1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
WHY I TAKE THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
First, I consider it tfee best agricultural journal 
printed to-day, it contains the essence of agricul¬ 
tural literature. Second, it is printed on the best 
paper, with clean type, and got up in the most con¬ 
venient form. Its market reports are reliable, also its 
advertisers. On two occasions I saved money enough 
by following its advice to pay my subscription for 
life. Third, it is edited, so to speak, by its own sub¬ 
scribers. The articles are up to date, and written by 
practical farmers who have done and are doing service 
every day on their farms, and behind the plow. Such 
reading I consider far more beneficial than that from 
the pen of one who writes for what financial gain 
there is in it only. 
Last, I was a subscriber to the paper when the price 
was double what it is now, and consider I was well 
paid for money expended. I sincerely believe every 
reader, whether he who manages his own private gar¬ 
den, o?’ the man who manages hundreds of acres can 
find food for thought in the columns of Tun R. N.-Y. 
I am a truck and small fruit grower. I therefore prize 
very highly the trial grounds at Little Silver, N. J., 
where hundreds of new plants and fruits are tested 
yearly, and their merits and demerits reported in the 
paper. c. o. itolsart. 
New Jersey. 
MARES , THE HEN MAN. 
THE AUTUMN ROUND-UP.—Do not delay getting 
the hens and pullets into their Winter quarters, if not 
already done. We hope to have our Autumn round-up 
completed before this is in print. The limb of a tree 
is a very poor perch for a hen, after the leaves have 
fallen. Better get her comfortably housed before the 
cold Autumn winds and storms strike her. Aside 
from the risk of exposure, it is best to get the pullets 
into their Winter quarters before they begin to lay. 
The excitement incident to new and strange quarters, 
and new and strange companions, is quite likely to 
stop the egg-producing machinery, if it is already in 
working order. It seems as though nature prompts 
the egg-producing powers to inaction at this time of 
year, and the slightest provocation suffices biddy as 
an excuse to lay off. I am satisfied that the great 
problem to be solved, before we can be sure of a sup¬ 
ply of November, December and January eggs is to 
learn how to overcome this tendency of nature to in¬ 
action at this season. Our five-year-old hen that 
moulted early, and began to lay early, was lately re¬ 
moved to new and strange surroundings and com¬ 
panions. She seems to have made this an excuse to 
quit laying. She was laying regularly when removed, 
and her comb was as bright and large as a pullet’s in 
April. Her present dull appearance indicates that she 
does not expect to lay another egg before Spring. I 
shall try to surprise her out of her apathy again, if 
possible. This emphasizes the importance of getting 
the pullets into their regular Winter quarters before 
egg-producing begins. 
FALL HOUSECLEANING.—In addition to making 
all snug and warm for the Winter, it is well to begin 
now to fight next Summer’s crop of lice. We shall 
give our houses a thorough cleaning before confining 
the hens in them for Winter, and apply kerosene free¬ 
ly on perches, in order to destroy any stray lice. The 
breeding season for mites is about past, and it is bet¬ 
ter to destroy all breeding stock now, than to allow 
them to crawl into the cracks, to come forth ready 
for business at the approach of warm weather again. 
An application of kerosene or other lice killer now and 
again very early in Spring, and the battle is half over 
for next Summer. 
THE ROUP PROBLEM.—Why is it that roup is so 
apt to break out in the young stock soon after they 
are pul into Winter quarters? My experience and ob¬ 
servation lead me to believe that this disease or 
scourge is more troublesome at this time of year than 
at any other. The stereotyped advice seems to be 
that cracks in the house are the cause of roup. It is 
more likely, in my opinion, that the germs of the dis¬ 
ease remain in the poultry house from one season to 
the next. The young stock escape infection while run¬ 
ning at large and roosting in the trees, perhaps, but 
after they are put into the hennery, where the germs 
of the disease have survived since last season, they 
are soon attacked. Is a chicken which has had an at¬ 
tack of roup, even in a mild form, and recovered 
therefrom, immune from further attacks? There are 
doubtless exceptions enough to prove the rule, but as 
a general thing I believe this to be the case. I have 
about made up my mind that it was roup which caused 
so many of my iate-hatched chicks to die. Many of 
them had sore eyes, which I noticed at the time. Those 
that survived seem to be immune from the disease. 
