718 
THE RURAL NKW-YORICEK 
May It}, 
Care of Little Turkeys. 
I have just road Mrs. Niles Grover’s 
article on “Turkey liaising” and think it 
one of the best and most concise I ever 
read. I had 95 nice large turkeys, all 
larger than pigeons, some would weigh 
five or six pounds, and I lost 60 of them 
before I found that it was the buckwheat 
I was feeding. My bad luck always 
comes after they are over the size of 
pigeons. I can get them up that far 
with hardly a death; then sometimes I 
lose almost one-half; why, I do not 
know. Sometimes I am lucky and only 
lose a few, but always some. Will Mrs. 
Grover tell us what kind of insect pow¬ 
der she uses? My kind seems only to 
put the lice to sleep and they revive after 
a little. Also will she tell us where we 
can find a market for feathers and what 
the “fluff feathers” are, and how does 
she pull the quills so as not. to break 
them? Can dark turkeys’ feathers be 
sold? mbs. L. P. M. 
So. Plattsburgh, N. Y. 
The three worst enemies of little tur¬ 
keys are lice, overfeeding and damp. 
Successfully combat these and a fine flock 
is almost sure to result. If the brooding 
turkey and nest can be kept free from 
lice before hatching time the battle is 
half won, Dust the nest material well 
when eggs are put in, and dust the tur¬ 
key each week, sifting the powder well 
through the feathers. 
The third day after taking the baby 
poults from the nest dust them in the 
following manner: Prepare a box large 
enough to hold a brood of 20 to 25, with 
a cover not entirely tight. Sit on the 
ground in front of the coop,, spread an 
old cloth over your lap and catch the 
poults, one at a time. Grasp him firm¬ 
ly by the legs, lay him on the cloth and 
straighten out the wings. Dust thorough¬ 
ly. all over, especially the underside of 
wings and body and on the head. The 
dust will not hurt the eyes except to 
make them blink for a while. Put poult 
in the box and close the cover. The first 
thing he does is to shake himself, thus 
sifting the powder again all through the 
down. Each one as you put him in will 
do the same, redusting them all each 
time. The box will be full of fine dust 
all the time you are working, and few 
lice will survive such treatment. When 
all have been treated turn over the box 
and let them out. Repeat every week, 
or better yet, every three days if poults 
show signs of beng lousy, until too large 
to catch easily. Always dust the mother, 
taking the hand to sift the powder 
through her feathers. The lice will be 
found on the underside of legs, wings and 
at the base of quills. 
Where the lice are very troublesome 
whitewash the coops every week, putting 
kerosene in the whitewash, and being 
careful to fill all corners and crevices. 
Many use lard or oil on the poults; per¬ 
haps it is all right, but I find the insect 
powder effective and harmless. I only 
used lard once, and then I mixed it with 
sulphur making a salve. I applied it to 
the heads and underside of wings. In 
two days my little poults began to droop 
and die. I investigated and found each 
little wing blistered and the skin all off. 
Every last one of them turned his little 
pink toes to the sun. Vinegar was re¬ 
commended to me as an excellent louse 
biller but I never have tried it. Most of 
the insect powders put up in tight boxes 
are good, but that purchased in bulk is 
doubtful. If not taken good care of it 
becomes too old and loses its strength. 
There is the Cornell powder, which can 
be made at home, and sulphur alone is 
good. I believe more depends on a thor¬ 
ough and persistent application than on 
the kind of powder. 
Many turkey raisers ask the question : 
“Why do my young turkeys die when 
about the size of pigeons? They grow 
and seem fine until then, but I lose some¬ 
times half my flock at that time.” In 
some cases it may be blackhead, and 
that is a bad disease to combat. Bulle¬ 
tins on the treatment of blackheads can 
be obtained from experiment stations. 
But there are other enemies to young tur¬ 
keys, and many are sacrificed to causes 
less hard to fight. Overfeeding is one, 
bringing on indigestion, diarrhoea, liver 
trouble, etc. Little turkeys must be kept 
hungry and moving about; exercise is 
very essential, and they will not exer¬ 
cise if overfed and pampered. They need 
plenty of sharp grit, and plenty of fresh 
water in clean dishes. A disinfectant 
may be added, carbolic acid is good for 
the bowels and is used in the proportion 
of one teaspoonful carbolic to one gal¬ 
lon of water. 
