FE® © 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
They went off “ like smoke,” too, buyers seem¬ 
ing to prefer them to turkeys. In good loca¬ 
tions, not far from cities, farm eggs bring 
quite as good prices as yard eggs; and on the 
poorer, sandy farms, poultry products are as 
much (or more) an item of profit as dairy 
products. Farm poultry is almost exclusively 
in the hands of the female members of the 
family, and although they are somewhat cur¬ 
tailed in the allowance of grain to finish them 
off with in the fall, yet examples, like that 
above, of the large price that well-fatted and 
skillfully dressed fowls will bring, even in the 
smaller markets, are tending to more liberality 
m this particular. 
The Profits. —As a main business, especial¬ 
ly for men, except in very exceptional cases 
and under peculiar conditions, I repeat that 
it will not pay. Even on the farm it rarely 
pays, except on the moderate scale above indi¬ 
cated, where waste products and women’s 
work are utilized. Attempts made on farms 
to unduly increase the flocks almost invaria¬ 
bly result in loss. But when the true limits 
are understood, and the right conditions ob¬ 
served, a real, honest, net profit of one dollar 
per head may be reasonably expected in the 
ordinary way. Where particular skill is 
shown, and a wide neighborhood reputation 
for superior stock is gained, even more is 
sometimes gained. 
Turkeys and Ducks.— Some of our bright 
farm women have a real talent for raising 
turkeys, and although these fowls are more 
troublesome to the farmer than hens, wander 
farther, and must be more often confined, and 
more closely watched, yet there is some money 
in turkeys for some people. The same may 
be said of ducks. But the duck business is a 
trade, quite as much as the turkey business, 
and requires special facilities, as well as special 
skill in the breeder. Young ducks are much 
hardier than young turkeys, require less 
watching and can take better care of them¬ 
selves. I have a duck-breeding neighbor who 
is particularly well located and well skilled in 
the art, and makes it pay. He has a slow 
river running close by his house, with half a 
hundred acres of swampy meadow on both 
sides of it. On this river, and in these mead¬ 
ows, his flocks of young ducks have nearly 
the same conditions about them as their wild 
congeners have in the wilderness, without 
some of the dangers. He feeds his flocks with 
grain in his door-yard every night, and it is a 
sight worth looking at, when the long squad¬ 
rons come sailing down the river at night-fall 
for their rations. Ducks, yarded, will “ eat 
you out of house and homebut here hundreds 
are brought nearly to maturity before much 
expense is incurred. 
Prices Advancing. —The surest proof that 
I am right in my belief, that, as a single busi¬ 
ness, poultry-keeping rarely paj s, is the con¬ 
tinual advance in the price of eggs. Even at 
a distance of more than a hundred miles from 
any considerable city, eggs have averaged 
over 20 cents a dozen, the season through, for 
1888. Now with all the poultry journals, the 
poultry departments, the constant pressure 
of sanguine people into the business for years, 
pray tell me why, among all other lines of 
country profit-seeking, poultry is the one only 
line that cannot be over-done? There was a 
glut of small fruits, there is a glut of apples 
and oranges, there is more often than not a 
glut of every sort of farm product; but never 
a time when there is not a brisk market for 
eggs. A sarcastic neighbor of mine insists that 
the rarest product of the poultry-yard is eggs. 
Undoubtedly the great bulk of the egg produc¬ 
tion is from the farms; but why does this not 
keep pace with the market? Some one tells 
me that cheap novels, story papers and parlor 
organs are diverting our women folks from 
their former interest in poultry. If this is 
the case, the men-folks ought to see to it that 
the inducements in that direction are in¬ 
creased. 
How Increased? —I should say that the 
best way to stimulate the business is to see 
that every reasonable facility is afforded for 
it, in constructing houses aHd yards, in doing 
the things most difficult and unpleasant for 
women to do, and in allowing a reasonable 
quantity of feed, when needed. Let the poul¬ 
try not only be made to pay, but see that this 
pay goes, in a due and just proportion to 
those who have the chief responsibility for its 
success. 
Making Hens Lay.—A hen nas to lay. 
You cannot keep a healthy hen from laying if 
you try, unless you kill her. No medicine is 
required for the purpose, and on the farm no 
special feeding, no drugs, ground bones, oys¬ 
ter shells, or anything whatever but plenty of 
natural food, clean water and comfortable 
quarters, to get all the eggs that the breed, be 
it this or that, naturally will produce, under 
proper conditions. And, beyond that, it is as 
impossible to force them as it is unnecessary 
to try. Hens don’t average any more eggs 
now, if as many, as they did fifty years ago, 
whenpatent hen-food was unthought of. 
farm 
HARROW HINTS. 
TESTED TILIAGETOOIS. 
SOME SOIL STIRRERS. 
It Pays to Pulverize. 