The pen of 15 New York roosters, referred to last 
week, were put in one of the pens of the long brooder 
house to fatten. Two of them have the genuine ar¬ 
ticle, yet it has not communicated to a single one of 
the White Leghorns raised in the house, so far as I 
can see, although there are about 200 of them still in 
the house, some of them only separated by a single 
wire partition from the roupy ones. 
MILK FOR HENS.—A Vermont reader asks these 
questions: 
I have recently purchased 15 pullets and a dozen year¬ 
ling hens; began feeding them Mr. Mapes’s balanced 
ration of cracked corn, wheat and skim-milk, sweet, be¬ 
fore them all the time. It has caused scouring. What, is 
the cause and cure? One of my neighbors says you can¬ 
not feed sweet skim-milk to hens without their scouring. 
He mixes a mash with it and also lets it sour and gives 
them the curd without the whey. My hens also have 
water, oyster shells, grit, any waste from the table, a 
cabbage or whole beet to pick on. c. p. b. 
Lewiston, Vt. 
Although sweet skim-milk sometimes has a laxa¬ 
tive effect on the bowels, I have never known it to 
injure the hens, or cause sickness. As to the cause, I 
shall not attempt to say. The cure is to let the milk 
sour and become loppered before using. This I find 
to be safest and most satisfactory for either hens or 
pigs. I have fed tons of milk curd or pot cheese to 
hens, but did not get as good results from it as from 
the entire skim-milk. Some imagine that because 
whey is nearly colorless it has no value. Evaporate 
it and you will be surprised at the amount of solids it 
contains. Nearly all of the mineral salts contained 
in nature’s complete food (milk) will be found in the 
whey. Their peculiar taste, once experienced, will 
never be forgotten. 
THE END OF BILLY G.—Billy G., like the Mother 
Goose pigs, has gone to market. He lacked one day 
A CALIFORNIA WIND POWER. FIG. 308. 
of being seven months old when butchered, and dress¬ 
ed 209 pounds. Our market calls for pigs of 100 to 125 
pounds for top price, and we were only able to get 
nine cents per pound for him. This makes the last of 
a lot of 20 Spring pigs kept for feeding. For the oth¬ 
ers we were able to get 9 V 2 and 10 cents per pound. 
A number of them dressed 150 pounds each and over. 
I did not think it wise to let Billy make a gormand 
of himself during the whole season. A pig or a hen 
might keep in good health on a long stretch of such 
feeding (with food lying constantly before it, so it 
can balance its own ration), but I never have tried it 
on a pig longer than 75 days. If I had sufficient milk 
I should certainly keep our whole batch of 88 Fall pigs 
that way, and expect to have them all ready for mar¬ 
ket in 75 days. o. w. mapes. 
WIND POWER IN CALIFORNIA. 
Noting the inquiry of G. P., page 654, I am moved 
to send you a photograph (Fig. 308) of a very good 
barn for a small ranch. Windmill is 12 feet on a 30- 
foot steel tower. Tower is bolted to timbers framed 
into the building just above second floor, so it stands 
40 feet to center of wheel. Shaft extends to grinder 
on the first floor. Grinder is fitted with foot gear and 
pulley, so the mill operates pump or any other ma¬ 
chinery not over two horse power. Barn is 30x40 feet; 
stalls for four horses in rear end, remainder of first 
floor used as grinding room, workshop, carriage and 
tool house. Second story 15 feet from floor to highest 
part of roof, supplied with horse fork, used as hay 
mow; will hold 25 tons. Rafters made of lx2-inch 
stuff, bent and nailed together four-ply, easier to 
build than ordinary style of roof, stronger, encloses 
more space for less cost; no tie braces or other ob¬ 
structions on the inside, and none is needed. If any 
of your readers want better description I will fur¬ 
751 
nish it, or will furnish you more details if desired. My 
ranch, 14 acres, is devoted to fruits and Alfalfa. 
Tulare Co., Cal. jajees l. howell. 
ALL SORTS. 
THICK MULCH ON STRAWBERRIES.—On page 
624 one of your correspondents mentions covering 
several acres of strawberries with horse manure four 
to five inches in thickness. If I have figured right 
this requires 113 to 141 cords per acre. Such an im¬ 
mense quantity of manure would make the land too 
rich for any crop, especially when the land must be 
rich to nourish the plants until covering time. Such 
a heavy covering would smother out the plants on 
our soil. g. c. w. 
Williamstown, Mass. 
