FEBRUARY 15, 1916 



171 



I bought 10 cents' worth of strychnine, and 

 am going to try that, and this reminds me 

 that I forgot to tell you that, during the 

 "fracas," I caught him (or them) in two 

 different traps, but he in some way pulled 

 out of both. 



A BED OF POTATOES PLANTED NOV. 18, 1915. 



The picture will show you, if you exam- 

 ine closely, the way in which we make our 

 raised beds with deep wide pat lis between. 

 This bed contained a heavy stand of feteri- 

 ta, as I have explained, that was ruined by 

 blight; and before planting the potatoes it 

 was all spaded under, and is now rolled so 

 the potatoes have just what they like — a 

 mass of decaying humus in which to grow 

 and expand. In the background you have a 

 better view of the great 3y2-year-old rub- 

 ber tree, 25 feet high, and 50 feet spread. 

 The coop that held the 17 chicks is at the 

 foot of the tree among the pineapples. 



HOW TO MAKE HENS LAY. 



I am reading the poultry department in Glean- 

 ings as well as every other. I have at present 20 

 Plymouth Rock hens. I feed them regularly, giv- 

 ing them from one to two quarts of wheat twice 

 a day in the straw, or some place where they have 

 to scratch for it, and I pound some green bones 

 and broken chinaware on a flat rock once or twice 

 a week. I wish that some time you could be here 

 and hear the music they make. As soon as they 

 hear the hammer strike they come from every direc- 

 tion and pick the food off the rock. I have not 

 hands enough to keep their bills off from the rock. 

 My hens pay me well for that extra care, and a few 

 eggs all winter until January, when they start to 

 do better every day. I have sold since Jan. 1 21 

 dozen and 7 eggs. The highest price has been 30 

 cts. for the first 3 dozen; then the price dropped to 

 20 cts. on March 6. I sold 5 dozen for 15 cts. per 

 dozen, making a sum of $3.50. Now, March 28, 

 eggs sell at 13 cts., and it is said the price will drop 

 to 10 cts.; but as we are six miles from the nearest 

 store we keep them for our own use, and take the 

 good sizes for setting, because it do€S not pay to 

 drive a horse to town or take them on horseback as 

 I did March 6, riding to town eight to nine miles. 



All my neighbors a mile around me are wonder- 

 ing, and ask me what I feed my poultry. I told 

 them the full truth about it. We have now, since 

 this winter, one of our neighbors so close by us that 

 the chickens would get mixed up were it not for the 

 difference in race. I have Plymouth Rocks, while 

 she has Rhode Island Reds. The first days her 

 chickens came over here searching for food (and 

 found some too) I waited until they had roosted, 

 and then took them over to her. My! how light they 

 were! I thought I had only a handful of feathers 

 in my arm. She got her first eggs the second week 

 in March ; one every second day. 



One neighbor fed 120 chickens all winter without 

 getting one egg in return ; but now, as they started 

 to lay, he sold most or half of them because wheat 

 is high and he ran short. Would it not have been 

 better to sell that number last fall and feed the rest 

 a little better? He also has the idea that if he sows 

 the feed in the straw they can't find it, and sows it 

 on a plain clear ground. 



I knew a lady in Colorado who used to say, " If 



my hens would lay better I would feed them more." 



■ What do you think about that mistake? I am sure 



if the hens could speak they would have said tlie 

 same, but the other way, thus: "If you would fee J 

 us more we could lay more eggs." I once was pack- 

 ing in about 24 dozen eggs for market when she 

 came in the house. She was astonished, and re- 

 marked that she had never seen an egg for a long 

 time. 



We raised eight children — four boys and four 

 girls. The oldest one is eighteen, and we never con- 

 sulted a physician or had one in the house except 

 when our little son at the age of four broke his leg 

 above the knee. Then, of course, we were compelled 

 to call for the surgeon, about nine miles off, and 

 the bill was $20. Tlie boy is now eight years old, 

 and his limb is just) as good and strong as the other 

 one, and not a bit shorter. The man did his work 

 well, and came only that one time. He told us 

 what we had to do, and we got along all right. 



In regard to the high cost of livina:, we agree with 

 you. We use only graliam for bread, and I put 

 only two or three cups of white flour in it. We 

 take two to three sacks of wheat to a neighbor, run 

 it twice through the chopper or feed-grinder, and the 

 coarse parts, or bran, which remains in the flour- 

 sieve we use for breakfast cereals — cook it well and 

 eat it with milk. We also use wheat for coffee, so 

 we reduce the cost of living to a great extent. 



Mrs. Makgarete Green. 



Weiser, Idaho, March 28. 



ELECTRIC-DRIVEN VEHICLES AND STORAGE 

 BAITERIES. 



I have several times on these pages 

 mentioned my electric automobile, and told 

 what a convenience if is, especially for an 

 old man. But I did not think, until lately, 

 to contrast the expense of running an elec- 

 tric compared with a gasoline vehicle. Last 

 fall, however, I was offered an electric 

 in verj' good repair, at a low price. While 

 the batteries in mine are sufficient for a 

 trip of only thirty or forty miles, this new 

 one was .good for sixty or seventy. Before 

 taking the machine, however, I made in- 

 quiries in regard to storage batteries, and 

 was somewhat discouraged on learning that 

 the expense of renewing batteries, without 

 saying anything about the cost of the cur- 

 rent, is away beyond gasoline. As an illus- 

 tration : Ernest has a gasoline machine that 

 will carry five passengers at a little over 

 half a cent a mile when gasoline was down 

 as low as 13 cts. a gallon,* and a gallon on 

 fair roads has run him 24 miles. Well, a 

 storage battery with 28 cells will, I am told, 

 give probably 6000 miles, and likely give 

 good service for two years. But when the 

 battery needs to be renewed, at the present 

 cost of metals it would be about $180. This 

 would be 3 cts. a mile for the upkeep of the 

 battery, against half a cent a mile for gas- 

 oline. 



While at the Ohio State Fair I saw a 

 neat little outfit for lighting rural homes 

 by means of an electric current, at a price 

 of only about $100. When I inquired e^bout 



* It is now 22c and going higher. 



