1 HU6 
T'HtC KUKAU NliVV-YOKKEK 
October 31, 1914. 
I believe it would be of interest to you 
to know tlmt 1 visited Dr. George A. 
Shepard, of Hartsdale, N. Y., and he hap¬ 
pened to mention The It. N.-Y. It imme¬ 
diately aroused my curiosity, and I asked 
him what kind of a paper it was. lie 
said he certainly could not get along 
without it. and that it was one of the 
best edited and most interesting publica¬ 
tions that he subscribed to, and was one 
of the last on which he would fail to re¬ 
new his subscription. a. b. u. 
New York. 
Of course, reports like this are inter¬ 
esting and pleasant. When we started 
out to make a paper for the active busi¬ 
ness farmer we had no thought that such 
a paper would also interest professional 
men and gentlemen farmers; but we now 
see what we might have anticipated but 
did not. that the latter class, being more 
in need of definite, practical and reliable 
information about farm business than the 
experienced farmer, are counted among 
the most enthusiastic friends of the paper. 
These people realize that a service to the 
humblest man on the farm is also a ser¬ 
vice to them. There are yet city men 
who swallow the romance of a farm bait, 
hook and sinker, just as a get-rich-quick 
victim takes in the gold-brick prospect; 
but the man who really wants to know 
turns to tested sources of information. 
I am delighted with what you have 
done for me. The D. B. Cornell Com- 
pany sent me <i check today for $15. I 
do thank you sincerely, because I never 
expected to get it. I shall subscribe to 
your paper as long as I have a dollar 
to do so. Mv neighbor has not received 
her $15. ‘ w. J. 
Connecticut. 
This subscriber had a receipt from D. 
B. Cornell Company, agent in his own 
handwriting, reading as follows: 
The farm of-is taken for 
twelve months from date and if the farm 
is not sold by above date the fee for list¬ 
ing and advertising is then returnable to 
the said owner. J. J. looker. 
The fee was $15, and this seems to 
have been paid as a listing fee, the 
owner taking the receipt. At first the 
company refused to return the $15 on 
demand after the year expired, claiming 
that the owner had not withdrawn the 
property, and that when withdrawn by 
the owner the fee would be $80, and $65 
would be due them rather than $15 due 
the owner. The withdrawal fee was not 
mentioned in the receipt, and we insisted 
that the money be returned as promised. 
The Cornell Company seemed to put it 
up to the agent, Looker, but finally sent 
the check as requested. We still have a 
similar complaint from another party in 
the same neighborhood for an equal 
amount on the same kind of a receipt. 
We believe the claim is collectible and 
we are going to insist upon having it. 
j. J. i). 
exposed to dampness and drafts while on 
their perches should prevent further ex¬ 
tension of the trouble, if. as is probable, 
rheumatism is the cause of it. M. B. D. 
Hens Eat Feathers. 
I HAVE about 125 chickens just on a 
town lot. I feed them corn, wheat, 
oats, bran, ground green bone, shells 
and grit, and still they pick the feathers 
off each other. It seems they do it 
mostly at night. Their backs and 
breasts are bare. They are such good 
layers I do not like to part with them. 
Will you tell me if there is anything I 
can do to stop them eating the feathers? 
Pennsylvania. t. s. 
The feather eating vice is frequently 
hard to control; it is most apt to be 
found in fowls that have too little exer¬ 
cise and are fed on too exclusively a 
corn diet. The irritation from the pres¬ 
ence of lice and mites may also cause 
birds to begin the habit. The fowls 
should be given all the liberty and ex¬ 
ercise possible, a variety in food, includ¬ 
ing animal food of some kind, and should 
not be without grit and charcoal. The 
worst offenders may be removed from the 
flock and the bare places on the rest 
well greased with carbolized vaseline. 
