£^try 
Vol. LXI. No. 2755. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 15, 1902. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
A PUMPKIN FEEDER TALKS. 
The Seeds Are Not Dangerous. 
How glad I would be if I had 30 to 40 good big 
wagonloads piled along the fences convenient to feed 
out to the fattening hogs, cows, brood sows, horses 
and fattening lambs! For two years the crop has 
been a failure on Oak Grove Farm. Not many are 
seen anywhere in these parts this year. Experience 
teaches that it is a most uncertain crop grown in 
corn, and this is the only place that I try to grow 
them. In feeding pumpkins there is a good deal in 
the way it is done to get the most out of them. Be¬ 
cause they are plentiful it is not best to be too lib¬ 
eral in feeding. It is much better to feed at a time 
what the stock will eat up clean in a short period. 1 
have seen farmers haul them by the wagonload and 
scatter them in the pasture field where the different 
kinds of stock could get them. They are plentiful, 
and the farmer thinks 
this is the easiest way to 
get rid of them. It is 
certainly the most waste¬ 
ful way. I would rather 
see them rot in the field 
where they grew than to 
have them rot because 
the stock do not care to 
eat them, as a result of 
overfeeding, which has 
caused a distaste for 
them. 
With my horses it has 
seemed that they never 
could get too many, espe¬ 
cially if they had to reach 
over a fence for them. A 
few years ago one season 
something like 80 tons 
were grown in the corn. 
Probably nearly one-third 
were lost because they 
could not be fed out be¬ 
fore being frozen. Those 
fed out were fed with as 
much care as though the 
supply had been limited. 
It was the custom to feed 
twice a day to the hogs, 
and they were fed before 
feeding corn. I found that 
by feeding the pumpkins 
first the appetite for corn 
was not destroyed, but if 
a full feed of corn was 
fed first they did not care 
much for the pumpkin ration. When fed to the lambs 
they were sliced up with a corn knife and fed in the 
hay racks, in such quantities as they would clean up 
nicely. To start the lambs to eating them quickly 
and altogether they were salted a little at first, till 
a taste was formed for them. When once they have 
learned to eat them they relish them very much. 
They are certainly good appetizers and tend to pre¬ 
vent constipation. When fed to the hogs they were 
thrown over the fence on to the feeding grounds; 
those not being broken open by the fall were cut open 
with a corn knife. It is safest to feed to cows by just 
cutting them open and not cutting them into pieces. 
I do not know how the belief originated that the 
seeds were injurious when fed to milk cows. The 
Hope Farm man fears that his pigs will get too many 
of the seeds. Now I wonder if he ever saw a pig that 
had eaten too many pumpkin seeds, or anyone who 
was sure he had seen such a sight? If a score or 
more of pumpkins were cut open and a hungry pig 
allowed all ’.he seed he would eat they would probably 
be bad for him, but when he eats the remainder of 
the pumpkin with the seeds they certainly can do no 
harm. I suggest that the Hope Farm man try feeding 
a few pumpkins seed and all to his pigs. I think he 
will be glad to be relieved of the unpleasant job of 
taking the seeds out before feeding. 
1 have no doubt that there are scores and scores 
of hard and overworked farmers’ wives in this coun¬ 
try who are this Fall carefully taking the seeds out 
of the pumpkins fed the cows, for fear the cows will 
go dry and other calamities follow, such as short 
grocery supplies, etc. None of these, I venture, ever 
saw a cow that went dry from this cause; more 
probably on account of short pasture. I have much 
sympathy for the women who think it best to do this 
work, and for the children who must do it now, as 
cold, freezing weather comes on many of them work¬ 
ing barehanded and exposed to wind, frost and snow. 
And this all on account of a wrong conclusion some¬ 
body has arrived at nobody knows how long ago! 
Usually it is considered an unpleasant job to save 
the seed and get them cleaned. This I found is very 
much simplified by jolting the pumpkin on the floor 
or ground, as the case may be. before cutting. This 
jolting loosens the seed from the strings and makes 
them easy to scoop out fre' from the fiber. But few 
farmers save and plant enough seed and fail to se¬ 
cure a profitable < -op on this account. 
Ohio. joiin sr. .jamison. 
R. N.-Y.—The Hope Farm man says that he took the 
general opinion about feeding pumpkin seed without 
personal experience. In order to test the matter he 
turned a hungry pig in where pumpkin seed had been 
scooped out. The pig ate quantities of them clear, 
but no bad effects have been observed. It is true that 
medical authorities say that the seeds contain a prin¬ 
ciple which acts upon the kidneys. They are more 
likely to hurt humans than hogs. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Pigs and Poultry at the Hen Dairy. 
FEEDING FOR EGGS.—Now comes the season of 
the year when the beginner in the poultry business is 
apt to give up in disgust. It is all very well to talk 
about big profits from hens when eggs are highest in 
price, but the chances are a good deal more than 16 
to 1 that the outgo will exceed the income for the 
next three months. Bulletin No. 204 of Cornell Ex¬ 
periment Station, recently issued, gives an account of 
some cooperative experiments in feeding hens for 
eggs from December 1, 1901, to March 29, 1902. These 
were conducted by men of long experience with poul¬ 
try, and included 12 different flocks and over 2,100 
hens. Only four flocks out of the 12 laid enough eggs 
during December to pay for the food consumed. The 
best flock of 150 pullets only gave a return of $13.02 
above cost of food, and a similar flock of one-year-old 
hens owned by the same 
man and fed in identical¬ 
ly the same way failed to 
lay eggs enough to pay 
for food consumed. No¬ 
vember is even a harder 
month than December to 
get any profit from poul¬ 
try. 
PIGS AND POULTRY. 
—It was partly for this 
reason that I started in 
the pig business. I was 
looking for some branch 
of farming that would 
match well with a hen 
dairy and help tide over 
the lean streak in the in¬ 
come during Fall and 
Winter. Results thus far 
indicate that pigs and 
hens will make a good 
combination. Spring pigs 
can be kept and fed with¬ 
out hardship during Sum¬ 
mer when the income 
from the hens is good, 
and a good lot of pork 
to sell early in Autumn 
helps to keep the ball 
rolling. We only fattened 
20 Spring pigs, but they 
brought us $235. We are 
now pushing the Fall lit¬ 
ters for all they are 
worth, and the earlier 
ones will soon be ready 
to begin butchering. We are counting on nearly 
$1,000 worth of pork from them. 
What are some of the advantages of pork produc¬ 
tion over milk production? 
First and foremost is economy of labor. The dif¬ 
ference in value of labor required to produce $1,000 
worth of milk or $1,000 worth of pork is all on the 
side of the pigs when you consider that the cows not 
only have to be fed as often as the pigs, but must 
also be milked twice a day, and the product carted to 
market every day, rain or shine, snow or blow. I 
have seen many a farmer drive three or four miles 
with two cans of milk. This must be repeated day 
after day. He might stay at home and watch his pigs 
grow, and when butchering time comes drive to mar¬ 
ket with $100 or $200 worth of pork in the same time 
required to take $2 worth of milk. 
A SUGGESTION FOR WOMEN.—We are getting 
our feeding arrangements systematized, so that it is 
a pleasure to feed a drove of about 100 pigs. I am 
O. W. MAPES AND A BUNCH OF IIIS HENS. Fig. 311. 
