That they are troubled with lice, dust insect 
powder freely among the feathers under the 
wings and ou the back. Where fowls have 
access to a good dust bath they can keep them¬ 
selves free from this pest. 
Good food in variety, such as above men¬ 
tioned, cleanliness and a liberal supply of 
gravel, oyster shell, etc., will do all that any 
*‘egg food” can to increase tho production of 
eggs. If green bones can be procured and 
broken up in small bits and fed, marrow and 
all, two or three times n week, they will be 
found one of the most valuable foods for egg 
production. ROBERT coates. 
Cook Co., 111. 
POULTRY IN CANADA. 
There probably is no other occupation in 
the world in which there is such a vast differ¬ 
ence between theory and practice as there is 
in poultry keeping, especially when conducted 
on n large sealc. It is estimated that over GO 
percent. Of the dry goods merchants fail in 
the world; but I believe there is a larger per¬ 
centage of failures among extensive poultry- 
men. Every farm, however, should keep, say, 
fill good hens, for there is no other kind of live 
stock so profitable, when tho number is not 
too large for the range and food. I first tried 
pure leghorns with poor success; they are not 
hardy, either when chicks or matured fowls, 
and are miserable things oil the table. 
Non-sitters are not suitable for farmers: such 
a large proportion of their eggs are lost, and 
they are difficult to increase. 
At present, Plymouth Rocks are our best 
all-purpose fowls for the following reasons:— 
I. They lay mostly when eggs are scarce and 
valuable, and the eggs are of a favorite brown 
color; 2, they are excellent mothers; 3, they 
are very hardy, both wlienchicksand mature; 
4, they mature very early; 5, they are choice 
table fowls, beautifully colored meat being ex¬ 
tensively produced on the breast, where it is 
of most value; and, fj, they have bare legs. 
It pays to inclose farm fowl for short times, 
to keep them off small fruits and grain when 
ripening; and in early Spring, the best breed¬ 
ing stock should 1 st kept separate from others. 
My plan is to have cheap portable ben-houses 
built on skids or runners, so that 1 move them 
about the pastures, stubble-grounds, and fal¬ 
lows during Hummer, where fowls live well on 
grasshoppers and other insects, waste grain, 
etc. J keep these e<>ops in the bum-yard dur- 
ing \\ inter. 1 believe wheat is good egg-pro¬ 
ducing food; but I receive tho best results 
from cooked barley. 1 advise frequent chango 
of diet, and 1 have always found it. profitable 
in cool weather to feed them the meat of any 
animals that chanced to die. I find corn the 
best home-grown fattening food. 
To buy pure-bred chicks in the Fall is much 
the best way of getting improved farm poul¬ 
try. Then keep them separate from other 
fowls during breeding season. As soon as tho 
stock of choice fowls is numerous enough, the 
old-timu scrubs may be butchered to good ad¬ 
vantage, in early Fall before beef, etc., be¬ 
come cheap, Huyiug expensive eggs is "buy¬ 
ing a pig in a bag.” Thoroughbred stock, 
with yearly change of males, has as mueh ad¬ 
vantage over scrubs among chickens as 
among other stock. One of the worst losses is 
caused by keeping the heus till they are too 
old; they should be disposed of when three and 
one-half years old, or sooner. I cannot praise 
heu manure enough as plant food. It heads 
the list. f. w. wilson. 
Kent County, Ontario, Can. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
Leg weakness in chicks results usually from 
three causes—rapid growth, bottom heat in 
brooders, aud the use of sulphur. Lai d and 
sulphur rubbed on the legs of fowls, in damp 
weather, will cost them the use of their legs 
for awhile. 
When the heus appear droopy, and yet show 
no indications of disease or injury, remove the 
rooster, especially if the hens are fat. As soon 
as you have finished hatehiug chicks remove 
tho roosters, as eggs from hens not in company 
With roosters will keep three times as loug as 
will those that are fertile. 
The chick that seems nearly naked, aud 
which feathers slowly, will lie easier to raise, 
if kept warm, than one that begins to feather 
rapidly from the start. It is the feathering 
period that is the critical time with young 
chicks. 
