1900 
THE RURAL 
NEW-YORKER. 
147 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
The Hen Business.—No use talking, I 
have been off the track on the hen busi¬ 
ness. A man has to be mighty careful 
how he associates with hens, or he will 
get to imitating roosters and telling big 
stories. Big tale seems to be a symptom 
of the hen fever. The Madame has been 
calling me down on some of my hen 
stories, so here goes for the whole truth. 
Last Fall, when we moved from the old 
place, I told the boys to sell off all but 
about 60 birds. I became dissatisfied with 
the Blacks and wanted to try a new breed. 
The new farm presented so many new 
problems that I decided to drop all but a 
flock large enough to give us eggs and 
chicken meat and a few eggs to sell. May¬ 
be this was poor policy—we shall see about 
that. Charlie gave good measure when 
he sold the birds, and the result was that 
we brought rather a mixed lot to the new 
farm. There are some of our best Blacks, 
some White Leghorns and some daughters 
of old Uncle Light Brahma. They ought 
to lay, for their mothers were all good. 
1 am ashamed to say that I lost interest 
in these hens—having many other things 
to think of. It doesn’t do me any good to 
remember that lots of other farmers do 
the same thing. 
Some Hen History.— The henhouse 
which we found at Hope Farm is not a 
very desirable place. It is too dark and 
gloomy. The manufacture of an egg re¬ 
quires brightness and light, though the 
actual laying is well done in darkness. We 
took the roosts out of one-half of the 
house and used it for a scratching shed. 
We kept the house clean and gave the hens 
a good range, but still they wouldn’t lay. 
Early in December we got some animal 
meal, and began feeding our regular mash. 
The hens began to spruce up and worked 
up to six eggs one day. That was when I 
got off the track by saying that they laid 
“about a dozen.” I tell you right now that 
a hen does love to make her owner put a 
fringe around a fact. Before that state¬ 
ment got into print those hens were down 
to half an egg a day! We ran out of 
ground oats and corn and tried a ration of 
bran and meat and sweet corn. 
Then the Madame came forward and add¬ 
ed a little tongue nitrogen by finding fault 
with “those lazy hens.” 
“You would better give them away!” she 
said, and she straightway promised two of 
them to be served as “chicken" at a church 
supper. 
Bracing the Hens.— When a man sees 
his property disappearing he is likely to 
stir himself. We went out and counted 
bills. I ought to bury the record out in 
the back yard and say nothing about it, 
but I think I will print it as a terrible 
warning to those who are inclined to imi¬ 
tate their roosters and give three crows for 
every egg their hens lay. There were less 
than 35 hens, a dozen roosters, six ducks 
and two drakes! I have been pretty severe 
in my day against the surplus rooster, and 
here he was getting his revenge! Some of 
you folks are nodding your heads wisely— 
but hold on, get right out and size up your 
own flock, and tell us what you find in the 
henhouse! It didn’t take us long to get 
some of those surplus fellows into coops 
on a fattening diet of corn and water. 
What about the hens? 
“Feed them table scraps!” said the 
Madame and the Sprout. Among other 
suggestions were: 
“Clean out the house!” 
“Warm water!” 
“Give them more to eat!” 
“Don’t over-feed them!” 
“Cut off their heads!” 
“Kill the insects!” 
I happened to think of a pail of “con¬ 
dition powder” which was sent me by 
Henry Holmes, of Wethersfield, Conn., last 
year. At the time it came the hens were 
doing well enough—so I did not use it. 
Now was the time to test it. It is human 
nature to give a new thing the hardest test 
we can. The women folks saw that those 
hens ate the table scraps. Hugh used that 
condition powder according to directions, 
and I went unknown to the rest and gave 
the hens an extra feed of oats now and 
then. The powder was first fed February 
G. Here is the egg record: 
Feb. Hens. 
Ducks. 
Feb. 
Hens. 
Ducks. 
6 ....1 
0 
13 . 
... 4 
2 
7 ....2 
0 
14 . 
... 6 
1 
8 ....2 
0 
15 . 
...12 
2 
9 ....0 
0 
16 . 
...15 
1 
10 ....3 
1 
17 . 
...13 
0 
12 ....3 
2 
18 . 
...16 
0 
Well, now. 
there isn’t any doubt 
about 
that gain. 
We now 
have 
eggs to 
burn— 
that is, when the fire gets 
too hot. 
