438 
She RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 17, 1017 
Human Nature Notes 
Cleaning Hogs 
A Good Word for the Maligned Cat 
As a farmer's wife, and a lover of cats 
as well as birds, and knowing, too. the 
I»ropensitie.s of each, I feel that a good 
word should also be spoken for the for-, 
mer, as it, too, is a helpful adjunct to the 
farm : that is, if properly brought up. 
Our cat has a habit of bringing her 
catches to the house for us to see; she is 
always petted when it is a rat or mouse, 
and in the few instances when she has 
brought birds, I think only four times 
(and one of those was an English spar- 
“('leaning hogs with gasoline inste/id 
of .scalding! We have varying reports 
from those who have tried it. Some are 
moved to profanity—others to high 
praise. It seems to be the man rather 
than the gasoline I” says The It. N.-Y. 
I think also the kind of hog has some¬ 
thing to do with it. With certain kinds 
I have found ammonia better than gaso¬ 
line, I cleaned one in a railway car on 
one occasion, and did it very neatly and 
e.vpeditiously. Hog occupied four seats 
and I found the dropping, accidentally of 
course, of a quart of ammonia under his 
seats was very effective in cleaning him 
oiit. Then opened the window. That 
hog was moved to profanity also. For 
the Albany hogs—the kind which lie 
wallowing in the public crib and grunt, 
“Whatcher tbe.se farmers want anyhow?” 
—I am inclined to think that the blister¬ 
ing method is the better, liurn the hide 
'off them and do it now ! 
Connecticut. F. ir. gaigeb. 
Some of these hogs have tried the gas¬ 
oline treatment—at the public expense— 
by riding in State-owned cars! That is 
where they learn some of their hoggish 
tricks of riding over the man on foot. 
W« endorse the blistering treatment, and 
the best blister is found in ink or gra¬ 
phite on the pen or pencil of a farmer. 
If our country people would only under¬ 
stand and appreciate their power they 
would soon blister these state.smeu with 
their letters so that there would be a 
great improvenient in political manners. 
The Unmentionable Insect 
In a paragraph, unrelated to other 
reading matter, and classified under head¬ 
ing of ■‘Hrevities.” on page 14, you give 
cures for bedbug bites. In view_ of your 
oh-repeated and emphfitic as.sertion.s that 
you i)rint only that which will benefit 
your subscribers. I as a subscriber, de¬ 
mand an explanation. Do you or do 
you not mean to insinuate that some or 
all of your beloved s-ubscril>ers harbor 
bedbugs'? Of cour.se I realize you may 
have slipped in a paragraph for the ben¬ 
efit of your advertisers or a subscriber 
might get bitten at the home of some 
one who subscribes to some other farm 
l)aper, or the item may be printed as a 
favor to him who borrows “old sub- 
.scriber’s” paper, but your explanation is 
anxiously awaited. J. w. N. 
Illinois. 
Of cour.se we do not know whether 
our friend is a practical joker, or wheth¬ 
er he is one of those serious-minded peo¬ 
ple who never can see any humor in life. 
The bedbug is rarely mentioned in polite 
society. We know people who shudder, 
and are almost ready to faint, when this 
terrible insect is mentioned. At the same 
time we have about as many que.sfions 
about killing bedbugs during the year 
as have come upon any other (lucstion. 
One would think that the Codling worm 
and the San .lose scale would take first 
rank in questions of this sort, but we 
probably have quite as many questions 
about getting rid of bedbugs as we do 
of killing the scale or the worm; in fact 
the bedbug is .about as popular as the 
beau weevil. We became interested in 
making a c.anvass among our friends, 
and we found about 8o out of every 100 
will privately admit that they have been 
bitten' by this in.sect, and have had more 
or less unpleasant experience with it. 
Therefore we thought that the latest ad¬ 
vice about overcoming the effects of the 
bite would be very useful even if not 
very impulax'. There were no insinua- 
tinns. of course, intended. I'liis insect 
unfortunately knows nothing of race, 
character, social standing, nr anything 
else connected with the scale of society. 
When it has an opportunity it bites, 
and unhappily the opportunity comes 
more frequently than we like to admit. 
It Wits with these facts in mind that we 
gave the advice to use peroxide its an 
application for bedbug bite.s. aitd ttl.so 
to use iodine for bad cases of adults. 
Friend of a Skunk. —I have been 
reading with some intei’est the letters and 
expert comments and discussions on the 
skunk question, in hopes some one would 
have a word in faxor of complete or 
nearly complete protection for the skunk. 
If my observations are correct these itni- 
m.als live largely on insects. I have oftt n 
seen the little holes Avhere they have dug 
up the May beetles in the larval or ma¬ 
ture state; have seen them at this work, 
also have .seen a mother with six baby 
skunks eating grasshoppers iind locusts. I 
have .seen a brook meadow ruined by the 
May beetles because the skunks had been 
nearly exterminated. The very little 
damage which they do in the chi(“ken yard 
is not to be compared with the great 
amount of good they do elsewhere. If I 
am wrong in this statement I hope to be 
corrected, as we are all seeking after 
truth. THos. E. novt'K. 
Vermont. 
The House Cat 
From the N. V. Eveuiiig Telegram 
row) it has been taken away, .she 
whipped, and the bird sprinkled with 
cither cayenne pepper or quinine, then 
given back. For months .she has not 
lirought any birds, although juncos and 
English sparrows are in great abundance. 
She is a splendid mouser, keeping the 
house free from rats and mice, and more 
than all helping in the Winter as well as 
Slimmer materially to reduce the num¬ 
ber of field mice. She seems to feel that 
responsibility, wandering over the farm 
and bringing in her trophies. She also 
has caught chipmunks and several small 
rabbits and snakes. 
As to catching chickens, we never have 
had any trouble, though every ojiiiortuu- 
ity is offered, as hundreds are taken from 
incubators and placed in brooders within 
a few yards of the house, and very soon 
are running about within her reach. 
For two Summers, both robins and 
wrens have nested in the honeysuckle 
vines on the piazza, bringing forth e.ach 
year browls of little ones. Never to my 
knoAvledge have the cats caught any of 
them, although sitting on the piazza rail 
very intently watching them. Don't con¬ 
demn the cats without giving them a fair 
trial. ’ E. S. N. 
New York. 
A Farm Woman on the Cat Question 
We have treasures in the field, of 
wheat, and of barley, of oil, and of 
honey. 
I.ast Summer as a stop-gap in the 
.\lfalfa harvest, that is in line of better 
help, impossible to find, I cocked Al¬ 
falfa. The house cat was in the field be¬ 
fore me, and one forenoon .she made 
three trips to the house, eac'.i time tak¬ 
ing a field mouse to her kittens. The 
orchard was between the house and the 
field, and the orchard was fairly alive 
with birds. Will Theodore Douglas 
Robinson or some other frenzied de¬ 
fender of the songbird tell me why that 
cat went through the orchard six times 
without stopping to gobble a few birds? 
The cat went to the fields every day. I 
didn’t keep tab on her catch, but those 
kittens throve mightily. 
Later in the season, when the corn 
was being drawn in, I took eat and kit¬ 
tens, then half grown, to the field. Two 
rats and six mice were gathenal in 
short order. One cat owner serves notic*e 
on the public that if eats are taxed she 
will pay the license fee for her cats and 
the expense will be added to the cost of 
production of the foodstuffs the faithful 
cats help to save from destruction. In 
the course of time the consuming public 
may learn that much legislation is an 
important factor in the high cost of 
living. Tell it out loud. The consumer 
pays the cat license. c. 
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