1442 
Hope Farm Notes 
I PRINT the following correspondence 
to show how several people may all 
look at the same thing and report it dif¬ 
ferently. Four blind men went to see 
an elephant. One got hold of his trunk, 
another handled his leg, and another his 
side. One was ready to swear the ele¬ 
phant was like a rope, another said he 
was like a tree, and the third knew he 
was like a wall. I did think I had made 
it clear why I entered those “scrubs” in 
the egg-laying contest, and why they 
are to be bred. I wish to show, if I can, 
that by breeding utility stock with a 
pedigree to such common stock you can 
increase the egg-laying capacity. Of 
course you cannot know there has been 
any improvement unless you can compare 
actual performance. Yet here we have 
the following: 
I have been greatly interested in the 
laying contests, especially so in the one 
just closed. But for the life of me I 
cannot understand why the Hope Farm 
man ever entered these mongrels, and 
now to make matters worse, he is to re¬ 
enter them in the coming contest and to 
breed from them / Can it be possible 
that he is trying to prove to the Ameri¬ 
can farmer, that an ordinary “scrub” 
hen will lay as many eggs as a purebred 
hen? Trying to prove that a flock of 
scrubs will lay as many eggs as a flock 
of hens that have been bred for genera¬ 
tion after generation, for a heavy egg 
yield? If so is he not doing the imrebred 
hen a great injustice? Is it a fair deal 
to the men who have spent a lifetime, 
practically trap-nesting and breeding for 
heavy egg production ? Take Mr. Bar¬ 
ron for instance. I believe he claims to 
have taken 20 years to get his birds 
where they are today. Would the Hope 
Farm man take an ordinary dairy cow, 
and put her in competition with a pure¬ 
bred Holstein, with a great milk record, 
and think the grade cow would give as 
much milk as the purebred Holstein? 
I’ll admit that according to the reports 
of the contest just closed, the “scrubs” 
did lay more eggs than many of the blue 
bloods. But that doesn’t prove anything. 
What pen icon the contest, what pen 
took the second, third, fourth, fifth prize, 
etc.? Were they scrubs? Oh no. If 
you want to prove anything to the Amer¬ 
ican farmer why not take one of those 
purebred pens that laid fewer eggs than 
the scrubs, and mate them with a cock¬ 
erel of their same breed, purchased from 
one of the owners of a winning pen, and 
in so doing show the American farmer 
what really can be done by careful se¬ 
lection and breeding, to make the great 
American pen “shell out” more eggs? 
A. L. VREELAND. 
Well sir, I thought I had explained at 
least a dozen times about all this. I 
picked up seven very poor specimens— 
worse than what I see running about on 
many farms. My plan was to see just 
what these hens would lay and then see 
what their daughters, by a high-class 
cockerel would lay. I would certainly 
test a poor scrub cow against a fine Hol¬ 
stein. Then I would like to test her 
daughter by a brother of that fine Hol¬ 
stein. In what better way can we test 
the value of pure blood? Why does not 
Mr. Vreeland get into the egg-laying 
contest with his puroblood stock and 
prove that they are superior to the 
scrubs? The fact is that the time has come 
when hen men want a performance rather 
than a promise. Just read the following: 
That egg-laying contest was a very 
good thing, not only for those engaged 
therein, but the public in general, es¬ 
pecially that portion that considers “the 
liens,” “scrubs,” or whatever you may 
choose to call them. Although they did 
not do as much as expected they deported 
themselves sufficiently to show the pub¬ 
lic and the hen editors in particular that 
pedigree is not utility ; that much of this 
fancy strain business is nonsense, that 
it is the individual and not the “papers” 
that do the actual business. Perhaps 
this matter has impressed me more than 
most others from a sad fact. Years ago 
my father and myself bred up a flock of 
hens by a slow and steady process until 
we had a flock of good utility fowls; 
good layers, matured well, made good 
weight, were uniform and hardy. At 
that time a certain hen fancier in Massa¬ 
chusetts and another in New Jersey came 
into the limelight and were heralded as 
the topnotchers, and like many another 
breeder of fowls, and other live stock we 
lost our heads with their “get-rich-quick” 
birds, and invested. We bought pedigree 
and failure. The following Fall we had 
a lot of things, some of which made great 
scores but were minus constitution, some 
were over-grown, others were crooked- 
back and twisted-breasted, and the flock 
dropped from a record of 210 to 100. and 
some of the physical weaknesses were 
never eliminated. Therefore with your 
Reds, my advice is beware of “the card.” 
