The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
January 7, 1922 
4 
adjoining pens in such a way that they can be wire 
nettinsr during the Summer and cloth or wood in 
Winter. The partitions should be solid to retain 
the heat and avoid draughts in Winter; but during 
the Summer right the opposite conditions are de¬ 
sired. and can be sufficiently realized by means of 
the open doors. A good tight-fitting window located 
well forward in either end of the house may also 
prove invaluable. 
ARRANGEMENT OF INTERIOR.—In arranging 
the interior of the pens aim t<> save every step pos¬ 
sible. Place the drinking vessels near the doors; 
build the mash hoppers large enough to hold a two 
weeks' supply: provide troughs and hoppers for grit, 
oyster shells, charcoal, etc., and have every door, win¬ 
dow and cover well fitted and easy to operate. Keep 
the floor as free from obstacles as conditions will per¬ 
mit. that it may be easily cleaned. It you can have it. 
running water is a tremendous time and labor saver. 
Nests built so the birds cannot most Upon them, and 
with-slatted bottoms, help a great deal to cut. down 
the labor attached !o the flock. The low back of the 
pen, of course, is the place for the roosting cabinet. 
Arrange this to conserve heat and avoid draughts, 
and provide for easy cleaning and spraying. Peg- 
horns require 7 in. of roost room to the bird, and 
because of their large combs it is well to “bunch 
them at night. Instead of the usual three roosts. I 
use four abreast, and thereby shorten my roostin : 
cabinet. If the cabinet is lightly boxed in on a'l 
sides there will be no need for a curtain la*.ore P 
Build the droppings-bnnrds light and arrange thin 
so the birds are right up close to the roof. 
So much for the house, which I believe is one of 
the three necessities in successful poultry keeping. 
The man, the house and the birds make up the trio. 
I take it for granted tin* man is there 1 . The house, 
which comes second, must surely be properly 
designed to fit its purpose, because no man can do 
supremely well with poor working tools. The birds 
are naturally important, lint as the right man with 
a good house can sometimes do wonders with just 
ordinary stock. 1 put them last. Another reason for 
this position is that of availability. Nowadays it is 
really hard to buy downright poor White Leghorns, 
the birds I refer to in this case. Failure in the poul¬ 
try business, as I have observed it. comes very seldom 
from any fault of the birds, chaiu.es h. weidxer. 
Ulster f'o., N. Y. 
Growing Pansies 
I. Do pansies prefer an acid or alkaline soil.' What 
fertilizer would vou recommend to secure blossoms n. 
extra size and colorings?. 2. Can von suggest some way 
of keeping moles out of Cold frames? F. V. n. 
Battle (’reek. Mich. 
A NY good, rich garden or greenhouse soil will 
grow pansies of very high quality if the seed is 
saved from a superior strain. There is possibly no 
species of plants where careful selection of the*stock 
for seed will produce more satisfactory results than 
the pansy. Any good commercial fertilizer, sheep 
manure, a light application of ben manure, or any¬ 
thing of a soil-enriching nature will be of a benefit 
in inducing growth, though do not overdo it. Be 
moderate in the 'applications, and do not wait too 
long between them. 
2. The only barrier to moles would be concrete 
or some other material run down to quite a depth 
below the surface. After they get in it hotbed they 
can be trapped, or the surface of their runs tramped 
solid. Then exercise patience and wait for 11 cm. 
When you see them at work they can be easily 
thrown out <>f the soil by quickly digging under them 
at the rear and throwing them in the air. They are 
very quick and their sense of hearing or sensitive¬ 
ness to noise is very great, so that you will have to 
act quickly and quietly. e. j. w. 
Defects in Butter 
What makes batter smell like cheese, and show white 
streaks through it. after it is a week old? We use 
buttermilk for ripening cream ; churn once a week. 
Pennsylvania. R- F- c. 
Y i H R difficulty lies in some contamination which 
is carried over from your cream into the butter. 
The buttermilk starter which you use has been con¬ 
taminated with an undesirable organism which is 
able to produce bad flavors and odors in the butter. 
