638 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 7. 
as Mr. Loechse, whose family was spending the 
Summer at a nearby farmhouse, he being the owner 
of a large grocery store in one of the best sections of 
Jersey City. He said he noticed that I had a good 
many hens, and wondered if he could not buy fresh 
eggs from me. Those were the days of a wet mash, 
and as it was about feeding time I invited him to 
take a trip with me among the hens. The old buck- 
board was loaded, and he sat on it with his feet 
swinging near the ground, while I distributed the 
wet mash in the colony houses. One luckless hen 
managed (or mismanaged) to get under the rear 
wheel. By sqmc chance, the wheel passed over her 
body in such a way that we found a dead hen on one 
side of the wheel track and her unbroken egg on 
the other side of the track. I playfully picked up 
the egg, wrote my name and the date on it, and 
presented it to him with my compliments as an abso¬ 
lutely fresh egg, which his own avoirdupois had 
helped to bring forth. The result was that,- before 
he departed arrangements were made to send him a 
supply of eggs, a rubber stamp to be used to put my 
name and the date on each egg. The date feature 
has since been dropped, but the name as a trade-mark 
still is in use. That store has .since changed hands 
twice, but the demand for those eggs has never dimin¬ 
ished. A doubtful ’egg has never been allowed to go, 
and for many years a good big premium above mar¬ 
ket quotations has been asked and paid. 
Fig. 211 shows the old buckboard and my man 
“Billy” starting out with mangels and to fill the 
drinking pans in the colony houses with warm water. 
Notice the rubber hose which fills the barrel at the 
rear with warm water from a tank inside, by simply 
turning a faucet, and also the faucet in the barrel by 
means of which the water is drawn into his pail. This 
is a great improvement over the old way of dipping 
it from cans, especially in cold, windy weather. After 
stating that a return of $2.85 per day is being realized 
from four-year-old hens and the 500-hen house, for an 
expenditure of only eight minutes’ time per day, it 
may sound strange for me to say that it is already a 
back number with me, yet such is the fact. 
About a year ago I saw with my mind’s eye, though 
I did not speak of it in print, a house for 200 hens 
possessing all the convenience of labor, etc., of the 
500-hen house, at very much less cost. 1 his house 
was to have cement floor, concrete walls, durable roof, 
ideal light and ventilation, and three square feet of 
floor space per hen. It was to be built with eggs 
laid by 200 hens in 40 days at market quotations. That 
“dream” is now a reality. Fig. 212 shows a picture 
of it. Two hundred hens past two years old laid 
4,133 eggs in the 40 days following May 1 last, which 
were worth $89.56 at market quotations. This sum 
more than paid for the house complete, which is 
20x30 feet, with side walls 18 inches high. It is prac¬ 
tically airtight, with the exception of the open front, 
or rather the open end. The perches are in the ex¬ 
treme rear end, and the muslin curtains are closed on 
severely cold nights and stormy days. It was com¬ 
pleted about November 15, and partly stocked with 
pullets. Not a sign of a frosted comb or a sick hen 
was in evidence during the entire Winter. The ven¬ 
tilator shaft shown in the picture has but just been 
added, in preparation for its use as a brooder house. 
