3i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 13, 
are about three feet tall; by that time the latest will 
probably measure from 10 to 12 inches. Then with sharp 
priming-shears clip the best developed shoots to the 
required height, two feet or a little lower; they will 
not stretch up much. Such shoots as are not so well 
developed, say two feet tall, should be clipped to a 
height of about 18 inches, as in growing they will 
stretch quite a little. In the quite young shoots 10 or 
12 inches high, or even less, with thumb and finger 
pinch out just the tip of the shoot. When they get 
A “BOTTLE PIG” AND I11S BEST FRIEND. Fig. 141. 
their full growth they will be found to be about the 
proper height. In this work the tendency is to cut too 
high and then still higher, so it is safe to try to cut well 
within the height given. I would much prefer to have 
the final height of cane a little under, rather than over, 
tWO feet. D. L. HARTMAN. 
“A BOTTLE BABY.” 
At Fig. 141 is shown a small snap-shot picture of our 
former “bottle baby”—and his mistress, of whom he is 
particularly fond. He was the only one left of the 
litter, and as his mother would have nothing to do 
with him, he was brought up on a bottle until old 
enough to drink from a basin. He has been privileged 
to walk about the farm at his pleasure (always squeal¬ 
ing at the kitchen door at meal time) until recently, 
when he showed too great a purpose to go visiting with 
his foster mother or any other member of the family, so 
we had to put “Pinsam” in a pen designed for such as he. 
Just before doing so we got this little snapshot of him, 
and thought you might like one for The R. N.-Y. 
New York. _ b. v. b. 
LARGE IDEAS OF WESTERN FARMERS. 
Away out among the hills and plains of the arid 
regions subscribers to your paper find it difficult to 
realize how the great majority of your readers plan 
and plod, and scheme and work, to make a sterile soil 
yield a meagre living. One only needs to examine a 
copy of The R. N.-Y. to see that along agricultural 
lines the minutest detail must be carefully attended 
to in order to insure a crop. Plere everything is dif¬ 
ferent, as the soil has not yet been exhausted. Manure 
is little used, and the cost of applying is more than the 
gains returned. Farmers here are wont to look with 
scorn upon the little details which require so much time 
in the East, and to the elucidation of which your 
paper devotes so much space. Here people move and 
act, or try to do, as giants in a fairy story. Instead of 
going at a snail’s pace they move like Hiawatha. “At 
each step a mile lie measured.” When a farmer secures 
100 acres of land, and anyone can get this amount, he 
begins to lay plans to get more, and dreams of the 
WHEN THE SPRINGTIME COMES. Fig. 142. 
time when he will become a landlord or cattle baron. 
He thinks what a weazened life one must lead on a 
farm in the East, and pities the man whose daily and 
yearly round encompasses so small a circle. Here to 
go a hundred miles for a load of groceries is a common 
occurrence, and many do this without going outside of 
their own county. Most men visit an eastern market 
once a year with stock or as an attendant. If one is 
farming or trucking exclusively, he hauls his produce 
25 to 50 miles, but gets enough out of one load to buy 
a good horse, or groceries for his family for six months. 
If one’s pasture fails from overgrazing, instead of 
wasting time and money in improving the soil with 
fertilizers, he moves to another quarter of Uncle Sam's 
domain, since Uncle Sam’s farm is a large one, and 
there are millions of acres yet that the plow has never 
touched. People here are apt to think the lot of the 
farmer is a woefully hard one and the effort of nearly 
all is to get into stock or hay, where life is not so 
strenuous as on the farm, and where the income is 
much larger. Of course all this will change when the 
country settles up as it will in the near future. Cattle 
men dislike to see new settlers, since they trespass 
upon the baron’s free pasture. Once after entering an 
enclosure I drove over half a day without seeing a 
sign of civilization. ' About two o’clock, coming upon 
a cluster of buildings, I stopped for dinner. I asked 
the settler: “When will we get out of this enclosure?” 
He replied: “About six miles below here.” He further 
said: “I have settled here and fenced in 2,000 acres, 
and I do not believe Mr. - (referring to the cattle 
baron) knows I am within his pasture. J. h. w. 
Bellefourche, S. Dakota t 
A CONNECTICUT PERSIAN WALNUT. 
Fig. 143 shows a Persian walnut tree which 
grows on our place. It was bought from a nursery and 
set out about 15 years ago. It must have been broken 
or cut off to grow and form such a bushy tree as it is. 
It is very late in leafing out, and I notice every Spring 
that the tips of most of the branches are dead, and 
some of the branches an inch through are dead down 
to the main limb. Perhaps the last three hard Winters 
did the damage. When we gather the nuts we put 
A CONNECTICUT WALNUT TREE. Fig. 143. 
them away in the attic and pay no more attention 
to them. Our tree bears about half a bushel every year. 
Meriden, Conn._ r. s. b. 
MR. C0SCR0l/ES f S HENHOUSES . 
