1904. 
Ill 
T1IE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
The Plastered Henhouse. —I should 
not care to build a plastered henhouse for 
my own use, since the hens would almost 
surely peck at the mortar wherever it 
came within their reach, and soon destroy 
it. A lot of hens closely confined in Win¬ 
ter (or Summer either) will try every¬ 
thing that is edible and many things that 
are not. Heavy tarred paper is seldom 
injured by them; neither is a two-inch 
plank, but the lime and grit in the plaster¬ 
ing will keep them trying whenever the 
slightest break or crack has appeared, and 
soon ruin it. Above where the hens can 
reach, it might be used, but I see no ad¬ 
vantage in it. A cheap board ceiling is 
better in most respects. Plaster is a good 
conductor of heat, and will collect vapor 
of water into frost, to be followed by 
dampness as soon as it begins to thaw, 
even worse than wood, I think, 
man can build a henhouse so smooth and 
slippery that mites cannot find a foothold 
I should like to hear from him. The air¬ 
space behind either plaster or wood will 
help, provided it is a dead-air space. 
Many dead-air spaces are a delusion and 
a snare. There is apt to be plenty of 
chance for circulation in them. Fill the 
space with hay, straw, sawdust or other 
packing, and the air spaces will be smaller 
and also more dead. 
Discouraging Insects. —If the perches 
or parts near where the birds pass the 
night are smeared with kerosene or other 
good lice-killer frequently there will be no 
need to look for mites in other portions of 
tne hennery. I have had a good demon¬ 
stration of this this Summer. For want 
of space, our pullets were not removed 
from our brooder house last Summer until 
well grown. Neglect of proper precau¬ 
tions against mites enabled them to gain 
a foothold, and the first thing we knew 
our brooder house was “alive with mites.” 
Nice place that, in which to try to raise 
chicks again this Spring. It is now Sep¬ 
tember, and the house swarms with nearly 
a thousand chickens every night, now 
nearly full grown, with not a mite in evi¬ 
dence •this season. How did we get rid 
of them? Simply used kerosene and used 
it early and often. We commenced the 
Spring campaign in November of last 
year. After the pullets were removed and 
the hatching of insects for the season was 
over we sprayed the whole interior with 
kerosene. No one has studied the life his¬ 
tory of the mite very carefully to my 
knowledge, but I assume that they do not 
propagate in Winter. 'The house was 
sprayed again with kerosene in March, be- 
be? Should It not be pumped in by a series 
of motions on account of the difference in 
the size of birds’ crops. r. v. t. 
Geneva, N. Y. 
I don’t know when a correspondent has 
asked so many questions to which I can 
give no satisfactory answers. 1 have had 
absolutely no experience with either mus¬ 
lin in place of glass, or a cramming ma¬ 
chine in place of a natural appetite. A 
man who uses tne latter ought to be fined 
for cruelty to animals. If he would keep 
his birds on half rations for a week, then 
put them in fattening coops, they will 
cram themselves for the next two or three 
weeks more cheaply and more effectually 
than by any man-made machine. My 
“opinion” about the muslin is that it will 
not give satisfaction in this case. The 
house must have light from both sides, and 
cold winds will force more air in at one 
and use some other system of ventilation. 
O. W. MAPES. 
GETTING RID OF COWS. 
I have 18 cows giving 225 pounds daily 
and have been giving milk from January, Feb¬ 
ruary, March, April, May and June. So, of 
course, a number that “came in" early could 
easily he dried off. I am going to dispose of 
the entire 18, and want to net as much as 
possible. If I got rid of them before the 
Winter I would save my hay to press. If I 
bought and fed meal it is a question whether 
I could fatten them cheaply enough to net 
more in that way. Perhaps if I could get 
$20 apiece for them in October or November 
it would net more than fattening them and 
getting $25 or $30. Again, it is a question in 
my mind whether it would pay best to sell 
them as new milch cows after they have 
about exhausted my hay. They will come 
fresh February to June. Perhaps $5 worth 
of cornmeal would top them off after running 
on good feed until heavy frosts. What is the 
best methods of turning off an old cow ot 
the bony milk type in the Fall? It seems 
to me they would consume a good many dol¬ 
lars’ worth of meal to fit them for beef. 
Essex, N. Y. c. i>. b. 
Would Sell Cows at Once. 
If C. D. B. can get $10 per ton for hay, 
I think it would be better to sell his cows 
for $20 each in November and sell his hay. 
