. I know of other similar instances 
in my own neighborhood. Will the reader ask why, 
almost without exception, public institutions have 
adopted this breed of cattle to produce milk, etc., to 
feed their inmates upon, who are composed of inval¬ 
ids, infants and those with weak stomachs and the 
like? The answer comes resounding back, because 
they have proved to be satisfactory. 
Another point not to be lost sight of, is the large 
and rugged calves that are the offspring of this breed, 
and the ease with which they are reared by hand, and 
the rapid growth that they make up to maturity. I 
know of cases where breeders of other breeds of dairy 
cattle have purchased a number of Holsteins for the 
sole purpose that they might have their milk to rear 
the calves successfully from their chosen breed. This 
has always proved good wisdom on the part of the 
owner of such cattle. Then again, what has endeared 
the Holstein to breeders from every section is her 
hardiness and her capacity to convert almost any and 
every kind of coarse fodder into dairy products at a 
low cost. Breeders have found that to feed larger 
amounts of hay, corn stover, straw, etc., and smaller 
amounts of mill feeds, than was formerly practiced, 
has proved the better way. The Holsteins have large 
capacity—the one thing sought for in the ideal dairy 
cow. 
I remember as a boy, the small locomotives that the 
railroad companies used to haul their trains, but to¬ 
day they have increased the capacity of their loco¬ 
motives to three or four times that of by-gone days, 
both in strength and swiftness of speed, which has 
proved to be economy on the part of the railway com¬ 
pany, and the same things seem to be true in regard 
to the cow, for if one large, rugged cow can consume 
roughage enough with enough mill feed to balance the 
ration, and will in return produce as much or more 
milk, cream, butter or cheese as two smaller cows will 
on the same feed, it surely is the part of economy 
to keep one instead of two. Another very commend¬ 
able thing can be said in favor of the breed, and that 
is they are extremely docile. Did the reader ever 
enter a barn where a large number of these black- 
and-white beauties were sheltered, and found nearly 
or all of them lying down peacefully and contentedly 
chewing their cud, not in any way disturbed by the 
appearance of a stranger, but still continuing with 
their life’s work? It is a pleasing sight which I have 
many times witnessed. Another feature that I will 
mention is beauty. This may not be as important to 
the practical dairyman as some of the other good 
qualities before mentioned, but beauty combined with 
utility, is surely a great combination—can one imagine 
a more beautiful sight than a herd of black-and-white 
cattle, either in their Winter quarters or upon the 
green meadows in Summer? 
I might go on and tell of a great many good quali¬ 
ties of the breed, but it will suffice to say that I have 
bred them for 20 years and have used them for both 
butter making and for the sale of milk, with very sat¬ 
isfactory results, and I have always found them very 
much more easily sold than bought, with the demand 
increasing each year. I believe that the late U. S. 
Senator, John R. McPherson, of New Jersey, who 
imported from Holland about the year 1885, a number 
of IIolstein-Friesian cattle (which have since multi¬ 
plied by the hundreds in this section), did more for 
the uplift of the farmers and dairymen than could he 
have done with voice or influence in the Senate cham¬ 
ber at Washington. 
In closing I will add that the best proof that can be 
given as to the merits of this Freed is to note the 
great records that the cows are constantly making 
for the week, month or year, in which time they have 
surpassed all other breeds. In a future article I may 
give some history relating to this breed, and also tell 
of the rapid growth of the Holstein-Friesian Associa¬ 
tion of America. jacob todd, sr. 
THE RURAb NEW-VORKKR 
led captive, underground to the outlet. A four-inch 
round tile is probably larger than necessary for the 
length. As a general rule three-inch tile should be 
increased to four-inch tile, around the 1.000-foot 
point. Four-inch tile will more effectually drain and 
aerate land than three-inch tile. In fact, many use 
nothing less than four-inch tile, which size is grow¬ 
ing rapidly in favor throughout the country. As to 
depth, if nature has limited that, make the best of 
it. Three feet is generally accepted as standard 
depth. The depth, character of soil, fall and system 
of farming should regulate this. For instance, clays 
and tight soils require laterals placed closer to¬ 
gether and after larger tiles, while in open, gravelly 
soils the drains can be placed 100 feet apart and four 
feet deep with safety. The fall should be carefully 
distributed if at all practical. The less the fall the more 
necessity for close, careful grading. Careless grad¬ 
ing is a standing menace to the life of a drain. 
T. E. MARTIN. 
SIMPLE PLAN FOR FARM BOOK-KEEPING. 
The question of farm accounts has often been re¬ 
ferred to in your columns. To the average farmer 
the thought of keeping account of the cost of each 
crop and operation on the farm looks impossible. 
With the proper forms it is not a hard job to do, 
and does not take much time, and would be especially 
good training for one of the larger school children 
of the family, if there were such, to have charge of 
the account under the direction of father. 
In my own case I have a large farm with several 
February 1, 
ing has always been a fault of a large proportion of 
farmers, and if each one would keep the cost of the 
different work on the farm he would naturally study 
to get some pay for his work. A good business man 
knows what his goods cost and what part of the 
running expenses to charge to a certain article to 
make it profitable to handle it, and so must a farmer 
know what his milk or oats or corn costs before he 
can make a judicious selection of crops for the com¬ 
ing year. There is no way lie can spend the few 
hours in the course of the year to so good advan¬ 
tage as to keep the labor costs of the different opera¬ 
tions on the farm and know what he is doing. He 
should know where the losses have occurred and 
where the profits have been made in order to direct 
his energy intelligently for the coming year. 
