4io 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 21, 
that she would not in all probability have laid many 
more. At this time 1 was starting my incubators and 
using pedigree trays to separate the eggs from the first, 
second and third best layers, the chicks being marked at 
hatching time. Pullets Nos. 3, 11, 18, 19 and 21 were 
considered good layers, though nothing extra, but in 
the following six months laid almost continually, Nos. 
11 and 18 passing the 200 mark for the year, while the 
other three were near it. But No. 10, which promised 
so much at the end of the first six months, only laid one 
egg in the next five months. What I wish to show by 
the foregoing is that if you have at number of birds, you 
will find it impossible, without the use of trap nests, to 
tell the good layers from the poor, and as the poor 
layers always lay in the Spring what eggs they have, at 
which time most hatching is done, it would be a fore¬ 
gone conclusion that your flock of layers would be grow¬ 
ing poorer instead of better. The trap nests not only 
allow of selecting pullets that one knows will be good 
layers, but the breeder is also able to secure cockerels 
from the same brood ; and my experience has been that 
mating of hens of good laying qualities with a cockerel 
from a good layer usually produces good layers. I am 
confident that many a failure in the poultry business 
could have been avoided if trap nests had been used. 
Michigan. a. j. Shakespeare. 
THE HAY LOADER A PRACTICAL MACHINE. 
I note in recent issues of The R. N.-Y. queries as to 
the practicability of the hay loader on our eastern farms. 
I have used one for a dozen years and consider it on 
level land one of the most useful tools we have ever 
used on the farm. I was first inclined to buy one by 
watching my next neighbor, in an adjoining field. They 
would put on as much hay with a man and boy as we 
would with a good man on the load and two pitchers. 
I wanted to save if possible that extra pitcher. The 
season I first bought mine I went into haying with one 
TRAP NEST CLOSED. Fig. 174. 
man less than usual, and then, as since, the loader has 
saved me one man’s wages in putting the hay on the 
wagon. Like all machines, they will not run them¬ 
selves. They must be oiled, and the chain kept tight. 
We always carry a few short pine strips, some hay wire, 
a pair of pinchers, in addition to a wrench, so that if 
for any reason we break a stick in the carrier it can be 
quickly repaired. If the hay is long or tangled, it will 
be somewhat harder to throw off than if it is well 
loaded by hand. When one uses a horse fork as we do, for 
long hay, I believe it to be an advantage, as the hay 
holds together better. After a man becomes accus¬ 
tomed to loading from one he can very readily so place 
it on the wagon that but little difficulty is experienced 
when unloading by hand. 
Is it not harder on a man and team? Yes, for the 
latter decidedly so, but so is mowing or reaping for a 
horse with a machine, as compared with a scythe or 
cradle. Horse labor rather than man labor for me 
every time. The hardest work for the man is moving 
the hay on the wagon when the team is in motion. 
With a steady team that will follow the windrow one 
man can and has loaded 10 large loads in five hours, the 
wagons being brought to him. Ordinarily we use two 
men, one driving the team and placing the hay on the 
forward corners, which is very easy; the other pitching 
the hay forward from the loader; this is hard work. 
By shifting positions each load this makes easier work 
than steady pitching from the ground. When the hay 
is short and the windrows long, so no time is lost in 
frequent turning, we have more than once put in 22 
loads from one o’clock to six. We have never used a 
side delivery rake, although I believe they are better. 
It is very important that the windrows should be long. 
This means raking the field the short way, which makes 
the raking slower and harder work (horse work again). 
Then, too, the windrows must not be much more than 
half the size usually made. A large windrow will often 
choke up the loader, or send the hay on faster than a 
man can care for it. In fact, the successful working 
of a loader depends on having the hay properly raked. 
Since I have used this machine I have cocked very 
little hay. I mow it one day, then about 10 o’clock the 
next, rake it in small windrows, where it will dry 
readily and by after dinner it is ready to go on the 
wagon. The time we used to spend in “putting it up” 
will put half the hay on the wagon, where it is safe. 
Suppose it rains? By this system one only has one 
drawing ahead, so we have comparatively little exposed. 
The hay, even if it gets wet, will color very little if it 
is green. If an unexpected rain or shower wets it a 
tedder run over the swath or small windrow will cause 
MAINE TRAP NEST, OPEN. Fig. 175. 
it to dry quickly and cheaply. I can say after 12 years’ 
experience, that the damage we have sustained from 
rain has not been one-quarter what we have saved in 
labor formerly spent, in cocking, throwing out and the 
like. Ihis method is not made necessary by the use 
of the loader, but we could not so dry the hay, if we 
did not use it, for it would be impractical to hand-pitch 
it from the small windrow. 
There will be some hay to hand-pitch from the ends 
of the rows or corners of the field, but if this is thrown 
on the bottoms of the wagons there is little bother, and 
when gone over the field will be clean except rakings. 
There will be more of these than if the hay is hand- 
pitched. But the grounds must be reraked in any case. 
While they are slow to take up by hand, a loader will 
gather a long windrow of such just as well as the other, 
so this is no serious objection. In the 12 years we 
have had one new chain or carrier, costing $10. Any 
other repairs like new sticks or ropes we have put in 
ourselves at only a trilling cost. Another new carrier, 
so far as I can see, would make the machine good for 
years to come. edwaru van alstyne. 
UNCLE JOHN'S BOYS. 
As many of our readers know, our friend John W. Spencer 
(Uncle John) has charge of the Bureau of Nature Study at 
the Cornell Agricultural College. Through the work Uncle 
John meets a good many boys and girls who are to be far¬ 
mers. We expect to print pictures of some of these young 
farmers, who form a part of the best crop of the farm. 
