W 62 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
JULY 2? 
1C 
LOP-EAEED RABBITS. 
SoM e one han inquired in the Rural Nrw- 
Yorker how to keep and breed these rab¬ 
bits, which are among the most beautiful 
of varieties. Their mild, dark eyes, hardy 
constitutions, and excellent habits—as they 
never denude trees of t heir bark when they 
can get. anything else to eat—grow fast, and 
fine table epicurean qualities make them 
desirable. They will live and do well for 
the Summer, Spring and Fall on grasses and 
weeds alone, though they are more fleshy 
with some grain, of which oats and buck¬ 
wheat are the best for them. 
My advice is, for a few, to put them in a 
plot of grass fenced off by light picket 
frames, so that they can run at Pleasure 
over any convenient space. Say, for eight 
or ton, a space twenty feet by thirty. I 
have seen that number kept in much less 
space. Make the pickets three feet high, 
and nail to two rails ten or fourteen feet 
long; put a board eight inches wide on the 
ground, and fasten the pickets on this, and 
they will not dig under the fence. Such a 
picket is light and movable. 
For a kennel, lake a dry-goods box two 
feet wide by three or four feet long; take 
off the cover of the box; fasten in it a box 
about ten inches wide and sixteen long. 1 u 
the little box make a hole live inches in di¬ 
ameter. Fasten the small box so that tills 
hole is out of sight, and a little hard for the 
rabbits to get into; fill it with soft hay. 
This small box is for the brood chamber. 
Now turn the large box upside down, with 
the little box inside. Make a hole six inch¬ 
es in diameter into the large box, so that, 
when frightened, the rabbits can easily run 
into It. Just inside this last hole put a 
board, so that the passage is crooked. This 
gives a sense of security to the rabbits. 
You can put t lie boxes either inside or out¬ 
side of your picketed space of grass, but 
make the ent ranee easy, but a little crooked 
and concealed, and with lids to open both 
boxes. 
Let mo say that on no account must you 
put rabbits of this breed in the sunshine. 
Nothing kills them sooner than a hot sun- 
shine. Yet from October 1st to May 20th 
put them so that they can lie in the sun¬ 
shine when they please. In all the summer 
months Jet them have no sunshine at all— 
always shade. 
Again. Bear in mind that ail males tight 
all other males; and all females light all 
other females, and therefore separate them 
accordingly. No one who has not seen 
them fight, has any idea how fierce they 
often are. They kick, jump over each other 
and out. each other with clipsot their teeth ; 
tear their ears and scatter fur, in anger, 
when the spectator thinks it is play often. 
Let me say that they are very peculiar in 
their care of their young. The lit t le mbits 
are born very feeble and blind. The moth¬ 
er rabbit begins about the fifteenth day 
after conception to dig a hole in the ground. 
She digs usually three or four feet slanting¬ 
ly in the earth, and makes a chamber at 
the end of it. Often she stops the mouth 
of the hole so that it looks as it no hole was 
there to the careless observer. About the 
twenty-third to twenty-fifth day she car¬ 
ries in large mouthfuls of grass. She is 
often singularly in earnest about this, with 
a fretful grunting noise. Then she appa¬ 
rently cares nothing for her house for a few 
days. The twenty-eighth to the thirtieth 
day she suddenly commences to pull out 
great mouthfuls of her fur from her abdo¬ 
men and back and sides, and carries it, with 
a sort of fretful noise, into her hole. She 
may drop her brood in a few hours, or re¬ 
peat this fur-pulling a day or two. She has 
from four to eleven little mites of young. 
You will find them in the center of the 
grass she lias in her hole, and in a wad of 
her own fur. She usually stops her hole 
tight, or nearly so, with earth. And you 
may as well try and catch a weasel asleep 
as try and catch her showing any attention 
to her young. She lets you know that is 
none of your business. She says, by her 
actions, she and her young shall die before 
she will own to you any idea that she cures 
for them. Yet she is very motherly in her 
own way. That is, she takes all the care 
necessary for them, and t hat is remarkably 
little. By watching her closely you will see 
that she. hastily digs her hole open, runs in, 
paws open quickly the nest of fur and stands 
over them. The little pets are feeble as can 
be, in all except the power to lift their 
heads and nurse, yet but an instant; when 
off - tho mother goes, unconcernedly, leaving 
thorn wrapped in the pulled fur. 
So careless is she apparently that a lad}’ 
of my acquaintance was deceived once. 
