THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i89i 
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN 
NURSERYMEN. 
( Continued.) 
and south. When removing the evergreen 
leaves, care shonld be taken to have the 
sand put on as fast as the leaves are removed. 
The leaves must be slightly shuffled back 
and forth while beiDg removed, killing all 
weeds that have started, and the little trees 
will have a perfectly clean bed to make 
their appearance on. The lath frames are 
put on as soon as the beds are covered with 
sand. We never water the beds, and if 
cracks appear we put on more sand. After 
the trees have appeared above the sand and 
before the seed shells have dropped off, we 
sprinkle over the whole beds enough dry 
sand to till all little cracks and holes that 
may appear. The beds should be carefully 
hand-weeded the first season. If one gets a 
good stand the first year, the weeds will 
not trouble him much the second. 
“We leave the lathson until we take them 
off the next season to cover new beds. In 
damp, cloudy weather we raise the lath 
frames to an almost perpendicular posi¬ 
tion, thus giving all the air and light pos¬ 
sible. They should be replaced as soon as 
the son comes out. 
“ Transplant at one or two years of age. 
Yearling trees should always be bedded 
out; two-year-olds may be bedded or 
planted into double nursery rows; in either 
case they require no shade. 
“ The birds must be kept away from the 
beds, especially from White Pine beds, or 
they will take every tree as fast as it makes 
its appearance. The worst enemies are the 
Blue Jay and Turtle Dove. Mice also do 
great damage and must be killed off.” 
A MODEL RAILWAY. 
The Burlington Route, C., B. & Q. R. R. 
operates 7,000 miles of road, with termini in 
Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, Omaha, Kan¬ 
sas City and Denver. For speed, safety, 
comfort, equipment, track, and efficient 
service it has no equal. The Burlington 
gains new patrons, but loses none.— Adv. 
Poultry Yard. 
AROUND THE CHICKEN HOUSE. 
“Overdoing" the poultry business. What 
per cent of hatching eggs produce grown 
fowls t Sad experience with brooders; 
making nests comfortable; feed for little 
chicks. 
One man writes me: “ Will not the 
poultry business be overdone ? So much 
interest and time are now being given to 
the subject, that I expect to see an over¬ 
supply of eggs.” There is no danger; until 
people learn to raise a large percentage of 
the chickens hatched and succeed in get¬ 
ting a larger hatch there will be no trouble. 
Until one has grown several hundred pul¬ 
lets per year for several years he has no 
conception of the vastness of the }ob. Not 
10 per cent of all the eggs set produce 
chickens which reach maturity, and half of 
them are males. By mating old hens of 
the Brown Leghorn breed with young cock¬ 
erels the percentage of pullets is largely in¬ 
creased. I infer this from the results ob¬ 
tained in the last three years’ experiments. 
By changing males every spring and buy¬ 
ing only the largest-limbed, most vigorous 
and strongest ones, that can be found, I 
have had but little trouble in getting a 
good hatch. A bow-legged, deformed, 
broken-backed, half baked chicken, with¬ 
out stamina or appetite, is unknown on 
this “ ranch.” And with proper feed, after 
six years of care in this direction, my flock 
average two pounds apiece heavier than the 
average of the same breed. Sickness, 
cholera, feather eating, etc., exist only in 
imagination at present. Lice! I haven’t 
seen one since the new house was built in 
1885. You can’t breed lice unless you allow 
the first pair to get in, any more than you 
could rabbits. Luck, misfortune and 
“Providence” are charged with all the 
various diseases and parasites which de¬ 
stroy our flocks, when the fact is that they 
come from our lack of knowledge, or utter 
disregard of Nature’s laws. One man had 
a brooderful of chickens, and the brooder 
was so constructed that the fumes of the 
burning oil all passed into and through the 
interior before passing out. He nearly 
closed the outlet, and now complains that 
his chickens all died. They were both pois¬ 
oned and suffocated. One was in a hurry, 
only partially filled the lamp, which 
burned out before morning, and the chick¬ 
ens were so chilled that he lost 300 out of 
360. A friend bothered a whole year with 
a 500-egg incubator, losing nearly all the 
eggs put in it before he thought to test the 
thermometers. One was found marked 
wrong, and since that fault has been reme¬ 
died, he has had no trouble. Another hired 
several hundred chickens hatched, his 
scheme being to have some hens sit for a 
few days and give the chickens to them, 
but the “ biddies ” refused to own the man¬ 
ufactured chickens, and would kill them 
or throw them out of the nests as soon as 
put in. He had no brooder and hardly 
knew what to do. That night a dry-goods 
box behind the kitchen range was given 
them, with a warm soapstone in the bot¬ 
tom, for comfort. 
All went well, the chickens seemed com¬ 
fortable, and “our hero” retired. After 
the soap-stone had cooled, their cries awoke 
him, and he arose and went to see what 
could be the matter, and found that they 
had huddled together, as they always will 
when cold or wet, and had crushed and 
suffocated 25. 