^ OtTNG chicks of the Polish, Dorking, or 
Hamburg breeds, are tender when very young 
and not as easily raised as some other kinds. 
A CROSS of Wyandotte or Plymouth Rock on 
Brahma or Cochin hens makes the best broilers 
for market. 
The heus that begin to moult early will give 
you eggs in Winter. Do not sell the early 
moulting heus. 
April is the best month for obtaining high 
prices for poultry, aud in December the 
prices are the lowest, but the case is reversed 
for the prices of eggs. 
Dry, sandy soil that will not produce a 
blade of grass, is the best for poultry in con¬ 
finement. 
About one-fourth Leghorn blood will make 
its influence felt. It hastens early maturity, 
but imparts too mueh comb for cold climates. 
The size of the yards is of but little conse¬ 
quence i f they are kept clean and the hens are 
made to scratch and work. 
Feather pulling is an acquired habit. If 
one of the liens becomes addicted to the viee, 
she will teach all the others. There is no cure 
for it. When the habit becomes general, sell 
off the (lock and begin anew. It always re¬ 
sults from iiUeness. Keep tho hens busy. 
Top ventilation has done more to cause 
roup and colds than all other causes combined. 
A saturated solution of boracicacid should 
always be ou hand. For swelled head aud eyes, 
applied with a soft sponge, it is oue of the best 
remedies known. A teaspoonful poured down 
the throat, twice a day, is an excellent remedy 
for roup, while a mixture of equal parts of 
the powdered boracic acid and borax—a tea- 
spoonful once a day, has been successful in 
cases of cholera. 
\\ hen little chicks become drowsy, droop, 
refuse to eat, and finally die, examine very 
closely for lice. 
When sitting hens become disgusted, aud 
leave the nests, lice are somewhere in the 
poultry house, but more particularly in the 
nests. 
Broken or rotten eggs always breed lice in 
myriads. 
Over 1,000 broilers were raised with a loss of 
only three per cent,., this season, in a building 
10 feet wide and GO feet long, brooders being 
nsed for that purpose. 
Dampness is fatal to young chicks, not only 
in Winter, but even in July. 
<i!)c Sunncljcvt). 
A DEFENCE OF POLAND-CHINAS. 
In looking over last year's Rurals the other 
day, I came across au article ou large breeds 
of swine by Col. F. D. Curtis in the i>sue of 
September 36, 1885. A writer in the Cultiva¬ 
tor had said that the Poland-Chinas were the 
best for crossing with the smaller breeds, as 
the sows are always kind, have large litters, 
and real- wPh loss difficulty and loss than any 
other breed the writer had tried; wlule the 
Chester White aud Duroc-Jersey sows become 
cross aud unmanageable after rearing one or 
two litters, when a good sow should be worth 
most to a breeder. The Colonel called this the 
most preposterous paragraph ever written. 
He said the writer must be a Poland-China 
crank ;that. no large breeds of hogs have smaller 
litters or raise a smaller per cent, of pigs than 
the Poland-China. He insisted that tho best 
largo breed to cross with the small breeds is 
the Duroc-Jersey, and that Duroc-Jei'seys and 
Chester-whites average one-third more pig's 
born and raised. lie claimed the Poland- 
Cliiua hogs to be the weakest of tho large 
breeds in bone and muscle, owing r,o close in- 
breeding, and tho universal system of crowd¬ 
ing the pigs with corn from birth. He de¬ 
clared they are three-fourths Berkshire, and 
get all their good qualities from that breed. 
“Simple assertion," says the gallant Colonel, 
“will not give hogs stamina, or lots of pigs, or 
large udders; nor will fat.” 