Said she, “ Thero’s a lop-cared rabbit that 
dug a hole in the garden. 1 watched her; 
saw her pull her fur, as you said she would. 
One day f went out to her hole. She looked 
so sad; Did not attempt to move; sat so 
sad by it. At last she slowly filled up the 
mouth of her hole, packing in the earth 
with her feet, and seemed so disconsolate, 
as she buried up her young. She closed it 
up perfectly tight, sat down a picture of 
grief over her little ones in their cradle 
grave. I have f.ed mid petted her ever 
since. There she sits hour after hour a 
picture of melancholy, over that closed 
tomb she has made for them,” 
A few days after T dug tills sad grave 
open and found six nice, lively young rab¬ 
bits ill a warm bed of fur, as unconcerned 
ns if they had not been buried and un¬ 
earthed every few hours by the quiet, sober 
mother. 
A few days after birth the young open 
their eyes; then the mother lessens the 
covering of fur, and leaves the hole in the 
earth partially open. At last they emerge 
and begin to cat, just as if old hands at 
clipping weeds and grass. All this while, 
careless as ths mother seems, she has a 
terrible sense of fighting underneath her 
placid notions. Woo to the cat or rat or 
skunk, or other animal, that comes near to 
molest them. Sometimes she even clips a 
square piece of your pants out, and even a 
bit of skin with it, by her scissors of teeth ; 
yet not often. 
Such are the habits of these rabbits in 
their holes when let alone, and such is 
their habit too in the boxes, I have de¬ 
scribed. The only use then, of the boxes is 
that by them nature is imitated and pro¬ 
vided for. I might figure and describe a 
neat roofed kennel, with upper and lower 
stories, and make it quite ornamental, but 
it is not absolutely requisite. 
It is essential to observe that you lot the 
mother rabbit alone, and have her way. 
Many / have known have shut up rabbits 
and let the broods of young starve. Others 
never get any, because they do not provide 
places for them. So 1 advise, if the hole is 
dug. let the rabbit see to it in its own way. 
If she uses the boxes, as she generally will, 
then all you have to do is give her free ac¬ 
cess to them, and let her be. Give warm 
milk twice a day to a nursing animal. They 
want, and usually will take, no kind of 
drink at any other period. They are fond 
of apples, will winter well on raw potatoes, 
with a few oats. As the males of this breed 
do not devour the young, no precaution is 
necessary on this point. A hole six inches 
square under a barn, wood shed or other 
building, the nest all tight, is often sought 
as kennel and brood place. The fur of the 
brown kinds has been used for rude imita¬ 
tion mink furs. Such is my reply to the 
inquiry in the Rural. It is my habit to 
THE SIPHON QUESTION. 
I read in the Rural New-Yorker of 
•Tunc 15, page395, of a siphon stopping, the 
correspondent wishing some information in 
regard to starting it. 1 want to ask the 
subscriber how he succeeded in starting 
water in the first place; why not try the old 
method if he has not invented something 
new? J have had some experience in 
siphons for the last eighteen months, and 
as a matter of course, had some trouble and 
loss of appetite. I would like some in 
formation, and shall look for an answer 
through the Rural, from some one who 
has had more experience in water works. 
T will give, in the first place, a description 
of the well, distance the water is to bo 
carried, rise, fall, etc. I raise the water in 
the well 12 feet, carry it 50 rods, and have a 
fall of 50 feet. I tried the plan of gauging 
the faucet, to draw a sufficient quantity of 
water to supply my stock. Ju about four 
days it stopped running. J tried again with 
the same result. Being possessed of some 
“Young America,” T tried the plan of 
letting it run a full head at times when 
water was needed and then stopping short; 
had no more trouble at. that outlet. Last 
Fall 1 laid the balance of pipe to my barn, 
Do rods, with a rise of 40 feet from the first 
outlet, making in all 100 rods. Now is 
Where the trouble comes, as before. 1 let it 
run a full head when water is required, and 
find the same difficulty as when letting a 
small stream run at the first outlet all flu- 
time. I am fully satisfied there is no leak 
in the pipe. The more water 1 draw the 
sooner air collects and cuts off the column. 
I thou put in the well, attached to the pipe, 
a force-pump with which to force the air 
out, and succeeded in part. I have to use 
file pump about ten minutes twice per 
week when using considerable water; once 
a week will do when not using much. I am 
of the opinion that air collects in the high¬ 
est point in the pipe when water is running. 
