870 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
•JUNE 7 
overflow. Especially would we prefer this in 
case of all manures made in the Fall or Win¬ 
ter. 4. This Ik a very good mixture, though 
we should prefer a larger proportion of corn; 
12 quart*, a day of this mixture is pretty strong 
feed, and it may bo more than the horses need; 
or you may not be Hufliciently careful, and 
allow some of the utensils used to become 
soured, which would l»e offensive to the horses, 
as they are quite particular about their food. 
HINT8 ON POULTRY HOUSES AND POULTRY 
KEEPING. 
Z. //., Darien, Witt. -1. Wbpt is the best 
and most economical way to build a poultry 
house for lft hens? 2. What breed is the best 
to keep? 3. Does keeping poultry pay? 
ANS.—1. A house to comfortably accommo¬ 
date 15 hens and make the most of the lumber, 
might be 8x12 feet, although one 8x10 would 
be large enough. It should have a lean-to 
roof five feet, high on lowest side, and seven 
feet on the other. If the situation allows it, 
the high side should face the south; under any 
circumstance, there should be a good window 
in the side that faces in that direction. This 
should be so low down that the sun will shine 
on the floor, and there should he a similar 
window in the east end: as the heated air al¬ 
ways rises, windows that are placed low down 
always warm the house more thoroughly than 
those placed higher. A dust-l»ath should be 
provided on the floor where the sun shines. 
Matched box boards and battens make a cheap 
house, shingled; but no bouse is fit for poultry 
iu Winter in your climate without, being lathed 
and plastered inside. One coat of plaster is 
enough. The windows should be made to slide 
open, or else there should lie a ventilator in 
the south end over the window, hinged so that 
it cun be set, open w'ith a hook to any desired 
extent. It is best to have no openings on the 
north or west sides, so as to uvoid any cold 
drafts in Winter. The door should be on the 
south side. Many neglect to lath and plaster 
poultry houses; but this precaution is posi¬ 
tively necessary where the cold reaches zero 
at any ti me. The perches should lie 2% or 
three feet from the floor, all being on the same 
level. Set four posts in the form of a paral¬ 
lelogram In the earth floor; nail two pieces of 
scantling edgewise, one on each pair of side 
posts, for the perches to rest, on crosswise. Do 
not nail down the latter, but cut slots in the 
scantlings for them to rose in, so that they can 
be easily removed to be cleaned. The floor 
should be Ailed tip a little higher than the sur¬ 
rounding level, with dry earth. The nest 
boxes should not be higher thau the perches, 
or the birds w ill roost on and soil them. 2. In 
regard to breed, much will depend upon the 
accommodation at your disposal Some breeds 
will do well iu a small yard, while others re 
quire a large, free run. The latter are tbo 
most, profitable where they have their liberty. 
The breeds that are contented nod lay almost 
as W'nll iu confinement if well fed, are the 
Brahmas, Cochins and Plymouth Rocks, with 
all their crosses. The breeds that require 
liberty to keep them in health and rigor, are 
Games, Dorkings, Hamburg*. Leghorns, and 
most of the others which are kno wu as small 
breeds, to distinguish them from the Asiatics. 
In Wisconsin, Plymouth ltocks or Brahmas, 
or any cross with the Brahmas, would best suit 
the climate. 3. Poultry pay proportionately 
better in small than in large numbers; and, of 
coarse, where there is a good market close at 
hand than where tbo m irket is distant. Some 
Wisconsin poultry raisers send their fowls to 
this city; but there cannot be much profit in 
such transactions. Poultry pay best, wheu 
they lay iu Winter. To induce them to do 
this, they must, have a warm house and plenty 
of good, warm food. The best way to stock 
a house is to procure earl.v-hatchcd pullets; 
for they will lay in the following Fall and 
Winter better than old hens. It may be that 
our friend wrote 15 for 150 fowls; if so, 150 
fowls should never be kept in one house. Two 
or throe houses would be necessary. A bouse 
for 50 hens should be 12x16 feet, with pitch or 
ridge roof. For 75 hens the house should be 
10x20, haviug at each eud a ventilator that 
can be opened aud shut according to weather, 
and openings in it should lie so arranged that 
they eau lie closed perfectly tight, for fumi¬ 
gating w T ith tobacco stems and sulphur twice 
a year. 
