MOOBE’S BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
ari. 
PLUCKING GEEBE. I 
Although Northern people know one gan- i 
der to do well with two or three geese and t 
that about an average of ten goslings per t 
go.se can be reckoned on where the place is t 
suitable, there are those who persist in Ray- j 
ing that geest*, pair oil and cannot be made to 
do otherwise. In the South it is the custom 
to pick the feathers several times during the 
summer, and they serve ducks the same, and 
a miserable set. of poor creatures they look. 
There it is usual to sec lots of ganders kept 
round to pluck, the same as wether sheep 
are kept in the far WcbI, till they die of old 
age, for the sake of the annual fleece. How 
singular it appears that customs should differ 
so in civilized communities ! In England I 
never knew of any picking of live animals 
but on common and waste lands, where poor 
people kept geese, and did so but 80 years 
ago ; or at any rate, it is more than 30 years 
since the Society for Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals put a stop to it there. In Ireland 
the practice is carried on ; but that the for¬ 
merly wealthy planters in Southern States 
should have torn and ripped the feathers 
from their poultry while alive, seems extra¬ 
ordinary. I shuddered the first time 1 saw 
one of the negroes stripping off the feathers, 
and said, “O ! it looks cruel ! it must torture 
the poor things I” "0, no, sir ! They are 
used to it !” It does injure the poor crea¬ 
tures though, for they breed very uncertain¬ 
ly. A Working Farmer. 
-«*-*-♦-■ 
VERMIN ON POULTRY. 
Two year’s ago our hen-house was literally 
covered with vermin. Every time a hen 
hatched 1 cleaned the neat and burned the 
straw. 1 greased the hens and sulphured 
them, too, poor things I I looked in the 
Rural each week. Somebody said tobacco 
was good, I tried it, and as it did not hurt 
the vermin, 1 suppose it won’t the* gentlemen 
who use it ! But I found something that 
will kill, and I would as soon taste it as to¬ 
bacco extract from-. Last spring, after 
helping mother whitewash, there was about 
a peck of lime left. During the day a drop 
fell into my eye (I'm not an experienced 
whltewasher), and a thought occurred to 
me. I put a cupful of lime in the bottom of 
each nest, and not all summer did anything 
trouble that hen-house. Only one poor hen 
seemed to droop. I caught her; she was 
covered with living creatures ! 1 cut her 
head off and buried her in the garden. The 
above is my method of doctoring sick hens. 
We raised about 400 chickens last year. It 
doesn’t take many to bring down the price 
cf the Peoria market, or I think 1 would 
raise a thousand this year. 1 am sure that it 
chickens have pure water to drink and salted 
food they will enjoy good health. We give 
ours sour milk, too, every day. They lay 
well. Our neighbor's say they get no eggs ; 
but I thiuk the reason is corn is so high. I 
would like to know which will pay best, to 
sell eggs or set them and sell chickens if 
Lizzie Couch. 
- - - 
INCUBATION OF CHICKENS. 
Dr. PiJetarre of New York City has long 
been experimenting with incubators, and we 
believe lias been very successful in hatching 
chickens with the aid thereof. This year, 
however, he has tried the experiment of 
hatching eggs by the aid of horse manure, 
and finds it equally good and, in some re¬ 
spects, preferable. He places the eggs in. 
barrels, which are are placed on posts or 
pillars holding them up from the ground. 
Around these barrels or tubs are beds of ma¬ 
nure nine feet square. When this bed is 
three days old he places the eggs in the bar¬ 
rels and in forty-eight hours the first signs of 
life may be visible in the beating of the 
heart, which is seen moving over the center 
of the yolk. In about twenty days the 
chickens are expected to break the shell. 
Dr. P. exhibits chickens so hatched this 
spring. It is necessary to move the eggs 
every day ; also to relieve them from the heat 
each day, lifting the tubs contaiuiug them 
out, of the ben of manure, thus bringing that 
change in ventilation the hen gives when 
leaving her nest. 
--- 
WHAT AILS THE CHICKENS 1 
Some disease is raging here this winter, 
and did last fall among the chickens. Then- 
combs and all the red about their heads turn 
a kind of ashy color. The feathers on the 
top of their heads and necks divide up into 
small bunches. Tne hinder part of the chick¬ 
ens have rather a drooping appearauce. They 
have u diarrhea, a light green substance 
passing off. They lose their appetite and 
within from six to forty-eight hours die. 