The 
rooster’s method of telling the story would 
be to say that in 12 days the egg yield in¬ 
creased 1,500 per cent! That’s the way to 
crow over the poultry business, but I have 
little to crow over in this line, and the 
Madame will read this story! I have never 
before taken much stock in condition pow¬ 
ders, but if in this case the powder didn't 
blow the laziness out of those hens—what 
did? It may have been “table scraps,” 
the oats I fed, or something else, but it 
looks like the powder. I think we will 
drop the powder and see whether the eggs 
hold out. The Madame makes the point 
that the animal meal we have been feed¬ 
ing kept the hens in fine condition, and 
should therefore be credited with a good 
share of the gain. There is much truth in 
that. These hens began to respond in a 
week. Had they not been in good work¬ 
ing order it would have taken much longer. 
I have known soil or horses or cows to 
respond quickly to some new method or 
food. Much of this gain was due to their 
previous good handling, which kept them 
in thorough working oxder, but could not 
stimulate them to do their best. Our chil¬ 
dren might go to Sunday school and make 
a fine record for behavior. Some teacher 
would plume herself greatly on that while, 
in truth, it would be largely due to the 
Madame’s previously applied sympathy and 
slipper! 
What About It?— Nothing to speak of 
except that we are eating so many eggs 
that we are in danger of becoming hard- 
shelled. Of course, people will say—“Why 
did you wait so long?” We have no answer 
to make. No extra words will fit suitable 
clothing on the naked truth. We didn't 
"do the hens right.” You folks who never 
make any mistake will learn little from 
this chronicle. You who can walk out to 
the henhouse and witness a similar state 
of affairs may consider this a call to re¬ 
pentance. When the women folks call for 
eggs, which are not forthcoming, get out 
and make the acquaintance of Mrs. Hen 
and find out what she wants. It’s all right 
to tell pleasant stories of the hen business. 
The hen is all right, but she can’t do it ail. 
She only does her share, which is not so 
large as many folks suppose. The best 
sister the hen has is a lady in the house 
who knows the most effective spot upon 
which to lay her tongue—and then makes 
up for it so as to take the blister all out. 
Roads and Wheels.— Jack Frost kicks 
hard when you pull him out of the road. 
He fights until his name is Mud—at least, 
in New Jersey. Hugh found this out the 
other day, when he went after coal. He 
had a good load on, and in hauling up a 
soft, muddy hill the wheels mired and the 
horses broke the wagon Longue off in try¬ 
ing to pull out. A hard outlook that, with 
night coming on and Jack Frost, like an 
ambushed Boer, crawling down to freeze 
the mud around those wheels. He bor¬ 
rowed another wagon and took the coal 
home, and then hitched to our wagon and 
pulled it out of the mud. The whole job 
was finished about 9 o’clock at night. We 
use the wide-tired, low-down wheels. In 
shallow mud or on hard frozen ground they 
are better than the narrow wheels. In 
deep mud they are worse, for they present 
more surface to push against the mud, and 
they carry more of it up on their spokes. 
I am told that this mud-carrying is avoided 
on solid low wheels. I haven’t tried them. 
The Weather.— It has been so full of the 
“spice of life” lately that we haven’t tasted 
much of anything else. Last year on Feb¬ 
ruary 12 we had a blizzard. At that time 
there was a fall of 16 inches of snow, which 
meant about 1.6 inch of water. This year, 
on February 13, we had a flood of rain, 
which dropped 1.6 inch of water—the same 
as the snowstorm. I like to have the 
face of my farm washed, but if you press 
me to a decision I will say that I prefer 
to have it sopped in with snow—especially 
when I have a necktie of manure well dis¬ 
played. I thought this rain settled it, but 
on February 17 there came a big snow¬ 
storm, with wind to blow away. It was 
the light drifting snow that will not pack 
down so as to make good sleighing, but 
gathers in big drifts at the fences and cor¬ 
ners. It was a hard storm—a sort of a 
wife’s relative to a western blizzard. We 
were all well housed with plenty of food 
and fuel. We hope this is the last of 
Winter. We have had enough—that is, all 
of us but the children. 
Food In Air.— We had six shotes in a 
small pen. I felt that they were crowded 
too much and had three taken out. You 
should have seen the difference in those 
shotes. With the same feeding they took 
a sudden brace and laid on extra fat and 
frame. They simply had more air or 
space. Is there any fat in air? Certainly, 
if you handle it right. The scientific men 
who make up their balanced rations must 
work in the right per cent of space if they 
want their plans to work right. The little 
pig is very much of a fool about his method 
of eating. He goes dodging and bunting 
from one place in the trough to another. 
He doesn't have sense enough to see that 
the trough is level, and that the slop will 
run to all parts of it. Even with his mouth 
full he thinks he can do better elsewhere, 
and will dodge out only to find the other 
place occupied. He needs space. As he 
grows older and heavier he learns better. 
