38 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 19, 
Sandy soils low in humus have a problem of their own. 
Less decomposition might occur, yet less loss from 
leaching would follow on such soils. It appears that 
the plain phosphates that I have been fortunate to 
buy. have contained as shown by analyses considerable 
available phosphoric acid. From my experience with 
these phosphates 1 am of the opinion that while their 
value will vary with the farms on which they may be 
used, and on the immediate use made of fresh yard 
manure in connection with them, yet on all farms they 
will be found to a considerable degree available and 
on most soils not already rich in phosphoric acid, and 
there are few such soils of economic value. On acid 
soils they should be generally used. By adopting his 
suggestions for their use, no acid phosphate need be 
bought, thus making a great saving, j. w. sanborn. 
New Hampshire.._ 
IMPROVING THE WEATHER SERVICE. 
To the end that the farmers of the country, so far as 
it may be possible, may be provided with information 
as to the forecast of the weather, I herewith submit a 
plan for the dissemination of such information among 
the patrons of rural free delivery mail routes by rural 
free delivery mail carriers, by means of signals to be 
displayed from their vehicles. To avoid confusion there 
should be but two signals, a white one, to designate 
fair, and a black one, to designate foul weather. The 
carriers to receive forecasts and arrange signals before 
leaving their distributing post offices, as follows: If 
the forecast be for fair weather for the day, display 
white signal from top of staff. If the forecast be for 
fair weather for the day followed by foul weather for 
the next day, display the black signal under the white 
one. If the forecast be the reverse of this, reverse the 
order of the signals. In continued fair or foul weathei 
only one signal would be necessary. Signals should be 
large enough to be plainly visible for a distance of 
one-half mile. By this plan not only the patrons of the 
mail routes, but all citizens who may see the signals, 
will he fully advised of weather conditions. 
Indiana. _ j. w. trinkle. 
HENS WITH BAD COLDS. 
Two years ago I was in poor health, so on rending Cos¬ 
grove’s and Mapes’s success I ibought 1 would try my luck 
on hens. Last year I had excellent luck from 100 hens, and 
this year I tried 200, hut with poor success. 1 have four houses; 
two houses are 12x12, one is 8 x 30, the other is 8 x 50. 
The 12 x 12 has 30 hens, the 8 x 30, 50; the 8 x 50, 100, 
divided into three pens. About three weeks ago I noticed 
one or two hens that seemed to have colds. Their noses 
were wet, and they kept sneezing; then their heads would 
swell on one side so as almost to close the eye. I read up 
what I could tind and concluded they were affected with 
roup. I have tried what home remedies I could, such as 
separating them from the rest of the flock, and making a 
solution of one quart water and three tablespoonfuls of 
kerosene, immersing the head in it, then one teaspoonful of 
Pratt's poultry food with three teaspoonfuls water, and 
forced It into them two or three times a day for three days. 
They seem to recover and' then in a few days more come 
down the same way. The houses have an earth floor, well 
covered with leaves for scratching, which I clean out once 
in two weeks and renew. I clean off drop hoard every two 
days. For their rations I give in the morning one part oats, 
one part wheat as a scratch. At 11 o’clock I give a mash, 
two parts bran, one part common 1, one part oats, with 
poultry food, wet up with skim-milk. At night I feed 
cracked corn. Twice a week I feed cabbage. They have 
charcoal and oyster shells where they can get them at any 
time. They do not range, and still have no drafts, as their 
houses are well ventilated, every other window being covered 
with cloth, but most of them seem to have a cold. Can 
you see what my trouble is, and how can I benefit it? 
Connecticut. x. it. f. 
