SEPT. 27 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 128 
growth of his flock, and sees many points that 
would escape the casual observer, and he may 
thus select with a masterly judgement, the 
animals to be coupled. But all selection is 
vain without skill in feeding, which we shall 
consider in the next issue. 
Ijottllrj gari. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
Poultry Habits. 
Of all farm stock, hens arc the most easily 
taught. The education of hens can be com¬ 
menced at any age; but best while young. 
They should be housed and shut in every 
night, aud uot be allowed to roost on sheds, 
well sweeps, or trees; even a neglect to shot 
the door on them for one night will cause the 
timid cues to seek a higher roost the next night, 
and that can only be found out-of-doors. This 
leads to laying out of doors—a great nuisance 
—and to constaut loss from roving night 
enemies. At sunrise every morning call the 
hens around you, aud scatter a full feed for 
them; let this always be done ou the same 
spot of ground. Keep, in a convenient place, a 
reservoir of fresh clean water,if youhavenorun¬ 
ning stream. At certain and regular times in the 
day, you will find the whole flock there. Throw 
no scraps of food around the dwelling, or you 
will teach them to become a house nuisauce. 
Buru all the egg shells, or you will teach the 
lieus to eat eggs in the nests. If you coop 
your chicks, take hen aud brood to the hen¬ 
house as soou as the cruop is dispensed with ; 
otherwise, when winter sets in you will have to 
spend hours every night for a week before 
they will house well. Protect hens while sit- 
ling, by a light board or lu.LI.ico cover to the 
nest, so they shall not he auuoyed by other 
hens wishing to lay with them. In fact, auy 
bad habit, or any one which does not suit your 
surroundings may be entirely broken up and 
changed by reasonable preventive measures. 
Poultry Vermin. 
There are many recipes for driving vermin 
away from poultry and houses. The inventors 
of these are shrewd; they know that people 
are naturally indolent in both body and mind; 
that they never guard against invasion, but 
wait till the enemy is upon them, and then 
buy up all the new-fangled nostrums, kill all 
the lice, and half-kill the hens and chickens, 
aud at once begin to do some tall crowing. All 
poultry vermin delight in moist or damp 
places; in fact, they can't live anywhere else. 
That’s the principle. Now what docs it sug¬ 
gest? Why the suggestion is obvious; don’t 
have any damp places, and that means a dry 
chicken house, a dry earth floor to it, a dry 
roof, no manure allowed to accumulate on the 
floor or under the perches, because that is 
always damp, and absorbs dampness from the 
air. Build two chicken houses ; one in a low 
damp, ill-ventilated place; the other on a 
high, dry, sunny, airy spot, and let your flock 
choose; the most miserable old hen “that ever 
was," knows better what she wants than the 
most dignified, dandyish, intellectually civil¬ 
ized poultry fancier that the hen fever has ever 
produced. 
Remember! a water-tight house, a ground 
or sandy floor, plenty of sunlight and fresh air, 
and your children will have to go to college to 
learn the entomology of the hen-house, iustead 
of brushing vermin off of every egg they bring 
to the housekeeper. s. r. m. 
(flic fjetistitint 
STOCK NOTES. 
Fancy Points. —There is growing* opposi¬ 
tion nearly everywhere to the folly of making 
the production of "fancy” points the chief 
object in breeding Short-horns and Jerseys in¬ 
stead of aiming at large yields of beef or milk. 
It is recognized by all practical men that a 
white or roan Short-horn fattens as readily as 
a red, and that a Jersey off-color is every whit 
as good for the dairy as one of the most fash¬ 
ionable shade, provided that in each case the 
pedigree is oqually good in regard to the beef 
or milk-producing qualities of the ancestors. 
While seeking to produce these fancy hues, 
the breeders are apt to neglect the points of 
intrinsic merit which originally gave these 
breeds their special value, aud the deterioration 
or lack of improvement thus caused, is poorly 
compensated for by the high prices paid by a 
few wealthy men for particular colors to which 
fashion, not merit, has assigned a special value. 
