1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
799 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Hogs Gnawing Trough.—How shall 
we prevent the hogs from chewing at 
the trough and destroying it? One way 
is to have a feeding-yard in which is a 
long trough, into which the feed (slpp) 
can be poured convenierixly from the 
room where it is mixed. We have such 
a feed room, with water, hot and cold, 
and a trough outside long enough for 
20 shotes to eat at once. The trough is 
made of 1^-inch yellow pine, and is 
about as good as new yet, although from 
60 to 100 pigs have been fed from it three 
times a day for a year. The pigs are 
only allowed in this feeding yard long 
enough to drink their islpp, and then 
driven back into their pens on the op¬ 
posite side of the yard. While each pen 
is eating, thefir quarters are cleaned if 
needed and clean bedding provided. A 
few cracks of a good whip-lash then 
sends them back to their pen, when an¬ 
other lot is let out to the trough. The 
feed yard should be long and narrow, 
so the whip will easily reach to both 
sides. It is then an easy matter to teach 
them to obey the snap of the whip. In 
the pens for breeding sows, where we 
want to leave the trough and sow in the 
pen where she is fed, some other plan 
had to be adopted. Cast-iron pig troughs 
would answer here, but none is on sale 
in our town, and they are quite expen- 
eive. A very good substitute was found 
at the grocery stores. Iron-bound pickle 
barrels were found at 10 cents each, and 
sawed off just above the second hoop. 
This gives a nice tub about six inches 
high, with an iron hoop at the top. They 
are made of hard wood, and resist all 
a1 tacks of even the hungriest old sow’.s 
teeth. 
Road-Making. —We have long been 
“blessed” With a very poor road from 
our farm to the town where most of our 
shipping and trading is done. A few 
farmers along the road clubbed together 
and offered to draw 250 loads of gravel 
gratis if the township authorities would 
appiopriate $50 in cash towards its im- 
prcvement The authorities pleaded pov¬ 
erty, and refused to do it. We then 
went into town and got a few merchants 
to offer to add $25 in cash to our offer 
to draw gravel. They were willing to 
spend that amount on the roadbed, in¬ 
stead of in painting advertising signs on 
the rocks and fences along the road¬ 
side. This had the desired effect, and 
the authorities appropriated the amount 
asked. I am deputized to take charge 
of the work of improvement. This leads 
to some study of the subject of country 
roads. The maintaining of good country 
roads is one of the most important 
problems before the people of the rural 
districts. While a few are beginning to 
enjoy the use of the improved State 
roads, the great mass of the rural popu¬ 
lation must continue to ride over the 
ordinary roads maintained by the town¬ 
ships. A few of the underlying princi¬ 
ples of such maintenance should always 
be kept in mind by those who have the 
charge of these roads. While it is un¬ 
doubtedly true that macadam or crushed 
stone makes the best road for all kinds 
of weather, their enormous cost pre¬ 
cludes their general use, until there is 
more wealth to the square mile than now. 
The first principle of a good dirt road 
is proper drainage. The road-bed must 
be so constructed that water will escape 
from it in the shortest possible tim.e. 
In most cases this can best be accom¬ 
plished at a minimum of cost, by bring¬ 
ing to an oval conformation with a road 
niachine. It is only a question of hold¬ 
ing the point of the blade firmly down 
to the proper position, applying suffi¬ 
cient team power, and removing every 
stone which the point strikes. It is use¬ 
less to attempt this work except when 
tlie ground is in the right condition. 
The best time is soon after a soaking 
rain, or after the frost leaves the ground 
in Spring. If sod© are likely to inter¬ 
fere with perfect grading, it is a good 
plan to plow a few furrows some time 
in advance of using the machine, and 
give time for the sods to crumble or rot. 
A harrow can often be used bo advant¬ 
age. Whenever the gi'ading is done, 
mud must be expected with the first 
soaking rain. Sprinkling in connection 
with the use of a steam roller, would 
reduce the annoyance of this first mud¬ 
dying. but the expense makes this pro¬ 
hibitive. As soon as this first rain has 
dried out, a small rut-scraper should be 
used, to hone the surface smooth and 
true; then rake off all loose stones. On 
the majority of roads in this section, 
fbis is all that can usually be done with 
the amount of funds available. 
T'op-drkssing the Roads.— After a 
road has been thus treated, a light dress- 
irig of gravel, slate, shale, or even hard- 
pan, along the crown of the road, will 
act as a cement to the ordinary dirt- 
finished road, giving a sort of hard fin¬ 
ish to the job, rivaling the best and 
most expensive macadam roa^ in ordi¬ 
nary weather. A good two-horse load 
of gravel or shale will put this finish¬ 
ing touch on about two rods of road, 
and can be afforded on the main roads 
leading to towns and railroad stations. 
When finished, the road-bed thus con¬ 
structed will be a perfect oval from gut¬ 
ter to gutter, on which no water can 
lie to form mud-holes, and the crown 
ol an 18-foot road-bed should be about 
15 inches higher than the gutters. Pro¬ 
vision must be made at all low points 
for the water bo run away from the 
gutters on each side. o. w. mafes. 
POULTRY KEEPING IN VIRGINIA. 
T am thinking of going into the poultry 
business for eggs. What breed of Leg¬ 
horns would you advise? Which would be 
the cheaper way to get a start, buy eggs 
next Spring, and raise my pullets, or buy 
six hens and a rooster now and set their 
eggs? I want to keep about 200 or 300 hens, 
but would like to start with about 150. I 
have about 60 mongrel hens now that 
would do for sitters. j. w. m. 
Greenwood Depot, Va. 
