558 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 16 
into the cavity made by separating the neck, where 
it coagulates. In hot. weather the squabs are hung 
in a cool cellar, but at other times they are hung in 
the packing house. They are left until all animal 
heat has left the bodies. Tney are then taken down, 
their feet scraped clean, and packed in ice. They 
are then sent by express to market. Quotations on 
squabs are usually higher in eastern city markets 
than in Chicago, but for several months Chicago 
prices have been very satisfactory. I cannot recom¬ 
mend the business of squab raising as desirable for 
invalid women, as some writers on this subject do, 
nor can 1 mislead anyone by telling of the fabulous 
prices they will receive for squabs. If a woman was 
strong enough to do the heavy work that would be 
required she would be able to do other work that 
would remunerate her as well. Almost any woman 
could feed the birds, but that is a very small part of 
the work connected with successful squab raising and 
selling. ii. n. n. 
West Union, Iowa. 
MAPES THE HEN MAN. 
FOOD FOR GRASS.—Clark, the grass man, may 
deceive himself into believing that his success in rais¬ 
ing big crops of hay is due to intensive cultivation, 
but he should not expect the public to be deceived 
much longer. The hen man is too much accustomed 
to looking beneath the surface of things, to suppose 
that intensive cultivation, with any kind of grass 
tools, 13 years ago, had any special influence in pro¬ 
ducing that 11,850 pounds of hay on his seven-eighths 
of an acre. His phenomenal success is due, not so 
much to intensive cultivation, as to the liberal and 
intelligent use of plant food. If R. N.-Y. readers will 
lay most of the stress on the method of feeding the 
crop, they will find that they can fit their land to raise 
big crops of hay, with an ordinary plow, spring-tooth 
harrow, and roller, or smoothing harrow. Do not 
jump to the conclusion that you can drive into a field 
of tough sod, and put it into condition with the tools 
named, in the short time which Mr. ulark takes. 
Take a field rather, on which early potatoes have 
been grown. I suspect that very few who have tried 
seeding by the Clark method have followed his plan 
in all its details, including the use of the same ferti¬ 
lizers, Spring and Fall. In most cases they have suc¬ 
ceeded in getting a thick stand of plants, and then 
watched them starve for want of sufficient avail¬ 
able food. I might as well expect to put 50 hens in 
one of my small 10x12-foot houses, give them the 
amount of food needed by a dozen hens, and then 
expect them to lay eggs. The Timothy plants that 
have written my initials on the hillside, in characters 
that can be easily read a mile away, are a daily re¬ 
minder of the importance of supplying a plant, as 
well as a hen, with an abundance of all the elements 
of food it needs. I rather expected to see the effect 
of the nitrate of soda upon the Timothy plants in 
question disappear, after the first crop was harvested. 
To my surprise, tne writing is more distinct, if pos¬ 
sible, in the second growth than it was in the main 
crop. Another surprising thing about it is the fact 
that the whole field received a good top-dregsing of 
stable manure last Winter. Most of us have acted on 
the belief that stable manure supplies available nitro¬ 
gen freely. The manure is thickly strewn on this 
sod, yet the grass was short and sickly, except where 
the nitrate of soda was applied. In one corner of the 
field a small load of night-soil was applied. Here, 
also, the grass is thick and rank. These facts prove 
to me that even stable manure does not always con¬ 
tain nitrogen to form a well-balanced plant food. 
WHAT MADE THE CHICKS DIE.—Here is a 
chicken experience from western New York: 
I think if Mr. Mapes will take the hover from one of 
his brooders and pry the boards apart he will find the 
cause of all his trouble. I have a Cyphers incubator and 
No. 2 Peep-o’-Day brooder; last year we lost but few 
chicks all Summer; this year the first two hatches went 
through all right. The third hatch began to die when 
about two weeks old, and when I took them from this 
brooder when they were three weeks old we had lost one- 
half of them. I put them in a home-made brooder and 
lost, no more of this brood. What the trouble was we 
could not tell. I fed them the same as last vear. We 
said hen lice, but could not find one in the brooder, not 
even when we looked with a magnifying glass. The next 
brood began to die from the start, and when they were a 
week old nearly one-half were dead and the rest could 
hardly move around, they were so weak. I then took the 
chicks out of this brooder and said I would find the cause 
of the trouble if I had to take the brooder apart. I took 
the hover first, which is made of two thicknesses of 
boards nailed together, and pried the boards apart and 
thus discovered the cause of my chicks dying. Between 
the boards I found millions of hen lice, enough to eat 
up a brood of chickens in two or three days; they would 
go down on the chicks at night and before morning creep 
in between the boards of the hover and stay there during 
the day; not a louse did we ever find in that brooder 
before, and, in fact, did not suppose there was one on 
the place. Now Mr. Mapes may not have the same 
trouble, but it looks very much like it, e. s, 
Olcptt, N. Y, 
I put 25 chicks in one of my brooders in care of a 
Wyandotte hen in place of a lamp, about July 20. For 
the first week they were as bright and lively a lot as 
ever I saw. Then they began to droop and die, just 
as the incubator hatched ones had. By the time E. 
