T913. 
GUINEA PIGS. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I have heard that the long-haired 
guinea pigs .are very delicate and hard to 
raise. Is this so? What is the best way 
to handle them? M. B. 
It is not true that long-haired guinea 
pigs are delicate. If anything they are 
hardier than short-haired. All guinea 
pigs must have a clean dry place, and of 
course if kept in a foul, damp place the 
long hair would become worse soiled, but 
no kind of guinea pig can stand such 
place long. It is not at all true that 
they are crossed with rabbits. They are 
a different kind of animal and could not 
be crossed with rabbit. All guinea pigs 
have to have fine hay and beets, mangels, 
carrots, etc., in Winter, and do well 
on plenty of grass and clover, with noth¬ 
ing else in Summer, though a little oats 
or wheat is strengthening to breeding 
stock any time of year. It is only a side 
dish, they cannot live on grain alone, nor 
even mostly. Most anything they like 
is good for them. They will not eat 
much potato or turnip if they have any¬ 
thing else, and these vegetables will make 
them sick if starved to eating them. The 
chief consideration of guinea pigs is to 
have enough to eat. They have to eat 
almost all the time, day and night, and 
consume about three times as much ac¬ 
cording to their size as a cow eats. Sec¬ 
ond-crop hay, rowen, is the best for 
them. Otherwise early cut hay, the finest 
to be had. Rabbits do better on coarse 
food, but guinea pigs better on fine. Al¬ 
falfa hay will kill them. It is entirely 
unnecessary to water guinea pigs if they 
have all the vegetables they need. 
Massachusetts. a. e. c. latiirop. 
THE TURKEY QUESTION. 
Some years ago there was much said 
about crossing wild turkeys on our com¬ 
mon stock to give a hardier class of birds. 
Did this amount to anything? 
The great trouble is the disease com¬ 
monly called blackhead. It is caused by 
a micro-organism which is present all 
through the East and Middle West, and 
is making inroads into the Southwest. 
Turkeys cannot be raised without being 
infected. Most of our common wild birds 
are infected, but their white blood cor¬ 
puscles or in fact their constitutions are 
strong enough to keep it under control. 
These facts have been proved by the 
-i-ode Island station. It is now work- 
ng on the theory that this organism must 
be killed or weakened after it gets into 
the ycting birds (after a turkey becomes 
six or eight 3aonth£. old it is past danger), 
and that the vigor and constitutional 
health of the birds must be strengthened. 
To do this out-crossing is practiced, and 
wild turkey blood is excellent, but this 
alone is useless. The station is not pre¬ 
pared to give out an exact statement, 
but after conversation with Dr. Hadley, 
I am sure that he thinks he is on the 
right track, and I think so also. It 
seems it all simmers right down to the 
method our grandmothers tried and were 
successful with, in a word, sour milk. It 
seems the lactic acid weakens and kills 
the “bug.” The Station has had con¬ 
siderable success during the past two sea¬ 
sons by feeding thick sour milk several 
times a day from the time the turkeys 
are a day old up to three or four months 
old. Other food is given very sparingly. 
-Most turkeys are fed to death. Full in¬ 
testines are just a picnic for the parasitic 
organism. They are using the imported 
lactic acid bacteria to increase the acid¬ 
ity in the sour milk. They are also ex¬ 
perimenting with a drug in addition to 
sour milk, the problem of course being 
to kill the germ and keep it killed with¬ 
out killing the bird. A. L. CLARK. 
Poisoning Hawks Through Chickens. 
I note on page 1120 some one is trou¬ 
bled with hawks taking chickens. I have 
no trouble that way myself, but have 
soon a preventive tried which, while it 
lakes a few chickens to do the work, still 
is effective. A good many country peo¬ 
ple who are troubled with hawks, either 
boil mix vomica buttons and make a 
mash, using the water, or file the but¬ 
tons to a powder and mix it in the mash, 
or buy the powdered drug and mix it in 
the mash. A chicken can staud a whole 
lot of it and not get hurt, in fact it is 
a good tonic for them; in the course of 
a week or 10 days, a chicken fed this 
mash once a day will be saturated with 
ibe poison. Along come Brer Rat or 
IMr. Hawk and takes the chicken, and has 
a very delightful meal. It is well he en¬ 
joys it. for it is his last. If the hawk 
takes it to its nest, it will kill his brood. 
The same thing has been used with hogs, 
or dosing them strychnine for a time, 
where darkies are stealing them. If it 
doesn’t kill the thief it makes him sick. 
