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January 5, 
L.. nofab 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
but on Thanksgiving morning I discovered one that acted 
sick. She did not cat, made but a feeble attempt to resist 
being caught, and had an unnatural discharge from the 
vent. I removed her from the building entirely and 
before night she died. A Brooklyn M. D. was visiting 
us, and the next morning we performed an autopsy. 
My surmises were confirmed. The trouble was in the 
oviduct. She was fat and otherwise in fine condition. 
We found one eggshell crushed to a pulp, one soft- 
shelled egg (not normal), one full-sized egg with per¬ 
fect shell, but filled with a watery, yellow fluid instead 
of a normal egg, and also a small kidney-shaped mass 
of matter resembling the white of an egg, that was 
covered with a shell. The probability is that the whole 
trouble was started by that egg becoming crushed in 
some way in her body. 
A Long Island inquirer asks how soon it is best to 
feed this year’s corn to laying hens. I know of no 
good reason for waiting, after the corn is ripe enough 
and dry enough to shell from the cob. I doubt if it is 
ever more nutritious or more easily digested than at 
that time. There is a popular belief that new corn fed 
to a horse is more likely to produce indigestion and 
colic than old corn. How much fact this is founded on 
I do not know. Any kind of corn should be fed to 
road horses at least with caution. I have never heard 
of any such belief in regard to new corn foil to poultry. 
Their digestive tract is entirely different from that of 
the horse. In purchasing corn it is well to remember 
that you buy more water in new corn than in old, and 
gauge the price accordingly. At the present time good 
new corn is being offered in our market at a cent a 
pound, with wheat and oats at about V/ 2 cent per 
pound. With new-laid eggs selling at about 50 cents 
per dozen there should be a margin or profit in egg pro¬ 
duction, especially in the new hen barn, where the item 
of labor is reduced more than .100 per cent. In addi¬ 
tion to the daily care mentioned above, they get a little 
green cut bone two or three times a week. This costs 
three cents per pound at our butcher’s shop. He has 
a gasoline engine and bone mill, and grinds them fresh 
for me upon order. They are the worst things to fer¬ 
ment and spoil ] have ever attempted to handle, after 
they are ground. I'lig* only safe way to insure a good 
article is to grind and feed the same day. The 34 
eggs laid to-day pay for the feed and leave a little bal¬ 
ance for profit, which is better than I expected for 
December 1. o. w. mapes. 
BEEF RAISING IN NEW ENGLAND. 
Last week Mrs. F. L. Ives, of Connecticut, discussed 
the labor question, and showed how it is changing (lie char¬ 
acter of New England farming. It is often suggested as a 
way out •for such farmers that beef cattle could be kept 
in place of dairy cows. In theory this would help, since 
beef would not require so much hired help. Can such a 
farmer easily change from dairying to beef? Mrs. Ives 
gives (bis reply : 
Beef raising is quite outside our experience. We find 
it difficult to dispose of the culls of our dairy young 
stock, when fattened, except as we butcher them our¬ 
selves and dispose of the quarters amomr our kin and 
acquaintances; can sometimes sell an extra nice fat 
heifer at $20 to $25 alive. When quartered we get five 
cents a pound for forequarters, six and a half or seven 
for hind quarters. It takes considerable grain to fatten 
this class of cattle. I should think the beef breeds 
might fatten on good pasture as well here as else¬ 
where. 
You ask would it cost too much to switch off from 
dairying to beef raising. I don’t know what it would 
cost, but we should have to abandon a dairy equipment 
worth a thousand dollars; abandon it is the right term. 
I think, for engine, separator, cream tank, churn and 
cement-floored dairy room, with its various small fit¬ 
tings, are unsalable articles at second band. Then we 
have a fine herd of grade Guernseys with no particular 
value except as dairy animals, for which there is no 
great market. Also we have about 40 good customers 
for our butter. Such a trade brings a steady income 
and is not easily picked up again if once dropped. Mr. 
