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CHICKENS WITH GROWING CROPS. 
It seems to me that this subject should be of interest 
to all classes of farmers; both the man who is 
striving to obtain the largest possible return from a 
limited acreage, and who has neither land nor cash 
to spare for large runs to be used solely for poultry, 
and the man of many acres who, by this method, may 
add poultry raising to his varied interests at the ex¬ 
pense of very little time and labor. My first ex- 
pericncd in this line was in the Summer of 1906, in 
an enclosed yard 75 feet square, which I planted with 
early potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sage, sunflowers, 
horseradish and rhubarb. Forty chicks ran in this 
yard during the entire season. The only fertilizer 
used was a light dressing of wood ashes, as the land 
had been used for fowls the previous year. The pota¬ 
toes made a fine growth, both in vine and roots, and 
the chicks looked after the bugs. [ was never able to 
find a bug in the yard, although a field adjoining was 
overrun with them. The accompanying picture, Fig. 
254, shows vines on one side of yard, with the carrot 
patch at the right. The carrots grew well, and 
were not injured by chicks until August, when 1 
neglected to supply sufficient green food, and chicks 
began eating the tops, upon which I pulled them, 
obtaining some fair roots. The chicks did not eat the 
parsnip tops at all, but injured them by walking over 
them and compacting the soil. On a large area, and 
with a moderate number of chicks, this objection 
would largely disappear. The sage grew finely, as 
did the sunflowers, horseradish and rhubarb, although 
the chicks ate the latter down to the ground in 
August and September. Last year, 1907, 1 planted 
this yard with sunflowers, three feet 
apart, also set four plum trees, and 
from 10 to 50 chicks ran in it con¬ 
stantly. 1 hey were fed by the hopper 
method. The sage, horseradish and 
rhubarb set the previous year made a 
fine growth, especially the sage. From 
one bed six feet square 1 picked a 
bushel of leaves and shoots. Fowls will 
not eat or disturb any aromatic or fiery 
herb or plant. I also put chicks in a 
larger piece of potatoes, with good re¬ 
sults. I believe that a moderate num¬ 
ber of chicks in a potato field are a 
benefit to the crop. They will do no 
harm in a cornfield after the corn is 
two feet high. An asparagus bed makes 
an ideal range after the cutting season 
is over. In short, I believe that coops 
of chicks may be placed near fields of 
corn or potatoes; may be fed from 
hoppers, and will make good growth 
with very little attention beside cleaning 
coop and refilling hoppers as needed. I 
have been asked if mature fowls can be 
kept in this way. I see no reason why 
they should not be, except that mature 
fowls will do much more damage by 
scratching, and, in many cases, will not range as far 
as growing chicks. Mature fowls will do very well 
in confinement, but the young birds need all the 
range possible. If you have doubt whether chicks 
will injure a particular crop or vegetable, try a few 
and see. When chicks are confined with growing 
crops on a small area green food must be supplied 
them. I raise Siberian kale for this purpose; a 
large quantity can be grown in small space, and it 
will yield many successive cuttings. I believe that in 
intensive farming lies the best hope of the New 
England farmer to-day, and this method outlined 
above may prove to be one more step toward less 
land and more profit. l, h. p. 
Orange, Mass. 
WHAT ABOUT THE SAN JOSE SCALE? 
If one may judge by the indications at this early 
date, the optimists who refrained from spraying for 
the scale last Winter, under the impression that 
Nature had taken the matter in hand and was alxiut 
to reduce the dreaded San Jose pest into a state of 
insignificance, stand a good chance of getting a hard 
lesson in the high-priced school of experience. At 
this time last year hardly a young scale could I find 
anywhere, while now everything that was not well 
sprayed is literally covered with young, and it puts 
a strain on one’s arithmetic to compute the number 
that will be at work pumping the life blood out of the 
trees by the end of October. As there are a great 
many trees that are already enfeebled by the past 
ravages, I fear that next Spring will see great gaps 
in the already thin ranks. 
