2 
January 4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
off in a hurry, and they all came back next day ask¬ 
ing whether he had more of those apples in boxes. 
The prices were better than barrel apples; just how 
much I do not now remember. 
In boxing white apples I would use some bright- 
colored paper, as a red, blue or green. It may be well 
in boxing a red apple, to use a clear white or bright 
yellow. If you have red apples and white apples you 
can make a very fine looking box of fruit by alternat¬ 
ing the rows with red and white, or making the out¬ 
side rows of red and the middle rows of white or one- 
half or end of the box of red and the other end or 
half of white, and in this way have a mixed case of 
fruit that would be very tempting to the purchaser, 
and also make a fine show in the market or grocer’s 
window. Many times people living in the crowded city 
have not the room for a barrel of apples, but they 
could put a box in the corner or some out of the way 
place, or if they could not afford to buy a whole barrel 
they could buy a box, and there are many people 
thus situated financially, enough of them to consume 
many hundreds of barrels in a season, and thus al¬ 
most open up a new market for us. It is more work, 
because they have to be graded carefully in order to 
pack nicely, but not as much trouble as one would 
suppose. After you get used to it, it can be done quite 
rapidly. The cost of the box is about the same as 
a barrel. J. E. Rice says he has boxed fruit for mar¬ 
ket and that the railroad charged a higher rate of 
freight on boxed fruit than in barrel, and enough 
more to offset the increase in the price in boxes over 
barrels, but I still think it a good way to ship apples 
and much more can be said in its favor. 
WM. II. OUTWA’l’ER. 
HENS THAT BALANCE THEIR RATION 
And Save the Hen Man’s Steps. 
Pajrt II. 
Last week I told of the new plan followed by Mr. 
Mapes for letting the hens balance their own food. 
Corn, wheat and skim-milk are kept before them all 
the 'time. They help themselves at will, and Mr. 
Mapes declares that in the course of a week or month 
their self-selected food will analyze just about the 
same, proportionately, as his regular “man-mixed” 
balanced ration. I always hesitate to record things 
of this sort, because there are many people who jump 
at conclusions and infer that such a statement is 
strong advice to go and try the same thing. I simply 
tell what Mr. Mapes is doing with apparent success, 
and add that he is a shrewd, practical man who has 
kept hens by the thousand for years. 
Mr. Mapes used to keep a calf dairy. He had about 
a dozen cows, and bought calves for these cows to 
nurse into veal. This paid well, but he now says that 
good sows will pay better, so he has disposed of the 
cows, and is breeding and feeding pigs. I have not 
been able to figure out much profit in feeding Fall 
and Winter pigs on purchased grain. It pays me bet¬ 
ter to let Spring pigs run on rape or Clover and finish 
on corn before the larger western hogs come in. Mr. 
Mapes is feeding a drove of pigs—giving his balanced 
ration dry on a clean feeding floor or in troughs three 
times a day. I asked him why he did not let 'the pigs 
select their own food at will, as he did the hens. Can 
we not trust a hog’s instinct to balance his ration? 
Mr. Mapes replies as follows: 
A hog’s instinct can be trusted to supply the needs of 
ils system as surely as that of any other animal. The 
principal reason I was feeding my pigs the man-made mix¬ 
ture was because the supply of milk available was limited, 
i have repeatedly taken six-weeks-old pigs right away 
from the mother, placed a box of whole corn where they 
could help themselves whenever they wished, with a 
trough of skim-milk always beside it, with the result that 
they made a gain of 100 pounds of dressed meat in 75 
days, estimating the pigs to have dressed 80 per cent of 
live weight at the beginning of the experiment. One 
group of eight pigs has always been fed dry balanced 
ration, but a check lot of eight pigs from the same litters 
had been grown on corn and skim-milk ad libitum, mak¬ 
ing considerably the better gain. They dressed 125 to 130 
pounds each at about 4!£ months old. The corn and 
skim-milk disappeared with the regularity of clockwork, 
about a bushel of corn to 40 gallons of skim-milk. I have 
tested this method on pigs at three different times during 
the past three years, with uniformly good success. A 
shorter test was once made, using whey instead of milk, 
and hominy chop and gluten meal instead of corn. The 
hominy and gluten was substituted for the corn, because 
the whey is rich in mineral matter, while they are de¬ 
ficient. Growth was highly satisfactory while the experi¬ 
ment lasted, but the supply of whey did not last, and it 
had to be abandoned before butchering time. While it 
was true that the lot of pigs did not grow equally to the 
ones which had corn and skim-milk, it was also true 
that the cost of the dry balanced ration per day was only 
four cents each, while the others ate about eight cents’ 
worth each per day. The balance of net profit was con¬ 
siderably in favor of the dry man-made mixture. 