Here is one of my young friends whom I wish you 
to know. I take great pride in my child constituency, 
and I am fond of introducing them to my friends. My 
acquaintance with the lad whose photograph I send you 
began about three years ago. It took place at a farmers’ 
institute. Mr. Witter was conductor. It was at the 
opening of an afternoon session, and the conductor was 
pulling slips of paper out of a hat which he called the 
“question box.” One of the slips he handed to me to 
answer. By means of a few pointers and a guessing 
power I have with children, 1 located the autnor of my 
question. I decided he was a black-eyed chunk of a 
ONE OF UNCLE JOHN S BOYS. Fig. 177. 
boy cuddled down by his mother on the front seat. 
When I got the floor, 1 held the little fellow in my 
arms that the audience might see who the questioner 
was. The sight of so many faces gave him a bit of 
stage fright and he hid his face against the back of 
my neck. The photograph shows that he has grown a 
lot since that meeting. He is now “10 going on 11.” 
We have not met since that time, but we have exchanged 
many letters and have become fast friends. He will 
develop into a good farmer, as you may know by the 
following extracts from two of his letters: 
Oct. 18, 1903. Dear Uncle John:—We are having our 
first snow. It is pretty tough pulling turnips. With what 
I got out of my garden, 1 bought me a pig for .$1 and a calf 
for 82, and I have bought 73 cents worth of corn in the 
shock. How much bran must I buy to put with my corn¬ 
stalks to make good feed for ray three sheep? I have 81 
left, and beside I have not sold my cabbage and I have some 
squash on hand. Your loving nephew. 
April 11, 1904. Dear Uncle John:—I am going to school 
this week, which will make 11 weeks. I built a stone arch 
and started to boil some sap from trees all my own. When 
the fire got hot, the flat stone on top busted. What made it 
bust? The other stones didn't. My old sheep had one nice 
lamb. My yearling sheep had two, but she lost one. I 
have been feeding one of papa's Iambs with a bottle. It 
follows me about as though I was its mother and bleats 
ma-ma. I wish you could come and see me. I have a lot 
of blue and white Crocus that will blossom. This Spring 
I shall set out a patch of strawberries. Your loving nephew. 
I wish you would tell the grown-up readers of The 
R. N.-Y. how ownership is a powerful factor in leading 
children to take a live interest in home and farm affairs. 
There are far too many cases of the “the boy's steers” 
and “father’s oxen.” Neither you nor I would now 
stand such injustice, though we may have suffered from 
such when we were boys. If similar indignities were 
put on us to-day, we would make a bee line for a lawyer, 
and there would soon be a case in court of trover and 
conversion. Children have a keen sense of justice. 
They may have to submit to many impositions, but they 
never forget it so long as they live. I have such in¬ 
stances that have been festering in my memory for 
half a century. Have you? uncle john. 
RAISING COLTS ON COW'S MILK. 
The foal in Fig. 173 never had any milk from dam. 
but was started with cow’s milk and water, one- 
third of former to two-thirds latter, with a dessert¬ 
spoonful of common sugar, fed every two hours for 
two weeks and then every three hours until about 
two months old. Strength and amount were steadily 
increased, commencing with one pint, increasing to 
two quarts at four months, after two months being 
fed six times a day until weaned at four months on 
a grain ration of ground oats and bran, with a little 
calf meal, and of course a run on grass at night dur¬ 
ing hot weather and fly time. For the first three 
weeks it was fed in the night, about 2 A. M., getting 
last feed at 10 P. M., and first at 6 A. M. At about 
“(’HEAP JOHN” TRAP NEST. Fig. 176. 
three weeks we commenced adding to the feed about 
iy 2 pint of Blatchford’s calf meal for the day. This 
amount was cooked with plenty of water, as it ab¬ 
sorbs a large amount, and fed an equal amount at 
each feed. This was also fed in less amounts to 
commence on, and gradually increased until when 
weaned there was but little milk used. The meal 
was not used because it was thought to be better 
than milk, but on account of cheapness, and made 
a good substitute. Possibly oil meal would do as 
well. After the first two weeks one teaspoonful of 
pure blood meal was added to each feed. Grain was 
placed where it could be nibbled at will, so when 
weaned regular feeds were eaten clean. We do not 
claim this is the best way of raising a colt other 
than with its dam, but this one was raised without 
any sickness of any kind, and while not as fat as 
with ?. good milking dam, grew and did well. As 
a pointer to those who may have occasion to raise 
a colt by hand, do not get over anxious to see it 
fat and plump, as the greatest danger is that of over 
feeding. maglay bros. 
Janesville* Wis._ 
FACTS ABOUT LEGHORN PULLETS.—We 
hatched our first chickens—Leghorns—this year March 
10. These chicks are still in our long heated brooder 
house, and are fully feathered, and we put them in col¬ 
ony houses out on range the first week in May. We 
separate the pullets from the cockerels that we raise 
for breeders, and do not allow them together again until 
we mate them in the breeding season. We had pullets 
laying in August last year. These pullets that we have 
should lay in August, September and October, and it 
they do not moult should lay all Winter. If they 
should moult it will stop them from laying for a month 
or so, but they have paid well for their moult, as they 
have laid from 50 to 100 eggs when eggs are the hardest 
to get, and we have to have eggs then to supply our 
trade. We hatch from March 10 up to June 1, so we 
string our pullets along for three months. The pullets 
hatched in May will grow a little faster than the early- 
hatched birds; the weather conditions are better. We 
can handle our Leghorns at almost any season of the 
year, as they feather fast and can stand the cold and 
stormy weather. We hatched Leghorns each year in 
September and sold them as broilers in October and 
November. We netted over $1 a pair on them, and it 
came at a season when we had the time to spare. 
Ocean Co., N. J. Austin g. brown. 
