A Busy Day With ‘ ‘ Mapes the Hen Man ’ ’ 
H ENS AND COWS.—Do liens pay on the dairy 
farm? This question is often asked, and at 
least one dairy paper has recently made quite a 
feature of publishing answers to that question from 
its readers. I have claimed for a good many years 
that a combination of hens and cows on our Eastern 
farms, properly handled, can be made to increase 
fertility in the fields, as well as increase the size of 
the farmer’s bank account. My ls-year-old grand¬ 
son, William S. Mapes, is at present doing practi¬ 
cally all the labor in connection with the care of my 
six units of liens, half of which arc pullets, and niv 
10 cows, besides two horses and six head of young 
cattle, and it will be interesting perhaps to follow 
him for one entire day and see if wo can find an 
answer to the question propounded above. 
THE DAY'S ROUTINE.—He is a typical Ameri¬ 
can farm lad. with a muscle in his arm and a brain 
in his head, neither of which is flabby for want of 
use. His picture is shown here. His ancestors 
for seven generations in a straight line have owned 
farms and operated them successfully within three 
or four miles of this spot. The original log-house 
homestead was still standing and in use in my boy¬ 
hood days. As on most dairy farms, our day's work 
begins at 5 a. m.. or very soon thereafter. William’s 
mother lives just across one field, only two or three 
minutes’ walk from the barn, and the path leads 
directly through the buoyant. On his way to the 
barn he turns on the lights for the liens, scattering 
a few handfuls of grain to call them down from the 
perches and wake them up, using only four quarts 
for the 1,500 liens. This takes about 15 minutes* 
time. 
RARN WORK.—In the milk room at the barn a 
coal-burning water heater connected with a tank for 
watering the hens receives a few minutes' attention, 
after which the usuql routine of feeding the horses, 
milking the cows, feeding the rows, cleaning the 
horse stable, and giving the cows their morning 
allowance of hay, is gone through. At the break of 
daylight the lights in the henhouses are turned off 
by a simple twist of the wrist on his way to the 
milk-room with a pail of milk. 
AFTER BREAKFAST.—About seven o'clock he is 
ready to go to his breakfast. At eight o’clock, or a 
little before, ho is hack on the job. Caring for the 
horses, turning the cows out in the yard ami cleaning 
the cow stable come next in order. Our gutter be¬ 
hind the cows is extra wide and deep, and is water¬ 
tight. As soon as the gutter is cleaned a few 
shovelsful of acid phosphate are scattered in the 
bottom, followed by a liberal layer of discarded 
litter from the henhouse floors, sufficient to absorb 
all tin' urine for the next lit hours without becoming 
sloppy. This discarded litter is composed of shav¬ 
ings from dry lumber, in connection with some coal 
ashes and lots of poultry droppings, previously 
stored in a convenient box stall. After passing 
through the cow gutter the whole is dumped in a 
tight pit and spread upon the fields every week or 
10 days. 
CARE OF-THE IIEXS.—Next in order is the till 
ing of the hens’ drinking tubs with warm water 
piped from the tank in the milk-room to each house, 
throwing each pen a pumpkin or two with sufficient 
force to hurst it open, and seeing to it that a suffi¬ 
cient supply of mash is in the hoppers. This took 
him until 10:15 a. m. It happened today that none 
of the hoppers needed refilling, and tlie hens require 
no more attention, except to gather the eggs, until 
after dark. His 11-year-old schoolgirl sister gen¬ 
erally helps a little with the milking, and I generally 
clean and pack the eggs myself. 
SHIPPING ECUS.—His next job was to get out 
the "flivver" and take the eggs to the express office, 
four miles away. We ship twice a week at this time 
of year. There were five crates today, making 25 
kO-do'/cn crates since December 1. He had some 
errands to do in town, including a sitting for the 
photographer, and was excused until 3 p. m. 
THE EGG CROP.—He was hack on the job at 3 
o'clock, mixed a half ton of dry mash to have ready 
for tomorrow, and at 4:15 o’clock brought in 537 
eggs. The average for the past seven days has been 
550 a day. Of these 405 were laid by the three pens 
ot pullets and 115 by the three pens of hens. The 
cows were next fed, let out to drink, milked and 
given their night’s fodder. On bis way home to 
supper at (5 o’clock he again lighted up the hen¬ 
houses and scattered a little grain in each house, 
as in the morning. 
