1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
9ii 
. ARTIFICIAL HEAT FOR HENS. 
In regard to artificial heating, I do 
not advocate it in any way, no matter 
how severe the Winter weather may be. 
I have at present about 1,500 laying hens 
housed, but trust entirely to thoroughly 
well-built houses to produce eggs. The 
only system of heating we nave on the 
place is in our brooder house, which ac¬ 
commodates about 3,500 chicks, and is 
controlled by a system of heated water, 
which proves very satisfactory, our pipes 
being over the heads of the chicks 
throughout. To my mind artificial heat 
to laying stock is very injurious, and 1 
would not have any birds that I valued 
housed with it, as I have proved that 
pullets or second-year birds, after hav¬ 
ing passed one Winter in a heated build¬ 
ing, become subject to colds, and prove 
very erratic in their laying. I once tried 
the experiment of taking 20 hens and 
placing them in a greenhouse, with ex¬ 
cellent results, but of course no extra 
was charged against the birds, and after 
being taken and put in an ordinary 
chicken'house, and in very favorable 
weather, they dropped off entirely, not 
having fulfilled nearly their year’s work. 
To my mind artificial heat is injurious 
to poultry, and I think could only be 
run satisfactorily by tremendous ex¬ 
pense, which, I do not think, could be 
covered by the extra production of eggs, 
on anything like the price offered in our 
markets. At the time of writing, I have 
500 birds housed (in scratching-room 
buildings); they are laying splendidly, 
the weather being rather severe. 
Toronto, Canada. j. m. wilson. 
Hogs in the Orchard. —In regard to 
hogs running in an apple orchard, I 
have found them very detrimental, as 
they root up the ground when it is wet, 
throw all the stones on top of the sur¬ 
face, and then pack the ground down 
with their feet, which is very bad for 
the trees, and is contrary to the law of 
cultivation. The ground should be left 
loose and open. Hogs enrich the soil 
with their droppings, but this does not 
compensate for their packing the soil 
when it is wet. My orchard grew fewer 
apples each year that the hogs were in 
it; now I have had them out for two 
years, and this season I got a nice crop 
of fruit. Last year the trees made a 
growth, and this year fruited on it. 
E. V. R. GARDNER. 
Pig Feeding Notes. —The only way 
that I can raise pigs without milk, and 
do i't with a profit, is to cook their food. 
I cook coarse bran, chopped oats and a 
little corn meal. I am satisfied that I 
save 50 per cent in the amount of grain 
fed, and also that the pigs thrive better. 
I do not think that it would be practical 
for other stock. One can utilize a good 
bit of roughage that would otherwise go 
to waste,but coarse bran is my favorite 
feed for hogs, especially for brood sows, 
that being the only feed that I give them 
for six weeks before they drop their 
pigs, and I am not particular whether I 
feed it dry or cooked. Out of 40 pigs 
that I have raised from one sow in two 
years I have never lost one or had any 
trouble with the sow, and she always 
has a splendid flow of milk. I am in 
the hog business to stay, not for fancy 
breeding, but profit. I don’t have any 
scientific principles for feeding, and I 
don’t follow any set rules. I watch 
them when they eat, and when they 
don’t eat one kind of feed to suit me, I 
change to something else. j. c. 
Spartansburg, Pa. 
The Waste of Ensilage. —In The 
R. N.-Y. for December 2, page 829, is an 
article on grinding corn fodder in Kan¬ 
sas, in which this statement is made: 
“Several years’ tests of our experiment 
stations show that ensilage gives a 
waste of a little over 20 per cent, and 
the man who is hankering for a silo, 
having an idea that the ensilage is all 
eaten, should disabuse his mind of that 
now. Well-cured corn fodder, properly 
thrashed and handled, is eaten just as 
close as ensilage, and at far less ex¬ 
pense.” We have a stave silo 26 feet 
high and 16 feet in diameter, made of 
hemlock 2x4, not beveled. We began 
feeding ensilage September 12, and have 
been feeding 21 cows and heifers since 
that time, all that they will eat clean. 
There is less than 10 per cent spoiled 
by mold, it being good to the staves. 
The 21 cattle have not spoiled a bushel 
of ensilage during the last three months. 
They eat all they get, and are doing well. 
Would J. C. Norton explain through the 
paper where his enormous shrinkage oc¬ 
curs? We have cut and thrashed our 
fodder for 10 years, but the cattle do not 
eat it as clean as the ensilage. 
Pennsylvania. j. Aldus iierr. 
