1262 
marketed or hatched. They should be given wet mash 
as early in the morning as possible, again at noon, 
and a feeding of small grain about a half hour before 
dark. When you start on the egg forcing ration, 
change gradually till you are using the following 
mixture: equal parts of bulk of clover, or Alfalfa, 
cut short and thoroughly soaked out, cornmeal, wheat 
bran, and wheat middlings, with 15 per cent, of beef 
ONE HALF SHETLAND BLOOD. Fig. 521. 
scrap, five per cent of sharp sand, and one per cent of 
salt. If possible, use equal parts of beef scrap and 
fish scrap to make up the 15 per cent., as the fish 
scrap will make the eggshells better and the eggs 
larger; if the shells should persist in being thin, or 
rough and chalky, you can well afford the expense 
of a few messes of cheap fish, which you will cut 
up and feed raw to the ducks. I have never known 
of trouble along this line, which fresh fish did not 
instantly correct. Make the mash quite moist, and in 
cold weather it is an advantage to use hot water. 
In making up the small grain ration, you should be 
controlled to a certain extent by economy, using the 
cheaper grains, but should not get very far from the 
following mixture; one-half cracked corn, and the 
other half equal parts of oats, wheat, and buckwheat. 
If your breeders are large, and inclined to get too 
fat. it will be well to give the grain ration at noon, 
making it a very light lunch, and give the mash at 
night. Your aim will be to make the ducks eat every 
ounce possible, guarding against feeding them off 
their feet by making the mash more coarse by in¬ 
creasing the proportion of hay, or bran, and remem¬ 
bering that a duck which is producing a large egg 
every day can hardly get too much nutrition into her 
system. 
GREEN FOOD.—In addition to the clover, or 
Alfalfa, in the mash, they must have a considerable 
quantity of some succulent green food. A field of 
rye will furnish this till snow comes, and if one is 
watchful and gets it before snow does come, a quan¬ 
tity can be gathered, when it is frozen stiff, and piled 
up in an open shed, or against the north side of a 
building, to be thawed out as needed. Cabbage comes 
in nicely after the rye is exhausted, and for the last 
end of the Winter there is nothing better than the 
mangel-wurzel run through a root cutter; in fact 
they are perfectly satisfactory to use throughout the 
Winter in the absence of the other forms of green 
food. Small potatoes, beets, or carrots, can be used, 
of course, in place of the mangels, which are especially 
recommended because of their easy culture and 
cheapness, as well as their keeping qualities. Sprouted 
oats make the best of green food, but are rather ex¬ 
pensive, especially if it is necessary to maintain a 
fire for that purpose. There is no more nutrition in 
the oats after they are sprouted than before, but 
they are much more succulent, palatable, and easily 
digested. The green stuff should be given daily, be¬ 
tween two of the other feeds, and cannot be neg¬ 
lected if 3 r ou are to obtain maximum results. The 
ducks should always have water before them as 
well as clean sharp sand and fine oyster shells; the 
ducks cannot use as coarse grit as hens, but need the 
sharp sand to grind their food. If they have a creek, 
or pond, in which to work, they will wash the sand 
out of the dirt along the banks, but during the Winter 
it must be supplied; it is better always to keep a 
supply where they can get it. The oyster shells seem 
to help by supplying lime as well as by furnishing 
grit. The pens should be well bedded with straw, 
which goes enough farther to pay for the work of 
cutting it, leaves, or other dry litter, and experience 
indicates that the pens can be kept in better shape 
with less material if it is allowed to accumulate, that 
is, a little clean dry litter scattered in every few 
days and only cleaned out after a quantity has ac¬ 
cumulated, rather than cleaning out every few days. 
THE RURAL NEW-VOrtKER 
DON’T FRIGHTEN THEM.—Of course the same 
general rules apply to ducks as to other birds and 
animals; for instance: they should never be fright¬ 
ened. Pekin ducks are particularly timid and a stray 
dog running through their yards, has been known to 
reduce the egg production 10 per cent, for the week; 
while a careless attendant can keep a flock in such 
a nervous condition that they will never produce 
seventy-five per cent, of their possibilities. The layers 
should not be allowed to go out on the snow and 
ice in cold weather, as it will reduce both the num¬ 
ber and size of the eggs laid. fred b. skinner. 
THE RIVER BOTTOM FARM. 
Irrigation Needed. 
When James Berlin purchased 30 acres of flat, 
river-bottom land at the northwest corner of his 50- 
acre hillside farm, he decided to cultivate it more 
intensively than had before been his practice upon the 
hillside that was so perfectly irrigated by the water 
seepage from his woodlot on the heights above his 
cleared fields. He was confronted with a new problem 
of irrigation to carry his crops forward, in the fre¬ 
quent droughts of Summer, that severely taxed his 
ingenuity for some years. 
The addition to his farm was a rectangle, 60 rods 
wide by 80 rods length from north to south, chiefly 
of the first terrace only four or five feet above the 
river level at the low water stage, and was frequently 
inundated by the early Spring floods, particularly 
when ice gorges sent backwater over it. Much silt 
and sand were thus deposited, raising the terrace, 
from year to year, by films deposited, and greatly 
beneficial to the succeeding crops by the fertilizing 
effects of the new soil so added. When Spring floods 
subsided early and no freshets again renewed the 
water depth of the river, the sandy alluvial bottom 
land became very dry as the water level fell in unison 
with the falling surface of the river. 