Judging from his figures they are not 
heavy milkers, and would not bring a 
high price if carried through the Winter 
and sold for milkers. Meal is too high 
($26 per ton) to pay to fatten them; $5 
worth would not go far towards finishing 
off a cow for beef that has been milked 
through the season. I would sell the 
“bony” milk type cow to some one for a 
Winter milker. o. l. b. 
Canton, N. Y. 
present milk flow; 12 pounds apiece is of 
course a very light yield. One could not 
expect even if grain was added to get 
much increase, and therefore the milk re¬ 
turns would not help out in beef making. 
There would be some doubt about the 
profit in keeping them until they freshen; 
there will not be milk enough in the mean¬ 
time. If they were giving 20 pounds 
apiece then the proposition of milking 
until they freshen would be more attrac¬ 
tive. I may be wrong in my conception 
of the type of the dairy. If they were of 
good size and of young and middle age, of 
-good milk form, they should have a value 
above the estimate and dairymen would be 
glad to get them to fill out their herds. 
Again, the profit of keeping and milking 
would depend upon the quality of the 
coarse feed. If it is not salable the loss 
would perhaps be too great not to feed it. 
There is often upon dairy farms consid¬ 
erable roughage convertible through cows, 
not so upon the market. Still another 
point will be the care during the Winter. 
Will it require the time of a man who 
would otherwise be profitably employed? 
If so, the expense of care would eat up all 
prospective profits. If their care could be 
in the hands of some one who would not 
be employed he might with good care and 
watchfulness both of the stock and mar¬ 
ket for same earn good wages. It seems 
to me much more businesslike, not know¬ 
ing the details and particulars here men¬ 
tioned, to call to mind various plans that 
might be pursued rather than to give a 
definite specific course to follow. From 
my own point of view the first mentioned 
would best apply. h. e. cook. 
GOATS TO CLEAR LAND. 
Experience having proved the efficiency 
of goats in clearing land of brush these 
animals are rapidly coming into use for 
this purpose. Recently the Bradley Poly¬ 
technic Institute of Peoria, 111., procured a 
lot of 1,800 goats of the Angora variety 
from Texas, to be used on the various 
farms belonging to this institution for this 
special purpose. There are hundreds of 
acres of land in these farms which will 
thus be cleared in this inexpensive way, 
and then put under profitable culture. 
These useful animals will thus bring land 
valued at $150,000 from a worthless con¬ 
dition into profitable use. Estimating the 
service at reasonable figures each goat will 
thus do $80 worth of work and pay for 
their feed by their kids. In the Chicago 
meat markets goat mutton is taking the 
place of sheep meat, and one butcher 
interviewed says his customers take the 
meat knowingly as ordinary mutton with¬ 
out any objection. Under all preceding 
occasions in which attempts have been 
made to introduce goats’ meat as a com¬ 
petitor of sheep’s mutton, there has been 
a prejudice against it, but now it goes as 
straight goat’s meat, and with some pref¬ 
erence in favor of it over sheep’s mutton. 
side and out at the other than will be well 
If any for the comfort of the birds. Use glass; 
place it midway between floor and ceiling, 
A Boon to 
Farmers’ Wives 
? ■ 
E3 
Why not save half the standing- 
lifting—washing? Make your dairy 
work twice as easy—twice as profit¬ 
able. Our friends call the Tubular I 
Cream Separator the “Easy Way.” 
Try it. Catalog J-153 describes It. 
The Sharpies Co 
Chicago, III. 
P. M. Sharpies 
West Chester. Pa. 
You Will Know 
ir you accept our offer and put It on 
trial on your own premises, where¬ 
in lies the superiority of the 
AMERICAN 
Cream Separator. 
We can afford to let any man try. That 
sells it. You’ll not find fault with 
tho price. You should read the 
American hook. Ask for it. It’s free. 
AMERICAN SEPARATOR CO., 
Box 1 086, _ B.lnbrldgo, N, Y. 
Q fl|| I T IJ 1#<500000000 
rilUL I KTe^Fnd 
(POULTRY LINE—Fencing, Feed, Incu-S 
jbators, Live Stock, Brooders—anything—. 
»it’s our business. Call or let us send youj 
>our Illustrated Catalogue—it’s free for the< 
(asking—it's worth having. < 
)Excelsior,Wire St Poultry Supply Co.,< 
► Dept. H.GL 156 & 28 Vesey Street. New York City. < 
OOOOOOOOOOPOOOOOOOOOOOOOQ< 
Burch Tattoo Marker 
For nae In Ears of 
Horses, 
Cattle, Vop. 
