JULY 4$ 
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KEMINDINO THE HEN. 
“ lx’s well I went Into the garden,’* 
Said Eddie, bis face all aglow, 
“ For what do you think, mamma, happened ? 
You never will guess, I know." 
"The little brown hen was there clucking; 
‘ Cut-cut,' she’d say. quick as a wink— 
Then ’cut-cut' again, only slower. 
And then she would stop short and think. 
" And then she would say It all over— 
She did look so inad and so vexed— 
For, mamma, do you know, she’d forgotten 
The word that she ought to cluck next ? 
" So I said,' Ca dair-cut! Ca daic-cut!’ 
As loud and as strong as I could ; 
And she looked round at me very thankful, 
I tell you, It made her feel good. 
“ Then she flapped, and said * Cut-ca-daie-cut!' 
She. remembered Just bow lt^went then, 
But It’s well I ran Into the garden — 
She might never have clucked right again !” 
[St. Nicholas. 
FARMING FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 
NO. 48. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Rearing 1 Poultry. 
The rearing of fowls is a very pleasant 
occupation for girls. Boys may rear colts 
and calves, but girls always succeed better 
with fowls than boys do. This is because girls 
are gentle and quiet with their pets, and young 
French Poultry House —Fig. 224. 
chickens are gentle and quiet, and do much 
better when they are petted and treated ten¬ 
derly ; and how much better it is to have the 
fowls so tame that they will eat out of one’s 
hand, than to fly and flutter and scream when 
one comes any where in sight of them. When 
fowls are kindly treated they do better; the 
hens feed and lay better; they brood better 
on their nests and take much better care of 
the young chicks. When a hen is afraid and 
gets wild she leaves her nest and lays away, 
and the eggs are lost; or she breaks the eggs 
or steps on the chickens, and one might as 
well have no fowls at all as to have wild and 
frightened ones. 
Now a good young hen will lay an egg every 
second day for eight or nine months in the 
year, which is about 120 eggs, or 10 dozens for 
the year; and she will rear 10 chicks besides— 
that is, if she is well cared for. A hen can be 
well fed for $1 a year, so it is very easy to 
figure up how much profit any little girl can 
make out of five or six hens. Then, if one 
begins now with one hen, before the year is 
Hen House.— Fig. 225. 
out there will be nine dozen of eggs and five 
young chickens perhaps, to sell, and the mother 
and a little family of five young hens for the 
second year. That is doing very well indeed. 
Now let us see how this is to be done. First, 
a good young hen is needed and then a house 
and a yard. A very nice house and yard can 
be made with little trouble. All that is re¬ 
quired is to drive some stakes in the ground 
and fasten three or four fence wires to them 
and then weave among these some of the 
thickest corn stalks that can be found, or some 
coarse pea brush or laths. If a tree can be 
enclosed in the yard, so much the better. The 
house may be made of a few pieces of board 
or a large packing-box, and a good sized one 
will easily hold six fowls. The first picture 
(Fig. 224) shows a French poultry-house—or 
rather two of them, because it is better to 
have a few in a house and have more houses, 
than to have many fowls in one house. A 
smart boy and girl together could make a 
House and yard like this is in lees than a week, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
and all that is wanted is a saw, a hammer, 
some nails and an auger; an ax, of course, 
will be wanted to cut the stakes and the brush 
in the woods. 
The second picture (Fig. 225) is one of a 
larger house for 25 or 30 fowls. This house 
will cost about $25; but if one would only 
take good care of so many fowls, it would be 
very easy to get all that money back again in 
one year and $25 besides, and even two or 
three times as much, if ther-t is a chance to 
sell the young chicks at a good price in a 
market or a hotel. Now, if a boy or girl 
could make $50 a year from keeping a small 
flock of fowls, that would be very pleasant. 
And yet it can be done if the right course is 
taken; and the right way is to have a com¬ 
fortable, dry, warm house, and a yard with 
plenty of room and some shade in it; to keep 
the house and yard very clean; to feed the fowls 
properly; to give them plenty of clean water, 
and to manage them in every way just right. 
All k this seems quite easy; but it is not so 
easy after all, unless one knows how to do it; 
and this will be all told hereafter. 
-- 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Dear Uncle Mark and Rural Cousins. 
—I wonder how many of the nephews and 
nieces who livj in the country are improving 
their opportunity to learn gardening this Sum¬ 
mer I It is quite late for you to undertake a 
bed or garden of your own now, but it would 
be such a nice thing if you could induce mam¬ 
ma to take you into partnership or appren¬ 
ticeship this year; she can teach you about 
cultivating the flowers or vegetables, and then 
you will be better prepared to tend your own 
flower-garden next Summer. 
We will suppose the bed is all nicely made 
with its beautiful border of foliage plants, 
pansies or whatever may be. They have all 
started up finely, and so have the weeds and 
grass. They are having a hand-to-hand con¬ 
flict for the championship of the bed, and from 
the long and delicate appear ince of the grass 
and weed-stems they seem to be gaining 
ground rapidly over your beautiful plants. 