After several years’ experience with 
large flocks of hens in Virginia I would 
say that the Leghorn is the breed for 
eggs, and that egg production and sale 
is the best end of the poultry business 
by far. It does not matter much which 
of the colors is chosen, but the S. C. 
White Leghorn is the most easily kept 
up to the points of feather. Much care 
.should be taken to be sure of getting 
stock from a good laying strain. It 
would be well to get a rooster and some 
hens, not less than six, this Pall and 
set their eggs under the mongrel hens 
next Spring, or get an incubator. I am 
in favor of incubator in preference to 
hens for hatching, and brooders to rear 
the chicks. This will be ultimately 
done in handling a non-sitting breed 
like the Leghorn, and the sooner it is 
begun the better. It is not so costly as 
rearing by hens, according to my ex¬ 
perience. However, it is all right to 
start the new flock the other way, which 
I did, but the Leghorn flock was more 
lousy than it might have been without 
contact with the hens. I would Isolate 
the new flock from all the rest, on ac¬ 
count of lice. Virginia is an excellent 
place for cheap egg production, and the 
fancy egg markets are not far distant. 
H. E. V. D, 
cow GIVES BLOODY MILK. 
I have a grade Jersey cow in my herd 
fresh about, eight weeks ago that within 
the past three weeks has been giving 
bloody milk from one forward quarter, and 
now the other forward quarter is show¬ 
ing a trace of the same difficulty. I have 
tried everything I knew to stop the diffi¬ 
culty, and so far have failed. Give me 
the benefit of a suggestion that will heal 
the cow’s udder. EVery milking I get a 
quantity of a membraneous substance that 
at times I can only get away by pulling 
it out. a. w. H. 
Dover Plains, N. T. 
One cause of bloody milk is weak 
udder tissue, and I should feel quite 
sure it was the cause in this case. If 
she is a highly organized dairy animal 
her dairy conformation may have been 
carried to an extreme. It is very hard 
to treat, and remedies will be only sug¬ 
gestive. Use hot water freely, bathing 
the udder three times a day for at least 
10 minutes each time, give two ounces 
saltpeter each day for three days, and 
skip three days. If this does not check 
the trouble, dissolve one-half ounce 
iodide of potash in one pint of hot 
water, and inject one-fourth of it into 
each affeoted teat. Do so with a small 
rubber syringe to which is attached a 
small rubber pipe and milking tube. 
This last mentioned is the remedy for 
parturient apoplexy, and may help to 
arrest further trouble in the bloody 
quarters. The cow may have caught 
cold lying out of doors and the tissue 
become inflamed. In this case keep her 
warmly housed, covered with a good 
warm blanket; feed bran mash and bath 
the udder. If the trouble comes from 
an injury or harsh milking, use the 
above remedies, and see to it that a 
repetition does not take place. We often 
fail to think that the udder is a won¬ 
derful mechanism, delicate and ex¬ 
tremely sensitive, demanding therefore 
the kindest of attention and care. 
H. E. c. 
Pigs for the Orchards.— In the selec¬ 
tion of stock for pasturing an orchard, first 
I prefer hogs; they do considerable grub¬ 
bing, if the rings are kept out of the nose. 
If you do not have sufficient hogs to keep 
down the grass, I prefer sheep next, and 
only turn in cattle after the orchard is all 
cleaned up in the Fall or in the early 
Spring, for the reason that they injure too 
many apples. Keep hogs in until the apples 
are matured enough to make good evapo¬ 
rated fruit. T. B. w. 
New York. 
The country is full of cattle, but not of 
corn feed, and corn-fed cattle ought to go 
higher. They will have to soon, or the 
Winter feeding will not be half what it was 
last Winter. Hogs may go lower, but it 
will be a long time yet before we have a 
four-cent market. There are not near the 
hogs in the country Chicago would make 
us believe, and farmers are In no great 
hurry to market them. o. a. w h e k der. 
Sinclair, Ill. 
'4 K 
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of the EMPIRE way of dairying 
have marked the turning point with thousands of cow 
owners. It has shown them in many instances how 
to make profit from a branch of their business which had 
hitherto been tolerated as a necessary evil. There are oth¬ 
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other cream separators with features of advantage, but 
there are none which possess so many features of advan¬ 
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features of disadvantage have been so thoroughly elimi¬ 
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dairying, but none so profitable as the EMPIRE way. 
You can learn all about the EMPIRE machine 
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Bloomfield, New Jersey. 
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Chicago, Illinois. 
Pllt 
I 
THE U. S. AHEAD AS USUAL 
At the X'itllcv I'air, Brattleboro, Vt., 
one of the largest fairs in New Kiigland, hiitte 
separated by U. .S. 
the following preiu 
Crf-.a-MEKy I First, . 
Tub, '/ Second, 
o8 and Sweepstakes, 
97 K 
Dairy i ,, 
I’KIXT, ) ^ 
Dairy ( First, . . g 7 
iliox,'/Second, . gfe-X 
Dairy j Fir.st, . . q6;.< 
Tub,'/S econd, . 
Grand Sweepstakes and all the but 
ter preniiiuns except three went to U. S 
/Mora/;—Buy the U. S. Separator if 
you wish to make the best butter. 
For We.stern Customers, we ir:iii>fi r oiir se|)ar;itor.s from Cliicago, La Crosse, 
.Minneapolis. Sion.\ City, .sml t)n..dKi. .\(Jclress all letters to Bellows F'alls, Vt. 
IVriie for catalogues and prices. 
Vermont Farm Machine Co., Bellows Falls, Vt 
v‘’thc standard by which roofinq 
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