1909. 
the rural NEW-YORKb,R 
1076 
LIVE STOCK AND SOIL FERTILITY. 
Good Crops Chase the Cow. 
Early in the season we began to see 
reports in the papers that crops were 
short, and that farm animals would be 
cheap this Fall, because many farmers 
would not have nearly enough fodder 
to winter their usual number. But those 
who have looked for cheap horses or 
cheap cows have looked in vain. A good 
big young farm horse brings $200 just 
as readily now as he did last Spring, 
before the crops were in the ground, and 
milch cows seem to be trying to emulate 
the one in the nursery rhyme, and “jump 
over the moon,” so far as prices go. 
It does seem a little queer about 
horses: I think it was about 12 years 
ago that I sold a splendid eight-year-old 
1 ,200-pound farm horse for $100. At that 
time we were told that horses would 
never be high again. Bicycles, automo¬ 
biles, and electric cars, to say nothing of 
gas engines, were to drive horses off the 
face of the earth—excepting the few 
that the farmers would use. Well, that 
same eight-year-old horse that I sold for 
$100 12 years ago sold for $100 in his 
20 -year-old form last year, and the man 
who bought him knew his age at that. 
I think that the reason for the seeming 
absurd price of horses is the fact that 
the country is growing at a tremendous 
pace, but like some colts, it is growing 
“one end at a time.” That is, most of 
the immigrants and a good many of the 
farm-raised men have gone into the 
manufacturing centres, and have'left the 
comparatively few farmers to “feed the 
multitude.” It is true that the manu¬ 
facturer has turned out all kinds of ma¬ 
chinery to help the farmer, but these 
machines are mostly operated by horse 
power, so that on a farm that used to 
keep two or three horses we now find 
five or six, and the funny thing about 
this keeping of a lot of animals on a 
farm is, that the more one keeps the 
more one can keep. 
Just as the oats were getting ripe, I 
took a little trip through the western 
part of the State. I went through a 
beautiful country much more level and 
nice-looking than our own old humpty- 
dumpty Madison County, but when I be¬ 
gan to see fewer cows, I began to look 
in vain for good crops. I saw broad 
fields of oats being cut with a mowing 
machine because they were too short for 
the binder. Great level fields of corn no 
higher than the oats grow, up in the cow 
country, and potato fields that I took to 
be late beans because the tops were so 
small. Now I honestly believe that the 
land there was naturally a great deal 
better than our own, but it is getting 
“run out.” Some of it is being sapped 
of its natural fertility, but more has lost 
its humus, and is in a poor mechanical 
state. While it is no doubt true that 
soils may be kept up and improved by 
the use of chemicals and clovers, you 
will find a mighty few men who are do¬ 
ing it. The great mass of the farmers 
dislike to spend money. The majority 
of them have been brought up with the 
idea that a “dollar saved is a dollar 
earned,” and while they do buy some 
chemical fertilizers they do not buy 
nearly as much as they sell in the form 
of “monev crops.” 
Then, too, the average farmer hates 
to raise a crop to plow under for fer¬ 
tilizer. It looks too much like doing a 
lot of work for nothing, and I believe 
that it is absolutely essential to plow 
down green crops to furnish humus to 
the soil if the animal manures are not 
used. Yet supposing that a man buys a 
farm and goes deeply in debt. The 
chances are one hundred to one that he 
will raise a crop of something to sell 
and bring in some ready cash, instead of 
fitting a field nicely, sowing it with 
clover that costs from $8 to $12 a bushel 
—and then plowing down the clover. 
This man may know just as well as T. 
E. Martin or the editor of The R. N.- 
Y. that the soil needs the clover, but he 
must live, and he thinks that he must 
pay for his farm. So he keeps on selling 
all the crops he can raise this year, and 
promising to plow down some clover 
next year, until by the time he actually 
gets ready to plow down the clover he 
finds that it is too late, and he can raise 
no clover to plow. 
On the other hand, I know of a young 
man who bought a dairy farm on a con¬ 
tract, all stocked with cows. One-half 
of the man’s dividends at the milk sta¬ 
tion every month goes towards paying for 
the farm. He is keeping all the cows he 
can, and buying a good deal of feed to 
produce more milk. Every month the 
debt gets a little smaller and he 
keeps encouraged to reduce it still 
more. You see he is just as anxious 
to pay for his farm as tl e other man, 
but while the first is steadily seraph g 
off and robbing the soil the last is just 
as steadily storing up fertility. 
