652 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SEPT. 27 
‘Rough on Rogues.” 
LOOKOUT 
ALMANAC 
LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE. 
SEPTEMBER. 
Lookout for sham farm journals. 
The country will be full of them 
in a few weeks. The rum-sel¬ 
lers have adopted a new scheme for “work¬ 
ing public interest” in their wretched busi¬ 
ness. They issue cheap farm papers in 
which “ arguments ” in favor of the saloon 
are made so cunningly and yet so power¬ 
fully that many a farmer’s boy comes to 
sneer at temperance and morality. Shame 
on such people ! Read what this Ohio sub¬ 
scriber of The R. N.-Y. has to say about 
these papers: “Who dares to start a cru¬ 
sade against the miserable, trifling, al¬ 
leged farm journals with which our coun¬ 
try is flooded ? Are our farmers so ignorant 
and unsophisticated, in the opinion of the 
publishers of these libels on farm litera¬ 
ture, that they can be imposed upon and 
insulted with impunity ? It is the hight 
of insolence in any sham farm paper, pub¬ 
lishing stale and stolen stuff, and sailing 
under farm colors for the sake of a revenue 
from vicious advertisements and other dis¬ 
reputable sources, to continue to force itself 
upon the farmers unsought. The catch¬ 
penny sheets can be detected at a glance. 
They are the mediums for all those indecent 
and dishonest advertisements that are kept 
out of our reputable journals only by the 
exercise of eternal vigilance. The latest at 
hand is a sheet, published in a neighboring 
State, with a little better order of stolen 
farm ideas than usual. It did not appear 
to have, as a reason for existence, the usual 
amount of fraudulent advertisements, but 
the cloven hoof soon appeared. Here and 
there in its six by 10 pages were flings at 
temperance legislation. It is, of course, a 
whisky organ, sent out among unsuspect¬ 
ing farmers to educate them to think all 
temperance work is foolishness and a fail¬ 
ure. 
• * * 
Tuesday It would appear that some farrn- 
* ers are taken in by the chaff sup- 
30 . plied by this class of papers at 
25 to 50 cents per year, and subscribe on ac¬ 
count of the low price, ignorant of the 
fact that the publishers will send their pa¬ 
pers anyhow, as they must issue a certain 
number of copies to get advertisements. 
These are a few low-priced monthly agri¬ 
cultural papers of large circulation that 
belong to the cleanest and best of farm lit¬ 
erature; but there is no danger of their 
being confounded with the class under dis¬ 
cussion. It may be an unpleasant task for 
reputable journals to expose these frauds 
through fear of having their motives mis¬ 
understood, but the public good demands 
the suppression of papers that exist only 
as mediums for the advertisements of 
knaves and the purveyors of all indecency 
—advertisements that may not receive any 
attention from men of the world, but 
which are well calculated to entrap the 
young. Their request for f ubscriptions is 
a piece of impudence and the forcing of 
themselves upon us an insolence.” 
• 
• • 
Wednesday kook ou t that you examine 
1 property before you buy it. A 
L Pennsylvania farmer has 
just brought suit to try to recover damages 
for what he and about everybody else calls 
a fraud. This man agreed to change farms 
with another. The other man told a fine 
story about the value of his farm, its ad¬ 
mirable location, etc., etc. It seemed as 
though it contained every possible desir¬ 
able feature. So the exchange was made; 
but when the farmer went to find his farm 
he found nothing but a lake. He could 
only reach the soil by diving under water. 
See what you are doing before you trade 
away your home. 
§► 
* * 
Thursday ^his is R. N.-Y. day again. 
' The farmer is going “ up head!” 
2. Look out that your part of the 
farmer’s movement is a success. Look out 
that you know what you are moving for. 
Ffidriy kook out for a new form of an 
' old fraud that is described as fol- 
3 * lows by the daily papers: The 
method of the swindlers is to go to a house, 
and, after first ascertaining that the gentle¬ 
man of the establishment is not present, 
enter and ask the housewife for a record of 
all the deaths in the family for the last 15 
years. Thinking that the visitor is execut¬ 
ing a new phase in Uncle Sam’s mysterious 
plan of census enumeration, she furnishes 
him with the requested information with¬ 
out objection. The fraud carefully notes 
the birth, age and cause of disease, thanks 
his informant and bows himself out. 
