1903 
435 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
dition. In bunching from the windrow each swath is 
nearly by itself, so that it can be handled much better 
and not leave so much rakings. I used it in cutting 
over 40 acres of barley last season and was much 
pleased with it; in fact, I handled the 40 acres while 
my father was getting in 10 acres cut with a binder. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. c. s. J. 
Good for Clover Seed. 
My windrower and bunching attachment was delayed 
in transit so long that I could not use it to cut the 
clover for hay, but did use it for cutting for seed last 
year. In setting it up I was so greatly hurried by 
other partners wanting the mower for the same pur¬ 
pose that I concluded to go once or twice around the 
field with the windrower only without the buncher 
attachment, and it did such excellent work that I did 
not stop to attach the buncher, and proved the wis¬ 
dom of it, as it set in raining in a day or two and 
scarcely let up for two weeks. Had it been bunched it 
would not have dried out so readily, and would have 
been more injured by sprouting. That is the extent of 
my experience, but the manufacturers claim that it is 
just the thing for curing hay, as it delivers the grass 
in a loose windrow behind the mower, and the cut 
grass is not run over by the team and pressed into the 
stubble. The claim looks reasonable to me, and I 
hope to test it the coming season. It would dispense 
with the raking and the consequent gathering up of 
dried weeds and trash. a. f. liggett. 
Ohio. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
BROILERS OR CAPONS.—Which Is considered the 
more profitable with the Single Comb White Leghorn 
fowls, to sell the young cockerels as broilers at about 
25 cents each, or to keep them for capons? i. w. t. 
Macedon, N. Y. 
There are several things to be taken into consid¬ 
eration in connection with this subject, so that a gen¬ 
eral answer can hardly be given. As a general thing 
I believe it will be found more profitable to sell as 
broilers. Much depends, however, on the market in 
which they are to be sold, as well as on the time of 
year they are hatched. A cockerel will “eat his head 
off” after he has about completed growth as quickly 
as any other live stock unless it be a duck or an ele¬ 
phant. In most markets good two-pound broilers 
command a higher price per pound than capons. The 
extra weight secured by caponizing can easily be off¬ 
set by a lower price per pound, to say nothing about 
the additional food consumed and additional labor. 
Then, too, there is the risk of losses in caponizing to 
be considered. The most skillful operators are sure to 
meet with some losses. On the other hand, cockerels 
that reach broiler size during the Autumn rush to 
market when prices are at their lowest level, might 
often be caponized and fed a few months longer, with 
reasonable certainty that the market will advance in 
price in the meantime, enough to make the venture 
profitable. Time and time again in the New York 
market chickens have been a drug at seven or eight 
cents per pound in November and December, and be¬ 
fore March 1 the same birds would have sold at 12 to 
15 cents per pound in the same market, even without 
caponizing. With suitable conveniences for caponiz¬ 
ing and feeding at this time of year, the business 
ought to pay a good profit, even with the variety 
named, although other and heavier varieties make 
more desirable capons, 
LOSSES IN BROODER CHICKS.—I notice what you 
say about losing a good many brooder chicks and would 
like to ask whether you ever dissect any of those found 
dead. I have about 400 chicks six weeks old, and have 
been losing from three to six per day for a week or two, 
and as I could find no cause for it I began dissecting 
them. Out of nine examined yesterday and to-day I 
found seven that had died from swallowing substances 
which any sane chicken ought to know better than to 
eat. Here is what I found: Three small nails, one wire 
fence staple, one thorn and two pieces of wood as large 
as they could swallow. All were found in the gizzards. 
The nails, staple and thorn had punctured the gizzard. 
The question arises; Why do these chicks swallow such 
things, and how can it be prevented? These chicks are 
fed a dry grain chick food from hoppers that are kept 
filled at all times. They also have a dish of grit, and 
of beef scraps and fresh water constantly before them, 
and are allowed free range in a large meadow. Why 
should these chicks have such a depraved appetite, and 
what shall I do to prevent it? s. b. s. 
Norwich. N. Y. 
