65o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 30 
PORK MADE FROM PICKINGS. 
SWKET SWILL STOPS "OUR SQUEALS. 
rEDTTORTAL CORRESPONDENCE.] 
Wealth Wasted in the Wastes. 
The wastes of this country are enough to make 
many men wealthy. The profuse productiveness of a 
virgin soil has not begotten in the American people 
the spirit of frugality that has become a necessity 
among older and more crowded populations. The 
typical American likes to do things on a grand scale 
without regard to the petty economies which often 
turn the scale from loss to gain. Many of the big 
dressed meat concerns make a handsome profit on 
their whole business from the parts that are usually 
wastes with small operators. It is said that a French 
cook will get up a go^d meal from wbat many would 
waste. The French are a nation of economists, pos¬ 
sibly from necessity, but they are among the most 
prosperous cf peoples. The man who devises methods 
of uti’izing wastes of any kind is a public benefactor. 
Near many of our cities and larger towns the busi¬ 
ness of collecting the refuse from hotels and boarding¬ 
houses forms quite an important adjunct to the occu¬ 
pation of the nearby gardener poultryman, stock 
keeper, and sometimes it is whispered even of the 
dairyman. There are ways in which this refuse may 
be turned to a profitable and healthful account. Thre 
are others in which it may be so manipulated as to be 
detrimental to health, and decidedly objectionable. 
A few days since I visited a farm near Albany, N Y., 
where the refuse from several large establishments 
in that rity is collected and fed to hogs The farm 
is the property and th a home of Mr Roessle, formerly 
one of the proprietors of the Delavan House, and lies 
on the o’d Albany and S ;henectady turnpike, about 
four miles from the C ty Hall. The soil is rather light, 
inclined to sand, and the surface is rolling, apparently 
being naturally well drained. The mansion and bui d- 
ings stand back some distance from the highway. I 
found Mr Roessle willing to show me around and tell 
of his work though he remarked as a starter : 
“ I haven’t much of anything to show. I haven’t 
many hogs now, and they are all running at large. 
We haven’t done anything towards fixing up the pens, 
or cleaning up or fixing up for winter.” 
I assured him that I didn’t care anything about the 
pens or other fixings. I simp'y wished to learn what 
there was to learn about his method of utilizing and 
feeding the materials that he did. 
The Refuse and How It Is Handled. 
“ All right then, come on. There is the wagon in 
which we draw out the stuff It is simply put in bar¬ 
rels and covered over with a canvas.” 
“ From where do you get it ? ” 
“ From any place with which I can make a contract— 
from the Delavan House, the penitentiary, the night 
boats, the Old Ladies’ Home, and other places.” 
“ What do you have to pay ? ” 
“That is just as I can make a contract. There is 
competition for the stuff, and an agreement must be 
made for its regular and prompt removal.” 
“ Do you cook the refuse before feeding it ? ” 
“No, it is fed raw, excepting in winter. There is a 
platform upon which the barrels are dumped, and 
where the hogs can eat without treading the feed 
down into the dirt.” 
“ How often do you gather the refuse ? ” 
“ Every day.” 
“ Wnat do you consider the greatest objection to 
this as hog feed ? ” 
“The fact that I can’t get enough of it. If I could 
get more, I would feed more hogs. I haven't over 400 
or 500 now. Last year I lost 270 by pneumonia just as 
they were nearly ready to turn off. I haven’t had so 
many since.” 
“ You spoke of c'.oking the feed in winter.” 
“ Yes, come in here and I will show you. We put 
the stuff in this big kettle, and put in a barrel of 
water for each barrel of feed. This is well heated up 
together, is then put into this barrel cart and wheeled 
around to the pens.” 
A Range Needed ; Black Hogs Wanted. 
“ I notice tha’ you have a.11 sizes together.” 
