1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
7"o 
Caring For Household Pets 
The Canary Bird and the Goldfish 
- — The Happy Little Companion - 
A Canary At the Farm. 
Folks has be’n to town, and Sahry 
Fetched ’er home a pet canary— 
And of all the blame’ contrary, 
Aggervating things alive 1 
I love music—that’s I love it 
When it’s free—and plenty of it; 
But 1 kind o’ git above it, 
At a dollar eighty-five! 
Reason’s plain as I’m a-sayin’,— 
Jes* the idy now o’ layin’ 
Out yer money, and a-payin’ 
For a willer-cage and bird, 
When the medder-larks is wingin’ 
Round you, and the woods is ringin’ 
With the beautifullest singin’ 
That a mortal ever heard ! 
Saliry’s sot, tbo’—so I tell her 
He’s a purty little feller. 
With his wings o’ creamy yeller, 
And his eyes keen as a cat. 
And the twitter o’ the critter 
’Pears to absolutely glitter. 
Guess I’ll have to go and git her 
A liigli-priceter cage ’n that. 
—James Whitcomb Riley. 
My Friend the Canary. 
T HE canary, the cheeriest of household 
pets, deserves a place in every ru¬ 
ral home. They are such lively, happy 
little creatures, perfectly contented all 
day long, and will sing no matter where 
you put them. The cage for this pet 
should be at least 10 inches long, 7 
inches high and wide, and preferably of 
brass, which is easier kept clean: should 
hang from four to six feet from the 
floor. 
Birds require a temperature of from 
GS to SO degrees Fahrenheit. If the 
room is cooler than this at night the 
bird should be covered. Do not hang 
your bird right in front of the window. 
When hung from the ceiling a little at 
one side he will get all the light and not 
feel the cold that comes through the 
glass. Be very careful about drafts at 
all times, as birds are as susceptible to 
colds as concert singers, and not as eas¬ 
ily cured. 
General Care. —Birds love a sun¬ 
bath, but never place them in the mid¬ 
summer sun without some shade, and 
keep out the Summer sun at noon. It 
is best not to hang your bird out of 
doors in the Summer, as he is so apt to 
take cold. Possibly on a sultry day, 
when the wind does not blow, he might 
be put out of doors for a couple of 
hours in the middle of the day. 
So many people say to me, “My bird 
does not sing.” I ask them, did he hang 
out doors last Summer, or in front of 
the window last Winter. “Yes, he hung 
out all Summer, and I do put him in the 
window.” It is best to keep your bird 
well and you will not have to doctor 
him. 
Feeding. —When purchasing a bird go 
to some reliable person and pick out a 
healthy bird, and there will be less dan¬ 
ger of its getting sick. Young birds have 
pink feet. The two kinds usually found 
in bird stores are the Hartz Mountains 
birds, or natural singers that have re¬ 
ceived but very little training, and the 
St. Audreasburg Rollers, which have had 
the best of training from the first. The 
latter are much superior to the first 
mentioned. Canaries are said to be the 
greatest gluttons in the animal kingdom, 
so beware and do not overfeed. Feed 
one-third German rape and two-thirds 
canary seed. Give fresh water and grav¬ 
el daily; in Summer fresh water twice 
a day. Keep cuttle bone always in cage. 
Every few days give a bit of green food, 
lettuce, chickweed. apple if it is ripe and 
not too sour. Each week one-half tea- 
spoonful of song food placed on floor of 
the cage or in special dish. Do not feed 
hemp seed. Once or twice a week and 
all through moulting time feed the egg 
mixture, and if he should be ailing he 
relishes soft food more than seed. 
Insect Parasites. —One of the great¬ 
est enemies the birds have is lice or 
mites; but if proper precaution is taken 
you will have little trouble. Place damp 
white cloth on cage for an hour in the 
evening, or allow to remain all night. 
You will see tiny red mites on it when 
removed. Scald cage occasionally and 
paint end of perches and where swing 
hangs with coal oil. Wash cage with 
soap and water once a week, and either 
wash and dry or scrape perches often. 
Dust bird with mite exterminator. Al¬ 
low bird to bathe every other day, twice 
a week in cold weather. 
Other Care. —Manicure bird occasion¬ 
ally; catch and hold to the light; cut 
the nails just beyond the red vein in 
foot or toe. If feet are sore or scaly, 
soak in warm water for several evenings, 
dry and apply a little vaseline. Moulting 
season with canaries is in July, August 
and September. They are weaker during 
these months, and should have the best 
of care. Keep out of draft, feed cracker 
and egg mixture often, with a little song 
food and some green relish. The German 
remedy for all bird ailments is a small 
piece of salt fat pork, rubbed over with 
cayenne pepper. The egg mixture con¬ 
sists of the yolk of an egg boiled 20 
minutes and three or four oyster crack¬ 
ers, pulverized, and a generous pinch of 
cayenne pepper. This can be slightly 
salted. Mash fine and mix well. Great 
care should be taken in selecting seed, 
as inferior seeds are substituted and are 
injurious to the birds. The small round 
brown seed is rape, and tastes sweet, 
and if your seed should be bitter do not 
feed it. as it is mustard or some inferior 
seed. The light seed is Sicilian canary, 
and should be bright and shiny. Some 
bird-seed mixtures have millet, which will 
not hurt the bird, but be does not re¬ 
quire it. The German breeders feed only 
the rape seed. 