CHICKEN-POX AND GAPES IN CHICKENS. 
IF. //. T., Port Byron , N. Y.—l. What ails 
my poultry ? Their heads swell, light-colored 
very hard scabs appear all over their heads 
and necks, and the iusides of their mouths are 
coated over with yellowish stuff which smells 
bad. Alter the first two or three days they 
do not eat nmeb, though they linger for ten 
or twelve days. Their feed is corn and wheat. 
2. What is a preventive of gapes in chicks? 
answered by HENRY HALES. 
1. The light-colored scabs on the heads of the 
fowls, denote the presence of a disease called 
chicken-pox. I know of uo cure; all poultry 
literature is almost silent on this subject, as it 
has been found hard to cope with the malady. 
Kill and bury deep all birds that show those 
yellowish oolored scalis on the head or in the 
mouth, and give the others tonics in their 
food or drink, such as Douglas Mixture, or 
the advertised roup remedies. The recipe 
for Douglas Mixture bus been given several 
times before in the Rural. It is: half a pouud 
of sulptiatc of iron and one ounce of sul¬ 
phuric acid, dissolved jn two gallons of water, 
and it is used in the proportion of a teaspoonful 
to each pint of drinking water. Also feed 
the fowls on strengthening, soft A/od once a 
day, such as chopped meat, bread, aud ale or 
milk, or add a little cayenne to their food. 2. 
The only way to preveut chickens from hav¬ 
ing gapes, is to coop them out on new ground 
where chickens have not been raised before. 
After the disease make* its appearauce, it will 
be an annual visitor to a more or less extent on 
the same ground. Avoid feeding chicks too 
much corn meal; keep up their strength with 
good food, such a* broken wheat, rice, wheat 
middlings or oat meal. Use a little bone meal 
in their feed. To those chicles that have gapes* 
give a little piece of gum camphor, a bit bigger 
than a pin’s bead, each, for two days. It 
will cure light cases; bad ones can be cured 
by taking the worniB out of the wind-pipe 
with a feather or horse-hair; slnp ft moderate¬ 
ly stiff feather with a pair of scissors, leaving 
a few barbs on the end, like the point of an 
urrow; watch for the opening of the wind¬ 
pipe, insert the feather aud turn it, round as 
you druw it out. In the hands of an expert 
this is done quickly, and gives instant relief 
and cure. See remedy for gapes in chicks c-n 
the editorial page of the last issue of the 
Rural. 
WHITEWASH FOR FENCES AND OUTBUILD¬ 
INGS. 
O. IF. C , Hawkinstown, Fa.—1 What is 
best whitewash for fences and outbuildings! 
2. Should there be any difference in a wash 
for fruit trees? 
Ans— b A capital whitewash is made by 
mixing common water-lime cement with 
sweet skim milk to the proper consistency. 
The following i* the Government whitewash, 
and a fine whitewash it is:—Put two pailfuls 
of boiling jvater in a barrel; add one half 
bushel of well-burned, fresh quick lime; put 
in quickly one pock of common salt dissolved 
in hot waier, and cover the barrel tightly to 
keep in the steam while the lime is slaking: 
when the violent ebullition is over, stir till 
well mixed together, and. if necessary', add 
more boiling water, so as to have the mass 
like thin cream; strain through a sieve or 
coarse cloth. Make a thin starch of three 
pounds of rice flour and one pound of strong 
glue, having first soaked the glue in cold wa¬ 
ter, and to the latter mixture add two pounds 
of whiting. Add this to the lime wash, and 
also sufficient hot water to dilute to the pro¬ 
per consistency; keep hot while applying. It 
will require about six quarts of the mixture 
for 100 square feet of surface, and it will last, 
remarkably well. It, goes without saying 
that it may be made any color desired. 2. 
