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299 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
for lumber, shingles, etc.,—all No. 1 material, and all 
bought—was about $270. The building was erected for 
less than $50 for carpenter’s work. The walls are of 
double matched lumber and are lined with tarred paper. 
This improvement is worth a “whole row” of ordinary 
additions and is ornamental as well as useful. 
_JOHN GOULD. 
TS IT SO BAD ? 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
The recent bulletins from the New York Experiment 
Station and the general drift of printed opinion on the 
subject of dairy farming, have at least served to stir up 
the farmers, and will no doubt be useful in stimulating 
both thought and effort among those who are interested in 
the business. I think, however, it is the general opinion 
that the facts as they exist do not bear out the assump¬ 
tions made. To persons not familiar with practical dairy¬ 
ing, it might seem that Prof. Collier’s figures are con¬ 
clusive, and that our dairy interests are all far on the way 
to the “ demnition bow-wows.” A careful survey of the 
past history of American dairying, and of the condition 
and circumstances of those who have pursued it as a bus¬ 
iness for a great part of their lives, will, I think, demon¬ 
strate to those who need the demonstration, that dairy 
farming has, on the whole, paid those engaged in it a 
fair profit and is still capable of doing so. 
Figures may not lie of themselves, but they can be and 
frequently are so used as to convey erroneous conceptions 
of fact. Prof Collier’s figures, as presented, lead to the in¬ 
evitable conclusion that even our best dairymen are 
scarcely getting a new dollar for an old one; and without 
saying anything directly on the subject, they leave, as the 
only possible result, the conviction that all but a very few 
are losing money heavily and steadily. This would be 
harrowing if true; but there exists a series of facts, 
equally indisputable, which point in the 
other direction. 
It is known and admitted that, far as our 
dairy practice is from perfection, it has 
greatly improved in the past 15 years, and 
that the production is not only greatly bet¬ 
tered in quality, but at least as greatly 
bettered in quantity. Such has certainly 
been the case in Vermont, and it is fair to 
believe that in some degree it is true all 
over the country. Now it is known, and 
can be proved, that in a vast number of in 
stances, dairy farmers, even those not in 
the first rank, have been in these years (and 
even before that, and before the war) pay¬ 
ing off their debts, improving their stock 
and buildings, working upward the produc¬ 
tiveness of their lands, and adding to the 
comfort of their homes, while unmistakably 
all the time remaining in that class of pro¬ 
ducers where, according to Prof. Collier’s 
calculations, they ought to have yearly gone 
more and more behind, and before this have 
come to utter ruin. 
I think Prof. Collier overlooked some 
practical facts on the farmer’s side. Per¬ 
haps the principal one and that which is 
most fatal to his conclusions, is the appar¬ 
ently simple one that whatever a farmer 
can get in, over and above the support of 
his family and the payment of taxes and 
interest, without deteriorating the farm, 
fences and buildings, is profit, which can be 
used to pay debts, make improvements, or 
be laid up. All the income of a farm, even 
a dairy farm, does not come from the dairy. 
There are a good many little bills of income which help to pay 
expenses and make purchases, that are not taken into the ac¬ 
count. On a great many farms little or no feed is purchased, 
while there is more or less produce sold, aside from butter 
and cheese. The family is supported, and the stock main¬ 
tained, increased and improved, with little or no actual 
expenditure of money. In a multitude of cases the farmer 
who owns his farm finds at the end of the year that a very 
good proportion of his butter or cheese money remains in 
his hands as profit, even where the annual yield per cow is 
so small as to be ranked, by theorists, below the line of 
profit. Then farmers may not, from the station stand¬ 
point, make any money. They may even seem to be inevi¬ 
tably losing money, and on the highway to ruin ; and yet 
they may be actually prospering in a humble, even if un¬ 
scientific way. 
Farmers are habitual growlers, and those who take their 
talk at its face value are apt to deceive themselves. As a 
body, leaving aside the effects of the depreciation of the 
selling price of farm lands—due, unquestionably, to tem¬ 
porary causes—American farming is paying as well to¬ 
day as it ever has paid in times when dollars were worth 
a dollar apiece. The majority are not making more than 
a living, and they never did. Too many make less than a 
living and fail, but it was always so. A minority are im¬ 
proving their farms, increasing their possessions, and 
learning how to do better than before. It is the min¬ 
ority in every vocation of whom this can be said. The 
value of laud must increase with the growth of popula¬ 
tion. As this goes on, with the increase of knowledge and 
practical skill, American farming will become more and 
more a safe and satisfactory business. There is no occasion 
for despair ; there are many reasons for hope. 