* 
• * 
Sitordiv A * ew ^ ays ^ ater the victor’ 8 
* strange solicitude in regard to 
4 - the dead is explained. The 
same ladies are again visited, but not by 
the supposed census taker, though evident¬ 
ly by his partner in the nefarious scheme. 
The last named brings with him a card on 
which is neatly printed in memorial form 
an accurate record of the family demises. 
This he presents to the good housewife, 
with his compliments, and a request for 
$1.50, which he claims as the cost of the 
memorial. If the lady demurs he becomes 
angry and insists that she is guilty of a 
breach of contract made with his partner. 
The card is not worth in actual value 10 
cents, but the lady generally becomes a 
victim of an arrant scamp, and gives him 
his price rather than see the names of loved 
ones scattered broadcast over the city by 
irreverent hands. In one instance a lady 
objected to taking the card, stating she did 
not have the money, whereupon the impu¬ 
dent scamp insisted that she go to a neigh¬ 
bor or her groceryman and borrow the 
amount, and because she declined to ac¬ 
cept his suggestions left the house in a 
fury, threatening to take legal action.” 
Poultry Yard. 
Broiler raising has been reduced to a 
science. Like other sciences, it needs a cor¬ 
rect knowledge of underlying principles in 
order to arrive at definite results. Those 
who have achieved the most marked suc¬ 
cesses have been those who have been work¬ 
ing and studying for years. In many cases 
the apparatus they use has been the out¬ 
come of their investigations and the needs 
of the case. They thoroughly understand 
the business from the breeding of the stock 
which is to lay the egg inclosing the germ 
of the future broiler, through every step of 
the evolution, up to the time the finished 
product is placed on the market. In arriv¬ 
ing at these results they have made many 
mistakes, have sustained many losses, 
have learned many things which could be 
learned in no other way. Yet there are 
many inexperienced people who think they 
can take any one of the numerous incuba- 
bators which are so “ simple that a child 
can operate them,” and make a success and 
a fortune from the first. Such a consum¬ 
mation is not impossible,but it is extremely 
improbable. Hundreds have tried it and 
failed. In this, as in many other things, 
patient, persevering work will bring ulti¬ 
mate success. v. 
It is poor policy to place eggs from 
different breeds in an incubator, as the 
conditions necessary for hatching Brahmas, 
Cochins, Leghorns, Minorcas, Plymouth 
Rocks, etc., are different. Wyandotte and 
Plymouth Rock eggs can be hatched in the 
same machine very nicely, but thus far, 
after four trials, I have failed to hatch La 
Fleche eggs successfully in an incubator 
where other eggs had been placed. Of the 
La Flgche eggs an average of 80 to 90 per 
cent, were hatched under hens. Golden 
Wyandotte eggs failed to hatch in the 
incubator, but 60 per cent, were hatched 
under hens. I have come to the conclusion 
that it takes the very strongest germs to 
stand the wear and tear of an incubator. 
A writer in The Rural recently spoke 
disparagingly of incubators and brooders ; 
but, nevertheless, both have come to stay. 
Incubators as well as brooders have been 
vastly improved. Both will do good work 
when intelligently handled. The fact, how¬ 
ever, remains that very few are successful 
in managing these devices. The brooder 
requires a master, and unfortunately the 
latter can be rarely found. The trouble is 
that novices expect too much of an incuba¬ 
tor. This is partly the fault of the incu¬ 
bator manufacturers, as they proclaim in 
glowing colors the large hatches made at 
shows and by private individuals. The 
awards at the shows are, as a rule, a farce, 
and afford no test at all of the incubator. It 
is folly for a novice to expect to hatch 90 
per cent, when experts are satisfied with 
average hatches of 50 and 60 per cent. Does 
a hen average 90 per cent f Hardly; and 
no sane man will say that the incubator 
is superior to the hen. So with brooders. 
