THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
MAY IS 
as they are quite sensitive to a hard frost, and 
one bal’d enough to cause the skin to blister 
greatly injures their keeping quality. It is 
better to remove them to the cellars or pits on 
dry days, and it is most cheaply done by hav¬ 
ing several teams and wagons and two men 
in the field to pull and load and one at the 
cellar or pit to unload. We have the wagon 
driven by the side of the growing mangels; 
the driver pulls one row, and each of the other 
men pulls two rows. Each has a leather 
’’harvest mitten” with one finger on his right 
hand, and pulling the mangles he places the 
finger of the inittened hand about the top, aud 
with a slight twist removes the root complete¬ 
ly aud at the same time throws it into the 
wagon. As soon as the wagon is loaded, the 
driver starts for the cellar, another wagon 
taking the place. He goes to the cellar where 
a man has an empty wagon, unhitches his 
team, hitches to the empty wagon and starts 
for the field. The unloader has a rack or slide 
eight or ten feet long, 30 inches wide and made 
of slats 1x2 K inches, placed two inches apart 
and having sides four inches high; by allow¬ 
ing tlio roots to roll the whole length of this 
they are freed from nearly all adhering dirt 
aud are put iuto good order for feeding. 
STORING. 
Whether stored in pits or cellars, mangels 
must be fully protected from frost, by which 
they are fully as easily injured as are pota¬ 
toes. They must also bo made dry before 
being stored iu large quantities. When keep¬ 
ing in pits, we al ways place ventilators, such 
as drain tiles, or tubes made by nailing four 
boards each three or four-inches w ide togeth¬ 
er, so that they project four-inches above the 
covering aud down among the mangels. 
When putting on the final covering these 
should be removed, and the holes be stuffed full 
of straw. 
THE COST PER BUSHEL. 
Last year the account per acre was as fol¬ 
lows: 
Interest cm land 8150 per acre.t9,00 
15 lnuds of manure, one-half charged to crop 7,50 
200 pounds phosphate, one halfeharged to crop 2.00 
Plowing.. 2.00 
Filling. 3.00 
Seeds, six pounds Tankard, 25 cents. 1-50 
Cultivating. 6.00 
Chopping out. 1-2? 
Weeding...4-J9 
Harvesting.I*-* 10 
Total cost. *50.25 
It will be seen that we have charged a 
large interest ou the land; but it is good laud, 
and as w r o would not sell it for less than the 
price mentioned, we have charged full inter¬ 
est, but as the crop was fully 1,300 bushels 
per acre, the cost per bushel was a little 
under four cents. 
We have never seen such a sudden change 
from Winter to Summer. Three weeks ago, 
April 0th, it snowed all day, aud the snow 
was a foot deep. Now—April 27th—wheat 
and grass are ankle-high, trees are beginning 
to leaf out. We are losing our Springs 
altogether. Wheat came through the Winter 
well, and uow r promises fair for a large crop. 
Our tieJd of hand-picked Diehl-Mec 1 » rerraneau, 
on w hich we sowed only one bushel per acre, 
is as thick as a mat, and is as line a field of 
wheat as we ever saw. 
We have also a plot of the same cross as the 
Diehl-Mediterranean, and like it in every way 
—growth, tv id tli of leaf, color of straw, 
chaff and appearance of wheat—except that it 
is a perfectly bald wheat. We only had a sin¬ 
gle head of thus, in the beginning, and have 
oidy just begun to realize its worth, aud shall 
try to increase the quantity. 
Our trial plot of some 00 varieties is now 
showing nicely, and among the number are 
several of the Rural crosses which promise 
remarkable things. We shall say more of 
these bye and bye. 
'€\)t 
POULTRY NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS. 
Love of poultry; poultry raising an avoca¬ 
tion; feeding chicks; yards; buildings; 
cures; caution. 
I dc not think it possible for any one to 
raise poultry and receive any great profit 
; vorofroM unless he takes pleasure in the busi¬ 
ness When asked by those who, having little 
or no ox pen.-iiee, wished to raise poultry for 
profit, whether I thought it would pay them 
to raise pouf try as the whole or a part of their 
occupation, my first question has always been, 
‘ Do you love birds? Would you take great 
comfort in having them around you from 
morning till night?” If the person had no 
great liking for fowls, my answer was always, 
.‘No;” but if he had a real love for birds, and 
could make up his mind to give them the best 
care and attention, then my answer was 
“Yes.” 
