1888 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
S08 
transit. They require no particular treat¬ 
ment for preservation on receipt, except pro¬ 
tection from cold and vermin ; but for early 
market they should bespread in a light, warm 
room, or under sash in a hot-bed, for sprout¬ 
ing. I am in the habit of cutting them length¬ 
wise for this purpose, and when sprouted in a 
hot-bed, sand is used to cover the manure ra¬ 
ther than soil. Before planting, I cut into 
two-eye pieces. The ground, which should be 
rich, but not freshly dunged, should be deeply 
plowed and well pulverized. I plant deeply 
in drills, set about one foot apart, and prac¬ 
tice level culture, using a smoothing harrow 
for the first cultivation just as the shoots 
begin to crack the surface. 
* 
(The -Poulin) Bari). 
TURKEY RAISING, CONTINUED. 
A farmer’s daughter. 
Food for fattening ; all attention should be 
given to healthy birds ; treatment of a bro¬ 
ken leg; young turkeys and hogs; getting 
the birds home at night; as insect destroy¬ 
ers; cost of keep; when to kill. 
At this season, the turkeys of last spring’s 
hatching are about half grown. They are old 
enough to perch in the trees at night, and to 
go in the fields in the morning and spend the 
day catching grasshoppers and other insects. 
Where they can have a wide range it is neces¬ 
sary to give them very little extra food, 
unless one wishes to get them large enough 
and fat enough to be marketable by Thanks¬ 
giving Day. If that is.desirable, it is well to 
give them two good meals a day up to that 
time. A variety of food is always beneficial, 
so it is a good plan to give them one meal of 
soft food—that is, broken bread, bits of meat, 
cold vegetables or whatever is left from the 
table—and the other of small grain, either 
shelled oats, wheat screenings or cracked corn. 
The latter should be fed to them at night, as 
uncooked food requires a longer time to di¬ 
gest. Milk, either sweet or sour, clabber or 
buttermilk, is also very wholesome, and may 
be given them with impunity. There is no 
doubt that milk tends to improve the flavor 
of the flesh of fowls when ready for market, 
making it very white, tender and juicy. The 
summer has been very dry in our section of 
Kentucky, and as the fowls require more food 
than usual we have learned to utilize every 
kind that is convenient. The tough, outside 
leaves of cabbage, for instance, boiled with 
potato parings and seasoned with dripping, 
together with a handful of meal stirred in, 
form what the turkeys consider a very pal¬ 
atable mess. 
I have seen a great many recipes for “con¬ 
dition” powders to oe given to fowls to keep 
them healthy and make them grow fast, but 
my experience is that if strict attention is 
paid to their diet, and everything about them 
is kept clean and wholesome, the less they are 
physiced the better. If the original stock is 
strong, healthy and vigorous their offspring 
is pretty sure to be so, and if, as is generally 
the case, there are one or two weaklings in 
each brood, let them die as soon as they will, 
and spend your time and energies in promot¬ 
ing the growth and welfare of the rest. 
When the little ones are fed in the way I 
described in a former article—upon egg and 
milk custard and batter-bread—it is astonish¬ 
ing to see how fast they will grow; seems to 
me I can almost see a difference from one day 
to the next. They have so much vitality, too, 
that, instead of giving up and dying, as a 
puny thing does when it gets hurt, they cling 
most tenaciously to life. Not long ago a 
little fellow only about ten days old, got its 
leg broken above its knee. My assistant 
wanted to kill it right away saying it 
couldn’t possibly get well; but the little 
thing looked so bright and healthy, and 
felt so warm and full of life in my hand, 
that I concluded to give it a chance 
to get well anyhow, so we made a thick 
paste of flour and water, and wet a strip 
of muslin half an inch wide in it, and 
wrapped it around the little fowl’s leg as we 
had seen a doctor apply a plaster-of-Paris 
bandage to a child’s broken arm. One of us 
held the little turkey until the bandage was 
dry so as to keep it straight; then he was put 
in a box and kept about a week until he 
could walk well enough to keep up with the 
flock. The cast was cut off after about ten 
days, and now he scarcely limps at all and 
can hardly be distinguished from the others. 
Turkeys have a great many enemies, and 
until this year I have always considered that 
hogs were among the chief, but one of my hens 
has taught me better. She has persisted in 
brmgiug up uer brood right among [the hogs, 
in a drove of[ 80. Her favorite tramping 
ground was around the trough where the hogs 
came every day to get their swill. 1 drove 
her away faithfully until one of the “hands” 
told me that those hogs stayed with his 
chickens all the time, and had never hurt one 
of them. 
Still I was uneasy, until one day I went 
down there and found the old hen sitting up¬ 
on the fence resting, while her brood was run¬ 
ning about over the backs of a pile of hogs ly¬ 
ing asleep in the fence corner. All hogs, how¬ 
ever, are not so amiable as I have found out 
to my sorrow. 
