THE RUSAL HEW-YOBKER 
pentine, kerosene, etc. These are all good in 
proper proportion and when used with great 
care, the mercurial ointment may be used 
much weakened with lard, on their heads, and 
oil of sassafras is still better; but half a tea¬ 
spoonful is enough to a gill of sweet oil. This 
will be very effective without danger, if very 
lightly applied under the wings of the mother 
hen, or even if a little is sprinkled around the 
nest or coop. Turpentine is a dangerous thing 
in the hands of a novice or rather in a chick¬ 
en’s throat. Carbolic acid is another deadly 
thing with careless use; yet it is one of the 
most useful, if carefully used. 
When chicks are droopy or weak, care is 
needed to recuperate them;a little more green 
food and onions should be given them, or, if 
they are too much purged, a little powdered 
chalk and bone flour in their soft food—one 
teaspoonful of each to a pint of food, is suffi¬ 
cient. __ 
Avoid condiments in feeding chicks. If any 
red pepper is given at all, it must bo very lit¬ 
tle indeed. _ 
Many people shut up fowls in a small, close 
yard as soon as planting is done, and some do 
so earlier. Before doing so it is worth while 
to consider profit and loss in this matter. 
Unless they have a good large yard, fowls 
confined lay but little in summer. The food 
consumed just keeps the birds alive; but they 
pass a monotonous existence. There is no 
doubt that fowls will do some mischief in the 
garden, and they likewise do some good in de¬ 
stroying insects. At any rate it is best to see 
whether the mischief is more than the profit 
from the eggs which would be laid if the birds 
had full liberty. If fowls are confined it is 
best to have them in a yard large enough to 
have the grass grow in it. When yards are 
trodden or scratched up so as not to allow the 
grass to grow, they will not keep hens healthy 
and in a laying condition. 
Hay seed swept from the barn floor is a good 
thing to throw into chicken yards. The birds 
scratch it in and when it grows up it is good 
for the stock. 
Hens cooped out with chicks soon begin to 
lay again. Look out for their eggs,or vermin 
will do it for you. Borne hens will lay in 
spring when their chicks are only a month to 
six weeks old. _ 
As feed for young chicks, boiled rice and 
oatmeal are very good; but as they are sticky 
it is best to stir in dry corn-meal or some 
other dry meal, to make it easier to eat. All 
soft food for chicks should be so dry as to 
crumble when dropped. Soft, watery messes 
should be avoided. Feed chicks when young 
four times a day, and as soon as they can run 
around well a feeding coop of laths on three 
sides, the foui’th one being of boards, should 
be placed on each spot where there are several 
coops of chicks. The spaces between laths 
should be large enough to admit the chicks 
only. Turn the boarded side to the south, to 
keep the sun off the food, which should be 
placed inside, so that the chicks can get it 
when they please. This should be cracked 
corn or wheat; the wheat is much the better, 
but only enough of all should be given, as they 
will eat up clean each time. 
Chicks do best in hot weather in shady 
places, but in early spring open, sunny places 
are much the best. Keep chicks supplied 
with clean water. Wash out their drinking 
pans every day. All coops with chicks should 
have a board in front, or the coops should be 
closed at night, leaving a place for ventila¬ 
tion near the top. This keeps the chicks from 
getting out too early on wet or frosty grass, 
and it also keeps out vermin, such as rats, 
minks, etc. 
Coops with chicks should be stood on a lit¬ 
tle knoll. During hard rains the water will 
sometimes stand in the coops and drown the 
birds if placed on or below the level of the sur- 
rounding ground. 
Clean out chicken coops every few days while 
they have wood bottoms. Afterwards in 
-warm weathei' when set on the ground shift 
them a little every few days. 
When many young chicks are raised on a 
farm, it is best to set out the coops in small 
colonies rather than have them all together. 
The birds thrive better if the colonies are at 
least 100 feet apart. 
Don’t forget to plant the sunflower seed in 
waste places. 
It is better and healthier to let hens that 
want to sit do so if one has the convenience. 
It is most natural for them to take a rest from 
laying. The eggs from such hens are more 
likely to be fertile. 
Of the 11 chicks hatched fi’om the 13 Red- 
Cap eggs, set at the Rural Grounds, 9 are liv¬ 
ing and doing well. They are beauties. 
THE EFFECTS OF SPECIAL AND COM¬ 
PLETE FERTILIZERS ON POTATOES. 
