A’PRIt 4i 
2S© THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
brood-chamber iu Springs I would no more 
think of giving my bees the whole hive in 
Spring thau of making all out-of-doors the 
stable for a pet Jersey in Winter. 
In the third place, I urge the practice of 
stimulating by feediuga little each day. This 
makes the bees more active, and stim 
ulates the queen to more rapid laying, and 
the bees to accelerated brood rearing. L 
have also experimented largely in this matter, 
and always with results which raised my ad¬ 
miration of the practice. If the bees have 
plenty of food, a half to a pound daily is 
enough to feed. 1 have the feeders iu the 
upper part of the hive, just above the brood 
nest, and so covered that no bee can get out 
as I feed, nor can any heat escape Itecause of 
the feeder. I prefer to feet at night fall, as 
there is then no danger of inducing robbing , > 
In feeding, it is very desirable that the hooey 
should uot be spilt or placed where any bees 
other than those fed can get at it, otherwise 
robbing is apt to occur. 
farm Canwmj. 
A CORN-MARKER. 
Here are directions for making a corn- 
marker that gets around stumps easily and 
makes four marks at the same time: 
Make the runners of oak plank three or four 
feet long and 12 or 14 inches wide. Round up 
the front ends like those of a sled. Put a 
roller between the inside runners, into which 
fasten the tongue. Bore a hole through the 
front end of each inside runner with a two- 
inch augur, aud make the roller to fit the holes 
loosely. Make two square mortises through 
each runner, two by two inches, and two inches 
from the top for the teuous of the cross¬ 
pieces. Make the cross-pieces of two by four- 
inch oak scantling long euough to put the ruD- 
ners three feet eight, inches apart from center 
to center, or more if you wish. Make tenonsou 
both ends of the two cross-pieces for the middle 
Corn Marker. Fig. 115. * 
runners, two by two iuehesandsix inches long, 
lettiug them project four inches outside of 
middle ruuners, so that the outside cross-pieces 
may be fastened to them. Make tenons on 
one end of each of the four outside cross 
pieces, two by two inches and two inches long. 
Fasten the tenons iu the mortises by putting 
pins in from the top of the ruuners. 
Put a brace from the front end of each out¬ 
side runner to the back cross-piece, also brace 
the tongue. The braces may be of one by 
three-inch tough oak A piece of the same 
stuff should also bo put on the middle and 
nailed to the back cross-piece and bolted to the 
front one, projecting on to the tongue about 
six inches (but not fastened to it) to prevent it 
from tipping forward. Fasten the outside 
runners on by putting an iron rod three-eighths 
of an inch thick (or bolts, if preferred) through 
the cross-pioces, about two inches from the 
end, aud through the projecting tenon from 
the middle cross-pieces. 
In going to or from the field the outside run¬ 
ners are folded above the inside ones in the 
shajie of the letter A. In passing a stump 
raise the runner next to it over the middle, 
where it remains until put down. At theends 
of the field also raise up the runner that is 
next to the fence, thus getting close to the 
latter, and the other outside runner being 
down, the marker can be easily turned. The 
outside ruuners being fastened to the inside 
ones with a joint, each runuer can play up 
and down by itself; therefore each is on the 
ground all the time, no matter how uneven itis. 
A gauge may be made of a small stick nine 
feet two inches long, with a small rope about 
two feet long on one end to drag in the last 
mar k that has been made, and the other end 
fastened in the middle of the marker to a 
staple, like a hook and eye, so chat it can be 
turned from side to side as the marker turns 
at the ends of the field. Put two pins in each 
outside runner far enough apart to let the 
gauge rest between them, to keep it from work¬ 
ing forward or backward, and let them stick 
up about six inches to keep the gauge from 
getting out when the ground is uneven. 
If the runners are put farther apart, the 
gauge must be proportionately longer, as it 
should always be as long as the width of 2 % 
spaces. M- E - D - 
Wauseon, Ohio. 
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EXPERIENCE WITH ENSILAGE. 