If one has other means of support for a few 
years, or until he cau make the business sup¬ 
port him, and has common sense, let him get 
a few of the kind he thinks he would like best; 
take several poultry and agricultural papers 
that pay attention to poultry; use his best 
judgment to pick out the grain of good advice 
from the quart of chaff, and go ahead, in¬ 
creasing his stock as lie gets experience, and 
he will be successful; but it is only now aud 
theu that one drops all other business for 
poultry raising. For the highest success, 
however, it should be carried ou by itself. 
Will some one who raises poultry and yet 
feels that it is not worth special care, and so, 
beyond throwing the fowls in the morning a 
quantity of grain to last till next morning, 
leaves them to take care of themselves, and 
who has kept an honest account of the outlay 
aud income, give the figures showing the pro¬ 
fit or loss? I am sure that in all cases where 
more than a very few fowls are kept, a loss 
well be shown. 
Chickens should be fed at least, four times a 
day till they are at least 12 weeks old, and for 
the uext few weeks three times a day. Then 
separate from the rest all the pullets ami as 
many of the best cockerels as will be needed 
for breeders, and feed them and the old fowls 
twice a day. Tho remaining cockerels should 
be allowed to range only in a good-sized yard, 
and should be still fed three times a day. If 
possible to avoid doing so, never feed corn 
meal clear, but mix with it one-half its bulk 
of shorts or fine feed. For chickens the finer 
the feed tho better. If it is wot with hot 
water aud allowed to cool before feeding, it is 
best. Feed corn, oats, oat-meal, cracked corn, 
wheat, etc. Do not feed chickens wheat till 
they are at least five or six weeks old. In 
cold weather, or wheu fowls are confined, feed 
plenty of scraps, shell, ground bone and cut 
hay. Let the last stand in water several hours 
after being cut before feeding. Chopped beets, 
cabbage, boiled turnips aud potatoes are ex¬ 
cellent. 
A great mauy poultrymen say, “Don’t get 
your fowls too fat.” Good advice; but, 
“Don’t let them get too lean,” is as good at all 
times, aud better during moulting. Do uot 
feed young chickens on good, fresh eggs 
boiled, as very often advised. It will not 
pay. Sell the eggs; one seldom gets less than 
12 cents ]>er jjound for eggs, and he cau buy 
good, fresh shanks for three or four cents per 
pound. Boil them well, use the water to wet 
the feed, chop the meat, give a small quantity 
each day for a week or two, and it will an¬ 
swer the purpose as well as boiled eggs, if not 
better. 
If one is keeping a small number of fowls, 
or as high as 100 or more on a farm, he should 
not confine them more than necessary. But 
if one is keeping large numbers, or where 
they can destroy crops, etc., they should be 
confined in flocks of about 50 to a yard. Bet¬ 
ter to have two yards to each flock than to 
have all in one. Then let them into oue yard 
first, ami then iuto the other for a few days at 
a time. I have ami do keep larger numbers 
in one fair-sized yard, aud take care to supply 
all they need as nearly as possible, and have 
them do well. I have kept breeding fowls in 
small yards, and by giving extra care have 
done fully as well as if they were at large. 
Seeing that the houses are kept free from 
insects and are bright and clean is, I believe, 
the main joint iu successful jmultry raising. 
Poultry buildings, need not bo very costly or 
elegant; but they must be warm, tight, fairly 
well lighted, aud placed where tho ground 
wall not get soggy, and where water will not 
stand around them in wet weather. If oue 
wishes a dirt floor (but 1 advise a board floor 
iu all cases), fill iu with dirt at least four inches 
above the ground outside, and when you 
scrape up the droppings, be sure to take a thin 
layer of earth. When the earth layer has 
nearly all been removed in this way, fill up 
again with fresh earth. A board floor is easy 
to keep clean, if u little sand is scattered over 
it as soon as the droppings are scraped up. 
When fowls are confined in cold weather 
the houses should be cleaned every morning. 
W hen they are at large, twice a week: when 
in yards, once in two days. Rub a little of 
some kind of grease or oil on the roosts once 
in awhile. Put fine tobacco or sulphur in the 
nest. Good dust boxes, plenty of dry earth 
or road dust thrown in all cracks and cornel’s, 
will keep poultry free from lice. 
I have never kept over 150 fowls over Win¬ 
ter; but whatever number I have kept I have 
found they paid a fair profit when rightly 
handled. As a rule, where keeping 100 fowls 
would pay, keeping 1,000 would not, because 
it would be more work to tend to all their 
needs, market the eggs, etc., than one man 
could possibly do. W itli the help of a stout 
boy he might accomplish the work, however, 
if he understood how to make the most of his 
time. 