The evils of this craze are as yet more marked 
across the Atlantic than here, inasmuch as the 
number of those who prize an animal more for 
its fashionable points than for its practical 
merits, is greater there than here. As the Old 
World, however, is accustomed to set the fash¬ 
ion for the New, there is danger of our imitat¬ 
ing this folly as we have many others, and it 
is gratifying, therefore, to notice the efforts 
lately being made here to have the milking 
capacity of pure breeds of cattle recorded in 
the Herd Books. But even in this idea we 
cannot claim any originality, as the Dutcli- 
Frisian Association requires a milk recotd of 
from 0.000 to 9,000 pounds of milk, according 
to age, to entitle cows to entry in the Holstein 
Herd Book. 
Jottings. —In order to facilitate the acqui¬ 
sition of pure-blooded animals for breeding 
purposes by native agriculturists, the Moscow 
Society for the Encouragement of Cattle Breed¬ 
ing in Russia, have themselves undertaken 
the purchase of suitable stock from abroad, 
in their corporate capacity, ou behalf of indi¬ 
vidual farmers unable to manage such oper¬ 
ations personally. For this purpose buyers 
will be despatched by the Society in August 
and September in each year to likely markets 
in foreign countries. Instructions for pur¬ 
chases through the agency of the Society must 
be sent iu to the treasurer before August 1 in 
each year, accompanied by exact directions as 
to the breed, age, and sex of the animals re¬ 
quired, and by a remittance of 300 roubles in 
respect of each auimal ordered. Unless the 
orders reach a certain number the Society will, 
for the present, be obliged to charge a com¬ 
mission for their services in effecting such 
purchases, but even then individual farmers 
will be able to acquire improved foreign stock 
at a far lower figure than they could do acting 
singly each for himself. * * * Cana¬ 
da’s prohibition of the importation of '‘Amer¬ 
ican” cattle within her borders, which 
was to have terminated ou the first of this 
month, has been indefinitely extended, because 
the English government declared that should 
our neighbors remove the embargo from our 
cattle, the importation of animals from that 
country would be at once subjected to the 
same restrictions that hamper our trade with 
the Mother Country. * * * New York, New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania are actiug in unison 
iu their efforts to stamp out pleuro-pncuinonia 
from among their cattle. All infected herds 
are still being isolated, while badly diseased 
animals arc promptly killed and their owners 
compensated. A few cases have been reported 
from Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina, 
but no attention seems to be taken by these 
States to extirpate the plague. * * * Large 
importations of American cattle luto England 
still continue, although they have to lie slaugh¬ 
tered at the port of debarkation within 10 days 
after landing. Deptford is the only spot near 
London where permission has been granted by 
the Privy Council to disembark animals from 
this country, and the 3,600 bousts awaiting 
slaughter thero at date of our last advices, 
might well have a depressing effect upon the 
prices of home-raised beef iu the Metropolitan 
market. There the difference is great between 
the value of best and ordinary beasts, the lat¬ 
ter bringing only at the rate of 12c. a pound, 
and the former fetching as much as 17c. for 
top price. * * * In the week ending Aug. 
Hi, there were imported from this country into 
Liverpool 4.918 quarters of beef; 594 carcasses 
of mutton; 1,041 live cattle aud 1,989 live 
sheep. 
Jarra tfioitomii. 
A CONVENIENT FENCE. 
I send the Rural a sketch and description 
of a fence that I have found very convenient 
in certain places on the farm. It is in use ou 
many farms iu this locality, and, as far as I 
know, it is not patented. The fence consists 
of panels made of inch hoards nailed together 
with clinch nails, and it is attached to the 
posts by trou hooks. It is most convenient 
when used along the highway or laue, as the 
panels are not fastened to the posts aud can be 
easily lifted out at pleasure. Thus a load can 
bo driven from any part of the field directly to 
the highway, escaping the necessity of driving 
a considerable distance over soft ground to get 
to a gate or pair of bars. It also lias other 
advantages. When a post rots off it can be 
easily replaced without injury to the fence. 