Give him a corner where he can crowd in 
his mouth and he will stay there while the 
food lasts. As I read this over it occurs to 
me to add that life is like the trough and 
humans are like pigs—in many respects. 
The chances of life are pretty evenly dis¬ 
tributed. Better stick to your corner—and 
work. 
Killing Strawberry Plants.— That’* a 
hard job sometimes. The White grub* 
were so bad that I did not set any plants 
last year. There was an old-time bed in 
what was once a garden. Uncle Ed didn’t 
know I wanted these plants saved, and so 
he plowed them up late In November. I 
gave them up for dead, but on Lincoln’s 
Birthday I found some of them alive and 
green—with some of their roots in the air! 
Hugh has resurrected nearly 100 of them, 
and set them out in a new place, where 
they will be well cared for. Will they yield 
any berries next year? We’ll tell you later. 
We have had good results from feeding a 
little youth into old Major and old Jer¬ 
sey, but we can’t feed value into an old 
strawberry plant, unless the fruit buds 
were made last year. It’s well worth try¬ 
ing, however, since we have no other straw¬ 
berries on the place. h. w. c. 
O T A S H gives color, 
flavor and firmness to 
all fruits. No good fruit 
can be raised without 
Potash. 
Fertilizers containing at least 
8 to io% of Potash will give 
best results on all fruits. Write 
kk 
FUMA 
I M kills Prairie Dogs, 
* * Woodchucks, Gophers 
andGraln Insects.“The 
wheels of the Gods 
grind slow but exceed¬ 
ing small.” So the weevil, but you can stop their 
with 11 “ Fuma Carbon Bisulphide ” as a^ing. 
EDWARD R. TAYLOR, Penn Yan, N. Y. 
for our pamphlets, which ought 
to be in every farmer’s library. 
They are sent free. 
SPRAYING FRUIT TREES. 
The question of spraying fruit trees to prevent 
the depredations of. Insect pests and fungous dls 
eases is no longer an experiment but a necessity 
nOur readers will do well to write Wm. Stahl, 
Quincy, Ill., and get his catalogue describing 
21 styles of Spraying Outfits and full treatise 
on spraying the different fruit and vegetable 
crops, which contains much valuable informa¬ 
tion, and may be had for the asking. 
£* PKOTEGT 
Your Fruit Trees 
from rabbits, insects and ali pests 
' by painting the tree f s trunks with 
l LEE’S LICE KILLER 
Hang saturated cloths in the limbs, re- 
w saturate occasionally as shown in cut, 
anil a big crop ot tine fruit Is assured. 
Don’t fail to send for free circulars. 
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Omaha, Neb., or OH Murray St., N.Y. 
Buy a Good 
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— don’t experiment — 
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You get the benefit of our ex¬ 
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Send at once for catalogue. 
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Benton Harbor, Mich. 
Perfect Fruit... 
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Ing.I’erfect Bpray ing is done by 
EMPIRE KING 
AND 
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FIKLD FORCE PUMP CO., 
2 Market St., Lock port, N. Y. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, 
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Make Money 
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How ? Force their growth with appli¬ 
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the quickest of all fertilizers. Especially 
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sale by fertilizer dealers everywhere. 
Write at once for List of Dealers. 
Fertilizers I/2 Price 
Nearly all the Fertilizer companies are in a 
Trust, which means higher prices and poorer 
goods for the farmer. 
WHY NOT 
make your Fertilizers at home with Powell’s 
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pamphlet. W. S. POWELL & CO., 
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ALL BRASS. 
”$17 outfit for $6.50, express paid. 
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Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded. Illd. 
catalogue free. Agts. make from $5 to $15 per day. 
Hew Improvements. Free Trial. Mention this paper. 
P. C. LEWIS npo. CO., Cataklll, N. Y. 
12 * LENOX SPRAYERS S4. RSSSSS 
to farmers aud gardeners. They all must spray and they know it, or lose their crops. Now 
is the time to see them. We have some good circulars for agents to read about selling our 
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gallon can of our Bordeaux Mixture, will make fifty gallons of the spray. Sells 
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Other People’s Profits i 
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with the right sprayer, the PEPPLER AND CLIMAX SIX-ROW SPRAYERS. • 
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THOMAS PEPPIER, Box 60, HICHTSTOWN, N.J. 
■ vs rrm i immmm i umut ‘ 
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IWE SELL YOU DIRECT. NO AGENT’S PROFITS. 
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VALUABLE PREMIUMS GIVEN FREE. 
For premium list, prices, samples and book, write 
THE SCIENTIFIC FERTILIZER COMPANY, HERR’S ISLAND. PlTTSBURG.'PA. 