T'se your own good judgment, selecting 
the good average bird, with a steady eye 
for a particular type, always remember¬ 
ing it has taken two thousand years to 
THE KURAL NEW-YORKER 
make a very slight improvement even in 
the human race. g. L. Gordon. 
I have received dozens of letters from 
people who say they have damaged their 
flocks by introducing blood from show 
room or blue ribbon strains. No man 
in his right mind pays long prices for 
cattle to improve his herd just because 
the owner says they are “purebred.” 
The buyer wants to know what perform¬ 
ance there is in the pedigree. It is 
coming to be the same thing with hens. 
My “scrubs” beat 20 pens at the egg- 
laying contest, and if they had been 
trained to start off as others did they 
would have been halfway to the head. 
I have no thought of trying to prove that 
a scrub hen is better than a purebred 
hen, but I do expect to show that many 
of the purebred hens are merely pure¬ 
bred scrubs—-barely paying their way as 
layers, and incapable of improving a 
farmer’s flock! I do not know of any 
more useful work than a fair demonstra¬ 
tion of this. 
My scrubs were entered the second 
year to see if the poor layers would not 
come back and pay as two-year-olds. I 
think they will, but I want to find out. 
I also expect to breed them to a fine 
utility cockerel with a certified pedigree 
and enter 10 of their daughters by this 
cross next year. For contrast I will also 
breed them to a “dunghill” or to the 
son of some purebred that we know is a 
poor layer, and also enter 10 of his 
daughters from the same hens against the 
others. Now will Mr. Vreeland suggest 
any more practical plan for finding 
whether “pure blood” will improve a 
flock of farm poultry? 
As for my pen of Reds, I am to mate 
them with the son of a hen that has a 
certified record of 216 eggs in 301 consec¬ 
utive days. He may not be of just the 
color and shape which the show room 
judges would select, but I use him on the 
performance of his mother, and if I am 
not greatly mistaken the hen men of the 
near future will buy their breeding stock 
on this principle of performance just as 
dairymen would buy a herd bull. I think 
these poultrymen who have spent their 
lives developing a strain of poultry ought 
to get right out into an egg-laying con¬ 
test and show us. 
I could pile up proof mountains high to 
show that hen men are waking up to 
this proposition of performance in the 
pedigree. Here is another man who 
watched the scrubs and saw the point 
which Mr. Vreeland missed: 
I was much interested over the scrubs’ 
egg record. I have some ribbons and 
prizes from poultry shows to my credit, 
but several years ago I decided to breed 
for eggs instead of shape and feathers, 
and this will account for my sympathy 
for the “scrubs.” E. J. B. 
I can readily understand why the 
fanciers and blue ribbon men have con¬ 
sistently opposed these egg-laying con¬ 
tests. After a few years of these records 
and of breeding from these winners, the 
value of utility stock will be made so 
clear that we shall wonder why we lost 
so many years in getting going. These 
Hope Farm scrubs are worth barely $10, 
but I think they will do their share in 
putting the true valuation upon tail 
feathers! 
Killing Rabbits. —The papers have 
had much to say lately about a boy in 
New Jersey who shot a rabbit out of 
season and was sent to jail for doing so. 
All through our country the rabbits do 
great injury to fruits and vegetables. 
