July S, 192 J 
862 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
require the constant attention of one’s time, or would 
there he time available for the delivering of the egj:s 
produced to private customers? Eggs delivered would 
perhaps bring 15 cents a dozen over the amount re¬ 
ceived when disposed of by the ease through Commission 
houses or other sources. Figuring on this extra 35 
cents a dozen, how much would one expect in profit per 
hen per year? IV. A. li. 
New York. 
O NE thousand laying hens would require about 
iy 2 acres of land for houses and yards. I 
prefer laying houses 20x40 or 20x50 ft. rather than 
smaller or larger. These are called double units, 
and should have a solid partition in center. The 
rule is about 4 square feet of floor space per hen. 
and the cost will run from $1 to $1.50 per square 
foot of floor space, depending upon the method of 
construction, cost of material, labor, etc. Six or 
eight acres should provide a very satisfactory range 
for raising enough pullets to keep your stock re¬ 
plenished. It is a good plan to give your breeders 
a little more room than you give the layers, as it 
increases the strength and vigor of the chicks. 
1 do not approve of continual housing of layers in 
this climate, although this method has been practiced 
successfully with small flocks in this part of the 
country, and with large flocks on the Pacific coast 
the best results have usually been obtained by giving 
the fowls a reasonable amount of outdoor exercise, 
especially in warm weather. One man ought, to care 
for 1,000 hens and market the produce if not too far 
from market; but lie would require extra help dur¬ 
ing the hatching and breeding season. 
No one can tell whether you could do 
better with poultry than you can in 
your present position, as this is a per¬ 
sonal matter, depending entirely upon 
yourself and your ability to make a 
success of the undertaking. 
C. S. GREENE. 
iug the sheaves to tne seii-ieeuer is me cause oi 
much loss of grain carried over in the straw and 
poorly cleaned grain. The sheaves should be pitched 
onto the feeder heads towards the machine and 
lapped or dodged with those pitched from the other 
side. This will keep a steady stream of wheat pass¬ 
ing into the cylinder, and afford the most ellieieut 
separation; the smooth work of the machine is well 
indicated by its even, steady hum. 
On the other hand, uneven pitching, letting the 
butts go in first or other carelessness, results in a 
big pile of bundles under the feeder, too much straw 
in the cylinder, or none at all, uneven speed of the 
entire machine, poor separation, loss of grain and loss 
of time due to stops to unchoke the vibrators, blower 
and stacker. <train may be thrashed from stacks, 
but most often from the shock. This way requires 
a total of eight Or 30 teams and about 20 men. so a 
few stops and delays become a serious matter, and 
especially if bad weather threatens. Next to caring 
for the machinery, pitching the bundles to the self- 
feeder is the most critical and important, job of all. 
gh one that is often carelessly 
W. E. PUCK WALL. 
and matted the berries are rotting badly; even the 
green ones are mildewing, and this part of the bed 
will not yield over half the amount of beds where 
the plants are separated. 
NEW PLANTINGS.— If the runners do get 
the best of you and make more plants than is neces¬ 
sary for a good stand, dig them out in the Spring 
and use plants to start a new bed. I prefer starting 
■\ new bed every Spring rather than to try to keep 
the old bed clean, as a rule, but I have carried an 
old bed over three years. I mowed tops oft’ after 
picking, giving the plants a deep hoeing, so as to 
loosen the soil and kill the weeds that may have and strangely enou 
started, and have had just as heavy a yield as from performed. 
a new bed. - . j rx L 
the first year.—T he young plants should not Drone Trees of Greening and Duchess 
be allowed to bear any fruit tlie first season. I be j agree quite thoroughly with your Seneca County 
elinnlrl nil be nicked off so that all the eorresnondent in his eulogy of the Greening apple, on 
strength may go into the plant. After 
the first hard freezing weather cover 
the plants lightly with wheat straw, if 
possible; salt hay is better, but is hard 
to obtain. Ho not cover plants very 
heavily, or it will smother and kill 
them. Remove the straw about Marcli 
15, or sooner if it is an early Spring. ^ 
Put the mulch in the paths. After the 
plants have started nicely work the . >5 /• 
straw in around the plants with your 
hands. If there are any weeds or grass 
in bed remove them first. 
KEEF THE BERRIES CLEAN.—Do * % 
not depend on the weeds or grass to }'- 
keep your berries clean, and do not sow 5 • V ?' 
oats or anything else in around the $t;'\>.y4*'’i 
berry plants for that purpose. The : v/’i 
plants need all the substance in the soil :;. 
to mature a full crop. It is very im- ——- 
portant to have a nice, clean berry. A 
lady asked me a few days ago if I 
varnished my berries, they were so bright and clean. 
VARIETIES—I have tried a great many different 
varieties, but find that the Chesapeake surpasses 
Fighting the Corn Ear Worm 
I wish you would give an article in 
The R. N.-Y. ou a worm that gets on 
the tip of the ears of corn. In the Fall 
of 1923 almost every ear in my small 
field of field corn had one or tovo worms. 