Ives’s father furnished some of these customers for 
over 30 years, and we have now been doing the same 
for 15 years. We know our trade, we like it, and it is 
not great wealth, but it is a good living and a chance to 
put by a little toward an independent old age, which 
is every man’s right, but—seems likely to work us to 
death instead, owing to lack of help. I really cannot 
answer your question as to whether we could make a 
living at beef raising, nor do I know how many beef 
cattle our farm would support. We keep about 50 head 
of dairy stock, a yoke of oxen and three horses on our 
200 acres; but rent pasture, in Summer, for the young 
cattle; and buy $700 or $800 worth of grain every year, 
besides growing corn for a 100-ton silo. 
There ought to be plenty of market for the beef, 
though a few years ago any market known to buy meat 
other than that sold by the beef trust could not buy 
from the trust, and the local supply of beef being too 
small to depend upon, they were forced to ourchase only 
from the trust. Whether a like state of things is true 
now I cannot say. We fatten about 30 pigs every year 
on milk and grain. They will weigh 150 to 250 pounds 
at eight months. These we have little trouble in sell¬ 
ing at the highest market price, and could do a profitable 
business in cutting them up and selling homemade lard 
and sausage, as well as the hams and ribs, among our 
butter customers, but cannot do anything of that sort 
because of the work involved. I fail to see why fact as 
“ALL TIIE COMFORTS OF HOME.” Fig. 2. 
well as fancy should not be expedient on the hired help 
question, but probably because the truth being stranger 
than fiction is held to be incredible. mrs. f. l. ives. 
Litchfield Co.. Conn. 
EXPERIENCE WITH A SYPHON. 
As to the discussion on syphoning water, I will give 
my experience with one that my father installed 35 
years ago. From a well 18 feet deep situated above the 
buildings, a -Hi-inch lead pipe comes directly up about 
12 feet, then running downhill about 16 rods, then 
comes up in a penstock about five feet high, which 
brings the lower end of pipe about eight feet lower 
than bottom of the well. In dry weather the well would 
not supply more than 100 gallons a day. The lower 
end was kept plugged with a pine plug having a hole 
bored in; this hole was filled with lead, being run 
around a needle placed in the center of hole. Having 
plugs with different sized holes we gauged the delivery 
according to the supply. In the operation of this syphon 
the flow was very slow, according to the size of the 
pipe, and the pipe would fill with air, and stop the 
water in about two weeks. This stoppage was overcome 
by pulling the plug at regular intervals, allowing the 
water to flow freely for five minutes, which would 
clean out the air; the syphon was then ready for two 
weeks more. Fresh water carries four per cent of air, 
and when passing through a syphon is under a pulling 
strain which draws the air from the water when pass¬ 
ing slowly and collects in upper part of syphon, and 
when sufficient air has accumulated to overcome the 
TIIE WOMAN BEHIND THE APPLE PIE. Fig. 3. 
excess of fall to the rise, in this case eight feet, the 
pressure is balanced and water ceases to flow. Had 
there been a faucet instead of plug, and water run full 
stream while watering the stock, I do not believe there 
would have been any trouble in this case. But in case 
of a long pipe and little fall or a large pipe whereby a 
supply could be obtained without thoroughly emptying 
the pipe, the same trouble would exist. N. T. 
Scranton, Pa. 
** I " 
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V (» 
L?d 7 
DIPPING TREES IN LIME AND SULPHUR. 
I have just read article on page 927 relative to dipping 
of fruit trees in standard lime-sulphur wash, and my ex¬ 
perience may be useful. Last Spring I dipped the tops 
only of 3,000 Salway peach and several hundred Bonum 
apple trees with fatal results. None of the Salway 
pushed a bud above ground, although late in the sea¬ 
son two-thirds of them threw up shoots from below the 
ground and made a weak growth. Four-fifths of the 
apple trees died, and the remaining fifth did not push 
any buds until late in Summer, and then very feebly. 
