©4 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
HENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION. 
I have a henhouse eight by 32 feet, roof 
slopes to the north. I am thinking of 
building an addition same length on the 
south for feed and scratching room. Would 
I better leave the roosting part, the pres¬ 
ent house, separate, or would it be best to 
take off the siding and put it all in one 
room, using plenty of muslin on the south. 
Saline Co., Neb. d. f. g. 
This house is so narrow that it would 
be much better to move the front right 
out and make just one room; 16 feet is 
not too deep to have a house provided 
we can get the light far enough back. 
In order to do this we must have the 
front at least V /2 or eight feet high. By 
letting the back down to four feet we 
secure sufficient pitch to the roof, and 
can have a north slope. We find it is 
better to have some glass in the front; 
otherwise it is too dark during stormy 
weather, when we must keep the muslin 
curtain shut. flovd q. white. 
RAISING ENGLISH PHEASANTS. 
Tell us about the treatment of the Eng¬ 
lish pheasant mentioned in your issue of 
November 27, 1909. Can they be raised 
prod (ably in wire pens and will they thrive 
under confinement? IIow high is it nec¬ 
essary for the netting to be built, and is 
it necessary to build houses for them to 
roost in as other fowls or birds? Is there 
any law against marketing the birds at 
any time of the year? s. a. w. 
Southold, E. I. 
The English pheasant may be easily 
raised on the farm, and I believe profit¬ 
ably. The common barnyard lien is used 
largely for hatching the eggs as she 
will cover more eggs than the pheasant. 
All the housing they require is for two 
or three weeks when they can be turned 
loose to roam at will, requiring little or 
no attention. The usual way is to keep 
them in an enclosure made of poultry 
netting 10 feet high, with a finer mesh 
extending two feet underground to keep 
out rats, skunks and other rodents. In¬ 
side this yard are built pens 8x14 feet 
of poultry netting, about eight feet 
high, and covered with the same mate¬ 
rial, to keep out owls at night. The 
bottom of the pen is boarded up a dis¬ 
tance of 18 inches and across one end 
of the pen is built a large shelf about 
20 inches from the ground, and in Win¬ 
ter set up some corn fodder around 
these pens to protect the birds from the 
cold winds. This is all the housing or 
protecting the birds need; in fact they 
will not thrive in confinement like the 
ordinary farmyard fowl. There is no 
law to prevent the marketing of these 
birds of your own raising at any and 
all times of the year. As soon as the 
birds are old enough to fly clip one wing 
to prevent them from flying over the 
enclosure. f. d. squiers. 
FEEDING VALUE OF BUCKWHEAT. 
I should like to bear from some aulliorily 
In regard to the feeding value of buckwheat. 
Is there any objection to it as feed for 
cows, horses, hogs or chickens? What is ils 
value as feed? We seldom hear anything 
about it as a feed. D. M. B. 
Pennsylvania. 
There has been but little said in rela¬ 
tion to the value of buckwheat as a food 
for animals, for two reasons I think. 
Until quite recently buckwheat has been 
raised only in a limited area of the 
United States, and agricultural chemists 
had not analyzed it. Dr. L. L. Van 
Slyke of Geneva, N. Y., I believe, was 
the first to analyze buckwheat middlings 
and bran. I asked him the value of it, 
and he frankly told me he did not know. 
I told him I lived in a buckwheat coun¬ 
try, and had been feeding it to my cows 
and sheep with good results, and was of 
the opinion it was far more valuable 
than many were aware of. He said if 
I would send a sample he would ana¬ 
lyze it, which I did, when I found to 
my surprise it contained about 25 per 
cent protein. It was then being bought 
at the mill, at $7 per ton, and in compari¬ 
son with oats in nutrition was worth $22 
per ton, the oats being worth 36 cents 
per bushel. This as I remember was 16 
years ago; since that Dr. Van Slyke has 
made two analyses. One showed 22 per 
January 22, 
cent of protein, the other 27 per cent, 
the difference being in the per cent of 
hulls left in. Excepting in feeding it to 
swine, I prefer to have about 10 per cent 
of the hulls left in, or even a little more. 
When unmixed with any fibrous food, 
the middlings are snuffed up their noses 
and are somewhat sticky in the mouth of 
both sheep and cattle; with a few hulls 
left in no such trouble is experienced. 
When purchased with the hulls left in it 
is wisdom to sift them out when fed to 
pigs, on account of the pig’s stomach not 
being able to digest well a food con¬ 
taining much fiber, while the horse, cow 
and sheep require a considerable fiber in 
the food in order for the digestive fluids 
to act well upon it. 