Orleans County, Vt. 
Pkgf. E. M. Shelton, late of the Kansas Agricultural 
College, has arrived safely in Queensland, as we learn from 
the Brisbane “ Week,” and has already begun his course 
of agricultural instructions to the colony. 
THE HOLSTEINS IN KENTUCKY. 
This well known breed has taken a firm hold in Kentucky, 
which can be attributed to a variety of causes. The low 
price realized by our farmers for their produce during the 
last few years has convinced them of the advisability of 
turning their attention to stock raising, while the reduced 
price of beef proves conclusively that in future the pure¬ 
bred cattle are going to afford the greatest profit. Ken¬ 
tucky also has natural advantages for stock raising, which 
afford better facilities for doing so than can be found 
probably in any other State in the Union. Blue Grass is a 
voluntary growth almost all over the State, and many 
other grasses thrive luxuriantly, furnishing excellent 
grazing during 10 months of the year, and when the winter 
is as njild as the last the cattle can have abundant 
grazing all the year round. The climate too is mild and 
temperate, the mercury in the thermometer never ascending 
as high as it does in the State of New York, while frequently 
in winter we do not have more than a week of real winter 
weather, never more than a month unless in rarely excep¬ 
tional cases. 
Engaging in the dairy business in connection with the 
raising of pure-bred stock also enables the farmer to use at 
home the grain foods which the railroads will not permit 
him to export with profit; for in order to insure the best 
development of stock cattle, or to secure the best results 
from the products of dairy cows, a considerable amount of 
ground grain, as wheat, oats, and maize, should be fed them 
at certain seasons of the year. 
Even outside the farming and dairying community, 
among the residents of small towns and villages, the Hol¬ 
stein as a family cow is beginning to compete with the Jer¬ 
sey. Merchants, doctors and other professional men say 
they want a cow that gives not only good butter, but also a 
generous quantity of milk. 
. “I am coming after one of your Holsteins,” said a suc¬ 
cessful merchant to me the other day; “I want to see a big 
pitcher of milk on my table, and when the pitcher gets 
empty I want to be able to fill it again.” All over the 
country the value of milk, not only as food for little chil¬ 
dren but for grown people, is becoming more and more 
highly appreciated. Those opposed to the Holsteins, how¬ 
ever, say that it takes a good deal to feed one of them ; and 
so it does, to be sure, but not more than would be required 
for any other cow that is yielding per day from 50 to SO 
pounds of milk, which would make, if all the cream were 
churned, from one to two pounds of butter. And the best 
of it is that after the cream is removed the milk is 
still good to drink, which cannot be said for the milk 
of all breeds. Then, too, it is much better to be able to 
sell the calf of the family cow for a sum sufficient to 
pay for her keeping the year round, than to have to bribe 
the butcher to take it off your hands to be converted into 
veal. 
In addition to the home demand in Kentucky for pure¬ 
bred cattle there is an ever-increasing call from the South 
and West, Kentucky being a sort of half-way ground 
between those sections and the improved herds of the 
Northeast. Consequently cattle shipped from here to 
Louisiana and Texas become acclimated with far less 
danger and difficulty than those brought from a greater 
distance. Formerly Texas raised cattle for beef only, but 
now since the rapid increase of population there, and since 
so many large cities have sprung up almost like magic 
within its boundaries, there has arisen a demand for good 
milk stock as well as beef; and as the Holsteins more than 
any other breed unite in the highest degree both these 
qualifications, it is no wonder that they have become 
extremely popular. As soon as a people conquer a terri¬ 
tory and begin to think seriously of making it a home for 
themselves and their families, they at once endeavor to 
procure a good milch cow to help them bring up their 
children. This has led the enthusiast to declare that the 
quality of their dairy cattle is a very good index to a peo¬ 
ple’s civilization. hobtense Dudley. 
THE NATURAL LIVE INCUBATOR. 
Success with this incubator depends upon a turkey and 
a sitting hen tame enough to handle. Never set a hen that 
flies off the nest when you approach, nor one that picks 
your hand fiercely while you are putting the eggs in the 
nest. Last summer I set a Barred Plymouth Rock hen, 
on March 25, in my hen-house. It was all covered with 
snow, so I could not set her on the ground, which is the 
best place. As soon as the weather was warm enough I 
moved her out-of-doors and set her under a box on the 
ground. On July 25 I took her off the nest and made her 
go with the other hens: but she was determined to get 
back to her nest during all that day. This hen had sat 
continually 123 days. In the fall I dressed her and sent 
her to Boston with a No. 1 lot and she was as nice and fat 
as any. 
