THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
765 
1S9 3 
be allowed to sit for a day first, as desired. If she is 
quiet, the wire door may be opened at once and she 
be allowed to come off the nest into the sitting room. 
Here grain, grit, water, a dust bath, etc , are pro¬ 
vided ready for the sitter to help herself at any time. 
When another hen becomes broody, another wooden 
door is closed and the opposite wire one opened. The 
hens usually need little attention, as they generally 
go back upon the nests all right. Mr. Hicks said that 
if he were building another, he wouldn’t have the tier 
of nests over two nests high, as the hens sometimes, 
instead of going back to the upper nests, go into the 
lower ones if they find them unoccupied. A card may 
be fastened to each nest giving time of placing the 
eggs under the hen if one’s memory can’t be trusted. 
This arrangement obviates the necessity for moving 
the sitting hens to separate nests. 
Fig. 249 shows the manner of constructing the nests. 
One end of the frame is clearly shown and needs little 
description. The board which forms the bottom of 
each tier is so arranged that it may be slipped out, 
when all the nest material will drop down, the boards 
and frame may be cleaned, whitewashed or kerosened, 
and the boards returned to their places. This is cer¬ 
tainly an ingenious arrangement, and one easily con¬ 
structed, as well as being very convenient to clean. 
In one corner of the henyard is a large coop in 
which to confine those biddies whose incubating pro¬ 
pensities it is not desired to humor. Much of the 
poultry roams at will through the orchard and larger 
grounds surrounding the buildings. Henry Hicks evi¬ 
dently doesn't approve of this plan of poultry keep¬ 
ing. “Why is it,” he asked, “that a farmer has a 
place for his hogs, cattle, sheep and all other animals, 
and allows his hens to roam about the house ? He 
doesn't want to live with his other live stock; why 
should he with his hens ? ” Why ? 
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not answered In our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
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FERTILIZERS OR MANURE FOR DRY WEATHER 
WHICH ARE THE MORE AVAILABLE ? 
The Target. 
1 In the past season of extreme drought have you noticed any dif¬ 
ference in the crops grown with fertilizers or stable manure that could 
be attributed to the fact that one was better than the other In a dry 
time? 2. As a rule, In your experience have fertilizers proved more 
available than manure In dry seasons? 3. If you knew that a coming 
season was to be very dry, which would you expect to give better re¬ 
sults, high-grade fertilizers or manure? 
A Few Scores. 
1. Yes, in favor of the fertilizers. 2. Yes, if fertil¬ 
izers were truly high-grade, and so readily available. 
3. High-grade fertilizers. I believe that these opinions 
are shared by nearly every farmer in this vicinity 
(the Connecticut River Valley) where quantities of 
fertilizers are used with great liberality, o. D. howe. 
Would Prefer the Fertilizers. 
Until agriculture becomes a more exact science than 
it now is it will be extremely difficult to prophesy 
results of fertilization. Commercial fertilizers are 
more susceptible to moisture, except, perhaps, bone, 
than stable manure, and are more finely pulverized. 
If it were possible to disintegrate or shred stable 
manure so that it would be in fine particles it would 
be best in a dry season ; but if the manure be put upon 
the field thickly or in large lumps it is nearly worth¬ 
less in a very dry season. Taking commercial and 
barnyard manures in their usual state, I would prefer 
fertilizers in a dry season on most crops. 
Ocean County, N. J. geo. a. mac bean. 
High-Grade Fertilizers Best. 
We have not had such a test during this season of 
drought whereby we could make comparison as be¬ 
tween yard manures and chemical fertilizers. We 
have had experience in former years, wherein we 
found that crops did better daring a season of drought 
with chemical fertilizers than with yard manure. We 
would certainly expect better results from high-grade 
fertilizers in a season of drought than from yard 
manure. D. c. lewis. 
Middlesex County, N. J. 
Must Have Both Manure and Fertilizers. 
My potatoes were planted on a field which was in 
sod last year, manured and planted to corn. This year 
I applied one ton of Mapes’s potato fertilizer to the 
acre, and had 150 bushels of potatoes per acre ; this 
was a good crop considering the dry weather, but 
whether I should have had more with manure I have 
no means of knowing except by comparison with the 
crops of my neighbors. This I can do only by getting 
their estimates of their crops. I had a heavy growth 
of grass, both from manure and fertilizers. I had one 
field where fertilizer alone was used, and another 
where manure alone was applied, and I think there 
was not much difference in the crop. My oats, 20 
acres, were all raised with fertilizers, and were a good 
crop. I put out only ensilage corn this year on 
manure, and it was very heavy. Manure is good, fer¬ 
tilizer is good ; both are good. I could not farm with¬ 
out both. I mean to make all the manure I can. I 
think it pays to cement a cellar bottom and save the 
liquid manure. I think it pays to use good fertilizers. 