Where buildings are extra warm and shel¬ 
tered, and eggs are desired more than meat, 
the Leghorn is tho best breed here; but for 
hardiness and for both meat and eggs, the 
Light Brahmas and Plymouth Rocks; but the 
progeny of a cross of both with Leghorns 
would be better; preferably with White Leg¬ 
horns. 
The hatchet aud block are the best cure as 
soon as there is a sign of disease. But fowls 
that are kept from drafts iu their buildings, 
free from lice, fed wholesome food and kept 
from getting wet, and supplied with pure 
water, will be almost entirely free from dis¬ 
ease. 
To all new beginners, or those with but 
little experience, let me say: Use the hen for 
an incubator and brooder; but if you must 
have an incubator and brooders, do not buy 
or build au incubator that will hold over 100 
eggs, and theu it would be best uot to fill it 
more than half the flirt two or three times, as 
that will be enough eggs to lose. Wheu you 
have learned to get a fair hatch by taking the. 
right kind of care of the eggs in the incuba¬ 
tor, aud of tho chickens iu the brooder, aud 
w ant to increase your business, buy more 
rather than larger incubators. 
Poultry raisers should uot be so fond of 
bragging about the vast number of eggs per 
hen they get every year, or of the big profits 
they get from the eggs and dressed fowls; for 
they really deceive nobody except the iguo- 
rant; aud sometimes some of these, inspired 
by such exaggerations, rush iuto poultry 
raising as if there were a bonanza in the busi¬ 
ness, and soon lose all they have been per¬ 
haps years in saving. 
a practical poultryman. 
Providence Co., R. I. 
MANAGEMENT OF WINTER LAYERS. 
Leghorns; ventilation; sheds; cscercise. 
The past Winter lias given an opportunity 
for testing the merits of the different breeds 
as winter layers, aud in so doing many theo¬ 
ries have beeu overturned. Although the 
temperature has seldom been below zero, yet 
it has beeu far enough from the freezing point 
to injure all hens with large, single combs. 
The truth of the supposition that the Asiatic 
breeds are the best winter layers depends upon 
how- the hens are managed. In every case 
where the Leghorns have been comfortably 
housed, they have given as good results as 
they usually give during the Spring and Sum¬ 
mer. A very important matter iu the winter 
keeping of hens is ventilation, aud it is one of 
the most difficult of all the problems to solve. 
The majority of poultrymen recommend some 
kind of opening near the roof of the poultry 
house for the escape of impure air; but as the 
impurities are heavier, as a rale, than the at- 
mospherc, aud especially in cold weather, they 
sink to the floor instead of ascending, and the 
so-called ventilators near the top, instead of 
allowing the impurities to pass off, simply 
permit the escape of heat and admit cold cur¬ 
rents, which invariably occasion colds and 
roup. 
As the hens are partial to an open shed, it 
has been found au advantage to so construct 
the poultry houses that they will serve as open 
shells during the day while the fowls may be 
protected from the winds and severe cold at 
night. This is doue by placing the roosts at 
the rear, with a hinged board or door falling 
in front to inclose the fowls while on the 
perch. During the day the hens exercise by 
scratching in the open houses, aud deposit 
their eggs in nests under the roosts. This is 
the true couditiou for keeping fowls—allowing 
them a covered s|>aee open to the air and sun 
—and they keep in excellent health under such 
a system. Every poultrymou knows that 
hens are not fond • if a closed poultry house 
during the day, aud will abandon one that is 
warm aud comfortable in order to have the 
benefit of any kind of shelter that, is partially 
open, as by nature they prefer plenty of light 
and fresh air. Hence, though fowls should tie 
kept warm and comfortable ut night, when 
they are inactive, yet to secure the best re¬ 
sults they require exercise iu the open air 
during the day. This exercise keeps the blood 
in circulation, increases the apjietite, works 
off the sui^ilus fat aud conduces to reproduc¬ 
tion. 
During the Winter all fowls that have fully 
matured are liable to become very fat, unless 
made to exorcise, aud it is safe to assert that 
more disappointments result from the hens 
being too fat than from any other cause. It 
is best to feed them well so long as they have 
plenty of exercise; but it is an injury to do so 
when they are shut up. Hence, in order to 
induce them to work, they should be allowed 
only a partial meal iu the morning, thus forc¬ 
ing them to seek the remainder of their feed 
during the day by scratching in cut straw, 
leaves, or some other suitable material, giving 
them all they can eat before going on the perch 
in the evening. If the roost is iu a close 
poultry house, ventilation may be host secured 
by a tube or pipe beginning within an inch of 
the floor and terminating through the roof, 
with a oowi over the top if convenient. So 
far as the use of open sheds is concerned, 
something depends, of course, upon the locality 
and the severity of the climate; but it is not 
necessary to suggest auy particular plan for 
combining a warm place at night and a shed 
dining the day, as each person interested may 
conceive of special plans: but a shed 15 feet 
long, 10 deep, five high at the rear, and eight 
iu front, with a portion closed at one end, say 
five foot for the roost and nests, thereby leav¬ 
ing a space 10x10 for a shed, will be cheap, 
and it should accommodate at least 15 
hens, the general rule being to allow one hen 
to every foot of the front, which affords ample 
room and prevents crowding, a subscriber. 