By adding humus and frequent cultivating, his vege¬ 
tables and corn were greatly benefited by capillary 
film moisture that was thus brought, or retained, 
within the horizon of the plant roots, and many satis¬ 
factory harvests were attained. Some seasons were 
so dry, however, that no moisture could be thus sup¬ 
plied, at the critical time, from the rapidly sinking 
water level of the river surface. Crops failed or 
were unprofitable, until Mr. Berlin hit upon the rem¬ 
edy he now uses to counteract the deficiency of avail¬ 
able moisture, and retain a higher and constant water 
level during the drought periods. 
SOLVING THE PROBLEM.—Across the 60 rods 
in width, nearly 40 rods from its northern edge along 
the river, runs an old river channel that turns north 
along the west line of Mr. Berlin’s farm, and again 
meets the present channel near the sortlnvest corner. 
During low water stages the old channel was dry, its 
silting bottom being a foot or more higher than the 
river bed; but whenever a flood brings the river sur¬ 
face four or five feet above low water mark it is 
filled with water, making the north end of the field an 
island containing nearly 15 acres. To retain this 
water in the old channel after the river floods recede 
solid causeways were built of brush and stones, and 
covered with gravel and soil, across both ends to 
nearly the level of its banks, and grass seed sown on 
them to prevent washing away. They are reinforced 
with willows on the edges, and entirely permanent, 
so a driveway is established over the lagoon for ac¬ 
cess to the “island beyond.” Sufficient water is thus 
impounded to sustain the soil water level near the 
plant roots, by infiltration, during many weeks of 
drought that succeed a flooding, and until the young 
December 21, 
plants send roots down in pursuit of the receding 
moisture, insuring constant and abundant growth for 
unfailing harvest at maturity of crops planted. 
There are many such old channels on the rivers that 
might cheaply be turned to reservoirs to impound 
flood waters. This would irrigate thousands of acres 
of the most productive and easily tilled land of this 
country, and at the same time reduce the damage 
from floods that annually result to property along 
the great waterways. 
MARSHLAND RECLAIMED.—Near the south¬ 
west corner of the addition is a fine, large spring and 
a triangular marsh of about five acres upon the second 
terrace. From this Mr. Berlin ran a 10-inch tile drain, 
with four-inch lateral feeders, to carry all surface and 
spring water away and pour it into his old-channel 
reservoir to counteract the evaporation. The marsh 
was upon a thick bed of blue clay, with about a foot 
of soil upon it, and when drained became the best 
land for potatoes on the whole farm. The second 
terrace land is above high water level, so it does not 
overflow, and the hillside slope of Upshur soil forms 
the third class of soils on this farm. Mr. Berlin has 
solved the problems of water supply and drainage in 
each case. j. c. french. 
Pennsylvania. 
FRUIT RAISING IN MEXICO. 
The Legislature of Vera-Cruz, in Mexico, has pro¬ 
vided money for developing the fruit business in that 
State. Prizes of from $ioo to $i,ooo will be awarded 
to fruit growers who shall plant and bring first to 
market crops from orchards of oranges, mangoes and 
pineapples. These orchards must have from i,ooo to 
10,000 trees, and from 10,000 to 100,000 pineapple 
plants. All companies or private owners planting 
such fruit will be exempt from land taxes for io 
years, and given io per cent, of freight rates to the 
nearest port or railroad shipping. This rebate will 
last for io years; in fact this Mexican State is going 
to the extreme in trying to develop a fruit industry. 
This we believe is the first instance of the sort on this 
continent. People of the United States are evidently 
not ready for this direct form of government sub¬ 
sidy for farming, although it is no more “unconsti¬ 
tutional” than the subsidies proposed for steamship 
or railroad lines. Aside from any other question, let 
us consider what would happen if the New England 
States were to combine in developing the apple grow¬ 
ing industry after such a plan. The chances are that 
within the life of a middle-aged man of to-day New 
England would be considerably in advance of the 
Pacific Coast in its fruit growing industries. 
THE COW’S QUICK LUNCH COUNTER. 
The picture at Fig. 523 shows what we may call a 
cow quick-lunch counter on wheels, which is used 
by C. H. Fuller of Fernside Dairy, Maine. You will 
see that it is a box with different compartments and 
measures, fitted upon a toy wagon, so that it runs 
easily through the barn. Mr. Fuller feeds cotton-seed 
meal, bran, dry grains and cornmeal. These are 
in different compartments, and there are measures of 
different sizes so as easily to make up a balanced 
ration. There is also a shelf in this box for salt, 
or for a tonic if that be needed. Mr. Fuller found 
that his cows did better when the feed was mixed 
COW LUNCH COUNTER, ON WHEELS. Fig. 523, 
for each cow separately, and by studying the likes 
and dislikes of each cow it is possible to make them 
do better in this way than if all the feed were mixed 
in large lots| so that each cow got the same. Most 
dairymen who figure a thing out in this way find 
sooner or later that there is much in this plan of 
feeding each cow according to her likes and dislikes. 
It might not pay to work this arrangement in a very 
large dairy, but where a man is handling a few cows 
and knows them thoroughly, there is no doubt about 
the value of such a system. 
