JUNE 0 
THE RURAL MEW-YORKER. 
the young tree. It produces wood or fruit or 
fruit buds according to circumstances without 
any regard to the habit of its parent. Who¬ 
ever will take the trouble to pick off all the 
fruit from a tree early in the season, will lie 
likely to fiud that tree producing a large crop 
the next year. A. M. Williams. 
Fruits all Right in Iowa. 
I see (p. 2117) an account of immense dam¬ 
age to orchards in Iowa, copied from the Iowa 
Homestead. Now the truth is that uino out of 
ten of tlii> trees pronounced dead a month ago 
by scientific experts (?) are leafing out and full 
of bloom. In our part of the State—Polk Co. 
—not one in a hundred is killed. The apple 
prospect is encouraging. Isn't it about time 
for this annual cry to cease ? b. e. y. 
<l\)t Pmiltri) Dari). 
INCUBATORS. 
IIOME-MAUE vs. “ PATENTED HUMBUGS.” 
[For Illustratiou see Fig. S23, page 360.] 
At the recent meeting of the New Jersey 
State Board of Agriculture the poultry ques¬ 
tion received considerable attention, two pa¬ 
pers on the subject being read, and in the free 
discussion following, the relative merits of iu- 
cuhators as adjuncts to the poultry business, 
received due consideration. 
The general drift of experience was, that 
while successful in hatching the chickens, the 
rearing of them was where the failures oc¬ 
curred. The critical period in the life of the 
young chick is during the first three or four 
winks of its existence. 
That this failure was not confined to ama¬ 
teurs seemed borne out by the statement of 
one gentleman, that the agent of one of 
these incubating machines had beeu purchas¬ 
ing young chickens at 25 cents each in his 
vicinity, and putting them in the show win¬ 
dows of the office in a neighboring city, to 
advertise his machines. Another stated he 
had hatched thousands of chickens by this 
process, but bad succeeded iu rearing very 
few. 
The whole testimony, with one exception, 
was of this negative character, the exception 
living one speaker who gave his experience 
with a home-made, uupatented machine of his 
own construction, by which he succeeded to 
his entire satisfaction. He did not think his 
loss with incubators was any greater than 
when work is done by hens, especially t hose of 
the large breeds: t hese break a great many 
eggs and tread to death many of the young 
chickens. He would gladly show auy one in¬ 
terested the working of the machine and his 
success with it. Having accepted this invita¬ 
tion, I will try to describe this home-made 
" chicken persuader:” 
In external appearance it is not very unlike 
a table or Im>x, about, two feet deep, two-aud- 
a half foot wide and six feet long, the posts 
extending about one foot below the body. The 
top is hinged nud underneath is a hollow zinc 
tank two inches thick, nearly the length and 
width of the table and extending down the 
sides anil emLs eight O)' ten inches. In other 
words, it is a hollow pan inverted, with a 
space between it and the inelosure all around. 
Underneath is u chamber about, one foot deep, 
entrance to which is effected through hinged 
doons on the front side, allowing easy access 
to the eggs, which are placed iu trays, the 
bottoms of which are composed of triangular 
slats, with a space 3-8 of an inch between. In 
the valleys between these slate the eggs are 
placed, as shown at “ End View of Slate,” 
Eig. 323, and the trays are held in jiosition 
within the body of the tank These are 
four iu number, holding 70 eggs each, a 
total capacity of 280. The boiler of sheet-iron 
about six inches square by 12 inches long, is 
fitted into and through the bottom of the box, 
and under it is the kerosene lamp. From the 
top of the Ixtiler connecting with the tank 
alioveextend the receiving auddischarge pipes, 
two of each; the latter on entering the tank 
stretch along the bottom iu opposite directions 
discharging the hot water at either end, for 
the purpose of securing a uniform tompora- 
I are. The space of atsiut three inches between 
t he lids of the 1m»x and the top of the tank, af¬ 
fords room for blanketing the tank to retaiu 
the heat and allow an easy examination of the 
thermometer which extends from the egg- 
chamber through a tube-hole iu the tank to 
this space, so that it is only necessary to raise 
the lid to ascertain the temperature of the egg 
department. 
The temperature is kept at about 110°. To 
compensate for auy loss of moisture in the air 
ol the incubator a dish or pau of water is 
kept in the chamber below, The eggs are 
turned over daily, those in the first valley 
being taken out; those iu the second rolled 
over into the first; those in the third to the 
second, and so on to the end, the last valley 
receiving those taken from the first. The 
young chicks on coming from the shells are 
placed in blankets on top of the tank and 
cared for for a few days, when they are re¬ 
moved to warm quarters over the flue of a 
green-house furnace. 