It may be that this man’s trouble is caused not by 
insufficient, but by improper ventilation. On a recent 
visit to Storrs College, Prof. Graham showed me some 
poultry houses where the upper half of the windows 
was covered with cloth. He said they had the lower 
half covered with cloth at first, and the fowls had colds 
all the time. By putting the glass at the bottom and 
covering the upper half of the window with cloth the 
difficulty was removed at once. At the meeting in 
New Haven, December 18, of the Connecticut State 
Board of Agriculture, Dr. T. M. Woods, of Massa¬ 
chusetts, told us that he had cured cases of severe 
colds by keeping the birds outdoors all the time, night 
and day. This subject of ventilation is one that re¬ 
quires some study. I have observed that confined cold 
air, like that in an unventilated room, is much chillier 
than pure moving outdoor air, though the latter may 
be several degrees colder by the thermometer. One 
of the speakers at the above meeting said he made a 
practice of opening his henhouses to let the colder 
outside air warm up the houses. This may sound ri¬ 
diculous, but really it is good practice. My henhouse 
doors open into the scratching sheds, and they are 
usually wide open all day in Winter, and night and day 
in Summer. The neglected colds in I. R. F.’s fowls 
have undoubtedly run into roup, but he can be sure 
of it if there is a very disagreeable odor present. The 
cures are numerous, but when cured T should never 
use such birds as breeders. A good remedy Is a table¬ 
spoonful of lard, half as much each of ginger, cayenne 
pepper, and mustard; mix well and add enough flour 
to make a dough; roll into slugs as big as the top 
joint of your little finger and put one down the bird’s 
throat every 12 or 24 hours, according to severity of 
case. If the head is swollen, make a wash of one part 
spirits turpentine to six parts glycerine, and bathe the 
head frequently, or use both remedies. If they don’t 
improve in three or four days, kill and bury or burn. 
The best preventive is plenty of fresh air. If I 
kept Leghorns or Minorcas with their big combs I 
believe I should cut their combs and wattles off, “dub” 
A YOUNG SIIEEP FARMER. Fig. 17. 
them as they do game cocks; then fresh cold air 
wouldn’t do them any harm. My cockerels stay out 
in the scratching shed all day, even with the ther¬ 
mometer at zero; their heads are red as fire, not a 
frozen comb or wattles among them, and not a sign 
of a cold this Winter. Occasionally one of my hens 
will have a cold, but I do not find it necessary usually 
to do anything for it; they get well In a day or two 
with nothing but plenty of food and fresh air. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
USE OF AN OLD AUTOMOBILE ENGINE. 
On page 945, last month, you published the letters 
from several automobile manufacturing companies re¬ 
garding the practical use of automobiles for farm use. 
The automobile on the farm is rather a novel thing in 
this section of the country, but gasoline engines are 
found everywhere and are no longer considered un¬ 
practical from a business standpoint for the average 
dairy farmer. Some time ago I had occasion to look 
around for a gasoline engine of not less than six 
horse power, and after consulting several dealers in 
engines I found that I could get nothing that was 
satisfactory for less than $350. I then visited a manu¬ 
facturer of motors for automobiles, and looked over 
an engine that had been taken from a car to be re¬ 
placed by a more powerful engine. This old engine 
he offered to let me have for $100, and guaranteed it 
Wllicn IS TIIE BETTER TEAM? Fig. 18 . 
to develop 14 actual horse-power at 1,000 revolutions 
per minute. This was certainly enough horse-power, 
provided the engine would stand the wear, and I de 
cided to chance the purchase. After the engine had 
been mounted on a pair of trucks and everything was 
in running order, the whole cost was $150. I have 
cut all of my cornstalks, shelled corn, ground feed and 
cut wood with this engine as the power; the feed cutter 
is a No. 12 Smalley, and was run easily and faster 
than one man cared to feed it. As an experiment I 
used this engine on a four-roll corn-husker with 
shredder and blower attachment, and had excellent 
results. The engine has proved to be a good invest¬ 
ment and the results have been more than satisfactory. 
I give experience, but I do not advise the buying of any 
old engine, for most second-hand engines when taken 
from the automobile arc ready for the scrap heap. 
Judicious buying in this line will undoubtedly prove 
satisfactory, for instead of having an engine with a 
set speed, such as are now on the market, the automo¬ 
bile engine will give a changed speed, anything from 
100 to 1,000 revolutions in a two-cylinder affair, and 
even higher with four cylinders. This changed speed 
is an important factor, for it allows the running of a 
low speed machine on the same pulleys that are used 
for the high speed, and there is less chance of bursting 
a fly-wheel on the machine in operation by over¬ 
speeding. J. ADAMS. 