The Third Season's Trial—This Time Upon 
A More Fertile Soil Than Hitherto. 
As to the preparation of the plots it is only 
necessary to repeat what has been said in 
previous years. The seed, Rural Blush, was clit 
the day previous to planting. Potatoes of 
nearly the same size were cut in halves length¬ 
wise, the seed end of each having been’cut off 
and rejected. The seed conditions were made 
still more equal, by using the same weight of 
seed pieces to each plot. Trenches had been 
dug several days previously, nearly two 
spades wide and six inches deep—the trenches 
three feet apart. Later, two inches of soil 
were raked into the trenches, and upon this the 
pieces (cut-surface down) were placed on6 foot 
apart. Two inches of soil were raked over 
them, and the fertilizer applied as described. 
The season for this land was considered favor- 
able. The work of planting and fertilizing 
was completed bv three men in one day. 
Yield 
Lbs. 
bushels 
per acre. 
per acre. 
1, Nitrate soda, 
200 
235 
134, No manure, 
00 
226 
2, Sulphate ammonia, 
120 
304 
3, Dissolved bone-black, 
400 
266 
4, No manure, 
00 
242 
5, Sulphate potash, 
300 
272 
6, Plaster, 
400 
225 
7, No manure, 
00 
260 
8, Nitrate soda. 
200 
Dissolved bone-black, 
4u0 
Tons. 
154 
9, New York manure, 
10 
Lbs. 
433 
10, Nitrate soda, 
200 
376 
Sulphate potash, 
too 
11, Disssolved bone-black, 
400 
Sulphate potash. 
300 
245 
12, Nitrate soda, 
200 
Dissolved bone-black, 
400 
348 
Sulphate potash, 
300 
13, Raw-bone, 
1,000 
Tons. 
290 
14, N. Y. manure, forked in the 
bottom of the trench and 
the seed-pieces placed on 
top, 10 280 
Lbs. 
15, No manure, 00 272 
16, Hen manure, 2,640 323 
17, Mapes’s potato manure, 800 332 
Tons. 
18, N. Y. manure spread on the 
top of the covered seed- 
pieces. (R. N.-Y. Mulch 
System), 10 348 
Lbs. 
19, Mapes potato manure—Am¬ 
monia, 4.50; phosphoric 
acid, 8.00; potash, 6.00, 1,200 511 
20, Acid (S. C. rock) phosphate, 700 
Nitrate soda, 200 
Muriate potash, 120 381 
21, Acid phosphate, 700 229 
22, Nitrate soda, 200 
Muriate potash, 120 323 
24, Nitrogen mixture, viz. equal 
parts sulphate ammonia, 
nitrate soda and dried 
blood, 400 pounds of each, 
was spread on top the 
seed-pieces after they had 
been lightly covered with 
soil and 10 tons of New 
York stablemanure spread 
on top of this for a mulch, 476 
25 , No manure, 269 
26, Floats (finest S. C. rock) 289 
27, Peruvian guano, 264 
28, Hen manure, 5,280 363 
29, No manure, 246 
AVERAGES. 
No manure plots average, 253 
Single chemical constituents, 263 
Two “ “ 324 
Three “ 364 
Mapes’s potato fertilizer, 421 
Stable manure, 354 
Hen manure, 343 
Fish, 323 
THE PROMISE OF YIELD AS INDICATED BY THE 
VINES JUNE 27. 
As in preceding years, we rated the growth 
and general appearance of the vines with the 
view to ascertaining in what degree the yield 
of potatoes corresponded with the promise 
thus indicated. Ten (10) is the highest rating. 
Plot 1, Rated 2. Plot 6, Rated 2. 
“ IH, “ ^ “ 7 , “ 2 . 
“ 2, “ 3. “ 8, “ 4. 
“ 3, “ 3. “ 9, “ 5. 
“ 4, “ 2. “ 10, “ 4. 
“ 5, “ 3. “ 11, “ 3. 
Plot 12, 
Rated 
5. 
Plot 21, 
Rated 
3. 
“ 13, 
u 
4. 
It 
22, 
It 
3. 
“ 14, 
u 
4. 
cc 
23, 
Cl 
3. 
“ 15, 
u 
3. 
ic 
24, 
ll 
8. 
“ 16, 
u 
5. 
11 
25, 
ll 
2. 
