1892 
755 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
WANTED,  A  NEW  STRAIN  OF  CATS! 
BREED  OUT  THE  TASTE  FOR  BIRDS. 
Who  will  breed  a  strain  of  house 
cats  that  will  attend  strictly  to  the 
business  of  ridding  the  farm  of  rats 
and  mice  and  let  birds  and  chickens 
alone  ?  There  are  ample  grounds  to 
believe  that  this  can  be  done,  judging 
from  the  many  cases  in  which  pussy 
has  been  taught  by  thoughtful  own¬ 
ers  to  distinguish  between  birds  and 
vermin  as  illegitimate  and  legitimate 
prey.  I  believe  there  is  nothing  equal 
to  a  good  cat  for  keeping  the  farm 
mice  and  similar  vermin.  If  fully 
endowed  with  the  true  hunting  instinct,  she  will 
always  be  on  the  watch  for  game. 
Most  farmers  in  this  vicinity  keep  too  many  cats, 
some  keeping  as  many  as  five  or  six,  and  as  they  are 
allowed  to  breed  promiscuously,  those  most  worthless 
as  vermin  destroyers  are  the  most  prolific,  thus  revers¬ 
ing  the  theory  of  “the  survival  of  the  fittest.  ”  Owing  to 
their  numbers  the3r  are  a  pestiferous  nuisance,  and  on 
account  of  the  number  of  useful  insect-destroying  birds 
they  annually  destroy,  they  do  more  damage  to  agri¬ 
culture  than  the  useless  village  curs  so  much  written 
about  by  sheep  owners. 
Among  all  the  enemies  of  our  native  song  and  insec¬ 
tivorous  birds  the  common  house  cat  is  the  most 
deadly,  especially  among  those  that  seek  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  of  the  farm  house  to  rest  and  feed,  the  better 
to  escape  from  their  natural  enemies  of  the  fields  and 
other  seeds  when  planted.  Several  full-growm  weasels 
were  also  killed  by  her  that  had  made  their  way  into 
the  garret  during  cold  weather. 
In  the  five  or  six  years  since  this  one  died  we  have  had 
a  score  or  more  of  cats,  several  of  which  gave  promise 
of  being  good  m  msers  but  they  all  died  of  a  disease 
prevalent  among  cats  in  this  vicinity  for  several  years. 
At  last  we  secured  from  a  neighbor  a  full-grown  cat 
that  proved  an  excellent  rat  catcher;  but  her  good 
qualities  were  about  neutralized  by  her  nasty  habits 
about  the  house;  besides  she  was  an  inveterate  bird 
hunter,  often  climbing  the  tallest  trees  on  the  place 
to  rob  the  nests.  She  died  this  winter  and  we  now 
have  two  of  her  kittens  about  a  year  old  and  although 
they  seem  to  keep  the  mice  cleaned  out  the  rats  ap¬ 
pear  to  laugh  at  them.  During  the  latter  part  of  last 
summer  too,  they  both  developed  a  fondness  for  birds, 
especially  for  young  ones,  and  they  and  the  old  cat 
robbed  nearly  every  nest  on  the  place,  including  those 
of  golden  woodpeckers,  barn  swallows,  indigo  birds, 
vireos,  etc.  I  am  nowdhinking  of  killing  these  two 
cats  and  starting  again  in  hopes  of  raising  another  as 
good  as  the  first.  The  trouble  is  to  get  good  stock  to 
start  with.  If  I  could  be  sure  of  getting  a  cat  as  good 
as  the  first,  she  would  be  cheap  at  $10  as  compared  with 
the  others  for  nothing.  It  strikes  me  that  there  is  a 
good  opening  for  a  smart  and  enterprising  breeder  of 
farm  cats  who  will  perfect  a  good  strain  and  then  ad¬ 
vertise  it.  The  field  is  all  the  more  promising  from 
the  fact  that  so  little  has  ever  been  done  or  attempted 
in  this  line.  f.  a.  p. 
DEXTER  AND  KERRY  CATTLE. 
At  Fig.  293,  we  show  a  picture  of  a  Dexter  cow  and 
a  Kerry  bull,  reengraved  from  the  Mark  Lane  Express. 
As  we  have  before  explained  in  The  R  N.  Y.,  these 
LEAVINGS. 
That  “Little  Grape  Bug,”— The  “little  bug” 
spoken  of  by  1*.  W.  J.,  Pontiac,  Mich.,  on  page  725,  is 
known  as  the  “flea-beetle”  —  Grapotdera  chalybea. 
Illiger.  A  description  of  its  life  history  will  be  found 
on  page  213  of  United  States  Agricultural  Report,  1879. 