If extravagance of statement is to be the 
criterion, I might with equal or more justice 
call the Colonel a crank—perhaps of the 
Duroc-Jersey variety- but from his writings, 
I know t hat he is a shrewd business man, ami 
from occasional advertisements, I know he has 
Duroc-Jerseys for sale. 1 certainly don't 
think, therefore, the Colonel is a crank, for I 
can see a better reason than crankiness for his 
exaggerat ion of the merits of the Duroc-Jer¬ 
sey, and his belittlement of those of a rival 
breed. I have had a good deal of experience 
with Poland-Chinas anil the other largo 
breeds, and know therefore that the writer in 
the Cultivator was not a crank in his praise 
of the breed, as hundreds of others could 
honestly express the same Opinions from actual 
experience. As u matter of fact, the Polaud- 
Chinus do not have smaller litters, nor do they 
raise a smaller percentage of pigs than tho 
other large breeds; on the contrary, they are 
very prolific and the best of mothers. I can¬ 
not see why tho Colonel should wish to cross 
the Duroc-Jersey oil the smaller breeds, unless 
he wishes thereby to make au improvement in 
the Duroc-Jersey, which lie certainly can do. 
I value a hog for the quantity and quality of 
the hog in him, and if a small breed suited my 
purpose, 1 would have it; and if a large breed 
did so, as is actually tho case, I would have it 
also; but in no case would I have the Duroc- 
Jersey. 
I admit the Poland-Chinas cannot climb 
fences and root under hedges like the Duroc- 
Jersey, but they have bone aud muscle enough 
to walk long distances to market, carrying a 
very salable and profitable load of tender, 
juicy flesh. A few years ago I saw one weigh¬ 
ing 700lbs walk 15 miles to market in one day. 
so that he couldn’t well lie lacking in bone and 
muscle. With regard to the alleged excessive 
“crowding,” why should the breeders or feed- 
era of one strain of swine crowd their pigs 
from birth more than do the feeders of others, 
unless it is because they have the merit of 
being able to stand crowding better than the 
others? You can’t crowd a Duroc-Jersey; but 
if you wait until he is two or three, years old, 
and imtil you have cribbed in him two or three 
crops of corn (T believe the Colonel prefers 
peas), then you will have him in all his glory. 
If the Poland-China hasdnrived three-fourths 
of its excellent qualities from the Berkshire, is 
not that an excellent source from which to 
draw good qualities? .Vs yet the Duroc-Jerseys 
have drawn very few good qualities from any 
source; indeed, it is doubtful whether the 
breed has yet been fully established—whether 
its claimed characteristics are transmitted 
with anything like certainty within its own 
membership, much less when crossed with 
other breeds. It is well known that the more 
markedly tho characteristics of any breed are 
impressed ou the pure bred offspring, the more 
notable are they in crosses with scrubs or other 
breeds; and the Colonel acknowledges that, the 
Duroc-Jerseys "have been bred scarcely long 
enough in a direct line to have become 
thoroughly established in all respects.” The 
longer and more firmly a breed has been estab¬ 
lished, the greater the certainty of its trans¬ 
mitting its characteristics to its progeny by 
another breed, and as all the small breeds have 
been established mueh longer and more firmly 
than the D—J., isn't it plain that while a cross 
with them would improve the progeny on the 
Duroc-Jersey side; it would not be likely to 
do so on the small breed side, except perhaps 
in the same way as a cross with a “rail-splitter” 
might. l>e said to “improve” them liy imparting 
to the progeny a coarser vigor, a faculty for 
disposing of more food to less advantage, and 
other undesirable qualities which years of 
skillful breeding have bred out of the most 
profitable breeds. 
Now for a few facts: In 1884 four pure¬ 
bred Polund-C'hina sows produced and raised 
for me, ?2 hogs, and when flattened in the 
same year, the sows weighed at 23 months, 
450 {mjuiuIs apiece. In 1885 three sows, 10 
months old, produced 21 pigs aud raised all of 
them. My favorite old sow, Bessie, last year 
produced anil raised 24 pigs. 1 have also a 
pure Polaud-China sow that farrowed three 
times in 1885, and raised MG pigs, M v neigh¬ 
bor, Mr. (4. Good live, owns two Poland China 
sows which farrowed in March 1SS5; and oue 
raised 14, the other 11 pigs, though the little 
things came in an open lot during a severe 
snow storm, with no shelter—did this prove 
they lacked stamiuu? 1 also know a herd of 
12 sows (pure P. C.) which last Spring raised 
108 flue pigs; can Col. Curtis show a herd of 12 
Duroc-Jerseys which raised one-third more— 
or 144? I consider the Colonel an honest mau 
and will accept his won! in the matter; 
my own statements l am ready to confirm on 
oath at any time. “Simple assertion will not 
give hogs stamina, or lots of pigs,” so it's your 
turn, Colonel, to come forward with the proof. 
