654 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 27 
to cut that grass, haul and feed it to stock and then 
haul back the manure! Another would be equally 
sure that it would pay to turn in sheep or hogs to eat 
the grass and fallen fruit. This last plan seemed rea¬ 
sonable to me until I saw the orchard. These trees 
are purposely low. The fruit is so near the ground 
that a hog or sheep of average size would destroy a 
third of it and ruin the lower part of tree besides. 
The removal of the grass would also destroy the 
mulch, which is the keynote of Mr. Hitchings’s prac¬ 
tice. Mr. J. S. Woodward is the great advocate ot 
pasturing orchards, but I think even he would not ad¬ 
vise it under these conditions. 
But what does this mulch do? Let us see if we can 
make the theory clear! We hear of people who are 
said to feed ilw land. Other’s feed the crop through 
the land. Mr. Hitchings proposes to feed the land it¬ 
self to the trees, without adding plant food from out¬ 
side sources. The chemists tell us that in an acre of 
ordinary soil, four feet deep, there is more than 
enough potash to give 1,500 ordinary crops, with 
phosphoric acid enough to last nearly 600 years, and 
nitrogen for nearly 200. This plant food is in the 
soil, but mostly in such form that it is not available 
to ordinary plants. As I understand them, those who 
cultivate so thoroughly intend to put large quantities 
of plant food into the soil and then stimulate the tree 
to take it out again. They also claim that by keeping 
the upper surface well stirred into a “dust mulch” 
they hold large amounts of water which would other¬ 
wise be evaporated. 
Mr. Hitchings observed that the old orchard on the 
farm continued to give good crops of fine apples 
though it was never plowed and cultivated. Was 
there any “luck” about it, or was this the result of 
some fixed principle of natural law? Of course, like 
every farm boy, he observed that whenever an old 
fence row or a stone wall was pulled up the strip of 
land where it stood painted the crops for years. Let 
a pile of hay or weeds rot on the ground, or lay 
boards flat on the soil during August and September, 
and the crops which followed always brightened up 
on these spots, though no extra manure or fertilizer 
was used. Why was this? The scientific men were 
by no means sure of their ground when Mr. Hitch¬ 
ings began to ask his questions. Slowly, by general 
consent, there came to be one answer to the question 
—bacteria! Mr. Hitchings decided to try to make 
these tiny organisms which the scientific men call 
bacteria do for his orchards what the army of horses 
and men do for the fruit growers who cultivate and 
use manure. To be exact, this is just what Mr. 
Hitchings has undertaken to uo. At one time he 
visited the farm of a strong advocate of constant cul¬ 
tivation. There were nearly 20 horses standing idle 
through six months of the year. They ran the culti¬ 
vators half the year and stood still the other half. 
The fertilizer bill on this farm ran up into the thou¬ 
sands. Mr. Hitchings grows just as good fruit, buys 
no fertilizer and keeps only horses enough to haul 
his crops to market. Down under that thick mulch, 
however, are millions of uny bacteria working for 
him just as surely as the horses work on the other 
farm. He has them harnessed just as the horses are, 
because he has, with his mulch, supplied the condi¬ 
tions best liked by the bacteria. Now when the aver¬ 
age farmer undertakes to utilize bacteria he is giving 
an example of strong faith. He can hardly hope to see 
one of them, for they are visible only through a pow¬ 
erful microscope, yet Mr. Hitchings has gone ahead, 
firm in his belief that these unseen agents will work 
for him just as surely as the larger farm stock will, 
if directed, do his service. He cared little about what 
they look like but very much about what they uid. 
The brewer and the hutter-maker both make use of 
bacteria to improve their products and increase the 
amount of it In order to obtain these results they 
must heat and handle the malt or the cream so as to 
give just the right conditions for bacterial growth. 
This is just what Mr. Hitchings tries to do with his 
thick mulch, for this supplies shade and moisture, 
both of which turn the bacteria into happy and ambi¬ 
tious hired men. These little servants down in the 
ground break up and set free the natural fertility of 
the soil far more effectively than the big hired man 
who works over the compost heap with his manure 
fork. I refer to this at some length because I want 
to make it clear that Mr. Hitchings has tried to start 
a thoroughly scientific method, based on a study of 
bacterial action in the soil. This will be referred to 
more fully next week. h. w. c. 