Upon examination the liver is found to be 
enlarged and a watery substance around the 
heart. The prevailing opinion here is that 
the disease must run its course, regardless of 
medicine. 1 have tried almost everything 
thought to be a cure, notwithstanding which 
I lost two hundred out of two hundred and 
DO BEES INJURE FRUIT 1 
In the Rural New-Yorker for Septem¬ 
ber 27th Mr. Riley undertakes to prove tha t 
bees injure fruit. I have waited so long in 
hopes that some one would answer that 
article; but seeing no one has done so, I will 
ANNAT BARLEY. CHEVALIER BARLEY. COMMON ENGLISH BARLEY. 
For a Description of tlxese Varieties, see Da^-e 180. 
fifty. A sure cure or preventive would put 
money in a great number of Kansas pockets. 
Ann Hopkins. 
---- 
POULTRY NOTES. 
To Keep Egys for Setting .—An English 
agricultural paper says that eggs intended 
for setting should be stored with the large 
end down, because the air-bubble does not 
spread so much as when the small end is 
down—this spreading of the air-bubble be¬ 
ing known to affect the freshness and vi¬ 
tality of the egg. Eggs stored with the large 
end down will keep perfectly good for hatch¬ 
ing more than a month, while the others can¬ 
not be depended on after two weeks. To 
this the New England Farmer adds A suc¬ 
cessful poultry breeder iu Franklin, Mass., 
has been experimenting with eggs for set¬ 
ting, and declares the above statement cor¬ 
rect, and adds that eggs stored on the large 
end for a few 7 weeks before setting will all 
hatch at once, instead of varying several 
hours, as is usually the case with eggs not so 
prepared. 
Ducklings for Market .—The early duck¬ 
lings that realize such high prices in the Lon¬ 
don market, are said to be principally the 
Aylesbury variety, distinguished by their 
great size, white plumage aud flesh-colored 
bill. Their high quality is said to be produced 
by feeding the old birds largely with sound 
oats placed in a vessel of water. If not al¬ 
lowed much room to swim, old ducks will lay 
freely in winter; then the eggs should be 
hatched under hens, and the ducklings liber¬ 
ally fed with slaked oatmeal and fine mid¬ 
dlings, and afterwards with oats in water. 
Under this treatment they may be made 
ready for the table in less than two months. 
endeavor to say a few words, not only in de¬ 
fense of the bee but of the fruit. Now, with 
all due respect for Mr. Riley as un ento¬ 
mologist, allow me to say that, in my hum¬ 
ble opinion, he has signally failed to justify 
himself in recommending the destruction of 
bees, even in extreme cases. But to the 
question, “Do bees injure fruit?” Mr. 
Riley sayB they do, and also says, “ I never 
fear the truth and never write anything that 
I am not ready and competent to defend.’’ 
Now, all this may be true, Mr. Editor ; but 
we must make considerable allowance for 
youthful zeaL 1 find, as I grow older, I 
change my mind on many things; and I 
even dare to think us Mr. R. gains in years 
aud experience he, too, may change his 
opinions, not only upon this subject but upon 
others, his ideas on the grape vine aphis in¬ 
cluded, 
Permit me now to look briefly at the proof 
that he offers to establish what he pleases to 
call the truth. The first is a letter from I 
W. Penn, who says :—“I like fruit, large and 
small, to become thoroughly ripe ; but from 
early to late in the season the place is infest¬ 
ed with myriads of bees belonging to per¬ 
sons that fail to provide food for them. * * 
The choicest peaches, the sweetest pears and 
the most delicious grapes are hollowed out 
by the starved and ravenous insects.” Look¬ 
ing at this testimony your readers would be 
apt to come to the conclusion, if they had 
never seen bees, that they had a bill like a 
bird or teeth and stomach like a squirrel. 
Look at the statement, “the fruit was hol¬ 
lowed out; ” and again, “ I and others of 
the family were severely stung by the bees 
lurking within.” Now, would this kind of 
evidence satisfy a competent jury ( True, it 
might be called circumstantial evidence, but 
not enough to convict and punish with 
death. Now 7 , would this species of reason¬ 
ing satisfy 7 Mr. Riley on any other subject ? 
Would he not require a more careful exami¬ 
nation before jumping at a conclusion ? If 
not, I do not think he. is the fortunate pos¬ 
sessor of the mantle of Father \\ alch. 
