1908 



(}|.EANINCiS IN BEK {^ULTURE. 



837 



wf could jiulKe l)y w .uchinu its shuJoH swecpiiiK iiluiij; the s.irul, 

 it «;is going about 40 miles an liour. Certainly it was making 

 the average speed of a railroad train. 



After the first turn it drove straight toward one of the sand hills 

 as if it were the intention of the operator to land there; but in- 

 stead of coming down, there was another slight movement of the 

 planes and the machine soared upward, skimmed over the crest 

 of the mountain, 240 feet high, and disappeared on the opposite 

 side. For perhaps ten seconds we heard indistinctly the clatter of 

 the propellers, when the machine flashed into view again, sailed 

 along ovei the surf, made another easy turn, and dropped into the 

 sand about 100 yards from the point of departure. No sooner had 

 it touched the sand than men started from the shed with two 

 wide-tired trucks. These were placed under the machine, the 

 motor started, and the aeroplane at once became a wind wagon, 

 rolling itself back to the starting track with the power of its own 

 propellers. After each flight all the mechanism was examined 

 in most painstaking manner, and the operator always came down 

 when the slightest thing about the machinery was found to be 

 working imperfectly. ........ 



O On several occasions we saw the machine sail straight away 

 up the beach until it was a mere speck, scarcely distinguishable 

 from birds and other indistinct objects near the line of the hor- 

 izon. During these flights the sound of the propellers would be 

 lost altogether until the machine turned about and came back, 

 frequently landing within a few feet of the starting-point. These 

 long flights must have covered a distance of four to six miles. 



As our readers may be curious to know many 

 men at the present time have actually been able 

 to fly without the aid of a dirigible balloon, we 

 give the following: 



THE SEVEN MEN IN AMERICA WHO HAVE FLOWN IN MOTOK- 

 DKIVEN AEKOPL.\NES. 



Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, A. M. Herring, Thomas Self- 

 ridge, F. W. Baldwin, G. H. Curtiss, J. A. D. McCurdy. 



Mr. Curtiss, so far as we can find out, has flown a greater dis- 

 tance — 1020 feet — on first trial than any other aviator in the 

 world. The time was 19 seconds. 



Last, but not least (in my opinion) I hold in 

 my hand a card postmarked Montaigne, Paris. 

 Underneath the picture of L'Arc de Triomphe 

 there are just five words that I prize very highly. 

 These words are, "With kind regards, Wilbur 

 Wright." I prize them because they remind me 

 that my good friend Wilbur Wright, even if he 

 is "away up in the air," and traveling all over 

 the world, still remembers his old friend A. I. 

 Root. 



Poultry 

 Department 



HOPPER FEEDING, ETC. 



So far in my poultry experience I have been in 

 the habit of letting my fowls, old and young, 

 help themselves to their rations. Even if it were 

 true that there are advantages in feeding only at 

 certain times, and just what the fowls pick up 

 clean, it would be very inconvenient for me to be 

 around at these regular periods; and I have had 

 such good success by keeping the food constant- 

 ly before them, or where they could get it when 

 wanted, that the saving in labor to me is worth 

 more than the extra feed required by hopper 

 feeding; and I am sure that none of my poultry, 

 either young or old, ever suffer, even a few hours, 

 from a lack of food. There is, however, one 

 great objection to this manner of feeding. The 

 sparrows, robins, blackbirds, and other song- 

 sters, soon " catch on." I thought I had circum- 

 vented them by having the feed in a pen of poul- 

 try-netting, and letting the fowls get in and out 

 by an underground tunnel. But the birds soon 

 learned to use this tunnel almost as well as the 

 chickens. Just while I write, it seems as if all 



the birds in the \icii)ity had discovered that we 

 not only have a large mulberry-tree, another one 

 of early sweet cherries, but also -ivhiat 2t.nA corn 

 ad libitum to fatten the birds and keep them in 

 good cheer. I have circumvented the birds for 

 a time, but I do not know how long it will 

 work. The food is all placed upstairs in that 

 little house shown on page 638, May 15. If the 

 birds do find their way upstairs, as the chickens 

 do, the sight of the blue sky through the poul- 

 try-netting above their heads prevents their get- 

 ting out the same way they got in. I have not 

 yet decided how to dispose of the birds that have 

 got caught under the poultry-netting. It seems 

 too bad to kill the little fellows, and Mrs. Root 

 suggests that it is against the law to kill song 

 birds. Of course sparrows can be disposed of; but 

 I find quite a lot of other birds helping them- 

 selves to the wheat and corn provided for poul- 

 try. I have not looked up the law in regard to 

 the matter; but I can not for a moment think 

 that the farmer or fruit-grower is prevented from 

 killing birds that are destroying his crops. We 

 have a large mulberry-tree that bears great quan- 

 tities of mulberries; but we have had scarcely a 

 ripe berry here in the North for several years 

 past, because the birds get there before the fruit 

 is fairly ripe. This year we succeeded in getting 

 a few nice early cherries before the birds found 

 out -Lvhere they were and how ^oo^/ they were. 



HENS LAVING BETTER WITHOUT MALE BIRDS. 



The American Poultry Ad'uocate for June says 

 that the Geneva, N. Y., Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station made some experiments in keeping 

 laying hens with and without a male bird. This 

 bulletin, in closing up its observation, makes the 

 following statement: 



A pen of pullets, kept without a male, produced eggs at about 

 30 per cent less cost than an exactly similar pen with which a 

 cockerel was kept. 



Another pen, without a male, gave during the first three 

 months about the same proportionate excess of product over an 

 exactly similar pen with which a cockerel was kept. 



In each of the two pens without male birds some pullets had 

 begun to lay from one to two months earlier than any in the cor- 

 responding pens in which male birds were kept. 



Now, friends, if this is true, think of the tre- 

 mendous loss of food and loss of eggs resulting 

 from keeping a lot of male birds running loose 

 that are of no use to anybody. If it is not true, 

 will somebody who is competent let us know 

 about it as soon as possible ? When you want 

 eggs for hatching, select your best breeders and 

 put them in a pen by themselves with your choice 

 male birds; but do not, for the sake of humani- 

 ty, if for no other reason, let your young pullets 

 and laying hens be worried and annoyed by male 

 birds that should have been disposed of a long 

 while ago. 



BREAKING THE WORLD S RECORD; A PEN OF SIX- 

 HENS LAV AN AVERAGE OF 255 EGGS 

 EACH FOR ONE YEAR. 



We clip the following from the Australian for 

 April 11: 



Much interest has been felt in poultry circles during the past 

 few weeks as to the probable result of the twelve-months" egg- 

 laying competition, which came to a conclusion at the Rosewor- 

 thy Agricultural College, South Australia, March 31. The two 

 leading pens have been in immediate proximity with their out- 

 put of eggs during the last week or two, and on March 29, or two 

 days before the close of the competition, both the pens were on 

 the same mark. After that a slight alteration occurred, and at 

 the close of the competition the result was that Mrs. A. E. Kin- 