A turkey will take care of anything, whatever its size, 
while a hen will pick and kill any but her own chicks, so 
a turkey is a first-rate brooder. I am unable to tell how 
many chicks, ducks and turkeys that broody hen hatched, 
as I did not keep any account; but I shall do so this sea¬ 
son, and as I have started my “ brooder ” earlier, I expect 
to beat last year’s record. Sometimes I set the hen on 
ducks’ eggs, then on hens’ and then on turkeys’, just as I 
had a supply. When she hatched a brood I took them to 
the brooder, i. e. the turkeys and they brooded them 
with their own little ones. At last, the old gobbler notic¬ 
ing the great size of the families, turned brooder too. In¬ 
stead of going to roost as usual, he would sit down in the 
meadow and brood the little ones, with the hen turkeys. 
It was a very droll sight. I have heard people tell about 
hens “ sitting themselves to death; ” but I have proved 
that with proper management they will sit indefinitely 
and be none the worse for it. 
Now for the management of the incubator or hen: First, 
buy at a druggist’s some pyrethrum, Buhach 
or insect powder, costing about 50 cents per 
pound. I would have it, if it cost me $5 per 
pound if vermin troubled any of my live 
stock. It is sure death to all kinds of lice 
and it can be used with perfect safety, and 
there is not much trouble in applying it, 
which is a matter of considerable impor¬ 
tance with a busy farmer. If the weather is 
warm enough set the hen out-of-doors, 
under a good-sized box in a cool, shady 
place—under a bush or low-growing tree. 
In the construction of an incubator like 
mine you will need a sitting hen, a hoe, a 
box, some fine chaff and a little straw. 
With the hoe scrape away the sod, shaping 
a rather shallow nest in the ground, then 
put in the chaff and lastly the straw, placing 
it around the edge of the nest rather than 
in it. A flat, shallow nest with straw ar¬ 
ranged around the edge I consider the best. 
Place the eggs in the nest, turn the box 
over it, and then having raised the latter 
a little, slip in the hen, and the incubator is 
all completed and in running order, and I 
will guarantee it to hatch well; in fact, 
every fertile egg in good condition will pro¬ 
duce a chick, if the hen is properly cared 
for—at least, such has been my experience. 
I now have 31 little ducks and 28 little 
White Plymouth Rock chicks two weeks 
old hatched in this way. I set two hens, 
one on 13, the other on 15 hens’ eggs; and 
all hatched. 1 also set three hens on ducks’ 
eggs, putting 10 apiece under two hens and 
II under the other, and ail hatched. By 
ti e way, several of my neighbors have ducks and they 
have not commenced to lay yet, so I must have a smart 
kind. 
Every morning at a regular time, lift the hen off the nest 
by putting your fingers under each foot, and the hen will 
curl her toes around your fingers when you lift her up. 
Unless you do this there is danger of her striking the eggs 
together and cracking them. 
Turn the box over the eggs while the hen is off, so that 
nothing can disturb them. Provide fresh water, feed and 
a dust bath every morning. For the feed 1 give some kind 
of grain and some soft feed in separate dishes. Remain 
near at hand and when the hen starts towards the box, 
raise it a little and she will crawl under and attend to 
business until the next morning. Caring for the hen in 
this way causes some wofk, but I could not afford an arti¬ 
ficial incubator, being only a poor farmer’s daughter, so I 
discovered the next best thing. 
About once a week I dust pyrethrum powder in the hen’s 
feathers. I use an old pepper-box for the purpose and I 
also put it in the nest, having carefully removed the eggs 
before doing so. A box with a tight roof so that it will 
not leak on the hen when it is raining, is necessary. 
Keep a small block of wood under the edge of the box 
to let in air. On hot days I put under it a large block 
and substitute a smaller one at night, so that no rats can 
get in. 
This year I shall use one-inch-mesh wire netting around 
the edge of the box. I have been very successful with 
my poultry. I never saw a regular poultry paper though 
1 read the poultry notes in the papers we take. 1 never 
gave any of the poultry food advertised; but I have 
invested in wire netting and pyrethrum powder, and the 
outlay has been money well expended. 
T raise Pekin ducks and they have no water except in 
pans. I also raise Barred and White Plymouth Rocks. 
I prefer the White Plymouth Rocks and Pekin ducks 
to any fowls I have ever raised, and I have tried several 
kinds. CABBIE T. MEIGS. 
Franklin County, Yt. 
SOME MICHIGAN POULTRY. From a Photograph. Fig. 95. See Page 300. 
