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The Thoroughbred Dairyman.
It takes I ho ! thoroughbred t dlmlryman
10 produce a good ( herd of clalry COWR.
This Is because there III no rule that
may be laid down hy which the work
of dairy herd producing may IwlI1er. .
rlnE-ly accompllahed. The work IR not
one that may he cut out by machinery :
after some particular pattern , but , to .
use a common phrase , we ! must "cul
and ntTho whole thing comeR :
back : I 10 the quality of the man that I
does the "cutllng and fitting. "
We have hud a very small number
of thoroughbred dairymen In the past ,
and that Is why we have HO few really .
ly I god dairy hOI'lIH. Fortunately the
Elate dalr'y schools and the progressive ! .
.Iro ,11 " ' ' , . III , ' , .
bmiryua'n nil the states are I
now laboring to produce Ii large ! ; numm '
her of thoroughbred dairymen uud ( we
. > have reason to hope that In the fur
hire the tribe will not be so small ) ) as
it has been In the IIISt. )
The thoroughbred dairyman Is al
ways trying to educate himself \ In
dairy nowlodgo. l lie finds this a hard
task : : ; with the present sources or In.
lormatlon : for the information Itself
IR hilI. just being I1ccll1l1ulnted. Much
ho learned yesterday : : ; he Is compelled
to let go of today , and sonic part of
what he learns to'llny will have to he
discarded \ to'l\Iorl'ow. But the thor ,
oughbred Is not discouraged by this
state oC things. lie Is not only not
satisfied ; with the amount of infornia
tlon that he can get from others but
110 sets 10 work to do some experimenting .
mentlng on his own behalf. Ho finds
enough to keep hIm busy In trying to
solve the problems that 11'0 ret : un
solved or that have been solved in avery
very Imperfect manner. 1'hls kind of
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dairyman IS malting his Impress on
the country because ho is a worker
and knows how to Intelllgenll direct
his operations , whether they relate to
the work of his dairy or to the experl-
ments he Is conducting.
The thoroughbred dairyman learned
long ago to control his temper and to
110 gentle with his dairy animals. He
also Insists on the other men having
the care of the cows being genlle. He
bas learned perhaps by Instinct that
II rough mnnner or a boisterous voice
docs not Increase the milk flow or
the production ) of cream. Gentleness
Js ) one of the thIngs that marks him
as dIstinct from must of his fellows.
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L' Milking Machines.
Of the various : makes of milking
machines that arc being sold on the
market the Thistle seems to stand at
the head , though It has few friends
In the United Stntes. We hear from
It however from lime to time in Eng-
land , Germany nllll AustralIa. In 1
those countries It Is being tested quite
extensively , with varying results so
far as making Itself friends and ene-
mles. In recent tests In Germany It
has been used continually for a year
or two hut the cows where It Is used
are not kept for milking purposes beyond -
yond : It year and a half. Then they
are sold to the butchers and new cows
pUl'chnsed. It has been asserted that
the milking , machines dry up the cOW .
and reduce the length of the mllllng I
period. With cows that are only to be
milked to the end of one mlllcing per
rlod It Is Impossible to ascertain the
truth of thIs. A few cows purchased
would not allow themselves to be
milked by the machine. Some of the
hflfl.ml11lng cows had to he stripped
by hand after the machine bad done
what It could , but the ens.mllklng
tOWS were milked clean by It. II
seems to be evIdent that If we are
,
to have milking machines we vvlll
have to develop a special class of
tows with teats of a certain conformation -
tion and with nlllk ducts that easily
sand quickly give down the ml1l
AI a general thing the grape "Ine.
yard should be given clean cultivation
every 'car.
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Fattening Sheep for Profit.
Where Ilosslhle the farmer should
fatten his own sheep , Recently we
heard about a coin n inity oC farmers
where a great many sheep had been
raised hilt had been sold to lien that
made a business or fattening and fitting .
tlllg sheep for market. The men that
did the finishing 111 this case took
their sheep only Il Cew miles away
and began the worle oC IHIUlllg on
lIeah and fat. 'they came back from
time to time lo buy the clover and
com fodder of the farmers and even
the grains they had mlsed. But priu-
cipaliy \ they IHll'chllsed the rough feed
that every farmer had ] In abll\II111nco
The finishers : made money out of their
olltel'lH'lio. 'I'hu question ) naturally
comes , why dl.ln't . the farmers them'
selves have the enterprise to leeep
the rough feed at home IIl1d not let go
of the animals 10 consume It. They
would then have retained on their I
farms the manure that was lost to
them. In some : : ; cases the farmers In
the locality mentioned hauled hay and
other roughage fifteen miles to sell to
the men doing the feeding. H looks
very much as If some ; of our farmers
have not figured the different operaS
lions down close enough to know what ;
will prove profitable and what will \ .
not. We Iced the work \ of the pencil
more In the problems of the farm.