Incidentally, I might say that my faith in the 
soluble oils is not as great as it was a couple of 
years ago. I found out in 1900 that the advertised 
stiength was not enough, and have used it in a 10 
per cent dilution. This, undoubtedly, will destroy the 
greater part of the scale, but l have not been able 
to eradicate them in any case. Last Fall I made a 
special attempt with a half dozen apple and pear trees 
that were 20 years old, having a spread of about 25 
feet each, and low heads. These trees have had scale 
for a number of years, which I have kept within 
moderate limits, getting a fair crop nearly every year. 
After the leaves fell, I sprayed very thoroughly with 
the 10 per cent oil, doing the work myself, and going 
over the trees time and again, from above and below 
and from each side. Before the buds started this 
Spring, I repeated the dose, using about 20 gallons 
of spray to the larger trees. Yet, in spite of this 
work, made for the purpose of a test, I can find an 
occasional scale on all the trees. Yesterday I looked 
over a neighbor’s orchard, that was badly injured by 
the scale last year, and which he sprayed with a 
one to 14 oil before the buds opened. While I cannot 
say how thoroughly he did the work, I know him to 
be a careful, painstaking man and very much con¬ 
cerned at the probable loss of his trees, so I think 
it a fair presumption that he sprayed fairly well, yet 
there was not a tree that I saw which did not have 
from If) to 1,000 young scale on every foot of limb, 
large and small, except the very old, thick-barked 
ones and the current season’s growth, which last was 
becoming infested at the base. Is this a general 
condition or a local one? The sooner we can know 
the better. h. w. heaton. 
Rhode Island. 
R. N.-Y.—Last season was unfavorable to the scale 
in many sections, and it made but little spread. Some 
growers think this shows that the insect is “dying 
out,’ and have stopped -.praying. We believe this is a 
fatal mistake, and that in many sections the condi¬ 
tions are as bad as those described by Mr. Heaton. 
HOW “STOVEPIPING” IS DONE. 
There has been a considerable discussion in your 
columns in regard to packing apples for the New 
York market. I have dealt quite considerably with 
apple packers and when they pack the apples the 
•nodus operandi is as follows: First plate the barrel 
on the bottom head; these are the finest apples, 
apples without a blemish. It is reinforced with one- 
half bushel of good apples and be careful they have 
a good color. Then fill up to the bulge hoop with 
apples off color, or in a pinch, off size, then with 
one-half bushel of good ones in regard to color and 
>ize, and head up. 1 he barrel is now turned over 
and marked “Fancy Choice,’’ “Selected." or any other 
taking name that will catch the buyer’s eye. Some¬ 
times the critical buyer inspects the apples, and this 
is the way he does it: Start the bulge hoop and saw 
and split the staves, bv this means the whole interior 
of the barrel is exposed. Now it is not considered 
gentlemanly in Washington street to look below the 
bulge hoop, and to meet this last outrageous* treat¬ 
ment of the honest seller there is a device which will 
enable the buyer who is stuck to dispose of at least 
one-half bushel of culls without fear of detection. 
A circular piece of sheet iron like a stove pipe is 
fitted to the interior of the barrel. It is set just on 
top of the one-half bushel next the head, and filled 
up with anything handy. By this means there is a 
good showing all around the side of the barrel; then 
by carefully drawing it out the little apples are kept 
from view and confined to the middle- j. l. 
Swmden is a land of forests, and yet even there the 
lumber question makes people thoughtful. Mats woven of 
reeds are taking the place of wooden lath for plastering. 
A roll of over 200 square feet will be sold for 05 cents. 
THE APPLE PACKING FRAUD. 