Several thousand other peach and apple trees, including 
some of the same varieties, handled and planted under 
exactly same conditions except that they were not 
dipped, grew off promptly, and have made a satisfactory 
growth. At the same time I dipped 250 Elberta peach - 
trees, both root and tops, with the result that not one 
of them lived or made any effort to push buds. Sev¬ 
eral local orebardists have reported the same experi¬ 
ence, and whatever has been the experience in Oregon 
I would advise eastern planters and nurserymen to go 
slow in the adoption of this plan. geo. e. murrerl. 
Virginia. _ 
DIGGING A WELL. 
Tell S. J. B., Orange Co., N. Y., page 891, that to 
sink a well in sand the first thing to do is to make a 
circle the size he wants the well—14 bricks is a good 
size—then to this circle nail shingle lath, making a 
straight barrel at least eight feet long and with the cir- - 
cle on the inside at bottom to bold the brick. Dig this 
barrel or curb down from the inside, and when well 
started fill with brick—regular well or circle brick are 
best, but if not procurable square brick will do, if one 
corner is broken off so that they will bind—taking care 
to break joints. As the sand is dug from the inside 
and beneath the curb the weight of the brick—kept level 
with top of ground—will force the wall down, and if 
no large stones are encountered it will settle all right, - 
but care must be exercised to keep it straight. The 
sand will not settle at once so as to prevent the brick 
from going down, but will be tight enough to hold the 
bricks in place. This method is used here with good 
success, and a depth of four to five feet of water is 
obtained, which is enough for all farm use. The grind¬ 
ing of the bricks and sand is apt to make the amateur 
nervous, but with good help on top there is no danger, 
and our friend will find this the cheapest method known 
to the trade. M. T. 
Wainscott, N. Y. 
PROTECTING WATER PIPES. 
My water basin business lias drawn me into a general 
water supply for farm purposes, so that I have had a 
large experience in protecting water pipes. A few 
years ago I took a contract for the Odd Fellows’ Home 
near this city, in which I installed a 12,000-gallon tank 
on a 30-foot steel tower out of doors, and I gave a 
bond to make it frost-proof; as it has passed through 
the four last Winters, in one of which the mercury 
went to 27 degrees below zero, I guess it must be safe 
to risk it in all reasonable places in Virginia. There is 
not a particle of necessity for using anything for pack¬ 
ing if—and this is IF—the protecting is so done as to 
furnish confined air. There is no material so perfectly 
non-conducting as confined air. If 1 were to protect 
that Virginian’s above ground pipes (page 9.26), whether 
horizontal or vertical, I would get soft building paper, 
cut it into strips about six inches wide and wind about 
the pipe spirally so as to have about three thicknesses; 
tie this every little way, then commence to wind about 
in an opposite direction three more thicknesses and tie 
this in same way. This should be carefully done, for 
it is not the paper which will protect, but the dead air 
confined in the wrappings. Then take boards of equal 
lengths, two six inches wide and two eight inches wide, 
sound and free from knot-holes, and make a box about 
the pipe, being v*ery careful to have it come together 
tight. Now wrap this box with two thicknesses of same 
paper as that with which the pipe was wound, but in¬ 
stead of tying this on fasten it by tacking, and tacking 
so as to have no open spaces. About this box every six 
feet nail pieces one or one and a quarter inch thick so 
as to make a frame about the box. Over these frames, 
which will be 10 or 11 inches square outside wrap a 
sheet of this same paper, and over the whole put an¬ 
other box made of 12-inch boards, one lapping over the 
other at each corner, so as to have the box 11 inches 
on the inside, and 13 on the outside. This 
may seem quite a- good deal of trouble, but 
remember—“There is no danger in being safe, 
and it is far better to take a little extra care and 
be at extra expense than to have to ‘monkey’ with frozen 
pipes in zero weather.” If so situated'that he can let 
a stream run in very cold weather, even though the 
stream be no larger than a straw, I will guarantee no 
danger from frosts even with mercury 20 below zero. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. j. s. woodward. 
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