338 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 1] 
purchase of the land is only the beginning; for the 
first few years it will be all outgo and no income. 
Still, there is this to consider: A thrifty young or¬ 
ange grove or promising pineapple plantation has a 
market value while still young, for there are many 
men of wealth who do not wish to wait, who will be 
glad to buy at a good figure groves just coming into 
fruitage. There is a sort of fascination about the 
beautiful orange tree with its golden fruit that cap¬ 
tures the heart of the northern man. Again, what is 
true of the fruit grower in the North is just as true 
in the tropics, and everywhere else on earth. A suc¬ 
cessful fruit grower must be an enthusiast; must love 
his work, must love to see the trees grow; must 
have a large stock of perseverance, always remember¬ 
ing that valuable things cost. geo. f. rT,.\ r'i. 
Connecticut. 
PINEAPPLE CULTURE IN S. W. FLORIDA. 
During the past few years pineapple growing has 
rapidly come to the front about St. Petersburg. Fla., 
which is situated on a narrow peninsula separating 
Tampa Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. It is across 
Tampa Bay, about 18 miles from Tampa. Owing to 
ihe closeness of the Gulf Stream on the west, Tampa 
Bay on the east, and the narrowness of the peninsula, 
which is only six or seven miles wide, vegetation 
rarely suffers from frost, thus greatly aiding the grow¬ 
ers of semi-tropical fruits, of which the pineapple is 
one. The soil selected is usually oak and pine land, 
which must be thoroughly cleared and prepared as 
for the best garden work. This is sometimes quite a 
job, as the pine here has a way of sending a tap root 
down 10 to 12 or more feet, with just a fringe of small 
horizontal roots. The scrub palmetto, whose roots 
very much resemble those of the northern water lily, 
being from six to eight inches in diameter, also adds 
its share to the work. After being thoroughly cleaned 
up from two to four tons of tobacco stems, costing 
about $12 per ton, are plowed under. The sheds, 
which are one of the peculiarities of pineapple cul¬ 
ture, are made by setting posts 15x7^4, and 6% feet 
above ground: on these posts 2x8 stringers are laid 
and upon these stringers 1x4 slats three inches apart 
are nailed. The whole pinery is then inclosed by a 
seven-foot tight board fence. The object of this shed 
is to protect the plants from cold winds and possible 
frosts. The pineapple also thrives better in the 
shade. This shedding is the most expensive part of 
the enterprise, costing from $500 to $700 per acre. 
The plantation is then set out in beds of seven rows 
each, plants 18x30, with a five-foot alley-way. These 
alley-ways are left for the purpose of providing room 
to build small wood fires in case of very cold snaps. 
Not much dependance is placed upon the heat thus 
created, but upon the smoke, which retards radia¬ 
tion. This method of planting calls for about 8,500 
plants per acre. The plants are of three kinds, viz., 
suckers from the side of the parent plant, rattoons, 
which are suckers with roots on, and crown plants 
which are from the tops of the fruit. These are 
planted very much as we plant cabbage plants in the 
North, except that they are much larger, being a foot 
or more long. We generally set from June to Sep¬ 
tember, which is the rainy season here. 
After culture is very simple, and consists in keep¬ 
ing the soil stirred with a scuffle hoe and fertilizing 
the plants about once in two months with some good 
nitrogenous fertilizer at the rate of about four ounces 
to the plant. Very little labor is required after plant¬ 
ing, the plants soon shading the land, which with the 
semi-darkness of the shed is not conducive to weed 
growth. The crop is generally ready to harvest in 
from 12 to 18 months from setting. About 90 per 
cent of the plants commonly produce one fruit and 
three plants. After fruiting all except one sucker is 
removed from each plant, and used for planting new 
pineries. The sucker remaining is to produce the next 
crop and is cared for as before described. These 
suckers now sell for about 10 cents apiece. The cost 
of a pinery, including first cost of .land up to fruit¬ 
ing, varies from $1,400 to $2,000 per acre; the pro¬ 
ceeds are said commonly to reach as high as $3,000 
for fruit alone, while the sale of plants sometimes 
adds about one-half more to the receipts. The varie¬ 
ties mostly used are the Smooth Cayenne and Porto 
Rico. My observation of the pineapple industry here 
is that it is of a very intensive character. The most 
profuse fertilization, intelligent care and faithful at¬ 
tention are necessary to success. These given the 
grower is abundantly remunerated. f g tiof 
Kl LIANG BEDBUGS.—Regarding the article on page 
;>08 on bedbugs, I wish to call attention to the airing of 
the room after fumigation. It is absolutely e.ssential to 
.safety to provide means of opening windows from ihe 
outside, else sufficient gas is almost sure to be inhaled to 
insure work for the undertaker. Another point for 
safety, the cyanide should be dropped by means of a 
string from the outside. A third, but not so important, 
is to have the jar lU’olected, not so much to prevent 
spattering as to prevent leakage through the vessel which 
ofteti cracks from the heat suddenly evolved. Refer 
readers to bulletin from Entomological Division, Wash¬ 
ington. I’ve followed their instructions with profit. 