They would start very small on the tips 
and eat downward, getting larger until 
the cold weather came, when they were 
killed. The. corn was a large dent, with 
tall stalks, and was planted late. If 
the corn had been planted earlier, would 
the worms have been troublesome? Can 
the seed from such corn he used to plant 
again ? A. c. n. 
of the 
T HE writer gave the story 
corn ear worm, to which A 
refers, in The R. N.-Y. for November 5, 1921, on 
page 1295, and gave illustrations of the work of the 
‘•worms” on tomatoes and on ears of corn. Al¬ 
though the corn ear worm was very abundant 
in 1921, it may hardly be noticed during the com¬ 
ing season. There are many natural agencies 
that tend to destroy the corn ear worms. The 
eggs and young ear worms are eateu by several 
predaceous insects, while certain wasps feed on the 
older ear worms, and the large robber flies actually 
catch the moths. In addition there are several par¬ 
asites that destroy the eggs and ear worms, and 
finally the weather may perform an important role 
in killing off the insect while it is resting in the 
ground over Winter. Thus it may well happen that 
there will be scarcely any of the coni ear worms 
this season. 
Corn ear worms have no intimate relation to the 
seed corn, and seed from corn infested last year is 
just as safe to use as seed from any corn. 
Since the moth lays its tiny white eggs on the silk 
of the ears, and the young caterpillars batch out and 
work down into the tips of the ears, they may be 
killed by dusting powdered arsenate of lead on the 
silk. The poison should be mixed with sulphur at 
the rate of equal parts of each. Perhaps the best 
way to apply this poison mixture is to dust it on the 
silk out of a tin can that has a perforated top. The 
first application should be made as soon as the silk 
is nicely formed, and at least three applications 
should be made, about one week apart. Very satis¬ 
factory results have been obtained in the control of 
this pest by dusting the silk, but it is a rather ex¬ 
page 705. When a person lias a large, healthy tree of 
that variety which continually loafs on the job, he is 
apt to become weary of waiting for the aforesaid Green¬ 
ing. I have a 14-year-old Greening (Rhode Island) in 
mv vard which is in the pink of condition, so 1 am told, 
and yet it fails to hear fruit to any extent. I never yet 
have gotten more than three bushels from it. I keep U 
well mulched with wheat straw, give it about 5 lbs. sul¬ 
phate of ammonia every year, and spray several tones 
per season, and yet, as 1 have said, it still persists m 
loafing while other apple trees in the vicinity work full 
time. ,, _ , 
And then again I have a seven-year-old Duchess pear 
which blossoms full each year, but sets comparatively 
little fruit, and about all of that drops be to re July 3. 
This tree is in a cultivated plot, but otherwise gets the 
same treatment as the apple mentioned above, except, of 
course, that I am not able to give it the sulphate. Now. 
can you give me any pointers as to bow I might be able 
to gel results from these two trees? Other Irnit trees in 
the plot give good results, and I cannot understand why 
these two are so laggard. I might add that, both trees 
are set iu a fine clay soil which is comparatively well 
drained. c. j. Roberts. 
Ohio. 
S OME of our Greenings have been slow to come 
into bearing, especially where the soil is not 
quite congenial. This variety seems to prefer a 
rather heavy soil. Baldwin and McIntosh do better 
on a lighter loam, but on our farm both Greening 
and Northern Spy do best on heavy land. We think 
some strains of Greening .are naturally slow to de¬ 
velop. We also think you have fed this tree too 
much nitrogen. This has forced a heavy growth of 
wood and delayed formation of fruit buds. The tree 
has formed the habit of making too much wood 
growth. We should stop using the sulphate of am¬ 
monia, and give a mixture of three parts acid phos¬ 
phate and one part muriate of potash. As for tbe 
pear tree, quite likely the flowers sire Imperfect and 
Feeding the Self Feeder 
thus the fruit does not “set” properly. It needs 
pollen from other varieties. We shall be glad to 
pensive process for ordinary field corn. In the case 
of sweet corn grown in the garden for home use. this 
T IIE scene shown in the picture, Fig, 271. is a have readers discuss this problem from experience. method is practicable. Some market gardeners who 
familiar one to the corn belt farmer who grows ___ grow sweet corn on quite a large scale may also find 
Winter wheat in the rotation. This picture shows 
the self feeder and band cutter in operation, though 
usually it is fed from both shlos. but in this instance 
the wagon on the left hand side bad jttsf. been driven 
away before the picture was taken. Revolving knives 
cut the bands and help spread the bundles before 
the wheat is fed into tbe cylinder. Should the wheat 
be heavy and tough, or pitched too fast, there is a 
governing device that slows up the self feeder so the 
Working with One Thousand Hens 
How much land would I require to house 3.000 laying 
liens properlv? 'Would two laying-houses 90 ft. long by 
20 ft. wide take core of 3.000 hens, or would you advise 
units of live in a row to hold about 300 hens apiece? 
Approximate cost of these houses? Would good results 
he obtained by continual housing of the layers? How 
much spare would be required to bring young stock to 
maturity ready for the laying houses? IIovv much space 
for producers of eggs for hatching? W ould 1.000 hens 
it profitable to dust their crop for the ear worm. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Wiiat are the objections to feeding small grain 
to poultry in the sheaf or bundle—letting the hens 
do the thrashing? We see but one—the trouble in 
regulating the grain feed exactly. 