Painstaking Breeding. — In the 
breeding of to-day utility swings to the 
front as the chief standard of merit. For 
this to be secured and perpetuated the 
importance of careful, painstaking, sys¬ 
tematic breeding must be everywhere 
insisted upon. The standards of growth 
and production must be raised next 
year, and prepotency in transmitting de¬ 
sirable qualities inhere in all our 
blooded stock in larger degree than 
ever. For this to be recognized and 
made positive to the breeder every score 
card should carry the reasons of the 
judge for his cut on any part, and so 
full a description of each section that 
perfection will be placed above the line 
of present attainments. The man who 
can find nothing to change in an animal 
or product, and so gives perfection on 
parts, is not an idealist, has no high 
conception of perfection, and while for 
the time he may please the vanity of the 
breeder, his influence is sure to dwarf 
judgment and lower the standard of 
excellence. With the fact before us that 
the sharp competition of the future will 
necessitate larger output and finer qual¬ 
ity in order to secure desired revenue, 
the obligation falls clearly and sharply 
upon the breeder to enter into closer 
sympathy and clearer comprehension of 
the intelligent machine spending itself 
for his blessing, dr. g. m. twitchell. 
Secretary Wilson recommends, in his 
annual report, that our export dairy pro¬ 
ducts be more rigidly inspected, to counter¬ 
act the injury done to this trade by un¬ 
scrupulous dealers in the past. We are 
still feeling the results of that filled cheese. 
The National Provisioner says that an 
average ox yields about 182 pounds of 
crude fat, from which are produced 40 
pounds of oleomargarine, 52 pounds of 
stearine acid (marketed mainly as candles), 
52 pounds of oleic acid (worked up into 
soap), six pounds of glycerin, and 32 pounds 
of dry scrap, used as fertilizer. 
The Farmers’ Review says that a town 
in Minnesota is so overrun with cats that 
the local council is thinking of offering a 
bounty for the destruction of the surplus 
felines. The town clerk estimates the 
number within the borough limits at 3,500, 
more than three times the human popula¬ 
tion. The residents engage in cat-shoot¬ 
ing bees twice a week. 
Look out for the man with the patent 
milk preservative, says the Vermont Ex¬ 
periment Station. It is the same material 
now largely in use in creameries for pre¬ 
serving samples of milk for testing. It will 
certainly keep milk from souring; and it 
thus enables the slovenly dairyman to cover 
up many of his worst negligences. It 
leaves him free to enjoy the filth of an un¬ 
clean stable, to save himself the trouble of 
cleaning his cans, to be as loose and lazy 
and wicked as he pleases. 
Lice Killers. —I have never used the 
dips or liquid lice killers, so cannot speak 
of them from experience. We seldom have 
any use for a lice exterminator except when 
shipping stock. We then dust each bird 
thoroughly with one of the dry powdered 
lice killers, which effectually precludes all 
possibility of the fowl being infested with 
vermin when it reaches the buyer. Even 
though a fowl be entirely free from lice 
when shipped it may get them by being 
placed next to a coop of lousy fowls in the 
express car. If poultryhouses are kept 
clean and well ventilated in warm weather 
there should be no trouble with the Red 
mites. Our henhouses are made warm and 
tight for Winter, but on the approach of 
warm weather we gradually accustom the 
fowls to the open air by night as well as 
by day until we leave the windows wide 
open and use the slatted doors also; even 
the peak door leading into the loft is kept 
open, there is a free circulation of air and 
the house is cool and comfortable at all 
times. In Winter a box of fine, dry road 
dust is kept in a sunny spot in the hen¬ 
house, where the fowls can dust themselves, 
and this usually keeps the grey body lice 
under control. h. j. blanchard. 
New York Calf Trade.—I live in a sec¬ 
tion of country where milk-making is the 
farmer’s occupation. We do not want the 
small calves. If wishing to stop the con¬ 
sumption of small calves, none should be 
sold in the State of New York. As the 
law now stands, they can be shipped alive, 
and the New York dealers gain all the 
profits, and the farmers get almost noth¬ 
ing for the calf. Dealers put their 
slaughterhouses just over the Jersey line, 
and run into New York State, get our 
calves for 50 and 75 cents, far less than half 
the fair price, slaughter them in New 
Jersey and sell them in our own State in 
New York City. So you see our legisla¬ 
tors are not stopping the calf traffic of 
New York City, but giving the business to 
outside men, and depriving New York State 
farmers of their just rights. J. Y. G. 
Washingtonville, N. Y. ' 
Increased from 65 to 148 per Day. 
After two weeks’ use of Bowker's Animal Meal my 
hens increased in laying from 65 eggs to 148 eggs per 
day. Other feed was Riven them exactly the same 
as previous to its use. Gko. S. Barney. 
