1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
387 
THE HEN AS A MACHINE. 
The Requirements for Egg Production, 
Pabt II. 
An egg is a complete food and must contain every¬ 
thing necessary to form a complete chick. Mike 
would be as completely “stuck” if the Deacon failed 
to furnish him with a match to start his lire as he 
would be without any sap. Where shall we look for 
these little things? The hen at liberty looks to every 
insect, bug or worm which she can find. Aside from 
an egg, milk is the principal example which we find 
in nature of a complete food. This is undoubtedly the 
reason why it pays so well to furnish skim-milk or 
buttermilk for a hen to drink, instead of water, when 
it can be secured. I would also like to emphasize the 
the sentence where I said “If she have comfortable 
shelter and a well-balanced ration.” Very much de¬ 
pends upon the “comfortable shelter” as well as up¬ 
on the other requirements named. As regularly as 
the seasons come and go the great mass of hens in 
this climate cease egg production when Winter ap¬ 
pears, only to resume when Spring returns, in spite 
0 * balanced rations and everything else. Why Is this? 
I believe it is for want of comfortable shelter in a 
large degree. A hen’s system has its limitations. 
There seems to be a point somewhere between “a 
perch among the apple blossoms of Spring time, 
fanned by the Summer breezes” and “clinging to the 
bare limb in midwinter, with the wintry blast howl¬ 
ing about her head,” where Nature draws the line 
between egg production and sterility. This line un¬ 
doubtedly varies to some extent between different 
breeds, and also between different individuals of the 
same breed, but it is there just the same, and must 
be taken into account by the successful poultryman. 
The stereotyped advice usually given is to “keep her 
on the go.” “Make her scratch” in order to keep her 
warm and comfortable. While this is sometimes ef¬ 
fective in keeping her warm and comfortable during 
the hours of daylight, it is wasteful of feed and energy 
If carried too far, and is often counter¬ 
acted by compelling her to shiver on 
her perch in a cold place during the 
hours of darkness. 
A better way is to warm her quarters 
by day and by night by conserving the 
heat of the sun’s rays, and the heat of 
the hens’ own bodies. This can now be 
easily accomplished by a proper con¬ 
struction of the house and roosting 
quarters, and by the use of the ventilat¬ 
ing drum. This is constructed on the 
principle that different metals have a 
differing power of conducting heat and 
enables us to draw off the impure air 
exhaled by the breath, without allowing 
the heat to escape. By its use a hen can 
warm her own roosting quarters in a 
cold room as successfully as a person 
can warm his own bed in a cold room. 
I have recently been experimenting a 
little with them. One was recently put 
in place in one of my henneries, which 
are built entirely above ground, of single-board one- 
inch siding, lined with paper, on an open foundation 
of loose stenes. This morning (March 7) the ther¬ 
mometer stood at zero on the outside, while the hens 
inside were in a temperature of 42 degrees. 
We are apt to pass the little things by In preparing 
a balanced ration. Only a little silicon, for instance, 
is needed in the manufacture of an egg. Surely, you 
nay, she can pick up a grain of sand and get that. But 
Nature has not given to animal life the power to di¬ 
gest and assimilate erude and inorganic matter. 
Whether it be nitrogen, iron or si.icen. The power to 
take up this crude inorganic matter from the soil and 
combine it ihto organic forms Is only given to vege¬ 
table llte. Thus it Will be seen that the vegetable 
kingdom acts as a sort of wet nurse for the animal 
kingdsm. We must take this fact into account when 
We look about tor a food supply. Again, some forms 
bf an im a l life hare been speelally endowed with 
ike power to conrert the eearse forms of vegetable 
trowtk Into flesh and blood Xh^d milk), while others 
are specially endowed with power te reconvert this 
same matter Into higher terms of animal life. The 
study of the subject becomes more and more Inter¬ 
esting as we advance along the pathway of sclentiflc 
and exact knowledge. 