Because a certain method of doing
has become the vogue Is not a proof
that It Is the right thing to do or that
It. Is the IH'olilallle tltillg. Ultimately
Il will ho found that It pays the farmer '
er to follow nil the operations of sheep
breeding , feeding , Inchllllng finishing
on his own farm. '
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The Clean Stall.
n Is a usclen piece of advice IJer.
haps to say "Ieeep the horse stall
clean " Yet we have seen horse stalls
that were always dlrtr. Moreover we
have seen white and gray horses kept
In such stalls. When they came out
of them In the morning It was a good
task to get the dIrt and stain off tlll\ a.
'rhey wore unsightly In spite or all
the washing that coulll lJe done. A
good many farmers are too much
afraid of wasting lJedding. Sometimes
too they shake out and save not only
the dry straw but also much of the
wet straw. The horse Is not a dirty
animal and there Is little use In letting .
ting him get dll't ) ' . lC the stall is
kept clean work will be save .
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France and Horsebreeding.
The French government has for a
long time done much to encourage
horselJreeding , and the result Is now
seen In the number of good horses In
that country and In time high-priced
horses she Is constantly sending to
other countries. 1'hol'e has been a
vigorous attempt there to reduce
horse breeding to a science. Legislation -
tion and government money have been
freely applied In the direction of safeguarding .
guarding the breeding of horses The
government stallions have been of
course the great factor in this forward
movement. The French horsemen
say that this expenditure of money
and effort has laid well.
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The Goat and Disease.
One thing In favor of the goat Is
that It Is little subject to disease.
Whether this Is true of all of our
common diseases we do not know.
Doubtless the goat Is subject to some
IJlsease. At least It Is asserted that
the goat does not have tulJerculosls.
If this Is so It Is a strong factor In
Its favor. Its milk should , in that
case , be used more and more , and
gew and better breeds of mill goats
should be de'eloped. We are sup.
posed to have about two million goats
In this countr A physician says
that we should have twenty millions
just to supply milk for the babies of
the country.
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Geese.
In COlllmon geese the males and
females differ In plumage , but this is
nol the case wIth the purebred geese.
In their case the males and females
are alike. The largest geese are the
Toulollse , and these are popular with
men that have a fancy for large fowls.
If a IIan wants layers , however , he
will choose the China. 'l'hose that
raise the geese largely for feathers
will choose the gmlHlen , because their
feathers are pure white , and hence
the market value or them Is greater
than with those geese whoRe feathers
are nnmlti . colored. It a man merely
wants to produce birds tlnt can be
mal'Juted to guui ( advantage 110 will
find a cross of the Toulouse with time
Eniblen ( give good results.
Where geese have access to n ponder
or a river they will derive much of
1:1011' : : subsistence fl'om the water. The
\\TlltH' knew of a man that lived on the
hanles of n river and had a large flock
of gcese. Across the shallow river
was a starch factory , and from thIs
a large amount of soaked corn daily
ran frol1\ \ the sluices into the ri\'er.
The geese made their living off this
corn , which they fished up out oC the
water. It made a perfect' food so
far as softness and digestibility wen
concerned. They [ balanced their ra
lion with the semi-aquatic plants growing .
Ing In the river and along Its margin.
There are many lice ] situations where
a flock of geese : would rave : what
would otherwise go to wnste.
Shallow ponds III summer teem with
fish , water beetles , worms and other
forms of life. A flock \ of geese shows
great enjoyment In hunting their own
food in such places. Geese are also
consumers of some oC the hugs that
1IIstIJ'the / peace of the farmel' One
man tolll the writer how he used to
use them for the destruction of po'
talc hngs. 'rhe geese would travel
down the rows , darting their heads
now to this side ! and now to that.
't'hey consumed In the course of a
day a very large number of bugs.
The fault to he found with them was
that they did not do their work per.
fectly , hut left colonies of bugs here
and there , which later had to be des-
troyed by other agencies.
1'he goose lays from lwenty-11ve to
fifty eggs and If she could he bred
up to lay more would become more
Iiolmlllr 011 time farm. Perhaps It Is
possible to ultimately develop geese
to lay as many eggs as hens , but that
result Is a long way In the future
at the present time.