Sometimes they get into the habit of passing 
through the tobacco field going and coming, 
and I heard a farmer say that each fowl 
would take a row and follow it up as sensibly 
as a person would, catching the worms clean 
as they go, peering up under the leaves, and 
turning their heads this way and that, in 
order to get a view from all points. When 
they return in the afternoon they always pass 
through the field in another place; they will 
not go over the same ground twice. Whether 
this is quite the truth I do not know, but 
tobacco raisers declare that the assistance 
which a flock of 20 turkeys will afford in 
keeping the crop free from worms, is equal to 
that of one or two good hands; and old 
farmers say that a drove of turkeys is really 
an advantage to a farm, because of the in¬ 
numerable quantity of insects which they 
destroy. 
Another time we heard a great commotion 
among the flock and upon passing out saw one 
of the Holstein calves jumping up and down 
in their midst trying to stamp them to death. 
Young turkeys have no conception whatever, 
of danger, but a great deal of curiosity which 
leads them into all sorts of trouble. 
After the flock has attained considerable 
size, if their range is large, it is some trouble 
to get them into the habit of coming home 
at night. They are apt to stop wherever they 
happen to be when the sun goes down and 
spend the night upon the nearest fence-row 
where they become an easy prey to passing 
thieves, or they fly up in the trees and are 
caught by the owls. 
I always try to keep posted in regard to 
their usual runs, and go after them when they 
show a disposition to remain out very late. 
A good supper however is the best thing to 
bring them home. 
When turkeys are killed in November the 
cost of their food up to that time is very little, 
but if they are kept after the frosts have de¬ 
stroyed the insects and killed every green 
thing in the fields, as turkeys are grazers to a 
considerable extent, it becomes necessary to 
feed them upon grain, and they require a 
great deal of it in order to prevent their losing 
weight. An experiment was made with an 
old gobbler just to see how much he would 
eat. Corn was shelled to him as fast as he 
could pick it up and his appetite was not sat¬ 
isfied until after he had eaten three ears and a 
half. He could have made a very comfortable 
meal, however, upon very much less. By No¬ 
vember, the flock can easily be made to aver¬ 
age, taking the hens aud gobblers together, 
about 12 pounds each, and ihe dealers here do 
not care to have them weigh more. Ours are 
usually shipped to Memphis, and bring, after 
all expenses are paid, from $1 to $l.25a head, 
which we farmers’ daughters think, pays us 
very well for the trouble of raising them. 
Oakville, Ky. 
flcricitllitral. 
THE FLORISTS’ CONVENTION. 
President's address ; Business education: 
Hoses from many standpoints ; Nomen¬ 
clature ; Science in horticulture ; The ex¬ 
hibitions. 
The fourth annual convention of the Scciety 
of American Florists, held in New York Au¬ 
gust 21st, 22nd and 23rd, was in many re¬ 
spects the most interesting meeting held by 
the association so far. It was very largely 
attended, the delegates representing all sec¬ 
tions of the country, and the discussions were 
instructive and well sustained. 
After an opening address by Judge C. C. 
Cole of Des Moines, Iowa,President E. G. Hill 
of Richmond, Ind., gave his address. He 
laid especial stress on the need of higher edu¬ 
cation for flonsis or growers. He says they 
need such an education as will enable them 
to analyze soils and to know scientifically their 
constituent parts, and their relations to the 
fibre and tissue of a plant ; to be able to de¬ 
tect deleterious and injurious substances, to 
check and control the chemical actions in the 
soil, and to adjust to a nicety the things 
termed heat, food and water. There is no 
doubt that lack of such knowledge causes 
enormous waste in the production of plants 
and flowers. 
Next in importance to this higher education 
Mr. Hill rightly insisted upon a higher stand¬ 
ard of commercial probity and integrity. He 
suggested a protective union to prevent impo¬ 
sition by the dishonest, which should give the 
financial standing and character of its mem. 
bers and of their patrons. Again, he insisted 
on the necessity for the correct naming of 
plants, protesting against the dishonesty of 
disseminating plants under false names, an 
abuse which results from carelessness as well 
as avarice. This address was warmly com¬ 
mended in the discussion which followed. 
Though many were disposed to look upon 
scientific horticulture rather coldly, many 
confessed that they were often baffled by fail¬ 
ures which could not be accounted for by 
years of practical training, but they consid¬ 
ered that scientific theories were equally at a 
loss in like cases. Peter Henderson made ref¬ 
erence to Sir J. B. Lawes and his efforts in 
agriculture, recognizing the usefulness of such 
work, but doubting its application to commer¬ 
cial efforts. Mr. J. H. Taylor’s paper on 
“Soils and Fertilizers,” read on the third day, 
fairly dove tailed in with Pres.Hill’s remarks, 
and called forth similar discussion. Mr. Tay¬ 
lor is a commercial grower, who believes in 
practical science; he experiments with soils 
and chemical fertilizers, believing rightly that 
the man who adds science to practical experi¬ 
ence will excel a believer in “ rule of thumb ’ 
only. 