The first food must be something easily 
digested, and a hard-boiled egg is not. 
A raw egg is food for an invalid. Wheat 
bran is light and will not pack in the 
bowels. Sour milk is excellent for all 
fowls, the acid acting on the digestive 
organs. Mix the bran rather dry with 
sour milk and add a raw egg. Feed only 
what they will clean up quickly. Con¬ 
tinue this food for a month, giving only 
a little grain such as oat flake or fine 
chick feed. Change very gradually to a 
grain diet; first cracked wheat and a 
little corn, and later whole wheat, oats 
and buckwheat. Rye and millet seed can 
also be given, or a mixture of good grains. 
When the turkeys are in range they 
need be fed but once a day. Keep poults 
out of green grain. If allowed the run 
of a field of unripe grain they will gorge 
themselves and die. All grain fed to 
young turkeys should be a year old. Be 
sure tney are well supplied with sharp 
grit and fine oyster shells. Keep sour 
milk before them if possible, but never 
cook it. Green food must be supplied to 
young turkeys; they will not. at first, 
pick it themselves. Cut fine with an old 
pair of shears kept for the purpose, and 
mix it with the bran, sour milk and raw 
egg. Green dandelions, narrow dock, 
onion tops and mustard arc all relished 
by turkeys. After a little it will become 
quite a task to cut enough for a flock of 
50 or more. They are very fond of it. 
Place the coops on new ground every 
year, away from chickens and feed them 
separately. Keep the coops dry and clean. 
If without floors move to clean ground 
every day and in case of a continued rain 
sprinkle coal ashes underneath the coop. 
The little poults must have good care, 
but never be pampered. Give them all 
the liberty possible. Study turkey na¬ 
ture and use common sense. 
New York. mbs. nii.es grover. 
Hens With Distended Crops. 
Now and then one of my hens becomes 
sick, with a distended crop, so distended 
that it becomes a deformity. On pres¬ 
sure it seems filled with air and some 
soft substance. After a few days the 
hen dies. The feed consists of corn, 
wheat, buckwheat, occasionally a warm 
or a dry mash, and scraps from the table. 
Of the latter they are extremely fond, and 
while I fear it is that which makes the 
trouble I can see no good reason for it. 
The scraps consist of bread, cooked meat, 
cooked potatoes and raw potato peel¬ 
ings, with remnants of the various side 
dishes (vegetables) common to good ta¬ 
bles. It does not seem to be due to over¬ 
feeding of grain. Coffee and tea grounds 
are dumped into the garbage pail and 
disappear with the rest. Are the latter 
injurious to fowls? s. r. 
New York. 
Hens are subject to a catarrhal in¬ 
flammation of the crop, due to improper 
feeding, or to other unhygienic conditions 
connected with their care, and this man¬ 
ifests itself by distension of the crop with 
fluids that are often sour—whence the 
name, sour-crop—and a general appear¬ 
ance of debility upon the part of the 
fowl. Garbage from hotels and large 
boarding houses is very liable to contain 
unwholesome materials and is a some¬ 
what dangerous food uuless carefully in¬ 
spected before feeding. Smaller quan¬ 
tities from private tables are not as like¬ 
ly, of course, to contain bits of spoiled 
meat and other deleterious food. The 
distended crop of a hen suffering from 
this trouble should be emptied by care¬ 
ful manipulation of the crop while hold¬ 
ing the hen head downward. She should 
then be given a little water containing a 
piuck of bicarbonate of soda, as a sweet¬ 
ener, and placed by herself where she 
can be fed sparingly upon soft easily di¬ 
gested food until she recovers. M. b. d. 
Control of Egg Production. 