M. G. KAINS. 
A USEFUL FOWL FOR THE FARM. 
The genuine Game fowl is a comparatively rare bird 
in poultry exhibitions, and is quite distinct from the 
two types popular at present among fanciers. The 
modern or “exhibition” Game embodies the extreme 
attenuated idea as applied to fowls, and the close se¬ 
lection along these lines has done much to undermine 
the vigor and thrift of the variety. The Cornish 
Indian Game is another departure from the original 
type, this time in the direction of exti’eme blockiness 
of build and development of flesh. This kind also 
has departed from the normal state of hardiness, be¬ 
ing among the poorest yielders of eggs. There would 
seem to be no economic advantage in having produced 
these two variations from the normal type. The true 
Game, or “pit” stock, as poultry men designate it, 
needs no eulogist where once it is known and tested 
as a fowl for eggs and poultry. It is subject to much 
variety of size and shape, but the accepted type, 
where pains have been taken to control it, is a fowl 
of medium size, legs of moderate length, plumage 
quite full and tail especially of great length and 
l)eauty. The tendency of breeding exclusively for pit 
uses is to develop vigor to the highest limit, and 
there has been a movement among English fanciers 
in the direction of the normal type, such stock being 
now known as the Old English Game. Fig. 137 shows 
this type, being a reproduction of a pen-and-ink 
drawing by Weir, England’s best-known artist in this 
field. It represents a bird whose bodily lines suggest 
a Leghorn, with the exception of head points. 
There is much about the make-up of the genuine 
Game fowl which especially adapts it to the condi¬ 
tions found upon the average farm. Vigor is the true 
basis of prolific laying. In the Game is vigor con¬ 
served to the utmost. J'o allow stock of any breed to 
A TYPICAL GAME COCK. FiO. i:57. 
fight constantly, whether in the instance of males or 
females, is to allow Vigor to run to waste. There is 
no denying that it is the Game’s first nature to fight, 
and the problem is to take up this breed of full pris¬ 
tine vigor, and so handle it as to direct its forces in 
the line of reproduction. It is not to be supposed that 
the cow which holds the butter record could accom¬ 
plish this if kept constantly upon the warpath. The 
butter problem was worked out in the Channel Isl¬ 
ands by a system of keeping the cows at the quietest 
pitch while under the pressure of high feeding. In 
the case of Game fowls there is abundant testimony 
that certain individuals and families are remarkably 
prolific layers, and there is every reason to believe 
that if fanciers would devote a tithe of the interest in 
supplying the pit Game with the proper environment 
to enable it best to develop prolificacy which they 
now squander in chasing some fad bubble or other* 
around the lots, it would be much to the advantage 
of the art of husbandry. Let them take some of those 
improved nest boxes, so many of which have been 
patented in the past few years, allowing the egg rec¬ 
ord of each layer to be kept, and by the process of 
selection of the most prolific, prove to what extent 
the fighting nature may be restrained, harnessed up 
and turned into eggs. 
There is another trait of the Game which, when the 
conditions are right, establishes its advantage over 
all other breeds. This is perhaps closely allied with 
its superior courage, which directs it to roam over 
wide areas in quest of forage. The Game will cover 
long distances, frequently a quarter of a mile, in 
search of grasshoppei-s and other insects. In my own 
experience I have found the high cost of food for 
poultry the chief objection to the pursuit. When 
tempted to push out into the rough lands, the hawks 
and crows have quickly responded, “Here is nature.” 