“ Yes. we keep the sows separate while farrowing, 
and until the pigs are old enough to take care of them¬ 
selves; then they are turned in with the drove. They 
do just as well that way ” 
“ Do you think that they do as well where so many 
run together as they would in smaller herds ? ” 
“ If they have plenty of range. Hogs need range 
and grass, and mine have both. This keeps them in 
good health. They have plenty of pure drinking water 
continually, and thrive as well as any hogs.” 
“I see a good many black hogs in your herd. Do 
you bke them as well as the white breeds ? ” 
“Hatter. The white hogs are nogood. They aren’t 
so thrifty as the blacks. Look at those black shotes 
there. Their hair is smooth and sleek, they are plump 
and round and well filled out. They are away ahead 
of the whites.” 
“ Do you like the pure breeds best.” 
“ No, I prefer a cross udou the whites.” 
“ What breed of blacks ?” 
“ Poland Chinas and Berkshires. Come around here 
and I will show you the father of the herd. He is a 
Berkshire, three yea~s old. and as quiet and gentle as 
you please. He would take the premium anywhere. 
See what a well-built fellow he is, perfect in every 
way. The only trouble is that he is too fat for ser¬ 
vice.” 
Cheap Pork Without Grain. 
“ Do you feed any grain to finish up with ? ” 
“Sometimes a little corn for a few days is all. 
Ax Apple Picker. Fig. 214. 
Many of these hogs are fit to turn off now, and they 
haven’t had a particle of grain.” 
“ At what age do you turn them off ? ” 
“Wuenever they reach the proper weight—about 
200 pounds alive.” 
“ Do you dress them here ? ” 
“No; one of the live stock firms down at Wist 
Albany takes them whenever they are ready.” 
“ What about the quality of the pork made from 
this feed ?” 
“Well, I asked the firm that slaughters them. 
They said that the pork was good ; that if thqre was 
any difference between that and the Western pork it 
was that mine was just a trifle softer, but that there 
was so little difference as to be hardly noticeable. It 
is good pork ; good enough for anybody-” 
“I suppose you can produce it cheaper than you 
could by feeding grain ? ” 
“Oh, I couldn’t make pork raising pay if I had to 
buy grain. I don't know just how much cheaper I 
can produce it, -but I know the cost is considerably 
less than it wou d be from grain. Of course the cost 
depends largely upon the terms one can make for the 
refuse. The expense of hauling and feeding is not 
heavy. One man here does all the hauling and feed¬ 
ing, going twice a day if necessafy. With plenty of 
range and grass, with pure water for drinking in 
abundance, pork can be made very cheap’y.” 
The refuse consists of the peelings, etc., from the 
fruits and vegetables used, with all the leavings of 
Fig. 215. 
Farmer Green : “That's right. I'll just make that boy pay 
for his wheel.'’—The Referee. 
bread, meats, vegetables, etc., from the tables. The 
bread is kept separately, and this is used to some ex¬ 
tent for feeding the hens, of which Mr. Roessle has 
quite a number. He purposes making more of a 
feature of these, and, as he expresses it, making the 
hogs more of a side show, as the hens pay better. I 
will tell something of the hens next week. 
Aren’t there many farmers v ho can profitably en¬ 
gage in something of this kind ? Oue thing is to be 
noticed : This refuse is gathered daily, and is used 
while it is fresh and sweet, before fermentation has 
begun. It doesn’t have the odor attaching to the od 
swill barrel so familiar on many farms By the way, 
what advantage is there in allowiag the swill to get 
so sour as many do before feeding it ? f. h. v. 
AN APPLE PICKER. 
The illustration shown at Fig. 214 is taken from an 
advertisement in a California paper. It will illustrate 
the principle on which several pickers are made. It 
is like an inverted umbrella on wheels, with a box 
below it. It is pushed under the tree. The fruit is 
shaken cown into it and rolls into the box. 
A SMALL POULTRY STORY. 
A CITY MAN’S FIRST YEAR WITH HENS. 
Some Figures to Ponder Over. 
