(Continued from page 197.) 
formed when the lamb is a week old than 
when it is a year old. But when and how is 
no matter, so that the horns are abolished and 
the “muley” fashion becomes general. I have 
long ago concluded that the beautiful is noth¬ 
ing more than the useful, and that the perfect 
fitness of a thing constitutes beauty. Hence, 
horns, which belong to a savage condition of 
beasts, are not beautiful in any sense in their 
domestication. 
“I had the scab to fight all winter,” says W. 
A., of Mullica Hill, N. J. Pity he did not use 
the Thymo-Cresol sheep dip, all about which 
he can learn in the Rural’s business columns. 
Two—if not one—applications of it would have 
cured the scab and, from his note,would have 
considerably enhanced his profit. I have 
been using a one per cent, wash of this prep¬ 
aration for irritation of the skin of horses and 
colts due to dry feeding, and find it perfectly 
effective and remarkably cheap. 
faxm C 
FARM MACHINERY. 
The aged farmer of to-day will tell how he 
cut all the grain with a sickle, a tool that 
dates back to ancient times. When the grain 
cradle was invented a tremendous stride was 
made. When a man could cut and lay in a 
neat swath, heads all one way, two to five 
acres of grain a day, it seemed as though per¬ 
fection had been attained, and as if nothing 
better or more expeditious could be hoped or 
wished for. But the hand scythe has been 
displaced by the mowing machine which 
cuts, with one man and a team, five to 
eight acres'in half a day, to be drawn in dur¬ 
ing the afternoon; and the hand-rake, too, has 
gone, so painful to the memory of the boy 
on the farm when he had to “ rake after”the 
wagon while two pitchers were loading. That 
and spreading hay in the forenoon, gave the 
boy of a dozen years plenty to do, and made 
him dread the approach of haying. The boy 
of to-day as he rides the tedder and horse- 
rake, thinks spreading and raking hay “ just 
fun.” 
The busy housewife of those old years sat 
up late in the night by the dim flicker of a 
tallow dip, while she plied her needle indus¬ 
triously to prepare raiment for her family 
out of material that she had spun and woven 
herself, that had been grown upon the farm. 
To-day the merry clatter of the sewing ma¬ 
chine is heard, and the making of a garment 
is the matter of an hour or so. The stride 
that has been'made in the perfecting of agri¬ 
cultural tools is, as we look back, simply be¬ 
wildering. To-day the farmer is not satisfied 
with the reaper, considering it slow; he sits 
upon his binder that takes in a swath six or 
eight feet wide, and cuts and binds 50 to 100 
acres of wheat ready to be cleaned with an 
immense steam thrasher, that thrashes 1,000 
or 1,200 bushels of wheat in a day. When 
plowing, he rides on a sulky. When he plants 
his corn, instead of a gang of men and boys 
with hoes and baskets to do irregular and un¬ 
even work, he rides his planter, which marks, 
drops and covers his corn with evenness and 
precision many acres in a day, and the culti¬ 
vation of„the crop is done with approved 
machinery so that the hand-hoe is a tool un¬ 
known in the cornfield. While such rapid 
advancement in the preparation of the soil,and 
the cultivation and gathering of the crops has 
been made, there has been no change, I am 
sorry to say, no machine yet invented that 
will milk a cow. Could a machine be made 
that will successfully do the work of three or 
four milkers when operated by one person, 
it would seem that the dairy farmer had 
just caught a glimpse of the millennium. But 
such a device, judging from the many flat 
failures in this direction, will, I fear, never 
be invented, 
Well, as the thrifty farmer who owns 100 or 
150 acres must have machinery to do his work 
expeditiously and well, first of all, in the 
spring.he will need a plow. If he can afford 
the luxury, let it be one on wheels; but, any¬ 
way, it should be a chilled plow. Then he 
doesn’t have to worry half a day or so and 
perhaps use some big words, because his plow 
doesn’t scour. As for harrows, he can ride or 
not; I cannot advise what to buy there are so 
many good ones, each having some special 
good point over its rivals. A land roller I 
wouldn’t want to be without. It puts the land 
in splendid condition for the reaper to pick up 
down gi’ain and for the mowing machine. 
Many farmers are putting the corn plow aside 
and using cultivators. These are also built 
on wheels and with two horses do rapid and 
effective work. 
