758 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Business 
A Few Mushrooms for Pleasure. 
To raise mushrooms in a house cellar 
for profit is a fallacy at present prices. 
For several Winters, I made large beds 
in the cellar; they would bear, but not 
enough profit to pay for the task of mak¬ 
ing the beds in the average house cellar, 
as it is an inconvenient place to work. 
In late years, in the large markets, the 
price of mushrooms during the Winter 
season has dropped. This year we have 
bought them as low as 25 cents per 
pound, and seldom above 40 cents. Dur¬ 
ing the late Spring and Summer, they 
bring a higher price. In the vicinity of 
New York a large grower is now building 
a special house for Summer growing, 
but it has not been tested as yet. In 
hot weather the mushrooms are bothered 
with flies and worms, and must be mar¬ 
keted at once. 
However, if one is fond of mushrooms, 
a few small boxes, easily handled, would 
be a pleasure and profit, as one would 
have their favorite seasoning right at 
hand. I put in two boxes, as pictured, 
late in the Fall. The spawning cost 
about 25 cents and they have afforded a 
continuous supply, for seasoning. Put in 
at various seasons of the year, one would 
have a goodly supply. I prefer to use 
what is known as virgin spawn. These 
boxes were 10 inches deep, 12 inches wide 
and IS inches long, and were packed 
with fresh manure to the depth of eight 
inches, this manure was not allowed to 
ferment outside, before using as is usual 
in larger quantities. All the heat it 
would generate was needed. I tested the 
temperature; when the thermometer 
dropped to 85 deg. the box was spawned. 
The spawn had been previously damp¬ 
ened, to even the spawn. I broke the 
spawn into pieces about 2x3 inches and 
placed them five inches apart in the box¬ 
es. After about 10 days the spawn will 
run through the boxes. Water with 
tepid water and cover with about two 
inches of light loamy soil. Usually, the 
mushrooms will appear in about six or 
eight weeks. If too dry, the boxes may 
be watered with tepid water. 
A few, added to chicken, or roast beef 
gravy, improves the seasoning; it takes 
only a handful, cooked in cream sauce 
and served on toast, to make a most ap¬ 
petizing dish. Then, when able to add 
a few to the creamed chicken, served in 
homemade pastry cases, one has a dish 
above the ordinary to serve to friends. 
When asparagus is in season, it makes 
a change to serve a mushroom-seasoned 
cream sauce with the asparagus. Just 
a few, chopped, and added to an omelet 
in the morning or at luncheon time, 
makes one feel almost like a millionaire. 
So one might enumerate many ways to 
use to advantage “Just a few mush¬ 
rooms,” just that flavor, that adds zest 
to the dish and raises it above the plane 
of the ordinary, and makes a much en¬ 
vied reputation, for the cook. 
MARY E. STOWELL. 
A Glass-bottle Mother. 
I would like to tell how we saved a 
litter of small pigs recently with bottles 
• for trained nurses. 
These little pigs were born one very 
cold night in December, five of them. 
The mother immediately departed this 
life, leaving her children to our tender 
mercies. About 11 o’clock they were 
brought into the house cold and hungry, 
and for two hours we did all that we 
could to get them to eat. but it seemed 
absolutely hopeless. We tried to feed 
them from the bottle, pan, spoon and 
even tried a fountain pen filler without 
any results whatever. My brother stayed 
up all night with them, and by morning 
we were all praying that the whole fam¬ 
ily might be gathered to a better land. 
In the wee hours of morning the little 
runt passed away. 
Something had to be done, and done 
quickly, if we wanted to save them, so 
my brother improvised a mother, as the 
pictures will show. lie procured a box 
from the groceryman large enough for 
a home for these orphans. Holes were 
bored in the side large enough for a nip¬ 
ple to pass through and a rack attached 
outside at a slight angle for the bottles 
to rest on. The bottles were filled with 
warm milk and placed one for each pig 
and the little fellows bailed this method 
with grunts of strong approval. 
At first they were fed every three 
hours, up until 11 o’clock, and then once 
during the night, but we only kept that 
up for a very short time as we found by 
feeding at 11 and again at five in the 
morning they got along beautifully. I 
do not know whether this plan has ever 
been used before or not, but no one in 
our community had ever seen anything 
like it before, and had we fed our little 
orphans every time people came to see them 
eat I am afraid they would have gone 
to an early grave from over-taxed stom¬ 
achs. The scheme was so novel that two 
of the schools in the community thought 
it of sufficient value to close the schools 
for the afternoon and bring the pupils 
down to watch the pigs at feeding time. 
