-416 
THE R.URAI> NEW-YORKER 
March 23, 
ARRANGEMENT OF A HENHOUSE. 
I built a henhouse on the open-front model, 
southeast exposure, 40 feet long and 16 
feet wide, five feet high on the sides and 
7% feet at the highest place, running from 
the sides up seven and nine feet respectively. 
The material I used was posts and just 
enough lumber to keep the frame together, 
and for covering the three sides and the 
roof I used one-inch wire mesh on which 
I placed a composition, the principal part 
of which is rubber, which comes in rolls 
like the tan roofing paper. I would like to 
get a suggestion from you how to fix the 
inside so as to have everything handy and 
convenient; what partitions to make, how 
to place the roosts, nest boxes, etc. 
Koeltztown, Mo. a. s. 
As my own house is practically of 
the same size as yours, 40 by 16, and 
has been arranged in'side as nearly as 
possible to make things convenient for 
caring for' my hens along with the other 
farm work, I will try to give you an 
idea of its arrangement. I divided it 
off into four pens, each 10 feet wide, 
with wire partitions going all the way 
to the peak. The doors leading from 
one pen to another are set in the parti¬ 
tions one foot from the front, and 
swung to allow six inches above the 
floor so that they will not interfere 
with the litter. I have noticed that a 
number of writers recommend the par¬ 
titions be boarded so as to avoid drafts 
and allow a place for locating the 
roosts of two pens back to back to 
keep the hens warmer. Now here in 
Maryland and with you in Missouri, I 
believe that wire partitions are better, 
especially for the hot weather, although 
I admit this leaves much less room 
for arranging roosts, etc., in. With a 
tight-built house and open front with 
muslin curtains to be lowered in very 
cold or stormy weather, I have kept 
my hens comfortable in the very coldest 
weather of the past Winter, the circu¬ 
lation of air has been as a rule good, 
and I have had only one or two very 
mild cases of cold or “snuffles.” I 
really think it pays though, if you have 
many cold east rains to build the open 
side of your house up two feet, and 
have the muslin curtains stretched on 
light frames so that when they are 
needed, they will fit snug however 
much the wind is blowing or the rain 
beating in. This arrangement leaves 
about only the back wall, and the two 
ends of the house for the fixtures. I 
placed my roosting platforms against 
this back wall the whole length of the 
house and three feet above the floor. 
This lets in plenty of light under the 
platform and gives that much more 
scratching room. The platforms I 
built three feet wide, with a three- 
inch strip nailed all the way around 
the edges, turning it into a sort of tray. 
This I kept filled up with sand, raking 
the manure and the top layer off from 
time to time. This saves putting fresh 
dirt or sand in to absorb the manure 
every week, and lasts a considerable 
time without filling. This I 'picked 
up some years ago, and on a farm at 
least where every minute counts and 
you still want to keep things neat and 
clean, it pays well. Above the platform, 
I run two roosts which give for my 
Leghorns 20 feet of roosting space, 
which I think is enough for the 40 hens 
that I kept in each pen. I would place 
the roosts about six inches above the 
platform, so that you can rake the 
droppings out from under them handily. 
The nests I suppose might be arranged 
under the roosts, but after shifting 
them around a bit, I have wound up 
by putting them against the front of 
the house, which as I have said is 
boarded two feet up from the ground. 
This makes the nests handy to get at, 
to your right as you go from one pen 
to the next. One trouble I do have, 
however, as resting on the sill and very 
little above the litter, the hens will get 
into them sometimes and scratch them 
all to pieces. By raising them a foot, 
I think I will remedy the trouble, and 
still have them handy and facing away 
from the light. 