Connecticut. Thomas j. stroud. 
Surface Cultivation Necessary. 
I used fertilizers on potatoes alone, but in connec¬ 
tion with stable and barnyard manure for other crops. 
Owing to the late, very wet spring and the severe 
storms in August, it is hard to judge of the effects of 
fertilizers of any kind this season. As a general rule, 
where there is plenty of humus in the soil, I should 
expect as good results from commercial fertilizers as 
from stable manure, and even better if the same money 
value were applied. In either case, plenty of surface 
cultivation is beneficial and, on heavy soil, very neces¬ 
sary, to obtain the best results. As to the result in a 
very dry season, I would prefer commercial fertilizers 
if I had only horse manure, which would not be as sure 
to carry out the crop, being more nitrogenous and 
not containing enough of the other elements of plant 
food, as would be the case with other manures. 
DENNIS FENN. 
Light Manure and Heavy Fertilizers. 
In a season so dry that the rainfall was not sufficient 
to dissolve the elements of plant food in the fertilizer 
I would prefer well composted barnyard manure, as it 
contains quite a large per cent of moisture. A first- 
class fertilizer contains very little moisture, and as a 
plant takes its nourishment in liquid form, I would 
expect better results in a very dry soil from barnyard 
manure in such a season. I depend upon high grade 
fertilizers mainly, to grow my crops, and I believe that 
we have very few seasons so dry that under thorough 
cultivation and with the soil in proper condition to 
start with, a fair crop cannot be secured with them. 
If I made barnyard manure enough so that I could do 
so I would prefer a light dressing of it, and a good one 
of fertilizer ; but Ido not, and I very much question 
whether one can afford to give anything for city stable 
manure and draw it any distance. J. N. barnes. 
Connecticut. 
Another Side to the Story. 
1 and 2. Very much depends upon the character of 
the stable manure and the method of application. If 
well rotted and thoroughly incorporated with the soil, 
I would expect it to be so porous that the moisture in 
the air would be condensed and absorbed to such an 
extent as to render the fertilizing elements in the 
stable manure available. Chemical fertilizers are in 
their very nature drying, requiring much moisture to 
dissolve them and in my experience the present season, 
as in other seasons, they have not been dissolved and 
made available for the growth of the plant, more par¬ 
ticularly in their use on potatoes than with fruits 
where they were broadcasted and the application was 
less in quantity. Under other conditions, if the manure 
were not thoroughly rotted, I have known the very 
worst results. 3. As to what I would do if I knew the 
coming season was to be very dry, I would give the 
most thorough preparation possible to the soil, by 
deep plowing and thorough pulverization. If not 
sufficiently loose and porous I would make it so by the 
application of well-rotted manure and then apply the 
chemical fertilizer to be mixed with the surface soil— 
to the depth of two or three inches and trust to Provi¬ 
dence for a crop. Bat I want to say right here that no 
manure of any kind can take the place of deep and 
thorough preparation of the soil ; and in this prepara¬ 
tion I have found the plowing under of green crops a 
most efficient means. I once plowed under a crop of 
oats in July, then sowed with buckwheat which was 
nlowed under in September, and the ground set the 
following spring with strawberries which withstood a 
five weeks’ drought growing finely all the time. Results 
are dependent in a great measure upon the methods 
of application of either stable manure or fertilizer. 
Dutchess County, N. Y. w. f. tabeb. 
As To a Yellow Peach. 
N. E. M., Hudgins, Va .—Will Prof. W. F. Massey, 
or some reader tell me through The R. N.-Y., the 
true name of the peach known in different parts of 
North Carolina as Lemon Heath, White Heath, etc.? It 
has yellow twigs and white blooms. It is a September 
peach, and a cling. Where may they be purchased ? 
Ans. —I would say that there are peaches known as 
the Lemon Cling and Heath Cling. Both of these 
varieties very nearly reproduce themselves from seed, 
and the result is that there are many of them very 
similar but not identical. The Heath known as Wil¬ 
kin’s Heath is the best. Any of the Richmond nur¬ 
serymen can furnish both—T. W. Wood & Son, or 
Hood & Co., Richmond, Va. w. f. massey. 
Need of Air in the Churn. 