This wash would not do at all for fruit trees. 
There is nothing so goes! for them as the caus¬ 
tic soda mixture described iu the ‘‘Farmers’ 
Flub” some time since. 
PAINT FOR BARN, ETC. 
C. IF. .4., falcon, Mich .— 1. What is the 
cheapest aud best paint for the roof aud the 
planed siding of a barn, and how should it be 
mixed aud applied? 2. What will make the 
best floor for the basement., and how should it 
lie put in f 
A ns.— 1, If you can obtain crude petroleum 
by the barrel, a f 10 cents or less per gallon, 
first apply that to the whole surface, roof uud 
ull, so as to thoroughly till the pores, it may 
be applied to the roof with a mop, as well as 
anything. Two weeks or more after it has 
been put on, apply to the siding a paint com¬ 
posed of raw linseed oil ami crude petroleum, 
equal parts, thickened to the desired consist¬ 
ency with a mineral paint from Northern New 
York, called Rossie Paint, which is simply 
iron ore ground line. It. is sold by' most deal¬ 
ers iu paints. After this coat has dried per¬ 
fectly, give another ot pure linseed oil, with 
the same paint, and the barn will look well, 
and last, without further painting, 10 or 15 
years. This iron ore paint is the best paiut 
we have ever tried, as it becomes very hard. 
We would not advise the use of anything on the 
roof except crude petroleum, and that should 
be applied about once in 10 years. 2. We pre¬ 
fer a loom floor in the basement to any' thing 
else, and in Michigan you should have plenty 
of straw, which should he used iu such quan¬ 
tities as to keep stock clean and dry. From 
two to four inches of the soil should be remov¬ 
ed once iu two or three years, and replaced 
with fresh earth. In this way all the urine 
will be utilized. 
CURRANT BORERS. 
D, S., North Adams, Mich. — A worm eats 
through the outer coats aud devours the hearts 
of the currant stalks; what is it, and what is 
the remedy? 
Ans —The insect, is not the currant worm, 
but a currant borer, of which two distinct 
species are found infesting the red and white 
currants—one, which is imported, is in its per¬ 
fect state a wasp-like moth, L-Egem t.ipuli- 
formis. Linn.) which lays its eggs near the 
buds on the stalks, into which the young 
larva begins to eat as soon as hatched. On 
reaching the center of the stalk, it bores or 
eats out, the pith, making a cavity several 
inches in length, and in this, when full-grown, 
it changes to a chrysalis, and to a perfect in¬ 
sect while emerging from the place. The other 
is a native American, and although its hubits 
aud mode of attack npon the currant are 
much like those of the other, it belongs to an 
entirely different order (Psenocerus superno- 
tatus. Say). It is not a moth, but a beetle, and 
the larva 1 can be distinguished by the absence 
of legs or feit, and by the presence of more 
than one of them in the same cavity. Lucki¬ 
ly, both can bo destroyed in the same way, 
and if the work is well done it is quite effec¬ 
tual. In the Autumn, or very early in Bpring, 
careful y examine the bushes, cutting out all 
stalks that are hollow, or that, look sickly, be¬ 
ing sure ti cut below ull cavities, aud imme¬ 
diately burn the cuttings, 
NAVICULAR DISEASE IN A HORSE, ETC. 
J. M. C., Kings Co. I n the Spring of 
1883, my six-y'oar-old mare, when feeding and 
resting, invariably held her off fore leg ex¬ 
tended iu fiout, though she never showed any 
lameness when traveling. Last Fall I noticed 
heat, in the fetlock joint and tenderness in the 
shoulder. Last Wiuter she grew worse and 
began to over-reach on the off side. In Mareh 
she was placed under treatment, uud tbo soro 
ness has been abated iu the fetlock joint, but 
she is still tender iu the shoulder—in both 
shoulders, indeed;—what ails her? 2. When a 
cow' is well fod, yet her milk decreases, and on 
boring the horns they are found hollow', cold 
and “dead,” what is the name of the disease? 
