1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
25 
Hope Farm Notes 
Curing a Hog.—O n page 915 I gave an 
opinion as to curing a hog of the chicken- 
eating habit. Here comes a Pennsylvania 
man with some warm experience: 
“I cured a valuable sow of killing chick¬ 
ens; she would eat a dozen a day if they 
come that fast to her pen; even chase a half 
grown one. Little ones were her favorite. 
I took a small chicken, split it open, put a 
tablespoonful of red pepper in, then tied with 
sewing cotton and dropped it in empty 
trough. She grabbed it quickly, gave a gulp, 
spit it out, that was the last one. w. L. c. 
I don't blame the hog for losing her taste 
for chicken. That looks to me like heroic 
treatment, hut I had no idea a hog had such 
a long memory. I have heard of a dog that 
was cured of stealing eggs by filling an egg 
wfth some awful dose, leaving it for him, 
but I thought a hog's hoggishness would over¬ 
come his memory. 1 am pretty sure that the 
Hope Farm hogs are not made that way. 
I had no idea this hog question would 
call oift such a discussion, hut here is another 
from New Jersey : 
“I'm not very much on chickens, and I 
haven't owned a hog in 15 years, but I am 
conceited enough to think I could prevent 
the two from mixing if planted in the same 
pen, or rather I think I could prevent the 
chickens turning to hog. Instead of giving 
A. J. H. the answer you did in Hope Farm 
Notes, page 915, I would have advised him 
to take a piece of heavy tin of rectangular 
shape about 2% x 4 inches—in fact I think 
5 x G inches would not be large enough to 
hurt. In one of the edges of this tin punch 
two holes as far apart as the hog’s nostrils 
are. Through these h’oles pass hog rings, and 
snap them in t'ne upper edge of the hog's 
nostrils, letting the tin “swing door” hang 
down over her nose and mouth. She very 
soon leai ns to eat without inconvenience 
except when she wants to eat chicken, but 
when she makes a grab for a chicken the 
“door" gets there just ahead and knocks the 
chicken out of fhe way.” G. g. g. 
This is a sort of prohibition, and I ought 
to endorse it, I suppose, but did our Jersey 
friend ever see a good-sized hog catch a 
chicken? It does not always use the mouth, 
but often strikes down with the front feet, 
pinning the bird and -then tearing it. A good 
hog can use its feet as a boxer uses his hands, 
and they would quickly learn to knock down 
chickens and eat them as they do other 
things. There are few animals more “cute” 
at mischief than a hog. In muddy places the 
larger breeds of poultry are often slow at 
moving, as their feet are heavy. I think 
this “door” plan would most likely prove an 
“open door.” 
A Question of Heat. —The following ques¬ 
tion from New York State may have occured 
to others: 
“To settle a dispute please answer this 
question. Will a cook stove heat a room the 
most with the oven door shut or open?” 
j. G. c. 
For aught I know this may be an argument 
between man and wife, in which case, an 
experienced citizen may well hesitate to 
open the oven door. In order to shift the 
burden upon strong shoulders I asked Prof. 
F. II. King to settle the question. Here is 
his answer—in more comprehensive language 
than I am capable of producing: 
“There would lie no disagreement I think, 
between the disputants on the proposition 
which affirmed that the oven would not bake 
as well with the doors open as it would with 
the doors closed. If they admit this proposi¬ 
tion, it would be conceded that heat was kept 
in the oven, which would otherwise escape 
into the room, and which, if it did so escape 
would tend to warm the air of the room. 
The difficulty probably grows out of the fail¬ 
ure to understand that the construction of 
a good kitchen stove is so planned as to 
prevent so far as possible, the escape of heat 
into the room in which it stands, the object 
being to keep the temperature within the 
stove, including the oven, as high as possible. 
The result is that a much larger proportion 
of the heat developed by the fuel in the 
kitchen stove is carried directly out of the 
chimney, in the products of combustion, and 
has comparatively little effect in heating the 
room. Whenever the oven door is opened a 
current of warm air will flow continuously 
out of the upper part of the oven while a 
cold stream is entering the lower portion, 
th”~ warming the air of the house more with 
the door open than with it closed.” 
1 think we may safely leave the scientific 
side of this discussion to Prof. King. A 
human application is more in my line. Sup¬ 
pose the people who conduct this discussion 
agree to disagree—(that is, stop trying to 
convince each other with the arguments at 
hand. Let them both shut the door through 
which the arguments proceed. Or on the other 
hand, let this door be kept wide open and 
constantly moving. Does anyone doubt which 
of these 'conditions will bring most warmth 
into the house? At first thought one would 
say that the open door (and discussion) 
means more heat, but long observation makes 
me doubtful. Most human minds are not 
built like a cooking stove. There is no place 
for the surplus to pass away. Instead of 
cooking a thought thoroughly most of us 
brood over it until we explode. Of course. 