Wisconsin. 
HEN MANURE AND CHEMICALS. 
Could you give me a formula for making phosphate out 
of hen manure and wood ashes? I have one ton of phos¬ 
phate, 4-8-(i, to mix with It. I have two tons of manure 
and one ton of ashes. It cost me a lot for phosphate last 
year, and I thought perhaps I could use this and make it 
cheaper and better. A. a. c. 
Coxsackle, N. Y. 
Do not mix the wood ashes with the hen manure 
whatever you do. This is the worst operation with 
manure, because the lime in the ashes will set free 
the ammonia in the hen manure. Broadcast the ashes 
and harrow them in, and use the hen manure in the 
hill or drill, but do not mix them with either the hen 
manure or the fertilizer. As for mixing the manure 
and fertilizer, this is about what you would have if you 
could make a perfect mixture: 
Phosphoric 
Nitrogen. Acid. Potash. 
Two tons hen manure. 40 33 13 
One ton fertilizer. 80 100 120 
Total . 120 193 133 
That will give you three tons of a mixture contain¬ 
ing two per cent nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and two 
per cent potash. You do not state what you will use 
this on, but it is not a good mixture for any of our com¬ 
mon farm or garden crops. There is no use making a 
bulky mixture that will cover more ground unless you 
add plant food. Your half ton of ashes will add 50 
pounds of potash, which will not make much difference 
with the hen manure. We would use the fertilizer as 
it is and mix chemicals with the hen manure. Sup¬ 
pose you do this: 
Two tons lien manure. 
\ 
Nitrogen. 
40 
Phosphoric 
Acid. 
33 
Potash. 
13 
1.200 pounds acid phosphate. 
0 
108 
0 
000 pounds line bone. 
18 
150 
O 
000 pounds muriate potash.. 
O 
0 
300 
000 pounds nitrate of soda.. 
90 
0 
0 
Total. 
154 
351 
313 
That will give you Z]/ 2 tons of a mixture contain¬ 
ing over two per cent of nitrogen, 10 per cent phos¬ 
phoric acid and nearly nine of potash. That would be a 
good mixture for fruit, or you could use more nitrate 
of soda and make the per cent of nitrogen higher. In 
order to make such a mixture you must have the hen 
manure very fine and dry. 
THE SOIL UNDER A STACK. 
Under the heading “Farmers’ Club,” page 944, we 
find a most singular statement in regard to the con¬ 
ditions of soil under haystack, which is so contra¬ 
dictory to my own experience and observation in this 
part of Pennsylvania that I think the stack had no 
detrimental action upon the soil at all, but that’ we 
must look beyond or back rather of the time when the 
stack was made to arrive at a correct solution of the 
poor corn grown on this spot. Tt is the general prac¬ 
tice of all farmers in this community and elsewhere 
that it has come under my observation, to place their 
stack when stacking in field upon the driest and highest 
situation in the field, which in the nature of things is 
also the poorest for crop production, and the beneficial 
results to the soil of this practice have been proved over 
and over again. I cite one instance. Three years ago, 
where I thrashed a crop of buckwheat on a small rise 
in the field, which field was plowed the following year, 
the field was manured at rate of 20 tons of raw manure 
to the acre, with exception of place where stack stood, 
all straw and chaff being removed from same. This 
stack stood only from October to February. The result 
was that the corn was larger by half than any near it, 
and the year following oats lodged thereon before 
filling. This year hay was larger than any other spot 
in field, and we have found that beneficial action of 
manure on crop following has been exactly in proportion 
to length of time same has been spread upon the land 
before plowing down. A few rods from where I write 
is an old bore for oil; where the rock from a depth 
of 1,800 or so feet was dumped nothing grows a.: 
yet. In a few years, by the action of frost, etc., it 
will sod over, but if it should be plowed, even though 
a stack had been there, corn would be very poor in¬ 
deed compared to the rest of the field. Rock comes 
quite close to the top near Franklin also; there are 
a few oil bores in that vicinity. j. q. m. 
Geneva, Pa. 