Just over the fence from the writer’s house live two 
young men whose experience with hens may be of in¬ 
terest to R N - Y readers. On July 13 + hey closed the 
first year of their poultry keeping. Previous to that 
they had never kep* a fowl, having lived in the city 
without any place to raise poultry. They had. there¬ 
fore, everytlr'ng to learn, even to the batching of an 
egg. This makes their record all the more interesting 
as a good fu id of experience has been obtained which 
will be a permanent fixture in their poultry business 
hereafter. 
“ Mr Shepherd.” I said, “ how did you start in the 
poultry business ? ” 
“ We first bought 12 White Plymouth Ro"ks and 10 
White Wyandotte hens and a White Wyandotte rooster 
for 825. and we also raised seven little chickens the 
first season. A carpenter built us a small house for 
820 Later we bought 18 bens, mostly White Leg¬ 
horns and another mixed lot, of 27 of all ages and 
blood, and also t^ree Games. We also bought another 
small house and have built a large one ourselves.” 
“Of the 71 old birds how many are now left?” 
“ About 60, and they now average 12 eggs a day. 
We do not expect to keen many of them through the 
winter—on y the youngest and likeliest with our 
pullets.” 
“ What have these old birds done for you? ” 
“ In one year from buving the first hen we sold 
3 482 eggs The lot of 27 wore not bought till New 
Year’s and only 22 hens have been kept the full year.” 
“ How much money did the bens bring you ? ” 
“ We sold just 8104 worth of eggs and chickens.” 
“ What was the cost ? ” 
“ The actual cash outlay is as follows : 
Feed .$57 67 
Birds bought. 4 ti 25 
Etrirs for batching. si to 
Three houses . 55 00 
$l c 9 82 
“ What have you to show on the other side ? ” 
“ We can safely figure our assets as follows: 
Cash received for eires, etc.$]0« no 
Three houses . ... 50 00 
OOold he "8 a'50 cents .. 3 " 00 
50 *o mr roosters, at 40 certs. 70 Of) 
110 young pullets, at 50 cents. 55 00 
$259 00 ” 
“This shows a profit of 869 18. or over 30 per cent on 
the first outlay. To this must be added a large amount 
of ‘ experience.’ We have already sold some of the 
young roosters, dressed, for over 50 cents each, but the 
prices given are fair for this place. We have not 
counted in the manure at all.” 
“ What about your young stock ? ” 
“ We set in all 334 eggs. We have raised just 160 
chickens, of which 50 onlv are roosters. This makes 
about three eggs set to get one pullet, which, we think, 
is far better than the average. Of course, more than 
160 eggs batched, but quite a number died. As to the 
cost of those chickens, the eggs cost 831, and they have 
eaten about 820 worth of food, which made the 160 
cost $51. or a little over 31 cents each.” 
“ What breeds have you tried ? ” 
“Plymouth Rocks. Wyandottes. Leghorns, Games, 
Cochins and scrubs. Most of our pallets are Leghorns 
from eg^o of the Wyckoff stock. Games and Cochins 
are of little use for us. It is very hard to choose be¬ 
tween the Wyandottes and P R’s. but we think the 
Wyandottes have proved a little the better winter 
layers. We are watching our Leghorns carefully and 
cannot, of course, report yet. as our pullets have not 
begun to lay. We want to see how they will do this 
winter. Thus far we like them, as they are gr^at hus¬ 
tlers and go out and search for food while other 
chickens are standing still ” 
“ How many hens do you want ? ” 
“ This winter we want 100 good layers We propose 
to kill rS the old birds gradually. Next spring we 
shall set our own eggs, buying roosters with fresh 
blood. This, of course, will save us one great expense 
we bad this soring. How many can I take care of? 
Well, let me build the houses to suit me and I will 
agree to handle 1 000 layers ! ” 
“ What do you feed ? ” 
“ About the usual messes. I suppose—wheat, cracked 
corn, bran, etc. I have fed a bag of meat meal with 
good success. I use a Wilson bone mill for crushing 
oyster shells, and can also run corn through it and do 
a good job. I have raised quite a patch of cabbage for 
winter feeding, and will feed a,U the small potatoes,” 