1 understand that even after Prof. King's 
lucid explanation there will be some to say 
“ ’taint so!” This “ 'taint so” has caused 
many a person to miss the educational ad¬ 
vantages of a mental defeat. 
Cows’ Horns. — A New York reader who 
wants to make the most of things asks: 
“Is there any market for cows' horns 
available to farmers. We dishorned 34 
cattle yesterday, and consequently have a 
supply of horn on hand.” i~ E. 
I suppose this has occurred to many fanners 
before now. While we are told that dishorn¬ 
ing adds 30 per cent to the value of the 
cow, most of us would like to have the horn 
value also. It seems that horns are used 
for making buttons, combs, etc., and are 
ground up for fertilizer. One dealer in horns 
says this small lot would not lie worth over 
one dollar. Another says that horn shavings 
—the refuse from making combs and buttons 
—are worth $25 a ton. A manufacturer oi 
combs says that it would hardly pay him 
to buy this small lot. He prefers to buy 
of collectors or slaughter houses in large lots. 
This is one of the cases where the man witli 
a small lot of goods is at a disadvantage 
in the market. My grandfather used to make 
some money scraping horns down so thin 
that you could almost see through them, 
and then selling them for powder horns, but 
the modern cartridge has ended that. 
What Is Sugar? —Here is an honest ques¬ 
tion which has puzzled many a student of 
fertilizers : 
“Roughly speaking, cereals and all vegeta¬ 
tion are composed of protein, fat, sugar, 
starch and mineral matters. Now what are 
the elements in the soils and fertilizers that 
make these parts? Nitrogen I should judge 
goes to make protein in vegetation, but what 
elements make fat, sugar and starch?” 
M. J. B. 
I ant not a chemist, but this Is the way I 
understand It. Sugar, fat and starch belong 
to the class of substances Which contain no 
ash. If you burn them thoroughly there is 
nothing left. Burn a lump of coal until 
every bit that will burn has l>een consumed, 
and there will still be a quantity left which 
is indestructible. Burn a caudle or a pint of 
oil as long as it will burn, and nothing will 
be left. Every bit of it has gone into the 
air evidently in the form of a gas. Burn 
sugar thoroughly and the same thing will 
happen. The ash in the coal represents the 
part of the actual soil removed by the plant. 
There is no ash in the sugar or fat, as every¬ 
thing they contain goes back into the air 
when burned. 
Do you mean to tell us therefore that 
plants take their sugar out or the air? 
Yes, that is what it amounts to. Analyze 
sugar and we find it contains 12 parts of 
carbon ro 11 parts of water. The curlion is 
obtained out of the air—the leaves absorb 
carbonic acid gas. The carbon of this gas 
is combined with water in the plant, and by 
a wonderful process of chemistry made into 
sugar, starch and fat. These contain no nit¬ 
rogen or ash, and when burned go back into 
the* all*. Burn any part of the original plant 
and you will have ash, showing that lime, 
potash and phosphoric acid are needed to 
produce it. Extract the sugar or fat alone 
and it will give no ash. One of the hardest 
things to believe and understand is this fact 
that a solid like carbon (charcoal) can be 
taken from the air. It is evident to everyone 
that: we could take moisture out of the air 
and freeze it into solid ice. We know that 
when we burn charcoal it passes away as a 
gas. It is no more remarkable that the gas 
is brought back to a solid. Really, the air 
Is a wonderful reservoir—containing in its 
vapor and dust particles of every conceivable 
thing which goes to make or clothe the earth. 
The. round of carbon through gas and solid 
is wonderful. As we have seen, the plants 
take it from the air and combine it. with 
water to make fat. sugar or starch. An 
animal may eat the plant or the fat alone, 
and in its "body the sugar or starch will be 
consumed to keep up animal heat—the car¬ 
bon passing away from the lungs into the 
air as carbonic acid gas—to be used once 
more by plants. 
Home and Farm. —You spoke last week of 
giving alcohol to a cow. What ailed her? 
She broke out and got at a bag of oats. We 
gave her oil of course, but some of the oats 
seemed to xiack in the manifolds or third 
stomach. The oil had little effect, and the 
veterinarian gave her the strongest purgative 
he knew of—afraid that even this would 
not save her. He said that if she got too 
weak we were to give her ounce doses of 
alcohol in milk or gruel. She did not seem 
to need it, and seems now to be getting better 
—after a long, hard pull. I do not know of 
any grain worse than oats for this trouble 
in a cow. 
Ain’t you ashamed of yourself to let a 
cow get at the grain? 
Yes, we are. 
I am asked to explain how we are han¬ 
dling the horse manure this Winter. We use 
sawdust for bedding, and every morning the 
night’s accumulation is thrown into a room 
or shed in which are two good-sized hogs. 