Birds kept by these directions will be 
healthy, happy, and very little trouble. 
It is necessary to know your birds and 
love them if you would be successful. 
Try to gain their confidence, move slow¬ 
ly when working by the cage, avoid all 
quick motions which might scare the 
bird. Give your bird a name and talk 
to it, and you will soon find it will be¬ 
come well acquainted with you. If it 
is necessary to catch the bird, put tbo 
hand in slowly and do not attempt to 
catch him until you are sure the oppor¬ 
tunity is right for it. Hold him care¬ 
fully with his wings closed so be cannot 
flutter or riffle his plumage. It is a good 
plan to let the bird out occasionally and 
fly around the room. Exercise is very 
beneficial, and it makes them so happy. 
LORETTA B. MOORE. 
Care of the Pet Fish. 
Will you tell me the right care for 
goldfish? How prepare the aquarium, 
and how often to feed the fish and to 
change the water, what to do for the 
fish when they are sick, drop the fins and 
act sluggish? a. s. 
Not knowing the conditions existing I 
cannot answer definitely what remedy 
would give permanent relief. An aquar¬ 
ium best suited to fish should be rec¬ 
tangular; the round globes distort objects 
and do not appear to give as good re¬ 
sults. There should be a bed of nice 
clean gravel at bottom and sufficient 
plant life to keep fish healthy—parrot’s 
feather is a suitable and much used weed 
—and the water should be obtained from 
a healthy source and always the same. 
City water often, from filtration, is too 
pure for aquarium use. and sometimes 
retains sufficient chemicals to injure the 
fish. Well water makes a good unvary¬ 
ing supply in most cases. The gravel bed 
in a small aquarium can be kept clean 
by using an ordinary hand syringe and 
forcing fresh water into the gravel, which 
agitates it sufficient to allow uneaten 
food and other impurities to arise and be 
removed. Goldfish should be fed about 
once a week and in limited quantity, 
never more than twice a week. The 
best way to fill an aquarium is with an 
ordinary dipper—taking out enough of 
the stale water to reduce the bulk in 
aquarium about half and replace with as 
many dippers of fresh water as you had 
taken out. While filling also agitate 
water by filling dipper, raising it and 
pouring it back so as to bubble the water 
as much as possible. 
When the dorsal fin drops on a fish it 
is a sign of sickness and he should be 
promptly removed from aquarium and 
segregated for study. If he develops 
“tail rot” it is better to kill him. but if 
only fungus growth it can be cured by 
placing it in a salt bath for a few mo¬ 
ments. In preparing such a bath take a 
sufficiency of water out of aquarium so 
as to retain even temperature and place 
in a bowl, put a teaspoonful of salt in 
this and remove sick fish with a silver 
tablespoon and drop him into salt bath— 
he should remain in this about 20 sec¬ 
onds. but if he turns on his side and 
shows signs of distress take him out 
into fresh water again. When rested and 
refreshed you may repeat salt bath if 
necessary. In marked case a fungus 
growth the spots may be touched with 
hydrogen peroxide, nsing a feather for 
the operation. A simple way of remov¬ 
ing small particles from the bottom of an 
aquarium is to use a glass tube. 
H. S. H. 
Back to the Farm. 
HIS is the title of the play which the 
Minnesota students use as a human 
bulletin for advertising the agricultural 
college. Here is a bit of the humor—a 
dialogue between Gus. a Swedish hired 
man. and Hulda, the maid : • 
Gus: “Har. vat you doing?” 
Hulda: “Ay sweeping des floor.” 
Gus (rising and coming over to her) : 
“Don’t you know no better dan to raise all 
dis dust? Y’ou stir up all the yerms and 
bacilli and tings. You gat hydrophobia 
if you don’t look out. Dat ban danger¬ 
ous. Don't you keep your mouth open 
all do time. Dat ban dangerous, too.” 
(Goes back, sits down at desk and 
writes.) 
Hulda (edges up to him) : “Ay like 
you veil you talk like dat. You are such 
smart man. Ay going to marry you, 
ain't I?” 
Gus: “Y*a. when you learn to be up- 
to-date farmer’s wife, but not until den.” 
Ilulda (edges nearer and midges him 
with her elbow) : “Ay like you pretty 
good. Av let you kiss me, if you vant 
to.” 
Gus (just about to kiss, stops short 
and holds up hand as if to ward her 
off) : “No, dat not be sanitary.” 