Maryland. artridge belt. 
Women’s Work With Little Lambs. 
Experience and Study. —The thought 
of the discouragement caused by the loss 
of hundreds of lambs this Spring, espe¬ 
cially by people just starting in sheep 
raising, moves me to tell a few of the 
things I have learned by bitter experi¬ 
ence, the past 10 years. Being a natural 
lover of animals, the first baby lambs that 
appeared after I began life on a farm 
were a great pleasure to me. and I began 
at once to study out the reason for this 
or that “bad luck” that so often occurred. 
We are not the kind of people who “raise 
every lamb” (I often wonder if they 
count the ones that die), but we do raise 
a good percent, and from ordinary sheep 
in a barn not above the average, and with 
no special equipment. Ours is a flock of 
grades numbering from 30 to 50. as the 
case may be. Generally there are some 
old sheep which, for sentimental reasons, 
we prefer to keep. 
Dangers to Avoid. —Now the warning 
of every floekmaster should be “constipa¬ 
tion.” That word contains the secret of 
half the “bad luck.” Lambs should be 
watched for two or three weeks, and even 
after that, should one seem ailing, the 
cause will nine out of ten times be found 
to be constipation. The rule I find most 
useful is when in doubt give an injection, 
and in most cases the injection is suffi¬ 
cient. Armed with a lamb nipple and 
bottle, some castor oil, hot drops, a foun¬ 
tain syringe, and grit, any woman can 
count on doing a lot of good in the sheep 
pen. 
Tiie New Lamb. —When the lamb 
comes the sheep should be put in a pen 
by herself. A few old boards, nails and a 
hammer answers every purpose; just 
make a pen that the lambs cannot crowd 
beyond. Should the sheep seem inclined 
not to own her lamb, tie her up. One 
rope around the neck, and another around 
the body, and tied firmly to the side of 
pen, holds her so the lamb can eat. Be 
sure to untie the latter rope at. night so 
she can lie down, watch the sheep, and as 
soon as she allows the lamb to nurse 
without tying she can be turned loose. If 
everything is all right when the iamb is a 
week old it can go with its mother back 
to the flock. 
Bottle Feeding. —Should the mother 
have no milk, or an insufficient amount, 
feed the lamb with the bottle on cow’s 
milk. Two tablespoonfuls of milk and 
one of water (warm), and a drop of cas¬ 
tor oil every three or four hours, is 
enough for the first two days; increase 
the feed with age, but remember that 
while the underfed lamb has a chance for 
life, the one overfed on cow’s milk has 
none. This has been the hardest thing 
for me to learn, and is the easiest forgot¬ 
ten. If the mother will drink milk (and 
it is surprising how many sheep will), an 
egg well beaten in a pint of milk three 
times a day will work wonders in bring¬ 
ing her to her milk. Should a sheep lose 
her lamb keep her flow of milk up, and 
when a pair of twins arrive, make her 
own one ; that will mean two good lambs 
in place of poor ones, for as a rule a sheep 
will not raise two very good lambs. 
Emergency Care. —If a lamb comes in 
a cold time' and is chilled (and, by the 
way, I do not think early lambs from 
common sheep in the none too warm barn 
are a paying proposition) bring by the 
fire and give a few drops of hot drops. 
Often when they seem quite dead, immers¬ 
ing all but the head in very warm water 
for a few minutes will restore them. 
Keep warm until thoroughly dry and they 
are as strong as ever. I have had very 
old sheep or those who have taken cold 
from exposure after shearing, whose milk 
has almost left them after the lambs were 
quite large. If possible build the lamb up, 
through the mother. Put by themselves 
and “fuss” with them in a manner no 
mere man would emulate. Egg and milk 
three times a day, clean cool water al¬ 
ways before them, plenty of grain, of 
course, good clover hay or potato par¬ 
ings, a dose of hot drops now and then, 
a pat and kind word, and watch the lamb 
pick up and grow. One old sheep with a 
large lamb became sick some years ago. 
