838 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 21 
" HENS BY THE ACRE," ONCE MORE. 
A UAKD FIGI1T WITH ROUP. 
"A Balanced Ration,” for Leghorns. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
It is a long time since we heard from O. W. Mapes 
and his “ Hens by the Acre ” scheme. On December 
7,1 went to the “ Electric lien Yards” in Orange 
County, N. Y., to see whether the scheme had petered 
out. It was a cold, blustering day, and gave one a 
chance to see the hens at the most critical season of 
the year—just after their moult and at the beginning 
of the housing season. Instead of being petered out, 
one might say that the business has been “ jacked 
up ” since we last heard from it. There were 1,2C0 
lively and scratching birds on the place, with their 
combs reddening up all ready for laying. The rea¬ 
son why we have not heard from the place, is that a 
scourge of roup swept through the flock last year, and 
Mr. Mapes has been so busy clearing it out that he has 
had no time to talk. Now that the disease has been 
about wiped out, he is going to tell us how he did it, 
and we will guarantee an interesting and valuable 
article, containing many new ideas and suggestions. 
Mr. Mapes is one of those m?n who would rather 
keep grandfather’s shoes in the parlor under a glass 
case, than to use them for corn fertilizer on his own 
feet. Just because old-time Orange County farmers 
made milk and butter in the old-time way, was no rea¬ 
son why he should do the same. Therefore, he looked 
around for new crops. He keeps a small dairy, and, 
on the more tillable parts of the farm, grows aspara¬ 
gus and small fruits. But there are 20 acres of the 
farm so stony and rough that a crop of stone walls is 
about all that can be expected from it. There is a 
bit of pasture here and there, but the stones are so 
close together that a cow can hardly take a 
full bite without grinding her teeth. 
It is always the waste land on the farm 
that reduces the acreage value and income. 
It is a dead weight to carry. Unless labor is 
thrown away in keeping it clean, it becomes an 
eyesore and a breeding place for foul weeds or 
insects. The farmer who runs his farm on busi¬ 
ness principles, will abandon such land and 
concentrate his work and manure on fewer 
acres, or think out some new crop that will 
thrive on the waste place. Last year, we told 
how Mr. Engle, of Pennsylvania, has changed 
a worthless, stony hill-side into a profitable field 
by grafting improved chestnuts on stumps of 
wild trees. In like manner, Mr. Mapes decided 
to raise a crop of hens on this 20-acre geological 
collection. A hen might scratch her toes off 
on these rocks, but the toes would grow again, 
and it wouldn t hurt the rocks. If the eggs 
contained a little extract of sand, so much the 
better for the backbone and moral courage of 
those who eat them. 
The first sight one gets of the farm, shows a col¬ 
ony of little red houses scattered over the rocky fields. 
These houses are placed about eight rods apart, so as 
to give about 100 hens to the acre—as each house is 
to hold 40 hens. When we get into one of these 
houses, we shall describe it in full. There are no 
yards or fences. Each house has an electrical con¬ 
trivance for opening a feed box and closing a door. 
By pressing on a button in his diningroom, Mr. 
Mapes is able to drop the night feed in 35 houses at 
once. The noise of the falling grain sounds an alarm, 
and 1,200 hens are in the air at once, each on the wing 
for her own home. Though the houses are so close 
together, the hens seldom mix up. Though they may 
wander half a mile away during the day, they will 
come back to the regular house to feed, roost and lay. 
This crop cultivates and hoes itself in summer, and 
about all that is necessary for the owner to do is to fill 
the feed boxes, touch the button, pick up the eggs 
and clean out once a week. In winter, the hens 
are shut in the houses and, of course, more care is 
required. 
The first place we visited was the “hen hospital.” 
This is an old henhouse a good distance from any of 
the others. Whenever a hen is observed that seems a 
little “ off color,” she is at once placed in this house 
with the understanding that she is never to leave it 
alive. If she get well, she is made into fried chicken ; 
if she cannot be cured, she is killed and buried. Mr. 
Mapes adopted this rule in Ins fight against roup, and 
we shall hear all about his hospital experience in 
good time. 
