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THE: RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 13, 
CANADIAN LIVE STOCK NOTES. 
The Feed Problem. —All dairymen 
and stockmen seem to agree that it is 
impossible to continue the practice of 
buying large quantities of grain to feed 
out on our farms at the present prices 
of grain, and at the prices we receive 
for our finished products, be they milk, 
beef or pork. There arc two ways in 
which most of us will be forced to 
solve the problem; namely, by keeping 
less stock and by producing more 
grain and fodder at home. The wise 
thing for any man to do who finds 
himself overstocked is to cull out the 
poorest individuals in his herd and dis¬ 
pose of them as best he can, even if 
that best involves a sacrifice. This 
step will reduce his feed bills at once, 
and he is then in a position, and per¬ 
haps in a better frame of mind, to 
sit down and study how he may best 
produce more and greater crops upon 
his own land. The question is not so 
much one of growing new crops as of 
growing larger crops. The average 
farm is capable of producing double 
the amount that it has produced in 
the past. This fact was brought forci¬ 
bly to my notice this past Summer. 
In the latter part of June I visited a 
certain farm where the first cut of 
grass would easily average three tons 
per acre. In early September I again 
passed through those same meadows, 
and was amazed to find a heavy second 
crop cut and in cock; and all this in 
spite of an exceptionally dry Summer. 
To be sure, this was the result of a 
large outlay of capital—but a most 
intelligent outlay. Those fields had 
been thoroughly drained by tiling, made 
rich by the application of large quan¬ 
tities of manure, and heavily seeded 
with a mixture of grasses and clovers. 
Most of us lack the capital required 
to put our farms in such an ideal con¬ 
dition at short notice, but we can at 
least do a little each year by way of 
improvement. The practice of buying 
grain and mill feed has become a habit 
with many dairymen. As long as 
prices were reasonable the habit was 
not a bad one, especially as much 
plant food was added to the soil of 
dairy sections, at the expense of the 
western grain lands. But now that 
prices have advanced so enormously, 
the habit is proving at least a most 
expensive one, and one that must to a 
large extent be curtailed. 
Importance of Thorough Drain¬ 
age. —It is much easier to buy a car¬ 
load of feed all ready to dump into 
our bins than it is to buy a few bun¬ 
dled feet of tile each year and drain 
those low, wet places which make 
really successful farming impossible. 
But there is no question as to which is 
the wiser of the two courses, especially 
at the present prices of feed. Low- 
lying lands are by all means more 
fertile than the ridges, but unless prop¬ 
erly drained they become a source of 
annoyance and disappointment. As an 
illustration of the point I wish to 
emphasize, I will give our experience 
the past season with the wettest and 
most difficult piece of land to drain on 
this farm. It was plowed in lands 10 
paces wide in the Fall of 1907. The 
dead furrows were opened up in good 
shape, cross furrows dug where needed, 
and, in fact, great pains were taken 
to secure good surface drainage. In 
spite of this, and on account of an 
exceptionally wet Spring, this piece 
could not be sown until June—a month 
later than a strip of high ground lying 
longside. In consequence of this late 
sowing a yield of 25 bushels of light 
oats per acre was the result, while on 
the high ground the yield was 50 
bushels of good, plump peas and oats 
per acre. I -am aware that this is 
perhaps an extreme case, but there are 
certainly thousands of acres through¬ 
out the eastern dairy sections whose 
productiveness might be doubled by 
under drainage, thereby helping very 
materially to produce those feeds 
which we have so long been in the 
habit of buying. 
Corn and the Clovers. —Corn is 
undoubtedly our greatest and most im¬ 
portant fodder crop, and each year 
sees the construction of many new 
silos. But unfortunately corn is a one¬ 
sided fodder; it lacks protein, that 
most essential part of a ration. Al¬ 
falfa and the clovers are, as every¬ 
body knows, rich in protein; therefore 
(as well as for other strong reasons) 
we should grow as much of these as 
possible. Here, again, the importance 
of drainage comes in, for clover will 
not thrive where land needs drainage. 
It seems as if the man who can grow 
Alfalfa, as they do in the Onondaga 
Valley near Syracuse, apparently with¬ 
out effort, has the feed problem about 
solved—at any rate, he has an immense 
advantage over most of us, who so far 
find it impossible to make much of a 
success with Alfalfa. If I had a big 
mow of Alfalfa hay to supplement my 
well-eared silage, and a bin of peas 
and oats, I could afford to sit on the 
fence one day in the week next Sum¬ 
mer and “enjoy the fun of seeing 
things grow.” 
