656 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 24 
these are turned off as soon as possible. One old hen 
was shown me that is known to be five or six^years 
old. probably considerably more, yet a sleeker, 
brighter hen, it would be hard to find, and she is shell¬ 
ing out the eggs right along, too. Age isn’t the only 
consideration that decides a hen's fate. 
The Feed. —As stated before, considerable quan¬ 
tities of corn and buckwheat are grown for feeding. 
Mr. Rice admits the value of wheat as feed for the 
hens, but it costs too much to be used in any quantity. 
For all purchased feeds, they have to pay New York 
prices and heavy freight rates in addition ; so the 
problem is to raise all feed possible. lie says that 
Leghorns will stand more corn and buckwheat than 
the other breeds. They feed large quantities of tur¬ 
nips and cabbages, as well as other vegetables. The 
grain is fed in heavy litter so that the hens must 
scratch for it. A soft feed is given once a day, which is 
varied according to circumstances. Last Summer the 
composition was about as follows : 200 pounds bran, 100 
pounds corn meal, 100 pounds flour middlings, 100 
pounds good animal meal, sometimes only 50 pounds, 
and sometimes a portion of ground oats. Mr. 
Rice says that the term middlings no longer means 
anything. What he calls flour middlings are very 
rich in gluten. The soft feed generally fed during 
most of the year, consists of 100 pounds corn meal, 
100 pounds of ground oats. 100 pounds of wheat bran, 
50 pounds of oil meal and 50 pounds of animal meal. 
Sometimes when the bran is flaky and full of gluten. 
200 pounds are used and another 50 pounds of animal 
meal added. This is fed for dinner. 
Selling - the Kggs. —These are sold largely to priv¬ 
ate customers at Peekskill and other nearby places. 
Good, but not fancy prices are received. They are 
delivered strictly fresh, and customers once obtained 
help to secure others. Some city customers have been 
obtained to whom the eggs are shipped twice a week 
by express. But the express rates are so high, and so 
many eggs and packages were broken or lost through 
carelessness of the express company, that there is 
little satisfaction and less profit in this trade. Direct 
delivery from the farm to the consumer is the most 
satisfactory with the eggs as with the other products 
of the farm. Something about the fruits will be given 
next. f. h. Y. 
PROHIBITION IN CANADA. 
WHAT DO FARMERS THINK OF' IT? 
On September 29, a general election will be held in 
Canada, to determine the standing of the people in 
regard to prohibition. This election will be held in 
all the Provinces, and has excited a good deal of 
interest, not only among Canadians, but among those 
in this country who are studying the temperance ques¬ 
tion. We have been interested to learn how the 
Canadian farmers regard this matter, and have sent 
inquiries to a large number of our readers in Canada. 
The replies certainly indicate that Canadian farmers 
are divided on this question. A brief synopsis of 
some of our replies will, doubtless, interest readers. 
One correspondent in the Province of Quebec says 
that there is little chance of carrying that Province 
for prohibition. Farmers there are largely of French 
extraction, and not in sympathy with this movement. 
A high license, well enforced, seems to be more 
popular. 
One correspondent in Ontario is certain that the 
vote will be in favor of prohibition. He considers it 
a sure thing. Another correspondent close to him is 
equally sure that prohibition will be lost. This man 
says that farmers in general care little about the 
matter. “ Those whose cellars are stored with cider 
barrels, seem to think the question infringes on their 
personal liberty.” Other prohibitory and local option 
laws have not been thoroughly enforced. He thinks 
that, ia a country like Canada, with such a diversity 
of race and religion among its inhabitants, it would 
be well nigh impossible to enforce such an act. He 
says the prohibition proposal resembles the Czar’s for 
disarmament. While it is much to be desired, the 
sentiment of the people will not warrant its accept¬ 
ance for many years to come. 
A correspondent in Nova Scotia says that the farm¬ 
ers in that Province are very much in favor of a pro¬ 
hibitory law. He says that Nova Scotia, New Bruns¬ 
wick, Prince Edward Island and Ontario, will cer¬ 
tain ly favor prohibition. He says that there is no use 
disguising the fact that a large share of the hard 
tun s among farmers is to be attributed to the ex¬ 
cessive use of strong drink. At the same time, the 
opinion seems to be general among farmers that, even 
if prohibition carry, it can never be enforced. It is, of 
course, difficult to give a clear idea of the sentiment 
am Dag Canadian farmers on this matter. On this side 
of luc line, we do not understand much about 
Canadian i o'.itics 
Tne iollo,-.mg letter from Prince Edward Island, 
appears to be a fair statement of the matter, and we 
print it for the benefit of our readers: 
The Canadian Prohibition Campaign. 
Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the present 
Plebiscite campaign is the apathy shown by farmers 
when the subject is brought to their notice. This lack 
of interest is not due to any one cause, but to several. 
The average Prince Edward Island farmer, although 
he can do his share of grumbling, is not one who will 
go to any trouble to change existing conditions, unless 
compelled to by necessity and, as neither the adoption 
nor the rejection of prohibition will pay off or fore¬ 
close the mortgage, or even buy a new buggy, the con¬ 
test is generally looked upon with unconcern. But 
coming to the different causes of the present indiffer¬ 
ence, doubtless the most important is the fact that the 
coming election will not determine whether Canada 
or any part of it will or will not have prohibition, but 
is merely an election to determine the standing of the 
people in reg rd to prohibition. As this was deter¬ 
mined about five years ago by the Provinces separately, 
by an election held in conjunction with the local 
elections, the present election is looked upon by many 
as a mere dodger of the Liberal party to shirk the ful¬ 
fillment of their pre-election promises, which are loom¬ 
ing up rather too conspicuously for comfort. A small 
percentage of the farmers, who are very strong party 
men, will either vote against prohibition or stay at 
home, so as to aid the government in defeating pro¬ 
hibition, as it is an understood fact that the govern¬ 
ment does not desire the election to go in favor of pro¬ 
hibition; while an equal number will vote for prohi¬ 
bition for the mere purpose of putting the government 
in a “ tight place.” 
Another factor in the case is the fact that this prov¬ 
ince is now under a prohibitory law, known as the 
Scott Act, which has been in force for a number of 
years. As doubtless The R. N.-Y. readers have heard 
of this law, I will only say that it prohibits the sale 
of all intoxicating liquors in quantities less than three 
gallons. Violators of this law are fined $50 for first 
offence, $100 for second, and $150 and imprisonment for 
third. A prosecutor and stipendiary magistrate, be¬ 
fore whom all violations of this law are tried, are ap¬ 
pointed for each county, and where the law is 
enforced, it does prohibit; but with a corrupt govern¬ 
ment which instructs the stipendiary to make all 
offences first ones, and which appoints tipplers as 
prosecutors, it does not prohibit. The Act is either 
made law or repealed in each county or city by popu¬ 
lar vote. Although this law has immeasureably 
reduced drunkenness among farmers, yet it has not 
eradicated it. Hence farmers reason that a prohibitory 
law will likewise be subject to the same faults and 
evasions. 
Still another factor in the case and one favorable to 
prohibition, is that there are no distilleries on Prince 
Edward Island, so that the farmers of Prince Edward 
Island derive no direct benefit from the trade in barley 
which the farmers of some sections of Canada do. The 
farmers of Prince Edward Island have everything to 
gain and nothing to lose by the adoption of prohibi¬ 
tion. The question of loss of revenue consequent upon 
the adoption of a prohibitory law does not seem to 
have any weight with the average farmer in determin¬ 
ing on which side he shall vote. Through the vote 
being an open one, that is, each man’s vote being reg¬ 
istered by a poll clerk, I think the Prohibitionists will 
gain an extra 10 per cent. From present indications, 
I should say that less than 58 per cent of the farmers 
will vote, while of those who do vote, 75 per cent will 
vote for prohibition. D. ,T. s. 
Farmers’ Club. 
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the writer to insure attention. Before asking- a question please 
see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper.l 
How to Handle the Harlequin Bug. 
.J. E. E., Newtown, 0. —What is a practical method of killing an 
insect that eats cabbage, turnips and kale, known here as the 
Kale brig? 
ANSWERED BY M. V. 8 I.INGERLAND. 
This “ Kale bug ” proved to be the Harlequin cab¬ 
bage bug or “ Calico-back ”. It is a black bug with 
bright red and yellow markings. It was originally an 
inhabitant of Mexico and Central America. In 1866 it 
was noticed in Texas, and has slowly continued its 
northward march until it now ravages cabbage and 
radish plants in southern Ohio and in New Jersey. It 
is not likely to become a serious pest much farther 
north. It is proving one of the most destructive and 
hardest to combat of any of the insects that attack 
cabbage. 
The Winter is spent in the adult state, the bugs 
hibernating in sheltered places under boards and 
other rubbish in the neighborhood of cabbage fields. 