Ilulda: “Oh. Gus!” 
Gus: “No; ay tell you dat not be 
sanitary.” (Pause.) “Ay bane reading 
dat on das paper. Ah, ay got good idea 
—strain ’em out yist like das milk.” 
(Crosses to desk, takes piece of cheese¬ 
cloth from the desk and places over her 
mouth and kisses her. Crosses to L. 
with thumbs t ust in his vest and chest 
thrown out, returns and kisses her 
again.) 
This will, no doubt, raise a laugh, and 
will be accepted as a good jab at the 
“germ theory,” but that’s the way we 
prefer to have strangers kiss the baby— 
only a steel plate would be better than 
cheesecloth. 
As Others See Us. 
I wish to tell you how I came to be 
a subscriber. I attended a poultry show, 
and there was a young man there repre¬ 
senting The R. N.-Y.. and be was such a 
persistent talker that I gave him 10 cents 
to get rid of him. I took the paper 
home and read it. and I liked it so well 
that I subscribe for it every year, an ! 
hope I may be able to do so as long as I 
live. G. w. J. 
That young man kept on talking be¬ 
cause he had a good thing to talk about. 
“We are advertised by our loving friends.” 
I have just finished reading this week’s 
R. N.-Y.. and I am a wiser woman 
farmer. mary baxllis. 
New Jersey. 
The woman farmer usually has a strug¬ 
gle to keep her farm going. We will 
help whenever we can. 
Enclosed please find $1 for which send 
The It. N.-Y. to Mr. W. K. Slygh. Be¬ 
ing an “old batch” I want him to have 
good company, and believe me. nothing 
could be better than The R. N.-Y. 
II. B. G. 
When we consider who is usually con¬ 
sidered the ideal companion for an “old 
batch,” this is a high compliment. Let 
us hope The II. N.-Y. will start such a 
home feeling that the “old batch” will bo 
compelled to make the home complete. 
I feel that I cannot close this letter 
without thanking you for the good I 
get out of the paper. It helps me t<> 
keep faith in the world and in people’s 
advertisements. I am not afraid to send 
money to a R. N.-Y’. advertiser, for your 
paper would scare the rogues away. 
Florida. I. M. s. 
We would throw a scare at them at 
least, and keep them out of the lions- 
from the beginning. The wolf would 
have to give a very good imitation of a 
sheep to get in. 
Tage 636 of The R. N.-Y*. is alone 
worth the price of one year’s subscrip¬ 
tion. Y*ou will find inclosed the name 
of a few of my friends whom I want 
to have a sample copy of such a paper 
as you are putting out. We take a great 
many publications and of a great variety, 
but yours is very near the top in the list. 
New York. flora s. upton. 
This was the page containing that ar¬ 
ticle on parcel post for farm women. 
There can be no question about the pos¬ 
sibilities in this line. It takes time, pa¬ 
tience and some money to develop any 
new way of doing business, but there is 
no doubt that thousands of customers are 
waiting to learn where they can buy th<- 
things which farm women have to sell. 
We receive so much benefit from The 
R. N.-Y. and enjoy the editorial page, 
the Hope Farm man and the woman’s 
page so much that it is the first maga¬ 
zine we open. We find in it the discus¬ 
sion of the problems that we are inter¬ 
ested in and the article “Parcel Post for 
Farm Women,” in April 25th issue put 
more encouragement and hope into my 
system that anything I have read in 
years. We have had several large fruit 
crops with low prices and last year a 
complete failure. The Summer boarders 
are our most successful asset. The par¬ 
cel post article pointed out things that 
perhaps we could sell in the city market 
—vegetables and choice fruit—by work¬ 
ing up a trade among people who come 
here to board. We cannot do it in our 
small town. il. II. 
My husband was very much alarmed 
about our cow last year. Our neighbor 
told us to bring a veterinarian, but tin- 
one in our district does not seem to real¬ 
ize just what a cow means to a poor 
farmer, and so I told my husband to 
wait and that I would ask The R. N.-Y*. 
what to do for our cow. As the paper 
helped others, it would help us too. and 
so it did, for Dr. Alexander told us just 
what to do for the cow, and she was 
saved through good treatment, and 
brought through her sickness safely, and 
that is why as poor farmers and back-to- 
the-landers, we think so much of The 
R. N.-Y. MRS. JOHN B. 
New Jersey. 
We wish we could always settle these 
cases so happily. Sometimes people wait 
too long about describing the animals aud 
then do not make the symptoms clear. 
The women are usually clearer than the 
men. and they give sick animals better 
care. 
Motherhood. —The picture shown 
on this page was printed in “Our 
Dumb Animals.” The incident is 
vouched for by a reliable c ’-respon¬ 
dent. The mother rat was killed and 
the childless cat actually adopted the 
young rats and nursed them as we 
see in the picture. 