“ 17, 
cc 
6. 
u 
26, 
ll . 
3. 
“ 18, 
Cl 
5. 
u 
27, 
Cl 
3. 
“ 19, 
ic 
9. 
1C 
28, 
Cl 
5. 
“ 20, 
it 
8. 
ll 
29, 
ll 
3. 
We often hear 
of 
immense tops, 
and yet a 
very small yield. This has occurred in the 
Rural’s experience, first, when large quan¬ 
tities of unleached ashes were used, and, 
second, when farm manure alone was used. 
With chemical fertilizers alone it has never 
occurred; indeed we believe, though we do 
not know, that with well-balanced complete 
fertilizers a heavy growth of tops is an almost 
unfailing indication of a large crop of tubers, 
even though as high as two tons to the acre 
be used. 
THE LAND. 
The land of the plots was, as is plainly 
shown by the good yields without manure, 
much more fertile than that of the plots ex¬ 
perimented with in previous years. The change 
was made because there seemed no longer 
any reason for continuing the poor-land trials, 
since the results of the two seasons of trial 
proved beyond a doubt that the soil needed 
all kinds of plant food, and that a decidedly 
increased yield could not he secured without 
them. They were therefore given up in favor 
of richer land, though of the same character 
—a loam inclining a trifle to sand rather 
than clay. 
It will be seen that the results are variable, 
though complete fertilizers still give a largely 
increased yield over special constituents, and 
the valuable lesson taught in this case as in 
all our previous trials, is that it pays well on 
this land for potatoes to use them in prefer¬ 
ence to partial fertilizers or even to hen, 
fish or stable manure. The manure was city 
manure, well-decomposed, and of apparently 
excellent quality. The Peruvian Guano con¬ 
tained an undue weight of stones, and we do 
not regard the trial as a fair one. The 
variableness of the yields is probably due in 
a measure to two causes, viz.: (1) potatoes 
were raised upon the same land the year 
before fertilized in the drill, and (2) corn was 
raised two years before manured in the hill. 
THE BLACK SIDE OF FARMING. 
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M.D, 
(Concluded.) 
I now resolved to give my attention entire¬ 
ly to legitimate, unspeculative farming, and 
yet I had got no nearer, or but little nearer 
to knowing how to make such farming pay. 
The stock we were keeping was of common 
kinds. My two Short-horn cows and their two 
thoroughbred calves had been kept, but had 
not been bred to Short-horn males, because 
there were none in the immediate neighbor¬ 
hood, and besides that, I had not sufficient 
esteem for the breed, for my use, at least, to 
care to breed it pure. Ther6 were bulls both 
of the Ayrshire and Jersey breeds which had 
been brought into the vicinity since my adi en- 
ture in Short-horns, and these were the sires 
of most of my present stock of cows and heifers. 
I think that it was the same year the tobacco 
barns and sheds were blown down that the 
two older Short horn cows were turned for 
beef. Though rather old, they took on fat 
well, and brought a good price. I have no 
fault to find with them as beef cattle, and in 
fact on cheap, rich land, not too rough and 
hilly, I have no doubt they could be made 
profitable; but except at very fancy prices 
they never can be made to pay in New En¬ 
gland. Both their milk and their beef cost 
more than they can be sold for. 
My herd of cows had somewhat increased 
in number and in average milking quality 
although they were very uneven in that, as 
well as in size, They had been unsparingly 
fed, the poorer ones had been weeded out, 
and we had been selling the milk to a milk¬ 
man who supplied the village people. My 
wife had not been bred up on a farm, and al¬ 
though she had learned from my mother very 
quickly to make butter and cheese for house 
use, she never had the courage to think that 
she should succeed in making them for mar¬ 
ket, and she was therefore glad of so good an 
opportunity to sell the milk, for which we got 
two cents a quart in summer and three cents 
in winter, but we had but little in the latter 
season. I now bethought me to buy out my 
customer’s route, and supply the village peo¬ 
ple myself. I soon found out that this was a 
different kind of business from tobacco grow¬ 
ing, and required a different sort of a man 
from myself. There is no drudgery on earth 
worse than the business of making milk and 
peddling it out by the quart. At the end of 
the first season I was ready to sell out my 
peddling equipment at a loss, which I could 
not help considering a gain. 