The next witness on the stand is J. H. 
Werlanuy, who says he was so annoyed by 
liis neighbors’ bees that he lost his entire 
j peach crop, which was rendered unfit for 
market by their injuries. This witness might 
just as well be dismissed without comment, 
seeing there is not one single proof offered. 
Now let us hear the testimony of Mr. Riley 
himself“ The objection to bees under cer¬ 
tain circumstances comes from the real and 
direct injury they do to the fruit.” This is 
merely gratuitous assumption. Again, “The 
mouth of the honey bee is fitted both for 
lapping and biting.” Well, for the sake of 
the argument, suppose it is ; how far would 
this testimony go to convince a jury, if Mr. 
Riley was brought up on a similar charge ? 
It will doubtless be very clearly seen by 
eveiy intelligent and candid reader that the 
statements given are very far from being 
sufficient to establish the fact that bees in¬ 
jure fruit. 
Now let us go back to Mr. Penn’s orchard 
and see if we can’t find some other cause for 
the destruction of his fruit. “ Here are also 
some ornament,al trees and evergreens, in¬ 
cluding an Arborvitfe hedge to shelter the 
small birds, which became very tame under 
the kind treatment they received.” 1 ask 
Mr. Penn what he thinks the birds live upon ? 
Not all insect# I can assure him ; and, to con¬ 
vince himself of this, let him go into his 
orchard by the peep of day, aud perhaps he 
will find the birds as well as the bees enjoy¬ 
ing themselves. I have been longer in fruit 
than bee culture, aud I know the birds have 
had many a dainty meal of the best of my 
grapes, cherries and strawberries ; and 1 also 
know that at times they have hud the lion’s 
share. Mr. Penn says he is kind to tin* birds, 
doubtless convinced that they are his friends. 
A few year# ago a liejee controversy was 
waged upon the bird question ; some thought 
they did more harm than good ; but mercy 
and truth at last prevailed, and now they 
enjoy their full liberty both iu the field and 
orchard, for the good they do. Again, Mr. 
Penn says, “ My loss last year m money 
value was considerable.” This is only one 
side of the money question ; he lias failed to 
give the bees any eredit; but I hope in time 
he will learn better and, as R. Holland 
truly remarks, “ Any one who goes through 
the world with his eyes opeu, is sure to find 
out something that eve.n professed naturalists 
did not know before.” 
Some seasons fruit “don’t set good.” 
Why ? 1 have in my mind at present a large 
pear tree whose branches in the spring were 
white with bloom ; but there came one of 
those heavy, dashing rainstorms and washed 
out the pollen, and of course there was little 
or no fruit on the tree, except one branch, 
and that was loaded with fruit, for it hung 
under and was protected by the caves of the 
1 house. If there had been plenty of bees in 
the neighborhood to have fertilized the rest 
* of the tree, more fruit would have been the 
i result. Providence never works without 
f means ; and it is admitted by all naturalists, 
3 and Mr. Riley himself will not deny it, that 
the bee is a means of not only giving us more 
r fruit but a greater variety. Art in this has 
f done much, but Nature more. With this 
view of the matter the means that Mi-. Riley 
i fias recommended for the destruction of 
r bees will not justify the end ; for it has been 
^ observed, from the days of Aristotle to the 
I present time, that where there is an abund- 
8 anee of bees there is an abundance of fruit; 
s therefore ;the more fruit the more money. 
u These facts are (so well established no proof 
l * is required. 
But there is something else, of a serious 
'f nature. The flight of a bee is ascertained to 
o be about a mile in two minutes. Now 7 , the 
I bees that fill their sacs (or first stomachs) at 
d Mi-. Riley’s poison dish will not all die there, 
n but thousands will fly home and deposit their 
t- load in the hive. If this houey is used at 
r- Lome or taken to market, who will be re- 
* sponsible for the cousequences ? 1 think 
d friend Riley has made a great blunder, and 
it j would counsel him to be careful where he 
c- buys his honey, for if he has any facts to 
ie communicate upon this important subject, 
d the public cannot w 7 ell spare him at present, 
a In conclusion I would ask him if he ever 
1. kept bees and how he managed to keep them 
J- at home ? Argus. 
if Kane Co., III., March 3,1874. 
Send in your experiences, readers, in this 
Department of husbandry. We are always 
glad to print them. 