I know of a doctor who tried this and 
then charged the darkies $2.50 a head 
to cure them. One thing to be cautioned 
about, in employing this remedy; do not 
use the eggs for eating, nor try to eat 
the fowls, until it has been 10 days to 
two weeks since the treatment was 
stopped. A hawk will ‘ steal a chicken 
take it to a high, dead pine tree and make 
a meal, and sit there. He is sick and 
getting sicker, when finally, he just turns 
loose and drops to the ground. It may 
take an hour, or it may take six to kill 
him, depending on the amount of poison 
he has in his system I think. It does 
not prevent eggs from hatching, but 
makes them unfit for food. This may 
sound like a pipe dream, and a fake, but 
it is not; it is straight goods, m. a. p. 
Alabama. 
R. N.-Y.—In the same mail which 
brought this came three others telling 
about feeding poison to the chicks. • This 
advice usually comes from the South, and 
the plan seems really to be a popular one 
in the Gulf States. We have referred 
the matter to some of the best poultry 
“authorities,” but they either never heard 
of it or had not given it a trial. We 
should hesitate to risk feeding the poison 
—the following plan looks safer. 
The Poison on the Chicken. 
On page 1120 Mrs. A. II. P., Chelms¬ 
ford, Mass., asks about hawks. If she 
will take a drop of honey and about one 
grain or two of powdered strychnine and 
rub it in the down on the back of the 
neck of a day-old chicken, and fix up his 
brothers and sisters the same way, and 
put the old hen in a coop far from the 
house on the edge of the woods, she 'will 
find that as the chickens disappear her 
trouble will cease. After they get two 
or three weeks old she should take a pair 
of scissors and cut the poisou off before 
it sheds off and some other chicken eats 
it. She should then remove the hen and 
put another that has just hatched in its 
place, as real young chickens are worth 
less and more attractive to vermin than 
older ones and they eat them whole and 
get the poison every time. I raised a 
large number of chickens in a wild 
wooded country, and the vermin all but 
put me out of business till I hit on this. 
I never saw this in print, but it will get 
to the center of the trouble; 100 chickens 
a week old are not worth as much as it 
would cost to wire one coop well. If she 
will shut her chickens in nights and leave 
a dead day-old chick fixed with poison 
near the coop and pick it up in the day, 
early comers will be accommodated before 
opening, and her live chicks will go 
further. If you have any number of 
chickens her feed bill will be enough less 
and her chickens be enough larger to 
pay for more than 300 chicks a week old. 
We had a hen or two come every week 
till late in the Fall and found that the 
vermin would not touch large chickens 
if they could get small ones. " It is good 
for crows, rats, ?ats, dogs, foxes, wea¬ 
sels, snakes and everything but a human 
chicken thief. c. E. B. 
New York. 
Ferrets a9 Rat Catchers. 
I see ,T. F., Pennsylvania, wants to 
know how to get rid of rats by using 
ferrets. If he gets a good ferret or a 
pair he will sure kill a good many rats, 
and those he does not kill are not likely 
to return for awhile. All ferrets are not 
good ratters; some will eat and sleep. 
This is sometimes the owner’s fault; he 
buys a ferret or two and expects to turn 
them right out to hunt. Young stock 
must be broken in; the best way to do 
this is to catch some mici or young rats. 
It will be safe to let ferrets loose on rats 
after they learn their grip. While fer¬ 
rets will kill and drive rats they will 
also kill chickens and other pet stock, so 
when you are not using them to hunt 
you will have to keep them shut up. 
There are two kinds of ferrets, the brown 
and white. Both kinds are good, but 
I prefer the white for the reason you 
may sometimes mistake the brown for a 
rat and kill it. As to feeding and hand¬ 
ling ferrets would say this is no trouble; 
feed one a day a little wheat bread 
soaked in milk, a little meat once or 
twice a week. Bo sure meat is not 
tainted or salt. Never feed anything 
tainted or salty and be sure there is no 
poison lying around, as the animals are 
likely to got it and die. If you never 
handled ferrets before it is best to put 
on ji glove, a buckskin is best, but after 
awhile this is not necessary. If I were 
buying but one ferret I would buy a 
female,as I have ftsund them better hunt¬ 
ers as a rule. j. a. s. 
1208 
The Watch 
You’ve Promised Yourself 
When you were a boy, how you longed for a real watch! 
How you envied and admired th^t watch your school¬ 
mate proudly displayed on his birthday. And how you 
vowed then that some day you would have one that 
would far outshine his—a fine watch in a gold case, 
and a watch that would keep absohitely accurate time! 
^g oirth Rend 
■ W WatcH 
99 
Now you are in a position to 
realize that boyhood longing. 
Now you can secure the watch 
you've promised yourself! 
And what watch you know will 
compare with the wonderful 
South Bend—the watch so accu¬ 
rately balanced, so delicately ad¬ 
justed. so perfectly tempered 
that it will run with barely 
a second’s variation for 
twenty-four long hours frozen in 
solid ice? 
Are you going to be satisfied 
with any watch that won't stand 
such a test? Are you going to 
buy a watch that you can’t show 
to your friends with the feeling 
that it’s the best watch made? 
