80 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[May, 1882. 



grows oltlnr more shorts may be added, and when 

 it is desired to fat him there is nothins; better than 

 Indian meal to malie crood pork ; but the health of a 

 piir may be improved by eivinc plenty of fresh grass 

 and weeds. When it is convenient to do so, it is best 

 to let a pii: rnn over a quarter of an acre of grass 

 land. Many pigs are injured by keeping in close, 

 dirty quarters. I^igs, like most other animals, want 

 light, air and room to exercise in, if they are to be 

 kept thrifty and healthy. — Ed. 



A Nevada Stock Raiser. 



W. B. Todhunter branded last spring over 9,000 

 calves, and lias sent to the market this season 6,000 

 beef cattle. These figures prove Mr. Todhunter to 

 be the largest stock raiser in the country. There are 

 others who send more cattle to market, but they buy 

 them instead of raising them. He has over 20,000 

 head of stock cattle and over 100,000 acres of 

 patent! d land. He got patents last month for i;5,n00 

 acres of swamp land in one bunsh. He has about 

 1,000 bulls and MOO saddle horses. He employs fifty 

 men, and puts up 2,500 tons of hay to guard against 

 hard winters. He keeps 100 work horses, and raises 

 grain enough to feed all his saddle and work slock. 

 Besides bis cattle, he has 700 or 000 stock horses, four 

 jacks and fifty stallions. 



His stock is divided among four ranches — one 

 known as the White Horse Ranch, lying just inside 

 the Oregon line, where 5,000 head are kept; one in 

 Long Valley, in the northwest corner of Nevada, 

 lying alongside of Surprise, supports 4,000 head; the 

 Pyramid lianeb lying at the northeast corner of the 

 lake, has l,.500and a lotof horses; the Abbott Kanch 

 at Steen's Mountain, feeds about i),000, and Harney 

 Valley 6,000 more. The home ranch is 25 miles from 

 a neighbor. — From the Reno Gazette. 



Poultry. 



A WRITER in the Poultry Monthly, whose neigh- 

 bors have lately been paying forty eight cents per 

 dozen for eggs, truthfully says that with proper at- 

 tention to cliickens there is no difficulty in obtaining 

 an abundant supply of eggs at all seasons. The 

 chicken house should have a southern exposure; 

 fowls should be eiven moderately warm water two 

 or three times daily during the inclement portion of 

 the year up to about the tenth of April. The cor- 

 respondent feeds his fowls four times daily, the first 

 feed be ng always hot, consisting of scraps from the 

 table well-seas' ued with pepper; the second feeding 

 consists of buckwheat, the third wheat screenings, 

 and the fourth corn. In cold weather he never 

 allows his chickens to roost out doors. 



A House for 200 Fowls. 



To accommodate to 150 to 200 fowls, it would be 

 best to have two houses, or rather one so divided in 

 the middle as to make two, with a door at each end. 

 A very cheap and good house may be made of 

 boards; 4 feet high at the back, 10 feet in front, Ki 

 feet wide, and 36 feet long. The roosts should be 

 made at the rear, and hi the form of a ladder, 

 sloping back from the floor to the roof. In the 

 middle there may be a room for nest boxes. If the 

 front, which should face the South, is of glass, it 

 will be much improved. As large a yard as possible 

 may be provided, and fenced with lath, so that the 

 fowls may be kept in when desirable. The mate- 

 rials for such a house need not cost more than §20, 

 and §12 additional for ash for the front. 



Questions About Eggs and Fowls. 



Manitoba. We do not believe half the reports cur- 

 rent about extraordinary production of eggs. Yet it 

 may easily be true that a hen of the non sitting 

 breeds may lay an egg every day for a long period. 

 The Black Spanish hens often do this, and we have 

 personally known one to lay two eggs in one day, but 

 there was none the next day. Hens cannot well 

 cover goose eggs and keep them waim; they are too 

 large. If the bottom of the nest is made warm with 

 down or feathers, a hen may probably keep six of 

 these eggs warm enough. A young bird needs no 

 help to get out of the shell; unless it is verv weak, 

 in which case it isjabjut as well for it to remain there, 

 as it would probably -fail to thrive. .If the chicks 

 should need any help, this can be very easily given 

 when an incubator is usi-d. Light Brahma chicks, 

 when newly batched, are all white; Dark Brahmas 

 are black and brown ; Plymouth Kocks are black and 

 yellow, and Blaek-red Games are black and yellow, 

 or brownish. 



^ 



Raising Sunflowers for Hens. 

