714 
October 28 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
soil. Both of these matters have been considered by 
Professor King, and we shall refer to them in another 
article, also showing the root growth of oats, barley, 
wheat, clover, etc. The whole thing is very interest¬ 
ing, and we shall all know our business better for an 
introduction to our underground friends. 
have the run of the green fields instead of the barn¬ 
yard or a foul henyard, as most hens have.” 
1 said, “that is worth trying; I will try an ad¬ 
vertisement in The R. N.-Y. next week.” 
Stolen Nests; a Change in Feed. 
“ How is that flock doing now whose record we were 
examining a while ago?” 
“ They laid 456 eggs in August, and 359 in September, 
making 4,547 for the 10 months since December 1. I 
could count only 36 hens a few days ago, and supposed 
another had died. There is an acre of asparagus just 
over the fence from their house, and while we were 
cutting it over yesterday in order to clean it up for 
Roots 18 Days After Planting. Fig. 230. 
next season, we found her out in the middle of the 
patch sitting on 15 eggs.” 
“ Why ! you will have broilers for Christmas ? ” 
“ Oh, no ; we destroyed the eggs and ordered her 
back to work.” 
“Don’t you have lots of trouble with hens which 
steal their nests outside ? ” 
“ Very little. A few of them laid outside during 
the hot weather, but I don’t know of a nest outside 
the buildings now except the one we found in the as¬ 
paragus. Some of my young pullets are inclined to 
roost in the trees lately. There are several chestnut 
and oak trees in the pasture field by those farthest 
buildings.” 
“ What are you going to do about it ? ” 
“ That is easy to manage. I shall trim off the lower 
limbs if they get too troublesome.” 
“You see that large sugar maple that overhangs 
building No. 5. Some of those hens tried roosting in 
it last spring. We trimmed off the lower limbs as you 
see about 12 or 15 feet up from the ground, and have 
had no further trouble.” 
“How is this?” said the Deacon as he raised the 
milk instead of water about the same time I changed 
from corn to wheat, but the excellent record my hens 
made during the month of Saptember may be attrib¬ 
utable in part to the change. Do you see that hen 
that just came out of No. 2 ? She is moulting freely, 
but her comb is red, and she is cackling for dear life ; 
doubtless she has just laid an egg. I got 95 eggs yes¬ 
terday (October 5), and they are laying remarkably 
well for the time of year. Perhaps if I had kept up 
the corn ration they would not have been doing so 
well.” 
Does the Manure Pay the Interest ? 
“I see your barrels of manure under the tables 
are about full. What do you do with it when they 
get full ? ” 
“ At present, I am selling it at the tannery in town. 
They offer me 30 cents per bushel for all I can make.” 
“ Can you afford to sell it at that price ? ” 
“ That is one of the questions I have not fully de¬ 
cided. I have a milk route in town, as you know, 
and buy a good deal of feed and hay in order to make 
enough milk to supply my customers. I find that 
milk from my own dairy gives better satisfaction than 
most milk that I can buy. In this way I make large 
quantities of cow manure, and don’t really need the 
hen manure very badly. I claimed at the outset of 
my experiment that the manure from the hens would 
pay the interest on the money invested, and I want to 
see how nearly I was right.” 
“ How does it pan out at 30 cents a bushel ? ” 
“ Here is this sugar barrel in No. 4. It is now about 
full, and this is the second time it has been filled since 
May 1, making nine bushels in five months, or $2 70; 
or at the rate of $6 a year. The cost of the house and 
40 hens is about $65.” “ Why,” said he, “ that is pay¬ 
ing more than six per cent.” 
“ Oh, yes, but it costs something to gather it. You 
must allow for the labor of scraping it into the bar¬ 
rels once a week at least, in hot weather. I expect it 
to pay interest on capital invested as it lies on the 
tables. 
“ That can’t be much,” said he. “ We will ask 
Jesse,” as my 17-year-old son came along. Jesse, by 
the way, is chief assistant of the hen department, and 
head boss when I am away. I hope to see him manager- 
in-chief one of these days. 
“How long does it take,” said the Deacon, “to 
scrape the manure from these tables into the barrels?” 
“ That depends,” said Jesse, “upon whether I want 
to get through to go fishing or whether father wants 
me to dig potatoes. The other day I cleaned up the 
15 tables in half an hour.” 
I have seen some enthusiastic poultrymen who 
claimed that the value of the manure would pay the 
cost of feed. Here is, not theory, but the result of 
actual practice and actual sales for cash. I never 
hear or read of such enthusiasts but I think of my 
father’s family physician. He was of the old-fashioned 
type and believed thoroughly in his lancet and his pill 
box. I was a boy at home and drawing manure one 
day during one of his calls. Duritg the conversation, 
as the doctor leaned on the barnyard fence, some one 
remarked that the farmer’s manure pile was his best 
bank account. He could accomplish wonders as long 
as the account held good. 
“ Jinks,” said he ; “ if I were a farmer do you know 
what I would do ?” Of course we all gave it up. 
“Why,” said he, “I would feed my cows on physic 
every day.” _ o. w. males. 
MORE ABOUT POTATO SCAB. 
THE corrosive sublimate solution will cube it. 
Little Difference to be Seen. 
I tried the corrosive sublimate treatment for potato 
scab, soaking uncut potatoes and planting in sandy 
loam, Timothy sod. About half the ground had been 
manured with stable manure, the remainder receiving 
nothing. No potatoes had been grown on the same 
ground for many years, if ever. The seed was slightly 
scabby, some were left untreated, and now I can see 
no difference between the treated and untreated, the 
manured and unmanured. There is little scab to be 
seen, not so much as on the seed. j. h. v. 
Hudson, Mich. 