“What per cent, do you hatch?” I asked. 
“I think fully 80 per cent, of the fertile eggs 
—perhaps more,” was the answer. 
“What per cent, of those hatched do you 
raise?” 
“I cannot tell positively. My daughter at¬ 
tends to the management of the affair aud 
all its details. I do not know whether she has 
made up her accounts for the past season or 
not. The loss, however, is insignificant—not 
more, and I think less, than if the chicks 
were raised in the natural way.” 
“When do you start up the apparatus?” 
“I commenced this season the last of January. 
My object is to get broilers into market early, 
while good prices reign. If I were as far 
south as Virginia 1 think it would pay well 
for the time aud labor to run it, I bave en¬ 
deavored to overcome the defects and weak 
points I have found iu many of the patented 
humbugs, and while I willingly anil freely 
show you all there is iu it, l desire to avoid any 
notoriety iu the matter. I have built this for 
my own use solely nud only. Were 1 to put 
up another it would not be au exact duplicate 
of this; iu fact, this wusuot just as I intended 
it should be iu every particular, as it is very 
difficult to get a mechanic to do a job who does 
not think in some features his ideas are su 
perior and preferable to his employer’s.” 
From the hatching room in the house cellar 
we went to the chicken nursery in the green¬ 
house. Here 1 saw hundreds of embryo fowls, 
from the six-weeks-old birds down to the 
down-clothed fellows a few days of age, bask¬ 
ing in the sunshine and wallowing m dust- 
baths, all appearing healthy, contented and 
happy. The reader will not infer, I hope, 
that the house was devoted to fowls and flori¬ 
culture at the same time “Occasional.” 
PIGS VERSUS POULTRY. 
Mr. Felch’s statement, copied from the N. 
Y. World iuto the Rural, to the effect that “a 
bushel of corn will make as ninny pounds of 
poultry as of pork,” may lie true, but if he 
intends to convey the impression that the 
farmer can raise poultry as cheaply, pound for 
pound, as pork, he is entirely mistaken. To 
produce 300 pounds of pork in November, the 
fanner buys a pig about May 1. For the same 
number of pounds of poultry he must com¬ 
mence at the same rime with about 100 chick¬ 
ens. In the case of the pig he has one strong, 
vigorous animal to care for: a six-by-eight 
|m*ii si ill ices—a few boards for a shelter against 
storms—und a little coarse food three times a 
day satisfies piggy’s wants. Hi- Contentedly 
grunts and sleeps tue time away, grows fat 
and gives ubuudaut promise of 300 pounds of 
{Kirk in the Fall. Set over against this 100 
frail, delicate lives, exposed to death from dis¬ 
ease, vermin, storms, accidents aud natural 
enemies, aud the two cases are very different, 
having little in common. The risk iu the case 
of the chicks is certainly 100 times as great as 
in the case of the pig. If he confines his 
chicks, ten t imes the space occupied by the pig 
will no more than suffice and ten times the ex¬ 
pense will l*» required to provide suitable shel¬ 
ter. If he allows his chicks to run, then he 
must locate his garden, the best aud most 
profitable portion of bis farm, so far from bis 
house that t he labor of gathering its products 
as they are needed for the table daily, is great¬ 
er than w ill provide amply for all piggy’s 
wants. If confined, the chicks must have 
fresh water, green feed, change of fix'd, clean¬ 
liness and care no boy or girl of from 12 to 15 
years of ago can lie depended upon to give. 
A few chicks—say 20 or 80—may be raised 
with little labor. They, with their hen moth- 
el's, w ill shift for themselves^but with a hun¬ 
dred or two the ease becomes entirely different. 
As the imm 1 m ir increases the liability to ac¬ 
cident, disease and vermin increases almost in 
a geomet rical ratio to the number of chicks, 
necessitating appliances and space out of all 
comparison with those required by a pig. One 
hundred chicks of different ages cannot be 
raised in the name yard, no matter how roomy 
it may be. When fed, the older chicks will 
run over and trample upon the younger ones. 
The effect of this will soon lie apparent in 
drooping wings and an enfeebled condition 
that soon brings death and loss. If the farmer 
could depend upon soiling his eggs at $8 for a 
baker’s dozen, he could afford to give his fowls 
the care necessary to raise them successfully, 
but while Mr. Felch may fiud people foolish 
enough to pay this absurd price for his eggs, 
the farmer is fortunate if he gets one-tenth 
of this sum for his, so that the cash returns 
are out of all proportion to the labor and care 
required. 