Search should be made for lice and mites 
and if these are found they should be dis¬ 
posed of by the use of dust baths for the 
fowls and by painting the perches and 
nests with some one of the liquid vermin 
destroyers; of these, a mixture of one- 
fourtli part crude carbolic acid and 
three-fourths parts kerosene is efficient. 
M. B. D. 
Favus in Fowls. 
W IIAT is the matter with my White 
Leghorn pullets? Last Spring I 
purchased four settings of eggs 
from a person who had very nice Leg¬ 
horns, supposed to be purebred. When 
the pullets got a few weeks old they got 
scabs on their necks just belo'- the head 
and later on it seemed to scatter down 
towards the body, the neck would swell 
up and feathers come out. They seemed 
to have a good appetite, but couldn't 
swallow very well. I killed some. The 
person from whom I got the eggs is hav¬ 
ing the same trouble, and a neighbor 
who got two eggs hatched their pullet 
and rooster and their pullet has it too. 
New Jersey. F. A. L. 
Your description of the disease affect¬ 
ing your pullets suggests that it may be 
a contagious trouble known as favus. 
This disease is characterized by the form¬ 
ation of scabs about the head and neck, 
which scabs may later extend to other 
feathered portions of the body and cause 
loss of the feathers. The bare skin is 
then found to be covered by crusts of a 
dirty white color and showing cup 
shaped depressions in the center. At 
first the general health of the fowl is 
not affected but as the disease extends 
symptoms of exhaustion appear and 
death may ensue. The remedy is to iso¬ 
late the affected birds from the healthy 
members of the flock and to disinfect 
their quarters with whitewash and car¬ 
bolic acid. The individual birds should 
be treated by gently removing the crusts 
with some smooth, blunt, instrument and 
anointing the surface with a mixture of 
calomel, one part, vaseline eight parts, 
this to be repeated daily, or by painting 
the parts with tincture of iodine. With 
isolation of affected fowls and persist¬ 
ent attention, the disease should be 
eradicated from the flock. M. b. d. 
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T HIS edition of The R. N.-Y. is the 
first one on our new press. If it is not 
rp to the usual standard of printing, we 
ask the indulgence of our readers. We 
will try to make it even better than be¬ 
fore. That is the ultimate object of a 
new press; but no one can tell just what 
the complicated and delicate machine will 
do on the first trial. The shafts must 
settle into their bearings and be adjusted 
before we can hope to get the best re¬ 
sults. As soon as this is accomplished, 
re expect to give you a bigger and better 
paper than ever before. The old press 
printed 40 pages at o»e time. The new 
one prints 64 pages; and gives two col¬ 
ors oji the cover when wanted. It is also 
a much finer adjusted machine, with extra 
ink distribution, so that we can use a 
Ivgher finished paper and get better ef¬ 
fects on illustrations. Incidentally it 
costs a little more than $25,000 to in¬ 
stall. But our friends need not be afraid 
to embarrass us now with new subserip- 
t'ons. This new press will turn out pa¬ 
pers up to 12.000 copies per hour. With 
our new building and our new press we 
are prepared for any service. We send 
out 20 tons of paper now every week on 
The R. N.-Y. This is 160.000 copies. 
We want to make it 200.000; and we will 
then feel content as far as circulation 
goes. Keep us sending out 200.000 pa¬ 
pers weekly and back us up in the future 
as in the past, and you and we, working 
together, concentrating our influence 
through the paper, can get anything to 
which farm interests are justly entitled. 
The trial of James J. Farmer, Colonel 
William J. Hartley, Samuel F. Warfield 
and others and the Anglo-American Au¬ 
thors’ Association, of 225 Fifth avenue, 
on indictments charging the use of the 
mails in the operation of a scheme to de¬ 
fraud. is in progress this week. According 
to the postal authorities, the defendants 
reaped profits amounting to nearly $10.- 
000,000 in three or four years from the 
sale of ornate editions of classic and mod¬ 
ern authors. Men and women- of wealth 
yearning for de luxe editions with colored 
illustrations, have been led to pay enor¬ 
mous prices for volumes which they could 
have purchased from reliable booksellers 
for one-third or sometimes one-tenth of 
the price charged by the Anglo-American 
Authors’ Association.—Local Paper. 
