884 
tri-i k: rukai 
NEW-VORKEH 
July 26, 
MORGAN HORSES. 
Morgan horses were at one time very 
popular and in great demand ; later they 
were displaced in popular estimation by 
a faster development of practically simi¬ 
lar descent, known now as standard bred 
horses, the ancestors of our racers of 
the present. But during the last 30 
years interest in the Morgan has revived 
and much attention is being given to the 
intelligent breeding of these horses. Trac¬ 
ing back to the Thoroughbreds of England 
and through them to Barbs and Arabi¬ 
ans, and being developed, as a breed, in 
New England where conditions were ex¬ 
acting, it is not surprising that Morgan 
horses are noted for their vigor, hardi¬ 
ness and speed. Though shorter of leg 
and more chunky of body than the pres¬ 
ent type of the Thoroughbred, the Mor¬ 
gan horse of to-day because of new infu¬ 
sions of Thoroughbred blood or because 
of selection, is more like the Thorough¬ 
bred than formerly. 
The picture shows a typical Morgan 
horse and it is to be readily seen that 
here we have a graceful and speedy con¬ 
formation, but not a long body nor ex¬ 
tremely long legs. If this horse has 
that had not laid. One was a White 
Orpington, one a Barred Rock and the 
third a White Leghorn. Mr. Barron 
thought he could, and taking off his coat 
and hat went into the pens, caught the 
hens one after another, and with two or 
three rapid motions of his fingers on the 
abdomen of the birds, selected the non¬ 
layers in each pen without a mistake. 
I watched him very carefully, and was 
surprised to see that he paid no atten¬ 
tion to the position of the pubic bones, 
which would have been my way of de¬ 
termining which were the non-layers. 
After he had caught the bird, it did 
not take him ten seconds to decide 
whether it was the bird he was looking 
for or not. In one pen there was a 
bird which had laid only 50 eggs, and 
one which had laid 350; Mr. Barron 
was asked if he could pick them out. 
This was a more difficult test, but Mr. 
Barron accomplished it very easily, and 
the record book which Mr. Ketchain car¬ 
ried, showed that Mr. Barron had se¬ 
lected the right birds. Mr. Rawcliffe is 
also an expert poultryman ; Mr. Barron 
frequently handing a bird to him, to 
see whether Mr. R. confirmed his judg¬ 
ment. Mr. Rawcliffe keeps about 3,500 
head of poultry, and lives 33 miles from 
Mr. Barron’s place. lie is unmarried, 
but that deplorable condition he expects 
to remedy soon. 
Mr. Barron’s farm of 25 acres when he 
bought it fifteen years ago. kept four 
cows, one horse and a few hens. Now 
A MORGAN HORSE BREI) IN KENTUCKY. 
greater scale than Vermont Morgans it 
is probably due to the fact that this one 
was bred in Kentucky under the influ¬ 
ence of Thoroughbred ideals. The Bu¬ 
reau of Animal Industry has undertaken 
the preservation of our native types of 
horses and prominent among these is the 
Morgan type. The Morgan horse pos¬ 
sesses merit and the efforts of the gov¬ 
ernment are laudable, and much good for 
this breed shall have been accomplished 
if nothing more is done than to unify the 
types and the ideals of these horses now 
so diverse. Many saddle, trotting and 
racing horses of the present trace their 
lineage back to old Justin Morgan and 
to Morgans of a later time which is good 
proof of the excellence of this breed. 
Ohio. W. E. DUCKWALL. 
TOM BARRON—THE LEGHORN MAN. 
Mr. Thomas Barron with his wife and 
Mr. Thomas I*. Rawcliffe (a cousin) re¬ 
turned to England, July 9th. They all 
express great pleasure with their visit 
to America. The large scale upon which 
everything seems to be done here deeply 
impressed them. The size of some of 
the poultry plants they visited in Penn¬ 
sylvania and New Jersey was a sur¬ 
prise to them, Mr. Barron saying “that 
there was nothing like it in the old 
country.” They visited Niagara Falls and 
were not greatly impressed; it only 
seemed in keeping with the other 
things in this country of big 
things. The last three days of their 
visit were spent at my house, and in a 
trip to the contest plant at Storrs Col¬ 
lege, five miles south. Practically the 
whole day was spent at the College, and 
here Mr. Barron gave an example of his 
skill as a poultryman. 
There are in the contest three hens, 
two of which have not laid an egg this 
year, and one which has laid but one 
egg. These were all good layers last 
year, one laying over 200 and one 383 
eggs. Prof. Kirkpatrick asked Mr. Bar¬ 
ron whether he could pick out the birds 
it keeps 30 cows, two horses and 6,000 
head of fowls and chicks; and last year 
he sold $200 worth of hay besides. For 
the last eight years records have been 
kept of all the trap-nested birds, and all 
matings with their results. Many ex¬ 
periments have been tried. One was 
to take two matings of brother and 
sister; this produced a large proportion 
of poor layers, but selecting the best, 
the males from one pen being mated with 
pullets from the other, their progeny 
proved to be the best layers he had ever 
raised. Mr. Barron thinks it a mistake 
to breed for size if it is eggs that are 
wanted. lie says he found that it was 
almost invariably his smaller birds that 
were the best layers, not in White Leg¬ 
horns only, but very noticeably so in 
White Wyandottes. His White Wyan- 
dottes are considerably smaller than the 
American birds of that breed. Mr. Bar¬ 
ron is very much in favor of feeding a 
wet mash once a day. He uses a sep¬ 
arator and utilizes all the skim-milk 
from his 30 cows in making wet mashes 
for his poultry, feeding it at night. Vis- 
isting the plant of Mr. Geo. V. Smith, 
near my house, Mr. Barron handled some 
of Mr. Smith’s Buff Wyandottes, which 
are not laying very well. They have a 
dry mash before them all the time, and 
are fed grain besides. Mr. Barron said, 
after handling the birds: “I would have 
those hens laying bushels of eggs in a 
few weeks by feeding them a proper wet 
mash.” Mr. Smith is so disgusted with 
the continual “wanting to set” of his 
Buff Wyandottes, that lie is going to sell 
them all and keep nothing but White 
Leghorns, of which he has about 600 
now. 