The’whole poidtry business as managed by 
dealers in fancy poultry, is a. delusion and a 
snare to any one who enteis the business with 
the expectation of making a legitimate income 
from it. In their case the value of a fowl is 
not determined by the eggs or pounds of j m x 11 - 
try produced, but the bird is "scaled” by the 
size and shape of comb, color of feathers, style 
of tail and similar nonsensical points. Let 
the farmer try a similar method in determin¬ 
ing the value of the cows he buys, and how 
long will he be able to make dairying pay? 
Why is it not just as wise to purchase a cow 
for the color of her nose, the style of her horns, 
the color of her hair and the make-up of her 
tail, as to pay a t’auey or absurd price for sim¬ 
ilar qualities in a heu. Thanks, Mr. Felch, for 
your valuable suggestion in regard to 10U 
pounds of poultry, but I will take the pig. 
Hampden Co., Mass. A. E. Gibbs. 
HOW TO GET EGGS. 
Having tried with indifferent success keep¬ 
ing pure-bred Plymouth Rocks aud other pop¬ 
ular breeds, 1 have at last established a flock of 
the following varieties mixed: Brown Games, 
Plymouth Rocks. White Leghorns, Brown 
Leghorns, Silver Spangled H ambu rghs. These 
by crossing sport back in different directions 
to ancestral stock; but there is no perceptible 
difference in the laving qualities of any sec¬ 
tion of the flock. The Games sit readily, ami 
when their blood predominates there is the 
same readiness to brood. They make the very 
best mothers, and will raise a brood of chicks 
safe against all ordinary dangers. Plymouth 
Rocks are poor sitters, making clumsy work 
with eggs, and worse with chicks. The Leg¬ 
horns are almost, continuous layers, and not 
to l>e chosen for mothers. But for eggs there 
is nearly the same result by the year from all 
the va rieties named. Nor have I found the com 
mon assertion that a three-year old hen lays 
few eggs, to 1 m? true. My fowls are one, two, 
three anil four-year-olds, aud they are, with¬ 
out exeeptiou, excellent and persistent layers. 
From 38 hens T average 40 dozen per month 
for eight, months. 
My plan of feeding is to give in the morning 
corn on the cob broken into pieces about two 
inches long. This they must pick off for them¬ 
selves. At noon they have boiled vegetables 
chopjxHl up with a few handfuls of meat stirred 
iu. This in Winter; but when they can help 
themselves to vegetable matters I give, instead, 
oats at noon or meal and bran mixed. There 
is uo third meal, but after gardens are made 
the fowls are kept at the bam by occasional 
tosses of a few handfuls of grain near the 
barn. The last thing at night I fling about a 
few handfuls which will b«S> them iu the 
early morning, aud keep them from the oat- 
field, or, later, from the corn. My garden is 
within five rods of the barn, but is literally 
untouched by the hens so fur as croj>s or seeds 
go; while my neighors’ hens will come on 
mischief bent some hundreds of rods. Hens 
which are thus fed are quiet, and while laying 
abundantly, do not waste and destroy more 
than they produce. E. P. Powell. 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
Sljr Spiariati. 
ALLEY’S NEW BEE BOOK. 
PROF. A. J. COOK. 
For some time it has been known that 
this work was iu process of preparation, and 
from the long anil successful experience of the 
author as a queen breeder—an experience cov¬ 
ering more than a score of yours—the work 
has been eagerly looked for by all those en¬ 
gaged iu breeding bees. Nor will its study 
disappoint these ardent expectations. The fol¬ 
lowing is only a brief synopsis of some of the 
most noteworthy points:— 
Mr. Alley believes that the same rules of 
breeding apply in the rearing of bens that 
should govern iu higher animals. Thus he 
urges stoutly the most careful selection of 
the queen aud drones. He keeps his selected 
queen iu a small hive so that ho eau get eggs 
at once upou adding a frame of bright empty 
comb, t’ouibs that have contained one or two 
broods are to be preferred. 
The queen cells should only be formed in 
very strong colonies. Such are drummed 
from their trees and kept queeuless in an emp¬ 
ty hive, iu a cellar for ten hours. This tits 
them better, as M r. A. thinks, for feediug the 
queens. To procure queeu cells Mr. Alley cuts 
the strips of comb which ure tilled with eggs, 
so narrow as to contain only one row of eutire 
cells aud two rows of half cells each. On oue 
side the eggs in each alternate cell of the row 
of uncut cells are destroyed by use of a com¬ 
mon match. By dipping the opposite face of 
this strip into melted wax and resin mixed, the 
comb is fastened to a frame of comb and given 
to the bees which have been ten hours queen¬ 
less. No other brood is given them that is un¬ 
capped, and so they form licautiful cells, in a 
regular row, equally spaced, and as the eggs 
were all laid at a known date, it is known 
precisely just when the queens will come 
forth. He never permits more than ten cells 
to be formed in a single colony. The bees are 
made queeuless in the morning and given the 
eggs at night. Mr. A., in letting the bees es¬ 
cape from the hive where they have been shut 
in, to enter the new hive where the queen 
cells are to be formed, which now rests on the 
old stand, prevents the drones from leaving, if 
they arc undesirable, aud so gets rid of the in¬ 
ferior drones. 1 f the Imjos cannot gather they 
are fed one pint of sirup or honey twice a day. 
