1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
267 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Applied Knowledge on Poultry and Pigs. 
What is the philosophy of a thermostat as used for a 
regulator? Of what two metals is it made, and why? 
Which of the two has the greater expansion for a given 
degree of heat? What metal has the greatest expansion 
for a given degree of heat? Q. m. a. 
Danville, N. H. 
THE INCUBATOR THERMOSTAT—The form of 
regulator referred to is now generally made of alumi¬ 
num and steel. Aluminum has greater expansibility 
than steel. When heat is applied to the two metals 
the aluminum expands more rapidly than the steel, 
and this fact is taken advantage of to communicate 
motion to the regulating device which controls the 
admission of heat into the egg chamber. The best 
thermostat with which I am acquainted is made by 
fastening strips of the two metals at the ends only. 
The steel is very stiff and rigid, so that it cannot 
bend. The other metal is a little longer than the steel, 
forming a bow over it, connections being made 
through the center where the space between the two 
metals is greatest. When heat is applied, the alumi¬ 
num increases in length the faster, thus increasing 
the space between the two metals where the connec¬ 
tion is made. For a parallel, take a common bow 
made with a string and a hickory stick. When you 
twist your string, twist a nail fast into the strands of 
the string. You can readily understand how the ther¬ 
mostat operates, by giving a few turns to the nail in 
the string. As the relative length of the string and 
the hickory stick is changed, the space between the 
two at the point where the arrow is inserted will ex¬ 
pand or contract as the case may be. I have used an 
incubator with this form of thermostat which is as 
near to perfection as a heat regulator as one can 
wish. It will not “run itself for a whole hatch,” since 
changes in the outside atmosphere, as well as in the 
animal heat generated in the eggs, must be watched 
and guarded against. It can be depended on, however, 
to respond with precision to any variation of tempera¬ 
ture, and requires less care and watching than an or¬ 
dinary parlor coal stove. 
IMPURE AIR IN INCUBATOR.—When I wished to 
start my incubator this Spring I was in a hurry, and 
did not take time even to remove the rubbish that had 
accumulated on top of it during the Winter. I simply 
filled the lamp, put in a new wick, saw that nothing 
interfered with the free action of the regulating bar, 
and applied the match. When I went back to ex¬ 
amine it next day, I found that it had warmed up to 
102 degrees, just as I had left it in the previous Sum¬ 
mer, and then turned off the heat. I mention this 
fact to show to what perfection the modern thermo¬ 
stat has been brought. This same machine gave me 
only 212 chicks, however, from 360 eggs for our first 
hatch; 65 infertile ones were tested out on the fifth 
day, leaving 83 failures. The ventilation is perhaps 
as good as any, but is still far from perfect. The foul 
air removed from the egg chamber is actually dis¬ 
charged right into the flue which supplies the warm 
air to the egg chamber, thus carrying the same im¬ 
pure air round and round through the machine. 
How do you go ahead to select breeding stock from 
which to hatch your next year’s supply of chickens? Do 
you have any standard as to color, shape or size in pick¬ 
ing out these breeders? In other words, what are you 
after in the shape of a hen? 
BUSINESS FOWLS.—What I am after is first a hen 
that will lay a well-shaped white-shelled egg, that 
will weigh two ounces. Second a cockerel that will 
be plump and fat at 12 weeks old, and weigh two or 
2 y 2 pounds each. He must have yellow legs and skin, 
and preferably a small comb. We overcome this ob¬ 
jection to the White Leghorn cockerels by tying a 
neat piece of clean paper over the head when packing 
them for shipment. Third, a good-sized carcass to 
sell as fowls, after their period of usefulness as egg 
producers is past. It costs no more to raise a bird 
that will pass inspection in the show room than to 
raise a mongrel, and our breeding pens are filled with 
the very best specimens available that will score high 
as show birds, size being one of the first requisites. 