WINDMILL FACTS WANTED.—I intend to purchase 
a power of some kind for running my feed cutter, pump¬ 
ing water and doing other similar work in my stock 
barn. I have been giving careful attention to the articles 
on windmills as powers, which have appeared from time 
to time, and would like to get a little more information 
regarding them. I should be pleased if I could hear 
more from farmers through The R. N.-Y., who are using 
windmill powers; what kind of mill to get, how to con¬ 
struct frame work, and what they can be depended upon 
to do, size of mill, cost, etc. Our locality is first class 
for wind. a. p. 
Owego, N. Y. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
HEN SHRINKAGE.—Suppose we uncover the 
“skeleton in the closet” of the hen dairy, and take a 
peep this week. Away over in the back field, a short 
walk beyond the farthest colony of hens, will be found 
an innocent looking platform, with a small trap door 
in the center. Beneath this trap door there is a deep 
excavation, like a well, except that there is no water 
in it. Through this trap door many a dead hen or 
chicken has found its way. It is also a convenient 
receptacle for an occasional dead pig, dog, cat, skunk, 
etc. In hot weather it is sometimes found necessary 
to cover the contents with a thin layer of earth. A 
recent census shows that there are only 1,350 hens on 
hand, a shrinkage of about 125 since last Spring. A 
few have been sold, and a few killed for home con¬ 
sumption, but most of them have gone through that 
trap door. 
“What!” said a neighbor, “a hundred dead hens in 
one Summer? That is awful.” 
“Have you lost any?” said I. 
“Not over three or four,” was the reply. 
“How large a flock do you keep?” was my next 
question. 
“About 30,” he answered. Further comment is 
unnecessary, for those who will take the trouble to 
reckon the percentage. In some past seasons we have 
been less fortunate. We have frequently had a run 
of what seemed to be cholera in some form. The 
Summer of 1901 was particularly troublesome in this 
respect. The disease was evidently communicated 
through the digestive tract, since its progress from 
one colony to another could be distinctly traced. As 
J. E. FEItRALL, OF OHIO. Fig. 265. 
soon as it appeared in a colony we would keep those 
hens closely confined to the house, to avoid their 
mingling with other flocks. We seldom lost over 20 
per cent of a flock in this way, and never had it run 
through very many colonies at once. It has not ap¬ 
peared at all this season, for some reason. The hens 
have been more vigorous and have laid better than 
common, due perhaps to the fact that we have been 
able to obtain skim-milk all the time with which 
to wet the balanced ration. 
HEN-KILLING DOGS.—We lost a good many hens 
a few Summers ago from dogs. Occasionally a young 
dog will develop a mania for killing hens, as they do 
for killing sheep. Such dogs are apt to train in pairs. 
They will catch a hen, bite it through the back, 
crushing the ribs, and then chase down another. We 
found two strange dogs at work one day in this man¬ 
ner, but not until they had killed over 20. After a 
few days they reappeared, and killed about the same 
number before the hired man appeared on the scene 
with a gun. One of the dogs fell a victim to his sure 
aim, but the other made his escape. With the dead 
dog in the wagon we scoured the country for miles 
around and finally located his mate. A suit at law 
resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff, and established 
the fact that the owner of a dog is liable for damages 
in a case of this kind. 
THE RECORD HEN IS MOULTING.—White Betty 
has concluded to take a vacation. She quit laying 
September 2, and at this writing (September 11) her 
coop is thickly strewn with loose feathers. She is 
already in full moult. The first lesson she teaches 
me at this time is, that a moulting hen needs less 
food than a laying hen. No change has been made in 
her food (Balanced Ration made partly from skim- 
milk solids in dry form), except to reduce the daily 
allowance. I shall await further developments. How 
long before she will be through with her moult suffi¬ 
ciently to begin laying again? I shall be disappointed 
if she asks for much more than a month’s vacation. 
