394 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MAY 16 
f 
LOOKOUT 
In response to inquiries from sub¬ 
scribers regarding the responsibility of 
the following-named concerns, we make 
a “long story short ” by stating that we 
do not recommend them. We invite in 
quiries concerning any business houses of 
which our subscribers are in doubt, and 
desire to receive the advertising circulars 
sent out by any such houses, firms or indi 
viduals 
Eistern Investment Company of Boston. 
This concern has been ordered to cease 
doing businest in Massachusetts. 
A paper with half a dczen names in 
Indianapolis, Ind., offers to give a load of 
plants and seeds with a year’s subscrip¬ 
tion. 
The American Homestead of Jersey City 
offers a “sewing machine for $ 1 . 00 .” 
Sovereign Remedy Co—“cures rheu¬ 
matism.” 
“ Washington Detective Agency.” 
“I Cure Fits!” 
“Wood Chemical Company.” 
A Startling Revelation. 
To all owners of Horses, the “Complete 
Horse Book ” tells all you want to know 
about the Horse. How to cure all his dis¬ 
eases without a doctor. Buy it and read 
it, and it will save you many a dollar. Sent 
for 10 cents, silver or stamps. Pioneer 
Buggy Co., Columbus, O.— Adv. 
Poultry Yard. 
King Cholera sits on a throne of filth. 
Can a healthy, well-fed Leghorn help 
laying ? 
We have started breeding Bantams 
again. This year the eggs hatch better than 
last. 
Clover is good poultry food, but a hen 
cannot hold enough of it in her crop to sus¬ 
tain life. 
There is no “ best month ” for cleaning 
outyour poultry house ; it should becleaaed 
out every week in the year. 
The next “boom” is to be on the 
White Indian Games, which are “ manufac¬ 
tured ” from White Malays, and “ are of no 
earthly use.” 
B. A. Fox says there is a hennery near 
Hammonton “where they fed clover and 
cotton seed meal, mixed, three times a day; 
they carried over 800 bens and got about 50 
eggs a day ; wholesome feeding is now turn¬ 
ing out 400 eggs per day. You must feed 
well if you want eggs, but don’t overdo the 
thing ; a fat hen is worse than a lean one 
where eggs are wanted.” 
When our hens laid in nests on the floor, 
directly under the window, they learned 
to eat their eggs. It was ridiculous to see 
the useless roosters hanging about ready 
to run at the sound of a cackle and get a 
bite of fresh egg. Then we put the nests 
high in a dark corner and made the hens 
climb a board to get to them. That cured 
them—no more eggs have been eaten. 
Feather Eating.— This trouble is gen¬ 
era'ly attr baoed to laziness, too much fat, 
too little nitrogenous food and an abnor¬ 
mal appetite. Unless the birds are pretty 
valua de it is about as cheap to kill and 
eat them as anything else. The following 
statement sent by a 14-year-old boy to the 
Poultry Monthly may interest those who 
may desire to try to cure this bad habit: 
T wo years ago this spring we had two fine 
pens of exhibition B. B Games. One of 
the cocks in trying to get over tne partition 
and through the wire to have a friendly 
discussion with his neighbor, ruffl id some 
ol his feathers so that the blood snowed 
through. The Games are very inquisitive 
and tne hens immediately commenced to 
investigate the misplaced feathers ; when 
they got a taste of the blood they continued 
nipping the feathers off until he was nearly 
bare. We decided to leave him with the 
hens and make a test case of it, so we 
tried every thing we could think of to stop 
them, and finally found a sure remedy. 
We took two parts of lard and one of 
bitter aloes and mixed them together, and 
rubbed it on the few feathers that remained, 
then took some of the dry bitter aloes and 
put it in a pepper box and sprinkled it all 
over the salve we had just applied; he was 
not a handsome looking bird when we got 
through with him, but it did the business. 
O-ie or two nips all around were enough for 
the hens. After that they never touched 
him; the bitter aloes did not injure them. 
We left him with the hens; he feathered out 
nicely, and that fall I sent him to the 
county fair, and in one respect he was a 
cuiiosity, as he was in full feather, and all 
the otner cocks exhibited were moulting. 
We keep the aloes in the coop and if any¬ 
thing happens to a hen so that tne blood 
shows on the feathers, we rub on a little as 
a preventive. F. MOUNTAIN. 
A View of the Poultry Yard. 
In The R. N. Y.’s poultry yard I find 
many things which are good—hints which 
may be of value, if carefully considered, 
remembered and applied. But let no novice 
think that advice given on poultry raising 
differs from that on any other branch of 
farm work. The conditions which sur¬ 
round the writer, the accumulated experi¬ 
ence which is hardly transmissible by pen 
or word, which to a nicety and certainty 
tells how and when this thing and that 
should be done ; all this and more, of which 
time and space forbid mention, must be 
taken into careful consideration, and can 
be of use only in so far as similar condi¬ 
tions exist. But here is the rub: Are the 
conditions ever ( t clearly described by the 
writer, precisely the same as those concern¬ 
ing which the novice needs information ? 
“ In a multitude of counsellors there is 
wisdom.” Perhaps 1 But the wisdom 
needs to be both in the advice and in 
the ability to use it. Breeds, like soils, 
differ in their characteristics. The condi¬ 
tions regarding care and feed, yes and 
previous breeding, are as unlike as the cul¬ 
ture, present and previous, which the field 
has had. Therefore, let no one hastily con¬ 
demn as valueless methods which have 
brought success to those who describe 
them. The end sought is intelligent sue 
cess. Some men are liable to accidents and 
unwittingly stumble into success through 
unusual combinations of circumstances. 