I should judge that with all animals the cost of the 
self-feeding system would be greater. Many poultry 
authorities tell us that we must keep the hens a lit¬ 
tle hungry, and make them work by scratching their 
grain out of the litter. This advice has been ac¬ 
cepted as good theory, hut Mr. Mapes’s system knocks 
it all out because his hens are never hungry—having 
food constantly before them without the necessity for 
working or scratching to secure it. Some of the large 
poultry keepers in California have a plan of keeping 
wheat and water constantly before their hens. In 
this case the hens roam at large and “balance” their 
ration with bugs, seeds and grass. As to the natural 
tendency of animals to attempt to obtain this balance 
the following not from Prof. I. P. Roberts is in¬ 
teresting: 
I have frequently noticed that when animals were fed 
on a very unbalanced ration they relished such foods 
best as would make up for the unbalanced condition. 
One Winter we fed sheep quite largely, in an experiment, 
on clover hay and cotton-seed meal, and we were much 
surprised at the amount of straw they would eat. In 
other words, they would eat up their bedding, although 
somewhat soiled. We have found the same thing holding 
true when our horses were fed a narrow ration. Immedi¬ 
ately they would eat up their bedding. I do not think 
the animals are as particular about the nutritive ratio of 
their food as are the professors. We are steadily learn¬ 
ing that neither a very narrow nor a very wide ration is 
best, but a ration that approximates anywhere from 1:4.5 
to 1:7 answers all purposes. I do not think it is always 
safe or wise to allow animals entirely to balance their 
own ration, since the tendency would be for them to eat 
too much of that food which had the highest aroma, or 
which they liked the best, if they had their choice. This 
is applicable, of course, largely to concentrated foods. 
We have noticed that cows while on the best of 
green pasture will, if they can get at it, eat large 
A BOX OF BALDWIN APPLES. Fig. 2. 
quantities of straw or dried corn fodder. It seems 
to me that by nature and habit the hen is best suited 
of all animals to balance her own food. She really 
does this when roaming at large more successfully 
than other domestic animals. Mr. Mapes’s hens were 
bright and glossy in plumage, with every indication 
of health. To my surprise Mr. Mapes says that he 
has little faith in the theory that by selecting eggs 
from the best individual layers we may improve the 
laying qualities of the flock. He says he has picked 
up old scrub hens without known parentage and by 
supplying the food which was needed, forced them to 
lay day after day. But there is enough in this side 
of the question to make another chapter, h. w. c. 
SUNFLOWER CULTURE IN INDIANA. 
There are many hundred acres grown in this county 
(Clark) as a money crop. The sunflower requires 
about the same conditions, as to quality of land, 
preparation, cultivation and planting, as are required 
by corn. The land should be plowed as early in 
Spring as the weather will permit, and then culti¬ 
vated until planting time, which is from May 10 to 
June 1, according to conditions of the weather. The 
seeds do not germinate well until the ground is dry 
and warm. Most farmers plant with a one-horse drill 
set to drop one seed 16 to 20 inches in the row, and 
cover lightly, particularly if me ground is cold or 
wet. When the conditions are favorable the plants 
woon push through, and grow very rapidly, and culti¬ 
vation with weeder or harrow should be begun as 
soon as the young plants are well above ground. We 
usually cultivate twice in this way, and afterwards 
twice more with two-horse cultivator, using three or 
four small shovels on a side. We usually plant in 
rows 3y 2 feet apart. As the seeds do not all ripen at 
one time, some plant every tenth or twelfth row in 
potatoes, that we may drive a wagon through to har¬ 
vest the first ripening, which is always the best seed, 
Harvesting is done by cutting the flower a few inches 
below the head, using a corn knife, and pitching di¬ 
rectly into a tight wagon box. A couple of spry boys 
each with a stick, will thrash the seed from the heads 
as two men will deliver them in the wagon, by grasp¬ 
ing the short stalk below the head with one hand 
and striking the seed with his stick at an angle. The 
seed is then passed through a fanning mill, and spread 
for a few days to dry, when it is sacked and sent to 
market. The yield is from 800 to 2,000 pounds per 
acre. Land that will produce 50 bushels of corn will 
yield 2,000 pounds of sunflower seed. The price re¬ 
ceived varies from $1.50 to $2.50 per 100 pounds, or 
from $12 to $50 per acre. This season has demon¬ 
strated that sunflowers will stand drought much bet¬ 
ter than corn. On account of the low price the pre¬ 
vious year there was a small crop planted last season, 
and prices are very remunerative, reaching $2.60 per 
100. j. s. T. 