In addition to the monthly sheet for the daily dis¬ 
tribution there is also a sheet for the yearly costs to 
be assembled on a book for this purpose. The sam¬ 
ple sheet shows that during the month of June, 1912, 
one man, Garland and his team, harrowed for corn 
$36.25 worth, spread manure for corn $21.25 worth, 
planted corn $11.25 worth, cultivated corn $7.50 worth, 
making a total of $76.25 expense of this man and 
team on the corn crop. j. l. d. 
A GASOLINE “ STRONG ARM.” 
About 25 years ago a reader of The R. N.-Y. asked 
where he could buy a small engine of about V/z horse¬ 
power. He wanted it to do house work, such as light 
pumping, running an air wheel, etc. We wrote to the 
engine makers of that day and not one could supply 
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A DRAINAGE PROPOSITION. 
Fig 43 shows sketch of a wet spot that I wish to 
drain, and wish to know if a four-inch tile will be large 
enough. It is a strip about two to 2% inches wide; in 
an ordinary season it is all right, but wet seasons it is 
not. The wet spot on west side will furnish very little 
water. How deep would you put it? w. V. r. 
Fotosi, Mo. 
If W. R.’s proposition is correctly understood the 
outlined plan will effectually solve his problem for all 
time. While the plan calls for 870 lineal feet of til¬ 
ing the actual length necessary may be more or less 
to drain the area under consideration properly. How¬ 
ever, every drain system, whether simple or elabor¬ 
ate, should be adapted to the land drained, and so 
placed that all the surplus water will be captured and 
hired men and a dairy, and keep a daily milk record 
of each cow and a cost account of each crop and 
principal operations on the farm. The daily milk 
record blanks are obtained from the State Agricul¬ 
tural Department for the return of the monthly statis¬ 
tics of the herd. The blanks for the farm work I 
rule up myself, and an hour or so each year is all the 
time required. I enclose a sample blank as it appears 
at the end of the month, one sheet for each man. At 
the left hand the name of the job is filled in, one line 
for each crop or job, and one line marked “Farm 
General’’ for such small jobs as I do not care to 
classify. For example, a rainy day job of cleaning 
up would go on “Farm General.” At the lower right 
hand corner of the square having the hours’ work 
for that man for that particular job marked in are 
small figures as 2; this indicates the nomber of 
horses used by this man for this time on this job. 
At the end of the month the costs for the month are 
figured, the man’s wages coming at the top of the 
line and the cost of the horse labor in red below 
that of the man. 
It must be apparent to almost anyone that it re¬ 
quires but a few minutes at night to fill in this sheet 
for the day, even if several men are employed, and 
but a small amount of time at the end of the month 
to figure the costs on each job. It will help to make 
a man more careful not to do unnecessary work on 
any one job, and will, if carried out, show the cost 
of the crops and operations. It will be easy to figure 
what the potatoes or oats cost per bushel, and would 
naturally serve to cut out the unprofitable crops, and 
will help to make a farmer loath to put his crops into 
the market at a loss when he knows with reasonable 
accuracy what they cost to raise. Working for noth¬ 
such a “toy.’ Most of them believed it impossible 
to make such a small engine so that it would be 
practical and safe. That was the limit of their 
knowledge at that time, yet since the development 
of gasoline power began that old idea has become 
sadly out of date. For this harnessing of explosive 
power has changed many lines of industry and the 
“strong arm” reaches out to perform many acts of 
labor which hand power was thought to monopolize. 
For example, the two pictures on page 123 show two 
extremes of this strong-arm work in grain harvesting. 
Many a farmer has found his binder next to useless 
when harvest comes in wet weather or in muddy 
fields. Under such conditions the big wheel which 
is supposed to work the machinery refuses to turn. 
It plows into the mud or slides along. The horses 
may strain and puff, but they can hardly do more 
than pull the dead weight of the binder. In the pic¬ 
ture we see how the “strong arm” gets into the 
situation. A little Cushman engine has been mounted 
on the binder so that it works directly upon the cut¬ 
ting and binding parts. This engine weighs about 165 
pounds so that it is much the same as if a good- 
sized man sat on the binder and cut and bound— 
leaving the horses free to pull the dead weight of the 
machine and nothing more. Thus it makes no dif¬ 
ference whether the driving wheel plows or slides— 
if the horses can pull it along the “strong arm” will 
do the rest. Of course with this help the horses can 
work faster and put in longer hours on a hot day. 
Many of these little engines are in use throughout 
the West. They have also we understand been used 
on potato diggers, manure spreaders and other ma¬ 
chinery with working parts which require “strong 
arm” treatment. 
The other picture shows the other extreme in the 
use of this power for harvesting. This is a header 
operated by gasoline. With this machine the heads 
of grain are cut off with a few inches of the stalk 
instead of cutting and binding the entire straw. The 
machine pictured gave fair satisfaction last year. It 
is thought that with a few improvements it will yet 
be made so as to do practical work. 