Probably both of these men will pay 
for their farms, and when they are paid 
for the first will own a miniature desert 
and the last will own a rich valuable 
farm. But what has all this got to do 
with short hay crops and cheap cows? 
It has got just this to do with it. Where 
the cows are the crop is not short. It 
is the man who has no cows who has 
the short crop. I bought a new corn 
binder this Fall and an “International” 
man came to get it working. He seemed 
a little surprised at .the size of the corn, 
and carried off a section of a 14-foot 
stalk as a “souvenir.” This man told me 
that his people had more trouble with 
corn harvesters right here in central 
New York than anywhere in the United 
States. “You see,” he said, “you fellows 
put a crop of corn in your silos, and 
then haul it right back again on the field 
next Winter, and a lot of mill feed 
mixed with it, to raise* a bigger crop 
next year, until Heaven only knows how 
big your corn will grow.” So it is no 
wonder, with the hay sticking out of the 
“swallow holes” in the peak of the barn, 
the silo snapping a hoop now and then, 
and milk gone to nine cents a quart in 
New York, that the hill “cow farmer” 
laughs when people come around and 
begin to talk about cheap cows. 
J. GRANT MORSE. 
PLAIN TALK FOR HEN MEN. 
Will you toll mo how to feed chickons 
to get the best results in eggs? Should the 
food be the same in Winter and Summer? 
I know my father fed hot breakfasts to his 
chickens in Winter, hut do not remember 
just what. Also are White Leghorns the 
best chickens for laying? If not, what 
breed is best? E. L. M. 
New Jersey. 
There are many different methods of 
feeding laying hens to get .the “best re¬ 
sults,” but no one has ever been able 
to say that any, one of them is “best,” 
as the breed, condition of the fowls 
and the environment in which they are 
kept must all be taken into consideration 
before the best method can be deter¬ 
mined. One of the best methods prac¬ 
ticed at the present time and advocated 
by Prof. Rice, of Cornell University, is 
as follows: Keep five hoppers before 
the fowls all the time. One hopper 
contains grit, another crushed oyster 
shells, another charcoal, another ground 
beef scrap and another contains a mix¬ 
ture of equal parts by weight of corn- 
meal, wheat bran, red dog (middlings) 
and beef scrap. Buy the best beef scrap 
you can get, as it is dangerous to use 
an inferior brand. Fresh water is also 
within reach at all times, but the water 
pan is placed on the opposite side of the 
room from the feed hoppers, for the 
purpose of giving the fowls exercise. 
In addition to this a good feed of 
whole grain, wheat, corn, oats, barley 
or buckwheat is scattered in the litter 
an hour before dark in the afternoon, 
enough being fed in this way so that 
some will remain on the floor to induce 
early exercise the following morning. 
Some kind of green food must also be 
supplied in Winter, either mangel wur- 
zels, cut clover or Alfalfa, or even 
sprouted oats will do if nothing better 
is available. Of course in Summer the 
fowls should be given free range where 
they can get plenty of grass. The prin¬ 
ciple is to feed part whole grain and 
part ground feed. An exclusive ration 
of either has generally proved unsatis¬ 
factory. Do not feed a hot breakfast 
if you want eggs in the Winter. If 
given a chance, the fowls will eat so 
much of this hot mash in the morning 
that they will sit down or stand around 
on one foot the rest of the day. If a 
warm mash is given at all it should be 
at noon and then feed only what will 
be eaten up clean in 10 or 15 minutes. 
Remember that the laying hen is the 
active hen, and we must encourage the 
hens to scratch rather than keep from 
it. Keep the floor covered from four to 
six inches deep with straw or chaff, and 
renew as often as it becomes soiled or 
damp. Look the hens over for lice 
occasionally, and if any are found give 
them a good dusting with insect 
powder, and provide a dust bath by 
placing a box of sand or road dust 
near the window for the fowls to dust 
in. Be careful not to place too many 
birds in one house or coop, as over¬ 
crowding will cause loss every time. 
Avoid draughts in the house and allow 
plenty of fresh air to enter through 
muslin cloth curtains placed on one side 
of the house only, which should be the 
■south or east side. White Leghorns are 
considered as good layers as any va¬ 
riety if located where they can have free 
range, but much depends upon the strain 
of blood you happen to get. There is 
as much difference between different 
strains of the same breed as there is 
between the different breeds. 