TO WHAT WORK WILL WELL- 
HANDLED HARROWS 
HANDILY HITCH? 
QUESTIONS. 
1. If you could get but one harrow, which 
one would you ctioose for general farm 
W07'k f 
2. Is the work done by the various harroivs 
so different that two or three can profit¬ 
ably be employed on the same farm t 
3. What special operations are the smoothing, 
disk, spring-tooth and Cutaway harroivs 
used for in your neighborhood ? What is 
the best work for each ? 
4. Can you suggest any improvement in the 
construction of harrows, that would make 
them more serviceable. ? 
MICHIGAN MENTION. 
I can hardly say too much for the Cutaway 
harrow. I thought the disk a great acquisi¬ 
tion, and destined to displace most others, 
except the smoothing, which is for a different 
purpose; out tne Cutaway is ahead of the 
disk. It is admirable for cuttmg up any soil, 
and in case of plowed greensward, it does not 
tear up the sod in the least. Last spring I 
fitted my oat ground with the Cutaway in 
lieu of the plow at a great saviug of time and 
labor; every farmer knows how precious time 
is at the time of oat seeding. I put oats after 
com, and follow with wheat. Pleased with 
the ease and rapidity of fitting, I waited 
eagerly for the harvest, to see what it would 
be. The season was quite dry, especially late, 
and yet I had a fine crop of oats But now 
the question arose how about plowing for 
wheat. The summer and fall were exceedingly 
dry, and I had some misgivings about breaking 
the dry, hard soil, especially as it was a clay 
loam. To my delight the plowing for wheat 
was in no wise difficult. I could not help see¬ 
ing that the work was done with as much 
ease as usual. The only question remaining 
was as to the wheat. The other day I drove 
across country 28 miles, and I did not see a 
piece of wheat in the whole journey that looked 
as well as mine. So I say tally one more for 
the Cutaway. I have found a new and val¬ 
uable way to fit my oat ground, which will 
greatly hasten work in the hurried spring 
season. a. j. cook. 
THE HARROW FOR THE PIEDMONT BELT. 
Starting just after the war with a forked 
tree, with a few wooden pins driven through 
at intervals, for a harrow, I have handled al¬ 
most every kind on the market, and now have 
narrowed down to the Cutaway and new 
lever harrow with angle-steel frame, and as 
the Cutaway is more a plow or spading im¬ 
plement than a harrow, it may be seen that 
1 have chosen the new lever for harrowing 
as it is as nearly a perfect harrow for general 
farm work as I could suggest. The 60-tooth 
or two-horse-size harrow is in two sections 
cutting feet, and can be conveniently 
changed to two one-horse harrows for use on 
very rough or stumpy land. The adjustable 
arrangements are so simple and perfect that 
the harrow can be changed to any one of a 
half-dozen different styles without stopping 
the team, or it can as easily be thrown down 
on its bars, teeth off the ground, ready to move 
from place to place on its runners without 
damage to the teeth, and in this position the 
steel cross-bars scrape the plowed land as 
smooth as a steel rail, and the implement is not 
so heavy or inconvenient. This angle-steel 
frame harrow weighs just the same as a wood¬ 
en-framed tool of the same size, and is prefer¬ 
able even at an additional cost of $3.00 or 
more, on account of its teeth being securely 
fastened. 
If properly understood and used both the Cut¬ 
away and new lever harrows are profitable 
investments on any well managed farm, and 
both do not answ er the same purpose except in 
the operation of covering grain on recently 
plowed land, and if the land is a little com¬ 
pact from rain or long standing, the Cut¬ 
away is the implement to be used. The Cut¬ 
away or disk harrow pays me best in spring, 
just before planting on land that has been fall- 
or winter plowed. No other implement can 
do the work so perfectly or make such a sav¬ 
ing of both horse and man power at this busy 
season. J. c stribling. 
HARROW VIRTUES AS VIEWED IN VERMONT. 
1. I have not tried all sorts of harrows, but 
of those I have tried I should prefer the Acme 
as an all-round tool. I could not think, how¬ 
ever, of farming with but one harrow, how¬ 
ever good. 
2. Certainly. The disk, the Cutaway, and 
the Acme, though they do deep and thorough 
work, put in small seeds too deep on broadcast 
sowings. They will not do t he work of a smooth¬ 
ing harrow, or of a chain narrow, or in 
rough, new land, of the old, three-cornered, 
spike-tooth barrows. The spring-tooth har¬ 
row I have never used. 