In the Rural of March 22, Mr. Goodman 
tells us what he thinks about ensilage—I say 
thinks , because 1 do not gather,from his arti¬ 
cle, that he has had any personal experience 
in the matter. I will here ta ke up a few state 
meats made by him, and give the result of 
my experience on each pomt: 
1st. "For the butter- maker, ensilaged food 
eau he of but little value,” says be. Prepared 
as 1 have prepared it, a ration composed half 
of ensilage and half of hay. has added to the 
yield ol milk one-fourth as much as the yield 
from a full ration of hay, the same amount of 
grain having been fed iu each case. 
2d. That butter can be made and cattle 
raised without ensilage or roots, proves noth¬ 
ing against ensilage or roots, and the man who 
takes no interest in either, does not belong to 
the class of progressive farmers, and will not 
"bother” about "silos or eusilage.” 
3d. The progressive farmer is not the man 
who sells his hay at any price, except iu rare 
instances, but is the man who uses his ensi 
lage or roots iu connection with his hay, to 
keep more stock, to make more manure, to 
raise larger crops aud make more money. 
Doubts will uot change the facts, and doubts 
have existed from a very early date, and as 
no two fields would be likely to yield the same 
weight of eusilage, so no two writers would 
exactly agree in the item of weight; but that 
ten tons can be safely relied upon from good 
land l kuow, and do uot doubt that 15 to 21) 
tons are sometimes grown. I also kuow.from ac¬ 
tual experience, that it costs no more to handle 
the corn from the field to the silo, including 
cutting in both places, than it does to cut and 
stock, take down aud bind it in bundles suit¬ 
able to handle, and draw it into, aud mow in 
the barn in a dry state. 
4th. Mr. Goodman would have us believe 
that using ensilage is a lawful way of water¬ 
ing the milk, and he refers to it, at the com¬ 
mencement of his article, as "wet stuff.” 1 
have never had ensilage that could be called 
wet. That it is moist is true, but this is such 
a palatable state that the stock will eat it iu 
preference to the best of bay, and 1 know, 
from experience and observation, that when 
fed on this, cows do not require half the quan¬ 
tity of water they need when fed extensively 
on dry fodder, and therefore do not really take 
into the stomach as much fluid as when fed on 
the latter, so what becomes of the theory of 
watering milk through thismedium^ I know, 
also, that we have been making butter from 
half rations of ensilage all Winter, aud get¬ 
ting for it from the grocers from five to eight 
cents above the price of ordinary winter butter. 
5th. I perfectly agree with Mr. G. in the 
opinion that "the subject will bear a good 
deal more investigation,” and particularly by 
those who speak from hearsay aud not from 
experience; and the more they investigate the 
more will they become convinced that, in the 
words of Dr. Caldwell, in the Rural of March 
29 th, "Ensilage has come to stay.” 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. w. T. 
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A HANDY HOME-MADE CLOVER- 
SEEDER. 
Having discovered numerous objections to 
the clover seeders now in the market, I have 
devised one which weighs less than four 
pounds, and the woodwork of which any in¬ 
telligent man can put together, while the tin- 
work will cost only about a dollar. As shown 
at Fig. 117, it consists of a plain board, wide 
at one end and narrow at the other. The wido 
end is curved to fit the front of the person 
using the machine. On the top of the wide 
end is a large wheel with a handle, nudiu 
front of that is a six-quart eau to hold the 
seed. At the narrow end of the board is a 
small wheel, which is turned by a string or 
band from the large wheel, aud as it, whirls 
round it turns a shaft connected w ith a cup, 
into which the seed flows down from the pail 
through a tube. At the bottom of the cup are 
four arms, which scatter the seed abroad, as 
shown, when the cup is twirled round by the 
shaft rotated by the small wheel, which is iu 
turn moved by the luige wheel rotated by 
the hand of the sower. The whole is held in 
place by a string from the top of the pail 
round the neck of the sower. The device is 
not patented, so that any reader of the Ru¬ 
ral can make one without fear of annoyance 
from "royalty sharks”. 
Towanda, Pa. #• w - 
UTILIZING A MUCK BED. 
