THE RURAIi NEW-YORKER 
243 
the new jersey training school. 
Located at Vineland, N. J., is the training school 
established by a philanthropic people for the world’s 
most unfortunate children, boys and girls of back¬ 
ward and feeble minds. Each boy is tested by the 
Binet measuring scale of intelligence upon entering 
the school. Some of them are from 18 to 25 years 
old, but they show up in these tests to be mentally 
equal only to normal boys six to 10 years old. There 
are four factors which the heads of the training 
school take into account in the operation of their 
system: First, the boy; second, the animal (in this 
case it is poultry) ; third, the feed; fourth, the care, 
and the boy of necessity is the prime factor. Though 
these lads are nothing more than children, so far 
as ideas are concerned, and more or less irrespon¬ 
sible, the self-governing feature of the work and 
the individual pride of capability have proved suc¬ 
cessful in the practical working of the poultry enter¬ 
prise, and we are justly proud of our 1912 accounts. 
We have 850 Single Comb White Leghorn fowls; 
we started with 200 in 1900. The poultry houses are 
of several different types, and are located in such 
a manner as to economize the time of the pupils. 
The incubator cellar adjoins the brooder house; the 
brooder building, 100 feet long and 16 feet wide, 
operated with a hot-water system, is conveniently 
near the colony houses. The colony 
houses are large enough to house 14 
hens and a rooster. We utilize our 
colony houses as breeding pens until 
the pullets are ready to enter; in this 
way the house is in use the year around. 
Each colony house has an individual 
yard, 90 feet in length, 10 feet wide. A 
frame 10 feet wide and eight feet high, 
with hooks, can be attached every 30 
feet, permitting the growing of rape 
and other green food. The feed house 
and laying pen have a central location. 
In description of our laying house 
I will say our site is upon a small 
hill, facilitating excellent drainage. The 
building is of the so-called continuous 
house type; for minimum cost of lum¬ 
ber and energy expended in the care 
of the flock we are forced to admire 
this type. In length it is 240 feet and 
20 feet wide, allowing 10 compartments 
20x24 feet, each pen with a capacity 
for 100 birds. We found it necessary 
to install partitions in a house of this 
length, using tongued and grooved 
boarding to prevent drafts. We have 
a southern exposure; the windows, one 
to each compartment, are 5j4 feet long 
and feet wide, and slide open. In 
the front the building is eight feet high, 
running to five feet in the rear, which 
allows for the desirable pitch of roof. 
Running the whole length of the front 
of the building right under the roi#f 
ledge is an eight-inch opening with a 
half-inch wire screen (to keep out spar¬ 
rows), and a frame covered with mus¬ 
lin. This gives us first-class ventila¬ 
tion. The muslin frame is only closed 
upon the advent of unreasonably cold 
Winter weather and storms. 
The roost platforms are eliminated 
and all droppings are deposited upon the floor be¬ 
neath the perches, where cinders or earth are used 
daily in mixing with the droppings. The whole is 
cleaned out once a month. This space is kept sepa¬ 
rate from litter by a board one foot wide. The floor 
is of cement, while the house foundation runs below 
the frost line, insuring a rat-proof building. Perches 
are set three feet from the floor, are easily removed 
and are placed 12 inches apart. Nest boxes extend 
outside from the rear of the building, enabling the 
boys to gather the eggs without any chance of annoy¬ 
ing the hens. 
We aim to breed in such a manner that all fowls 
produced shall be large, of good constitution, from 
good egg performers, and that each female shall be 
long in neck, body and leg. Comb fine and even on 
the head, and in size to conform with the rest of the 
bird, and from a male that is compact, with full 
breast, tail carried low, heavy plumage, legs long, 
comb and head the very best we can obtain, as upon 
this depends in great part the shape of comb and 
head of your chicks. Our process of selection has 
given us exceptionally good results. It is simply a 
case of having an ideal type presenting size, strength 
and vigorous health. We breed from the largest stock 
we can get, always setting the largest pure white, 
perfect shaped eggs. Our idea is to breed from na¬ 
tural stock; results in this case are stronger chicks 
and you can tell bef<jre you raise a bird in the 
breeding yards whether his or her color will stay 
with them after the molt or leave them after the 
first year. Select the male first fcSr shape, second for 
color; the female first for color, second for shape; 
have both qualifications as good in each as possible. 
It is hardly necessary to write of the importance we 
attach to trap-nesting. At the present time only the 
breeders are trap-nested. We use one nest to every 
three hens. Heretofore we have tried to tell by mere 
observation and the external appearance of the hen 
whether she would give 85 eggs or 200 in a year’s 
8703 dozen eggs at 30 cents.$2610.90 
1800 pounds meat at 15 cents. 270.00- 
Total receipts . $2880.90 
Cost of feed .$1477.02 
Cost of man labor. 250.00- 
Total expenses . $1727.02 
Net receipts . $1153.88 
time. We failed, but having since installed trap- 
nests we feel that our work is not being carried on 
in a blindfold manner. Taking it for granted that 
the hens are of good stock, and the surroundings 
congenial, we believe the thing that goes farthest tow¬ 
ards producing the eggs and making the business a 
profitable one, is suitable food, properly fed. * I have 
noticed that our hens love regularity; if something 
new out of the ordinary happens, they are quite 
likely to get excited and forget for a time their mis¬ 
sion in life of laying eggs and thus paying a profit. 
corn, 100 pounds of oats, 100 pounds of wheat and 
100 pounds of buckwheat. The hens receive of this 
mixture 10 pounds per 100 birds. 
