i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
347 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Nebraska. 
Sweetwater, Sherman County, May 9. 
—We are having a very backward spring. 
March and April were cold, windy and dry. 
Early-sown grain looks well; but most of 
the area under small grains was sown late, 
and the stand is yet small, although stool- 
ing well, and having a good color. Things 
will come out all right if we have rains 
through May and June. Corn planting is 
just fairly begun. A sharp frost on the 
nights of May 5th and 6th has destroyed a 
great many fruit blooms and early garden 
vegetables. A large acreage of flax will be 
sown throughout this part of Nebraska. 
A few farmers will plant cucumbers, 
water-melons and sugar corn for D. M. 
Ferry, and sugar beets for the Grand 
Island sugar factory. This is a new experi¬ 
ment in this vicinity ; but we are looking 
eagerly for something a little more profit¬ 
able than grain-raising. The Farmers’ 
Alliance may be able to help the farmer; 
but the true secret of success lies in a more 
careful and intelligent study of his profes¬ 
sion. FARMER. 
New York. 
Elba, Genesee County, May 5.—We 
are having a good deal of rain ; some low 
lands are under water. Farmers are not as 
far advanced with seeding as usual on ac¬ 
count of the wet weather. Some are plow¬ 
ing up wheat as it is winter-killed; this 
means more oats and barley. Farmers are 
looking for some crop to grow which will 
give a little profit; but it is hard to find. 
Red beans are high ; but farmers will plant 
just the same area as usual. It takes four 
bushels at ordinary prices to pay for one of 
seed when prices are as high as they are 
now. Some of our fruit was damaged by 
frost on May l; but not to any great ex¬ 
tent, I think. A great many are expecting 
to make some money out of potatoes this 
year, but most of them do not take pains 
enough when planting to get them deep 
enough, accordingly they get sun burned 
and nobody wants to eat them. Potatoes 
now bring 75 cents; beaus, $2 to $4; hay, 
$hto$10; butter, 15 cents; veal calves 3)4 
cents per pound live weight. C. F. 
A Duck Farm. 
WHILE I was at South Easton, Mass., I 
visited what is claimed to be the largest 
duck farm in America. The proprietor, 
Mr. James Rankin, has been engaged 
many years in the business of hatching 
eggs artificially. Finding imperfections 
in the incubators that were in use when 
he began the work, he experimented and 
improved upon them, until he perfected 
the “Monarch.” incubator, which he has 
manufactured in large numbers, and now 
ships to all parts of the globe. It was De¬ 
cember when my visit was made, and he 
had on hand only the fowls kept for breed¬ 
ers. They were the white ducks known as 
the Pekin, and were of a very good size, 
averaging 10 pounds each. In the various 
yards he had several hundreds. He keeps 
them warm and dry to induce laying, 
which usually commences about January 
1. The eggs are gathered up by the bushel- 
basketful, and each duck is expected to 
contribute about 140 to the pile during the 
season. They commence laying when live 
months old. Last year he raised 10,000 
ducks. He made them weigh 10 pounds 
per pair when nine and 10 weeks old, at a 
cost of five cents per pound. A part of the 
year one man is constantly employed 
butchering the fowls for market. The 
feathers bring quite a nice income. He is 
constantly improving his flocks by keeping 
the choicest fowls as breeders. In his 
hatchery, which is an out-door cellar or 
“dugout” as Western people would call 
it, he has six large-sized incubators and 
one small one. In the latter he keeps eggs 
which are used to fill up the spaces left in 
the large machines by the removal of the 
eggs that are found to be infertile, after a 
certain number of days. The capacity of 
one of the large machines is 600 hens’ eggs, 
or 425 ducks’ eggs. When the hatching 
season commences—which is as soon as 
eggs can be got—the business is so ar¬ 
ranged as to get a setting ot young duck¬ 
lings every four days. These are taken 
to the brooder—a long building where the 
fledgelings can cluster under artificial 
mothers, and are kept warm by heat carried 
in pipes from the boiler at one end of the 
room. Here also is the large kettle in 
which vegetables are cooked—and the little 
bipeds are kept constantly growing on a 
diet of scraps, cooked vegetables and 
grains. 