Farmers are also learning that farm wag¬ 
ons with broad tires four to six inches wide, 
are far superior to those with the ordinary 
wheels; that in them’, a heavy load can be 
drawn over the farm on the yielding soil with 
much greater ease. In planting corn a marker 
is used at least one way, and the corn is 
dropped with a planter. For sowing grass 
seed in the spring, one should have a band 
broadcast seeder or a wheelbarrow seeder. 
This enables one man to do effectually the un¬ 
certain work of two or three. He, of course, 
wishes to get his hay in early and do it quick¬ 
ly. Well, he will need a self-dumping horse 
rake and a good mowing machine. Those 
that cut five feet or over are coming into 
favor, as they enable one to cut all that is 
necessary in the early part of the fore¬ 
noon and get more sun. A tedder 
is also indispensable, as hay cures very rapidly 
when stirred by it. Hay-loaders don’t take, 
at least not in this section yet; but a large 
barn and a horse-fork are positive necessities. 
A grapple-fork that will pitch long or short 
hay well is used in this county. In the grain 
field the farmer who owns a light reaper 
makes quick work of harvesting his grain if 
the weather is pleasant, with but little waste 
of grain. 
When it comes to thrashing, it does not pay 
the ordinary farmer to invest in a machine, 
as thrashing is usually done by men who pur¬ 
chase an expensive machine and go from farm 
to farm\making quick work of it at each 
place. Some of these men own a buzz-saw, 
and in early spring go around and saw up 
farmers’ wood-piles. 
I have mentioned the necessary implements 
that should be on the farm of the wide-awake 
farmer; but there are a number of special 
machines that he can buy to expedite busi¬ 
ness, such as a potato-planter, and potato-dig¬ 
ger. A good fodder-cutter, too, so the farm 
team can have a variety of feed, is a necessity, 
and so perhaps are many other things that I 
might speak of, but with the array of tools I 
have mentioned, with the addition of a grain 
drill which I came near forgetting, a farmer 
will find himself pretty well equipped for a 
season’s work. m. h. c. Gardner. 
Orange Co., N. Y. 
THE *HEN vs. THE INCUBATOR. 
FRED GRUNDY. 
FIRST PAPER. 
Constant attention indispensable with an in¬ 
cubator; neglect disastrous; poultry-rais¬ 
ing as a vocation and an avocation ; an 
incubator at work is malodorous; the cellar 
the best place for it in the absence of a 
special building; the hen better than the 
incubator for ordinary famners; a brooder 
excellent for early-hatched chicks. 
I see that Mr. Jacobs gives a sketch and 
description of a hot-water incubator on page 
850 of last year’s Rural. 1 have one very 
nearly like it, and it hatches chicks nicely 
when it is faithfully and regularly attended 
to; but 1 want to say that the person who 
makes this incubator with the expectation than 
it will almost run itself and hatch out chicks 
by the score, will be awfully disappointed. 1 
have never been able to obtain a satisfactory 
hatch with this machine unless I changed a 
certain quantity of the water once in every 
eight hours during the whole period of incu¬ 
bation. 
To the novice this seems easy enough to do; 
but actual trial will cause him to change his 
mind. He must make his calculations to forego 
all sprees, parties, prolonged visits, extra naps, 
circuses, etc., etc., and to be on hand prompt¬ 
ly at the regular hour and with the water hot, 
or he will have the pain of recording a dismal 
failure. Two persons who thoroughly under¬ 
stand each other, and are each willing to do 
their full share promptly, can attend to the re¬ 
quirements of such an incubator quite com¬ 
fortably. 
Of course, a person who makes poultry rais¬ 
ing his sole occupation during the whole or a 
portion of the year will expect to attend to his 
duties as regularly as a clock, regardless of 
everything else. But the supposition is that 
such a person will run the business on a scale 
sufficiently large to pay him for the whole of 
his time. 
Another thing:—The average novice thinks 
he can place the machine in the living-room, 
or near the kitchen stove, and thus have every¬ 
thing right under his thumb. He may do so 
if his olfactories are in such a disordered condi¬ 
tion that he cannot distinguish offensive odors, 
but if his nose is as sensitive as mine, he will 
pitch the thing out of the window inside of 
two weeks. No matter how nice and clean it 
is kept, its exhalations will tend to create re¬ 
bellion and anarchy in the household. 
“Then I’ll put it on the back porch, in the 
woodshed, barn,poultry house, or granary 1” 
says the tyro. In all of those places the tem¬ 
perature dances up and down 10 to 40 degrees 
daily, and I can confidently assure him that if 
he puts his machine in any one of them, he 
can count his chicks on the fingers of one hand. 
