^try hPJ4 
Vol. XLIY. No. 1855 
NEW YORK AUGUST 15 1885 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
12.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by the Rural New-Yorker in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
drank incessantly. The old hens were at 
once attacked with diarrhea, bat they recov¬ 
ered without farther sickness. 
USING OLD ZrNC LABELS. 
S(*tne time ago, it was stated in these notes 
that the pencil marks might easily be remov¬ 
ed from old zinc labels by rubbing a little 
dirt upon them with the finger, and that they 
might be again written on as before. This is 
true enough, but for some reason, the writing 
soon disappears. A white zinc powder accum¬ 
ulates upon the surface, obscuring the lead 
marks, and when this is rubbed off the letters 
can not be distinguished. 
TWO KINDS OF SCAB. 
While digging some potatoes a few days 
ago, we saw for the first time instances of 
‘‘scab” unquestionably caused by a fungus. 
Many of our readers have told us that “scab” 
occurs iu their potatoes grown in soil whore 
there are no wire-worms (Julns), They have 
described the incipient stages of the disease as a 
were strong and healthy. The heads were 
long, averaging It breasts to a side and for 
the most part fertile. These heads blossomed 
with the earliest of our wheats; the grain set 
early, and we indulged in hopes that they 
would be earlier than wheat—one of the ad¬ 
vantages anticipated by the hybridization; 
the other being hardiness. But the heads 
continued green until after every one of our 
wheats fully ripened, except Black-bearded 
Centennial, and we were then obliged to cut 
them green, or to run the risk of their de¬ 
struction by black-birds and sparrows. The 
other class of hybrids, however, i, e. those 
from the fertile heads, were most of them 
very early. It was to have been expected 
that those plants that most resembled rye 
would have matured earliest, while those most 
resembling wheat would have matured later. 
The reverse appears to lie the fact. 
It will also be remembered that one of the 
rye wheat heads was again crossed with rye. 
to place before our readers before the new 
year. 
NEW PEAS CONTINUED. 
Alexander's Smilax, pareDtage not given 
by O. H. Alexander, the originator. Planted 
April 20, first picking July 10. Mature irreg¬ 
ularly. Vines three feet high, often two 
stems from one root, strong and healthy stems 
and foliage. Very prolific. Pods in pairs, 
often 10 seeds in a pod. Fifty pods (fruits) 
weighed IS ounces, contained 350 large seeds 
which weighed eight ounces. They are slight¬ 
ly wrinkled, retain a bright green color after 
being boiled, but the quality is of the poorest. 
This variety would be improved by further 
careful selection. 
BUFF COCHINS. 
HESE fine birds are strong 
iff'vU; favorites with many breeders 
U this country and in Eng- 
'i land, on account of their good 
ififli' size, hardiness and good lay- 
*AU i n £ qualities. They do well 
w-4^1^-4. in our severe and changeable 
v-vv climate, the Brahmas being 
their great rivals in this re¬ 
spect. They can live where most other breeds 
would perish. They grow to a large size, the 
cocks frequently weighing 15 pounds. For 
this reason the chickens are valuable, as they 
attain fair size at an early age. The Cochins 
do well in a small space and are remarkably 
tame. They have little disposition to wander 
about, and seldom quarrel. As sit¬ 
ters or mothers the hens are without 
an equal. They are excellent winter 
layers. When the breed was first 
brought to F.ugland — probably 
about 1917—they caused consider¬ 
able excitement, more, probably, 
than any other breed of poultry has 
ever caused. It was like the 
“booms" that often overtake certain v 
breeds of cattle. Poultry people • 
went nearly crazy over the gigan- 
tic size, gentleness and other good 
qualities of the newcomers. Great .-^T 
prices were paid for single saeei- 
mens and, to a certalu extent, the c 
fever reached this country. This • 
tremendous “puffing” re-acted at 
last and men were found who spoke ••^ 
against the new breed as loudly as 
its friends had spoken in its favor. . ,' J 
Since the Cochins have been obliged »y. ijb 
to stand upon their own merits, 
they have steadily made friends, and 
greatly improved in form and qual 
ity. It is fair to suy that the Cochin 
makes an excellent family fowl. ■Sjafl 
While not so prolific as some other 
breeds, it can be depended upon to 
produce a fair supply of eggs and -i ;8 f ? 
chickens, and to live couteuteoly iu 
small quarters. •? 