My feed hoppers I set a little above 
the litter, and with their backs against 
the partitions, generally tacking them 
against one of the uprights. For water 
I am still old-fashioned enough to use 
a plain, open 14-quart pail, hanging it 
to a spike that is driven in the upright 
to which the door going from one pen 
to another is hinged. So when I 
close up at night, I pass along the front 
of the house gathering my eggs from 
the nests at my left, letting down what 
curtains frames I need, and from my 
right, taking up the water pail behind 
each door. If you use a dust box for 
your hens, put it in the sunniest spot 
in the pen possible, just so you don’t 
fall over every time you cross over 
to the roosts, the hoppers, or the nest 
boxes. When it comes to cleaning out 
the litter in the pens, I raise the wire 
across the front, which instead of being 
nailed tight at the bottom, has been 
stretched to fit over ten-penny nails 
driven in half-way. I suppose a better 
way would be to have the wire stretched 
on a frame that should fit over the 
front of each pen, and be hinged, so 
that you could attend to cleaning each 
pen out by itself. Anyway it is a waste 
of labor to handle the litter more than 
once—from the floor of the house into 
the wagon. R- B - 
ALFALFA NEEDED FOR SOILING. 
On page 213 Mr. Mills discusses a soiling 
crop system for New York State. The sys¬ 
tem is good so far .as it goes, but it leaves 
out the most important crop of all for such 
purposes, namely, Alfalfa. While in central 
New York the last week of last July I was 
on a dairy farm where the manager was 
soiling about 70 head of cows. There was 
nothing on the farm at that time or that 
1 saw growing anywhere in that part of the 
State that would have served for a soiling 
crop save the Alfalfa they were feeding at 
that time. Corn was too immature to be 
valuable for such purposes and it was too 
dry for anything else to be of any conse¬ 
quence for such purposes. Whilei Mr. Mills 
mentions Alfalfa, he dismisses it so quickly 
and in such a misleading way that it seems 
too bad to let such impressions go unchal¬ 
lenged. There is altogether too much wilful 
ignorance concerning Alfalfa literally ram¬ 
pant throughout the country to-day. The 
plant has been with us long enough and 
there have been so many successes made 
with it on all kinds of soils found even 
in New York that there is no longer any 
question as to the possibility of success¬ 
fully growing it anywhere that any other 
kind of clover can be grown. The failures 
that have been made in growing it have 
been largely, if not almost entirely, be¬ 
cause of the ignorance on the part of the 
grower of the few fundamental principles 
governing the growth of the plant. There 
must be soil inoculation, in the first place, 
before the plant can do well, and there 
must be a reasonable amount of fertility 
also. Again there must not be an acid 
soil for it to grow' in, and all these con¬ 
ditions can be intelligently mastered by 
any man who can read The II. N.-Y r . six 
months and grasp what he reads about 
these questions. The fact is Alfalfa should 
be the large factor in that system of soiling 
crops. It costs less to grow it than prac¬ 
tically any of the crops mentioned, for it 
has to be seeded so seldom that the cost 
of seeding is an inconsequential item. 
An occasional disking after the seeding is 
two or three years old is practically all 
that is necessary to do with it for years 
except cut it for feed. Again it is not 
such a delicate plant that it cannot stand 
cutting only at just such times. I have 
begun cutting on it as soon as it w r as large 
enough to swing a scythe through and it 
came on just as readily as it did when I 
waited till the precise “psychological mo¬ 
ment” arrived to do the cutting. With 
fields large enough to supply the needs of 
the given amount of stock it might even be 
possible to make the Alfalfa serve for 
practically the whole soiling ration, for 
one could begin early enough in his first 
cutting so that by the time he had gotten 
over the field or had to finish cutting the 
field for hay, he could begin over again 
W'here he first started in. This would save 
a vast amount of labor as well as expense 
for seed in fitting land and sowing for 
most of the crops suggested by Mr. Mills. 
Notice two things in connection with this 
concerning Alfalfa ; first, it can be “suc¬ 
cessfully” grow'n on any well-drained soil; 
second, it can be cut W'ithout injury to the 
plant at almost any stage of the' growth 
of the plant. e. M. MOORE. 