Some time ago The R. N.-Y. published 
an article by G. II. S. taking exception to 
my position that a hen had control of her 
egg production; that she could stop it at 
will, etc. I am in receipt of a letter from 
an ornithologist in Missouri. Mr. James 
Newton Haskett—author of “The Story 
of the Birds”—who endorses my thought 
completely. The letter is very interest¬ 
ing. Mr. Baskett says: “It is well 
known to ornithologists that wild birds 
control the number and time of laying, 
and while the clutch of a bird may be, 
say, six, she can be induced by daily rob¬ 
bing her nest of a single egg, to lay two 
or three times that number. There is a 
record of a vireo which began building 
a nest, and when it was completed a cow 
bird had laid in it all the usual number 
of eggs except one. The vireo laid that 
one egg (only) which was necessary to 
complete the clutch, then went to sit¬ 
ting. If a bird’s nest is broken up, she 
will at once make another nest and lay 
another clutch of eggs. She most as¬ 
suredly has control by will of her egg pro¬ 
duction, as does the common hen. The 
reason we have the 200-egg hen now is 
because we have trained her by daily 
robbing her nest to lay more than the 
usual clutch of 12 or 15, so that by 
heredity she has come to lay many eggs.” 
And he adds: “I doubt if the high 
layer would continue to lay, if the eggs 
were left piled up in the nest; and for 
that reason I have not been able to 
abandon the idea of a nest egg being sug¬ 
gestive. The hen seeing the clutch not 
complete is likely to try to fill it out.” 
I am reminded that the bottom trait- 
nest in my pen of 1” Barron White Leg¬ 
horns, is on the floor, and it has a nest 
egg in it, plainly visible when the trap¬ 
door is open. The hens bother me by 
getting on this nest when they don’t want 
to lay. Two or three hens get “trapped” 
on this nest every day, that do not lay. 
Evidently the sight of the egg suggests 
laying to them, but of course they cannot 
lay until an egg is grown and ready. 
These 13 birds are showing their Barron 
breeding by laying eight to 11 eggs a 
day, though the truth compels me to add 
that they have only laid 11 once. Nine, 
however, is frequently laid for several 
days in succession, and as one pullet is 
out of condition and there arc really only 
12 to lay, this makes a 75% yield, which 
is not bad considering the weather we 
have had. GKO. A. rose, rove. 
CROPS AND PRICES. 
May 4. Barley, fair quality, $1.05 for 
100 pounds; oats 55 to shippers, 40 be¬ 
tween farmers; rye 60 per 60 pounds; 
potatoes 50 to shippers, 55 to 65 to gro¬ 
cers in town. Whole milk to creamery 
$1.50 per 100. Butter 26 to consumers 
from creamery, corn from $14 to $16 per 
ton in car. This is mostly a ’dairy sec¬ 
tion ; cows selling from $70 to $100. 
Crops looking fine; a nice rain last night 
which was much needed. Prospects for 
fruit fair. w. T, w. 
Beloit, Wis. 
Beef cattle 7% to S(4 I milch cows $35 
to $60; horses $150 to $200: hogs $8.40 
to $8.70; butter 25; eggs 15; poultry 
12(4 to 13. Ilay $17.50 to $18 per ton; 
corn 75 cents per bushel; potatoes $1; 
apples $5 to $6 per barrel. N. x.. 
Borden, Ind. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
Rural New-Yorker and you’ll get a quick 
reply and a ‘‘square deal.” See guarantee 
editorial page. :::::: 
Self-Setting PLANE gage T001C&, Vineland, N. J 
mon n o°n Hardware, Implements, Engines 
FENCING. Write wants. H. F. LEMMERMANN, Hillsdale. N.Y. 
F ERTILE FARMS— Beautiful Perkiomen Valley, excellent 
markets. Catalog. VV. M. Stevens, PcrknHie, Pn. 
FARMS FOR HALF.—Near Phila. and Trenton market*: 
good K.R. and trolley facilities. New catalogue. Ks- 
taixlis)led 25 years. HORACE Q. REEDER, Newtown, Pa. 
MAGNIFICENT DAIRY FARM 
per ncre. Including household furniture, stock, 
fodder and tools. Personal property and buildings in¬ 
sured for $28,000. i’reo list. Ellis Bros., Springville, N Y 
April 27. Maple sugar making finished 
in most bushes about the 18th of April; 
most of the sugar made was in April, 
though bushes were tapped from the 19th 
to 21st of March. From 1(4 to two 
pounds to a tree was about an average. 