 The necessity for a variety of feed for chickens is 

 generally understood, but very few people are aware 

 of the value of sunflowers as hen feed. They are 

 very productive of oil, are eaten greedily, and give a 

 peculiar luster to the feathers. I have one-eighth of 

 an acre planted to this crop, and propose to bind 

 them into bundles and stow them away in a dry 

 place lor winter use. The heads can be thrown into 



the hen-house, where the chickens will soon pick 

 out the seeds, thus giving them exercise as well as 

 variety. With plenty of other grain within reach 

 they will eat no more sunflower seeds than are bene 

 ficial to them. The seed can be bought at our feed 

 stores for one dollar per bushel, at which price it 

 ought to be more generally used than it is. I think 

 a plot of sunflowers, with their great yellow faces 

 turned to the sun, an agreeajjle sight. — Kansas 

 Farmer . 



Care of Young Turkeys. 



See that your turkeys come home every night. At 

 first, if you raise them with a turkey mother, you 

 will have to hunt them up and drive them home, but 

 if you feed regularly every morning and always at 

 night they will soon learn to come "home as regular 

 as the cows. After they have fully feathered, and 

 have thrown out the red on their heads, which usu- 

 ally occurs at about three months, young turkeys are 

 hardy, and may be allowed unlimited range at all 

 times, and from that time on, as long as the supply 

 of insects lasts, they will thrive on two meals a day. 

 Keep your turkeys growing right straight from the 

 shell, and you will find that it will pay when payday 

 comes. Some farmers, as soon as their young turkeys 

 are feathered up, turn them out to get their own 

 living the best way they can until a few weeks before 

 Thanksgiving. Then they stuflT them for a few weeks 

 and wonder why they do not equal in weight those 

 of their neighbor, who has kept his turkeys growing 

 all the time from the day they were hatched. — Cin- 

 cinnati Orange Bulletin. 



How Chickens are Born. 

 Take an egg out of a nest on which a hen has had 

 her full time, carefully holding it to the ear ; turn- 

 ing it around, you will find the exact spot which the 

 little fellow is picking on the inside of the shell ; 

 this he will do until the inside shell is perforated, 

 and then the shell is forced outward as a small scale, 

 leaving a hole. Now, if you take one of the eggs in 

 this condition from under the hen, remove it to the 

 house or other suitable place, put in a box or nest, 

 keeping it warm and moist, as near the temperature 

 of the hen as possible (which may be done by laying 

 it between two bottles of warm water upon some 

 cotton or wool,) and lay a glass over the box or nest, 

 then you can sit or stand, as is most convenient, and 

 witness the true modus operandi. Now watch the 

 little fellow work his way into the world, and you 

 will be amused and instructed as we have often been. 

 After he has got his opening be commences a nib- 

 bling motion with the point of the upper bill on the 

 outside of the shell, always working to the right (if 

 you have the large end of the egg from yon, and tlie 

 hole upward,) until he has worked his way almost 

 around, say with one-half of an inch in a perfect ; 

 circle ; he then forces the cap or butt end of the 

 shell off, and then has a chance to straighten his 

 neck, thereby loosening his legs somewhat, and so, 

 by their help, forcing the body from the shell. — jV. 

 E. Homestead. 



^ 



A Cheap Chicken^Coop. 



A "Jerseyman" describes in the Tribune his neigh- 

 bor's cheap arrangement for raising chickens: 



For coops he uses tight old barrels laid leugthwise 

 on the ground, with the head taken out. On the 

 bottom of each, for nests, he places some very dry 

 earth and then a little straw or leaves from the 

 woods, if early in the spring; if later, the earth alone; 

 There is nothing better on which to set a hen than a 

 dry sod laid with the grass side down, and just 

 enough of the soil scraped ofl' from the center of the 

 top to make a hollow to hold the eggs. In these 

 barrels the hens laid and sat. When the chickens 

 were hatched the barrels were cleaned and enough 

 narrow sticks driven in front to keep in the hen and 

 allow the young to run out at pleasure, which they 

 would only do in dry weather. To let out the heii 

 for sun and for exercise it was only necessary to roll 

 the barrel a little on one side or withdraw a stake or 

 two from the front. When the chickens got to be a 

 few weeks old the hen was allowed to come out at 

 will. Each generally k'ept a remembrance of its 

 barrel, and went back to it with her brood for food 

 and water during the day and to hover in it at night. 

 If likely to rain it was necessary to see that all got 

 into their coops for shelter before it began to fall. 

 As the staves were set tight the barrels shed the rain 

 perfectly. 



Hawaiian Geese. 