A wind-mill pumps water which is 
carried in pipes to the different feeding sta¬ 
tions. The ducks do not have water to swim 
in. Mr. Rankin says, “ they are bred out of 
all desire to go into the water.” When it was 
thought necessary to drive tbem to a brook 
near by, to wash them, a man had to stand 
over them to keep them from coming out 
of the water. If it were generally known 
that ducks did not require water to thrive, 
many people would find a profitable busi¬ 
ness in raising them. I noticed several 
things that made the raising of ducks pref¬ 
erable to the raising of chickens. 1. They 
are not infested with lice. 2. They grow 
very quickly. 3. They can be yarded with 
great ease. When it was thought best to 
change their grazing ground, all that was 
needed was to inclose them with woven 
wire, held upright by sticks driven into the 
ground at proper intervals. Rye was sown 
to give them green food in winter. The 
duck yards were well set with plum trees 
which the birds kept free from insects. 
s. E. H. 
THE WAY TO SUCCESS. 
From time immemorial there has been a 
multitude of praisers of past days and de¬ 
criers of their own. These have usually 
been confined almost entirely to the aged 
and repining ; but of late many of the 
young and aspiring have joined the ranks 
of the croakers. These complain that, 
owing to the keen competition of to-day 
as well as to the great and growing con¬ 
centration of business and capital in a few 
vast industrial, mercantile, commercial 
and financial concerns, there is no longer 
an old-time chance for a young man with¬ 
out money or family influence; but with 
energy, industry and talent, to rise in the 
world—to start a successful business of his 
own or become a partner in another’s. 
Never was there a greater mistake. Where 
formerly there was one avenue open to suc¬ 
cess, there are now a dozen. Never before 
were real capacity and ability to do things 
so eagerly sought or so highly rewarded. 
The possessor of these needs no capital 
or other influence to secure certain advance¬ 
ment. 
Investigations lately made by Mr. An¬ 
drew Carnegie, who has written very forci¬ 
bly on this subject, prove that in case of 
all or nearly all the great industrial and 
business establishments of this country, it 
is the skillful mechanic who has served an 
apprenticeship, the wide-awake clerk who 
constantly keeps his eyes open, or the smart 
office boy with a natural aptitude that ren¬ 
ders a regular course of education and 
training almost unnecessary, who either 
originally started the business or now con¬ 
trols it. In a race with these it is found 
that the college-bred man has absolutely 
no chance. Hardly a trace of him can be 
discovered in any large successful business 
enterprise. While he is storing up infor¬ 
mation of no earthly practical use, during 
the great formative period of life—from 14 
to 20—the future leader in his vocation is 
busily learning, in the school ot experience, 
that very knowledge that leads to his 
future success. But while this is the case 
with the graduates of the literary colleges, 
those who have studied in the polytechnic, 
scientific and agricultural colleges are com¬ 
ing rapidly to the front. These are prov¬ 
ing the most formidable rivals of the train¬ 
ed mechanic, the capable clerk and office 
boy and the “practical” farmer. Besides 
having carefully studied the principles on 
which success is founded, they have an ad¬ 
ditional advantage over the others—they 
are open minded and unprejudiced. They 
are therefore always prompt to adopt the 
latest approved inventions and the newest 
successful methods. Fresh ideas or devices 
have no terrors tor them—they are con¬ 
stantly on the outlook for some plan which 
will beat the record, which will afford them 
some advantage over their competitors. 
Education is a useful as well as a refining 
possession in every walk of life; but for 
success in the world it must be adapted to 
the end in view and give instruction bear¬ 
ing on one’s life-work. 