The key to this swindle came out in 
the trial. The victims admitted that they 
had been led to believe that in a short 
time they would be able to resell the 
books at an enormous profit. Cupidity is 
the one string that the promoter has to 
play on. and he always makes the most of 
it. Of course, because a man or a woman 
has an itching for quick riches is no rea¬ 
son why he or she should be robbed ; but 
it is the weak point in the armor of the 
average victim, and the promotor knowing 
human nature, always finds® it. The ro¬ 
mantic stories in the daily papers about 
lrg prices for rare books helped the 
rogues to play on the gullibility of their 
victims. The average person cannot ap¬ 
preciate the difference between a useful 
book and one that is rare. 
I have been receiving a number of let¬ 
ters from an insurance brokerage com¬ 
pany that wishes me to send them $20 
for a bid on 10,000 bushels of wheat or 
corn. They tell me that if wheat goes 
rp one cent on a bushel I would make 
$100. two cents, $200, etc. Do you think 
it would be safe for me to send any money 
for a bid or not? L. H. F. 
New York. 
If you understand the proposition of 
the grain broker we do not think you 
would be very much interested in him. 
What he wants you to do is to make a 
bet. In other words, you bet $20 that 
wheat will advance one cent a bushel. 
He bets $20 that it will not. The only 
difference is that you put up the $20 and 
he does not. If the price of wheat does 
not go up, but goes down, you lose your 
money. If it should go up he would 
charge you for brokerage, and as a rule 
manipulate it in some way either to in¬ 
duce you to put in more money for an¬ 
other bet, or failing in this, find some 
other scheme to keep your money. Bet¬ 
ting on a horse race is a little surer thing 
than this method of betting on the rise 
and fall of grain markets, but understand¬ 
ing the situation we do not think you will 
want to bet, and at all events our advice 
is don’t. 
Leghorn Characteristics. 
HAT breed of S. C. White Leg¬ 
horns is it that has yellow feet and 
legs, and are they better than those 
with white feet and legs? o. a. c. 
Ohio. 
All purebred 8. C. White Leghorns 
should have yellow feet and legs, this be¬ 
ing one of the characteristic marks of 
the breed. This yellow color will fade 
out as the hens become old but should be 
marked in young stock. m. b. d. 
Lame Chickens. 
W ILL you tell me what is the matter 
with my chickens and what to do 
for them? I first noticed that they 
walk with a peculiar hitch in their gait 
and go only a little way before they drop 
down as though their legs would carry 
them no farther. They gradually grow 
worse until in a few days they cannot 
walk at all. Their appetite is good, they 
will eat anything I give them and I can 
see nothing wrong with the droppings. 
They get very poor, but they seem to feel 
well. There are no lice on them. They 
have been having a grain ration of three 
parts cracked corn and two parts wheat 
and until the last two or three have had 
a dry mash of equal parts cornmeal, 
wheat bran and beef scrap before them 
all the time, also sour milk. They have 
free range, but for some weeks they have 
been rather crowded at night, as my 
coops were not large enough to accommo¬ 
date them as they grew larger. u. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
The overcrowding of these growing 
chicks may have led to sweating and sub¬ 
sequent chilling with rheumatism as a 
result. I can only suggest that you 
confine those that show evidence of leg 
weakness by themselves in warm, dry, 
quarters and feed them less meat and 
more green stuff. Giving the others more 
room and seeing to it that they are not 
Dry Mash ; Forcing Molt. 
W IIAT, in your opinion, is a good 
dry mash for White Leghorns? 
Would you advise forcing hens to 
molt, shutting off their grain two-thirds 
for about two weeks, and then feed them 
heavily, thus forcing molt? ii. b. 