You can see South Bend 
Watches at your jeweler’s in 
THE SOUTH BEND WATCH CO 
town. He’ll explain to you why 
the South Bend Watch will stand 
such extreme tests as being 
frozen in ice or baked in an oven, 
why it is inspected 411 times in 
the making. Ask him especially 
to show you the “double-roller” 
South Bend—a master-achieve¬ 
ment in fine watch-making. 
South Bend Watches sell from 
$15 to $100. You can get either 
thin or regular models, plain or 
engraved case. But back of 
every one is the supreme South 
Bend quality that has made the 
South Bend “Cake-of-Ice” trade¬ 
mark the best - known watch 
trademark in America. 
Write for our booklet “How and 
Where to Select a Good Watch.” It 
contains facts you ought to know. 
We send it FREE. (196) 
i ii Rowley St., South Bend,Iud. 
1 
IMPORTANT 
to Roofing Buyers 
V\/O ham ..1. _ A _ i * > 
We here announce the greatest sale of every 
kind of Rooting we or any one ever presented. 
This lot consists of all kinds of metal roofings, 
siding and ceiling in V. crimped, standing seam 
and ornamental ceiling, both painted and gal¬ 
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of Ready Asphalt Roofings, such as Rawhide, 
Ajax, Rubber Surfaced, Flint, Pebble or Marble 
coated— in short, practically every known kind. 
Every foot—every piece, of this roofing, either 
steel, or the kind known as Ready Roofing, is 
brand new, just as it comes from manufacturers. 
Not a piece of it has ever been used—it’s all 
new, fresh, perfect stock. Just name your 
brand and we will quote you Freight Prepaid 
* nee* that will prove,the big savings you make. 
How These Prices Are Possible 
Don’t think that just because our roofing 
prices are so far below any you ever heard of 
that there’s something the matter with the roof¬ 
ing. Don t let any dealer tell you that his roofing 
is better grade or will wear longer or look 
better it won’t! Just Compare our Samples 
with any other roofing offered you. Then try to 
beat our prices you can’t. \Ve challenge any 
dealer or any manufacturer in the United States 
to quote you prices on roofing, quality for qual¬ 
ity, that can equal ours. 
Twenty years ago as the Chicago House 
Wrecking Co., we started this business of buy¬ 
ing up Bankrupt. Receivers’ and Sheriffs’ Sales. The 
V‘? a ' va3 so successful that we soon became known as the 
H arid s Greatest Price Wreckers. We’ve been smash¬ 
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cash at a cost that enables us to pass it along to you at 
fk‘;f.th r V. a 2 ; V K y '! ow Pf ice3 - Supply your needs now even 
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will warrant anticipating your roofing needs for all time. 
Capital Increased To $10,000,000 
et„JuL 3 „ va3 * ca 5 ital as ? ure3 our being able to buy any big 
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n n et Ud Yon eryt ^ nS / OU need f ° r J he “ bust 
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and future because our wonderful business position en¬ 
ables us to quote you ^ 
BANKRUPT 
Prices Lower Than Ever Before 
Corrugated Steel | 1/ ^ n 
Roofing, Per Sq. Ft. ^ /Ar ^ 
We are pricing brand new, perfect corrugated steel 
roofing as low as l.V cents per square foot—a price here¬ 
tofore unknown. Be sure to write for free samples. 
s S a. e «. 2W □ 
•daily coated, made of specially pre- 
ictically rust proof and 
3 . Besides corrugated, 
earn and Brick Siding, 
a foot—an unheard of 
samples. 
62 
We will furnish the very highest quality of Ready 
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prices. Price includes necessary cement anil caps to lay. 
Galvanized 
Roofing, Per _ 
Highest grade, specially coated, made of specially pre¬ 
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will lasta life time. Full size sheets. Besides corrugated 
comes in “V’’ Crimped, Standing Seam and Brick Siding. 
Priced as low as 2 \ cents per square foot—an unheard of 
price for this grade. Send for free samples 
'Rubber Surfaced 
Roofing, 108 Sq. Ft. 
His *o?y Of This Business 
„ have you been able to participate in such 
a sensational price-smashing roofing sale as this—the 
opportunity of your life-time to buy any style roofing at 
ameretraAon^ its real value. Lots include every 
D j ’ 1 I A I known kind of Steel, 
I Ci V* | Corrugated Iron, Ready 
m ■ t/m . . , Roofing and Roofing Ma- 
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... _ mendoua saving to you—we have 
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L.J .opposite items that interest you, tear out thisad— 
hi! in your name and address below and mail to us. 
HARRIS BROS. CO., Dept* CA37 
35th & Iron Streets, CHICAGO 
YOUR NAME 
ADDRESS.... 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. : : ; 