I should advise that you buy a commercial lactic 
starter culture from some dairy supply house or 
some drugstore. These cultures contain only desir¬ 
able cream-souring organisms, and if you carefully 
follow the directions which accompany the packages 
you should very readily overcome your troubles. 
Then, too, I should recommend more thorough work¬ 
ing of the butter, so as to rid it of all excess mois¬ 
ture, and give you an even distribution of the salt. 
Bacteria which cause bad odors and flavors grow 
best, when the butter moisture is excessive or un¬ 
evenly incorporated. This underworking of the but¬ 
ter may account for the white streaks. J. w. jt. 
The Alarm Clock Lights the Hens 
I SLE the Pastoral Parson has wired his henhouse. 
I believe it is the best earthly investment he ever 
made. But it isn't right for the Parson to be getting 
up at I a, m. True, in the dark days before we had 
electricity on our farm, I used to arise at a most un¬ 
christian hour to light the old kerosene mantle 
lamp, so the Leghorns could see to eat. But there 
is a better way. Take a small pine stick. <> in. long. 
Cut a slot in one end to fit the button of the snap 
switch, like A, in Fig. .‘1. In the other end put a 
small screw-eye. The snap switch should be on a 
vertical wall. Nail a small box on the wall, below, 
and a little to the right of ilio switch, and put in it 
an alarm clock, anchored to the bottom of the box 
by nailing on beveled sticks to bold the legs, like B. 
Another stick can I hen be nailed to the sides of the 
box, resting on top of the clock, back of the handle 
on top of the clock case, as shown by dotted line. 
The clock can then be put in and taken out of the box 
Automatic Lighting Appliance for Henhouse. Fig. 3. 
freely, but will be held firmly in place when it is in 
the box. Then take an ordinary spool and saw into 
the end an inch or so, like C. This slot will lit the 
winding key which winds the alarm. The spool 
should be wired in place on the winding key. A 
siring connects the screw-eye in the slotted stick to 
the slotted spool on Ihe winding key, the string pass¬ 
ing through an opening in the top of the box. The 
string should be so fastened to the spool that it can¬ 
not slip as the spool turns. 
The alarm is wound and set for 4 a. nn. the 1 ghts 
turned off and the slotted stick put on the snap 
switch in a more or less upright position, and the 
feed put in the litter at dusk. The unwinding of the 
alarm key, when the alarm goes off, winds up the 
string on the spool, pulls down the end of llie stick 
attached to the switch, turns on the lights, and the 
bens get tip and eat, while the Pastoral Parson 
sleeps the sleep of the just. This arrangement has 
been in use on my place for two years, and has 
given perfect satisfaction, both to the hens and my¬ 
self. I have seen somewhere the statement that an 
hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after 
that hour. Possibly this is so; but I know this: 
that the last hour’s sleep in the morning, after 1 
hear the hens cackle and the roosters crow, is more 
enjoyable than all the others put together. 
Erie Oo., N. Y. at,frei> morrison. 
Henhouse Litter on Potatoes 
vVilt the litter from henhouse hurt potatoes? Some 
: av that it will form potato scab. E. H. 
New York. 
T HERE is only one way we can think of in which 
this poultry-house litter might injure potatoes. 
Poultry manure is usually alkaline, like horse 
manure, and when the seed potatoes are quite scabby 
such manure will increase scab. This could be 
mostly prevented by treating tin* seed with formalin 
before planting, and by using aoid phosphate with 
the manure. That would be good practice anyway, 
since the acid phospate will balance the manure 
Handling a Currant Patch 
We have about 1,000 currant bushes that the witch 
grass has got the best of. Would it pay to remove them 
to a good clear field? Wlmt kind of snil is best - ? IN hat 
fertilizers would you recommend? Should we t -ke them 
up this Fall, or in the Snrbig? Would it he h<-- to 
prune them? If so. how much? n. R. n. 
Massachusetts. 
T HE writer does not tell how long the plants 
have been set. but assuming that they have been 
sol but one season, 1 see no reason why they cannot 
be taken up in the early Spring and the witch grass 
separated from llu* roots of the currants, ('urrants 
growing wild do best on the heavier, cooler so'ls. 
even in partial shade, hence the grower who selects 
a field which lias somewhat of a northern exposure 
and one which bolds plenty of moisture, without 
being wet, will more nearly approach the conditions 
attained by the wild forms. Heavy yields of cur¬ 
rants are produced where there is plenty of humus 
and nitrogenous fertilizer in the soil. Stable manure 
applied and worked into the soil befere the pl'ants 
are set is a practice common with many growers. 