Michigan. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Mills was asked to tell 
W'liat a farmer who has no Alfalfa now 
could grow this year to help carry the 
cattle. No question about the value of 
Alfalfa after getting it started. 
8x20.. $62.41 
30x24.. 87.33 
12x26.. 110.35 
14x28.. 133.48 
16x30.. 159.39 
Other sizes in proportion. A f k for Catalog No.14 
GRIFFIN LUMBER CO. 
Box No. 17 Hudson Falls, N. Y. 
SILOS 
WEEDSPORT PATENT FRONT AND 
WEE0SP0RT HANDY SILOS 
TWO STYLES 
Hemlock, Spruce, Norway Pine, White 
Pine, Cypress 
Our Improved Sflo with continuous open¬ 
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how to erect—most practical system used. 
Prices low — quality high — construc¬ 
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Patent No. 627732. 
Write for Catalog—Box 83. 
The Abram Walrath Co. 
Weedsport, N. Y. 
The Man Behind the Plow 
Wants a Good Fertilizer 
For the land’s sake 
give him BOWKER’S 
Plowing is hard work. Don’t afterward lose its 
benefits by using a poor fertilizer. Since good hard 
labor is necessary to get the land ready, it would be 
a pity to have the crop fail to yield its best at harvest 
time through any lack of fertility. 
Forty years of experience, prompt service, the 
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Write today for our prices and terms; this may mean a good 
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Write anyhow for our illustrated catalogue and calendar. 
We want you to know Bowker’s before you buy your spring 
fertilizer. 
Address, Department E 
■DrHI7'ITT?T> FERTILIZER COMPANY, 
DU W IVlli JLV 60 Trinity Place, New York. 
Original and largest manufacturers of special fertilizers. 
FIRE FROST PROOF-NO PAINT 
CEMENT YOU MAY HAVE THE MATERIAL OH 
SILO YOUR OWN FARM. YOU CAN BUILD WITH 
BLOCKS,, COMMON LABOR-QUALITY BEING IN 
YOUR HANDS. 
g 
,, rn EITHER CEMENT OR THE SILOS CARRIES HOOPS 
si lo LE WITH MALLEABLE SCREW COUPLINGS. ENTIRELY 
BLOCKS AROUND THE STRUCTURE. 
a 
FREIGHT ALLOWED TO HOMETOWN 
ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUES FROM THOSE WHO KNOW 
CEMENTS TILE SILO CO. KALAMAZOO MICH 
nE ROSS SILO 
The value of ensilage for dairy or 
cattle feeding is known to all. To got 
rosults care must be taken in selecting 
a silo. The ROSS SILO Is absolutely 
guaranteed to produce the right kind 
of ensilage. Why? Because it 
IS THOROUGHLY MANUFACTURED 
and hu feature* that are important 
and found on the Ross Silo only. 
Profit by our experience and build a 
ROSS SILO. Catalog explains all. 
Agents Wanted 
The E. \V. Koss Co.(Est. 1850) 
Rox 13 SPRINGFIELD, OHIO 
SILOS 
The inventors of the Modern 
Continuous-Opening Silo offer 
to the public the largest and 
most complete line of Silos on 
the market. Our experience, 
which antedates that of any 
other firm manufacturing these 
goods,has enabled us to produce 
the highest quality at 
the most reasonable 
prices. Send for our 
catalog on Silos and Silo Fillers, 
“the kind Uncle Sam uses,” and 
tell us the size of Silo wanted. 
HARDER MFC. COMPANY 
BOX || COBLESKILL, N. Y. 
ff^You can buy 
an INDIANA SILO 
on our plan and 
never know you 
have spent a cent! 
The best proposition ever of¬ 
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our special plan and our free 
book entitled "Silo Profits.” The 
book tells WHY you should have 
a Bllo and our plan tells HOW 
you can get one. 
