American Agriculturist, May 12,1923 
423 
Abortion—A Warning 
A Disease That Is Universally Prevalent 
I KNOW several own- By H. E. BABCOCK were then joined in the 
ers of pure-bred ring of a big snap, 
herds who declare they have never Each cow was provided with a leather 
had abortion in their herds. When they collar with a big ring in it. 
lose a calf, the cow “must have slipped 
on the ice.” Why try to “kid” oneself 
and the public? 
We recently sold a man five pure¬ 
bred Guernsey cows. While we were 
making the deal we told him the breed¬ 
ing record of each cow and figured out 
for him the percentage of abortion 
losses which our experience taught us 
he might expect. We did this because 
after we had once sold a novice a few 
cows he had some abortion and a prom¬ 
inent breeder proceeded to tell him 
what crooks we were. 
Abortion is almost universally prev¬ 
alent, I am convinced, I believe in ac¬ 
cepting this condition as a fact with 
which dairymen, and particularly pure¬ 
bred breeders, have to deal. 
Accepted as such, abortion loses 
much of its terror, and becomes an eco¬ 
nomic factor which adds to the expense 
of producing cattle and milk. We should 
deal with it in terms of percentages 
and make calculations accordingly. 
Personally, my observations lead me 
to place no confidence in the advertise¬ 
ment of the man who advertises, “no 
abortion,” and to extend little encour¬ 
agement to the man who writes for 
animals out of herds “free from abor¬ 
tion.” The sooner the real truth is 
out and met, the better. 
Meanwhile the beginner in pure 
breds had better definitely recognize 
and face the abortion risk. 
The editor's request for an article 
on abor'tion prompted these few para¬ 
graphs. But I cannot write an article. 
1 never read a good one. The best 
authority I know is a good veterinarian, 
and he is none too good for the job at 
hand. May science make him better, 
and teach us all. In the meantime, the 
less laymen say about abortion control, 
the better. 
* * * 
TWO DOLLAKS OR SIXTEEN? 
ECENTLY I reported in the Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist upon our experi¬ 
ence in removing the pure-bred Guern¬ 
sey cow, Lady Rilma, on A. R. test, from 
a box stall to her old accustomed place 
in the stanchion row. The figures 
which I gave at that time showed that 
this cow gained slightly after the 
change. Of course, this gain may have 
been due to other facts than the shift 
to the stanchion row; on the other hand, 
the production figures quite clearly indi¬ 
cate that the cow did not suffer from 
the change. Meanwhile the time con¬ 
sumed in taking care of her was cut 
down very materially. 
This experience, together with the 
growing demand for labor outdoors, led 
us to decide recently to take all of our 
other test cow ^ out of box stalls and put 
them in stanchions. 
Buy or Build? 
There were, however, no stanchions 
available in the barn in which we 
wished to keep the cows, and it there¬ 
fore became necessary to put some in. 
As the barn is equipped with patented 
steel stalls, we naturally went to our 
local dealer to find out what similar 
stalls would cost. As I recall it, the 
kind of stall we wanted figured some¬ 
thing over $16. This cost was prohib¬ 
itive, yet we wanted as comfortable a 
stall as possible, and so hesitated to go 
back to the old-fashioned rigid wooden 
Stanchions. 
In the emergency, my partner re¬ 
membered a stall he had seen some¬ 
where, which seemed to him to fill all 
our requirements. He built similar 
Stalls, and we are so well satisfied with 
them that I am passing on the general 
instructions for what they are worth. 
To construct them he set up 2 x 4’s, 
the same as they would be were they 
uprights in the old-fashioned wooden 
stanchions. These 2 x 4’s were set 
about 214 feet apart, and along the 
inner side of each a steel rod was offset 
2 or 3 inches. These steel rods came 
down within about 6 inches of the 
stanchion curb, and ran up about to 
the height of an ordinary cow's withers. 