C. S. GREENE. 
“I have here a poem.” “Is it a poem 
of any serious purposes?” inquired the 
editor of the Highbrow Magazine. “Yes, 
sir; it was written to pay a wash bill 
with.”—Louisville Courier Journal. 
Friend: “When Bilford went West 
he told me that as soon as he had settled 
down and pulled himself together he 
would write to me, but I have never 
heard from him.” Native: “Bilford was 
blown up in an explosion of dynamite 
three months ago. He may have settled 
down, but I don’t believe he has pulled 
himself together yet.”—Tit-Bits. 
DE LAVAL 
CREAM 
Separators 
First—Always Best—Cheapest ■ 
For Thirty Years 
The World’s Standard 
As much better than other separators 
as other separators are better than 
gravity creamers. 
Send for catalogue of 1910 Latest Improved SZacMseg. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
This 
Horse 
was Doped 
An honest farmer who 
not horsewiso bought 
at, auction. The horse 
went all right at the sale, but 
toppled over on the way home. 
He had been doped. As a result of 
this farmer's lack of horse knowledge 
$150.00 of good, hard-earned money was lost. 
It might have beensaved had this farmerread 
“ Horse Secrets,” telling the tricks and 
dopes used by “gyps,” peddlers and unscrupu¬ 
lous traders. The facts it contains will put 
you on guard when buying, selling or trading. 
Not only is it a handbook exposing 
the shady side of the horse busi¬ 
ness, but it also instructs you 
in the secret knowledge 
and methods practiced 
by reputable horse¬ 
men. We give this 
book with a 5 year’s 
subscription to FARM 
JOURNAL. It is not 
sold separately. 
"Horse Secrets” and Farm Journal, 5 years, $1.00 
FARM JOURNAL — well, you know it. 
Nearly every other good farmer takes it. You 
ought to. Here is a partial list of editors : 
Wilmer Atkinson, Jacob Biggie, author of the 
famous Biggie Books, of which nearly 200,000 
copies have already been sold. Walter E. An¬ 
drews, William W. Polk, Emma J. Gussman, E. 
L. Vincent, Hollister Sage, Michael K. Boyer, 
Abby Speakman, A. H. Throckmorton, D. C. 
Curtis, Dr. St. John, E. R. Jinnette, D. E. Lyon, 
and others who speak with authority in their 
departments which cater to the real interests of 
progressive farm life. 
If you write for “Horse Secrets” and FARM 
JOURNAL in ten days, we will send you our 
“Poor Richard Revived,” a splendid 48 page 
farm almanac for 1910. , 
FARM JOURNAL, 1094 R^ce St.. Philadelphia. Pa. 
Sound Horses 
made and kept sound the world 
over by 
O (JINN’S 
OINTMENT 
Note the sign. Price S1 -OO per 
Bottle. Of druggists or by mail. 
Testimonials free for the asking. 
W. B. Eddy & Co., Whitehall, N.V. 
D O YOU own any cows? If you do, you own them for the profit there is 
in them for yon. You keep two—five—or a dozen cows, and your 
object is to make money. 
Then, with the present price of butter and milk, why not make all the money 
you can? 
Why not do it with as little labor as possible? 
Did you ever figure out that you could keep double the number of cows 
that you now keep with practically no increase in labor—that you could more 
than double your profits, and that you could make more money out of each 
individual cow if you went at it in the right way—that is 
The IHC 
Cream Harvester Way 
With one of these machines you skim milk at milking-time ancl have done with the whole operation. Cream ready 
for market—sweet, appetizing milk ready for the calves or pigs while it is still warm. Only one can of cream instead of 
a dozen cans of milk to haul to the creamery. You do not have a great number of pans and crocks to wash twice a day. 
There is no question about the labor saving. It is the modern way of dairying. It means more than double profits, 
because you get all the cream; you cannot get it all by hand-skimming. There is not even a trace of cream left in 
the milk when separated with an IHC Cream Harvester. 
I H C Cream Harvesters are of two styles—chain drive and gear drive—each made in four sizes. It will pay you 
to look into the matter and see what extra profits one of these machines will bring you. Call on the International 
agent of your town and get a catalogue. Or, if you prefer, write direct for further information. 