The panels, being securely braced, are stronger 
than the ordinary board fence, aud as no nails 
are used in the ends of the boards, they are 
not liable to become split. The panels are 
made 12 feet in length, and consequently fewer 
posts are required than in the common post- 
and-board fence. The construction saves the 
necessity of climbing the fence, as one end of 
the panel can be lifted off the hook almost as 
easily as a gate can be opened. As the panels 
are entirely independent of the posts, they 
may he nailed together under shelter during 
the winter or iu stormy weather, thus saving 
time. By using sharpened posts, a very good 
portable fence eau be made, as they can be 
readily lifted out by means of a chain and 
lever. As the posts are entirely free from 
uails, they can be worked into firewood with¬ 
out damage to tools, after having beeu used. 
This fence may be made of boards six inches 
wide, either 12 or 16 feet. loug. Four 16-feet 
boards will make a panel, each board making 
one cross-piece. These crose-pieces are cut three 
feet nine inches in length, and the panel hung 
to the posts far enough from the ground to 
make the fence the required hight. The hooks 
are usually made of half-iueh square wrought- 
iron bars. The bars are cut iu pieces eight 
inches in length and bent at right angles two 
inches from the end. The holes should be bored 
through the posts, so that the hooks can be 
driven out and used again after the posts have 
rotted off. The bit used for boring the hules 
should he 1-16 larger than the square of the 
iron in the hooks. A hook made of cast-iron 
would be cheaper, and if made with a shoulder, 
as in the cut (h), wonld probably be as good. 
The posts are set or driven 11 1 feet apart,as the 
panels lap six inches at the ends. 
This fence can be nailed together very rapid¬ 
ly by using a gager, g, to regulate the distance 
of the boards. The cut shows how the gager 
is made. Lay four boards upon the grouud the 
proper distance apart, aud nail the end cross¬ 
pieces eight inches from the ends of the boards. 
It is well to have a measure marked on the 
hammer haudle for this purpose. The middle 
cross-pieces are placed equi-distautaud slanted 
as seen in the cut to form a brace: 8d. wrought 
nails are used. Lay the boards of the next 
panel on the first, but place them so that the 
cross-pieces will uot come directly over each 
other, and so ou. until a pile is formed as high 
a? it is convenient to make, then tip them off 
one by one aud clinch the nails. 
This fence costs but little more than the com¬ 
mon post-and-board fence, and it has many 
advantages, as has been stated. 
Chemung Co., N. Y. G. Goff, Jr. 
-♦ » ♦ 
Another Wagon Jack. —Having for many 
years used the wagon jack recommended by 
Mr. Crane with the exception of the hoisting 
apparatus—which is not always convenient or 
particularly safe with a restive team—I suggest 
an improvement. The above cut, I think, is 
sufficiently clear to ueed no explanation. It 
is not uueotnmon to see a man lifting with all 
itis strength at the hub of a heavy wagon, when 
ho might accomplish more with one hand with 
the help of a bit of plank, three or four feet 
long, leaving the other baud at liberty to adj ust 
the support under the axle. M. B. Prince. 
Warren Co., N. C. 
NOTES ON BEE CULTURE. 
It has often been told bee-keepers by the 
older heads, that the secret of success in bee- 
keepiug tvas “stroug stocks.” Altlioughl com¬ 
menced with the theory, “that small stocks if 
confined within a small enough compass, would 
produce surplus honey In proportion to their 
numbers,” I have met with ample proof that 
this theory is incorrect, and that small stocks 
are unprofitable. It was the strong stocks that 
gathered the surplus honey this season,although 
the weak ones had four times the attention the 
stronger ones had. 