New Washington, Ind. 
FEEDING BRAN TO HORSES. 
A Veterinarian Calls Bran Dangerous. 
I was much pleased on reading the article on page 
850. But after personal experience in feeding and 
treating horses, I agree with the writer of the first 
article, even if my friend Dr. Leonard Pearson gives 
an opposite opinion. The first full year that I fed 
livery horses of my own, 20 years ago, I lost two 
horses within one week, one of them very valuable, 
from inflammation of the bowels, caused by feeding 
small quantities of bran regularly with the oats. I 
remember thinking that the bran would give the 
horses less spirit, and that that would be an advan¬ 
tage for the livery business. After the loss my inves¬ 
tigation satisfied me that the inflammation was caused 
by the irritation of roller process bran in the intes¬ 
tines. I have treated many cases since caused by simi¬ 
lar feeding in driving horses, and though they (al¬ 
though protracted) have not always been fatal, they 
have satisfied me that if you do not want colic and 
enteritis it is better to leave bran out of the ration. 
Less than 500 pounds a year is enough in a stable of 
40 horses, with the result that bowel diseases are al¬ 
most unknown. joiin bbyce, v. s. 
Erie, Pa. 
A Farm Professor Says Feed It. 
My father has always had a great many horses, 
and bran has always been half of the ration which 
he has fed for years. While at home, before attending 
college, I fed, myself, our horses for years and had 
never known of a single trouble from bran feeding. 
After being graduated from college I took charge of 
the Ohio State University Farm under Prof. Hunt, 
where I remained three years. During tnose three 
years, we fed to all our horses, from -10 to 15 in num¬ 
ber, a grain ration consisting of half bran and half 
corn. We fed this continually Winter and Summer, 
never having any trouble; we never lost a horse 
while I was there, and so far as I know, none has ever 
been troubled since. We fed as much as eight pounds 
of bran daily. Then I went to New Hampshire and 
fed bran for three years, and kept a record of water 
drank, work done, and food consumed. My bulletin 
on horse feeding records two years of the work. Dur¬ 
ing that time we never had a horse sick from any 
cause. I am now feeding our six work horses here 
bran, cotton-seed meal and corn. No trouble at all 
results. In fact, I believe this is going to prove an 
ideal ration for work horses. I have never heard of 
a case where bran has proved harmful. I was indeed 
very much surprised when reading your letter. 
Prof. Henry believes in bran feeding, and goes so 
far as to say: “Though a horse or cow may be 
gorged with bran, it usually suffers no marked incon¬ 
venience therefrom.” I know of two instances where 
horses were gorged by bran feeding, getting into the 
bran bin and filling themselves. Had this been corn, 
serious trouble would have resulted, but the bran oc¬ 
casioned not the slightest trace of any trouble. I am 
so positive of the safety of bran feeding which has 
come in my own experience for years, both on farm 
and during experimentation, that I have no hesita¬ 
tion in saying that bran is one of the very best, safest 
and satisfactory feeds to give horses, either doing 
light or heavy work. [Prof.], ciias. w. burkett. 
N. C. Exp. Station. 
There are several corn shredders doing business 
among the farmers in our section of the country; how¬ 
ever, none of the fodder has been baled and put on 
the market anywhere that we know of. Our farmers 
would not sell their stalks at any price, inasmuch as 
they use them for fodder themselves. We would 
think if this fodder could be baled that it would 
necessarily have to go in large bales. We do not be¬ 
lieve that anything could be done with it from our 
section of the country, reliance mercantile co. 
Saginaw, Mich. 
