THE RURAL.'NtW- 
JUNE 9 
WSMVUU.’--' 
PLUCKING LIVE GEESE AND DUCKS. 
Havixo, about the 1st of the present month, 
received two geese which had been plucked, and 
consequently present a most wretched appear¬ 
ance, I write to see if you will give insertion to a 
remonstrance against such a mean, barbarous 
practice. Last year, abont. this time, a compla¬ 
cent letter was published in the Canada Farmer, 
the writer of which said she had picked living 
geese over sinco she had room on her lap to lay 
one whilo under the operation, and she added 
that she had repealed the stripping at least six 
times in a year. 
Now, as I felt indignant at this outrageously 
cruel torturing, I wrote to a prominent agricul¬ 
tural paper on the subject, but as a groat many 
of the hubRcribers had boon horn and raised 
amid this continued plucking of the poor crea¬ 
tures, my lottor would have offended many of 
them, and it never was published. You, too, 
may not like to say aught to offend the fooling 
of those who have no regal'd for the pain they 
inflict on poor dumb animals; but lest you should 
risk the losing of subscribers who have their 
geese and ducks forcibly denuded, I will bo as 
mild as possible in denouncing the cruelty. 
In the first place those who commit the crime 
are very Ignorant and low in tho scale of hu¬ 
manity. They should know, however, that they 
defeat their purpose of making the most of their 
geese, because where this plucking is persisted 
in there are never so many young geese raised 
as where it is not practiced. Some of those vio¬ 
lators of nature continue to pull out tho feathers 
from the old geese, tune after time, every year, 
without raising any young worth mentioning, 
while those who only pluck t heir geese when killed 
for sale or use at home, will obtain so many that 
the feathers from stripping once will bo more 
than can bo got by repeatedly tearing out all 
from tho few old birds. Moreover, these naked 
fowls disfigure the farm homestead of the mis¬ 
erable creaturcm who mar tho beauty of tho cov¬ 
ering Nature gives the poor, inoffensive crea¬ 
tures. 
Some deny that there is any cruelty in this 
practice ; thou lot them explain why the geese 
and ducks so treated look so ragged and woe-be- 
gono. At all events, it would be very satisfactory 
to me to loarn the opinions of other people on 
this subject, and I don’t see why a paper should 
bo injured by a ventilation of the matter. 
Moreover, those with whom I am connected are 
considering the most profitable way of grazing 
200 or 300 acres of vale ami hill land beau¬ 
tifully watered with pure springs and streams, 
and if geese will yield five or six crops of feath¬ 
ers every year, they will, in proportion, be more 
profitable than one fleece of wool in sheep, and 
tho poultry fanciers should study to produce 
breeds which will grow the most feathers. 
Georoe Gardner. 
■-- 
REARING CHICKS. 
Rearing chicks is a very pleasant business 
when circumstances are favorable, and the 
broods are healthy and lively. One cannot help 
being amused at the funny little tricks and 
actions of the tiny creatures. The nearer one 
can place them in circumstances resembling 
those of nature, the surer his success. The 
first requisite is a good, dry, warm, siurny run, 
with sufficient trees to protect them from the 
scorching rays of an excessively hot sun. When 
shade cannot bo obtained naturally, it must bo 
provided by sheds or awnings. Muslin, st retched 
on frames laid over the coop, ami projecting 
over the ground three or four feet In front, is a 
good substitute for shade trees. Shelter from 
the sun in hot weather is very important.. 
Do not crowd too many chicks on a given sur¬ 
face. Remember that chicks will not travel 
further than a certain distance from the center 
of their abode, bo they few or many, as they arc 
very fond of homo. This Is the reason why 
cottagers can raise a larger proportion of the 
chicks hatched than any other people ; for their 
birds have plenty of room, and are not too 
crowded. A small number of chickens will do 
best under such circmuetanoes, because they not 
only get some little table-scraps, but also find 
many worms, insects, seeds, eto., and are then in 
as natural a condition as domestication will 
allow. Suppose thoso chicks—we will imagine 
them to be twenty-five—were doubled in number, 
and that the fifty do not travel any further, they 
must divide among themselves the chance daiu 
ties they discover. Now, suppose they are one 
hundred, it is not in their nature to travel 
further in search of more natural food; but they 
will divide among the hundred what the twenty- 
five would have fouud. 
To keep your ohickens, therefore, in a fine, 
healthy condition, in large numbers, they should 
be supplied with whatever delicacies you can 
give them as a compensation for the extra 
amount of natural food which the few would got 
at large about a cottage. On farms it is a good 
plan to set coopB as far apart as practicable, in 
order to give the chickens am wide a range as 
possible; but I would not advise placing the 
coops too far from the house. In that case they 
would be too much exposed to such enemies as 
hawks, weasels, minks, eto. 