I had a bed of muck underlaid with sliell- 
murl. The muck was eight feet deep, and 
under it w’ere two feet of shell inarl, which 
analysis showed contained 80 per ceut. of car¬ 
bonate of lime. I could not drain the lot by a 
ditch without going ten feet deep through 
slate for a length of ten rods. Even then the 
water would be discharged where it would be 
of no value for irrigating my land. 1 found, 
however, that the place could bo drained by 
syphon. The water could be drained through 
a two-inch lead pipe, aud at a distance of 38 
rods it could be utilized to irrigate about ten 
acreS of meadow. During the dry season 1 
draw the water down, and m August.aud Sep- 
tember we go iu with teams and take out from 
20 to 50 cords of muek a day as loug as we 
choose. The stuff thou is as dry as a sand 
hank; the wheels do not cut into it, and the 
team can haul a full load of muck or marl, 
which proves to be of great value applied 
directly to dry laud or composted with man¬ 
ure from the horse or cow stables or from the 
sheep or pig pens, aud 1 find it au excellent 
application for all crops. Each load taken 
from the bed enlarges my reservoir for water, 
aud several acres are greatly improved by the 
flow during the warm, dry season. I start the 
water with a pump on the end of the discharge 
pipe aud regulate the flow by means of a faucet. 
For strawberry culture or special vegetable 
gardening, this water would be of great value. 
Braintree, Vt. l. H. s. 
£l)f|30ultn) J)arfo. 
A POULTRY HOUSE. 
My hen-house, shown at Fig. 118, is 12x20 
feet, 12 feet high in front and six feet in the 
rear. The roosts are made of slat-work in 
sections, pivoted at one end and capable of 
being raised or lowered atthe other. Eighteen 
inches underneath the roosts is a board plat¬ 
form with the same incline as the roosts, to 
catch the droppings, which are scraped down 
into a passage-way in the rear aud shoveled up. 
A Poultry House. Fig. US. 
Underneath the passage-way are the nests, as 
shown. By this plan nearly the whole floor 
(solid ground) can lie kept clean for feeding. 
The entire house is surrounded witli a picket 
fence 12 feet high, inclosing a space of about 
a quarter of an acre, through which runs a 
stream of water. From 50 to 75 hens are kept 
iu here at times when I do not wish them to 
run at large. 
Venango Co., Pa. T. s. s. 
- - - 
BREEDS OF POULTRY: THEIR CHAR¬ 
ACTERISTICS. 
Having been invited by the Rural to write 
about the points I “like and dou’t like in the 
various breeds of poultry I bare tried," I shall 
endeavor, in wbat I may say, to place before 
Rural readers the results of my extensive 
experience and observation, iu a way entirely 
free from the different prejudices and fashion¬ 
able whims common in poultry literature, as 
well as from the erroneous notions popular 
among fanciers. 
Not many years ago the breeding of the 
various breeds, as they are popularly called, 
had scarcely been thought of. The species 
Gallus Bankivu has a remarkable tendency to 
sport out into various oddities. This has been 
noticed from time immemorial, aud has been 
mentioned by ancieut writer*. Still, little was 
done by selecting aud perpetuating auy of 
those peculiarities, compared with what might 
have been done in former days, and what has 
been done more recently. In most old barn¬ 
yards there were poultry that had indications 
of top-knots, crests, slight leg feathering, 
and spangles of various colors, while others 
had solid colors of some kiud, or an extra toe, 
short or long legs, ruffled feathers, rose er 
single combs, etc. In different localities people 
selected fowls having some one or more of 
these oddities, and bred them together, and 
thus varieties or breeds began to be developed 
aud, to a certain extent, established. Still, it 
was uot till within the last 40 or 50 yeurs that 
anything like uniformity in a breed was main¬ 
tained, Among the first distinct breeds were 
the Gray Dorkings, Bolton Grays, Bolton Bays, 
Creoles, Mooneys, Cuckoo fowls, etc. Most 
of these have been bred to a higher state of 
perfection in regard to beauty of plumage, 
aud are now called by other names. Every 
breed of fowls has Us own peculiarities, or, 
whenever a change of color aud I’ortu is pro¬ 
duced, new characteristics arc developed that 
arc more peculiar to that breed than to any 
other, and hence arise the likes aud dislikes to 
this or that breed, or variety. 
The first, distinct breed I can remember was 
the Gray Dorking. This is not now recog¬ 
nized iu the American Standard of Excel¬ 
lence, and the fowls are mostly called colored 
Dorkings, which is a misnomer, for the early 
colored Dorkings were sploshed or spotted. 
