SWAY 4 
297 
MOOSE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
“A POOR STOCK BIRD.” 
LADY GWYDR’S POULTRY YARDS. 
On page 229, Rural New-Yorker April 
6, we gave an illustration of Lady Gwydr’s 
S how Yard. Wo this week give an illustra¬ 
tion of tho interior of the egg-room, which 
we copy from tho Journal of 
Horticulture. Around throe 
sides of the working yard nearly 
thirty runs and houses of vari¬ 
ous shapes and sizes have been 
made, some with a grass plat in 
front, others with only a small 
sandy run. Hero many of the 
chickens are kept as they get 
troublesome and quarrelsome, 
also some of the crack birds 
during the breeding season, and 
for exhibition. The range of 
open sheds, previously used to 
shelter the cattle, allows of a 
great many of these runs being 
nearly half covered from tho 
weather so as to protect the 
birds’ plumage from the sun and 
wet, two things always to bo re¬ 
membered in breeding or keep¬ 
ing fowls for exhibition. 
Amongst the many other 
houses and runs to be found built 
around tho working yard, one of 
the largest and most useful is 
tho chicken nursery, a large, 
lofty, very light and airy build¬ 
ing, about 70 feet long and 25 feet 
wide. Skylights are let into the 
roof, and windows round tho 
sides, for the purpose of allow¬ 
ing tho warm rays of tho sun to 
enter the interior. Tho entrance 
is at one end through two largo 
doors, which when shut nearly 
close the whole of that end of 
the building. Sand several inches 
deep covers the bottom, the walls 
are frequently lunewashed; the 
whole place is kept scrupulously 
clean. Here tho chickens aro 
confined when t he weather Is severe or very 
wet, sect s, and when cold or tired can get 
under the hen. As the day advances and 
becomes warmer and the dew is off the grass 
the coops are removed, and away go the 
hen and her young brood for an hour or 
two's ramble. 
The houses used for sitting hens have large 
wooden troughs running round tho sides, 
which are put on tho ground, and divided 
intooompartments only large enough to ad¬ 
mit of a single hen. In one of these places 
to give room for more hens we noticed a 
trough fixed agaiust the wall about 3 feet 
from tho ground, and the manager told us 
he found the eggs hatch as well there as in 
those on the ground. Accommodation is 
provided at one time for between forty and 
fifty hens while Bittiug. As the eggs hatch, 
the young chicks are taken away until all 
are out, wheu they aro given to the hen, 
who is kept a day or two in a place near at 
hand; after t his they are sent (weather per¬ 
mitting) to one of the above-mentioned tin- 
roofed bouses, where they are regularly fed 
at certain hours during the day, not too fre¬ 
quently, but at such times as they become 
hungry. Their first meal consists of ground 
oats, barleymeal, and middlings mixed to¬ 
gether with boiled water; corn is given to 
them the rest of the day. At night they are 
all housed, and between nine and ten they 
get another meal before finally going to rest. 
The egg-room, of the interior of which we 
give a view, is a very curious sight. A coun¬ 
ter is fixed round two sides of it, which is 
divided into compartments, each labelled, 
as may be seen, for the eggs of as many dif¬ 
ferent varieties of fowls as are kept. Wheu 
the eggs are collected and brought into this 
room they are placed in their proper divis¬ 
ion in sand, the thin end downwards, just 
deep enough to keep them erect, and very 
odd it looks to see several hundreds of eggs 
of various shades of color and sizes, each 
distinctly described as coming from such 
and such a yard, and all systematically ar¬ 
ranged. Models of birds are seen in differ¬ 
ent places, while on the walls are nailed 
some of the prize cards, stating the honors 
won by birds at exhibitions where t hey have 
competed; these are very numerous. Tho 
floor is made of tessellated tiles, and the 
exterior of the windows is protected from 
the sun by perforated zinc shades, which 
keep the inside very cool and well ventila¬ 
ted. Under the oval window is the basket 
used in collecting the eggs, and this is like¬ 
wise made in several divisions, so as to keep 
each variety, or those from any particular 
birds, distiuot. 
Since this epithet has obtained consider¬ 
able notoriety by being applied to a cock 
which won tho second honor at t he Con¬ 
necticut show last November, it may not bo 
uninteresting to the readers of tho Rural 
New-Yorker to understand the real mean¬ 
ing of such an appellation. 
All breeders of poultry who understand 
KGG-ROOM OW 
their business would say at. once tha t such 
a fowl must bo so deficient in good points, 
and so incapacitated, physically, by reason 
of age and maturity, as to make him wholly 
useless for any purpose, and, instead of be¬ 
ing placed on exhibition to insult people of 
taste and discernment, he should have his 
nook wrung. 