H. H. Battles, of Philadelphia, in his essay 
entitled “ The Elevation of our Business,” in¬ 
sisted also on the higher education, both scien¬ 
tific aud msthetic, which should be added to the 
practical knowledge of a successful florist. He 
laid special stress upon the knowledge of har¬ 
mony in color and grace of form, which should 
he possessed by decorative florists. C. D. 
Ball, of Holmesburg, Pa., gave a practical 
talk on “ Ferns, Palms, and other Decorative 
Plants,” in which he referred to the increasing 
market for such stuff. 
Roses were discussed from the retailer’s 
standpoint by Thos. Cartledge, of Philadel¬ 
phia, and from the grower’s standpoint by 
Edwin Lonsdale, of Chestnut Hill, Pa. Mr. 
Lonsdale, considered the Francis Bennett one 
of the most valuable winter-blooming sorts 
introduced of late years, and American 
Beauty the most remarkable flower on the 
list. Mr. Cartledge puts the Bride away up 
at the head of white roses, while Mr. Jordan, 
of St. Louis, in the discussion following, said 
that he had almost entirely discarded it. It 
was decided that Perle des Jardins is the best 
yellow rose for general use, while Sunset in¬ 
creases in favor every season. 
J. G. Esler, of Saddle River, N. J., gave a 
clear report on hail insurance, which induced 
many new members to avail themselves of its 
benefits. J. D. Raynolds, of Riverside, III., 
gave a paper on Modes of Heating, which 
called out a spirited discussion. The essay on 
“nomenclature,” by Robt. J. Halliday, of Bal¬ 
timore, was one of the most valuable read. It 
resulted in the appointment of a committee of 
twelve, whose duty it shall be to settle all dis¬ 
puted cases of confused plant names. Mr. 
Halliday was appointed chairman of this com¬ 
mittee; the other members are : C. D. Ball, 
G. H. Leahy, A. Murdoch and Robt. Craig, of 
Pennsylvania ; J. N. May, of New Jersey ; 
C. B. Whitnall, of Wisconsin; W. R. Smith, 
of Washington; Robt. George, of Ohio; A. E. 
Whittle, of New York ; M. A. Hunt, of Indi¬ 
ana, and Benj. Gray, of Massachusetts. 
Peter Henderson offered a prize of $100 for 
the best herbarium arranged according to the 
natural system, containing not Jess than 500 
varieties. This competition is open only to 
members of the association and their sons. 
A committee consisting of Peter Henderson, 
New York, Jas. A. Hfendricks, Albany, Robt. 
Craig, Philadelphia, and E. L. Taplin, New 
Jersey, was formed to decide upon a national 
representative flower for the United States. 
The officers for the ensuing year are; Pres. 
J. N. May of New Jersey; Vice Pres., W. J. 
Palmer, Buffalo; Treas., M. A. Hunt, 
Indiana; Secretary, W. J. Stewart, 
Boston. • The exhibition was rather 
larger than usual. Florists’ supplies 
were numerous, but there were some 
good flowers. Jas. Vick and Samuel C. Moou 
showed fine gladioli; H. A. Dreer, of Phila¬ 
delphia, W. C. Wilson, of Astoria, and John 
Fiuu, of New York, showed good palms and 
ferns. The caladiums shown by John 
Hughes, gardener to G. W. Childs, of Phila¬ 
delphia, were the finest specimens ever exhi¬ 
bited in New York. W. S. Kimball, of 
Rochester, sent some fine orchids. A pyramid 
of blooming Lily of the Valley aDd some pot 
lilacs, flowered by Ernest Asmus, of Hoboken, 
were evidence of a skilled grower. The floral 
designs were passable, but no better than they 
might have been. 
EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
WILL IT PAY THE AVERAGE FARMER 
TO SAVE HIS OWN GARDEN SEEDS? 
Each of almost all the vegetables now in 
cultivation has a great number of varieties, 
and these varieties are generally more or less 
unstable in quality. Take, for example, a 
very common vegetable, the tomato. Every 
year brings several new introductions of “im¬ 
proved varieties,” which have been discovered 
by careful cultivation and selection; while 
the older sorts are as gradually falling out as 
they degenerate. 
Science has determined that vegetables and 
fruits are improved by crossing different 
varieties. This crossing is, of course, impossi¬ 
ble with the average farmer who grows but 
one kind of tomato or one kind of cabbage. 
It is also determined, as a principle in nature, 
that a variety grown through several genera¬ 
tions alone, will degenerate in the very points 
wherein it has been an improvement over its 
predecessor. Add to these facts the very 
SILAGE TAKEN FROM A COW'S STOMACH. Fig. 312. 