But now is the time for my little friends to 
come to the rescue I Mamma has been so busy; 
there has been so many hungry little mouths 
as well as big ones to feed; so many stockings 
to darn and so much butter to make and so 
much work in doors to do that she has been 
forced to neglect the bed of flowers that she 
laid out and cared for with so much pride the 
fore part of the season. Now let each one of 
you take a little trowel to loosen up the earth, 
then when the hard lumps turn up pulverize 
them and pull out all the weeds which the lit¬ 
tle hands can easily induce to relax their hold. 
In this way you will help mamma wonderfully 
if you do your work well, and now and then, 
as she comes to your side to direct you, she 
will quite surely have something to say about 
the beautiful flowers as well as the ugly weeds. 
Besides, you will become interested in your 
work, I hope, and will take as much pride as 
mamma does in having the flower-bed look 
nice and clein. Another year you can ask 
for a little flower-bed of your own, and I am 
quite sure you will not be refused if you bave 
done well this season iu assisting mother. In 
the vegetable garden tbe boyB should pursue 
a similar course, and they will be surprised to 
see how much they can learn and how much 
there is to learn in gardening. Aunt May. 
Dear Uncle Mark.— I am very much in¬ 
terested in the Horticultural Club, and want 
to do what little I can to make it interesting 
to others. I think we ought to tell each other 
what we are doing in our gardens this Sum¬ 
mer so that the experiences of each may profit 
the others. But 1 am most interested in the 
study of insects, their habits and how they in¬ 
jure plants. I think it is one of the most in¬ 
teresting studies that I ever took up, and I 
believe it is profitable, too. Don't you think, 
Uncle Mark, that if the grown up farmers 
knew more about the habits of insects that 
they would know better how to prevent their 
attacks upon fruits and flowers ? (Most cer¬ 
tainly, U. M.] I am going to study all I can 
about insects and maybe some day I shall 
know enough about them to write articles for 
the Rural and other papers on subjects per¬ 
taining to insects and their remedies. I al¬ 
ways like to read the articles by Profs. Cook, 
French and others, in the Rural and they 
help me a good deal, though many times I 
come across big names and scientific terms 
that I don’t understand but I hope to some 
day. Your nephew, George. 
Allegan Co., Mich. 
Dear Uncle Mark: —I would like to 
join the Horticultural Club with the rest of 
the boys and girls. I am 14 years old, and 
live in the town of Ca3tile, N. Y., about two 
miles from the village of Castile, and a-half 
mile from one of the prettiest lakes in the 
country. I will not tell the name of it, and 
see if any of the Cousins can tell in some of 
their letters. I have helped plant potatoes and 
have Harrowed several acres, and my uncle, 
with whom I am living, let me hold the plow 
some. I helped sow about two acres of gar¬ 
den seeds with our new Planet, Jr., Seed 
Drill. I can run it nicely. We have a pretty 
flower garden, or it will be pretty when 
the flowers blossom. Now I am going in 
for Uncle Elm’s huckleberry prize; have one 
dozen bushes set out; planted them the 23d 
of May. I hope there will be others to try it. 
Your nephew, Bertie Hungkreord. 
[Glad you are trying for the huckleberry 
prize, and hope there are many of the Cousins 
who are doing the same. u. m ] 
Dear Uncle Mark and Rural Cousins— 
As I am a member of the Club I suppose I 
ought to write you a letter. I received the 
watermelon sseds all right; sowed them and 
four of them are up. I go to Bchool this Sum¬ 
mer. I have a flower-bed and expect to have 
quite a good many flowers I sowed some of 
the celery seel and it came up nicely. It was 
very cold here this Spring. I have quite a 
large vegetable gardou. I have potatoes, 
beans, peas, melons, lettuce and a few other 
things Why don’t the Cousins write oftener? 
They have written only a very few letters 
this year. Your niece, 
Jefferson Co., N. Y. Gertie M. Cornwell. 
[Yes; why don’t the Cousins write more, 
as Gertie suggests! I am always very glad 
to hear from them. Write often; don’t limit 
yourself to two letters a year. Whenever 
you have anything good to say, let’s hear 
it.—u. M.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: —I am fourteen years 
old, but not very stout. This is the first Sum¬ 
mer that I have not attended school since I 
began. I have a garden patch of my own 
this Summer. I have raised onion sets for 
Bale for several years. I sowed two papers of 
onion seeds this Spring. I am raising pars¬ 
nips, pans and lettuce, too. I had a few pea¬ 
nuts last year but most of them rotted I 
planted half a dozen or so (which were all I 
had) this year. I guess I can raise as many 
as I plant. I will try to do the best I can 
with the watermelon seed you so kindly sent 
me. Please accept thanks for them. My little 
Red Bud is just alive, for tbe freezing this 
Spring after it got started to growing nearly 
killed it. I bave sown some seed for the top 
onion. Yours truly, Allen Martin. 
Knox Co., 0. 
Dear Uncle Mark: —I read the Youth’s 
Column of the Rural and it gives me much 
pleasure to hear from the cousins all over the 
country, and while I enjoy this the wish is 
ever in my mind to see Uncle Mark. Is he an 
old white-haired man, sitting in a large arm¬ 
chair, surrounded with bookB and letters! 
