1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
305 
Gapes in. Chickens* 
Messrs. LutserTucker & Son — I have just read in 
your Co. Gent., of the 19th insfc., an article on the sub¬ 
ject of Gapes in Chickens, signed N. D. E., in which he 
gives an illustration of his mode of operating with a 
horse hair, to remove the gtzpc worms , which he says, 
“ if the rays of light are permitted to fall upon its 
throat, the worms are more distinctly seen.” From 
this remark, together with the position of his hand, 
the horse hair, and whatever it is he pokes it down 
with, (as he has not informed tasj I should very much 
doubt whether Mr. N. I). E , ever operated on, and 
cured a chicken of the gapes; for in the first place 
holding the chicken by the neck and head with its 
wings and legs unconfined, it would struggle so much 
that it would render it next to impossible to poke his 
horse hair down the windpipe, and he would no doubt 
strangle the bird before he succeeded in getting out 
the gape worms, of which there are frequently from 
fifteen to eighteen ; and, as to his seeing the gape worms 
before they come out of the (Bromus) or windpipe, 
that is impossible, unless he takes it out and siits it 
open, as they extend down to where it branches off 
in the lobes of the lungs. If Mr. N. D. E, would 
refer to your October No. (10) vol. 1,1844, of the Cul¬ 
tivator, p. 3GS, he would then see a description of the 
gape worms, and the mode for removing them, which I 
have practiced for the last thirteen years, on chickens, 
turkeys and goslings, and never lost one; and this last 
summer every one of my chickens have had the gapes, 
and I have operated oa and cured them all. This re¬ 
minds me that this spring I wrote to you and advised 
you to republish that article, as you said you had no 
extra numbers of the October Cultivator of 1844, as [ 
have frequently met with farmers who did not under¬ 
stand how to cure the gapes in fowls. My mode of 
operating is to strip the feathers off of a small quill 
or feather, within half an inch of the end, and with 
a scissors trim it from the small end in a spear shape 
thus 3 
regulating the size of the quill by the size of the chick¬ 
en to be operated on, being eareful not to have it too 
large; and I generally have a half-a-dozen feathers 
of different sizes on hand, and when one gets wet in 
operating, I take a dry one. I then take the tip end 
of the wings, hold them along side of the bird’s legs, 
and wind a string around to prevent the bird’s strug¬ 
gling; then hold the bird’s legs between my knees, 
hold the head of the bird between the thumb and fore 
finger, have a person to hold the tongue of the chick¬ 
en with the thumb and fore finger of the right hand, 
thumb up, and, having my trimmed quill in my right 
hand, when the bird opens its windpipe to breathe, 
I pass it down till it stops, which is where it branches 
off in the lungs, (below which I’ve never detected the 
gape worms;) I then twist it around as I withdraw it, 
and generally bring up or loosen the worms, and the 
chicken coughs them up. If I think they have not all 
been ejected, I repeat the operation two or three times. 
The ends of the trunks of the gape worms are similar 
to a leach armed with a three-cornered spear, which 
leaves a wound on the wind-pipe, which frequently 
bleeds considerably after the worm is removed. The 
feather ought to be roughed up between the fingers 
before Introducing it, and wiped perfectly dry before 
repeating the operation with the same feather. The 
operation should be performed slowly and carefully, 
and there will be no danger of strangling the bird. 
Charts F. Morton. Morlonviile , N. Y. 
Gathering the Hop Crop. 
The usual time for picking hops in this latitude, is 
the three first weeks in September, generally com¬ 
mencing the first week. They should always be ga¬ 
thered before any frost, as that injures them very much. 
In the first place you want some boxes, six feet long, 
twenty inches deep, and the same in width. They 
should be made of half-inch boards, and made as light 
as possible and yet of the requisite strength. Then take 
two strips of inch boards, ten feet long and five inches 
wide, and put one on each side near the top of the box, 
and let them run out two feet beyond the end to serve 
as handles to carry it by. Then get some hop-sacking 
(a kind of cloth made for sacking hops,) and make two 
or three large bags that will hold from fifteen to twenty 
bushels of hops, to carry them to the drying house in; 
and then make for each box a common saw-horse, 
about three feet high, and you are all ready to com¬ 
mence picking. 
You want four pickers and one tender to each box; 
and then place your box between two rows, and the 
saw-horse close by, and lay a couple of short boards 
across the middle of the box to lay the vines on after 
they are cut from the poles. It is the tender’s busi¬ 
ness to eut the vines about one foot from the ground, 
pull the poles, and lay them across the saw-horse, and 
cut the vines into small pieces, and lay them on the 
boards across the box, so that the pickers can get them 
without stepping after them. 
The pickers should be very eareful and not get in 
leaves or stems, as they injure the sale of the hops, 
more or less according to the quantity left in. As soon 
as the box is filled, put them into one of the large bags 
and carry them to the kiln to b© dried, which should 
be done as soon as possible. 
The picking is for the most part done by women and 
boys, but it requires a pretty stout man for tender, as 
it is rather heavy work to puli the poles when well 
loaded. All this may seem like a great expenditure 
to a new beginner, but he must bear in mind that all 
these things, if properly cared for, will be just as good 
for several j-ears to come as new ones, and a good set 
of poles will last from six to ten years, if taken care 
of as they should be. Some draw them together, and 
pile them up and cover them over, but I think it bet¬ 
ter to stack them up in the field, as it saves a great 
amount of labor, and they will keep about as well. 
Take two poles and tie them together near the top 
with a hop vine; then stand them up, spreading the 
bottoms so as to have them stand bracing, and then 
stand the rest around them in a round pile, putting in 
from fifty to one hundred. More anon. Hop Grower. 
How to Dry Sweet Corn. 
Messrs. Eds —In the Country Gentleman of Aug. 
12th I observed an inquiry for a recipe for drying 
sweet corn. I send you a recipe which can be relied 
on. Boil the corn, then cut it from the cob and spread 
It on a cloth in a room where the air will circulate 
freely, taking care not to let the sun shine on it. J. 