1  or  the  past  three  years  it  has  caused  considerable 
alarm  among  the  grape  growers  along  the  lakes  of 
western  New  York,  and  in  some  instances  the  crop 
has  been  considerably  shortened  by  the  destruction  of 
the  buds.  Some  success  has  been  attained  by  the  use 
of  arsenical  poisons  sprayed  upon  the  vines,  but 
greater  reliance  is  to  be  placed  upon  jarring  the  in¬ 
sects  from  the  vines  and  ca'ching  them  on  sheets 
saturated  with  kerosene.  The  beetle  has  the  same 
habits  as  the  curculio,  and  can  be  quite  successfully 
fought  in  this  way.  l.  c.  corbett. 
Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
Life  in  New  Hampshire. — We  pay  at  present  for  the 
best  patent  flour  $5.50  ;  good  pastry,  $4.75  per  barrel  ; 
18  pounds  of  sugar  cost  $1 ;  meat  about  $5  per  month  ; 
beef  from  5  to  15  cents  per  pound.  A  good  pair  of 
shoes  $2.50  ;  a  fair  suit  of  clothes  $10  ;  a  dress  for  my 
wife  from  $1  up  as  high  as  I  please  to  go  ;  medical 
attendance  for  one  year  about  $10,  mostly  for  young 
children:  no  patent  medicines.  My  family  consists  of 
wife  and  two  very  young  children,  the  oldest  not  quite 
two  and  one  half  years  old,  and  an  aged  father  and 
mother.  We  follow  mixed  farming,  raise  our  pork 
and  poultry  and  often  slaughter  a  beef  of  some  kind 
late  in  the  fall.  In  fact,  our  farm  produces  nearly  all 
our  food  supply  except  wheat,  which  we  never  raise. 
woods.  The  cat  not  only  lies  snugly  hidden  in  the 
grass  and  weeds  to  pounce  upon  the  unwary  bird  that 
alights  within  reach,  but  robs  the  nests  of  those  which 
commonly  nest  and  feed  in  the  tree-tops.  The  Balti¬ 
more  oriole  probably  suffers  the  least,  owing  to  its 
habit  of  hanging  its  nest  on  the  extremities  of  long, 
slender  limbs  where  pussy  does  not  venture,  although 
I  have  knowm  of  several  cases  where  the  nests  of  these 
birds  have  been  robbed  by  cats.  The  social  and  unsus¬ 
picious  chippy  sparrow  is  one  of  the  worst  sufferers 
from  tabby’s  liking  for  birds,  both  the  young  in  the 
nest  and  the  old  ones  when  alighting  on  the  ground  in 
search  of  insects,  falling  a  ready  prey. 
During  the  15  years  we  have  been  on  the  farm  we 
have  had  several  cats,  among  them  good,  bad  and  in¬ 
different  mousers  and  ratters.  The  first  was  a  black 
of  small  size  which  we  raised  from  a  kitten.  I  think 
the  first  game  she  caught  was  a  chicken,  for  which 
she  was  punished.  The  house  having  stood  empty  for 
a  year  before  it  was  occupied  by  us,  there  were  no  rats 
to  speak  of,  but  plenty  of  mice,  which  I  began  catch¬ 
ing  in  a  small  box  trap,  letting  them  out  in  a  room 
with  the  doors  all  shut,  for  the  kitten  to  catch.  In  this 
way  she  soon  learned  that  it  was  fur  and  not  feathers 
that  we  wanted  her  to  catch.  By  petting  and  encour¬ 
aging  her,  we  soon  taught  her  to  bring  all  her  game 
home  when  caught,  and,  when  she  brought  rats,  mice 
and  other  vermin,  we  petted  and  made  much  of  her, 
and,  if  a  bird  was  brought  in,  it  was  taken  away  and 
she  was  reprimanded.  During  the  eight  or  nine 
years  she  lived  she  seldom  molested  a  bird  unless  hard 
pressed  to  provide  food  for  a  family  of  several  small, 
greedy  kittens,  neither  were  we  troubled  by  vermin 
for  any  length  of  time,  although  every  fall  a  whole 
colony  of  rats  seemed  to  come  from  somewhere  to  feed 
upon  the  abundant  supply  of  grain  which  we  always 
had  on  hand  as  necessary  for  poultry  keeping.  She 
also  ridded  the  farm  of  ground  and  red  squirrels,  the 
former  being  so  numerous  as  to  do  much  damage  the 
first  year  of  our  occupancy  by  digging  up  our  corn  and 
cattle  belong  to  an  Irish  breed  of  long  standing  and 
good  reputation  in  that  country.  The  Dexter  is  really 
a  family  or  strain  of  the  Kerry  selected  and  bred  for 
certain  well  marked  characteristics.  In  speaking  of  a 
lot  of  these  cattle  offered  for  sale,  the  Mark  Lane 
Express  says ; 
The  animals  throughout  are  of  great  merit,  the 
stamp  being  that  of  miniature  Short-horns,  thickly 
and  evenly  fleshed,  on  short  legs.  Their  chief  merits 
are  great  hardiness,  as  shown  by  excellent  coats,  and. 
heavy  milking,  while  no  sooner  are  they  dry  than  they 
are  fit. for  the  butcher,  giving  small  but  plump  and 
rich  joints,  which  are  much  liked  by  the  housekeeper. 