“Then where can I put it?” he asks, dispair- 
ingly. If your cellar is reasonably dry, and 
nobody kicks, you can put it there, and expect 
it to do good work. If you have a small out¬ 
building that can be double-boarded with 
building paper between, and which has close- 
fitting door and windows, you may put it in 
that, and it will perform satisfactorily. In 
such a place a lighted lamp will keep the tem¬ 
perature about right during cold weather. 
But after all, it is best to have a building es¬ 
pecially constructed for the purpose, to be 
heated by a stove—either coal or oil (I use an 
oil stove for heating both water and the room) 
and lighted and ventilated in a suitable man¬ 
ner. Whether it would pay the ordinary far¬ 
mer to erect such a building and fit it up with 
the necessary apparatus is a question. I am 
strongly inclined to think it would not, at 
least not while hens are so willing to sit, and 
so able to do a satisfactory job so.cheaply as 
they now are. 
I know the value of incubators to the man 
who makes poultry raising a special business, 
and I know something of the perplexing dif¬ 
ficulties which beset the person who under¬ 
takes to engineer one and attend to the regu¬ 
lar chores and the thousand and one odd jobs 
that are always bobbing up on a farm, and I 
have come to the conclusion, that, after all, 
the old hen is the cheapest,’safest, easiest man¬ 
aged and most.satisfactory incubator for the 
farmer, even if she does sometimes act a little 
cranky, and that he had better stick to her. 
It is true she rarely wants to sit when the 
whether is at zero, and tggs are almost as 
scarce as diamonds in a sand bank; but when 
grass grows, and worms begin to offer induce¬ 
ments to early birds the old hen with her hun¬ 
gry family is generally on hand to partake 
sumptuously thereof. 
But while the old hen is the best hatching 
machine in existence, she is “no good” to brood 
and care for early hatched chicks. A good 
brooder will double-discount her in keeping 
the little.fellows in that dry and warm condi¬ 
tion necessary to health and rapid growth. A 
chick that is exposed to either wet or cold 
ceases to grow, and if it survives it is certain 
to be more or less stunted. 
I make all early sitters sit six weeks, and 
hatch two settings of eggs. Then I put them 
into a pen with a cock a few days, feeding 
them all they can eat, then turn them out 
with the flock, and in a few days they are lay¬ 
ing again. Their chicks are raised in a brood¬ 
er. 
. » » --— 
LIME FOR EGG-SHELLS. 
food is soluble, and that is the source from 
which the lime of the shells is obtained. 
Next, I tried two yards of hens, to one lot 
lime (in all shapes) being given, but from 
the other it was withheld, both lots being fed 
alike. I noticed no difference so far as the 
shells of the eggs were concerned. But, as a 
proof that lime in the shape of shells will not 
prevent hens from laying soft-shelled eggs, I 
have had them to lay such eggs with their 
yards almost covered with pounded oyster 
shells and lumps of lime. If a hen becomes 
fat the oyster shells will not provide a remedy 
against soft-shelled eggs, for this fact has been 
demonstrated hundreds’ of times. The hen, 
having failed to receive a variety of food, and 
being fed principally on a carbonaceous diet, 
has stored up too much fat, and also provides 
it for the egg, as well as a partial supply of 
nitrogen, but there is not a sufficient amount 
of lime dissolved from the food to provide the 
shell, owing to lack of solvents, as she was not 
given food complete in the elements necessary 
for that purpose, yet the ash (if the food were 
consumed by fire) would show an abundance 
of carbonate of lime. 
I advise the feeding of oyster shells, how¬ 
ever, for they serve as “grit,” but I do not 
believe they are of any other value. Sharp 
gravel will answer as well. Give a hen finely- 
ground oyster shells, and also pounded shells, 
and she will pick out all the large, sharp, and 
irregular pieces, never touching those which 
are fine, and in the so-called best condition. 
Like the theory that, because a small (and very 
small) proportion of sulphuretted-hydrogen 
gas is given off from a decomposed egg, hens 
must be fed sulphur to make the eggs hatch, 
although all foods are rich in sulphur, it is a 
belief among a large number that lime must 
be furnished the hens in the shape of shells, 
but this belief is owing to the many “sermons” 
that have been preached in its favor, more 
than to practical experience or tests. Old 
mortar, which contains nitrate of lime, is 
partially soluble, and may be better, but the 
food is sufficient. 
