262 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 15 
“ Here are my figures for the past two years, with 
every egg accounted for : 
1891. 1892. 
Eggs laid. 
Eggs sold. 
Eggs used and set. 
. 40.034 
. 37,150 
. 2,908 
Eggs laid. 
Eggs sold. 
Eggs used and set.. 
. 35,938 
. 1,649 
Eggs sold.. . 
Chickens sold. 
.8822.22 
. 169.81 
Eggs sold. 
Chickens sold. 
.8756.40 
. 61.80 
Total. 
Cost of feed. 
.8991.93 
. 439.00 
Total.. 
Cost of feed. 
.8818.20 
Profit. 
. ...8552.93 
Profit. 
Eggs averaged 2t>^c. per dozen. Eggs averaged 26J^c. per dozen. 
Eggs cost 13 1-Gc. per dozen. Eggs cost 9^c. per dozen. 
This shows that my 400 fowls gave an average profit 
of $1.25 each. The hens laid rather better in 1891, 
but grain was higher, so that the profit for the two 
years is about the same. One year with another 1 find 
it varies but little.” 
“ But what about your time ? That is not counted 
in.” 
“ The manure, as I use it, fully pays for my time, a* 
I will explain later.” 
“ Why do you prefer the Browns ?” 
“I think they are hardier than the Whites, and 
easier to keep in houses. Their eggs are not quite so 
large, but they lay more of them on an average.” 
“ Do you use incubators ?” 
“ No, I hatch by hens and put the chicks in brooders.” 
“ What shape and size of house do you prefir ?” 
“ My largest house is shown at Fig. 100. The two 
wings at right and left are for poultry. Wire netting 
divides each wing into two parts, thus giving four pens 
of about 50 birds each. The center portion has two 
stories. Below is a little stove for cooking feed, meal 
bins, meat and bones, cabbage, etc., also a small coop 
that I call my “hen hospital” where all dumpy or 
ailing fowls are put for treatment. Upstairs is a work 
room where tools, strawberry baskets and crates are 
stored and repaired. What I call my model house is 
shown at Fig. 101, with an interior view at Fig. 102. 
This house is 12x24 feet, four feet high at back and 10 
feet at front. The hot-bed sashes in front are about six 
feet long. There is a door at one end. The house is 
built of inch hemlock boards with tarred paper inside. 
The inside view shows how all my houses are fur¬ 
nished. The floor is kept covered with chopped straw 
or coarse hay. Notice how the roosts are fixed so they 
can be easily taken out for cleaning. The platform 
under the roosts catches the droppings, which are 
thus easily scraped up and removed. The nests are 
shown under the platform. The object at the right is 
a feeding trough put there simply to show it. My 
next house will be built exactly like this one.” 
“ How many hens can lodge there ?” 
“ It is built for 50, but I have 05 there now, and they 
are doing well. The hens stay there from October 
until April, when they run out in a yard about 100x150 
feet.” 
“ Tell us how you feed your hens.” 
“At 0:30 a. m., we feed a warm breakfast made by 
mixing boiled mashed potatoes with corn meal and 
bran, with chopped meat or bone. I use charcoal in 
this and also a little pepper. They have all they will 
eat of this. At noon they have green food—the 
trimmings of cabbages chopped fine, or chopped clover 
hay. An hour before sundown they have whole grain 
—one-third corn and two-thirds wheat—scattered in 
hay where they must scratch for it. We keep pure 
water and oyster shells before them all the time.” 
Making: The Most Of Hen Manure. 
“ liow do you figure that the hen manure pays for 
your time ? ” 
“ See what it saves me. My entire bill for manure, 
fertilizers and seed was $140, yet I manure heavier 
than many who pay three times as much. The hen 
manure is gathered three times a week, well sprinkled 
with plaster and stored in a tight building. In spring 
it is dry and hard. I grind or crush it up fine, sift and 
mix with dissolved bone black and muriate of 
potash.” 