From the Gray Dorkings came tho Silver Gray 
Dorkings, which are simply lighter-colored 
birds, with fiue, mottled backs of a gray, sil¬ 
very color. They are deep-chested, square- 
bodiccl birds, fine table fowls, good sitters aud 
mothers, but rather tender when chicks, from 
the time they are three weeks old till half- 
grown; after that, they are quite as hardy as 
most other fowls, and will live and lay well 
till eight or nine years old, some liviug still 
longer. They are especially farmers' fowls, 
not bearing confinement well, hut delighting 
iu foraging and roaming about. They are, 
however, strongly attached to their homes, 
aud are quick observers, their keenness in this 
line bordering on intelligence. They ure also 
very pleasing fowls to look at. These are the 
traits I like; the ones I don't like are, that 
they require plenty of room: the cocks are 
much addicted to fighting if not separated, 
and the bens require a warm house in Winter 
if eggs are wanted: but, iu spite of all these 
drawbacks, they are very serviceable fowls. 
The Spanish were also an early established 
breed. The white-faced black fowls still hold 
their place, just as when first introduced. 
*i'hey lay very large, white eggs, aud in great 
numbers; but do uot winter well in the North, 
except iu warmly built houses. They also re¬ 
quire good feeding and a fair range. Under 
such conditions they arc among the best lay¬ 
ers and most profitable fowls; but they are 
subject to loose feathering in Summer and 
sometimes suffer from nakedness in the Fall, 
and are rather indifferent table fowls. 
The Bolton Grays. Bolton Bays and Creole 
fowls are now absorbed in the Uamburgs. 
These are rather smali birds and great layers 
of rather small eggs. There a re six varieties 
—Golden ami Silver-Penciled, Golden and 
Silver-Spangled, Black, and White. They are 
very sprightly birds, of bold carriage, aud 
beautiful plumage. They will bear moderate 
confinement, and when well fed they ure con¬ 
tented. The Hamburgs have all very rich 
plumage, and ure a great ornament to a park 
or lawn. It is singular that they are not more 
fashionable; the principal reasons for their 
lack of popularity are, perhaps, that their eggs 
are small aud that the birds are rather in¬ 
clined to become sick if many are kept to¬ 
gether. 
Bergen Co., N. J. henry hales. 
A CURE FOR CHICKEN CHOLERA. 
I have had this disease twice introduced 
into my flock by the purchase of diseased 
chickens, and each time I lost from 80 to 100 
fowls. On each occasion, however, its ravages 
were entirely stopped iu the course of four or 
five days, by feeding mixed feed seasoned 
with fresh lime and salt as strongly as the 
birds could be induced to eat it, the mixture 
being thoroughly wet. Halt and lime I find 
beneficial to chickens at all times. 
Excelsior, Minn. P. M. G. 
fit lit Crops. 
experiment (Grounds of the $uval 
U*ur-Uorker. 
POTATO TESTS CONTINUED. 
Vermont Champion. Test 54 V. This 
test was made iu light sandy soil, the con¬ 
ditions being the same as in the other tests 
made in this field, viz.: level culture, potato 
chemical fertilizer (000 pounds to the acre); 
pieces (two eyes each) placed one foot apart iu 
trenches (spade-wide) three feet apart. The 
yield was at the rate of 202.38 bushels to the 
acre. Eaten Nov. 15, it was judged to be 
flaky and dry. This is uu intermediate 
potato, very smooth, with white flesh and 
eyes on the surface. The yield of large aud 
small potatoes was at the rate of 119,004 to the 
acre, showing a small average size. Our cut, 
(Fig. 119) shows what seemed to lie the charac¬ 
teristic shape, while it is rather larger thau the 
average size. The drought, no doubt, caused 
the vines to die curlier than they would have 
done In better and more retentive soil. This 
potato is prized for its flue quality and as 
keeping better t han most other varieties. 
North Star. Test 38 A. Received from 
Thomas Archer, Faulkland, Canada, aud said 
to be a cross between Ohio and Mammoth 
Pearl, This was planted in a retentive clay 
