The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1880-11-20
AGRICULTURAL.
POINTS OF A GOOD COW.

POINTS OF GOOD COW.
Mr. Henry Stewart, in the R1kral Ne,o
Yorker, gives the following as the chief
characteristic of good cow-the points
being so well defined that any one can
make the selections. They are also in
accordance with the results of experi-
ence:
1.-The extremities should be delicately
formed; the tail long and thin, except at
its root, which should be large and
strong; the muzzle should be fine; the
head long, fiat and thin, but broad across
the eyes, to give room for large brain,
which is the foundation for highly de-
veloped and active nervous system; the
horns fine, thin and neatly curved; the
eyes bright and active, agreeing with the
active brain, but calm, quiet and mild in
expression, significant Of quiet, con-
tented disposition, and one not readily
disturbed or worried. AS the secretions
of the body all come from the blood,
and as a rich, yellow color is desired in
the butter, so the skin should be filled
with yellow pigment, and the inside of
the ears and the thighs, and the other
places where the hair is light and the
skin plainly visible, should be of rich
orange color, so the scales or ear-wax
should be of the same color. The hair
should be fine, smooth and silky; and in
short the whole appearance should be
satisfying to the eye, and consistent one
part with another and well balanced"
CONCERNING ONIONS.
Onions are eaten to greater extent
than any garden vegetables raised with
the exception of cabbages. With many
they serve the double purpose of food
and condiment. Some persons who alb
hor their odor and dislike their taste eat
them because they are nutritious and
conducive to health. In many portions
| of Europe where land is scarce, and peo-
pie desire to produce all the food from it
they can, onions are raised to large ex-
tent. They take the place of butter and
cheese in supplying a relish to coarse
bread. They are sliced in vinegar and
eaten raw, made into soup, and cooked
boiling and frying. In the warm coun
tries of Southern Europe onions take the
place of cabbages and potatoes to a
great extent.
It is somewhat singular that onions are
not fed in considerable quantities to
poultry and all kinds of live stock.
Fowls of all varieties are extremely fond
of them, and derive great benefit from
eating them. Besides serving all the
purposes of true food, they aid digestion
| and tend to ward off disease. They may
be fed raw or cooked. Chickens viii eat
not only the bulbs, but the leaves when
! Clipped up and mixed with dough.
| Chickens that are allowed onions pre-
pared in this way rarely, if ever, are
| troubled with the cholera. Chickens
that eat onions are not likely to be in
| tested by vermin. One of the best kinds
of food for laying hens during the winter
consists of cooked meat, potatoes and
onions. Onions are cheaper than pepper
to feed to poultry, and they answer the
same purposes.
Almost all kinds of stock are fond Of
onions, and there is generally consider
a5le difficulty in keeping them from eat
ing them OF course they shonll not be
fed to milk COWS, owing to the edor and
flavor they impart to milk, but other kinds
of stock may eat onion, not only without
detriment, but with great advantage. All
animals delight in condiments, and there
is nothing in the line of relishes that
they will eat as readily as they will onions.
For young stock they should be chipped
up and fed with grain and meal, but for
large animals they require no prepara-
ton. Onions that are large enough to be
salable in season when they are tolerable
high are expensive food for stock, but
there are always many that are too small
or ill-shaped to sell.
10 grow onions on large scale to adj
vantage the ground should be prepared
in the fall, as the seed should be planted
almost as soon as the frost leaves the soil
in the spring. AS onions are gross feed
ers the land on which they are planted
should be very heavily matured. To pre-
vent trouble with weeds the fertilizers
applied should be free from seeds, which
will ordinarily germinate before the
onion seed will. Well rotted stable
manure is excellent and SO are the fer
.ilizers prepared from meat, blood, and
osher slaughter-house refuse. Ashes and
salt are also good fertilizers for this
crop. The first cause the young plants
to grow rapidly and the last will destroy
many insects. Coarse and rank manures
are not desirable.
Onions should not be harvested till
the weather becomes tolerably cool in
the fall, though they will ripen quite
early in the season. The moisture
should be allowed to dry from them be-
fore they are stored away. They should
be kept where the temperature is good
and is tolerably dry. If they are aided
by heat and moisture they will shrivel
and become unfit for cooking purposes,
and, of course, for the market. An
ordinary cellar is too moist and too
warm for preserving onions. An extern
sive onion grower makes, for keeping
onions, as deep pit as he can with plow
in dry, sheltered place near the house.
scraping out all the loose dirt with hoe
and putting in some chaff or straw from
the straw stack, and tramping down we'll.
Then he hauls the onions from where
they grew. and piles them III carefully
| on this, and puts more chaff on top and
covers up with foot of dirt from each
side and packs it smooth with the spade,
where they can remain part or all of
the winter. or until wanted.