3. .The Acme, disk, and Cutaway harrows 
are invaluable for preparing a turned sod for 
crops, for fining heavy soils, for burying sta¬ 
ble manure, and mixing that and other fer¬ 
tilizers evenly witn the soil, and also for slay¬ 
ing weeds on a fallow. The smoothing harrow 
is essentially a small weed killer, or as an 
implement to work across the rows in drill 
culture its usefulness is unequaled, and there 
is no substitute. For rough, newly-cleared 
land, where roots, stones and stubs have to be 
dodged, the old A harrow must still find a 
place. For a harrow that will bug the grouud, 
and follow all the inequalities on a “hum¬ 
mocky” field, the chain harrow is a good in¬ 
vention, especially for covering broadcast 
seedings, where other harrows, by dragging 
clods and trash into the hollows, bury much 
seed too deeply. I think perhaps the Cutaway 
may do this work belter still. 
4. Nothing, except more thorough work¬ 
manship, the use of better materials, and the 
uniform system which makes broken parts 
easily replaceable. T. H. Hoskins. 
AN OHIO OUTFIT. 
1. If I could get but one harrow,I would take 
a Cutaway, for not only could I do all the 
harrowing, but at least one-half of the plow¬ 
ing with it, such as putting rye on corn stub¬ 
ble and oats on fall plowed land in the 
spring. No narrow made to-day does its work 
so well and thoroughly as the Cutaway, and 
with that and a plank drag a man can keep 
ahead of his harrow work “and not half 
try.” 
2. The work is not so different on the farm 
that a dozen harrows need be bought. The 
trouble is to get one that will “go through” 
what there is to be done, and not clog but cut, 
slice, turn and pulverize, without killing the 
team and making the man broken backed by 
lifting and clearing the harrow while at work. 
3. A Thomas smoothing barrow can be 
very profitably used on a farm as an imple¬ 
ment to finish up with before planting, drag¬ 
ging corn, fining manure on top-dressed land 
and like jobs. Since I purchased the Cut¬ 
away two years ago there has been a thinning 
out of drags and harrows on my tarm and a 
sale of a No. 1 disk, and the harrowing is now 
all done with the Cutaway and a Thomas, 
and I simply smooth down with a plank drag. 
3. The smoothing harrow, of course, is a 
finishing up machine. The disk has not in 
this immediate locality become popular, but 
those who use it do so to promote deep work¬ 
ing of the soil, and if the soil is favoraole, they . 
“wheel in” the oats on fall-turned laud 
The Cutaway is now being introduced, and its 
best work is done on almost auy place where 
it is tried. Its draft is so light that it does 
good work, for the notches in the disks turn 
it into a “spading” machine, and it works 
down aud deeply where a spring-tooth or 
a solid-wheel disk would do only slight, or un¬ 
satisfactory work. I find its best work is in 
superseding the plow in many things where 
it would be impossible to work spring-toothed 
harrows or the disk, witnout neavy weighting 
especially in sowing rye on ensilage stubble 
land, saving the plowing, etc., and doing 
effective and perfect work, putting in wheat 
after potatoes and early spring grains, com¬ 
pleting the work satisfactorily before it 
would be possible to plow the same land. 
4. Suggestions in the way of improvements 
in the harrow can be more easily made than 
carried into pratice. The improvement need¬ 
ed in drags is to get them to go down into the 
soil and do good work at the bottom of the 
furrow and far less of surface smoothing. 
The drag of the future must be lighter, 
stronger, and of less draft. The greatest im¬ 
provement that could be devised for a harrow 
would be an attachment that would make it 
impossible to use it off the farm, and thus pre¬ 
vent its being worn out by borrowing neigh¬ 
bors. JOHN GOULD. 
ANOTHER VERMONT MAN. 
1. If 1 could get but one barrow for general 
farm work I would have the Child’s spring- 
tooth. 
2. For a second harrow to follow a spring- 
tooth, as a smoothing hairow, I would choose 
the Thomas. 
3. I consider a d sk harrow good for work¬ 
ing up fall-plowed land, or in fact any hard, 
clay soil that has become packed by snow or 
heavy rains. The smoothing harrow is the most 
essential of all harrows, and I judge toe least 
used by the looks of the meadows that I have 
seen in my travels. The spring-too'k is a 
very important implement in preparing the 
ground for plauting,aud when it comes to cul¬ 
tivating orchards, it has no equal in my esti- 
Fig. 28. 
ination. W hen it is set to cut deep and three 
horses are used, it is as good as a gang plo w. 
4. As to changes in harrows I would suggest 
that the frame of the spring-tooth be so made 
that it would run higher from the grouud, as 
I find those we now have are quite apt to 
clog. 
Charlotte. w. h. h. 
HARROWS FOR VIRGINIA. 
Probably four-fifths of the harrows now in 
use in Southwestern Virginia are still the 
old-fashioned “A” or Double “A”, with square 
iron teeth pointed at the end, driven through 
a tough oak frame. This is the case, not be¬ 
cause our people are not alive to improve¬ 
ments, but because the newer implements are 
not adapted to the rough and broken surface 
of a large portion of the country. Beside 4 , 
the latti r are not so vastly more effective m 
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LIMA BEANS WITHOUT POLES. Fig. 29. 