After Hie chicks are two weeks old, if tho hen 
proves to be of a quiet disposition, and doeR not 
injure anything by scratching or fighting, I 
let her out with her brood. It is not good to let 
them rim at large with their chicks as soon as 
hatched, unless you find the hens are quiet and 
know how to take care of them. Some mothers 
are bo anxious, jealous and fid^etty. that they 
drag their little ones to death, through wet 
grass, showers and all lands of bad weather. 
Home, again, are so pugnacious that they show 
tight to everything they meet, from a cat to a 
horse, often killing their chicks accidentally. 
Others are very cruel to all chicks, except their 
own. Such a hen will sometimes kill a number 
before she is caught in the act or found out. 
Ileus of this kind must be cooped up. It is 
only by watching such small details, and proper 
feeding that a large number of chickens can be 
reared to gratify their owners. 
Henry Hales. 
■-♦♦♦- 
NOTES. 
It often happens that farmers and their wives, 
who are w ise enough to keep poultry about the 
homestead, are not thoughtful enough to make 
a note for future use, of the excellent sugges¬ 
tions for their profitable management that ap¬ 
pear, from time to time, in these columns. If 
there is an immediate oocasion for applying our 
advice, they follow it with satisfactory results; 
but if the opportunity for doing so is deferred, 
many of them are apt to forget all about the 
matter when it would be to their advantage to 
act upon the suggestions here made. Hence it 
is necessary to repeat briefly, at intervals, much 
of the advice that haB previously been given in 
OUJT pages. The substance of the following 
notes, from the Weekly Herald, has, at different 
times, beeu already laid before our readers iu 
greater detail, but tho subject is now recurred 
to in the way of a reminder: 
1 ‘ A daily ration of green food is an actual ne¬ 
cessity for laying liens. Vegetables, either raw 
or cooked, of which they are very fond, supply, 
iu a measure, tho place of green diet. Onions 
chopped lino and mixed with then’ food are very 
wholesomo, and in many cases a preventive of 
disease. There is no green food so good for 
growing chicks as onion-tops, cut up tine ; they 
should always be fed something of the kind 
when it is necessary to house them on account of 
inclement weather. Put away choice eggs with 
the name of breed and date of laying, until some 
hen wants to 6it. Select a good clean nost and 
put in a china egg; hang a piece of board over 
tho nost to keep the hen iu and outsiders out. 
Put the lieu on the nest and shut the door ; if 
she is wild, a few hours will quiet her, and by 
oveuing the valuable eggs may be substituted for 
the china one. Tho eggs should not be more 
than thirteen days old, and marked with the 
date of sitting, in order to know when to expect 
the brood to hatch out. Feed setting lions with 
corn once in twenty-four hours. Close the doors 
of the lieu house, lift tho hens from their nest 
by their feet, provide them with corn, fresh 
water, and a box of sifted ashes or road dust. 
Close the nests ami leave the liens for twenty 
minutes, when they will be ready for their nests. 
During the latter part of the three weeks, sprin¬ 
kle the eggs daily with lukewarm water, while 
the hens are feeding. If the hen was set late iu 
the day, the chickens should hatch out at even¬ 
ing or iu the night: by the next day they should 
be ready to leave the nest. Put a mixture of 
kerosene on their heads and under their wings, 
and remove them with their mother to a clean 
coop. Darken this coop somewhat for a couple 
of days, so that the heu may keep herself quiet 
and her chicks warms. Cover the floor of the 
coop with sifted ashes. ■ 
“ It pays, and pays well, to keep poultry, if 
cared for as they should be. The guano alone, 
if well housed, is worth more than it costs to 
keep the fowls. No department of the farm is 
so generally neglected as the poultry-yard. Pure¬ 
bred fowls pay much better than the common 
ones. If farmers would raise more poultry for 
their own table, as a change from tho monotony 
of pork, they would have better health.” 
■ -- 
AEOUT POULTRY. 
I will join Mr. Smith in his estimation of 
Mr. Hales’ contributions to your paper, but I 
cannot say quite as much as he does in regard to 
ray chickens. I have not Buoceeded in keeping 
all tho chickens that I have batched. I have, 
however, lost but very few, and one reason for 
this, perhaps, is that I have not near as many 
as I ought to have. 