The tendency of the age is to concentrate 
manufacturing and business affairs more 
and more in a few great establishments; 
but experience has clearly demonstrated 
that these vast concerns cannot be success¬ 
fully managed by salaried officers—that to 
achieve great and lasting success they 
must be in the hands of men pecuidarily 
interested in their welfare. Hence, the 
principals are always on the outlook for 
ability, and ever ready to reward it with an 
interest in the business ; while in the case 
of corporations no better evidence of capa¬ 
city and good j udgment and no stronger plea 
for advancement can be offered to the offi¬ 
cers than the presence of a capable em¬ 
ployee’s name among the stockholders, and 
he can place it there by the purchase of one or 
more sliaies costing from $10 to $100 apiece. 
What, then, are the requisites for success 
in business vocations P First and foremost 
are honesty, ability, knowledge and in¬ 
dustry ; then come wide-awake attention 
and a careful regard for one’s employer’s 
interests as if they were his own. A habit 
of saving is also a strong recommendation, 
as it bespeaks many other praiseworthy 
qualities, and, as a rule, a saving employee 
is a valuable employee. At the outset the 
first requisite is to attract attention by 
doing something beyond the strict line of 
duty, such as suggesting some improve¬ 
ment, saving some needless outlay or- 
rendering some service the omission of 
which would not bring blame. Having 
thus secured notice, any man possessed of 
good abilities and suitable training, can by 
honest work secure steady promotion and 
finally an interest in the business. 
But how can a young farmer best attain 
success ? The same qualities that a-e re¬ 
quisite to secure it in business affairs will 
be found equally useful in agricultural. 
Honesty, temperance, industry, wide-awake 
enterprise, close attention to the details of 
one’s business and to all the outside in¬ 
fluences likely to affect it, are the passports 
to success in farming as in every other call¬ 
ing. The day has gone by when agriculture 
was a crude art satisfactorily conducted by 
loutish Hodge and his equally stolid and 
stupid master. The conditions of modern 
life demand for success in farming the use 
of the same talents that secure it in other 
vocations. It is much easier, however, to 
attain independence in farming than in 
business life. While everything nowadays 
tends to concentrate business in a fe ;v large 
concerns, everything tends to dis ribute 
land in smaller areas among the many. 
Experience abroad has clearly shown that 
the tillers of small farms which they owned 
have been able to withstand agricultural 
depression much better than the owners of 
large estates, and here also during the 
recent “hard times,” the most forehanded 
farmers have been those who have skill¬ 
fully handled small areas. Not much cap¬ 
ital is therefore needed to start in the busi¬ 
ness, and the necessary sum can be usually 
borrowed or saved in a few years by the 
man worthy of success ; then with the ex¬ 
ercise of the same qualities that insure 
good fortune in other lines of business, in¬ 
dependence, a comfortable livelihood, a 
calm, happy life and a fair fortune are as¬ 
sured. _ 
_ w 
THE DEACON VISITS THE IN¬ 
CUBATORS. 
Concluded . 
“ They cost something like $12 from Lan¬ 
caster.” 
“ Oh, dem robbfcrs ! I tell you, Mr. Bob, 
dem ’spress people jes robs a man when dey 
gits de chance, dat dey does, Sir.” 
“ These are Toulouse Geese, Deacon. 
What do-” 
“ Goodness me ! Jes look at dem fellers, 
Mirandy! Bigger den enny I ever seed 
afore. What’s de heft ob one ob dem ? ” 
“ They weigh about 35 pounds per pair, 
but some will go as high as 42 when full- 
grown.” 
“ ’Spose you want ’bout $2 fur one ob 
dem ? ” 
“You can’t touch one of them, Deacon, 
for less than a V.” 
“Go way, man 1 Quit your projekin wid 
de ole man ! Dem’s nice fellers, fur sure, 
but I don’t want enny at that price. What 
do you do wid all de eggs you git frum de 
hens ?” 
“ Sell the most of them to private fam¬ 
ilies, and set the ones from the fancy-bred 
fowls. We have quite a number of young 
chickens out now, and every one has blue- 
blood in his or her craw.” 