On each rod was strung a short piece 
of chain. These two pieces of chain 
When the cows come into the barn 
they walk up and stick their heads be¬ 
tween the 2 X 4’s and the snap is 
snapped into the ring on the collar. The 
pieces of chain slide freely up and 
down on the steel rods, permitting the 
cow the utmost freedom, but they form 
a barrier which prevents her stepping 
into the manger. She can, however, 
by pulling back throw her head around 
and lick herself, and in fact have all of 
the freedom possible in the finest sort of 
a steel stall. 
The rods, collars, and snaps cost 
slightly in excess of $2 per cow. We 
have just as comfortable—^if not as 
sightly—a stall as the one for which 
the dealer wanted $16, and we are $14 
per cow to the good. 
* * * 
DRAGGING ALFALFA 
N growing alfalfa the worst thing we 
have to contend with is smothering. 
New seeding put in with grains kills 
out completely whenever the grain 
lodges; cocks of alfalfa left too long on 
the ground kill out the plants under 
them; big snow banks do the same. 
Worst of all, however, is the smother¬ 
ing that comes from the gradual en¬ 
croachment of a gi'ass sod. If we could 
control this I am certain that we would 
never need to plow up our alfalfa fields. 
There are places on our farm so stony 
that grass cannot grow there; three or 
four cuttings of alfalfa have been pro¬ 
duced on these places each year for the 
past twenty years. Our trouble in hold¬ 
ing a stand is not in these gravelly 
places, but in the more fertile soil. 
Last year we plowed up eight acres 
of Grimm alfalfa; it took four big 
horses on a sulky plow to do the job. 
The plowing was done in the fall and 
we did not get to work on the piece un¬ 
til late the next spring. By that time 
there was practically as good a stand 
of alfalfa as though the field had never 
been plowed. In fact there was so 
much of it that we abandoned an at¬ 
tempt to control it and plant corn on 
the field as we had originally intended. 
This experience with ti’ue Grimm al¬ 
falfa convinced me of its toughness; 
accox’dingly, this spring when I dis¬ 
covered that one of our best alfalfa 
fields was pretty well sodded over with 
grass I decided to give it a good drag¬ 
ging. 
I had a big team and set a spring- 
tooth drag down to the last notch. 
Halfway across on my first bout I 
stopped and looked back. The demon¬ 
stration was so awful that thereafter 
I kept my eyes on my team. Some 
spots I went over twice. Fortunately 
darkness came on and obliterated my 
handiwork, and the next morning I 
left home for a three-days trip. 
When I returned I found on the 
dragged portion of the field scarcely a 
blade of grass showing green, but the 
alfalfa crowns stood up clean and 
thrifty. Apparently dragging did the 
work. I hope so, anyway, for I know 
that if I can keep out the grass my 
fields of Grimm alfalfa will last me my 
lifetime. This means less and less 
money for fertilizer and grass seed and 
less laborious plowing and dragging to 
reseed meadows. 
LIVESTOCK SALES DATES 
May 15—Knollwood Farm Guernsey 
Sale, Port Chester, N. Y., L. 
F. Herrick, Worcester, Mass., 
Sale Manager. 
May 15-16—Lancona Farms Short¬ 
horn Sale, Titusville, Pa. 
May 17—National Guernsey Sale, 
Devon, Pa., L. F. Herrick, Sale 
Manager. 
May 18—Louis McL. Merryman, Semi¬ 
annual Sale, Timonium, Md. 
May 21-26—First Ayrshire Spring 
Dairy Show, Boston, Mass. 
May 31—American Guernsey Cattle 
Club, Pennsylvania Hotel, 
New York City. 