A good fire was hastily kindled, the soap¬ 
stone reheated, and together with two or 
three hot flatirons was put in the box, the 
chicks were replaced and covered with a 
piece of carpet. They seemed all right and 
he went back to sleep. In about 15 min¬ 
utes his “ partner” awoke him with the re¬ 
mark : “Just hear those chickens yell.” 
The stove, flatirons and carpet covering 
had so heated the chicks that they nearly 
baked alive. The next day some old hens 
without Intelligence enough to know the 
difference were hunted up in the neighbor¬ 
hood and induced to adopt what remained, 
but the crowding and exposure to the ex¬ 
tremes of heat and cold brought on an acute 
attack of diarrhea, and after two or three 
days of medical practice the last one was 
thrown out of the pen dead, and the hens 
returned to their owners, and the whole 
catastrophe was charged to Accident. 
Two-thirds of all the hens set, are in open 
nests where laying hens may impose upon 
them, ahd a daily fight thins out the eggs. 
The hen comes off and forages around for 
some food and water. She may find a little 
and after a long search, goes back to the 
now chilled eggs, provided she doesn’t take 
a notion to forsake the lice-covered old nest 
and try the one next it. 
This year I have nailed strips of lath from 
the nest boxes to the second floor, and put 
In cross partitions every two feet. The 
door in front Is a thin board fastened by 
leather hinges at the top. It can not be 
left open. By pulling a piece of cloth over 
the lath, the box may be made quite dark, 
and a wild hen will sit more quietly in such 
a nest. A narrow board nailed across one 
corner keeps the shallow nest in shape and 
the short straw which is mixed with earth, 
from being scattered. The first were made 
in a hurry, and two hens fought each other 
through a. knot hole and broke a lot of 
eggs. Since then every crack between them 
is closed. Having forgotten to feed them 
just one time, one scratched her nest all to 
pieces, and broke the eggs. Then the cross 
sticks were put in and little cups contain¬ 
ing grain and water were hung up on the 
side of the coop. After several hens had 
jumped down from the cross pieces and 
broken their eggs, narrow ones were put 
in, which they could step over, and now I 
think I have the proper thing. Each one 
is perfectly isolated, well fed and watered 
and has room enough to exercise, so that 
there is no excuse for breaking an egg. 
The dim light is conducive to reposefulness; 
what more can hens desire ? 
One of them just rose up with a cackle 
and flew against the side of the coop, car¬ 
rying two eggs with her, breaking them 
and scattering their contents all oyer the 
; d est. O, dearl Warm up some water to 
101 © and wash the eggs quickly.' Don’t let 
them soak much. They will never hatch 
as well after being washed, but better than 
if the stuff is allowed to dry on them. 
“ The old brown hen has hatched some 
chickens. Can I take them off ? ” 
“No ; just wait till to-morrow. You may 
throw out the shells, but the chickens don’t 
need anything for the first 24 hours of their 
lives, except to be kept warm. Their first 
feed is bread moistened with milk, only 
just enough to soften it. None is left to 
sour, and the amount they eat is controlled 
by their needs and not by their appetites. 
A little cracked wheat scattered among the 
wheat chaff will give them exercise. The 
dry method is my present hobby. Chickens 
well dried off in the nest are placed on a 
dry floor, in a light, dry room. Bread 
nearly dry or cracked wheat is their feed. 
They get no drink. They are fed four times 
a day while very small; three times will 
answer after a while—just what they will 
eat up clean—and they will come to meals 
lively, screaming with delight when one 
opens the door. 
In this method there Is no loss by ex¬ 
posure to weather, no attacks of vermin, 
no deaths from hawks or gapes. This, my 
third year confirms me in my belief that 
this is the proper method, unless one Is in 
the business In a large way, when, of 
course, he will need brooders and incu¬ 
bators. 
I wish those who are using these would 
give us the “ cold facts’’from actual ex¬ 
perience. C. E. CHAPMAN. 
491 
The Convenience of 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. 
HURRAH! 
Sell Fowls when they are Low. 
I think the best time to sell fowls is when 
grain is low and fowls are low, that is, in 
the fall. This may seem paradoxical, but 
let us see. About May 1st buyers were 
giving us 8 cents per pound for live poul¬ 
try ; by September 1st they will probably 
pay 6 cents. Twelve 4-pound hens would 
bring $3.84 now, or $2 88 in September—a 
difference of 96 cents. These same hens, if 
worth keeping at all, should lay 40 dozen, 
or 40 eggs apiece during the summer sea¬ 
son. If the owner will follow the easy and 
profitable method of preserving eggs, they 
should bring 20 cents a dozen at the least 
in winter, or $8 in all. The cost of feeding 
could hardly be over $2 for the entire 
summer, leaving a profit of $6, or a net 
profit of $5.04 in favor of keeping the hens 
until fall. I never sell in the spring, but 
crowd for eggs during the season when 
hens can assist by picking up so much food 
out-of-doors. Most of the eggs are pre¬ 
served for the inevitable high prices. And 
if fowls are sold in autumn the difference 
is but a few cents on each, which is far 
overbalanced by the number of eggs laid 
during summer. But I think that a breed¬ 
er of strictly fancy poultry should sell 
whenever he gets a good offer. 
Livingston Co., N. Y. A. d. WARNER. 