Will Soak all Seed Next Spring. 
I soaked the seed potatoes 1% hour in a solution of 
two ounces of corrosive sublimate to 15 gallons of 
water. I used two kerosene barrels set up on a box, 
with faucets to draw off the solution in pails. While 
one barrel was soaking I filled the other with seed 
and then drew the solution out of the first barrel and 
emptied it on the second lot. I then emptied the 
soaked potatoes out of the first barrel on the granary 
floor and they were soon dry enough to handle. I 
soaked my seed before cutting. There is no scab in 
the field crop, although the seed was somewhat scab¬ 
by. I had some scabby potatoes in the garden where 
the ground was manured. There were some scabby 
and some clean potatoes in the same hills. They 
“ HENS BY THE ACRE.” 
another round with the deacon. 
Coal Tar on the Perches. 
The Deacon seems very much interested in the Elec¬ 
tric Poultry Yards. I have a call from him every few 
days. He seems determined to investigate the matter 
fully before gratifying Susan’s desire for a new hen¬ 
house. 
“ Did you try using coal tar on the perches to kill 
those lice ? ” said he the other day. 
“ Oh, yes ; I tried it over a month ago.” 
“ Well, what effect did it have on the lice ? ” 
“ I think it is an improvement on kerosene. Come 
over to the poultry yards and we will investigate. I 
painted the under-sides of the perches about six weeks 
ago. After a week or 10 days I found a few patches 
of lice on the unpainted sides, so I went at them 
again. This time I thought I would knock them out, 
so I painted all four sides at once. The hens soiled 
their feet and feathers a little for a couple of days and 
some of the egg shells had a few black marks, but 
nothing serious occurred.” In the first house visited, 
we failed to find a louse, but in the next one the 
Deacon’s sharp eyes were rewarded. 
“ Here the little varmints are,” said he ! Sure 
enough : on one of the poles a feather had stuck fast 
just before the tar had got dry, and around the old 
feather was a nice patch of the red varmints. We 
found a few others, but considering the four weeks 
which had elapsed since the tar was applied, we pro¬ 
nounced it a success. When the poles were perfectly 
smooth and black no lice could be found. On account 
of the hens roosting on them before they were well 
dried, the dirt and feathers had adhered in several 
places making a good hiding place for the lice. 
“ I have it,” said the Deacon. “ If you had two sets 
of poles and should carry one set outside and apply 
the tar while they used the other set, you could have 
them perfectly smooth and black, which would give 
the little pests small chance.” 
The Deacon’s idea is a good one. I believe three or 
four coats a year would do the business. If the tar 
could be mixed with something to make it thinner it 
would do just as well and be more easily applied. I 
tried thinning it with kerosene, but, bless you! it 
wouldn’t mix any more than oil and water. So I car¬ 
ried my little oil stove along and set the pail over it 
occasionally, warming it up till thin enough to apply 
easily. 
Looking for a Fancy Buyer. 
“How many old hens have you now?” said the 
Deacon. 
“ Well, there are eight flocks, but very few have 50 
hens each at present. The last count, taken about 
two weeks ago, showed 288 all told.” 
“ How many eggs do you get a day ? ” 
“ From 80 to 110. In the month of September I sold 
255 dozen, which brought me $73 95.” 
“ How is that ? ” said he. “I thought you only got 
eight cents per dozen above market quotations, and 
Susan got only 18 cents at the store most of last month, 
while $73.95 for 255 dozen must come to nigh on to 30 
cents.” 
“ Oh, I forgot to tell you that I am shipping to a 
new man lately. A gentleman from Jersey City came 
up here and offered me 10 cents per dozen above the 
highest quotations, so I have been shipping to him 
lately.” 
“ Well, I vum !'” said the Deacon. 
As we were returning to the house he inquired: 
“ How much does it cost to feed those hens a month, 
do you suppose ? ” 
“ I don’t suppose, but I know that 10 cents a day 
will feed 40 hens, making the cost for 288 hens about 
$22 for a month, leaving me over $50 for labor and 
profit.” 
The next time he came over he said: “ We have 
been talking about your selling eggs at 10 cents pre¬ 
mium, and Susan says that she has heard of people 
getting as high as 50 cents a dozen for eggs.” 
“ Oh, that is nothing ; I know of cases where new 
laid eggs have sold for higher prices than that. I Lave 
not looked for a fancy market for my eggs yet.” 
The Deacon had another good idea ready : “I have 
a brother,” said he, “ who runs a store in the city, and 
he has great faith in printer’s ink ; says nothing pays 
better. Now, why don’t you advertise for a buyer for 
your eggs ? As soon as those 300 pullets get ready for 
business, you ought to get a crate every two or three 
days, and you mi/ht strike some of those fancy buyers. 
Your eggs ought to be of the finest flavor, as you are 
feeding wheat, oats and skim-milk, while the hens 
Baby Corn Roots 27 Da\ - s After Planting. Fig. 231. 
cover of the barrel and brought out a handful of 
wheat. “ I thought you were feeding corn ? ” 
“ So I was till about a month ago. One day I met 
Squire Dill, who is quite a fancier and keeps a flock of 
Brown Leghorns in town. He takes the Poultry 
Keeper, too. He advised me so strongly to change 
from corn to wheat that I am trying wheat now. We 
must go down and see the Squire’s hens some day. 
Perhaps we can get some points.’ - 
“All right,” said he; “I would like to go, but I 
guess the Squire will be more likely to get points 
from you.” 
“ I don’t know about that. I don’t know it all by 
a jugful- I am always on the lookout for a new or 
better idea. I would not give much for a man who is 
too old to learn. Here is this wheat question : To be 
sure I changed to mixing the morning feed with skim- 