A White Legnorn that will not weigh four pounds is 
considered “no good” for a breeder. Large capacity 
of crop and abdomen is essential. We scoured the 
whole farm for our best pen of 18 birds, having the 
American Standard of Perfection in our eye all the 
time, and no better layers need be wanted. They laid 
17 eggs yesterday (March 28) and have frequently 
laid 14, 15 and 16 a day. This pen of fowls by the way 
are allowed to balance their own ration, having corn, 
wheat and skim-milk always before them. They are 
kept confined during the day in a little brooder house 
6x8 feet, and compelled to drink the milk. Towards 
night they are let out for a run on the bare earth, and 
a drink of water if they wish. Our other breeding 
pens have 50 hens in each flock, and only one male to 
each flock. I tested a setting of 360 a few days since, 
that only showed 45 infertile eggs. Where more than 
one male is kept in a flock they should be kept to¬ 
gether from chicks, or they will fight so much that 
they will be no more serviceable than a single male. 
SKIM-MILK FOR PIGS.—Bulletin 199, Cornell Ex¬ 
periment Station, just issued, deals with the problem 
of feeding skim-milk to pigs, and is the result of five 
years of careful experiment. In its summary will be 
found this positive statement: “In no case should 
the amount of skim-milk fed be greater than the pigs 
will quickly and easily consume.” Cornell has been 
educating farmers a good many years, has the great 
State of New York back of it, and is “a tol’able sized 
critter” to tackle, yet I am inclined to differ with it 
over that statement. Repeated successes in raising 
pigs by keeping skim-milk and corn always before 
them, and allowing them to use their instinct in com- 
TRIMMING A CALIFORNIA HEDGE. Fig. 103 
bining them, so as to produce a balanced ration, have 
probably given me a “David-like” confidence as to the 
outcome. I now have three generations of pigs that 
have been raised on a man-made balanced ration. The 
animals of the third generation are but 17 months 
younger than their grandmother, and are about old 
enough to wean. I purpose to put some of them, as 
soon as weaned, into a pen where they will always 
have skim-milk (sour) lying before them in addition 
to corn and hone meal. We will then have another 
chance to see whether they will be injured by “making 
pigs of themselves,” or whether they are experts at 
mixing feeds, that need not fear comparison with the 
experts at Cornell. Animal instinct can often be turn¬ 
ed to account. One of my sows was allowed to farrow 
in March, in a cold building where we have no fire. 
The weather turned very cold next day, and her eight 
pigs were likely to suffer from it. We attempted to 
move her into warmer quarters, but she objected 
strenuously to having the pigs disturbed. She had 
been bedded with planer shavings before farrowing, 
as these are dry and do not entangle the little pigs. 
Night was coming on, so I placed a pile of long Tim¬ 
othy hay in the farther corner of the room and left 
TYING PEACH TRIMMINGS FOR FUEL. Fig. 104. 
the new arrivals to the tender mercies of “mother 
instinct.” Next morning I found them safely buried 
in what looked like a huge mouse-nest of Timothy 
hay. She had buried them completely out of sight 
with the dry hay, and kept them safely through a 
cold night. This sow is a sample of precocity. She 
was born the last of September, 1900, farrowed her 
first litter of pigs June 1, 1901, her second litter No¬ 
vember 7, 1901, and now her third litter on March 18, 
before she is 18 months old. Many writers advocate 
waiting till maturity is reached before breeding. I 
do not dispute the wisdom of this advice, but I know 
that in this case she has paid her way while maturing, 
and is now a valuable animal. 
RATS AND YOUNG CHICKS.—How do I avoid the 
destruction of young chicks by rats? Our buildings 
are all single-boarded floors, both henhouses and 
brooder houses. We have plenty of rats about the 
premises, but never in the brooder houses or in the 
henhouses. The locality used to go by the name of 
Rat-town, there being an old tannery on the farm. 
I attribute our escape thus far to the fact that there is 
plenty of cat room between the earth and the floors. 
In most cases only the corners are supported on 
stones eight to 12 inches thick. This gives the cats 
full play, and also the wind. By keeping the floors 
well covered with litter in Winter this is no objec¬ 
tion; rather the reverse, since when the snow flies, 
a hare space is always swept free about the buildings. 
o. w. MAPES. 
TOMATO GROWERS AND CANNERS. 