“ What proportions do you use ? ” 
“ For strawberries I take 100 pounds muriate of 
potash, 200 dissolved bone black and 700 sifted hen 
manure and plaster. For potatoes say 125 pounds 
muriate and 175 bone black with the same amount of 
hen manure.” 
“ Do you recommend this mixture for all ? 
“No it just suits my soil as I have learned from 
many experiments. Other soils might need more pot¬ 
ash or bone black. There is no question though that 
this is the best way to use up hen manure—fined and 
mixed with chemicals. I have tested my mixture 
time and again with the best fertilizers in the market 
and it does as well as any at one-fifth of their cost. 
On many soils probably more nitrogen would be 
needed, but on my rich swampy land the hen manure 
gives enough. I never had much success with hen 
manure used alone.” 
“ Do you use this mixture on all crops?” 
“ Yes, wherever others use fertilizers. All I ever 
buy is bone black and muriate except now and then a 
bag or two of some complete fertilizer to satisfy my¬ 
self again that my mixture is enough. When I set 
out strawberry plants I put this mixture on thick and 
cultivate it in. The young plants need soluble food 
close to them. I buy a good deal of stable manure 
which I use mainly as a mulch on strawberry beds. 
For potatoes I use this mixture in the drill like any 
fertilizer. In fact I claim that my hens pay 100 per 
cent profit in cash while they save as much more by 
Hen House and Tool Room. Fig. 100. 
giving me the basis of a fertilizer that would cost $400 
in cash if I had to buy it.” 
Some Silent Partners In The Farm. 
“ How was your last year’s strawberry crop com¬ 
pared with former years’ ? ” 
“ At least one-third smaller than usual. The season 
was very wet and many of the berries were so soft 
that they did not sell well. The crown borers almost 
destroyed one whole acre out of four, so that the pro¬ 
ceeds were comparatively low.” 
“ How long do you pick your strawberry beds ? ” 
“It depends upon the way they bear. It is just 
about like the hens, as long as they give signs of pay¬ 
ing I keep them at work. I raise the Great American 
largely—a variety that seems to thrive well on my 
wet soil, though I see some others do not like it.” 
“ What about the acre hurt by the crown borer ? ” 
“ I picked what few berries there were and plowed 
it up and set out late cabbage—using my home mix¬ 
ture, and sold over $250 worth from the acre.” 
“ How about potatoes ? ” 
“I had less than two acres from which I dug 587 
bushels. The varieties were St. Patrick, Late Puri¬ 
tan and Rural New-Yorker No. 2. The latter gave at 
the rate of 400 bushels to the acre, but I didn’t plant 
many of them, because the year before their flavor 
was bad. This year, however, under the same cul- 
Interior Model Hen House. Fig. 102. 
ture the flavor was fine, and I wish I had planted 
more of them.” 
“ How do you raise potatoes ? ” 
“On The Rural’s trench system—the soil is carefully 
prepared and the pieces planted in a wide, deep trench 
with plenty of my home mixture. We pick up in bags 
—a bushel in each bag—this makes easy and quick 
handling.” 
“ What other crops pay you ? ” 
“Hay and pears pay very well. I cut over $400 
worth of choice hay. Whenever a wet season hurts 
the strawberry crop the hay is always better, I have 
also a good orchard of pears coming in bearing, which 
promises to pay me well. I have quite a good many 
Keiffers. People talk a good deal against this variety, 
but there can be no doubt that it sells as well as any. 
I call it a profitable variety.” 
To Control the Rainfall. 
Every now and then comes a dry season, when, in 
spite of the fact that Mr. J.’s farm is so low and wet 
naturally, the strawberry crop suffers severely. This 
crop must have water in abundance while it is form¬ 
ing, or it will shrink from 25 to 50 per cent in quantity 
and quality. The crop of 1891 suffered severely from 
this cause, and Mr. J. made up his mind to secure a 
perfect water supply if possible. Accordingly he put 
up the windmill shown at Fig. 103. The view also 
shows his barn and tool shed. 