My pipe is three-quarter inch gas pipe. 
Will a larger or smaller one answer better? 
I hope to hear from some one who is more 
of a water-witch than 1 am or expect to lie. 
Churchville, N. Y. h, n. s. 
-♦♦♦ - - 
FOUL CISTERN WATER. 
Inquiry has been made for the cure of 
bad water. Barrels, tanks and other reser¬ 
voirs in the tops of houses arc more apt to 
smell foully iu warm weat her than in cooler 
situations; yet such is notan absolute ride. 
Some persons never have unpleasant rain 
water. A cistern in t he ground or a cellar 
that is never above 58" F. ought never to 
ferment the ammonia or rain water impuri¬ 
ties; and if properly cleaned 1 , ought never 
write, not old clap-trap traditional sayings, to be smelling badly, fait me here say, 
but nature as 1 see it. 1 have ever had the ca uses often exist of Impurity that are not 
amplest, success with my few Lop-F.ured 
rabbits. Of course tin* large raisers, of hun¬ 
dreds and thousands a year, have houses 
and cages, keep fires all winter, and do 
other things to multiply them. But with 
me they endure cold and any heat but hot 
sunshine, and only multiply but too fast. 
Ithaca, N. Y. s. T. Parker, m. D. 
-♦♦♦-- 
NOTES FOR NATURALISTS. 
To Keep Ofl’ the Red Tail Hawk. If 
lie f roubles young turkeys, insert a hole in 
the opposite sides of a small looking-glass, 
into each of which insert a string; tie these 
around the wings of the mother, dose to 
her body, so that the glass will be on her 
back; the lted-Tail Hawk will not come 
near it. This is where turkeys roam at 
large. If he visits your poultry yard, sus¬ 
pend a piece of bright tin in the air, so that 
the wind will sway it about; the first time 
it reflects the rays of the sun in his face, he 
will bid you a long adieu. 
What will frighten away the Blue-Tail or 
Hen Ilawk ? An answer t o the above would 
be worth ten times the yearly subscription 
tu t he RuralNew-Yorker.—Suhscriher. 
Worms on Apple Trees. The worms 
sent by H. .1. Johnson, and found upon his 
apple trees, were all dried up when received, 
and we could not tell anything about them. 
Send fresh live specimens to your own State 
Entomologist, Dr. La Baron, Geneva, Illi¬ 
nois, who will probably be able to give you 
the desired information. 
Naming Birds from Descriptions.— 
D. D. Stone is informed that we cannot 
name birds from descriptions — we must 
have specimens; then we will try. 
suspected. Thus I knew a cool cistern, oft¬ 
en cleaned, to be foul In odor. The causes 
lay, as at last discovered, iu the fact that a 
hoy alter dork urinated often by side of 
the tin pipe that conveyed water from the 
roof to the cist ern. A servant girl empties 
slops over a covered cistern. A tobacco 
user fouls t he roof, and that fouls the cis¬ 
tern. A dog or cat does t he same thing; a 
drain empties a part of its eonteuts, un¬ 
known to the cistern owner, near it. Ho 
there are scores of unseen and unsuspect¬ 
ed causes of filth, all of which may foul the 
water of a eistern, either on one’s own or 
a neighbor’s premises, and thus a cistern 
be foul, unhealthy, and the cause be difficult 
to discover. Then search for t he cause; try 
the thermometer; test, the water by chemi¬ 
cals. If uo cause can be found, then build 
a brick cavil}*, holding three or four barrels, 
cement it all except a soft brick tile or two 
between the cistern and this reservoir. Let 
no water go into the cistern except through 
the reservoirs, which clean often. Thus 
you get filtered water. T have two cisterns 
—neither arc ever foul. (Inn was, for a year 
once, by one of the filthy causes named 
above. s. 
--- 
INFLUENCE OF THE MOON. 
1 notice a communication in the Rural 
New-Yorker of June 22, from a Canada 
correspondent, in relation to the influence 
exerted by the moon on timber. I would 
like very much for him to explain the cause 
of the effects of which he speaks. I don’t 
believe he, or any other man, can explain it 
on scientific principles. I have always been 
skeptical on this subject, and expect to re¬ 
main so until it can he more fully explained. 