AFTER-SUPPER WORK.—It is hardly fair to 
ask a hoy of his age to tie himself down every eve¬ 
ning after supper to care for hens according to the 
modern methods of getting eggs in Winter by arti¬ 
ficial illumination, so I take turns with him in doing 
the after-supper work. This evening happens to he 
my turn, as well as the regular meeting night for the 
Roy Scouts Troop, ol’ which he is a member, so at 
0:30 I sally forth to give the hens their principal 
meal of the day and put them to bed with a full 
crop. Each pen gets an allowance of mixed grain 
equal to a scant ounce and a half per bird per day, 
including the little used to entice them down from 
the perches when the lights are turned on. They 
tat most of it before going back to perch, and go to 
roost with full crops, hut the litter in which it is 
fed gets a good stirring over again in the morning. 
Feed at (1:30, dim lights at 7:15. and lights out at 
7.30 is the program, and the day’s work is done. 
MilLK RETURNS.—Let us see from this if we can 
William Si. Mapes 
find an answer to the question at the beginning of 
this article. The milk sheet shows that for the past 
st-ven days the cows have average 2ls lbs. a day. 
Most of my cows are Summer milkers, and are not 
milking heavily just now. Under the pooling plan 
we do not know what price the milk is going to 
bring until we get our check, hut it will probably be 
close to $5 per cwt. for six per cent milk in this 
freight zone, or say. $t> per day. 
EGG RECEIPTS.—The egg receipts are now 
grading about two-thirds as bens’ eggs and one- 
third as pullets' eggs, or about $30 per day. It 
seems perfectly safe to estimate that for the month 
of December the returns from the liens and cows 
will lie at least $1,000. one-half of which will he 
labor income. How does this compare with the 
returns from the same amount of labor where it is 
all devoted to cows? 
INCREASING WORK.—Of course we will have 
to get more help as soon as the hatching season 
arrives, and as I have arrived at an age where 1 
may lie excused for preferring to have most of the 
farm labor done by hired help. I have engaged a 
“haek-to-tbe-lander” from Brooklyn who is very 
anxious to get some practical experience in the ex¬ 
pectation of inlying a farm of his own one of these 
days. He will probably he on hand before this is 
in print. I may forestall a good many questions hv 
saying we have a man handy by, who works around 
by the day, that we can call on any time we need 
help at such jobs as drawing out manure, etc. Also 
that our feed dealer luis a truck and delivers feed 
at the farm on a telephone order for a dollar a ton 
extra. While December is likely to he the banner 
month of the year, there lias been a good balance 
on the right side of the ledger every month, although 
1 only had !><Hi heus during most of the year. 
Orange Co.. N. Y. o. w. mapes. 
Joint Deeds and Bank Accounts 
Every little while the matter of “joint deed” and 
joint hank account comes lip. At one farmers’ institute 
just recently the woman lecturer claimed that most joint 
deeds would not hold; were not worded properly. As 
to bank accounts, she said : "The account should be in 
the name of ‘man or wife’: not ‘muu aud wife.’” In¬ 
quiring at the bank, we were informed that there was 
no way of fixing it but what the State would get its 
clutches onto an account of this kind. The hank 
claimed that all people wanted to have it this way; that 
the wife, iu case of death of husband, or vice versa. 
ni lf. llt . ,,avc hand to do as he or she liked, both 
with the real as well as personal property. It would 
outs be fair that this should be so. Both husband and 
wife have labored together for years and have perhaps 
a lirtle property, as they should; why should the one 
who survives he bothered by the authorities, but espe¬ 
cially when this one is the wife, who so often had it the 
hardest . He want to know if there i,s any wav to fix 
a bank account so that the surviving one may draw, as 
when both were living. 
