iyoy. 
A MILL MAN AND HIS HENS. 
Some Pertinent Questions. 
On page S3 was an interesting article on “Profits in 
Poultry Keeping,” especially as it referred to R. I. 
Reds; but I think there were many readers, like myself, 
whom the itemized aecounts would have pleased much 
better, and probably taught them how to save time and 
a few dollars. Ilow many eggs did the 99 pullets aver¬ 
age? Were the eggs sold for hatching and at a fancy 
price, or to stores at market price? Were ,tho young 
chicks sold at a fancy price to some one starting a 
chicken plant, or to those intending to raise them as 
broilers, and how much did they bring? The article 
says the man worked in a mill. Was it a feed mill, so 
that he could buy his feed cheap, or did he buy his feed 
at regular prices? If in a farming community, he could 
buy probably much cheaper than one could living in a 
town near New York City. Nothing was said about the 
money invested in chicken houses, incubators and brood¬ 
ers. These items would give a beginner an idea of how 
much money he would require in order to try to follow 
Mr. Geo. A. Cosgrove's friend's example, as the figures 
given in the article show -an enormous profit and are 
very tempting to would-be chicken raisers, of which 
there are many, myself among the rest. w. N. M. 
Englewood, N. J. 
Replying to the above queries my friend Geo. H. 
Lord, breeder of R. I. Reds, writes me as follows: 
‘■January 1, 1908, our poultry houses consisted of one 
40x10 feet house divided into five pens, 12 pullets in 
each pen; and one house 16x12 with a scratching 
shed at each end. This house was divided into two 
pens and housed 39 pullets. The first week in Janu¬ 
ary I was finishing my incubator cellar 37(4x14(4 
feet. I put the roof boards on this house in a driving 
snowstorm at nine o’clock at night, holding the lantern 
in my teeth to see to drive the nails.” 
The italics are mine, not his, and I would like to 
use a page commenting on the New England character 
displayed above by a man who had worked all day 
in a hot woolen mill. He writes: “I had two incu¬ 
bators, one 220, one 360-egg. My brooder house is 
3Sxl0 feet, the front all glass: there are 12 hovers 
3x3 feet, in which I have had 1,000 chicks at onetime. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
success of Mrs. Lord in hatching chicks, and also to 
the fact that they had 17 cockerels with 99 pullets, less 
than six females to one male. This gives point to the 
question, are we using too few male birds in our 
breeding yards? geo. a. cosgrove. 
STAYMAN WINESAP, AND OTHER APPLES. 
The article on page 163. by a well-informed New 
Jersey fruit grower, in regard to the apples that are 
best to plant in that section is very interesting. Most 
of the varieties mentioned can be profitably planted a 
long distance westward. But Gravenstein has never 
A MAMMOTH SUNFLOWER. Fig. 121. 
I had five outdoor brooders, three Cyphers, two of been very satisfactory in certain soils and situations, 
my own make. We use the chimneyless burners and j ts p ] acc j s more tban fi u cd by 0 hio Nonpareil. 
have never had any trouble with them. Mrs. Lord 
was the manager of this part of the business, taking 
the entire care of incubators, brooders and chicks, 
though I found a little something to do once in a 
while. 
“Our buildings did not cost us much; they were 
made out of an old house that was given me if I 
would clear it away, and we did all the work our- 
Your correspondent mentions Mammoth Black 
Twig as being a shy bearer. Large trees here, 25 
years old, have never borne a peck of fruit each, in 
any year. With so many greatly superior varieties 
Mammoth Black Twig should be discarded. 
Stayman’s Winesap—or Stayman, as Doctor Stay- 
man, the originator, preferred to call it—can be 
safely planted over a wide extent of country. • It is 
2©S 
rather thin and pale green leaves make judicious 
spraying imperative. There is no mention in the 
article referred to of Stuart Golden, which may be 
said to be a Grimes Golden, keeping until April and 
May. It is hardly as large as Grimes, somewhat the 
same in color but generally with a blush. Dr. Powell, 
of central New York, in his book, “The Orchard and 
Fruit Garden,” recently published, states that it is 
“of most delicious quality that is not lost by storage. 
A very juicy apple, yet it will bear rough usage with¬ 
out decay.” Dr. Funk, of Pennsylvania, whose 
volume, “Fruits for Pennsylvania,” has been issued 
by the State Board of Agriculture at Harrisburg, 
states that “this valuable variety is but little known, 
and yet it possesses such excellent qualities that it 
should be in every orchard.” The tree is a good 
spreading grower and an early and good bearer. 
As for Nero, which receives (and deserves) favor¬ 
able mention, can it be the same as the Pennsylvania 
apple, Major, from Northumberland County? The 
two seem identical in fruit, manner of growth and all; 
that is, if the one understood to be Nero is co'rrect, 
and it was obtained from a reliable source in New 
Jersey. 
Ben Davis is receiving undeserved condemnation 
recently. It is not an apple for eating out of hand by 
any means, but as a ^reliable bearer of good-sized and 
good-looking fruit that keeps well and is suitable for 
all culinary uses, it has its place. Stark is superior 
in quality to Ben Davis and equal in bearing, but has 
the slight drawback of being somewhat duller in color. 
Baldwin, when grown north of latitude 41 degrees, 
is a most valuable apple; in bearing, in size, quality 
and keeping. Grown south of 40 degrees, it is mostly 
on the ground at picking time, and beginning to decay. 