A perfect, bird is rather difficult to find. 
Ho a perfect gentleman. Tho moral weak¬ 
ness of the one, as well as the physical 
weakness of the other, may betray him. A 
fowl may be deficient in a number of points 
and yet may prove to be a good Btook bird, 
since the predominance of his good may 
counterbalance his bad qualities — his ef¬ 
ficiency not falling below his deficiency. 
Our aim is perfection; but silica we cannot 
reach that, we must endeavor to get as near 
it as possible. A fowl may liavu humble 
feet; he may have lost his comb by frost; 
may have had his leg broken or liis eye 
pecked out in a tight—since they are just as 
jealous and pugnacious us their owners—and 
yet all these accidents may not detract in 
the least from his qualities as a stock bird, 
since they are not inherent or constitutional 
defects. They aro not inheritable, and will 
not revert to the offspring. I may safely 
say that if a man has had his proboscis 
broken, his children are not likely to in¬ 
herit a broken nasal organ. But such 
qualities as prevarication, loquacity and 
gullibility are inheritable qualities, and have 
shown themselves most decidedly in some 
of the fraternity. 
Now, If a bird meets all the requisites of 
the standard, with the only exception that 
ho “showed loo much yellow on hackle a nd 
saddle," he has carried all the points but 
one, in being a perfect bird, and 1 think 
that this would " warrant his b$lng a good 
stock bird.” Again, if such a brilliant 
plumaged bird should bo matched with 
hens of a very (lark hue, or grouse-colored 
hens, I will “warrant him" to throw very 
splendid chickens. Mr. Wkjoht says there 
is more probability of breeding good chick¬ 
ens from a dark penciled hen and second- 
rate cock. “If a hen is long in legs, tho 
cock should be particularly short in shanks,” 
etc., eto. In breeding Seabrlghts, with a 
finely marked hen should be mated an in¬ 
differently marked cock, and vice versa. 
This compensatory law is not as well under¬ 
stood as it should bo. Proper mating is the 
science of good breeding. 
Greenvillo, N. J. Isaac Van Winkle. 
-- 
CORRECTION-CLEANLINESS. 
In the article which I wrote, published 
page 241 of Rural, April 13, on “ Too Much 
Feed ” for hens, 1 find a mistake which, un¬ 
less corrected, cannot be understood, viz.— 
the word rattling should be rotting. 
While correcting the above, I will say 
here what I should have said in the previous 
article on tho lieu question—that is, the 
greatest care should be taken to keep the 
house where hens roost at night perfectly 
clean. Every dropping should be cleaned 
out every day just as l’egular, and with as | 
much care, as a good stable-keeper would 
sweep his stalls for his horses; unless this 
is done, no man can have healthy hens; and 
I now find, after a more careful Investiga¬ 
tion into the cause of the diarrhea among 
my hens, that my man Inis not been partic¬ 
ular in keeping my hens clean, which, with 
too much feed, has caused me to lose from 
fliteen to I wonty choice Brahmas. For the 
last week I have been giving the matter my 
personal attention, and 1 am now satisfied 
that I shall not lose any more from either 
cause. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. N. W. Riker. 
-♦♦♦- 
Poultry Inquiries.—D. M. H. asks our 
readers who have tried them to say if Buff 
Cochins are good winter layers, and why 
they are never recommended for profit. 
Jptrjr of it |luntM 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
FROM THE DIARY OF A GEHTIEMAN HEAR HEW YORK CITY. 
Sowing Clover Seed. — April 15.— A 
light, fall of snow last night afforded us a 
tine opportunity for sowing some clover 
seed upon a field that we had just finished 
putting into oats. Timothy seed had al¬ 
ready been sown at the time of t he last har¬ 
rowing; but my man John wanted to add 
a little red clover because that was the way 
farmers in this vicinity had always heeded 
down their meadows. Then, the clover 
seed should be sown on a sap snow In spriug 
to make It take well, and as all t hings seem 
to have combined, even to the snow storm, 
to aid mo in seeding down a few acres of 
meadow, of course my success will be great 
indeed. Now, I do not believe in any of 
this old-time nonsense of sowing grass seed 
or clover with oats, rye or wheat, just be¬ 
cause somebody has said it was the best 
way. If a man wants a field seeded with 
Timothy, sow that and nothing else; and 
tho same with any other kiud of grass, 
or even clover, for any of them will grow 
far better alono than when crowded, shad¬ 
ed, or the soil about the roots robbed of its 
moisture by sorao coarse, rank-growing 
grain. Of course on rich moist soils, a man 
may seed down with grain and thereby save 
one season; but it is poor policy to follow 
this system on old, nearly wornout soils, 
even if our fathers and grandfathers “al¬ 
ways done so.” Then, again, it is folly to 
mix clover and Timothy together in the 
same field, for they are never both in proper 
condition for cutting at tho same time, and 
a little musty, over-ripe clover, mixed in 
with the hay, adds nothing to its value. By 
keeping both separate each can be cut when 
in tho best condition for hay, and this rule 
will hold good with all kinds of forage plants. 