The feeding problem has been a tough knot to study 
out. Last winter, Mr. Mapes became greatly inter¬ 
ested in Thk It. N.-Y.’s “ Balanced Ration” articles. 
It was a new idea to him that certain elements in the 
food went to make muscle, while others made fat and 
could not be used to produce lean meat or bone. It 
seemed very reasonable that there should be a fair 
proportion of lean and fat producing elements in a 
hen's daily food, and he set himself to work to try to 
find what this ratio or proportion should be. lie took 
a table of analyses, and figured it out for all the com¬ 
binations he has fed himself, and all others he can 
hear of. Whenever he hears or reads of a mixture 
some farmer is feeding to poultry, he sits down and 
figures out how many ounces of muscle-makers, etc., 
it contains. This has given him a most valuable set 
of tables for comparison, and has not only shown 
about how these elements should be combined, but 
has enabled him to buy new foods to great advantage. 
For example, he was offered milk curds or pot cheese 
from a milk factory at a certain price, while in Middle- 
town he could buy beef livers and beef scraps at other 
prices. Which were the cheaper foods? He had 
them analyzed, and thus found what a pound of 
muscle-makers cost in each. After figuring and com¬ 
paring and observing the effect on the egg yield, he 
has settled on this winter ration : 
Morning Feed. —Four pounds of wheat bran, one 
pound of corn meal, one pound of ground oats, one 
pound of malt sprouts, one pound of Bowker’s animal 
meal. 2% pounds of pot cheese. 
Noon Feed.—F our pounds of oats. 
Evening Feed.— Ten pounds of whole corn. 
This represents the daily food for 120 hens in three 
houses. The morning feed is made into a warm mash, 
and carried around in a wagon or sleigh. The oats 
and corn are kept in bins in the houses. The oats are 
scattered in the litter, so that the hens work for them, 
ry * 
and the corn is scattered at night as we have stated. 
When we come to talk about “Feeding the Hen,” in 
Primer Science, we shall have more to say about this 
ration. All things considered, Mr. Mapes calls it the 
best and cheapest he has figured out. He is fortunate 
in being able to buy pot cheese at a low figure. The 
hens are crazy for it. There can be no doubt that 
some form of animal food in the laying hen’s ration, 
is almost a necessity. These hens are mostly Leg¬ 
horns and Minorcas—probably a somewhat different 
ration would be better for heavier birds. This ration 
figures out about one part muscle-makers to four parts 
fat-formers—taken as a whole. The morning feed 
alone is much stronger—nearly one to two—wnile the 
evening feed of corn alone is very much wider. It is 
the customary practice to feed the strongest feed in 
the morning, and the warmest one at night. Next 
week we shall follow the feeder around, and see what 
the houses and hens look like. h. w. c. 
THE COST OF FIRE INSURANCE. 
WHY STOCK COMPANY RATES ARE HIGH. 
A Virginia Association. —On page 812, The R. 
N.-Y. says : “ Cooperation moves the world!” Thanks! 
I belong to a cooperative society known as The 
Mutual Benefit Association of Virginia. This associa¬ 
tion insures property against lo«s by fire, lightning 
and wind. Policies are issued only on farm property, 
buildings and furniture, and such implements as are 
usually stored therein. The sellers of liquors on their 
premises cannot become members. No policies are 
issued on town property. The State is divided into 
districts consisting of one or more counties, according 
to population. The members of a district are respon- 
siole only for fires within their own bounds, and have 
nothing to do with any other district. The admission 
fee is 50 cents on every $100 for which the applicant 
desires to insure within the usual bounds. There¬ 
after, no further payment is made until a member's 
property is destroyed by either fire, lightning or wind. 
Then a pro rata assessment (which thus far has not 
exceeded $3 on each thousand per annum) is made, 
and must be paid within 30 days. Absolute security 
is afforded by the fact that each member assigns his 
insured property to the association to the extent of 
the levied assessments. Any member may withdraw 
by giving 30 days’ notice. By a like notice, the asso¬ 
ciation may disbar a member. All accounts, either 
way, occurring before the lapse of the 30 days, must 
be balanced by the respective party. Parties who 
would have nothing to do with stock companies, are 
quick to insure in this association. Truly, such 
cooperation “ Moves the world !” It moves people 
whom the most persistent ordinary insurance agent 
cannot budge. J. c. s. 