We show at Fig. 376 a fine speci¬ 
men of this breed, a three-year old T gg 
Buff Cochin ben, belonging to Mr. 
G. H. Proctor, of Eugland. She .2^ 
has gained the following prizes:— ~ 
Crystal Palace, 1854, first, and cup ~ 
for best Buff Cocldu in the show; 
Birmingham, 18S4, first, and JE5 5s. 
cup for best Buff Cochin in the 
show; Edinburgh, 1884, first. These 
prizes make her the most successful 
Buff Cochin of the year. She is 
very even in color and possesses 
capital Cochin shape. 
$ural Western |l, *}. Jam IJote.ei 
RAISING WINTER LAMBS, 
GRAINING BEFORE LAMBING. 
It is she almost universal opinion, 
probably because so taught in the 
... books on this subject, that it will not 
be advisable to give the breeding 
ewes much, if any, grain before they 
have dropped their lambs; that grain 
causes them to become too fleshy, 
^ making them feverish, and much 
more liable to suffer from milk fever, 
or caked adders.. In the commence¬ 
ment of our experience we accepted 
this as truth without so much as a 
question; but we soon notiied that 
EgJjxSt those ewes in the best condition al- 
iii'v ways dropped the nicest lambs; that 
egg- their lambs were the soonest on their 
? feet helping themselves, and gained 
fKU the most rapidly afterwards. These 
!f|=5 facts led us, the next year, to feed all 
the ewes a little more generously, 
Iff? giving daily a Kttle grain from the 
time they were well established in 
their quarters; and at lambing time, 
|||4' • our observations of the previous 
year were fully corroborated. We 
were fully convinced that the fear of 
I IIS? injury from grain feeding to preg- 
naut ewes w&s without any just 
foundation. 
5? We now commence the grain ration 
just as soon as the ewes are put into 
the pens, and if the pastures are very 
-- short, or are badly frosted, before we 
are ready to house the sheep, the 
grain-feeding is commenced at once 
in the field. The grain consists of 
corn, wheat bran and new process 
oil-meal, mixed by measure, two parts 
each of corn and bran, and one part 
of oil-meal. At first we feed but 
very little to each sheep; but 
increase the ration regularly aud gradually, 
until each gets enough to make her thrive 
nicely. It is impossible to state the exact 
amount each should receive, because of so 
much difference in the size of sheep and 
also iu the quantity of hay, allotted to each, 
aud its quality as well. We also com¬ 
mence feeding some sort of roots as soon as 
po:sible after gettiug the sheep properly sort¬ 
ed, aud teed after a short time as much as a 
quart of fiuely chopped roots to each owe 
twice each day. The first roots fed are 
usually the cotnn in fiat English turnip, which 
last into January, aud are followed by man¬ 
golds, which we coutinue so long as the sheep 
are fed, or until they are fitted for market. 
Our rnetnod of feeding is as follows: At 
six o’clock iu the morning, the sheep have 
BUFF COCHIN HEN. (Re-engraved from Londou Live Stock Journal.) Fig. 367 
blister which finally disappears, leaving a cor¬ 
roded and swollen rim about it. This was 
just the case with those to which we refer. 
A mold could be seen over the blister, the 
growth of which seemed to absorb it. Pre¬ 
cisely the same appearance is caused by the 
wire-worm after the blister has disappeared. 
Evidently there are at least two causes of 
“scab,” viz , fungus aud wire-worms. 
A DIR APPOINTMENT. 
Those of our readers who have cared to fol¬ 
low the history of our rye-wheat hybrids, will 
remember that we divided them into twodis- 
tiuct classes, those (1) from the nearly sterile 
plant, and (2) those from the fertile plants of 
the original cross. In the nearly sterile heads, 
we found 17 shriveled, small kernels. These 
produced 15 plants the present season, which 
One kernel was the result, and from this! a 
plant bearing 14 heads was the result. It re¬ 
sembles rye more thau wheat,though still it is 
distinct from rye. A careful examination 
of these 14 heads showed that there were but 
three kernels in all, aud these are so shriveled 
that it is doubtful if they will grow. 
A further cross of rye upon the rye wheat 
plauts was made this season. Two heads were 
operated upon and 15 kernels matured, which 
will be planted iu September. 
The plants and heads raised trom seed of 
the fertile rye-wheat plants vary iudetiuitely. 
There are probably at least 25 distinct varie¬ 
ties, which no doubt will still further vary 
next year. 
We are having careful drawiugs made of 
typical heads of both classes, which we hope 