In the report of C. E. Chapman, page 239, I think 
the canners’ figures as to cost of growing are as much 
too small as the growers’ figures are too large. Strike 
a happy medium and you come just about to my 
actual average figures for four years past as follows: 
Plowing and fitting. $3.00 
Plants, 3,000 . 12.00 
Setting . 3.00 
Fertilizer, one-half ton. 15.00 
Applying fertilizer . 1.00 
Cultivating, three times. 3.00 
Picking and marketing, six tons. 0.00 
Total .$46.00 
I grow my own plants, and use only those that are 
good and transplanted; I have a greenhouse and grow . 
many thousands for others, but I cannot grow them 
less than $4 per 1,000; no 50 cents per 1,000 plants for 
me. We cannot dispense with the fertilizer. I can¬ 
not see how Mr. Chapman would get a crop of cow 
peas after tomatoes, when we often pick till the vines 
are killed by frost. I lost about 200 bushels by an 
October frost in 1900. I do not believe any York State 
man can make money growing tomatoes (even if he 
has no stone piles) at $6 per ton. I cannot see any 
money even on my sand at $7 per ton. 
Newark, N. Y. _ c. e. clark. 
NEW FORMS OF CLOVER WANTED. 
I have heard nothing regarding attempts by station 
men to hybridize various clovers. I have made several 
efforts to hybridize White clover and Alsike without 
effect. As to Red clover and Mammoth they belong 
to the same genus anyway. Probably the Mammoth 
clover was obtained from the common Red, but why 
try to cross these two, as any clover field already 
shows most wonderful variations in Red clover, in 
size, modes of growth, and many other respects, just 
waiting for some one to select and grow any one that 
he may fancy? I think of one important chance for 
improvement that has received little attention. It is 
this: Try to select and grow Red clover in which 
the corolla shall be shorter so that honey-bees can 
secure the nectar. Only think of what has been done 
with carnations, Zinnias, Chrysanthemums, Fuchsias, 
Begonias, Petunias and hundreds of other plants, and 
no one can doubt that with a reasonable amount of 
time, skill and patience the feat can be accomplished! 
Think of the honey the bees would gather, and think 
of the increased yield of seed of Red clover! I have 
reason to believe that were honey-bees plenty enough 
and able to get the nectar from the flowers of Red 
clover, instead of a yield of seed from almost nothing 
to three bushels, we might secure from three to eight 
bushels of seed to the acre. Insects in some instances 
destroy the ovules and seeds, hut in favorable seasons 
the yield of seeds ought to be wonderfully increased. 
I am not connected with an experiment station, but 
any man who will take hold of this subject in earnest 
will win great honor if justice is done him. 
Michigan Ag’l College. w. j. beal. 
SMALL FUEL.—On page 207 H. G. Keesling re¬ 
ferred to the use of trimmings and even hedge clip¬ 
pings for fuel in California. Fig. 104 shows how peach 
trimmings are tied into faggots of convenient size for 
burning, and Fig. 103 shows how men and hoys work 
at the hedges. It may seem strange to some of our 
readers that these small economies are practiced in 
the California orchards, where we have been led to 
believe operations are conducted on a wholesale scale. 
We must all remember, however, that competition is 
now so fierce that the small economies often make ail 
the differences between profit and loss. 
TWO DEVON STEERS.—I send you a picture (see 
Fig. 102) of a pair of twin steers. When these steers 
were born they weighed 65 pounds; when I sold them 
a little before they were two years old they weighed 
almost 1,700 pounds and looked so nearly alike that 
I, with an experience of over 50 years, could hardly 
tell them apart. Speaking of steers and oxen a recent 
writer thought they were disappearing from New Eng¬ 
land farms. I wish he could see string after string 
of ox teams on the roads, in the towns of Lyme and 
Old Lyme; it is no unusual thing to see a team of 
six or eight pairs in one string sometimes, worth over 
$100 a pair, all owned and driven by one man. At a 
Grange fair held in this town there were on exhibition 
nearly 200 pairs of oxen and steers, nearly all red 
Devon and Devon grade, and a prettier sight I never 
saw. J. E. H. 
Hamburg, Conn. 