This shows one more of the obstacles to be encoun¬ 
tered in the poultry business. It Is about as easy to 
tell why chickens swallow such things as to tell why 
men will persist in swallowing “fire-water.” I have 
often seen hens swallow pounded glass bottles with¬ 
out injury, while their owners swallowed the contents 
of the bottles to their sorrow. In the case noted, it is 
likely that where the gizzard was punctured the cause 
of death was found by dissecting. I should hardly ex¬ 
pect the presence of small nails, staples, chunks of 
wood, etc., in the gizzard to result in injury, unless 
a puncture occurred, since sharp stones, broken crock¬ 
ery, glass, etc., are a part of a fowl’s regular diet. I 
confess, however, that I have never investigated the 
subject by dissecting dead specimens. In the case of 
my own brooder chicks, it is more likely that the 
trouble was caused by asphyxiation, although some 
other cause must have been present last season with 
the chicks given a natural mother. 
CRIPPLED CHICKS.—On page 414 C. M. claims 
that the cause of the crippled chicks (page 366) can 
be found in improper ventilation. From my own ex¬ 
perience with Incubators I believe he is right. If 
plenty of pure air is necessary for the chicks before 
they emerge from the shell, how much more import¬ 
ant is it after they are hatched. The instinct of cold 
chicks to huddle for mutual warmth, makes suffoca¬ 
tion very likely for some in the bottom of a large 
“cluster,” 
VENTILATING BROODERS.—Soon after writing 
what I did in reference to my brooder chicks on page 
398 I enlarged the openings above the chicks in my 
brooder hovers, thus allowing a free circulation of 
pure air over the chicks. This seemed to give in¬ 
stant relief from the trouble for the time being at 
least, and losses since have been insignificant. The 
amount of warm and vitiated air escaping from a 
brooder through the openings above the chicks, giving 
place for pure fresh air to enter through the hover 
curtains, depends upon the difference between the 
temperature inside and outside the hover. It there¬ 
fore follows that larger openings should be provided 
as the weather becomes warmer. The amount of 
water fiowing through an inch pipe that has a “head” 
of 20 feet is much greater than through the same 
sized pipe with only a 10-foot “head.” In the same 
way the amount of warm air passing up through an 
opening of given size depends upon the difference in 
teaiperature above and below the opening. An open¬ 
ing that allows the escape of sufllclent air on a cool 
night may be entirely inadequate on a hot night. It 
makes no difference whether a chick is in the bottom 
of a pile of chilly mates, huddling for warmth, or 
shut up in a warm brooder unable to make his escape, 
the result will be the same if deprived of pure air to 
breathe. Death soon claims him. Mrs. Fuller, for 
whom I hatched a lot of chicks which she is trying to 
raise without brooders, is having some experiences. 
Here is one, showing the danger of too much heat. 
One chilly day she built a roaring hot fire in her big 
wood stove in the room in which she keeps her pets. 
Household duties occupied her attention for some 
time, and when she next went to look after her chicks 
the room was very hot, and a lot of the chicks in 
boxes too close to that hot stove were overcome. She 
found about 30 of them lying on their sides with feet 
sticking out and quivering, just as I have seen them 
come out of an overheated brooder and fall down. 
By prompt measures in opening windows, etc., she 
succeeded in saving them all, but it was a narrow 
escape. Her scheme of suspending a feather duster In 
one corner of the boxes seems to be a success. The 
chicks take to them like ducks to water. May the 
day soon come when we have a good practical self¬ 
regulating brooder that is within the means of the 
average poultryman. o. w. mapes. 
SHEEP ON VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS. 
I have a piece of bushy land that I would like to make 
into a pasture. It is on the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
Loudoun Co., Va. There is some laurel on the land. Has 
anyone had experience with sheep in such a pasture? 
As the forage Is nearly all leaves I would like to know 
what ration and quantity of grain food will be required 
to keep sheep healthy on it. reader. 
Virginia. 