“ Does it pay you ? ’ I asked 
“The mill, with pipes complete, cost me $580, in¬ 
cluding 2 00C feet of one-inch and %-inch pipe, Could 
I have had it in 1891, the increase in the strawberry 
crop would have paid the whole cost in that one sea¬ 
son. Last year was so wet that I did not need extra 
water on the berries. I used it on the fall-set cabbage 
plants with good results. I consider that the water 
supplied to barn and chicken houses pays all interest 
and repairs in convenience and time saved.” 
“ How do you work it ? ” 
“ The wheel is 14 feet in diameter, and the tank 
holds 165 barrels. I have a tiled well three feet wide, 
and 12 feet deep, with plenty of water. To use it I 
run an inch main down the center of the farm cn top 
of the ground From this %-ineh branches run to the 
sides, with a hydrant at the end of each. By putting 
a hose 150 feet long to the hydrants, I can wet all the 
strawberries, or I can easily run the pipe to any part 
of the place.” 
“ Do you get head enough at the end of the pipe ? ” 
“ Not as much as I would like. To remedy this I 
shall put up another tank down in the fields, and con¬ 
nect with the windmill tank. That will not only give 
an extra supply of water, but a better head on the 
lower part of the farm. I am well satisfied that I 
can pay the whole cost of the outfit in one single dry 
season. Gardeners and farmers must come to irriga¬ 
tion if they expect to keep up with the procession. 
Competition with more favored parts of the country 
is now so fierce that farmers must cut down the cost 
of growing their crops, and nothing will do more for 
this than a perfectly regulated water supply.” 
The Best Lesson of All. 
Mr. Johnson has made a financial success of his own 
little farm, and it is pleasant to know that he can now 
take more comfort and pleasure in life. He says : 
“ Since I gave up my occupation of a jeweler, 12 
years ago, I have worked hard on the farm, being in 
debt and the place needing considerable improvements. 
Tools, etc., too, were to be supplied. All of these 
requisites are now made or secured, while I am oat 
of debt. The farm being in a high state of fertility 
and cultivation, I expect in the future to take things 
much more easily. I shall hire the work done and keep 
from two to three hired men during the working sea¬ 
son. I now keep one man the year around. My spe¬ 
cialty will be chickens and strawberries. I have a pear 
orchard of over 100 trees now coming into full bearing. 
I expect to reap quite a comfortable income from it. 
The farm being now in working shape, as I understand 
the capabilities of the soil, I expect to clear over $1,000 
a year above my farm and household expenses, and 
that from 18 acres of land, 15 of which I cultivate.” 
“ Farming by proxy (hired help) never pa ; d, did it ?” 
“ I made no headway here when at first I hired hands 
to work the farm, while I kept on working at my trade, 
although I received a good income from my regular 
business. I was afraid to give the latter up for the un¬ 
certain income from a poor farm ; but, being away from 
my family all the week, and my health failing, I deter¬ 
mined to make the change. The first year I devoted 
my entire attention to the farm, and realized a good 
profit, and it has steadily increased since, and I am 
well satisfied. If 1 had given up my trade sooner, I 
would be better off to-day. Since I retired to the 
farm I have enjoyed first-rate health.” 
“ Would you advise others to do the same ? ” 
“There are, no doubt, hundreds of men living in 
cities working at trades from year to year, paying 
rent, probably laying by a few dollars now, all to be 
expended in a few months in a dull season. Fearful of 
old age, they continue the same routine until they 
become old men ; whereas, if they would only obtain 
a place of a few acres, near a good market, they 
could clear more money off 300 or 400 hens than 
their entire wages would come to, besides raising con¬ 
siderable produce to sell. For the last four years I 
have cleared, over and above all expenses, upwards of 
$500 a year from less than 400 hens, not estimating 
the eggs and chickens used in the family, and several 
wagon-loads of hen manure, which produces an abund¬ 
ance of other crops and really represents so much more 
money from the hens.” h. w. c. 