Sheep, 
Swine and Dogs 
JEEZ catalogue of 
Stookmen’a Hupplleo. 
F. S. BURCH & CO., 
For purposes of 
identiiica- 
onrA tion It is a 
.0901 veritable 
detective. 
Does not disfigure 
!animals. Marker fitted 
:t Letter, or Figure, 
$2.S5 poet paid. 
144 Illinois St., Chicago. 
fore the brooders were started, in order to 
kill any possible breeding stock that may 
have survived the former spraying and the 
Winter. Since then we have only smeared 
the brooders, and later the perches on 
which the birds roost as soon as they get 
old enough about every two weeks. Not a 
mite has shown up this season under this 
treatment. 
A Few Hard Questions. —Will be be ad¬ 
visable for me to employ muslin or factory 
cloth instead of glass for light and ventila¬ 
tion in a three-story Winter poultry house? 
Is it as warm as glass (single thickness) or 
should it be double thickness and of what 
quality? I have 700 pullets hatched in April 
and May, Brown and S. C. leghorns; also 
have 11 acres of quite dense woodland fenced 
in with poultry netting, and in the way of 
tools to work witli have 4% horse-power 
gasoline engine, semi-power bone cutter and 
a two-barrel cooker. I contemplate buying 
a feed mill and clover cutter after attending 
the State Fair; what would you auvise about 
feed mill and hay cutter? Poultry house to 
be 32x3(5 feet now (will add more to length 
when needed) : cement ground floor; four-foot 
alley through middle; three stalls on each 
side of alley 12x14 feet. Each floor like the 
first except cemeni; post 18 feet six inches in 
the clear between floors; inclined chutes from 
each stall down side of building for ingress 
and egress of poultry. Should muslin be 
adopted in place of glass, and should it be 
midway between floors or near the floor or 
ceiling? I have been using a cramming ma¬ 
chine, and it occasionally kills a bird; exam¬ 
ination discloses feed between swallow and 
breath pipe. I have never seen hut one make 
and that discharged the entire feed for one 
bird with only one stroke of the foot lever, so 
1 made mine accordingly. Is this as it should 
Milk Till They Dry Off. 
It seems to me, as the cows a^e furnish¬ 
ing only 225 pounds of milk daily, an av¬ 
erage of 12'/ 2 pounds apiece, there cannot 
be a great profit in milking them at least. 
It seems the question of disposing of them 
at some price that will realize the most 
money. C. D. B. does not say anything 
regarding age and condition of the cows. 
At the present prices of beef for cows 
the condition of the ones mentioned, as 
they are supposed to be in calf, would be 
quite a detriment to fattening them. An¬ 
other item would be the fertility added to 
the farm if the hay was feed out upon it. 
If the farm was mine I would milk the 
cows until it was time to dry them off, and 
sell the bunch the best I could, realizing 
all I could without further expense. 
Auburn, N. Y. a. d. b. 
Sell One at a Time. 
Probably the greatest returns could be 
secured if they were sold one at a time, 
or as a buyer might be found, the choicest 
for use in other herds, the old inferior to 
shippers and a few of a salable type could 
be kept along till they freshen. Perhaps 
some of those that are not of a milking 
type, and are therefore meaty now, could 
soon be turned for beef. I should say $20 
a head for the entire lot, supposing them 
to be of the average weight and make-up 
would be more profitable than to fatten if 
we took the lot as a whole. They have 
not been highly fed, judging from the 
“Joe, what’s the best thing on your farm? ” 
“The De Laval Cream Separator, Uncle, without a doubt. It 
saves time, makes the dairy work easier for all of us and brings 
in $io more for each cow’s product every year than I ever made 
before I bought it. Why, it paid for itself the very first year.” 
“That’s what I hear everywhere, Joe, and I just ordered a 
De Laval machine myself yesterday.’’ 
“I congratulate you, Uncle, you’re on the right track now,—I’m 
sure it will prove the best investment you ever made. Most of my 
neighbors lay their dairy success to the De Laval. It certainly is a 
money-maker. ’ ’ 
SEND FOR CATALOGUE AND NAME OF NEAREST LOCAL AGENT. 
THE DE 
Randolph & Canal Sts. 
CHICAGO 
• 2 13 Filbert Street 
PHILADELPHIA 
9 & II Drumm St. 
6AN FRANCISCO 
LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
General Offices: 
121 Youville Square 
MONTREAL 
74 Cortlandt Street, 
flew YOt*R. 
73 & 77 York Street 
TORONTO 
248 McOermot Avenue 
WINNIPEG 