We find it can bo cured by inserting salt and 
pepper in the horn. 3. What disease causes 
the end of the tail to decay, which is cured by 
amputating the unsound part,? 
Ans.— 1. The trouble with the horse is na¬ 
vicular disease; the pointing forward with the 
foot indicates this with certainty. The tender¬ 
ness in the shoulder may be caused by rheuma¬ 
tism, but unless there cortuinly is tenderness 
there, it is most likely to be due to the disease 
in the foot haviug caused a wasting of the 
shoulder muscle. The foot should he blistered 
between the heels and under the pastern, or 
around the coronet. It is quite possible that a 
run at pasture, without shoes, for some time, 
may restore the mare. 2. The disease of the 
cow referred to is inflauimuMou of the mem¬ 
branes of the sinuses of the head. That of the 
tail is softening of the bone, aud is not an uu 
common one when cows are exposed to cold, 
and are fed upon land that is deficient in lime. 
The same causes sometimes produces disease of 
the feet, the tones of which become soft and 
break down, aud the hoofs dropoff. 3. There 
may he several causes tor the failure of the 
milk. One may be the nearer approach of the 
cow to calving, which is usual in the Spring; 
another may be the variation of temperature. 
There are so uiauy causes indeed that, without 
knowing the circumstances, it would be tedi¬ 
ous as well as useless to mention them. 
FEATHER-EATING POULTRY. 
.7. M. /*., Hamden, Conn —My hens have 
plenty of corn, oats, rjc ami sunflower seed; 
they are in excellent health and never laid 
better, but the feathers are off the hind part 
of all of them; what is the cause? 
Ans.—W e suspect the roosting perches are 
so close together that the birds liehiud reach 
forward and pick off the feathers from the 
hens iu front of them. During Winter this is 
very common, and wheu once the trick is 
learned, the fowls will practice it well into the 
Summer. The lmbit is called feather-eating. 
The birds always prefer either the neck feath¬ 
ers or the feathers behiud. The habit is due 
to a depraved appetite in lowls, and is usual!}' 
caused by a deficiency of animal food, lime, 
etc. It is most common during the confine¬ 
ment of Winter, aud among fowls shut up per¬ 
manently in yards in cities, towns and vil¬ 
lages; for when allowed to run at large, the 
birds obtain what is needed by catching in¬ 
sects, etc. Once the habit is acquired, how¬ 
ever, it is almost as ban! to “break it off,” as 
the drinking habit of a toper. The best pre¬ 
ventive is auirnal food, such as fresh meat, 
kitchen scraps, waste from the butcher’s block, 
etc. This should be giveu iu moderation, two 
or three times a week—a heaping tablespoon¬ 
ful per bird is quite enough. Too much may 
make the bird sick or, give a bad flavorto the 
eggs, or cause the quill feathers to become 
charged with blood, wheu the fowls will cer¬ 
tainly pick at the plumage until the skin is 
left bare. Broken burnt bones, pounded oys¬ 
ter shells, charcoal, and clean water, are all 
excellent preventives, and will generally prove 
remedies, with a free range. If they fail, put 
the feather eating birds in the pot. 
NUT GRASS. 
B. S. II., Washington, At C.— 1. \\ hat is the 
best mode of exterminating Nut Grass in 
light, sandy laud? 2. How ran I best re¬ 
store dead spots jn light, sandy soil, now un¬ 
productive? 3. What is the best way to use 
stable manure in such land? 
Ans —1. Nut Grass (Cyperu* rotundus, var. 
hydra. Gra>) is one of the greatest pests of 
the Southern planters. It shoots fiom the 
base of its stem a threadlike fiber, which 
penetrates perpendicularly from 6 to 18 inches, 
and then produces a small tuber. From this, 
horizontal Abel's stretch in every direction, 
producing new tubers at intervals of six or 
eight inches, and these immediately send up 
stems to the surface, and throw out lateral 
fibers to form now progeny. 1 bis process is 
interminable. The grass is very tenacious of 
life. The only mode of destroying it we have 
ever heard of, is to plow or hoe the place 
where it grows every day throughout the 
whole season. By their persistent efforts, to 
produce leaves, the roots become exhausted, 
and either perish or can be dug tip next Spring. 