Rehoboth, Mass. 
TEST IT. 
A Babcock tester is a 
g-ood thing—one of the 
best—but butter yield 
under average conditions 
is better. Try a Shar¬ 
pies Hand Separator 
that way, and you win 
every time. The butter 
quality is better, too, and 
the machine is simple and 
durable, easily understood, easily washed, 
no repair bills, etc. A Trial Free. Send 
for Catalogue No. 25. 
The Sharpies Co.. P. M. SHURPLES. 
Canal <fe Washington Sts., West Chester, Pa., 
CHICAGO. U. S. A. 
LUMP JAW 
Easily and thoroughly cured- 
New, common-aenae method, 
not expensive. No eare, no 
pay. FKKE. A practical, ill¬ 
ustrated treatise on the abso¬ 
lute cure of Lamp Jaw, tree to 
readersof thispaper. 
Firming Bros., chemists. 
Union Stock i nrdn, Chicago, Ill. 
Mark. 
NEW 20TH CENTURY 
CREAM SEPARATURS 
Sept. 1st marked the 
introduction of the Im¬ 
proved 20th Century 
** Baby ” or “ Dairy ” sizes 
Of De Laval Cream Sepa¬ 
rators and these newest 
“Alpha” disc machines 
are simply unapproach¬ 
able by anything else in 
the shape of a cream sepa¬ 
rator. Overwhelming as 
has been the conceded su¬ 
periority of the De Laval 
machines heretofore their 
standard is now raised still 
higher and they are more 
than ever placed in a class 
byt liemselves as regards all 
possible competition. 
Send for new catalogue. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
Randolph & Canal St«., I 74 Cortlandt Street, 
CHICAGO. I NEW YORK. 
Top Price Butter. 
The kind that a fancy private 
trade demands, is colored with 
Thatcher’s Orange Butter Color — 
the color that does not contain 
any poison. Send for a sample. 
THATCHER MF8. CO., Potsdam, N.Y. 
Highest "j 
Award ' 
at the | 
World's 
Fair . 
“COREDTO DEATH” 
is the startling headline of many a news 
paper article. Hornless animals are safe 
DEHORNING KEYSTONE KNIFE, 
causes less pain than any device 
made. Cuts on 4 sides at once—clean 
and quick, no crushing or tearing.. 
Fuily warranted. Circular* Ac. KKKK. \ f 
A. C. BROSIUS, COCHRANVILLE, PENN. 
THE CHAIN HANGING 
CATTLE STANCHION. 
The most praotloal and humane Fastener ever in¬ 
vented. Gives perfect freedom of the head. Illus¬ 
trated Circular and Price free on application. 
Manufactured by O. H. ROBKRTSON, 
Forestvllle, Conn. 
Newton’s TTV 
Improved '-'U * * A 1 Jci 
Holds them firmly, draws 
them forward when lying 
down, pushes back when 
standing, gives freedom 
of head, keeps them clean 
E. C. NEWTON CO. 
Batavia, Ill. Catalogue Free 
Cows barren 3 years 
MADE TO BREED. 
Moore Brothers, Albany, N, Y. 
“Improvement the Order of the Age.” 
FIG.I 
FIG.3 
The United States Cream Separators, which 
have gained such an enviable reputation for their 
superiority over all competitors, are still further 
improved for 
1900 OR THE NEW CENTURY. 
The capacities have not only been very ma¬ 
terially increased, but the construction of the cups 
has been changed from smooth to corrugated. The 
accompanying engravings illustrate these accu¬ 
rately, Figs, i, 3 and 5 showing the parts one above 
the other in the order they go together. 
This construction overcomes the last criticism 
our competitors can make. Competitors have 
frankly admitted that the U. S. is decidedly the 
best skimmer on the market, but have tried, in their 
efforts to sell their machines, to make a great bug¬ 
bear of using hot water to flush the bowl. With 
the corrugated cups it is not necessary to use hot 
water to flush the bowl, unless preferred, as skim 
milk does the work thoroughly. And there is no 
cream left around a cen:ral tube or between a 
multiplicity of disks, as the United States has 
neither, as is the case in competing machines, 
which have been trying to get some point against 
the U. S. in order that they might find something 
to check its 
FIG.5 
VICTORIOUS PROGRESS. 
Some competitors have central tubes and disks, 
and some central tubes only. 
The Improved U. S. Separator took the lead 
several years ago, and no pains will be spared to 
keep it there and maintain its reputation of being 
The BEST and therefore THE CHEAPEST. 
VERMONT FARM MACHINE C0„ Bellows Falls, Vt. 