OLD LAYING STOCK—We have between 200 and 
300 hens that are five years old and over, which we 
expected to sell last Winter. They began to lay, how¬ 
ever, before satisfactory market was found, so we de¬ 
cided to -wait until after their “Spring w r ork” was 
done. I have watched them carefully all the sea¬ 
son and have failed to detect any noticeable differ¬ 
ence between the egg yield of those pens, and of the 
younger hens. They have performed their full quota 
of work at the nests, and are still doing so. It looks 
as though their period of usefulness is not yet pass¬ 
ed. This is not theory, but practice. One of them 
began to moult very early. On August 8 she was 
nearly naked, and her comb was dull and small. She 
was then placed in a coop beside White Betty’s, and 
fed three ounces a day from the same mixture, wet 
with cold water and nothing else. By September 9 
she had grown a perfect coat of glossy feathers and a 
large red comb, which would puzzle most people to 
have distinguished her from a young hen, as her 
cackle announced that her Fall campaign had com¬ 
menced. She weighed three pounds eight ounces Au¬ 
gust 8, and four pounds eight ounces September 10. 
AVAILABLE NITROGEN.—There was a statement 
in Hope Farm Notes a few weeks ago which is likely 
to prove the most effective eye-opener which has re¬ 
cently come my way, if it is true. I refer to the state¬ 
ment that the nitrogen of organic matter is not avail¬ 
able as plant food until after it is “broken up,” or re¬ 
leased from its combination with other matter. My 
attention had never been called to the matter before 
If that is true, then the most important question con¬ 
fronting the agricultural student of to-day hinges 
right there, if my reasoning powers are to be depend¬ 
ed on. If I could have the direction of work in some 
of the chemists’ laboratories of our experiment sta¬ 
tions, every effort should be bent towards the discov¬ 
ery of some economical and practical way of unlock¬ 
ing the nitrogen of the organic matter in the soil and 
in stable manure. Now that my attention is called 
to it I can see evidences on every hand that it is true. 
Nitrate of soda is already soluble in water, and the 
reason why it enabled the Timothy plants in my field 
to write my initials so distinctly on the hillside where 
stable manure failed, is made plain. I have a field of 
turnips, following raspberries, which had been heav¬ 
ily fertilized with potash and phosphoric acid. The 
turnips look yellow and stunted. About 10 days ago 1 
sowed a strip across the field with nitrate of soda, 
and its good effect was almost instantaneous. The 
leaves are already shooting up with great vigor, and 
have taken on that dark green velvety look, indicat¬ 
ing a well-fed plant. The same explanation applies. 
PLANT FEEDING.—I said in a recent number of 
The R. N.-Y. that hen manure “seems to have an effect 
out of all proportion to its chemical analysis.” The 
kidney secretions are all contained in the poultry 
droppings, and is it not probable that they are readily 
available as plant food, just as in the liquid excre¬ 
tions of animals? I also said that hen manure showed 
best results on Timothy and corn. These plants are 
what are called carbonaceous plants. They absorb 
large quantities of carbon from the air, through their 
leaves. As is well understood, nitrogen promotes a 
rapid leaf development, thus enabling this class of 
plants to draw liberally on the air for their necessary 
supply of carbon. I have a row of 25 peach trees that 
I am watching with much interest. They are “on 
their last legs,” as the saying goes. I suppose some 
would say that they are dying with the yellows. The 
crop borne last year was ample, but the quality was 
poor and bitter. I stood looking at them one day in 
June, when something suggested to me a similarity 
between their appearance, and that of the starved 
Timothy plants in the adjoining field. Acting on the 
inspiration, I hurried to the barn, procured a few 
pounds of nitrate of soda, and scattered it around two 
of the trees. They did not respond quite as quickly 
as the Timothy and the turnips, but after two weeks 
those two trees took on a new lease of life, while the 
rest of the row have continued to turn yellow and die. 
Those two trees have since made a vigorous growth 
of healthy-looking leaves and wood, and matured as 
large and luscious peaches as in their palmy young 
days. Possibly the disease we have been calling yel¬ 
lows is simply starvation. There are great possibili¬ 
ties in the study of this subject. “Feed the land and 
the land will feed you” is an old saying. Let us dis¬ 
card it, and adopt in its place this maxim: Feed the 
plant and the plant will feed you. o. w. mapes. 
THE SQUAB BUSINESS.—On page 557 was an il¬ 
lustrated description of the plant of the Eastnor 
Pigeon Co. We have received two additional pictures, 
shown on page 655. Fig. 266 gives a close-range view 
of a section of the flying yard. This is covered with 
wire netting, but is so roomy that it is not a prison, 
even for a pigeon. Fig. 267 shows a portion of the 
packing house, where the squabs are prepared for 
market. 
