730 
September 19, 
up all the corn in the field, and when they got through it 
would have been hard to find a kernel left in the whole 
field, or anything hut the stubs of the rape. The last few 
days they were in there, the corn being nearly gone, I gave 
them a feed of shorts at night. In all they had 65 
pounds of shorts. They were in this field 12 
days, and their weights were: No. 1, 151, gained 18 
pounds; No. 2, 153, gained 27 pounds; No. 3, 126, gained 
24 pounds; No. 4, 120, gained 21 pounds. This would be 
an average gain of 23 pounds each, or 667 pounds on all 
29. I am greatly pleased with the trial, for the results 
were far beyond my expectations. I am going to do more 
of this work next year, but in addition to this, I shall have 
a pasture of Timothy and clover for them to feed on. 
A. B. Thompson states that it was almost impossible 
to hire help and pay the price demanded. By exchang¬ 
ing with the neighbors Mr. Thompson got his corn 
planted. It was fenced, and when ready the hogs were 
turned in—about 100 to three acres at a time. From 
the produce of 12 sows handled in this way he sold 
$1,044 worth of pork. 
These facts show that this “hogging off” plan has 
merit under some conditions. It would not pay on a 
dairy farm, where the stalks are put in a silo. It 
would not pay on our own farm, where the slender 
stalks of flint corn nearly equal hay for feeding 
horses. Yet no one has a right to judge all other 
methods by the way he thinks they would work on his 
own farm. Where labor is scarce and high no man 
can afford to keep live stock which keeps him a slave. 
He will be better off to keep the kind of stock which 
is best able to take care of itself, harvest its own food 
and walk off to market. The hog will do this to per¬ 
fection. The pictures show how the hogs work and 
how they leave the ground. It will be seen that a 
field thus “hogged off” can be put in good shape for 
seeding by work with the disk and harrow. 
A FINE CROP OF FARMERS. 
One of the boys shown in the picture, Fig. 341, sent 
us the photograph on a post-card, and wrote on it: 
“There are six more of us not shown in the picture.” 
That is the kind of a farm crop which would appeal 
to most people, and we wanted to know more about 
A PENN. CROP OF FARM BOYS. Fig. 341. 
it, so one of the boys has given us full information. 
This is part of the family of Mr. and Mrs. Scott Lane, 
who live in Huntington County, Pa. 1 here are five 
girls and seven boys. Witli this family they certainly 
have a regiment capable of making almost any farm 
jump. One of the boys was absent when this picture 
w'as taken, but the rest of them were getting in a load 
of hay. As the boy who writes tells us, they wanted 
a photograph of the mulqs, and the boys stood in “to 
fill out the picture.” When their father saw it, he 
told them to send it to The R. N.-Y. at once, as he 
knew what we think of big families of farm help. 
The farm on which these boys have been brought up 
is an old hill slate farm. When Mr. Lane took it, as 
the boy says, it was run down, “so poor that it would 
not grow beans.” Now it is as good a farm as any in 
the neighborhood. This has been a good season for 
all crops, and the barn is filled to the top, as it seldom 
has been before A few years ago, in spite of all their 
work, the barn alleys would not be more than half 
full, and as the boy puts it, would “hold half a dozen 
farmers’ crops.” This .year, however, it will not be¬ 
gin to hold the crops from this one farm, and the 
story is summed up in a single line. Lime and cozv 
peas make the crops grozu. Surely a man like Mr. 
Lane who can fill his barn to overflowing, and his 
farm with such specimens of humanity as we see in 
the picture, has a right to be called a successful farmer. 
COSGROVE’S REMARKABLE HEN NOTES. 
Some readers of The R. N.-Y. may remember that 
last Winter the experiment was tried at Storr’s Col¬ 
lege of keeping White Leghorns in a tent, such as can 
be bought from the Chicago mail order houses for 
$6. Yesterday (August 25) I was at Storrs, and saw 
those birds, still living in the same tent, a handsome 
cock and eight hens, and so far as I could see not 
the tip of a comb on any one of them had been 
touched by frost. I inquired as to the egg production, 
and was told that the eight pullets had laid from five 
to six eggs a day, and sometimes eight eggs a day. 