The fact that careful, intelligent manage¬ 
ment of farm poultry is sure to secure 
large returns for the outlay ought not to 
require demonstration. Farmers from 
time out of mind have so universally neg¬ 
lected fowls, even though they may have 
comfortable quarters, that it seems beyond 
the limit of their credulity to believe tnat 
poultry may be so kept as to yield a larger 
profit than even the farm under the usual 
i 6 gime. There is a steady growth in the 
demand for fresh eggs and dressed fowls. 
The broiler business booms. In whatever 
branch of the business one engages there 
seems to be reasonable hope of remunera¬ 
tion. Location and local surroundings 
have much to do in the business. Those 
residing near cities and larger towns have 
especial inducements to pay extra atten¬ 
tion to the business. But whether one 
raises broilers or establishes an egg farm 
the key to success is unremitting, intelli¬ 
gent care and close attention to every de¬ 
tail all along the line. Reduce the man¬ 
agement to a system such as intelligent 
observation and experience dictate. The 
most successful men in the business are 
the closest observers—men who are contin¬ 
ually striving to “ beat the record.” 
South Bloomfield, N. Y. H M. F. 
Working the Poultry. 
A writer in the New York Tribune gives 
the following suggestions about working 
hens in the garden : 
Hens might be made very meful in the 
garden as insect eaters if they would not 
scratch. Several impediments are in use 
for this purpose. The rooster is booted (as 
well as spurred) and the hens are proviuea 
with stockings. Another is to hobble tne 
legs so that scratching is impossible, while 
walking is not difficult. Or hang a stout 
peg to each leg, which trails as tne bird 
steps, but when the leg is brought forward 
to scratch, sticks in the ground and sends 
the fowl ahead a step; in this way, if the 
hen persists, she is walked out of the garden. 
We would like to ask who is supposed to 
put the stockings on the hens and the boots 
on the roosters 1 It must be some one with 
so much time that it “ hangs heavy on his 
hands.” Some years ago a man know^ as 
“ the champion liar of America ” invented 
a story about some trained geese in Ala¬ 
bama that walked through a cotton field 
eating all the grass and weeds and leaving 
the cotton plants. In this way one man 
was able to grow 50 acres of cotton I Later, 
the same man started the story of the im¬ 
ported monkeys that picked cotton and 
saved the wages of hired men 1 A non¬ 
scratching hen may be classed with a cot¬ 
ton weeding goose. A scratching hen is 
out of place in a garden, and one that can¬ 
not scratch is not nimble enough to catch 
an insect. Young chickens are the insect 
catchers. A dozen or more of them will 
follow a man w th a hoe along his row, 
either circling about him or keeping behind 
and pouncing upon every bug or worm that 
comes to view. The day they get big 
enough to scratch in the ground they 
should be banished from the garden. 
The Convenience ol Solid Trains. 
The Erie is the only railway running 
solid trains over its own tracks between 
New York and Chicago. No change of cars 
for any class of passengers. Rates lower 
than via any other first class line.— Adv. 
Twice Told 7ales 
OUR OWN AND OTHERS’. 
For the Smartles. 
One of the most dangerous men in the 
world is the skinner—the man who is sat 
isfled with a smattering of knowledge. I 
know men who look up a few of the 
Latin phrases in the back of the dictionary 
and then undertake to pass before the world 
as thorough Latin scholars. 0! course 
they make themselves ridiculous. All such 
“smarties” are sure to bs “sized up” in 
time, and the measurer will be so disgusted 
that he won’t even give credit for what the 
smart man does know. A smart man once 
went to Germany and while there visited 
some Americans who were in the habit of 
saying grace before each meal. This smart 
fellow thought to astonish his friends with 
his knowledge of German ; so he went to 
some Germans and asked them to teach him 
to say a short, appropriate sentence. He 
fell into the hands of wags who taught him 
the wrong sentence, but he repeated it like 
a parrot. When asked to say grace he re¬ 
peated his sentence as though he was an 
old master at the language. His reception 
was very chilly, for what he really said was, 
“This miserable food is not fit to eat 1 ” 
Now, look out, you smart folks. When 
you get to talking about things you know 
nothing about you make just as much a 
fool of yourself as this man did. 
Some Queer Ideas of a Scotch Boy. 
Tom was pretty well grown for his age. 
At the time this refers to he was elevated 
by the pride he felt in the new dignity he 
had acquired—that of “ uncle.” One day 
his father took him on a visit to his f am >us 
nephew. To reach the home of that young 
gentleman they had to go by rail a certain 
distance. When father and ‘' uncle ” had 
taken their seats his uncleship seemed 
somewhat uneasy and asked his father if 
(Continued on next page.) 
If you name The R. N.-Y. to our adver¬ 
tisers you may be pretty sure of prompt 
replies and right treatment. 
TME NEW 
POTATO CULTORE. 
By ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Editor oj “ The Rural New-Yorker.” 
Originator of the Foremost of Potatoes -Rural New 
Yorker No. 2 . 
Originator of The Rural Trench System. 
This book gives the result of 15 years’ 
experiment work on the Rural Grounds. 
It treats particularly of: 
How to increase the crop without 
corresponding cost oi production. 
Manures and Fertilizers; Kinds and 
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The Soil, and how to put it in right 
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Depth of Planting. 
How much Seed to Plant. 
Methods of Culture. 
The Rural Trench System. 
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Nothing old and worn-out about this 
biok. It treats of new and profitable 
methods, in fact of The NEW Potato Cul¬ 
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these experiments at the Rural Grounds, 
have, directly and indirectly, thrown more 
light upon the various problems involved 
in successful potato culture, than any 
other experiments which have been carried 
* on in America. 
Price, Cloth, 75 Cents; Paper, 40 Cents 
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