G. C. M., Sunslde, N. Y .—1. Is contact with the air 
necessary for the best results in churning properly 
ripened cream ? 2. Is five pounds of good butter a 
proper average estimate for 50 quarts of milk ? 
Ans. —1. If by “contact with air” during churning 
is meant that there shall be a constant ingress and 
egress of air from the churn, it is not necessary for 
best results in churning either ripened or sweet cream 
that it should be exposed to the air. Churns have 
been made so arranged that there could be a circula¬ 
tion of air about the cream, but so far as I know no 
one has ever shown that butter made with these 
churns is made either more quickly or of better q lality 
than in the ordinary closed churn. No churn should 
ever be filled more than half full of cream, so that 
cream is always exposed to air during the process of 
churning. This is quite a different thing, however, 
from a free circulation of air about the cream. 2. In 
order to make five pounds of “ good butter,” that is 
butter containing 85 per cent of fat, it would be neces¬ 
sary that the 50 quarts of milk should contain four 
per cent of fat, providing the creaming and churning 
were done with the least possible lo9s. Four per cent 
of fat is rather more than the average milk produced 
throughout the country will contain, so that five 
pounds of good butter from 50 quarts of milk is a 
rather high estimate. H. H. wing. 
Try Arsenic for This Horse. 
F. E. B., Suncook, N. IT. —What ails my mare ? She 
eats perfectly, works as well as ever, but I can’t get 
flesh on her. Her mate is in good condition. After 
standing at noon, or through the night, her ears and 
sides are covered with cold sweat. She has no trouble 
with her water, and seems to digest her food per¬ 
fectly. 
Ans.—I am unable to say what is the probable cause 
of the sweating and failure to improve in general con¬ 
dition. A course of arsenic given for a few weeks might 
prove beneficial. Give one tablespoonful of the Fow¬ 
ler’s solution of arsenic (to be obtained of any drug¬ 
gist) once daily, in the feed or drinking water, f. l k. 
Tender Feet In a Horse. 
W. I?., Vineland, N. J .—I have recently come into 
possession of a horse that is tender in his fore feet 
from having been used on the cobble stones in the 
city. I have been recommended to anoint his hoofs 
with crude petroleum as a means of relieving them. 
Do you consider that this would do him harm or good? 
Ans. —The use of crude petroleum would undoubt¬ 
edly prove beneficial. The application of a fly blister 
to the front and sides of the coronet, for a distance of 
two inches above the hoof, would prove more stimu¬ 
lating and would favor a more rapid recovery ; the 
blister to be repeated, if necessary, at intervals of two 
or three weeks, until the desired effect is produced, 
and the hoofs occasionally anointed with the petro¬ 
leum or with pine tar. F. x,. k. 
Japan Chestnuts for a Wooden Wedding. 
M. F., Southold, L I .—1. Will you tell me about the 
growth of the Japan chestnut ? Is it suitable to plant 
on the roadside, or is it a shrub ? I have some and 
hardly know where to plant them, as I do not know 
the size to which they will grow. There have been 
articles in The R. N.-Y. regarding them, but I didn’t 
read them, as 1 never expected to have any. These 
were sent for my wooden wedding, so I want them to 
live and flourish. 2. What is the proper pronunciation 
of the Vergennes grape? Is it pronounced as if spelled 
in two syllables or in three ? 
Ans. —The Japan chestnut grown from nuts will, of 
course, vary in size. They will also vary in height and 
form according to their early treatment. All that we 
have raised, if unpruned, take a round form, the 
branches starting near the ground developing as well 
as those above. But if these lower branches are cut off 
to the desired height, they might be used as roadside 
trees. Many of the so-called Japan chestnuts grow 50 
feet or more in height. Many that we have seen in 
this country assume a dwarf habit. As an ornamental 
tree, seedlings might be used with good effect, though 
the litter caused in the fall by the burrs might prove 
an objection. 2. It is pronounced Verjenz. 
Name for an Apple. 
F. H. B., Poughkeepsie, N. Y .—I send you a specimen 
of apple from my place which is a stranger to fruit 
growers in this vicinity. Will you identify it for me 
and give me your opinion of its merits ? The tree has 
been an old one ever since I knew it, but not until I 
commenced to spray it two years ago, have I been 
able to obtain much perfect fruit. It ripens from the 
middle of September until the middle of October, and 
is not a very good keeper, but of excellent flavor. 
Ans. —The specimen sent resembles the Capron’s 
Pleasant as nearly as any variety of which we can find 
descriptions. It is of medium size, greenish yellow, 
mild, sub-acid, a very pleasant flavor, and a very good 
apple, all things considered, though not of high quality. 