“ What’s dese in dis pen ? ” 
“Those are Lop-Eared rabbits. They 
make fine pets for children, and sell like 
peanuts at Barnum’s circus.” 
“I bet dey does. Where’s dem inker- 
bators ? ” 
“Right dow r n here, Deacon. Here are 
the only sitting hens that we have on the 
place. They have been going for over three 
weeks, and haven’t smashed an egg, or 
trodden on the neck of a. chick.” 
“ Good Lawd, Mirandy! Did you eber ! 
See dat little feller a picken at de shell. 
Well! Well! Dat sartiuly does take de 
cake. See dat little feller ober dar! Jes 
got out ob de shell, and ain’t dry yet. 
’Peers mighty pert fur a little feller with¬ 
out enny mudder. Well, Sir, if dat don't 
get me! What you got to say now, ole 
woman ?” 
“ Here they are, Deacon. Eighty due to 
hatch to-day, and over 60 out of the shell. 
They are —” 
“ Don’t you hab to set up at night and 
watch ’em ? ” 
“ Oh, no ! We have them well regulated 
before we put eggs in them, and when once 
started right they remain at about the 
same temperature. They are —” 
“ What does you hab to do wid ’em dur¬ 
ing de day P ” 
“Well, the lamps have to be trimmed 
once every day, and filled each morning. 
The eggs have to be turned twice every 
day. By putting one tray over the other, 
and giving it a quick ‘ flip,’ the eggs are 
turned before you know it, and it saves the 
trouble of turning them by hand. A bad 
egg can be easily detected and thrown out. 
After being in the machine for a week, the 
eggs are carefully candled, and bad, or 
addled ones are thrown out. These are 
pans filled with water, which furnishes the 
necessary amount of moisture which 
softens the eggshells, enabling the chicks to 
get out with less trouble than where the 
moisture is not furnished. Duck, goose, or 
turkey eggs can be hatched in these the 
same as under a hen, and with less loss, 
for the incubator never kills a chick by 
putting its feet on its neck. These are 
the brooders, or old mothers. They can 
accommodate quite a large number of 
chicks, and know enough to stay at home 
and attend to business. As soon as the 
chicks are dry, they are placed in the 
brooders, and there they keep house until 
they are large enough to look out for them¬ 
selves. The brooder is heated on the same 
principle as the incubator, and it does not 
take much time to keep it going. The 
chicks have food before them constantly, 
and a nice, warm place to scratch in. In 
this way they are quite secure from skunks 
and — ” 
“ Come right along, Mirandy! Seed too 
much now. Didn’t ’spect to see all dis 
when we started. Nebber seed so many 
-Go way, sar! Lie down dar, you ras¬ 
cal ! Dat dog like ter took a piece out ob 
de ole man’s leg. Mighty little meat on 
hit, but I needs all dar is. What kind ob a 
dog is dat ? ” 
“That, Deacon, is a red Irish Setter. 
Got her when she was only two days old, 
and raised her on a bottle like a baby. She 
is-” 
“Look here, Mr. Bob, don’t give de ole 
man enny more to-day. Got dat ole head 
ob mine full now, and won’t sleep a wink 
to-night fur a thinking ’bout all dis. 
Who’s dat a coming ? ” 
“Those are some people coming to see 
the incubators. Quite a number come here 
every day just to take a look at the birds, 
and see the machines in operation. Well, 
so long, Deacon ! ” 
“ Heah, Mr. Bob, call dat dog ob yourn 
back ! Bound to git a piece of de ole man’s 
leg yit! ” cheyenne bob. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention the Rural. 
The soft, velvety coloring effect so desirable for 
house exteriors can only be produced and perma¬ 
nently held by the use of 
CABOT’S CBEOSOTE SHINGLE STAINS. 
For Samples on Wood, with Circulars and full 
information, apply to 
SAMUEL CABOT, 
70 Ktlbv Street. Boston, Mass. 
Mention Rubai, New-Yorker. 
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