2. Use phosphate and hard wo, d ashes, or kai- 
nit and manure. As soon as it w ill grow them, 
put on cow-peas and plow them under. 3. 
We think on that soil it is best to apply a light 
dressing of manureeaeli year. We once owned 
such a soil, and that was our mode of enrieh- 
ing it. Plow in as much green manure as you 
can. 
TANNING A CALF SKIN. 
F. K., St. Catharines, Ont., Can. —Ho wean 
I tan a calf skin w ith hair on, so as to be 
suitable for mittens? 
Ans. —Soak the skin for six hours, or till 
thoroughly soft, in cold water. Then put on 
the flesh side a heavy coating of salt and alum, 
two parts salt to one of alum, made very fine. 
Throw the edges of skin in all round, and roll 
up as snugly as possible and luy in any cool 
place for three days, examining it every day 
and replacing the coating, if it becomes all 
dissolved. Then lay the skin, hair side down, 
on a smooth board or bench and, using an iron 
with a square edge, quite sharp, scrape it, re¬ 
moving every particle of meat or flesh; con¬ 
tinue the rubbing until dry, when it will be 
found as soft as a glove. Luy it again on the 
smooth surface, and having made u strong 
Castile soapsuds, stirring into it as much cas¬ 
tor oil as will mix with it, and apply a good 
coating of this mixture and rub it into the 
skin, aud continue to rub till again dry. The 
application of the mixture and rubbing should 
be continued until the skin is soft enough to 
suit. There is nothing that can lie applied 
that will permanently scent, the skin. 
THUMPS IN PIGS. 
S. R. P Oskalousa, la. —What is a remedy 
for “thumps” in young pigs? 
Ans. —Thumps iu pig« is caused by palpita¬ 
tion of the heart. In its early stages it is 
scarcely noticeable for some days, though by 
close observation Its course may be traced. 
At first it may possibly be cured by adminis¬ 
tering extracts of digitalis twice a day—one 
or more drops according to the size of the 
animal; or a lew drops of spirits of turpentine 
may be given. Thumps is property caused 
by an excess of fat around the heart. As 
soon as detected, the pigs should be turned 
out ou the ground, and the sow should be 
given less food in order to decrease the tatty 
condition of the pigs. It is not an affection 
of the lungs, and pigs are rarely troubled by 
it when they and the sow are not in close cor. 
finemeut. 
SUPERIOR FUCHSIAS. 
E. IF., Eagle Lake , Ont., Can. —1. What 
are the best six single aud double fuchsias? 2. 
is the firm of Benson, Maule & Co., Philadel¬ 
phia, Pa., reliable? 
Ans.— 1. The best six single Fuchsias are 
Bpeciosa, Earl of Beacouslield, Wave of Life, 
Rose of Castile, Striped Bauner and Rose Per¬ 
fection. If additional varieties are desired, 
add Aurora superba, Rose of Denmark, Ara¬ 
bella, improvement, Covent Garden, Bird of 
Paradise, aud Inimitable. The best double 
fuchsias are Avalanche (Henderson 9 *), Ava¬ 
lanche (Smith’s), Anne Boleyn, Mad. Vander 
Strass, Jules Mungee, aud Snow Fairy. If 
more aredesired, addNewMastodonte,RubeDS, 
Jos. Rosain, Dupute Borlet, and Little Alice. 
We are not acquainted with tnauy of the 
varieties cur friend mentions. 2. Yes. 
GETTING RID OF CROWS. 
H. C. P., Big Rapids, Mich. —How can I 
poison or trap the crows that iufest my corn¬ 
fields? 
Ans. —Crows are so witty they are hard to 
scare, aud harder to poison, because they can 
so readily eject everything from their stom¬ 
achs. Try the following, which we have 
found very effectual: For a few days before 
the time for corn to come up, scatter a small 
quantity of well-soaked corn about the fields, 