We left the pullet where we said that Tf certain 
conditions are provided she will lay all the eggs of 
^hich her individual life is capable.” As time goes 
on there are certain instinctive causes which step in 
and arrest the flow of the life current towards egg 
production. The first one of these is the propensity 
to become broody. This is another instinctive effort 
of life to perpetuate its species. In a state of nature 
this effort is put forth as soon as her nest is filled 
with fertile eggs. Under the conditions by which 
civilized man has surrounded her, this propensity has 
been largely overcome by feeding, breeding and se¬ 
lection until, in some breeds, it is almost entirely 
eradicated. This instinctive effort of life to perpetu¬ 
ate its species is only put forth under home-like sur¬ 
roundings. Remove her to new and strange surround¬ 
ings and the current of life is at once returned to the 
channel of egg production. As the season for renew¬ 
ing her covering of feathers approaches the current of 
life along this channel is again arrested. A naked 
hen would make a poor showing, hovering a clutch of 
eggs or a brood of chicks. So Nature has again 
stepped in and provided that the current of life shall 
be diverted from egg production and turned to feath¬ 
er production. When this has been accomplished the 
flow of life’s current goes back to the production of 
eggs again. Right here, however, oui rigorous Win- 
tei’S are likely to step in, and in the majority of cases, 
the point between the apple blossoms of Summer and 
the bare limb and cold blasts of Winter, marking the 
limit of her system, is passed, compelling her to wait 
until the wintry blasts have passed, or until man pro¬ 
vides the Summer conditions of comfort in some 
other way before her task of egg production Is re¬ 
sumed. O. W. MAPES. 
PLANme COBH BY MACHINERY. 
Every year, as the time for planting corn ap¬ 
proaches, we are met by questions as to how corn 
should be planted for the silo. Where the area to be 
planted Is considerable, or where several farmers can 
club together and purchase a corn planter, best re¬ 
sults will be obtained by using a machine made for 
the purpose. Where no regular corn planter can be 
secured, we would plant corn with an ordinary grain 
drill. These drills are usually made with the drills 
seven inches apart. By closing five or six of the drill 
holes the rows may be drilled in 35 inches or 42 
inches apart as desired. The mistake should never 
be made of planting corn too thin. Enough seed 
should be used on the start to insure a stand. After 
the corn is well up it may be thinned by harrowing. 
and the corn which remains will be benefited at the 
same time. We would set the drill to plant at 42 
inches in preference to 35, and then leave the plants 
a little closer in the row. The harrowing which 
should be given to thin out the plants will largely do 
away with the necessity of cultivating beth ways, ex¬ 
cept upon land badly Infested with weeds or grass. 
The accompanying illustration. Pig. 168, shows corn 
being planted by a machine made to plant in check 
rows, 1. e., rowed both ways. On hilly land the regu¬ 
lar check-row arrangement does not work well, and 
if we wish It rowed bath ways the ground must be 
marked one way beforehand. The machine shown 
plants two rows at a time, and the grain is dropped 
in front of the wide wheels, which firm the soil over 
the seed. These wheel marks show where the com 
Is planted, and cultivation should always begin be¬ 
fore the cem plants show above ground. Planting 
com should not be delayed a minute after tke land 
is in proper condition. A delay of half a day may in 
ease of rain mean a delay ef a week. A maekine for 
planting com has become almost a neeessity In mod¬ 
em agriculture. n. ▲. cauraron. 
TRUTH OF CATALOGUE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
Mr. Allen In a recent and timely article makes a no¬ 
ticeable defense of catalogues charged with exag¬ 
geration in Illustration. Of eourse it is admitted that 
the drawings or photos are usually made from exeep- 
tienal specimens grown with particular care, and no 
more represent the average individual product of or¬ 
dinary seed and culture than a fat ox resembles the 
common mnt cow of the Florida sand barrens. Cer¬ 
tainly there have been fictions in this kind of pic¬ 
tures, hut it is safe to assert that the actually ac¬ 
complished results of horticultural and agricultural 
production have never been adequately portrayed on 
paper. I remember seeing a picture in colors of part 
of a strawberry field, in full bearing, and remarked: 
‘Nice picture, but quite imaginary—impossible—too 
much red,” and since then have grown strawberries 
that looked like strips of red flannel a foot wide 
stretched across the field, and people looked at them 
with unfeigned amazement. Several years ago, when 
balsams were in vogue, the pictures cf them in the 
catalogues were simply immense, it required lots of 
faith or credulity to believe them to be within half 
a mile of the truth. As a trial I grew some with care, 
planting them in bowl-like depressions in the rich 
soil, and feeding and watering them well. Keeping 
off all dead branches I grew them four feet in height, 
with stems four inches through, covered all round 
from bottom to top with large double Camellia-shaped 
flowers measuring 3^ inches across. 1 was urged to 
put them in tubs and send them to the American In¬ 
stitute for exhibition. Any attempted illustration of 
those balsams would have been characterized as an 
exaggeration. I have before me one foot of wood of 
Burbank plum, on which I count over 200 Olossoms, 
and the whole tree is as white as snow. If it were 
possible to make a picture of the tree as it is the 
representation would be set down as a burlesque on 
the truth or a first-class whopper! j. taxes peek. 