SUMMER SPROUTS. 
How Immigration Would Decrease ! 
—Sweden has a law providing that no per¬ 
son can emigrate from that country with¬ 
out first procuring a certificate of good 
character from the pastor of his parish. If 
Italy will pass a similar law, Mr. Blaine 
will write her a very pretty and cordial 
letter of thanks in behalf of the American 
people.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
No More Criminals Wanted.— It is not 
sufficient to stop persons of a certain class 
upon the arrival of a ship at an American 
port and send them back to Europe. This 
restriction, although good enough as far 
as it goes, does not go far enough. It ex¬ 
cludes paupers and persons likely to become 
a public charge, but it is of little avail in 
shutting out the criminal classes. It has 
several times been suggested that the law 
should prohibit any would-be immigrant 
from landing unless he could show a cer¬ 
tificate from an American consul as to his 
good character and fitness for American 
citizenship.—Denver Republican. 
We Want More Such Measures.— 
Promptly upon the heels of Secretary 
Tracy’s declaration of a purpose to put the 
navy yards under civil service rules comes 
the announcement from Washington that 
subordinates at Indian agencies are to be 
appointed hereafter solely on the merit 
system. Both pieces of information are 
exceedingly welcome to patriots and un¬ 
welcome to spoilsmen. Both measures 
are in the line of good politics as well as 
good sense, for it is the patriots and not 
the spoilsmen who are going to rule this 
country in the near future.—Boston Ad¬ 
vertiser. 
v A Bold Yeomanry, Their Country’s 
Pride ! ”—On the subject of lower prices 
the able Secretary of Agriculture says that 
people forget that the farmer’s profits are 
small, rarely exceeding five per cent, and 
hence reductions of prices that seem trifling 
to industries yielding 15 or 20 per cent profit 
cut the farmer to the quick. He is likewise 
of the opinion that the active interest of 
the farmers of the country will be benefi¬ 
cial to the body politic. They are thinking, 
conservative men of the Republic, and the 
moral strength and backbone of the Na¬ 
tion. And, more than any other class, the 
Western farmer represents the homes and 
families which mean so much to our coun¬ 
try. As Mr. Rusk says, capital need fear 
no illegitimate onslaughts on the rights of 
property at the hands of the men who own 
their own homes, who till their own acres, 
and who owe their living to the proper ad¬ 
ministration of the little capital they pos¬ 
sess. The danger lies far from the Ameri¬ 
can farmer. It lurks in our large cities, in 
the rum shops and gambling dens, and in 
the slums where the ignorant and irrespon¬ 
sible congregate and are led by the worst 
elements of society.—N. Y. Press, (Rep.) 
LONG MAY IT WAVE! 
Every man and boy, and woman, too, 
who is a true American, loves that good 
old flag as the emblem of what Is best in 
government. The principles for which it 
stands can not be too early instilled into 
the minds and hearts of newcomers on the 
field of action, be they youths of our own 
blood, or men of other lands come newly 
to these shores. That flag should ever 
wave in sight of Americans. 
Every school house, 
E fery town hall, 
Every Grange Hall, 
Every assembly place, 
Every farm home. 
should have its flag staff, and every flag 
staff should of course bear its flag. 
BUT, a flag of cheap and poor stuff 
is a disgrace to the flag itself, and the regu¬ 
lar bunting Is very expensive. What is 
known as “ cotton bunting ” makes a flag 
that is creditable to any man who owns It, 
and which cannot be distinguished from 
the expensive bunting flags except on close 
examination. The colors are guaranteed 
absolutely fast. We have arranged to fur¬ 
nish “cotton bunting” flags, not mounted, 
to our subscribers at moderate cost, sent 
prepaid, as follows: 
THREE feet long, for two trial sub¬ 
scriptions at 25 cents each. Price, 40 cents. 
FOUR feet long, for four trial subscrip¬ 
tions at 25 cents. Or 75 cents for the flag 
alone. 
FIVE feet long, for six trial subscrip¬ 
tions at 25 cents. Or the flag alone for $1. 
SIX feet long, for one new subscription 
at $2, or for eight trials at 25 cents. Or 
the flag alone for $1.25. 
SEVEN feet long, for one new subscrip¬ 
tion at $2, and two trials at 25 cents. Or 
alone for $1.65 In cash. 
NINE feet long, for two new subscrip¬ 
tions at $2. Or for sale at $2.75. 
The Seven and Nine feet flags make a 
very handsome appearance on flag staffs of 
moderate height and on buildings. The 
Five and Six feet flags are suitable for 
hand flags, or for hanging at low eleva¬ 
tions. 
These flags are good. 
You are or ought to be patriotic. 
Fourth of July is coming. 
Your neighbors, every one, ought to have 
The R. N.-Y. 
Who will be the first in every town 
where The Rural New-Yorker is taken 
to unfurl one of these flags to the breeze ? 
We are willing, of course, to sell these 
flags for cash simply to accommodate sub¬ 
scribers who have no time to get up clubs, 
but our special object in making this and 
all other premium offers, is to extend our 
subscription lists. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Times Building, N. Y. 