Here is. another “dream.” The presence of so many 
disease germs about my brooder houses and grounds 
drove me to look for new quarters in which to try 
to raise my young chicks. In looking about for a 
new site the Deacon’s eye happened to rest on my 
new open-end henhouse. “Why not try to raise the 
young chicks in that?” At first it was voted too open 
and cold. The Deacon persisted that the 500-hen house 
had demonstrated that, with proper packing and 
ventilation, a compartment can be very easily kept 
warm. Although the extra heat had not proved of 
great advantage in the case of laying hens, that is 
no proof that it would not be, in the case of young 
chicks. I am accordingly building an easily warmed 
room 12x20 feet, in the rear part of the open-end 
house. I hope to keep the whole room reasonably 
warm, and a space at the centre of the room 6x6 
feet, at a temperature of about 100° three inches 
from the floor. This I expect to accomplish by means 
of an oil stove so arranged that most of the heat will 
be forced down to the floor, and all the fumes of the 
oil flame carried out of the room. Into this room I 
aim to place at least 600 chicks all in one flock. When 
they are old enough they can have the whole of the 
open end of the building, 18x20 feet, for a scratching 
shed. The cockerels will be removed early, and the 
heater removed also to give place for perches for the 
pullets. In this way, I hope to raise at least 200 
pullets right where they are 'to spend the whole of 
their lives. It is conceded to be bad both for the pullets 
and for the attendant to keep moving them to new 
quarters from time to time. If I can keep a large 
space at the center of the room at a temperature of 
100° I will risk their crowding and bunching up for 
warmth. I may have to use some kind of a hurdle 
at the start to keep them away from the colder parts 
of the room. Pure air will be admitted through a 
flue in the floor directly under the oil stove, where 
it will do both the flame and the chicks the most 
good. I would enjoy nothing better than the privi¬ 
lege of “steering” that Hope Farm boy and his incu¬ 
bator for a few years. We would make the Hope Farm 
orchards look like 30 cents if the boy has the right 
“push” in him. o. w. mapes. 
A VIRGINIA SPRAYING OUTFIT. 
Spraying is difficult, dirty and expensive. Never¬ 
theless, it has become the sine qua non of horticulture, 
and when judiciously used pays handsomely. To 
lessen somewhat the labor of spraying. I give the 
S 
I 
WATER SUPPLY FOR SPRAYING. Fig. 213. 
following outline of a cooking and mixing plant which 
is one of three that T have used advantageously in 
my orchards for several years.- A situation along a 
branch or creek is chosen where a fall of eight or 10 
feet can be secured. The water from a dam in the 
stream is conducted along the hillside in a nearly 
level ditch or race to the desired point and thence in 
troughs to the spraying platform. Good troughs can 
be made by nailing six-inch boards to the sides of 
2x4-inch scantling. The joint or coupling is made by 
nailing three extra boards around one end of each 
trough. The whole is supported on brackets nailed 
at the right height to a line of posts. The platform 
is built at the lowest point on the branch at a place 
accessible to the tank wagon. It should be seven 
feet high and supported by four posts well set in the 
ground and placed to form a “square” six by eight 
feet. The water trough is 2 % feet higher than the 
platform, so that mixing barrels can be placed under 
it. Water is drawn into these by having a two-inch 
hole over each, the holes to be fitted with suitable 
stoppers. Lime water is prepared in one and blue- 
o o 0 
PLAN FOR SPRA YING WATER SUPPLY. Fig. 214. 
stone water in another, and proper amounts from 
each drawn into the wagon tank. Somewhat less 
height might be used, and a shallow pit could be dug 
out for the tank wagon. This, of course, would get 
filled with water. Such an arrangement is very con¬ 
venient, and would justify a long ditch and consider¬ 
able length of trough. If the general location would 
permit, water could be brought from some distance 
and the plant placed in the upper part of the orchard, 
so that the load would always be drawn down hill. 
When making lime-sulphur we place the boiler under 
the supply trough near where it leaves the ground, 
and so that its bottom will be higher than the plat¬ 
form. Some of the troughs are now placed on brackets 
lower down and the cooked mixture is drawn from 
the boiler through them to the wagon tank. A very 
serviceable boiler can be made as follows: Galvanized 
iron can be purchased in sheets 30 inches wide and 
eight feet long. We make our boiler seven feet by 22 
inches inside. This will allow the iron to overlap 
the' sides and ends. Get two good two-inch boards 
(oak will hold nails well), one IS inches wide and 
the other 16 inches wide. Each board is made seven 
feet four inches long. The end pieces are 22 inches 
long and one end is two inches wider than the other. 
The narrower board will lack two inches in width. 
This can be made up by nailing on the top side a 
piece two by two inches. The sides are spiked on 
to the ends with No. 20 nails. The iron is carefully 
fitted over the bottom and is nailed bottom and sides. 