These old bugs are astir early in the Spring, and at¬ 
tack any cruciferous or mustard-like weeds growing 
about, and the first brood of the bugs develop on these 
weeds, or perhaps, upon radishes that may be up at 
the time. The time when the eggs for the first brood 
are laid in the Spring, depends upon the latitude, and 
the character of the season. The eggs are usually de¬ 
posited in two parallel rows of six or eight each. They 
are white, and so peculiarly marked with black that 
they resemble miniature white barrels with black 
hoops. The eggs hatch in three or four days, and the 
young bugs grow rapidly, going through all their 
moults, and attaining the adult stage in about two 
weeks. There may develop several generations of the 
bugs during the Summer. 
This “ Kale bug” seems to be a very difficult one to 
kill without injuring the plants. It gets its food from 
the inner tissues of the leaves by means of a long, 
slender beak which pierces the outer skin, and then 
acts as a pump to suck the juices up into the body. In¬ 
sects that suck their food in this way are entirely out 
of the reach of arsenical poisons which can be applied 
only to the surface of the leaf. Possibly some of the 
younger bugs could be killed with kerosene emulsion, 
but the important point to be striven for is the de¬ 
struction of the wintered-over adults in the Spring; 
there is no practicable method of getting at them in 
the Winter. In the Spring, they cluster largely upon 
mustard or radishes, where they may be killed with 
pure kerosene oil, of course, killing the plants also. 
This plan of trapping the old bugs with mustard or 
radish crops in the Spring has been tried with ex¬ 
cellent results in Mississippi. When the bugs once 
get at work on cabbages, the only practicable and 
successful method of fighting them is to hand-pick 
them in all stages, and the egg clusters. It may be 
practicable, in some cases, to sweep the bugs off from 
the plants with an insect net. Thus only the most 
thorough and watchful efforts will succeed in prevent¬ 
ing this serious cabbage pest from ruining a crop. 
How the Curculio Mounts Plum Trees. 
J. R., Waldoboro . Me. —1. How does the curculio get up into the 
plum tree ? 2. Does grass have the sense of smell ? I was put 
in mind of this in the mowing around my barn, where it was not 
possible for the grass to get any wash of the manure, but it can 
have the smell of it, so grows very stout. If not the smell, what 
makes it grow so ? 
Ans. — 1 . The Plum curculio is able both to climb 
and fly up into a plum tree. Doubtless, it usually 
flies up, for the contrivances devised to tie around the 
trunk of the tree to prevent the ascent of the beetle 
by crawling up, capture but few of the “ little 
Turks.” 2. No, grass does not possess the sense of 
smell; no plant does. Perhaps the wash from the 
manure goes farther than is suspected, or particles of 
the manure may be blown on to the ground where 
the grass grows so rank. m. V. 8 . 
Killing Elder and Hazel Bushes. 
J. J)., Titusville, Pa. —What is the best way to destroy elder and 
hazel bushes in a pasture? I had them mowed once a year for 
seven years, still they grow. 
Ans. —There is no effective way to destroy these 
weeds except by grubbing out the roots. It is the 
easiest way, for once done, it stays done, while the 
annual mowing or cutting of them only makes the 
roots more full of sprouts, and the work of cutting 
them increases every year. Take a heavy grub, and 
have the points ground sharp ; then cut away the 
roots until the whole of the crown is removed. Plow¬ 
ing will do the rest by tearing up the loose roots left, 
but these will scarcely grow after the crowns are 
taken out. h. s. 
Peaches from Natural Pits. 
F. II., Wheeling, W. Va. —Will peaches grown from natural 
Tennessee pits be superior to those from northern-grown seed ? 
If so, where can I secure the former ? 
Ans. —In my opinion, there is considerable mis¬ 
understanding about the so-called “Tennessee nat¬ 
ural ” peach seeds. Really there is no such thing as a 
natural peach seed this side of the native home of the 
wild peach, which may be Persia, or perhaps, no one 
certainly knows where. What is meant is seed from 
seedling trees such as are commonly grown among 
the less progressive fruit growers of the mountain re¬ 
gions of Tennessee and adjacent sections. These seeds 
are usually very vigorous and healthy, and are likely 
to produce vigorous seedlings like the trees from 
which they came, because that region is very suitable 
to the peach. Such seed is better than that from 
Early Crawford and some other improved kinds, but, 
in my opinion, no better than the seed from Mountain 
Rose and many other kinds. Such seeds as may be 
got from any section where there is no peach yellows 
or other similar disease ought to be as good as that 
from Tennessee. The soil and climate of the moun¬ 
tain regions of West Virginia are much like those of 
Tennessee. If the seed can be got from vigorous 
seedlings having poor fruit, it might be preferable. 
It is quite true that, in some cases, the fruit has been 
improved in size and quality to the detriment of the 
constitution of the tree and the vitality of the seeds. 