Silver Maple In Bloom.— April 10.—The 
silver and red maples are in full bloom, al¬ 
though the leaf-buds on tho trees have 
scarcely begun to swell. The seeds of these 
maples will be ripe in about a month, and 
those who wish to raise seedlings 
must be on the alert, or the sea¬ 
son will pass for raising the 
trees before they are aware that 
it has conic. If the seed are 
sown as soon as ripe, trees, two 
to threo feat high, can be pro¬ 
duced by the first of next Octo¬ 
ber. Tho cost of raising silver 
and scarlet maple seedlings is so 
trilling that the settlers cm (he 
Western prairies can purchaso 
thetii for two or three dollars 
per thousand; therefore, they 
have no reasonable excuse for be¬ 
ing long without timber, either 
for shelter, ornament, or fuel. 
If I was in the trade, I should 
like no better business than to 
furnish a million or two of tho 
different species of maple trees, 
at one year old, for one dollar 
per thousand; and there ai’o 
plenty of nurserymen who would 
do the same thing if the pioneers 
at the West would take the trees 
when grown. But if nurserymen 
are obliged to spend thousands 
of dollars annually in advertis¬ 
ing their business, besides send¬ 
ing out scores of agents to solicit 
orders, they must ask enough 
more for their trees to pay their 
expenses. Tho silver maple, in 
particular, is a splendid tree for 
the Western plains, and those 
who want a stock next fall or 
spring should contract for them 
now, instead of waiting a year 
hence. 
Transplanting Evergreens. 
— Aprillf. —Why writers on horticultural 
topics should, wit h almost one accord, advise 
plan ting evergreens later in the season than 
deciduous trees, is something that 1 cannot 
understand. The frost is barely out of tile 
ground, but I have begun lo transplant 
evergreens; this has been my practice dur¬ 
ing the past twenty years, and 1 do not be¬ 
lieve any advocate of late planting was over 
more successful. Trees put into ( lie earth 
in time to receive the benefit of heavy 
spring rains in settling the soil about their 
roots, are more likely to live than if tho 
operation is delayed until later in the sea¬ 
son, all tho fine theories to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 
Tlio Illekory Clytus. — April 18.— In 
examining some hickory trees cut down 
about a year since, I found that beautiful 
beetle, Clytus pictus, Drury, just ready to 
spread its wings for a raid upon any hickory 
timber or eordwood that happened to lie 
near. Tho larva or grub of this beetle is 
commonly known in this vicinity as the 
hickory borer, and It makes quick work of 
any recently felled trees; but, so far as I 
have noticed, never attacks a growing tree. 
1 found scores of the males just emerging 
from their holes to-day, but not a female 
yet in sight; by cutting into the logs how¬ 
ever, they were found in great numbers. 
My observations to-day extended only to 
a couple of trees lying side by side. Ono 
was about sixteen inches in diameter at the 
base and covered with a very thick bark. 
The other was only about si x inches in diam¬ 
eter at the base, and gradually tapering lo 
the top, both being of the same species, 
namely, tho common, (hick-shell hickory. 
( Carya imncntosn.) Tho smaller ol the 
two trees was perforated in all directions 
with the borer, some of them having pene¬ 
trated even into the heart-wood. But in 
the larger tree few had even gone through 
tho sap wood, and many had not entered 
the wood at all. merely feeding along on (lie 
surface, just under l he bark. Upon strip¬ 
ping off tho bark I found dozens of the pu- 
p>© and beetles lying in the shallow surface- 
furrows, made by them while In the grub 
or larva state. And further, I noticed (hat 
the beetles on the large tree were, on an 
average, much smaller than in the other, 
showing that the coarse-grained, largo l im¬ 
ber is not quite as acceptable food for these 
borers as the small. 
Cabbage Butterflies.— April 1ft.—Two 
of the white cabbage butterlliea (Picrls 
rapa) mmlu their appearance to-day. This 
is certainly a great improvement Oil last 
year, for they were then to be seen by hun¬ 
dreds, and at least three weeks earlier than 
now. But their numbers appear to grow 
gradually less, either in consequence of un¬ 
congenial climate, or because natural ene¬ 
mies have been Imported. One thing is 
certain, and that is our cabbages and cauli- 
tlowers were injured less by the green worm, 
which is the larva of this butterfly, last 
year than tbo one previous. 
