Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1887 — LIVE STOCK. [ARTICLE]

LIVE STOCK.

Breeding Milking Strains. Much loss has occurred to daily farmers from trying to breed for milk and butter exclusively on the female side. If an extra good cow has a heifer calf, it will probably be saved, and its milking character will mainly depend on the inherited prepotency of its sire. The bull calves from the best milkers are generally turned off to the butcher as of no value. Yet for breeders of dairy stock these bull calves are very likely more valuable than they would be if heifers. It is the fact that value for the dairy is more than likely to bo transmitted through the male line that makes the improvement of the dairy stock so easy. •Select your best cows, breed to a Jersey or Holstein bull, aud the progeny, whether male of female, will be well worth raising.

Kur Telling Homes’ Ages. The full-grown horse possesses twentyfour back teeth; that is, six in each aide of each jaw; these are called molars or grinders. He has twelve front teeth; that is, six in each jaw. Mares have no tushes. The foal has either at his birth or shortly afterward eight milk teeth; that is, four in each jaw; at abouttwelve months two more milk teeth come in each jaw. These remain unchanged till he is three years old. The mouth of the yearling and two-year old cannot be confounded. The yearling mouth 6hows no signs of use, and the coiner teeth are shells only; at two years old these teeth are strong and well-grown, and the comer teeth filled up. A little before three years the two center teeth of eaeb ,jaw fall out and are replaced bv permanent ones. A little before five the two remaining teeth are shed, and in their place come permanent ones. The upper milk teeth usually fall out first. , ... . •.. situs the mouth is completed as to its front teeth; the comer tooth, however, is but imperfectlv developed, being at present a shell only; this shell at'six years old has filled np and is a complete tooth. This is the difference between a five and a sixyear old. The tushes appear between three and a half and four years old, and they take hearlv two years to arrive at their fall growth. These teeth, as the horse grows

> older, get blunter and shorter, and so to an experienced judge are a sure indication of age. Up to six years old the month is in j a distinct and periodical state of strnctnral change. There is on difficulty in determining the age up to that dste. After that the age nmst be jndged by the shape of the month and the appearance of the teeth called the mark. At six years of age the cuts leave the two center teeth above, at seven the next two above, at eight the outer or corner teeth above. At nine the two center teeth below lose the cuts, at ten the next two below, and at eleven the outer or corner teeth below. After a little practice the close observer can scarcely make a mistake.—The Sportsman. Sheep ftive Fir. film i inter Difficulties. Again we would urge onr renders, those who do not keep sheep, to' jbny a small flock whife they can be got 60 cheaply. Even though prices of wool and nuAlon are thought to be below a paying vbasis where wool and mutton growing is made a distinct business (which we do not believe', many a farmer wohld find that a small flock qf well-bred sheep attended to with proper care would prove a good investment with prices remaining as they are. When asked why they do not keep sheep the general answer is, “I ennnot because Of dogs." It is admitted that a flock of sheep would on many farms increase the value of the land $5 per acre by keeping weeds aud briers down in the pasture, eating products which would otherwiimhe wasted, and enriching tin- 1 . 111 . 1 with their < ll <■ |>i ir.gs t<> say nothing of the mutton produced. We admit that the miserable dogs are a 6erious obstacle to sheep raising; that they have destroyed thousahds of dollars worth of property of this aud other kinds, and prevent the production of hundreds and hundreds of thonsands more. But man is not going to sit down and admit that he is beaten by the miserable mangy curs. A united effort on the part of farmers would easily rid them of this curse; but each man for himself can, if he sets his wits to work, greatly mitigate the evil. As is well known, the most of the destruction done by the sneaking brutes is after daylights It is not a ditficult matter to construct a dog-proof fence, and with a yard inclosed with such a one and the sheep put in every night they would be safe. If keeping sheep on a 200-acre farm increases its value $5 per acre, or $1,0(10, it would seem to be a good investment to hire a boy to g« with llie sheep to the- pasture every day for six or eight months if need be and look after the flock, which could be done for a small per cent, of the increase* value of the farm.