I looked in the tent—it was about 3 P. M.—and there 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
were six eggs in the nest then. The birds are not 
confined to the tent, but have the run of a grassy 
yard. Beef scraps and a dry mash which is part cut 
clover are kept by them all the time. This would 
seem to be a wide departure from the old way of 
“extra warm houses to make Leghorns profitable,” 
but it is in seeming only, for it was stated that “it 
was warmer last Winter inside that tent than in any 
poultry house on the place.” The air was pure, the 
ventilation perfect. We had a temperature last Win¬ 
ter of four below zero on several mornings, and that 
none of these Leghorns had their combs frozen was 
almost unbelievable. The only furniture in the tent 
—aside from the feed boxes and drinking fountain— 
was a large box about two feet high, on the flat top 
of which the birds roosted, no perch being provided. 
Another thing I saw at Storrs was sheep kept in 
the same small houses with the .growing chicks, for the 
express purpose of keeping away lice from the chicks. 
The statement was made that it worked both ways; 
that is, # there would be no ticks on the sheep, as the 
chicks would get them. 
As showing the effect of lice on egg production, 
Prof. Graham stated that they found their hens were 
lousy, although the coops had been sprayed two or 
three times a week with napthol; so they took 25 
pounds of plaster, one quart of gasoline, one quart of 
crude carbolic acid, mixed them together thoroughly, 
and rubbed it into the feathers of each hen. It dries 
into a powder on the hen and kills every louse. Nest 
boxes were cleaned out and painted with Carbolineum, 
also the roosts, and after this treatment the egg out¬ 
put increased from 80 eggs a day to ISO eggs a day 
with precisely the same feed. This is from 370 hens. 
Considering the time of year (August) with many 
hens moulting and some broody, this is remarkably 
good laying. Beef scraps in a separate dish, and a 
dry mash, which consists largely of cut clover, is kept 
before them all the time, and most of the fowls are 
yarded in not very large yards. Leather or rubber 
gloves should be used in mixing the carbolic, gaso¬ 
line and plaster, as the stuff has to be rubbed to¬ 
gether, and the carbolic will make the hands sore. 
_GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
PAINT PROTECTION FOR STEEL WIRE. 
We have given such information as we can get 
about improved steel wire for fences. We fully be¬ 
lieve that the end of the experiments now going on 
will be a better wire and also a paint that will pre¬ 
serve the present wire. Prof. A. S. Cushman has 
found that certain bichromates delay or prevent rust 
on iron and steel. This led him to conclude that 
pigments made from those chromates could be used 
to make a paint. Trial proved that some of these, 
pigments protected the steel, while others actually 
stimulated rust. 
The Scientific Section of the Paint Manufacturers 
Association and the American Society for Testing 
Materials have united to test these paints. We are 
given the following information to show what the 
test will be. We understand that Prof. Cushman 
feels sure that he has devised a simple method of 
protecting iron and steel, but he is right in giving it 
the fullest test before making it public. 
The place selected for the test is Atlantic City, N. J., 
where a fence 300 feet long will be erected within a short 
distance from the shore. The fence will have ample ac¬ 
commodation for 300 steel plates, which will rest upon 
girders 24 inches from the ground. The plates are to be 
rolled from three classes of metal, Bessemer Low Carbon 
Steel, Open Hearth Structural Steel and Pure Ingot Iron. 
The plates are to he 24 inches wide and 36 inches high 
rolled to 11 gauge, approximately one-eighth of an inch 
in thickness. 
Four plates of each metal are to be used for each 
formula. Two of these plates are to be painted in the 
condition as received after previously scratch-brushing the 
surface, thus following out the ordinary methods of paint¬ 
ing structural iron The balance of the plates are to be 
pickled in sulphuric acid in order completely to remove the 
scale, subsequently neutralizing the sulphuric acid with 
lime. 
The plates are to be painted under cover so as to secure 
equal conditions throughout the test and to prevent the 
weather from interfering with the work. A uniform 
spreading rate is to be used for the formulas and the work 
will be conducted in a thoroughly systematical and practi¬ 
cal manner by the inspectors and painters chosen for the 
work by the committees. A series of unpainted plates will 
be placed upon the fence with the painted plates so that 
the rapidity of corrosion of the various metals may be 
watched. 