Mr. Barron’s party were surprised 
to see grapes and peaches growing out¬ 
doors here in Connecticut. “At home 
we only see these under glass,” he re¬ 
marked. Mr. Barron’s birds are kept 
mainly in small houses with outside 
runs; but in that moist climate the 
grass does not get worn down and run 
out, as it does here; as a matter of fact 
they have to mow it in the yards to keep 
it down. If they have one day of sun¬ 
shine, it is nothing unusual for it to rain 
every day for a week afterward. As 
they were here during our three weeks 
of hot dry weather, they will carry back 
with them an impression that this is a 
land of sunshine. 
Personally, Mr. Barron and Mr. Ruw- 
eliffe are not built like the typical Eng¬ 
lishman at all; Mr. Barron is a six- 
footer, broad shouldered, active, with a 
prominent “Roman nose”; a forceful per¬ 
sonality. Mr. Rawcliffe is about 30 
pounds lighter, with deep-set gray eyes 
and a magnificent forehead which in¬ 
cipient baldness makes to look larger. 
Mrs. Barron is of stouter build, quiet, 
and soft-spoken, but evidently with a 
knowledge of the business that enables 
her to be an efficient helpmate. They 
employ four men and two maids on 
the farm; and a point of interest is, 
that two of the men who are student 
learners of the business, not only work 
for nothing, but pay Air. Barron $500 
a year for their instruction. As far as 
my seventy-odd years has given me power 
to judge men, I would say that both 
these men are honest, sincere, true men. 
whose word it is safe to accept, and 
whom, I am glad to think, I have added 
to my list or friends. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
DANGER TO STOCK FROM SPRAYING. 
Is there any danger to live stock in 
spraying apple trees in pasture fields? I 
have a number of apple trees in pasture 
fields that I think should be sprayed, 
but hesitate about doing so until I can 
be sure that it would cause no injury to 
horses and cattle. R. L. M. 
Grapeville, Pa. 
We do not understand what you would 
spray for at this season. Lime-sulphur 
or Bordeaux for plant disease would not 
be likely to injure the stock. Spraying 
with poisons to kill the Codling worm 
should have been done just after the 
bloom fell. It is this poison spray which 
causes danger. There is usually little 
trouble when the trees are properly 
sprayed—that is when the spray is put 
on in a fine mist and just enough so that 
the tree is damp all over without drip¬ 
ping. When the spray is squirted over 
the tree so that it runs down and drips 
freely there is danger to the stock. Cases 
of injury and death from such spraying 
are reported to us. In several cases the 
trouble was traced to draining the tank 
or pouring some of the dregs upon the 
ground. We should be careful about the 
spraying and keep the stock out of the 
pasture three or four days after the work 
was done. A good rain after spraying 
will wash the grass, but there is danger 
if the stock is turned in too soon after a 
heavy or careless poison spraying. 
Cows Chew Wood. 
Will you tell me what to do for my 
cows, as they are always wanting to chew 
at wood? They are in good condition 
otherwise; have a good pasture and got 
salt every other day. A. F. 
Bucks Co., Pa. 
This habit results from a lack of lime 
and phosphates in the ration, which is 
not giving the cow what her system 
craves. A handful of fine ground bone 
in the feed each day is helpful, and the 
condition is further corrected by feeding 
ground oats and wheat bran, also oil 
meal. Corumeal is injudicious feed for 
such cows. 
Tiie latest live stock proposition is the 
artificial propagation of the diamond- 
backed terrapin. The Government has 
for some years been trying an experi¬ 
ment in the breeding and rearing of this 
reptile, which for some years has now 
been rapidly vanishing. The meat of 
the terrapin furnishes a dainty and very 
costly food, which few of us have had the 
opportunity of enjoying. The Govern¬ 
ment states there are four well-defined 
species, and one sub-species. Experi¬ 
ments with the Carolina terrapin have 
been going on for over four years, and the 
young bred there have reached the age 
of three years. Apparently the Govern¬ 
ment has learned how to breed and rear 
these creatures successfully. There 
should be no boom, however, in terrapin 
culture, but it’s a useful thing to have 
these facts dug out for the benefit of our 
people. 
Coughing Cats are often troubled 
with worms, which crawl up into the 
throat and sometimes choke the cat to 
death. Santonin, which may be bought 
at any good drugstore is a certain cure, 
in our experience. Dissolve a tablet in 
as much new milk as the cat is likely 
to drink, and repeat once or twice. 
Swan ton, Vt. c. H. c. 
Rats in Poultry House. — I am a 
poultry keeper and am greatly bothered 
with rats. It is an everlasting fight 
against them. We have several good 
cats, but there are so many places where 
a cat can’t get at them. We catch some 
with steel traps once in awhile, but gen¬ 
erally they are too wary for these. Then 
we have tried all kinds of poisons and 
exterminators with little or no success. 
Now I want to try ferrets. Would you 
ask what success your readers have had 
in getting rid of rats through ferrets, and 
how to feed and handle them? j. f. 
Zionsville, Pa. 
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