There areseveral ways in which strong stocks 
can be procured and selected. Wintering, in 
this latitude, generally means the survival of 
the fittest.” I think our severe winters arc a 
positive advantage in bee-keeping. The poor, 
sickly stocks are destroyed, which would other¬ 
wise only linger along through the summer, 
give no surplus, and set our genuine busy bees 
a bad example by their laziness. The queen, 
being mother of all, doubtless iufluences to a 
great degreethecbaracteristicsof her progeny 
So we should he careful as to how we raise our 
queens. There always are a few stocks that, 
almost invariably winter well and give a goodly 
yield of surplus honey. These are the ones to 
raise queens from. Iu the same Way let such, 
colonies he tbe raisers of the drones. Thus, the 
bee-keeper will soon gain a predontinence of 
strong stocks, and thus he gains the most im¬ 
portant point required for success. 
Next to strong-stocks are good hives. In this 
latitude, the nights and mornings are cold dur¬ 
ing part, of the honey season. The bees are 
prevented from commencing work in surplus 
boxes on account of the low temperature. The 
remedy is a hive constructed so as to retain the 
auimal heat of the bees, aud resist the outer 
extremes of temperature. A properly made 
chaff hive will be found to meet this require¬ 
ment. The chaff, it must be remembered, 
should surround the surplus aparfmeut as well 
as the brood nest, and there should be plenty 
of it. Another important point is the surplus 
arrangement. Our bee-keepers are, in my opin¬ 
ion,getting incorrect ideas upon this subject. I 
advise all to try section boxes only 1 j inches 
wide, instead of 2 aud 21. aud wnodeu separa¬ 
tors instead of tin, and see if they do not get 
more and better houey. The reason for thin 
combs is the houey ripens three times as fast 
in these as in the thick combs. Apiarian. 
Adams Station, Albany Co., N. Y. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this heading’is 
not so much to deal with “ humbugs” as with 
the many unconscious errors that creep into 
the methods of daily country routine life,— 
Eds.] 
VALUE OF MILK, 
Is the Factory System n Failure. 
The low price of milk and milk products and 
the consequent losses of dairymen are serious 
enough to call for comment and consideration. 
Milk brings now to the patron of the factory 
but oue-half cent per pound, or IT cents per 16 
quarts. A cow that averages 10 quarts per day 
through the season of seven months, returns to 
her owner the utterly inadequate sum of 10 
cents, and a small fraction over, per day, or 
about $21 for the scasou. This is equal to 
about five cents per pound for the cheese made 
from the milk delivered by the patron. There 
seems to be something wrong when a great 
industry eugaged in supplying a staple article 
of food, is carried on at a ruinous loss. I 
might point to the practice of rnukiug skim- 
milk cheese and that spurious mixture kuown 
as oleomargarine, which are turned out by the 
creameries, as one sufficient reason for the de¬ 
pression iu the dairy busiuess. There can be 
no doubt of the truth of this; for a poor article 
forced on the market carries the best down 
with it. This is an axiom—a self-evident 
truth—aud a constant experience in business. 
But there is another view to be taken of this 
matter. It is an unpopular one. but truth is 
often unpalatable and the truth may bo told, 
or sought out, in spite of this. The factories 
do not work at a loss. Their expenses are 
paid, aud paid by the farmers or patrons so- 
called. This is an evident truth. Heretofore, 
when the dairy work was done at the farm, 
this present outlay for labor at the factory was 
saved. It is a question worth considering at 
the present time if the avoidance of this labor 
iu the farmer’s homo is not purchased at too 
great a cost: whether, in short, the farmers 
can afford to support the factories aud employ 
them to do work for them, which might be 
done at home. We have been passing through 
a period of prosperity aud high prices, during 
which we have contracted habits of ease and 
luxury which are inconsistent with circum¬ 
stances such as uow surround us. It is not to 
be ignored that this is a difficult problem; 
and that a solution is uot offered as yet which 
may be satisfactory. I do not pretend to offer 
a satisfactory solution, but merely suggest that 
there is an opening lor unprejudiced consider¬ 
ation. The fact exists that a great industry is 
uot at present offering those engaged in it 
merely the common wages of a day laborer, to 
say uothiug of interest on capital invested aud 