June 1—Ayer-McKinney’s Fourth An¬ 
nual Sale of Jerseys, Meri- 
dale Farms, Meredith, N. Y". 
orMoieCbvKS^Hmid 
■' ^ fora 
[il^r 
There are now more than io,ooo 
De Laval Milkers in use, and 
their owners are almost unani¬ 
mous in their agreement that the 
De Laval is better, faster, cleaner 
and cheaper than any other meth¬ 
od of milking. With a herd of 
lo or more cows a De Laval 
Milker will soon pay for itself in 
the saving of time and labor, in¬ 
creased milk production which its 
uniform and stimulating action 
usually brings, and through the 
cleaner and improved quality of 
the milk. 
You can buy a De 
Laval Milker on any 
terms you desire — for 
cash, on time, or on in¬ 
stallments. 
For 10% down you 
can start using a De 
Laval Milker, and 6% a 
month for 15 months 
pays for it. 
On such extremely 
liberal terms you can get 
the use of a De Laval 
while it actually pays for 
itself. In many cases the 
saving in labor alone will 
more than meet the 
monthly installments as 
they come due. 
Ask your De Laval 
Agent for complete in¬ 
formation or write us 
now. Get your De Laval 
in now before your rush 
season, so that you will 
receive its full benefit 
when you need it most. 
The De Laval Separator Company 
NEW YORK 
165 Broadway 
CHICAGO 
29 El. Madison St. 
SAN FRANCISCO 
61 Beale Street 
CATTLE BREEDERS 
Glista Heifer Calves 
oipr, Korndyke Pontiac Glista, 
No. 268342, a grandson 
of the great Cornell cow, Glista 
Ernestine with seven records of 
over 30 lbs. butter in 7 days. Best 
record 677.3 lbs. milk, 34.22 lbs. 
butter 7 days. 
These calves are from high producing dams, most 
of which have good A. R. O. records. Price rang¬ 
ing from $50 to $75 according to record and breed¬ 
ing of dam. Herd is T. B. tested. 
BRADLEY FULLER, Utica, N. Y. 
FOR SALE 
OmSEYS-BOISTEINS 
Otsego Co. has 820 herds of cattle 
tuberculin tested and under Federal 
supervision, from which we purchase 
our supply. 
We endeavor to have on hand 50 head 
of high-grade, high-producing cattle. 
Hindsdale Farm, Springfield Center, N.Y. 
that a Milking Shorthorn holds 
1V v/ 1 £i the World’s Record for produc¬ 
tion of milk and fat on two milkings per 
day. We have a few bulls of exceptional 
quality and breeding for sale, sired by 
Gen. Walby, a son of the famous Gen. Clay 
and out of Imp. Walby Belle. 
WAMPATUCK FARM, CANTON, MASS. 
CATTLE BREEDERS 
Holstein Cows For Sale 
125 cows that are due to freshen within the 
next 60 days. They are as fine a lot of dairy- 
cows as you could wish to see and are just as 
good as they look. You can save money by 
buying now. 
A. F. SAUNDERS 
Telephone 1476 CORTLAND, N. Y, 
Spot Farm Holstein Heifer Calves 
$15.00 each, express 
JOHN C. REAGAN,Tully, N.Y. 
HOLSTEIN BULLS FORSALE 
Sons of 
DUTCHLAND COLANTHA SIR INKA 
FISHKILL FARMS, Hopewell Janction, N. Y. 
mmmhhi henry MORCENTHAU, Jr., Owner 
HOLSTEINS 
Two car loads high-class grade springers. The 
kind that please. One car load registered females. 
Well bred, strictly high-class. Several registered 
service bulls. J. A. LEACH, CORTLAND, N. Y. 
HIGH^RADE HOLSTEIN COWS 
fresh and close by large and heavy producers. 
Pure bred registered Holsteins all ages ; your 
inquiry will receive cur best attention. 
Browncroft Farm McURAW New Vork 
HORSE& AND MULES _ 
FOR SALE CHEAP 
Large Registered Jacks — Three Registered Jennys 
Can show fine Mules by this Jack. Cash or good note. 
OSWEGO RIVER STOCK FARMS. Phoenix, New York 