St. Joseph Co., Mo, r. j. young. 
farm Ccortotmj, 
COTTON SEED FOR FEEDING. 
In our experiments in feeding cotton seed 
for beef and milk, the results seem to show 
that boiled cotton seed gives better results 
tliuu cotton seed meal or seed with hulls 
removed. 
Cotton seed is rich in fats and albuminoids; 
theoretically it should be fed with poor hay, 
straw, or corn or sorghum silage, to make a 
well balanced ration. 1 Tactically, when fed 
with the above named foods, we have found 
that it w ill make an animal fatten as rapidly 
as with the best quality of hay aud corn. It 
is” worth about 10 cents per bushel on the 
plantation, and one bushel—33J£ pounds—is 
equal to half a bushel of corn for producing 
fat. A 1,000 to 1,200-pound steer will eat 
about one-half bushel of seed per day, if the 
seed is boiled, or about two-thirds as much, 
when fed raw. Hi our test last Winter, the 
steers fed on eookfcd seed gained nearly twice 
as fast in weight as the steers fed on raw seed, 
the balance of the ration in each case consist¬ 
ing of silage and hay. 
In speaking of the indigestibility of the hull 
of the cotton seed, writers are drawing on 
their imagination. The hulls never appear in 
the excrements Like grains and sometimes 
particles of coarse straw or hay, aud, so far as 
I can learn, there is not a particle of evidence 
to show that cotton-seed hulls are less digesti¬ 
ble than common hay. The hulls are used for 
feeding cows in many of tho Southern cities, 
in the place of hay, and when fed with grain 
or cotton-seed meal, give about the same re¬ 
sults as hay and grain. The cotton seed may 
not make as good a quality of beef as corn, 
but our Southern butchers pay as much for 
the one as for the other, f. a. gulley. 
Prof, of Agr’l, Miss. Agr’l College. 
-♦ 
DRAIN HEAD FOR “SINK-HOLE.” 
On many farms there are one or more of 
those peculiar depressions commonly known 
as “sink-holes.” They have no surface outlet, 
and the water from snow and rain that runs 
or falls into them, remains until evaporated 
by the sun and wind. The soil in them is in¬ 
variably deep aud rich, but is unavailable for 
any purpose except fluring very dry seasons. 
To drain them by cutting anil maintaining a 
deep, open flitch, which is often done, is fre¬ 
quently to ruin almost as much good land as 
is contained in their area. The best, in fact 
the only practicable, method of draining them 
is to run tile drains through the high surround¬ 
ing ground to the nearest natural outlet. In 
most instances where this has been done, a 
shallow well is sunk in the lowest part of the 
depression for the water to run into. It is 
walled with brick or stone, and the head of 
the drain opens into it. This well is only the 
less of two evils, as it must be guarded by a 
fence and cleaned out every year. A far 
better plan is to widen about four feet of the 
ditch to 81* feet, lay the tile in, then fill this 
part of the excavation with coal ashes, as 
shown at Fig. 241. Cover the tile 12 to 15 
inches deep with the coarsest hard cinders, 
then fill up, rounding with the coarsest of 
sifted ashes, tamping them firmly down as 
they are put in. Water will readily enter the 
drain through these ashes without carrying in 
any soil, while they present no obstacle to the 
passage of farming implements. Whenever 
they become clogged, which they probably 
will in five or six years, they should be re¬ 
moved. FRED. GRUNDY. 
Christian Co., Ills. 
A LAND ROLLER. 
Mr. W . S. \\ a ite, of Bedford Co., Teun., is 
not well pleased with the roller described in 
the Rural of April M. He thinks it is clumsy, 
difficult to take down for transportation, and 
that the section behind is too light to mash 
hard clods or smooth uneven ground. The 
roller shown nt Fig. 240 plea es him mueh bet- 
Fig. 240. 
ter. The logs, or sections, are cub three feet 
loug. A hole of the desired size is bored through 
the blocks in the center, and each end is mor¬ 
ticed out to fit a 4 inch square boxing. Both 