Jly hens are Leghorns, or a mixture, aud they i 
will sit for a day or two and then leave their 
nests. I should have purchased some of the 
sitting breed, but Procrastination—that arrant 
thief—is chargeable with that neglect. I feed 
cracked corn from tho commencement. I have 
never thought of rioe, although it is good and 
fattening; and fed as Mr. SiSmi feeds—raw—it 
cannot sour. And I think it important to have 
feed constantly before them. Wet Indian-mcal 
will sour in a short time, and consequently I 
never use it. I sometimes chop up any waste 
that 1 may have, into whiofi I put cives. 
1 am not much troubled with gapes, although 
I have had a few cases of it. If rice is a pre¬ 
ventive of this disease, it is really an important 
piece of information and qnite a discovery. I 
once heard of a lot of chickens with the gapes 
being put in a lime-barrel and rolled over and 
over for a long time, and every ono was cured. 
1 have never tried the limo-baircl because, einco 
1 heard of it, I haven't had any case of gapes. 
I certainly should have tried it had thcro been 
any necessity. 
I did try hard-boiled eggs for my chickens, and 
I haven't any doubt but that they are good feed, 
still I have never given but little of it, merely 
because of the trouble. n. z. 
- »+♦ - 
VERMIN ON POULTRY. 
Jno. E. Roberts of thiB city, in the Southern 
Poultry Journal, says: 
“ Many fanciers use the carbolic (or carbolatod) 
powder in order to rid their fowls of lice and 
mites. It is considered the very best of reme¬ 
dies. My plan is one which, I think, is used by 
no other breeder; has never failed me in com¬ 
pletely ridding my fowls of every insect, and has 
demonstrated to me its infallibility. It is simply 
the use of oil of sassafras mixed with sweet oil. 
To one ounce of oil of sassafras put five or six of 
sweet oil, and apply a small quantity to different 
parts of the body of the fowl, selecting thoso 
pointH where the vermin would be most apt to 
iilde. 
“ In applying the preparation I fill with it a 
small oil-can, so that I can force out as much or 
little of t.lie Hoil as I wish. A very small bit can 
be made to go a great ways, for ono drop can bo 
rubbed over two or three inchcB of space, aud is 
no more trouble to apply than the various insect 
powderH. I use sweet oil, because of its curative 
powers, but any kind of grease, no matter what, 
will do to mix witli tho oil of sassafras. Tho oil 
of sassafras is the eradicator, the other oil 
merely the vehicle. 1 believe common sassafras 
tea would bo wonderfully efficacious. 
“ Make it iu a large put, then after allowing it 
to cool, dip the fowls in bodily. In one second 
the lice will be dead, and in ten seconds the fowl 
will be perfectly dry, if placed in tho sunshine. 
It is hard to form an idea of the magical effect 
produced by the oil of sassafras. I have never 
tried tho remedy in greater attenuation than that 
mentioned, (one part to five or six), but believe 
that it would be equally good if composed of ono 
ounce oil of sassafras to ten or twelve of any 
ot her oil or grease.” 
jfushukji. 
EARLY LAMBS. 
In reply to your queries as to the best season 
to place spring lambs on the New York market, 
I would say, the Booner after the first of .January 
that it is possible, the better. Then there will 
be no competition, at least none until you or 
some other enterprising farmer shall have opened 
the road to success. The first spring lambs of 
this season came to hand Wednesday, March 14, 
and were sold at 10@17o. per lb ; they were of 
choice quality and weighed from 50 to (il lbs. per 
head : they were quoted from Central New York. 
These have been the highest rates obtained. On 
Friday, May 25, spring lambs, 41 lbs. per head, 
sold at per lb., those 53 lbs. per head 
at quality of both inferior. The 
same day, ohoice quality lambs, 58 lbs. per head 
were scarce and in demand at 10@lle>; Monday, 
May 28, fair quality spring lambs, GO lbs. per 
head, sold at 8o. 
Tho best family of sheep for you to breed up 
will be South-Downs; they are neat, close-built 
animals, fatten readily and look well when prop¬ 
erly dressed in the butcher’s stall. The larger 
varieties grow more in a given time, but do not 
produce such excellent flesh, neither do they ac¬ 
cumulate so much fat. Butchers are now always 
compelled to buy fat sheep for the sole purpose 
of dressing lean lambs with their internal fat or, 
as it should be named, the caul, and the Ameri¬ 
can housewife is in general so ignorant of the 
attributes of good meats and properly fatted 
animals, that this poor cheat goes on unobserved 
or detected only by a few. The most profitable 
manner of disposing of any choice article of food 
is to deliver it on contract to the consumer. 
Thus, as you propose to sell so many lambs 
per week to as many first-class hotels and res¬ 
taurants as you can profitably deal with, local 
rates of freight on live stock have to be taken 
into close calculation, as also the 1 fact that tho 
shipper had better be the slaughterer. This lat¬ 
ter part of the business is easily managed. 