Does he sometimes get cross because we boys 
and girls do not write plainer, and he has to 
put on an extra pair of specs ? Or is he a 
bachelor, been disappointed in love, and so 
satisfies himself in the society of his hundreds 
of nieces and nephews ? What does Uncle 
Mark look like ? Can we not have a picture 
of him in the Rural, so that we may see the 
one we all love ? Your niece, Carrie. 
Long Island, N. Y. 
Dear Uncle Mark— My Pyrethrum ro- 
seum seed was sown so late that it did no 
good. I put the ground in good ordar, 
watered it well, planted the seeds and covered 
them with newspapers, and did everything I 
could for them, but the drought had com¬ 
menced and they perished after some of them 
were one-half inch in higbt. We saved a few 
seed for planting this Spring. I think celery 
must require very moist ground down South, 
as ours did not even sprout. The Japan Judas 
tree has not sprouted yet; seed rotten, I ex¬ 
pect. We have our garden fenced in, so we 
can now take better careof anything you may 
kindly furnish us in the future. 
Your nephew, Virgil A. Herron. 
Burleson Co., Tex. 
Dear Uncle Mark: —Is there room for me ? 
I believe there is, because the young folks’ 
column does not fill up very fast with letters 
from the Cousins. Can any one tell us why it 
is ? I am sure I cannot account for it, unless 
it is because they are negligent, like myself. 
I have taken great interest in the Horticul¬ 
tural Club, although I seldom have anything 
to Bay. Will Lois Wurtz please send her full 
address ? I would Uka to correspond with some 
of the Rural cousins. 
Your niece, Ophelia T. 
Stryker, Williams Co., O. 
Dear Uncle Mark:—I received your 
melon seeds safely and planted them in rich 
grouml, aud they grew very well for two or 
three days, but the bugs are so vigorous here 
that my plants are nearly all destroyed, al¬ 
though there were other melons but a few 
hills away. I planted some potatoes this 
Spring and they are doing well. We like to 
take the Rural, and I like to read the chil¬ 
drens’ column, and wish there was more of it. 
Allen County, Ind. William Perkins. 
Here You Have It! 
SWEET GiDEfl! SWEET CIDER! 
A mill that will grind fifty toslxty bushelsof Apples 
per hour, combined with a press that will press Sev¬ 
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manufactured by the 
HIGGANUM M’FG CORPORATION, 
illggiwium, Cl. U. 8. A. 
Manufacturers of Agricultural Implements of every 
description. 
THE 
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For Uni.oadi.no Hay and Grain 
has NO SUPERIOR. 
It saves one half of the time, 
labor and expense. 
Its capacity lit double that 
of any borac fork. 
It has unequal In Us conve¬ 
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facility and canri in operating, 
the cleanliness arid accuracy 
of Its work. 
The machine Is warranted In 
all of the above statements. 
For further particulars and 
prices aduress. 
O. VAN -ICIvLK SON 
Sliortsville. N. Y. 
The Best apple grinder, price 359® 
W.P. Davis. 
Catalogues 
The Sedgwick Steel Wire Fence 
Is the only general purpose wire fence In use. Being 
strong net-work without lunl«, It will tnrn dogs, 
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f>m?o far farmer*, jmrcicixerw.stock T*\BdTir ana rail- 
roads; very deeirablo for lawn*, park* or cemeteries. 
As it is covered with ru-t proof paint it will latt a life¬ 
time. It I s super:ar to board-in every re; -cct. and far 
better than Imrbod win. Wo ask for it a luir trial, 
knowing it will wj-.au itself Into favor. The Sedg¬ 
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wire, dely all competition iti neatness, lightness, 
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CHEAPEST ALL IRON Automattc. or Ski.f-open- 
in<» Oath. Ask hardware dealers, or for price liut and 
particulars address _ _ _ 
r H RES HERS” 1 * 
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3R CO., Mansfield, O. 
_ _ _ _ cheapest. II- 
THE AULTMAN ft TAY- 
COLUMBIA BICYCLE 
It Is what every boy wants, and 
what every man ought to have. 
Send 3-cent stamp for catalogue 
and price list to 
The Pope MTg Co 
595 Washington St, Boston, Mass 
New York m.l lug School 34th St. near 4th Avenue. 
Feed y-oxir Stock 
WITH THK 
Waste on Your farm. 
PRINDLE STEAMER 
FOR COOKING FOOD FOR STOCK 
Just the thing. 
PRICKS REDUCED. 
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PHILADKU’HU, Pa. 
THE UNION HORSE-POWER 
WITH LEVEL TREAD 
argnl trark (7 In.) whateU. 
N.Uud.niii! Chilled Hearing* 
Guaranteed to produce 
more power With le»» ele¬ 
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AI»o menurheturef* of the 
Premium Pirn Qrist Mill, 
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Stnd for [iMcriptivo Catalogue, Tkreiheri, Cleaner*, fto. 
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a week la your own town. Terms and $5 outfit 
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A MJtf Ctl mi l board lu your oouuty. Men 
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