Home people go so fur as to say that there is 
a certain day iu the month of August, on 
which, if an ax bo struck into a living, 
healthy tree, it. (the tree) will immediately 
wither and die. This fatal day is in dog 
days, so they say, and also when the moon 
is “right "—that is, w hen waning, I sup¬ 
pose. Home people arc afraid to put a roof 
on a building in the light of the moon, 
for fear the shingles will draw; and will not 
plant roots of any kind iu the light of the 
moon, as they say they go too much to the 
top, and do not grow so well under ground— 
all of which, I think, is simply ridiculous. 
When the subject shall have been thor¬ 
oughly investigated, which, it Is to be hoped, 
will be done at no distant day, I think they 
will find that they will not lie obliged to go 
to the moon to find the cause for an effect 
visible In the world. It is my opinion that 
the investigation of this subject will richly 
repay the time and labor it involves, if sci¬ 
entific minds would search out the true 
causes of the phenomena ascribed to the 
moon. It cannot be denied that the public 
need light on t ills Important subject. If it 
should be proven that the moouites are cor¬ 
rect in their theories, then there arc thou¬ 
sands of unbelievers who sadly need the 
light of truth to guide them )n all of their 
operations, from the building of a house to 
the sowing of a turnip seed. I have been 
thus plain and out-spoken in expressing my 
views In order that it may elicit, from pens 
more able than mine, a full discussion of 
the subject. j. o. r. 
■Washington Co., Va. 
fJi.'iCinilfttM. 
NEWARK VALLEY TROUT PONDS. 
These ponds are at some future day to 
become famous. Situated at Newark, in 
one of the most beaut iful and picturesque 
or valleys, itself a perfect fairy-land of 
beauty, how can it be otherwise? The 
Southern Central Railroad runs directly 
through this valley from Owe go to Auburn. 
Newark is ten miles North of Owego, and 
fifty-eight South of Auburn. 
In April, 1869, Messrs. Warino & Da- 
vi do e commenced the work of excavation 
for these ponds, and by the 20th of June of 
the same year had finished thirteen ponds 
containing over thirteen thousand hogs¬ 
heads of water. 
These ponds are of a variety of shapes. 
Many of them contain beautiful islands, 
and are so arranged that the fish can be sep¬ 
arated at. any time, keeping those of a size 
together, as well as a sufficient number for 
the capacity of each pond. About the 20th 
of June these ponds were first stocked with 
fish. The attempt proved a perfect suc¬ 
cess. From the four hundred trout then 
placed therein, there have grown countless 
thousands. About Hie 1st of November the 
fish com men 00 to spawn, and continue until 
about the 1st of January. The eggs are 
gathered from time to time during this sea¬ 
son—which by the way must he done with 
great care, as removing them from the 
water destroys their vitality—and carried 
into the hatching-house. In this house are 
some ten troughs—or runways--running 
the same as the stream which forms the 
outlet of the ponds. These runways are 
divided into compartments about two feet 
square. Into these are put a bed of gravel, 
aud over this bed the water flows at an av¬ 
erage depth of two inches. On this bed of 
gravel are placed the eggs. Each compart¬ 
ment is designed to hold sixteen hundred. 
At the end of seventy days Dio eggs are 
hatched, and the young trout may be seen 
disporting about III the clear water. 
When they are sufficiently old to bear the 
Change, they are removed to some of the 
ponds, where they need uo further care; 
the insects to be found there affording them 
an ample supply of food. 
01 the sixteen hundred eggs placed in 
each of these compartments, the uverage 
number hatched is about one thousand. 
► The grounds comprise, in their breadth 
aud length, about eight acres, and arc very 
tastefully laid out—everything for the con¬ 
venience of those who visit the place is to 
be found. The present year the improve¬ 
ments arc many. The proprietors of these 
ponds opened them to the public on June 
6th. To those who are interested in trout 
raising, these ponds offer the greatest at trac¬ 
tion. Not only does the great beauty of 
the place appeal to the eye. but the every¬ 
where apparent care that is taken to insure 
the success of the raising of these tinny 
beauties. 
M. Waiiim., to whom this work is a labor 
of love, is a gentleman, courteous aud re¬ 
fined. and cheerfully gives all the informa¬ 
tion in regard to his experiment that one 
could desire. To those who may wish to 
visit t his place, 1 can assure them that they 
will be amply repaid for the time and ex¬ 
pense, and leave the grounds with a feeling 
of regret that so much of the beautiful is 
not theirs for all time. 
Tip Forrest P. Gummehson. 
Berkshire, N. Y. 
