The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-01-09
Notes by the WaY...No. B.

notes ny the Way---NO. ..
Leaving the main iiue of the Chicago
~ Northwestern at Carol, we travelled
northwest for about fifty miles, arriving
at Early, which is nearly in the center of
Sac county. In our notes, recently pub
lished, we stated that the western part
of Iowa, on the " Missouri divide" is
the finest farming section in the state.
The soil is even licher and of more uni
form quality than the Mississippi slope,
which embraces about two-thirds of the
area of the state. Ten or fifteen wears
ago this section produced large
amount Of the finest quality of spring
wheat, but the chinch-bugs have ruined
this crop and caused wheat. growing to
be abandoned in this part of the state.
except in four or five of the north
western counties. Flour is higher to-
day in Iowa than in Vermont. Corn
is king in this country, although large
amount of oats and some flax are raised
as incidentas. The oat crop was a
failure last season. Many of the farm
ers cut and stacked them, but they were
not worth threshing, and the straw is
good for nothing but manure. 1t took
only two or three hot July days to spoil
the crop. The corn crop did not yield
as much per acre as last year, but as
the acreage is much larger the y ield will
probably exceed that of any preceding
year. The season was backward. the
t OF no ~, IL
farmers were in a state of great anxiety
from the first to the middle of Septem-
Der from fear of frosts, which, had
they occurred, would have caused wide
spread distress and nearly ruined
thousands of farmers. Eastern farm
ers can not fully realize the anX-
iety of their western brethren dur
ing the time their crops are coming
to maturity. Sometimes a single day
of unfavorable weather will spoil the
crops and ruin will stare them in the face.
But stock-raising is gaining ground
each year, and farmers will soon be less
dependent upon SINCE crop. In our
judgment the silo will prove to be
great boon to western farmers, and the
time is not far distant when majority
/ of the stock-raisers will consider it a
necessity. The largest silo that we
ever saw, with capacity of over 1000
tons of ensilage, was constructed and
/ partially filled this year on Cooks ranch
| in this county. The ranch contains
/ about Z, 600 acres of land in single
body and is one of the most noted Here
ford stock farms in the Northwest. At
this time the stock consisted of about
900 cows and 100 bulls, all registered,
besides five or six hundred range steers
which were in the barn and feed-yards
for beef. These Herefords are very
line-lOoking lot of animals, large num-
Der of them being imported. The cows
are kept solely for breeding purposes
and are never MIXED, unless for a few
days when the calves are young and
can not take the full dow. Great care is
taken in the breeding. One-fourth of the
bulls of each years stock are castrated
the standard being thus kept high by the
rejection of all inferior animals. The
surplus stock from this noted herd
finds ready sale at high prices. 1t is
a rule of the ranch to sell no bull for
less than 500 The cows are beefy
animals and keep fat the entire year
In summer and fall they pick their liy-
ing on the ranch. In winter they are
fed timothy straw, of which there are
huge stacks, rs the ranch produces an
average of G,000 bushels of timothy
seed year. AT the time of our visit
last year Cook Il Sons had | 800 steers
in their yards, which they were feeding
for the Chicago market. The feed
consisted of unthreshed oats, run
through cutter, and coarse corn-meal
in equal quantities. This year en-
silage was substituted for oats. with
the most gratifying results. The steers
cost of feeding. We asked Mr.. Cook,
"What about hOrns?n 4" Horns? We
never shall feed any more horns
can't afford it. You see this lot of
800 steers. We let the horns remain
to satisfy ourselves that our position
was correct. Last week we shipped
100 steers from the same lot that were
dehorned in a single day. BY frequent
weighing we found that, with the same
feed and treatment, they gained faster,
we're easier to handle and were better
every way than this lot. BY feeding
cnsilage and dehorning our steers we
shall largely increase the profits from
this department of our farming We
visited several other feed-yards, con-
tanning from fifty to 300 steers. In
only one did we see any horns, and
those were on few late animals. The
owner said u used to be firm in my
belief that dehorning was positive
cruelty to animals, and said that every
man who dishorned his cattle ought to
be prosecuted but, after maxine a