S.’s letter reached me five had died. You may be sure 
I lost no time in looking for mites. I found just a 
few. My hovers are not double boarded, still they 
may have had some hiding place which I did not suc¬ 
ceed in finding. I “cleaned house” at once, using 
kerosene freely on floors and all woodwork, putting 
clean shavings on the floor, which were also damp¬ 
ened with kerosene. Two more have died since. A 
peculiarity about this case is the fact that all my 
chicks that lived until they were full feathered (six or 
seven weeks) are growing and thriving wonderfully 
well, right in the same brooders where they died at 
first. Some were loft in until the cockerels .began to 
crow, before ever they were let out of the small runs. 
I still stick to my original proposition that “I do not 
know,” although 1 shall study this lice theory fur¬ 
ther. 
PURCHASED PULLETS.—I am sure a good many 
readers will watch the outcome of my purchase of 
pullets in the New York live poultry market with in¬ 
terest. Finding I was likely to be short of stock with 
which to make up my laying pens this Fall, I de¬ 
cided to make a trial of such pullets as are to 'be 
found on sale in the live poultry markets of New 
York. A trial shipment of about 100 birds has just 
been received. They are a rough-looking lot, beside 
our Leghorns, They came, I think, from Indiana, 
and are of all sorts and colors, with black and barred 
as predominating colors. They seem to be in fair 
UPPER HALL IN PIGEON HOUSE. FI8. 220. 
condition and good health, however, and may make 
good layers. I shall watch them closely for a time, 
and if they are likely to develop into good laying 
hens, will probably make further purchases. These 
weigh about IV 2 pound each and cost 16 cents per 
pound, or about 25 cents each, delivered at our place. 
1 do not expect their eggs will sell as well as Leg¬ 
horn eggs, but the difference will not be more than 
two or three cents per dozen. In keeping a hen dairy 
egg production is the main dependence. If pullets to 
replace old birds can be successfully purchased, re¬ 
lieving one of the trouble of hatching and raising 
them, eggs could be produced on a much larger scale, 
and may prove as profitable, even at a less price for 
the eggs. 
That “Mighty Michigan Hen,” page 522, is certain¬ 
ly a good one, but does not seem to be able to produce 
an egg every 24 hours on a long stretch. Her record 
would have more weight with the general public if 
she were kept by herself, instead of depending on eggs 
“of certain color and size.” Other hens in the flock 
might lay eggs of same color and size. I once kept 
a hen confined alone, that laid 30 eggs in the month 
of March. Another one laid 236 in a year, moulting 
and growing a new coat of leathers in the meantime. 
When we find one that will lay 300 eggs in 300 con¬ 
secutive days, the American hen may be said to be 
fairly started on a career, which, somewhere down 
the ages, will take rank with the career of the Jersey 
COW. O. W. MAPES. 
ASPARAGUS RUST.—At this date no rust has ap¬ 
peared on asparagus in this vicinity, but the stalks 
are smaller than usual and have had this fault since 
about June 20, when first noticed. Some of the most 
intelligent growers attribute this to the dry weather 
in May and June, others to the rust last year. 
Middletown, N, J, e, beekman. 
WHICH IS THE BEST CULTIVATOR ? 
The Riggs corn plow, reference to which was made 
in a recent article on Mr. Lewis’s farming in The R. 