INDIANA SILO COMPANY, 
The largest makers of 81 los In the 
world. Address nearest factory: 
318 Union Bldg., Anderson, Ind. 
, Indiana Bldg., Des Moines, la. 
“ Bllo Bldg., Kansas City. Mo. 
Every Borden 
Experiment Farm <11# 
has a Unadilla ]mM 
Silage of the highest quality is the 
final test of a silo. It convinced the 
Bordens that the Unadilla was best 
suited to the needs of their great milk 
farms. Such merit also indicates su¬ 
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ease in handling silage. Catalogue 
free. Send for it and learn how and 
why they meet every need. Discount 
for orders in 30 days. Agents wanted. 
UNADILLA SILO CO., BoxC . Unadilu, N. 
The FARMER’S SON’S 
GREAT OPPORTUNITY 
Why wait for the old farm to become your In¬ 
heritance! Begin now to prepare for 
your future prosperity and inde¬ 
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awaits you In Manitoba. Sas¬ 
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can secure a free Homestead or 
buy land at reasonable prices. 
NOW’S THE TIME 
—not a year from now,when land 
will be higher. The profits se¬ 
cured from the a b n n d a n t 
eropsof Wheat, Oats andllar- 
ley, as well as cattle raising are causing a 
steady advance In price. Government re¬ 
turns showtliatthe number of settlers 
in Western Canada from the U. S. 
during-the last year was upwards of 
185,000 and imigration is con¬ 
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Many farmers have paid for their 
land out of proceeds of one crop. 
Free Homesteads of 160 acres and 
pre-emption of 160-acres at $3.00 
T an acre. Splendid climate, good 
' schools, excellent railway facilities, 
low freight rates; wood, water and 
lumber easily obtained. 
For pamphlet' 'I^istBestWest,"particulars 
as to locations & settlers’ rate apply Supt. 
Immig., Ottawa, Can., or Can.Gov. Agt. 
J. S. CRAWFORD 
301 E. GENESEE STREET 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
The Silo With Three Walls 
Cr&ine Patent Triple Wall Silo 
First staves; then a layer of odorless.air- 
tight sheathing ; outside, a continuous 
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tighten or loosen. The weather can’tharm 
this silo. It’s water-proof—air-proof— 
frost-proof. Can’t dry out or swell out. 
Write for catalog of details today. 
W. L. SCOTT LUMBER COMPANY 
G3 Main Street, Norwich, N. Y. 
kSSSe-THE ideal 
HOME COUNTRY 
i in the wide territory traversed by the Southern Ry. 
System. From the high lands of the Appalachians, with 
their dry, healthy climate, to the Piedmont section, with its 
heavy yielding lands, on to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 
where every crop thrives —somewhere in this broad territory 
you can find a place just suited to your needs and means. 
Land prices range from $15 to $50 per 
acre. The first year’s crop often more than returns 
the purchase price. 
All grasses, grains, fruits and vegetables known to the 
temperate zone thrive in the Southeast. Alfalfa grows 
nearly everywhere—4 to 6 tons per acre not uncom¬ 
mon—$ 15 to $22 per ton paid locally. Apple orchards 
net $100 to $500 an acre. Truck gardening yields 
$200 to $400 per acre—everything else in proportion. 
The Southeast is the farmer’s paradise. 
We have booklets giving full information of conditions 
in each Southeastern State. Address 
M. V. RICHARDS, Land & Industrial Agt. 
Southern Railway, Room87 
^ Washington, D. C. 
.A \ 
t- 
l\lew York State Farms 
We will sell you better farm and orchard proper¬ 
ties (improved), and at lower prices, in New York 
than can be had elsewhere. More money is made 
in diversified farming, dairying, poultry raising 
and fruit growing in New York than in other 
States. We know, because we are farmers. Call 
on us, or send for our specimen list of New York 
farms. B. F. McBURNEY & CO.. Room 309, 
Bastable Block, Syracuse, N. Y., or 703 Fisher 
Building, Chicago, Ill.; 