Almost any wholesale butcher would allow a car¬ 
load or two to be consigned direct to him, when, 
for a just remuneration,’ the animals would be 
slaughtered, dressed and cooled. 
Those Who pUVcbased the lambs of you could 
remove carcases when thus prepared for con¬ 
sumption. Tfy> milk of 'the ewe is rarely suffi¬ 
cient to fatten 'on early lambs. The safest, addi¬ 
tion to the supply of nature is a raw ogg broken 
into the gullet of tho lamb at an early hour of 
the morning; also, twice or thrice in the day, a 
chunk of oaten-meal gruel, cooked for six hours 
in a tin steamer and diluted with milk warm 
from the cow. Fattening lambs had better not 
remain continually with tbe dams ; let them run 
together for a short time at intervals of eight 
hours; this will allow time for the dam to se¬ 
crete milk, and will likewise allow the shepherd 
time [to administer hiB other feeds. Some far¬ 
mers feed spring lambs on whoaten-flour par¬ 
boiled in cow's milk. This is a dangerous prac¬ 
tice, as such food in difficult of assimilation, al¬ 
though very conducive to putting up fat. When 
fed lambs show any falling off of appetite, it 
may safely be attributed to costivcness; in such 
caBe keep the animal from all sorts of food for 
at least five hours, then pour down its throat 
ono wineglassful of cold-drawn linseed-oil: take 
an ordinary table sauce-boat, pour into it one 
small toftoupful of warm water, then add the oil. 
The warm water will cause the oil to act more 
readily and more fully. Do not force food on 
the lamb, but as soon as it calls for the dam al¬ 
low it to take a very little from her, aud stop for 
some hours all extra food. 
A cool, airy house, rather than a close, warm 
one, is the best for all fattening stock. Perfect 
cleanliness and dryness are absolute necessities. 
Surface-drainage alone is not sufiiciuet; under- 
drainage must bo complete. Ventilation also 
must bo secured overhead, and no drafts per¬ 
mitted parallel with tbe feet or legs of the ani¬ 
mals. 
In conclusion, I would say that fed veal is in 
tho United States of America an article quite as 
profitable to deal in as are early-fed lambs. 
Both aro scarce, and both are in demand at re¬ 
munerative pricos. m. m. 
Will you please inform me, through the 
Rural New Yorker, what the enclosed beetles 
are, aud bow to get rid of them. I found them 
on a plum tree.-—G eo. A. Brioham, Middlesex 
Co., Muss. 
The five snout beetles which you found on tho 
plum trees are of three quite distinct species, but 
whether all were on the trees for the purpose of 
depositing their eggs in the fruit or twigs is 
something which wo would like to know. 
The larger one, with two humps on its back, or 
more properly wing-covers (elytra) is the well- 
known plum curculio ( Conulravkelus nenuphar), 
which deposits its eggs in the fruit, tho grubs 
boring into the pulps until they reach the ker¬ 
nel, thus inflicting an injury which causes the 
plums to drop off immaturely. Many preven¬ 
tives have been recommended from time to time, 
but the most effectual one is to shako off the 
beetles upon sheets spread under the tree and 
then kill them. This, of course, is a tedious 
process where the insects are abundant, and it 
must be repeated every morning for weckB, for the 
female commences to lay eggs in the plums so 
soon as they fairly set, and continues until they 
are nearly full grown or ripe. 
Among the specimens sent there was one 
about two-thirdd the size of the plum curculio 
and of a brownish color; no humps but deeply 
corrugated elytra, this is Conolrachelns postica- 
tus, a curculio closely allied to the former, and it 
probably also attacks tbe plum. If you adopt 
tbe jarring process, we should be pleased if you 
would send us all tho specimens taken, no matter 
if a thousand or two, in order that we may see 
whether one or more species are at work on the 
fruit or tree. To kill the beetles, throw them 
into common whiskey or other spirits, and when 
a quantity has been collected, drain off the liquor 
and pack the beetles in a tin box with dry saw¬ 
dust intermingled, and 6end by mail or other¬ 
wise. The third species of curculio sent was of 
less size than either of the former, being rather 
slender, not more than one-twentieth of an inch 
in diameter, and about an eighth of an inch in 
length. It is all black with no spots upon it, 
rough, with minute punctures on the elytra. Its 
scientific name is Magdalus pandura, but we 
think it has never as yet beeu honored with a 
vulgar or English name. 
We have no knowledge of its habits or where 
its lar v® are to bo found. Perhaps it also infests 
Hi 
t«5 