Mixed Grains. —Many dairymen in 
Ontario are sowing mixed grains. In 
Crop Bulletin 99 for November, 1908, 
correspondents report for the first time 
upon the growing of mixed grains. 
The favorite grain mixture is one of 
barley and oats; oats and peas; and 
barley, oats and peas come next. Oats, 
barley and wheat are also used by 
some; also oats and wheat, and wheat, 
peas and oats. Oats and spelt, oats 
and buckwheat, and oats and flax also 
have their advocates as grain mixtures. 
It is claimed that the grain mixtures 
provide well-balanced and nutritious 
feed for all classes of live stock at 
less trouble and expense .than by any 
other method. By sowing peas with 
the cereals the combined crop can be 
cut with the binder. The value of 
these mixtures depends upon the va¬ 
rious grains ripening about the same 
time. Doubeney oats, Mandscheuri 
barley and Goose wheat are the fa¬ 
vorite varieties for mixtures. In my 
own experience with peas, oats and 
barley there has been very little loss 
through the ripening of one kind of 
grain before another. The barley will 
head out first, but much shorter than 
the oats. In a few days the oats will 
head out above the barley, thereby 
shading it and retarding its ripening. 
If the barley is overripe at the time 
of harvest very few heads will be lost, 
for they are caught in the sheaf and 
held by the oats and peas. Our expe¬ 
rience with peas sown with oats does 
not agree with some of the correspon¬ 
dents of The R.-N. Y. I have always 
found that the oats ripen first, the 
pea vines being quite green and many 
of the peas soft when harvested. Most 
of the peas will harden and ripen, how¬ 
ever, in curing, and the vines add to 
the feeding value of the straw. We 
are sowing the Banner oat and a small 
field pea known as the Twin pea. Next 
Summer we expect to sow a mixture 
of peas, oats, barley and Spring wheat. 
A few heads of wheat came with the 
peas and oats this year, and filled well 
and ripened with the other grain. 
Quebec, Canada. *c. s', moore. 
HOW TO BROOD THE CHICKS. 
I have 52 fine White Wyandotte pullets, 
and wish to raise 500 broilers this Spring. 
I have incubators of 500 egg capacity, but 
have nothing for brooders. If I had the 
money 1 should, buy a hot water boiler and 
brooder system with eight houses, but this 
is out of the question for me this year. 
What about the I’hilo brooder? The adver¬ 
tisement reads like a fairy story to me. 
I have had one cheap brooder and it would 
get afire every day. 1,. E . K . 
Stratton, Vt. 
What did L. E. R. expect to do with 
his chicks after hatching them in his 
new incubators? As he says the build¬ 
ing of a brooder house “is out of the 
question this year,” and he has no 
brooders, how did he intend to raise 
the “500 broilers?” He seems to have 
accidentally read of the Philo system 
of brooding without any heat but that 
of the chicks themselves, and while he 
strongly inveighs against these “cheap” 
brooders, etc., he wants to know about 
the very cheapest system there is. I 
have never tried the Philo system, but 
know men who have been to Elmira 
and seen it in successful operation. I 
intend to try it in a limited way this 
Spring. My advice to L. E. R. is to 
study it. Then he can use his own 
judgment whether to try that or do as 
I saw done in a Bohemian’s house in 
this town. A covered box was placed 
near the kitchen stove and the space 
all around the stove was enclosed by 
boards a foot wide, making a pen in 
which the chicks could run under the 
stove and a few feet each side of it. 
Sand was put in the pen, and it seemed 
to work very well, but I never tried it 
in my house, having a sort of an idea 
that it might possibly cause trouble in 
the family. george a. cosgrove. 
BALL BEARINGS 
LARGE DUST-PROOF 
OIL-HOLES 
COMBINATION LEVER 
SETS BOTH GANGS OR 
EITHER SEPARATELY 
This Feature 
Saves Discs 
Reduces Draft 
Improves Cultivation 
You can get it 
only on the 
Walter A. Wood 
Disc 
Harrow 
The -flexible gangs pass over stones (as shown in the sh£>ve picture) 
without injury to the discs. They adjust themselves in like manner to 
uneven ground and always work at a uniform depth. The roughest field 
is tilled as nicely as the perfectly level one. By means of a foot lever 
the driver adjusts the spring-pressure on the inside gang-ends to suit the 
nature of the soil. This exclusive feature, together with the direct draft 
and the high grade sharp steel discs, makes the work very light for the 
team. Simple in construction, durable and easily adjusted, the Walter 
A. Wood Disc Harrow is the favorite of thousands of farmers. Examine 
it at our nearest dealer’s. If you don’t know his address, write us for it; 
also for illustrated forty-page catalog. Don’t buy without investigating 
this harrow. 
