454 
Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 25, 1922 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
---- -—— 
Our page draws us together each month to teach us to co-operate and think, 
and to be kind, unselfish, obedient, happy, thankful and pleasant. 
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Every boy and girl is glad that “Spring 
is here again.” Are you watching closely 
for each sign that Nature is waking to 
another season of seedtime and harvest? 
llow quietly and yet how quickly the 
changes come! Gray willow “pussies” 
dot their slender twigs; grass grows 
greener every day; flowers push up 
through the soil and open sweet, beauti¬ 
ful blossoms; peepers are peeping; birds 
are siuging and looking for places to 
build nests: hosts of insects begin to till 
the air; buds are swelling on every tree; 
ribbons of soft brown earth show in 
newly-plowed fields; and in the barnyard 
there are little colts and calves and lambs 
and pigs beside their proud mothers. 
When the days are warm and balmy 
it is hard to be content to stay in school. 
All outdoors seems calling to show you 
its new wonders, and to offer places ro 
play ball, fly kites, skip rope, shoot mar¬ 
bles and race and run, as you love so 
much to do. But I know that the boys 
and girls who read Our Page are good 
“bosses” of themselves, and will not 
shirk. School is only five or six hours 
a day; plenty of time left, besides. We 
have told ourselves before that nothing 
can take the place of school. It has 
something that we need very much, and 
that even a lovely Spring day cannot 
give. How fine that we can have both 
school and Spring together I And happy 
the school in which the boys and girls 
learn something of Nature along with 
the things that words and figures teach! 
In school, work and study; outdoors, play 
and study; at home, plan for a garden, 
a flock of chickens, or some other task, 
and study to be successful. Everywhere 
study and thought help us to know more, 
do more, see more, he more. The edu¬ 
cated ^person is the one who thinks 
straight, acts quickly and well, sees and 
understands all that goes on, and lives a 
true, friendly, happy life. The Box at 
the head of Our Page this month is one 
of the best that has ever been there. It 
was written by Edith Sobel, an Indian i 
render. 
There. I declare, we have been beside 
Our Magic Fire without knowing it! I 
mean that we have been talking together 
about the big, worth-while Ihings iu life. 
It is well to spend a few moments that 
way each month, you will agree. Now 
it is quite time that we looked at some 
of the letters that are waiting patiently 
to tell their stories. 
Bird Friends 
This is my second letter to The R. 
N.-Y. I think the Boys’ and Girls’ Pago 
is a very good idea. I nin 14 years old 
and live on a farm. Lust Summer I 
raised some pheasants. It was very in¬ 
teresting to watch them grow. At pres¬ 
ent. there are 12 that stay around here. 
One year the snow began to go away 
about March. Many of the song birds 
came back from the South. We had very 
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nice weather for a few days, hut all of 
a sudden a great snowstorm came. Of 
course the birds could uot got. anything 
to eat. We noticed quite a few around 
the barn, so we opened the barn door of 
the driveway and sprinkled a lot. <>f 
cracked corn on the floor. The birds 
flocked there from all over. The most 
common birds were song sparrows, tree 
sparrows, juucos and fox sparrows. 
There was one junto that was quite 
tame. In a few days the snn came out 
and melted the snow away. 
Some time 1 will send some pictures 
of the pheasants. Every mouth I watch 
for the children's page. 
New York. GEORGE BENEDICT. 
A Strange Pet 
I have never written anything to this 
page before, but nevertheless I can 
hardly wait until The Rubai, New- 
Yorker comes. I am 1” years old. and 
in the first year of high school. 1 gef 
good grades in all of my studies. I have 
one cat and one dog for my pets. I used 
to have a nice pet woodchuck, but I 
don’t, know what became of him. as he. 
came up missing very suddenly. My 
father got him when he was three or four 
days old. I began to feed him with a 
medicine dropper, which proved to be a 
great success. lie began to grow, and 
in about a month he got his eyes open. 
We called him Botzor. and he seemed to 
like it, because every time you would call 
it he would come to you immediately, 
The dog and he ate out of the same dish 
sometimes. lie learned to do some very 
.4 Future Render 
cunning tricks, some of which were to 
play games with me, sin k as pom-pom- 
pull-a way and hlde-and-go-seek. He 
would play just as nice as ft child. He 
also learned to turn somersaults over the 
rounds of chairs. When he would eat he 
would stand on his hind feet and take 
the food in his front paws and hold on to 
if and eat it. We fed him the same 
things that we ate. I had him for almost 
three years. We also made a nice big 
house for him, with several rooms, which 
he used the same as I do. 