Ore Banks, Va. 
Insurance Cost in Ohio. —A. R., Raglesville, Ind., 
page 808, does not state the length of policy which the 
Brooklyn company mentioned gives for $3 per $100 
insured, but if it is not more than five years, and 1 
have never known companies to write policies for a 
longer period, the rate is extortionately high. Allow¬ 
ing one-third, the amount collected for current ex¬ 
penses of the company, and that is entirely too much, 
this rate would mean that two per cent of the farm 
property of the country was destroyed every three or 
five years, as the length of policy may be. The statis¬ 
tics of losses in Ohio show that not over one-half of 
one per cent is destroyed in five-year periods, and this 
for a long series of years. For the last five years, 
losses throughout the State have been somewhat 
heavier, approximating one per cent. Until within 
the past two years, the Ohio Farmer Company, which 
issues paid-up policies, has insured in this and ad¬ 
joining counties for a term of five years for $1 on the 
$100. Since that time, they have been charging the 
same for a three-year policy, and are now canceling 
all their five-year policies, claiming that they can no 
longer carry them at that rate. 
The mutual plan of insurance is very popular in 
this State. An increasing number of farm risks are 
in the 80 mutual companies of the State. Most of 
these companies were organized daring the few 
years following the enactment of a law in 1877, 
permitting them to organize as legal corpora¬ 
tions. Hence the plan has been tried long 
enough for a fair test. The annual report of 
the State Commissioner of Insurance, shows that 
this plan gives much cheaper insurance than 
the stock companies. The explanation of how 
they do it is easy to give. In the first place, 
they are not organized for profit. No more 
money is collected from policy holders than is 
actually needed to meet current expenses and 
the losses of the company. The officers are all 
farmers, and do their work for a compensation 
that would be insignificant in the eyes of an 
officer of a stock company. This economy is 
an immense one. Just now, there is a com¬ 
mittee at work in this State gathering facts 
about the workings and cost of insurance in 
various companies, with a view of revising the 
insurance laws of the State. It comes to light 
that the presidents of some of the stock com¬ 
panies get as high as $60,000 a year, more than the 
President of the United States. The other officers 
are paid proportionately. Mutual companies, as a rule, 
have no office expenses. Their agents get less than 
half as much as the agents of stock companies do, so 
that the running expenses of mutual companies are 
kept at the minimum. With the amount at risk kept 
up to $500,000 or above, the mutual is the safest possi¬ 
ble company, because it cannot break up. The com¬ 
pany in my own county, insures against loss by fire, 
lightning and wind storms. It has been doing busi¬ 
ness 18 years, and now has approximately $2,000,000 
at risk. The largest three annual assessments of its 
history, were 15, 20 and 24 cents on the $100. More 
than one-half the years, it has made no assessment. 
Delaware County, O. h. p. milder. 
A Pennsylvania Company. —I am acting secretary 
of a cooperative company known as the Germantown 
and Clermont Insurance Company. This company 
represents property insured amounting to over $400,- 
000, and the insured are represented by nine directors 
chosen annually, one of whom is the acting president, 
and another the secretary, either of whom has power 
to issue policies to applicants. The director receives 
$2 for issuing a policy ; the secretary' receives 25 cents 
for recording the same in the company’s book. An 
undertaking which accompanies every policy, and 
which must be signed by the applicant, is tiled in the 
town clerk’s office at a cost of six cents, thus making 
an expense to the company of $2.31 for each policy 
issued. The applicant pays $1 for a policy and 10 
cents on every $100 worth of property insured, which, 
as a rule, pays the expenses of the company except in 
case of loss by fire or lightning, when each member 
is assessed pro rata on the amount of his insurance, 
towards liquidating the claim. The policy holds good 
for five years. The company can cancel a policy at 
any time, and the party insured can order his policy 
canceled at any time by paying all dues. I have been 
carrying an insurance of more than $4,000 over 20 
years, and have not paid $100 for assessments. 
Columbia County, N. Y. j. h. h. 
SENATOR APPLE. Fig. 272. See Ruralisms Page 843. 