So much concerning buckwheat mid¬ 
dlings and bran. About the whole buck¬ 
wheat, fed whole or ground into meal, 
sheep will grind it without loss, but in 
feeding it to other animals it should al¬ 
ways be ground into meal; whole buck¬ 
wheat or the meal contains two per cent 
of ash, nearly eight per cent of protein, 
50 per cent of carbohydrates and about 
three per cent of fat, and has a nutritive 
ratio of 1 : 8 . As a fattening grain I 
have found it only second to corn, and 
when mixed equally with corn and 
ground into meal, consider it as good a 
home-grown fattening food as farmers 
can grow in sections where it grows 
well. The average buckwheat middlings 
contains 22 per cent protein, nearly 34 
per cent carbohydrates and 5 y 2 per cent 
of fat, and has a nutritive ratio of a 
little less than 1 : 2 , and in my experience 
in feeding it, equally as palatable as 
most grains when ground into meal. Its 
popularity has become so great in my 
section as a dairy cow feed, that its 
price has now gone up to $18 per ton for 
the middlings with about 12 per cent 
hulls left in, and $26 per ton for the 
clear middlings, which contain from 26 
to 28 per cent of protein, while the 
cheaper contain 22 per cent protein. In 
either case farmers consider it very 
much cheaper than wheat bran. At cur¬ 
rent prices, my idle horses, calves and 
sheep are all of them being fed the 22 
per cent middlings every Winter and 
have been thus fed for the last 10 years. 
All the trouble is the farmers have gone 
to following my example and the price 
has advanced nearly 300 per cent, yet it 
is cheaper than any protein foods on the 
market, in western New York. As a 
chicken food I consider it only second to 
vheat, and when the middlings are mixed 
two parts middlings and one part corn- 
meal, and fed once per day as a mash, 
I find they relish it, and do well upon 
it, as a part of their daily ration. 
_C. D. SMEAD. 
FRAUDS IN FUR SALES. 
One would think the frauds and coun¬ 
terfeiters would have trouble in chang¬ 
ing the character of furs. It seems, 
though, that some of them are cunning 
ehough to play their little game. The 
London Chamber of Commerce has is¬ 
sued a warning, naming the common 
“misdescriptions” as follows: 
‘‘Real Russian sable”—American sable. 
Sable”—fitch, dyed. 
“Rear”—goats, dyed. 
“Fox”—hare, dved. 
‘‘Lamb or broadtail”—kids. 
‘‘Mink, sable, or skunk”—marmot, dyed. 
‘‘Mink or sable”—musquash, dved. 
‘‘Seal,” ‘‘Electric seal,” ‘‘Rod River seal” 
and Hudson seal”—musquash, pulled and 
dyed ; or nutria, pulled and dyed ; or rab¬ 
bit, sheared and dyed. 
“Beaver and otter”—nutria, pulled, nat¬ 
ural. 
“Beaver”—opossum, sheared and dyed. 
“Seal”—otter, pulled and dyed. 
“Sable or French sable”—rabbit, dyed. 
“Ermine”—rabbit, white. 
“Chinchilla”—rabbit, white, dyed. 
“Skunk”—wallaby, dyed. 
“Fox”—white hare. 
In addition, white hairs are inserted 
in foxes and sables to make “silver 
foxes.” 
SAVE MONEY 
On Your Binder Twine 
The Better Twines are now Cheaper Than 
“Standard” or Sisal 
The users of binder twine can save a million dollars next harvest by buying the twine* 
m which Manila hemp is used instead of buying Sisal, or “Standard” made from Sisal. 
T here has been a big upheaval in the twine business this year owing to speculation 
and the corner in Sisal. I here are only two kinds of fiber that are much uaed in twine 
Manila and Sisal. If speculators establish a monopoly of these fibers it will mean exor¬ 
bitant prices for twine in a short time, and millions of dollars out of the farmers’ pockets. 
You twine-users can prevent this—simply by refusing to buy any twine made from 
Sisal. You will at the same time get cheaper and better twine 
But you must act now. Don’t wait till spring—Don’t wait till next week. Go now 
and tell your dealer that you must have twine next season which will run 550, 600 or 650 
feet to the pound. (Such twine is made largely from Manila hemp which is the best of fibers. 
Sisal isn’t good enough nor strong enough to make twine more than 500 feet per pound.) 
Do exactly what we say. We have made a careful study of the situation; we are 
sure our advice is correct and we give it to you in all honesty. Whether you buy 
PLYMOUTH twine or some other be sure to get a grade running 550 feet or more per pound. 
I* is not out of place, however, for us to recommend two brands of twine, either of 
which will give you the highest degree of satisfaction. They are : 
Plymouth **Extra 99 
Plymouth ** Superior" 
iniiico id tjupunur iu oianaara or oisai. l ney are stronger 
smoother and they save time because the greater length in the ball will tie many mor* 
bundles without stopping to refill the twine box. 
It is reported that some manufacturers of Light Creen Tag 
twine are interested in the movement in Sisal 
to which we have referred. Whatever may f — p/nfc Tag 
be the case regarding other manufacturers, 1 
this company has absolutely no part in it 
On the contrary, we are using every 
effort to maintain an open market. We 
wish to secure our raw material without 
paying tribute to any Mexican or other 
monopoly, so that we can supply twine to 
our customers at a reasonable cost. 
Wouldn’t you like to 
more about these matters ? 
just drop us a line saying 
Twine Booklets.” 
know 
Then 
“Send 
JSSU 
550 
{Mi 
COHO, 
p »*. 
PLYMOUTH CORDAGE € 
Entirely Independent. Established 1812. 
NORTH PLYMOUTH, MASS. 
'Sfeo, 
- SUPERIOR 
Anrite leartk P cr (*• 
600 (t. 
Cuar>n ( **d 
PLYMOUTH CORDAGE CO. 
V 
♦ i."' 
^ : - x e, „ _ 
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