Ohio. GERALDINE RUSSELL. 
An Original Poem 
WHY WE WANT SPRING 
When the Winter winds are blowing, 
And outside we see it snowing, 
We till think how nice 'twould he 
If little birds we all could see. 
When all the ground is covered white, 
And we dream all through the night 
Of the flowers that used to be 
'Neath each pretty foliage tree. 
And down in the little nook. 
Down where flows the meadow brook, 
There we always used to see 
Tadpoles swimming merrily. 
By Margaret kimberly (11 years). 
Connecticut. 
The Boys Talk Chickens 
A good many boys came back at me 
for saying that the girls wove doing most 
of the work for Our Page. I have hart 
a number of fine letters about raising 
chickens, several of which you will find 
below. Now you will sec that each 
writer has a slightly different way of 
working There is probably no one best 
way for all places. If you are going to 
raise chickens what you should do is t> 
read these letters and the department of 
this paper called “The Henyard,” and 
any bulletins you can obtain. Then talk 
with your parents and friends and neigh¬ 
bors. and the County Agent, if you can. 
Iu other words, get all the information 
possible, and then use your best judgment 
to work out a plan to fit your own con¬ 
ditions. Study is good; experience is 
better; but study and experience com¬ 
bined is best of all. It is also important 
to keep a little record of the business. 
We live on a farm. I am 15 years 
old, and my part of the work is to care 
for the hens. Mother was in the hospital 
last Spring, and I raised the chicks for 
the first time. I like the work very 
much. 
We have 07 hens now. I want to raise 
about 200 pullets this Spring. I want 
to get tin incubator and a brooder as 
soon as I can. I can tell how I raise my 
chicks, as I lmvc good success and raise 
Plymouth Rocks. I always set three or 
four hens at one time. Then when the 
chicks are hatched I put them with one 
hen. I do not give them anything to eat 
for 36 hours Then I give them some 
grit and sour milk. Next I give them a 
few rolled oats, giving rolled oats for 
five da vs, five times a day. with milk and 
grit before them all the time. Very 
gradually I mix iu a little middlings, 
meal and bran until, when two weeks 
old. I am giving two parts eornmeal. one 
part each of bran, middlings and beef 
scrap. 1 keep this before them all the 
time. For scratch feed I use equal parts 
of cracked corn and wheat, For the 
hens I give a scratch feed of equal parts 
by weight of cracked corn, oats and 
wheat, and a masli of three parts corn- 
meal. one part each of bran, middlings 
and beef scrap. 
I am keeping a record of the hens. I 
would like to hear from some of the 
readers who are interested in keeping 
poultry. Will close. From your friend, 
Virginia. rtAROLD MELLEN. 
I have taken your paper for a couple 
of months, and I think it is a fine paper, 
especially the “Boys’ and Girls’ ” de¬ 
partment and “The Ilenyard.” I have 
IS liens to keep this Winter. They are 
Single Comb White Leghorns. Last year 
I had six to start in with. They brought 
in $41.“7 and cleared $lS.ft3. This is 
the money from the roosters, too, and I 
think the pullets laid a few eggs. I sell 
mv eggs to my unc-le. It made me hustle 
to keep up for a while before the pullets 
began laying this Fall. One time I had 
only 1.1 cents. Pretty close shave! I 
bought 25 chicks last Spring and got 26. 
T raised 24 of rhpm. and 12 were roosters. 
T sold the roosters. 
Last Summer, in May. T got 144 eggs 
from six hens. I thought that was pretty 
good. My father built me a new hen¬ 
house in the Fall. It was 8x10 ft. I 
bought the roofing. 
My father is away now so my mother 
and I run the farm. It is great fun. 
Yours truly. 
New York. fernald nu bois. 