Both became almost too weak to stand. 
The lamb was wild and would not drink. 
The men gave them up, so I put them in 
a warm dry pen and “fussed.” Soon they 
could be turned out in good pasture near 
the house. Early that Fall they brought 
May 29, 1915. 
me nine dollars; pretty good for a few 
hours’ time! 
Ailing Lambs. —If I raise a lamb en¬ 
tirely by hand I put a drop of castor oil 
in every feed for a few days, then in two 
or three feeds daily and a few drops once 
a day as long as milk is fed. It makes 
them fat. The lambs needing injections 
used to be brought to the house, but this 
Spring I have kept a syringe at the barn, 
and take the warm suds down and my 
husband and I go over the flock twice a 
day, caring for any that seem to need it. 
This does away with all trouble in the 
house, besides making us less liable to 
neglect any lamb, a thing very easy when 
they must be carried to the house. My 
idea is that the plowing or cleaning can 
wait until to-morrow, but the new-born 
lamb must be cared for to-day. No one 
remembers in the Fall if the oats were put 
in a day later, or if housecleaning waited 
a week, but every lamb that goes to mar¬ 
ket, bringing five or six dollars, is very 
noticeable. 
Household Partnership. —Of course 
the co-operation of both husband and wife 
makes things easier, and much more can 
be accomplished than by either alone— 
just how much I know full well, as for 
the first two or three years my husband 
said if a lamb was all right, otherwise it. 
would die anyway, and that a woman had 
no business “mussing round.” He posi¬ 
tively refused to bring a chilled lamb to 
the house. Consequently I “mussed 
round” alone after he had gone to the 
fields, saving many lambs, and seeing 
many more die that a little co-operation 
on his part would have saved, but I per¬ 
severed, and from a very poor flock- 
master have seen this same husband of 
mine develop into a very painstaking one, 
and have the pleasure of knowing that 
the change was mostly due to my demon¬ 
stration of what care and work accom¬ 
plished, and, perhaps, to my powers of 
oratory upon occasion. I still put my 
shoulder to the wheel and help “two 
lambs grow where one lamb grew before,” 
but now there is a change in the program. 
The husband watches, works and “musses 
round,” and, when necessary, calls on me 
and my outfit, and then I co-operate. 
What I have done any woman with fairly 
good health can do, and I feel it has been 
very much worth while, as now our sheep 
are the source of a certain income, where 
they used often to be a loss. Mine is not 
a particularly docile husband when he 
makes up his mind, but I am sure that 
“stick-to-it-tiveness” when it brings re¬ 
sults will convert any man. 
New York. mrs. e. c. gabriel. 
Hired Man With Children. 
[The E. N.-Y. has many true human-nature 
stories presented by its readers. Each month we 
try to present one or more which offer some new 
thought or suggestion and which may help settle 
some hard problem. Here is a new one about 
the hired man with children.] 
We are asking your help to find us a 
good sober man. one who is not afraid to 
work ; one who understands poultry and 
knows how to milk, or is willing to learn. 
We have been married 10 years, and have 
never had any children. We are both 
passionately fond of them, and in order to 
get a good man we are willing to have 
some one whose wife has died and left 
him with from one to three little ones, 
and rather than put them in a home or 
separate them otherwise would come with 
his family to us. letting their board 
and care go toward his wages. We have 
a good school about a mile from us. We 
go three miles to the village every Sun¬ 
day to attend our church. We are Chris¬ 
tians, and are members of the Methodist 
church. If he is a Christian would pre¬ 
fer he be a Methodist, but not necessarily 
so. for there are the Baptist, Presbyterian 
and Episcopal churches in our little vil¬ 
lage. There is also a fine high school there. 
We mean business, and want a man 
who would stay right with us if he and 
we were satisfied after he had been here a 
year. We will do by a good reliable man, 
one who will work for our interests, as 
we would a brother, and will care for his 
motherless children as if they were our 
own. We have a big farm, with plenty 
of fresh eggs and milk, and they could 
have a fine time. 
We thank you for all the help we have 
had from your fine paper. We take three 
other farm papers, but The R. N.-Y. is 
the one we read first and we want to join 
the Anti-Fake Club. 
New York. MR. and MRS. C. J. c. 
The “ Glass-bottle Mother” at Feeding Time. 