The cells are cut out on the eighth day from 
hatching, or the 11th from the laying of the 
egg. The cells are put into a queen nursery 
like that described years ago by Dr. Jewell 
Davis. A single colony can care for 100 such 
cells. A colony is kept purposely for it. Mr. 
Alley condemns the Lamp nursery, though 
he confesses he never used it. He says it is un¬ 
natural. The same argument would condemn 
his whole method. He has improved upon 
nature. Some of our best queeu breeders, 
like Viallon, Hutchinson and Hayhurst, use 
the hump nursery and think it excellent. 
He says if we feed young queens in a queen 
nursery they will remain there safely several 
weeks. But what Of Berlipseh’s theory that 
a qneen unmated for three weeks is ruined? 
Mr. Alley introduces the queens as virgins. 
But old colony or nucleus must have been 
queeuless three tlai/s. He uses tobacco to 
smoke with, aud thinks this is a sine qua rum. 
He also advises dropping a virgin queen into 
honey and then into the hive. He sometimes 
introduces these virgins by use of a cage, stop¬ 
ping the entrance—a half inch hole an inch 
long—with the " good candy.” The bees eat 
the candy, liberate the queeu anil accept her. 
Mr. Alley never uses a colony twice in suc¬ 
cession to form cells. After they are used once, 
he gives then the uucapped brood and queen 
of another colony which Is to be used, and 
considers them ready again in four weeks. 
■Thus queens are always reared from eggs: 
few are reared in each colony: these have all 
the attention, and “ are almost sure to be su¬ 
perior queens.” The nucleus or colony receiv¬ 
ing a virgin queeu should not be near the 
col my which is forming cells at the time or 
the young queen as she returns from mating, 
willenter the hive and destroy all the cells. 
If a queen is " balled” as she returns from 
mating, it is a very sure sign of the presence 
of fertile workers. 
Mr. Alley's iustructim as to introducing 
virgin queens is very valuable if the method 
will work in other hands. In this case the 
colony, or nucleus, must have beeu queenless 
three days, Not so with a cell. Th is he says— 
our experience hardly sustains him—may be 
introduced safely immediately upou the re¬ 
moval of the queen. 
The cell need not be fastened in a comb, 
but held bv slight pressure between two adja¬ 
cent eomhs. Lite queens will often fail to 
fly unless fed a little each day. Mr. Alley is 
surely right in saying that queens mate only 
once. He thinks a queen is almost sure to be 
purely mated if there are uo impure bees 
within half a mile. I wish we were sure of 
this. 
Caged queens, Mr. Aliev says, will not be 
so fe<i by the bees, and these must be fed in 
the cage. Judge Audrews, of Texas, says they 
will always be fed. Nuclei, unless fed, will 
frequently swarm out. Mr, Alley secures his 
selected drones iu thiswise: He places empty 
droue combs in the midst of the brood nest 
of his best colony. As soon as eggs are laid 
iu the cells he gives these combs to queeuless 
colonies. Good queens lay regularly iu cells 
and cut the caps from the queen cells as they 
come forth smoothly, and do not leave a ragged 
edge. He makes the strange assertion that 
Italia us are not a distinct race, and. further, 
states that they are poor nurses. Mr. Alley- 
quotes wrongly, I think, from our books. 1 
tliiuk all advise getting eggs of a known date. 
It is stated that worker bees never destroy a 
queeu cell. In handling queen cells, they 
must never be over-heated. They will stand 
cold bettor, hut ought never be chilled. Mr. 
Alley thinks it is dangerous to ship a queen 
right from active laving—she may be ruined. 
It is much safer to cage her a few days first. 
Cheap queeus are vehemently condemned. 
Mr. Alley adds to th'? usual rules in respect 
to robbing, that we ought not to feed honey 
but sirup. The honey odor incites to robbing. 
It is stated that by giviug a colony brood, and 
a queen cell fertile workers may be disposed of. 
Mr. Alley advises, noue too strongly, to dis¬ 
place impotent queeus. He remarks as wisely 
that most queens become unprofitable after 
two years. I am also glad to see that the 
value of Spring feeding, which 1 have so often 