\\ e want to know whether a deed may be so written 
that it will accomplish this eud. Our deed reads: “F 
£r n **. *]• (; • jointly in the entirety.” The words 
Ills Wife, do not appear. The word "tenant” does 
not appear- Will this wording stand, or make the deed 
ii 'k , e vv, : r . e ;l * sn told by the woman speaker that 
the bunks would not tell us the truth, as they were in¬ 
terested m holding the money as long as they could, 
this may or may not he so. Lawyers are interested in 
having things written up iu a loose fashion, so that 
there may tie need for their being employed later. I 
bougbr a law hook eight or 10 years ago. In it is not a 
word said about n joint deed or a joint bank account. 
Ihe tew practical things, things we would like to be 
informed on, this book is silent on; aud it is a big book. 
F. G. AXD WIFE. 
(L AS1 ON ALLY we heap of this woman lecturer 
V-/ whose object seems to he to teach the farmer 
women the laws. W*e have heard of more than one 
farmer’s wife who has returned home from these 
lectures thoroughly frightened as to the legality of 
the deed held l>y her and her husband, but there is 
no doubt at all but what a conveyance to a husband 
and wife, as such, creates an estate of entirety, and 
i" 1 matter how homely the language employed may 
he, the survivor will take all. and neither can alien 
without the consent of the other. Some draughts¬ 
men use the words, "As husband and wife, tenants 
by the entirety," but a mere conveyance to John 
Doe, and Mary Doe, his wife, is sufficient to create 
a tenancy by the entirety, and to give the survivor 
the whole. 
There is no question hut what a deposit in a hank 
b,\ a husband and "fife which reads “either, or sur¬ 
vivor. may draw,” Mil vest the whole account in 
the survivor. The question which you doubtless are 
attempting to raise, is the question of taxable trans¬ 
fers, or inheritance tax. 
Ihe tax law provides that, subject to exemptions 
provided, tax is imposed upon the transfer of any 
real or personal property or of any interest therein. 
1. “When the transfer is by will or by the intestate 
laws of this State from any person dying seized or 
possessed thereof while residiug in the state.” 7. 
“Whenever property is held in the joint names of 
two or more person- - remap ts by the entirety, or is 
deposited in a bank or 4ustit*tion or depository in 
the joint names of two or more persons and payable 
to either or the survivor, upon the death of one of 
such persons, the right of the Surviving tenant by 
the entirety, joint tenant or joint tenants, person or 
persons, to tlie immediate ownership or possession 
aud enjoyment of such property shall bo deemed a 
transfer taxable under the provision of this chapter 
in the same manner as though the whole property to 
which such tax relates belonged absolutely to the 
deceased tenant by the entirety, joint tenant or joint 
depositor and had been bequeathed to the surviving 
tenant by the entirety, joint tenant or joint tenants, 
person or persons, by such deceased tenant by the 
entirety joint tenant, or joint depositor by will.” 
There shall be exempted from and not subject to 
tax all property transferred to any father, mother, 
husband, wife, widow or children of a deceased 
grantor, donor or vendor, if the amount of such 
transfer docs not exceed the sum of $5,000. 
You will perceive therefore, that the State does 
not. have any interest in these joint accounts unless 
they exceed $5,000, as between husband and wife. 
It is necessary, however, to obtain the consent of the 
Comptroller in order to draw, after the death of one 
of the joint depositors. 
Prior to the enactment of .Sub-division 7, above 
quoted, persons in contemplation of death, for busi- 
«3 x 
ness reasons or for o aivenienee, were putting bank 
accounts, shares and other property coming within 
the definition of “intangible property” into their 
joint names so that the ownership of the survivor 
was dependent neither upon a will nor upon the in¬ 
testate law of succession thus avoiding tax. 
It is hardly fair to speak of the inheritance tax 
as “the State getting its clutches upon one’s prop¬ 
erty.” No one can dispute that government is neces¬ 
sary; no one has found a way to establish a gov¬ 
ernment without the use of money, and it has been 
found wise by our legislators to fix a transfer tax 
iu order to raise a portion of the money needed to 
support this government of our State. If it was easy 
to avoid it by transferring property to a joint ac¬ 
count. one of our largest revenues would be cut off. 
The right of the survivor to the amount on deposit 