I have kept sheep on the Blue Ridge Mountains and 
they did well; the land had but little grass and was 
mostly bushes. The sheep will not eat laurel in Sum¬ 
mer, but when snow Is on the ground will eat it, and 
will have to be kept from it. If not too much of the 
laurel it will pay to cut it down in October or Novem¬ 
ber, so there will be none green for Winter. 
Loudoun Co., Va. s. n. fried. 
I would dispose of or enclose the laurel, as It would 
be Injurious to sheep In Winter. I would grow Smooth 
Merinos as they are better for clearing up land. If 
there is no other forage but leaves and weeds feed 
one-half pound of grain per head daily. Hack the 
bushes where the soil is the deepest and at points 
where the sheep lie. When the Blue grass begins to 
grow give less grain until there is sufllclent Blue grass 
to take the place of grain. c. d. eakin. 
Wadestown, W. Va. 
I would advise that before turning in the sheep all 
the laurel be grubbed up, as being very little grass on 
the land they would be very apt to eat some of the 
laurel, and I believe it is an irritant poison. I should 
suppose a third of a pint of grain, equal parts of corn 
and oats and bran to each sheep, about as much 
as they would eat with what they get from the land. 
I do not think the sheep would clean the land, but by 
grubbing and the help of sheep I have got two moun¬ 
tain fields very well cleaned up and in fair Blue grass. 
Lucketts, Va. jas. m. fox. 
If the land of your Loudoun County correspondent 
has a fair amount of grass on it I should think he 
could safely pasture a limited number of sheep, say 
one to three acres of land, without additional grain 
feed, though they would of course thrive better and 
get the land in grass sooner if fed some grain, about 
a half pound each of oats and cotton-seed meal to a 
sheep, fed to them in flat-bottomed troughs in the 
evening. Not knowing the quantity and quality of 
the grass on this land, nor the condition of the sheep, 
it is impossible to give an exact allowance of feed; 
the owner should watch them and be governed by 
their condition. The laurel should by all means be 
grubbed out, though the sheep may not touch it so 
long as there is other food in plenty, and if they are 
not put on the land too early in the Spring nor left 
on too late in the Fall. I have a tract of about 125 
acres, 75 of which is in wood and brush and 50 in 
grass. On this are 100 Dorsets and 15 cattle, all doing 
very well without additional grain. The sod is im¬ 
proving and the woodland gradually grassing over. 
The sheep keep down the finer brush very well, and 
are great grass seeders. I think probably goats would 
kill out heavily brushed land somewhat quicker and 
more thoroughly, but if not too thickly covered with 
bushes the sheep should set it in grass sooner. 
Keswick, Va. o. s. lindenkohl. 
A FARM SALE.—The little picture shown at Fig. 
156 gives an idea of the crowd which gathers at a 
farm sale in Ohio. These “sales” occur at all seasons 
of the year, but chiefly in Spring. It may be caused 
by death or removal, or the failure of a tenant. Tools, 
stock and household goods are put up at auction. 
Farmers gather from all the surrounding country. 
Usually the actual buyers comprise but a small per 
cent of the crowd, for such gatherings permit people 
to come together for other business or pleasure. In 
some neighborhoods these “sales” are an important 
part of social life. It would be well if they could be 
developed so as to hold them more frequently—not to 
sell old goods entirely, but so that farmers could come 
together and sell or exchange what they happen to 
have in the way of surplus stock or goods. 
AN APPLE HOLD UP.—We have just finished mar¬ 
keting our apple crop of 1902, which we carried over for 
a higher figure than they would offer last Fall. Out of 
400 bushels we put in cellars and open shed we have in 
the orchard covered with tar paper, we took out 60 
bushels besides what has been consumed at home, and 
sold them for 25 cents per bushel delivered at the rail¬ 
road. Experience is a dear teacher, but it teaches a les- 
.•on not easy to forget. The Golden Russet, Ben Davis 
and Spy suffered the worst; Baldwin and Stark stood 
best. One buyer last Fall offered $90 for the orchard, 
and had we taken him up we should have been ahead to 
the tiine of $75, to say nothing of the time and trouble of 
taking care of them. reader. 