Owing to cold and late snows only a 
few oats have been sown, and no other 
crops got in. Farmers are fixing fences, j 
getting out manure, driving home phos- j 
phates and lime from cars, etc. Maple | 
sugar prices at our local stores were 12 
cents for best, eight and nine for dark¬ 
er grades. Eggs 18; butter 30; milk in 
cheese factory $1.25 per cwt.; pork 11 
cents by the carcass. A backward cold 
Spring, hut warmer at present and past¬ 
ures beginning to look green. No stock 
is turned out to pasture. E. A. B. 
Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. 
April 30. Corn 65; oats 38; wheat 
90; cream 27; butter 25; eggs 16. Ilay, 
Timothy, $15; clover, $12; cows, from 
$*0 to $50; cattle six to seven cents 
pi pound; hogs, about eight; poultry 14. 
I’<rt a toes about 60 cents per bushel. 
Farm land sells from $100 to $150 per 
acre, according to improvements. 
Bloomingdalc, Ind. s. b. 
April 27. Common stock cattle have 
advanced here in the past two years fully 
thirty-three and one-third per cent. Good j 
two-year-old grazing cattle bring 0(4 to 
seven cents per pound; export steers 7(4 
to eight; dairy cattle, not registered, 
from $50 to $75. Farm butter 25 to 30; 
Irish potatoes are worth in the local 
market $1 per bushel. No fruit for sale. 
Eggs 16; early Spring lambs 7(4; stock 
hogs, not registered, about 10 cents per 
pound. These prices are obtained at 
private sales. R. H. r. 
Blacksburg, Va. 
April 28. Mixed hay $11.50, loose in 
mow; buyer pays baling and seller must 
deliver baled hay to car. Timothy $14 ; 
clover $10; corn 90 per cwt.; wheat 90 
per bushel; oats 35; potatoes 75; eggs 
16; butter 20; steers seven; calves Sev¬ 
ern; sheep three to four; lambs five to 
six; hogs 8(4* Much interest in spray¬ 
ing here* this year. Farmers pruned and 
cleaned up their orchards as never be¬ 
fore. Poor apples that would grade about 
No. 3 retail 70 to SO cents per peck. 
New Ilaven, Ind. H. H. 
Cattle are coming through the Winter 
in good condition. Much grain is being 
fed. Some farmers are short of hay and 
are buying loose bay for $12 per ton at 
the barns. The season is backward; no 
farm work done yet and probably none 
will be done before the 10th of May. 
Pastures show very little green, and cat¬ 
tle will not get out to get much feed be¬ 
fore the middle of May. Potatoes sell 
for 60 cents at the railroad station. 
Growers are somewhat discouraged as 
to the future, and some decrease in 
acreage is indicated; no powdery scab in 
this vicinity. The repeated loss from 
early frost has put a damper on the 
growing of sweet corn for canning factor- j 
ies, and not so many will plant, hut 
there will be no great difference in the 
acreage, as some farmers who are for¬ 
tunately situated so that their farms es¬ 
cape damage from early frost will plant 
more. There will be more corn planted 
for the silo. Dairying is on the increase 
and if the market continues in the future 
as good as the past few years, Central 
Maine will see a further increase in the 
number of cows on the farms. Many, 
however, are apprehensive of the effects 
of free trade on the dairy and poultry 
industries, and are making their plans 
so that they may change their business 
into some other line. There is a grow¬ 
ing demand for beef and some farmers 
are planning to introduce beef-producing 
blood into their herds where dairy blood 
lias hitherto predominated. There is not 
quite as brisk a demand for cows as a j 
year ago, and prices range from $30 to ! 
$60, with some extra cows higher. But¬ 
ter is 28 cents at local stores; eggs 20: 
mixed feed $1.55 per cwt.; corn $1.70 
for two bushel bag; cottonseed $1.85 per 
cwt.; gluten $1.70; red dog $1.75. There 
is a great increase of interest in co- 
operative societies for the buying and ! 
sale of farm commodities and new j 
branches of the so-called Farmers’ Union ; 
are being formed every week. One has 
been formed nearly every day recently 
somewhere in Maine. B. W. H. 
Thorndike, Me. 