I saw in last week’s Rural New- 
Yorker that you said the hoys ought to 
he ashamed of themselves; but I am not. 
so I will tell you all I know about 
chicken raising. How to set a hen; Get 
an ordinary soap box and put about 5 
in. of ashes or dirt in the bottom of the 
box. Then nut in some straw. Put the 
box in a dark place in the barn or cellar, 
and make a run around the box. Only 
use a very broody hen. Don’t use Leg¬ 
horns. because they Very seldom sit the 
21 days. Before putting the hen on the 
nest dust her well with some kind of lice 
powder. When putting the eggs into the 
nest make a hollow spot in the middle of 
the straw. Then get ilio hen and put 
her in the run. and give her fresh water 
and scratch feed daily, .lust because the 
hen is silling do not neglect the mash; 
give (lie bird some mash. If she will not 
come off (lie nest to feed, take her off 
and let her feed. Only use yearling hetis 
or two-year-old birds. On the twentieth 
day and the twenty-first don’t disturb 
the hen. because the chicks are hatching, 
and she may kill then) if you disturb her. 
Don't feed the chicks anything the 
first 30 hours, and only feed skimmed 
or whole milk and rolled oats the first 
day. The first week feed rolled oats and 
a chick mixture. This is a good one: 
Equal parts of fine cracked corn, cracked 
wheat and steel cut oats. Feed this five 
times daily, and feed skinuned or whole 
milk. The Second week feed the same 
scratch mixture four times daily, and 
feed bran, one-half a hard-boiled egg to 
every 20 chicks (mixed with some bread 
crumbs) and milk and water. The third 
week feed some scratch ration three times 
daily and a growing ration and one egg 
to every 20 chicks. Now it. is time to 
put the chicks on the ground. Put their 
mother with them. Give them a good 
growing ration; bran. lbs.; middlings 
or shorts, 2 lbs.; ground oats. 1 Hi.; hone- 
meal, 1 lb.; cornmeal. 1 lb.; meat scrap, 
2 lbs. From now on feed twice daily and 
use cracked corn and cracked wheat, equal 
parts, and feed a growing mash until Sep¬ 
tember 1—if they are April-hatched pul¬ 
lets. Then cut down on the growing 
ration and only food equal parts of 
cracked corn and wheat and oats. This 
is a good scratch ration. 
Now put the birds in their laviug 
Freed From the Grasp of Winter 
houses and feed a good laying ration: 
Equal parts of bran, middlings, ground 
oats, comment and meat scrap. Keep 
the mash before them all the time, and 
feed the scratch ration twice daily. From 
November 1 to March 15 double up on 
the cracked corn. 
The next time I write I will give the 
hoys and girls a feeding schedule. If 
this is satisfactory I will write again. 
Yours truly, 
New Jersey. n. clanbebg. 
The Nature Puzzle 
Whoever guessed last month’s puzzle 
as a river, a stream or a brook was given 
credit for being right, and the list is as 
follows: 
New York State: Ilazel Cortright, 
Jeanette Larson. Christina Mantle. Olive 
Rikcr, Albert Kuiner, Marjorie Stryker, 
Frank Gorham. Edwin Concklin, Ger¬ 
trude Hyde. Avis Thoma. Roy Bergman, 
Millie Beatty. Martha Karzloff. Carrie 
Phillips. Beulah Stephenson, Laura 
Lynn, Agues Nielsen. Ruth Paine, Ruth 
11 ■ 1 1la. Jane Farnham, Kathryn Lewis, 
Ethel Palmer. Dorothy Lee. Gladys Feld- 
berg, Katherine Hastings, Dorothy Story, 
Margaret Gillespie. Irene Mullen. 
Pennsylvania: Isabelle Mentor, Laura 
Angstndt, Mildred Schwartz. Ward Kon- 
klc. Berta Everson. Dorothy Beal, Stella 
Smith. 
New Jersey; Irene Valentine. P. Pcn- 
awick. Grace Chappemn, Jacoha Fob¬ 
bing. Robert Gardner. Amy Barton. 
Massachusetts; Alary Cassidy. Helen 
Ilerriek. Caroline Powell. Eleauor Hart. 
Delaware; Helen Ellwanger. Elsie 
Grasselly. 
Ohio; Ada Schwartz. 
Connecticut ; Sophie Sapitowicz. 
Rhode Island: A. Noren. 
Vermont: Warren Brown. 
New Hampshire: Charles Turner. 
This was a good puzzle, with two 
clover descriptions of one of the great 
forces of nature. I am always pleased 
when T find that you have done more 
than just answered the puzzle, as for 
example: 
I think the answer to both Nature 
Puzzles is a river, and T think both girls 
described it very well, and I like to sail 
in boats on it. I would like to write a 