All houses have yards both in the rear and front, 
which keeps green food before the fowls in Spring, 
Summer and Fall; besides a change of yards prevents 
soil contamination. Hens are only kept for two lay¬ 
ing seasons; Spring hatched pullets that begin laying 
not earlier than the latter part of November replace 
those taken out. 
Our receipts for 1912 are here given and compared 
to expenses of operating the department. Man labor 
expenses of $250 may seem to- be rather low; how¬ 
ever this amount was paid for the supervision of the 
pupils in the poultry and swine departments. Stu¬ 
dent labor is costly, for the training of our boys comes 
before the amount of work done; it is conceded 
that overhead charges, etc., are eliminated under our 
circumstances. 
Poultry yards occupy three acres of land, on which 
we have pear and plum trees, all in bearing. 
MAXIMILLIAN FLEISCHER. 
A SERIOUS POTATO DISEASE. 
American potato growers are threatened by a new 
scourge which promises, if not promptly gotten under 
control, to prove less amenable to treatment, and 
cause greater losses than any of the 
potato diseases now prevalent in this 
country. A disease known as “black 
scab,” “warty, or cauliflower disease,” 
or, more properly, potato canker, first 
made its appearance in Hungary in 1896, 
and from that country rapidly spread 
over Europe, no systematic effort hav¬ 
ing been made to check its course until 
several years later. It has now reached 
Newfoundland and the two French pos¬ 
sessions of St. Pierre and Miquelon im¬ 
mediately south. Recognizing the great 
danger to the potato growing industry 
from this source, the Canadian govern¬ 
ment has taken vigorous measures to 
prevent its importation, and has issued 
circulars of information regarding it to 
the farmers of that country. Our own 
government, on September 28, of this 
year, issued notice of quarantine against 
potatoes from Newfoundland, the 
islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, 
Great Britain, Germany and Austria- 
Hungary; and on November 19, Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture Huson forbade 
the importation into New York State, 
or the planting of seed potatoes, from 
the same countries. 
The existence of potato canker, un¬ 
fortunately, is not noticeable in the 
field until the crop is being harvested, 
and, at that time, practically all the 
tubers are infected, even though some 
appear perfectly sound. The disease 
first shows itself at the “eyes.” These 
in the earlier stages protrude from the 
potato in the form of small nodules 
varying in size from that of a pin’s 
head to that of a pea. They are rusty 
brown in color and quickly destroy the 
natural appearance of the “eye.” These 
nodules grow and spread, assuming in development 
cauliflower like form, until they have nearly, or 
quite, covered the surface of the potato, and in ad¬ 
vanced stages of the disease, the potato is converted 
into a shapeless, spongy mass, giving off an unpleas¬ 
ant rotten odor. The disease itself is caused by a 
fungus which finds entrance to the potato from the 
surrounding soil by means of its spores, or “eggs.” 
These minute spores may remain in infected ground 
over a period of six or eight years and effectually 
prevent the raising of healthy potatoes on that field 
during that time. Soil from an infected field is, of 
course, easily carried from one place to another upon 
wagon wheels, boots, or farm implements, and a 
whole neighborhood may become inoculated from one 
source. No remedy has yet been found for Potato 
Canker, and the only hope for freedom from its 
destructive work lies in such vigilance as shall pre¬ 
vent its importation into, and spread throughout the 
country. Having once been introduced into a field 
through the planting of diseased tubers, or by means 
of infected soil, no healthy potatoes can again be 
grown there for a period of at least six years, and 
the field will remain for that time a constant menace 
to other farms, or portions of the same farm. The 
cut of the disease, Fig. 66, from photograph by Dr. 
Gussow, of the Dominion Experimental Farms, was 
furnished by Mr. G. G. Atwood, Chief of N. Y. 
Bureau of Horticulture. . m. b. d. 
BROODER WITH ANNEXED INCUBATOR HOUSE. Fig. 67. 
COLONY HOUSE WITH MUSLIN AND WIRE DOORS. Fig. 68. 
The system involved in the feeding of our hens de¬ 
pends upon circumstances. We have used both dry 
and wet mashes with good results, but find that the 
■dry mash brings the question of labor to a mini¬ 
mum, also that the character of the food fed deter¬ 
mines, to a large degree, the character of the product. 
Illustrative of my meaning, we may take corn con¬ 
taining 7.9 per cent of protein and 76.4 per cent of 
carbohydrates, plus fats, and compare it to an egg 
which contains 11.4 per cent protein and 8.9 per cent 
carbohydrates, plus fats. The difference between food 
and product is so great that no one would expect a 
large yield of eggs from an exclusive corn diet. 
We are using a dry mash composed of 200 pounds 
of bran, 200 pounds of ground oats, 100 pounds of 
linseed meal (old process), 100 pounds of meat scrap, 
and 100 pounds of Alfalfa. This we keep before the 
birds at all times. During the Winter after molting 
is over, we substitute the oil meal with gluten, and 
add 100 pounds of cornmeal, and if the birds can 
range around to the extent of getting insect food, 
we cut down on the meat scrap. At 10 a. m. we feed 
a mixture of hard grains, 100 pounds of wheat and 
100 pounds of oats is fed in a deep litter. We find 
five pounds of this mixture sufficient for 100 hens. 
A function of this ration besides the nutritive value, 
is to cause the birds to exercise. We feed but twice 
daily, giving the birds their last feed at four p. m. 
of the following grain mixture: 200 pounds of cracked 