Lime either slaked or in oyster-shells not 
needed in egg-shell production; in them 
it is insoluble, whereas the food furnishes 
enough in a soluble form ; deductions from 
experiments; soft-shelled eggs in sjnte of 
lots of slaked lime and shells ; shells good 
as “ grit. __ 
In the Rural of Dec. 24, I notice all of 
the writers on poultry matter* state that 
they “ provide lime ” by feeding oyster shells, 
slaked lime, etc. I have often noticed such 
expressions, for the theory having been 
once propagated it seems to be a truth to be 
accepted. For my part, I have conducted 
many experiments to determine the truth or 
falsity of the “ shell theory,” and as I have a 
small laboratory of my own I have resorted 
to the aid of chemistry as an assistant. 
In my judgment, the use of shells is good 
simply because they furnish grinding mater¬ 
ial, and they have no more to do with furnish¬ 
ing lime for the shell than gravel or glass¬ 
ware. There is more lime in the food, in a 
soluble condition when digested (in the shape 
of nitrates, sulphates, phosphates, chlorides, 
etc.) than is required. That is, the hen can¬ 
not, even if she so desired, eat sufficient food 
to produce an egg without partaking, at the 
same time, of more than the proportionate 
amount of lime necessary for the shell. Car¬ 
bonate of lime (oyster shells, lime, etc.) is an 
insoluble substance, and cannot enter the 
blood for deposit on the egg until it is com¬ 
pletely dissolved. It may, however, undergo 
a chemical change, during digestion, by being 
converted into a soluble compound, such as a 
sulphate, but in my inspection of the drop¬ 
pings I find that when shells are fed they are 
passed in large quantities from the body, in a 
very fine condition, and as carbonate of lime. 
When bones are fed they are partially dis¬ 
solved, the chemical change appearing to 
be that the lime, by a variety of processes, 
becomes a carbonate, while the phosphoric 
acid unites with the alkalies—potash and 
soda—thus becoming soluble. Still I am not 
ready to assert that a portion of the carbon¬ 
ate of lime is not in some manner rendered 
soluble, but I am sure that the lime of the 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Disinclination of City Girls for Coun¬ 
try Work.— In the Rural of February 4 
(page 76) Mr. Dana tells of the deplorable con¬ 
dition of working girls in New York. In this 
city and vicinity the overworked housewife 
can tell quite as sad a story for want of a girl 
to help her. Besides the hundreds of private 
families who employ girls, there are about 200 
families who keep boarders, mostly students 
in the University. Girls are always in de¬ 
mand here, but especially in the fall, when 
college opens. Then during the summer 
months there is a great demand for berry, 
peach and grape pickers, as this is a gieat 
fruit region. Now, why cannot many of 
those half-starved girls come here, get plenty 
to eat and good pay besides. Housework 
commands $1.50 to $2.50 per week with board. 
Fruit picking from 50 cents to $1 a day with¬ 
out board. w F. B. 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 
r n.-Y.—T his is a good example of dozens 
of letters we have received. This story is a 
melancholy one—thousands of young wo¬ 
men living in the cities in a state of semi-star¬ 
vation and thousands of overworked farmers’ 
wives almost ready to declare farm life a fail¬ 
ure because of their inability to secure com¬ 
petent help. After an extended correspond¬ 
ence with the heads of some of our charitable 
\ institutions, and conversations with young 
women, we are forced to admit that there is 
small chance of helping the matter out. It is 
the same in every case—the girls will not leave 
the city. There is a fascination about city 
life that they cannot overcome. Theorists 
and philanthropists may say what they please 
about what ought to be. T he fact remains 
that after one of these young women has spent 
10 years of her life in the city, it is next to 
impossible for her to be happy in the country. 
The Farmer’s Lo a Hard One. 
This is the season when farm hands and 
farmers’ sons abandon the farm and go to the 
larger towns or the cities. It is useless to 
deny the fact that even comparatively un¬ 
skilled labor as employed on railroads, etc., is 
better paid than ordinary farm work. The 
men who write the finest essays on the attrac¬ 
tiveness of farm life are the very ones who 
avoid in Jvery possible way the drudgery ol 
the farm life. The fact is, something must be 
done to enable the farmer to pay better wages 
and maintain the dignity of farm labor, and 
increase the attractiveness of farm lifd. It is 
useless to talk about books and music and so¬ 
cial entertainments and the like; the average 
farmer is too poor and has two hard a job to 
make both ends meet to spend time in the re- 