THE SEED END OF POTATOES. 
The article on this subject in your issue of May 4, 
by Mr. Boardman, recalls some experiments in this 
line, made at our Station several years since, and . 
reported in our annual report for 1892. The experi¬ 
ments continued through four years, and in every 
case the larger yield was secured from the seed pota¬ 
toes from which the seed end was not removed. I 
quote the summing up of these experiments: 
“It thus appears that in each of the four seasons 
during which the trial has been conducted, the entire 
seed has given the larger yield the difference, amount¬ 
ing on the average to something more 
than 4% per cent. It is noticeable also, 
that in but one of the feur seasons did 
the yield of small tubers from the entire 
seed equal that from the seed having 
the seed end removed. ’This fact would 
appear to disprove the only argument 
that I have heard advanced in favor of 
removing the seed end, viz., that fhe 
planting of a cluster of eyes at the dis¬ 
tal end of the tuber tends to multiply 
shoots, and thus to increase the per¬ 
centage of small tubers. The only con¬ 
clusion warrantable from these trials 
is that, under the conditions in which 
they were conducted, the removal of the 
seed end was detrimental to yield. This 
result is in accordance with analogy. 
The potato tuber is not a root, but a 
thickened underground stem, of which 
the so-called seed end corresponds to 
the apex. It is a well recognized fact 
that the terminal bud of a shoot is the 
strongest one, and the removal of this bud tends to 
check the vigor of growth. The seed end of the potato 
tuber sprouts first in Spring, and when the tuber is 
planted whole, the first and the strongest shoot al¬ 
most always proceeds from the seed end. Theoretlcal- 
1} the continuous removal of the most vigorous buds 
would tend to diminish vigor and productiveness.” 
Your editorial on page 334 has also set me to think¬ 
ing. You say: “No, my scientific friend, the fact 
that you publish a good bulletin dealing with some 
fact or method does not settle the matter for good. 
Many people will not take the trouble to read it. 
Many will never know it was published. Some will 
read and forget It—others will net understand it.” 
And you might have added, some will dispute your 
testimony when you give it. I have stated the results 
of the above carefully-conducted experiments at farm¬ 
ers’ institutes, and had them contradicted from the 
audience by men who did not claim to have made 
any experiments in the same line. After all, are the 
exi>erlmenters all te blame because the faimers are 
se slow to accept and adopt their teachirngs? 
Wls. Experiment Station. s. s. eoir. 
R. N.-Y.—No. Truth darts like a fiash when the 
way is made ready, but is sometimee slower than cold 
molasses to make a start. 
FIGHTING SQUASH BUG.—Recently a subscriber told 
how he managed to overcome the ravages of the Squash 
bug and hla practice is commendable, but It might bo 
repugnant to many who are disinclined to overmuch 
physical exertion, as it requires diligence and persever¬ 
ance in replanting, dusting with tobacco, etc. Some¬ 
where in print I saw a hint to plant in the hill with the 
squash and cucumbers, turnip or radish seed, and last 
year did so, and had comparative freedom from bugs. 
It is quite possible that last year the Squash bugs were 
a minus quantity. Anyhow, I would like to inquire 
whether others have tried the plan, and if successful, 
would like to know the why and the wherefor. j. t. p. 
A BUNCH OP OKLAHOMA BEEF. Pig. 158. See Page 3'J8. 