I am specially interested in all Geo. A. Cosgrove bas to 
say. How large are his yards for laying stock? What kind 
of netting or poultry fence does he use? I am specially in¬ 
terested in nis poultry douses; their being portable is a 
very great advantage. If no sills I should think the ends 
would decay of the sides next to ground. The slanting 
fronts save lumber, but how does he avoid entry of rain 
in Summer and snow in Winter? H. N. n. 
Hudson, N. H. 
I put large square stones at the corners and in the 
middle of each side, and the coops are still standing 
on those stones where they have been 10 years or more. 
There are no sills, the 2 x 3-inch scantling to which 
the boarding is nailed, being six inches above the 
bottom of the boards. The whole coop, 10 feet square, 
on the ground rests on the edge of the inch boards. 
I have been surprised myself that it should last so 
long. Only in places where damp earth is packed 
against the boards do they show any sign of rot. This 
is owing to the coops being well painted. If the boards 
should rot badly I would get some wide chestnut plank 
and sink them into the earth until the 2x3 scantling 
rested ,on top of the plank, making virtually a plank 
box with the coop resting on it; then the whole six 
inches of boarding all the way around could rot off 
and the coop still remain standing on the plank. 
My yards are about 90 feet deep by 30 feet wide, 
with a row of Japan plum trees in the middle of the 
yards. The entrance to the yards is from the scratch¬ 
ing sheds, and the yards being wider than a coop and 
shed, the third and fourth coops open into one scratch¬ 
ing shed and one yard, with two rows of plum trees 
in it. I should never build any more slanting fronts. 
While it economizes lumber, it makes extra labor. 
Many times in Summer I have run to close those 
windows when a storm was coming, and in Winter 
the snow clings on them, and must be swept off after 
every storm. I am thinking of changing them all to 
perpendicular fronts. I use both the square mesh and 
the diamond mesh poultry fencing; finding the former 
the easiest to put up over uneven ground, the latter the 
most lasting. Fig. 144 shows the cooking shed and 
one of the seven slanting front houses and scratching 
ONE OF MR. COSGROVE'S HENHOUSES. Fig. 144. 
sheds; the yards are in the rear of the houses, plum 
trees just showing above the roofs. Part of the hens 
have been let out into the big front yard, where the 
corn house is, a corner of which shows on the 
extreme right. _ geo. a. cosgrove. 
DURABILITY OF WOODEN PIPE. 
On page 450 of the “Engineering and Mining Jour¬ 
nal,” September 8, 1906, you will find an article on 
“Wooden Pipe in Coal Mines.” I quote the following 
sentences: “It is generally known that sulphur and 
other impurities in mine water have no effect upon 
wood, while if it is desired to convey spring or mineral 
water, the wooden pipe has the advantage of not taint¬ 
ing the water with rust or poisonous lead. The coef¬ 
ficient of resistance is lower in wood than in metal 
pipe, and remains less, gradually decreasing with time, 
while, on the contrary, it increases in metal pipe. It 
is an accepted fact that wood pipe is not affected by 
electrical action; it is impervious to acid conditions of 
soil, and to rust and corrosion. Wood pipes may be 
had from one to 20 inch bore, and in length from four 
to eight feet. Winding the pipe with wire or steel 
hoops will enable it to withstand a pressure of 400 feet 
head or 160 pounds to the square inch. Actual experi¬ 
ence proves that a line of maple will last ten times as 
long as one of iron. Wood pipe is cheaper than iron, 
and weighing less does not cost so much to transport.” 
_CHARLES KELSEY. 
A CEMENT HENHOUSE. 
This is the plan of our cement henhouse, built Fall 
of 1905, 18 x 28 feet outside; X marks for chicken 
exit or doors, level or nearly level with ground outside. 
We also put on cement roof, but as it was late in Fall 
it froze before the cement had fully set, and cracked 
it, but we painted it with roofing paint or gas-tar 
paint. It leaked badly before we put on the paint, 
but it is bette* now. The inside of the building does 
not seem to be damper than frame building. Chickens 
are apparently just as well as in old house. To make 
air spaces, we took a 12-inch wide plank sawed in 
pieces 15 inches long, made them tapering—though 
but a trifle—with plane, to make them draw easier, and 
put a wire as bail over the top to lift them by and 
staple it securely on each edge near the top.. Cement 
NORTH S/OC 
4/ft. Ms A L L JtXlXIN. A 
DIAGRAM OF CEMENT HiBN HOUSE. Fig. 145. 
roof is not practical; it is liable to crack and get leaky 
and it takes more rafters and stronger roof to support 
the weight. There are many good roofing materials 
on the market. There was a tile drain through the 
orchard, and we built near that, so that the tile comes 
along or just outside one end of the henhouse, so that 
helps in keeping it drier around and inside the building. 
We put a cement floor in the main or large room, also 
expect to put it in the other, later. We put bolts into 
the wall to fasten plate with, thread end up. It took 
75 to 80 sacks of cement and seven loads of gravel to 
build it, and three men for about one month. E. s. K. 