These work it over thoroughly. When the 
pile gets too high it is thrown out under a 
shelter, well spread out, and packed down 
hard. The hogs make it fine and the sawdust 
is even'.v worked into it. The slops from the 
house tire poured over the outside pile. I 
intend to use this fine and well mixed 
manure for such crops as tomatoes and 
peppers, with potash added. . . . The 
wisdom of using fresh sawdust for bedding 
is questioned by some good farmers. I test 
the fresh sawdust with litmus paper, and 
find it ouite acid; the sawdust in the man¬ 
ure pile, or that well soaked with liquids, 
do“c not turn the blue paper red. and I rea¬ 
son that the sawdust has l>een sweetened 
by the horses and hogs. We are also plan¬ 
ning to use lime freely this Spring on all 
places where this sawdust manure is used. 
A reader says that in speaking of fertiliz¬ 
ing material at Hope Farm we said nothing 
about bones. On every farm there will ac¬ 
cumulate every year several hundred pounds 
of bones. Often they are given to the dogs 
and carried away to odd places. They can 
lxi buried beside* trees or vines, burned with 
wood to make bone ash, roasted in the oven 
and smashed for the poultry, softened by 
packing with wood ashes or ground into meal. 
I do not advise the use of sulphuric acid 
on the farm. As the quickest way of dis¬ 
posing of bones, dead hens and other small 
carcasses we bury them besides the young 
apple trees. For use on crops mixing with 
moist wood ashes gives fair results, but 
when the gasoline engine comes we shall try 
to crush or griud the farm bones in a bone 
mill. This will make good food for chickens 
or hogs or for use on crops. It would be 
well if the bones could be steamed or cooked 
before grinding. 
We have to buy about all- our grain, and 
it has become a great problem to know how 
to get most for a dollar. The various mixed 
grains and ground meals are easy to adulter¬ 
ate and, as we buy them, they vary so that 
I get suspicious. We liave at last decided 
to trv only whole corn, whole oats and bran. 
By soaking the corn thoroughly before feed¬ 
ing we get better results from it, especially 
with the old horses. When we get ou*r 
power in working order we expect to grind 
corn and oats for such stock as need meal - 
When you buy whoD grain you know what 
you are getting. With some lively hogs t» 
work over the manure very little feed wi/1 
be wasted. H. w. , 
What we might say here about 
the Studebaker line of farm wagons, 
carriages, buggies and harness, might 
or might not have much weight with you. 
What you can see with your own eyes will tell 
the story better than volumes of our talk. There¬ 
fore we say 
See the Studebaker Agent 
Here are some of the things he will show you: 
Why the Studebaker Wagon, while stronger, heavier and 
more durable (being made of heavier timber and more heavily 
ironed) is nevertheless the lightest running wagon on earth. 
Why the Studebaker axles ()4 to ^ inch deepet than others 
and reinforced with heavy truss) have greater carry ingcapacity. 
Why the Studebaker hub does not split, check nor crack 
Why the Studebaker slope-shoulder spokes (larger than 
others) make a stronger wheel. 
Why the Studebaker wagon-box with reinforced bottom, 
is the strongest and most convenient box made. 
Why the Studebaker vehicles are so popular; why more people buy 
them than any other; why more than oae million are in daily use all 
over the world. 
la dull a ker 
if 
(in- 
See the Studebaker Agent 
before you buy a farm wagon, a buggy, a carriage or anything in the 
vehicle or harness line. He will not ask you to buy on reputation alone. 
He will show you point by point wherein the Studebaker excels and 
you can see for yourself. 
If you don’t know a Studebaker agent, write to us. Enclose a two cent stamp and we’ll 
send you the Studebaker Farmer’s Almanac for 190b—Free. Please address Dept. 54. 
STUDEBAKER BROS. MFG. CO., South Bend, Indiana. 
The Studebaker—A wagon with a reputation behind it. 
HOW 
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on Thirty Days* Trial 
FREE 
' It’s this way— 
An entirely new feature Is embodied In 
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The Forward Truck.without any Tongv ■*, 
positively relieves the horses of all Neck 
Weight and Side Draft, and allows them 
free, easy movement. They have just an 
even, steady pull. 
Why should a team, that Is already hav¬ 
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uneven ground, be hampered and annoyed 
by the Threshing of a Tongue, and by the 
weight of a Harrow Frame? 
There Is absolutely no reason for It. 
To give you a chance to examine this 
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Sea What Mr. Weaver says: 
Dexter Mo., Oct. 26, 1905. 
American Harrow Co., Detroit, Mich. 
Gentlemen: Wo are pleased to write you that the No. 
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tested, and found not wanting anywhere. 
We have at laat a long felt want supplied—a Tongue¬ 
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This Harrow Is built on right principles 
—No Side Draft. 
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