I have often wished that my stock were of the right 
breed that I could say in turn, “Here is nature.” So 
fhoroughly ingrained is the Game’s combative nature 
that the out-crosses upon other breeds will often dis¬ 
play a surprising amount of it. I have known a Game 
Plymouth Rock hen leaA’^e the ground and fight a 
hawk upon the wing, in defense of her brood, ihe 
Game is your true Stringfellow breed, adapted largely 
to find its living while enriching our outlying or¬ 
chards. The Game has not been popularly handled 
as a business fowl. Among the reasons for its neglect 
may be mentioned the high prices of stock. The 
breeders for the pit are generally limited to small 
flocks, producing no great amount of surplus, and the 
high prices obtainable for each lively male for use in 
the pit preclude selling at farmers’ prices. So, while 
a Game cross upon common stocks would be advan¬ 
tageous, it is seldom available. The breed which most 
closely resembles the true Game, and one especially 
desirable from its make-up and useful qualities, is 
the Duckwing Leghorn, a variety not so many years 
over from England, where it originated. It is no 
secret that both the Game and Dorking, besides Leg¬ 
horn blood, were used in its breeding. Specimens 
have been exhibited in our leading shows within the 
past half dozen years, which more nearly approached 
the accepted ideal for Leghorn shape than is found 
in our popular Brown or White varieties. They have 
never yet caught the belief that they are coming into 
popularity, which constitutes the chief ground for any 
breeds getting into favor with the masses. If true 
worth were the criterion there might be some start¬ 
ling occurrences in the poultry yard. f. w. pkoctoi:. 
A MADE-OVER DAIRY BARN. 
A reader recently requested a plan for a cow barn 
to accommodate a stock of about 20 cows. For a per¬ 
son who has a location adapted, I think my plan 
could be but little improved. My old barn, about 80x 
36, stands about north and south on land gently slop¬ 
ing to the east, with cellar under it about eight feet 
deep. My stable was on the east side running nearly 
the entire length. By the new plan I took three 
spaces of 12 feet each, starting the sills at the old 
floor, and going out at right angles to the old barn 
48 feet. The feeding floor is 12 feet wide in center, 
with cow stable on each side; the cows heads in, tied 
with patent stanchions. Running water in a tank at 
west end of cow barn supplies a tank between each 
two cows, connected by piping to first tank. There 
are 12-lighted 9x13 windows on ihe south side, which 
let the sun on to the cows all day, on the south side, 
and with windows smaller, about four feet long, 
about as thick as they can be placed in a monitor 
rc>of, furnish sunshine to the cattle on the north 
side of barn, and swinging in furnish ventilation 
when necessary. In the cellar, which receives the 
manure through trap doors, the ground is graded 
from both outsides to the center space sloping about 
four inches, and all the bottom is cemented. 'Phe 
center space under the feeding floor is graded toward 
the east end, slope about one foot. Every drop of 
liquid manure settles in the center; an eight-inch 
pipe through the east wall runs into a cement well 
outside the building, three or four feet deep, from 
which it is dipped with a long-handled pail, into bar¬ 
rels on a dray, and taken to any part of the farm 
where needed. 
Under the old stable I had a cement basin, but 
when the droppings from above filled the space, the 
liquid was displaced and lost. Now my supply is al¬ 
ways visible, and is wholly separate from the drop¬ 
pings, and the surprise is that so many barrels accu¬ 
mulate in a few weeks from 20 cows. Its use is a revo¬ 
lution in farming; it is, of course, full strength, and 
care is sometimes required in its use. Doors on each 
side can be thrown wide open, and carts placed close 
to the piles of droppings. A sliding door separates 
the cow barn from the other. The silo, 12x24, is near¬ 
ly opposite and extends 12 feet west of old barn; the 
land being a little higher. A window about 10 feet 
from ground, serves to fill the silo about 24 feet deep. 
Worcester Co., Mass. ciias. e. paukicu. 
Egg.s and Meat. 
'r. Greiner, in the ITactical Fanner, .says: “I wisli In 
take issue with the editor of The R. N.-Y.. who doubts 
the pertinency of the saying, “as full as an egg is ol 
meat.” becau.se an egg is 75 per cent water. That is just 
about the percentage of the water found in meat. And 
when you see a little chick trying to get out of the shell, 
how much more meat could you expect to crowd inside of 
an egg shell?” The following table shows how eggs com¬ 
pare in food value with some other foods: 
Refuse. 
Water. 
Protein. 
Fat. 
Whole egg (hen).. 
11.2 
65.5 
11.0 
9.3 
Steak . 
12.8 
54 
16.1 
Cheese . 
34.2 
25.9 
33.7 
Potatoes . 
20. 
62.6 
1.8 
0.1 
Milk . 
87 
3.3 
4. 
The eggs of the duck and goose have a greater food 
value than those of the hen. A pound of steak has about 
50 per cent gre.ater feeding value than a pound of eggs, 
while a pound of cheese contains three times as much 
nutriment. An egg full of chick is far more “meaty” 
than the same shell packed with yolk and white. We 
know, of course, that eggs furnish strong and nutritious 
food. At this season of the year the workmen who do 
the heavy labor with metal, wood and stone, on the great 
city buildings, eat great numbers of eggs. They can be 
observed eating their dinners of fried egg sandwiches 
instead of meat. 
