Vht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1555 
Storing  Water  for  Stock 
I  am  short  of  water  for  stock  in  Sum¬ 
mer  as  well  goes  nearly  dry  and  have 
been  wondering  if  I  could  in  safety  for 
stock  put  in  cistern  and  catch  rainwater 
in  Winter  and  store  in  cistern  for  Sum¬ 
mer  months,  July,  August,  September 
and  October.  If  this  can  be  done,  how 
big  a  cistern  should  I  put  in  for  eight 
cows  and  two  horses  for  the  four  months 
mentioned  and  how  should  it  be  built? 
Barn  is  40  ft.  by  60  ft.  with  shingle 
roof.  c.  b: 
Oregon. 
>  I  doubt  it.  I  believe  it  would  be  more 
economical  and  surely  more  desirable 
to  go  to  the  additional  expense  of  drilling 
a  well.  A  reservoir  could  be  constructed 
that  would  serve  your  purpose,  but  it  is 
scarcely  possible  that  the  rain  water 
would  be  palatable  in  case  it  were  stored 
during  the  Winter  months  for  Summer 
use.  f.  c. 
Feeding  Hoistein  Herd 
Will  you  tell  me  what  I  ought  to  get  to 
feed  ray  cows,  which  are  mostly  Hol¬ 
stein,  coming  fresh  next  March?  I  have 
silage  and  plenty  of  mixed  hay  for  now, 
and  clover  hay  when  I  get  to  it  toward 
Spring.  I  have  plenty  of  barley  and  some 
buckwheat  middlings  which  I  can  get  for 
$2.50  c-wt.  I  have  been  feeding  two  parts 
barley,  one  part  buckwheat  middlings  and 
one  part  cottonseed  meal.  M.  s.  M. 
New  York. 
butter  and  cheese  had  a  splendid  reputa¬ 
tion  in  every  port  touched  by  the  Rhode 
Island  ships. 
LYMAN  CARRIER. 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agi’iculture. 
Indian!  Runners  Fail  to  Lay 
My  16  Indian  Runner  ducks  have  only 
laid  an  average  of  one  egg  a  day  for  the 
past  month,  about  two  eggs  daily  for 
September,  the  same  for  August.  They 
stopped  laying  practically  July  25  after 
laying  since  March  1,  from  one  egg  on 
that  day  up  to  17  in  a  day  from  16 
ducks.  They  didn’t  lay  all  Winter,  and 
am  afraid  they  do  not  intend  to  this 
Winter.  In  that  case  I  would  rather 
kill  them  now  than  carry  them  through 
till  next  Spring.  I  am  feeding  them 
bran,  middlings,  ground  oats,  cornmeal 
and  meat  scraps.  They  finished  molting 
two  months  ago.  Does  confining  them  in 
a  sheltered  shed  help  them  to  lay  in 
Winter?  a.  w. 
Willow  Grove,  Pa. 
The  feed  you  are  giving  your  ducks 
should  do  for  Winter  laying.  Add  some 
vegetables  or  sprouted  oats  if  possible 
and  give  them  all  the  oyster  shell  they 
want,  keeping  it  before  them  all  the 
time.  I  would  think  that  a  dry  shed, 
not  too  warm,  but  with  good  bedding  so 
they  can  keep  their  feet  warm  and  di*y, 
would  be  a  necessity.  I  have  never  had 
Indian  Runner  ducks,  but  am  giving 
general  directions  for  laying  ducks  of 
any  breed.  marie  betts. 
The  Use  of  Oxen. — Considerable  in¬ 
terest  has  been  aroused  in  the  announce¬ 
ment  that  Henry  Ford  has  forbidden  the 
use  of  his  tractors  or  any  other  tractor 
on  the  farm  which  he  has  purchased  in 
connection  with  the  ancient  Wayside  Inn 
at  Sudbury,  which  is  now  his  property. 
Mr.  Ford  has  announced,  it  is  reported, 
that  all  the  work  on  the  farm  must  be 
done  with  horses  and  oxen,  and  has  pro¬ 
vided  a  nice  yoke  of  oxen  for  his  farmer. 
This  again  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 
in  spite  of  the  tractor’s  ubiquity,  oxen 
are  still  used  in  considerable  numbers. 
One  who  travels  through  the  more  re¬ 
mote  sections  is  certain  to  find  splendid- 
looking  beasts  hauling  great  loads  of 
hay  or  farm  produce  in  the  good  old- 
fashioned  way.  Nothing  has  been  found 
to  equal  the  sturdy,  slow-moving  oxen  in 
plowing  out  the  roads  in  Winter.  The 
accompanying  illustration,  which  was 
made  in  Old  Lyme,  Conn.,  is  typical  of 
wfiat  is  to  be  found  in  many  other  parts 
of  New  England. 
Live  Stock  Notes 
Barley  will  carry  more  protein  than 
corn  and  cob  meal  and,  when  supplement¬ 
ed  with  buckwheat  middlings,  •  which  will 
yield  about  16  per  cent  of  protein,  and 
combined  with  cottonseed  meal  in  the 
proportions  such  as  you  have  been  feed¬ 
ing,  viz.,  two  parts  of  barley,  one  of  buck¬ 
wheat  middlings,  and  one  of  cottonseed 
meal,  will  give  you  a  ration  carrying 
about  20  per  cent  of  protein.  This,  when 
fed  in  conjunction  with  silage  and  a 
good  grade  of  legume  hay,  would  make  a 
fairly  satisfactory  ration,  although  it 
lacks  variety  and  would  not  be  especially 
palatable.  If  one-third  of  the  cottonseed 
meal  could  be  replaced  with  linseed  meal 
the  combination  would  be  improved. 