Giving this up, and without the tobacco 
money to buy feed, I had no alternative but 
to reduce my horned stock, which I did by 
selling the older Short-horn grades and crosses 
to the butcher. The second, third and fourth 
generations of this stock had been reduced in 
size considerably, but were good milking stock. 
I now tried butter-making, in which my good 
wife was quite willing to assist me. Of course, 
I had discharged all my extra help, keeping 
only one mail the year through with one or 
two extra hands for the seven warmer months. 
My mowing and pasture lands were still slow¬ 
ly declining in productiveness, but my old 
tobacco fields for several years gave me ex¬ 
tremely fine crops of corn, oats, clover and 
potatoes. The decline of my pastures worried 
me the most of anything. I had become accus¬ 
tomed to the use of purchased fertilizers, and 
had learned that at a sufficient expense I 
could keep up all my plow laud. Whether 
the needed expense to do this would pay, was 
yet an unsolved problem. But during the war, 
and for six or eight years thereafter, the 
prices of farm products kept up so that I con¬ 
tinued nearly, if not quite to make my income 
pay my expenses, but I might as well say now 
that I have never been able to make and save 
any money at all* since I abandoned tobacco 
growing, and yet I have had no inclination to 
go back to that. 
I do not believe what is said about the 
“golden foot” of the sheep. I have always 
kept sheep and sold wool, but I have never 
been able to discover that they exhausted the 
pastures any less than cattle, nor are they very 
effective in keeping down the increase of 
weeds and brush. Their manure, it is true, 
is fine and evenly scattered, though mostly 
left near where they lie at night, when left in 
the pasture. This is generally upon the tops 
of the knolls, or rather of some one or two 
favorite elevations, where, from the fact that 
their constant treading kills much of the grass, 
the benefit is not very perceptible. I have 
crossed up my sheep, sometimes with Cotswokl 
rams, and sometimes with South Downs, or 
rather with grades of those breeds, and have 
been able to get better prices for lambs in 
consequence, but the wool is of a very mixed 
sort. The question of the restoration or in¬ 
crease of the grass upon pastures too rough 
and rocky to plow is still an utterly unsolva- 
ble one to me. The decline in mine is perhaps 
slower now than it was, but the feed is not 
more than half what it was when I was a boy. 
My young orchard, which had been neglect¬ 
ed while I was engaged in tobacco growing, 
did, nevertheless, slowdy come on to bear, and 
as the trees were nearly all Baldwins, with a 
few each of Astrachaus, Porters, Gravensteins 
and Hubbardstons, the orchard began to con¬ 
tribute somewhat to the income of the farm. 
I gave some attention to pruning it, and having 
fenced it I allowed some sheep and occasional¬ 
ly young swine to pasture there. Though 
some trees were barked, I found that this 
rarely occured if it was not overstocked, while 
the pigs certainly kept down the mice. With 
this treatment my orchard has thriven pretty 
well, and in the bearing years has given me 
sometimes two or three barrels of marketable 
fruit on the tree. I have done the best to sell 
them on the trees to experienced buyers, and I 
believe if anything on our farms actually 
does yield a net profit, it is an orchard of 
Baldwin apples. 
When the Concord grape was introduced, 
and boomed so high at first, the claim being 
made that under no circumstances could they 
be likely to sell, and readily, at less than 14 
to 16 cents a pound at wholesale, I was tempt¬ 
ed to set out several hundred vines at a pretty 
high price, But I found that in Western 
Massachusetts this grape could not be relied 
upon to ripen, while they have been brought 
in so abundantly from places where they ripen 
earlier and with certainty, that there is no 
money to be made in the cultivation of that 
fruit. Nor have I been able to make pear¬ 
growing a pecuniary success. I have lost 
money in every attempt I have made to grow 
fruit, aside from apples. 
As my children have grown up I have real¬ 
ized that the cost of rearing a family has 
greatly increased since my own childhood, 
and yet I have had it to do on the same farm 
where my father reared his family in a much 
more simple way. Taxes have also greatly 
increased, as have also the charges connected 
with church membership. I am not unwill¬ 
ing to bear my part in all these things, but it 
is the truth that I have been unable to do so 
from the proceeds of a farm declining slowly 
but continually in productiveness. It is a fact 
which not only my own experience, but that 
of multitudes of people all around me, confirms 
that farming does not pay. 
The proof of this is seen in the numerous 
farms on all sides which are in the market for 