ROUP. 
Nature of the ailment; progressive symp¬ 
toms; treatment. 
Rocp is nothing more or less than a severe 
cold in the head and may be either acute or 
chronic. Auy cold is liable to develop into 
roup. Catarrh is another form of tho same 
thing. Mauy claim that canker is a form of 
roup; but I have frequently had cases of can¬ 
ker without auy sign of roup, and vice versa. 
I never lost a hen from canker; but I cannot 
say that of roup by auy means. The first 
symptoms of roup are a heavy breathing, 
noticed by the distending of the throat as 
the fowl inhales, sometimes accompanied by 
a cough. Later there is a i'cetid discharge 
from the nostrils. As fowls breathe habitu¬ 
ally through their nostrils, the obstruction in 
the passage-way causes them to open their 
mouths to breathe—hence the gasping. Later 
the discharge dries upon the nostrils aud pre¬ 
vents furt. er running off, consequently the 
quantity of matter increases. Having no 
outlet it flow's under the eyelids, causing them 
to distend, sometimes to the extent of blind 
iug the buds, aud death insues from starva 
tiou. Sometimes a froth appeal’s at the corner 
of the eye, caused by the air passing up the 
teai duct, aud making little bubbles. As the 
disease advances fever sets in, the bird loses its 
appetite and will stand and drink until the wa¬ 
ter t uns from its mouth w henever it lowers its 
head, thereby polluting the water and spread¬ 
ing the disease, wbieb is highly contagious. 
The feathers soon lose their glossy appearance 
and the birds stand moping in a corner, evi¬ 
dently in great pain. 
As treatment, first of all remove the bird to 
Warm, dry quarters; feed a variety, with 
plenty of green food—onions preferred—aud 
give a little Douglas Mixture iu the water. 
Give also a i>elk’t of the following mixture 
every morning und evening for three days:— 
Oue teaspoonlul each, of Cayenne, ginger, saf¬ 
fron, chlorate of potash and powdered rhu¬ 
barb; one teaspoonful of tincture of iron; 
three tablespoonfuls (about IK ounce) of hy¬ 
posulphite of soda and one ounce of powdered 
assafintiila. Powder aud mix well. 
I got the above recipe several yearn ago, and 
have lost but few fowls since. I once bought 
a few fowls that caught the roup iu transit, 
anil it spread, through my ueglect, until 52 of 
my flock had severe attacks, yet 1 lost but tw'o. 
If the eyelids are swollen, bathe in camphor¬ 
ated oil. The scab should lie removed from 
the nostrils as often as jxissible. A slight pres¬ 
sure of the finger at the back of tho roof of 
the mouth will cause the matter to flow abun¬ 
dantly. Kerosene and Cayenne will some¬ 
times cure light cases. Mauy prominent 
breeders reccommeud it highly; but I have 
found nothing that is absolutely sure in the 
later stages of the disease. The only true way 
to treat it is to prevent it by careful attention 
to the minor details and by proper housing in 
bad weather. a. r. crowell. 
Middlesex Co., Mass. 
POULTRY OBSERVATIONS IN THE 
SOUTH. 
W ira proper care, fowls are as productive 
at the South as they are at the North, aud are 
decidedly larger. There is a perceptible 
difference iu size between Sout hern aud North¬ 
ern specimens Of the same breed. The White 
and Brown Leghorns seem to be best adapted 
to a warm climate. Light Brahmas aiul 
Plymouth Rocks do well here. A cross of 
Light Brahmas on our native fowls will give 
the healthiest chickens we have. So far as I 
have observed, fowls iu a warm climate, with 
good care, are as healthy as they are in a 
colder climate. To improve the farm poultry, 
I would advise buying eggs of thoroughbred 
fowls, hatching under the common hens, and 
Classing ujiou the native stock. The best flock 
of hens 1 ever saw in this country was made 
up in this way by securing a sitting of Light 
Brahma eggs and letting the chickens run in 
with the common poultry. No man has any 
business to keep poultry, who will not put a 
fence between them and his garden. It 