WALTER A. WOOD MOWING 
AND REAPING MACHINE CO. 
BOX 108 HOOSICK FALLS, N. Y. 
WAIST 
HIGH 
15 FOR THIS NEW 
— LOW DOWN 
AMERICAN 
CREAM SEPARATOR 
A SEPARATOR THAT EXCELS ANY SEPARATOR IN THE WORLD 
DON’T HESITATE BECAUSE OUR PRICE IS LOW. The quality Is high; 
\ve guarantee it. It Is up to date, well built and well finished. It runs easier, 
skims closer and has a simpler bowl with fewer parts than any other cream 
Separator. Don't accept our word for it. Judge for yourself. Our offer 
^enables you to do this at our expense. Write us a postal card or a letter 
and receive by mall, postpaid, our 1909 catalogue. It Is handsomely Illus¬ 
trated. showing the machine in detail, and fully explains all about the 
Low Down AMERICAN. It also describes the surprisingly liberal LONQ 
TIME TRIAL proposition we can make you. Competition is defied by 
the quality and price we make. Our generous terms' of purchase will 
astonish you. Remember, we are the oldest exclusive manufacturers of 
hand separators in America, and the first to sell direct to the user. You 
are not dealing with any agent, middleman or catalogue house when deal¬ 
ing with us. Not one single profit Is paid anyone between ourselves and 
our customer. You save all agents’, dealers’, even catalogue house profits 
and get a superior machine by dealing with us. Our New Low Down 
AMERICAN Waist High Separator is the finest and highest quality machine 
on the market and our own (the manufacturer’s) guarantee protects you 
on every AMERICAN Separator. We can ship immediately. Western orders 
filled from Western points. Write us and get our great offer and hand¬ 
some free catalogue on our New Low Down AMERICAN Separator. Address 
AMERICAN SEPARATOR CO., Box 1075, BAINBRIDGE, N. Y. 
One Gallon of Water Per Horse Power 
Is all that is required to properly cool 
The Abenaque 
Gas or Gasoline Engine 
Note those Cooling Tanks. Write, for catalog O. 
ABENAQUE MACHINE WORKS, Westminster Station, Vermont 
S AW your own 
wood 
and save 
time, coal and 
money; or saw 
your neighbors 
wood and 
MAKE 
$5 TO SI5 
A DAY 
Hundreds are doing it with an Appleton Wood Saw, 
Why not youf We make six styles—steel or wooden 
frames—and if desired will mount the saw frame on 
a substantial 4-wheel truck on which you can also 
mount your gasoline engine and thus have a 
PORTABLE WOOD SAWING RIG 
that is unequalled in effective work and profitable 
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We make the celebrated Hero Friction Feed Drag 
Saw also, and complete lines of feed grinders, corn 
shellers, corn buskers, fodder cutters, manure spread¬ 
ers. horse powers, windmills, etc. Ask for our Free 
Catalogue. 
Appleton Mfg.Co • Batavia, 
Fargo Slreef 
Ill.U.S.Aj 
Spreading Lime and Commer¬ 
cial Fertilizers Broadcast 
on the Soil. 
The universal practice in European 
countries is to sow these artificial fer¬ 
tilizers broadcast, for the reason that 
all the soil is thus made equally pro¬ 
ductive, so that no matter in which di¬ 
rection the plant roots spread the plant 
food is there. Our farmers in this 
country are practicing this method 
more and more. Our prediction, now 
that there has been perfected a ma¬ 
chine that successfully sows in wide 
range of quantities such enrichers as 
granular lime, nitrate of soda, land 
plaster and all commercial fertilizers 
is that the farmers in America will 
use the broadcast method. The ma¬ 
chine to which we refer is the Empire 
Broadcast Fertilizer Sower, made by 
The American Seeding-Machine Co., 
Incorporated, Richmond, Indiana. Write 
the manufacturers for a copy of their 
Empire Broadcast Fertilizer catalogue 
and any other information you may 
want. After reading it, go to your 
retail implement dealer and insist on 
seeing the Empire before purchasing 
any other make. The Empire is fully 
guaranteed and you run no risk in buy¬ 
ing one. 
HUBBARD’S FERTILIZERS 
Made By THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., 
MIDDLETOWU, COTC3XT, 
SEND FOR 1909 ALMANAC TELLING ALL ABOUT THEM. 
SENT FREE TO ANY ADDRESS. 