Yellow '1 ransparent is valuable for very early use, as 
is also Fourth of July; but the former, like all the 
Russian apples, blights considerably. Both may be 
superseded by Crimson Beauty (a variety of the 
Fameuse strain) which is fully equal in earliness and 
excels in both quality and attractiveness, but it has 
hardly been tested sufficiently yet, under various con¬ 
ditions. Starr is a very good late Summer apple, of 
New Jersey origin, that should receive more atten¬ 
tion. J. R . 
Southern Ohio. 
selves. January we got 32 cents a dozen; February, fully equal in quality to its parent, the old Winesap, 
and twice as large, with a better habit of tree and a 
fine root system. Its success, from Kansas (where it 
originated) to the northwest, and eastward to New 
York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is remarkable. 
Whether any others of the Doctor’s seedlings will 
2S cents; March, 24 cents, and no more were shipped 
to market until November 24, when we got 46 and 47 
cents. December they went from 46 to 40 cents. Feb¬ 
ruary 19 we started the incubators, got 265 chicks 
from 360 eggs, then ran five hatches getting 205, 27S, 
243. 261 and 260 chicks. The 220-egg 
machine gave us 160, 175, 170, 163 and 
150 chicks. March 1 we bought an¬ 
other 220-egg machine, and ran four 
hatches, getting 180, 193, 176 and 165 
chicks. April 24 bought another 360- 
egg. ran two hatches, getting 251 and 
275 chicks. Most of these chicks were 
sold when one day old for 10 cents 
each. We had more orders than we 
could fill. We have eggs for sitting 
anywhere from $2 to $5, but prefer to 
sell the chicks. 
“We raised some broilers and shipped 
them alive to Springfield and Boston, 
also to Fairfield and Hartford. The 
June broilers brought 30 cents a pound; 
altogether we received $147 for broil¬ 
ers. They were fattened in small 
crates, put in when weighing three- 
fourths to one pound and fed a mash 
composed of two quarts cornmeal, one 
quart bran, one quart best beef scrap, 
wetted with milk. I have known them 
to gain one pound in two \teeks. June 
was our best month; chicks, broilers 
and eggs bringing us in $142.13, ex¬ 
penses $30.05, leaving a profit for the 
month of $112.08. We have 8)4 acres 
of land, and in January, 1909, have six 
machines with an egg capacity of 2000, brooder come up to it cannot be said yet; but Magnate, 
capacity for all the chicks, 15 more pens of R. I. .described (with colored plate) in the Year Book of 
Red fowls, making 22 pens in all, and to-day, Feb- the United States Department of Agriculture for 
ruary 18, we got 159 eggs from less than 300 fowls. 1906 is promising. 
1 have given up my contract in the mill and hence- Grimes Golden has been known for over half a cen- 
lorth expect to make a living from the poultry busi- tury and should have a place wherever choice apples 
ness. We kept no daily record of the number of eggs can be raised. Its usual time is not later than the 
Hid, so cannot give it, but the feed was all purchased middle of January. On account of its tenderness it 
at the regular market price, some of it in Hartford does best sold direct from grower to consumer. Rome 
anu some in Boston.” Beauty is not equal to Grimes in quality, but is larger 
Commenting on the above statements from Mr. and more highly colored. It is a profitable variety 
L ird, I would call attention to the extraordinary where it has the right soil and proper treatment. Its 
IRRIGATING A COLORADO POTATO FIELD. Fig. 122. 
THAT SPRAY-MIXING STATION. 
The plan on page 190 of a spray-mixing station is 
capable of improvement in that, as outlined, it is 
lacking in completeness. At the present time an 
orchardist who intends to wage successful warfare 
against insects and fungi must be prepared to use 
Bordeaux Mixture, arsenical sprays and very often 
some scale destroyer, such as lime and sulphur or an 
oil. This being so, it is best to lay out the mixing 
plant with these various purposes in 
mind, and provide for the future to 
some extent. There should be a large 
mixing tank holding a full charge for 
the field sprayer, and this tank should 
be placed high enough to allow its con¬ 
tents to discharge into» the sprayer by 
gravity. Above this tank should be two 
smaller graduated tanks in which the 
copper solution and the lime may be 
diluted before being allowed to mingle 
in the larger tank below, to which 
should be added the poison if one is 
used.- Above all should be the water 
supply tank, and this should be of large 
enough size so that if the wind ceases 
for a day or two, the work will not be 
hindered. 
1 he mixing platform should be large 
enough to contain barrels of stock so¬ 
lutions for making up the Bordeaux 
Mixture, and if a believer in the home 
mixture of chemicals, of the components 
of arsenate of lead and arsenite of 
lime. If there is no present necessity of 
spraying for scale, that is a reason for 
thanksgiving, but as it may become 
necessary at any time, it would not be 
amiss to make provision so that a steam¬ 
cooking apparatus may be added when¬ 
ever it is needed. The wind blows so frequently and 
costs so little to harness and use that it seems to me 
in most cases it will prove the most economical power 
to use for pumping, and the periods of calm can be 
provided against by large tank capacity. An eight- 
foot windmill at the creek connected with a 2(4x10- 
inch cylinder force pump and with 1 (4-inch pipe run¬ 
ning to the tank would probably do the work per¬ 
fectly, or a two-horse gasoline engine connected with 
the same sized pipe and pump would handle it. Choice 
of power must be decided by local conditions. 
Rhode Island. h. w. heaton. 