N.-Y. is well known here. While, no doubt, it will 
be found excellent for hilling up, I regard it as a 
failure for a general-purpose cultivator, and I have 
used it as well as various other makes of both walk¬ 
ing and riding plows. It will not plow from the hill, 
and for level cultivation it is no good at all. It can¬ 
not be adjusted as to depth, and has been here super¬ 
seded by the Kugler plow, which has a pair of 
wooden runners, is perfectly adjustable to plow at 
any depth, also to plow from the row as well as to 
the row. It was invented by Oliver Kugler, who is 
now a retired citizen of this town. The latter plow 
has no tongue and, therefore, the horses, in turning, 
will break down fewer plants. But I no longer use 
either of these plows, as I wish something with which 
to give level cultivation, or, at least, partially so. The 
plan of tending corn which has long been in vogue 
here among the conservative farmers is of two essen¬ 
tial parts; first, the plowing from the hill, and, sec¬ 
ond, the plowing to the hill. Sometimes when the 
corn is in tassel they go through it with a turning 
plow—a round to the row. That “makes the ears” 
and is regarded as high farming, which, in a certain 
sense, it is. They want something that will “hill up,” 
and, if they can get their corn rows looking like a 
Georgia cracker’s sweet potato patch they think they 
have done a good job. 
I will not here repeat the well-known arguments 
in favor of level cultivation, it being sufficient to say 
that 1 have tried it enough to show clearly its superi¬ 
ority. Of course there are circumstances and crops 
when some hilling is desirable, but the riding plow I 
now have for level cultivation will also do excellent 
hilling, although it is not quite so easy to manage as 
a hiller. It is a straight-axle plow with four narrow 
shares on each side. The three outer shares on each 
side are fixed to run in line with the wheels, while the 
two shares on either side of the row move from side 
to side and are managed by the feet. It is adjustable 
for any kind of work. After some practice closer 
work can be done with it, and it can be done more 
easily than any cultivator I know of. Unless there 
is much hilly land it is easier to run than a pivot- 
wheel plow. I should like to see t-he experience of 
others on this subject given in The R. N.-Y. 
Hunterdon Co., N. J. g. davis. 
FARMING IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY. 
Part XII. 
Potato bugs began on our vines during the fore part 
of July, but by July 28 all danger was past. A dry 
powder gun is used in the garden and in the field 
when the bugs are in patches, but this year the six- 
row sprayer was kept busy for several days. It is 
equipped with a rotary force pump and Bordeaux 
nozzles, and one horse and a man can cover from 30 
to -.j acres a day In spraying fields over one-fourth 
of a mile from the barn a man and team are required 
to haul water for the machine; otherwise it is driven 
to the water tank when empty. Two pounds of Paris- 
green were put in every time the barrel on the machine 
was filled with water, and at this rate it required 1% 
pound to the acre. The manufacturer of the machine 
recommends only half as much Paris-green as we 
used, but we prefer to use it as strong as the vines 
will stand. The White Ohio was slightly burned, the 
plants seem more tender than the other varieties. In 
using the dry powder gun flour is mixed with the 
green, three or four pounds of flour to one of Paris- 
green. One large grower who uses guns exclusively 
applies the Paris-green pure. 
Our haying has been comparatively light, about 30 
acres of wheat that was badly infested with wild oats 
has been cut, also a few acres of oats. It was intend¬ 
ed to cut more of the oats for hay, but the stand was 
so fine we thought it more profitable to let them ripen 
and buy prairie hay. The very best prairie hay can 
be bought, in the bunches, for $2.50 per load with a 
seven-mile haul. 
The White Ohio potato is beginning to ripen. It 
appears to be Sxightly earlier than the Early Ohio or 
Acme, although this is the first year we have grown 
it. The soil where they are planted is not as fertile 
as that where the others are, and this may account 
for the earlier ripening. Bliss Triumph is undoubted¬ 
ly the best potato for late planting we can grow. They 
may be planted a week or 10 days later than the Early 
Ohio and then mature a crop. 
Barley harvest is in progress, and wheat harvest 
will begin about August 8. me wheat crop promises 
to yield well, the best for several years provided no 
hot wind or other mishap befalls it before harvest. 
Fifteen bushels to the acre is a fair yield, 20 a good 
crop, 25 and 30 bumper crops. Probably the average 
yield in the Valley is between 15 and 20 bushels to the 
acre. Perhaps the eastern farmer will question how 
we make farming pay with these yields, but he must 
remember that our land is new and fertile, no ferti¬ 
lizers, commercial or otherwise, have to be applied 
and with large fields, unfenced, and machinery with 
which one man can do the maximum amount of work, 
we are in a position to grow wheat as cheap as it can 
be grown in any other locality and very much cheaper 
than in the older States. J. o. f»< 
Wolverton, Minn. 