Freshness of Eggt.
'rhere are many old ways of test-
Ing time freshness of eggs. Some or
them nH1) lJe of little \'alue. Here
Is one that Is going the round , but
for which we cannot \'ouch. It maybe
lJe all right : Eggs are placed in a pan
of water , giving each room enough
50 that Its motions will nol be Inter-
fered with hy time nthN Tlr air in
the egg will be governed according to
the age of the egg , If the egg has
been kept In a moderately warm state
H the eggs are just laId they will lJe
motionless. If they are more than a
week old they will partly stand on
the little end. This Is because the
air chamber Is In the other end of
time egg This air chamber grows
larger aR the egg becomes older and
the moisture In It evaporates. When
the eggs get still older they will stand
up straight In the water and when
very old will float.
This test of course would be of no
value In the case of pickled eggs or
of eggs kept In cold storage where
the temperature was so low that the
evaporation of moisture from the eggs
would be very small.
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A good bone mill wlll pay Its cost
many times over in the course ot a
year , with a fair.elzed ftock.
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The Prairie Dog Nuisance. - I
Prairie dogs ! have been declared to
he nuisance by the laws of Nebraska
and other states. The Nebraska law
goes so fur ns to declare that any
one having land Infested hy prairie
dogs and not getting rid of them Is
maintaIning a nuisance. The harbor-
Ct' of these animals Is made liable
for damages committed on other land.
Highway commissioners are Instructed - ;
ed to see that the law Is enforced.
In the dischurge of his duty connected
with the extermination of prairie dogs
the ommisslonf1' : ! Is allowed $3,00 per
day and expenses and instructed to
add the amount to the taxes of the
land where the work of exterminating
prairie dogs Is done.
This makes It necessary for the
owner of IUlld to be vigilant In the
extermination of the nuisance. The
quickest al\l ( cheapest way to get rId t
oC the dogs is I : : ; to poison them , and ,
this Is generally resorted to. In mal- &
tug UII the poison three ounces of ,
strychnine and half a pound of Jotas- '
slum cyanide are put Into one quart
of boiling wHter. To this two quarts
of molasses and a teaspoonful of oil
of anise are added. Then a bushel of
wheat Is placed In a tight t receptacle
and the mixture Is poured over It.
Il Is then stirred
, while four pounds
of finely ground corn meal is poured
Into It. Time molasses makes the liquid
adhesive , so It will stick to the grains
of wheat. The object of using the
corn meal Is to absorb the superfluous
liquid 01' syrup and thus enable the
grains of wheat to carry u larger
amount of the liaison. 'I'hls poisoned
, grain Ie sown about the places ' in-
ualJlted h- the dogs. They eat - it and y.
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lie In large numbers. . . ti
There Is , however , a decided sentiment .
ment against the use of the polson.
finnchmen and farmers hate to handle _
It and birds are frequently poisoned as
well as the dogs. There Is also some
danger to live stock and chlllJren.
Carbon blsulphlde has been used for
many years In the extermination of
burrowing animals. It Is costly , but It
Is effective and Is still being quite
generally emplo 'ed. It has the advantage -
vantage of I'eqchlng all of the ani-
mals : for there are always some prai
rte dogs that will not eat the poisoned
gmln. The chemical mentioned Is put
Into the harrows and changes to a
gas that lellls the animals.
The damage done by insects in the
orchard can never be figured out , for
the reason that we are many times r
unable to tell just what It is that
killed a tree. That the damage from"
borers , caterpillars and other insects
Is very large there Is no doubt. Like-
wise the man that wages successful )
war on borers and their allies can
never know how much damage to his
orchard he has prevented.
!
Farm buildings should lJe given a
"polnp ; ; ; over" before the cold of the
winter c . . ) nnes. Too many cracks In
time barn may give abundant ventilation .
tlon , but they give more-too many
drafts. Ventilation Is health , but
drafts are the opposite. It does not
cost much to stop up cracks , and If
one kind of material cannot lJe secured -
cured for this work another can. ,
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There are now Innumerable varieties - . . 7'
lies of potatoes and they are IncreasIng - \
Ing In number every 'ear. Withal ,
there Is an Improvement , but It Is dif-
ficult to say Iow long this improve-
ment will go on.
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If potatoes are planted on land con-
taining much humus there will be lit-
lie occasion for the application ot
nitrogen. This Is why new land Is
frequently very good for potatoes. ! ,
The dairy Icehouse should have Ii .
,
good fountlation end good draIDa e.
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