Preliminary laboratory tests have been conducted by the 
various members of the committees and by the Scientific 
Section to ascertain the rust-inhibitive values of the 
various pigments when placed in contact with steel sur¬ 
faces, enveloped by water. These tests and others carried 
along similar lines give the requisite data upon which 
to base the formula for the field test. Pigments of dif¬ 
ferent types will be selected, those having rust-stimulating 
properties and those have rust-inhibitive values will be 
tried out in the same manner, ground in the same vehicle 
and applied to the same kind of metal. 
At proper times the various committees will make in¬ 
spection of the fence to note the wearing qualities of the 
different formulas, and reports will he issued when it is 
deemed advisable, giving the results of the test. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 
I have never seen commercial fertilizers used, and would 
like to experiment on about three acres of Winter wheat. 
The land is Timothy sod, cleared and broken about 20 
years ago. I raised a crop of Medium Red clover on it 
about six years ago. I do not think it is very deficient in 
nitrogen, as the growth of Timothy and other grass was 
rank and of very good color. The soil here consists of 
three or four inches of black soil over clay. Clover grows 
luxuriantly. In some places the clay comes to the sur¬ 
face. When land around here was first cropped 40 bushels 
of wheat to the acre was a common thing; now 15 is 
nearer the mark. The yield of corn and oats has shrunk 
accordingly. The manure is usually applied to the tobacco 
field. If I could raise good grain crops I could cut the 
tobacco out. It is the main cash crop here. It is an 
uncertain crop at the best, and we are entirely at the 
mercy of the buyer, while farm land is steadily deteriorat¬ 
ing around here. e. s. n. 
De Soto, Wisconsin. 
First send to the Wisconsin Experiment Station 
at Madison, and the Minnesota Station at St. An¬ 
thony Park, and get their bulletins on fertilizer ex¬ 
periments. This will give you a record of many 
such experiments tried on different soils and in va¬ 
rious localities. To make such an experiment use¬ 
ful you should use chemicals which supply only one 
element at a time, so that if there is any gain you 
can know what causes it. To test the soil for nitro¬ 
gen, nitrate of soda or dried blood will tell the story, 
because they supply nitrogen. I he nitrate is better 
for this purpose, since the blood contains a small 
amount of phosporic acid also. Acid phosphate can 
be used as a test for phosphoric acid, and muriate of 
potash for testing the need of potash. The usual 
plan is to measure off plots of ground one-third 
or one-half an acre, and use the different chemicals on 
these plots. Another practical way is to drill the 
CORNFIELD IN ST. LAWRENCE CO., N. Y. Fig. 342. 
chemicals in with the wheat as you will do when you 
find out just what you want. Make several rounds 
of the drill with one chemical, then leave a strip 
without any, and then a strip with another chemical, 
and so on. A fair test will be made by using at the 
rate of 75 pounds per acre of muriate of potash, 300 
of acid phosphate and 25 of nitrate of soda. Tt may 
not pay you to use so much, but these amounts will 
give you a fair test. These chemicals will drill better 
if you mix them with dry sand or muck or sifted 
coal ashes. In drilling your wheat take a fair strip 
of ground and use first potash alone. Then skip four 
rounds of the drill and use the acid phosphate alone. 
Then the nitrate alone, and on similar strips com¬ 
binations of nitrate and phosphate, nitrate and potash 
and phosphate and potash in the proportion given 
above. Do not judge results by the eye, but take time 
to measure and weigh the grain. You will probably 
find that your soil needs phosphoric acid first, potash 
second and nitrogen last. That is usually the story 
on such soils. You can supply most of the nitrogen 
in clover. Your experiment will probably show that 
a mixture of three parts fine ground bone and one 
part muriate of potash will keep up your wheat yield. 
The bone contains some nitrogen and makes a good 
mixture with the potash. 
SAN .TOSE SCALE IN OHIO.—Tbe failure of San Jos6 
ale to multiply in Ibo usua'l numbers last year was doubt- 
ss due to tbe peculiar weather conditions prevailing in 
e Spring. In Ohio and several other States several days 
extreme warm weather, approximating Summer neat, 
availed in March, doubtless starting the scales into ac- 
vity A succession of frosts followed this warm weather, 
lending well into May. I think it was the cold follow¬ 
er the warm weather that, discouraged the multiplication 
San Jos6 scale. I fully expected that with the return 
normal weather conditions it would multiply as it lias 
>ne in preceding years. Reports this Summer indicate 
iat it is behaving in the normal way, as was the case in 
>arly all seasons preceding last year. . 
* h. a. gossard, Entomologist. 