The best brooder may be condemned owing 
to the gross mismanagement of the opera¬ 
tor. A brooder is a cosy place where a 
chick can get warmth when it needs it; but 
a chick’s business is to be at large during 
the day and enjoy the open air, the grass 
and sunshine. The trouble is that many 
brood the chickens too much and keep their 
brooders too hot. It pays to study the heu 
and her brood. Nature is a wise teacher. 
Great difficulty is often experienced in 
hatching Cochin eggs. Some years ago a 
successful poultryman was nonplussed be¬ 
cause his Partridge Cochin eggs would not 
hatch. They were fertile, but with all the 
care he took in selecting the best eggs, hens 
and quarters, the chicks failed to come 
from the shells. One day he passed through 
his meadows and found one of his Cochins 
in a hollow quietly sitting on a dozen eggs. 
He thought he would allow her to remain, 
and watch developments. During the lat¬ 
ter part of the hatch severe rains set in, 
and one day, being solicitous about his 
hen, he inspected and found that she had 
hatched 10 chickens, two of which were 
drowned by the water and the rest were 
wet. This led him to supply abundant 
moisture to Cochin eggs in the future, and 
he was gratified to find that the eggs 
hatched splendidly after that. 
In my own experience I had considerable 
trouble in hatching Buff Cochin eggs in 
incubators. The chickens seemed unable 
to get out of the shells. I placed one lot 
in an incubator which I thought too moist, 
and in which the heat varied from 88 to 
110 degrees. In fact the temperature was 
107 degrees when the eggs were hatching, 
but I was surprised to hatch 50 per cent, 
of the Cochin eggs, though never before 
could I get even 20 per cent, either under a 
hen or in an incubator. This may in ajneas- 
ure explain the way for the successful 
hatching of Cochin and Brahma eggs in 
incubators, as it is a well known fact 
that the latter are hard to hatch artifi¬ 
cially. _ J - H - D - 
COMING BREEDS. 
At the present time many new breeds of 
poultry are not coming to the front. The 
Asiatics have been thoroughly tried over 
and over again, and as a market fowl have 
proved disappointing when pure-bred ; but 
their crosses, especially the Plymouth 
Rocks and Wyandottes, have been great 
acquisitions to the breeders of broilers and 
early chickens for market; their hardiness 
as chicks and their plumpness have gained 
for them a place that will probably remain 
permanent in chicken culture. Having 
accepted these crosses as new breeds, we 
have not made any advance since their in¬ 
troduction. Some of the other fowls now 
called new breeds, are simply revivals of 
old kinds, as the Red Caps, Minorcas, 
Javas, etc. Even the new Indian Games 
are a revived form of the old types, but at 
the same time they may prove a very val¬ 
uable strain, especially for crossing with 
other breeds. When I speak of the ex¬ 
cellence of the crosses, let it be remembered 
I have in mind utility for market purposes. 
Give me pure-bred fowls of any kind for 
my fancy. Some other new breeds have 
been introduced, as the Orpingtons, Pata¬ 
gonians, etc.; but they have not been bred 
long enough to enable one to form a fair 
idea of them. H. H. 
Farm Politics. 
“THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN.” 
In our last week’s issue we noticed the 
nomination for the N. Y. Assembly, of 
Mr. W. C. Gifford. The peculiar circum¬ 
stances of this nomination render it at this 
time of more than local importance. We 
feel sure that the following note from one* 
who knows Mr. Gifford well, will be read 
with interest by all who are seeking to en¬ 
courage organization and co-operation 
among farmers. 
“Mr. Gifford received the unanimous 
nomination in the Republican convention 
for Member of Assembly in the first dis¬ 
trict. There were six other candidates in 
the field, most of them old-line politicians 
who understand all the workings of the 
machine, and spared neither time nor money 
to win success. It is current talk that 
never before was so much money used in a 
canvass in Chautauqua County, as in the 
one just passed. But the people here, as 
elsewhere, seem to be awakening to a sense 
of better things, and the delegates appeared 
to be not of the purchasable kind, notwith¬ 
standing the tempting offers made to some 
of them. There is an old saying:—"If one 
waits long enough, everything will come 
('Continued on next page.) 
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