Father (desirous to impress son) : 
“History repeats itself, my boy.” Son: 
“Not at our school, dad; they make us 
kids do it.”—Melbourne Leader. 
Money Makers-Ready Stocked Must Go 
220-acres; good house; silo; big burns; wagon bouse; 
icehouse; 48 choice Holstein cows; nairmules: pair 
horses: wagons: harnesses; everything. See cata¬ 
logue No. 1016. Price for all, $12,000; easv terms 
Hull’s harm Agency, Owcgo, Tioga Co., JS. V 
FARMS 
™ nnH I’miT.TOV CFKTIi 
Send for our FARM CAT¬ 
ALOGUE. 100 VIEWS of 
FRUIT, POULTRY and 
GENERAL FA If MS in or 
near VINELAND.the FRUIT 
and POULTRY CENTRE of NEW JERSEY. Health¬ 
ful climate. Mild Winter, Purest Water. Unex 
celled Markets. Within 10O mile* of TEN MILLION 
people. CRAY & MACOF.OBOF., LARGEST FARM 
AGENCY in SOUTH JERSEY. 1077 Dr ex el Building, 
Philadelphia, Pa., or Vineland. N. J. 
When (He has Confidence 
M • Wo guarantee to show more 
a Man j actual farm and building value 
Looks Us ’ than any district ever seen, 
• .1 r i when every detail is considered. 
m tuC LyC [ You Must See Our Bargains. 
Farmers’ Realty Co., Quakertown, Pa. 
C hoice V irginia F arms 
Along Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 
SI 5 por Acre and up. Fertile land, mild climate, abund¬ 
ant rainfall; nearby eastern markets. 6-acre poultry 
and truck farms—suburb of Richmond, Va., with im¬ 
provements, $1,550.00. Easy terms. Write today for 
booklet, "Country Life in Virginia " (134 pages). Address 
K. T. CRAWLEY 
Indus. Aftt., C. & O. Ry. Room 1 022, Richmond, Va. 
THE Southeastern" 
A States need more 
milk, cream and butter 
producers. Each year $32,- 
500,000 worth of Northern 
dairy products are shipped in¬ 
to the South. You can make 
money in this many crop, all 
the yenr- grazing country. 
Ample rain, (irrigation unneces¬ 
sary) mild winters and pleasant summers make 
living enjoyable and highly profitable. 
GOOD LAND $15 AN ACRE UP 
produces heavy yields of alfalfa, clover, corn, wheat, 
fruit and truck. Profitable local 
markets greater than supply. 
Alfalfa booklet, the '^Southern 
Field" magazine and facts about 
dairying along the Southern Ry. t 
M. & O. K. R. and Ga. So. & 
Fla. Ry., sent on request. 
M. V. RICHARDS. L&IAg’t 
Room H7 Southern Ry., 
Washington, D. 0. 
a_Tea.r 
Immigration figures show that the population 
of Canada Increased during 1913. by the addition 
of 400.000 now settlers from tho United States 
and Europe. Most of these have gone on farms 
in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. 
Lord William Percy, an English Nobleman 
says; 
"The possibilities and opportunities offered by 
the Canadian West ure so infinitely greater 
than those which exist In England, that it 
seems absurd to think thnt people should be 
Impeded from coming to tho country where 
they can most easily and certainly Improve 
their position.” 
New districts aro being opened up, 
which will make accessible a great 
number of homesteads in districts 
especially adapted to mixed farm¬ 
ing and grain raising. 
For illustrated literature and 
reduced railway rates, apply to 
Superintendent of immigration, 
Ottawa, Canada, or to tho 
Canadian Government Agent. 
J. S. Crawford, 
301 E. Genesee Street, 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
LEVIN PRIMER 
T HE best Prtiner. Cuts (4-inch 
dry branch. Quick, clean, 
easy cut. We will send it post¬ 
paid for one new yearly subscrip¬ 
tion at $1, or for club of 10 ten- 
week trials at 10 cents each. 
These articles are not given with n sub¬ 
scription to The Rural New-Yorker, but 
are given to the agent as a reward, in 
place of cash, fur extending the subscrip¬ 
tion list of Tho Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB, 
333 WEST 30th ST„ NEW YOBK, 