Nevertheless,  if  you  have  plenty  of  bar¬ 
ley,  and  the  feeding  of  as  much  as  25  or 
30  per  cent  of  cottonseed  meal  does  not 
cause  undue  inflammation  of  the  udders 
of  your  cows,  you  will  find  this  combina¬ 
tion  to  be  quite  as  economical  as  any 
other  mixture  that  is  available.  The  bet¬ 
ter  grade  of  buckwheat  middlings  will 
run  about  16  per  cent  of  protein,  and  at 
$50  a  ton  they  are  a  good  buy.  F.  c.  M. 
The  First  American  Cattle 
There  is  a  discussion  going  on  as  to  the 
first  cowr  brought  to  America,  and  by 
whom ;  also,  the  year.  Could  you  give 
any  information  on  the  subject? 
New  York.  H.  s.  southwortii. 
In  an  English  translation  made  about 
1600  of  the  Spanish  accounts  of  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  America,  it  is  stated  that  Co¬ 
lumbus  took  in  1493,  on  his  second  voy¬ 
age,  “Mares,  sheepe,  heyghfers  and  such 
other  of  both  kindes  for  increase.”  I  take 
heyghfers  to  be  heifers.  Calves  were 
easier  to  transport  than  full-grown  cows. 
Cattle  increased  very  rapidly  in  Spanish 
America,  and  the  English  colonists  ob¬ 
tained  some  of  their  breeding  stock  from 
that  source. 
There  is  no  mention  of  any  cattle  in 
the  first  few  years  of  the  Jamestown  set¬ 
tlement  in  Virginia.  They  had  “Hogs, 
hens,  goats,  sheepe  and  horses.”  In  1611, 
Sir  Thomas  Dale  arrived  at  Jamestown 
with  three  ships,  bringing  “100  kine  and 
200  swine.”  From  that  time  on  there 
have  been  cattle  in  Virginia,  and  after  a 
few  years  they  had  cows  to  sell  to  the 
newcomers  in  other  colonies. 
The  Pilgrims  brought  no  cows  with 
them  in  1620  to  Plymouth,  but  in  1624 
Edward  Winslow  brought  over  “three 
heifers  and  a  bull,  the  first  beginning  of 
any  cattle  of  the  kind  in  ye  land.”  A 
large  number  of  cattle  were  shipped  to 
Massachusetts  Bay  between  1628  and 
1642,  after  which  the  prices  of  cows  in 
this  country  fell  below  the  cost  of  ship¬ 
ping  them  across  the  ocean.  The  Dutch 
brought  two  shiploads  of  live  stock,  in¬ 
cluding  cows,  in  1625,  to  New  Amster¬ 
dam,  now  New  York,  and  turned  them 
out  to  pasture  on  Manhattan  Island.  It 
is  an  interesting  fact  that  these  Dutch 
cattle  became  famous  at  an  early  date 
for  their  milk-producing  qualities.  There 
were  some  Dutch  farmers  with  cattle  set¬ 
tled  in  the  Connecticut  Valley  when  the 
Presbyterians  pushed  into  that  region. 
Roger  Williams  and  his  followers  in 
Rhode  Island  drew  on  the  Connecticut 
settlements  and  also  on  the  Dutch  in 
New  Amsterdam  for  cows,  and  the  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay  settlers  became  the  leading 
dairymen  of  the  country.  Rhode  Island 
McCormick-Deering 
Ball-Bearing 
Cream  Separators 
FIVE  FACTS  That  Prove  Dairy 
Farmers  Appreciate  Easy 'Turning, 
Slow  Crank  Speed,  and  Long  Life l 
1  Already,  thousands  of  dairy  farmers  in  every  section 
have  invested  in  McCormick-Deering  Primrose  Ball- 
Bearing  Cream  Separators  in  preference  to  plain-bearing 
machines!  Satisfactory  performance  in  everyday  service 
explains  this  instantaneous  success. 
McCormick-Deering  Primrose  factories  are  working  at 
the  topmost  peak  of  production.  This  year  more  Primroses 
will  be  built  than  ever  before,  in  an  attempt  to  keep  pace 
with  the  growing  demand  for  modern  equipment. 
Letters  from  enthusiastic  McCormick-Deering  Primrose 
owners  in  every  state  point  out  easy-turning,  clean-skim¬ 
ming,  slow  crank  speed  and  long  life  as  results  of 
McCormick-Deeering  Primrose  advanced  design. 
McCormick-Deering  Primrose  success  has  spread  rapidly. 
Already,  dairy-farmers  are  demanding  ball-bearings  in 
the  cream  separators  they  buy.  Only  the  McCormick- 
Deering  dealer  can  supply  such  modem  machines. 
In  answer  to  a  nation-wide  demand,  all  five  sizes  of  the 
McCormick-Deering  Primrose  are  now  equipped  with 
ball  bearings.  The  same  design,  the  same  easy-turning— 
a  McCormick-Deering  Primrose  for  any  size  of  farm. 
Consider  the  facts — then  act!  There  is  a  McCormick-Deering  Dealer  near  you. 
International  Harvester  Company 
606  So.  Michigan  Ave. 
of  America 
f Incorporated ] 
Chicago,  Ill. 