They have ruined great blocks of young 
trees for us. I have heard many ques¬ 
tions about the rights of a resident of 
New Jersey to protect his property when 
these pests appear. In order to know 
just where we stand, I wrote the State 
Fish and Game Commissioners and they 
tell me that the following section of the 
law “will give relief.” 
2. (As amended February 28, 1012.) 
Nothing in this act shall be so construed 
as to prevent farmers and fruit growers 
from trapping rabbits in box traps dur¬ 
ing the entire year; provided, however, 
that such trapping shall be done on the 
property owned or leased for the raising 
of fruit, vegetables or other produce by 
the person so trapping; and provided, 
that the person so trapping shall first 
have made an affidavit before a justice 
of the peace that rabbits have injured 
fruit, vegetables or other produce on his 
or her premises, and shall have imme¬ 
diately sent the same to the president 
of the Fish and Game Commission, who, 
upon the receipt of the said affidavit, 
shall, in his discretion, issue to said per¬ 
son a permk to so trap, and the person 
so trapping shall keep the rabbits alive, 
and notify the Fish and Game Warden 
of the country, who shall liberate said 
rabbits in such parts of the State as may 
be directed by the Board of Fish and 
Game Commissioners; provided, further, 
that no person or persons shall be per¬ 
mitted to barter or sell any rabbits so 
trapped. 
There is a bunch of red tape for you, 
but it seems to be under our laws the 
only way to handle Mr. Rabbit out of 
season and escape fine or jail! 
Taxes. —Here they are again—one of 
the sure things of life. This form of 
Christmas present is never appreciated 
by the property owner. I will print the 
tax rate on our farm property and also 
in the county town in order that others 
may compare notes. 
Town Property Farm Property 
County tax. $ .46 $ .46 
County poor.01 .01 
State school.27 .27 
Borough . 1.12 1.00 
Library tax. .05 .... 
Special school.97 .34 
S2.SS $2. OS 
I also pay a poll tax of one dollar and 
a dog tax of 75 cents. The “Borough” 
tax includes the cost of our local govern¬ 
ment, roads, etc. My property is now 
assessed for nearly three times what I 
paid for it—the increase being largely 
due to new buildings. Our poor surely 
do not cost us much. In New Jersey we 
have no State taxes except for schools, 
but you will see that our local govern¬ 
ments make up for lost time in local as¬ 
sessments. These figures are not. printed 
as any complaint, but for the sake of 
comparison. h. w. C. 
Forest Planting. 
H AVING been a forester I am inter¬ 
ested in the Hope Farm man’s re¬ 
cent remarks on the planting of 
trees, and quite agree with some of them. 
It would have pleased me better if he 
had said White pine instead of hemlock 
and spruce, and it is not yet too late to 
start the planting. In 1903 I sent home 
some seedlings of White pine which had 
had one season’s growth. These stood 
two years in the nursery, and in 1905 
were planted in an old field where chest¬ 
nut and Black walnut had been planted 
four to the rod each way about ten years 
before. The pines were planted where 
the other trees had died, or made no 
growth (some of them were less than six 
inches tall after 10 years’ growth). At 
present these pines average about 15 
feet tall, and are growing in height about 
tthree feet a year. Farmers in this 
State can get better trees than we set 
out by applying to the Conservation Com¬ 
mission at Albany and the price is actual 
cost. a. c. w. 
Wayne County, N. Y. 
Dynamite Drainage. 
R EGARDING those wet spots referred 
to on page 1260. one-half stick of 
35% .dynamite three feet six inches 
below surface will give relief to wet 
spots troubling you. The hole can be 
either punched or bored with long auger. 
It should be very well tamped after 
charge is placed. I have cured hundreds 
of wet spots by this treatment. Drain¬ 
age once given, will not have to be re¬ 
peated. II. s. J. BRADY. 
Pennsylvania. 
December 12, 
I?. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal." See guarantee editorial page. 
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148 Leonard Street, - New York City 
H O R S E 
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Save $1 to $2 50 ?on on Lime 
Ground limestone at the quarry costs from SI to SI. 50 
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