One  cow  in  the  herd  has  already  given  2%  tons  of  milk 
since  her  last  calving,  and  is  expected  to  give  four 
tons  before  she  goes  dry.  Her  weight  is  only  nine 
cwt.,  so  that  she  has  already  given  more  than  five 
times  her  weight  of  milk,  and  is  expected  to  give  eight 
times  her  weight  in  one  milking  period. 
Very  few  Kerrys  have  ever  been  brought  to  this 
country  for  breeding.  There  ought  to  be  a  place  for 
these  tough  little  animals  on  rough,  hilly  lands  where 
beef  cattle  are  wanted  yet  where  the  big  Short-horns 
and  Herefords  do  not  thrive.  Kerry  cattle  make  beef 
of  excellent  quality  and  the  cuts  are  small  and  choice, 
better  for  ordinary  family  use  than  those  from  the  big 
beef  cattle.  The  cows  are  good  milkers,  too,  and  are 
almost  as  easy  keepers  as  goats. 
*  *  * 
Judging  the  Age  of  Poultry. — Examine  the  feet 
and  legs  ;  the  size  and  appearance  of  the  spurs  form  a 
guide,  as  we  are  told  by  an  expert  in  the  New  York 
World.  The  skin  of  the  pullet  or  cockerel  is  smooth, 
and  has  a  fresh  appearance,  while  that  of  the  adult 
fowl  yearly  grows  coarse  and  more  shriveled.  Place 
the  thumb  and  forefinger  on  each  side  of  the  back 
near  the  “pope’s  nose,”  and  press.  In  young  birds 
the  part  is  supple,  in  old  ones  it  is  difficult  to  bend. 
If  in  feeling  the  tip  of  the  breast-bone,  the  grizzle 
forming  there  is  tender  and  supple,  the  bird  is  young. 
Ducks  that  have  arrived  at  the  age  of  two  to  three  years 
have  a  deep  depression  down  below  the  breast  feathers 
and  their  waddle  becomes  more  and  more  ungainly. 
I  have  been  planting  largely  of  fruit,  both  large  and 
small,  in  the  past  few  years  until  it  has  become  my 
principal  money  crop.  Conway  being  near  the  White 
Mountains,  is  a  large  summer  resort  and  furnishes  a 
fine  market  for  all  kinds  of  fruit.  We  also  accommo¬ 
date  a  few  city  boarders.  In  fact  city  boarders  are 
the  main  crop  cultivated  in  this  place.  This  is  not  a 
region  of  large  farm  operations.  My  methods  are 
about  the  same  as  those  of  scores  of  others  in  the 
town,  except  that  in  fruits,  of  which  I  have  almost  a 
monopoly.  It  is  generally  presumed  that  our  winters 
are  too  cold  for  raising  any  kind  of  fruit  except  hardy 
apples.  This  is  the  fact  on  the  low-lands,  where  the 
mercury  often  falls  to  25  and  even  30  below  zero  ;  but 
here,  at  my  hillside  farm,  it  seldom  falls  more  than  10 
or  12  below,  which  plainly  shows  the  advantage  of  a 
slight  elevation  to  ward  off  frost.  I  value  The  Rural 
mostly  for  its  reliable  fruit  reports.  e.  r.  p. 
Conway,  Carroll  County,  N.  H. 
California  Notes. — I  have  a  farm  of  165  acres,  60 
acres  under  cultivation,  the  remainder  in  timber. 
Apples,  corn  and  hay  are  the  principal  crops — five 
acres  are  in  fruit.  The  hay  consists  of  oats  or  barley. 
I  also  raise  potatoes  and  beans  principally  for  my  own 
use,  as  there  is  no  market  for  them  here.  I  raise  my 
own  pork  and  all  my  vegetables.  I  have  one  cow, 
three  horses,  one  colt  and  30  chickens.  I  make  my 
money  out  of  hay  and  apples.  This  year  there  is  a 
poor  market  for  both.  One  barrel  of  family  flour  costs 
$5.60;  'granulated  sugar  comes  in  30  pound  boxes, 
$2. 10  ;  beafsteak  from  10  to  14  cents  per  pound ;  a  fair 
suit  of  clothes  $20  to  $30;  plow  shoes,  $2.50;  fine  shoes, 
$4  to  $5;  kip  boots,  $5.  I  am  not  married,  consequently 
can’t  state  the  price  of  ladies’  dresses.  I  do  not  re¬ 
quire  the  services  of  a  physician  or  patent  medicines. 
Taxes,  $40  ;  shoeing  a  horse  all  around,  $2  ;  black¬ 
smith  work,  $10  a  year.  The  farm  just  pays  expenses 
and  no  more.  This  looks  like  working  for  board  and 
clothes,  but  then  I  have  a  pleasant  home.  I  do  not 
use  liquor  or  tobacco.  I  do  all  my  own  work,  though 