ALFALFA IN ORCHARDS.—Many people seem to 
think that because Alfalfa is a clover, and the clovers 
are recommended for sowing in orchards, it must be 
suitable for such use. This is a great mistake. Al¬ 
falfa is one of the most valuable of all plants for its 
crop of forage and its roots contain elements of plant 
food that put the soil in excellent condition for other 
crops after the sod is turned under; but the Alfalfa 
crop is so vigorous that it robs the trees of the mois¬ 
ture that they need. Anyone who has ever tried Al¬ 
falfa in an orchard will never do it again. It is not 
only one of the most greedy crops, but its roots are 
so deep and hard to kill that it is a job to get rid of 
them. k. e. v. d. 
LIME AND ALFALFA.—Several weeks ago in Hope 
Farm Notes the sickly color and spindly growth of 
the Alfalfa was mentioned. Try a good dressing of 
lime or a heavy application of wood ashes. I seeded 
a small piece to Alfalfa in June, 1901. The plants 
have the same sickly growth that you report, with 
the exception of a small plot perhaps 20 feet in diam¬ 
eter. A brush heap was burned here five years ago. 
The difference is as marked as black against white. 
I did not consider this soil acid, as White clover comes 
in naturally whenever given an opportunity, and is 
now covering the land with the exception of the afore-, 
said plot. I believe Alfalfa is very sensitive to acidity 
of soil, as Red clover grows luxuriantly as well as the 
White on this same ground. o. r. s. 
Ballston Lake, N. Y. 
CURRANT NOTES.—In the Spring of 1896 I planted 
1,000 two-year-old plants five feet apart each way, 
and have given them clean culture; have picked fruit 
from them five seasons. The varieties were Victoria, 
Versailles, Fay, Pomona, White Grape and White 
Dutch. Since then I have added President Wilder, 
Red Cross and White Imperial. The soil is heavy 
clay over limestone rock. I have trimmed them as 
soon as the crop of fruit was harvested, removing all 
suckers except when one was needed to fill up or bal¬ 
ance the head. Versailles and Fay produced the larg¬ 
est fruit, Victoria produced the quarts, and the quarts 
make the profit. I have a home market at five and 
six cents per quart for all I grow. I tried to sell Ver¬ 
sailles and Fay for 10 cents, and failed. Thinking to 
do better I shipped to a commission house expecting 
10 cents, but returns showed less than four cents net, 
which was not agreeable. Last year and this our Vic¬ 
toria bushes averaged nearly eight quarts to the bush, 
Versailles and Fay three, and Pomona about four. A 
fair price per 1,000 for currant bushes two years old 
would be $20 to $30; boxing and freight extra. There 
is profit in currants for a home market and loss when 
more are grown according to my experience. 
Illinois. s. e. hall. 
LEFT HAND PLOWING.—I have been reading with 
special interest the articles printed in The R. N.-Y. 
on the left-hand plow and its use, but it seems to me 
none of the writers has struck the keynote as yet, 
and I thought perhaps I might. We use left-hand 
plows because our four farm horses are all trained to 
drive with single or “jerk” line. We then put the 
line on the lead or left-hand horse, and put him in 
the furrow. The horse which walks on the land, or 
“off horse,” is hitched with a “jockey stick,” and 
coupled with a strap running from his bridle rein to 
the leader’s trace—this manner of coupling gives bet¬ 
ter satisfaction than when the strap is attached di¬ 
rectly to the bit. as it does not pull the horse’s head 
to one side. When horses are hitched this way there is 
no trouble holding a uniform furrow; the leader fol¬ 
lows the furrow and the other one will not “crowd.” 
Your team requires practically no attention from one 
corner of the field to next. They will turn quicker 
at the corner and be much more comfortable to drive 
than if check lines are used. I find it very incon¬ 
venient to use two lines when plowing; that second 
one is always in the way. Of course this same result 
could be attained with a right-hand plow by putting 
the line on the “off sider,” the jockey on the leader, 
and using the line in the right hand, but that would 
be so inconvenient that I do not think anyone would 
try it the second time. I know a man who used it 
once, but he told me once was enough. If one wants 
to keep his field free from ridges and ditches he must 
turn to the right as often as to the left, so that I do 
not think that influences very many when buying a 
plow. These remarks apply only to walking plows, 
and will not hold good for sulky plows. 
Alleghany Co., Pa. oiias. j. wot.fe. 