Lisbon, Me. 
A good dry mash, much used by the 
writer, is made up of equal parts of 
wheat bran, middlings, cornmeal and 
gluten feed, to which about one-eighth 
part of meat meal is added. The mash 
will be improved by the addition of a 
pint of fine salt to each two hundred 
pounds. The authorities at the Cornell 
Experiment Station, after a series of 
experiments, concluded that forced molt¬ 
ing, or attempts at it. were not advisable 
and that the natural process should not 
be interfered with. M. b. d. 
Ailing Hens. 
M Y hens sicken and die (White Leg 
horns and laying). Their crops 
would fill up, not hard ; their heads 
turn purple. They are very thirsty and 
appear to be very stiff. Would linger 
several days or week. I feed wheat, oats, 
bran and middlings mash. w. S. R. 
I cannot say positively what the trou¬ 
ble with these fowls is. but suspect some 
inflammation of the digestive tract. They 
may have obtained some putrid food or 
eaten some poisonous matter to which 
they obtained access. Marked thirst is 
an indication of such condition of the 
stomach and intestines, but of course a 
positive diagnosis cannot be made from 
one oi' two symptoms alone. A cathartic 
dose of castor oil; one to two teaspoon¬ 
fuls; to each hen and confinement in a 
comfortable place where it can have soft 
food and plenty of clean water until death 
or recovery would be rational treatment 
in the absence of more definite knowledge 
as to the cause of the trouble. M. b. d. 
Are You Planning Repairs? 
If so, our twenty-five years’ experience 
with building materials and methods is at 
your disposal for the asking. For every sort 
of work there is a right way—and many 
wrong ways. Tell us the sort of work you 
plan, whether house, barn, garage or fac¬ 
tory. Our Building Counsel Committee’s 
advice will probably save you money, 
whether you use our products or not. 
All we ask in return is permission to 
submit samples of Neponset Roofings, 
Spark-proof Shingles, Wall Board, Building 
Papers and Floor Covering, in the hope that 
they may prove to be exactly what you need. 
Remember—a “slowly made” roofing is 
the only kind that is slow to wear out. 
Every foot of Neponset Roofing is “slow¬ 
ly made” on the “how-good-can-we-make- 
it” principle. It’s the only way to insure 
a roof’s bemg 100% weather- and water¬ 
proof. 
“Hurry-up” roofing costs you almost as 
much, and what do you get ? Half a roof, 
a constant nuisance and source of expense. 
What you want is roofing “slowly made” 
to give a service of years. 
We believe better dollar-for-dollar roof¬ 
ings are not made than 
Neponset 
ROOFINGS 
And the line of Neponset Roofings is 
complete. Neponset Paroid has become 
standard for farm, factory and railroad build¬ 
ings. Neponset Shingles are spark-proof, 
attractive, non-splitting and non-curling. 
Neponset Proslate is the colored ready 
roofing for bungalows, etc. There are other 
roofings for other conditions. Also Nepon¬ 
set Wall Board—three finishes—waterproof 
—takes the place of lath, plaster and wall 
BIRD & SON (Est. 1795) 
707 Neponset Street East Walpole, Mass. 
New York Washington Chicago San Francisco 
Canadian Office and Plant: Hamilton, Ont. 
For $3 we will send prepaid this pretty Nepon¬ 
set Doll House. Equal to houses toy stores sell 
for as high as $10. If you don’t think so, return 
it at our expense and get your money back. This 
price is possible because it shows you so perfect¬ 
ly several of our products. (Size 19 inches high, 
2 feet 6 inches long. Shipped flat.) 
HANDY BINDER- 
J FST the thing for preserv¬ 
ing files of The Rural 
New-Yorker. Durable and 
cheap. Sent postpaid for 25 
cents. 
The Rural New-Yorkor, 
333 W. 30th St., N. Y. City. 