There has been much talk in The R. N.-Y. about 
that barrel of New York Baldwins. Many theories 
have been advanced, and the blame placed according 
to the point of view, yet it would seem to me none 
of them has struck the keynote. I do not believe the 
fault is in the packing, but in the growing. I am 
now growing fruit for a living. I have grown and 
packed both for myself and others, and I have found 
it the invariable rule if the fruit is good no one can 
make it poor by packing and if poor no one can make 
it good by packing, and I say this knowing many 
of the tricks of the trade from fancy packing (using 
cushions and caps) down to stovepiping (using a 
tin the shape of a piece of stovepipe in center of 
barrel and filling with cider apples, putting good 
fruit at top and bottom, also around outside of 
barrel). I know good fruit may be made to look 
bad by slack packing, also that poor fruit may be 
made to look good (from the outside) by what is 
sometimes called good packing, yet the character of 
the fruit is not changed. It seems to me there is a 
chance for some good missionary work right here. 
I will venture to say there is not one in 1,000 growers 
in New \ork State to-day who could not give his 
trees better care to advantage, and not one in 100 
who is giving even good care, while hundreds 
and hundreds are giving hardly a thought of care. 
In looking around you can hardly find a man who 
you do not know would get more profit if he gave 
all his care to smaller plantings. Yet nearly all are 
setting more, and for what? To be neglected and 
to flood the market with fancy apples, the kind de¬ 
scribed and discussed as “Fancy Bald¬ 
wins” some time back in The R. N.-Y. 
I am well aware that one man’s view 
cannot have much weight, yet I can¬ 
not help expressing my opinion, which 
is this: Everyone should be discour¬ 
aged from planting fruit of any kind 
which he does not at least expect to 
give the best possible care, and give 
everyone to understand that nothing but 
poor fruit, loss and disappointment can 
result from cheap methods, and poor 
care in fruit growing. The larger the 
planting, the deeper the disappointment, 
and the more loss one must sustain who 
follows this course. My opinion is that 
there can be no better business motto 
for the progressive fruit grower than 
this: “Not the largest, but the very best 
grower in my section.” If one lives up 
to this reasonably well he will never 
have anything to worry over when 
pictures like those fancy New York 
Baldwins shown on page 253 ap¬ 
pear, and he will not have to 
look the whole assemblage over be¬ 
fore he says “not guilty.” The mar¬ 
kets are very seldom overstocked with 
really choice fruit. WM. HOTALING. 
VETCH AS GREEN MANURE FOR TOBACCO. 
Is it good practice to sow Winter vetch after a crop 
of tobacco is removed to lit the soil for another crop? 
I he use of vetch as a green manure for the grow¬ 
ing of tobacco is still in the experimental stage in 
Connecticut, and we do not feel that we can recom¬ 
mend its planting in anything but an experimental 
way. In certain cases a very good stand has been 
obtained from a Fall seeding, and there has been a 
large mass of matted foliage and stalks to plow under 
in the Spring. In other cases there have been com¬ 
parative failures of the crop. The price of seed is 
very high, and it seems to me that we should be able 
to assure a crop when properly sown and cared for, 
before we should generally recommend the use of 
W inter vetch as a reliable cover crop. When the 
growth is normal .the matting of the plants certainly 
withholds from loss a great deal of soil nitrogen, 
and, further, the quick rotting of the crop when 
turned under in the Spring betters the physical con¬ 
dition of our light, sandy tobacco soils. But as to 
how much nitrogen the plants actually obtain from 
the air in the short time they are on the soil, there are 
positively no data from which to draw conclusions. 
Personally, I believe that it is a reasonable conclusion 
that legumes which are on the land one Summer and 
two Winters, such as Red clover, must be worth a 
great deal more than annuals, like cow peas and Soy 
beans, or crops wich are planted in the Fall and 
turned under the next Spring. New England soil 
conditions certainly demand the use of legumes in 
restoring nitrogen, and the experimental use of dif¬ 
ferent legumes is to be highly recommended, even 
with such plants as the wild vetches. Sweet clover, 
lupins, etc. The experimental use of time to correct the 
acidity of the soil would probably be of greater benefit 
than so many misused and misjudged trials of in¬ 
oculating material. & ^ east. 
Conn. Fx. Station. 