The Hawaiian geese {Bervicla sa?uli'icensis) which 

 I brought over in the spring of 1870 have proved 

 hardy, and I trust will prove reproductive. They 

 were all sheltered and cared for last winter, and 

 came through in good order. Both geese commenced 

 laying in April ; oue laid three and the other four 

 eggs, but only one showed a disposition to sit upon 

 the eggs, and she, after attending to her business 

 faithfully for ten days, tired of it and quitted the 

 nest, so they produced no goslings. In the wild state 

 they lay but two or three eggs, while in domestica- 

 tion they sometimes lay eight or ten. Mr. Brickwood, 

 Postmaster-General of the kingdom, who had them 



in domestication for many years, sometimes raised 

 as many as ten in a brood. In domestication they 

 seem to have strong attachments, and are fond of 

 human society ; one gander in particular has be- 

 come very fond of me and always greets me cordi- 

 ally, and will talk with me in a low, soft, plaintive 

 tone so long as I will indulge the humor. They are 

 less aquatic than the other geese. The foof is not 

 more than half webbed. They take a bath scarcely 

 once a day, and rarely remain in the water long. I 

 once saw one with the tail under water, as we see a 

 hen when forced to swim. Their native habitat are 

 the high volcanic mountains in the island of Hawaii, 

 where they breed among the lava beds, depending 

 upon the pools which they find among the rocks for 

 water, never going down to the sea. They are of 

 strong flight in the wild state, though in domestica- 

 tion tiiey show little disposition to fly. Altogether 

 they are the most interesting water fowl I possess, 

 and I hope another year to raise some of them from 

 the only pair I have left. A few weeks ago I lost 

 the other pair by a mink. — -Judge Caton in American 

 Naturalist. 



Literary and Personal. 



The Verdict of the Jury. — We have just re 

 ceived a copy of the most popular piece of music ever 

 published in this country, called the "Verdict 

 March," composed by Eugene L. Blake. It is writ- 

 ten in an easy style, so that it can be played on 

 either piano or organ. The title page is very hand- 

 some, containing correct portraits of Hon. Geo. B. 

 Corkhill, Hon. J K. Porter, and Judge W. S. Cox; 

 also a correct picture of the twelve jurymen who 

 convicted the assassin of our late beloved President. 

 This piece of music should be found in every house- 

 hold throughout the entire country. Price, 40 cents 

 per copy, or 3 copies for§l. Postage stamps taken 

 as currency. Address all orders to F. W. Helmick, 

 music publisher, l.SO Elm street, Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 United States of America. 



The Record. — A new bi-weekly educational 

 journal devoted to general information, popular 

 science, agricultural news and the work of the 

 Young Men's Christian Association. Published 

 every alternate Saturday at the Y. M. C. A. build- 

 ing, Lancaster, Pa., at $1 a year, including postage. 

 This is a quarto of 16 pages, very creditably gotten 

 up, and illustrated, and proposes to present to its 

 patrons in each issue 16 pages of useful information, 

 embracing chemistry, electricity, photography, agri- 

 culture, natural history, botany, astronomy, micro- 

 scopy, optics, archseology, explorations, local his- 

 tory, ttc. And, juding from the copy now before us, 

 (Vol. 2, No. 8) it has faithfully kept its word. 

 Moreover, published as it is, under the auspices and 

 for the benefit of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 

 ciation, it ought to receive a more liberal support 

 from the community than has been heretofore ac- 

 corded to that worthy association. The illustrated 

 article in this number on the sponge is especially in- 

 teresting and instructive. Its motto — "Liberty can 

 only be safe where suffrage is illutninated by educa- 

 tion," breathes a truth that needs to be more ful y 

 apprehended, and widely extended than now appears 

 on the surface of society, and we hope it may find a 

 very large vacauni to fill in this community. 



The Free-Trade Bulletin: A four collumned 

 "half sheet" (Vol. 1, No. 6), devoted to the political 

 doctrine of "Free-trade," has found its way to our 

 .Sanctum. It is a handsomely printed journal, and 

 advocates its specialty with singular ability: and, 

 whether truthful or lalicious, in perusing it, "almost 

 thou compelest me to be a christian," is powerfully 

 suggested to the mind not fettered by previous 

 prejudices. Will we, as a nation, ever learn to know 

 what is best for the interests of all, in this respect? 

 Price 50 cents a year, monthly. New York. 



The Southern Cultivator: The April number 

 of this popular and well established Agricultural 

 journal has been received. The issue was delayed a 

 few days, owing to the fact that iMessrs. J. P. Harri- 

 son & Co., the publishers, were removing their im- 

 mense printing establishment to a much larger 

 building. 



It should be a matter of pride with our Southern 

 farmers to sustain The Cultivator, because it is 

 their representative, published alone in their interest, 

 and is by far the neatest, most reliable and best filled 

 Agricultural publication in the South. The pub- 

 lishers are certainly spending large sums of money, 

 in making it the best of all journals of a like kind, 

 judging from the tine paper used, the haudsoine en- 

 gravings that adorn its columns and from the men 

 of brains emploj'ed as contributors. 



It is sold for the low price of $1.50 per annum. 



In this issue it is announced that -Vfr. H. H. Ca- 

 baniss, rectntly of Forsyth, becomes the Business 

 Manager. 42. OOin advance will secure the Cultivator 

 and the Lancaster Farmer for one year. 



