Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1891 — LIVE STOCK. [ARTICLE]

LIVE STOCK.

Horns Mast Qo. Horns on domestic cattle no longer serve any useful purpose, and to one who views beauty oruy in usefulness they .are not even beautiful. Western farmers are now usings what is known as the Fugate machine for dehorning mature animals. It is done so Quickly and neatly that there is no longer any objection from cruelty in the process of getting rid of the horns. The loss from maintaining useless horns is not confined to the injury they do to stock, though that is often serious. Tnere'"always great danger to and often loss of life of attendants from vicious animals, and especially from bulls. Stoke Pogis. 111. was probably the most valuable progenitor of Jersey blood, but- becoming vicious he was fattened and sold for beef, before his value was fully known. Had he been dehorned thie valuable strain of Jersey blood

would not be nearly so scarce and dear as it is, and the improvement to American' Jersey stock from a few more years of service from Stoke Pogis 111. can scarcely be estimated. The dehorning process has now been practiced long enough to show that loss of horns does not injuriously affect animals either for fattening or dairy purposes, nor does it lesson the valuable characteristics transmitted to their progeny by dehorned bulls. It is likely indeed that as horns arc bred off cattle may be bred free from the vicious propensities that the constant use of horns must stamp upon character, and thus transmit to future descendants.—American Cultivator. ICaiKinc Colt**. Keep good mares to do the farm work with. Breed to a draft, horse, and have them foal about the Ist of May, as this is a slack time in the work and grass has a good start. Work the mare carefully up to foaling time, and let lier rest ten days after before going to work again. Feed marc and colt a little once a day, and the colt will soon learn to eat. When working the mare have the colt in the stable. It will soon learn to stay, is less bother, and it is better for the colt than to follow the mare. Give it access to water twice a day." Give each colt and mare a roomy box stall and feed the colt by itself. Wean at five months old, give them good pasture and oats. Winter in a loose stall and let them have plenty of exercise in the day. Keep up the oats until they are a year old, then turn to pasture.—National Stockman. .

Helpful Point* fop llorKeman. It is better to take S2OO for a colt when he is 2 years old than to keep him three years for SIOO or $l5O more. While the breeding of horses is greatly on the increase, and of trotters especially, there is a great lack of A No. I horses of all kinds. Horses that can trot in 2:40 or 2:30 are very plenty, but a great number of them are not good road horses. They may be undersized, undesirable in color, pullers or slow travelers or vicious and waiting for an opportunity to run away and smash things generally. Probably the fastest mare that ever raised a colt is Mary Marshall, .2:125, and the colt is in training at Independence, la. She is in foal again to Allesrton, 2:095, and if there Is anything in the theory that a colt from developed parents should go fast, •this colt ought to go faster than -any horse ever has. Breeders are turning their attention more than ever- to the fact that horses bred for the track, but which •cannottrot fast enough, must be sold for what theywil! bring. €. J. Hamlin was the first large breeder to demonstrate that horses could be bred for size, beauty and color, and .at the sarnetrrne got high speed. The standard colors are black, bay, ■chestnut ;and sorrel. Bays and chestnuts are always desirable. Black is liable to grow dingy, but a glossy black is very handsome. White horses are too conspicious and show dirt very easily, but soap and water will keep them dean. Many admire a roan horse, but the color does not often affect the value of an animal, unless ft is very bad. In starting to raise ;a nice class of fast driving horses the foundation must be well laid. We must look to the standard bred trotter to give us all the points desirable, as no other one breed contains so many for this purpose. The mares must meet the requirements, as nearly as possible, that are desired in the colts. Mate them with a stallion which is individually good and especially strong in those points where the mares are lacking. Few blacksmiths take the trouble to fit a horseshoe to a horse’s foot. Most of them prefer to fit the foot to accommodate the shoe. It is nothing uncommon in some smithies to see a horse with both feet very much alike, shod on one with a shoe much too short for the foot, which is set far hack, well spread and the toe cut very short. On the other foot the shoe will be much too long, set well ahead and an inch narrower at the heel.—Farm and Home.