If stable manure is not available, the grower must 
depend upon annual green manure crops, such as 
barley, oats, or in some cases, clovers may be used, 
either alone or in connection with buckwheat or 
rape, and commercial fertilizers which run high in 
nitrogen and phosphoric acid. It would be advisable 
to prune the plants after taking them up, leaving 
only two or three of the strongest canes. 
If the plants have been set for several years, I 
would advise setting a plantation with new plants, 
but maintaining I be present planting for a year or 
two, harvesting as much fruit as possible. -V mini¬ 
mum amount of hoeing and grubbing could be done, 
mowing about the plants with a sickle if necessary 
when the grass and weeds become too high and 
using 1 Ho material mown as a mulch between the 
rows. The older canes should be cut out. to reduce 
the amount of bearing wood, and thus secure larger 
fruit upon the remaining canes. s. p. holli.ster. 
Connecticut. 
Seeding to Kudzu 
I have a pasture, mostly in large trees. Having 
heard about this kudzu. I think I will scatter some of 
lln- seed under the trees this Spring and thus start the 
crop. s * K - 
Y OU can scatter the seed if you like, but you will 
have little or no crop as a result. That is not 
the way to start kudzu in the North. You must 
plant the roots if you expect to grow kudzu. East 
year we planted seed in Ihe garden and raised a few 
plants, which can be transplanted this Spring. They 
required considerable 1 care, and there would be no 
use expecting the seed to grow when scattered over 
the ground like clover. 
Work for an Engine 
I have a 6 hp. gas engine that I use for sawing wood 
•ind cutting feed Spring and Fall. I would like to find 
other use for it in the Winter, as I am not farming at 
present, also in the Summer. How about manufacturing 
something? But what, in a small way? I have done 
<-arpeuler work two years, also cement work, and have 
run a sawmill. C, TV. s. 
New York. 
H ERE is a question which can be answered by 
the man who asks it far better than by anyone 
else. Of course tHe work that a man could find to 
do for an engine will depend almost entirely upon 
the locality. In our own community, for example, 
there are a good many dead chestnut trees. The 
bark has fallen off, but much of the wood is still 
fairly sound. A skillful man with an engine and 
saw could rip many of lliese trees up into box or 
crate timber, which could usually be sold without 
trouble through an advertisement. Then there are 
always jobs uf sawing wood, cutt ng stalks and doing 
similar work in almost any locality. A shrewd man 
could advertise in the local papers and ] i k up umn\ 
a job with bis engine power. In many oases a feed 
grinder or bone mill could be made to pay. N\ e ate 
receiving a number of questions about the wisdom 
of establishing a local gristmill to do custom work 
for the community. We do not know what tbetc 
would be to do in this man’s locality. He would 
have to be salesman enough to get out and learn the 
requirements of bis neighbors, and then piepate tm 
them. Of course no outsider can ever answer snob 
a question as this with any satisfaction. 
A Fox and Dog Question 
Have I a right t<> kill a fox ahead <>f another man's 
d. g if we arc not hunting together? Have I a right to 
claim f| H . fox? Is there any law against setting traps 
on top o*' the ground? A * c * s ‘ 
New York. 
I X is not likely that these questions are large 
enough to lie considered by the disarmament 
conference. I ut with hundreds of our readers they 
represent the cause of family or neighborhood con¬ 
flicts. There is nothing under the conservation law 
which covers the question about shooting a fox. 7‘Ui 
will not violate any written law if you kill a fox 
which another man’s dog is chasing. There is. how¬ 
ever. an unwritten law among hunters, that game 
.-hoi ahead of a dog belongs to the owner of the dog. 
Usually such an unwritten law becomes a habit, and 
is stronger than any printed law as between man and 
man. As for the traps, there is no law to prevent 
them being put on top of the ground, but anyone 
using them should use discretion, so that they are not 
likely to catch domestic animals. 