This will make a water-tight joint. On the lower side 
bore a two-inch hole, fitted with a suitable stopper 
half an inch from the bottom. The boiler is set on a 
flue made of flat stones and mud mortar. Each end 
rests on a good arch rock. The flue should not be 
more than 15 inches wide inside, so that the wooden 
sides of the boiler are well away from the fire. If 
the flue and arches are properly built the boiler will 
pot burn so long as a little water remains on the 
bottom. One side is two inches lower than the other. 
When upper side is nearly dry the drawing off is 
stopped. A boiler of above dimensions will hold 100 
gallons above what is always left in boiler. The 
farther end of the flue should be carried up as a 
chimney, which may be extended by stove-pipe.* This 
sort of tank will last for many years, and requires a 
minimum amount of fuel. We boil about 20 gal¬ 
lons and then fill up before putting in tank. 1 send 
photograph and plan of branch race Fig. 214. Cir¬ 
cles indicate apple trees, which are planted in triangles 
and 40 feet apart; and also a picture of the tank and 
water supply, Fig. 213. john r. guerrant. 
Virginia. _ 
A FEW SHEEP. 
Sheep raising as an industry is not carried on very 
extensively through our section. Farmers used to 
keep sheep, but when the tariff was taken off wool, 
most of them sold their flocks. However, as farmers 
must work for what they have, it seems to me that 
sheep pay pretty well, considering the attention given 
them, for the lambing season is really the hardest 
time. We keep from 80 to 100 ewes of mixed breed, 
and cross with a purebred Oxford ram. This strain 
is very satisfactory in regard to wool and mutton, 
both of which we sell to local dealers. Our sheep 
barn is so built that one side and the back arc on the 
ground level. The large doorway at the rear faces 
the cast, and on the north and part of the east side of 
the yard is a high board fence; this serves as an 
excellent wind-break on cold days, and if of especial 
value when the lambs are small. As to the picture 
shown at Fig. 216, probably the following will ex¬ 
press the opinion of those most interested: 
“The lamb stood on his mother’s back, 
Whence all but he had fled, 
And tho’ she calmly chewed her cud, 
She wished that lamb were dead.” 
Ohio. LOU E. HURST. 
WE HAVE FOUND CONTENTMENT. 
If The R. N.-Y. could only see the changes that 
have taken place since we first knew it as a reliable 
farm paper! Six short years ago we moved from 
the village, where my husband was a teacher, to a 
small farm of our own, ostensibly for the purpose of 
giving our two wee boys a chance to “grow up with the 
country.” We moved into a little house, under a 
spreading maple, far from the road. But few people 
came to visit us, and we can truly look back to it as 
the “Summer of our discontent. One fateful prophetic 
day a farm paper came, bearing a picture of a trim¬ 
looking farmhouse, a rural mail box, but best of all 
a trolley car near the door. We gazed long and wist¬ 
fully at that picture, for we sorely missed the com¬ 
forts we had left behind us. But never, even in 
our most hopeful moments, did we dream that three 
short years would bring those three identical things. 
We built a house on the road, and the car runs close 
to the old maple. One day a neighbor gave us a 
copy of The R. N.-Y. We sent in a 10-weeks’ sub¬ 
scription. You may be sure, that Mapes, the hen man, 
the Hope Farm man, and others are household favor¬ 
ites with us. In those old days, before we knew 
them, one cow of uncertain pedigree, a mere handful 
of chickens of still more uncertain pedigree, constituted 
our stock in trade, the income from which at times 
amounted to the princely sum of 35 cents. A pure¬ 
bred Jersey has taken the place of “old Spot” and 
over 200 good Brown Leghorns and Plymouth Rocks 
make the heart light and the pocket-book heavy with 
their baskets of eggs. We are not rich; far from it; 
only prosperous and contented. After all, “a man's 
life consistent not in the abundance of the things 
which he possessth.” b. b. r. 
Indiana. 
